Rea

Fallen Jungle

54th of Cycle 2, 1015

I led the team to the place where I first met the boy while I recounted the events of that day to them.

“The man-eater’s hypnosis didn't affect him? How curious.” Said Lola.

“That’s not all, he literally walked right up to it and picked up a broken bow that was near it. It was Jason’s bow.” I said in a sad voice.

“Jason’s bow? So he really is dead then.” Rory put his hands together and muttered a prayer.

“Wasn’t Jason supposed to marry your sister, Rea? I’d imagine she was pretty torn up by the news.” Said a surprisingly serious Jack.

“I didn’t get to talk much to her, but I think father will try to let her down slowly.” At least I hoped so. Father can be a bit overbearing, and people who are mourning often need space more than anything.

“I thought Jason had hypnosis resistance already, and I doubt he’s stupid enough to just walk up to a man-eater.” Lola reasoned.

“It is certainly uncommon for an adult elf to meet such a fate, but it’s not unheard of.” Rory said in a serious voice, “Let us not speculate the relative intelligence of the dead, Lola.”

“Ease up Rory,” came a lighthearted voice from Jack, “If we don’t talk about the dead, they will be forgotten very quickly. I don’t think Freya would appreciate that.”

That last bit seemed to have affected Rory, as he stopped walking and looked over to Jack.

“Insolent wretch! How dare you mention her name in such a casual tone, I will have your head for that!” Rory said as he reached for his mace.

Lola stepped in front of Rory and drew her bow, “I swear, in the name of all that is holy, if you draw your weapon I will skewer you with a hundred arrows. Then, I’ll strip you naked, and string you up in front of that church you love so much for all the villagers to see.”

There was silence. Seconds seemed to crawl by, as Rory and Lola stood facing each other without moving so much as a muscle.

“Why don’t we all just calm do-.” I tried to say, earning me two ice-cold glares.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered to myself as I averted my eyes.

Amidst the tension, a howl echoed across the jungle, “We have company.” Jack said.

“Shadow wolves.” Lola responded as the howls started to increase exponentially, “A lot of them.”

All of the tension between Rory and Lola had disappeared in an instant. Rory called out, “Get behind me, Jack.”

The ear-piercing howls continued as a pack of black wolves started surrounding us. Rory put his hands together in prayer, and a halo appeared above his head. He grew a pair of glowing yellow wings, drew his mace, and held up his shield.

Lola was firing arrows at any of the stragglers who stayed out in the open for too long. My legs were shaking as I looked around at the hungry wolves.

This can’t be happening. I've never seen a pack of wolves this big in my life.

“Snap out of it and start firing!” Lola called out.

I jumped out of my daze and drew my bow. I noticed a single wolf charging at Rory, so I loosed an arrow at it, and it pierced the wolf’s hip. That didn’t stop it though, and it continued its charge towards Rory’s white shield. The wolf jumped at Rory, who slammed it to the side, and brought his mace down on it with a thundering slam, killing it on impact.

As if the thunderous noise was some kind of starting signal, the rest of the pack made a mad dash towards us. Rory yelled at the top of his lungs, and the wolves stopped charging at the rest of us, instead deciding to focus only on him.

“Wind guide me.” Said Lola as a small gust of wind lifted her long hair. Her eyes shined bright with fury as gushing winds guided her arrows from one target to the next, causing each of them to pierce through multiple wolves with ease.

I stood behind Jack, picking off any of the wolves that made it through Lola’s kill zone. Jack turned around and cast a spell on me. It allowed me to draw my bow faster, and my arrows were suddenly a lot more deadly.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Don’t mention it. Just keep the wolves off of me and we’ll be even.”

Rory was crushing wolf after wolf with his steel mace. The angelic form he had taken was now covered in blood, making him look like some kind of fallen angel. Then he raised his mace into the air and a beam of light erupted from him, stunning the rest of the wolves. “Find peace in death.” He said as beams of white light started firing at the blinded wolves.

It wasn’t long after that when the rest of the pack decided to start its retreat. Lola finished off a few of the stragglers, and we were left with the corpses of dozens of wolves at our feet. Their blood painted the surrounding dirt a dark shade of red.

“Rea, gather the arrows. Rory and Jack, pick out the wolf with the least damage to take with us. It will be our dinner tonight. I will scout the area to make sure nothing is lurking around.” Lola commanded before she disappeared into the trees.

Wasn’t I supposed to be the leader? I thought before shaking my head, this wasn’t the time for that. I went around and gathered both mine and Lola’s arrows.

A few minutes later, Lola returned, “The surrounding area is clear. Let’s get moving before that changes. Rea, lead the way.”

I nodded and gave her arrows back to her, “Follow me.”

A few hours of walking later, we arrived at the hut where the boy had met his elf accomplice. “This is where I last saw him. He met with the elf here.”

Lola looked around, “No one been here since then it seems, otherwise there’d be the remnants of a campfire nearby.” She studied the dirt around the hut for a moment and said, “They went north, so let’s follow them for a bit before we set up camp. Should they ever decide to return here, I wouldn’t want them to find our tracks.”

“But I don’t wanna walk anymore...” Jack whined.

Another hour of walking later, we found a decent spot to rest, so Rory set down the wolf on his back, and Lola got to work dismantling it. I gathered dry branches from nearby and surrounded them with some rocks. Jack lit the campfire with a spell, and we all sat down as Lola brought over a few pieces of wolf meat.

“It’s strange to run into such a huge pack of shadow wolves so close to the village, isn’t it?” I asked.

“It certainly is, but then again, when you have a group of fools shouting their heads off at each other, the chances of running into predators goes up astronomically,” Lola said as she glared at Rory and Jack.

Jack looked down at his feet, “About that, I’m sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean to poke fun at your god or your religion.”

Rory shook his head, “I’m sorry too, and it was my overreaction that brought the wolves to us. It was probably a sign from Freya that I was in the wrong.”

Lola clapped her hands together, “Good. I should also apologize for threatening you, Rory, but I would do it again under the same circumstances.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. Thank you for stopping me.”

I felt left out of the conversation, but that was when Lola looked at me and said, “You were slow to react to the wolves, but you did a good job protecting Jack with Rory. Was that your first big fight?”

I nodded, “Yeah, I’ve hunted wolves before, but never in a pack like that. You three seemed like veterans. You were all really confident and coordinated.”

“We used to be in a team together. It was reserved for covert operations which required a small team that could move quickly.” Said Rory, “We’ve fought through worse, that’s why we didn’t falter.”

“You said you used to be in a team, does that mean you’re not anymore?” I asked.

There was silence after that, and I realized that I might’ve said something I shouldn’t have, but before I could apologize Lola said, “It was a long time ago. We had another member on our team. Her name was Jessica, Jess for short. She was a ranger like me.” Her voice was shaking a little, “One day, Jess went to scout the area ahead of us, and didn’t come back. When we found her, there were three large claw marks across her chest, and a tuft of silver fur next to her.”

“The silver panther...” I said instinctively.

“That’s right,” she clenched her fist, “No matter how hard we looked we couldn’t find the bastard, so we came home with a corpse and nothing to show for it. The team just kind of dissolved after that.”

“I’m sorry... I didn’t know.”

Before things could get any more gloomy, Lola said, “It’s fine. I’ll take first watch tonight, go get some rest. We’re going to move out early tomorrow morning.”

There’s wasn’t much more conversation after that, so I pulled out some bedsheets from my backpack and laid down on them.

I hope we don’t run into any more trouble.