A Soldiers Life - 218 - Rabbit Rabbit, Run!

Chapter 218: Run Rabbit, Run!

All the Hound trianers had been present at the archery lesson, so I knew none were hiding in the woods. As soon as I was out of sight of the others, I sent my bow, arrows, sword, and Hound pack into my space. The lighter I was, the faster I could move. If I remained free until sunset, I would be the winner. At least, that is what I assumed, as we always ended our hunts of the Hounds then, even if we didn’t find them.

We had spent the last few days tracking and hunting our Hound instructors, so I was very familiar with the terrain. Two minutes was not a lot of time to gain a lead on the others. Normally, the Hounds were given fifteen minutes, or they left in the middle of a lesson to enter the woods to set false trails, traps, and hide. Konstantin only giving me two minutes was just Konstantin being Konstantin.

As I ran, I intentionally left a trail, stepping on blood grass, leaving prints, and disturbing the leaves. I was faster than everyone, and I had a destination in mind. Konstantin’s warning that this was going to happen eventually kept me on the lookout for paths and routes.

To my right was the hill that led up to the bluff where the castle resided, and to my left were the dense woods. As I ran, I spooked two deer and paused in my long stride. After getting lesson after lesson of the horrors of the world, racing recklessly alone through the woods was probably not very wise.

My senses went into overdrive, searching for threats while my mind worked on my plan. One of the pups, Val, was a cheater. His spell form could divine the direction of an object that he had touched. It did not work on people, only objects and had a range of about one mile. I hoped that he was trying futility to find my bow or sword and cursing up a storm, thinking I was out of his range. Those were the only two objects he had touched of mine that I was aware of. But then again, before I learned of his ability and started watching him closer, he may have marked other items.

I reached my first destination and smirked. A wide stream, about twenty feet across at this point and waist deep in the center. I raced out into the water, making air shields to step on while I crossed in three leaps. When I reached the other side, I switched from leaving an obvious trail to trying to leave no trail at all. There was rocky terrain headed up to the right that made stone hopping easy. I cursed as I stepped on and tore some moss from one of the rocks. I turned back and carefully folded it back in place before continuing.

About one hundred yards from the stream, the terrain changed to pine needles, and I switched into a flat-footed run on the pine needles. This area was a favorite of the Hounds when they played the rabbit. If you didn’t push off with your toes, you could avoid disturbing the pine needles, making it hard to be tracked. I was not great at the technique when running all out, but I did my best.

I started to alter my course into an arching loop following the boundary markers placed every hundred yards, white circles on the trees. My plan would only work if all the pups followed my fake trail. They might spot me returning on this parallel route if they had spread out to cover the five-mile-wide tract of land in the boundary. An hour into my long run, I kept the trees that marked the boundary to my right and was tempted to step outside to find out the consequences, but I decided to play fair.

My mind turned as I ran. I had read the list of spell forms everyone had and two other pups had spell forms good for tracking. Gaius could see in the dark, and Dirk had a heightened sense of smell that was not foiled by myconid powder. Those two had also come from the regular army and not the Legion.

From what I understood, the Hounds were desperate to replenish their ranks. Normally, all Hounds came from the Legion due to their superior fitness and combat skills, but I would say the soldiers selected from the army were picking up the tracking skills much faster than the legionaries even if they fell short in the combat training.

I made the mistake of focusing on the left, where my pursuers would come from. A petrified green goblin shrieked and dashed away far to my right. We had seen goblin tracks, and the Hounds had even killed a pair a few days ago. I grumbled as I turned and pursued, orcbane appearing in my hand as I closed. The goblin tried to scurry up a tree, but I caught it in the middle of the back with a powerful swing. It screamed balefully as it hit the ground, and I ended its pain quickly with a thrust to the throat.

Shit, the little creature had been loud in its death scream. Looking where I was at, I was fifty yards outside the boundary. We were trained to kill the creatures whenever we encountered them, but I was certain Konstantin would say I lost the contest because I had left the area. I listened for a moment, planning to risk using the collector. I heard a loud whistle, probably a mile away. Someone had heard the goblin’s death cry but was still far away. Fifteen seconds later, I had a minor essence of quickness and was running once again at full tilt.

My hope was that they would find the encounter with the goblin and that it would give them pause as they explored the scene of the fight. Maybe they wouldn’t realize it was me who had killed it. Anyone with half a brain would be able to figure out my route.

When Konstantin introduced the boundary for the hunts, we were on the beach after a morning run. He had only laid out the right, left, and further markers, meaning the beach and castle were in play. I had planned to return to the castle and be enjoying a meal when the others found me after searching until sunset. Now I was rethinking my plans, and thought maybe I should head down to the beach.

A mile later, I slid to a stop, cursing as I reached the dirt road leading up to the castle. Two soldiers were inspecting a wagon of supplies. No one had spotted me, and their backs were turned to me. They were over eighty yards away, but they were blocking my route.

I wasn’t sure if they would rat me out or not, so I waited. Minutes later, multiple whistles behind me told me they had found the goblin a mile back. A soldier turned in my direction at the sound, and I froze. At a distance, avoiding movement was the best way to remain unseen.

