"Maybe they forgot the time." Stiles offered but he knew that Edith wouldn't be this worried if it was common for Theo to forget the time like this. "Have you tried calling him?"
At that, she rolled her eyes.
"He forgot to take his phone with him. As always." She made an unpleased sound. "He says he would forget it somewhere anyway and usually he doesn't really need it."
It was kind of a strange concept for Stiles, having his phone with him all the time was not just a necessity, it came natural to him. But Edith and Theo were a different generation, they didn't grow up with cell phones.
"And Bobby?" Stiles asked but he knew the answer to that already, of course, had she tried calling him.
"I don't think he has his phone with him either." She crossed her arms over her chest to keep her hands still. She was clearly worried and Stiles couldn't help but think of the stories Betty had told them just a few hours ago. About people going missing around here. In most cases, they did show up sooner or later but sometimes they didn't.
"What's going on here?" Peter came over.
"Theo isn't back yet," Derek informed him. "And they don't have their phones with them."
"Who doesn't have their phone with them?" Peter wondered.
"I don't even have one," Derek reminded him. Which was another thing Stiles wanted to get to but hadn't come around to actually tackle so far. He hadn't even managed to shop virtual clothes for him without forgetting something basic like underwear. And a phone would be something physical that could easily break or get lost when Derek stopped existing. However, that was not the problem at hand so Stiles put it to the back of his mind to take care of later.
"Where did they want to go fishing?" Peter asked the question that had been on Stiles' lips before the phone issue had put him off track. "We could go out there and have a look."
"You would do that?" The relief was clear on her face.
"Of course." Stiles nodded along even if he wasn't sure of what use he would be with his broken leg and the crutches and all that. He had been out there and the paths were bumpy with roots and rabbit holes.
Peter had the mind to get the sandwiches he had gotten them so Stiles and Derek could eat over the ride because according to Peter a hungry Stiles was a cranky Stiles. Stiles disagreed vehemently but he couldn't quite get his point across around the mouth full of sandwich. Derek just gave him a pointed look and then nodded towards Peter in agreement, that traitor.
Derek made it half-way through his sandwich before he disappeared in a swirl of shadows. At least he had the time to wrap the rest of his sandwich into the paper and put it on the seat before it happened so at least Peter's rental didn't get sauce all over the seat.
"Do I want to know?" Peter asked with a side glance at the now empty passenger seat. The almost empty seat. There was the wrapped sandwich ... and one pair of Stiles' underwear. Right.
"Ehm ..." Stiles made. He felt the blood rushing into his cheeks. "I forgot to picture him in underwear and he didn't like going commando?"
"Do you picture him without underwear often?" Peter asked dryly.
Stiles didn't dignify that with an answer and took another bite of his sandwich instead.
"Don't you want to bring him back?" Peter asked when the seat next to him stayed empty. "Preferable with underwear?"
"Not just yet." Stiles shook his head. He had summoned Derek twice today already if he did it right away again, he wouldn't last very long.
Peter gave him a look through the rear view mirror but didn't comment on it.
Stiles had been exploring the area before so he was able to give Peter directions and soon Peter parked the car in a spot not far from the lake Theo and Bobby had wanted to go to. It was still quite a walk, not something Stiles was looking forward to but no way was he sitting this one out. There was one other car parked here, Bobby's Stiles guessed.
Like in the movies Stiles put a hand on the hood to confirm that, yep, it was cold. Most likely sitting here since the early morning. Peter had told him that he had seen Theo just when he'd left this morning and back then everything had looked fine.
"Have they both been here?" Stiles asked when he noticed the way Peter was holding his nose into the wind.
"Theo and another person. Male." Peter nodded to himself, most likely memorizing the scent of both men. "This way."
There was only one path leading into the woods here so Stiles was not that impressed with the werewolf's tracking skill but he still let him take the lead. On his crutches, he was even slower than usual and even at one hundred percent he could not keep up with the speed of a werewolf. Not that Peter was running ahead. He walked slowly, his eyes darting here and there and with his nose constantly in the wind. It was mostly for show Stiles guessed, to mask the fact that he was going slower than necessary to give Stiles the chance to keep up with him. Stiles didn't call him out on it.
What would have been a twenty minutes walk, thirty at most, came close to an hour but in the end, Stiles saw water through the trees. The sun had come out and the light broke on the little waves, making the water glister in the sun. It looked pretty, almost calm.
Edith had told them that Theo and Bobby preferred a spot more at the side of the lake, a bit off the most commons spots, that was the reason they had to walk this far in the first place. Stiles cussed them out under his breath, the path was really not made for someone on crutches, and without Peter, he would have been out here looking for the right spot way longer. At least Peter was able to direct them straight towards the small site the two men had claimed for themselves.
"We found their camp," Stiles commented when he spotted the two foldable chairs with a cooler between them. There were a few empty beer bottles and a bag with wrappers most likely from the sandwiches Edith had supplied them with. There also were buckets with no fish and two bags with their equipment. The two fishing rods were right beside the chairs, one still propped up on its stand, the other one on the ground but the line was limp and nothing tugging at the end. But most of all, there was no sign of either Theo or Bobby.
