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Kiernan
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“We are sending the two of you.” King Reece's voice was firm and steady as he looked at me and Javier standing in front of him. We had been summoned to the Queen's office after they had wrapped up a meeting earlier.
“We have been given a general location.” Queen Trinity continued as she explained in more detail. I knew what it was that we were supposed to be doing. And the reason behind it as well.
The King had gone out last night to arrest a group of murderers. I hadn't been part of that group, but I knew about the mission. And I was happy that I was being chosen for this trip. One of the men from last night, one that was not particularly loyal to their family members, told us the approximate location of the cabins that their leaders were staying in. And the two of us needed to narrow it down. The King and the Queen wanted to march on them and take the battle away from the city. They didn't want to be blindsided by an attack that came to their home, and I didn't blame them for that at all. For one thing, all the children of the King and Queen were at the castle. And, furthermore, all of the children of their guards and family members were there as well. It was supposed to be a safe place for them, and a battle happening in the courtyard would not be good for any of them.
Queen Trinity explained the general location and everything that the man, Gustav, had told her about the leaders of the Jaegan. I didn't know much about this family, or group, or whatever they really were. However, I did know that they were the ones that were responsible for killing all those people. All the super naturals that were on the news in this country and around the world. Though the humans didn't know that they were shifters, magic users, vampires and others such as those. They had been murdered, and these people were the ones that did it.
.....
When Javier and I left the castle, I wasn't scared at all. On the contrary, I was excited, happy, and proud. My King and Queen were showing trust in me. They were showing me that they knew that I was loyal to them and could do my job. What more of an honor could a soldier such as me hope for?
As we started off into the mountains about twenty miles out of the city, I could feel that my eyes were practically glowing. That was something that happened often, since I was a feline and my eyes picked up the light so easily, but I knew that this time my bright yellow eyes were glowing because I was excited. And my rusty, reddish brown hair seemed to be standing on end. I knew that this was also from my excitement that was coursing through me. If only Javier, the bear shifter that was accompanying me, was as excited. He seemed nervous and scared from the moment that we left the castle. And he didn't speak at all as we entered the mountains in search of the off the grid cabins.
The location that we were at showed no buildings when you looked at a map, and that meant that these were either new builds, or secret builds. No one would really care if there were cabins out here, and I was sure that this was privately owned property, so they had every right to build these cabins, but it was still unnerving to not know what was out here.
I knew that we were getting close to where we needed to be though. Queen Trinity and King Reece had made us smell the bad men that were in the dungeons. They stank to high heaven. Which I found weird. Why didn't the ones that were working with us smell like that? If they were all from the same family and group of people, shouldn't they smell the same? And I guess there was a lingering sort of odor that clung to them, but it was nowhere near as horrible as it was coming off of the others. It smelled rotten and dead, but they were alive. It just didn't make any sense to me at all.
“Keep a sharp eye on the terrain.” Javier said as we started to get higher into the mountains. “They might have some sort of booby traps out here.”
“I doubt that they will, but don't worry, I will keep an eye out for it.” I saw that he was a lot more wary of these people than I was.
Since we were on the right trail, evident by the smell, I didn't really think that this tracking mission was going to be that hard. We followed the smell further and further into the mountains until we came across a more leveled off section. The two cabins that we found there still had the support stilts that one needed to build on terrain like this, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. And the domiciles were also a lot different than I thought that they were going to be.
These were luxury cabins. They weren't what had come to mind when I heard that we were looking for cabins. Not at all. These places were mansions that were made to look like cabins. And there were two of them that were relatively close together. I was guessing that they were for two different families that were close, yet still wanted to live separately up here in the secluded mountains.
“There. I guess we found those pretty easily.” Javier said as he pointed at the cabins. “We can get back to the castle and tell Queen Trinity what we found.”
“No. We can't go just yet. We're here as recon. We need to look into this a little more.”
“No. We don't need to go any further.” Javier protested as I started toward the houses.
“Then stay the fuck here, you chicken shit asshole.” I turned around and snapped at him. “Either that or use your goddamn nose. This place doesn't just reek of that nasty Jaegan stench. It also reeks of death. And if these people are already dead, then we need to let the King and Queen know about that.” I saw Javier take a deep breath through his nose. He hadn't picked up on the scent like I had.
“You're right.” He seemed to deflate a little as he admitted that, his shoulders drooping and his head hanging low. “We need to look into this place more. We need to give a thorough report.”
“Good.” I snapped at him. “Let's go.”
We searched the outside of the property first, circling it in a manner that kept us out of sight of the windows and still at the advantage should someone make a surprise appearance. Though I didn't think that was likely. I couldn't sense anyone here. No sounds of breathing, footsteps, heartbeats, or anything at all. It was silent here, except for the sounds of Javier and I walking through the rocky terrain.
We found the source of that smell, the one that smelled like death. And it was a grouping of dead bodies that had been unceremoniously thrown into a ravine behind those mansion-like cabins. They looked like they had been there for a few weeks at the very least. And worst of all, those bodies were human.
“Aren't those assholes supposed to be all for saving the human race or whatnot?” I asked Javier as we looked at the bodies. There appeared to be two families there. Two middle aged men with slightly graying hair and lined faces, two beautiful women that were in their early forties, and six teenagers ranging in age from maybe thirteen to nineteen. Two families were here on vacation and murdered by these assholes.
“Yeah, they're supposed to be.” Javier said as he shook his head at the senseless loss of life. “Come on, let's confirm that the houses are empty.”
We knew that they were, so we each searched one house at a time. This was to be more efficient with our time. And, of course, we had been right all along. The houses were empty. Not a single person was in there, but that stench was very thick and strong inside of the homes. They have been here, and recently too.
“There are a lot of trails that are nearby.” Javier said as he looked around the immediate area. “Do you think that they have more cabins somewhere else? Did they change locations because they were discovered or something?”
“I don't know?” I sniffed the various trails, looking for the freshest of them all. “This trail smells strange.” I pointed at the one that was the strongest. “I can smell the people moving in this direction, but it doesn't seem to me like they were all walking on the ground. It.. it's almost as if they were carrying some of them on their shoulders or something. Some of the scents are higher in the air. And that just doesn't make sense to me. Are these leaders so pretentious that they can't walk on their own?” I just knew that something was wrong with this scenario.
“I don't know. This whole group is weird.” Javier shook his head. “Let's follow after them. We need to see where they went.” We started down the path that these people took.
We were moving slowly as we followed the trail. It was wide and so spread out that we weren't really sure if they were moving off in different groups or not. It didn't matter though, all of the groups seemed to be moving in the same general direction. Still, we had to keep checking to make sure that they hadn't circled back to hide their trail.
“Does this seem familiar to you?” Javier asked as we followed the trail over a ridge.
“Yeah, it does.” The area that we were in was not where we had started the search in, nor had we walked in a circle, so I knew that we hadn't been to this place already tonight, but I had definitely been here. Why did it look so familiar? Where were we right now?
I straightened up and looked around where we were. I saw the trees, the way that the mountains were shaped, all of it. And that was when I knew where we were. We were just outside of the city, and we were approaching the castle. They were heading into Colorado Springs, and they were going to attack.
“I need to call the Queen right now. I need to tell her what is going on right now.” I immediately opened the connection between our minds, that link that we all had to her. And I spoke frantically out loud as I sent the message to her telepathically. “Queen Trinity!?”
