Over the next few days we continued our travels east, using the mounts with Sigmir and me running alternately. I still wanted to make Adra give me a ride, but the glare she had given me when I suggested it the first evening had made it clear that it would not happen, unless there was a life-threatening situation. And maybe not even then.

During our travels, we tried to keep our dried supplies as high as possible, mostly by asking Adra or Sigmir to go hunting during the evening, while I trained Rai, but after the first day of travel, the game they could scare up simply vanished. I tried to feel if there was a miasma in the air, similar to the area around Tegi, or any aura of death that might hint at a magical problem, but I was unable to find anything. That could have been because I was not skilled enough or because there was nothing to find, so our vigilance ramped up each day.

The fact that during the night, we heard howling wolves did not make us relax at all. Most animals had given up on attacking us, unless we actively hid our aura, not just reigning it in as we normally did for Rai but I was worried that a large wolf-pack might get ideas to try taking us down. The howling was rather far away and they were calling to hunt, perfectly normal pack-behaviour, according to Ylva.

One afternoon, three days after we had left Adernas, we were moving rather slowly, in order to relax a little when something happened. Without warning, four wolves jumped out of the woodwork, three of them charging towards the mounts and Adra, making a huge ruckus in the process, snarling and growling like mad while the forth tried to move between me and the other three. There was a short flash of annoyance, that they had managed to sneak up on us, but they knew the terrain and were born hunters, so it was only a small one.

After that flash, I observed the wolves, both with the skill and without. They all looked slightly shaggy, with dark-grey fur and I thought they looked thin, compared to Ylva. The magical side made me realise that their levels were only between twenty-five and thirty, which made me paranoid. Even the dumbest animal had to know that an attack on that level would never bring us down, even individually. Taking on the wolf that had gone between me and the others, I quickly started to draw runes, managing two before instantly creating the third as he had gotten close. My favourite weapon, a simple icicle lanced out, forcing the wolf to dodge. It got still hit in the shoulder, but not speared through the chest, my original target.

Just as the spell was flying, another wolf jumped from the side, trying to get to me before I could react but I had suspected something like that, so I was ready. Using my Ice-Magic to draw my Lunar Butterfly-Wings into my hands and tried leaping aside, while punching out, to increase distance between us. The idea was to hit the wolf at the shoulder and push myself away from it.

It worked quite well, only that I was airborne and the wolves ambush was not finished, a third wolf, this one completely black and larger than the other five, leapt at me, trying to get me while I was in the air, unable to dodge. Time slowed to a crawl as my mind slipped into Bullet Time and I had an idea that could save me. Remembering my first experiment with my Eisblumen, I let the a single vine strike out, not trying to push the wolf aside, but striking the ground below me, to gain a bit of separation. With more time, I would have used more vines and went for the wolf, but the ground was closer, giving me more time to move after accelerating myself.

The result was that the leaping wolf slammed into my legs, sending me into an airborne tumble, instead of getting hold of my chest and carrying me down beneath him, undoubtedly to get my throat ripped out.

My tumble reminded me why I disliked amusement-park rides and Bullet Time was still active, giving me ample time to ponder the old joke that the fall did not hurt, only the sudden stop at the end. Luckily, my sudden stop was not quite so sudden, as I landed in the soft snow, acting as a pillow. I was struggling with disorientation for a moment, trying to get back to my feet, fearing that any moment one of the wolves would be on me, when multiple yelps and smacking sounds reached my brain.

After I got back to my feet, I saw that the other three had already dispatched the wolves that had attacked them and one of Adra’s arrows had struck down a wolf next to me, as Sigmir charged over.

Seeing the greatly changed odds, the remaining two wolves tried to run, giving off barks but I was having none of that. Anger gripped me, Overflow activated and I was creating runes as fast as my mind could handle, heedless of the extra Astral Power cost for instantly creating them. Before the first Iciele hit the fleeing black wolf, two more were in the air, followed by a curse of disorientation.

The curse took hold but the effect was not as strong as against sapient beings, most likely due to the stronger instincts. In my anger, I tried to strike out with Mind Magic, but that was even less effective. Adra however, managed to nail the black wolf to a tree with one of her glowing arrows.

Breathing hard, due to Astral Power expenditure and anger, I closed in on the still living wolf and observed it.

It was a level 54 Black Wolf and tried to be menacing by growling and snarling as I closed in. I almost laughed, it was obvious that there was no way it could hurt me, not in its current state. Drawing my athame, I gave it a small cut and channelled my Blood Magic, causing it to go insane with pain, breaking off the arrow and trying to get away, but I already had the link and simply ripped with my magic, probably wasting some of the power I could have siphoned off, but there was still some of the thick, red substance and a big, bad wolf that had died in the most painful way possible.

The EXP we gained for the encounter was pretty bad, the four shaggy wolves had only given a few hundred a piece and the Black Wolf only a thousand, there was a reason we didn’t bother to actively hunt down normal animals at our current level.

“Are you alright?” Adra asked, as I returned to them.

“Yes. One of them got away.” I replied in a grumble.

“Well, better one of them getting away, than they getting one of us. That could have been far different, you know?” Sigmir asked as she gave me a short hug.

“Yes, I know. Just imagine you had been on normal horses and Adra some normal beast. The mounts would have panicked and carried you away until you got them under control and it would have been six wolves against little ol’ me.” I answered, shivering a little as I imagined trying to get up, with six wolves trying to keep me down and kill me.

“And we have another problem.” Sigmir added, “Ylva tells me that the wolf we killed probably was one of the group that attacked her own pack. They are organised, dividing themselves up into smaller hunting groups and larger packs, in order to cover ground and keep it.”

I shook the snow that was still clinging to me off and eyed my Astral Power deciding that I would need to join one of my companions on their mount to regenerate it, especially if something similar happened again. When we re-summoned the mounts, I asked Hringur, if he was able to carry Sigmir and me together. It was not the best weight-distribution, but if I had to cling to someone all day, or have someone cling to me, I would greatly prefer Sigmir.

He eyed me for a moment and agreed, with the stipulation that it would cost extra Power and slow him down to do so. Internally weighing the options, I decided that I was fine with the problems.

After mounting, we heard a wolf’s howl in the distance but much closer than those we had heard the last few days.

“It is the wolf that got away.” we were told by Sigmir, who passed on knowledge from Ylva “Ylva thinks the wolf is calling the higher-ups of its pack because we killed that hunting-group. She thinks more will come.”

That did not sound good. I was not entirely happy with the idea to be harried and repeatedly ambushed. I much preferred to fight in a space where they could not use their numbers and pack-tactics against us.

“Lenore, can you find us a good space to fight them? Some sort of valley or something similar? And keep an eye out for them?” I mentally asked.

I felt that Lenore was not happy about it, but she obliged, leaving her Hallow and taking off while we continued our way.