TravelingDog

Chapter  3 - Wild Hunt Wolf

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Shakkal and Noro walked along the road towards the next town as they would be arriving there shortly. Noro looked around eagerly back and forth as they walked.

Shakkal noticed this and asked “What is it?”

“Ah,” Noro looked back at him surprised by the sudden question “It’s nothing much, I’ve just never been this far north of the village before.”

“What do you mean ‘this far’? We’ve only just left...” Shakkal pointed out.

“I’ve headed south before, to some of the farmsteads, but I’ve never actually left Memorial.” Noro admitted.

“What?! What about the mountains? Didn’t you ever go out there with your mother?”

“No, We never went to visit the tribe.”

“You’re honestly saying that you’ve never left Memorial before this?!”

“Nope.”

“Oh man.” Shakkal heaved a heavy sigh. “Just stay close and don’t go wandering off. ”

As the two continued on, they approached the next town, this one being just a little larger than Memorial. As they walked into town, while Noro was still excited to be looking around, Shakkal quickly noticed the large amount of eyes on them. At first, Shakkal was concerned by this and was worried that he might be recognized, but after noticing the onlookers, he realized that all of the eyes were on Noro. Shakkal realized that he had grown accustomed to Noro living with the townsfolk in Memorial, however, harpies were not generally welcomed in towns; he knew that firsthand. His last comrade was able to handle himself, but Noro had no idea what the outside world could hold.

“Hey, wait here a minute.” Shakkal instructed Noro and then turned into a general store. Noro was surprised but did as instructed.

Just a minute or two later, Shakkal returned with a simple cloak in hand which he threw to her. “Put that on.” He instructed as he watched the people around them.

“It’s kind of dingy, isn’t it?” She noted as she looked at it unsurely for a moment.

“Well unfortunately, things out here in the real world tend to cost money, and we only have so much of it.” Shakkal sighed. Both he and Noro having been accustomed to the generosity of the priests at the temple and their provisions.

“I’m aware of that, but I never knew you could be sarcastic.” Noro joked as she eyed him while throwing the cloak on over her shoulders.

“You know now that I am not a priest, therefore there’s no reason to continue acting as such.” Shakkal reasoned.

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around that to be honest with you.” Noro admitted as she scratched the back of her head, cloak now in place. Shakkal gave her a sideways glanced before letting out a light sigh, not upset, but rather concerned about her naivety.

“It’ll take us a full two days to travel to the first place we need to get to by foot. It’ll be a lot faster if we pay for a ride from a local farmer. We don’t have much money though, barely enough for two rides, let alone provisions.” Shakkal reasoned as Noro looked up at him, listening intently. “We’ll have to make some money, and the earlier the better. Let’s go.”

Shakkal began making his way through the town, searching for a specific building, and Noro quickly rushed after him “Wait, so where are we going?”

“The local guard tower.”

“The guard tower?”

“On the boards in front of the guard towers, they have miscellaneous jobs, like bounties; they have them in town squares as well sometimes. We might get lucky.” Shakkal explained.

“Oh?” Noro seemed surprised by this. “I didn’t know that.”

“That’s because everyone in Memorial knows one another. If they need something, they can just ask whoever is capable directly.” Shakkal reasoned as they continued searching. They eventually came across the guard tower and made their way up to the job board.

“That makes sense.” Noro concluded as the two both looked over the board. “So, what exactly are we looking for?”

Shakkal didn’t answer for a moment as he thought about this carefully. If he were at his full strength, he had no doubt that he could handle any job on that board with ease, however he never did completely heal from the fight three years ago and the fight from the night before used up far more of his energy than he expected it to. Had he fought with the necklace on, he had no doubt that he would not have been able to set out on the journey so soon afterwards.

“Something basic.” Shakkal at last said. “No bounties for people, but…” Shakkal’s attention was drawn to one specific job and so he pulled it down off the board as he read it more carefully. The job posted on the flier was to take care of a vicious beast in the woods not far from town. “Yes, this should do nicely.”

“What is it?” Noro asked curiously, too short to read the flier over his shoulder.

“A dangerous beast in the western woods not far from here. It doesn’t pay for a throne, but it should be enough to get us what we need for a while.” Shakkal confirmed as he folded up the piece of paper and placed it within his robe.

“A dangerous beast?! Are you sure that’s something we can handle?!” Noro asked shocked.

“If we couldn’t handle a beast, do you really expect me to be able to help you get your revenge?” Shakkal rationalized, surprising her.

Noro at last sighed “Alright, if you say so.”

Following the location on the flier, the two made their way deep into the forest in search of this “vicious beast”. The location described was an old set of ruins deep within the forest. The creature was simply described as “wolf-like”. There were all sorts of ideas going through Shakkal’s mind as he thought about what it was they might face. Perhaps it was a wolf beastman, warg, or perhaps even a roaming jackalwere. Then again, it could even have something to do with the lycanthropy curse.

