Continuation of here.
After their argument, Nani had insisted he stay the night. He suspected that her ulterior motives had been to have someone else to keep an eye on Ganda to make sure he wasn't plotting something horrible, in the wake of the latest killing. To her surprise, Ganda had agreed - likely because he wanted to keep Nir'wei inside and out of the way, should he become the next target. Unfortunately, they'd both managed to grossly underestimate him. In the early breaks of the morning, with the sky just beginning to turn that light shade of purple that threatened dawn on the horizon, he sat up in his bed and sent Greyhide to check on both grandparents. Both were out of it; their old age and daily habits meant they often got up late in the day. Neither of them would miss him if he left for a while, and if they did... well, he'd just say he was out doing shopping, or perhaps catching up with old friends. He was a grown man now. He deserved to know the truth. Whether or not they'd tell him. So he'd left.
These deaths weren't accidental. They were targeted, deeply personal. Someone wanted a lot of people dead, and they were going through them all like a list, making it look just accidental enough that it wouldn't arouse any suspicions, except to those close and dear. This was a message. A warning, or a threat? Against who? There were too many thoughts flooding his head to pick out an individual tangent and follow it. Every time he tried, the others tugged and tangled, giving him a headache. In his mental spiral, his foot slipped on a patch of loose moss and he nearly lost his footing. "Easy there!" Greyhide huffed. "Eyes in front, not in the clouds." It wasn't his fault that he could hardly see more than a few feet in front, even if he was looking! Another disadvantage of constantly living under the dense foliage of a rich jungle; the early dawn light was almost completely smothered down here, a deep orange haze only penetrating the leafy sky in thin rays that illuminated small patches of ground at a time and rarely spread beyond them. Greyhide's tail slapped gently against his legs every few steps, guiding him forwards. Behind him, Cold's gentle snuffling reassured him that the flanks were covered. Nothing would sneak up on them.
But if that was the case, why did he feel so uneasy? "Smell anything?" he asked. Greyhide gave a faint snort, soon echoed by Cold. He sensed that meant a no, and nothing from Greyhide either. Yet his grip tightened on his short-bow nonetheless, and his fingers itched to draw an arrow from the quiver at his hip. "No tracks, nothing?"
The wolf sighed angrily. "Look, there's nothing! If I knew you were going to be this jumpy, I would have insisted that you just stay back at the house and let us handle this," he snapped, glancing back to fix Nir'wei solidly with one eye.
"Glad you think so." Nir'wei drew his arrow slowly and notched it to the bowstring, the neck pinched between two fingers. "Because if there's nothing here, then what's that." It'd already disappeared by the time he'd nodded, but he knew what he'd seen. A shape, watching them from between the dew-specked leaves. Quiet enough to not make a sound. Terrifying, considering the dense foliage should have made that damn near impossible for any creature. How long had it been watching them? Had it followed them since they'd left the house? Yet more questions to leave his head spinning, but right now really, really wasn't the time for freaking out. "How far out are we from the city?"
The lead wolf's head was spinning in all directions now; he'd evidently seen it too, but when he snapped to attention, Nir's eyes followed and for a snatch of a second he saw it too; a faint blur of motion, disturbing a few leaves of a bush. On the other side of the trail. "The houses are too stretched out. Too far to run. Too far to yell. We could be surrounded right now, I can't count how many." Instinctively he tried to slide his foot back a step and get down onto one knee to prepare for a fight, but Cold's side was there. The pale wolf's lips pulled back into a vicious snarl as he tried to look everywhere at once.
"We can't fight here; find an opening, now!" Nir snapped. The trees were too close together and the dense foliage left plenty of spots to creep up unseen. A series of barks and the three moved together towards a point illuminated by several shards of warm orange light - it wasn't any better than the others, but at least Nir could see. Before them the land rolled gently into a short valley, thick with trees but little ground coverage. The cold Zi'da snap left an abundance of soggy brown detritus, crunchy with frost, but all the crisp white snow hung far above on the network of branches, sagging leaves bigger than his head until icicles formed, but never letting more than a few neat little piles form. If they had, he might have noticed the strange brown wolf lying low just feet before them in the moments prior. Cold whirled on the spot and started growling murderously, saliva dripping from his bared fangs.
Yet the new wolf did nothing of the sort. It stood stock-still and watched with alert eyes, taking no steps forward but refusing to retreat either, in stoic defiance to the threat. A bold move; broken when Nir raised his bow and it quickly bounded off into the brush once more.
