Chapter 61 Part 4

Gishia looked at Jenn with a smirk that made Jenn' heart sink into her stomach. She had a feeling that Gishia was going to either do something that she didn't like or was going to at least make Jenn somehow regret spurning her interest in Jenn the night before. She wasn't sure which she'd prefer at the moment, either.

Jenn started to turn back to Nibbles when he saw Gishia reach out and grab one of the other girls' bottom, her movements clear and deliberate. Which Jenn couldn't do anything other than roll her eyes.

If that was the bet she could do, then Gishia was going to be rather disappointed in Jenn's lack of a reaction. Though, what troubled Jenn the most was that she was certain this was merely an opening salvo. That Gishia had more in mind, and Jenn had a feeling that it wasn't going to be something a tame as what she just did.

However, she had other matters to deal with right then. More important, too.

"Were you running from the wolf-kin yesterday?" Jenn asked.

Nibbles looked at Jenn carefully. Like he wasn't sure she actually wasn't a wolf-kin herself. As if she could hide that somehow. "How did I get here anyway?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper. "Yeah, I was running from the wolf-kin, as they practiced hunting me as part of their spring collections."

Jenn sighed. She could tell that this was going to require an in depth explanation and unless one of the other girls came to bring her something to eat, that she was just going to have to go without having anything to eat for breakfast.

She had a feeling his first question really wasn't for her anyway. Yet, she planned on answering it regardless. Especially if she could locate the gate. Only, she couldn't be sure just yet how long it'd been since he'd passed through the gate. Especially since there were so many other things that were probably on his mind that getting to that point might take a while.

"What's a 'spring collection?'" Jenn asked, hoping that it would at least help her start moving along towards learning where the gate was.

Even if the occupants of the world on the other side of the gate were hostile, it was better to know sooner where it was so that preparations could be made, regardless of which it really turned out to be.

"It's where they gather up member of the tribes around them that they have under their thumb. They select the fastest of us and then set us to try and escape. If we manage to get away, then we get to return to our homes for another year," Nibbles answered, though his breath became increasingly erratic as he spoke, clearly trying to work through the trauma he went through.

"How do they know which ones are the fastest?" Jenn asked, putting her hand on his shoulder, hoping that a steady presence might help him focus and not get lost in his terror.

"They make us race," he mumbled. "If they think we're not trying our best, they'll kill us on the spot."

Jenn sighed. It sounded rather brutal and she wondered if there was a way that they'd be able to negotiate with the wolf-kin a different means of doing things. If only so she could gain more allies. Although, she knew she was getting ahead of herself, since she couldn't even be sure that they'd be open to a dialogue about anything.

"Okay, so you were forced to race and won, so you got put in the spring collection, right?" Jenn asked, hoping that her summarizing what he'd said so far would help keep him calmer.

Nibbles nodded, though Jenn had a feeling he was close to having a breakdown. She hoped that wasn't the case, but doubted she'd be able to do anything to prevent it if so. Even if she stopped talking about how he got there, she couldn't be sure that he wouldn't have a complete breakdown in front of her.

"Captain, we've got trouble," a young girl said to her, pulling her attention away from Nibbles.

"I'll be back soon," Jenn assured Nibbled, who merely nodded, then stood up and started to follow the girl. A girl that looked like she should be getting ready for middle school rather than working as mercenary. The sight of which, only deepened her resolve to find some way to change things so it wasn't like that. Even though she hadn't a clue as to what really needed to be done.

When she reached where breakfast had been served, which, to her annoyance, she could see had been put away. In it's place, looked to be a briefing on one of their sentries.

"…coming closer. I can't tell what it is, but they are aware we're here," the sentry said. "I can't be sure how many there are with how dark it is."

"Let's form up around the tree," Jenn said. "It'll provide us cover in the even it comes to a fight."

"Aw, you think your little claws would be able to reach us?" a mocking voice asked, suddenly, drawing Jenn's attention to an approaching figure in the gloom.

"Who are you?" Jenn demanded, feeling less sure about her position to be issuing actual demands, but it wasn't like she could say what the person's name was and so couldn't really try to avoid conflict as well without it.

"Who I am isn't important," the person said. "Especially since I can tell you're close to wetting yourself."

Jenn didn't feel like she needed to go, but a glance around her said that some of the girls under her command might be in that position. Though she doubted it'd help if she mentioned it. Although, what it did help her understand is just how much training she needed to put her squad under, just so they wouldn't be like this during future encounters.

