Losing a child had not been a part of Conri's plan when he had first taken the job. Many things could easily have gone wrong, from rockslides to separation, but he would never had expected one of the children to get taken on his watch.
Internally, he was cursing himself, believing he should have kept more of an eye on them. Every time he blinked, James' tearful face came into view and stared there for what felt like an eternity. Conri knew that wishing to change the past had no effect and was pointless, but in the moment it felt like all he could do.
Whilst Conri was panicking, Tom had managed to lead the remaining children back down the mountain, with the wolf bringing up the rear. Unlike the trip up the mountain, the walk back to the Mountain Activity Centre was silent, it seemed no one wanted to say anything in fear of something else going wrong. Arriving where they had first started the tour, the faces of their parents came into view. Conri gulped upon seeing Bronwyn's face fall when her eyes didn't see Sarah.
Walking over to the woman and her husband, Conri could feel his tail droop until it was practically dragging along the ground. He watched, his heart weighing more than stone, as James wrapped his arms around his mother. The soft sniffles, muffled by the sweater, did nothing to quell Conri's worries.
The pale, yellow sun hung high in the sky. Soft clouds rolled by without a care in the world, despite everything that was going on in the space of a few short hours.
"H..hi.." he gulped, his throat felt like sandpaper. "So there's a slight problem." The nervous laugh he let out did nothing to help the situation as a frown developed on Bronwyn's face.
"What happened?" Her voice shook. "Where's my daughter?" Looking around, Conri realised nobody was coming to save him from having to deliver the bad news.
"She went missing on the hike. I don't know where she is,"
Bronwyn let out a sob, turning and burying her face into her husband's chest. Charlie wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
"I..I'm really sorry." Started Conri. Charlie nodded, the brown haired man flashed him a small smile before leading Bronwyn and James away.
It had been an unusually quiet day for the firefighters, aside from rescuing Lion from a tree, there hadn't been much for them to do.
Sam was at the Fire Station with the other firefighters. They were all getting ready for a training drill when the alarms went off.
Station Officer Steele's voice echoed out of the speakers.
"Sarah Jones has gone missing in the mountains!"
Sam paled, but he pushed his worries away for the sake of performing his duty correctly. He grabbed his quad bike helmet for Mercury.
"Penny and Arnold, you two go in Venus. Elvis and Ellie, you're in Jupiter. I'll take Mercury."
The journey to the Mountain Rescue Centre was short, a painful silence hanging in the air.
Conri found himself pacing the wooden floors whilst he waited for Sam and the team to arrive. Suddenly he heard the sound of vehicles pulling up outside.
"They're here." he said, finally stopping his repetitive walking.
As he said that, the firefighters entered the first floor. Tom turned around from the ScreenMaster 3000. He had pulled up a map of the mountains.
Conri watched as everyone gathered around the large control screen mounted on the wall. He could hear Sam explaining the plan to everyone.
"It's going to be dark soon," said Sam. "We'll need to act fast if we want to find Sarah."
"What do we need to do, Sam?" asked Elvis.
Sam thought for a moment. They needed to cover the mountains quickly, time couldn't be wasted.
"Split up." he started. "There's a lot of ground to cover. Tom, I need you to be our eyes in the sky,"
Tom nodded. "Roger that, Sam."
Sam turned to face the other firefighters.
"Penny and Arnold, you two will cover the West side of the mountain. Elvis and Ellie, you'll go South and I'll head North,"
Conri rose to his paws. "I don't mean to interrupt," he gulped as all eyes turned to him. "But whoever took Sarah isn't going to be hanging around the mountain. They'll be trying to get as far away as possible."
"And how do you know this?" Arnold asked, folding his arms sceptically across his chest.
"It's obvious. Kidnappers are people who naturally flee and run, it comes with the territory I suppose."
"I don't have a clue what he's talking about, Sam." whispered Elvis, though he needn't have bothered trying because Conri could hear him perfectly well.
"He's saying that whoever took Sarah will be far away, Elvis."
