“Excellent. That was faster and I spaced my footprints further apart than before. Now your last chance to hide. I shall give you a two minute head start this time. Last for five minutes and you shall be rewarded.” She walked towards a tree on the very edge of the wood and began to count.

I have two minutes to make distance and come up with a plan. Kai took off at a sprint into the interior of the woods. After his dash toward the interior he again jumped to a low branch and climbed up. His longest times evading had been when he avoided footprints for her to track. He began to make his way towards the outer edge of the woods headed East toward the rising sun. It had been a good minute and a half since Leona began to count. Kai reached the edge of the wood and estimated he was at least two hundred feet North of where she counted.

He waited forty seconds for her to finish her count and began to track him. As he reached forty in his head he jumped from the tree into the field beyond the woods. He wove through the tall grasses headed away from the woods and toward the rising sun. Three hundred yards from the treeline he came on a small creek and stepped into the middle and began to head upstream. The water masking his prints. Another hundred or so yards up the creek there was a small cabin that had its back to the water. Kai prayed it was abandoned as he was about to use it as a trap.

He paused before he exited the water and listened. He didn’t hear Leona yet and the grass field was too tall for him to effectively see the treeline from where he was now. He made his way to the backdoor and placed his ear against it to listen. No noise came from within so if someone did live there they were not an early riser. Kai tried the knob and found the door opened easily and quietly. The interior was dark, there appeared to be no windows built into the various walls.

He slipped inside easing the door closed behind himself. It was a simple one room cabin, an unoccupied bed in the corner. He moved the bed to block the rear door then exited out the front leaving the door slightly propped open. Kai was able to use the door handle of the front door and boost himself high enough to grab the lip of the roof. He scrambled up moved to the center of the roof where he lay flat and waited. It’s had to have been nearly five minutes now. I just need to last a little longer, Kai thought to himself. A minute later he heard movement but not from the river. It came from the front of the house.

“Hello.” Kai heard the call of a man’s deep voice. “Anyone there?”

Kai had no clue what to do as he didn’t want to scare the man, nor didhe want to give himself away to Leona. The man could be pissed for the invasion, or he could give Kai away, or best case he’d help hide him a little longer. Since of the three scenarios Kai imagined only one was good he stayed put and didn’t move at all. Not five seconds later he heard what must be Leona coming from the river.

The man called out. “Hello. You out back there what are you doing near my house.”

Leona came around the side of the house and saw the man. “Sorry to bother you sir. Doing some training with a new recruit and it seems he came this way. Did you happen to see him?”

“I haven’t seen him but I can tell you that my door was closed when I left.” The man responded.

“You mind if I look in there first?” Leona asked.

The man chuckled. “Go ahead. What are you two training at? And which of you is the teacher?”

Kai could hear a smile in Leona’s voice as she answered. “I’m teaching him how to track and evade. He is currently evading. If he lasts another minute I’ll have to give him a reward.”

The footsteps came closer and Kai imagined Leona leaning to look in the cabin through the front door. “I imagine you don’t normally have your bed jammed against your back door do you?”

Kai didn’t hear a response and figured the man must have just shaken his head no. He had counted to twelve in his head when he heard the man’s voice again. “I thought I saw some movement in the treeline when I first approached.” Kai got to twenty-eight in his head. He also thanked the man for the potential help.

“Are you trying to help my student evade capture? There are no footprints leading away from the front door. How would he have gotten there without leaving any in this soft earth?”

“Well. Maybe he stepped in mine for a bit and then ran into the trees?” Kai praised the man for his genius. And reached forty-three by his count.

Leona chuckled and answered, “Possible. But I really think he climbed up on your roof.” Her head appeared over the edge. Kai jumped to his feet and ran toward the back of the cabin.

“The rules have always been you have to catch me not just find me. I can last another fifteen or so seconds.” With those words he jumped from the back of the roof and ran back toward the river.

He ran flatout without a care for endurance and left nothing in the tank. By his count it had been twenty seconds before a hand landed on his shoulder and pulled him to a stop. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I did it. What do I get?” He spun and saw Leona there, surprisingly the man was only a few steps behind her.

“Well you lasted five minutes and three seconds. Nice job. You were going to get a rather nice reward. However, your new reward is that I’ll talk this nice gentleman into not beating you up for breaking into his house and rearranging his furniture. Not to mention you scuffing his door knob and the thatch on his roof that you messed up, that may cause a leak.”