Bursting through the trees came a ragged bunch, their severely chipped weapons gripped tightly in their trembling hands. The moon shone brightly lighting the jogging figures revealing their terrified faces to the sky. The howling of wolves pierced the air behind them causing them to huff and puff to try force the system to allow them to jog faster.
To our disappointment it did not and we remained jogging at a slow pace, the multitudes of howling getting progressively closer. Our more heavily equipped members strayed behind while the more agile one raced slightly ahead. The forest shining with moonlight revealed a pair of Dire wolves materialised close by and aggressively rushed towards us.
"Stack!" barked Kane and with split second reactions we formed a multilayered wall, the shield bearers as the front while us damage dealers behind.
The pair smashed into us but our wall held and the shield bearers lifted the wolves onto their shields with the help of the row behind while the large weapon wielders hacked away at the wolves. The wolves help in place could do nothing but whine and snap with their jaws as we slowly chopped away at their health.
After half a minute they both shattered into polygons and immediately our speed went back up to our normal fast jog as the weight of the wolves had slowed us down quite a bit.
We jogged on for a few minutes aware of the silence as the howling of our pursuer had stopped. Not letting up the pace we jogged on in confusion and fear.
Gradually a sound grew louder and louder until it was akin to a mild tremor. The beating of paws on the earth drummed behind us but no howls as of yet bringing us deeper into our fear and confusion.
The steps became so loud it sounded as if they happened right behind us and as if on cue to that thought an arrowhead of dire wolves appeared from within the trees. The air ripped apart and my ear drums screamed as all our pursuers howled simultaneously.
I took a quick headcount my suspicions confirmed as all 14 wolves that had chased us to the river are once again chasing us. It seemed as though we did not leave the trap area by crossing that river, just delayed their coming.
I remembered something and found it strange that only 14 wolves were chasing us; the wolves themselves would gather all wolves that spawned close to them to join, so that must have meant that nothing spawned along their way so there were no players along the way. At least I can rest easy on not mob training(1) someone.
With that off my conscious I am ripped back into consciousness by Kane who roars "Run! Run! Run!" At everyone as he jogs as fast as he can.
The wolves bay and howl as they slowly make their way towards us, the trees hindering them slightly as their larger and wider forms don't fit so easily. That might have been our saving grace as it buys us time to think of a plan, albeit only a little time due to the thinning of the forest giving more space to run through.
I jog up to Kane and shout as quietly as I can "WE GOTTA SPLIT!"
Shock and horror filled the faces of those around me as they think the thought of splitting up and on some of their faces their expression of thoughtfulness on the idea.
"DESPERATE TIMES NEED DESPERATE MEASURES!" I simply state to which some of them nod agreeing.
Kane burrows his brows into his face in thought for a few seconds then with a sigh roars "EVERYBODY LISTEN UP! SPLIT INTO YOUR WATCH PAIRS!"
With the order we slowly jog our way towards our watch pairs, in my case Gastalf who is running along with Scarlet but speeds up to reach me.
The wolves snarl and their white teeth gleam in the moonlight. They are literally seconds away the few meters of ground between us being closed quickly.
"SPLIT!" Roars Kane at the second the lead dire wolf rakes Scarlet back causing her to scream in fear as her chest armour bursts into polygons. That is the last thing I see and me and Gastalf burst off to the right in hopes that the wolves would not follow us. As we disappear I see the rest of the groups meld into trees in all different directions and the wolves stopping momentarily.
I lose sight of the wolves through the trees but remain at my full power jog as the wolves would aggro onto a target soon and the chase would be on again.
The revitalised howling of the wolves confirms they have chosen their targets and the howling getting louder confirm they have targeted us.
Soon they come into view as we jog across the moonlit forest, 6 of them had decided to follow us their tongues waggling hungrily towards us as they inch closer. Fear welling up inside me I rip open my menu and un-equip my clothes and place my battered sword in my inventory. If I am caught the pathetic amount of armour I have on and my half broken sword will be of no use.
