Then, a new day dawned. Albert woke up first, followed by Lilac, who proceeded to wake Ifrit up. They soon washed their faces (Ifrit did not really need to wash, but he liked the feeling of cold water soaking his furry face in the morning), then proceeded to clean the camp. They finished their work a couple of minutes later.

“Alright. You two ready?” said Albert after they finished cleaning their camp.

“Any delivery jobs?” asked Lilac.

“No. We can find more in Sandorf. Hop on. We’ll go before traffic gets worse.”

Ifrit and Lilac nodded as they climbed onto the carriage. With the roadblock still sustained, they decided to travel through the forest. The villagers of Tynt told the people deciding to use this route to be careful in the forest and stay on the right path, or else they would disturb the werefox community living inside the forest. Not many wanted to travel through the forest, with most opting to wait until the roadblock was opened.

The three, knowing the size of the carriage, would have to be careful with the trees and to calm the horses down in case of wild animals spooking them. They decided that early in the morning would be the best way to travel. Albert relied on Lilac’s sense of direction and knowledge of the forest with Ifrit guarding the carriage with him. They spotted some werefox cubs looked at them and waved towards them, with their parent smiling to the travelers. Lilac felt they were rather sweet.

The travel through the forest took them at least two hours before they managed to reach the other end. Nothing really happened in the forest, as they had thought. What happened outside the forest, however, was different.

There was a roadblock near where the forest exit was, but there was a foreboding atmosphere and something peculiar there. To their horror, the roadblock was a scene of massacre. The first layer of the roadblock was completely destroyed with dead bodies, some horribly mangled, strewn across the paved road. The remaining constables kept the attempt to defend the remaining roadblock, but the three knew they would not be able to hold on that long.

Lilac wanted to help and tried to convince her two traveling companions to do so. Before they could make a decision, however, they were ambushed by hellhounds hiding in the forest on the other side of the road. Ifrit managed to pull Albert into safety as they threw fire bombs at them. The wooden carriage quickly caught fire.

As Albert and Lilac desperately tried to extinguish the flame, Ifrit protected them using a sword he kept since Sidve. He managed to deflect one of the fire bombs, but he could not get to all of them. At least one of the bombs broke near the carriage and spread fire,threatening to trap Albert and Lilac if not for the blonde-haired human’s quick decision. The hellhounds, thinking they managed to stop them, then rushed out of the forest, weapons in hand, joining the hellhounds attacking the roadblock.

Ifrit readied himself for another sword fight, not knowing there were still hellhounds in the forest. Albert was the first to notice the familiar gleam of a sniper scope from among the trees.

“Ifrit, be careful!” warned Albert. “There’s a sniper in the—”

A loud gunfire bang was heard. Albert quickly took cover and pulled Lilac into cover with him. They both had no idea what happened to Ifrit, so Albert peered out of his cover to find Ifrit clutching his shoulder while using his healthy hand to fight the ambushers back. He noticed the gleam and moved about and among his enemies, confusing the sniper. The shot did not hit any vital points, but it prevented him to properly use his good arm. Albert, realizing that Ifrit could not dodge and weave all the time, quickly took action. He pulled out his own sniper rifle from his burning carriage and took aim from a safe cover.

Albert soon realized that he was at a disadvantage. He was in the middle of an open road with limited cover that’s also burning down, while the enemy sniper had a better position among the trees. Albert quickly noticed the scope gleam and the muzzle flash after another shot from the sniper. He took this chance to break cover and aim at the last place he saw the flash. He pulled the trigger and the bullet was loose, but he was not sure whether the hit was confirmed or not. Only after he heard another shot and a bullet grazing his carriage did he found that his shot failed.

Lilac considered turning werewolf and try to at least support Ifrit, but Albert, sensing what she was planning to do, stopped her and said, “I can’t protect the two of you from the sniper! The best you can do is help me shoot down the hellhounds attacking Ifrit! Take my revolver! Aim down and shoot!”

Lilac did so. It was already loaded, so all she needed to do was release the safety (as Albert instructed) and shoot. Her aim wasn’t great, owing to the recoil, but of the six bullets in the chamber, they all hit at least four hellhounds, one of which was instantly killed when her shot hit his head. Albert quickly lowered her head just as the sniper shot them, grazing Albert’s cheek as he took cover. They were soon forced to change cover as the fire started gutting the wooden carriage.

Ifrit managed to hold his ground, but he was quickly shot again, this time on his leg. It effectively incapacitated him as one of the hellhounds was going in for the kill. Ifrit, still capable of fighting, kicked the hellhound’s shin and tripped him. Ifrit then grabbed his neck and bit it, causing the hellhound to scream in agony before Ifrit ripped his throat out, abruptly stopping the scream.

The brutality of the execution caused the rest of the attackers to be stunned by fear. One, however, did not. Angered by this, he stood over Ifrit and shouted, “(You fucking monster!)” and started to swing his sword. Ifrit knew, from experience, that an angry hellhound would be dangerous, but predictable. He stood his ground and, with a smug grin, gestured the hellhound to come, taunting him. The hellhound, provoked, roared and rushed towards him. Ifrit was ready to decapitate the raging hellhound with a swift sword attack when an arrow pierced the hellhound’s skull from behind, taking away Ifrit’s kill.

