Sweey: Well, today was rather interesting… today I found out my Great-Grandmother –whom I'm very close to- is undergoing a surgery tomorrow morning and might not make it…. so please, keep her in your prayers. I also discovered that that game I was telling you all about is actually based off of real characters. Not that Masamune Date ACTUALLY fought with six katanas, he did have his right eye missing and he was also known as the One Eyed Dragon. Another interesting fact about him was that he supported Christians in Japan even after his lord outlawed Christians. Though they say he wasn't a Christian…. Who's they is what I want to know! I believe he was. TAKE THAT RANDOM HISTORIANS OF JAPAN! :D ha ha! Okay, now for the chapter….
Chapter 7 Tracking Tracks of a Tracking Tracker
My eyes flickered open to dim light as it was yet to be dawn. I stood and slipped into the room to prepare for the journey that lay ahead.
As I entered, I met Fumu's gaze. She stood in the middle of the room, bathed and ready to go. Tears filled her eyes and she rushed to embrace me.
"I'm sorry Stranger," she whimpered in my ear.
I pulled from her and smiled, "No bitterness was ever held against you."
She smiled slightly and I approached a nearby trunk and opened it, dragging out an old cloak similar to the one I currently had thrown around my shoulders. It was tattered and worn but it would serve its purpose. I handed it to her and she looked at me first in puzzlement.
"Put it on."
She nodded, understanding and did so without question.
"If you are in danger trust in this cloak. It is made of a camouflaged cloth and will conceal you from the eyes of enemies. Should we run into trouble, wrap yourself in it and stay unmoving. No one will see you as long as you don't move or make a sound. Trust in the cloak to hide you and do not move even if they seem to have found you," I informed her.
Her head dipped once again before she took a seat in a nearby chair as I prepared for our journey. When I was finished, I looked to her and grinned grittily.
"Now, let us get out of this damn prison."
….
Emit was scouting ahead along a steep trail. The earth was damp with the evening rain from the night before and sprinkled with remains of dew from the early morning and it wasn't but an hour ago that the first rays of sunlight had shown across the distant horizon. Emit, being the extraordinary and strong-minded tracker he was, would not stand to waste even a second of daylight therefore had roused his two friends before dawn and set off after a brief meal of cheesy eggs and mint tea.
This morning was filled with moist air, quietness, and incased in a thick layer of fog. In the distance, Emit could hear the sound of a waterfall roaring as the depressing voice of a morning dove sang against the current's boisterous song.
"Are we nearly there?" Edge asked him, his voice strained with exhaustion as he followed behind Emit on the narrow, slick path that weaved in the middle of a hillside amidst a hushed gathering of trees.
Emit shrugged, "There's no telling, really." The moment the words slipped from his tongue, his own foot gave way from beneath him and he slid wildly down the steep hill, all the while keeping his balance fairly steady. That is, until he reached the bottom where he was thrown into the patch of mud that extended a welcome to him as he landed with a guttural grunt and a large splash of wet dirt.
"Butterfly kisses, I hate mud…" he growled crossly as he picked himself up.
Edge and Sir Meta Knight couldn't help but chuckle as the mud-caked figure of Emit approached them back up the hill, occasionally slipping as he struggled back up the precipitous hill.
"We'll take a rest stop when we reach the waterfall," he said as he glared while passing them by then turned and raised an eyebrow at them both, "What's with the stupid grins on your faces?"
Immediately, Edge's grin vanished and portrayed his usual emotionless manner. Of course, Meta could care less about what Emit said concerning his face.
After all, the witty Ivoian couldn't see it anyways, he thought with a smirk.
Emit's eyes narrowed, "You too Meta Knight."
Meta's smirk faded and was replaced by a look of confusion, could he see his face?
"Oh don't act like it's a mystery! I've known you for what…. 3o,ooo years?" Emit pondered aloud as he turned heel to continue onward.
Meta Knight turned his gaze to Edge in case the young shadow knew something, but only did so to receive an uncertain lift of the boy's shoulders as he left Meta there to follow after Emit.
