Fridolf strapped the saddle bag onto the horse and looked to see if his oldest child was finished tacking up the horse and ready to go.  Bardoul smiled at his father as he pulled himself into the saddle, and Fridolf returned the smile with approval before mounting his own horse.

“Alright, son, let’s go see the fleet arrive!  We’ll have a lot of work to do going through the manifest,” he said.

“I just hope everything is accounted for,” Bardoul said as he nudged his horse around and set off.

“Well, we can cover the expected amount of loss; we budgeted for that.  As long as nothing catastrophic happens, we should be fine!” Fridolf said cheerfully.

“I just don’t want to have to take out new loans so soon after we paid them all off,” the younger merchant bemoaned.

“Well, of course I don’t want to do that either,” Fridolf said, looking sidelong at his son.  “Your future, and the future of your brother and sisters, would be well secured if the business continues to do well.  Let’s try to be optimistic.  We’ve come this far!”

The father and son business partners traveled for almost a week to get to the big port city where their shipping business was based.  They stopped at inns where available, which was in the small town between their hometown and the city, as well as a couple major crossroads.

The ships were due a few more days hence, so the pair arranged for meetings and business lunches with customers and investors, and relaxed at a nice inn by the docks.

The scheduled day arrived, and Fridolf met Bardoul at the docks to await their fleet.  They spent the day there, but as the sun set in the sky, there was no sign of any of the ships.  Disappointed, but not yet worried, the pair returned to their inn.  Ships were late.  Perhaps they’d run into poor weather?

One day late became two, two became four, four became a week, and Fridolf became worried.  Despite the pessimism the younger merchant had displayed on the journey, he took the role of the optimist now, reassuring his father that there were many reasons ships could be so late when traveling such a long way.  There were many port stops where they could linger overlong, and many leagues of ocean where storms could strike and cause delays.

By the end of the second week of delay, both men were somber.  Enough time had passed with no sign of the fleet that they were compelled to write letters to their customers alerting them to the delays.

Finally, after a month-long delay, one of the ships in their fleet limped to the pier.  Only one ship; the smallest and fastest ship in the fleet.  Fridolf felt a glimmer of hope when he arrived to see the ship where it was docked.  This was the fastest ship, so perhaps the rest of the fleet would follow in another few days!

But alas, it was not to be.  The captain and skeleton crew that remained on the damaged ship was able to shed light on what had befallen the fleet, and it was not good news.  This ship had been transporting a shipment of expensive teas and spices, but the hull had taken on enough seawater to ruin most of the cargo.  It was also the sole ship in the fleet that had carried cargo that had not been pre-purchased by the Hemming Shipping Company’s customers.  Those expensive teas and spices were meant to generate the profits that would enable the company to load up the fleet with fresh goods without needing to get customers to pay in advance.

Bardoul and Fridolf met at a pub that night to discuss the dire news.

“The Mud Puppy’s captain said the entire fleet was lost in an unexpected hurricane,” Fridolf told his son, despondent.  “He said at least half the ships sank outright, but the rest made it out with heavy damage and crew loss.  It’s possible at least some of those ships will make it back to shore, but, some might never be seaworthy again, and it’s doubtful much of the cargo will be intact.”

“It wouldn’t really matter anyway,” Bardoul said, his head in his hands as he leaned over the table.  “They are already so late that our customers won’t be able to get as much profit from sales as they would have if the shipments had been on time.  We can deliver whatever we get, but they’re just going to demand refunds anyway.”

“You’re probably right,” Fridolf sighed.

“You should head home in the next few days.  Arrange meetings with our solicitor and accountant.  I’ll stay in the city and set up meetings with all of our customers so we can start working out how to get everyone their refunds.”

“I will,” Fridolf agreed.  “But you won’t be able to transfer funds until the accountant makes arrangements with the bank to take out sufficient loans.”

“I know, but they’ll all be too busy to see me right away anyway.  And it’s not as though they’ll expect me to walk into the meeting with cash on hand.”

“True.  Alright.  I’ll head out in the morning.”

“At least we’re in good standing with the banks, so we should be able to take out sufficient loans without resorting to loan sharks,” Bardoul noted in a weak attempt to find a silver lining.  Fridolf offered a thin smile at the effort.

“The banks aren’t that much better, in my opinion, but at least debtor’s prison is less risky than an enforcer showing up to try and break our bones.”

Bardoul’s head snapped up, amber eyes widening with alarm as he looked at his father in horror.

“Don’t be ridiculous, father!  If we went to debtor’s prison, it would be very bad!  We wouldn’t be able to…” he trailed off, glancing around the busy bar.  “You know, uh, stargaze from the river?”

Fridolf sighed and ran a hand through his red-streaked brown hair that was beginning to gray at the temples.

“Let’s just make sure it doesn’t come to that, yes?”

Bardoul nodded hesitantly.  The two men finished their drinks and staggered back to their room at the inn for the night.

The next morning, Fridolf tacked up his horse and paid for the room the two men had shared so Bardoul could move into a cheaper room by himself.  He set off at a brisk pace, hoping to make better time getting home than they’d made coming to the city.  The faster he could get back to town, the sooner he’d be able to take out the loans they needed to make restitution for their failed shipments.

Luckily, the horse was well-rested and they made good time.  Fridolf made it to the next town in half the time it usually took, and he expected he could make it the rest of the way home in just a couple more days, if he rode through the final night instead of stopping at the last inn.

His estimation of time was good, and Fridolf passed the last inn before home just before supper time.  He would’ve liked to stop and eat, but he decided to just eat the travel rations packed in his saddle bag when he got hungry later, and rode on as he’d planned.

Fridolf reached the forest controlled by the pack lycans about halfway through the night, and felt relief wash over him.  He would be home in about an hour if he pushed the horse a bit.

The sound of growling interrupted his thoughts, and the senior lycan looked around, puzzled.  Emerging along the sides of the road next to him, he saw three lycans.  One brown and gray with a white belly, one black with gray on its sides, back and head, and one a mottled red, black and white.  Their posture was very obviously hostile, and Fridolf looked at them with confusion.

“What are you doing?  I am lycan; let me pass.  Even if I were human, you shouldn’t be harassing people on the road,” he scolded.  “They’ll hunt us down if you make a habit of this.”

«Get him,» the largest of the three said.

Fridolf dug his heels into his horse’s sides and shouted.  The already-nervous prey animal charged forward, fleeing from the three highly dangerous and obviously hostile predators with little urging.

The three ambushers pursued the fleeing rider, snapping at the horse’s heels.  The animal panicked and veered off the road, crashing through the underbrush.  Fridolf couldn’t make the horse obey his attempts to steer the animal back onto the road where it was safer, and he quickly had to divert his attention to just keep his seat in the saddle as various branches attempted to sweep him off as the horse charged through the woods with little care for the rider on its back.