Page 8 of Hoof It
Eight
Chapter 7
Darcy
I ’m impatient as I wait for Frankie to load last night’s cam footage. My eyes keep bouncing between the laptop and the large painted rock that appeared outside my tent before I woke up this morning. Lexi walks up and hands me a steaming mug of coffee that she set to brew over our fire as soon as she stepped out of her and Frankie’s tent.
I know that I should be freaked out over something like this just showing up outside my tent, but I’m not. Maybe I’m losing my mind or Mat managed to break me. Whatever the reason, I can’t keep my eyes off the gorgeous painting. The smooth, flat rock has been covered in vivid flowers. My two favorites are the deep red roses and bright yellow sunflowers. They’re all so detailed. This must have taken whoever painted it hours to do.
While I’m grateful for the beautiful item, I am curious as to who it’s from and why me? As I’m ruminating on that, Frankie speaks up. “Okay, Darce, you aren’t going to believe this…”
My head snaps up from the painted rock and my eyes take in the video clip that Frankie is watching. It’s the goatman that I saw last night across the lake.
“Wait. Pause it, Frankie.” I step closer to her laptop. The sun wasn’t quite fully risen, but there’s enough light to see all of him.
He’s tall– judging by how much he towers over my tent– he’s well over six foot. Probably closer to seven feet tall. In the light I’m able to see just how many different shades of gray are in his fur. I actually count at least five. And his eyes cause my breath to catch. They’re a shade of green that reminds me of soft moss. I find myself wanting to get lost in his eyes for the rest of my life. The fur on his face is the shade of bone. His nose is a light pink with a few black speckles. He has what appears to be some sort of twine or string cutting through his hair; I think he’s wearing a mask.
The quiet voice from the previous night whispers into my ear again, this time more clearly, “Mate… Yours.” My head snaps to the side that the voice came from but there’s no one there. I’ve got to be hearing things. I mean, my mate? What does that even mean? Both times I’ve heard the voice, I’ve been looking at the goatman. It couldn’t possibly mean that he’s my mate, could it? It’s got to be from all of the stress I’ve been under, right? Mates aren’t something that happens in real life. They’re only in romance books.
At least, that what I’ve telling myself in order to keep from freaking the fuck out. Because I am absolutely about to step over the line from calm and rational to freaking out.
Before I have a chance to spiral, Lexi speaks. “Have we for real managed to capture it on video twice? In what world are we that lucky?”
My mouth opens and closes a few times as I shake my head. “I have no idea, but I’m not complaining.”
I stand straight up as a thought occurs to me. “Wait. He couldn’t have stayed long. Look at the sun’s position. When I got up and saw this,” I lift up the rock, “the sun looked the same way it does when he’s placing it in front of my tent. I was seconds away from seeing him face to face!”
“Holy fuck.” Frankie turns her head and looks at me in disbelief before turning back to her laptop. “Guys, I think we need to add a trail cam to this area.” Her finger points to a spot on her screen and my gaze searches the specific spot in the trees that she indicated. I nod when I see it.
“Let’s eat and get ready. We have some exploring to do today.” I look between both Frankie and Lexi, waiting to see if they agree or not. Both nod. I turn and head back into my tent. I gently lay the rock down on the floor of my tent near my bed, then hurriedly change into a semi-clean pair of clothes before throwing my hair up into another messy bun. I’m fully on auto-pilot and not even thinking about what I’m doing. It’s the only way I’m able to keep from spiraling.
Lexi is sitting at the fire and she’s cooking something in a cast iron pan. Frankie is seated next to her holding a plate in each hand. Each plate has two breakfast sandwiches on it. Sitting on her lap is an empty third plate.
“Ugh. Whatever you’re making smells fan-fucking-tastic, Lex,” I groan out. Frankie turns in her seat, carefully, and extends one of her arms out towards me. I take the plate from her hand and thank her as I sit in the only empty chair.
Now that one of her hands is free, Frankie switches the empty plate on her lap with the sandwich plate so that she’s holding the empty plate. We seem to have perfect timing this morning as Lexi pulls the pan off the fire. She sets it down on the ground briefly while she digs into a large freezer bag next to her chair that I hadn’t even noticed. She pulls out, what I’m assuming are, two biscuits wrapped in foil before using a long pair of tongs to gently place them at the edge of the fire to warm up. While her biscuits warm, she switches the tongs for a spatula and gently lifts a perfectly over-easy egg up out of the cast iron and lays it on top of a sausage patty. She repeats the action with a second egg and sausage patty before she drops the spatula down and reaches for the tongs to pull her now warm biscuits out of the hot coals.
I focus on my own food and start eating while Lex finishes building her sandwiches. Frankie also starts eating. A moment later, Lexi is biting into her own. We all eat quietly thinking about various things.
I’m still stuck on the voice I keep hearing. No matter how many ways I try to dissect the two words, I can’t make the logical side of my brain make sense of them. I’ve heard both words thousands of times in my life. Though, it’s usually when I’m reading them in a book about shifters and their fated mates. I take one last bite of my second sandwich, and chew as I keep thinking. I can feel my forehead furrow.
