“You the adventurers?” The guard at the gate called out to them when they were still several steps away.

“That we are.” Bordan replied, the party coming to a stop in the shade of the palisade.

“Thank the gods.” The guard sighed. “We heard you guys were swamped, but I still hoped you’d come sooner.” He waved them on with a smile. “Head right through, the headman will want to speak to you. He’s in the town hall, you can’t miss it.”

The adventurers passed through the gate and entered the town. It was among the larger rural settlements, concentric rings of well-built homes centered around a large market square ringed by shops. There were plenty of people on the street, and they all greeted the party with one emotion obvious on their face: Relief.

Each village they’d visited had reacted differently at their arrival, generally depending on the severity of their monster problem. Most were happy, because the arrival of adventurers meant they would soon be able to return to their hunting grounds and outlying fields. Some didn’t care much, usually if the monster in question didn’t pose much of a threat to their daily lives, like the direbeaver they’d hunted. This level of happiness and gratitude was new, however, and the adventurers shared worried looks.

The guard had been right: The town hall was hard to miss. A short while later they sat across from the headman in his office, the elderly man greeting them with a weary look on his bespectacled face.

“Thank the gods you’re here.” He echoed the guard’s sentiment. “I know we’re a little out of the way, but I had hoped for you a week ago.”

“We apologize.” Bordan replied cautiously. “The Guild’s resources are stretched thin right now. We spent the last week marching through the wilderness to get here from the border of the Clawed Woods.”

“Please, I didn’t mean any offense.” The headman said, raising his hands placatingly. “I know that it’s bad everywhere right now, and I’m thankful that you’re here. It’s just…” He sighed. “Really bad.”

Bordan shot a quick sideways glance at Edwin, who was just as puzzled as the former solider.

“Would you mind telling us more about what’s going on?” Bordan asked. “The request said you’re dealing with a direstag. I admit that we’re a fairly new group, and we haven’t had to deal with one of those yet, but it doesn’t sound too bad, compared to wolves or boars.”

The headman’s face drew into a scowl, then relaxed. “I suppose you’re correct. Had anyone told me what would happen beforehand, I would’ve had trouble believing it. We see a direstag every now and then, maybe once every two years or so. Usually, they just pass through, so we weren’t very worried at first. This one is different, though. Let me start at the beginning.”

“It arrived here a few days before we sent out the request. Fermo comes back from the field, running like a demon’s on his tail, screaming all the way. The way he tells it, they were working their field, minding their own business, when the beast comes rushing out of the forest and skewers Gerno, Fermo’s brother. Then it runs off, Gerno stuck on its antlers, still alive. We rang the bell to tell everyone to come back to town and stayed inside for the rest of the day, hoping it would just move on like the others. The next day we searched the area to see if it was safe but didn’t find anything. ‘Alright, it’s gone.’ We thought, and people went out again. That day it got Ronder, one of our most experienced hunters. His son said that it just appeared without warning, skewered him and carried him off.”

The adventurers were hanging onto his every word, distraught expressions on their faces. They’d heard of some bad direbeast attacks, but this was something else.

“Since then, we’ve lost a dozen people, including the first runner we sent to file the request. We’ve tried everything, even went after it with two dozen armed men, but no use. It didn’t matter how many we were, it races out of the forest, stabs someone with its antlers and runs off with them before we can do anything. A few times we hit it with arrows, but that didn’t slow it down. It’s like it’s hunting us, and when it has one of our people it drags them off and comes back the next day. We’ve been hunkering down inside the walls for over a week now, but if we can’t return to our fields soon, we’ll miss harvest season and won’t have time to prepare for winter.” He looked at them pleadingly. “You can kill it, right?”

Bordan looked between his companions again, Edwin noticing more nervousness than he’d ever seen on the man.

“Well, we can’t make any promises, but we’ll certainly try. That’s why we’re here.”

“I could offer you the help of some of our guardsmen and hunters.” The headman interjected, seeing Bordan’s reservations. “I’m sure I’d find plenty of volunteers if I asked.”

“No.” Edwin said firmly. “That won’t be necessary. We’ll take the rest of the day to prepare, then we’ll go out and hunt the beast tomorrow. I promise you that if it’s still here, we will kill it!”

The headman looked between Bordan and Edwin with confusion, then smiled. “Thank you! I’ll spread the good news. If we can help in any way, tell me and I’ll arrange it.”

--- ----- ---

“What was that?” Bordan asked with a furrowed brow. They were standing in front of the town hall, the sun casting long shadows across the near-empty square. “You can’t just decide that without talking to us.”

“Yes, I can.” Edwin said. “These people are living in fear. We needed to show him that we can handle it, not give him the impression that we don’t know what we’re doing.”

“But we don’t!” Bordan hissed. “We’ve never fought anything like this, we should’ve at least considered accepting his help. Another handful of bows might’ve given us the edge we need.”

“Bordan, think.” Edwin said. “Do you really want to bring untrained, inexperienced civilians along? They’ll just get in the way, and worse, we’ll get them killed. If it’s just us, we can stay together and keep us from being ambushed and carried off. The larger the group, the more likely someone takes one wrong step and the beast gets the jump on them.” He shook his head. “No, Bordan. We are the ones these people call because they can’t deal with it themselves. If we tell them that we can’t either, they’ll lose all trust in the Guild.”

Bordan took a calming breath. “You’re right, but your heroic attitude doesn’t help us if we actually can’t deal with it.”

“What’s with the negativity, Bordan?” Edwin asked, actually surprised. “So what if we don’t have experience with direstags? Two months ago, we hadn’t fought anything, and that didn’t stop us. Sure, it’s terrorized the people of this town, but that doesn’t mean that we need to be afraid as well. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a deer with delusions of grandeur. Remember what Mennick said: Preparation, tactics and teamwork. If we stick to that and don’t let it surprise us, is it really going to be more dangerous than three direwolves?”

Edwin looked at his companions in turn. Salissa looked away, but Leodin’s back straightened and he nodded back. Finally, Bordan sighed. “I’m sorry, Edwin, you’re right. I don’t know what came over me. We’ll have to be extremely vigilant, though: It will probably be less dangerous in a straight fight than some of the things we’ve killed, but if it manages to surprise one of us and carry them off, there’s no chance of survival. We’ll have to plan for its hit and run attacks, and we’ll have to adjust our tactics to make sure we’re protected.”

“See? That’s the spirit!” Edwin said with a grin and slapped Bordan on the back. “And I already have an idea or two for that, don’t you worry.”

“No, forget it, you’re not going to wrestle it.” Bordan snorted and turned towards the tavern on the other side of the square. “Let’s talk about it over dinner. Nice speech, by the way. Did you read that in one of your books?”

“Oh Bordan.” Edwin said, throwing an arm around the shorter man’s shoulder. “There is no need to be jealous, just because you can’t read.”