The Spirit Wolf

Pursued

 The Spirit Wolf

M. H. Bonham

Sky Warrior Book Publishing LLC.

Copyright © 2013 by . M.H. Bonham

Published by Sky Warrior Book Publishing, LLC

PO Box 99

Clinton, MT 59825

www.skywarriorbooks.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.

Editor: Andrea Howe, Blue Falcon Editing

Cover Layout by M. H. Bonham.

Publisher: M. H. Bonham.

Printed in the United States of America

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The Spirit Wolf

“We’re being followed.”  Akira frowned as he looked behind him.  They had been walking all day, with frequent rest breaks, but Kasumi’s injury and rationing their food had made it difficult going.  No doubt the ninja were still searching for them, but they had seen nothing of the Shinobi for hours.

Kasumi turned and scanned the darkening forest.  The pines and coniferous trees threw the path behind them into a premature twilight as the sun slipped behind the mountain.  She took a slow breath in to try to catch the scent of whatever was on her nostrils.  “Are you certain?” she whispered.

Akira nodded slowly.  “I saw movement a quarter mile back.”

Peering through the trees, she could see nothing that far and catch the scent of little more than the soft earth and the warm pines.

“I smell nothing,” she said, not bothering to hide her skeptical tone.

“Could it be Tenko?”

After their fight with the ninja, Kasumi had acquiesced to going forward, despite not finding the little kitsune.  She felt a pang of remorse, leaving the fox, but there were too many enemies, and if they didn’t move quickly, the ninja would find them again and most likely kill them.  Her leg hurt badly, and she walked with a pronounced limp, despite trying to hide it from Akira.  Even now she could feel the trickle of blood down her leg, and she wondered how long she could keep up this pace without much food.

She was half Neko which still made her a cat shapeshifter.  She could change into a small cat or a ferocious tiger.  Changing into a tiger took energy, and the battle had worn her down to the point where she would have to kill and feed soon as a tiger.  “Tenko smells.  This doesn’t.  Listen, boy, are you sure that you saw something?”

He did not rise to her bait.  Instead, he shrugged and glanced backward with an enigmatic smile.  “It might be a demon.  I don’t recognize it as mortal or kami.”  Although samurai, Akira was half Tengu: a bird-like wind spirit capable of using magic.  But Akira had been forbidden to use his Tengu powers and could not shapeshift.

Kasumi felt the hairs rise on her skin, and she shivered to make them lie back down.  She snuffed the air again and shook her head.  “What would you know of demons called oni, Tengu?”

Akira shrugged.  “Not much, I suppose.”

“My family has fought the oni over the millennia.  We guard the demon gate in the northeast.”  She glared at him haughtily.