1 Is this how I die?

"It should be around here somewhere..". It was the first time I had gone out of the city on a quest. The quest was simple, gather medicinal herbs that were listed on the adventurer's guild medicine board. While the rewards are not that high, it was one of the safest tasks that a rookie adventurer could undertake. There was even a map indicating all the known locations of the herbs and the danger level of the area.

"Damn it, where is it!" I swore while looking at the picture of the Kura plant. It was supposed to be black with small leaves and it grew close to the ground. According to the map, I was at the right place. I had chosen this herb, because it was in the safest area and was the easiest to find. But so far, I have not seen even a hint of it!

Suddenly I heard a noise near me. I stopped in my tracks and looked around hoping to find the source of the noise. After standing there for almost a minute anxiously, I gave up and started walking a bit more cautiously. I took out my dagger and held it tight. I had practiced a bit with the knife but I had never been in a real fight with a wild animal! I had no idea what I would do if I really did get attacked. That is why I had chosen to go for the safest job!

After walking for half an hour more, I decided to take a break and look at the map again. I must have done something wrong. Maybe I am lost…. how can I be lost? I looked at where city was and the path I had taken from the city. I had left from the south gate and travelled south east. Or so I thought. Did I misjudge the distance? Where exactly am I? I looked up to see where the sun was. Maybe I can determine where I am based on the sun's position. I didn't have money to buy a compass. It should be the first thing I buy after selling the herbs! Suddenly there was a noise in the nearby trees. I froze for a second and took out my dagger. I held it in my shaky right hand while holding the map in my left hand. This time I was sure I heard something and something was close to me. I turned my head towards the noise to the right. I saw something jumping towards me from my left through the corner of my eyes. I barely dodged the attacker as I jumped out of the way and threw myself flat on the ground. I rolled over and looked up to see a wolf standing 10 feet away. It growled at me and got into a position to jump again.

I brought my knife in front of me and closed my eyes just as the wolf jumped at me. I felt a searing pain in my left arm. I screamed and started to struggle. Suddenly the wolf let me go. I opened my eyes to see that the wolf had let me go because I had hurt its eye during my struggle. I hoped the wolf would decide to run away but alas that was never going to happen. The wolf got even angrier and seemed to have become even more aggressive. It attacked me again and this time I kept my eyes opened and slashed wolf as it attacked me. It jumped away after scratching me but I was able to nick it with my dagger as well. It seemed to have gotten more cautious since I was able to hurt it.

We kept at this for almost 5 minutes and I was getting more and more tired but the wolf seemed to have unlimited energy. Finally, I couldn't keep going any longer and collapsed on the ground. I was bleeding all over and my vision was blurry. I watched as the wolf started the final attack that would kill me for sure. My 17 years of life flashed in front of eyes. I thought of how little I had done in this life. All I was able to accomplish was survive and had not anything worth being remembered. No one would remember me.

The attack I expected did not happen. I tried to clear my eyes to see what was happening but I was losing consciousness quickly. Just before losing consciousness, I thought I saw someone holding up the wolf by its neck while it tried to get free…