Harmless For The Most Part

I was restless, again, but this time my mind was filled with an image of that massive creature. It had been covered in fur and the creature did look similar to a wolf, but it stood like a man, with a wide chest.

All four of us slept in the same room, and I didn't mind this time. I was worked up about the Werewolf. From what Drania had said, I was a vampire, and that meant it was hunting me. That made me worry that I might try to target the girls, opening up another bag of rotten fruit in my mind.

"K, you need to relax, there is nothing you can do about it. Come lay down, you need to get some sleep," Lesha said from the bed, patting the sliver of the mattress I was expected to squeeze onto.

She was right, and I laid down on the bed, somehow gaining enough room to be considered comfortable. I was worried it was going to take me forever to sleep, but in Lesha's arms I was out like a candle in no time.

Morning came, and I was surprised to be still on the bed, but I got up right away. I had got a decent sleep this time, and it was time to get on the road. The men would be waiting, so I got the girls all up and we said goodbyes to the Innkeeper as we left.

The men had the carriages and wagon out and just hooking the last one back up. Corbit spotted use and gave a half-wave, and a forced smile. Last night's sleep must not have been as good for him.

For all of Tim's bravado, they still slept out here with Mark, Kevin, and Gastbo. I was really surprised that Gastbo would choose to stay out here with the Werewolf around, but if something happened to his supplies, it could be his life in another way. This was a big trip for Gastbo, he only went twice a year, and when he went, he took all of the best items he had crafted at The Forge. So, for him to lose it could prevent him from paying the people working for him and material to make more things to sell.

The whole system was hard for people like Gastbo, but he wasn't the only one. It would be good to establish a way to do trade faster, but that was a problem for another day. It was time to go, so the four of us loaded back into the wagon.

Today we would be camping outside at the river of Tarcord that came from Giyadel and then led out to the sea. The area was open, and there were armed guards at the bridge, making it a popular place to camp, according to Tim. He had popped his head down to let us know a bit about the next town, but I also had some more questions about the Werewolves and Vampires.

"Greled is pretty small, but a bit bigger than the Persab, the town doesn't have any special features, but they do have good honey, so we can get a jar or two, but they don't have an Inn. The town is within a day's ride from the city, so there was more trouble than it was worth to have even a bar in the town, but it isn't dry. The town has just grown to be private, and that keeps Dysters riff-raff out," Tim explained from the floor of our carriage.

He had the door open and both he and Corbit were sitting in the wide doorway. Tim had tied the door open, and the breeze that was coming inside was nice and refreshing. The day was warming up, but the breeze made it more than bearable.

"As for the wolf, they are a tribe of people that are born with the ability to shift into monsters as you saw, but they are harmless for the most part. I do have to say that it is weird for one to kill twice in the same area. It's highly unlikely that it was slighted and killed in the same twice, there must be something else going on."

"We should have gone and found out more information about the other person killed!" Gloria said, clenching her fists.

"K, might drink blood, but she isn't a vampire, but now that she and Lesha have been seen, the creature might follow us. K, you might be setting off some kind of alert with it, I am sorry I didn't take you more seriously last night. I will keep a watch up and I will watch for wolves, they can take the form of a normal wolf, but they are much bigger and easy to tell apart."

I was glad to hear my fears and worries hadn't been unfounded, but we would be sleeping outside tonight, and that meant there would have to be watches posted all around the camp. I was starting to feel like a burden by attracting this monster to us, but we needed to know what it was.

I could have never imagined that there were such things like this on the other side of my mountains. It felt like I had been living a sheltered life, and only now was I taking a step out into the great big world. I needed to get stronger, smarter, and push past my old limits, but there was so much to learn.

"You're not alone, you know that right? You don't have to keep it bottled up inside. We all know this is new for you, and we are here to help. The wolf affects us all, something is attracting it to us, and maybe it is you, but we are a team and you are the Leader. We have your back," Lesha said squeezing my arm.

The rest of the ride was quiet, and we reached The River of Tarcord just before sunset.