Shamus moved through the woods much more deftly than I had when I was descending the mountain previously. As we worked our way through the forest towards the East side of the mountain we instinctively stopped at every sound. Shamus, being a master hunter, could see my lack of skills in sneaking. As we traveled he quietly walked me through how to sneak in a forest environment. We went back and forth for hours as we traveled. He would give me information and I would ask questions.

I had gained three levels in sneaking by the time the sun began to set. We found an area suitable to make a fire and set up camp. It was close to a rocky outcropping which gave us some cover. I took the first watch so Shamus could get some sleep. Mae sat on my shoulder as I looked out into the trees.

"You said 'everything here was put in place to lead me to the end of my journey' what did you mean?" I whispered to Mae so as not to wake Shamus.

"This whole adventure is for you, Teddy. As far as the purpose of it all, that is above my paygrade," Mae said. She didn't have to whisper since Shamus couldn't hear her anyway. "Some answers can't be given, they must be discovered."

"Will I wake up from my coma when I get to the end?" I asked quietly.

"Teddy, you've been told multiple times that you aren't in a coma and that you died saving that child. I can tell you the truth, but I can't believe it for you," Mae said with a soft tone that was full of compassion.

I was silent for a while. I can't be dead. I'm still alive or whatever this is. Doesn't a coma explain this situation so much better than being dead? None of it makes sense.

"I just don't," I cut my sentence short as I heard a noise coming from the forest. I looked out into the forest. That's when I saw a pair of eyes glinting from the light of the fire.

"Come out," I said loud enough to wake Shamus. I thought about my sword and buckler and they appeared in place ready for a fight. That's when a wolf walked out of the trees. It didn't look like it was in an aggressive stance but in more of a tentative defensive one. I lowered my sword and asked, "Can you understand me?"

The wolf just stood there and I saw no indication of a response. Shamus was sitting up in his bedroll at this point looking confused. I waved him off when he started to reach for his bow. I had a gut feeling that this was my special ability kicking in. I trusted my gut and put my weapon and shield away showing my palms to the wolf.

"If you can understand me, take one step towards me," I said.

The wolf took one step forward and stopped.

"If you can understand me, take one step away from me," I said continuing to test my theory.

The wolf took one step back.

"If we are friends now take two steps towards me," I said wanting to make sure my special ability was working and that I wasn't about to get eaten by a crafty wolf.

The wolf took two steps forward and relaxed its stance.

"You can talk to wolves," asked Shamus still sitting up in his bedroll.

"I guess I can," I said smiling that my special ability worked so well. I looked over at the wolf and asked, "Are you alone?" Wolves are usually found in packs, but I didn't know if that was true here as well.

The wolf howled once and stepped back into the forest.

"What did he say?" asked Shamus. "Where did he go?"

"I have absolutely no idea," I said turning to give him a sassy lool then realizing it was a perfectly reasonable question under the circumstances, "They can understand me not the other way around."

His face went pale. I turned to see a dozen glistening eyes coming out of the forest.

"If you are friendly please wag your tail," I said quickly in a panic.

All six wolves relaxed their stances and wagged their tails.

"I have a gift for each of you, but will only give it if you promise to not eat us," I said still freaking out a little. I turned to Mae who was just watching this all unfold and asked quietly, "They won't attack us, right? Are wolves trustworthy?" She nodded.

I had quite a bit of uncooked meat in my inventory and grabbed out six good size pieces. I tossed a piece to each wolf and they each took their piece and began eating.

"Please, don't attack us, and let me know if there is any danger nearby," I relaxed a little and figured if they wanted to hurt us they would have already. I turned to Shamus and tried to ease his mind, "I think we're safe. You want to take your watch?"

I slept for a few hours and woke up with the sunrise. I was surprised to see five sleeping wolves with the sixth sitting right next to Shamus watching over his pack. It was the same wolf that first approached me.

"Looks like you made a new friend," I said picking up my bedroll and getting ready to move out.

"We are more alike than I first thought," Shamus said giving the wolf a nod of respect.

I turned to the wolf and said, "He is a good man. You can trust him."

"Thanks," said Shamus getting up and preparing to leave.

"Should I ask them to travel with us?" I asked Shamus.

"Doesn't hurt to ask," he said in response, "They are probably the only ones around here that know this area better than me."

I focused on the lead wolf and asked if they wanted to travel with us explaining that we were looking for a large flying creature who attacked a town. I don't know how much translated into wolf, but he gave a little yip and all the other wolves sat up where there had been laying. He looked at me as if waiting for direction.

I pointed up at the East side of the mountain. He started off in that direction with his pack following. Shamus and I hiked after them. Mae was flying around somewhere. I think she didn't want to be a distraction when I was focused, but she always seemed to be around when I needed her and when I couldn't see her I guessed that she was close enough to heal me if I got into trouble.

That first day was the easy part, now we needed to track down this thing. We spent about half the day hiking up the mountain and searching for any sign of the dragon, but found nothing. I tried to give the wolves some search parameters, but I had no idea what was getting through and I couldn't understand their yips and howls.

"Mae, do you have any idea where we should be looking?" I asked Mae when I saw her fly in close.

"Not yet, Teddy. If you pull up your map you should be able to see everywhere you've searched so far," Mae said.

I opened my map and most of the East side of the mountain was filled in with no sign of a cave or other point of interest. I explained to Shamus that we should continue on with another area. The wolves had left about an hour ago and I assume it was to hunt for some food to sustain the pack. I was sure they could find us again if they wanted to so we kept travelling. We headed further up the mountain hoping to see something.

As the sun faded we found another good camping spot and while were setting up camp the wolves returned. They acted like they had found something, but I told them we needed to sleep for the night and they could lead us to what they found in the morning. We slept in shifts again and the wolves slept in a semi-circle covering our most vulnerable side. One of them was also always awake, but their shifts were shorter since there were more of them.

"I'm really starting to like these guys," I said to Shamus when we swapped shifts.

"Yeah," he said, "me too."