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9, Couldn't Drag Me Away

Britta waited while everyone gathered around, ready to begin training. Then, they were lead to their training area at a swift jog. Britta disdainfully swiped the sweat from her brow; she hoped she'd become fitter soon.

The Fox surveyed them all coldly. "Now, let's see who's been practicing and who hasn't." He smiled at some of the faces of men who had obviously not expected this.

Britta completed the pattern dance again and made sure she knew what she was doing before stopping and watching the others. She stood stiffly in the middle, not the only one to have finished. She took in the Fox's criticism and applied it to herself as the Fox paced around the area. When he stood back up at the front, he wore a nasty sneer.

"It looks like you haven't practiced, so we are going to add this onto you pattern dance. It will keep getting longer until you can practice them daily."

Despite Britta's eagerness to learn, she didn't want to have to put herself through an hour-long dance every morning, but, judging by the furtive glances people were giving each other, she felt she might have to. The Fox paced up and down the line.

"This morning, we will practice tracking. This afternoon, some more dagger skills. As I said yesterday, we are renowned for our quick learning, I intend to keep it this way." He then turned and jogged down the track.

It took everyone a few moments but everyone clamoured to follow. Britta paced herself, and was glad her muscles were getting used to the fast movement. By the time the group got to the edge of the training area, the Fox was nowhere to be seen. Mutters broke out across the group.

"He wanted us to learn tracking," Britta pointed out, calmer than she felt. She barely knew the first thing about tracking people, but she surveyed the area where the track left off any way, like she had that morning around the stream.

A man knelt down beside her. "Good point," He said gruffly, then pointed at a faint indent on the ground.

"That's his footprint." He said.

"It might be one of the men here." Suggested Britta.

"I was a hunter when I came here. I fight now. But if there's one thing I'll never forget it's tracking. The ground around the print has begun to lose its shape." Beside he pressed a foot into the ground, Britta could see the outline was crisper, "It's fresh but not that fresh, and see the branch there? I think he broke it on purpose to give us some help, but it's about the height of the Fox's head."

Britta nodded admiringly. "You're good at this. Should we follow the trail?"

"Of course, it's what he wanted to teach us."

"And do we take them all with us?"

"They won't notice when we're gone?"

Britta nodded and headed into the forest behind him, they were moving towards the same direction as the cliff where Britta had run. Every once and a while the man stopped and surveyed the area. Britta got up the courage to ask him his name. He was not as strong as she had once thought, barely taller than her, with chestnut hair, cropped so it framed his face.

"What's your name ?" She asked.

"Edmond, but I'm mostly called Ed." He answered gruffly, "You?"

"Bren."

He nodded and came to a halt soon after. They were at the base of one of the surrounding cliff's.

"I can't see any more clues, where could he have gone from here?"

Britta surveyed the area. "Maybe we should climb." She suggested, "You can see everything from up there." She inclined her head to the top of the cliff.