Protect your pack; Show no fear; Respect the elder; Teach the young; Lead your companions; Survive each day; Hunt your enemies; Howl to a new tomorrow; Explore the unknown; Adapt to the environment; Demonstrate no weakness; Never back down; and leave your mark. This is the code of the wolf.

The very next morning...

Ah, if it isn't the smell of freshly made morning coffee, Garroth thought to himself, as he started drinking the coffee Hank made for everyone. Very refreshing, just the thing I needed right now. He was in the kitchen area, sitting down at the kitchen island, after just getting done eating some delicious waffles. Dante, Felicity and Kylie were sitting at the table with him, too, while Hank was elsewhere. They began to talk about what they wanted to do on the trip.

"Hey, everyone," Kylie addressed, "I say that later today, around noon, we should go take a walk out in the woods. I mean, I hear that this place is just lovely around this time of year." Dante seemed to like the idea. "Yeah, sure, a good walk around these woods would be something great for all of us. As long as we also make sure that we know where we are going. We can't walk blindly into the woods and forget our way back to the cabin, you know."

Garroth was feeling a bit uneasy about this. He knew he didn't like the idea of going out into the woods, not only because of his paranoia of it, but also because he wasn't really feeling up to it. "Hey, Garroth, come along with us," Felicity told him. "I know what you're thinking, but I think it would be good for you if you spend some time outdoors and got some fresh air with us. Plus, you can't spend all your time inside on the trip, you know. We're in the woods, for goodness sake."

Garroth felt like Felicity sounded just like his parents. Although, the only difference in that being that unlike with his parents, Garroth felt that Felicity was much more sincere and understanding when she said it. He could actually stand what she said instead of being annoyed by it when his parents nagged him about it. He loved his parents, yes, but he was occasionally annoyed by how they nagged him. "Alright, I'll come along," he said to them. "Alright, guess that settles it! We should be heading out in an hour or two," Dante told him in reply.

2 Hour Timeskip...

"Alright, everyone. Remember: Let's stick together as a group. I'm letting anything happen to you on my watch," Hank stated as everyone else was walking through the forest. They had been walking through Darkwood Forest for a good half-hour already, witnessing the wonderful nature surrounding them. Most of the largely scattered trees had red autumn leaves, making them look very interesting to look at. The ground was somewhat rocky, as Garroth could feel the rough, coarse ground with his shoes. His friends didn't seem to mind it very much, as it seemed like they were having a good time checking out the forest.

Although...there was something about it that made Garroth incredibly anxious. His surroundings felt very serene, both very still, and peaceful, and yet...something didn't feel right about it. It felt too quiet for him. The slight breeze through the forest made him feel uneasy, the trees with many of their leaves already fallen to the ground. He started having slight flashbacks to his coyote attack all those years ago, hearing the fierce growling of the rapid beast once more, yet was not able to see any coyote anywhere in his sight. I must be going fucking insane, Garroth thought. It started making his mind sick, and he tried to cover his ears before he heard Felicity cry out to him.

"Garroth! What's gotten into you? You act like you just saw a ghost," she yelled at him. By the time Garroth snapped out of it, he noticed that the rest of his friends looked at him in confusion. "Uh, Gar-Gar, you doing good? You look like you just had a Vietnam flashback or something," Dante said jokingly. It took him a few moments to brush off the flashback, but Garroth felt slightly better. I just needed Felicity to talk some sense into me, that was all. He felt like he was sometimes a bit too dependent on her. For example, she often had to remind him about important events, or urge him to take his studying seriously. But he still appreciated her help.

After around what felt like a good hour of wandering around in the forest, Garroth didn't feel like exploring anymore, and wanted to go back to the cabin. It wasn't due to his flashback or anything. He was just getting slightly bored of walking around. "Say, when exactly are we supposed to head back, guys?" he said. "We've been out here for quite some time now, you know." The others seemed to just overlook his question and continued on, and Garroth just shrugged and went along with it. But then, just as they were about to head to the nearby stream up ahead, something odd immediately caught Dante's eye.

"Wait, what the shit? Is that a house? Out here in the middle of nowhere?" The others turned towards him, absolutely confused, and once Dante pointed out where he saw the house, the others immediately knew what he was talking about. Garroth was both confused and intrigued by the house that they saw. It was surrounded by trees, yes, but there seemed to be a small roadway that the house was built right next to. So it wasn't exactly built away completely from the rest of the town.

