There seemed to be nothing more to do in Yaksha, so, after replenishing some of our supplies, we headed back out into the wild, away from the bad smells and the bustle of the town. Not that Yaksha was an especially bustling town, but compared to the wilds we had been travelling in for the past months, it was teeming with people. We were not the only group heading out, over the cleared fields around the town, some other hunters were even close enough to talk.

It was a three man team that was walking close to us and Sigmir started a conversation with one of them, an old looking male and from his figure, I would have guessed him to be a giantblood, even if likely of another tribe as Sigmir, because his skin-colour was more grey-blue compared to her. One of his companions was a rather young looking wolf-beastman, apparently even younger than Rai, and the other was what appeared to be a snowbold.

“Greetings, Elder. Could you tell us a little about the surrounding area?” she asked.

“Sure, young one. I’m teaching these younglings how to trap, so I don’t mind the company, maybe they learn something as well.” he answered with a chuckle. “What do you want to know?”

“My companions and I are from further east and don’t know the area very well. We have heard about trouble with wolves in the forests and wind raptors in the southern mountains, but we are lacking in information.”

“Hrm, those are the big threats, but there are other things that can make trouble. I shouldn’t have to point out the danger posed by bears or large cats, right? There are some of them, not enough to make trouble for Yaksha, mind you, but enough. And if you bumble into them, they will happily take down one of you, or even all of you, for supper. The bears are rather passive during the winter, but sometimes they wake up and if they do, they are hungry.” the old man explained.

“But those threats are obvious ones, if you miss a bear you deserve to be eaten. Less obvious are the sables and the wolverines. The sables are smaller and might look cute, but underestimate them and you will suffer. Once they reach a certain level, they become blindingly fast and you will not notice their attack before they have ripped you open. On the other hand, wolverines are much like bears, once they decide that you are food, you are in trouble. They are smaller than other predators out here but there have been stories of a wolverine taking apart a wolfpack to defend its kill. Fearless, vicious little buggers, those things.”

I stepped out of Sigmir’s shadow, I had not seen a need to leave the comforting closeness since we had left town, and spoke up. “The wolves, why are they such a problem?” I asked, curious about them. I remembered the meeting with Ylva, her pack had been attacked by another pack, a pack very similar to the ones in this area but quite a bit further to the east.

The old man just raised an eyebrow at my sudden appearance, the young wolf-beastman jumped a little but the snowbold reacted as if he was staring at a vicious beast. At first, he just froze, then he gave a strangled shriek and hid behind the old man.

“What is wrong with the small creature?” Rai asked, confused.

The snowbold was still shaking uncontrollably and hiding behind the old man, who looked slightly confused now.

“I’m not sure, he’s a snowbold, strange little buggers that live further east. Haven’t seen one before this one came here a few months back, half frozen and starved. A couple of the older guys wanted to help him, so we gave him some food and I started to teach him trapping. Tried teaching him to fight, but I doubt that he will ever be strong enough for that.” the old man explained, as his charge was completely unable to speak for himself.

“Interesting, my tribe lives further east but I’ve never seen a creature such as this and the land is quite dangerous, so I’m not sure things such as he could have survived there.” Sigmir chimed in. I for my part, was keeping quiet, not willing to reveal what I knew about snowbolds.

“The little bugger said something about their home being a place of warmth, given to them by the great flame, in exchange for their devotion. His language is a little strange but one of the others managed to teach him common by using some sort of teaching-skill. Well, anyway, the small one said that one day, their tribe was killed and the great flame extinguished while he and a few others were away. They tried to survive, but without the great flame, stronger monsters came to their cave, driving them out.”

“So, why is he reacting to me like that?” I asked, trying very hard not to think about the implications. I had, after all, a very good idea what the great flame had been and how it had been extinguished, but there was no reason to reveal that.

“Good question, but how would I know?” the old man reasonably said. His charge had still not stopped shaking, so getting any knowledge out of the snowbold would have to wait.

“But anyway, you wanted to know about the wolves, right? Well, the grey wolves mostly live further south, on the other side of the mountain range. But they come further north each year, only driven back by the winter. This year, the winter is rather mild, so they try to stay, even if they have to drive away the animals that normally hunt here. Or the people that try to do so. There is just a limit on how much game there is, especially game that can be taken down easily. For larger prey, they need their black furred alphas, and even those will risk injury or death if the prey puts up a fight.” the old man sighed, before continuing.

“We people on the other hand mostly rely on traps and a few, insane hunters like you, those that laugh death in the face on a daily basis to bring down serious threats. I can feel that you have some power. But for every one like you, there are two, or maybe three, that get eaten before gaining power. And once they gained a modicum of power, they stop trying, taking what game they can without risk. Very few are insane enough to keep struggling, risking their life over and over again, once they reach around level fifty and normal animals will hardly add to their strength.”

“Wait, the black wolves are always stronger and the alphas?” I asked, slightly confused. Normally, some greys should gain strength by levelling up and becoming alphas in their own right, right?

“Well, the black wolves are stronger at birth and other blacks help them to gain strength. So, they are the strongest in their generation, allowing them to pass their strength on. A shaman, one of the wolf-beastman who can talk to them, told me that it is because the blacks are descendants of the Odin’s hounds, of Freki and Geri. But that might just be ancient myth, who really knows.”

As the old man spoke, I felt Sigmir tense next to me and realised that her eyes had taken on a yellow tint, while her fingernails had turned into claws and thin, silvery fur was visible on the back of her hands and in her face. Trying something new, I reached out with my mind magic, not striking as I normally would, but a gentle touch, trying to reach through the connection I had with Sigmir. For a moment, we connected and I felt Ylva seethe with anger in her Hallow and, before the connection snapped, both Lenore and I sent soothing, calming thoughts to both of them. It must have worked, as the fur receded and her hands turned normal again, as she took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

We continued our conversation with the old man as we walked, learning more about the animals of the area and their ranges, even if he only knew about those close to Yaksha. In addition, his information was mostly on areas he knew to stay away from, claiming that he was only a trapper and didn’t go after anything that could simply snap through his traps. When we reached the forest, the old man and his two pupils split of, looking for good areas to set their traps, while we continued on, towards the mountains.

Our plan was quite simple, we spent a few days in the mountains, hunting wind raptors and hopefully help Lenore achieve what she plans there before going back into the forest and either hunt some more. Once we had filled our packs with game and hopefully killed some wolves for the guild’s quests, we would go back to Yaksha. But overall, we weren’t planning to spent more than ten days in the area, we had places to be and our way onwards was a long one.