Ona moaned in protest, as if she did not believe it could be one of her species.
Some panthers can be very aggressive, Lasgol reminded her.
Her moan of protest turned into one of acceptance.
We’re also looking for signs of dead cows or sheep. He stared at the great rocky wall beside him. If they were hunted it must have been on this side, and it must have left tracks and remains.
Men?
Yes, any sign of dead men too … I’d like to think they’re still alive, but if they’ve been attacked by a large predator and then disappeared … they’re almost certainly dead. Let’s try to stay optimistic, we might still find them alive. Yeah, let’s be positive, we might be lucky.
Camu and Ona did not look so optimistic. They gave no sign of how they felt, but he could read it in their eyes. Little by little he realized that he was getting better at sensing what his two friends were feeling or thinking. Camu was already capable of transmitting some of his own feelings, but even when he did not intend to, as was the case now, Lasgol could sense them. Ona was as transparent as the water of some high mountain stream. Her emotions were always deeply sensitive, and because she did not hide them they were very easy to pick up. In fact, he had more difficulty with Trotter, who did not show his emotions unless he was scared. It seemed curious to Lasgol that out of the three of them, it was the quietest one who was the hardest to read.
He dismounted and patted his faithful pony. Lasgol knew that each animal was in a different world, so that the differences between his ability to communicate with each of them were enormous. He had no idea know why this was so, or whether he would be able to get better at it, but that was what magic was like: a complete enigma. On the other hand, he knew that when he made an effort, he got results, as his dear friend Egil had often told him he would.
Follow us, but stay calm, he transmitted to Trotter, who nodded and moved away to graze.
We’ll separate so that we can cover more terrain. Camu, you go east. Ona, you go west. We’ll start by tracking at the foot of the mountain, then we’ll each go in our own direction. Understood?
Understood, Camu transmitted, with a feeling of happiness. Ona stiffened and took up a tracking stance.
Right. Remember that we’re looking for a very dangerous animal, so go very carefully. If you see anything, run back to tell me and don’t go near it. Is that clear?
Clear, Camu transmitted at once, and Lasgol knew that he would almost certainly not follow any of his instructions.
Camu …
I good.
You’d better be …
Camu grinned back at him, looking as though he had never so much as broken a plate in his life.
Lasgol gave in. Be very careful and tell me if you see anything suspicious.
Lasgol was confident of his friends’ skills. Ona’s sense of smell and vision were outstanding, not to mention her enviable natural cat-instincts. One of the things he had been intending to do was to watch her closely and try to copy her. Today was not the right time for it, but later, in a less dangerous situation, he would try.
Camu was nowhere near as good at either tracking or catching prey. Lasgol did not have the heart to tell him this, because the little fellow was convinced that he was as good as Ona. Better in fact. In any case, he would probably not accept the fact, he was so stubborn. In spite of this, he was very useful in tasks like this, and it was because he had a prodigious sense of sight, which meant that he was able to pick out what both Lasgol and Ona sometimes overlooked. This was why Lasgol sent Camu tracking. He was aware that he would not find any fresh tracks, but he was able to distinguish people, animals and very large objects at great distances and amid dense foliage.
They went on for half a day, without any luck. Lasgol had always been good at tracking, and now with everything he had learnt at the Camp, and then in the Shelter he was one of the best, with his Tireless Tracker specialty to prove it. Even so, he found no sign of a great predator or its victims. Then he remembered one of Master Gisli’s teachings: man or beast, they all need to drink sooner or later. He had seen the river on the map and knew it was not far away, so that he soon reached it. It was five paces or so wide, shallow, calmly-flowing and without much of a current. He looked up to follow its course as it descended from the mountains and crossed a couple of forests, some meadows and several cultivated fields until it reached a village in the distance. As far as he could see, it went through the village and on to the south.
He began to search downriver, in the direction of the green meadows, to see if he could find any unusual footprints. If the beast had attacked cows and sheep, it must have been in the meadows. He hoped that with a bit of luck, it would have stopped to drink before or after its hunt. In order to check both sides of the river he was forced to get into the water and cross. It only came up to his waist, and hence did not bother him too much. The temperature was not too cold, so that he did not need
