“What is it?” Tate asked. She was crouched behind her shield and scanned the woods. Somehow, she had managed to put on her armour and boots as well.

“Oh, sorry.” Niall looked at Huff who had a sheepish look on his face. “That was me. I woke up and realised I’d achieved Militia 1. That’s all.”

Tate straightened up. “Is that it? Of course you have. The weapon skills are the hardest part. Once you had that down there wasn’t a lot left for you to learn. A few days of patrolling, standing watch and setting up camp in the field was more than enough to get learn those. I imagine most of you will have reached it already. Even if you haven’t, you should soon.”

Niall felt an encouraging mental nod from Pobble and pulled up his Testimony.

TESTIMONY: Niall Vendra

ATTRIBUTES

Strength: 42

Endurance: 53

Agility: 33

Will: 31

Perception: 32

CLASSES:

Junior Smallholder 6

Apprentice Blacksmith 6

Acolyte Healer 8

Hunter 3

Brawler 2

Militia 1: +2 Strength, +2 Endurance, +1 Agility. You function effectively as a member of a Militia

- Short sword 8

- Spear 8

- Shield 6

- Light armour 6

- Patrolling 6

- Field Camp 7

UNALLOCATED SKILLS:

- Meditation 5

- Flow 8

- Steelmind 12

- Telepathy 1

Niall felt surprisingly proud of himself. He had achieved his full Militia class earlier than expected. A few minutes of excited chatter later and it turned out Tierra and Fangast had also achieved their Militia 1 class. Given that, he had no doubt that Mak and Rafaela would follow shortly.

The jump to full Militia reassured him somewhat. Lupa’s scepticism and anger had weighed on him, but they were all now in far better shape to take on the dire wolves. He even started to feel cautiously optimistic about the next phase, when they would be on the front lines. The hard work he, and all of his Patrol, had put in would surely see them through. It had to.

Mid-afternoon that day, Tate led them into a village. For the last couple of hours, they had been walking on a road with fields full of peacefully grazing cattle on either side. Rolling countryside surrounded the village with farmhouses nestled amongst them. A forest started a few miles to the north and carpeted the hills that rose in undulating waves to the horizon.

The road led through the houses and the patrol followed. A few children played in the dusty streets as they approached. They scattered with giggles as the militia patrol passed. After a few minutes, Nail found himself in the village square. An inn and a church faced off against each other on opposite sides of the square, serving the fifty or so houses that made up the village itself.

He was stuck by how similar the village was to Raintor. A logical part of his brain knew that developing a village around an inn and a church in a central square was likely to just be how things were done in Gwilliant. However, the more emotional side of him felt he was marching in to redeem himself in front of Devon, Alana, and Kiran. This time, he was not going to let them down.

Without hesitation, Tate opened the door of the inn and led them in. The interior was dark after the bright day and it took a few moments for Niall’s eyes to adjust. When they did, he saw a large common room with clean sawdust on the floor. There were only two patrons sat drinking when they entered and they both fell silent as the patrol came through the door.

A bald man with a moustache as large as his gut straightened behind the counter. “Can I help you good folk?” He spoke in a slow deliberate voice.

“We’re looking for Elder Everest.” said Tate

The man slung a cloth over his shoulder and hitched up his trousers. “Now, I dare say you’ve found him. What can I be doing for you?”

Tate walked up to the bar. “You wrote to the Duke asking for help with your dire wolf problem, right? Well, here we are.”

The man peered round Tate at the half-dozen members of Niall’s patrol. “Is that all of you?”

Niall could not help but feel a little insulted.

“What were you expecting?” asked Tate.

The barkeeper shrugged, “Well, I’m sure the Duke knows what he’s about. I’m right glad you’re here though. They were back just two nights ago at the Wylson place again. Took a yearling, quick as you please.”

“Sounds like a good place to start, said Tate. “Can you take us there?”

“’Course.”

After calling a teenage girl down to mind the bar, the elder led the patrol out of town for a mile or so before he turned down a cart track that ended in a farmyard. As they entered, a farmer emerged from the farmhouse, wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve. She launched in without preamble.

“From the barracks? Here for the dire wolves?”

Tate and Elder Everest both nodded.

The farmer sniffed. “About time. Follow me.”

Without waiting for an answer, she used a pitchfork to spear a large bale of hay and slung it over her shoulder. She did not check to see if any of them were following before she headed out of the gate. Tate shrugged and led the group after her.

Despite her burden, the farmer set a good pace as she walked across a field and up a steep hill. Niall looked around as they walked. Herds of cows eyed them without interest as they chewed through mouthfuls of grass. Occasionally, they would come across a farm worker filling water troughs or mending walls. The farmer called out greetings or instructions to them as she walked. They built them tough out here. Neither the slope, nor the bale of hay made her voice sound out of breath as she shouted. It was all Niall could do to keep up. The walk was a salutary reminder that, even with his improvements, an ordinary farmer could still outperform him in some ways.