A thumb smoothing my forehead pulls my attention back outside of my circling thoughts. I look up and over at my friends. Frankie’s hand is outstretched, her thumb still near my face.
“Babes, you’re over there thinking awfully hard.” Lexi speaks up, a look of concern on her face.
I blink and give my head a light shake to clear the thoughts. “I’m processing everything. There’s something I haven’t mentioned. I heard something, both last night and again this morning. Both times it was when I was looking at the goatman images on the screen.”
I now have the complete attention of both Lexi and Frankie. One of Frankie’s eyebrows is raised in question, and Lexi looks slightly worried.
“Breathe, guys. It’s not anything bad. It’s just…odd?” I reach up and scratch the back of my neck. “At first, I thought I was hearing shit. But now…now I don’t know.” I look around for my water bottle, and take a quick drink before speaking again.
“Every time I look at the pictures or the videos, I hear this, voice? I guess. Right in my ear. It’s soft and quiet. The first time it just said the word ‘mate’. Then this morning it said ‘mate, yours.’ Between that and goatman leaving me that rock, I don’t know what to think. Part of me wants to freak the hell out and go home and pretend none of this has happened. But a bigger, more curious part of me wants to search every inch of the woods and see if we can find him.”
“Holy shit!” Lexi looks like she’s on the verge of an excited freak out. A glance at Frankie tells me that she’s thinking it over. Lex pulls her phone out of her pocket and unlocks it before typing something quickly. She gives her phone her complete attention for a few minutes before she shoves her phone screen towards me. “Read this.”
I take her phone and read the article she has pulled up. Not believing the words on the screen, I read it a second time. Then a third just for good measure. I look up and pass it back to Lex.
“You really think that I’m the goatman’s fated mate? I want to believe in fate and soulmates just as much as everyone else, but Lex. Come on. Fated mate to a cryptid? Frankie what do you think here?” I look between the two of them.
Frankie sits deeper in her chair. She’s reaches for Lexi’s phone and reads the article I just did. “It makes sense, in a fantastical way. I mean, we read about monster and shifters and their god given mates every day. We’ve been obsessed with cryptids our entire lives. You especially. We have irrefutable proof that goatman is real, and not just some legend. So, if the article and all of the romance books are to be believed, then yeah. You very well could be its fated mate Darce.”
I slump down into my chair. Frankie is usually the logical one that keeps Lexi and I grounded in reality. The fact that she believes that fated mates are actually real has thrown me for a loop. I’m silent for a minute, just thinking.
“You know that if you really think about it, it makes sense. We all believe in soul mates. You’ve always believed in cryptids. Why should this be any less real than either of those things?”
“Well hell. You actually make a lot of sense, Frankie.” I look right at her. “Although, I am struggling to reconcile this with how logical you usually are. I thought Lexi and I were the delusional ones.”
Lexi nearly chokes on her food as she throws her head back in laughter. Frankie pats her back and hands her a bottle of water. Her laughter is contagious, and I can’t help the snort that escapes me.
“Who are you calling delusional, bitch?” Lexi demands after she manages to catch her breath. “It was you who talked me into believing in stuff like goatman and Bigfoot when we were in high school!”
I laugh even harder, remembering the first time I awkwardly mentioned my fascination with all things folklore at fifteen. “Obviously, I’m not all that delusional if I was able to get Frankie to believe in it all too.”
“She’s not wrong, Lex. She’s always made valid points regarding the existence of everything we’ve gone searching for, despite the lack of physical evidence.”
“Frankie, my sweet love. That just means that you’re easily swayed by the delusional likes of us.” Lexi motions between me and herself.
I’m laughing so hard that I’m nearly crying. “Good gods above I love the two of you.” I clutch my stomach and attempt to calm my breathing.
“We love you too. Probably almost as much as goatman is going to love you.” Lexi laughs even harder.
“Ugh. Lex, you’re ridiculous.” I roll my eyes. “Can we put a pin in this conversation until later and go searching the woods, please?”
Both nod at me and the three of us finish eating without any more side-splitting laughter. As Frankie washes up, I check on our packs and make sure we have anything we may need for a hike through the forest. I’m mostly keeping myself busy so that I’m not thinking about the past few weeks.
As I’m double checking our cans of bear spray, I feel like I’m being watched. I turn my head slightly and look back towards Lexi and Frankie, and both of them have their backs turned to me. I immediately know that it’s him from somewhere in the woods. He’s watching me…and I find that I don’t hate it.
After ensuring that we have everything we need, in triplicate, I pick up my pack, slip my arms into the shoulder straps, and fasten the small chest strap to make sure that it’s not going anywhere. Lexi and Frankie pick theirs up and do the same. Frankie has a compass in one hand, and a map in the other. The three of us stand shoulder to shoulder as Frankie points out the spot on the map where she wants us to hike to today. Each day we’ll walk a different path based on sightings. Before we set off, I pull my phone out and take a group selfie. It’s one of our traditions when we’re out searching for cryptids. Satisfied with the photo, I quickly post it to my socials before putting my phone in the side pocket of my leggings.
