Chapter 45: 045 The Next Village Part One

The Freemartin drove the cart around the dragon's previous mountain, the mountain the rams mined ore from, and the next one. The road had been a little crude, I assumed because it was difficult to build a road with the threat of a possible dragon around. The road greatly improved when we were passed the mountains and the horse and cart increased in speed.

It didn't take us long to approach the next village that the Freemartin informed me was filled with wolves. It had taken several hours of subtle probing and around the bush questions about their behaviors and culture for me to figure it out. Normally, I wouldn't be worried, except that I had a sheep and twelve badgers that could be considered prey by them. She told me not to worry about that and I asked her why.

“They are secular and are not sociable.” The Freemartin said. “They built their settlement on the road, then changed the road and diverted it around their lands.”

“I assume you're going to take the longer route?” I asked.

“Unless you want to go in there and kill them all.” The Freemartin said.

I went quiet and she turned her head to look at me.

“You're actually considering doing that?” She asked, surprised.

“Are they bad? Do they hunt your people and steal them?” I asked, trying to pretend that I needed some kind of justification. I actually wanted to test if my new skill Battle Crazy would work like I hoped it would.

“What would make you ask such a weird question?” The Freemartin asked and looked back at the road. “Steal my people? For what?”

Food. I thought. “Slaves, maybe?”

She bleated a laugh. “What is it like where you come from that you think that?”

I took a breath and let it out. “I guess I'm a bit prejudiced. I just assumed wolves were bad. They hunt in packs where I'm from and raid farms for sheep and chickens.” I said. “Or is that foxes? Or both?” I asked with a shrug. “I can't remember.”

“Your lands are a very strange place.” The Freemartin said as the cart approached a fork in the road. That wasn't a surprise. What surprised me were the two eight foot tall wolves standing there in half plate armor. They had large halberd swords on their backs and their faces were uncovered, breaking the land's taboo over showing faces.

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Name: Unpronounceable in Common - It's just growls, howls, and yips
Species: Lupus Humanus (Wolves)
Class: Predator / Hunter
Job: Culling

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“Pull over.” I asked the Freemartin and she stopped the cart at the side of the road just before the fork. I hopped down and walked over to the two obvious guards. “Hi, there.” I said and the two of them bared their mouthfuls of teeth at me and let out low growls as their hackles raised. “It's starting to get dark and I was wondering if you had a nice inn or something at your village.”

“No.” One of them growled. “Move along.”

“You just lied.” I said and it growled louder at me. “It's a skill I have, so don't try to deny it.”

“We don't want your kind here.” The other said and I looked at him.

“That was almost a lie.” I said, a little confused. My skill usually gave me a yes or no answer. “Maybe you personally don't want me here and your pack leader does? Or something similar?”

The first guard reached for the hilt of his halberd, so I stored it and put the sword in my own hand.

“Looking for this?” I asked and waved it at him.

The two wolves froze for a second and then took a step back.

“Wait here.” The second guard said and nodded to the first, turned around and ran a dozen feet away, then let out a howl and several yips and barks.

Barely five seconds later, a large group of wolves ran towards us on all fours. They ranged in sizes and I could easily tell the males from the females. For some reason, the women had their faces almost like the cat women. It was mostly normal with fur on the sides of their faces, with thick eyebrows and hair mixed into the fur on their heads. They were just as armored as the male wolves and moved at the same speed.

The approaching group of wolves slowed down their very fast run and pushed themselves up into standing positions. There were eight of them, six males and two females. They slowed down more and came to a stop next to the second guard that had called them. They were heavily armored in key areas and had emblems on their shoulders with four claw marks.

“Report.” The lead male wolf ordered.

The second guard relayed everything and they all turned to look at me with the first guard's halberd in my hand.

“He dares to challenge...” One of the females started to say and the lead wolf put a large pawed hand on her shoulder.

“Calm your emotions. He merely stopped the guard from drawing his weapon.” The lead wolf said.

“Exactly.” I said and made it disappear and reappear in the guard's scabbard. “I didn't want things to escalate further than they already had.”

“He lied.” The female said, her black fur bristling. “I can smell it.”

“Stranger.” The lead wolf said. “Explain.”

I took a breath and let it out. “I actually wanted to fight all of you to test a new skill I have.”

“That's also a lie.” The female said.

“Wow, you can tell lies better than my skill can.” I said, quite impressed, then remembered that I only had 45 points in the skill. “Hold on, let me just...” I dropped another 54 points into the skill and maxed it to 99. “...there we go.”

