Dreaming of White ✔ [Completed]

Chapter 7 - Elements Of Surprise

"I caught her before she could fall", he then simply said.

"But… your scream… you… it sounded like…"

Vansh grinned. "Pretty convincing, huh?"

Riddhima flinched. Too convincing. She remembered Vansh throwing his head back and giving that howl, that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside his soul, a sound that carried so much pain and sorrow that when it ended, she found her right hand was firmly clasped around his left.

Only she couldn't remember putting it there.

They had stayed like that for a moment, then he had winked at her and squeezed her hand reassuringly. And she had blushed slightly and let go of him.

Before her mind could go back to a point just a few minutes before the scream and replay another memory that would make her blush right here in the present, she forced it to concentrate on the suspect in front of her.

"It wasn't real?", the man asked.

"No", Vansh said. Riddhima noticed he was avoiding her gaze, instead fixing his eyes on the sheriff, just like she had.

"That wolf hole was a pretty nasty trap", Vansh remarked after a moment. "Did you built it yourself? Or was it one of the weekend hunter-slash-warriors you hate so much?

"Idiots", the sheriff growled. "Idiots built it. Probably while drunk. For a laugh. Felt manly. Then went back home. Doe fell into it, broke its leg. Died a miserable slow death. Not right. Just not right."

"Yeah", Vansh agreed. "Putting a stake through a person is fine, but cruelty to animals… that is just wrong. I see your point."

Bringing his hands out of his pockets again and rubbing them together, he continued.

"This is ultimately all about seeing things, isn't it? You wanted us to see your footprints, hoping to make us chase you without paying attention to anything else but your clear tracks in the snow."

With the other weapons now safely stored in the backpack, Riddhima lowered her gun and stepped towards the man, gripping his arm tight.

"Too bad for you", she said with a nod towards Vansh "that he usually pays attention to everything. At least when he's not too busy gloating. Or being a pain in the neck."

"Thanks.… I guess."

Vansh stepped closer to the man, until he felt Riddhima tense. He stopped. Addressed him from a still safe distance.

"You concealed it well. The trap. But the snow on top was too smooth compared to the surrounding area, plus the footprint right in the middle - nice touch - wasn't as deep as the rest. Because you couldn't put your whole weight on it or you would have fallen into the hole yourself. But hey, stupid city folk wouldn't notice details like that, right?"

Vansh pulled a broken twig out of his jacket pocket and turned it over in his hand.

"What you wanted us to notice, were the broken twigs and branches along the way. We had to assume you were in too much of a hurry to care when you left such obvious clues for us to follow. But…"

Vansh held the broken twig up.

"… if you brush past vegetation it bends in the direction of travel. Doesn't always break, sometimes just snaps back or in winter snow simply gets brushed off it. But it always indicates direction. These were pointing down. No direction of travel. And the force with which they were broken was too much: Hurry or no hurry — you'd have to be a mammoth or an orc to do that much damage in passing."

The sheriff gave an angry huff.

"You can read tracks. I didn't expect that."

Vansh's grin widened.