Page 32 of Hoof It

Thirty Two

Chapter 31

Jimazu

H alf a day after I woke up from that awful vision that my mate called a nightmare, I still can’t shake the feeling of dread it left behind. Darcy and I have spent most of the day simply holding one another. I cannot handle her leaving my sight, needing my eyes on be on her at all times. She hasn’t even used the bathroom without me being in the same room. She seems to be nearly as shaken by my dream as I am.

We have so much we need to do before we return to the caves and meet up with her friends. Yet, I feel stuck, unable to even consider leaving the safety of our home. We haven’t even stepped out of the house to gather more firewood, though we’re going to need to before we go to bed tonight. The seasons are shifting, summer finally being overtaken by autumn, and a chill is beginning to creep into the house.

We’ve both been lost deep in our heads today, existing silently buried under layers of blankets in front of the fireplace. My mate has dozed off and on for the past hour, but she keeps jerking herself awake after only a few moments. Each time she startles awake, it tugs on my heart a bit more, and leads to me pulling her closer to me on the fluffy couch.

Seeming to have finally had enough of the silence, she speaks. “Let’s say it was a vision from the Wild God. Does that mean that Mat will for sure show up with a gun and shoot me? Or do you think that perhaps it was simply a warning of what may happen? How do we know for sure?” When my mate turns her face towards me, her eyes are wide and appear frantic. I can feel her fear, and it’s then that I realize it’s mixed with confusion and anger.

After having spent all day thinking about what she’s just voiced, I’m able to answer right away. “Truth be told, I think it was a warning of what Mat wants to do, but not necessarily something that will happen.” I take her face in my hands, my eyes looking deeply into hers. “Close your eyes. I want you to see what I saw.” Her eyes fall closed on a deep inhale. When they remain closed, I let my own drift shut. Forcing myself to focus on the vision, I take several deep breaths, and mentally push the vision through the bond.

We’ve been walking for what seems like days, and we’re both exhausted and hungry. I’ve alternated between carrying my mate on my back and walking beside her, our arms brushing. I let out a sigh of relief when I’m finally able to see the clearing near the caves. Darcy grins up at me before bond-shouting, ‘Race you!’. She takes off running and laughing, and I follow several steps behind her. For a human, she’s faster than I’d anticipated and easily pulls away from me.

She crosses the clearing quickly, and it’s as she’s nearing the entrance to the cave that I realize something is wrong. My instincts are screaming at me to grab my mate and run away, but I’m confused as to why. Slowing my steps to a light jog, my eyes dart in every possible direction. My sensitive ears and nose alert me to an unknown presence. It’s human, and smells unkempt. I hear a soft click then an angry voice.

“Think you can just leave me? Pack all your shit while I’m not home? You’re fucking mine , Darcy! If I can’t have you, no one can!”

Just as my head turns to the source of the angry screaming, a thunderous boom echoes out. The man’s arm, which had been outstretched and pointed towards my mate, is lowering, a silver weapon clutched tightly in his hand. My mate crumples to the ground and lands face first in the grass. Her blood quickly turns the green to a dark red. Running as fast as my hooves allow me, I make it to her side in seconds and drop to my knees. I gingerly turn her over and pull her onto my legs and assess her.

Darcy’s chest is coated in warm blood, her breaths are shallow and rapid. Her face has gone pale, and her eyes are frantically searching around. I pull her to my chest, and a single sob escapes me as her hands attempt to grip my fur. A lone tear slides down her cheek, and my eyes follow its trail down to her jawline. One of her hands moves to the wound on her chest, and one of my own joins it. Together we press on it, attempting to slow the bleeding.

My mate attempts to speak, but she’s unable to voice the words, and resorts to the bond. “I love you, my beast. Don’t forget about me.”

My eyes open before vision-Darcy takes her final stuttering breath. My mate opens her own eyes several seconds later, and she’s crying. I wipe away every tear, not allowing even one to fully fall. She scrambles onto my lap and wraps her arms around me. We sit like that for a long moment, just holding onto one another tightly. Eventually her tears slow and she pulls back from our embrace.

“I am so sorry you had to see that, Zu.” Her eyes dart between mine. “There’s no way to tell for certain whether it was a warning of what may happen, or Pan letting us know what will happen. It looked so real, it was as if we were really there.” Her voice raises almost to a shout. “Could have at least made the grass purple or something weird if it’s just a warning!” Her head falls backwards and a groan starts low in her throat.

“That would have been too easy, little mate. Pan likes to be vague when it’s important, that way the other gods can’t accuse him of interfering.” I don’t even attempt to stop my eyes from rolling. Darcy’s head pops back up, and the frustrated look on her face is adorable.

