The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 125

Madison POV

We had finished our meal and Zakary was still negative about my ability to replace their kind when they cloak their scent, and Ezekiel suggested a test.

So here I am sitting in the dining area waiting for the word, so I can go look for him.

He said to give him ten minutes to start off, and I knew he could get a fair distance in that time, and he wondered if he would actually run off or try and hide in a tree.

Now that I was over the initial annoyance that they had an actual wager on my ability, I was looking forward to replaceing him.

When the time is up, I will follow my nose and see if I can track him down.

I have two hours to replace him, and I hope I can replace him fast.

We have to get back to the packhouse before the Elders arrive, and though I reminded Ezekiel of this, Zakary thought I was trying to back out of the test, and so here I am waiting for my time to be up.

My phone dinged, signifying the ten minutes were up.

Ezekiel looked up at the papers he was reading and nodded.

Alex was there too, he smiled softly at me, and somehow that made me feel good, as if that smile said you got this.

I stood up and got Sky to get her nose on it, we got a test to win, and I was going to start sniffing him out in the dining hall.

It was easy at first. He had gone directly out the door, no doubling back or anything that I would have expected, then outside, he had done a lot of double tracking, but I was good. I followed the freshest smell. I did not bother with the double backs. I could tell which smell was new and which ones were even a minute older, I don’t know how, I just did, and I could smell him clearly, and wondered why he had not masked his scent, as I presumed he would.

I followed through the woods, over logs, reached a tree he had climbed and looked up, but as I was looking up to see if I could see him in the foliage, the wind shifted and his scent came from further down. It seemed he had jumped branch to branch, and that style I had seen before and was easy to follow for me.

I followed the close branches, seeing some leaves broken here, or a nearby small twig broken there, and followed the easiest trail I had ever seen, and wondered if he had set this trail up as a dummy one.

But the wind kept telling me I was headed straight for him. I found where he had landed, after leaving the trees, and then across the stream, his foot prints hidden very well. I would give him that. He was good once on the ground, but terrible in the trees. More careless, not avoiding breaking leaves.

He was hiding under a prickly bush, one I would not want to hide in, it must be jabbing into him as I could smell fresh b***d.

‘Come out from under that prickly bush, Zakary, it must be causing you some discomfort.’ I called, and he g*****d as he wiggled his way out from under the bush.

‘One hour and five minutes, that is amazing. I have scouts that never replace me, and a few that replace me just as the time is up. How did you do it so quickly?’ Zakary asked, his eyes sparkling with new-found respect.

‘Why, Zakary, I cannot answer that, how will I replace you next time if I give you all my secrets.’ I said laughingly, and we walked back to the cave entrance together, him praising my tracking skills and my saying it was nothing, though he did not have a bar of that, I was in deed the best tracker he has ever met.

I nearly missed a step, when he told me his own scent had been masked from the time he left the caves, not bothering to hide it before hand, and I had followed it to him with no trouble at all. I had found Anton with no trouble and I did not believe Zane, when he said he smelt nothing, I thought maybe he was just not really paying attention at the time and missed it, and yet here I did it again, and I found him with ease.

Thank you, mum, for your wonderful gift. I will never take it for granted again, I say to the wind in my mind, glancing up to the sky, where I always thought my mother was watching over me.

Ezekiel was waiting at the cave entrance, along with Anton and Alex and a few others.

They started to clap as we arrived. I blushed at the congratulations about something I did not think needed applauding, they patted me on my back and told me I was the best tracker around and I saw Zakary hand something over to Ezekiel, though I did not see what it was.