The girl only spent a few moments digging around in her cart. She pulled a well worn backpack from the cart and shrugged into it, then dug around till she found a small pouch, and a few other items. All of these she stowed in the pack before hopping down. The trees in the area were dense, and the night was dark. She had a hard time finding the herbs she wanted, but she knew it was time well spent. The thief would stop to bandage soon, she knew, then they would run, leaving no trail to follow. If she hurried, she might just be able to find the trail and use the blood for a spell.<br/><br/>When at last she found enough of the herb she needed, she left the cart and horse where they were after tying the lead rope to a tree, and dashed through the trees. She'd seen the thief run toward the edge of town, and headed in that direction, watching for a sign of blood. It took her a bit of searching, but she finally found it. By now, the streets were empty, so she knelt and began her preparations. Using a pliant twig from the herb she'd plucked, as well as a leaf, she fashioned a small dish, then scooped a bit of dirt, clotted with the thief's blood, onto the leaf. Next, using a tool she pulled from her pack, she began to draw runes and lines in the dirt, forming a strange shape around the herb and blood.<br/><br/>When the symbol was completed, the shape to her satisfaction, she replaced the tool in her pack, then hovered her palm over the leaf. Her voice was rough, raspy, and harsh as she began to whisper quietly, hissing strange words in a dark tongue. The rune began to glow with a deep, purple aura that looked more like a shadow than light. When she finished, there was a brief flash as the rune she'd drawn contorted, then faded from view. The blood absorbed out of the dirt, and into the leaf, causing it to wither and turn black, still held roughly in shape by the stem. After a few moments, she held in her hand a stem, wrapped in a hoop, with a withered black shape hovering inside the hoop. The black shape seemed to strain against an unseen force, pulling in a single direction.<br/><br/>Smiling to herself, she rose, gathered her belongings, erased all sign of her footprints and runes, then followed the direction the black shape was pulling at a brisk jogging pace.