The colors swam before my eyes. The faster I sped up, the more the strange shades of the local forest blended into a single emerald canvas. The evening's cold tones hadn't fully taken over yet, but by the time Denis and I returned to the hotel grounds, the sun would have set completely.
"Come on," Denis huffed, "slow down. We're not running a sprint."
"Why not?" I winked at my friend, who was falling behind, and sped up even more, even though the gravel underfoot was already making my soles hum, and my calves were starting to cramp. I wanted to get the most out of my last training session before the temporary lull. I aimed to push myself to the limit and find out where my boundaries were. It seemed like just recently I could barely keep up with Denis while running, and now I was enjoying realizing how much more stamina I had gained.
When the main road that led directly to our building appeared, I noticed a narrow forest path to the side and veered onto it. Behind me, I heard a groan:
"Oh, Asya," Denis stretched out, but I was already too far ahead.
I silently counted from one to eight and kept running. The branches of the trees hit my skin painfully, forcing me to slow down, but this small obstacle only fueled my excitement even more. The trail was becoming wilder, and the terrain underfoot was far more pleasant than the gravel. I felt every root and every crushed pine cone beneath my feet and savored the brief sensations that chased away my anxious thoughts about the upcoming week at the spa complex. The trail wound around, taking me further into the thicket. It led me past meadows overgrown with damp ferns and bushes with dark, elongated berries, which I could have sworn were best left untouched.
Through the forest's thicket, I saw the familiar gap—a way out to the road. I sped up again, not looking at the ground, and unfortunately tripped over a root sticking out of the ground, but I managed to react quickly and fell onto my outstretched hands.
"Phew," I exhaled loudly, and my lips spread into a satisfied smile. "Look, Denis! I did it!" I exclaimed proudly, but in response, there was silence.
"Denis?"
"He didn't follow you on the trail," Kaandor answered instead of my friend, casually leaning against a nearby pine tree and looking down at me with an evaluating gaze.
"Couldn't you have said that earlier?" I got up and started brushing my hands off, wiping away the dirt and pine needles.
"You didn't ask," the spirit said nonchalantly, as if we had an unspoken rule to only share information upon request.
"I don't ask about many things, yet you never hesitated to comment on my choice of clothing or a phrase or two overheard by chance."
"Being attentive to your surroundings is a useful skill for a young werewolf."
"I already have it."
"Oh, really?"
I started deliberately inspecting my hands, avoiding making eye contact with Kaandor.
"Yes!" I blurted out, trying to suppress my irritation.
"In that case, tell me: what does it smell like here?"
"The forest."
"More specifically?"
We had played this game with Kaandor before. Knowing perfectly well that ignoring the spirit would be a costly mistake, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath through my nostrils, then tried to mentally separate the notes and undertones of the smells that filled the forest.
Each plant had its own scent. Some naturally smelled strong, while others could only be detected by getting closer. Kaandor was clearly hoping to hear something specific, unusual, or noteworthy, something that I should have paid attention to, but I didn't notice anything. The fresh pine scent mixed with the sharpness of wildflower pollen, with a bitter aroma of cedar seeds still far from harvest. There was nothing that stood out, so I began listing what I could detect, hoping to please my dark companion:
"Pine, cedar, and all kinds of wildflowers."
Kaandor raised an eyebrow.
"You say wildflowers?"
There was the hint. I began to sift through the aromas, trying to find a needle in a haystack. To find something that would satisfy Kaandor. To find that one flower among all the smells.
The problem was that I knew very little about plants and had more of a general idea of how a forest meadow smelled. I didn't pick out specific components, nor had I ever thought about what scents filled the air in, say, flower shops. I knew well how roses or wild roses smelled, the kind that grew in abundance in Kserton's courtyards. Finding a particular scent in the sea of aromas—one that should stand out even though you don't really know it—was an impossible task, even when your sense of smell is particularly sharp and developed. And besides, to me, the real skill was in ignoring scents and switching to other senses. After all, I loved to cook, but in the early days after my transformation, Kostya took care of the house chores because I simply couldn't get close to spices, let alone meat products. If the scent of spices made my nostrils tingle uncomfortably and made me sneeze, then sausages and all kinds of fillets smelled like decay and death, causing my stomach to tighten into a hard knot, which didn't exactly help my appetite.
"I understand what you're expecting from me, but unfortunately, to spot the differences, you first have to know them in general. You need to sniff around, understand what each flower smells like, and especially—what it's called."
Kaandor sighed wearily and rolled his eyes.
"How do you think knowledge and skills were acquired in the past? Did they look it up in a guidebook?"
"That would have been nice."
"I'm not going to hold your hand and introduce you to each flower with a bow."
"You should," I leaned down and started massaging my calves to release the muscle tension. "It would be worth it."
Kaandor remained silent for a moment, ignoring what I said. I could have assumed he was picking out more convincing words to persuade me to study in the way that suited him best, but if there's one thing I've learned in the past few months, it's that Kaandor always does things his own way and expects the same worldview from others, and also—he never holds back on his expressions.
"It's so easy to catch you off guard," the spirit remarked, and before I could even frown, someone suddenly grabbed me around the waist from behind and threw me into the air, lifting my feet off the ground.
"Aah!" A shout rang out near my ear, and to my shame, I screamed instead of defending myself. The edge of a red plaid shirt flashed before my eyes, and my heart dropped in fear.
No, this couldn't be. Both Galina and her accomplice were dead.