Hooked [Complete]

58. Beltane Part 6: Tribulations

Author's Note: We start Cernunnos', then action back at the lodge with Dru, and finally back to Cerridwen, all in this chapter...

Cernunnos' POV

The beast has the agility of deer, and the stamina of a great cat, and a swiftness beyond them both. If I don't catch it quickly, it will wear Cerridwen down. It can strike her with it's serpent's tongue from a distance of twelve feet. She will stumble and then it's horrible razor studded mouth will tear her limbs away and even if I rip its head off before it chews her to pieces, her suffering will be great, before I can heal her.

Sucellus and the Romans are behind me. I spare no attention for them. I push away the temptation to view Cerridwen with my god's eye. I cannot unmake and remake myself with accuracy, with Cerridwen, the beast, and I running at this speed. I'm likely to smash into her and allow the beast to catch up to her.

Suddenly the many times she has told me she feels hollow runs through my mind. SHe's been telling me for months she's unsure of her divinity. She's been relying on her witchcraft almost exclusively. The only god acts I've seen her perform were the remakings—and the first one failed. The thought that Cerridwen might be nearly as fragile as a mortal suddenly seems...possible. Could the monster actually kill her? The thought makes my blood run cold even as I am tearing through the forest and leaping over the uneven terrain. I must push all thoughts of Cerridwen's vulnerability away. I need all of my focus on my prey. This hunt cannot last more than a few minutes.

I zone in on the beat of the creature's hooves, gauging its pace. Its scent is something that doesn't require my focus at all. I can hardly smell anything else-- the acrid, ammonia scent of a giant reptile, and perceptible perhaps only to me, the noxious odor of the venom it stores. Venom so potent that it kills a human within a minute. Stag, could my Goddess fall to its strike? I inhale deeply, filtering out the beasts odor. Her scent is clean, punctured only by adrenaline. She is running wildly, but she is confident. She must be well ahead of the beast.

I accelerate. The forest becomes a blur of green. I easily maneuver around the ancient trunks, but I must be careful not to move so fast that I miss the Cerridwen and the beast turning. I cannot afford to veer off track by even a few feet.

I'm gaining. Far ahead I can see greenery snapping back into place where the beast just crashed through. I scent the sap bleeding from freshly snapped branches.

Suddenly, Cerridwen's scent pushes through—the sickly tang of her fear. Fuck! I push past all limits I thought I possessed and surge forward, but suddenly her scent is gone...erased. And I smell something new, something I'm quite familiar with—the scent of a predator's fury.

I come crashing to a halt as the beast roars. It, like me, has lost Cerridwen's scent. I close my eyes, turn in a circle, casting my god's eye everywhere at once. I can't see her. She's nowhere. She's disappeared.

The forest is too quiet. I hear the damn monster thrashing around, loping off to the north to search for her scent. I hear Sucellus thundering up behind me, and Finn and the other mortals far behind him, but I hear no other gods. Where are Mercury, Apollo, and Diana?

Sucellus nearly crashes into me, his blonde hair flying. He knows at once by my complete stillness that something is wrong. One look between us, and Sucellus' face darkens in fury. He turns and flashes back the way he came. I breathe and search for Cerridwen. I cannot scent her, cannot see her with my gods eyes, but I feel her. She is alive and furious. That means only one thing.

Mercury has her.

Sucellus is back, with Finn by the collar, but there is no need for Sucellus to abuse the boy for answers. Finn goes to his knees in front of me.