The forest smelled like pine, damp earth, excitement and possibility.

  Galateya swung her paintball rifle over her shoulder as Sage led them into the treeline. The Skinwalker moved with supreme confidence, digitigrade legs silently carrying her over roots and rocks. Her red tail swished back and forth, occasionally brushing against ferns and low-hanging branches.

  "Your boy's got a bit of a lead on us," Sage said conversationally, not breaking stride.

  "He's not 'my boy,'" Galateya muttered. Her Taniwha body made the terrain easier than it would have been for a human, but Sage moved like she was born to this. Which, given the absurd numbers of fox souls, she probably was.

  "Sure, sure. Not your boy. Just your blood-bound consort who you definitely don't have feelings for." Sage's freckles rearranged into little eye-roll emojis. "Teya, babe, you gotta work on your denial game. It's very transparent."

  "I'm not in denial. I'm... Urm… Accurately describing the situation."

  "Mmm-hmm." Sage paused, crouching low. Her nose twitched, processing scents. "Oh, interesting."

  "What?"

  “His path is curving back to the parking lot,” Sage said. “Drrrr. I’m going to be mad if he broke one of my rules and decided to use his car to escape us.”

  . . .

  They emerged from the forest into the parking lot fifteen minutes later. Sage's nose immediately went to the concrete and she spun about in circles.

  "Okay, so he didn't take the Jeep," the Skinwalker said. "Good boy. Following the rules. Heading back to the forest. And then..."

  She stopped dead.

  Her entire body went rigid. Ears rotating. Tail stiff. Nose working overtime as she spiraled in one spot, eyes wide.

  "What?" Galateya asked, moving closer.

  "He... what the actual fuck?" Sage's voice climbed an octave. "Ha a ha ha ha. Amazing!"

  "What is it?"

  The Skinwalker looked up. "His trail... EXPLODES right here! There are..." She moved rapidly between different points, nose working frantically. "...ten? Yeah, definitely ten. TEN separate Ash-trails radiating out from this parking lot!"

  "Ten?" Galateya sputtered. "How is that even possible?"

  "I don't know!" Sage threw up her hands. She sniffed again, her expression shifting from shock to frustration. "Oh you clever bastard. Oh you CLEVER BASTARD!"

  "What? Can you tell which one is real?"

  Sage moved systematically around the parking lot, sniffing furiously. Finally, she stood up and looked at Galateya with an expression of grudging respect.

  "Hecking clever human. He's figured out how to fuck with my scent tracking," she admitted.

  "Explain," Galateya commanded.

  “He’s used the greatest power of all,” Sage complained. “Power which I don’t have.”

  “Which is?” the dragon asked.

  “Friends,” Sage huffed. “He has nine friends helping him. Damnation. I should have made a rule about it. Ah well. Guess, I’ll have to use greater Sherlocking for this one!”

  “What are the trails?” Galateya asked.

  Sage hopped to the line of the forest and pointed to a trail heading northwest. "Trail one! This one I know for sure. Female wolf. Arousal pheromones to the brim—like she's ready to climb the nearest tree. Plus alcohol and Ash’s scent mixed in. The imprints in the ground are that of a pradavarian… wolf walking upright."

  "That's probably Linari," Galateya guessed. "She’s most likely wearing something with Ash's scent on it."

  "Right. And here's the problem!" Sage's tail lashed up. "I can't tell if she's just wearing his clothes or if she's actually CARRYING him. For all we know, your boyfriend is on her back right now."

  Galateya's mane turned blue-gray. "Wah.”

  "Yeah. Womp womp." Sage moved to another trail heading southwest. "Aight. Trail two! This one is a bird. Female pradavarian, magpie specifically. With Ash’s human scent layered on top."

  "Probably Kawathra," Galateya identified. "Divison 881's Datamancer."

  "And guess what?" Sage's freckles rearranged into ?? emoticons. "Same problem. I can't tell if she is wearing his clothes or if she's literally carrying Ash in her arms."

  "So we can't rule out either Linari or Kawathra as the actual target," Galateya summarized.

  "Nope!" Sage moved to the next trail heading due east. "And it gets worse! This one going East? Pure human male. But there are TWO different male scents mixed together. Ash and another human male. Could be Ash’s friend wearing his clothes or Ash wearing his friend’s clothes. Can't tell. The boot pattern doesn’t match that of Ash though. Hmmm… smells like he's been with two prad girls. The bird and wolf. Has their sex pheromones all over him. Ke ke ke."

