Webs and Wolves – 4A-EW

Chapter 4 – Spiders in the Trees (continued)

They spoke briefly about what was in each of the rooms, and determined only that Ursa would of course take the larger bed in the ox room. That was when they heard footsteps on the stairs, far louder than Talindra or Vesili would have made.

A guardsman emerged from the stairwell, pausing as he saw the five of them in the hallway. “Are you Adept Kaylen Gallowglass?” He asked as his gaze landed on him.

“I am.” Kaylen acknowledged, stepping forward to greet the guardsman. “Sergeant Coleman I presume?”

“No, actually. My name is Kel Trent. I’m here on behalf of two of your companions; Miss Talindra and Miss Tenorei, who asked me to relay a message. They have gone to scout in the woods, and will return when they can.”

“Well, that’s unexpected.” Kaylen gathered himself, not sure how to take the news, but figured he should show confidence in front of his teammates. “Will that be all?”

“Yes, that is all.”

“Very well, thank you for delivering the message.” Kaylen gave a nod, and guardsman Trent nodded back before turning to leave.

“Let’s get started then.” Kaylen said after a quiet moment. “We have no way of knowing when they’ll be coming back, so we’ll catch up with them once we’re done here.”

No one objected, so they grouped up in the ox room, most of them sitting on the edges of the various beds. Kaylen proceeded to fill Ursa in on what information they’d received from the mayor and what had been discussed regarding the local wildlife.

“Any questions?” He asked once he’d finished, “We’ll need to examine one of the encounter sights to learn anything more useful, so we’ll head out to catch up with our friends. Sergeant Ellin Coleman is the name of the man Mayor Steeper agreed to send with us, which is why I thought Kel Trent might be him. The mayor knows we’re meeting up here and want to leave within the hour, so I doubt he’ll keep us waiting.”

“I can wait outside for him.” Ursa offered.

“Sounds good.” Kaylen agreed.

“Alright.” The black-haired half-giant stood, and moved towards the door.

“In the meantime, shall we determine which rooms we’ll each be bunking in? There are lock-boxes at the foot of every bed here at the inn where we can store any gear while we’re in town.” Kaylen suggested.

“I thought Ursa and I should take the ox room by the stairs.” Lyria suggested.

“Should we assume Talindra and Vesili will share a room since they aren’t here to choose one?” Dinnae suggested. “Or did you want to bunk with Vesili again?”

“That’s a good idea. Let’s go ahead and store their things from their saddle bags in the cat room.” Kaylen suggested. “I was planning to claim the hawk room at the end of the hall.” He added.

“Then uh, did you want one of us to share that room with you?” Dinnae asked, glancing at Alanthea, clearly not comfortable about the idea of being alone with the priestess in the remaining room.

“I will admit I am unaccustomed to being alone in a room.” The pale-haired priestess cut in. “At the Cathedral we always shared, sometimes with two or three other sisters.”

“Why don’t you put your things in the hawk room with mine, Alanthea.” Kaylen said before turning to the others, “Dinnae, you’ll be okay in the boar room by yourself? We can make other adjustments if we need to.” He continued.

“I should be fine.” Danny confirmed.

When no one else said anything, he got to his feet. “Then everyone stash your things while we’re awaiting…”

There was a knock at the door, and when it swung open, Ursa was there alongside a tall man in the town guard uniform with a salt-and-pepper mustache.

“Ah, Sergeant Coleman?” Kaylen said, stepping forward and extending his hand towards the man.

“Yes sir.” He acknowledged, and shook Kaylen’s hand. “Miss Steeper asked me to show you where her father went missing and answer any questions you might have.”

“We’ll set out as soon as we’ve stowed some of our gear here at the inn, if that works for you.” Kaylen informed the man.

“I’ll leave you to that, then. I’ll be just outside.” He agreed.

It was less than a half hour later that the six of them were on their way on a path to the west of the village on foot. It couldn’t really be called a road, but it was clear the ground had been packed by numerous boots and at least a few carts or wagons.

They walked together for close to an hour, with limited conversation as everyone tried to stay alert. They eventually entered a part of the forest where the trees had not yet been cleared, until they reached an area of some of the tallest trees they’d passed where the path was much rougher and less traveled.

Another five minutes brought them into a small clearing where a single tree had been felled amid numerous scorch marks. There were thick cobwebs in a couple places as well, some among trees, others seemingly strewn about the ground. What’s more, there were a handful of animals stuck to some of the discarded webbing, most of them dead with signs that they’d already been picked at by scavengers, while at the far end of the clearing came the growling of a wolf that was seemingly immobilized by strands of web matted to its fur. It looked malnourished, but was stubbornly clinging to life.

“Oh.” Dinnae gasped, “Should we free it?”

“It could be dangerous to get close.” Lyria pointed out.