It was still very weird to be seeing a house, out in the middle of the woods. The appearance of the house was very weird. There were the thorns of rose bushes that seemed to be growing on the walls of the house, but other than that, the house didn't even look abandoned. The blue and white paint was surprisingly smooth, and the windows appeared to be very clean and tidy, too. The roof looked like it had been recently repaired, because it showed no signs of damage on it. But there was also no sign of a car or of anyone else being there. It was almost as if someone had been there recently, yet wasn't even living here. It was a medium sized house, with dark blue paint, but it almost seemed to have a dark, ominous vibe to it.

"Who of all people would be living out here?" Kylie asked. "It looks very tidy, actually. Maybe someone lives there?" The group took a moment to process and think about this. It would be kind of weird for us to show up to some random person's house, Garroth thought. "Come on! Let's check it out! I bet it's going to be worth the time taking a look," Dante said with a strange sense of enthusiasm. Garroth and the rest of the group weren't very keen on it, though. It feels like something that would come out of a horror movie, you know. I've seen The Blair Witch Project. I know what happens to people who go into strange houses in the middle of the woods.

"Nah, I don't think we should go. We could be trespassing on someone else's property, you know," Hank said. "I'm not getting into any issues like that, nor are anyone of you." Garroth could see Hank's reasoning. There was no need to get into any trespassing charges or anything. "I agree with Hank. I don't think we should go," Kylie said. Dante gave the group a disappointed look. "Look, how about this: we go there and CHECK to be sure that no one is living there, and if there is, we leave. If not, what's the harm?" he said.

"As long as we're not breaking anything," Felicity said, "then at the very least, we should stick together. We can go and check first, I suppose, but we can always change our minds later." The group took a moment to think about the idea, and eventually, they all agreed that it was fair. "But if we get into any trouble, this is on you, Dante," Hank said. "Don't worry, I've gotten out of sticky situations before," Dante replied. The group then decided to go take a closer look at the house, and walked towards it.

Garroth noticed that the paint on the house wasn't scratched or peeling away. Overall, the house looked like it was in stable condition, as there weren't any holes in the walls or any signs of decay or termite infestations. Even the windows weren't broken. It all seems very odd to me. By the time the group went to the front door, they were still wondering whether or not someone was living there. Garroth went to the door handle and attempted to open it. But when he turned the door handle to open it, he noticed that the door was already open. It hadn't even been fully closed. "Well...this is weird," he said to the others.

"Doesn't look someone has good security," Dante said jokingly. "Either that or this house has been abandoned recently." Garroth opened the door, and he and the group entered inside the house. The doormat beneath them read, "Hi, I'm Mat". The first thing Garroth noticed was how well taken care of the house was. I mean, the outside looked okay, but this place doesn't look abandoned at all. The paint on the walls were still looking pretty decent, the floorboards looked like they were in good shape, and weirdest of all, there wasn't any sign of dust. There would certainly be much more dust around here if this place was abandoned.

The living room, next to the entrance, looked good as well. The carpets were cleaned, the place didn't look dusty, and most surprisingly, when Felicity tried to turn on the light switch, the electricity still worked. "Okay, is anyone else starting to feel like this place isn't abandoned?", she asked everyone. "Yeah, now that I think about it, it's strange that the power would still work for an abandoned house. But I haven't seen any sign of anyone else being here at the moment," Dante said. "How about we search around for a little bit longer?"

"I think I saw a staircase leading to the basement around the corner," Kylie told them. The group looked at her as she showed them the door to the basement, right around the corner of the living room. The staircase down to it didn't seem very intimidating, actually. It looked pretty normal, to be honest. It looked like the power was working here, too. Garroth wanted to check the basement first, mostly because he just wanted to get out of the house as soon as he could. "Alright, now, remember: we stick together, and if we see anything that looks like a serial killer's basement, we're leaving immediately," he told the group.

After they carefully made sure to walk down the staircase, they found something that was probably the last thing they were expecting to find. The basement looked like it was some kind of mechanical workshop. The floor tiles were checkered-styled. There were several work benches scattered across the basement, each with a variety of a mess of screws, tools, and strange devices on them. There were also some blueprint designs for what looked like suits on the walls everywhere, along with several robotic endoskeleton parts lying around on the tables. Among them was the severed arm of what looked like a robotic ape animatronic arm, with coils and wires spilling out of it.

There was even a large bear suit that looked oddly anthropomorphic, almost metallic-looking, actually. The group was both amazed and very curious as to what exactly this place was. Given all of the left-over machine parts and metal suits, it looked like whoever worked here was a mechanical genius. The bear's suit looked very smooth and plastic-like, with not a single trace of fur on it. It had a dark brown color with a lighter shade of brown on its stomach and muzzle area, with a black bowtie and top hat and deep blue eyes.