I waited as he turned back and continued inspecting the wagon’s cargo. It was painfully slow, and I was sweating in the cold afternoon air, wishing he would hurry it up. The wagon started to roll with the soldiers leading. I raced out into the road and snuck up behind the wagon. By the smell, it was provisions for the soldiers. The noise of the wagon covered my movement as I climbed over the back and pushed under the oiled canvas covering the wagon. Salted meat and vegetables close to expiration greeted me.

I listened as we reached the gate. The soldiers ordered it open, and the wagon proceeded inside, and the gates closed behind. “Tell Egg the wagon arrived. A week late and full of crops we need to pickle or risk losing, but at least it got here.” Egg was the cook’s nickname. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was bald or that he liked to crack raw eggs over his personal meals.

The wagon stopped, and the teamster climbed off and stretched. I slid out the back unnoticed and nearly walked into Egg as I was entering the castle. “Rough day?” He asked, smelling like grease.

“Yeah, Konstantin, let me go early.” Doubt creased his face, so I quickly added to avoid suspicion, “I doubt it was a favor, though. He probably has something sinister planned for the evening. The others should be along shortly.”

Egg sympathized as he had see how we were treated and how hard we trained, “Hard man, that one. I will see if I can add something special for dinner tonight from the delivery.” He nodded and went to unload the wagon. Two other soldiers were off watch in the common as I joined them, grabbing a mostly clean cup. I removed my heavy Hound jacket and laid it on the back of my chair.

Their pitcher had watered down ale, and I spoiled their conversation as we all drank in silence for a time before they resumed talking about the best soil to plant cabbage, beets, and tomatoes in. The pair planned to farm after their time in the army was complete. I doubted the Emperor was going to release anyone from service anytime soon, but didn’t spoil their conversation.

It was over an hour before there was a commotion at the gate as I heard the pups returning. I had almost won—the sun was going to set soon, and I just shook my head in disappointment as I listened to the pups talking.

“I am positive this time. I got enough aether to use keen smell again. It smells like Eryk passed this way recently.”

“The guards at the gate didn’t see him enter,” an exasperated man lamented. “His scent could have been lingering here from the morning.”

Another pup joined the argument, “Isn’t the castle out of the boundary?”

“Who knows? He left the boundary to kill the goblin. The man just doesn’t care about rules.”

“Why isn’t he guarding a duke or duchess?”

“I heard he was guarding a High Mage, and she took a fancy to him, but he couldn’t meet her expectations under the sheets.”

“I heard he got sent to the Hounds because he took a duke’s daughter’s maidenhood.”

“That was Rian, you idiot. The Truthseeker forced a confession out of him. Probably strung up by his balls by now.”

“We better do something soon. Hearne and David are watching us.”

“You two search the stables, and Dirk and I will search the cells.” Dirk had the spell form for keen smell, so I knew the gig was up.

Moments later, the two pups entered the common room and walked right past me. I was by the door and seated with two soldiers in common clothes. Both pups were wet from the waist down. I didn’t have my Hound jacket on but was still shocked when the two walked down the stairs, not even giving me a second glance.

My drinking partners had resumed their conversation but asked, “Are they looking for you?” I nodded, and he held up his cup in a toast. I matched it and took a pull of my own.

Dirk and Malcum came up the stairs forty minutes later, clearly distraught. The sun had set, and they lost. They started to head for the exit when Dirk punched Malcum in the chest and pointed at me. I held up my mug in salute to congratulate them for finding me, albeit too late.

Konstantin was hiding his glee at dinner. “Six hours! He had a two-minute lead, and it took you six hours to find him!” He stormed around the common room as dinner was being served. Egg had added some sweet peppers and corn to tonight’s stew. The corn was typically only ground into meal and lacked the sweetness I was accustomed to. Still, I nodded to him in appreciation when he handed me my bowl as Konstantin continued his tirade at the other pups.

Castian made the mistake of interrupting Konstantin, “He didn’t stay in the boundary. The victory should be ours.”

Konstantin spun on him, and he flinched. “Boundaries? Do you think your targets stay within boundaries?’ Disgusted, he announced, “No one gets tomorrow off.”

That announcement had me angry, but I asked in stupefied confusion, “I thought I had gotten tomorrow off. They didn’t find me before sunset.”

Konstantin whirled at me, but I didn’t flinch. “You obviously have trouble following rules. I think all twenty of my rocks need a new home along the boundary to serve as a reminder for you as to where they are! You can have tomorrow off, pup, but I want all twenty stones added to different tree markers.”

The others winced, and I just gave Konstantin a hard stare. The message was clear: you could go outside the boundary but would pay a price for it. The task would be extremely easy for me. I could drop the stones in my dimensional space. I would only do one at a time to give the illusion my space was too small to take more.

Konstantin then started to review the hunt and what they had done wrong. When the group reached the water crossing, they had split into three groups, one crossing and one going left and the other going right. The group that went right had encountered an angry bull elk. Hearne and Cato had to intervene and take it down. That group had stopped the hunt in favor of harvesting the massive animal, which was rare this far north. The other two groups had remained clustered too long, waiting for someone to pick up my trail.

Only with the grace of Dirk’s sense of smell had they picked up my trail again. When they found the dead goblin, they argued over what had happened, wasting time. I listened as Konstantin and the other Hounds pointed out mistake after mistake. I was sure this would not be the last time I was selected to be the quarry, so I also listened, learned, and planned my next flight.