Chapter 3: The Stranger

The man, for the figure seemed to have the build of a man, spoke in deep, growling tones.

"Why do you seek death so eagerly?"

"Excuse me? What?" stammered Edge Viper at the man towering above him as he lay on the ground, taller than any man Edge Viper had seen before.

"Why are you foolish enough to seek a painful death at the jaws of the Hunters?" the stranger said calmly.

"The Hunters? What are you talking about?" Edge Viper was utterly at a loss as to what the man meant.

"I just saved you from three Hunters," the man explained, addressing Edge Viper like a child, "and, judging by the number of wounds you all carry, you fought off several others beforehand."

"You mean the woodwolves?" Edge Viper asked, stating the obvious somewhat, but his words were useless; the moment a look of understanding had crossed Edge Viper's face, the stranger moved off to inspect the wreckage of the camp. He moved between the bodies of the woodwolves, sniffing their fur, tasting the blood from their wounds from the ends of his fingers and staring deep into their lifeless eyes.

"What are you doing here? Why did you save me? What in the name of the Edge are you doing to those woodwolves?"

"I am checking which pack these Hunters are from; I have been following them for days," told the man, "they took our Herdbeasts. They killed the slower ones, one by one as they caught them. It looks like the whole herd is gone now, the elders will be most displeased. At least our herd has been avenged, the Hunters are dead. As for your other question, I saved you because there was no need for your death."

"Any chance you know if it is likely that another lot of those 'Hunters' will be likely to come by here?"

"When the pack does not receive them back into their ranks in the moon after they left the Hunters will be missed," spoke the man, "until then you will safe from their vengeance. However these Hunters are from a pack in caves far off and must have been away from there for twenty or twenty one days yet. You will not be safe here for long. As for my village, I expect we will see the might of these Hunters' pack soon, they will be angry that some of their number have been slain"

As the stranger turned to leave, Edge Viper realised that his saviour was still a complete mystery to him. The stranger turned and said, as if he knew Edge Vipers thoughts, and said, "I am En'rhhydoq'adsrael'erod. You don't have a clue what it means."

Edge Viper never forgot what Buggin Drots said next. The short fourthling stepped up to him through the heavy silence and said;

"Well that was bloody strange, wasn't it?"

With the sudden departure of En'rhhydoq'adsrael'erod, none of the crew were quite sure of what to do next. Hentuck began to sharpen his sword on a rock, Buggin tended to his wounds before going back to sleep while Sneevel Quex catalogued the Woodwolves corpses in the small notebook in which he kept records of the ship's food stores while ordering Mardin to wipe the blood from the beasts' fur and carry them to the galley.

When morning came a few hours later, Edge Viper noticed a plume of wispy white smoke on the horizon. A village. He rallied his crew and gave them orders to forage some food from the surrounding forest and prepare the ship for flight. He went into the trees himself; to try and find fruits, berries, even some dead small animals, anything was better than nothing. He had with him a piece of barkscroll telling him how to indentify if a plant was edible or not. It was just a long series of questions he was to ask himself and tasks he had to do when he came across a likely item, and if the answer was yes to any of them he was to leave it be and, sometimes, run for cover in case the sounds of his approach caused it to violently explode. The first portion of the aged barkscroll, stolen from a ship of the Minor League of Knowledge and It's Cataloguing, read as follows:

"If ye comes across a plante in the Deepewoodes ye must be carefulle.

Walk one circle fully around the plante. If it hath leafs that are blacke

On one side, yet redd the other, beware. You have crossed the pathe of a Drakeberry. Keep ye away from the Drakeberry, for should you approach

It shall grow fully ten times its own size until its berries are equivalent

In size to a Fourthling's head. Then the plante's berries shall burst forth

Intent to devour your body and carry it back to the mothere plante.

If the leafs are deepe purple all around then this plant is safe, save if

The plante carries red spines on the southe facing branches, if so

It is a Twisted Flamewort and must be avoided at all costes…"

The barkscroll continued to go on about plants that Edge Viper had never heard of and hoped never to see in his life; and that was just the plants…

He carried on looking for food for about half an hour, finding nothing safe apart from a clear running stream, which he filled as many waterskins as he could carry, and a small bush of small sour green berries that the barkscroll said was safe. Suddenly a cry from of to his right, back towards the camp,

"HELP! HELP! Captain! Hentuck! ANYBODY!"

It was Buggin, as Edge Viper left he had been repairing small tears in the mainsail, but now he was in danger.

Author's Note: Sorry for going overboard with the 'e's back there, I was bored. I'm sorry that it's not as good as the previous two, at least I think so, but I couldn't think about what to write. I promise the next one will be better. And sooner. If I don't live up to the previous promises please don't kill me, please.