It reminded Garroth of that Freddy Fazbear animatronic. Although this one had a much wider jawline and was much more dense than the one he was familiar with. The animatronic didn't seem to be powered on, as it laid against the wall, lifeless and unresponsive. It looked very well designed. Whoever lived here must've had a talent for making these robots, Garroth thought. Meanwhile, the rest of the group checking around the basement for more. They were just as impressed by it. "What the hell is all this stuff?", Kylie asked, as she looked down at the broken remains of several animatronic arms.

"Holy shit, this stuff is awesome! Look at how many parts and machines there are down here," Dante said as he eagerly checked out some of the other animatronic parts. "I don't know. It doesn't feel right. We might be interfering with someone's hard work, you guys. No one would just leave this stuff out here on its own," Felicity said. "You've got a point, Felicity," Garroth told her. "If this is someone's hard work, then we shouldn't do anything to damage it, okay?" At that point, Garroth turned to the right corner of the room, where there seemed to be another animatronic suit, but this one looked much different than the Freddy suit. And for some reason, it gave him the chills.

This animatronic had an anthropomorphic design, but it looked more like a wolf. Its design reminded Garroth of a werewolf, actually. The wolf seemed to have a similar, smooth, plastic-metallic suit, that seemed to be dark grey. Some areas around the ears and the jaws of the wolf seemed to be light gray, though, and the robot seemed to have a bit of a buff design. The animatronic looked like it had been efficiently put together, as there was heavy detail on the eyes, teeth, and body structure of the wolf. The wolf's plastic-metallic suit that was dark grey, and those eyes - piercing blue and shining - were very noticeable. There seemed to be a few gaps in its suit, but it was barely noticeable.

Its head looked like it had a broad snout, a somewhat-shiny muzzle, and triangular nose, and a jaw that seemed much larger than that of a normal wolf. In fact, it almost looked like it had the jaws of a bear, actually, with very long, sharp, ivory-white teeth that looked like it could tear through skin and flesh. It also had four fingers on each of its hands, excluding thumbs, with sharp claw-like blades at the end of each finger. The wolf also seemed to have a large, very unique, almost silver-looking mane. It reminded Garroth of a lion's mane.

The very presence of the wolf disturbed Garroth slightly. The feral looking nature of the wolf made him nervous, and it almost started bringing back those sick feelings in his mind. "Yeah...I think it's best that we leave this thing alone," Garroth told the group. "Say, Dante, didn't you tell us that there was a 'werewolf' sighting around Hurricane in the past? Does this remind you of it?", Felicity asked. Dante took a moment to take a closer look at the wolf, staying a good distance away from it. "Naw, the one that was reportedly sighted was much more realistic. You can clearly tell that this robot right here isn't an actual werewolf. Or at least, that's what I'm thinking. I'm not sure," Dante replied.

"It's kind of creepy, right? I mean, Freddy Fazbear's is supposed to be a children's company," Kyle said, "and this wolf clearly doesn't look like it's made for kids. If anything, this would give the kids nightmares." The rest of the group was thinking of the same thing. Besides, they were also now starting to feel that they shouldn't be interfering with this place. There was an odd sense of dread growing from the place. "Okay...anyone else want to head back to the cabin now?", Hank asked, "We should probably go in case we're breaking and entering into someone else's house. And I do not want to brought upon those charges, or any of you."

While Hank, Felicity, and Kylie were debating about if the group should leave, Garroth saw something on one of the work tables that immediately caught his eye . It seemed like a round, black, flat, magnet-like disc, around the size of two half dollar coins. It also had a small, red blinker on it as well. There were the tiny letters written on the backside of it that read out, Afton Robotics LLC - Always Innovating. I never heard of that name before, Garroth thought. Must've been some technical company or something like that. Dante was very interested in it, too. "Cool collector's item! Let's take it with us!", he said.

Garroth was a little cautious of it. "Hey, we can't just steal this, you know. We don't even know what it does," he told Dante. "Relax, Garroth, I'm sure taking this thing won't hurt anybody. Don't worry so much about it." Dante reached out to the little disc-like object and placed it in his hand. "Now you're doing the exact opposite of what I want you to do, Dante. Don't you think that whoever's here will notice the disc is gone?", Garroth told him. "It's a small little disc, Garroth. I doubt it'll make much of a difference," Dante replied. I guess I can't really stop him, I suppose. With that, the group slowly headed out of the basement and out of the house, hoping to return back to their cabin smoothly.

To be continued...