The small movement boost feels almost ecstatic as the wolves still moved closer yes, but slower which bought me some time. Gastalf realises my small speed boost and he too strips down.
The 2 of us run lightly through the forest with a pack of wolves bearing down on us in only our underwear (and our boots because running without them would hurt too much). The wolves inch closer second by second until their hot breath blow onto our bare backs and my brain in hyperactive mode lights up with an idea that just might save our lives.
"CLIMB A TREE!" I roar as Gastalf who jumps slightly at my sudden outburst but turns directly for a tree with a low hanging branch. Doing the same we charge towards our chosen trees as the claws of a wolf rake across my back leaving digital red lines across my back.
The tree I chose loomed in front of me within seconds and mustering all the strength I could find I jumped arms outstretched onto the tree. I flew up barely a metre and crashed onto the trunk of the tree and gave it a deathly hug. The wolf behind me startled by my sudden jump crashes into the trunk causing it to howl in pain as a small portion of its health disappears. Another pained howl confirms that Gastalf made the jump too.
Without wasting precious time I climb the tree as quickly as I could while holding tightly. Luckily the wolves do not immediately start jumping and tearing at me as they first have to stop but they were in such close quarters that they smacked into each other tripping them to the ground.
Reaching a low branch I place a foot there precariously and the wolves start jumping high their teeth scratching the bottom of the branch thankfully not reaching me. Deciding it was for the best I continued to climb higher leaving the dire wolves howling below as I finally reach a branch similar height to the rest of the forests trees. Relaxing slightly I sit on the branch while still holding onto the tree trunk.
I glance round and see a relieved looking Gastalf as he adopts a similar position a few trees. He swipes his right hand down and shouts "Message the others" and does so himself. I swipe open my tab and send a 'quick climb trees' to my party hoping they are still alive to use it.
The wolves had stopped howling and in curiosity I look down. My tree groans and shakes violently almost ripping me from my seat as 4 wolves below bang onto it with their massive paws using their strength to slowly push the tree. Some of the trees roots become visible as the wolves continue to push the tree. Fearing the worst I turn round facing another tree about a metre and a half away while gripping my own trunk to keep hold against the violent shaking.
The tree gives a last groan and my vision slowly falls backwards. Pushing hard against the trunk I run up the branch and leap into the air. I drop quickly onto the next tree trunk losing a metre or so of height but quickly right that by climbing up the tree again.
Once again after a minute or so of climbing I perch myself ready to jump when I hear a groan from a tree slightly away and see Gastalf leaping into the air and smashing into another tree trunk. His head collides with the tree giving me a thought that that must hurt but Gastalf is not fazed and grips tightly his tree and climbs up.
I check my health bar to see it regenerating to 97% and continue ever so slowly. So each time we jump we will lose a bit of health on collision but thats ok as long as we don't fall we won't die.
My new tree gives a loud groan and inches backwards. I ready myself for another jump to a close by tree dreading the long night to come.
-page break-
"Oomph!"
I whack into a lower branch barely managing to grip on as I slip off. The wolves baying with hunger and frustration jump at me from below but I am up too high. Slowly I pull myself onto the branch holding it as tightly as my fingers could go. Thankfully the numbness of my hands disappear within a minute or 2 of not using them to hold onto something with a vice like grip so I have been able to successfully hold onto things.
While pulling myself up with a decisive groan "Draaaake!" someone roars behind me and I glance behind me to see Gastalf leaping from his falling tree towards me. Without a second thought I wrap my arms around the branch and swing my legs out towards him.
He grabs my legs and instantly I my left shoulder cracks audibly and I feel as sharp pain that dulls and disappears quickly. Gastalf had successfully gripped onto my leg and now dangled helplessly with large, hungry dire wolves below. They jump and one grazes Gastalf's boots with its teeth before dropping back to the ground.
We hung there in our grey underwear and leather boots, Gastalf's legs and arms wrapped around my legs and my Arms wrapped into place on the branch. I tried moving my fingers but no response from either arm. Thankfully this game has pain dampeners.