A couple of hours later, I’m still feeling as though I’m being watched. The three of us are walking in a straight line, Frankie in front, Lexi a few feet behind her, and me a few feet behind Lexi. So I know, once again, that it’s not them. Instead of feeling creeped out, I feel comforted.
Instead of letting myself dwell on the feeling, I speak up. “About what time do you think we’ll get to the stream?”
Frankie looks down at the map before she turns her head to the side to answer me, “At the rate we’re walking, it should only take us another half an hour or so.” She turns back forward.
For the next thirty minutes we walk in relative silence. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, I’m able to hear water. A large stream, or maybe a small river? As we walk closer to the water, Frankie stops and turns in a slow circle. Spotting a large rock, she unclips her pack and sits down with her back against it. Lexi and I follow suit. The three of us all reach into our side pouches and pull out our water bottles. We each take drinks and do some sitting stretches.
“Welcome to the Butler Branch, ladies. It’s a tributary of Piscataway Creek. And the area we’re going to explore today.” Frankie says.
She takes another drink of her water before standing up and putting her pack on again. Lexi and I stand at the same time and put our packs back on as well. As I’m clipping the chest piece, Frankie speaks again.
“Let’s split up and each pick a different area to search. Then meet back here in two hours?” She looks between Lexi and I. We both nod our agreement.
A moment later, we’re all walking in different directions. Lexi walks downstream. Frankie crosses the stream and walks a bit farther into the woods, and I walk upstream. My head is on a swivel. I still feel like I’m being watched. Now that I’m alone, it almost feels unsettling. I brush the feeling off and focus on searching for anything. Hoofprints in the mud beside the stream, tufts of fur stuck on low branches, or even signs of anything that a humanoid cryptid could call home.
After an hour of searching, the only thing I’ve seen that I can’t explain is a tall juneberry bush that is mostly picked clean. The bush is taller than my five-foot-five height by at least a foot. The short branches aren’t thick enough to hold the weight of any animals larger than a squirrel. So aside from humans, I can’t think of anything that could have picked the berries off it other than goatman. I don’t see any footprints from other humans, nor do I see any hoofprints. So, I’m at a loss. I take a few steps back and take a few pictures of the bush before I head back to our meet up spot downstream by the rocks.
Frankie is already there and waiting for us by the time I make it back. Lexi arrives a few minutes after me. They both found fruit bushes like I did and can’t explain why so many berries are missing from the higher branches. Lexi also shows us a picture of what she thinks is a set of hoofprints that lead away from the stream.
“I have a confession, guys.” Both of their heads snap towards me. “I’ve felt like someone, or something, is watching me ever since I was checking our packs back at the site.”
I swear both of their jaws hit the ground. They’re just staring at me as my words sink in. Lexi speaks first.
“What the actual fuck, Darcy? Why are you just now mentioning this? Someone has been watching you for the last almost four hours and you didn’t think you needed to speak up about it?”
I can’t tell if she’s more annoyed, pissed, or scared.
“With everything that happened to you before we left Indiana, you didn’t think that you should mention that you think someone is watching you? It could be Mat for all we know!”
She’s pissed, for sure. As well as worried about my safety.
“I understand where you’re coming from, Lexi. I do. And I love you for it. But I haven’t felt at all as if whoever is watching me has ill intentions. It’s actually felt kind of comforting. Almost as if someone has my back.”
Frankie speaks up before Lexi is able to respond. “Now that you’ve mentioned it, it does feel as if there are eyes on us. But I only feel it when you’re nearby. I’m not so sure that it’s quite as comforting for me as it seems to be for you.”
Lexi whips her head to her girlfriend and shakes it in disbelief. “No. Nope. Big fat hell no. I don’t like the thought of someone just watching any of us while we’re out in the fucking forest so far from home. It’s creepy and invasive, and I don’t fucking like it.”
She turns and faces the forest across the stream where I feel the eyes coming from. “Hey, Mister Creeper? Can you just not?! It’s weird and makes us uncomfortable as fuck!”
“Lexi,” I whisper yell at the same time Frankie hisses,“Alexiana Rochelle!” Lexi spins back around to face us, giving Frankie a dirty look for using her full name.
“What? I’m not wrong and you both know it.” She shrugs her shoulders and rolls her eyes.
Exasperated with her, Frankie huffs out a breath. “I think that we’ve looked as much as we can in this area. We should probably head back to our campsite and have lunch. Then we can upload all of our photos to the laptop and take a better look at everything.” She looks between Lexi and I before walking towards the trail we followed out here.
“Sounds good to me. I’m ready to get away from whoever is watching us.” Lexi follows Frankie.
I hesitate for a moment and edge closer to the stream. Whispering, “I know you don’t mean me any harm. I don’t mind you watching me. I kind of like it. I’m sorry my friend yelled at you. I’ve been through some terrible stuff recently and she worries, ya know?”