GAME ON - GoM 2

12

Claire tried to reach her phone without waking Ollie up. He slept against her back, and she had no choice but removing his arm around her waist, keeping her tight to him. At least enough to reach out and touch the phone with her fingertips, pushing it to fall on the bed. Ollie grunted and rolled over, as if taking offense at her moving.

She picked up and checked the time. Alex sounded so wide awake, the girl was suddenly afraid she and Ollie had slept in big time. But no, it was eight a.m.

"Hey, kiddo. Woke you up?"

"Never mind. You okay?"

"Yeah. I need you to look into something for me."

Claire rubbed her eyes. "Sure. Shoot."

"I'm pretty sure there are no giant snakes like pitons in the state of Washington. So see if you can find something like that in Grandpa's books."

"Giant snakes."

"Yup. Fat big six-foot-long snakes."

"Alright. Call you back."

"Thanks, kiddo."

Alex disconnected, eyes down on what at first sight looked like a thick branch fallen from a tree. Tom crouched down before it, bow and quiver to his back. And three wolves around him. They'd come to meet him on the way to the spot where he'd found Diane two nights ago.

"They're what's left of the garthling's last pack," Tom explained when they found the animals. "The alpha died last winter—and the garthling with him. That's the new alpha." He signaled a dark gray wolf that watched them talk as if it understood what they were saying. "This one's his sister and the other one is his wife. She's the collared female I followed to Mount Baker last year. We're in good terms now the garthling is gone."

"Oh... Nice family," Alex muttered, staying very still some steps away.

The wolves didn't behave like pets around Tom. They were more like, 'Oh, it's you. Then we won't eat you.'

"Something's bothering them," Tom said.

"You can communicate with them?"

He turned to her, frowning—what? "I've hunted them down for years. I can tell when they're upset. And they wouldn't be so close to town if something up the hill didn't make them nervous."

"Oh. Of course."

"C'mon. We gotta be back in two hours."

As soon as he took a step to resume their way, the wolves preceded them up the steep trail. Alex followed before her survival instinct kicked in and held her back. The wolves took them there, past the spot where Tom had found Diane. The alpha smelled the long thing and stepped back growling. However, none of the wolves even flinched when Tom grabbed his big nasty hunting knife.

He tried the thing with the tip of his knife, and they realized it was no branch. It was a dun crispy scaled skin, like one a snake would left behind. A huge snake.

Tom cut off a small patch of it and wrapped it in his handkerchief, putting it in his pocket. The wolves smelled Tom, moved their heads as if nodding at him and left, disappearing in the woods. Alex raised her eyebrows.

"I think they know I'm gonna do something about this," Tom said.

"Clever things. First we need to know where this came from. Can you tell where we found the dead rabbit last night?"

"Yes. It's on our way back."

They looked at the crispy skin for the last time and headed down toward the Skagit river. They walked down the hill ten minutes, until Tom signaled Alex to stop. He leaned forward, taking an arrow to his bow. She waited, eyes scanning around, until Tom nodded at her to keep going. Soon they found the strangled rabbit, dead on the grass exactly like they'd found it the night before. Tom crouched down, studied the rabbit and looked up and around.

"What is it?" asked Alex.

"The rabbit's been here about twelve hours, and no other animal came to eat it?" he replied. "And listen... No birds around."

Alex paid attention. Tom was right: a surreal silence surrounded them. Tom stood up with a suspicious frown.

"Whatever killed the rabbit, scared all living things away. So much they still don't dare to come anywhere near here." He sniffed the air. "Yet I can't smell anything unusual."

"Meaning?"

Tom shook his head, puzzled. "I don't know."