Alice's Arc

Chapter 15 of 20

Monday morning Alice climbed the ridge with a scent tin in her satchel and a plan she had not yet tested. Biscuit worked scent well. The tall creature answered her six signals. But she had never asked them to track together. She did not know if they would share a line or fight for it. Rose met her at the cedar in her green and yellow boots. The creature crouched behind the tree. The raccoon in the blue-green shirt sat on a stone. The bird with the red head and blue wings watched from a branch. Alice opened the tin and let them both smell the wool square inside. Then she walked off the trail and hid the square under a flat rock a hundred yards north. She came back and pointed the stick, white face out, and pulsed short-short. Mark. Biscuit's nose dropped. Rose spoke a low string of sound to the creature. He rose and set his hand on the ground beside Biscuit. Alice held her breath. Biscuit pulled north. The creature moved with him, one long step to every three of the dog's. They did not crowd each other. When Biscuit cast left off the line, the creature stopped and waited. When Biscuit locked on again, the creature followed. Halfway to the rock, the dog's ears went flat and he sat down hard. Alice froze. The creature froze with him. The bird dropped from the branch and flew ahead, low over the ferns, then circled back and landed on Rose's shoulder. Rose listened. "A deer bedded there," she said. "Not our scent." Biscuit stood on his own. Alice let out her breath. They moved on. Biscuit found the rock, nosed it, and sat. The creature crouched beside him and set one broad hand flat on the stone. Mark. Alice wrote it down in the notebook. One dog, one creature, one line, one find. They had worked as if someone had raised them for it. She closed the book. The ridge was wider than she had thought a month ago, and she had two students on it now, not one. The arc she had promised the ranger was Biscuit alone, a tracking dog for the woodland. That promise was still open. But the shape of the work had changed under her hands, and she could feel it. She looked at the tall one, and at Biscuit leaning against his knee, and at Rose, and at the bird. She did not know yet what a team like this was for. She would find out.