Harlea pulled his hair tie off of his wrist and fed his sweaty hair through it three times before he pulled his pony tail tight. He split his hair into two parts and gave it a small tug while he continued to hike. He should have put his hair up when they’d started in the hills but there was little to be done for it now. 

Harlea stepped up the roughly made steps cut into the trail they were on. They were halfway up another hill, with the midday sun bearing down on them. They had made it to the town of Nanaimo an hour or so ago and, judging by the rough map Viera gave him, they weren’t far off from the cabin. If they could find it.

They were still in the forested section of the foothills, and had only barely entered into the Hilan province. Nanaimo was a border town between the Hiford and the Hilan province, being just on the Hiford’s side. Harlea searched between the trees for anything that looked out of place around him but found nothing that made him think secret mage cabin.

They had slowed their pace down after Nanaimo to see if they could figure out exactly where they were meant to go, with them checking the map every so often to see if anything clicked. Harlea wracked his brain to try and remember if Viera had said anything else when she’d given him the map. 

He could feel a headache coming on from even the idea of it. He had been hearing for the last day and a half about how he needed to write notes when the others weren’t there. Fiona had been furious to find that he was indeed carrying the notepad that she had given him when he went to visit Viera. Normally, both Fiona and Elayne would write notes when they talked to someone about a contract and now, in hindsight, Harlea could appreciate how helpful it was.

But that had just been one small complaint of many since they’d left Ol’Haran. The first leg of their journey had been tense, with his crew being simmering the entire first day. 

When Harlea had explained that Viera, one of the main benefactors of the Red Damnables, and someone Harlea essentially couldn’t say no to, had come knocking, Fiona and Areli knew that they had little choice but to answer and Elayne was more confused than angry, it seemed.

Harlea had only told Fiona just how much Viera had on him in terms of leverage but Areli knew there wasn’t much choice when it came to her asking Harlea to jump. 

And when Harlea had done the maths properly and told them they were owed around eight hundred silver for the week, putting them at one hundred and fifty silver each, it had helped markedly. He couldn’t believe Viera had offered them three hundred silver straight off the bat for the Red Damnables to burn down the cabin, even if it was a last minute arrangement. Stranger still, she hadn’t even negotiated when Harlea had demanded five hundred instead, just for the kicks. 

He rubbed the salt that had accumulated on his eyebrows with the back of his hand. Out of all the issues with the notes, the supplies, and the last minute change of plans, Harlea kicked himself most that he didn’t ask for more.

He brushed his hand off on the back of his trousers and focussed on putting one foot in front of the other. His quads had started to burn as they climbed up another set of stairs. He wasn’t much of a fan of hours of hiking and preferred his time in town, drink in hand and sitting around a table than he did out in the middle of nowhere.

Harlea stopped looking out into the forest and watched the path ahead of him instead. He had a new target in mind, something a little easier to spot than a hidden cabin. It didn’t take him long, only ten steps or so before he spotted what he needed just off the side of the path. Stuck at chest height on a small tree was a stick that looked about half his height only a few steps away. 

Harlea reached out and pulled the stick out from the grasp of the tree. He gave it a few swings and then pushed the end of the stick into the ground to make it bend and flex under his weight. He nodded in satisfaction. It would do nicely. 

He took a moment to admire the view. Below him stretched a thick and lush forest that stretched out far into the area’s gullies and valleys. It wouldn’t be too long before small tinges of orange and yellow would begin to dot through the canopy below him, heralding the approach of autumn.

Harlea had always loved the forests of the foothills. He loved how the eastern parts of the Hiford province were a meeting point between the southern jungle, the northern Dark forest, and the Golden Plains. His eyes drifted towards the northwest, Ol’Haran was now hidden behind the rolling hills they’d already travelled through. It would be at least another five days before they got back home.

From behind Harlea, Areli strode past and slapped him on the leg as he stepped by. Harlea kicked out with his foot to try and Areli moved lithely out of the way before Harlea could kick his ass. Harlea frowned and noticed that, as ever, Fiona was several hundred metres up ahead of rest of them. 

