"What do you smell?"
A young man asked while looking at his phone's time. He was sitting on a three branch looking at the damaged area of what looked to be a fight that seemed to happened. He was dressed in ripped jeans with a blank black shirt that was exposed by his open jacket. He had a single loop earing on his left ear with a visible cut on his eyebrow. His lifeless blue eyes looked down at his partner who was on her hands and knees smelling the ground.
"It's faint, but there was a struggle." The girl said as she continued to smell. " 4 woman. One Beast-warror, An oni, One unknown and the other..." She trailed off as she took a deeper intake of the residual energy. Her eyes opened wide as she stood straight up rubbing her nose.
"It was her. It was the Silver Fox and the dog. They seemed to be fighting the Beast warrior." Her spoke as she turned her head towards a tree. Without thinking she went over to the tree and smelled the scent from it. "Yes..the Oni was here. But...." She trailed off again as she continued to smell the tree.
The young man looked down at his stopped partner as her head bobbed up and down as she took in more of the scent. He watched as her short bob like her bleed into her fur as her arms began to become elongated. Her mouth soon became snot like as her lips became black. Her clothes began to stretch and tear as went into her true form.
"But what?" He asked raising his cut eyebrow out of curiosity. His eyes followed her as she moved towards another tree.
A long yawn left the mouth of a ghostly figure as they floated next to the boy out of his peripheral. "Can you be any more slower. What did you find another dog smell?" He said looking at the dirt under his fingers.
"Piss off, Ban." The girl bellowed at the ghostly figure as she turned back revealing her fangs to him.
"Someone's mad that I'm right." Ban smugly said as he rubbed his hand against his revealed chest. "Maybe if you controlled that temper, then you could find that other dog. And maybe practice your doggie-"
"That is enough Ban," The boy said going annoyed of their back and forth. He pushed most of his hair off of the shaved part of his hand. He cleared his throat before addressing the now much larger girl in front of him."What going on, Ma'ii?"
The creature looked towards her partner and lowered her head. She had a confused look in her eyes as if second guess. She then looked up at him with determined eyes. " There's another scent."
Both Ban and the young man looked at her with puzzled looks for a moment. Her partners eyes narrowed as he looked her in the eyes without a show of fear for her size, but straight curiosity.
"Are you sure?"
"It's more faint then the others, or covered to be perceived. But I'm certain." She told him in a deep barely female voice. "It was blended with the Oni. It seems like Silver Fox was trying to cover it up with their and the Dogs own." She explained.
"Do you think it could be.." Ban asked before the young man raised a hand up stopping him.
Ban could see the gears in his partner's head began to turn as he looked back down at Ma'ii."
"Do you think it's the same one from the cave?" He asked her.
"If your referring to that male one, then yes. It's very similar." She confirmed.
"Interesting," He began to ponder. He pushed himself forward allowing gravity to bring him down to the forest floor. The jingle of the chain on his wallet filled the area as he raised up. He zipped up his as he made his way to his female Demi-partner.
"My word. So the rumors are true?" Ban asked in disbelief. "Do you know what this means Derrick?!
"Nothing at the moment." Derrick calmly told his ghostly demi-human while he rubbed Ma'ii warm fur. "For all we know this could have been a random boy with them. So we do what comes next."
"Which is?" Ban asked folding his hands as he looked at the "X" on the back of his master's jacket. A small smile began to form.
"We go scope out the pieces we have, and see if it will take us back to the hive." Derrick said looking back at Ban with a smile.
"And then?" Ma'ii asked with excitement. Drool began to lick from her mouth as she thought about fighting Elizabeth's Dog.
"Patience." Derrick said scratching under her chin. "We can't spoil the fun until we get to that point." He said as he reached into his pocket and pulling out a single cigarette. Fire danced on the tip of his finger as he lit the stick and began to take in. As the cigarette began to burn and it's light glowed bright red, Derrick exhaled and watched as the smoke filled the nightsky.
"Let the hunt began."