Free Deadlands Hunt by Gayla Drummond

The ground's dry, there's loose dirt, pebbles and old leaves clogging it up. The first water coming through stirs all that up, washing most of it away, and soaks into the riverbed."
     
     
    "Ah." She pondered his answer for a few minutes before shyly asking a final question. "And what do you look like, in your other shape?"
     
     
    "A lot bigger and really hairy," Chase replied, his tone wry. Stealing a glance to make certain she hadn't offended him, Amethyst chuckled.
     
     
    Watching her from the corner of his eye, the Weren grinned.
     
     
    *
    "Not even a dried rut," Kyle called out while riding up to the down slope that marked the beginning of the canyon. "Didn't spot a thing. Not a scrap, no scorched ground, nothing."
    "All right. Let's see if we can't find a good spot for camp before we lose the light," Chase ordered, puzzling over the lack of signs. Even after several months, that large of a group of people, with wagons and livestock, should've made enough signs of passage that something would've been left: an old box, a child's toy, bones from hunted meals, possibly even a grave. Something - but not absolutely nothing.

Five
     
    Not but about fifty yards in, they found a spot where the cliff face had broken away and fallen to create a partial circle of huge stone blocks. After a careful survey, and the death of two reaver serpents, Chase decided it was as good a place as any for a camp. The south side was shielded by a high tumble of stone. A low overhang in the canyon wall provided a covered spot for the ladies' bedrolls.
    Camp was quickly set, with Curtis and Bran venturing back out to collect firewood while the others unsaddled the horses and fed them. Kyle appointed himself cook with the awkward help of Sally, preparing a pot of their dried stuffs that would end up a thick stew once cooked. Chase watched Amethyst as she groomed her and the blond's mounts, noting it was a task she seemed familiar with. Peter curried his gray, then the packhorse, both of them finishing before Brian had brushed his mount down. The Weren cared for his and Kyle's before undertaking the task of deciding where the men would sleep. 
    He finally lined the bedrolls up before the overhang, putting them all between the women and anything that might come looming out of the night. Someone would be standing watch, but some type of cover was a top priority. 
    By the time the stew was over the fire, the horses had been cared for and were contentedly munching their rations of corn from nosebags. They'd even have a little grazing afterwards, since they'd were picketed against the south tumble of rocks, which had a thick line of grass around its base.
    Peter, sitting on a stone by the fire, glanced around to survey everyone's faces. "I've the impression not finding anything isn't good?"
    "Good impression," Bran replied, tossing a twig into the fire. "A wagon train that size wouldn't have made as good time as we did. We should've come across an old campsite a little after our break."
    "But surely, with rains and wind, there wouldn't have been any sort of trail left by now," Amethyst spoke up, her eyes travelling from him to Chase as she waited for someone to enlighten her.
    "You can't have that big of a group, and not have some signs left that'll last for a good while," Curtis told her. "People lose and drop things, even without realizing it. Lose a button off a shirt, leave behind an empty sack or other stuff. Scraps of material left on branches after being snagged. Hundreds of little things that last longer than you'd think."
    "And we didn't find any of that," Chase added, feeling uneasy. A few days' ride from Adersol meant the group had to have chosen to settle just the other side of the canyon. They'd reach the opposite end by tomorrow evening. Between now and then, they should find plenty of signs the wagon train had come through. So far, he hadn't seen anything to indicate they had.
    "How could we not? They were seen heading this way as