There could be no doubt now - they'd been discovered. Where the wolf went, its owner couldn't be far behind. In the heat of the moment he made a snap decision and dropped down onto one knee for a better stability, and held his breath as he drew the arrow. If he made himself as small as possible, kept low to the ground and didn't move an inch, he'd have a better chance of not being noticed until it was too late. For a moment he didn't even breathe, in case they heard it, and to stop his arm from shaking so much as his nerves showed through. All he needed was a twitch of movement, a glimpse of a shadow. Just the opportunity. They must have seen him coming though; the only noise came from the gentle rustling of the morning breeze, bringing a fresh snap of cold to Nir'weis bared forearms. Playing the waiting game would end in his loss, his bowstring could only take so much before it strained beyond use, so he reluctantly pulled the arrow back... and there it was, to the left!
They'd underestimated how fast he could aim from this distance. There wasn't even time to line up the shot, just pull and release and know where he wanted it to go, but the arrow tore through the leaves and thunked into solid wood a short distance away, falling just short of catching the shadow. If they'd ever held the element of surprise before it'd surely gone by now, and even with eyes in the back of his head, he didn't fancy his chances just standing and letting himself be surrounded now. Not when he could still see the darting figure disappearing back through the bushes by the unnatural wobbling of the higher leaves. Like a rippling disturbance left in the wake of a fish, they parted and bowed to the left. That wolf!
"AFTER IT!" Greyhide was moving before he'd even raised a hand, a streaking grey blur bouncing through the underbrush with a howl. Cold answered and followed suit as Nir'wei drew another arrow and notched it into his bow before chasing afterwards. Running as fast as he could, pushing aside low-hanging leaves and battling through shrubs and plants, he couldn't possibly keep up with the pursuing wolves and soon followed their barks and howls alone, waiting for the moment he'd break through again and catch up. All of a sudden, the noises stopped, and Nir'wei immediately drew the arrow to his cheek and swallowed. Greyhide was ahead and fine, he could feel it, but they must have found something. He might emerge to a full ambush, this might be the end. Taking just a moment to breathe and steel himself, he edged through the wall of vegetation.
The moment he saw the wolf his bow arm tensed, on the cusp of release - but once again it didn't seem afraid, or alarmed, or angry. It sat there, staring at him with eyes as brown as the soil, before a corpse spread out on the ground, arms and legs jutting at odd angles and with a face bloated by days of putrefaction. Its leather vest and bracers looked worn, green tunic and cloak splattered with blood and ripped in several places with jagged cuts and rips. Like he'd been torn apart by an animal, but when he knelt down and inspected them closer, it looked more like several. The piercings of thin hooked claws on his shoulders and face looked like a bird had savaged him, but further down were clear bite-marks, some more uniform while others had two large puncture marks, clearly from fangs. In his hands, a longbow... the remains of one. The grip had been snapped clean in two by an immense weight, scratch-marks marred its ends.
A whine caught Nir'weis attention back again and he looked up to find the wolf staring down at him. "You poor thing..." Another victim. "We'll get them. I promise we will." The wolf whined again and pressed harder into his arms as the others crowded around him and added mournful noises.
He didn't know how long they spent together, but the sun had already begun to set by the time they were done. The body had to be moved, but he couldn't possibly get it back to Desnind now. Besides, the face was tattered beyond recognition; he'd only cause heartbreak by hauling it back before friends and family. Greyhide, Cold and the brown wolf together dug a shallow pit, and Nir'wei stripped the man of his bloodstained clothes before slowly dragging him into it and muttering some quick words of prayer over the open grave.
"May you know peace in the great cycle, and your soul reunite with spirit once more. Rest." As Greyhide kicked dirt back over the man's face and slowly buried him, Nir'wei picked through the last of his clothes and found a small book, filled with scribbled writing. A journal! "Ma'tau?" Must've been his name. "Fau... Fau'leth?" It spoke of them as a friend, perhaps someone he could begin searching for when he returned to Desnind to inform them of Ma'tau's death. "Myrth?"
The brown wolf barked, ears perked. "Myrth?" Nir'wei asked again, to another bark, and another. "Myrth. Hah, really? You don't act like a Myrth to me!" he says, grinning wider each time the wolf barked at him, its tail starting to wag eagerly. Bloody hell, it was a playful thing as well! "C'mon Myrth, let's get some food in you. Doesn't look like you've had any in a while, am I right? Huh?" Pressing a palm down on the wolf's head and tousling until its ears flopped, he grinned as the wolf barked and jumped on its hind legs at the prospect of a good meal, eager as a pup.
