Harold had little difficulty tracking Josephine. Between the familiar smells of the SUV and his luggage in the back and Josephine’s scent, it was like a multi-coloured ribbon going down the street. Josephine’s scent had changed. It had become earthier, slightly less like ceramic and more like clay. Something else to put in his nightly report. Harold walked along the sidewalk and followed the scent to a fishing goods store. Josephine had gone in and quickly left. Nothing for her there. Walking on Harold realized Josephine had slowed down twice, each time while passing one of the two laundromats in town. As he walked, the low, multi-hued grey clouds that has been threatening rain all day finally released a steady and heavy drizzle. Not a full rain, just a heavy drizzle. It reduced the smell of the trail his was following, but not by much. Just past the second laundromat Harold saw the SUV. It was parked outside a shop that seemed to be several shops in one. Walking in Harold found he was right. Smells of a coffee shop, clothing, groceries, hardware and more greeted him.
“Can I help you find something?” Harold turned to see an older man carrying a box of socks.
“Yes. I’m looking for a lady. Blondish hair, long skirt, baggy sweatshirt.”
“Oh, yeah, I think a couple of the staff were still helping her over at camping gear.” He lifted the box in the direction he nodded to. “She seems set on cleaning us out. I hope you brought your wallet with you.”
“Thanks. I did and so did she.” Harold followed the clerk’s directions and Josephine’s smell. Rounding an aisle he found her and two younger men helping her load camping gear, clothes, trail mix, maps, and more into a trolley. She caught his scent and turned to him.
“Harold! This place is amazing! Look at all this.” She seemed honestly joyful as she waved her hand over the filled to capacity trolley. “And the prices are ridiculous! I’ve cleared out the discount racks of everything that could fit me, and even found you a couple of pairs of pants.” Harold couldn’t help but smile back at her. “You are a 34’ waist 33’ length right?” She asked.
“Yes, last I checked.” The two clerks gave Harold worried smiles. Harold could smell the pheromones churning around them like little hurricanes. Before they were in competition with each other for Josephine. Now there was this big red head to contend with.
“You almost done cleaning the place out or do you have some aisles yet to pillage?” Harold asked in all seriousness.
“Oh, there’s a few more aisles to go. Why don’t you go get a pastry or something and I’ll come and get you when I’m done?” Josephine suggested.
“Leave something for the other shoppers.” Replied Harold and walked to where he could smell the coffee and pastries. Before he got there he noticed the collection of knives in the glass counter by the camping gear cash register. He didn’t need a knife, but there might be something interesting in the collection they had on display. As he was looking them over a young woman in her early twenties came over.
“Can I help you with anything?” She asked in a tone devoid of any attempt to sound helpful. Harold looked up from the knives. She was about as non-descript of a local girl as you could get. Brown hair, brown eyes, and clothes that looked like she didn’t care when she picked them out from the dirty clothes hamper or the closet.
“Oh, no, just looking, thanks.” Replied Harold with a smile. His recent flirtations with Kelli had put him in the frame of mind that any woman could be flirted with.
“Ok. Well, let me know if you need help or something.” She walked away with slumped shoulders to sort through a box of fisherman’s gloves. Harold realized the clerk he’d met when he first walked in was looking at him. The clerk walked behind the counter and unlocked the cabinet saying, “You’ll have to excuse her. She’s been like this ever since the love of her live left and never came back.” He pulled out three different knives and laid them on the counter.
“Now you look like a man that knows knives and how to use them properly. I’m guessing ex-military?” Harold picked up a knife with a compass on the pommel and heard what he knew would be a fire starting kit inside the hilt.
“No. I don’t have that honour I’m afraid. More of a specialized private military.” Harold didn’t want to go into any details so he followed up with,
“And you? US Marine Corp or perhaps US Army Rangers?” Harold had spent enough time over the decades working with ex-military from several countries and branches. They provided weapons and tactics training for hire to the ulfhednar without knowing who they were really training. It had given him a fairly accurate sense of what branch someone was by the way they stood, looked at him and asked a question.
“Marine Corps. Though I can understand how you might mistake a Ranger for a Marine. Some of them are half decent.” The clerk’s smile was wry. Harold thought about the clerk’s scent a little more. It carried a lot of smells from the forest.
“You spend a lot of time hunting these woods?” Asked Harold as he tossed the knife up and caught it by the hilt a few times.
“Since I was a kid. Left to do eight years in the Marines. Got back and picked back up where I left off. You got some particular game in mind? There’s a few months ‘til hunting season starts, so the only thing you can really hunt right now is coyote.” Harold thought back to the truck he and Josephine found.