“That’s such bullshit. He interfered when he showed us this house. He fucking interfered when he kept whispering to me before we met. The way he picks and chooses when to help is absolute bullshit.” Her anger bleeds through the bond and nearly adds to my own frustration with the Wild God. Rather than speak my own thoughts aloud, I simply nod my agreement. She’s quiet for a while, deep in thought, her eyes unfocused on the wall behind us. Her mood shifts from angry to contemplative and her eyes refocus on my face.

“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to dig out my phone and hope that I have some sort of signal out here. As long as I do, I’m going to call Lexi and let her know to keep an eye out for Mat when we meet back up at the cave in a couple days. Then, you and I are going to finish up whatever else we need to do here before we head back to the caves. We’ll be extra vigilant as we get close. I won’t leave your side the entire time, no racing or separating. We’re going to treat this is a warning of what could go wrong, not as if it’s a certainty. We—I—will be fine. I promise you, Jimazu. I’m not dying any time soon, and certainly not at Mat’s hand.”

As I look into my mate’s eyes, I see a steely determination shining through. It strengthens my own resolve, and I nod once before taking her face between my hands and bringing her lips to my own. Our kiss is deep, but quick, and when we pull apart, my mate is grinning.

“You’re stuck with me forever, my beast.”

I don’t want to laugh at the sweet sentiment, but the determination on Darcy’s face is adorable. I kiss her lightly to cover the urge to laugh. “Just as you’re stuck with me forever, little mate.” Her grin is infectious, and causes my own to grow.

“Well then, what are we going to do today?” I twirl a loose piece of her hair around my finger as she considers my question. Her face lights up as she fights to keep a laugh inside before answering.

“The same thing we do every day! Try to take over the world!” She barely manages to get the words out before dissolving into a fit of laughter that calms my own soul. Despite having no idea what she’s talking about, I still find myself joining in on her laughter.

Finally calming herself, she wipes a tear of laughter from under her eye. “Oh god, I’ve always wanted to say that!”

My eyebrows raise in confusion. “Why?”

“When I was a child, there was this cartoon about siblings, and within their cartoon there were mini-cartoons. One of them was about two mice; one was a super genius, and the other was the dumb sidekick. Each night the dumb one would ask the genius what they were going to do that night.”

My head slowly lifts in a nod. “Oh. Sounds…intriguing.”

Darcy shakes her own head. “Nah. It was a goofy show. Looking back on it as an adult, I realize now that they were lab rats being used to by human scientists every day in experiments. It was actually kind of dark for a kids show.” One of her shoulders lifts in a shrug. “Ridiculous children’s show aside, I think we should stock up on firewood and make sure we have enough inside so that this winter we won’t have to keep going outside to grab more. I also want to take an inventory of what we have versus what we should bring from the cave.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

The next few hours are filled with Darcy taking notes of everything we have both in the house as well as out in the secondary building. I trail behind her, simply watching her add everything to her phone. She wasn’t kidding when she told me that she enjoys doing stuff like this. She’s calmer after logging every single item than she’s been in days, and for that I’m grateful.

Once she’s satisfied with her lists, we move back into the house. I open the kitchen cabinets and take in all of the food items on the shelves as I debate what to make for us. We’ve both been to focused on other things to even consider eating since this morning. Darcy trails into the kitchen a few moments after me, her phone still in her hand. She spins it around a few times before she says anything. “Turns out, I have full service here. My phone has been in ‘do not disturb’ mode for the last few weeks, and only calls or texts from Lexi and Frankie get pushed through. I’m going to sit out on the porch and call them.”

My mate momentarily looks nervous at the thought. Though, I’m unsure if it’s because she’s once again thinking about the vision, or having to tell her friends. I gather her in my arms and kiss the top of her head. “I’ll be in here cooking if you need me.” I tilt her head up towards me, and she smiles softly before nodding. After another moment of hesitation, my mate finally steps backwards out of my arms. She spins around walks to the front door, and I don’t turn away until she slips outside.

I return back to the shelves of food and consider my options. Darcy not eating meat is a huge help, as is the fact that we have a larger variety of food items here than I have stored in the cave. I notice several boxes, and pull one of them down. The words on it are foreign to me, but I recognize the picture as some sort of cracker. After opening the sealed box, I pull one out and sniff it before taking a hesitant bite. It’s a bit dry, and breaks apart easily, but it’s salty and tastes incredible. I leave the box on the counter, then open the large metal box Darcy called a refrigerator. I’m blasted with cold air that makes me shiver. My eyes bounce from item to item as I take it all in. It’s full of liquids as well as bottles and bowls.

