Zodiac Story

Take Up This Terracotta Armour, For The Hunt Begins Part 4

Evening fell over the valley quickly. Caleb managed to acquire the needed supplies, while making the cashier at the local sports store uncomfortable with frequent forays into the topic of human decomposition. Jenny sighed as her brother recounted the tale to her.

"I feel bad for Vincent," she stated to Willa at the bar later that day.

"I feel worse for Caleb." Willa drank her beer.

Clara explained the situation to Miguel and Nina and made them promise to keep safe and to listen to what she told them. Both of them took a liking to Hina, and soon pestered her with many questions.

"Where's Japan? Is it nice there? Why are you here? Why are you tall?" Miguel asked.

"How old are you? Can we play games on your phone? Do you want to play tag?" Nina asked.

Hina took it upon herself to enjoy the pleasures of staying at the hotel, from tasting the food served in the dining room to cuddling Willa's tail. Liza filmed the exchange where Willa had to force the girl off of snuggling with her admittedly fluffy tail. She refused to delete it, even after Willa turned into a dog and nipped at her heels in annoyance.

Most of the traps were set up far from the townsite so that no one was injured. Liza still had to calm down and attend to a middle aged man who managed to entangle himself in one of Jenny's handmade snares.

"Almost there—hyah!" Liza yelled as the man fell face first into a spare mattress provided by Willa. "You alright there?"

The man nodded.

"Good enough!" Liza swung down from the pine tree.

Jenny reset the trap, after relocating to a more remote location. Willa assisted with the preparations, and training Caleb and Liza on how to use the collars on medium sized rocks on the beach. She tinkered with the collars and the discus on her own time. Most of them were metallic in texture and scent, and all of them were engraved with the Chinese character for dog. In total, she had thirty-three collars and one discus. The wrong scent still remained in the remote trails and in the townsite, and Willa knew that the darkness lingered too long underneath the pine scented mountains. The scent of rope and Jenny's calloused hands smelling of summer leaves and home grounded Willa to Waterton.

"You're still thinking about your visions?" Jenny asked.

Willa nodded.

"I'm sure there's an answer to them, out there in the world. Whatever it is, I don't think you can find it by staying here." Jenny finished up the knot she was tying.

What was her purpose in all of this? Willa never imagined herself at the centre of anything other than a quiet, mundane life in Pincher Creek, growing old with her sisters and Jenny. Something gnawed at her spleen. This was supposed to be her life.

"That's what you want?"

Another vision. Not now, she thought.

A slivered moon cast its glow on the land below. Willa didn't notice the change, except that the wrong scent had intensified. She and Liza were alone in the woods, the leaves rustling softly. Willa's ears pricked up with the sound of the whistling wind. Flipping open the amulet, she watched the comforting beeping of the radar dots. Behind her, Liza's mark blinked in tandem with her dot on the radar. Clara broke out her spare makeup kit, but despite the egregious application of foundation, the marks shone through the layers. The marks weren't distracting in the dark, only a slightly brighter point of light. Willa closed her eyes and concentrated on the sounds and scents of the forest. The grazing big horned sheep, the buzzing sounds of horseflies, the chirps of the grasshopper—that.