“Unbelievable,” Harela huffed to himself and called up the trail, “Fiona, not so fast!”. 

Glancing behind him, he spotted Elayne catching up on him, going slow but seeming like she still was full of energy, not puffing at the exertion and a smile when she noticed him looking. 

Harlea gave one more look around to see if he couldn’t spot the cabin from where he stood.  There was a fairly good chance that they were near it but he couldn’t seem to spot it.

Harlea pulled out the map Viera had made for them out of his pocket. Nanaimo was a little named dot at the bottom and from it came a winding path about halfway up a hill she’d drawn until it met with a hastily scrawled red ‘X’. Harlea traced the path with his finger on the map spotting the lake she had drawn in the top left corner as a point of reference. Out in the distance, Harlea could see the real lake glistening in the sunlight. Yes, they were definitely close, he could feel it in his bones. 

Somewhere nearby, Viera’s mess was waiting for them to come and clean up. All Harlea knew was that the cabin needed to be burnt down. Apparently it housed a pack of large wolves that also needed to be ‘taken care of’ but all further questions met the same reply -  that he wouldn’t be wise to sticky beak. She had actually told him he shouldn’t look inside if he knew what was good for him. Harlea had known Veira long enough to take that threat seriously but he was surprised she didn’t understand him at all.

Harlea repositioned his bag on his shoulder, and waited for Elayne to pass him. No sense rushing up the hill. Elayne walked past him with only the slightest of nods before continuing.

Harlea paused and looked around one last time. No sign of a cabin around them. But if it was Viera’s, then she’d not be making it easy to spot. 

He fell in behind Elayne and hummed a tune to himself quietly as he resumed his heavy trek up the stone steps. 

“In a good mood today?” Elayne inquired, slightly raising an eyebrow.

Harlea accelerated up the next few steps to catch up with her, “Much better. Fresh air and some exercise is doing me some good.”

“Right, and the pack of blood thirsty wolves somewhere nearby?” Elayne joked lightly. It was a joke but he detected an undercurrent of nervousness in her voice.

“They’ll come and say hi when they’re good and ready.” Harlea dismissed while he checked on Areli and Fiona. 

Both of them had stopped to climb up onto a wooden platform on the side of the path. Some kind of lookout that gave a view over the valley and forest. They appeared to be waiting there patiently for him and Elayne to catch up while they watched something on the other side of the lookout.

Harlea prodded Elayne in the shoulder with his walking stick, “Come on then, looks like they might have found something.”

Elayne increased her pace up the hill and Harlea followed close behind. Arriving at the lookout, Elayne jumped up lightly onto the platform. Harlea heaved himself up and joined them on the edge, looking out over the forest valley,  “Ho there, what’s happening?”

“Fiona thinks she saw something in the woods. Something big.” Areli answered.

Harlea glanced at Fiona, he had learnt long ago to trust her eyesight and her instincts,  “Fi. What did you see?”

Fiona turned slightly to acknowledge him but kept her eyes focussed on the forest, “I saw something large moving through the forest. It moved so quickly, I can’t be sure… but something is out there, and it’s not small.”

“Good enough for me.” Harlea placed his walking stick onto the lookout’s railing and touched both of his axes, still in his holsters, “Everyone stay close and get your weapons out. Keep your bags on but single strap it so you can drop them. Areli with Elayne, Fi with me.” 

Harlea shifted his bag around to grab the shield that he’d strapped to its back and then swivelled the bag onto his right side. He fed his left arm through the shield straps easily and felt the familiar rush of adrenaline surge through his body. The heady mixture of fear and anticipation was addictive and Harlea relished in the feeling. 

He leapt off the wooden lookout and onto the trail ahead of them as it led away from the edge of the hill and deeper into the woods. The trees gathered closer around them as they continued up and Harlea could feel eyes watching from between the bushes. 

The wind brushed through the trees around them, generating a gentle, eerie whistle to the otherwise silent forest. It was suddenly so quiet. 

