Chapter 6

It wasn’t as bad as she’d feared. Her clothes were all wet, of course, but her sleeping bag, made to repel water, was only damp on the outside. She zippered it open and spread it out to dry. Her scanty food supplies were a bit wet, but she’d be eating them very soon anyway. A light blanket she’d packed was thoroughly waterlogged, as was her towel. Still shivering, she wrung everything out that she could, hanging it over various tree limbs to dry. She took an aluminum camp pot, filled it with water from her canteen, and emptied some soggy soup mix into it, setting the pot on the fire. Some hot food would take a lot of the chill out of her, but until her clothes dried, all she could do was huddle by the fire, trying to keep warm.

He finally got out of the ravine once he was sure she wasn’t going to double back along it. It took some effort. The sides were steep and rocky, offering few handholds. Some exposed tree roots came in handy. He paused at the edge of the ravine to contact Kurt and Lloyd and tell them she was heading downhill along the ravine. They could cover both sides of it and intercept her while he followed up, driving her into the trap. She hadn’t really had much of a chance to begin with, he thought, but she surely did make them work for it. He started downhill, keeping the ravine to his left as a guide. The hunt ought to be over by tomorrow. While he was looking forward to her capture, he’d miss the chase she’d led them on.

With any hunt, though, it was never safe to assume anything was over until it was over. Elf-girl had surprised them…well, him…more than once, and she might have a trick or two left to use. As he went along, he kept looking for any sign of her tracks, or anything at all that might show she had gone this way. By the time it was getting too dark to see much, he’d found absolutely nothing, and was beginning to think elf-girl had eluded him again. He felt suddenly very tired, and sat down for a rest. Where could she have gone now?

He took a candy bar out of his pack and munched on it glumly as he tried to figure out where she was. It was very possible she was on the other side of the ravine. It was also possible she’d doubled back. Either way, he was too tired and it was too dark for him to do anything about finding out. Not much point in contacting the others right now either.

As he sat in the gathering dark, something tickled his nostrils, faintly. He turned his head, trying to detect the smell...wood smoke. He stood slowly and shed his pack, looking around. While it was getting dark, it was still too light to see a fire, unless it was close by. He’d have to wait. In the meantime…he moistened a finger and held it up. There was no wind, but there was a slight movement of air downhill. For a moment, he wondered how he could have possibly gone past her, then realized she had to be on the other side of the ravine. If she’d built a fire, she wasn’t going to be moving any time soon. He sat down to rest, waiting for more dark.

It was night now. Kimberley had donned some reasonably dry clothes earlier, and the hot soup had helped her shake the chill immensely. She was feeling much better now, but very, very tired. Maybe she wasn’t in as good a shape as she thought. She yawned, her jaw muscles creaking. This was a hell of a way to spend a vacation.

The sleeping bag was dry now, and she stretched out on it. She looked up at her not-yet-dry clothes hanging from any available branches and smiled. Laundry day in the forest. The blanket should be usable soon, but her towel hadn’t seemed to be getting any less soggy with time. Well, maybe in the morning it would be okay. The small campfire crackled warmly, casting dancing shadows across the trees and the hanging clothes. It felt very cozy after her dunking in the creek, and she suddenly realized she was starting to doze. You just don’t go to sleep leaving a campfire unattended. It might wander off into the woods and cause all kinds of mischief. She sat up wearily and set about extinguishing it, dousing it with some water, poking it apart with a stick and throwing dirt on top of the embers. Finally satisfied that it was well and truly out, she laid back down on the opened sleeping bag with a sigh. After a long moment, she pulled the top flap over her and began zippering it together. She was so tired now that this simple task seemed to take forever, the zipper turning uncooperative in her fingers. Finally done, she started to take one last look around to see if she’d forgotten anything and fell asleep halfway through.

She was on the other side of the ravine, all right. He could just make out the dim glow of her campfire in the distance. It was so faint he actually saw it better out of the corner of his eye than he did when he was looking directly at it. He couldn’t tell how far away it was, but it had to be fairly close if he could see it through these woods. So close…a ten-minute walk, maybe? But the ravine kept him away from her as effectively as if it had been a castle moat. It was hard to get into, hard to cross, and very hard to get out of…in daylight. He wasn’t about to try it at night. Too many ways to break an arm or a leg, or a neck. Well, nothing to do but wait for daylight then, once he’d relayed this information to the others. Some time tomorrow they ought to have elf-girl in their grasp. He heaved a sigh of relief, and then immediately thought of all the other ways she could go, eluding them again.

He was just too bone-tired to do any more hiking today. Sitting down with his back against a tree, he took out the radio and thumbed it on.

“Here.” It was Kurt’s voice, low and gravelly.

“Spotted our little wood nymph.” He said quietly. “Can’t get to her though.”

“She walked you into the ground?” Kurt asked with a chuckle.

“Just about. You try following her sometime. Look, I’m on the right bank of the ravine, she’s over on the left. Only reason I know that is she’s got a campfire going.”

“So go get her.”

“Not at night. Can’t see a damned thing down in there. I’m going to cross just before sunrise and try to follow her in.”

“Left bank, she’s on?”

“Yeah, for now, but she’s skunked us more than once. There’s a chance she’ll double back uphill.”

“She’s makin’ us work for it.” Kurt observed dryly.

“I think she’s enjoying the chase, and she’s in better shape than I’d thought. If she does double back, I’m gonna need some help.”

“Hey, you’re the ex-commando.”

“Ex-Ranger, and that was some years back. I need one of you two to head uphill along the left bank before dawn, just in case.”

At the other end, Kurt groaned. “Shit.” He spat. “That’ll hafta be me then. Lloyd’s all tuckered out.”

“So it’s your turn in the chase.” He grinned. “If I find out she’s still going downhill, I’ll contact you as soon as I know. If you don’t hear from me, just keep going uphill ‘til you find my lifeless body lying on the ground. With my last ounce of strength, I’ll point the way she went.”

Kurt chuckled again. “You kinda like the chase too, don’t’cha?”

“It’ll be more enjoyable when I’m looking back on it.” He answered, which was true enough. “If I contact you, remember, she’ll be heading your way, so get under some cover, let her pass and fall in behind her. Lloyd ought to be rested enough by then to head her off until we can close in.”

“Roger that.” Kurt replied. “And then the real fun begins.”

“Don’t count your chickens, man.” He warned. “This little girl is tricky. Might have given you the slip a lot easier.”

Kurt snorted. “So it’s a good thing our lone commando was trailing her. I’m lookin’ forward to meeting this one.”

“Oh, man, same here.” He yawned. “Over and out.”

He pocketed the radio and heaved another sigh. He was getting a little old for this stuff, but it did have its own unique payoffs. He just hoped he’d be able to enjoy them. Before he went to sleep, he set his watch. It had a useful little alarm buzzer feature. It made no noise, but felt like a big bug rattling against his wrist, and it never failed to wake him right up. Sunrise would be around 6:30. At 5:30, he’d have enough light to see by, and the chase would begin again. Yeah, this one was memorable.