Wild Wolf

In a fancy restaurant close to one of the gates a group of servants could be seen rushing in and out continuously with plates of food, each plate that went in was full of delicious looking food, and when it came out, it had the same delicious looking food...

This strange phenomenon wasn't too new to the nobles walking down the streets for it was clearly just another large gathering of women who were watching their diet, apparently, if you ate from a different plate you wouldn't gain as much weight as eating from the same one, or at least, you wouldn't notice it

"What a great day for riding, it is most generous of the prince to set such an event for us"

"Indeed so, he is ever so thoughtful of us ladies, even when our own husbands don't care to entertain us"

"That is true, but it shouldn't be coming from you, you and your husband just returned from a vacation in Begaria, it is a little harsh to speak of him badly now"

"Oh come now, you know he only wanted to have some 'fun' with me and the maids"

"Speaking of Begaria, have you heard about Baron Mund's visit? I hear he....."

The gossipy group of young and old ladies spoke of everything they could think of, whether it be rumours or their personal life, leaving not a single moment for silence to settle

Such was the case all around the restaurant except a few tables where silence did find a home, every once in a while, one of which was the table of the unmarried ladies of Halferg

"Can you believe how much they blabber? No wonder their husbands don't like them"

Said one of the single ladies, it wasn't known if she was actually annoyed by their constant speech or if she was jealous for not finding a suitable man herself

"How can one blame them? They don't cook, don't clean, they don't even dress themselves, and aside from reading and dancing what other pass time could they possibly do than talk"

An older woman defended before turning to the one that had been silent ever since she greeted them, a bit too silent one might add

"Is something of the matter Heather? You look a little pale dear"

"No, not at all... I'm just under the weather today"

"Oh? Perhaps its that time of the month, it will be hard to ride a horse if it is, maybe you should stay home this time around?"

Heather actually stopped for a second and thought about the woman's suggestion, not go? Why did she have to go? He could kill the horses all by himself whether she was or wasn't there

'But then I wouldn't be able to gauge his capabilities...'

It was one thing to hear from other how the event went down and another to see it for yourself, the only reason she even suggested him attacking when it was her ride was to see how strong he actually is

'I should have told him I wouldn't be going when I saw him being suspicious though...Sadly I can't change it now, he won't attack unless he spots me riding'

"It's alright, just a little nervous"

"Whatever you say dear, but don't push yourself too hard, it's not like any of the imperial officials would want to marry any of us, even if they did I would suggest staying away from them, marrying into higher rank brings nothing but trouble"

The older lady advised, she had seen far too many cases like those, none of which ended too well

Heather remained silent in response but she couldn't help but smile wryly in her heart, she was indeed trying to catch a possible husband this time around, just not one of higher rank, quite the opposite actually

"Lady Catherin, Lady Heather, and Lady Celine, would you mind joining the other three ladies for the next ride"

A servant came politely informing them that it was their turn thus the three single ladies got up in unison and headed out the restaurant and into the cart the would take them to where the steeds would be

After a short drive they were out of the city and near the wilds, that's where the got off, walking toward the six wispy green horses, a weird colour for a horse but the vine-like pattern running all over its body and the deep green mane made it a graceful ride

The ladies rubbed their palm against the horses for a while before riding them with the help of the servants by the side, then, with the four guards covering the side, the ladies rode along the lake bringing them further and further from the city until only the walls could've seen from afar with no other human in sight

"Such a good steed, not only is it so steady but the mere smell it gives off as we ride the wind is calming and serene"

Said one of the other woman riding with them, clearly she wanted to talk even as they rode but the rest didn't dine her this time, they only wanted to enjoy the ride in peace

Nighhh!

Or at least that was the plan until the horses started to freak out, turning around to run away from the forest but finding the water blocking the other side

'Did he start? What is he doing'

Heather knew it must be his doing but didn't understand why the horses would freak before anything even appeared, did they have any chance at killing all the horses at this rate?

Before she had the time to think about it longer, and before the guards who were reigning the horses could calm them down, a loud howl came from the forest followed by a very large figure jumping into the open with its first target, a guard, being mauled within moments of its appearance

"A beast! Protect the ladies!!"

