Interesting things happened today. I'll try to jot them all down as best as I can remember them. After my morning routines I met Draco at the gnomish apothecary where he stayed. His matron was a feisty female gnome who specialized in potion making and herbalism. We decided to look for Skylar. Our group was a lot less effective without our diehard scout.
Traveling south to the large hunting lodge where me and Shakes first recruited him, I knocked on the door. A big, bearded woodsman with long blond locks answered the door with a gruff "Yes?"
"We are here to see Skylar." I said. "If he is in."
He motioned with his thumb over his shoulder and said. "He's round back."
Draco and I headed around the side, to the back of the hunting lodge, where there was sort of a training ground. A firing range with different types of targets was set at various ranges. It had several huntsmen practicing their archery. A fighting ring had a pair of Rangers sparing with wooden swords.
We found Skylar at the archery range shooting at a target resembling a buck.
That's a good idea, I thought, stepping up beside him and asking. "May I take a shot?"
Skylar held up his hand, with a be my guest gesture, and said, "You need it."
"Hey!" I proclaimed. "I actually shot a giant ant right between its eyes yesterday!" Protecting my accuracy's honor.
"He did." Draco agreed. Causing a smile to spread across my face. A smile that quickly vanished as he added, "But it was only 8 feet away. A blind kobold could have hit it."
I gave them both my best, I'll show you look, and readied my heavy crossbow. I took careful aim on the deer shaped target 20 yards away and squeezed the trigger.
And I missed high to the left.
Skylar and Draco laughed as I cursed. They walked off a bit to talk as I reloaded and fired again.
And missed, again.
"Damn!" I exclaimed, turning to see my friends deep in conversation. Good they might have missed that shot, I thought. I sat down cross legged and did something I had not done since basic training. I tore apart my weapon as quickly as possible and then reassembled it.
After checking its sights I loaded it, took aim at the target, and fired.
Bullseye!
Well, deerseye actually.
I quickly reloaded and fired again. Direct hit.
I reloaded and fired three more times and hit the target every time.
On my last shot the deer target broke apart.
Smiling I turned around, to find one of the woodsie Ranger guys standing right behind me.
"You broke our deer target," he said, frowning.
"Uh.." was my reply.
Looking over his shoulder there was no sign of Skylar and Draco. "Uh..." I continued the conversation.
"Next time you want to come practice with that weapon let us know first and we will break out the more sturdy targets."
"Uh...ok." I said. Wondering where my friends had gone. Just my luck I actually hit something several times in a row and they weren't around to witness it. I pointed back over my should at the target. " I can pay for that."
He laughed and said, "No need."
"Well then. I'm here with Skylar. Did you see where he went?"
"He went off into the woods with that there pretty boy." He said pointing into the woods to the south.
"Uhm..." I really didn't know what to say to that so I looked at the Ranger and shrugged.
I went to the broken deer target and retrieved my quarrels and spent a few minutes looking for my bolts that missed but soon gave up because finding crossbow bolts in the grass is like finding a needle in a haystack. Going to the edge of the forest, I examined the ground and found a pair of tracks heading south. I figured they had maybe a 15 minute headstart on me.
The smart thing to do would be to stay here. The woods could be a dangerous place. But part of my basic training involved being dropped into a dense forest alone and with no supplies for survival training. If I could survive a week in the woods, near naked, with only a dagger and my wits, a little romp on the edge of a town couldn't be that bad.
Besides, I was curious what those two could be up to going out there together.
Stealthily, I followed their tracks for about an hour and was perhaps a mile from the hunting lodge, when I heard hushed voices ahead. "That's pretty gross man, but I'm glad your showing it to me."
"I'm not ready for you to touch it yet." I heard Skylar say.
Uh oh. I thought. How well did I really know these guys. I didn't want to interrupt them if they were doing something private and personal. I turned to leave, watching the ground so I didn't step on any twigs, when I heard Draco say, "Parts of it are missing."
Oh no. Maybe that Grey Oozes acid had more of an adverse effect on Skylar than I thought.
"Most the gooey parts are gone." I heard Skylar mumble.
"Definitely eaten away." Draco added.
I was becoming more and more distressed by this conversation and peeked over some bushes. It was with a sigh of relief that I noticed Skylar and Draco bent over examining something on the ground.I walked up beside them to what they were looking at.
It was a body.
A dead body. Tore apart as if a wild animal was the killer.
"You guys kill him?" I asked.
"No." Skylar answered. "How did you find us?"
"I tracked you."
"Wow. I'm impressed."
I smiled. "And I also hit that deer target five times in a row after you left."
"Sure you did." Skylar did not sound convinced.
"No really I did."
He cocked an eyebrow in that I don't believe you way, and then pointed at the body and asked, "What do you make of this?"
"When did you find him?" I knelt to examine the corpse. "Do you know who he is?"
"Yesterday. And I think he is a hunter that went missing a few days ago." His wife hired me to find him.
"Well you found him."
Now here is something you, dear readers, may not know about me. I, like the devil, am into details. The first thing I noticed was this hunters weapons were not drawn. Meaning whatever or whoever killed him did so quickly and with surprise. Either it snuck up on him or he knew the killer. His entrails and lower parts were mostly gone, eaten away apparently. I stood up and circled the body, examining the area. "Are these wolf tracks?" I asked Skylar pointing out some canine tracks around the body.
"Yes." he answered. "A big brute and traveling alone."
"Hmm." I backtracked to see which direction the lonewolf came from, Skylar and Draco started searching the body as I did so. After about thirty yards towards the town I noticed something peculiar about the tracks. It looked like some of them were missing. Like someone erased half the tracks or....
The beast was running on just it's hind legs.
My hair on the back of my neck stood on end as the tracks became those of a man. "Oh Crap!" I exclaimed aloud. Running back to Skylar and Draco I yelled. "IT"S A FRICKEN WEREWOLF!"
Skylar looked up and said calmly, "Yeah I think so too."
"Holy Crap. Was it a full moon yesterday?" I asked excitedly.
"Two Nights ago." Skylar confirmed.
"It could be anyone." I said.
"Yep." Was all I got from Skylar.
"You have a shovel? Right?" Draco asked.
"Yeah why?" I answered, digging my trencher out of my backpack.
"Because you need to dig a grave for this guy."
Well I am an expert at digging holes. If I ever decide I don't like adventuring or soldiering I could always get a job as a grave digger. We buried the poor hunter and looted his corpse. I made a couple of casts of the tracks out of mud which I heated with my magic. Never know when such thing's would come in handy. We had a bonifide mystery here. And I like mysteries. We traveled back to town and gave the new widow the bad news. We didn't tell her that her husband was slain by a werewolf but was killed by wolves. No need to start a panic in town yet. I thought Draco was going to make a play for her because she was kind of attractive. Yes he is that shallow. Somehow he managed to refrain himself. Barely. I checked the widows shoe size discreetly and checked her off my list.
Better safe than sorry.
I go to bed thinking I have a little over three weeks before the moon is full.
And then the killer would strike again.
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