“(Who the hell…?)” said Ifrit, looking around. Was it a stray shot? If so, it was far too accurate. He also knew it wouldn’t be Albert since the human was using a rifle. Ifrit had no time to react when the other hellhounds were being attacked by a person wearing a hood, each of them being knocked out before the hellhound quickly pulled his bow and shoot towards the trees, where the sniper was lurking. The arrow connected to its target and the sniper could be heard grunting in pain.

The hooded attacker did not stop there. With great dexterity, he climbed the tree and pulled the sniper down. He put a dagger on the brown-furred hellhound’s throat and said, “(Make a choice. Head or tail?)”

“(H-head?)”

“(Good choice).”

The hellhound proceeded to kick the hellhound’s head, effectively knocking him out. He turned towards the reinforcement, which were either dead or injured. He noticed the werefoxes from within the forest ambushed the reinforcement from the forest as Albert kept shooting whoever got in his scope. Before long, the fight was over.

The hooded person then pulled down the hood, revealing that he was the werefox-like hellhound with antler-like horns Ifrit met the night before. As he was wearing a full hunter getup, his scale-covered hands were not very visible. His reddish fur was not as pronounced, either, again due to the hunting clothes he wore.

“I suggest we get our tails out of here before people starts asking questions,” said the vulpine hellhound.

“We can’t use the horses,” said Albert. “How far is Sandorf from here?”

“You can reach the town by sunset,” said the vulpine hellhound. “There is a pathway inside the forest. I can ask the werefoxes for a safe passage.”

“Thanks. Whoever you are,” said Lilac.

“Thank your prince friend for knowing who to trust,” said the vulpine hellhound with a grin. “There is no time to lose. Take whatever you need and go with the werefoxes. Come on!”

Lilac and Albert nodded. While Albert uncoupled the harness on the horses, the vulpine hellhound helped Ifrit up.

“(Damn. They did you in, huh?)” said the hellhound. “(Can you walk?)”

“(I can try),” said Ifrit. “(I can’t thank you enough).”

“(Like I said, we princes need to take care of each other).”

They got back into the forest, leaving the werefoxes to straighten things out with the constables taking care of the situation. The vulpine hellhound talked with one of the werefoxes and they pointed towards a rather well-shaded stone pathway within the forest, perfect for a stroll, but with their current situation was also perfect for cover. With the carriage burned down to the ground and the horses set free, they had almost nothing to carry except Albert’s checkbook and some personal belongings, along with the slightly damaged first aid kit box that Lilac used to treat Ifrit’s wounds.

“You a nurse?” asked the vulpine hellhound.

“Earn my living working as a barkeeper,” said Lilac. “Drunken brawl is part of the scene. Oh, and my brother is sometimes injured when hunting. Gotta keep a box in hand’s reach.”

“How about patching a hellhound? You know what to do?”

“No, I’m just guessing, so I hope I am not making this worse.”

“You’re doing great, luv,” said the hellhound.

After Ifrit was properly patched up, they started to slowly walk through the forest pathway. Still feeling tense, they decided to start talking, hoping that it would calm them and let them know the vulpine hellhound better.

“Your Tragorian’s pretty good. Can’t say the same for Ifrit, though,” said Albert.

“Hey!” said Ifrit. “I am learning!”

“And he’s learning it fast,” said the vulpine hellhound. “How long have you been up here? A week? Two weeks?”

“Almost two weeks,” said Ifrit. “I keep count.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty obvious. I’ve been up here for 17 years. Practically learned Tragorian growing up. I’m as much Tragorian as the werefoxes I befriended.”

“17 years? (But you look like you’re around my age).”

“(How old are you?)”

“(20).”

“(And I’m 22. You lived your whole life down there? Wow. That’s one hell of a life, mate. Tougher than you look, eh? I lived most of my life up here. Family ran during the uprising. Portal’s a problem, but not for long).”

“(Are there others like us who managed to get away?)”

“(I bet there’s more, but for now, it’s you and me. Haven’t told you my name, have I? Eshdar Winsel).”

He extended his hand, which Ifrit accepted.

“(Ifrit).” He hesitated with his last name before he said, “(Schelkz).”

He then repeated his introduction with Lilac and Albert, this time using Tragorian.

“Eshdar Winsel?” said Albert. “Winsel?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Are you somehow related to Anarim Winsel?”

“Anarim Winsel? That’s my grandfather. You met him? Where?”

“Near the Dusdolf-Adaline border when…we met.”

“Huh. He never told me he met you before. Well, that’s just part of his job, I suppose. He can be quite secretive on who he’s dealing with. Not that I really have anything to do with it, considering I live my own life here. Anyway, nice meeting you.”

They both shook hands. Eshdar’s cheery and friendly attitude seemed to make him fit into the group quickly. The vulpine hellhound looked so different from all the hellhounds they ever encountered, considering that most of them looked more or less like a wolf or a dog, but not a fox. Albert could guess that he could befriend the werefoxes not just because of his appearance, but also his personality.

Albert never thought he would meet a Winsel so far from Adaline. Winsel wasn’t a very common name, so him asking if Eshdar was related to Anarim Winsel seemed like a rhetorical question. However, Albert wanted to be sure of it, because the name ‘Winsel’ had a weight to it, especially for Albert.

Anarim Winsel was the one who inspired him to start the freelance hauler business. However, the purpose of the business was not as a full-time job, but as a cover. Albert had a reason to be in Tragoria, and it was all due to Anarim’s suggestion.

And as Albert feared, Anarim was right.