“You have a problems around here with people hunting out of season?”
The clerk shrugged a little.
“Not so much. We have a lot of hikers all spring and summer so someone trying to hunt illegally is found pretty easy. Even so, it’s a big peninsula and someone that knows it well could hide out and hunt it all year long and not get caught.” The clerk was looking at Harold a little more intently and he could detect a slight whiff of suspicion mixed in with his scent.
“Well, when I’m out hiking I’ll make sure to report any gunshots or indications of hunting. Who should I report them to?” The scent of suspicion from the clerk dropped a little.
“Any ranger or the town’s sheriff. He’s usually here around dinner time to get a bite and pick up his daughter.” The clerk jutted his chin in the direction of the sullen girl still sorting the fishing gloves. Harold could hear and smell Josephine approaching. He looked over his shoulder and saw she had two carts being pushed by two young men following her.
“Thanks for display of knives and the conversation. I think my friend has shopped enough for one day but we might be back. We plan on hiking the area for couple of weeks.” The clerk followed Harold’s gaze and smiled.
“Damn. We may close the shop early today. Good luck my friend.” Harold caught up to Josephine as she approached a cash register.
“You don’t have some sort of shopping addiction do you?” He asked.
“No.” Josephine seemed a little insulted by the question. Harold thought back to what she’d told him about draugar and their love of fashionable clothing. Buying clothing to avoid boredom would tend to become addictive he guessed.
“Sorry. No insult intended. I see you’ve gone with the external frame backpack option. That’s my preference for long hikes. Better air circulation, easier to pack and you can just about strap on whatever you like so long as you can handle the weight.” Harold could smell the tension and sexual frustration from the two men that had been helping Josephine.
“I’ll take it from here gentlemen. Thank you.” Harold smiled and made direct eye contact with each man, one at a time.
“Oh, yeah, sure. If there’s anything else you need…” The slightly younger of the two offered. Not to be out done the second one added,
“I’ll be working here tomorrow and Friday too if you need to return anything or get something else.”
Josephine smiled sweetly at them both as she started putting her selections on the counter, “Thanks both of you. You’ve been very helpful, but I think my friend here can help me now.” She turned away from them both and looked at Harold as she did. He caught the look and stepped between Josephine and the two clerks with his back to them. They caught his hint and reluctantly left.
Josephine paid in cash and with Harold’s help loaded up the SUV. Included with all the clothes and camping gear were a pair of scissors. Getting into the SUV Harold asked, “What are the scissors for?” He suspected they were for him.
“Your beard. I’m hoping to convince you to let me trim it a little. Maybe your hair too. You look like a caveman.” Harold snorted.
“I’ll be cutting my own beard when and how I so choose.” The issue brought a question to Harold’s mind. “Do you ever need to cut your hair? All the vampires I’ve ever seen have great hair and always in the latest styles so I’m guessing it grows but I can’t see how, considering your…special physiology.”
“Thank you for saying my hair is great.” Answered Josephine running her fingers through it. “Yes. Our hair and nails grow and quickly too. It’s due to our ability to heal from just about any wound. I keep my haircut fairly functional just to make it easy to deal with.”
Now Harold was really curious.
“What do you do with the clippings? I’ve not seen or smelled any in your room when we were at the lodge. Or are you just flushing them down the toilet?”
“They disintegrate into powder once they’re cut off. Same as if we were to have limb cut off. Well except for our heads. For some reason they don’t. But I’m guessing you already knew that.” Harold thought about this for a minute. He’d cut off the arms and legs of draugar before and remembered they felt powdery to the touch as he collected them and tossed them onto a bonfire for disposal. He’d never encountered a draug that had grown a limb back as he or one of his pack mates and subsequently killed the draug that had lost a limb. Another useful bit of knowledge to add to his reports.
“This is an awkward topic. Can I ask you something?”
“Yes. Of course.” Harold hoped she wasn’t about to ask something that would jeopardize his people.
“Do you like cats?”
Harold laughed.
“Sorry. What? Do I like cats? Yes, but where did that question come from?”
“Well, you’re a werewolf so it would seem, you know, the age old cat versus dog conflict.”
Harold laughed again.
“My brother has several cats on his farm. They grow up around us and don’t consider us to be a threat or a problem whether we’re in human or ulfhedinn form. When I visit him a couple of his cats will sleep curled up with me. What about you?”
Josephine shrugged. “I don’t know really. As a child we had cats and dogs in the house. As a vampire we were taught that dogs and pigs were unclean animals. I can’t remember any of my guild members having any cats or any other kind of pet around. I’m not sure why that is.”
Harold furrowed his brow. There was mystery to solve.