Stiles would have loved to just drop down in one of those foldable chairs but he didn't want to contaminate the side so he just leaned against a tree a bit off the side and let Peter have a closer look at the camp. If there was anything to find, the werewolf would find it.
"Is there a trail leaving from here?" Stiles asked. Peter had followed their tracks here, he would have noticed some crossed lines so Stiles was pretty sure that wherever they went from here, it was not back the way they came.
Peter didn't answer right away, too busy sniffing the air and things like the sandwich wrappers and beer bottles. Stiles would have laughed about his very much dog-like behavior but it had saved their asses too often in the past to make fun of it now. Instead, Stiles closed his eyes, even without a werewolf's nose he could be useful. Stiles slowly let out a breath and opened his senses to his surroundings. He had done this before not that far from here so the lines and fields of magic surrounding him were kind of familiar. Like a spider in its web, the Nemeton stood in the middle but it was miles away, the lines of the magical net there but not too dominant. Looking past the obvious Stiles opened up to the natural waves he was getting from this place. There was the presence in the lake, old and strong but not malicious. If old Pete had something to do with this, it didn't show in his aura. Stiles didn't like that word, it had too much of a new age bullshit feeling to it, but it was the best way to describe what he was getting from the fish. And that in and on itself sounded like some new age bullshit. Stiles snorted and opened his eyes.
"I don't get the feeling that there is something supernatural going on here," he told Peter who was still busy sniffing around.
"They went to pee over there." Peter pointed in one direction. "But they came back from there." He moved over to the opposite side of the camp. "Something came from here."
"Something?" That did get Stiles' attention. He hadn't sensed anything amiss here. And even if that something didn't leave a magical trace, he would have sensed it if the two men had been in distress.
"Not sure," Peter admitted. He had his back towards Stiles, looking intensely in the direction of whatever he was smelling.
"This wasn't supposed to turn into a job." Stiles groaned and pushed himself off the tree. "We have more than enough on our hands without people going missing." He tried to keep it cool on the outside but on the inside, he was freaking out. He knew Theo. He liked Theo.
And Stiles had been out here before. How could something just snag two men away right under his nose? And Peter had been out in the woods last night. Shouldn't he have noticed something amiss as well?
"This doesn't make sense." Stiles caught up with Peter but he was not stupid enough to just barge forward.
There were no signs of a struggle, the camp was undisturbed and so were the grass and the bushes in front of him. Stiles had never been a good boy scout but even he could see that somebody had come through here just recently. The grass was flattened and some smaller branches were broken but it still didn't look like a struggle.
"They just went with it?" Stiles squinted ahead but there were just more trees and the lake to the left.
"Looks like it." Taking one last sniff, Peter started following the scent.
Stiles followed a bit slower but he also kept his senses open just in case there was something disturbing the natural order around here. So far he got nothing.
Peter led him along the edge of the lake, sometimes directly at the waterline, sometimes so far off that Stiles lost sight of the water through the trees but always coming back to the lake.
"If this goes on for much longer we'll be on the other side and back at the start," Stiles muttered. By now he had real trouble, keeping up with Peter.
"The lake is bigger than that." Peter gave him a look over his shoulder but that one look was enough to make him stop walking. "Need a break?"
"I'm fine." Stiles wiped the sweat off his forehead. "We have to find them."
Peter agreed but he did pretend that he needed to orientate himself, giving Stiles a moment to catch his breath.
"This way." Peter started walking again but slower now.
While they were walking, Stiles tried to keep an eye on his surroundings, with his eyes and with his other sense, while he also was going through everything supernatural he knew to figure out what could have taken Theo and Bobby. Or more precisely, what could have made them leave their fishing spot with the lines still out and to walk halfway around the lake. It didn't make sense.
Out of the corner of his eye, Stiles suddenly noticed something red. Peter had noticed it too but instead of rushing towards it, he stopped and with his arm across Stiles' chest he made him stop as well.
"Two heartbeats," Peter informed him in a whisper, eyes darting around. This could be a trap. Stiles had been doing this long enough to know that and still, everything in him was itching to just run towards what looked like someone lying on the ground. Who it was and in what condition he was in, Stiles couldn't tell from here but he had no doubt that they had found the lost men.
"Still nothing," Stiles whispered back after he had made sure that there was still no sign of supernatural danger in the complex field of magic around here. They were closer to the Nemeton, though, its presence now constantly thrumming in the back of Stiles' mind.
Peter gave him a nod and then slowly, they approached the figure in the red jacket on the ground. Bobby, Stiles recognized the old man, but then he noticed a boot sticking out from behind a tree.
"Is that Theo?" Stiles asked while he ungracefully knelt down next to Bobby to check his pulse. He had one, slow and steady just like Peter had said, but he didn't show any sign of waking up.
"Yes, he's unconscious." Peter straightened up.
"Same here."
"I think we need Derek to get them out of here."