Page 58 of The Chosen Fae

Every bale released the same dry, warm scent into the air—sun-cured grass. The scent clung to their clothing and skin.

"Should we check deeper into the columns?" Stone asked. He couldn't believe he was asking for advice from Rune when he normally made all his decisions for himself by himself.

Rune didn’t stop, and neither did Stone or Lolita as they discussed the matter.

"I would hate it if I got half this pile down and then I moved to another, and then someone else finished this one and found it."

"Agreed." But he moved to one two rows away, and she moved to the one next to him.

"But I don't really think anyone will find it in either the first row in front or back." Rune began digging furiously at her new stack.

Lolita moved to the third row and started to dig, leaving her stack, which had only been torn apart a little, for someone else to deal with.

The other fae were still digging at their stacks in the front row. When they had torn them down to the ground, they looked to see where everyone else was.

Stone was amused that they had suddenly realized they might not be doing the right thing. They headed to the stacks next to Rune and Stone. This time, he worked on his stack until he had scattered the hay all over.

He went to the fourth row from the end this time and dug at the haystack, glancing at Rune, who had just finished her haystack, but she was in her wolf form now. Then she tore toward a bale in the fifth row and began working.

She was digging with her front paws so hard that she was scattering the hay in half the time it was taking her when she was in her fae form.

He shifted into his wolf and began digging even faster. Yeah, this was a lot better. He hadn't thought it would be, but he was making some real progress. Once he was done, he went to the stack next to him and began digging.

Rune was still on the fifth row, on a new stack. Vesper and Xena turned into their wolves, dug around in their scattered hay, found nothing, and moved to the fourth row.

All the wolves convened on the fourth and fifth rows as if Rune and Stone had some inside knowledge of where the item was.

Lolita was still working on her second stack when Rune moved to the tenth row. He smiled at her. She was right. The item could be anywhere. And if they worked their way from both ends, it could be right in the middle.

He moved to the ninth row behind her. She didn't notice because she was so busy digging at her own stack. But halfway into his stack, he thought he might have found the item. He woofed at her, almost inaudibly so the other wolves wouldn't hear him. Since she was close to him, she heard and glanced his way. She was still digging, though.

He poked his nose at the place where he saw the item partially covered. She shifted. "You found it?" she whispered.

"Yeah. Come join me."

She hesitated.

"Come on. I followed you all over the place because of your natural instincts. Join me."

She shifted into her wolf and leaped from her haystack onto his, and she smiled when she saw he had found it. She and he dug until they completely uncovered it. And then together, they took hold of it like a dog with its bone, playing tug of war, leaped off what was remaining of the haystack, and ran toward the finish line.

Everyone was too busy to notice that they had found the item. Stone and Rune raced to the finish line and crossed it, but nothing happened. Had they done something wrong?

They sat down with the prize at their feet. They couldn't see the other wolves from their vantage point because they were beyond so many of the haystacks. Stone couldn’t help but feel anxious, and he smelled Rune’s anxiousness also.

Rune shifted. "Did we do something wrong? Maybe this was a decoy, and we didn't get the right object."

Stone shifted. "I don't know. I could go and search some more while you stay here with our prize."

Then the Game Master came out to speak with them. "Sorry for the delay. I got held up. You both won. But we'll let the others look for a while longer."

Now that was the fae way.

Lolita finally headed for another stack of hay, and between the bales, she saw Rune and Stone sitting with their treasure beyond the finish line and the Game Master watching over things.

Stone waved the item in the air so that Lolita would see they had it. She ran through the bales of hay to reach them, then jumped all over them in an exuberant way.

They hugged her, and then they all sat together while they waited for the Game Master to signal an end to the game. She finally called it after another hour.