“Too quiet.” Harlea whispered to himself. He caught sight of something dash across his periphery but lost it almost immediately. 

His right hand went down to the sheath for his favourite axe and unclasped its protective cover. There were no birds in the trees. Harlea wasn’t sure where the birds had gone but it put him on edge.  

His axe came out of its sheath easily and he gave the axe’s head a reassuring pat with his right hand but didn’t take it out. He moved cautiously up the long thin trail that worked further up towards the ridgeline. There was just enough space for one person to walk and Harlea was the lucky one in front. 

Most of the trails were like this through the countryside of Weidenland. Folk stayed on the main paths and it was a damned fine choice. Countless dangers lurked in the untamed wilderness of Weirdenland countryside, from the forest to the hills and all the way to its jagged coasts. 

Harlea had grown up wandering trails like these. His ma and pa weren’t the sort to coddle him and he wasn’t the sort to realise how dangerous it was to wander by himself until he was much older. 

He took a final look out over the valley before it disappeared into the treeline as they walked further along the road. They were only a day and a half or so from the village Harlea was born in. His first adventures were through gentle slopes and deep forests just like these. He refocussed his mind and lightly tapped the side of his bag on his shield as he scanned the forestline.

Every so often, he’d catch a whisper. A wisp, a shadow, a nothing. The anticipation was killing him. 

The trail began to level out as they made their way onto the ridgeline. The edges of the path opened up with space for two of them to walk side-by-side. Harlea walked with Elayne along the curve of the trail as it weaved slowly around the hill, with the forest suddenly opening out to reveal a wolf sitting patiently in the middle of the dirt path, about ten metres in front of them. 

“Whey. Hold. We’ve got a wolf.” He called back to the others while he checked for any others in the underbrush around him. He motioned for Elayne to fall back, which she did reluctantly, unbuckling her khopesh sword to prepare. 

The wolf was fairly large, bigger than a husky by a good amount, but not the giant wolves Viera had promised. Okay, sure, its fangs were the size of his fingers but it looked almost docile as it sat patiently watching him. With slow blinks and its head cocked to the side, it made no movement when he approached it slowly. 

“Hey there, girl.” Harlea guessed, speaking calmly as he took another few steps towards the wolf and dropped his bag carefully onto the path, “What are you doing in the road like that? Been waiting long for us?” He waited for a reaction from the wolf. He could get his axe out fast and there was still several metres between the two of them.

She sneezed and laid down.

This was not the blood thirsty, savage pack of wolves that he had been expecting to meet. He put his hand in his pocket and found the smoked meat he had kept in there since breakfast, “Want some non-human meat, lil wolfie? Lil kinda-big wolfie?”

She placed her head delicately on the length of her front legs. With a playful tilt of her head, she inspected the meat in his hand. Harlea made a few more tentative steps forward and held the meat out as far away from himself as he could. He could hear Elayne saying something from behind him, only five or so metres away. The wolf didn’t make any sudden moves and didn’t look agitated. She licked her nose and continued to watch him, blinking slowly. She looked like she was friendly but if she wasn’t, it might be the last poor character judgement that Harlea ever made. 

He risked a few steps closer, there was only three metres or so between them now. She pushed back up into a sitting position. It almost looked like she had been trained to sit, with her paws neatly arranged and her back straight. 

“Oh, you are a good girl, the goodest, I bet. Look at you.” Harlea praised the wolf and shifted the shield to his other side with his free hand. He brought his hand back slowly  and mentally prepared himself to leap backwards if anything went wrong. 

Only when his hand was a dozen centimetres from her face did the wolf move to sniff his makeshift treat. She gently smelled the meat before she delicately yanked it out from his grip. The meat fell onto the floor and she gulped it greedily down in a couple of bites. 

Elayne moved forward until she was standing next to Harlea, also admiring the beautiful wolf. 