After around half an hour of walking uphill, the farmer opened a large wooden gate set in a drystone wall and stopped, dropping the hay bale into a rack as she did so. She cut open the twine that was holding it together and spread it in the rack. That appeared to be a signal and a herd of cows and calves ambled over and started to munch on the hay.

“Right,” the farmer said, still not even slightly out of breath. “The beasts have been coming out of those woods and taking not just calves but full cows as well. If I could put this herd anywhere else I would, but we’re getting to the end of the winter hay and they need to eat the spring grass if we’re to have any hope of fattening them up.”

The farmer pointed at the trees that lined one edge of the field. “I sent a couple of the hands up here to sort it the first time it happened. Trained militia both. Thought it was just regular wolves, didn’t we? Soon learned. Took an arm off one and, once she gets out of bed, the other won’t be walking without a limp. Priest couldn’t do nothing for her. None of the rest of the hands come up now. I can’t say as I blame them.

“Local hunters went after them and two of them were killed. They’re too canny to be taken out by archers. They just stay well out of bow range,” said Elder Everest. “It’s why we asked for help. We need people that can get in close.”

“Did your people say anything about the wolves that may help us?” asked Niall.

The farmer snorted. “They’re big and they’re hungry. What more do you need to know? Too young to have learnt fear or common sense. Want my guess? They’ve been driven out from their pack. They attack every few days or so. If I were a betting woman, I would say they would be due again tonight or tomorrow. Getting bolder each time.”

“Kill it and you’ll be doing right by the whole village,” said Elder Everest. “Now they have got themselves a taste easy meat, they’ll keep going until either they’ve eaten all of our livestock or they’re destroyed. Anything else you want to know?”

Tate looked around at the patrol who all remained silent. “No, thank you. We’ll take it from here.”

“In which case, we’ll leave you.” Elder Everest said. “Just one final thing, the priest has a decent bit of Healing about him. Hope as how you won’t need it, but I thought it worth a mention. Good luck to you all. We’re right grateful to you and to the Duke for coming to help.”

With that, the farmer picked up her pitchfork, gave them a nod and headed back down the hill with the Elder.

Tate looked at the group. “Any of you have any tracking skills?”

Niall nodded. “I have a couple levels of Hunter.”

“Good. With two of us on the job, we’re going to move faster. As for the rest of you, it’s about time you learned some basic tracking.”

She led them into the woods at the point indicated by the farmer. After a few minutes she stopped and knelt in the dirt. She looked up at them. “What do you see?”

Niall had already spotted the tracks but the rest of the group seemed at a loss.

Tate shook her head. “Really? None of you? Seriously, it doesn’t get easier than this. Look at the marks in the dirt. Something was dragged through here. There’s even some blood on the leaves.”

She stood and carried on walking, silently pointing out the tracks as she went. For the most part, Niall tuned it out as it was knowledge he already had. However, he grew increasingly concerned as he examined the tracks themselves. These creatures, and he quickly determined that there were three of them, were larger and heavier than any wolf he had heard or. Given that one of them appeared to be dragging a cow behind it, they were also far stronger than an ordinary wolf.

After around ten minutes, Tate led them into a clearing and turned to face them. “And here’s our first stop.” She gestured behind her as she spoke.

Niall glanced around her and then quickly looked away, trying to avoid throwing up. He was no stranger to blood and butchery after cutting up meat in the woods with Gwen. However, this was not the clinical pieces of cut meat he was used to. The remains of the cow’s carcass was splattered on the trees and across the leaves on the forest floor.

Tate rolled her eyes. “Oh, stop being such babies the lot of you. This is just a cow. When we’re on the front in a few months, you’ll see a lot worse. Now spread out and see if you can tell me which direction the dire wolves took when they left here.”

Niall looked at Tate then squared his shoulders and led his patrol into the clearing. He immediately saw where the dire wolves had exited, but did not say anything. It took a few minutes but soon Mak had spotted it and called out. Niall joined the others as Tate knelt to confirm what Mak had seen. She gave an approving nod and led them off again

Over the next few hours, Tate guided them deeper into the woods following the tracks of the wolves. They only stopped briefly once, when they came across a stream that allowed them to refill their waterskins. As twilight fell, and the shadows beneath the trees turned black, the Corporal eventually called a halt.

“Right, the light’s too poor to keep tracking. We’ll be camping here for the night. No fires. We stand watch in pairs. Dire wolves are like other wolves in some respects: they sleep during the day and are active at night. So, stay alert. They’re likely not hungry after last night but if they feel threatened, or even just bored, then they will attack. Dire wolves range across a territory larger than wolves. If we’re going to catch up with them, we are going to have to leave at first light and move fast. If you’re not on watch, get some sleep. Tomorrow, we fight.”