(It's) Always There
Copyright© 2026 by Daniel Tors
Chapter 13
... Guess it wasn’t Navy’s designated place to stay, Case figured, realizing also he’d assumed she’d stay put, what with her emotions and all. Foliage didn’t allow for more than a couple strides past the home in any direction, so she could easily go unseen, particularly if hiding was the plan. Or ... y’know, she’s taking a piss – it was mean what he said but worrying about her shattering on a moment’s notice like that was excessive.
A couple steps out the wolf peered further to the side he expected her to be, then the opposite way, then out to the unlit woods, not more than the moon and stars to help him see. So, no fireflies’ glow to reflect off her orange and white body ... though really he should be able to see it anyway.
“Navy?” he half-whispered ... maybe not loud enough.
Once his mouth might’ve opened again, someone grabbed him by the shoulder. It was Hane.
The Shepherd asked (verbally), “What are you doing?”
“Can’t find her. Only been looking for a second, though.”
He didn’t appear to care. “You can’t find her because she left.” An immediate, questioning flit of Case’s eyes over him demanded a response ... of some kind, forcing Hane to languidly point down at footprints ... leading through the only break in the trees toward a grass field.
He added, “That, and I watched her leave.”
... All extraneous thoughts went quelled and quiet, condensing into a reply so blatant he wondered why Hane wasn’t just telling him things he should and always has.
“Why?”
“It’s her choice. Should’ve convinced her then, if that’s what you wanted.”
Plainly, bitterly, he answered, “I didn’t know.”
... Hane wasn’t contemplating, he was watching him. His face was like always, like stone, and it observed, “Uh-huh.”
Oh? Okay. He’d be fine if she died? It was their responsibility to protect her – that’s what taking her along meant – and here he’s decided ... Fuck it. It was always her choice to leave, but she was hurt and not thinking straight. He should’ve had a chance to talk to her.
Decisively, as it was his obligation, Case told his commander, “We’re going. You’re tracking her.”
Something unlike the tall man went over him; he had stature, authority, and all the autonomy necessary to answer however he wanted and Case ... saw the answer, “No,” cross his mind. Case wouldn’t be able to find her himself, Hane knew it, considered that as final, let it get nearly to formed words ... then, all based on the tension in his ... everywhere, the answer changed slowly.
His commander gave. Hane returned to the home, wrote a note telling her they’d be back while Case gathered his things, and left it easily viewable in the living area – it didn’t appear to bother him, leaving a trail.
As they went to follow her and exactly before Hane partway crouched to do so, he signed, “Lookout,” and Case obeyed.
The track’s first part Case knew would be the easiest. Near the home the ground was mostly loose-ish dirt with a layer of twigs, dead leaves, and budding flora, Navy’s boots sure to crack and imprint anything under them; clear cut, easy to see. So visible, in fact, that night’s minimal glow wasn’t issue enough to slow Hane even through the filter of a natural canopy overhead. If it went where they’d guessed (it did) then the oncoming brightness would help show where they were going, and Case could properly see their surroundings, too.
Getting lower to peer into the tall grass, Hane was covered up to the neck ... an immediate slow making Case wonder what the matter was. He crouched to the side, nearly swallowed to his head the same, and watched over Hane parsing each step’s direction, progress consistent yet checked and careful. The field where they hid – the one they had to travel, and had traced for a long time getting to the small home – was a number of acres in size Case wasn’t able to guess of almost nothing but billowing grass.
... Case waited for Hane to do his role...
... He’d stopped moving on. The indent he looked at was a little deeper, so it should be obvious where to go next, so why was he stuck...?
... They were some yards out. Hane had gotten up somewhat for the severalth time to trace something, not seeming to find what he looked for ... and Case by the last step he’d found, on all sides surrounded by grass he could barely see over, surrounded at some point on all horizons by trees he couldn’t see between ... waiting.
