Chapter 8 – On Edge

“Looks like you’ve got most of the candied boar to yourself,” Dena told Kule that evening.

“I’m not even sure I’m hungry,” he said despondently.

“You? Not hungry?” Dena asked, shocked.

“Look at the mood!” Kule said, gesturing at the few people who’d come out for the feast. “This isn’t a festival atmosphere. Hardly anybody’s talking. Nobody’s eating. Even the ahbay is getting warm.”

Syl couldn’t argue with him. They’d come back after a full day of looking for any sign of the Lake-Wolf. A full day, without finding a single thing. And neither had any of the other hunting parties that returned. Only two parties were yet to come back and anxiety charged the air in anticipation of their news.

“Everybody’s on edge,” Kule went on. “Doesn’t really make a guy hungry.”

“And yet you’ve been gnawing on your second boar leg for the past hour,” Edar said dryly and pointed towards the aforementioned leg in Kule’s hands.

“Nervous eating,” Kule objected. “Not doing it because I’m hungry. Just need to keep my hands occupied.”

“What happens if none of the hunting groups found the Lake-Wolf?” Reylo asked the question on everybody’s minds.

“Depends what they did find,” Edar reasoned. “If there were tracks, I’m sure we’ll all be heading out again at first light. Same if they found animal remains. That’ll be our next starting point.”

“And if they didn’t find anything at all?” Dena asked.

“Then we warn the other villages,” Syl answered. “If the hunters didn’t find anything, then it means the Lake-Wolf has left our territory and gone towards one of the other villages. We’ll need to work together with them, or at the least let them know about the danger.

“The Ka-Sho-Dan will stay on hold until the Lake-Wolf is killed,” Syl went on, “because it’s too risky to have people travelling the roads in small groups.”

“Which means we need to find it before the rains start,” Rogar added. “The farmers tend to work in small groups. Or alone. They’d be vulnerable.”

“Are they going to send us out again?” Leeze asked nervously. Her hand had hardly left the pendant at her neck since they’d found Kilik’s body.

“I don’t know…” Syl started, but a commotion near the village’s entrance stole her attention. “What’s going on over there?” she asked the others.

When nobody had a quick answer, they did what everybody else seemed to be doing; they got up and walked over.

Vacksin and his hunting party had just returned.

“… like there’s nothing out there,” he was saying to Velena. “No tracks, no scat, no dead animals. Barely even as much as a branch out of place. Either we were looking in completely the wrong place, or this Lake-Wolf learned to fly.

“Where’s Lorac anyway?” Vacksin asked, looking around.

“He hasn’t returned yet,” Velena said. “I expect he should be back shortly.”

“Did anybody else find anything?”

“All of the hunting parties reported the same thing you did,” Velena answered, not keeping any secrets from the villagers gathered around her. The older woman did not believe in secrets.

“Maybe the kids…” Vacksin started, then finally noticed Syl and the others. “Hey!” he said and shouldered his way through the crowd to tower in front of her. “You take us to the wrong spot?”

“What?” Syl crossed her arms at the accusation.

“We were looking in the wrong spot. We had to be. There’s no way a Lake-Wolf lumbers around these woods without leaving tracks. And there’s no way we miss those tracks. Which means you took us to the wrong place. Was this all some kind of game for you?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Did you get a good laugh?” he asked, his voice rising.

“That’s ridiculous,” Syl answered evenly, struggling to keep her temper in check. The nerve of him, accusing her of something like that. In front of the whole village no less. “Why would I do that?”

“You like the attention. Got a taste of it in the Ka-Sho-Dan, and you didn’t want it to go away after your next birthday,” Vacksin elaborated on his ridiculous theory.

He brought his finger up to poke her, and Syl’s hand twitched in anticipation. If he touched her…

But it wasn’t her hand that snatched the extended digit. Enna, with an expression like a thunderstorm, put herself between Vacksin and her daughter.

With his finger firmly in hand, Enna met the taller man’s eyes. “Accuse my daughter of that again and this finger won’t be the smallest part of you I cut off,” Enna said as she pointedly looked below the hunter’s belt before lifting her eyes to meet his again. “Am I clear?”

“That’s enough. Both of you,” Velena said calmly as she gently put her hand on top of Enna’s. “Vacksin didn’t mean what he said. Emotions are running hot and we all need to take a moment to cool down and think rationally. There shouldn’t be any need for… cutting. Right Vacksin?”

