Chapter Text
The trail grew cold after the creek, where the trees and bushes packed more densely together and the light was slowly closed out around them. Shadows of trunks and branches cast gentle lines on the woodland camoflage of the team's uniforms, and harsher bars on their faces. Twigs and leaves crackled and rustled underfoot - her sharp ears flicked at every one, trying to track the source and finding only the other three's footsteps.
The wind shifted and a new scent rolled onto her tongue, warm and coppery and close. Rogelio grumbled quietly behind her - he smelt it too.
"Blood?" Lonnie whispered quietly for verification.
Catra nodded, trying to pinpoint the location. "Not far. Doesn't smell human, but it could be a hybrid I'm not familiar with. Lots of blood - could be a trap, or an injured rebel, or a coincidence."
"We know they came this way out of Thaymor," Kyle pointed out, eyes wide. "What are the odds that it's not them?"
"There's always a chance," Lonnie mumbled. "I'm just hoping we don't have to do another field interrogation. Those things put me on edge." Rogelio growled an agreement.
"Stay close for now. Spread out on my signal when we get within 50 metres and keep in eyeshot. We don't know what's up there yet so quiet as possible on all senses please. Switched on. Follow my steps." Catra made eye contact with her team one by one, getting a nod from each before she turned and moved out, tail swaying gently behind her.
Her steps were light, weight on the balls of her feet and eyes picking out the best path ahead. An animal track converged with their route and diverged again, recently scented - perhaps a boar. The three behind her were next to silent besides their breaths and heartbeats. A bird trilled overhead, fluttering to a lower branch and observing them as they approached. Catra's claws flexed silently and she flashed it a snarl. It retreated.
A couple of minutes later they spied a small clearing up ahead and Catra gave the signal to spread out. Rogelio and Kyle went left, Lonnie right. This was it.
The rebels enjoyed the relative freedom of Etheria's wooded areas, staying largely underground beside that. The Horde mostly used bots outside of the forests, but experienced sentient fighters and trackers were required for the interior spaces where bots would get tangled and lost. Any areas where there were gaps, paths, or clearings were fair game to expect all sorts of booby traps, and this seemed typical of one. The only question was whether the blood was from an unfortunate victim or some sort of trap for the hybrids the Rebellion know the Horde like to send out on patrols.
They surrounded the clearing. The light pouring through the canopy was pretty in how it played with the leaves of the bushes that surrounded it, blocking any sight lines in. Lonnie was facing away from the sun, Kyle towards, and Rogelio on the far side to Catra. All angles were covered.
She held up ten fingers to her crew, then started moving through the brush. Her sense of balance, her fur, and her better-adjusted eyes all meant that she was most able to slip through unnoticed. She was through the worst of it and had a view into the centre when she heard the team start to make their way in a count of ten after she had.
There was a clearer pathway in from Rogelio's side, and she presumed that was where the boar had come in from. Its blood pooled towards the centre, glinting darkly. A blade had struck it from above in the middle of the back, and was still in there, attached to a segment of a branch that appeared to have once been a part of the tree above.
There were no obvious signs of any remaining danger or sentient life in the clearing, but Catra stayed alert. "Seems clear, proceed with caution," she said, loud enough to be heard, still scanning every corner, until first Rogelio, then Lonnie, then Kyle made their way out of the shrubbery.
"Nasty way to go," Lonnie said.
Rogelio grumbled and nodded.
Catra moved closer, convinced the rest of the clearing was safe. "What's the blade on that thing, Lonnie?"
"Metal, looks like. Iron or steel."
"Must have come from a height to sever the spine like that. And be well balanced with the log." It had clearly fallen horizontally the whole way, but Catra couldn't see a clear holding point, and the balance on that would've been hard to achieve. She frowned. "The boar got a bit of distance after it was hit, you can tell from the blood trail. This thing was set up just after that branch coming through at chest height. Any of us coming through the main gap would've ducked under, and we'd be finished."
Kyle shuddered. "Lucky it came through first."
Rogelio was wiggling the log to get the blade out of the boar. Catra winced, looking away, and something caught her eye in the canopy. Something glinting.
A flash of claws and five seconds later Catra was up the tree, peering at a section of wire fastened in place around the trunk.
There was no identifying scent. Two wires she expected had looped away and over branches to hold the blade in the air were severed close to the knot. She thought she could tell which branches they'd been looped between, but it wasn't entirely clear - in any case, the wires would have fallen with their makeshift guillotine. She guessed it would have been 6 or 7 meters above ground - it would take about a second to fall to the height of someone ducking under the lower branch.
