Webs and Wolves – 4C-QO

Chapter 4 – Spiders in the Trees (continued)

When Talindra arrived a few minutes after Ursa came upstairs, they grouped up in the ox room, most of them sitting on the edges of the various beds. Kaylen relayed what information they’d received from the mayor, and what had been discussed regarding the local wildlife.

“It is perplexing.” The green-eyed elf agreed. “I found the situation much the same when I surveyed the land from the town’s walls. There is no clear evidence of an imbalance that would drive the spiders to range this far from their usual territories.”

“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.”

“How soon can we expect him?” Janel asked.

“I told her we’d be meeting up here, so I don’t imagine 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.

“I would like to put my things in the room at the end of the hall.” Talindra informed him while getting to her feet.

“That’s the hawk room. I was thinking I might bunk there.”

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

“Then, that leaves me with Alanthea or Janel?” Dinnae glanced at the two remaining girls.

“That’s fine with me.” The kitsune agreed.

“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.”

“Then you take the hawk room with Lynn.” Kaylen decided. “It honestly probably makes more sense for me to have a room to myself than any of you.” He noticed Talindra frowned subtly, but she didn’t object. He remembered she mentioned preferring to see him undressed than any of the others, and he had to suppress a smirk.

“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 eight 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?”

“He may not be willing to let us get close enough to assist him.” Talindra advised.

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

“That’s cold.” Janel observed.

The priestess did not appear fazed by the accusation, nor did she refute it.

Ursa and Lyria both looked to Kaylen to decide. With a sigh, he turned to Talindra. “I can put the creature to sleep with magic. Do you think you could cut it free without waking it?”

“Perhaps Janel and I should attempt it together?” The silver-haired elf suggested.

But the redhead kitsune shook her head, “I wouldn’t be much help, most wild animals are agitated by my presence.” She explained.

“Then Dinnae, if you think you can be quiet, I would appreciate your assistance.” The green-eyed marksman turned to Kaylen’s indentured servant.

“Um… alright.” The brown-haired girl looked back and forth between them.

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

The two of them moved forward, Talindra 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, Lynn 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 elf 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.

“It would have begun to dissolve completely within a couple weeks.” Talindra surmised. “But this is still good that we have done.”

“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.

“Magic?” Janel’s eyes went wide. “Like, a rogue mage?”

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

“There is only one set of boot tracks.” Talindra pointed out. “And the body was taken by spiders, if I’m reading this correctly, and we know that Patricia’s father was here. But there is another set of tracks here.” She pointed at the ground, “And there.” She pointed further away towards the trees. “Something heavy with scaled feet and deadly claws, but also capable of flight, as its tracks are intermittent, and often show signs of it landing from a height.”

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 very large bird, 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. Plus, by Lynn’s description, it was probably heavier.

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?”

“That’s hard to say.” Lynn acknowledged. “But it does fit the evidence at hand.”

“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.

“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.

“Then let’s move on from here, and head towards the heart of the forest.” Kaylen suggested. “We can check out a few other disappearance sites on the way, 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 eight of them gathered themselves and started west deeper into the forest.

Author’s Note

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