Intriguing Specimen

As it got darker, Leo found it harder to see through his binoculars, and so he packed it away in a side bag, and crawled into the tiny tent he had. He didn't dare give himself away with an open flame, so he'd have to go without cooked food for a while, but that was alright - he had some salted pork packed, along with some bread and some peas. That was his largest bag by far, and it took up all the other available room in the tent, leaving only just enough space for him to lie down in it. He had lay on his stomach half lying in the tent for most of the day, but now was lying on his back, head just poking out of the tent, looking up at the sky. As he lay he pondered - a wolf-man - could it be a forgotten strand of human evolution, as Mr Darwin had set out in his recent book? Might it be intelligent, like man? If so, he'd have a great deal more difficulty tracking it than if he had been tracking a common wolf. Animals he knew how to deal with, but he was no manhunter. He sighed, lying back on his helmet, which he didn't dare take off, as uncomfortable as it was, as it helped camouflage him, and if this creature found him in the night and wanted to take a bite out of his head, he'd need it to protect his head. He at last fell asleep, being very quiet as he did so, not snoring or exhaling too much. He'd learned the habit after years of tracking animals. As he slept, he dreamt of the various possibilities a man-wolf hybrid could represent.

The bags were tucked in the front part of the tent next to Leo's shoulders. A large backpack lay to his right, without any pockets and just a string tightening it at the top. To his left was a satchel, smaller than the backpack but about medium size otherwise. It had a large pocket on one side of the main compartment which bulged with the appearance of a hard object, and two smaller pockets on the other side, which were also bulging slightly but with something less solid. His binoculars, which Kana had already seen but perhaps was confused as to what they were, was lying in it's case next to Leo's head.

In the morning, Leo awoke, the rays of the sun playing across his face. He crawled out of his tent and looked around, and saw an assortment of apples on the ground. He looked up at the trees. They probably had fallen off... He picked them up and looked at them, and the ground underneath. There was no sign of impact. These must have been placed here, and the lack of bite marks would suggest... That they had been carried. It might have been a monkey, but Leo's initial conclusion was that it may have been the creature he'd been tracking. If so, it almost certainly knew that he was here. The placement of the apples nearby suggested some kind of intelligent behaviour if it was the creature. Refusing the offering of food would most likely be seen as an insult, he considered, and put the apples in his backpack with the rest of his food, keeping one in his hand which he began to munch. This was getting very interesting, and he reminded himself that if the creature was intelligent, he may well find himself being outsmarted. Grabbing his binoculars, he set off, this new turn of events convincing him that another day of observation from the tent would be useless. He'd work off the assumption that it knew where he was and had offered the food to him. Setting himself up on a hill a distance away, from which he could see the tent from his binoculars. Then, he let out his best impression of a wolf-houl. It didn't always work, but he was pretty sure he'd managed to get the attention of wolves before with it. He had prepared himself for two outcomes. If the creature was interested by the howl and headed towards him, he should be able to sight it. And if it determined his location from the howl and decided as a result that it was safe to investigate his camp again, he'd sight it. Unless, he reminded himself soberly, it outsmarted him.

Leo decided to stop watching the camp and go off elsewhere. The creature was unlikely to be stupid enough to let him see her now that she knew where he was. She probably had a running water source nearby, he’d look for that – he might find more hairs from her fur if he did. The ones he’d found before, judging by their length and texture, were tail hairs. He wondered how much of her was covered in fur, and that led him on to wondering what she looked. So he got out his spare notebook and pencil he kept in his pocket, and started sketching what he imagined the creature might look like based on what he knew so far, following the sound of a nearby stream as he walked. He drew a crouched humanoid form with a wolf’s tail, teeth, ears and eyes – it definitely had the wolf’s powerful senses, seeing how it had outsmarted him – and drew the humanoid shape covered in fur, which made it look rather monkeylike. When he finished sketching and looked at his work, he found he’d drawn something that looked rather like a goblin. Shivering, he pocketed the notebook, hoping the creature didn’t look like that. Looking around, he saw a stream in the distance. Excitedly, he headed towards it.

As Leo knelt down and started carefully observing the riverbank (he just knew he should have brought a magnifying glass, but it was too late now), he let his mind wander. Some of the locals had claimed the creature could speak. He had doubted those claims quite strongly, but the creature did seem remarkably intelligent. Perhaps it could. The locals tended to speak Baigani, but also generally knew Hindi so more likely than not if she could speak, she would speak Hindi. As he searched, his notebook slipped out of his pocket along with his pencil, which was tucked into the strap that held the notebook shut. He didn't notice it fall, too deep in thought as he continued looking for any traces of fur, footprints or handprints. So he continued along the riverbank, leaving the notebook behind unwittingly.