8 Hunting Mission

[Fast forward a few hours]

....

"unng...Tom? Where am i? And more importantly... WHY ARE WE SURROUNDED BY TREES?!" Luna woke up from a patch of leaves she was lying in and looked all around her. She had a splitting headache and her head seemed quite sore. She kinda felt that this place was familiar but at the same time... she didn't get what had happened! A minute ago they were in the town hearing about her being a Moon goddess and now they were in a random forest seemingly far from civilization.

The more she tried to remember, the more her head hurt so she eventually stopped trying and started to nurse her head.

"... Okay, you seem to have a minor concussion but otherwise you seem okay... wait, how many fingers am I holding up?" Tom lift up his right hand and started to form various finger signs.

"Three. Two. Four... STOP CHANGING YOUR FINGERS, I'M NOT SUDDENLY BLIND OR ANYTHI..ouch...." Luna couldn't help but rub her hand on the corner of her head where she felt pain. It was like a sharp stinging sensation that would change intensity, but it also seemed to slowly get less and less painful overtime.

"Just take it easy, you took a nasty fall from that tree waaay up there" Tom softly said, pointing to a really tall tree. Judging from the way you couldn't really see the top branches, it was probably at least 20 metres up in the air. "You wanted to get a better view of the prey so you went to the top but slipped and fell on one of the top branches. I did tell you not to spin from tree to tree though but did you listen? NO. Now look at you, my cute little sister might never be the same again..." Tom pretended to sob whilst smirking. He was definitely in an "I told you so" mood.

"Prey? Little sister? Tom what are you even taking about right now?" Luna was getting more and more confused by the minute.

(It's not like the author didn't want to write about what happened in the town or anything)

Tom stopped joking with Luna for a second and started frowning a bit before speaking.

"Oh, you must have had a bit of memory loss. But seeing as you clearly remember me and getting into town it's probably temporary and you should have you memory back real soon.

All you really need to know for now is that we had to get into the forest and hunt a Star Wolf because we needed the money, also we had to give your diamond encrusted teddy bear as collateral for the inn so we ... sorry" Tom practically whispered the last part hoping Luna wouldn't remember the issue of the teddy bear.

"You did WHAT to my Prince Fluffykins? Ehm, what i mean is it's no big deal, it's totally just a teddy bear I brought by mistake hehe" (Please don't say anything, please don't say anything)

"Anyways, I kinda remember this mission now: isn't hunting a Star Wolf a really easy mission? I mean they're practically just oversized doggos" Luna started remembering bits and pieces now and it was all becoming clear albeit slowly.

They had accepted a mission from one of the people in the Inn because Tom couldn't even afford to keep them in the inn for a single night! The mission was simple: people were being frequently attacked by a Star Wolf on the outskirts of town, and business was grinding to a halt because of that. So they wanted Tom and Luna to get rid of the Wolf so that the town would be safe again. In exchange, they would get 50 gold coins as the reward money.

To Tom this had been a big deal - not only was it more than enough to easily pay for the inn for a few weeks, they could even use it to get supplies and equipment for the trip ahead. Not to mention brand new clothes and some nice hooded cloaks to keep themselves as inconspicuous as possible so there wouldn't be another incident that happened. As of the cause of the incident, Luna still couldn't remember but it would come to her eventually. What she couldn't understand though was the premise of this mission...

Why would anyone need payment to defeat a Stat Wolf? She had seem quite a few Star Wolfs at on her "homeplanet" where she came from and there were 3 distinctive traits they had:

They were big.

They were cute.

They were fluffy!

Even she had wanted one as a pet of her own, but her dad said that only when she had "matured" a bit more, could she get one of her own...So unfair!

So when the mission to defeat this Star Wolf had come, she had only thing on her mind... Keep the doggo as her own! She couldn't believe that Tom had been so hesitant to take the mission in the first place. In fact, the only reason they had picked this one other than Luna's enthusiasm was only because the other mission was to kill a bunch of bandits robbing people along a major highway, and Tom said he didn't like hurting people. (What a weird knight) Luna thought to herself.

---

Since Luna had woken up and was feeling better now, they decided to continue on their Journey. In fact Tom was extremely surprised and would constantly glance at Luna and make sure she was okay. Not only had she survived a 20 metre drop, she had fallen head first into a large rock and broke it into 2! Tom moved her to a pile of leaves nearby and it had only taken a couple of minutes for her to wake up. He had tried to look for any spots that were bleeding to patch them up but other than a large bump on the spot she had collided with on the rock she was perfectly fine. And even then that bump was quickly shrinking in size. (What a freak) Tom quietly thought to himself. Even the beastly cultivators would have been much more injured from that type of a fall but yet she didn't show any major signs of an injury. If she hadn't temporarily lost her memory she wouldn't have even seemed perfectly fine!

(Okay, enough of how amazing Luna is. Time to start the hunt again)

Tom quickly brandished his sword and started to walk much slower, using the trees around him as cover. The forest was like a huge rainforest with trees who's heights couldn't be seen from the ground. The floor of the forest itself consisted of broken twigs, dead leaves and insects scurrying about, constantly chattering with buzzes and crickets. Luna had never seen such a lush looking place and was clearly in wonder, a start contrast to Tom's cautious demeanor.

They had already been tracking the Wolf by howling before Luna fell but after the fall, the wolf had gone silent so they were slowly making their way in through to the last location they had heard it. Tom's footsteps made barely a sound now, his feet landing as gently as they could of the ground whilst his legs would gracefully sway to the nearest spot without twigs or leaves before stopping for his feet to descend on the group. Compared to the expert movements made by Tom, Luna was like a clumsy swan, her tiptoeing frequently crunching a branch or crushing a dried leaf underfoot. If it wasn't for the chattering of insects and birds all around, they would have been found out a long time ago.

Tom took his blade out, and with a few strokes carved out a few lines. He had been doing this occasionally but Luna had been curious and whispered gently "What are you doing Tom?".

"Oh, I'm just marking where we came from. This forest is quite large and we're not quite that familiar with it so it's best to create out own landmarks to help us get back" Tom whispered back, trying his best to make sure that the sound wouldn't be carried too far off.

"Oh, I'd have never thought of that. You seem like a natural at this. Too bad i forced you to walk with me on the ground otherwis..."

AWOOOOOOOOOOO!

Before she could even finish her sentence, a shrill how went through the air. Tom instantly grabbed Luna and ducked behind a tree.

"Woah, that sounded like it was really close. In a few minutes we'll probably be able to spot it" Luna said under her breath.

"Yeah, i bet it's even closer than that actually. We need to distract it whilst I use my dark moonlight sword to cut it from the back"

"Another name for that dumb sword, seriously dude?"

"So what if I give it another name, only the best will do for my little moondusk king"

"Now you're just making them up as you go along dude"

"Shhhh... were supposed to be hunting here"

GROWLLLL

A large growl came from behind the tree where Luna and Tom were arguing. They both quickly turned their bodies to look. In front of them was a beast that was at least as tall as Tom, with thick silvery fur. It's leg muscles looked like they had been carved out of marble and it has deep, black claws and yellow fangs. It's silver eyes stared at the two humans in front of it as a pointed nose took a sniff before making another shrill howl.

The Star Wolf had found them...