Chapter 53: Fifty-three.

"Damn it!" Colt swore, as she inspected the cut on the palm of her hand with an exasperated sigh.

She had tripped on the unexpected root of an annoyingly over grown rosewood tree, and landed with a thud, slicing her hand on a thorn.in the undergrowth as she did so.

Her mind was clearly still elsewhere, in Georgia, no doubt, where a certain broody wolf was likely to be. She was still constantly over thinking everything that happened a fortnight ago, when her soul mate tried to kill her in a fit of rage. She couldn't help it, the tears started to fall down her cheeks as she let out an anguished scream.

Why did everything have to be so messed up right now, when she was finally close to getting all she had ever wanted, the ability to shift. She didn't even particularly care which animal she would shift into, wolf or wildcat. It didn't matter to Colt, all that counted was the chance for her to feel whole.

It wasn't helping that she had to trek through the rainforest on her own. For the shaman to agree to see her, she had to come alone to the designated meeting place, and without any electrical devices. So, all Colt could do was trudge on in the sticky humid air, sweaty and with only her own disastrous thoughts for company, and to top it off now she was bleeding, and likely to pick up a stupid, and easily avoidable infection because of it.

Colt pushed herself up and sat with her back against the main body of the tree, then she reached in her pack for the small bottle of iodine, her father had insisted she take with her, because it would dry out and prevent wound infections, apparently. He had wanted to come along as well, but it had been stressed vehemently enough, that as this was a personal transition Colt had to have no distractions from other entities. Which of course Elijah, who also wished to acompany her, had kicked up another fuss about. He even went so far as to book himself onto the same flight behind her back. Colt only discovering his presence after they were seated together.

There had only been one night in the hotel before Colt set off, neither of them discussing the events at the ranch, and in the end she had to leave things on a very sour note, sneaking out in the middle of the night to begin her trek. Leaving only a note for Elijah when he awoke, apologising for disappearing and reaffirming she would come home as soon as she could.

Thus, with how mixed up her head was over her mate, Colt already felt like she was failing, at her personal journey.

Colt stood up in the thick undergrowth with a sigh, leaning on the tree for support. But, then she froze shuddering, on the tree beside her, less than a foot from where she had placed her hand was a large five inch long Brazilian wandering spider. She had studied fastidiously about the different creatures that called the amazon home for her trek, and this one she had hoped to avoid. It was also known as a banana spider, due to it's affinity for travelling across the globe in fruit crates. The devil would be highly poisonous, and was known to be aggressive as well, a bite could kill a human in twenty five minutes, and although she was a shifter, with a stronger healing ability than humans, it wasn't something that had been tested on venomous spiders. Being that she was on her own, in the middle of the rainforest with no back up, now probably wasn't the time for such an experiment.

The arachnid was standing aggressively with it's front four legs standing upright in the air signaling it was about to attack and sink it's large poisoned fangs into the back of Colt's hand.

Thankfully, though she was a shifter and could move pretty quickly herself. Unlatching her knife from it's holder in her belt, she picked it up silently with her free hand, her eyes never leaving the angry looking arachnid. Before it could strike, she did. Pulling her hand off the tree while simultaneously plunging her blade through the creature in one swift move, impaling it on the end of her knife with a horrid squelching noise that seemed to echo throughout the jungle.

Taking a deep breath, she removed the large bug from her knife, by rubbing it against a tree to push it back down and off the blade.

"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross." she mumbled under her breath, shivering in disgust. "I hate spiders." she said shuddering.

Putting her knife back, she continued on her way, the stark reality of her situation pulling her mind swiftly back to the present and away from Elijah Lupus and his uncontrollable temper tantrums. It had to stop, she had to leave him behind for now and focus upon the here and now, because if she didn't, she might not make it home to him at all.

Colt continued her trek into the rainforest, she couldn't help but admire the wildness of the place, and despite the noise, because it definately wasn't quiet, especially to her advanced hearing, there was a peacefulness about being here. She was in awe of the wildlife, from the spectacular array of butterflies she had seen so far on her trip, to the colonies of different monkey species she had passed underneath. Her favourite being the tamarins with their long moustaches, making her long to see them with a top hat and monocle, just for the frivolity of it.

The amazon basin was more than she had ever imagined it would be. It was both hot and wet, beautiful and deadly. It felt as though she were trekking through a contradiction in it's uniqueness, and despite the noise of which there was a lot, she had never felt such peace. Being so submerged in nature agrees with her. Except the spiders, she had seen enough tarantulas to last a life time now.