After their argument, Nani had insisted he stay the night. He suspected that her ulterior motives had been to have someone else to keep an eye on Ganda to make sure he wasn't plotting something horrible, in the wake of the latest killing. To her surprise, Ganda had agreed - likely because he wanted to keep Nir'wei inside and out of the way, should he become the next target. Unfortunately, they'd both managed to grossly underestimate him. In the early breaks of the morning, with the sky just beginning to turn that light shade of purple that threatened dawn on the horizon, he sat up in his bed and sent Greyhide to check on both grandparents. Both were out of it; their old age and daily habits meant they often got up late in the day. Neither of them would miss him if he left for a while, and if they did... well, he'd just say he was out doing shopping, or perhaps catching up with old friends. He was a grown man now. He deserved to know the truth. Whether or not they'd tell him. So he'd left.
These deaths weren't accidental. They were targeted, deeply personal. Someone wanted a lot of people dead, and they were going through them all like a list, making it look just accidental enough that it wouldn't arouse any suspicions, except to those close and dear. This was a message. A warning, or a threat? Against who? There were too many thoughts flooding his head to pick out an individual tangent and follow it. Every time he tried, the others tugged and tangled, giving him a headache. In his mental spiral, his foot slipped on a patch of loose moss and he nearly lost his footing. "Easy there!" Greyhide huffed. "Eyes in front, not in the clouds." It wasn't his fault that he could hardly see more than a few feet in front, even if he was looking! Another disadvantage of constantly living under the dense foliage of a rich jungle; the early dawn light was almost completely smothered down here, a deep orange haze only penetrating the leafy sky in thin rays that illuminated small patches of ground at a time and rarely spread beyond them. Greyhide's tail slapped gently against his legs every few steps, guiding him forwards. Behind him, Cold's gentle snuffling reassured him that the flanks were covered. Nothing would sneak up on them.
But if that was the case, why did he feel so uneasy? "Smell anything?" he asked. Greyhide gave a faint snort, soon echoed by Cold. He sensed that meant a no, and nothing from Greyhide either. Yet his grip tightened on his short-bow nonetheless, and his fingers itched to draw an arrow from the quiver at his hip. "No tracks, nothing?"
The wolf sighed angrily. "Look, there's nothing! If I knew you were going to be this jumpy, I would have insisted that you just stay back at the house and let us handle this," he snapped, glancing back to fix Nir'wei solidly with one eye.
"Glad you think so." Nir'wei drew his arrow slowly and notched it to the bowstring, the neck pinched between two fingers. "Because if there's nothing here, then what's that." It'd already disappeared by the time he'd nodded, but he knew what he'd seen. A shape, watching them from between the dew-specked leaves. Quiet enough to not make a sound. Terrifying, considering the dense foliage should have made that damn near impossible for any creature. How long had it been watching them? Had it followed them since they'd left the house? Yet more questions to leave his head spinning, but right now really, really wasn't the time for freaking out. "How far out are we from the city?"
The lead wolf's head was spinning in all directions now; he'd evidently seen it too, but when he snapped to attention, Nir's eyes followed and for a snatch of a second he saw it too; a faint blur of motion, disturbing a few leaves of a bush. On the other side of the trail. "The houses are too stretched out. Too far to run. Too far to yell. We could be surrounded right now, I can't count how many." Instinctively he tried to slide his foot back a step and get down onto one knee to prepare for a fight, but Cold's side was there. The pale wolf's lips pulled back into a vicious snarl as he tried to look everywhere at once.
"We can't fight here; find an opening, now!" Nir snapped. The trees were too close together and the dense foliage left plenty of spots to creep up unseen. A series of barks and the three moved together towards a point illuminated by several shards of warm orange light - it wasn't any better than the others, but at least Nir could see. Before them the land rolled gently into a short valley, thick with trees but little ground coverage. The cold Zi'da snap left an abundance of soggy brown detritus, crunchy with frost, but all the crisp white snow hung far above on the network of branches, sagging leaves bigger than his head until icicles formed, but never letting more than a few neat little piles form. If they had, he might have noticed the strange brown wolf lying low just feet before them in the moments prior. Cold whirled on the spot and started growling murderously, saliva dripping from his bared fangs.
Yet the new wolf did nothing of the sort. It stood stock-still and watched with alert eyes, taking no steps forward but refusing to retreat either, in stoic defiance to the threat. A bold move; broken when Nir raised his bow and it quickly bounded off into the brush once more.
