The lush verdure of the forest was soon masked in shadows and whispering breezes as the bright rays of sun that broke through the branches and illuminated the path faded into a cool night. Being the first to notice the fleeting daylight, Moss was quick to suggest the party stop and make camp off the path nearby. It did not take long for the party to pull the wagon over and start a small fire. Findle was the first to fall asleep leaving the group alone to reconcile his words from earlier in the day.
The silent tension seemed like a hot iron pressing against Roze’s side. She thought it would be best if she went ahead and faced the elephant in the room so the group could move forward. Moss and Kesh’gar had already left together to collect more wood for the fire so it presented a good opportunity to address the hostility between Niera and Hazel. Roze looked over to her friend sitting not far from her or the fire. The flame’s shadows seemed to dance around Hazel in a way that obscured her. Roze was uncertain whether Hazel was shrouded by coincidence or if she placed herself there intentionally, as though to hide herself away from sight. Roze was still grappling with how to start the conversation when Hazel met her gaze, almost as if she could read every thought that Roze held.
Hazel rose up from the fire and turned to Roze. “We should go check on Kesh and Moss. They’ve been gone for a while.”
Seeing the futility in trying to push the issue at the moment, Roze resigned and followed Hazel out of the camp leaving Niera and Rhenigan alone to watch the supplies. Each step led them deeper into the dark of the woods. The light of the fire faded behind them until the only sensation left was the sound of soft earth and leaves compressing beneath every footfall. The moon was at its fullest and created enough light to see just in front of each step but the trees seemed to swallow the silver reflections of light making it difficult to navigate.
“It’s so dark out here. How can you even see where we’re going?” Hazel inquired
“I don’t know,” Roze shrugged, “Ever since I learned to use magic I’ve had several senses change.”
“Are all devilkin just inherently magic? Or is yours a special case?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know.” Roze tried to push through some of the thicker brush in the way. “I’ve never met another devilkin.”
“Are your parents not devilkin? I didn’t realize that was possible. I thought it was a hereditary thing like the other races. Is it more like a divine lineage like Niera?”
“No. Actually, I guess I don’t know that either. My family is human, but we’ve never addressed me being devilkin. I always assumed I was adopted and it seemed so obvious that it wasn’t worth talking about.”
The two walked in silence for a moment longer and Roze could sense Hazel wanting to say something more. Before she could find a way to probe Hazel’s thoughts, the two could hear another set of individuals just in front of them. A dim light from a torch illuminated the area. Standing through the bushes was Moss with an armful of firewood.
“Hey, where’s Kesh?” Hazel asked.
“I sent him back to camp already. He wasn’t much help honestly. He talks too much and is always stopping to try to determine whether or not the mushrooms around are toxic.”
“Are they?” Roze had already begun picking varied fungi from the base of a tree when she posed the question.
“Uh, It’s probably fine,”Moss responded. Hazel had already begun slapping the questionable mushrooms back to the ground.
“Hey! Those were probably perfectly good mushrooms.” but Roze couldn’t help but linger on Moss’ nervous answer. “Since you hate mushrooms so much, just go back to camp. Kesh’gar probably picked more on his way back anyway. You should probably stop him before he eats something poisonous.”
“Fine,” Hazel responded, “but don’t eat anything until we’ve inspected it. I’d like to make it to the village without food poisoning.”
“Wait,” Moss interjected in a slight panic, “We should head back together. It isn’t safe to be splitting up in the forest at night.”
“I’m pretty confident I can handle some wildlife. Thanks for the concern though, patronizing as it is.”
Roze enjoyed the panicked expression on Moss’ face. He rarely allowed himself to get worked up so it interested her when he allowed himself to be so easily caught off guard. Hazel quickly summoned her broom and began traveling back to the campsite leaving Roze and Moss to finish up and walk back. Before the two could leave, Roze turned back to Moss to handle her last bit of business.
“Now that she’s gone, would you care to tell me what’s actually going on?” Roze pressured carefully
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean?”
“Don’t treat me like I’m dumb Moss. You’ve been so flustered ever since we showed up, and that whole speech about not splitting up is so loaded after you just let your own brother walk back to camp by himself? Plus, these mushrooms are completely safe to eat and both you and your brother should know that. It’s obvious that you're hiding something so let’s hear it.”
Moss glared at Roze for a moment before stepping to the side as though to invite her in to inspect something. Roze moved forward to look at what he could be covering up. As she inspected the area behind Moss she noticed peculiar animal tracks. They were deep gashes as though something was marking its territory; however, the marks were inconsistent with any animal Roze could identify.
“What is this? A wolf? Or maybe a bear? Why are you so worried? I’m sure we can handle whatever animal this is.”
“It’s not an animal and if it is aggressive then no we can’t handle it. My parents used to warn me about markings like this. The beast that leaves them is dangerous and extremely aggressive. I’ve only fought two of them and I barely managed to win. If we were to run into a full pack… I’m not sure all of us make it out unscathed.”
“You’re so cryptic. Why not just tell me what we’re fighting so I can be prepared?” Roze questioned impatiently.
Moss looked at her as though he was thinking carefully about how to share the information. “They’re werewolves, likely a pack of them and we’re camping in their territory.”
“That’s not possible,” Roze quickly tried to shut down the conversation, “A pack of lycan would have been tagged for extermination by another hunting guild. There could only be 2 or 3 werewolves here at best.”
“Yes, that's true if somebody had been able to make it out of these woods to report that there were werewolves here. No hunting party would come here unless they were confident there was something worth hunting. Only beginners like us would have been sent out and if they were caught off guard by an entire pack…”
Moss didn’t seem to feel like it was necessary to finish his thought. Roze stared at the large claw markings on the ground and tree roots. The creature that left those marks would face no trouble shredding through armor or pinning down large foes. The imagery left two burning questions in her mind and she couldn’t help but ask. What were you doing fighting werewolves and-
“How did you get away from two of these things alive?”
This question seemed to trouble Moss the most. He took so much time to carefully craft his answer that Roze was taken aback by the simplicity of it.
“They were my parents.” Moss answered plainly.
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