From The Ashes [#NaNoWriMo16]

Chapter Fifteen - Arlo Ashryn

Arlo was absolutely not okay with his job. Everyone else had great jobs; Ryia and Kida got to see the leader of a freaking rebellion, Issey was with Hallee, and Arlo was left trying to track down the crazy guy who slit Kida's throat and jumped out a building. Why, you ask? Because everyone else sucks, that's why.

"You just watch," he muttered to himself as he stalked down the more-occupied streets of Milos by himself. "I'll be the first to go. Either that, or I'm gonna find him doing something stupid and I'll probably let him go." He paused, remembering an old saying that his father used to tell him before he went crazy himself and started hating everyone. I'quelin Mori'Quessier naa ba Mori'Quessir. And it was true, but in this case, Arlo didn't think that killing the man was going to resolve anything. In fact, it was probably just going to make everything much, much worse than it already was.

He didn't ask around, because he knew people wold become suspicious of why he was looking for someone like that. If he was lucky, maybe they thought he wanted to kill Quin, and would look the other way. But Arlo knew the only way he was going to get Quin back without bringing trouble to himself was if Quin came willingly. While he was acting like this, it was going to be a little bit of an issue. He knew Helio was coming to help him, but ultimately, this guy was way too dangerous to be taken back while he was awake.

"Looking for damage," he mumbled to himself, keeping an eye on both the sky and the ground while he moved. "Looking for signs of crazy. Gotta be somewhere... where are you hiding, 'ksher? Please don't kill me, wherever you are..."

"You are a terrible tracker," a voice suddenly announced from beside him, and Arlo shrieked, stumbling back into a box of crates. He let out a sharp shout of pain as one of the corners of the crates jabbed into his back, and he jumped forward again, breathing hard.

"Don't," he grunted, "ever do that again. And you will tell nobody of this, understand?"

"Understood," Helio replied, an eyebrow raised. "If I were Quin, you would be dead, not humiliated. Count your blessings."

"Lasta lalaithamin," Arlo hissed, making Helio laugh.

"Let us continue before we lose track of him," he said finally, and Arlo frowned.

"But I didn't even find him; we're not even on his track."

"Then you were following him without realising," Helio replied with a small smile, gesturing to the ground in front of him. There were footsteps caked in blood, roughly paced as if the bearer of them was running. Arlo held his hand up, feeling which way the wind was going before bending down, dipping his finger in the blood.

"He was here a few minutes ago," he announced finally. "We're close. We go East, Rhun, from here; he was following the wind."

"I am impressed," Helio laughed, and Arlo rolled his eyes.

"Shut up, spirit," he muttered, but a small, triumphant smile found its way to his lips as they followed Quin's trail down the alleyway they were already standing in.

He couldn't have gotten far; that blood was fresh on the concrete, but not on the foot, meaning Quin must've killed someone about half an hour ago, but only just came this way in the last five minutes. And the thing that told Arlo that this man knew he was being followed was what he saw next.

There was a split path ahead. One heading left, one heading right. The footsteps walked right up to this split, and then went... both ways?

"How by Yzther...?" Arlo murmured, frowning down at the bloody tracks that were fading slightly. There were two pairs of tracks, both the same foot, going both left and right. Arlo glanced up at Helio, slight panic in his eyes.