Chapter Five:
Male Bonding During the Ladies Picnic…
Stephen POV:
After we left the ladies we began discussing how we could get a better game plan ready for when we want to go try and grab the children in the pack. "I'll catch up with you guys in a minute. I just have to run to meet someone first." I called out before heading towards Pythia's coven house. I know the trackers still need to go back to gain more intel on the pack, and for that they will need to cover their scent somehow. Then the idea came to me, who better to go to for help at covering scents than a witch? As I approached the house, I walked up to the door. When I did not see anyone, I pushed it open slightly, and looked around. "Lillith? Are you here?" I announced loudly.
"I'm over here!" I heard her call out from down the hallway. I walked towards the kitchen, when I got there I saw her standing at the counter sipping her coffee. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Lillith asked with a smile.
"We are going to be sending out trackers to try and find the children at the pack that has been taken over, but their scent needs to be masked, is there anything you have that can help out?" I asked, hopeful she would have something for me to give to the guys.
"How many trackers will be going?" Lillith asked as she put her cup down, turned, and walked off down the hallway off the kitchen.
"Ten at most. We don't want to overdo it and give them away." I replied, as I began following her.
"Not a problem at all. Where do they plan on being? Just in the woods? Will they be mainly on the ground or up in the trees like the guardians?" She asked as she begab rummaging around in one of the many rooms they have dedicated to spells.
"Um… All three? Honestly, I never really thought about it. Why? Does it matter?"
"Of course it matters, we make specific scent masking sprays depending on where everyone is going to be located. You can't mask a scent without knowing the area. Think about it, the air smells different in the branches of a tree as opposed to the smell down on the ground, while a densely forested area smells different than just walking trough a small grove. Being that our senses of smell are heightened more than a regular human we really need to make sure we cover as many bases as possible."
"Wow. I had not thought of it like that but it does make perfect sense."
"What did you forget how much of an amazing sense of smell I have? Alley and Rose would be so disappointed in you. Hopefully the kids got her intelligence." Denver chimed in.
"That's alright though, no matter. I have just what you need right here." Lillith said, handing me a bag full of spray bottles. "Make them spray this on themselves, all over, as much as needed. Be sure to use A LOT the first time before they go out."
I tied the bag and looked at her, "Thank you for this. I owe you one."
"I'll take you up on that when the time comes. Good luck Stephen." I nodded my head and turned back around, letting myself out of the house. Things have been so much easier lately now that the stress of having to figure everything out on a whim is no longer there. I quickly ran back over to meet the guys. I could see them all standing out front with about eight trackers.
"Hey where did you run off to?" Collin yelled as I approached.
"I went to see Lillith. All of you will need to mask your scents so you aren't caught. She said to spray this on yourselves as much as possible and then after the initial application, you only have to spray as needed." I replied, passing out the bottles. The liquid inside was brown and green and they all looked at it hesitantly. "It's fine I promise, they make stuff all the time." I said.
"I think they should take shifts. It's too risky sending all of them at once." Josh said.
"They could do twelve hour shifts in groups of four?" Pierce said, seemingly thinking out loud.
"Ehhhh, I feel like that's pushing it a little bit." Josh responded.
"The lands are a little big so they can split from four to two in order to circle the area." I replied. "That would work, we will be up high in the trees to watch over in case they get a little far apart from each other. Nothing will happen to them." Baine said, walking up to us.
The more I looked at him the more exhausted he looked and I felt kind of bad. They have been working overtime to get us information and we never really stopped to think about them. "Why don't you all eat and get some sleep and we start in the morning. I'm sure things will be fine." I said. On the outside I could see he looked fine but in his eyes I could see the exhaustion. "We will be fine." Baine replied. "Don't be stubborn about this. We know you guys are like gods but you still need to eat and sleep." Collin said. "We take shifts." Baine replied. "Come on man, let us help you a little, you can try to hide it all you want but we all know what it's like to be tired." I said trying not to play the upper hand on him. "We just need a few hours." Baine finally said. "Take till morning. I'll tell Jackson and Ambrosia that I'm the one who said it was alright so you don't have to worry about getting into trouble or anything." I replied. Baine nodded his head and walked off and I hoped he would let the others know. "Think he will listen?" Pierce asked. "I don't know but I hope so, they need to know that they are appreciated too." I replied. "We will let the women handle that side of things, we will just pay for it all." Devin laughed. I rolled my eyes and laughed, it was true. The ladies were good at planning stuff and we were good at paying for it.