Burning

Chapter TWENTY-THREE

"Just going to ignore her waving, huh?"

"-since we are going through the third loop I should stick to the left, correct? He won't be able to cut me off that way."

"Just going to ignore me too, huh?"

"I'm not ignoring anything I'm trying to focus on what's important."

"Just going to ignore the quest-"

"Mariah, please for once can you act like my mentor and give me advice?" Chris begged, fingers on his temples. He was already strained without Mariah trying to figure out why he wasn't in the mood to wave back to his friend. Her behavior had been ridiculous and now he was having trouble looking at her.

Her eyes blazed one moment but then she relaxed. "Ok Sugar."

"Really. You aren't going to make fun of me for not knowing every turn of a running loop's tree line by heart?"

"Yes really. I am not a bully. I'm turning over a leaf as they say."

He wasn't sure how to express how much he doubted that so he decided not to bother. "Where should I be looking for him to block me." He paused. "You do believe he blocked me last time, right?"

"Yeah I don't doubt it at all. Scott has always been a piece of shit."

"I don't follow you."

Mariah sighed and it looked to take a lot of effort to not be a bully. "Scott was Louise's mentor and she's now Sanjay's mentor. She was never a particularly likable creature but his influence certainly made her worse. You know, I've never cared for Scott." If this news wasn't so interesting it would have been hard not to respond sarcastically to that last part. At least someone believed Sanjay was doing all of this in purpose. "For the second turn if you are on it's heels you'll want to shift to its right side to avoid the tree line. Angela's your front?" He nodded. "Good. If you get past the haunches, the area narrows and it hits an incline. That's a good time for go for a Clip. Also-"

Mariah broke down the other options for him and although it was a lot to keep in mind it helped focus him on anything but the actual act of Clipping, cutting through the throat with his teeth."

"-but I still suggest you Jump into your Third. Even if you miss the mark no one is going to top that."

"I'm not Jumping." He sighed when Sheira motioned them forward. "Thank you for the advice, Mariah."

"No problem. Just don't mess it up or I'll stuff your tail down your own throat." She crossed her arms.

There was the mentor he was used to.

Although everyone else disrobed before the door Chris waited until the last second. The wind threatened ice on its edges. One gust went through him and he barely cared that he was about to rip out anything's throat. He watched them lead the buck to the front. The poor thing's eyes rolled white seeing it was surrounded. It stank. He watched Sanjay swallow and felt a twinge of disgust until he noticed Angela and Matt do it too. Was he the only one not excited to taste blood? At the signal each of them fell into bren. There were scattered sounds of surprise, a few of delight when he lifted his elongated face again. He'd nearly kept pace with Angela outside of a training environment.

On previous hunts the buck had been released immediately but now the entire pack was changing so their feet could have any chance at keeping up. It was painfully slow, especially with the noises the deer was starting to make. Finally, finally a fully changed Scott howled to his pack and tore into the leather restraining the animal. The deer soared forward onto the ice, apparently solidified under the wind, and nearly disappeared into the darkness. Chris and the others scrambled after it, all surprised at the speed. Without any give to the snow the animal hadn't been hindered like the other hunts. A chorus of encouragement was at their heels as they sprinted away from the manufactured warmth of the lodge and into the trackless mountainside.