I don't like this. I don't like the idea of needlessly killing innocent creatures for the sport of it. And that man clearly has no such inhibitions. But Anna says that having this mark would make it easier for us to travel together out in the open.
And I trust Anna.
And if there really is a werewolf out there killing people, then it must be stopped. Still, something doesn't feel right about it.
Anna's comforting voice smothered Elsa's thoughts.
"Looks like this is the place. The site of the first attack."
The women came upon an abandoned farmstead. On the surface, it appeared fairly innocuous except for the unsettling lack of human presence.
"Are they sure it's even a werewolf?" Elsa questioned while beginning to look around. "No one has seen it. It strikes me as very odd that not a single, professional hunter has managed to even get a glimpse of it."
Anna found herself rummaging through a crate.
"If it is a werewolf maybe it has magic. Maybe it's an invisible werewolf."
"Anna, we're not here to steal from this place."
"I'm not stealing! I'm looking for clues." She turned her head to give a poutful scowl. "And isn't the whole thing with werewolves that they are like, cursed people that transform into a wolf on the full moon? So we should be looking for a person?"
"That's just superstition."
"Oh, and dwarves, fire salamanders, and beautiful ice women are totally not." Anna raised an accusing eyebrow as they made their way toward the main building of the farm.
"Werewolves are usually just very large dire wolves that people inflate through their stories. Or they are forest spirits like the vísundr we encountered earlier. I am hoping that is the case and we won't have to kill anything."
"If we don't kill anything, we'll have a hard time proving to Leitch that we were successful."
"I am becoming less interested in proving anything to that man and more concerned with figuring out what's been happening here to stop all this killing, of both people and wolves."
They had walked up to the farmstead home, opened the door, and were immediately hit with a distinctive smell.
"Jeez. It smells like rusted metal."
"It's blood. There is a lot of dry blood everywhere."
Elsa lifted a hand, releasing a glowing snowflake that floated to the top of the dark interior. It grew in brightness so that the inside was illuminated as if in white daylight. Anna cupped her mouth with her hand as she gasped at the large stains of dark, almost black, dried pools of blood.
Elsa walked over to where the owners would sleep. A simple cot of wood and cloth.
"Most of the blood is here. They were attacked in their sleep."
She followed the trail from the bed, toward the middle of the room, and then back to a rear window. She leaned over and looked at the dried blood stains on the bottom railing.
Anna came over behind her. "Did it drag the body outside? To eat it I guess?"
"No. The trail of blood from the bed is too small and narrow to have been made by an animal dragging a body. And the blood on the window is spread out. And there is too much blood in general for it to be a wolf attack. Wolves kill relatively cleanly. This…. this was a brutal killing."
"Again, we have to keep in mind the possibility that this thing is some kind of magical wolf monster. It may not behave like any normal wolf."
"Why are you so Hel bent on killing more wolves!" Elsa couldn't stop herself from subconsciously raising her voice until she saw Anna take a reflex step back.
"I… I'm not! That's not what I said! Elsa, what's wrong?" Anna took a step forward and placed a reassuring hand on Elsa's shoulder.
"I'm sorry Anna. I just.. something doesn't feel right. About all of this. I can feel it inside of me. The forest is unsettled."
"Hey, that's why we're here. We'll get to the bottom of this. Come on, let's head to the last place the contract says they tried to ambush the… attacker. Should be fresher clues there."
Elsa placed a hand on Anna's as it sat on her shoulder. "You're right. Thanks, Anna."
They found themselves standing in a logging camp, also abandoned and reeking of rusted blood and sawdust.
"The contract says this was the last place that a hunting party tried to ambush the attacker. Five hunters were all killed in the same night."
Elsa paced around the stumps and discarded saws. She made her way from one bloody patch to another.
"The places of attack are all spread out. Whatever it is, it picked them off, one by one. Do these people not know how to hunt as a team?"
"It seems to be an 'every man for themselves' kind of profession," Anna said as she tried to pick up an oversized log cutting saw.
"How did they know to ambush the creature here?"
"The contract doesn't say. Lucky guess?"
"Doubtful. They must have been following a pattern."
"There is a crude map on the back of the contract."
Anna placed the cloth on a nearby stump and translated for Elsa.
"We are here, the logging camp. The first attack was this farm here. Some of these locations seem to have been random. A fisherman by the river, a merchant in the middle of the road. Each time it seems a hunter or two went out and tried to track down the attacker. Some of these are those hunters being killed, usually, out in the middle of the forest, it seems."
"The attacker is trying to maintain a territory. The attacks are all pretty close in proximity. The hunting lodge sits just outside of this ring of attacks. The farm is at the lower edge, near the lodge. The merchant was attacked to the north, on the road leading into this area. The river runs along the western edge. This logging camp is right in the middle. What is to the east of us?"