"You should speak for yourself," Jenn merely retorted, not wanting to admit that those under her command might not be able to fight if pressed. "I'm not close to wetting myself, so why not talk to me and only me about what it is you want?"

The person laughed, as if Jenn told a really good joke. "You're just like those around you. Weak."

While she still hoped to avoid conflict, she drew her sword. She hoped that seeing her ready to fight might make them less inclined to, but she'd started to have serious doubts about getting out of this without any kind of fighting.

A dark blur moved across Jenn's vision and without the aid of some of the memories she'd acquired from helping out the Lost, she would have been hit. Though, she couldn't say how badly she'd have been hurt. Just that she wouldn't have been able to land a counterstrike on whatever it was that had attacked her.

"You were saying?" Jenn asked, feeling like making it sound that she'd done this herself before would help prevent any more attacks.

The voice didn't respond right away, though Jenn had a feeling that wasn't the only thing they had hiding in the shadows around them. She couldn't be sure that it wasn't the only attack she'd have to face, but she felt like being ready, and making her opponents think that she could do this all day might force them to talking.

"You have good reflexes, but the others don't. Put you sword down or I cant say how many will die today."

"Just what I'd expect from bandits," Jenn spat, not fully convinced these were bandits. Not when she'd encountered Nibbles the day before. As she suspected these were wolf-kin, but she hoped provoking them in that manner might help her be more certain than to merely assuming they were bandits.

The person in front of her, however, merely laughed as he walked towards her close enough that she could make out a few details about him. Such as how he didn't have any ears like a person, but rather wolf ears on his head as well as a wolf's tail hanging down behind his legs. Though, there wasn't enough light to determine what his eye or hair color was.

"You know that those who call people bandits are merely trying to force their own order on others? That's little more than being bandits yourselves."

"When the laws have already been established by the queen of this country, then it's not our order we're forcing," Jenn countered. "We're merely trying to maintain the order around us to avoid sliding into anarchy."

The person laughed again, as if Jenn didn't know what she was talking about. Although, in truth, she didn't. She knew she was trying to pull something that made sense out of the air and couldn't be sure what she was saying made any sense. She just hoped to keep talking until it got light enough that she could really see how many were in front of her.

Maybe that would help her know if she should stand and fight or surrender right there. As it certainly would let her at least know what the odds were.

As soon as she had that thought, she felt like she could have slapped herself. She wasn't limited to only what she could seen. Instead, as these clearly were her enemies, she pulled on her magic and began casting her magic out like a net, to see how many there were. Each one that she sensed, she immediately reached into their minds and sought any information she could.

She hardly felt surprised to find that those in front of her were wolf-kin. What did surprise her, however, was the fact that they fought with wolves. Though, she had a feeling that she couldn't be too surprised, given how wolves could be domesticated as well as dogs. Though, she wasn't sure if the wolves themselves were the bigger threat or the wolf-kin. Both seemed like they were waiting on a hair trigger for the directive to attack.

She also learned where the gate was, which wasn't as far away as she had feared. Instead she was more surprised at why they'd come through the gate in the first place.

"If you insist on attacking us, know this," Jenn said after learning all she wanted to learn about her opponents. "We are silverthorns. We are a poison to our enemies, an antidote to our friends, and even if we're killed, we will pierce you so deeply that you'll feel it for the rest of your days."

The person, their leader, laughed. He was an older teen, but Jenn was confident he was overconfident about their numbers. "You say that, but I can signal to have one of the youngest of our hunters kill one of your 'silverthorns' before they could react."

Jenn nodded. "You could do that and while that's happening, I'll take your head," she replied. "Then who would give your hunting party their orders? Without the pack alpha, they won't know what to do. Which in turn would dissolve the pack, making it so that you'll have failed your pack."

"How…?" the youth started to ask.

"I know because of who I am!" Jenn declared, using her magic to create a light show behind her with flames. "I am capable of much more than you can imagine. Stand down now and maybe you'll live to report what happened to your elders."

Jenn wasn't sure if her statement was particularly effective, but she was confident the light show she had going on behind her was. She doubted it would have been as effective if they had been aware of her abilities, but that wasn't what was important. What was important was the fact that she'd gotten them to hesitate. That they weren't as confident in their own abilities as they had been a minute ago.

"Who are you?" the youth asked, as if Jenn had been hiding something from him. Something that he should have been aware of at the start of their confrontation.

"My name is Jennifer Rivers," Jenn called out, as if she were declaring something actually important. "I come from Earth and am knowledgeable in things you couldn't even imagine!"

She wondered if she should have added the last part, since it did make it sound like she could actually use any of that knowledge rather than just being aware of some things being possible and not just a fantasy or fiction.