The wolves below continue to jump and try to stick their jaws into the dangling meal, however we are too high for them. The stop trying after a few moments and turn towards the tree trunk and charge to unroot it and topple it.
That was our cue and I swing my legs side to side gaining momentum while the tree groans at the savage wolves pushing it violently. I fling my legs upwards along with Gastalf who grabs onto the branch with a bear hug, my legs safely underneath him.
He crawls quickly to me, places his feet on my shoulders while gripping the branch tightly and jabs my shoulder with his feet with a resounding crack once again causing a sharp pain in my shoulders. I wiggle my fingers in appreciation before he crawls over to the trunk and grips it tightly while I follow him close behind.
The tree gives a last deep groan and starts to drop, with that we run along the branch against the increasing gradient, jump and land with an "oomph" on another tree close by. I land first once again and Gastalf lands on my back and half gripping me and half gripping the trunk confines me between him and the trunk.
The wolves somehow not tired of this go straight over to our new tree and start to bash on it with all their might. They don't more than a few hits on the tree before with a howl the spikes on their backs retract into their bodies which compress and shrink back to their normal size. The wolves are back to normal, so it must be daybreak.
One tries to smash onto the trunk but accomplished nothing. The others tried but they too accomplished nothing. With a last disappointed howl they flee back into the trees and out of sight.
Once gone we let out a huge shout of relief as we burst into exhausted laughter. Climbing up to a branch for safety's sake we sit facing opposite directions, legs dangling enjoying the warm orange light shining through the trees onto our tired faces.
"Well thats one way to cause deforestation" exclaims Gastalf with a whistle.
I turned around to see how many trees we toppled. A low whistle escaped from me too: the forest seemed to be divided into 2 as there was a large line of fallen trees splitting it into the middle. Some trees leaned on ones we had not jumped onto but only a minority as most lay fully uprooted on the ground. It looked like someone drove a bulldozer or 2 side by side ramming into the tree. Quite the deforestation we caused.
"Imagine what the other's deforestation line would look like" comments Gastalf. Even though we started on 2 different trees our deforestation line remained oddly straight which was mildly surprising as I would have expected it a little more zigzagged.
"Give it a few days with all of us together and we might clear out the whole forest" I say with a mild grin at the thought for if possible I would not like to have to repeat that experience. "Talking about the others, we should message and meet up with our leaders"
"Our leaders? You mean your leader, I'm my party's leader"
"Come again?"
"I am my party's leader"
"Could you repeat it again? Im sure I heard you calling yourself leader but I must be hallucinating from the lack of sleep"
"No I really am, seriously"
"How, just how is that possible. I mean I can see Rubenhood or Hersheles, hell even Charlesming as leader, but you?"
"Yes oddly enough I am"
"Wow they must really trust you, or are somehow worse than you in terms of leading"
"Of course they trust me, well I hope they do but yes I am a good leader"
"Why'd they pick you? I mean you don't look imposing and stand out in the wrong way as shown by your introduction to Gwynevith. What made them choose you as leader?"
"Well mostly because of my...organisation skills"
...
...
"That was unexpectedly usual. Thought you were going to confess they picked you because you could burp the whole alphabet in one go or something or the sort."
"I know the elvish language if that gives me any points"
..."Damn, thats all I can say to that one."
"I've been trying to teach the guys some of it but I think I blew their minds after the first 20 minutes of teaching them, sucks would've been cool to have our own secret language that almost no one knows."
"Maybe you could persuade some of my party to learn it, i'm sure Gwynevith would be happy to spend some alone time with you"
"Y-Y-You think so?" Gastalf blushes and the system turns his face bright pink
"Possibly, I have no idea what she's thinking pretty much all of the time so theres a chance."
