V2Ch68 New Task

Lokes and I were walking side by side. I had my eared hood over my head. Most of the trackers think I am a beast-man with more human attributes. Shiro, Girard and the guild headmaster are the only three who know the truth. A human in Fricity would cause too much attention. It would make my powers much more difficult to hide. I told the truth about the potion to the headmaster but, I don't know if he believed me or not.

"I think I'll take its balls back for proof."

Lokes declared.

"I hear they make you eat your first rank C kill if you bring back something edible. Also, what if it's a female?"

He stopped for a moment before he ran to catch up to me.

"Tha... That's not true, is it? About eating your kill?"

"Why not? I hear dire wolf is good. Prey animal meat is tainted if they run scared. Dire wolves don't get scared. They fight to the death without a second thought."

"I thought it's the adrenaline that makes the meat tainted. Fighting to the death would surely release adrenaline, no?"

"I told you I only heard about it. I have no idea if it's true."

His naivety was fun to play with. I shifted my backpack as I walked. We were outside of Fricity. We were following a dirt road through fields of grass and occasional trees. Our destination was an estimated three days walk. The target in question was causing problems for a small village. People were disappearing as often as once a week. The village itself was surrounded by mountains. That was where the trackers came in. The mountain range could take several weeks to explore with twenty adventurers. They don't want to spare those numbers so the trackers were contracted for this task.

Shiro was thorough with his teachings. I picked things up more quickly when I'm shown in person. School was never a strong suit for me. While Shiro was showing me tracking techniques, I happened to show him a few things about foraging. Atouk's skill was unmatched, compared to the people here in Fricity. I was living proof of that. I even taught Shiro about a mixture of herbs that would normally be poisonous when the ingredients are by themselves. When you mix them, they made quite the cure for a headache. Shiro started using the mixture for mornings after a drinking binge. No one would raid his stash because they thought it was just poison.

To be honest, I don't think Shiro knows just how well I picked up his techniques. I had spotted him following us at a great distance. Most people wouldn't notice. Thanks to him, it was just in my nature to take notice of things like that. Some of his words were, "A tracker isn't shown by how well he can find his mark. A true tracker can tell when he is being marked just as well as he tracks his own." Knowing when you are being hunted can save your life.

Lokes and I found our camping spot for the first night. We were away from the dirt road and near a river. After our tents were set up, I spotted Lokes trying to start a campfire.

"You trying to get us noticed?"

"Noticed by what? We're out in the middle of nowhere."

"Exactly. Nowhere is the best place to strike a small group. Bandits. Wild animals. Crazed murderers on the run."

He looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Yeah... Uh-huh. You seem to be the only one with an imagination like that. No one thinks like that."

"You do realize that there are on average, five new missing persons posters or tasks every week, right? They are usually traveling when they go missing."

"Okay. Are you afraid of getting attacked?"

"No."

"Neither am I. Get over it."

He shook his head and continued to crack sparks at the pile of wood with a couple of rocks. I sat on a rock across from him. I took in his looks for the umpteenth time. He was maybe five and a half feet tall. A little shorter than me. His body was built thicker than mine. He had greyish-green skin. He is technically only half-orc, but he takes pride in his orcish half. His mother was a dark elf, evident in his longer than normal orc ears that seemed to slouch. He also had bright green eyes that were common among the dark elves. His mother died in childbirth so his father raised him to be strong. I had heard that he rejected his dark elven half because his mother was too 'weak' when she gave birth, to survive.

I've seen him cower a few times. He tries his best to be strong. As annoying as he can be, I've seen him jump at the chance to protect people who were being harassed. Usually by idiots from the Adventurers Guild. He has a good heart. It's hidden deep but it's there.

We awoke in the morning and packed our things. The next two days were similarly uneventful. On the dawn of the fourth day, we were just outside of the tiny village. We set sound traps to alert us if anyone or anything got close. I felt relieved when the morning came and no confrontation had happened.

We went into the village and started questioning the villagers for information. The last person that was taken was a young boy, age eleven. He was removed from his own room. The parents heard the glass of his window break. When they arrived, the glass was on the floor and neither the boy nor the creature was present. A tuft of hair had caught on a shard of glass. This was only two days ago. The trail would be cold but not completely gone.

Lokes's orcish blood gave him an amazing sense of smell. He was able to find a scent from the wolf fur. We began tracking into the eastern mountain range. On occasion, we would find a massive paw print. Not unexpected of a dire wolf. We continued following evidence when Lokes needed to give his nose a rest. Broken branches. crushed twigs. We were making progress as a tracker should.

"AARROOOOOOOOO!!!!"

A loud howl was a sign that we were near. Lokes took the wind direction and pointed downwind. I followed him around some rocks. We were downwind from a cave that was hidden behind large amounts of brush. We abandoned our excess weight and brought only armor and a sword, each. Our things were hidden behind rocks to prevent thievery.

It was time to face our mark.