Chapter 9

Four AM came around early just as it always does, but we had already gotten eight hours of sleep by then and were already awake. There was a quick breakfast of meat sandwiches made from meat that we had brought with us. I had put the meat in the warming oven before going to bed. The bread was left in its bag until we were ready to eat.

The twins had only donned their robes over their nightgowns when we arose since they would be transforming shortly. I finished dressing after dealing with the fire in the stove which had burned out over night.

"Are you ready?" I asked when we had finished eating.

"Yes, but we want to remain out longer than the three hours that the spell was set for the last time. We want to explore some," Laura told me.

"All right. Here is what you must change in the spell," I started, before remembering to ask, "How long do you want to change it to?"

"Can we change it to six hours?" Lesia asked.

"That will have you out well into the morning and bright daylight," I reminded them.

"We don't want to stay that long, but we don't want to suddenly change into our human-form while away from the cabin. It's too cold to be out there naked!" Laura told me in a determined voice.

"All right, here is how you change the spell to last for six hours," I told them, and gave them the change to the spell in Gaelic.

"Yes, that will be fine!" Lesia said, excitedly.

"Later, I'll give you the change to allow you to remain in your Were-form for an unlimited amount of time," I told them.

"Have you used that?" Laura asked.

"Yes, the last time that I was here I used it before I found you. I have used it many times in the past. Sometime, I'll tell you some of the stories of my adventures," I told them with a smile before going to release the lock on the firewood door, as they removed their robes and gowns. They moved to the small hall leading to the firewood door before starting the transformation spell and its glyph.

Upon completing the spell, they added the accumulated Magic to the glyph and instantly changed into female mountain lions. I flung open the firewood door, and they bounded through it to race off into the surrounding forest. It was 4:30 according to my mechanical watch which I had brought with me this time. After closing the firewood door, I cleaned up from our meal and awaited their return.

They hadn't returned by 7:30, and I began to worry, as it was light out already. By 8:30, the sun was well up, and they still hadn't returned. I was seriously worried now. As it approached 9:30, and they hadn't returned, I was preparing to change into Connard and go looking for the missing twins when there came a double bang on the firewood door. I hurried over to open it, and the Sisters tumbled through it still in Were-form. They changed back into their human-forms as I was closing the door. Following that, they sat on the floor for several minutes recovering.

"I was worried about you and was ready to come looking for you as Connard. You were gone a long time!" I told them in a worried voice when they had regained their feet.

"Yes, we brought something back with us. It's out in the shed," Lesia told me.

"Were you hunting all of this time?" I asked in amazement.

"No, we were occupied with something else!" Laura told me in a determined voice.

"What did you bring back?" I asked.

"We aren't sure of its name, and it isn't our fault that it's dead!" Lesia said somewhat disturbed. They had me confused now.

"Let's go look at it then!" I told them. They quickly dress in warm clothes while I removed the coverall and gloves from the gear that we had brought with us, along with my knives. Whatever it was, it would require cleaning out and skinning.

When we entered the shed, I could see the body of a medium size animal lying in the metal tray under where I had hung the mule deer previously. I laid my knives on the counter there to check exactly what they had brought back. A closer inspection revealed that it was what is locally called an antelope, but is more properly known as a pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). From its size, I guessed that it was maybe two years old. I knew that antelope season had ended nearly a month ago and was wondering how they had found it, as it was a fresh kill. When I turned it, that was when I found the bullet hole!

"Tell me how you found this antelope!" I quickly demanded.

"We had been out for several hours and had seen some deer and other animals, but we aren't very good at hunting yet, and they all ran away," Lesia began.

"It was getting light out when we heard a shot from a gun. It appeared to be some distance from us, but we hid for a time not knowing how far away it was. After a short time, our curiosity got the better of us, and we went to see what was going on," Laura told me, but stopped speaking on seeing my frown at what she had said.

"That wasn't a very bright thing to do!" I admonished her in a very gruff voice.

"We had only gone a short distance when we found this animal lying on the ground. It was bleeding. We had scented it before we saw it, as it was behind a large downed tree trunk. It was in a lot of pain and close to death. I couldn't stand to see it suffer so, and went over, bit it in the neck, and broke its spine; killing it!" Lesia told me in a very emotional voice.

"We backed off then and hid near there for a time to see if the hunter was following the animal that he had shot. After a time, I went to explore its back trail and left Lesia to keep watch. It was easy to follow the trail by the scent of the blood that the animal had lost along the way. I was very careful to stay well off of its actual trail though. I finally came to the place where it had been shot. I stayed under cover for a time but could detect no resent scent of the hunter. It didn't appear that he had tried to track down the wounded animal," Laura told me.

"That was a very dangerous thing to do!" I told her as I hoisted the pronghorn up by its back legs.

"How long had it been since you heard the shot?" I asked, as I used the saw to remove the head and then began to gut and clean out the animal.

"More than forty-five minutes, maybe closer to an hour," she told me as I worked.

"And you are sure there was no sign of the hunter?" I asked.