Colt had to make camp soon, it was getting late and soon the temperature would drop giving need of a fire. She could hear the flow of water not too far from her current location, and decided to head towards it, in the hope of maybe being able to catch a fish for her dinner, as well as finding a small clearing to set up a quick shelter for the night.

When she arrived, she began to walk upstream quietly noticing with satisfaction that the tributary to the main river she was following was clear, which meant it would be more pleasant to drink once she had purified it, and even better it meant she could clearly make out the fish under the surface. Tonight she would have some protein on top of the fruits and nuts she had scavenged earlier.

Once she found what she decided was the best spot to set up camp, she quickly built a little fire with the dried tinder she had been keeping in her back pack, she collectedsome every morningand stored it, so it would remain dry or dry off for the evening. Then she began to erect her shelter. Unfolding the tarp she kept in her backpack she tied it up, making sure to keep it at a slight incline so any rain that fell wouldn't collapse it on top of her as she slept. She added more wood to her fire, then she quickly collected more, before taking the small hand woven, fish basket trap she created six nights ago to the water's edge, thanking her lucky stars she hadn't landed on it earlier when she fell.

Colt stood silently, listening to the sounds around her and watching the little fish. She studied their habits, where they swam to if something spooked them, and where the fish then congregated afterwards. Deciding to gently lower her trap in between the two areas, to up her chances of catching some. It was a simple design, made up of two funnel shaped baskets woven out of the very materials she had found in the forest. The smaller one had a hole in the top and was inserted into the larger, creating a tunnel that looked like somewhere safe to the fish. Except they couldn't seem to find the hole to swim back out, and thus an hour later Colt was roasting four fish over her fire. While returning the trap to the water for breakfast. She wasn't entirely sure what type of fish they were, but by the looks of their teeth, she did not want to be in the water with them at all.

Later, she lay herself down under her tarpaulin sheet with a comfortably full stomach and ignored the little bites and nips caused be the smaller insect life around. They didn't seem to make a bug spray strong enough to ward them all off,so there was always something nibbling on her somewhere. As she had done every night previous, she tossed and turned thinking about Elijah. She felt so guilty about leaving him in that hotel room. But he gave her no choice, he agreed she had to do this but was refusing to allow her to go alone like she needed to, leaving her with truly no choice at all which in turn left her more than a bit pissed.

Eventually she drifted off to sleep, if only it could have been a deep one then she might have felt well rested the following day. Unfortunately, with the night came even more sounds of the rainforest, playing her music as loudly as possible for all to hear, and that did include the rain battering down around her as the night came to life. The rain hammered on everything it came into contact with, and the only saving grace of the whole situation was that with Colt being so alert and on edge all night, there would be little to no predators who would be able to sneak up on her.

But, when morning finally came she was officially exhausted. Colt dragged herself up and over to the fish basket, thankful for being able to at least start the day on a full stomach. After collecting and cooking her catch, she enjoyed her breakfast thoroughly, and decided that she could afford half an hour to meditate and find her centre before moving on.

It was during this half an hour which she felt another presence close by, and it was watching her. She continued to focus on her breathing as she listened to who ever or whatever it was, who's attention she had garnered. It was silent, and still. Giving in, Colt calmly opened her eyes to see who it was watching her, and keeping her company. The presence itself hadn't felt threatening in the slightest, but still she was half feline and her curiosity was beginning to win out on her.

Colt's face lit up in a smile, delighted with what she saw, as there sat in a tree not fifteen foot from her was a small pygmy two toed sloth. It's huge eyes watching her in fascination.

"Hello." Colt said, delighted at having a brilliant tale for Nora, when she got home.

The sloth didn't reply, but instead hung patiently from the tree as it watched her.

Colt approached the animal slowly, but still the creature didn't budge, keeping its huge curious eyes upon her.

"You are very cute." She smiled again, tilting her head to study her new friend.

The sloth reached out a long arm towards her curiously, and when she reached back and they made contact the animal let go of the tree with both fore limbs and clung to Colt instead, following momentarily with its hind legs as well.

"Well aren't you sweet." Colt cooed, enjoying the contact with another living being that wasn't going to kill her or be eaten by her, as she caught the animal to stop it hitting the ground.

It didn't take long before the sloth's curiosity was sated and it reached back to attempt to grab hold of the tree. Colt maneuvered the animal helpfully and soon it began to traverse it's way back up and into the canopy. She watched it climb until she couldn't make the animal out anymore, which took quite some time, then feeling invigorated from the experience she packed up her small camp and carried on her way.