Chapter Forty-Eight: The Town of Thornwell

Alex, Adelia, and their new traveling companion Claire were nearing the town of Thornwell, a smaller farming town in the southwest territory of the Empire.

Since Claire's confession, she has been sticking even closer to Alex, not letting him leave her sight most of the time.

As the group walked through the entrance of the town, they noticed a crowd gathered in front of the biggest house in the town.

The crowd was yelling out to an older man standing at the top of the steps.

"Help us!"

"You said you would get us help!"

"Where are the guild members?"

"Say something!"

The crowd was very angry, but the older man calmed them all down.

"Listen! As your mayor, Im doing everything I can to receive support from the guild; however, they don't consider vegetable thieves exactly a high priority. Im trying to tell them it's beastkin, but they won't listen."

The mayor spotted Alex's group out of the corner of his eye and ran through the crowd towards them.

"Hey, are you guys guild members?" he asked Alex.

Adelia answered, "Uh, yes, I'm an A-rank member, and he's a C-rank. The other girl is a friend."

"Please let me hire you to help our town!" the mayor pleaded.

"What's going on?" Alex asked.

"For the past few weeks, we've spotted beastkin stealing our food, and one even broke into our doctor's house and stole some medicine."

"What kind of beastkin?" Adelia asked.

"We believe them to be wolfkin, meaning there is more than likely a pack of them nearby, the damn mutts. We sent some of our guards to find them, but they didn't return."

Alex looked at the mayor with a raised eyebrow.

He felt as if he could sense the mayor's negative emotion when he mentioned the beastkin.

"Ah, so he's one of the people who hate beastkin." Alex thought to himself.

Lately, he has felt as if his ability with Xymaris has been improving when sensing emotions. He looked into the crowd of people and sensed the same hatred the mayor had.

"A town of racists...great." he thought to himself.

"And what would you like us to do?" Adelia asked.

"We'd like to ask that you get rid of the problem; we'll pay you well, of course, since this is a higher-level request." The mayor said.

"We'll investigate before officially accepting if that's alright. Where have the beastkin been coming from?" Adelia asked the mayor.

"To the woods to the west, we believe they are in the nearby caves around the town river." the mayor said.

"So follow the town river until we reach the caves; that sounds easy enough." Claire said.

"Two of our hunters went in that direction to find their home; if you can find them, please send them back." The mayor said.

Adelia nodded her head, and everyone started to walk in the direction the mayor said.

"Something isn't right here." Adelia said.

"Yeah, I could feel the anger the mayor had. I feel there's more to this story than just some stolen vegetables and medicine." Alex said.

"We need to take a look at the situation ourselves before coming to a conclusion." Claire said.

The group walked into the woods and followed the river, with no sign of the hunters or the beastkin.

However, as they continued walking, they heard a loud scream.

"AAAAHHH"

Adelia, Alex, and Claire all ran towards the screaming, just to find two bodies, one on the ground and the other leaning against the tree, both butchered with scratch marks all over their bodies.

"What happened here?" Adelia said.

However, a rustling sound was heard in the trees above them.

"Look out!" Alex yelled.

He pulled out his tachi and used his lightning magic to swing above him with a wave of lightning, hitting nothing.

Soon two figures came out of the shadows, both angry, looking for any openings they could get. Alex and the others went into a triangle formation, watching each other from every angle.

Alex got a good look at the two figures; both were female wolfkins with milk chocolate skin tones, long white hair, and yellow eyes; their ears and tails shared their hair color. One looked older than the other, almost like they were a mother and daughter.

Both of them had aggressive expressions on their faces, both targeted at the group.

First, the older wolfkin charged with her fists, which Adelia managed to deflect with her sword, while the younger one attacked Alex, who did the same.

The two wolfkin continued their stalking for an opening, but that's when Alex noticed something: in the cave behind them, there was a small candle lit on a wooden box, and he could see another girl inside, her hair and skin color the same as the two in front of him.

Alex looked at the two and sheathed his tachi, confusing the girls in front of him.

"Alex, what are you doing?" Adelia was confused by Alex's actions.

"Trust me, Adelia." Alex stated.

Adelia sighed and left Alex go as he walked to the two in front of him.

"We don't mean you any harm; see, I put away my weapon. Can we talk about this?" Alex asked the two.

The older one stepped forward and said, "We're not going to talk to a human like you; if you value your life, leave now!"

"Please, just listen; I see there is another girl in that cave."

After Alex mentioned the girl, both of the wolfkin became more defensive.

"I don't mean her harm, I promise. May I ask what's wrong with her?" Alex asked the two.

"She's been sick for a week; humans attacked and poisoned her." the younger wolfkin said.

"Do you know what kind of poison?" Alex asked.

"No, she's been getting worse every day." the younger wolfkin said.

"Daria!" the older one yelled. "Don't tell this human anything.

"Here." Alex said as he placed a potion in front of him. "This is an antidote potion; it heals most known poisons, and I doubt any of those townsfolk know how to make a complicated one. This should help her."

"Keep it; we won't accept it from someone like you; you may trick us." the older one said.

"I'm not lying; watch this. Alex pulled out a glass of the same antidote poison and drank it.

"See! Not poison, just an antidote. I swear to you." Alex said.

The two looked at each other, but neither took the bottle.

"Listen, we'll leave this here with you; it's up to you to take it. We'll tell the townspeople we failed to find you or the hunters here, and we'll leave you in peace. Just give the potion to that girl." Alex said.

Adelia nodded at Alex and went with him back to the town, along with Claire.

"Are you sure about this, Alex?" Adelia asked.

"Yes, those wolfkin are just protecting one of their own; they are the victims in this; that mayor didn't mention they poisoned one of them." Alex said.

"I'll follow your lead on this for now; just be careful how you explain this to the mayor." Adelia said.

"I will." Alex said while smiling.

* Later*

"So you poisoned that girl without mentioning it to us?" Alex asked the mayor.

He completely ignored Adelia's warning and came out directly pointing the finger at the mayor.

"We did poison one of the mutts before the-"

"Stop!" Alex interrupted the mayor, saying, "They are not "mutts" they are wolfkin, they are people just like us."

"People, you say? People have class; people don't act like beasts in the night, robbing hardworking people. Nothing more than monsters." the mayor said.

"If you truly think people don't act like that, then you're more blind than I thought." Alex said.

"Leave the wolfkin alone; that's my final warning." Alex threatened the mayor.

"Or what?" the mayor said.

"I'll show you what a monster truly looks like." Alex stared daggers into the mayor.

"Are you sure about this, Alex? Going against the mayor?" Adelia asked.

"He's not going to listen to me; I'm going to get ready to protect those girls; you girls, it's up to you whether to follow me or not." Alex said.

"I'll always follow you." Claire said clearly.

"I agree with you; the mayor is going to try something, and while I don't trust those girls, if the mayor tries to pull something, it's going to be bad." Adelia said.

"We'll grab your weapons, and let's go back into the woods and wait." Alex said.

This evening was just getting started.

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