I thought I would enjoy the two-week-long trip it would take to get to Ironcastle by making out with my girlfriend the entire way, but... It got boring after a while. I had been enjoying myself, don't get me wrong, but after several hours a day for the fourth day in a row... it got kinda old. The trip in general had gotten rather boring. It was a crazy contrast to the dungeon where each day had been a constant chain of fights interspersed with looking through loot and eating the various monsters we found. This trip felt excruciatingly mundane by comparison where the highlight of the day was setting up a watch rotation when we finally stopped for the night. I hadn't even thought to pick up a cheap novel to keep me company on the trip! Actually, are books affordable in this world? I didn't even know... nor would I have an easy time reading one for that matter.

  That was why I was so excited when something finally happened.

  As we continued to roll along in the late afternoon Iris suddenly sat up with her ears perked and her eyes wide. I had been able to hear all of the annoying whistles that the caravan used to send messages between each other and after the third one I started to tune them all out since they didn't seem to pertain to me... until now.

  "Everyone! The lead wagon is signaling danger! Get read—" The wagon suddenly rocked to a short stop and all of the bags and trinkets people had left out violently slid across the floor. None of us had been standing but some of the hunters in the other group had been napping so the shock harshly rocked them awake.

  Only moments later, everyone was on their feet and ready to go. Maxwell slid the wagon door open and all of us exited the wagon to the sand covered road. Aria had quickly climbed up to the top of the wagon and had her bow drawn before all of us had finished exiting. The only one who stayed behind to wait was Iris. I looked around and it seemed that we weren't the only ones confused by our sudden stop. Everyone in the train behind us didn't know what was happening yet either based on their looks of confusion. It didn't look like we were being attacked as of yet.

  ("Do you see anything, Aria?") I asked her.

  ("The front wagon has some external damage and one of the wheels is broken, but it looks like all of the bison are okay, if a little spooked.") She paused for a second before continuing. ("I see animal tracks leading to the forest but I can't identify them from here.")

  "Let's go see why they blew the danger whistle," Maxwell said as he took lead of our group. "Valkin, have your group patrol the convoy. Aria, you stay up there and continue to scout, Luna will stay here and protect the wagon. You two, come with me. Helena, get your weapon ready."

  I materialized my axe into my hand like I had practiced several times since receiving my new storage ring. I had gotten used to controlling the amount of magic I was leaking out with Luna's help, but it made intentionally activating items feel weird. I just wasn't used to it yet. Even if I was comfortable with it though, it would be difficult to take my weapon out mid-combat. I did have the advantage of using my claws when I was transformed, but transitioning from using my claws to using my axe while in the middle of a fight would take a lot of practice and would still be on a long enough of delay to make it a risky maneuver. For now, it made more sense to equip myself beforehand when possible.

  Resting the comfortable weight on my shoulder, I hurried after Maxwell. I could smell blood before I could see it, and there was... something else familiar. I looked into the trees that followed along the road we had been taking through the forested mountains. My lantern didn't go deep enough for me to penetrate through the trees so I couldn't see any monsters from here. Once we had gotten to the front of the wagon, the blood became more obvious. The human coachman of the lead wagon had a gigantic gash through his gut and he had fluid, probably blood, in one of his lungs from what I could tell by the sound of his breathing.

  Piper immediately began healing the man without a word. Her healing magic was visibly more effective since she had received her new bracer. The man began to cough out the blood and it quickly began to clear from his airways with Piper's healing. A man who may as well have been dead was almost completely healed back to normal in a matter of minutes.

  Maxwell was talking with the drakken man that had been with the injured human on the coachman's seat while I walked away to look at the tracks that had been left. The instincts that had remained quiet through my time in the city flared back up again and I could instantly tell what I was looking at. Umber hound footprints. I looked up into the trees and scanned for any movement. They were probably gone now, that's what my instincts told me a pack of umber hounds would do in this situation, but the human side of me was paranoid and wanted to keep watching.

  I turned to Maxwell when he crunched through the snow toward me. "The drakken said that wild animals took Korr'tak with him. That's kind of a problem for us, we'll have to go into the forest to try to get him back if he's still alive."

  I grimaced and looked back down at the tracks. Was I sure about this? I looked over my shoulder and then over to Maxwell. "Cover me for a second." I put my hood up and faced away from all of the people watching while Maxwell crouched down next to the footprints I was looking at. I carefully shifted just my head into that of an umber hound. This partial shifting was hard to maintain, especially my head, but it would be better than shifting all the way in front of witnesses.

  Leaning forward I took in the scent of the footprint. It was still fresh so there would be some other scents mixed into whichever one left it here. Tracking things this way normally left me feeling a bit embarrassed, but the situation was so serious that I let the thought pass. "Three," I told Maxwell. "Two of them are adolescents and... the female is pregnant." I intentionally reverted my face back before looking at him. "Umber hounds."

  Maxwell looked back at me with a grim expression. "Are you sure? There haven't been any recent sightings of umber hounds in this forest."