"No, no sign or scent either," she answered.

"Pronghorn season was over nearly a month ago, and deer season will be over in a few days. It's possible that the hunter mistook the pronghorn for a deer. Still, he should have followed up on an animal that he had shot," I told the Sisters, as I finished working on the pronghorn for the time. I would let the carcass drain for a while before continuing the butchering. The animal had lost a lot of blood from the gunshot wound so the wait wouldn't be that long.

"What did you do then?" I asked Laura.

"I quickly returned to where Lesia was waiting. She had a problem," Laura told me in a quiet voice.

"What problem?" I demanded.

"Two young wolves had caught the scent of the dead antelope and came to investigate," Lesia told me. "I came out of hiding and growled at them, but was worried about how many more wolves might be in the area. I wasn't sure where Laura was and was in a bit of a panic. The wolves didn't look too confident when they saw me rise up from where I had been watching the antelope. They hadn't scented me on their approach," she finished.

"Why didn't they scent you?" I asked.

"I was concealed in a small cave above where the animal lay. Shortly, Laura came into the small clearing and the two of us chased the wolves off.

"We decided that we should return then as it was getting late. I sank my teeth into the dead antelope and carried it part of the way back while Laura kept watch for trouble. Laura carried it the remainder of the way. We left it here before going to the firewood door," Lesia finished.

"We're hungry now!" Laura said eying the dead pronghorn. "We didn't eat any of it in the forest though the smell of blood made it very tempting. We remembered what you had told us about leaving a blood trail for others to follow," she finished.

"There is still some meat left that we brought with us. It will have to do until I can get the pronghorn butchered, unless you want to transfer home to get some additional meat," I told them.

"No, we'll eat what is here and wait for you to cook the antelope," Laura answered. We returned to the cabin then, and the Sisters and I had a meal of the remaining meat and some vegetables that I had prepared while waiting for them to return. They took a nap following the meal, and I went out to butcher the antelope.

I needed to transfer back to the house to retrieve some ice to keep the meat cold while we were at the cabin since temperatures went up into the low forties during the day there. It didn't require long to butcher the antelope, and I took a couple of nice roasts into the cabin and began preparing them for roasting.

This time I only closed the damper on the stove slightly. The antelope cooked quickly at this higher temperature, and soon reached a medium rare state with hot blood still on the inside just like I like it. I removed the roasts and popped in the biscuits that I had prepared while the roasts were cooking and closed the damper more so they didn't burn. I also cooked some more of the fresh vegetables that we had brought along. Things were smelling pretty good in short order when the Sisters awakened.

"What smells so good?" Lesia asked, as I removed the biscuits from the oven.

"Lunch!" I told her, as both Sisters rose and dressed. We were soon all seated at the table and enjoyed our meal immensely. We had brought some O'Connell ale with us. It is available in a number of towns in Kansas and is a favorite among the Weres and Magic users both.

"What should we do for the remainder of the day?" I asked the twins, as we finished eating.

"We don't know. We're still tired and are going back to bed for a while," Lesia told me.

"We need more practice in sneaking up on animals. We didn't do very well this morning," Laura told me.

"All right," I agreed. "But it will need to be night again before you can do that. Also, I want you to take me back to where you found the antelope," I told them.

"Why?" came from both Sisters.

"I want to see if I can track down that hunter. We'll go out just after dark tonight after we eat again. That will give us plenty of time to try to find the hunter, and for me to teach you how to stalk prey," I told them. We all returned to bed then and got six hours of sleep at least following a little hugging and kissing.

I awoke at around 7:00 that evening. It was already dark out and the cabin had started to cool down, as the fire had burned down in the stove. I woke the twins before going to the toilet to get rid of the ale that I had consumed. The Sisters were right behind me, and also needed to get rid of some of the meat that they had consumed. I rebuilt the fire in the stove while they were occupied but kept the damper closed down as I expected to be gone for a considerable time tonight. We had some of the antelope that I had left in the warming oven while we slept. We were soon ready to depart, but I needed to relieve myself of the meat that I had consumed that day. It wasn't wise to leave Tiger scat out in the forest, even if I buried it. Something could dig it up. We all removed our clothes in preparation to transforming.

"Here is how you change the spell to remain in Were-form for an unlimited time," I told the twins, and gave them the changed spell in Gaelic. "You need to use your trigger word to change back or you will remain in Were-form forever," I reminded them.

"Has that ever happened?" Lesia asked in concern.

"Not often, and it takes a Senior Master with a very strong Talent to reverse the spell without the trigger word," I told them.

"How are we going to secure the cabin if we all change in here?" Laura asked coming right to the crux of the problem.

"You two will transform in here, and I will let you out the firewood door. I will cast the spell and its glyph in here, but will hold the Magic in my left hand until I pass through the door and secure it. Then I will transform, and we will set off for the spot where you found the antelope or pronghorn. Follow my lead after that. We'll see if we can locate that hunter. He, or they, must have a camp somewhere in the vicinity, if he or they are still in the area. We will see what we do then," I told them.