Harlea gestured to her coat. Soft as it was, it was pretty dirty. Along her spine, clumped up tufts of fur were stained with a dark wine red colour. Harlea forced a smile and spoke out of the side of his mouth to Elayne, “El, on its back, you think that might be blood?”

“Ah, nuts.” Elayne replied in a faux calm voice, “Could be. Definitely could be….” 

Harlea reached his hand out instinctively towards the clumpy patch of dried grime mixed with hair on the wolf’s back. His fingernails hit a solid chunk in the tuft of dried hair in her coat. 

In a flash, her snout turned to him and nipped him firmly on the hand. His hand shot back and the wolf leapt away from them and into the nearby bushes protruding from the side of the road. She growled gently at them and watched them from the safety of a small half-hidden trail. 

“You cheeky,” Harlea commented as he rubbed his hand. Small drops of blood began to well up out of two small puncture marks on his hand, “No harm, no foul, I guess.”

Elayne stood next to him with her sword back in her main hand. When she saw the extent of the wound she relaxed, “Oh, all that fuss for a little nibble.”

She recoiled away when Harlea waved the bloody hand in her face, “It’s still a wolf though! It could’ve lost my damned hand.”

“But you didn’t. Lose it that is.” Elayne pondered, “Do you think it is trained? Or like domesticated? I’ve always wanted a big dog, ever since I was little.”

Fiona frowned disapprovingly as she moved up next to Elayne and Harlea, “Get a grip, you two. We are here looking for wolves to…” She paused and the sentence trailed off as she spotted the wolf peering from the bushes, “...dispose of.”

“What? Not that one. She is such a good girl.” Harlea argued back half-heartedly. Fiona was right but Harlea could feel the wolf pull at his heart strings. He could see why druids joined the Circle if it meant they got to hang out with wolves like that. 

The idea gave him pause for a second. Was he really thinking about becoming a druid?

He let the idea go. He loved ale and meat and the occasional bath. He didn’t want to live out in the middle of nowhere, no matter how cute his wolf companion might be. 

Harlea watched the wolf watching them. He’d scared her. He glanced down at the bloody marks on his hand. In fairness, she had scared him quite a bit too. 

“But I’ve been wrong before.” Harlea stood back up decisively and picked up his axe, “Elayne, move back to Areli. Where there’s one, there will be more.”

The wolf seemed to flinch at his words and fled quickly up the path. Her tail was the last glimpse of her as she scampered up and out of view. Harlea went to move after her but stopped at the treeline. The path worked its way up a cliff edge and disappeared over the top onto what looked like a plateau.

Harlea exhaled, defeated, “It looks like they are gone. Up there.” As he spoke, he pointed down the path, quickly spotting something curious. Peeking just above the edge of the rocky cliff was the top edge of a wooden fence. He tilted his head and gestured to the others, “Is that a fence over there?”

Fiona joined him, “I think you are right. Maybe we need to follow your new friend?”

Harlea wasn’t thrilled about the idea of blindly walking in the same direction as the wolf, no matter how good she may or may not have been, but it was the closest thing to a cabin full of wolves that they had stumbled upon so far. He dropped his bag and brushed along his already opened axe clasp, “I guess we should go and check it out. See what’s up there.”

“Next time, no more feeding them our leftovers, Har.” Elayne joked lightly.

Harlea scrunched up his face, “Let’s drop the bags here. Have your weapons at the ready. Be prepared for anything and don’t let any wolves get close until we are on solid ground.” 

Areli moved past him to take the lead, his bow returned to his back and his daggers now in his hands, “Music to my ears.”

“You sure you want to go first, Areli?” Harlea asked, concerned.

“Not letting you idiots try and pet the wolves again.” Areli replied crankily.

“Hard to argue with that.” Harlea shrugged and took off after Areli, “I’ll shield him”. The branches on either side of the narrow track scraped and scratched Harlea as he moved through them a step and a half behind Areli. 

They emerged from the track to a clearing. There was a cliff in front of him that was only a few metres high and the rough track they were on led to a small staircase up its side. Harlea stayed close to Areli as they climbed hand over foot up to the small flat ridge between two cliff edges. Nestled inside the open flat crevice was a small hide-away composed of several houses behind a solid wooden fence.

