Lost And Found

{ Running }

I pant heavily as I desperately make my way through the trees my feet becoming bloody from the twigs and sharp rocks underneath the freshly fallen leaves of the autumn. My hair knotty and unwashed whips around me as the wind blows it fiercely as I run. Today was not a day in which the wind would help me locate prey for dinner but instead work against me as it carries my scent for others to smell.

I scramble around trees and down steep inclines getting dirt and mud all over myself but I don't care because this will only serve to help cover my scent anyway. Later when I am safe I can worry about trivial things such as bathing but for now I surge on.

I hadn't had the luxury of time to put on shoes when I had heard the Patrol fast approaching my hideaway only moments ago.  I had been awoken by the sounds of voices and quickly rolled out of my makeshift bed to creep silently to the window towards the back of the house I had been currently trespassing in. I was unable to grab anything at all before I had snuck out the back window and bolted as fast as I could into the trees.

I had been awoken so quickly from my deep slumber that I could feel the blood moving in my veins, that feeling you only get when driven from a rem sleep unexpectedly. It had taken me a moment to orient myself but once I had I noticed what it was that had disturbed my peace and then all at once I was wide awake and fully coherent as I tried my hardest to maneuver through the forest.

How had they found me? I thought to myself as I skirted around a boulder and continued to make my way further from my perpetrators.

Or perhaps they hadn't known I was there and it had just been my misfortune that a Patrol was out looking for strays in my area. After all they had to have known that the abandoned house was there. I am sure that they check in on it from time to time just to make sure no one is there. This idea seemed more logical, I realized, as I skipped over a fallen tree trunk. Since there is no way for anyone to have known I was there this was the only thing that made sense to my adrenaline pumping brain. Either way I had needed to get out of there and fast I could worry about the who and how later.

Damn. I curse internally while thinking about what I had just lost. It had been a stroke of luck finding that abandoned house so secluded and deep in the woods and now I would have to start all over again. I should have realized it was too good to be true though. But my travel worn mind and body demanded I rest somewhere for a few days to recuperate and gather supplies. I had decided on the house because I hadn't had a run in with the Patrol in months. I thought I had earned a little luxury for once and had settled on rewarding myself with a roof and walls instead of the forest floor and unforgiving chill that was starting to set in with the oncoming winter. 

As I quickly dart my eyes around looking for a threat I now see that my mistake was in thinking I could have these things. Warmth, safety, a steady home. I would now need to replace all the items I had to leave behind in my desperate rush to escape before being detected. If I had just picked a nice little cave or snuggled up next to a larger tree I wouldn't be in this predicament right now. 

The farther I run the quieter the sounds of the Patrol become and I think about how they must be ransacking the place as I make my getaway. I know I won't be able to return there again and that thought makes a knot form in my stomach with sadness and for a minute my eyes blur with tears and it is hard to breathe as I attempt to swallow the lump that formed in my throat. I had left behind something that could not be replaced like the other small collection of belongings I had previously possessed. The only thing I still possessed of my deceased father's was back in that house and now there was little chance of my ever seeing it again. However much it meant to me it was not enough for me to stop and go back for it. There was too much risk involved and I knew the patrol men would have caught my scent by now. It was surely all over the place and they would be able to tell that it was fresh compared to the staleness of the rest of the holding.