It was just over an hour when they at last came across a clearing in the forest which let light shine in brightly onto an old set of white, moss-covered ruins.

“Wow, these are amazing.” Noro mused as she walked up to one of the broken, outer columns which was just taller than she was.

“Don’t get too close.” Shakkal cautioned. “They say the beast is always here.” Shakkal walked forward, passing Noro as he stepped up onto the ruins flooring.

“Alright.” Noro nodded in understanding as she watched from outside of the ruins. Shakkal walked a little bit further forward and looked around cautiously, until he heard it. Shakkal heard a low growling sound and quickly turned his attention in the direction it came from. The creature growled warningly as it approached, fur standing up straight on it’s back. Shakkal was shocked when he realized that at first glance, it appeared to be just like any other large wolf until he spotted the faded blue runic writing wrapping around it’s body from its mane down. The wolf continued to approach until it too was standing on the elevated flooring, still baring his teeth and growling at Shakkal.

“What is it?!” Noro asked in shock as she watched the creature from where she stood outside of the ruins. “A wolf?!”

“Not just. It’s a wolf, but it’s not from this plane…” Shakkal noted as he took a step back. “They are called Wild Hunt Wolves.”

“What?!” Noro was shocked by this.

“It’s merely half the size it should be, it must still be young.” Shakkal said this quietly and in a calm tone as he continued to step back and the wolf continued stepping forward. Slowly, Shakkal dropped down onto a knee as he once again neared the side of the floor he had first stood up on. While he did this to show submission to the wolf, he also used this chance to examine the ruins more carefully.

“You’re not going to fight it?” Noro checked surprised as Shakkal now backed off of the ruins completely.

“This changes much.” Shakkal noted now as he observed the wolf from a safe distance and it watched them from where it stood in the center of the ruined floor.

“How so?” Noro asked.

“As I said, he’s not from this plane. He’s stuck here in ours. Whatever these ruins used to be, they may have caused some temporal flux here, but it seems to be gone now.” Shakkal explained.

“Okay, but isn’t it still dangerous? That fact doesn’t change.” Noro pointed out.

“Wild hunt wolves are highly territorial by nature. They are purposely summoned to protect places or things. If it wasn’t summoned, it probably just latched onto these ruins after winding up in our plane and couldn’t find it’s way home.” Shakkal reasoned, seeming to sympathize with creature. The wolf looked down at the two, seeming just a little bit more relaxed now that they were not on the ruins anymore.

“So what about the job though? If it’s a monster, it’ll still probably hurt people.” Noro reasoned now “And we do need the money…”

“If it were a harpy, would you be so quick to call it a monster?” Shakkal questioned as he looked down at her, surprising her. She averted her gaze down to the side, seeming to realize that she would not. “Most people would.” Shakkal then turned, and began walking in the direction of the town.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Noro asked shocked.

“I’m going to ask a couple questions.” Shakkal said vaguely. “You wait here.”

“What?!”

“Stay off the ruins and you’ll be fine. Just make sure it stays here.”

Shakkal returned to the town where they’d picked up the flier and after talking to multiple people, managed to track down the person who made the request.

“I was hoping you could tell me a little more about this job.” Shakkal explained as they stood in the square.

“I don’t know what else you need to know.” The man huffed. The man was an overweight half-orc merchant in the town’s square.

“Well, I was hoping you could tell me why you’re willing to pay someone to kill this creature.” Shakkal elaborated. “How many lives has it taken? Or more specifically, who?”

The merchant scoffed “No one that I give a hoot about.” Shakkal was surprised by this. “We get archeologists coming through here often who all want their own chance to dabble in those ruins, and they’ll pay good money for the location to those ruins. With that damn beast around, it’s been scaring off all of the archeologists that go there to do research, so now no one wants to chance running into a beast in the middle of their research.”

“So then it hasn’t actually done anything?!” Shakkal clarified still in disbelief.

“No, but it won’t be a problem much longer so you shouldn’t worry about it, priest.”

“Sure, stay here, Noro. No problem, Shakka! Not like I’d rather go with you.” Noro huffed as she sat on the ground, talking to herself, the wolf being the only one there to hear her words. The wild hunt wolf looked at her curiously from where it lay in the center of the ruins now that it had determined she was not a threat. Suddenly, Noro’s stomach rumbled, causing the wolf to cock it’s head to the side in curiosity as it looked at her. Noro let out a heavy sigh before glancing back at the wolf and asked “What? You’ve never seen a hungry girl before?

