Tracks to follow
~
Accalia
~

Twenty-one hours remained of their hunt and they hadn't gotten any closer to the lycan other than tracing the paw prints cemented into the dirt they drove upon.

It was growing stale.

Accalia could feel it.

They found no blood, wisp of fur or even heard a howl.

Wherever this lycan was, it wasn't in their sight of vision.

In the woods they travelled, the trees drew closer to each other and the branches blocked out the blazing sun as the car pushed on.

There was something odd Accalia couldn't place about these woods. The setting was dreary and filled with a dark green abundance. Orange rays of the sun would filter through the gaps of branches, lighting up the woodland dimly until it fell back into dreariness once again.

"Do you know where we are?" Accalia asked, stiffening in her seat as she kept her eyes on the paw prints ahead.

Cadence peered around and pointed out to the window with her thumb. "The highway is over there, we aren't that far from civilisation."

"It's not that," Accalia stated and bit the inside of her cheek, pulling at the flesh nervously. "We don't know where we are."

Cadence shrugged nonchalantly and hung her arm out the window. "We always find our way back home, Accalia. We've done this heaps of times."

Accalia shook her head. Again, Cadence's mindset wasn't linked with Accalia's. It wasn't that. They didn't know where they were and they hadn't seen the lycan since it was freed. Whenever they travelled, going on hunts to track lycans or werewolves, they either always had Tristan or William with them.

They hadn't been given the trust to do it on their own. William didn't allow this out of the goodness of his heart or because he trusted them. He did it out of spite. It was punishment.

This felt horribly wrong.

"We usually always have Tristan with us." Accalia pointed out and bit at her nail, unable to shake the discomfort writhing inside. Nothing could subdue it.

Cadence scoffed mockingly. "You doubt my abilities? I'll get us home and with the lycan's canines."

Accalia slanted her head to the side, facing her cousin and watched as her jaw ticked. Cadence was nervous, she was just skilled at masking it.

"We have to kill it before we even can get home," Accalia muttered under her breath and slumped in the seat, wrapping her arms around her middle.

"Hey, just focus on the paw prints, alright? I'll do the driving, I'll do the killing and then you can take all the credit. Sound good?" Cadence suggested with a snicker.

Accalia didn't comment back.

While Cadence drove ahead, watching on the outskirts, Accalia observed was what near and what remained.

And that was nothing.

Slowly, however, it happened, the hard-hitting paw prints that stamped clearly into the earth became difficult to see and it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

No paw prints of the lycan could be found.

"The prints have faded," Accalia grumbled and slammed the heel of her palm against the dashboard. "We lost him."

"And here I thought you'd be glad."

Accalia shot her younger cousin a leer and said, "Dad will lose it if we go home empty-handed."

"They haven't faded," Cadence growled and drove slower, leaning forward with piercing eyes as she pried. "They're footprints. It shifted back into a human."

Accalia took a closer look and sure enough, brief glimpses of bare feet could be seen in the dirt.

"He'll be lighter on his feet now," Accalia realised and rubbed her forehead tiredly. This had gotten much more difficult.

It was a task on its own to track a lycan. They were fast, agile and could easily throw someone off their tracks because they were the ultimate predator. But once they shifted into human skin, they were like them — Accalia and Cadence and the way of tracking became tricky. They could slip into human towns, disguise their true form and mask whatever tracks they leave behind.

Cadence veered off track and tucked the car behind bushes. "We should go on foot, we'll see better that way,"

Cadence was already out of the car. She picked up her sword, stashed two daggers to her sides and rearranged the stacks of silver rings on her fingers.

Accalia followed and rested her wrist on the hilt of her sword as she peered over the car to stare at her cousin. "It going to be night soon, Cadence. We gotta be quick about this."

Cadence said nothing in response and marched on, leaving the car in the dust.

A sigh cooed from Accalia's mouth and she followed behind, facing her head down to count the footprints belonging to the lycan.

The walk stretched into a trek and night began its ascension.

After a while, silently they veered off the dirt tracks and travelled through the thicker of the woodland where no tracks, highway or life could be seen.

They were cocooned in a territory of never-ending tress and wildness.

The skies above drifted into dark rosewood, plum purple that reminded Accalia of bruises before it finally became blue. Never black, but dark indigo.

Accalia flicked out a torchlight and the traces of the human prints faded once again, leading them onto a different road track.

"Look, more paw prints," Cadence pointed and ran forward.

Bending down, she brushed her fingers along the huge paw print that was thrice the size of her hand and she smiled up at Accalia.

"Not all is loss," Cadence taunted and readied her sword. "It turned back."

Accalia bristled and flashed the torchlight around.

Cadence skipped ahead with no light ahead of her and her lanky, towering figure became a shadow.

Accalia framed the torch upon the paw prints and walked on, eye remaining on the task at hand.

