“So, what happened out there?” Zarkus asked Sayesun as they slowly made their way to the riverbank. “Well, I was chosen by Alpha Neron to come here in search of help. He was against it at first, but he soon realized he had no choice. As I was leaving, Lonn asked to join me. He’d always dreamed of leaving the woods and seeing the outside world. I can still see the look on his face when we entered the plains.” Sayesun sighed and paused in silence. “What was the problem? I mean, why did you have to go in search of help?” Zarkus asked after Sayesun was through drinking. .”
Baro walked up to where Asoth was standing. “I see. But who attacked him? My soldiers weren’t supposed to act until I gave the signal.” They walked on, following the tracks for a short distance. “I don’t think it’s a question of who, but what.” Asoth said.
“Our patrol was out one night as usual, when they spotted a strange creature lurking about. They followed it for a while, but it seemed to simply be wandering around. So they sent a message back to Alpha Neron. Once he heard the news, he became worried. Up until now, our pack had never encountered a raptor, but he had. It seems he knew all to well what they are capable of. He sent word back Xander, our captain, that they should leave it alone for now. He wanted to keep a watch on it to see why it was in our lands, but he didn’t want to provoke it. So, Xander had two wolves assigned to keep track of this giant lizard at all times. They were to send word back immediately if anything changed. For weeks, it just wandered around without reason, yet always keeping a distance from our camp."
"Neron was almost ready to tell Xander to leave it be, it was obviously alone and meant us no harm. But, that was until one day the patrol assigned to him ran into others. Surprisingly, the raptors let them go, but not without consequence. The two soldiers were missing for almost two days. Our patrol found them wandering about, desperately trying to find their way home. We were all surprised that they were still alive, we feared they had been slain.”
Zarkus interrupted him. “What happened to them? Surely they knew the way home,” he asked, confused.
He tried to stand, but yelped as pain shot through his body. “Careful there,” on of the voices said, “Your body’s still weak. You’ve got a pretty nasty wound on your back. In fact, you’re lucky to be alive, that gash just did miss your spine!” His vision was blurry at first, but as it came into focus, he stared into the face to the strangest wolf he’d ever seen; it looked more like an overgrown fox than a wolf. “Wha-what, who are you?”
“Oh, there’s no doubt that they knew the way home, every soldier does,” Sayesun said as they headed back to meet the others, “But it’s difficult to see where you’re going when your eyes have been clawed out.”
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