“…They say that Shakka, that’s my elf friend by the way, is supposed to be some really bad guy with a big bounty on his head but I don’t know if I believe it. I mean sure, apparently he chased off those bandits last night but I didn’t see it since I was unconscious… don’t you judge me! I got a blow to the head and was knocked out! Besides, he’s going through all this trouble to see if you really deserve what they say you do…” Noro talked to the beast now as though it were human, but it just lay there watching her so she heaved a heavy sigh and mumbled to herself “Great. I’m talking to a wolf. This is gonna be a long journey…”

Noro took off her satchel and began rummaging around in it for something to eat. As she was focused on the belongings inside her bag, a sudden rustling erupted from the bushes. Noro looked up just in time to see a large net coming directly at her. She shrieked as it landed on top of her, knocking her back. Against the ground. Two figures then emerged from the bushes, both large and burly orcs. “Hey! You mind?!” Noro yelled aggravatedly under the weighted net.

“Trold say it not da wolf, Trahm.” One of the orcs said to the other in poor common as they approached Noro.

“Is child?” The other asked confused as he leaned in closer to Noro,

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Let’s just say that. Now take off this net please!” Noro huffed, wanting to dispute the dim orcs but knew that it would be for the better if they believed she was a kid.

The closer of the two orcs reached out, about to take the net off when the other suddenly grabbed his arm, stopping him. The closer orc looked over confused and so he pointed at Noro’s arms which were supporting her from falling back against the ground. “Bird claws.” Noro was alarmed when the two realized this and felt the feathers on her wings standing up, even under the weight of the cloak.

“Harpy?” The orc confirmed. The closer orc then retracted it’s arm and reached for a large battle axe off of his back. The orcs were so focused on their trapped victim however, that they didn’t notice the wild hunt wolf standing from it’s place on the ruins and making it's way towards them.

As the orc raised it’s axe high above Noro, she felt her heart skip a beat, but before she could react or the orc had the chance to bring down his weapon on her, the wild hunt wolf suddenly lunged at the orc, biting at his arm. The orc hollered in pain while the other was startled by it as well and quickly reached for his own axe. Noro wasn’t naive enough to think that this wouldn’t be a dangerous journey and reached for the small skinning knife she’d stowed in her bag, then lodged it into the second orcs leg, so he yelled out in pain as well. The wild hunt wolf released his grasp on the first orc’s arm and jumped back out of the way next to where Noro was stuck on the ground.

“Uug’staa!” The second orc yelled as they both moved in on Noro and the wolf once again, The wolf stood in a defensive stance as it glared at the two, and suddenly, the runic lettering wrapped around it’s body on it’s fur began to grow a brilliant blue and a strong pulse was emitted from the wolf. The arcanic burst knocked the orcs backwards off their feet. Noro was shocked by what had just played out, but her attention was brought back to the wolf as it walked over to her now and grabbed the rope between it’s teeth, pulling it off of her.

“…Thanks…” Noro stammered, not knowing what else to do as the wild hunt wolf looked at her now, being at the same eye level while she sat on the ground.

“Mar uug’staa…” the first orc said now between clenched teeth as he attempted to push himself up.

“That’s not very nice…” Noro was shocked hearing this voice and looking back at the orcs, she saw that Shakkal had returned and kneeled between the two with a hand on each of their shoulders. “Trahm, Trold, I thought I taught the two of you better manners than that.” The orcs were as shocked as Noro was as they looked at him in amazement, seeming to have seen a ghost.

“Shakkal Boss?!” The second orc stuttered, his brownish orange skin seeming to be turning paler.

“Shakkal alive?!” The other added, his face a similar complexion as the other’s.

“That’s right.” Shakkal said simply as he smacked the two on the back of their heads before standing up once again and saying “Now get out of here. Tell the merchant that the wolf is dead.”

“Yes, Big Boss Shakkal! We apologize!” The first said immediately as the two of them crawled away from Shakkal and frantically retreated back in the direction of the town.

Noro let out her breath now, relieved that the threat was gone. She then turned to Shakkal “You knew them?!”

“Hardly. They’re brothers. We gave them some small jobs from time to time.” Shakkal said simply and then turned back to Noro and eyed the wolf carefully.

Noro saw this and quickly said “He saved me! You can’t kill him!”

“I have no intention of harming him.” Shakkal assured her “He hasn’t harmed anyone either so his death would be unjustified.

“But, you said to have the orcs say he was dead…”

“Yes, and if he stays here any longer, he will be.”

“We can’t let that happen!”

“I thought it might be challenging at first but seeing this now, it’s perfect.” Shakkal suddenly said as he turned to the wolf. “He seems to have taken a liking to you.”

Noro was surprised by this and turned to the wild hunt wolf in surprise “You think?”

“Chances are after all this time, he got lonely. They are still pack creatures after all.” Shakkal reasoned.

“Wait, so you think we can bring him with?!”

“I think that you can bring him with if you want.” Shakkal said simply and then turned back to face the way the orcs had retreated to. “But I’m afraid we no longer have any time to waste. Things just got complicated…”