  Galateya pursed her lips. “That's Piotr.”

  "How many friends does your boyfriend even HAVE?" Sage complained.

  "At least four humans that I know of," Galateya sighed. "Dax, his best friend from college. North and South who… Hrm. I’ve no idea how he met them, only that he’s giving the two girls a room to stay in. Then there's Piotr, a Polish man who’s dating Kawathra and Linari."

  "BOTH?" Sage's ears perked up. "Like, at the same time?"

  "Yes," Galateya muttered. "They had a… sharing schedule fight. Commander Xandria had to mediate. If Ash asked his human friends and others to participate in the hunt, then his two… girlfriends Commander Xandria and Marshal Nexxali should be here too." Galateya's expression soured.

  "Your household is WILD," Sage laughed, moving to the other trails. "Okay, this one's real weird. Smells like... magitek? Crystalloid neural substrate? But also organic components. And Ash's scent layered on top. The footprints are..." She crouched lower. "Digitigrade! Pradavarian pattern, but the depth is wrong. And the spacing is... off."

  "That doesn't match anyone I know," Galateya frowned.

  "It's something like Ash," Sage said. “Something organic and magitek. Female I think. Smells very new. A modded prad girl maybe?”

  "Hrm. Maybe Kawathra made something new?" Galateya speculated. "A magitek frame for a prad to wear? She's been doing a lot of mystery fabrication work lately."

  "Noted. Mystery robot girl added to the suspect list." Sage bounded to the next trail heading southeast. "Oh, this one's definitely a gun unit. Pure magitek signature, no organics. Six-legged stance from the impressions... A spider configuration. Plus Ash's scent. Plus… smells like it's been with the wolf a lot."

  "That's Etty," Galateya said. "Linari's symbiote weapon."

  "Your boyfriend weaponized his friend's girlfriend's gun," Sage chortled. "Dat's either tactical genius or the most elaborate game of relationship telephone I've ever seen."

  "He's NOT my—"

  "Moving on!" Sage chirped, hopping to the trail heading west. "Okay, this one's... peculiar."

  "How?"

  Sage pointed at the footprints. "Humanoid feet. Barefoot. But not actual bare feet tho', the impressions are too uniform, too smooth. Like someone wearing a really thin latex suit."

  "Barefoot in the forest?" Galateya stepped closer to examine the tracks. "That seems... impractical for a human."

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  "Right? Look at the stride too." Sage traced the pattern with her claw. "Long. Confident. This person isn't hobbling over rocks and roots like a normal barefoot human would. They're BOUNDING. Like they've got enhanced grip or something. The scent is magitek frame, organic components, and human male. Basically gun unit with organic smell and Ash’s smell. Could be Ash but without boots and using his magitek frame to hop around."

  Galateya sighed.

  Sage examined another trail. “Another magitek-organic hybrid. Human male scent with Ash mixed in. Howevah, the footprints..." She crouched. "...are HUGE. Like, big-person huge. Heavy armored boots from the depth. This bro is STOMPING through the forest, breaking bushes in his way. Male scent. Huge dude. Bigger than gigachad Ash."

  “Could be Ash but in different boots?”

  "Yeah." Sage's tail lashed. "Your bf apparently has access to a small army of weird cyborg constructs."

  Galateya let out a huff. “This is cheating.”

  "Nah, it's thinking outside the box,” Sage bobbed excitedly. "Freaking clever boy. Let's see what trail eight is..." She inhaled. “A magitek frame. Organic too. Two human male scents mixed together, just like some of the others. But..."

  "But what?"

  "The footprints." Sage crouched, studying the boot imprints intently. "Different boots. Could be Ash wearing another person’s boots."

  "Slayer damn it,” Galateya exhaled.

  “Trail nine!” Sage stated. “Female. Shorter. Smaller boots. Definitely not Ash. Some human woman wearing his clothes. Not entirely human... also some magitek there.”

  Galateya nodded.

  “Trail ten,” Sage declared, moving on. “Human. Smells like Ash and another human male. Wearing Ash's boots. Either this is Ash or someone wearing Ash's boots. Ah, wait. This male human spent the last thirty minutes in the company of the prad girl in magitek frame from trail four!”

  “So that can't be Ash,” Galateya said. “Just someone wearing his shoes?”

  “Yep,” Sage grinned. “They traded boots.”

  “Who traded boots?”