“Did he just...” One of the males started to say and clamped his muzzle shut.

“When I said 'all', I meant everyone in your village, not just you and your group.” I clarified.

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“Are you crazy?” The other female asked. “No one could take on a village full of Cullers!”

“He killed the dragon.” The Freemartin said and her words were met with growls and yips of surprise in response. “I saw the severed head. It's true.”

“Then we need to take you to the pack leader.” The lead wolf said and looked at the cart. He took in a single sniff and wrinkled his snout. “We can leave your cats and badgers at the inn. Under guard, of course.”

“Of course.” I said and nodded my head.

“Follow.” He ordered and turned around. “Hella, stay with them.”

“Why me?” The one who said I lied asked.

“He likes you.” The lead wolf said and the rest of the group took off running on foot, then dropped to all fours and sped away and out of sight as quickly as they had appeared.

“Okay, that was neat.” I said.

“Mount your cart, armored man.” Hella said. “I will try to slow myself down to keep pace and guide you to town.”

“I'd rather run; but, I won't make my people worry.” I said and went back to the cart and climbed on. The female wolf gave us a glare, then she started to trot. The Freemartin had the horse and cart follow her easily.

“She's intentionally going slow.” The Freemartin said.

“I know.” I said.

“Ask her to go faster.”

“No.” I said.

“Why?”

“She's doing it to try and irritate us.” I said with a smile, even though no one could see it. “She doesn't realize that the exaggeratedly slow movements of her fake run is giving me a great view of her ass as she pumps her legs.”

The wolf woman's ears flicked down in clear irritation and she let out a low growl. Her movements eased down to be a lot smoother and she ran normally after that. I nodded at the Freemartin and she nodded back. We followed at a quicker pace and made it to the town ten minutes later. It was nearly three times the size of any settlement I had seen so far. The quality was about the same, though. I guess there was only so much that they could do with stone and wood.

Hella stopped at what actually looked like a large inn, which was odd for a species that wasn't sociable with other species. It wasn't until we went inside the large lobby that I saw several groups of different armored wolves with different emblems as they sat and ate food. One emblem had four punctures, one had two scratches across and two scratches down, almost like a cross, and the last had a clawed fist. It was the only one that had an actual picture carved and not something easily made by their claws.

They all froze and stared at us as the female wolf took us to the counter and the male wolf that was there had his hackles up.

“Two rooms. One for the females and one for the badgers. They are under the Patrol Leader's protection until further notice.” Hella said with as stern of a voice as she could.

The male wolf let out a grumble. “Fine. Fine. I hope he actually pays this time and doesn't just...”

I took out a handful of local gold coins and put them on the counter. “I want the biggest available rooms you have, beds for everyone... or at least proper bedding to get them comfortable, and baths prepared in the rooms.”

Everyone stared at the gold coins.

“Is that too much?” I asked.

“Not at all.” The male wolf said and scooped them up. “I'll even provide meals tonight and in the morning.”

I nodded and looked at the cat women and the Freemartin. “Make use of the bath. I'll be back later.”

“Don't antagonize the pack leader.” The Freemartin said. “Even you might have trouble if everyone attacks you.”

“I didn't know you cared.” I said and she let out a bleat of laughter.

Half of the male wolves stood up immediately and half of those took a step forward. I didn't waste any time as I ran around in only a couple of seconds and lightly punched each and every one of them in the chest to take the wind out of them. I was back at the counter before anyone realized what I had done, except for the female wolf. She had seen me move and hadn't tried to stop me.

“Gentlemen, control yourselves.” I said as they dropped to their knees to try and get their breath back. “She is mine. If any harm comes to her, I will tear you limb from limb after I skin you alive.”

“You dare harm one of my men.” One of the male wolves that didn't react to the bleat said as he stood.

“You were strong enough to resist the brief temptation of prey.” I said and nodded to him. “Your friend was not.”

“You still...”

“Would you rather I killed him for not controlling himself?” I asked and the wolf growled. He had the carved fist on his emblem. “I only reminded him that he needs to be careful when in mixed company.”

“They are under the Patrol Leader's protection.” The female wolf named Hella reminded everyone. She had noted the ones that had reacted and would tell the Patrol Leader about them. They were at a higher risk of overreacting and he needed to know who to watch out for during the meeting.

I stood there and waited for the cat women, the Freemartin, and the badgers to be led to their rooms before I turned to the female wolf. “Lead on.”

She nodded and we left the inn with all eyes on our backs.

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