I don’t recognize most of what’s in the refrigerator, but when I notice a sealed bowl of various fruits, I pull it out. I also notice a rectangular package of what I suspect is some type of cheese and grab it as well. I use my hip to close the door, thankful to be out of the cold air inside. Moving back to the counter, I place the fruit bowl and pack of cheese beside the cracker box. I search the cabinets for something large enough to hold the food. Bending down, I find a wooden board in a low cabinet and pull it out. I put the board on the counter before I rise back up to my full height.

Darcy wanders back inside as I’m staring at my finds on the counter, her phone held in her hand. Both Lexi and Frankie are speaking at the same time, which causes my mate to roll her eyes playfully. My eyebrows meet my hairline as I hear the two of them getting louder.

“They’re arguing about the best way to approach the situation.”

“Why?”

“Frankie thinks that you and I should just stay put in the cabin and them come to us. Lexi wants to call her father and have him escort the two of them to the cave with some of his ‘friends’. If Mat shows up, Mister Reed and his friends can deal with Mat.”

She shakes her head while rolling her eyes at the same time and exhales a loud breath. Her friends cease their bickering and fall silent.

“Why does Lexi want her father and his friends to follow them?”

“Mister Reed is…not a good guy. He’s a fantastic father to Lex and even to Frankie. But his job leads him to do a lot of very bad things. I’m fairly certain that he’s murdered men for money before. I think he’s part of the mafia, but I’ve never been brave enough to ask Lex outright.”

“Hhmm.”

Before my mates friends are able to resume their arguing, I pick up the phone and look at the pair of them. “Frankie, what makes you think that if we stay here and the two of you come to us, that he wouldn’t follow you? On the off chance that he does follow you, how would you coming here mean that Darcy is any safer than if we meet you at the cave like we planned?”

Frankie’s mouth opens and closes repeatedly as Lexi smirks and answers for her partner. “Exactly! For all we know, that twat waffle is already following us and knows that you’re in Maryland, because he’s been tailing us since we left our house yesterday! Daddy and his guys are in Gettysburg on business, so it wouldn’t take them long to meet us there. I would feel a lot better knowing they’re coming too. I just want D safe.” She shoots a glare at Frankie, whose eyes narrow.

I look at my mate and see that she’s chewing on her thumb. “What do you think, little mate? What would make you feel the safest?”

She removes her thumb from between her teeth and sighs before stepping closer and wrapping her arms around me. Together we face her friends on the phone before my mate tells them what she thinks. “Honestly, I think Lexi is right. Usually, I’d agree with Frankie and want to keep Mister Reed out of this… But if Mat is half as pissed as I think he is, then we’re going to need your dad, Lex. The more eyes on us, the better. It doesn’t hurt that your dad thrives in situations like this.” She lifts and drops a shoulder.

I pull my mate even closer to my chest and rest my chin on the top of her head. Frankie softly smiles, then dips her head in acceptance. “You’re right, Darce. We’ll call him as soon as we get off the phone with you and let him know to meet us the day after tomorrow at the main entrance for the park. You better make sure to keep your phone where you can see and hear it at all times though, Darcy. I’m not even kidding. If one of us calls or texts you, you need to respond right away. Otherwise, I’m going to be a fucking mess.”

My mate playfully rolls her eyes in the most exaggerated manner I’ve ever seen. “Yes, Mom.”

That makes all of us chuckle, and just like that, the heavy mood shifts. Darcy squeezes me once before stepping back a few feet. Taking that as my cue to finish pulling out our food, I pick up the box of crackers and shake it until quite a few land on the wood board. Straightening them into two rows, I grab the package of cheese and rip it open. Several slices land on the board next to the crackers, but a few also land on the edge of the counter near the metal basin for washing. With one hand I grab them, and with the other I open drawers until I find something I can use to cut the cheese into smaller pieces that will fit on the crackers.

Spotting a knife, I carefully pull it from the drawer and slice the cheese into squares, placing them near the crackers. I close the remaining cheese the best I’m able, then move my attention to the bowl of fruit. I’ve not encountered a bowl that’s sealed before, so it takes me a moment to figure out how to open it. Once I do, my nose is filled with the scents of perfectly ripened strawberries, a bright red melon of some sort, and an almost tangy purple and green ball of some kind.

Just as I pick one of the purple balls up to inspect, my mate approaches my side again. “Oh! It’s a charcuterie board! And it has my favorite fruits!” Noticing that my hand is hovering over the purple balls, she explains what the unidentified fruits are. “The green and purple are different grapes. The red is watermelon. Here, try the watermelon first.”