"Oh!" gasped Elvis as realisation dawned upon him. "Well why didn't he just say that?"
Sam only shrugged in response, he didn't have an answer to that. He faced Conri once again. "Um.. thank you for that, er.."
"Conri."
"Right. Thank you for that, Conri. But how exactly does that help us?"
"Runners leave tracks." said Conri. Unfortunately for him, he was met with another round of blank stares. He slapped a paw over his eye with a whine. "Okay I'll be straight. I'm a wolf. I can easily track down Sarah and her kidnapper."
Sam nodded. He pondered over this for a minute. "That's not a bad idea, and it would make it a lot easier to find Sarah. Alright then, Conri you can come with me to track down Sarah."
Grinning, Conri's tongue slipped out of his mouth. "Yay!" His tail flicked side to side until it was just a blur.
A few minutes later and Conri was sat on the back of Mercury. He had his front paws wrapped securely around Sam's waist. The ground passed underneath the quad-bike's rapidly spinning wheels.
Sam pulled to a stop, allowing the wolf to hop off.
Sniffing the air, Conri was able to catch two faint scents on the wind. He knew one of them was Sarah, but the other he couldn't tell.
"Have you managed to find it?" asked Sam.
Conri nodded. "It's faint though. We'll need to hurry before it gets lost."
Sam revved Mercury's engine. "Lead the way, Conri."
Lowering his nose to the ground, Conri followed the scent. The pair were led further up the mountains until the town became just a speck in the distance. After following the trail for a few minutes, Conri noticed the scent starting to fade.
Light flakes of snow had started to fall, covering both the ground and the scent.
"No..." whined Conri, flattening his ears against his head. "I've lost it,"
Sam smiled kindly. He leant over, placing a hand on Conri's head. "That's okay. You got us this far."
"But we- wait what was that?"
Voices could be heard not too far away. Sam knelt behind a large boulder. Conri sat next to him, lifting his ears to hear what they were saying.
"Did you complete your mission?"
"Of course I did. Unlike you I don't disappoint our superiors."
"It wasn't my fault that boy escaped all those years ago!"
"You were guarding him that night! You're lucky she's kept you alive after that."
"Will you two be quiet? Do you want to announce your presence to the entire world?"
Peeking out of their hiding place slightly, Conri could see three figures. All of them wore white lab coats, stained with something he hoped wasn't blood.
Shuddering, Conri turned to Sam. "Three people. I don't know who they are but they're talking about a mission."
Sam frowned thoughtfully. "What sort of mission?"
"They didn't say."
Sam nodded. He stared over at the figures. "We need a way.." The man gasped quietly as one of them turned their head, spotting the two.
"Hey!" they yelled. "Get where we can see you!"
"Listen," said Conri. He and Sam cautiously approached them, leaving some space. "We're looking for someone."
"We don't want any trouble." Sam held his hands up in a sign of piece. "We believe a kidnapping has come this way and we need to get past." He showed them his firefighter ID.
One of them took it out of his hand. "Leading Firefighter Jones?" She was a female, Conri realised from the sound of her voice.
A black mask obscured her face, except for two slits for the eyes. There was a strange symbol embedded in it. It looked like a weird mix between a skull and the letter 'A', almost as if someone had blended the two together.
"Oh! A firefighter!" cackled the woman. "The boss will be pleased with us!"
"Uh.. who's your boss, ma'am?" asked Conri, carefully watching the two on either side of the woman. They both looked rather strong and Conri doubted he and Sam would be able to win against them.
He received no reply except for a mad laugh.
"Get them."
Far up on the summit of PontyPandy Mountains, a figure stood on the rocky ledge. She watched the fight unfold before her eyes.
"Hmm," her hands curled around a staff. "Oh that must have hurt." She winced as Sam was tossed into a rock.
The woman sighed. "I really don't want to do this," she slammed her staff into the ground. A bright white light surrounded her aura for a second. In her place stood a black wolf. "But interfering is the only way."
The wolf turned and disappeared into the shadows.