Chariot had slowly gotten used to the new island and enjoyed her time there. In the morning she stopped by the market to grab fresh fruits and in the evening she had fish the port, then at night she ended her day with a drink at the inn's own bar. In between she helped out at the local blacksmith and occasionally one of the fishers to keep enough money to pay for bed, food and cloths. Some nights she went into the forest and enjoyed the quietness while keeping herself in shape and improving her swordsmanship.
Her day had started out nice once again and she was on her way to the blacksmith to continue work on a set of swords, before her path was blocked by a large group of locals. Quickly she took up on the smell of iron in the air, but it was not the kind of iron she worked with, it was the nasty smell of fresh blood. To the blacksmith the red colour and smell felt like rust, the kind of rust one could only avoid by polishing themselves. It was not the time for philosophy though, pushing her way through the sea of people she reached the source. In the middle of the street was a small girl, covered in blood, everyone just looked at her with shock in their eyes. A quick look from Chariot made clear to her why, the girl was dead, probably bleed to death where she was laying.
It was not a pleasant view, they could not keep her laying there, so Chariot stepped closer to lift her up, just to be interrupted by a bystander. “Stop there you beast.” The Mink looked at him surprised and then back at the child. What she had missed to pay extra attention to were the claw and bite marks covering her body and clothes. “Wait, you don't mean to say that I did this?” “Who else, there are certainly no other wild beasts around here!” That was true, Chariot had visited the forest multiple times, but never seen any signs of any beasts, barely a fox, but the claw marks clearly were those of a wolf or maybe bear. In some way the girl had been lucky to make it this far without being eaten. Less lucky for Chariot, quick the idea that the Mink had been the attacker spread through the onlookers.
Thank god there were no pitchforks near by, but she felt the heat rising in the air. They could have attacked any moment, but Chariot made her move first, pulling Wolf Wing from her back and slamming it down on the ground she raised her voice: “Like you hairless apes I do not do something so barbaric as to use my claws and teeth to hunt. Above all I do not hunt at all.” Slamming the sword on the ground a second time to make a point she looked around. “I will find the beast that actually did this and she gets a nice fur coat for her last journey.” That said she swung her blade onto her shoulder and stepped towards the edge of the surrounding crowd, watching them make space for the tall woman to pass.
Again some things were easier said than done. She had not seen any signs of beasts around. The only idea she had was to follow the trail of blood. It was easier to follow than she had expected, but at some point she reached the out skirt of the city and there the trail stopped. Even for a Mink with heightened senses it was not possible to smell the remains of a wolf attack that had happened so long ago, since she suspected that they attacked the girl sometimes during the night. Her only option was to look for other glues and therefore the nearby forest were her first stop.
Chariot had visited the forest multiple times before and again she spotted no signs of wolves or bears. Her search took her deeper than she had been before, following the small fresh water stream where she often took a sip herself. If there were wild animals a water source was one of the best places to spot them and so she did. A small group of deer jumped away at her approach. They were rather cute, if they had not ran away she would certainly have petted them. Once again just because she looked the part, she did not behave like a wolf, but the deer were even worse listeners than the local humans.
The sun was slowly setting behind the surrounding leafs and there was still no sign of progress. Then she finally stumbled upon something: a dead deer. She did not want to pet that one, but it helped as it provided an new trail of blood she followed. “Quite the hungry little monsters.” She said to herself as the trail led to a small rock formation, which she had not seen before. The smell of blood had gotten stronger and soon the source became visible. As expected there were actually beasts in this forests, but unlike expected it were far more than Chariot had wanted to find. In the dim light she counted six, but soon realized there were at least two more as she heard a snarling sound behind herself. Wolf Wing still on her should she carefully took in the situation. The best idea was to take out the two close to her, before the others could leave the cave area and join them. She did not want to stay surrounded.
Quickly she turned around and made the first attack. She had not jumped and dashed through the woods for days to end up with nothing to show. Her feet digging into the soft ground as she started her dash, she swung her blade in a wide arc, passing under a series of branches and stopping in the first wolf's back even before it could jump back. She was not as lucky with the second, at the view of its mate being killed it growled and jumped towards the Mink, who barely managed to kick it away and got some distance between them, but then the other wolves finally started their attack.