There could be no doubt now - they'd been discovered. Where the wolf went, its owner couldn't be far behind. In the heat of the moment he made a snap decision and dropped down onto one knee for a better stability, and held his breath as he drew the arrow. If he made himself as small as possible, kept low to the ground and didn't move an inch, he'd have a better chance of not being noticed until it was too late. For a moment he didn't even breathe, in case they heard it, and to stop his arm from shaking so much as his nerves showed through. All he needed was a twitch of movement, a glimpse of a shadow. Just the opportunity. They must have seen him coming though; the only noise came from the gentle rustling of the morning breeze, bringing a fresh snap of cold to Nir'weis bared forearms. Playing the waiting game would end in his loss, his bowstring could only take so much before it strained beyond use, so he reluctantly pulled the arrow back... and there it was, to the left!
They'd underestimated how fast he could aim from this distance. There wasn't even time to line up the shot, just pull and release and know where he wanted it to go, but the arrow tore through the leaves and thunked into solid wood a short distance away, falling just short of catching the shadow. If they'd ever held the element of surprise before it'd surely gone by now, and even with eyes in the back of his head, he didn't fancy his chances just standing and letting himself be surrounded now. Not when he could still see the darting figure disappearing back through the bushes by the unnatural wobbling of the higher leaves. Like a rippling disturbance left in the wake of a fish, they parted and bowed to the left. That wolf!
"AFTER IT!" Greyhide was moving before he'd even raised a hand, a streaking grey blur bouncing through the underbrush with a howl. Cold answered and followed suit as Nir'wei drew another arrow and notched it into his bow before chasing afterwards. Running as fast as he could, pushing aside low-hanging leaves and battling through shrubs and plants, he couldn't possibly keep up with the pursuing wolves and soon followed their barks and howls alone, waiting for the moment he'd break through again and catch up. All of a sudden, the noises stopped, and Nir'wei immediately drew the arrow to his cheek and swallowed. Greyhide was ahead and fine, he could feel it, but they must have found something. He might emerge to a full ambush, this might be the end. Taking just a moment to breathe and steel himself, he edged through the wall of vegetation.
The moment he saw the wolf his bow arm tensed, on the cusp of release - but once again it didn't seem afraid, or alarmed, or angry. It sat there, staring at him with eyes as brown as the soil, before a corpse spread out on the ground, arms and legs jutting at odd angles and with a face bloated by days of putrefaction. Its leather vest and bracers looked worn, green tunic and cloak splattered with blood and ripped in several places with jagged cuts and rips. Like he'd been torn apart by an animal, but when he knelt down and inspected them closer, it looked more like several. The piercings of thin hooked claws on his shoulders and face looked like a bird had savaged him, but further down were clear bite-marks, some more uniform while others had two large puncture marks, clearly from fangs. In his hands, a longbow... the remains of one. The grip had been snapped clean in two by an immense weight, scratch-marks marred its ends.
A whine caught Nir'weis attention back again and he looked up to find the wolf staring down at him. "You poor thing..." Another victim. "We'll get them. I promise we will." The wolf whined again and pressed harder into his arms as the others crowded around him and added mournful noises.
He didn't know how long they spent together, but the sun had already begun to set by the time they were done. The body had to be moved, but he couldn't possibly get it back to Desnind now. Besides, the face was tattered beyond recognition; he'd only cause heartbreak by hauling it back before friends and family. Greyhide, Cold and the brown wolf together dug a shallow pit, and Nir'wei stripped the man of his bloodstained clothes before slowly dragging him into it and muttering some quick words of prayer over the open grave.
"May you know peace in the great cycle, and your soul reunite with spirit once more. Rest." As Greyhide kicked dirt back over the man's face and slowly buried him, Nir'wei picked through the last of his clothes and found a small book, filled with scribbled writing. A journal! "Ma'tau?" Must've been his name. "Fau... Fau'leth?" It spoke of them as a friend, perhaps someone he could begin searching for when he returned to Desnind to inform them of Ma'tau's death. "Myrth?"
The brown wolf barked, ears perked. "Myrth?" Nir'wei asked again, to another bark, and another. "Myrth. Hah, really? You don't act like a Myrth to me!" he says, grinning wider each time the wolf barked at him, its tail starting to wag eagerly. Bloody hell, it was a playful thing as well! "C'mon Myrth, let's get some food in you. Doesn't look like you've had any in a while, am I right? Huh?" Pressing a palm down on the wolf's head and tousling until its ears flopped, he grinned as the wolf barked and jumped on its hind legs at the prospect of a good meal, eager as a pup.
