Search
He hadn’t enjoyed the comfort of his cot after his journey before he was determined to restart it, this time in search of something. Not far, but not close. Not hard, but not easy. Maybe he’d find it soon, maybe never. That made him wonder, how on earth was he going to find it in the first place? How did Leland even get it here if there was no mail? By magic, of course, but how did that help Jared? If the boxes were just magically teleported here like it seemed they always were, then there was little chance Leland left a trail of anything.
But that didn’t seem to occur to Jared, not even as he thought it. If something was in his territory without his putting it there, it was there without his consent. His tiger instincts flared at the thought. Coming here and planting things without my permission? I don’t think so. Trail or not, he would use everything in his disposal to find those boxes. It would be his last little adventure in this world where he couldn’t eat or make friends. He did not know what lands the next suits would bring him to, but he they had to be better than this place. Jared had not enjoyed the comfort of his cot before he began another journey into the forest, determined to find out what Leland had in store next for him.
More time was spent eying the earth beneath his feet than the forest around him, looking for possible clues or a trail Leland had left for him. There was the occasional hoof print of prey animal and the sudden, jerking urge to go on the hunt, but nothing proving that a human had been there. Square miles of territory, and I’m supposed to find a couple boxes. Like finding a needle in a needle stack. The doubts rumbled in the back of his mind like a distant thunderstorm but were drowned out by the more prescient roar of indignation by how his territory had been penetrated. Maybe this is why Leland hid the boxes, he thought at one point. He knew I would go after it like this. The old fart is probably watching me right now, having a blast. He kept track of the landmarks as he crossed them. There was the river, some hills, a cliff, the valley. It took hours upon hours just to come to one after he’d left the other, and it would take days, if not weeks, to scour all of it. Just keep searching. Don’t turn back now. You’ve come too far. Not gonna let that mischievous magician have the satisfaction of making me give up.
He came across something at last. In a patch of woods not unique to the hundreds of others that defined his territory, his nose caught the strangest of scents. He couldn’t define it at first, though each whiff of the vaporous clue sent ripples of familiarity through his fur, sending it into a floof. What is that? He sniffed a few times. That’s not right. That’s not something natural to this place. He sniffed some more. But it’s so familiar. I’ve smelled it before. Just a few more deep, chest-swelling whiffs. A store. A building. Thrift shop… The moment it clicked his black-tipped tiger ears flicked upright. Get It Here. Leland’s shop. One last huff through the nostrils confirmed it. Just that ribbon of smell was what threw Jared back to the place where he had met the mysterious old man and bought the skunk onesie, the place that had catapulted him into all this madness. Jared’s tiger tail started to flick wildly. The box. It’s close.
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 02 June 2024