She didn’t know how long she was gone, but just as she was rising to return camp, a distant howl echoed through the forest. Frozen, she listened hard to the voice on the wind, every muscle in her body tense. She was thrilled by the sound, even though she knew she should be terrified. Despite her longing to follow, or even answer it with her own strange howl, she started to quickly and quietly make her way back to camp. She found everyone on their feet and alert as she reappeared at the edge of the firelight, standing in a circle with their backs to the fire.
The howl came again, now much louder and closer. She immediately looked south, detecting the direction it came from as instinct from her long-gone memory took over, moving towards it without thinking. She lost all sense of herself, her only thought being to confront the wolf, hoping beyond reason that she would discover some small answer to her past.
As she moved trance-like towards the sound, Ainz spotted her. “Wait!” realizing she was going towards the sound. “Why are you going after it?! “Come back!”
“I have to know…” She said with a whine, neither looking back nor pausing as she continued forward.
She disappeared into the trees as the remaining three looked at each other with tortured expressions.
Lucerin was the first to express what they all were thinking. “Should we go after her? I mean, less people to split the money with right? We shouldn’t have to suffer for her stupidi…”
“She still has the flowers!” spat Ainz angrily. Lucerin cursed.
“Ain’t nobody getting paid if we don’t follow!” Gelwyn exclaimed with equal frustration as she hopped on her pony. They all nodded solemnly and stamped out the fire before hurrying after her.
Another howl pierced the night, closer than ever. They quickened their pace. Just as they could make out Ruthrrien’s form far ahead of them, something hulking and covered in fur moved like lighting from her right. It plowed into her without so much as a warning, jaws clamping down on her shoulder and tumbling with her in its grip to the other side of the path. The thick leather padding she wore was just enough to keep its teeth from sinking into flesh as it tried to shake her senseless. Confusion gave way to rage as she snatched a hand ax with her free hand, hacking at any bit of fur she could reach. And while it seemed to hit home, it simply snarled with fury and sank its teeth deeper, sending a wave of searing pain down her arm. The others arrived at the scene, and began attacking with an array of spells. But this only seemed to irritate the hulking beast further. It sank its teeth even deeper and with a snarl, suddenly lifted up and tossed her angrily away like a rag doll. She slammed into a tree and dropped like a rock, laying motionless on the forest floor.
As soon as it released her, it turned and ran straight at the rest of them, slamming into the skeleton that Ainz had apparently summoned again. Despite the shield it raised at the last moment, the beast barreled past it and disappeared into the night before the others could do anything more.
Silence hung heavily in the air as the three of them stared after the creature, stunned by its sudden retreat.
“What WAS that thing?” said Gelwyn shakily after a long moment.
No one responded as Ruthrrien groaned from the base of the tree, laying flat on her stomach and barely visible in the dark. She was coming to her senses again, mind spinning. It had happened so fast. She knew it had been something wolf-like, but why would it attack her? Unless…
She planted her hands flat beside her and attempted to push herself up. A fresh wave of pain shot down her shoulder and she collapsed again. “How could I have been so stupid,” she thought bitterly to herself. Rolling on her good side, she angrily fought against the pain as she slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position, teeth clenched and eyes closed. As she rested her bruised back against the tree she had been thrown against, she raised her hand to her shoulder and felt fresh blood pouring from the bite wound. For a moment she just sat there, applying pressure and fighting to stay conscious.
She heard footsteps slowly approach and cracked one eye open, spotting Ainz and Lucerin. “Yes I’m still alive,” she growled at the dwarf, “I know you were hoping otherwise but here I am,” barring her teeth in what she hoped was a menacing look. She heard them whisper to one another but couldn’t make it out as another wave of pain shot down her arm.
“You’re sure?” Ainz asked Lucerin in a whisper.
The elf’s face hardened as he stared at the blood pouring from the wound beneath Ruthrrien’s hand. “We’ll know soon enough.”
The Whitney Scott 