Harlea descended from the lip of the cliff face and down into the natural bowl of the crevice. Inside the compound, the buildings didn’t look like anything particularly notable, they were made of wood, both its walls and its angled roof looked like they were made from teak. There was no gate along the side of the fence and, with the buildings placed on the far side of the crevice, there was a good chance they were at the back of the compound. 

The fenceline went for fifteen odd metres before running up the side of the cliff. The fence looked solid, with wooden slat bars running its full length. A thick defensive fence, except for one small breach. Several metres from where Harlea stood was a small dug out hole that broke the barrier of the fenceline. 

Harlea stopped and looked up at the cliffside on either side of him. No wolves here that he could see. 

Harlea couldn’t shake a weird feeling that curtailed on the edges of his senses, a wind of unease that tickled the back of his neck. He stepped carefully down to the fence, shield close to his side and eyes always fixed forward on Areli’s back.  

Areli kept close to him, leaning back to whisper, “They’re somewhere out there, Harlea.” 

“They are indeed,” Harlea replied softly, looking back to see Elayne and Fiona scale up and over the rocky slope to join them in the small recess.

Harlea gave one of the wooden fence panels a push with the edge of his shield but it held firm. The fence was old but very well made. Harlea would bet that it was layered to make sure it couldn’t be broken into easily.

Harlea watched as Areli stepped cautiously up to the hole in the fence. The hole was down at shin height and it looked like it had been dug out to take advantage of a gap that had formed between the base of two of the panels. 

Areli hopped onto the top of the mound of dirt that surrounded the shallow ditch and pried his dagger into the edge of the gap. Using it as a lever, he pressed his weight against it, stumbling slightly as the panel gave way. 

Areli’s tongue flicked out thoughtfully as he turned back to face Harlea, waiting for his assessment. 

“It’ll be a tight fit to get through, but we should be able to squeeze.” Harlea offered.

“There’s probably a proper gate somewhere around the side if we worked around the compound?” Elayne suggested as she joined them, “It probably won’t be too hard to head back to the road and find the trail that leads to the front.”

Harlea agreed in principle but less in practice, “But this is here. And, I can definitely squeeze through.”

“I would say we all can.” Fiona agreed tacitly, coming to stand alongside the others.

“I would want to know what’s on the other side.” Elayne countered.

Harlea considered it and ran his fingers through his beard, his fingers untangling the beads from one another, “I can boost you up there, if you’d like. Get a look at it.”

“Harlea,” Fiona warned him, “Maybe not both of the shields.”

Harlea nodded, “Yeah, well. Elayne, you want Fiona to lift you up or is someone else taking a look?”

Elayne looked around each of them and settled on Areli, “Areli, you game to go up there and have a look?”

Areli glowered at her and sheathed his daggers. He moved over next to Harlea and stared at him impatiently, “He’ll lift me up. You watch my back.”

Harlea shrugged, “Sounds good to me.” He placed his back onto the fence and cupped his hands for Areli to jump into.

One foot stepped into his hands and then Harlea lifted him up. Areli’s tail smacked against the fence as Harlea shifted his foot up onto his shoulder. He cringed as he saw the outline of the talons as they pressed along the edges of Areli’s travelling shoes. Oruks had talons instead of fingernails, a fact that had only ever concerned Harlea when he’d had to fight one of them. Or now, with Areli on his shoulder. 

“Nothing.” Areli muttered darkly under his breath, “Let me down.”

Harlea lowered him back down slowly. Areli hopped gracefully down to land on the ground neatly next to Harlea. 

Areli brushed off his hands and looked at Elayne, “No wolves, empty yard with a couple buildings and some smaller chase gear in the back.”

“Fine, under instead of around then. Let’s get this done.” Elayne resolved.