The next to jump her got struck down by Wolf Wing in mid air, the third finally grazed her and she only managed to avoid the following attacks by jumping up onto the rocks near them. With a look at her leg she assessed the wound as nothing more than a scratch. Even if it was worse there was no time to lament over it. The wolves were already making their way up and around the rock, so she had to use the high ground advantage while she had it. Swinging downwards she hit another wolf in the head as it tried to hump up, but the wound was not deep enough to kill it. Next she looked around, spotted a few rocks and with Wolf Wing's help loosened them to come falling down on the beasts below, mostly angering them instead of causing any real damage. It just made her feel stupid. Half measures did not cut it, so instead she decided to use the next best chance to jump back down and take out as many as she could in the progress!
The chance came, another wolf tried the leap and this time Chariot leaped down next to it, smacking it to the ground with her sword and cutting open its belly in the progress. Blood was flying everywhere and got her company into a frenzy. Howling three attacked at once, just to find themselves killed by wide swipe of her blade. The slightly improved Wolf Wing was great at cutting and the extra weight just helped with the momentum. She used the chance to take a deep breath, it was clear that the last remaining beasts were unsure of what to do next and Chariot did not want to give them the time to figure it out. Without restrain she dashed towards them and cut them down in one fast swoop.
In the end everything had gone better than she had anticipated, she was slightly out of breath, but felt a light sense of relaxation as she leaned down on her sword. “Well, Wolf Wing gave you wings. Don't hold it against me if we ever end up in the same place again.” She chuckled over her own silly comment.
Washing most of the blood of herself and the blade at the nearby stream she came back to the corpses, picking the best looking one and started dragging it behind her, back towards the city. That one was for the girl, the other's could stay part of the forest.
Even after sunset the image of the wolf-human dragging a dead wolf behind her got attention, she did not know where to drop the corpse of, so instead she just made her way to the place where she had found the girl. Flowers and candles had been placed in her memory, a dead wolf was maybe a bit less tasteful, but certainly more meaningful, so she just left it there, before making her way back to the inn. She REALLY needed a drink.
1560 Words
Her day had started out nice once again and she was on her way to the blacksmith to continue work on a set of swords, before her path was blocked by a large group of locals. Quickly she took up on the smell of iron in the air, but it was not the kind of iron she worked with, it was the nasty smell of fresh blood. To the blacksmith the red colour and smell felt like rust, the kind of rust one could only avoid by polishing themselves. It was not the time for philosophy though, pushing her way through the sea of people she reached the source. In the middle of the street was a small girl, covered in blood, everyone just looked at her with shock in their eyes. A quick look from Chariot made clear to her why, the girl was dead, probably bleed to death where she was laying.
It was not a pleasant view, they could not keep her laying there, so Chariot stepped closer to lift her up, just to be interrupted by a bystander. “Stop there you beast.” The Mink looked at him surprised and then back at the child. What she had missed to pay extra attention to were the claw and bite marks covering her body and clothes. “Wait, you don't mean to say that I did this?” “Who else, there are certainly no other wild beasts around here!” That was true, Chariot had visited the forest multiple times, but never seen any signs of any beasts, barely a fox, but the claw marks clearly were those of a wolf or maybe bear. In some way the girl had been lucky to make it this far without being eaten. Less lucky for Chariot, quick the idea that the Mink had been the attacker spread through the onlookers.
Thank god there were no pitchforks near by, but she felt the heat rising in the air. They could have attacked any moment, but Chariot made her move first, pulling Wolf Wing from her back and slamming it down on the ground she raised her voice: “Like you hairless apes I do not do something so barbaric as to use my claws and teeth to hunt. Above all I do not hunt at all.” Slamming the sword on the ground a second time to make a point she looked around. “I will find the beast that actually did this and she gets a nice fur coat for her last journey.” That said she swung her blade onto her shoulder and stepped towards the edge of the surrounding crowd, watching them make space for the tall woman to pass.
