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They raced, and once again, Micah beat Lucy by just a little bit.
“I let you win,” Lucy said. “I didn’t want to hurt your manly pride.”
“Oh, really,” Micah said. “We could do this all day if you want to.”
“Nah, I’m good. I know what I know,” she said.
Micah laughed and the two of them trotted through the snow in a comfortable silence for a while. He loved how the coolness felt against his body and the sweet smell of the air. He had roamed mountains his entire life, but each one had its own brand of beauty. He gloried in the bare branches of the white barked aspen trees, the trembling branches of the Colorado blue spruce, and the dark green elegance of the pine trees.
“It’s incredible,” Lucy said, as she took in the same serene scene.
“Yes, it is,” Micah replied. “I can’t imagine having this place so near yet being unable to enjoy it.”
After a couple of hours, they headed back toward the area where they had left their clothes.
Their ears pricked up when they heard the voices coming from a clearing in the trees.
“Have you checked all the cameras?” a woman asked.
“I have. There hasn’t been anyone around them in a while,” a short man, with a rifle slung over his shoulder said.
“Maybe we should move them. All the shifters in the area may have figured out where we put the cameras and are avoiding them.”
“We could do that, but not today,” the man said.
“You know, when Raf hired us, he said that there were a lot of shifters in this area,” the woman complained. “I’ve only seen the two shifters that were caught on the camera.”
“You mean the dragon shifter and bear shifter?”
“Yeah, and they got away. They wouldn’t have gotten away if I had been there,” she said.
“I don’t know. Regular shifters are easy to handle, but dragon shifters are a lot harder since they have that built in armor and flame thrower,” the man said. “I’m glad it was them and not me.”
“I guess,” she said. “I’m hungry. Let’s head back.”
Lucy and Micah watched the two hunters head back down the mountain.
“Wow, they are brutal,” Lucy said. “They are bloodthirsty.”
“There are always going to be those who like to kill for the sake of killing. Just like the hunters who go big game hunting just to make themselves feel more powerful than they really are,” Micah said in disgust.
The encounter with the hunters dampened their mood somewhat as they made their way to the tree where they had hidden their clothes. They quickly shifted and dressed and then wiped away their wolf tracks in the area.
“Hopefully, either the snow will melt before anyone comes up here or it will snow again,” Lucy said.
“I hope so,” Micah replied. “Although this really doesn’t tell them anything other than the fact that there are shifters in the area, which they already know.”
Micah dropped Lucy off at her car and they met up at the inn.
“Why don’t we just eat here tonight,” Lucy suggested. “There food is good, and I don’t really feel like going out again.”
“Sounds good, but remember, you’re buying dinneranddessert,” Micah goaded.
“I know. If I knew that you would gloat this much about winning, I wouldn’t have let you win,” Lucy replied.
“Your legs are shorter than mine and I’m faster than you. I gave you a head start, and I still beat you,” Micah teased.
“My legs are long enough to reach the ground,” Lucy said. “Besides, being lower to the ground gives me an advantage.”