“Let’s get it.” Harlea dropped onto his haunches and leant heavily against the fence to duck down to the gap. Looking through the hole, he couldn’t see much through a yellow sea of dry grass that covered the inside of the compound. Peeking out from top of the grass were the telltale slats from the roofs of the buildings. He couldn’t see much of the chase equipment sadly. He loved the orukian game called chase. Not that he particularly wanted to play at the moment, not unless the wolves were miraculously friendly and wanted to run around with him.

Harlea got onto his knees, sliding his shield and axe first through the hole. Next he put his head through the hole and slid belly-first into the compound. He shut his eyes as his face hovered centimetres away from the slightly wet dirt and swung his hands around on the other side of the hole to find a proper grip. His left hand found a nice chunk of dry grass and he twisted and pulled to gain traction. The grass went taut and Harlea dragged himself through with a twist to get his hips up and through the opening.

Face first, he pulled himself up and into the compound. He pushed quickly up off his knees and stood to take a look around, only to find it remarkably underwhelming. Several small sapling trees were swallowed almost entirely by the thick reedy dry grass that dominated the compound’s yard. The buildings were unassuming with windows with wooden shutters that were fastened shut. Harlea picked up his shield and axe and stretched a few times before turning back to the hole, “Right, looks fine over here. Next one through.”

He heard muffled talking on the other side of the fence and moved to the side. He took a swat at the closest dry grass next to him with his axe and watched for any movements. 

The place wasn’t ugly. The small trees looked like apple and orange trees, and a few large leaves looked like they might be the start of a baby banana tree. There were also platforms and obstacles rising out of the grass at different spacings around the backyard for chase. Given a few months and some proper tools, he could turn this into a nice little hideaway. 

It wasn’t to be though, Viera’s orders had been clear - torch it and leave, as quickly as possible. Harlea sighed at yet more boring compromise.

“Oi. Give me a hand?” Fiona’s head poked out of the gap. Harlea leant to the side and offered his hand out to her but didn’t drop too low so he could keep his eyes glued on the gently swaying grass. 

“Oh gee, thanks.” Fiona said dryly and reached for his ankle instead of his hand. Harlea could hear her strain and felt a sudden yank as she levered herself up and out of the hole. 

Harlea waited for her to let go and then took another step forward, stepping onto the centre of the next section of dry grass to make a small grass bed in front of him. Fiona muttered a collection of foul words as she tried to negotiate her lower half through the gap behind him. 

“It looks less interesting than I was hoping. When someone like Viera tells you to burn down something, no questions asked, you hope for something a bit more clandestine,” Harlea riffed quietly to himself more than Fiona. “The house is kind of nice but… oh shit!” 

By the time he spotted the wolf, it was too late. Too late to warn Fiona and too late to do much other than make a split second decision. Its huge body charged through the grass and only when it was a mere five metres before him did Harlea twist to meet it. 

He planted his feet, raised his shield and caught it mid-air as it leapt towards him. The shield kicked back hard against him and Harlea was propelled backwards into the fence with a thud. The top of the shield smacked him in the head but he was thankful for it - the hard oaken shield was all that kept the wolf from ripping him apart.  

The wolf’s head snuck around the edge of the shield and it tried to tear a chunk out of any part of him that it could reach. Harlea shifted the shield to his left side and tried to loosen his right arm from between the shield and the fence. As he did that, he felt a shooting pain rip through in his leg. 

Harlea screamed and launched the wolf back, trying to dislodge its claws from his left leg. It tumbled to his left, giving Harlea space to take out and swing the axe across his body. The axe whistled harmlessly through the air, exposing his right arm. 

The wolf jumped up, clamping down on his right arm and Harlea screamed again. The axe fell from his hand as he pulled against the razor sharp teeth of the wolf. The wave of pain washed over him, threatening to drag him into unconsciousness. He rallied and smacked the side of the shield into the wolf’s nose with his left arm and held onto the anger he felt, the rage that burned deep inside him.  

The wolf’s teeth sunk deeper into his arm in response and he struck it again with the shield. It wouldn’t relent and Harlea would be damned if he would either. 

