Webs and Wolves – 4C-HH

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 Vesili would have made.

A guardsman emerged from the stairwell, pausing as he saw the six 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. “Did Mayor Steeper send you?”

“Actually, your companion, Miss Vesili asked me to relay a message. She has gone to scout in the woods, and will return when she can.”

“I see.” Kaylen gathered himself, not sure how to take the news, but figured he should show confidence in front of his teammates. “Anything else, mister?”

“Kel Trent, Adept Gallowglass. And no, that was all.”

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

“I guess we should get started. We can’t necessarily count on her coming back before we need to go out to catch up with her.” Kaylen said after a quiet moment.

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 Alayni and Ursa in on what information they’d received from the mayor and what had been discussed regarding the local wildlife.

“That doesn’t give us much to go off of.” The brown-eyed halfling said. “Maybe there’s some kind of disease or corruption driving the spiders to range further from their nests?”

“We probably won’t learn anything more useful until we can examine one of the encounter sites.” Kaylen continued. “Mayor Steeper has agreed to send us a guide to show us one of these sites, and perhaps other locations. I told her we’d be meeting up here, so I don’t imagine he will be long.”

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

“You can if you’d like.” Kaylen agreed.

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

“With that out of the way, if anyone has gear they want to store in town while we’re here, there are lock-boxes at the foot of every bed here in the inn. So if we know who wants to share which rooms, we can store some things while we’re waiting.” Kaylen suggested.

“Which room are you taking, Kaylen?” Alayni asked, getting to her feet.

“I was thinking I might bunk in the hawk room at the end of the hall.”

“Then do you mind if I go in there with you?” The halfling continued.

“No, I don’t mind.” He agreed.

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

“Then, uh, that leaves me with Vesili?” Dinnae glanced at Alanthea, clearly not comfortable about the idea of being alone with the priestess in one of the two remaining rooms.

“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.”

Kaylen frowned, and met Danny’s gaze for a moment before suggesting, “Let’s each of you pick either the boar or cat room and put your things in there. When Vesili is back with us, we can let her choose which of the two rooms to share. Any objections?” He asked after a brief pause.

When no one said anything, he got to his feet. “Then let’s stash our things and hopefully…”

There was a knock at the door, and when it swung open, Ursa was there alongside a brown-haired man in the town guard uniform.

“You must be the guide Mayor Steeper sent.” Kaylen said, stepping forward and extending his hand towards the man.

“Indeed, Daryn Trumin.” He introduced himself, and shook Kaylen’s hand.

“We are going to stow away some of our gear here at the inn, then we can set out to the first of the disturbance sites.” Kaylen informed the man.

“Sounds good, I guess I’ll wait outside.” He agreed.

It was less than a half hour later that the seven 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?”

“A cornered wolf is even more dangerous than normal.” Alayni advised.

“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 turned to Alayni. “I can put the creature to sleep with magic. Do you think you could cut it free without waking it?”

“I’d probably need someone’s help; preferably someone with steady hands.” The brunette halfling suggested, glancing towards Dinnae.

“Um… alright.” The brown-haired girl looked back and forth between them. “Though, I don’t know how steady my hands will be that close to a dangerous animal.”

“Don’t worry, even if something happens, we’ll all be here looking out for you.” Kaylen promised.

“Then I’m willing to try.” She offered.

The two of them moved forward, Alayni making no noise, and Dinnae making very little. 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.

Immediately, Alayni got to work, directing Dinnae to kneel on one side of the creature and hold it steady as she began cutting through strands of old webbing with her knife. She was careful, and the wolf seemed completely peaceful and at ease as it slumbered. Within less than a minute, it was free, and the halfling waved Ursa forward to lift it and carry 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.

“I guess that’s our one good deed for the day.” Alayni said softly as they watched the webbing burn.

“That was quite impressive.” Daryn expressed.

Kaylen chuckled, but didn’t dispute the observation. It hadn’t honestly been that difficult. 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.

“Possibly, though I would have expected other signs of spell casting if such were the case.” Kaylen told her.

“Maybe if the wizard has clawed feet.” Alayni said, pointing to a set of tracks. “What do you guys make of these? They’re inconsistent, like it’s been jumping around, or maybe hovering.”

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.

Then something occurred to him. “Clawed scaled feet and magical fire hot enough to fell trees without setting them on fire.” He thought aloud. “Does anyone else think that sounds like a dragon?”

“Kind of a small dragon, perhaps.” Alayni acknowledged. “But that’s not to say there aren’t other signs. Over here is where the booted figure fell before being dragged away by the spiders. Maybe it was some kind of three-way fight?”

“Who’s to say?” Kaylen shrugged.

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

“There was no fire at any of the other disappearance sites, only this one.” Daryn pointed out.

“If it wasn’t be a very large dragon. I think we could handle it, if we’re careful.” Ursa suggested.

“Then let’s move on from here, and head towards the heart of the forest.” Kaylen suggested. “Hopefully Vesili will find us on the way, and we can check out any other disappearance sites we run into, but I’d like to find this spider’s nest and see if we can do something about it. Any objections?”

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

Author’s Note

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