Chapter 16
Stone didn't know what to think, but all he cared about was protecting Rune. He guessed he'd always felt that way about her from the first time she'd seen him and given him a love bite. It was the only way he could look at it. She was beautiful, smart, and just his kind of wolf.
He didn't really care about being a pack leader, though he still wanted to win against the others. It was just his competitive nature.
He thought Rune was the same way.
"I can't believe you were nearly dead when you were born, you were finally abandoned, and you ended up here," Vesper said, learning Stone's secret as they walked into the weapons room.
As if it was no big deal, Stone shrugged. "We all have to start some way."
"You're not going to win." Vesper sounded so sure of himself.
Stone always loved a dare—Rune was always daring him to catch more fish than her or run or swim faster—and he figured he could win against Vesper even if Stone didn't beat anyone else out. He was eager to finish him off.
"I think you might be missing a few brain cells," Stone said, smiling, since he and Rune had already won most of the challenges.
The next day, fae competitors were dropped off on a field marked by evenly spaced rolls of hay.
The field was a patchwork of golden cylinders, a maze of uniform shapes that stretched to the horizon.
They looked to be six feet tall and around five feet in diameter.
This was going to be some kind of a challenge.
The Game Master said, "A wolf totem is buried in a haystack in the Haystack Challenge.
One hundred rolls of hay are here to search, and there is only one totem to find.
The first to find it wins. You have twenty-four hours to locate it.
Since you're wolves, you can see at night, so you won't have any trouble looking for it after dark if you're all still out here. "
"Is it all right to be a wolf to find it?" Caspian asked.
"Yes," the Game Master said. "Wolf or fae is fine."
The field was quiet in the way open spaces always are—wind moving through dry stalks near the baled hay with a low, papery rustle that made it hard to hear anything approaching. A red barn was off in the distance, cattle in a fenced-in field, and a forest surrounding the whole area.
A farmer was out feeding his chickens and paused to watch the fae gathered at the beginning of the bales of hay. Stone figured the Game Master had paid him to use the hay for this competition, and then the farm would have to use a round baler to create the round bales of hay again.
“What are you going to do?” Stone asked Rune.
"I don't know; I might switch back and forth. I could probably use my fae form to climb on top first, then pull off the hay, and when it is flatter, dig as a wolf. I think we'll need to start at the top of them."
"That sounds like a good plan." He would have done that if he hadn't asked Rune first.
"What about you?"
"I'll probably copy you."
She laughed.
He loved her laughter and smiled. "I'm serious."
"I know you are."
The two packs were gathered together farther away, making their plans. Lolita was now an omega wolf, on her own, with no one inviting her in. She didn't go close to the lone wolves either, probably worried she would be in worse trouble with her own pack.
Stone couldn't believe that he and Rune could get the two fighting packs together like that. He really thought it was both amazing and amusing.
Even though Stone would like to help Lolita with the mission, he knew she wanted to handle it the way that made her feel comfortable.
Stone also glanced at Lolita, and he knew she wanted to do the same thing.
But he didn't plan to work with Rune either. At least that was the plan. When it came to Rune, his plans often went out the window.
He didn't mind as long as she stayed safe. And he would keep an eye out for Lolita too, if she didn't tackle a haystack too far away from them.
The rolls of hay looked like they went on forever across the field.
"Wow," Rune said. "That's going to be fun. Not."
Stone agreed.
Everyone lined up to tackle their first haystack.
The whistle blew, and they ran toward a haystack.
But on the way to the first one, Rune kept running.
Stone wasn't going to follow her. Still, she might have a good idea.
Everyone was going to the closest haystacks so they could start searching right away.
But why have so many stacks if they were just going to put the totem in one of the first ones?
Rune reached the last one, climbed to the top of it, and started yanking the stack apart that she had targeted. He started on the one next to hers.
She glanced at him and laughed. "You are a copycat."
"Nope, I just agree with your logic." He started digging away. This would be not only a job and a half, but it required a lot of luck, because even if they searched the right bale of hay, he was afraid they could miss seeing the totem.
The outer layer of each bale was rough and unyielding, individual stalks sharp enough to catch skin, the twine cutting into fingers when gripped. At least his new boots protected his feet, but his hands were getting cut. He thought of shifting into the wolf, though that could be hard too.
Pressing a hand into the side of a roll, Stone found it harder than expected—tightly packed, dense enough that the straw barely gave, like pushing against a concrete wall made of dried-out grass.
The cut ends of the stack prickled and scratched, and while Stone tore at the straw and tossed it to the ground, his fingers reddened and were laced with fine, almost invisible scrapes.
Then he saw Lolita still trying to reach one of the last hay bales. They were five across and twenty deep. It would take forever.
She began digging at her stack when Vesper abandoned his bale and ran in their direction toward one of the five that were left untouched at the end of the field.
Then Xena saw where he was headed and took off after him.
Before either could reach the bales, Rune said, "Watch it not be in one of these, thinking some of us would believe it would be at the very end."
Stone agreed with her. He loved her logic. "So where do you think it would be?"
"Maybe two or three rows back."
"Or four or five," Lolita said, digging away.
"But not close to the front," Stone said.
It would be too easy to find it more quickly if it was buried in one of the stacks at the front of the rows.
Well, easy in that they wouldn't have to try multiple stacks.
Not easy in actually locating it in all that hay, but if they did, they wouldn't have to mess with any more haystacks.
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.