Kael stood at the edge of the clearing again, the wolf mother's body now buried, but her scent still hung in the air, faint, like a memory. The light was dim beneath the trees, but Kael's sharp eyes missed nothing.
Rael was less focused.
"Are we really doing this?" Rael muttered, kicking a rock with his boot. "She is dead, Kael, and this is creepy."
Kael did not even look at him. "Dax told you to come."
Rael sighed. "Yeah, yeah. That does not mean I want to be here. I am not a corpse detective."
Kael crouched near the dead mother wolf, examining her body closely. He ran his fingers across her fur, nose twitching as he picked up scents: blood, leaves, dirt, and something else. Faint. Burnt.
That is when he saw it, a cut, a deep one in her fur, but it was cut purposely, like it is meant to serve as a storage.
"Help me deep your fingers into here," Kael said.
Rael hesitated. "That is… her… What if I touch her intestines?"
Kael's gaze snapped to him. "You are scared?"