"Sweet! Ok we should message everyone to come here or we will be sitting here talking about my questionable leadership abilities all morning"
nodding I flick open my menu and scroll down my friends list: Gwynevith, Kane, Scarlet, Ross...I go back to the top and check again: Gwynevith, Kane, Scarlet, Ross. Xeno is not on my friends list for some reason...he seems to have deleted me off of his friends list but there is no reason for him to do that...unless there was no Xeno to be friends with.
Terror gripped at me at the thought of the possibility of Xeno being dead so I turn over to Gastalf to see him shaking like a leaf in fear. The possibility became a reality after seeing Gastalf's reaction as I can guess the same thing is happening with his friends list.
My shaking hands missed the message button a few times but I soon managed to press the button and with many deletes formed a coherent sentence: 'Come to me and Gastalf, we had 6 wolves so very tired. Use friend tracker to find us.' I rewrote it word 4 times and with the last one off, the last of my adrenaline left me sending my exhausted mind into a dreamless slumber while gripping onto the branch.
-page break-
"Hey Drakey what are you doing lying on that branch? The grass isn't wolf infested y'know...for the moment anyways" the familiar voice of Scarlet coerces me back into the 'real' world and I answer with a tired groan.
"Two teenage guys" starts the voice of Ross "lying in the tree" continues Scarlet "s-l-ee-p-i-n-g!" They say in unison with a chuckle
With that I open my eyes and sit up on the branch dangling my legs off the edge. "Man...I thought I'd seen the last of your 'lovely' faces, those wolves were just too slow."
"They really weren't, my shield is polygons in the air as our wolf caught me while climbing. I guess i'm really lucky to have had that shield or it would be me floating in the air."
"Only 1?" I exclaim in dramatic shock and horror "we only had 6 nothing too dangerous." I grin widely at their truly shocked faces.
"You must have had quite a night then!" comments Ross
"Yes, we spent it causing deforestation" I point towards the long line of trees fallen to the ground.
"Well that explains it" they say simultaneously
"Hey...Gastalf, right? You okay buddy? Looks like you've not slept a wink." Questions Ross.
Gastalf croaks out a "I'm fine" while visibly shivering showing that he is obviously not so.
I sigh, I wanted to avoid it, make it seem as though nothing had happened until no one else comes but with Gastalf fully aware of his party's 'losses' and on the verge of tears...no his eyes look slightly puffy, he has already shed tears while I slept. Ross and Scarlet seemed to not be aware of it so I decided it would be best for them to know.
"Hey Ross, Scarlet" my joking façade cast out into the wind releasing the ominous feeling locked up inside me. They notice the change and their smiles drop into confused and worried faces. "Open your friends list."
They comply and Ross exclaims "hey, Xeno's missing why's that?"
Scarlet with a much more worried expression after Ross said that looked back up to me "mine too...does this mean...?"
I nod my head slowly causing Scarlet to drop down to the ground in disbelief and sat there hugging her legs with a look of shock on her face. Ross takes a few seconds longer but when he does finally realise what I mean he too sits down on the ground and puts a comforting arm round his twin sister.
They sit there for a long time tears streaming silently down Ross's face while Scarlet openly sobs into his shoulder. Gastalf looks forward at the forest in front of us but his eyes see nothing as he seems dead to the world. I am not quite over the shock but I have had more time to process it. Xeno is dead and by Gastalf's demeanour someone is dead in his party too.
For a while nothing happens till over on our right appears a golden haired man with it slicked back and a golden stubble. He drags his spear in one hand and carries a slim sword in his other. His twinkling blue eyes twinkled with tears as he trudges his way towards us.
As he walks towards us, Scarlet silences and we all watch him intently and with pity. He makes his way to almost right under me and collapses to his knees, the weapons clanging to the ground. Tears streak freely from his eyes and his sobs echo lonely around us. We all watch in sorrow for his loss as he cries his heart out.
Gastalf drops from the branch, walks over to Charlesming who looks up at him tears covering his face and hugs him. He hugs him with no words, no emotion on his face but the hug spoke loudly to us all. He hugged him as a fellow friend, a fellow griever sharing the pain of Charlesming's loss.
