Wolves!

"Wolves!" Nacius yells.

Your heart drops, you didn't know how many there were, at least not yet.

"H-ow many!?" You ask.

"I don't know, I just heard one and saw a pair of eyes looking at me!" He replies.

The two of you stand still next to Whiterun, just out of view you can hear soft footsteps circling you, occasionally you can hear barking and growling, there was definitely more than one. Nacius slowly unsheathes his sword, the blade still stained with dried blood. You dig out your rusted dagger, it was all you had.

"We have to keep moving Sanna, slowly." Nacius tells you.

You began slowly walking, Whiterun was beginning to get spooked, breathing heavily and grunting. Nacius put his hand on the horses neck, petting him and trying to calm him down.

"Shhh, come on boy, you can get through this." He whispered to the horse.

Your eyes darted wherever you heard noise, you caught a glimpse at one of the beasts legs, causing you to jump. It was like this for a while, the terror was almost too much to handle, Nacius was sweating profusely, trying to focus on keeping Whiterun calm while keeping an eye on his surroundings. Then suddenly, a wolf jumped out of the shadows at Nacius.

"Nacius look out!" You warned him.

"Oh gods!" He said, pointing his sword towards the beast, keeping it at bay.

The wolf just stared at Nacius, bearing its teeth and maintaining a low growl, Nacius swung the the torch, causing the wolf to jump back slightly.

"Sanna, come close, I can scare them off with the fire!." He yells.

You get close to him, accidentally touching the horse with your bad shoulder, you clutch your wound and hiss in pain for a moment before collecting yourself.

"They're afraid of the fire! Just stick close!" He tells you.

Two wolves jump out of the shadows, Nacius swings the torch towards both of them, one of them jumps away, the other lunges at his arm, he quickly pulls away, causing the wolf to miss.

"Son of a bitch!" Nacius says in surprise.

Nacius takes advantage of the downed wolf and takes a swing at the wolf, cutting its face causing it to whine and run back into the darkness.

"Are you okay Nacius!?" You ask, eyes still darting in every direction.

"I'll be fine! We just have to keep moving, hopefully another patrol will get here!" He answers, huffing.

Suddenly Whiterun squeals, a wolf bit at one of his rear legs, he kicked the wolf off and began running, still following the road.

"Whiterun! No!" Nacius called out.

You hear a distant squeal, but still heard Whiteruns hooves getting farther and farther away, he was still running.

"He's still on the road Nacius, I can hear him running off!" You tell Nacius.

"This is buggered! This whole situation is unwinnable! We're done!" Nacius panics.

Your gut instinct was telling you to give in and begin panicking alongside him, but something else was pushing you to power through and get through this, without thinking, you take your rusted dagger with your other, weaker hand, and give him an open hand slap.

"Get a grip Nacius! We'll get through this, Sanna is here to help too!" You yell after slapping him.

Nacius shakes his head and looks at you.

"Th-thanks, we have to move faster, how fast do you think you can move?" He asks.

"Sanna's shoulder is injured, not her legs, what about you?"

"It hurts to walk, running will be a challenge, but we haven't got much of a choice now, do we?" He responds.

"You set the pace, Sanna will keep up." You tell him with a nod.

He nods back and takes a deep breath, after scanning his surroundings he looks to you.

"Let's go!" He yells, then begins to run.

You take off with him, it's obvious that running is causing him a great deal of pain, he can't clutch his side since his hands are full, but he is pressing his fist holding his sword against his side. You begin to feel a rythmic pain in your shoulder, every time your feet hit the ground it caused the arrow to move slightly, rubbing your nerves and causing a sudden burst of pain, you grit your teeth and try to ignore it. You peer over your shoulder to look behind you and off in the distance, you can make out three wolves.

"Sanna sees three wolves behind us!" You yell.

"Just... just keep m-moving!" Nacius says through pained grunts.

The two of you keep moving, the three wolves still following you, you don't know if there are any more, but so far, those same three are the only ones you can make out. You look at Nacius, who looks like he is about to collapse, he is wheezing and hunching to the side because of his wound.

"Nacius, are you okay!?" You ask him.

"Do-don't worry, I can keep... I can keep on going!" He manages to get out.

As the two of you keep running, Nacius just keeps looking worse and worse, the three wolves are still behind you, they seem keen on killing you now. Nacius begins to slow down gradually, without enough time to warn him, one of the wolves jumps forward and bites onto Nacius's ankle, dropping him to the ground.

"Nacius!" You scream, readying your rusted dagger

Nacius kicks at the wolf, trying to get it to let go of his ankle, he starts taking wide, innacurate swings towards the wolf with both the torch and the sword, trying to scare it off. As you get closer to the wolf, so do the other two wolves get closer to you and Nacius, you had to do something, fast. If either of you wanted to get out of here alive, you had to act quickly, with nothing but your rusty dagger, and the painful wound in your shoulder, there isn't much you can do. The clock is ticking, Nacius can't keep this up for long, the other two wolves are seconds away...