  “The person from trail eight and this person who’s been hanging out with the metal prad girl.”

  “By that logic trail eight could be Ash.”

  “Could be,” Sage laughed dramatically. “Your boyfriend is a MENACE. An absolute MENACE to fox-kind everywhere!"

  Galateya squinted at the fox.

  "He's out-foxed the Fox Sea!" Sage ranted on. "Do you understand how AWESOME that is? I have a Sea of Fox souls in here!" She tapped her chest dramatically. "Forty thousand years of accumulated hunting wisdom! Generations of vulpine cunning! The distilled essence of hunters! And he just..." She made an explosive gesture with her hands. "BOOM! Trail explosion! Tactical friendship deployment!"

  Galateya couldn't help the small smile tugging at her lips. "So what do we do?"

  "We VOTE!" Sage announced.

  "Vote?"

  "Yeah! Democratic process!" Sage closed her eyes, her expression going distant. "Okay, foxes. Emergency council meeting. Which trail do we take? Show of paws please!"

  Galateya watched as the Skinwalker stood still for several seconds, ears twitching occasionally, red tail swishing in random patterns.

  "Okay," Sage said finally, opening her eyes. "The results are in. It's a shitshow."

  "What?"

  "Four thousand foxes voted for trail one because they smelled arousal pheromones and want to investigate that situation further, hang out with a drunk wolf and make friends. Three thousand voted for trail eight because the boots switch is a potential target. Two thousand are voting for trail four because they're curious about the mystery half-robot girl. Another two thousand want to follow trail seven because BIG STOMPY BOOTS sound fun to chase. The remaining are arguing amongst themselves about whether we should just give up and go get snacks."

  "Your internal democracy is a mess," Galateya stated.

  "All democracies are messes!" Sage defended. "Mine is fluffiest and cutest though. Every fox gets equal voting rights! That's the problem with having fourteen thousand constituents, nobody can agree on anything!" She paused. "Wait, one of the elder vixens just called for a recount. She's saying trail six looks suspicious because barefoot running seems like exactly the kind of crazy thing Ash would do."

  "Is she right?"

  "How the FUCK would I know?!" Sage threw up her hands. "I've known your boyfriend for like an hour! Well, technically I met him a year ago but that was pre-relationship so it doesn't count!"

  "He's not—"

  "Oh my GOD, Teya, we've established this already!" Sage grabbed Galateya's shoulders. "You're into him! He's into you! Everyone KNOWS! Even my foxes know and they're FOXES! They have fox brains! If a fox can figure out your feelings, you need to just ACCEPT them already!"

  Galateya's scales flushed pink. "That's really not… This is tactical analysis, not relationship counseling!"

  “Everything's relationship counseling when you're hunting your crush through a forest!” Sage released her and spun in a circle, arms spread wide. “That's the POINT! The hunt is the therapy, the final destination is the prize!"

  "You are not helping."

  "Shush! I'm helping TREMENDOUSLY!" Sage countered. "I'm teaching you valuable lessons about accepting your feelings…. In between being hilariously derailed ‘cus your boyfriend out-smarted me with the powwah of fwendship!" She flopped dramatically onto a nearby log. "Such humiliation for a master huntah’. For realsies!" She sniffed the air again. "Wait."

  "What?"

  Sage's ears rotated like satellite dishes. "I'm getting something. Please hold." She closed her eyes, nose working. "Okay, so, interesting development. Most of these trails… Are heading in generally the same direction. Northeast toward Lake Crescent."

  "And?"

  "And Lake Crescent is where you'd go if you wanted to mess with a fox's tracking by using water." Sage opened her eyes, a competitive gleam in them. "Your boy read up on fox hunting tactics, I bet!"

  "Probably," Galateya admitted. “He does carry a thick tablet with him, looking stuff up constantly, buried in some chats.”

  "Sexy AND studious!" Sage bounced back to her feet. "Okay, here's my professional assessment: most of these are bait. He WANTS us to think he's heading for the lake because that's the obvious tactical choice. Classic misdirection."

  "So we should follow one of the other trails?"

  "No no no!" Sage wagged a finger. "That's what he'd EXPECT us to think! 'Oh, she'll see through my obvious misdirection, so I'll actually DO the obvious thing!' But WE'LL see through HIS seeing through OUR seeing through!"

  "That's circular logic."