Sure enough, about half a foot before the branch she found the remnants of a thin tripwire, well camoflaged but still present. The linking mechanism was tangled in the bushes, and she didn't know how much time they had, but she would have spent a long while looking through the mechanics if she could have.
They'd lost the rebel trail, and there were no signs to continue from in the clearing. That and the bloody corpse meant that it would be increasingly dangerous to stay - whether due to predators, like the massive spider-bug-things none of them could explain and all of them had nightmares about, or due to rebels coming back to check their trap once they realised it had been sprung.
"Let's not waste the rest of the day. It's getting late, we've got no trail, this thing will draw attention. We need to get back to Thaymor."
"Take a look at this first, boss," Lonnie told her. Rogelio had extracted the log and the blade from the boar's back. "No matter how you drop it, it lands horizontal, blade down. They didn't make it here and balance it like that. They brought it with them."
"Lot of metal for a one-use trick." The rebels liked to use sharpened sticks, preferably poisoned, against the Horde trackers. Anything heavy-dutty was usually saved for the bots.
"Could be it's supposed to be reused. Some local hunting for boars and nothing to do with us."
"The location doesn't make sense," said Kyle. "It's set up just after any of us would have to duck and couldn't see it, why do that for a boar? Plus a local would come take it down when they knew Horde or Rebels were in the area, so they don't get blamed if anyone dies."
Catra hmmed. "Any wires attached?"
Rogelio shook his head.
"We've found all we're going to here. Take that thing with you, we'll ask about it in the town."
They moved out, deep in thought.
It was only a couple of minutes later that Rogelio's questioning rumble broke the silence. Catra raised a hand, wait, then scampered up a tree, looking for any signs that they had company. Nothing but the forest's natural movement from the breeze in all directions.
"Low volume, but go for it. This shit needs talking through." She dropped back down to the front.
"Thank fuck," Lonnie said, "I just don't get it. Kyle's right - if it's local, it'd be cleared, if it's rebel, it's weird."
"Could be from a local who died when the rebels attacked Thaymor?" Kyle suggested.
"Thaymor was Horde?"
"That's what they said at briefing. 'Track fleeing rebels after an attack on the village.' Oh... I guess maybe not, then. And it wasn't on our maps last quarter review."
The silence was awkward for a couple of seconds. "I thought it was listed as rebel-aligned last quarter," Catra told them. "Could be they switched and the rebels didn't like it." The alternative was left unsaid.
"Either way, the attack was this morning. Not enough time to set that all up without any signs, and not on their direct path as far as we know," Lonnie said. "Clearly there was some kind of trapper in the area. A good one. Whether they're still around is a different question."
"And so's why they apparently set perfect traps for us when a snare would sort a boar just as well."
Rogelio grumbled, signing that they would know more after visiting the town.
It's a solid 40 minutes or so until they get to the edge of the small town. They'd been dropped off on the outskirts by a skiff, but it's left to rejoin the main military camp on the other side of Thaymor.
Catra lead them through the wide, empty streets. Smells of fruits and spices were layered below those of charred flesh and fried circuits. It was not a good combination.
A local peered out of a window at them, eyes widening when Catra's gaze met his. "You," she said, "does anyone in this town work as a trapper?"
The man froze, glancing back into the house for a second. "Not any more. Died this morning."
"You sure about that?" Catra raised an eyebrow.
"My husband saw it. Just after the Horde attacked, before anyone had a chance to organise and fight back. Our youngest, too." There were tears in his eyes. A slightly shorter man stepped up next to him and put an arm around his waist for comfort.
Catra swallowed. "I'm sorry for your loss."
What more was there to say?
They left Thaymor in near ruins. Houses nearest the center and towards the Horde camp had taken the worst of the force, with any fighters having fled once the outcome was clear. Cleanup teams had piled trashed bots and their victims together on a pyre that stank of bitter loss and unfeeling shame. The smoke stung, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
On the skiff back, Lonnie spoke quietly to Catra as Rogelio pulled Kyle close opposite them. "How did you know it was rebel-aligned? Kyle was right, it's not on our main report maps."
"They publish full lists separately."
"And you memorised them?!"
"No. I kept an eye out for this place." Catra paused. "I spent a couple of years here as a kid at one point. Wanted to check in."
"Ah."
"It doesn't mean anything. We'll be back to normal schedule next week, looking for the rebel base. No Thaymor, no mysterious trapper. Today won't be relevant again."
Lonnie nodded. "Normal schedule next week."
Next week, Octavia returned from a patrol missing half her limbs, half her team, and an eye.