“Get off me!” Harlea growled. He smacked the wolf with the shield one final time before he changed tack. 

He stopped pulling away against the teeth abruptly and instead rammed his forearm hard into the direction of its mouth. He watched in grim satisfaction as the wolf struggled with his arm now threatening to dislocate its jaw. 

Harlea dropped the shield in his left hand to jam the fingers of his free hand into the wolf’s nostrils, pulling hard on the sensitive skin. As the wolf shook its head left and right, he clung on, finally forcing it to spit out his arm and whip its head away from him.  

But Harlea wasn’t done. His right hand grabbed onto a tuft of hair on the wolf’s back. It tried to whip around to nip at him but he punched it with his left hand, holding firmly with his right onto the handful of fur. His left hand found purchase and he dragged the wolf across into the fence with a crunch. Its head smacked into the fence and Harlea tried to pull it back again to get enough space to do it again while it was still disorientated. 

The wolf twisted and pulled away. He took two steps before he realised it was circling to come back immediately. 

Harlea grinned and let out a roar as he picked up his shield to meet it again. The wolf dove to the right side and Harlea tracked it with his shield and moved to block it from going near the hole. It spun and turned on him to meet him shield-first again. The impact rocked Harlea but he was prepared this time. He propped the shield with both of his hands and held it fast against himself. The wolf hit him front on again and stopped its momentum and lifted it up off its feet. 

A cylinder of ice shot out from Harlea’s feet and threaded its way into the small gap available between him, the shield and the hanging hindquarters of the wolf.

Harlea felt the surge of cold and heard the squelch of the impact as the icicle dug deep into the side of the wolf. 

The pressure from the shield lightened almost immediately and Harlea shifted the weight up and away. His right hand caught his second favourite axe’s handle at his waist and, with practised precision, he drew it out of its sheath. He pulled it up and into a wide arc and looked for the wolf, assuming it was just in front of him. 

But once again, he had moved too slow. The wolf was back on its feet and snapping at him on top of a bed of bloody fawn-coloured dry grass. Harlea held his ground. He risked a quick glance around and saw his other axe at his feet and Fiona nearly through the hole. He stepped between the wolf and Fiona, smacking his axe and shield together. The wolf let out a vicious snarl and backed away, disappearing quickly into the sea of dry grass. 

The wolf had been much bigger than the one they had seen on the road, Harlea was sure of it. He continued to bang on his shield and yell out into the sinister shifting grass, “Come on then, you bunch of assholes! I am here, beggin’ you to come and try me!”

“Probably best not to goad them while it is just the two of us,” Fiona warned him, not yet standing next to him.

Harlea offered his hand and pulled her to stand next to him, “Good point. Areli, Elayne, you all good?” 

There was no response. Harlea kept watch, feeling the burn of watchful, hungry eyes from the side of one of the buildings. 

“Fuck!” Elayne’s voice came from the other side of the fence and then she screamed. 

“Fence!” Areli shouted and a loud bang vibrated along the fence. 

“Nothing you can do for them. I need you focussed here,” Fiona warned him, “Two incoming. I go left, you go right.”

Harlea watched as a wolf bounded towards them from the direction of the stables and desperately tried to spot the second one. Harlea stepped out to meet the one he could see, “I can only see one out here, Fi!”

“Go right!” She yelled at him and came in close to his left side with a bijou activated in her hand. Another loud thump came from the other side of the fence and the impact cascaded through the wooden slats around them. The wolf bounded back towards him and Harlea prepared himself to meet it head on. Fiona stood behind him and unfurled her wire whip for the second wolf that she was going to handle. Wherever it was.

Her wire flew up and then out like a fishing rod to Harlea’s left. It travelled some way before diving into the grass several metres out and pulling taut. With a crackle of electricity, the whip glowed and Harlea heard a surprised yelp from the grass. 

Harlea moved to meet his wolf as it zig zagged and then rounded towards him. 

He grabbed the dagger off his hip and fed it into his shield hand and took two steps before planting left foot forward and his right sideways. 

