Looking To Belong (A Runt's Story)

Chapter 25

The black-haired lady paused once more to carefully inspect the surrounding forest before bending down to pick a mushroom. I should have guessed that Will would have managed to find actual fighters to accompany me. The black-haired lady was quiet and reserved, and her stance practically screamed that she was a strong fighter. She was the distant type that made me somewhat uneasy. Had I seen her when I was a rogue, I would have hidden so she would have had no chance of even realizing that I had been in the area.

The brown-haired lady was more relaxed and easy going; she seemed amused to be picking mushrooms. Her slight limp wasn't bad enough to keep her from the training sessions. It looks like the overprotective mate bond once more took Will for a loop around the block.

I trotted through the area between them with my nose near the ground as I tried to find the scent of a deeply buried truffle. Being out of truffle season, I wasn't sure if I could find another of the rare and coveted objects. I was trying though. I was also keeping an eye on my two guards in disguise. They had obviously never picked mushrooms before. I ended up showing them how to identify some of the common ones, and they were just picking those ones.

I mindlinked the brown haired-lady, although I let the other lady listen in, "That looks just like the one I showed you earlier, but it is actually an uncommon poisonous lookalike. If it grows at the bottom of a pine, you can generally assume that type is inedible. I wasn't aware that they grew in this area or I would have mentioned it."

She turned the mushroom over in her hand as she examined it. Her voice was curious. "I don't see any differences in appearance. Is it just caution speaking or are you sure it is toxic?"

I trotted over to where it had been growing and dug up the small base from the leaf litter. I said, "See the pink tinge? That is a sure sign it is toxic if trying to differentiate between these two. The toxic one also only grows on pine roots. I have enough practice to tell at a glance."

She looked at the base I had dug up before nodding and dropping the mushroom that was guaranteed to give the consumer a nasty stomach ache. I didn't bother mentioning that my Omega abilities had tipped me off. I still had my people and emotion sensing abilities shielded, but I could use the others. My headache was still present, although it had, thankfully, eased up.

Neither lady had provided their names when Will had led me to them. I scooted under a bramble bush to drag out a large orange-capped mushroom and brought it closer to the black-haired lady since she was the nearest one at the moment. She put it in her basket.

We slowly made our way through the forest. The two ladies would pick paths within eyesight of each other, and I would zigzag through the area between them as I dragged back hard to reach mushrooms and kept my nose on alert for the faint earthy scent of a truffle. They were gathering quite a haul of mushrooms.

I paused to lift my head and sniff before jumping onto a log to look around, informing them, "I am picking up the scent of a bear, although I am not sure which direction the scent is coming from."

Both ladies took sniffs of the air. The brown-haired lady spoke, "I don't smell anything, but that may be because I am in human form."

The black-haired lady narrowed her eyes before shifting into a sleek black wolf and darting off into the undergrowth. I resumed my search while remaining alert. A minute later, I heard vicious snarls quite some distance away. I glanced at the brown-haired lady who was looking in that direction.

She saw me watching her and explained, "Well, there was a black bear. She is chasing it away."

I nodded and went to pull another big mushroom out from under a bramble bush. A while later, the black wolf trotted back and shifted. Looking at me intently, the lady asked, "Just how did you scent a bear from that kind of distance while you were upwind?"