The Kingdom Walls

CHAPTER FIVE

"And the distinctive stink should identify it for you."

"And the teeth, sir."

The older man's mouth quirked up, eyes crinkling in amusement. "We are not in the bloody military, son. And it's just the two of us here, so drop the Sir nonsense. Makes me feel old," he said ruefully. He shifted his stance and took out his hands from his pockets to cross his arms over his chest. "Now, tell me what you really think. How could an Aberration's body be damaged beyond recognition like that, and most importantly, by what? And, if there were really three humans, where is the other one?" Ares started to open his mouth to respond but Alaric wasn't done. "And call me 'Sir' one more time, and son, I'm going to feed you to the next Aberration I see. Preferably a Lighiuan or a Fury."

Ares mouth curved up in response. Taking another deep breath, he gathered his senses once more. With a keen eye, he surveyed the area again and started talking, as if narrating a scene only he can see.

"I think the females were the first to be attacked. The first one was caught unaware right about here." He walked a couple of steps and crouched down, pointing to the area.

"So you're certain now that the missing companion was female?" Alaric asked curiously.

Ares nodded in response. "I'll get to that." With his heightened vision, he studied a trace of sprayed blood on the ground. Then, he dug around the frost and dead leaves and picked up something small, with what looked like a piece of string attached to it. No, not a string—a wire—attached to a foamy nub. Earphones.

He held it up to Alaric. "This was the catalyst to her doom."

Alaric studied the earphone. "That's a rare, valuable find. I wonder how she was able to make it work. Was any device found in her possessions? A music player? She must have had a player to use that on, or an IPod?" he asked excitedly, then abruptly paused.  Flushed, he cleared his throat and collected himself. 

Ares blinked at him. A what-pod? Music player, self explanatory, the I-whatever, not so.

"A what, sir?

Alaric just motioned for him to go on, dismissing his question. "So you think the first victim was the girl you found then? Because of the earphones."

Ares shrugged, then nodded gravely as he resumed his narrative. "She never heard it coming. She was attacked from behind, two slashes at the back—right and left swipes—by the looks of the blood pattern here, and what I saw on her. The Vrag pup dragged her up to here—," he crouch-walked to a few feet away, "—but was intercepted by the other female. The one missing."

"How can you be certain that she was female?"

"Because of her shoe print," Ares answered and then picked something up from a blade of grass and held up his hand to the older man, "And this."

Uncrossing his arms, Alaric trod over to where the younger man was crouched and reached out to take what was in his outstretched hand. Looking at the object in his hand for a silent moment, he gruffly whispered the obvious, "It's a strand of hair."

"Long and blond," Ares added as if to emphasize the already obvious observation. Alaric looked up at him blankly, as if he still wasn't too clear on what the younger man was trying to point out. Ares raised his brows at him and said, "The girl I found had black hair."

Finally understanding, Alaric released a breath and crossed his arms again. "Okay, so this other woman intercepted the beast, probably attempted to fight off the creature to distract it, and attempt to save the girl." Alaric hypothesized quietly. "Valiant, but futile. One slash from a Vrag could practically rip a big man to shreds, much less a young girl. There was already no saving her. The fact that she still attempted, meant their relationship was a close one."