The foursome had barely shut their eyes under the full moon when a terrifying howl woke them from their drowsiness. Ailbe, who was the most alert and awake, grabbed her blade that lay by her side as she crawled around the other side of the boulder she was near to hide. She was telling herself that this was to evaluate the situation and calculate the best attack, but deep down she knew it was mostly out of fear. 

“What was that?", Faye asked in a rather loud whisper. 

"Sssh!", was the only response, and she couldn't work out from who. 

She attempted to be quieter, to no avail. "Wake up everyone and be very alert. I think we’re about to have company.” 

“Yeah, uninvited guests are not going to be received kindly when I was trying to sleep,” Aelric retorted as he stoked the fire back into life and drew his glaive. 

Three of them - Aelric, Faye, and Elsie - stood with their swords drawn, backs to a cluster of the boulders, and the fire in front of them; ready for the howling attack. Glad to have been ready so quickly, as soon they were aware that they were being watched. Three pairs of eyes stared back at them, straight ahead, glowing red by the light of the fire.

Another howl pierced the night air, followed by deep growls. Slowly the three pairs of eyes advanced. Out of the shadows stepped three Wolves, the colour of midnight itself, they looked like they were part of the shadows. Each one was ready to leap on the three who stood there.

The first wolf pounced at Faye who barely had time to escape. The wolf's paws hit the rock and with a whine, it ricocheted back to its pack. Faye was not quite so lucky; she had managed to sidestep the wolf, but pressed into the small of her back was the tip of Elsie’s blade. Although unaware of just how close she was to stabbing her peer, Elsie still moved her blade before it caused any real damage. As she swung it out of Faye's way and toward the second, middle wolf, that had leapt the fire in order to target her. Two swings and the wolf dodged them both. Another swing, another dodge. Then on the fourth swing, it was much cleaner and more precise, as she cut through the air and sliced its right ear clear off. 

Aelric, however, waited, watching the third wolf and the surrounding battle come slowly to him. The third wolf, on the right of its pack, seemed to be doing the same. Perhaps it was just waiting for Aelric to be unaware. 

Or perhaps not, because all of a sudden, the third wolf pounced. With his glaive ready, Aelric struck, piercing the wolf in its side. But one strike wasn’t enough for Aelric; he struck again. 

As the first wolf tentatively gained ground on Faye, she swung her blade before it could attack again. Her blade connected, leaving a hairline cut along its side. Elsie had done the same to the second wolf, lightly cutting its side. Both wolves were now wary of their opponents. As for the third wolf, now badly injured, it limped away. Aelric, however, was having none of it; his sleep had been disturbed and he was annoyed. Charging the wild animal who had attacked him, he stabbed it, putting it out of its misery. 

Coming out from behind the boulder, Ailbe had now watched for long enough. She ran to Faye's side and they both thrust their blades at the first wolf, at the same moment that Elsie had finished off the second. Collapsing onto the hard ground alongside Elsie, Faye looked both exhausted and annoyed. "Thanks for the help, but I had this."

"I was only lending a hand," Ailbe respond in kind as she ran her blade across the throats of the first and second wolves, making sure their deaths were instant.

"Don't. Didn't need it."

"Hey Ailbe," Elsie cut into the tension. "Where were you anyway?"

"Me?" Ailbe repeated questioningly. Mostly to save time as she thought of her answer. "Ah-"

"Yeah, you. Why didn't you wake up with us? What were you doing?", Faye jumped into the interrogation that had started. Or at least, that's what she was trying to turn it into. 

"-I wasn't far away," Ailbe told them. It wasn't a lie, although she knew she'd have to in order not to lose any more respect. "I heard the noise earlier than you all must have and left to investigate it. It wasn't until I was a good hundred metres away that I heard the whimper of one of these dogs and came rushing back." She hoped that was enough to convince them. 

"#%$&-ing hero," Faye muttered. No one heard what she said, but they knew it was cursing of some description. 

"Going off alone is like going into battle half-cocked. We are a team, Ailbe, so please be more careful," Elsie reminded her pleadingly. 

While the three of them were talking, Aelric was seemingly ignoring them as he hacked at the wolf he had killed. It had been a number of hours since they had eaten yet another feast of rabbit, and he was starting to feel hungry. Especially for something that was a little more substantial. Plus, he was collecting enough meat to cook off some to have for breakfast too. 

Once he had a fair amount and the animal was more or less skin, fur, and bone now, Aelric was ready to cook it up. On the way back to the fire, he spotted something on Elsie's kill, the largest wolf, and stopped to examine it. Around its neck was a gold-studded leather collar. Carefully taking it off to slip into his backpack before the others noticed, he guessed it must have been worth at least 15 gold pieces. A small prize that he'd be happy to take away from this quest, even as it occurred to him that with a collar like this, these wolves were belonging to someone and were probably not totally wild. Even more reason not to stay around longer than they had to. 

After Aelric reluctantly shared his midnight wolf feed, they all eventually got to sleep, only to wake up a little before dawn. Aelric shared out the rest of his cooked-off wolf meat and told them, "Those were wild, you realise?" He cocked his head in the direction of the wolf carcasses.

"What makes you say that?", Faye asked as she was returning from refilling her waterskin in the river. 

"You didn't notice how easy they were to kill?!"

 Faye snared at the comment but Elsie chimed in quickly before her retort came, "If that's so, we better make haste. I don't want to be here when whoever owns them comes looking and sees what we've done." Ailbe nodded in agreement and continued to repack her bag faster. 

In fact, the whole group agreed and decide to break camp a little faster that morning. 

Leaving camp, they made their way up the steep winding path in pairs. The sun rose up into the sky quickly and was already getting quite warm by the time they finally reached the top of the first hill; the highest hill. It gave them a 360-degree view of the area; seeing the river, the hills, the long grass, and the tight green circle of Darkwood forest.