Vacksin gulped before answering, his voice softer than before, “You’re right, of course, Velena. I don’t know what I was thinking. My apologies,” he said to Enna.

“Not me you should be apologizing to,” Enna pointed out, but released his finger.

Vacksin ground his teeth before speaking again and the words came out forced. “I’m sorry,” was all he said.

“Thank you, Vacksin,” Velena soothed, trying to salvage at least some of the hunter’s pride.

Enna turned around to face her daughter as Vacksin went back to his hunting party with Velena beside him. “Are you okay?” she asked Syl.

“I’m fine, Mom. You didn’t need to step in,” Syl said, her cheeks heating over her mother coming to her rescue.

“If I didn’t, I imagine Vacksin would be on the ground and needing my services as a doctor right about now,” Enna said with a crooked smile.

“Don’t deny it, Syl!” Dena added, taking Enna’s side. “I saw that look in your eye. The same one you get right before you trounce Rogar…”

“Hey!” Rogar objected.

“You were about to hurt Vacksin,” Dena finished without missing a beat.

“I was considering it,” Syl admitted.

“Don’t take him seriously. Vacksin’s brain isn’t connected to his mouth,” Enna soothed her. “Saying stupid things is just as natural as breathing.”

“Kind of like Kule,” Leeze pointed out.

Kule almost choked on the mouthful of candied boar, but otherwise kept quiet.

“I know. I didn’t,” Syl said. “Mom, I’m worried about Dad,” she finally admitted what was really bothering her. What had her on edge.

“I am too,” Enna admitted. “But he’ll be at Teb’s farm tomorrow if he isn’t already there now. You know how quickly your father walks.”

Syl leaned into her mother so nobody other than those closest to her would hear what she said next. “But we don’t know if Kilik was the first one the Lake-Wolf killed. It could have already been to Teb’s farm. And if the hunters didn’t find it, that means it moved away from the village again. What if it headed in that direction?”

“There are a thousand ‘what ifs’ we could talk about Syl,” Enna said calmly. “And not a single one of them will make a difference. We need to focus on what we know. Just like your father and I taught you.”

Syl nodded at her mother and tried to put a stop to her out-of-control thinking. It was just like treating a patient: deal with the immediate problem first and worry about the ‘what ifs’ after that’s taken care of.

“When Lorac gets back, I’m sure he’ll have news about the Lake-Wolf,” Enna continued. “He wouldn’t be gone this long if he wasn’t on to something.”

“Oh, maybe that’s him now,” Dena interrupted. “I think something’s going on over there.”

Syl didn’t waste any time before heading towards the village entrance, though she was just one in a large crowd. It was difficult for her to see over the heads of the mass of people, and she didn’t have the patience to gently try to wade through them. A table laden with food gave her an idea.

Carefully placing one foot between a cask of ahbay and a plate full of candied boar, Syl hopped up on the table, and from there pulled herself onto the house’s slanted roof. While the buildings weren’t exactly designed to be walked on, they were more than strong enough to support her weight. She jogged from grassy rooftop to grassy rooftop, skipping the crowd.

“Your mother’s eyes almost fell out of her head when she saw you climbing up here,” Dena said and circled a small bush growing out of the roof. “And Kule thought for sure the candied boar was a goner. I’m not sure who was more relieved to see you make it up here safely.”

“And yet she let you come up here after me?” Syl stopped to wait for her friend.

“I told her somebody had to keep tabs on you,” Dena quipped. “What’s going on anyway?”

“Somebody else came back,” Syl answered.

“Lorac?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Syl said, and her eyes widened as the man collapsed. She immediately jumped to the next roof for a better look.

“Enna! Where are you? We need you up here!” Velena shouted over the hum of the crowd.

“Is it Lorac?” Dena asked again as she and Syl got to a roof overlooking the scene. Velena and the hunters formed a ring around the man on the ground to keep the push of the crowd at bay, but they didn’t block Syl’s line of sight.

“No, not Lorac,” Syl answered. “That’s Galli. He was in Lorac’s party. And he’s hurt. Badly.” There was a nasty gash across his shoulder and collarbone. His left arm was stained red from the blood, and his chest heaved as he gulped in air.

“Where are Lorac and the others?” Velena asked Galli while they waited for Enna to push her way through the crowd.

Galli looked up at Velena, and even from the distance, the terror in the man’s eyes chilled Syl to the bone. She knew the answer before the words ever left his mouth.

“Dead. They’re all dead.”