Street Rat

Chapter 21

Steal's POV
The next morning everyone went on different patrols out to the woods to hunt for dogs. I left with Thorn and Red. We went to the eastern side of our border and started to catch a scent of the dogs.

"Anything yet?" Thorn asked. I shook my head in response. Red seemed to be having some kind of luck though, considering he was still sniffing the ground finding a scent.

"Did you find something?" I questioned him in an exasperated tone. He looked back at me and shook his head.

"The scent is old," he responded. I let out a deep sigh. This hunt wasn't going as well as I thought it would.

"Maybe they're still sleeping," Thorn stated.

"Dogs don't sleep," Red stated. I nodded my head in response.

'It's true. Dogs don't know what the word sleep means. My father usually has them running all the time, and the only time they aren't doing my father's orders is when they aren't on a mission," I stated.

"Well, then how are we supposed to find them?" Thorn asked in exasperation.

"We don't. They find us," Red murmured. Thorn went wide-eyed at the statement. I heard something shuffle in the brush. All of us took a defensive position and glared at the shrubbery waiting for something to come bursting out.

"Stupid plants," I heard Kaviik grumble. He walked out of the bushes and stopped when he saw the three of us holding our weapons in his direction. We dropped our weapons and looked at Kaviik.

"Did you find anything?" I asked him.

"Nothing but a dead end," he answered. I shook my head in exasperation.

"Where's the rest of your patrol?" I asked.

"We split up half an hour ago. I haven't seen them since,"

"You weren't supposed to split up! You were supposed to stay together!" Kaviik winced at me yelling but I didn't care. He should know better.

"I'll go find them. They can't be far behind,"

"Don't worry we aren't" someone said from the tree line. We all looked behind our shoulders and saw Jamaica and Jax coming from the trees.

"We found this. Thought it might be useful so we picked it up," Jax said throwing a piece of leather at me. I caught it in my hand and examined it. It was a piece of leather from a saddle. I sniffed it and caught the scent of a hunting dog. I smiled at the group in front of me.

"Here Red, take a whiff of this," I said throwing the leather at him. He caught it and inhaled. It didn't take him long to start smelling the area around us. He turned around and nodded his head at me. He had a scent.

"Kaviik, your group will go back to the pit. If Toxic is back tell him he's in charge until I return. If he isn't back yet you are in charge until he gets back. Got it?" I told him.

"Got it,"

"Good," I directed my attention back to Red and Thorn.

"Let's go," I commanded. We took off at a swift jog that soon turned into a sprint. Red had picked up a scent and he was determined to hold on to it. I soon heard the running water of the river. The three of us quickly put on our brakes and stopped. Red sniffed around a little more, and then looked directly across the roaring waters.

"The scent goes across the river. We'll have to cross," Red stated. I looked at the raging water. The river was higher from the rain we had been getting, and the current was faster than normal today.