Though at the moment, she just hoped they'd take her for her word and not press the matter. While she could use her magic to simulate some of what she 'knew,' she doubted that all of it would be especially effective in this situation or that she'd have enough power to keep any of her unit from getting killed from these wolf-kin.

"My name is…" the youth said before starting making various wolf-life sounds which Jenn assumed was his name. "I am the pack leader of the spring hunt. You are hiding our prey from us and we demand you return him over to us!"

Jenn had a feeling that was what this was about. That they'd found the gate Nibbles had gone through when they realized he'd probably escaped their trap. Not that he'd meant to. Unless he'd somehow found the gate through other means that Jenn wasn't sure existed right then.

"Mind if I call you 'Barkly'?" Jenn asked, partly because it sounded amusing to her, but also so she could have a name she could actually say and remember.

"You may not!" he huffed indignantly. "If you can't pronounce my name, then you can call me 'Howl.' That name will become one of the great names sung during the night for generations to come."

Jenn sighed. She didn't care about his boasting or whatever delusions of grandeur he had. What she cared about was what he had in mind to do to Nibbles if she acquiesced to his 'simple' request.

"What'll happen to him if I do hand him over to you?" Jenn asked, not confident right then that doing so would be the right decision. "Will he be safe?"

The youth looked rather annoyed. "He'll be as safe as he would otherwise," came the vague answer.

Jenn merely sighed. She had a feeling this guy was playing fast and loose with the truth. Which meant that if she handed Nibbles over to him, that even though technically Nibbles had succeeded in 'escaping' that this youth in front of her planned on making it so that he himself hadn't 'failed' and wanted to ensure that fact.

"How about this," Jenn offered, pulling on her magic to affect Howl's judgement, so he'd be more likely to accept without thinking about it too deeply. "What if we travel with you to the gate and we hand him over to you on the other side?"

Jenn wasn't sure if it was the words she used, or if there was something else, but her control was broken almost instantly.

"No, we won't allow you to find the entrance to our lands," Howl declared. "Who knows what you'd do to us if we did that."

Jenn smirked at him. "I have my own ways of finding that gate. If you don't show it to me, I'll just find it myself and you won't be able to do a thing about it or even know when I'd be coming."

Jenn realized how much of a threat her statement sounded like once she said it, but she couldn't think of a better way to have put it. Especially since she got the feeling that Howl really only understood threats and not anything less.

"What'll you do if our entire pack meets up with you?" he demanded, as if that was a given.

Jenn merely shrugged and used a little more of her magic to not only create an illusory velociraptor, but to make it look like she was summoning it from somewhere as a measure to keep the wolf-kin from realizing that it wasn't really real.

"How about this?" she asked, and had the raptor walk towards Howl before exhaling in his face, so he could feel the force of the air, but unable to smell the raptor. Even if he had an enhanced sense of smell as a wolf-kin.

Howl stumbled back in shock. He clearly wasn't expecting that and quickly looked around him, though Jenn wasn't sure what his reason was. She couldn't be sure if he was looking for his allies or if he was looking for a way out of the situation itself. She knew what she'd be doing, but for whatever reason, she couldn't get back into Howl's mind. Even trying to pierce his defenses wasn't working and she couldn't help but feel a trickle of fear as to what he might do.

Even with the velociraptor, she wasn't sure how many from her unit would die if it came to blows. Which is what she was trying to prevent, while also helping Nibbles out.

"If you need to get help from your elders, I'm willing to wait," Jenn offered, hoping what she recalled from being able to see in his mind would help. As she didn't have anything else to really work with anyway.

Howl looked at Jenn like she was something that he'd stepped in and couldn't get rid of. "Fine. I'll take only you to our elders. The rest of my pack will remain here watching your pack. As long as they don't try taking our prey away, then we should be fine. I'm sure the elders will side with me, so why shouldn't they be involved?"

Jenn smiled. She had her own ideas of what would occur. Especially since she knew that his confidence was pure bluster as he'd been, more often than not, on the wrong end of the elder's temper when it came to what he was supposed to do.

Jenn had a feeling that it was from him being so focused on becoming a legend himself that he was ignoring most of the smaller things he was supposed to do. The smaller things that the elders most often took him to task on. Such as following the rules of the hunt, for one.

Which was why she was more confident that this would work out. Though, the only worry she really had about it was that the 'pack' that Howl led might decided they'd waited long enough if it took longer than Jenn expected. If that was the case, then she wasn't sure she'd be able to save any of her squad then.