They hug for what seems like an eternity the rhytmic sobs our only counter of time. The sorrowful reunion if broken after some time by the entrance of Kane carrying Gwynevith like a child who is sleeping but the wet streaks down Kane's shirt suggested her way to slumber was not a peaceful one.
Kane looks up to me and states with a voice as calm as he could muster "Protect our women, right?"
I nod in understanding: Xeno is gone...forever.
With that Kane placed Gwynevith with utmost care onto the floor and turns to Gastalf who is still hugging Charlesming and rightly does so as Kane's shake of his head sends renewed sobs into Charlesming while Gastalf hides them away from his face letting them only show in his action.
After a few minutes Gastalf detaches himself and once stood back up offers a hand to Charlesming, who takes it then picks up his dropped weapons. With that Gastalf slowly walks in the direction away from where we came, only stopping after a few seconds and turning round to answer the unspoken question. "No one else is coming".
We follow on silently, Kane carrying the sleeping Gwynevith while Ross and Scarlet stay at the back as if guilty they had both survived. I end up walking alone because although I have been with these guys for the past day and them dying affected me though it wasn't as bad as what they feel as they had known them for a long time.
As we trudge along a wolf pair spawns close by and aggro's onto us. Although in mourning we have not given up on life and we equip our weapons (me and Gastalf equipped our clothes a before we reunited) ready to fight the wolves. Kane reluctantly wakes Gwynevith who upon awakening sees the wolves charging our small group. As if in a frenzy she leaps out of Kane's arms, equips her badly beaten axe and with a scream of rage slices it down onto one of the wolfs neck. The wolf howls in pain and they both turn towards her but the first one bursts into polygons through Gwynevith"s second swing that came much quicker than usual.
The second wolf pounced on her as its partner died smashing into Gwynevith and pinning her to the floor. It then proceeded to rip at her with its jaws but stopped at the barrage of blows from Charlesming and Gastalf's battered weapons. It loosed it grip on Gwynevith and turned towards its new attackers but howled and burst into polygons after only getting a single swipe in as Gwynevith's axe smashed into its stomach.
Without a word we closed our pinging rewards screens and continued on.
-page break-
The wolf wails as a 2 handed sword beheads it. The owner of the sword, Gwynevith moves on without pause. The forest has gotten lighter as the sun was now directly overhead but also because the trees became wider apart allowing more light through the canopy.
The ping of a level up comes from Kane and Gwynevith who both swipe it away uncaring like I had done earlier, focusing on finding a way out of the forest. That way soon comes as we spot a road up ahead; the road was a red bricked road just like the one we started on. opening my map I see that we are further on the empty map with a mostly straight line from our coming off of the road to this new road filled in.
We step onto the road and move on it undisturbed by wolves. This walk lasts for around an hour before the forest finally stops and we walk out into an open field With a small village in the distance in the middle of the field, the road leading to its gates.
With a small burst of joy although nothing compared to our overwhelming sorrow we walk a tiny bit faster towards the village.
As we get closer we can see a small stream of people heading in and out of the village: their armour shined in the sun for most and their weapons looked above the average we had seen, albeit not as good looking as Gwynevith's axe but certainly better than the rest of our parties weapons.
We walked towards them and as they saw us with the air of depression hanging over us heavily the human stream stopped flowing and they looked us with a mixture of emotions ranging from confusion to awe to pity, pity showed on all. Their faces as they realised through our equipments state and our expressions that we had gone through something terrible.
We stepped into the town's boundary and with a ping a screen appeared in front of us
'Entering Safe Zone. Welcome to Horunka'
Phew that took a while, sorry about the late post but life's restricting my time Atm but its getting back on track slowly so Ill have next chapter up by Friday.
Welcome to Horunka and hope you enjoyed? (Not sure if its correct that you could enjoy the deaths of Xeno, Eyrenman, Rubenhood, Hersheles and Allahdin.)
May their souls rest in the Wood of the Wolves.
-ChazRay