Again some things were easier said than done. She had not seen any signs of beasts around. The only idea she had was to follow the trail of blood. It was easier to follow than she had expected, but at some point she reached the out skirt of the city and there the trail stopped. Even for a Mink with heightened senses it was not possible to smell the remains of a wolf attack that had happened so long ago, since she suspected that they attacked the girl sometimes during the night. Her only option was to look for other glues and therefore the nearby forest were her first stop.
Chariot had visited the forest multiple times before and again she spotted no signs of wolves or bears. Her search took her deeper than she had been before, following the small fresh water stream where she often took a sip herself. If there were wild animals a water source was one of the best places to spot them and so she did. A small group of deer jumped away at her approach. They were rather cute, if they had not ran away she would certainly have petted them. Once again just because she looked the part, she did not behave like a wolf, but the deer were even worse listeners than the local humans.
The sun was slowly setting behind the surrounding leafs and there was still no sign of progress. Then she finally stumbled upon something: a dead deer. She did not want to pet that one, but it helped as it provided an new trail of blood she followed. “Quite the hungry little monsters.” She said to herself as the trail led to a small rock formation, which she had not seen before. The smell of blood had gotten stronger and soon the source became visible. As expected there were actually beasts in this forests, but unlike expected it were far more than Chariot had wanted to find. In the dim light she counted six, but soon realized there were at least two more as she heard a snarling sound behind herself. Wolf Wing still on her should she carefully took in the situation. The best idea was to take out the two close to her, before the others could leave the cave area and join them. She did not want to stay surrounded.
Quickly she turned around and made the first attack. She had not jumped and dashed through the woods for days to end up with nothing to show. Her feet digging into the soft ground as she started her dash, she swung her blade in a wide arc, passing under a series of branches and stopping in the first wolf's back even before it could jump back. She was not as lucky with the second, at the view of its mate being killed it growled and jumped towards the Mink, who barely managed to kick it away and got some distance between them, but then the other wolves finally started their attack.
The next to jump her got struck down by Wolf Wing in mid air, the third finally grazed her and she only managed to avoid the following attacks by jumping up onto the rocks near them. With a look at her leg she assessed the wound as nothing more than a scratch. Even if it was worse there was no time to lament over it. The wolves were already making their way up and around the rock, so she had to use the high ground advantage while she had it. Swinging downwards she hit another wolf in the head as it tried to hump up, but the wound was not deep enough to kill it. Next she looked around, spotted a few rocks and with Wolf Wing's help loosened them to come falling down on the beasts below, mostly angering them instead of causing any real damage. It just made her feel stupid. Half measures did not cut it, so instead she decided to use the next best chance to jump back down and take out as many as she could in the progress!
The chance came, another wolf tried the leap and this time Chariot leaped down next to it, smacking it to the ground with her sword and cutting open its belly in the progress. Blood was flying everywhere and got her company into a frenzy. Howling three attacked at once, just to find themselves killed by wide swipe of her blade. The slightly improved Wolf Wing was great at cutting and the extra weight just helped with the momentum. She used the chance to take a deep breath, it was clear that the last remaining beasts were unsure of what to do next and Chariot did not want to give them the time to figure it out. Without restrain she dashed towards them and cut them down in one fast swoop.
In the end everything had gone better than she had anticipated, she was slightly out of breath, but felt a light sense of relaxation as she leaned down on her sword. “Well, Wolf Wing gave you wings. Don't hold it against me if we ever end up in the same place again.” She chuckled over her own silly comment.
Washing most of the blood of herself and the blade at the nearby stream she came back to the corpses, picking the best looking one and started dragging it behind her, back towards the city. That one was for the girl, the other's could stay part of the forest.
Even after sunset the image of the wolf-human dragging a dead wolf behind her got attention, she did not know where to drop the corpse of, so instead she just made her way to the place where she had found the girl. Flowers and candles had been placed in her memory, a dead wolf was maybe a bit less tasteful, but certainly more meaningful, so she just left it there, before making her way back to the inn. She REALLY needed a drink.
1560 Words