Smoke and Mirrors - 3

“Catch me if you can.”

Daniel shifted to his jaguar form, something that never failed to make Jared wince when he saw it even though Daniel assured him that, after all the years of doing it, it was painless. With easy grace Daniel leapt to a low-hanging branch and then to another higher up on the next tree. Jared chuckled as he gauged where Daniel would probably head for next and lifted off the ground to land on a branch a hundred or so yards from where he’d begun.

The jaguar shook its head and sprang off to the left, landing on all fours on the ground before racing off through the trees.

Jared followed, soon running apace with the jaguar. “You don’t win that easily,” he commented with a laugh. The jaguar gave a soft roar in return that almost sounded as if he were laughing, before speeding up so that Jared was hard-pressed to keep him in view.

The full Long Nights Moon cast its glow between the trees making the shadows deeper and seemingly more chill, even in the warm evening. Suddenly the jaguar drew to a stop across the narrow passage between two trees, turning its head, its eyes gleaming as the moon hit them.

::Don’t move::

Jared obeyed immediately, trusting Daniel’s instincts.

::We have company, although they don’t know we’re here, so far::

::Who, or what?:: Jared asked.

::Two humans, one fairy they’ve caught, although they seem to think it’s some sort of strange insect::

::Damn::

::No shit Sherlock. I could let them see me but that would only make them run. They have her in a bottle like she was a firefly or something::

::Allow me:: Jared slipped silently past Daniel into the small clearing. “Find something interesting?” he asked the man and woman who stood there.

The man hurriedly put the bottle behind his back. “Naw, it’s just a night flying insect for the museum’s collection. Nothing special but one of the aides managed to muck up the one we had on display so…” He shrugged.

“Really? May I see it? I’m a bit of an amateur entomologist.” As Jared spoke he caught the man’s eye and held out his hand.

The man stepped forward to hand him the jar. The woman started to protest vehemently until Jared looked at her. “Why do you care?” he asked quietly as he took it.

“Because, oh never mind, we’ll just find another one. Where there’s one there are more, it’s a fact of nature.”