He waited for the wolf and the moment before it hit his shield, he twisted up and under the wolf as jumped towards him. He swung his axe out to catch it as the wolf tried to change direction to match him. 

Harlea’s instinct paid off and he met the wolf full in the face with the front of his axe. He felt the axe bite in and pulled his shield down in between them. The wolf tried to grab onto his shin with its teeth but Harlea hopped up and brought his leg into the relative safety of his shield. 

He shifted out to the side of the wolf and his axe came down again to bounce off its spine, taking a chunk of flesh with it. 

Harlea rolled over the top of the wolf, keeping his shield between them while he moved. His right leg flicked up as he rolled with the bucking of the wolf. 

Harlea shifted the shield and his dagger slipped through the space that opened up. He found the wolf’s hind leg and he stabbed the dagger hard into the meaty section. 

The dagger sank deep into its leg until it eventually stopped and stuck fast. Harlea tightened his grip on the dagger’s handle and twisted as the wolf kicked against the pain. He yanked hard and the dagger ripped out of the wolf’s haunch, spraying blood out from the deep wound. 

Harlea shuffled back and caught the wolf’s mouth with his shield once more when it snapped at him. He swung his axe from waist height and flicked the shield up for the axe to move through with practised efficiency. The axe head sunk deep into the wolf's chest and Harlea heard the telltale snaps of a broken ribcage. 

The wolf fell hard on the ground and scrambled desperately away from him, primal ferocity now washed away by mortal fear. 

Harlea stepped forward to continue his assault. As he stepped in towards to strike the killing blow, he was hit with a wave of recognition. 

It was the wolf from the road. 

Harlea stood for a moment, shocked at the change from the sweet wolf they had met on the road to the vicious creature bleeding at his feet.  He followed her as she ducked and tried to bite at him once more, snapping at the air between them as she tried to flee. The strike on her hind legs had done damage and her broken chest struggled to rise with each of her rapid panicked breaths.

“Come on! You’re done already? Come on!” Harlea shouted and feinted a step forward, his heart breaking as he watched the wolf slowly lose consciousness.

She leapt up to bite at him again, kicking off her back legs to get up near chest height, teeth bared in a final attempt to attack him. 

Harlea stepped to the side and his axe flew out and thumped into her neck just below her cheekbone. The axe dug deep in and sliced her artery clean. Harlea shouldered his shield to take the brunt of her body weight as she slammed into him and he met her with a dagger through the heart. 

The wolf hit the ground hard in front of him, face first and coated in blood. More blood sprayed out of her neck and she rolled and yelped as she died.

Harlea wasted no time, bringing the axe down one final time to cut the rest of her throat, “It’ll be over soon, girl.” he whispered as he stepped back. 

He ripped the axe back out and walked back to join Fiona by the other wolf. 

Not one but two wolf corpses were at Fiona’s feet. Harlea stepped between the corpses and watched suspiciously for any movement. 

“Hells’ Bellends, Fi! Two of them?”

“Lucky me.” Fiona said, unwrapping the metal coil from the wolf she electrocuted, “How did you go?”

“So so. I found the wolf from before.” Harlea replied dejectedly.

“Pity.” Fiona stood back up and wandered back over to the fenceline, “Elayne, Areli. You both good over there?” 

After a moment, Elayne’s voice floated over the fence, “Yeah, fine. Bastard took a chunk out of my arm but we’re fine.” 

“Snap! Have you got a bandage?” Harlea called back as he checked how deep the bite on his arm was and felt for the bandage wrapped around his belt. 

“Yeah, I got one, do you?” Elayne called back over.

“Yeah, we’re fine. But keep an eye for any more wolves.” Harlea wrapped the bandage around his bleeding arm and searched for any more watchful eyes within the compound.

“We need to burn this place to the ground and get out of here.” Fiona looked out over the grass and at the abandoned buildings. 

“Yeah,” Harlea replied absently, “But maybe a bit of a look-see first.”