  "ADVANCED circular logic!" Sage bobbed. "There's a difference! I'm fox-logicking this out! Fox logic is superior to normal logic because it accounts for the fact that everyone KNOWS foxes are clever, so you have to be extra-clever to out-clever the people who expect you to be clever!"

  "Your rantery is making me dizzy.”

  "Good! That means it's working!" Sage grabbed her hand. "Come on! We're following trail eight because that's the one with the boot-swap which means Ash was definitely there and wearing someone else's shoes now!"

  "Are you sure?”

  "My gut says so! And I have fourteen thousand fox guts! That's a lot of gut instinct! Much Astral sight!"

  Galateya let herself be pulled into the forest. "This is the worst hunting strategy I've ever heard."

  "That's because you've never hunted with a fox-girl who's having the time of her life!" Sage's tail swished excitedly, smacking the dragon girl. "Teya, this is AWESOMESAUCE! Your boyfriend made me work for it! Do you know how rare that is? Usually I just follow the scent trail of a dying fox, boom, done, got ‘em. But THIS?!" She gestured at the maze of diverging paths. "This is ENRICHMENT! This is the fox equivalent of one of those puzzle feeders they give to zoo animals!"

  "I'm glad my relationship drama is mentally stimulating for you," Galateya said dryly.

  "See? You called it a relationship!" Sage pointed triumphantly. "Progress! Character development! We love to see it!"

  “We?”

  “The itty bitty foxy committee!" Sage wiggled.

  They rapidly moved into the forest, following trail eight. The undergrowth grew denser, pine needles crunching beneath their feet.

  Sage crouched low, her body in full ‘pro hunter mode’.

  "Did you think of what to ask him?"

  "I don't know yet."

  "Liar." Sage glanced back at her. "You've been thinking about it this whole time. I can smell the anxiety coming off you in waves."

  Galateya's tail lashed. "Fine. I... I want to ask if he actually wants me around. Or if I'm just another obligation. Another chess piece in whatever game he's playing with my great-grandmother."

  "A solid question.”

  "Is it?"

  “Not 'do you like me' or 'am I pretty, but 'do you actually want me in your life or am I just convenient.'"

  "Yeah," Galateya said quietly. "Because if I'm just... convenient... then maybe I should…"

  "Do NOT finish that sentence," Sage interrupted. "We both know you're not going anywhere. You're blood-bound. Plus…" She spun around and poked Galateya's chest, right over her heart. "You don't WANT to go anywhere! You want him to want you to stay. There's a difference."

  "Hrm. Insightful."

  "Vast fox-ness!" Sage stated. "Some of them were very wise. Also I watch a LOT of GoTube relationship advice videos. Did you know there's this whole genre of content about attachment styles? You're definitely 'anxious-attached', by the way."

  "I am not—"

  "Totally are!" Sage bounced ahead, back on the trail. "But that's okay! Perfectly normal given your childhood in a time bubble! Nothing wrong with wanting reassurance! The key is asking for it in healthy ways instead of, you know…" Her red tail swayed. "...freezing your Keiy gun unit because you were having feelings."

  "I didn't freeze her because I was having feelings," Galateya protested. "I froze everything because I was overwhelmed."

  "Feelings are overwhelming, das’ their whole deal! Otherwise they wouldn't be feelings, they'd just be... I dunno, mild opinions?"

  "That's not how that works."

  "Says you!" Sage hopped over a fallen log. "I've an ocean of souls in me! I experience emotions in SURROUND SOUND. Every feeling gets amplified fourteen thousand times! So trust me when I say—feelings are SUPPOSED to be overwhelming!"

  Galateya followed, leaping over the log. "How do you deal with it? The amplification?"

  "Honestly?" Sage glanced back. "I simply… Ride the wave, shrug it off like summer rain. The variety of foxes help, the overall skulk distributes the feels-weight. No single fox has to carry it all."

  They ran in silence for a few minutes, following the trail as it wound between the trees.

  Then Sage stopped dead.

  "What?" Galateya whispered.

  "Shh." The Skinwalker's ears rotated forward. "I hear something. His voice. Ah! Ka-paw!”

  The fox girl spun through the air and fired her rifle, unleashing paintballs with a giddy expression.

  “Aw,” she whined, a frown sliding across her face. “Dang it! Outwitted again!”

  Galateya caught up.

  Ahead of them in a clearing, Ash sat on a log.

  “Hello ladies,” he said with a wide smile of an over-sized chin. “Looks like you’ve found the right trail out of ten. Excellent work!”