"Looks like just forest."
"Then that is where we search."
Elsa and Anna made their way through the dense forest. They had turned off of the road and were slowly trudging through the thick underbrush. The high canopy had cast them in perpetual shadow which was getting increasingly dark as the sun began to set.
Bruni sat on Anna's shoulder with his back aflame for some light.
"Elsa? Are you sure we should be out here when it gets dark?"
Elsa continued to walk through the forest, seemingly unimpeded by the foliage.
"Almost all of the attacks happened at night. This is our best chance to find it."
"Well, me and Bruni are right behind ya."
Elsa stopped.
"A trail. These plants have been stepped on."
"Wolf tracks?"
"No…"
They continued on. The forest began to become littered with large boulders dotting the landscape in between the trees. Elsa easily climbed over them but looked back to see Anna struggling to find a foothold.
"Don't mind me! I'll be up there in no time! Just… give me a sec."
Elsa rolled her eyes and extended a hand down to the poor girl. She lifted her up onto the high boulder where Anna nearly slipped off if it wasn't for Elsa's firm hand behind her back.
"Are you ok?"
Anna couldn't hold back her blushing nod. "Much better now, thanks."
Elsa gave her a slight smile before jumping down on the other side of the high rock.
"Uh, hey. You just gonna leave me up here?"
"Jump down. I'll catch you."
You don't have to tell me twice to jump into your arms. Anna thought to herself as her blush continued in full force.
She leaped off of the rock expecting to land in the strong embrace of the other woman down below. Instead, she was greeted with a very cold reception as she found herself landing in ten feet of fresh snow.
"Yeow! COLD! Elsa!"
"What?"
Anna's head popped out of the top of the snow pile, face red from the sudden chill on her skin instead of the nervousness underneath.
"I thought you were gonna catch me?!"
Elsa was already walking away and just casually turned her head and said, "I did catch you."
Anna just scowled at her back as she shoveled her way out of the snow.
As the evening descended into nightfall, the women had come up to the base of a large hill. Anna was huffing and puffing as she climbed the loose rocks and smooth boulders toward the top of a ridge.
Once at the top, she couldn't help but be transfixed by the image before her.
Elsa is just sitting there on the ledge staring out into the distance. She's in her adorable thinking position again with her knee bent up toward her mouth and her arms wrapped around.
Wow, the moon really is not holding back. It's just bathing her in a glowing light. I've never seen the moonlight glitter off of her before. She looks so gorgeous, yet also forlorn at the same time.
Anna slowly walked up to the moon-kissed woman deep in thought. She knelt down and swung her legs over the edge of the rock, seating herself and looking out over the distance. Nothing but forest basking in the glow of a full moon lay beyond.
Anna turned to look at Elsa and those deep blue eyes that were miles away.
"Are you homesick?"
Elsa took a deep breath before answering.
"Seeing all those slain harts, the rows and rows of antlers in the lodge… I couldn't help but think of Eiki. Being here in this forest that's caught in such turmoil, I can't help but think of my own home. I know this is not my forest, but I feel a kinship here. Eiki protected me, and he protected our forest. This place has no such protector…"
Bruni made his way over, crossing the bridge formed by brushing shoulders, and nuzzled up against Elsa's cheek.
"You feel it too, don't you Bruni? This place may not be our home, but it feels like home. And it's crying out for help."
Anna wrapped an arm around Elsa's back and pulled her in close. Elsa reflexively stiffened from the unexpected contact but allowed the pressure against her shoulder to bring her in close.
"And we are the ones here to help," Anna said as she rested her auburn head on top of Elsa's.
"I know I've been pushing this whole, monster hunter, thing. And I've been ignoring your discomfort about it. And I'm sorry. I guess we aren't really cut out to be hunters after all. The more I think about it, the more I am revolted by the idea of being associated with Leitch anyway."
The stiffness in Elsa's back had given way to the relaxed embrace of the other girl holding her. She rested her platinum hair against Anna's shoulder and shifted her legs so that her body was now leaning against the shorter woman.
Oooooh man. Me in Elsa's arms? So amazing. Elsa in my arms?! Fucking. Heaven. This more than makes up for letting me land in a pile of snow.
Jeez, she's been so tense this entire time. I think this is the first time she's relaxed since entering this forest.
Anna gently massaged Elsa's shoulder as they sat there and stared out over the moon-lit forest below.
"Don't worry Els. We'll figure out a way to help everyone. And we'll think of another way to move around than becoming, dumb monster hunters."
Elsa nuzzled against Anna's collar bone causing a shiver of ecstasy to wash over her freckled features and her heart to beat like a humming bird's wings.
"Thank you, Anna."
Elsa's eyes were half-lidded, practically closed with comfort.
"For what?"
"For being my home away from home."