  I nodded. "I'm sure now that I've gotten their scent."

  "Why would they take Korr'tak alive?"

  "I'm not sure. Maybe to... feed the female? I get the sense that only two of them were here."

  "He might still be alive then," Maxwell said with a nod. "If that's the case then we need to try and rescue him and... perhaps put down the umber hounds if we can. We can't let the population grow this close to the road between Fallow and Ironcastle."

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  While sighing, I got to my feet. I didn't know how I felt about killing the umber hounds. Should it feel wrong to kill them or am I justified in doing it to protect the road? My umber hound instincts told me that I should just leave them alone if I don't want their territory... But then again, they're monsters, not animals... right?

  "Regardless, we need to get Korr'tak back alive, that means going into their den. I can track them well enough in my wolf form but that means leaving the caravan," I said.

  Maxwell nodded. "That's fine. Attempting to rescue him will make sense to the caravan and presuming we can handle the umber hounds, it shouldn't take us long to return whether he's alive or dead."

  "Do you think we can take three of those? I was a lot weaker back then, but I barely survived my last encounter with one."

  "If you had asked me that when we met, I would have told you no. But the five of us have all gotten a lot stronger since then. How confident are you that they're young?" he asked.

  "Really confident. Combined with my instincts, the scent is very obvious," I replied.

  "Good. Three young ones will be easier to fight than even one adult one. The pregnant one may be the largest threat of the three, but as long as we're careful, we can handle them as a group."

  "Let's go tell the others then." The two of us turned and walked back to the caravan.

  The one Piper had been healing looked completely healthy now, though he was still pretty shaken. She turned as we approached and looked up at us. "Well?"

  "Helena says the tracks were left by young umber hounds. There's a good chance that Korr'tak may still be alive if we go now," Maxwell said.

  The drakken man who had been riding with the coachman gasped. "Umber hounds? Here? You must be mistaken!"

  "No," I said. "I'm absolutely sure. Look at my coat, I've fought one before." I turned and showed the smoky, ethereal fur that lined my hood and mantle.

  The man puckered at that. "If there are umber hounds, we may as well count Korr'tak as already dead."

  "I disagree," Maxwell said, cutting off his train of thought. "Helena identified information that makes me think that he will still be alive. It will also take time to fix that wheel anyway," he said gesturing to the lopsided wagon.

  The human man looked back and forth between the two arguing men. "But what will happen if you leave? They took Korr'tak in a flash! We need you to stay here and protect the caravan!"

  "That's why we have two groups," Piper interjected. "One group goes to save him, the other group stays here to protect the caravan. We've been traveling for days without any issues. If we go to take care of the umber hounds, there shouldn't be anything left to threaten you while we're away."

  The formerly injured man gasped. "You're going too!? I would have died if you hadn't been here! You can't go!"

  Piper frowned at him and made the human shrink away from her. "If I hadn't been here, you'd be dead. Just like Korr'tak may die on the way back if I'm not there to heal him immediately."

  The drakken cleared his throat. "We should put this to a vote among the wagon owners. It would be nice to get Korr'tak back but they should have a say in whether or not we attempt this rescue. We need to keep in mind everyone's safety, Korr'tak would understand that."

  Piper scoffed. "You're just trying to save your own tail by abandoning your friend."

  The drakken looked enraged by the comment so Maxwell made a point to step in between them. "That's only fair, go assemble them by the middle wagon and all of us will talk about what we're doing. At the very least we need to repair the wheel before we can depart again. That will give us time to set out on a rescue mission if everyone agrees."

  His anger simmered down and he stomped away in a huff. Piper turned to her brother and raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure it's wise to let them vote on it? Korr'tak was our employer. We get paid either way but leaving him to die is... not something I'd like to consider."

  Maxwell pulled us away from the coachman who decided he would rather wait inside the unstable wagon than risk being left alone outside. Once we reached a good enough distance from it he shook his head. "We'll go regardless. Best case, the vote goes our way and we can go without any grumbling. Worse case, our group will go when we're not on watch. It wouldn't be the first time we stayed up through a watch and we've been sitting idle and resting for days. The delay may mean the difference between his life and death though."

  We started walking toward the center wagon where a group had already been collecting. Piper shook her head. "I don't like it. If you think he's alive we should go now, not after he's dead."

  "I agree, but things are never that simple," Maxwell said with a sigh. There was already an argument happening between the remaining owners and the drakken man we had been talking to. It wasn't obvious to me who was winning but it sure looked animated.

  Valkin was standing nearby listening to the argument but the rest of his team was still patrolling. "We should go try and save him, I'll go too." His comment just created more of an uproar about who would protect the caravan while we were gone. I hoped they could iron this out soon because I didn't know how long Korr'tak would last.

  Hello! New umber wolves! I don't really have a ton of things to say for this one, I think it's pretty clear where things are headed. I hope you enjoyed reading!

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