“Perhaps we should grant it a final mercy.” Alanthea suggested.

“Only as a last resort.” Ursa insisted.

His sister and the half-giant both looked to Kaylen to decide. With a sigh, he told them, “I can put the creature to sleep with magic if someone thinks they could cut it free without waking it.”

“Talindra and Vesili are the stealthy ones.” Lyria said, “But I could try.”

“It might be a two-person job.” Ursa suggested. “And it might be better if Danny or Alanthea did the cutting while I assisted, since I’m quieter than you, Lyria. Plus my skin is tougher, so I can handle things if it wakes up.”

“Um… I can be quiet. I’d just be nervous to get close.” Dinnae offered, looking back and forth between them.

“Don’t worry, I’m not about to let anything happen to you. We’ll all protect you.” Kaylen promised.

“Here, hold my shield and spear.” Ursa asked, handing her weapons to Lyria.

Then the two of them moved forward, Dinnae making very little noise, and Ursa managing to move surprisingly quietly for her size and the amount of armor she wore. The rest of them followed at a distance, not wanting to alarm the wolf any further. Before they got too close to the creature, Kaylen brought his staff forward, and whispered an incantation to put the wolf to sleep.

It fought it, growling and whimpering as it grew sluggish. It shook its head, jerking its eyes open once, twice, then it slumped to the ground, its breathing growing deep and even.

Ursa knelt down, and very gently placed her hands over the wolf. Then she nodded to Dinnae, who drew her knife, kneeling on the other side of the creature and began cutting through the strands of old webbing. She tried to be careful, and the wolf seemed mostly peaceful and at ease as it slumbered. It took a few minutes before the wolf was free, and Ursa then lifted it up and carried it out of the clearing, setting it back down gently in a section of grass free of any spider signs. Then Kaylen and his team began removing as much of the remaining webbing as they could, carefully piling it on a rock near the center of the clearing so Kaylen could ignite it all with a spell, watching it go up in smoke so it could no longer harm the animals of the forest.

“In the guard we wouldn’t normally spare wolves.” Ellin told them, “But I appreciate what you’ve done here, hopefully that wolf will range far from our town and not bother our people.”

“I hope so too.” Kaylen agreed. But they were there for a job, and it was time to turn their attentions to figuring out what information they could glean from the evidence at hand.

Everyone spread out to look around, while Kaylen found he was drawn to the felled tree. There were scorch marks where it had been severed from its stump, and the cut was not the clean cut of a saw, nor were there signs of axe chips, or creatures gnawing on it, or even rot that would have weakened it. What’s more, the tree overall hadn’t caught fire, yet something had left burn marks on the bark, and touching the jagged scar through the trunk showed him that the wood inside had been scorched by something so hot it had melted the wood rather than burn it traditionally.

He could only surmise magic must have been involved.

He shared this observation with the others.

“You think there was a mage here?” Lyria asked.

Kaylen shook his head, “I don’t think so. I would have expected other signs of spell casting from a mage. This was something inherent.” Kaylen told her.

“There are some odd tracks here.” Ursa observed, and Kaylen and the others approached to see what she’d found; marks from a scaled foot with sharp claws.

Kaylen frowned as he looked at the intact footprint in the dried mud. It clearly wasn’t human, and a scaled foot meant some kind of large bird or reptile, and it did not look like a harpy’s foot. It was quite a bit smaller than the one they’d encountered, and the arrangement of toes was different.

“What kind of creature might have inherent magical fire, clawed feet, and the ability to fly?” Sergeant Coleman wondered aloud.

“When you lay it out; that sounds a lot like a dragon.” Kaylen observed.

“I think a dragon is above our pay grade…” Lyria muttered.

“I would hesitate to fight a dragon even with the entire town’s guard force at my back.” The sergeant said.

“Considering the size of its feet, it couldn’t be a very large dragon. I think we could handle it, if we’re careful.” Ursa suggested.

“Hopefully we won’t have to.” Kaylen said. “But we should be prepared just in case. I have a fire resistance spell, but I can’t cover everyone.”

“Would a smaller force protected by your magic be more effective, perhaps?” Ellin asked.

“We could split into two groups, and have those who can be covered by your spell engage the spiders and the possible dragon while the others try to stay out of range.” Lyria suggested. “And what about Lynn and Vesili? They could be walking right into it.”

“Not a bad idea.” Kaylen agreed. “Let’s head towards the heart of the forest, locate this spider’s nest and see if we can do something about it. If there’s a dragon there too, we’ll deal with that accordingly. We won’t know how much trouble they’re in until we find them, but as soon as we do I’ll have my resistance spell ready in case they need it.”

There were a few comments, but no one disagreed with Kaylen’s plan of action, and so the six of them gathered themselves and started west deeper into the forest.

Author’s Note

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