Unforeseen

Chapter 45

I do not own Transformers, only my OC's.

Chapter 45

One step followed the next, unsteady at first then progressively becoming more stable… until a tree got in the way.

"That's the fifth one," Will said in dismay.

The continuation of similar tracks kept my mind at ease. Had Melry been hurt it would have echoed in her footsteps.

"How far do you think she's gone?" Optimus asked as he pushed back the hat of his lesser form and scanned the forest.

"There's no telling." I answered flatly. Melry must have been dazed because it looked as if she had laid here a while.

"We've barely moved a mile and she's fallen a hundred times." Will was growing increasingly more anxious with each find.

He was exaggerating, but not by much. I had stopped counting at thirty. Between the trees, downed branches, bushes and stray boulders this place was a virtual death trap for someone blind and numb.

"Has anyone seen her at all?" Will asked Optimus. It was a long shot and he knew it, but that did not keep the worry lines upon his brow from deepening when the answer came as a head shake.

We were the only ones looking.

Chromia's injuries left her unable to navigate the forest and Mudflap was too dangerous in his true form to risk involvement. Unfortunately the compartment holding his lesser entity had been severely damaged, rendering the body inoperable until repaired.

Both had been left on road side guard duty.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were nearly as useless. Neither were trackers and both were too vain to have smaller forms. Their long legs made it impractical for them to follow behind us and sending them ahead would have been senseless. Their untrained optics wouldn't have picked up Melry's trail and they would have likely destroyed any evidence leading to her. As it were, the odds were growing against us. Melry was not dressed for this weather and dark clouds were rolling in from the north. We couldn't risk any distraction.

Optimus had prevented the duo from being complete scrap heaps however by giving them a task –retrieve a trailer to carry Jolt back to base.

As callous as I knew they thought me to be, I didn't care about Jolt. Not at the moment. I couldn't. There was no time to sit and morn a loss. Melry had to be found. Alive.

"She's still heading north by west." A few downed trees stood in the way of a clear cut path, but they were easy to navigate around.

As always her steps wavered at first. She favored the outside of her feet and it set her off balance, but somehow she managed to stay upright even as her steps crisscrossed.

Not bad for someone who couldn't feel their feet.

Something wafted against my cheek plate, tickling the sensors. Startled, I stopped and looked for the culprit. I found a small handful of hair waving softly in the wind from a low riding branch.

I wasn't sure why my spark ached at the sight of them. I knew Melry was injured well beyond a sore scalp and a few missing hairs. In fact the number of collisions she had endured would have caused more harm than this stubby branch could have ever hoped to achieve.

I sighed and tugged the strands free, snapping several of them in the process before winding them around my fingers. Perhaps a fable from the Dark Ages of Cybertron would prove true if I kept it, never hurt to dabble in the world of fallacy when it took only a moment to enter.