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Chaya nodded, her red eyes sharpening as she thought about the problem. "Where did he get out from?" she asked. "Can you show me? If I can get his scent this will be easy, but even if I can't we can track from there!"

Chaya trotted after Sura, humming cheerfully to herself, taking quick steps to keep up with Sura's longer strides. When they reached the door to the monster dorms, she crouched down close to the ground. "Make sure nobody steps on me, okay?" she instructed Sura, and proceeded to sniff thoughtfully and thoroughly all around the area in front of the doors.

Chaya sniffed at the doors and squeaked happily. "I smell him," she exclaimed. "I think I smell him, rock and mini-smell and sort of like you but not, he smells like your room smells. Or maybe your room smells like him." She looked up at Sura and grinned. "Oooohh, you're all scary, that's really really cool."

She sat back on her heels, her eyes going unfocused as she consulted an inner compass. Then she changed shape, her form flowing smoothly into the big, shaggy white hound. "I can smell better like this," she explained.

Chaya put her nose to the scent and followed it; in this form, smells were like she'd heard colors described by other races, infinitely varied and nuanced, different tones clearly discernible. The follossus smell wove back and forth over the steps, and Chaya performed a couple of aimless-looking little circles before the scent trail straightened itself out and pointed in a definite direction.

"This way!" Chaya reported, and trotted off with her head down, nose to the ground and tail up and waving confidently.

"Not long!" Chaya said distractedly. "The smell is barely cool, maybe a few degrees of shadow moving, not long at all." It was an easy trail so far, but she kept her attention focused on it the way she'd learned to. You never knew when an easy trail was going to turn puzzling, and paying attention was key.

Chaya paused at the edge of the water. Water could indeed interfere with the trail badly, but a little snuffling around showed her where the minipet had come back out, and while the trail dipped into the water again several times, it didn't take too long for her to catch it again each time. Her tail had drooped a little as the trail initially entered the lake, but it returned to confident waving as Chaya realized that the follossus had moved in and out of the shallows. "Trail is warmer!" she told Sura gleefully.

Her nose ran right into the mini itself, and she snuffed at it, providing that it sat still to be snuffed, then sat down, her tail thumping against the ground proudly. "Found him," she announced, rather unnecessarily.

"Both!" Chaya explained enthusiastically. "Scent is warm when it's living, so it's warmer when it's recent, and when it's warm it rises higher, so it's easier to smell because it's not just on the ground, it's also in the air above the ground! So a warm fresh trail is easiest to follow, so even if it's cold like undead smell but still fresh we say it's warm because it's recent."

She beamed at the praise, her tail thumping faster. After a moment she transformed back and reached to scoop the minipet up, holding it carefully supported, and offered it to its mistress. "You were naughty," she scolded the follossus. "You worried your momma."