The head guard shouted before taking his sword out and rushing at the oversized wolf without an ounce of fear

His bravery was awarded with a swipe from the beast's claws, one with more strength than he expected, throwing him into the nearby lake leaving the other two to fend off the large beast on their own

"Grraarr!"

They braced themselves to clash against the rushing wolf but the sneaky fellow tricked them by jumping above their blockade effortlessly, aiming its bloody maw at the horses instead

"Ahhhh-"

The woman screamed at the top of her lungs seeing the beast lung at her, the scream was cut short as the open mouth ripped through her and into the horse's flesh, killing both with a single bite

"Run my ladies! Run!"

The guards yelled while rushing at the vile beast only to be hind kicked into the dirt, it was already obvious that they were not the beast's match, not even close either

The horses nighed as they tried to make a run toward the woods, but a deadly mistake it was, they should have run toward the sides instead for a much deadlier foe glared at them from beneath the foliage of the greenery, trancing their panicked minds enough for the unforgiving predator to take the life of yet another horse and its lady which happened to be the jealous woman with Heather

"It's after the horses jump off!"

Heather warned, not wanting to see her other friend get killed as well as doubting whether or not this was really part of the plan for she never told him to kill any of the ladies

Her warning only garnered the wolfs attention though as it ran toward her horse before she could dismount

'Does he really want to kill me...'

She had thought she prepared herself enough in case that was true but couldn't help but feel saddened when she imagined that harmless looking young man being so deceptive and cruel, that was the last thought in her head before the wolf was within range

Sniff?

Her flesh it didn't rip though as it paused in confusion for whatever reason, this brought the horse to rear at it, sending her off its back to harshly hit the ground

Being attacked by its prey the beast made sure to rip the steed apart, then gave another look to the woman laying on the ground before deciding to move on toward the other horses and leave her be

'....I'm not dead?.... I'm not dead....'

Her panicked mind started to calm down and with it came the pain from the fall, it wasn't too hard of a fall though so she got up after a little struggle and took a look at the situation

One of the guards was dead while two were struggling to keep up with the wolf, their captain seemingly disappeared into the water, four of the six horses were already dead along with two of their riders, the future was looking bleak

'He's strong'

She wasn't talking about the wolf, she meant the young man, there was no way for him to tame and keep two capable beasts, one of which being clearly of the Silver rank, if he wasn't strong enough to beat them himself, after all one needed to subdue the beast in order to imprison it in the Soul Stone, even if he had someone else do it his soul would need to be strong enough to house both beasts and keep them under control

"DIE!"

Out of nowhere a shout came with the burst of the lake's water, from it a cyan sword sliced at the mad wolf with clear intention of beheading it with one strike

With its large body it was really a hard thing to miss but who would have thought the slippery fellow could dodge the attack in time, not in its entirety as a long lasting bloody mark appeared on its body

"Just die already!"

The captain swung his sword once again trying to slice the beast but he had already put all his energy into that one strike, the result of his persistence only ended with his strike hitting empty air and his head rolling the next second

"Captain! You mongrel!"

One of the other guards picked up the dropped sword and injected his energy into it producing that cyan glow once again, this didn't sit too well with the wolf who was getting hesitant, clearly it wanted to avoid another injury

Its eyes darted toward a certain part of the forest when the guard was intimidatingly staring at it, there it seemed to spot something that made its eyes gleam, thus its growled once again at the guard before running, not at him but into the forest from which it came

"Come back here you mutt!"

Yelled the chasing guard, armed with this great weapon he was filled with confidence, confidence that gave him the idea to follow the beast into the forest against his partners advising shouts

"Damn it! What is that idiot doing?!"

The last remaining man complained but couldn't give chase as well, not that he would even if he could, the man that gave chase was related to the captain unlike him who wanted nothing more than to escort the ladies back home and keep his life if he could

'Are these guys really guards of the prince's entourage?'

Heather doubted, there was no discipline nor was there any obvious military training, the only thing they had was a strong comradery and their sense of duty toward protecting them, otherwise they looked like mercenaries dressed as guards instead with their crazy way of fighting

As suspicious as she was of their authenticity she chose to throw those thoughts away for the moment, she needed to think of what to say when she got back to the city, hopefully it wasn't going to be a long walk back with the heels she had on...