Still utterly confused by the discovery he had just found out about Emit, Meta Knight walked on, wondering just how many times Emit had been aware of what was really going on his mind behind the mask he wore. Then he began to wonder if it was ever a secret to anyone.
…..
I knew what I had to do, but how I would go about doing it, I did not know.
Fumu walked slightly behind me, cloaks flowing as I listened to her silent footsteps and the footsteps of those who followed silently behind in pursuit. They were my enemies, here to ensure I performed the task their master had appointed to me.
It wasn't long that I found the tracks. Emit was following my old tracks and now I was using his tracks to follow him. I was tracking a tracker who was tracking me and my own tracks. I suppose you could call it backtracking, since I was following a tracker tracking tracks I'd left behind days ago. Had I been seeking something lost, I would have probably found it easily, but I was instead hunting those who hunted me.
As odd as it sounds, it was no difficult task to perform. I am a Wanderer after all and we Wanderers spend years perfecting the art of tracking, so it should be no surprise as to how well I can do it. Just by simple footprints and occasional broken sticks or strips of cloth left behind I can imagine exactly what the person had been doing, why, and where. Alright, sometimes not always why, I'll admit, but there are occasional times that it's flat out obvious. Like now, Emit is evidently following my tracks in order to find me. To the untrained eye the tracks along the trail were a mindless jumble of footsteps, but to my eyes, a detailed map of a story that had happened not but ten minutes prior to my arrival.
I could see where Emit had slid down the side of the steep slope of the hill, not once loosing his feet. That is, until he reached the bottom. And now, I could se where they were headed and were reluctant to do so. Meta Knight seemed to have been shaken by some new news he'd discovered and had tagged along behind deep in thought as usual while Edge was eager to follow Emit, no matter how much mud the Ivoian was covered in.
"Come on, we're getting closer to them," I told Fumu before dashing forward toward the roaring voice of the distant waterfall. Overhead, a morning dove flew from the branches of an old oak tree. We were but a few hundred steps behind them and they were entirely unaware.
…..
Emit was standing at the head of the waterfall, bathing in the stream that supplied its clear, falling waters. He was cleaning off the mud that clung to his bare shoulder when he sensed eyes upon him.
He didn't even hesitate in his bathing as he sharpened his senses to what was around him. Birds, the waterfall, Edge and Meta Knight chatting about his recent trip down the hillside, the flowing stream, the wind through the rustling trees, a rabbit chewing on grass, and in the distance, he could hear a squirrel breaking open a nutshell.
With these sounds attuned to his ears, any foreign sound would scream in warning to him. Even as he stood there, he heard the squirrel drop its precious nut and leap to another branch and the little rabbit's fast hops as it scampered away for cover under a log.
Walking up to the shore, Emit threw back on his cloths and approached Edge and Sir Meta Knight.
"We're not alone," he whispered to them through a smile without moving his lips.
The other two laughed and welcomed him, winking their acknowledgement to his warning.
Then Edge looked in the distance and froze. Fumu was sprinting towards them and she was alone.
"Fumu!" he cried, exploding in a fast run to meet her, followed closely behind by Emit and Sir Meta Knight.
"Where's Stranger?" Emit demanded, his voice quavering with a mixture of relief and worry.
"I-I don't know," she replied through sobs, "We were ambushed by shady men and he told me to run towards the sound of the waterfall. I heard his screams… and the crack of a whip. Then a humming sound followed and his screams were cut off suddenly and I…. I was so scared…" she buried her face into Edge's shoulder and cried harder.
Emit's throat went dry and he stared in the distance, consumed by the news he'd just received. As he stared off to the place where Fumu had arrived from, he began to understand what may happen and it brought him fear. If what Fumu had said were correct, then Stranger was either dead or they were about to be thrown into the fight for their lives.
…..
Sweey: Hope you guys liked this chapter. Me and my cliffies! Haha :3 Guess you'll just have to wait till I get a hankering to update again. The story is almost over by the way…. So, what do you think will happen? Hmmm? Tell me pwease! :D Reviews bring me happiness and today… I really need that.
