Chapter 282

Following I started to note that there were only two distinctive scents, one I knew was Oakley the other, I hadn’t found on any trail that Lux had shown me, “Marlon, whose scent is that?” I asked, the woodsy area smelling more fruity than it should, “oh – that – you remember my daughter mentioning Kieran? Well that’s him, he is a young man, fifteen years old, but he hasn’t shifted back to his human form for nearly three years,” doesn’t belong to the pack, can’t hear him, after forty minutes following Oakley’s scent the rain had washed away the faintest traces. “Would she have continued going?” I asked out loud – the rain pouring – when we stopped. The terrain became troubling, fallen trees, trapped falls, and unsafe land, I nearly fell and Oakley – her scent was gone, but the fruity one still thick despite rain. “This is the only place we found her scent, it’s not leading us anywhere, the rain – maybe that has her trapped higher up-” Marlon said sniffing. Chelsea… a male voice called out to me, anxious and uncertain, she fell – blood “Chelsea?” Gabriel asked as I stiffened, Kieran? I responded to the voice, ignoring Gabriel. Where – are you with Oakley? Talking. Smells good. Leaving mountain, fell, hit head, no more talking, no moving, I close my eyes as images of Oakley hit me, ‘you don’t have to follow me down Kieran,’ he thought. He howled, tried getting in front of her, noting the rain falling, knowing that it would be trickery for Oakley to head back, but she sidestepped him continuing. “She’s with Kieran, she fell,” Gabriel told them, reading my thoughts and the ones Kieran was sending me, ‘Chelsea can read the minds of everyone...’ Oakley told him. The rain rainfall increased, more than just drizzle and Oakley’s foot slipped on a rock, falling in an incline, rolling down, and dislodging a large rock that fell on her leg after. “He heard her head hit the ground hard and there’s a rock trapped on her right ankle,” Gabriel told them, explaining an echoing set of howls silencing him. “That was Kieran,” I said my eyes snapping open, as Marlon gaped at me in shock, she’s progressed he thought to himself, she can hear Kieran. “Lux can you tell where she is?” I asked sending him the same images that Kieran sent me. Don’t touch, hurt more, Kieran thought, followed by more howling, “I don’t think he wants to move her, incase he makes it worse,” I explained and that was all I needed to say before Lux turned climbing in the direction we were headed, up, the rain changing the forest floor, slowly Gabriel and I slipping as we follow Lux, the howls Kieran releases become closer until I spot a wolf, head thrown back, mid howl. Interrupted by a low curse from Lux, as we carefully climb towards the incline peering over to see what Lux has found, below us, I see that nearly eight feet down, Oakley is face up, with mountainous rock covering one of her legs. Help, Kieran howls. Even in the dark I can see the pool of blood, two of them, a small one near Oakley’s head, another where the great boulder has her foot trapped, her heart beating slower than normal. Jack? Yes, he responds quickly, I need you to get sedatives and bring them here quickly, I followed that up by giving him snapshots of the path we took, knowing it would help along with our scent, “Gabriel you and Chelsea get long thick pieces of wood, so we can secure her leg, and find vines, or fern and braid them so we can stop the bleeding up at her thigh,” Lux instructed as Marlon peered from side to side, Kieran growled, flicking his head towards the left, going out of sight around the corner of the mountain, but reappearing below in the small space below, “I can get in that way?” Yes. Yes, Kieran yelped, as he thought the words. Moving quickly, Gabriel and I went back, finding pieces of tree bark, and then vines to twist and braid working hurriedly. “Damn it,” Marlon’s voice echoes up from the small space between the walls, “she’s too cold, how long has she been here?” I know he’s asking Kieran but I’m not sure how he expects the non-talking wolf something dealing with time? Right? She was leaving right when it began drizzling, still light out, he thinks surprisingly, helpful. I think back to when it began drizzling, “It’s been two hours, nearly three she left when it was lightly raining,” I answered from the spot next to Gabriel. “Jack is on his way up here bringing sedatives because once we move that rock,” the rain making everything worse right about now, “I’ll go back,” Violet offered and started her descent before I agreed. After doing as Lux instructed we went back staying off the edge in case it were to fall, trampling Oakley more than before. In that spot I began listening to the thoughts of Lux, Marlon and Jack, wondering what the next step would be, “It’s good that he’s coming, we need the strength to lift the boulder off her foot,” she’s a wolf, hasn’t shifted though, Marlon didn’t finish out loud. Both he and Lux, thinking while trying to hide it; toxins, fatal blood loss, check for crush syndrome, damaged tissue, listening but not interrupting I glance back down seeing a sack, sandals, one near her head the other half underneath her torso. Should have stay with me, didn’t stay, Kieran thought, an almost possessive overtone in all his thoughts concerning Oakley. “She has a lot of swelling on her belly Chelsea, and bruising on the left side of her torso, throw me down the twine you braided.” Doing as he asked I remained silent lost in my own thoughts, for a intelligent as Oakley appeared, I couldn’t understand what she thought she was doing by coming all the way up here without telling anyone? Is this how she did things back in Middleburg, going off on her own, and in the end she just became forgotten? I mean how long would she have been here, had we not realized where she was because of Kieran? But I think what saddened me the most was that Oakley didn’t reach out for help. She told Kieran that I could hear the thoughts of everyone and I know she must have been panicked as she fell but she didn’t call me. Did she even call out to anyone? It was a relatively small island, but her voice could have traveled down, we had great sense of hearing and smell. The dread that filled my stomach, was rivaling the scent of her blood traveling up to me, “Chelsea…” Gabriel said near me, “she’s not use to people caring, I don’t think she would call even Grant and Julia and they obviously care a great deal about her,” he whispered but I felt uneasy. Then I noticed, on the outside Lux and Marlon kept their cool, their minds were frantic running over complications for the longest almost hour of my life, until Jack appeared, Nonno, Casey and Violet in toe. Under Nonno’s arms a stretcher, a large duffel bag across Jack’s chest, “We brought supplies,” Casey said following Jack, disappearing and reappearing below with Lux and Marlon, the three moving quickly, Jack working under the rain, placed an IV and I could tell he had brought my blood with him, once that was done, the men lifted the boulder off of Oakley’s leg and ankle, exposing her mangled leg, the loudest reaction coming from Kieran but the confusion in his head just as loud.