Her feet went into autopilot, walking on their own accord and she counted one pair of prints ... then two. Two sets of paw prints. She strolled on, a hole welling up in her chest. Two became four.

Accalia froze. Not one, but three lycans had left their trails on this track. 

"Cadence," Accalia said carefully as she tried to process what she was seeing. She glimmered the torch on the ground and hoped her vision had blurred — seeing double.

Her vision was clear and abundant. That hole in her chest grew mightier. The terror inside became more pronounced.

"There's more than one set of prints here," Accalia carried on and her eyes squinted closely, attempting to see how recent these prints were. "You seeing this?"

She was met with silence.

Cadence wasn't that slick on her feet.

Accalia flicked her torch in the direction her cousin went and her hand trembled, every other part of her going numb.

Slowly, showing she meant no harm, she raised her hands in surrender.

"You—you can let her go," Accalia stammered out and her throat went bone dry. "She won't do anything."

The man had his hand clamped around Cadence's mouth, silencing her and his other arm snaked around her middle, cutting off any movement of her arms.

"Do you know what territory you're on?" The man sneered.

He wasn't a man. That vital piece of information was clear to Accalia. If he was, he wouldn't have stood a chance against Cadence.

This was either a werewolf or a lycan. But if it was a lycan, Cadence would have been killed on sight.

This was a werewolf in their midst. He hadn't turned and he may not be able to without the influence of the full moon.

Luck may be on their side if he wasn't at full strength.

"I do not," Accalia forced out and gestured to her cousin that hadn't shown a sign of crippling fear. "Can you let my cousin go?"

The werewolf laughed and his eyes glowed brightly. A creature cursed by the moon. "No can do. You and her are coming with me."

Cadence rolled her eyes and threw her head back, connecting the back of her head to his face.

The werewolf shrieked loudly as a thud thwacked into the air and Cadence was released.

Cadence scrambled for her sword as she cursed repeatedly at the werewolf who clutched his nose.

Once she had her sword, that werewolf would be cut up without mercy.

Accalia charged forward and knocked her fist square in the werewolf's face before Cadence could claim his life.

He fell on his back, his nose crooked with blood and showed no sign of waking up anytime soon.

"You had me worried there," Accalia said breathlessly and clapped Cadence gently on the shoulder.

Cadence laughed and wiped at every area of her body that he touched. "He came out of nowhere and snatched me, the prick."

Her dark laugh seared into her eyes and she gave Accalia a scathing glare. "I was going to kill him."

Accalia's grip on her cousin's shoulder tightened and she couldn't find it in herself to care what Cadence thought. They were in too deep to get out of this and they would pay the price. High or low. By lycan or hunter, they would pay.

"We're in a pack, Cadence." Accalia reasoned, knowing exactly what the werewolf meant.

There were territories all over, some that stretched far and wide and were led by an Alpha, the leader and their counterpart if they had one. To step into a territory was stepping into a pack.

And Accalia and Cadence crossed into a pack they didn't know. Without a clue if they could get out of it.

The lycan they were after was either of this pack or a lone wolf. Either way, he completely slipped from Accalia and Cadence's grasp. He could have very well stayed human the entire time and they ended up following different tracks of a different lycan.

Cadence rubbed the back of her head with a wince and swooped back the baby hairs sticking to her sweaty face. "Gathered that. We gotta leave. Screw this hunt."

Accalia didn't fight her on this. She would gladly take whatever punishment her father dealt her.

"Pack members will find him," Accalia said in a strained tone and wiped her forehead. "Let's go now and get to the car."

Cadence nodded eagerly and pivoted in the direction of where they came, to follow their footsteps back.

"Awe, but you just got here." A feminine voice sang around them like a death rattle. "And we received word from the Alpha to not kill you."

The Larren cousins locked eyes. 

Cadence readied her daggers and Accalia swayed in the direction of the voice, trying to latch her torchlight onto the source.

The death rattle became a song and sudden howls drilled all around them, cutting off the motion to even hear. The howls bounded off every tree, resonating as a deathly and dreadful song that would only wreak misery.

And the howls neared, closing in before figures of lycans and werewolves surrounded them.

Accalia flashed her torch at every single one, counting two, five and then eight. The lycans had eyes of pure black and the werewolves' eyes burned like a fire in the night.

One she-lycan in particular with fiery red hair looked ready to pounce as she came the closest.

They were circled by their enemies. Outnumbered by a great degree.

Accalia shook as she reached for the handle of her sword.

Kill or be killed.

Accalia didn't want to die. She didn't want her fate to be decided by a pack of lycans. This couldn't be her ending.

Or Cadence's.

Cadence wouldn't bow. She wouldn't kneel. She gripped the handle of her dagger with a vice hold and stabbed a lycan.

And just like that, the hunters became the hunted.