... Hane found where she went – curved to the right with another print, deeper still ... Case figured out why it took so long.
She was running.
With her stride found, Hane discovered where she went a bit faster, the path consistent in its curvature, occasionally made simpler to follow by dirt and grass kicked up.
She was sprinting.
... The next print led them out of the grass to a partially raised mound of dirt ... and a road. Case followed orders and trailed only on its cement, eyeing one side while Hane did the other; for dozens of feet in both directions they did that, looking anywhere for what might’ve been disturbed. They switched sides and did the same.
Grass engulfed and broke the road ... and they met back where they started.
Hane looked around for a moment, then at Case ... in the eye. All in one, Case’s alternatives were cut down when he was told, “It’s almost been an hour. We do any more, and it takes hours, assuming there’s something to find ... So. What do you want to do?”
...”It’s a road, so we follow it.”
“Which way?”
He didn’t know for sure. Impulse said, “Back to town. She knows how to get there.”
“ ... And?” the other man led, unconvinced.
It was the only justification he had. “The library’s somewhere she knows that isn’t here.”
... Anticipation for some kind of input stalled Case from saying or doing – why else would Hane be so ... retired, if not to deliberate, plan, consider ... But he returned with not a thing to say, instead subtly motioning Case to follow him beside the road, going where Case suggested. It could be, maybe, moving somewhere was better than idling in the open, so Hane would speak when he was ready.
Should they not walk there? They’d done it partway to the tree-line already, possibly scuffing a track Navy made, nor was it easier or faster. Roads were specifically made for this. Except it would put them even more in the open with literally no cover as opposed to almost none ... Hane was right, too; finding a single boot-print somewhere off the street’s path, if it existed at all (probably not), would take unknown hours or even days if they wanted to be thorough. This was the best way.
Being there was ... unpleasant. Watching around him felt similar. Surely he wasn’t alone in that.
...
... On the in-between was where it made most sense for Hane to take them. Further out and they couldn’t see shit, further in and they’d be too readily seeable in the moonlight, from them to about equally far on the street’s other side as the meager gap where Navy could be seen, a black on either end intense to the point even her bright color wouldn’t stand out. Case had to keep specific track of Hane, so seeing her in the middle of that while they passed through wouldn’t happen ... They could look around...
If she ran off into the woods there’d be no chance of finding her at night, searching or not – too fucking dark to even walk right. And too dark for Navy to find them if she tried ... by sight. All of them could hear; she wasn’t ever quiet and it wasn’t easy for them to be either...
...
What a fuckin’...
...
The odds were bad on yelling to her ... Someone else could hear it. Or Navy was close, heard them, and wouldn’t answer. The point of running was to avoid them. Calling’s a bad plan.
...
Near. She’d come to her senses sometime, or she’d be there in the library; girl’s smart enough to know she’d be dead otherwise.
...
“Anyone could be there,” Hane signed. Case eyed the building and its surroundings as he did, gave an acknowledgment, and readied behind to sprint the open.
... The commander hadn’t budged, as though his confirmation didn’t happen. He signed overtly, “I know,” thinking he may have missed the small gesture. Either way, was that the kind of thing he had to really make sure Case knew? C’mon; fuckin’ one-oh-one.
Half the distance was cut through in a few seconds, their entrance the ... open back door, one of them taking its either side. The wolf covered Hane entering first, the lead clearing while he watched their surroundings, the stairs – checked first – and the hallways ends as his greatest points of focus. Swept or not, the several doorways had to be watched as well.
Out came Hane after a full check of each room, interior quietly lacking any muffled protests of a petulant girl or gunshots suggesting, every time he exited, that no one was there. After the last they entered the library proper, Case doubling Hane’s check of the awning with the end of his rifle when ... a band of air dense with the smell of iron swept his face, replaced a moment later by the room’s intermittent breeze. Case avoided the pools of soaked carpet as they got to the front, Hane noticing something among the shatterings.
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