Chapter 23: Farm Twilight

Following the elf’s directions the two headed south and not far after crossing the main road was a farm.

Jace remembered that one of the many abandoned farms south of the main road in the Twilight Forest was occupied by werewolves, so before approaching the place he had been very vigilant in keeping a constant watch on his surroundings.

Although they had gone through a day and a night without ever running into any shadow of a werewolf, the two of them were already somewhat skeptical of Morgan’s claim. But fear not 10,000, fear not, if at all not caring really bumped into it, then it would be a real pain in the ass.

After all, Grid didn’t know what a werewolf really was, and he was bound to lose out if he fought.

The two men hid behind what looked like old oak trunks dying in the dark and squinted over toward the farm, and Grider pointed to the mill that stood alone across from the granary and asked, “Is this the windmill he’s talking about?”

“A fan blade, probably.” Pointing toward the wildly growing, fence-covered undergrowth and bushes at the far edge of the farm, Jess said, “We’ll go over there.”

Grid’s eyes traveled around the railing, touching his elf-scratched calf with a tired sigh.

He glanced at the flat, overgrown, abandoned farmland and said, “It doesn’t look like there’s much living in the middle of it.”

“Remember the cemetery, in the morning?” Jess said.

The originally peaceful cemetery suddenly turned into an undead zombie base camp after the two crawled out of the grave, anyone might not be able to forget it for the rest of their lives.

The dwarf clearly understood what Jace meant, and after staring into the latter’s eyes for a moment, he slid without a word into the trench-like midden to his right, which was shorter than the flat ground.

Touching the edge of the farm fence towards the direction of the mill approached, it was a little later in the day than a few moments before, and it looked as if it might be getting dark.

“After finding this farm, it’s time to go back anyway, Grid.” Jace said, “Since those people in Raven Ridge have been able to live here for so many years, whether or not what they say about werewolves is true, it represents a danger at least for the night.”

“Possibly, but it’s uncharacteristic to go back empty-handed after all this distance.” The Dwarf said with less satisfaction, “If we can’t find anything, we should at least find another one, we’re so close to the main road, it’s much safer than when we were looking for the Royal Blood Grass before.”

“Do you think it’s possible that the elf is trying to trick us into coming here to screw us over? After all, he’s been screwed over so badly.” Jace asked quietly.

Grid, who was feeling his way forward, looked back and said, “It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, but what danger could there be here, with that elf’s companion in ambush? There’s not much need for that, is there. Or is this farm surrounded by some kind of ghouls? It doesn’t look like it either. But I can’t say, we’ll just have to be careful.”

Jess asked, “And you’re careful about having to go right through the middle of a farm field?”

“Who said anything about going through the middle?!” The dwarf retorted anxiously, then turned his head and continued on his way.

Jace sighed slightly and before he could say anything, Grid suddenly turned around and put his index finger to his lips in a “shhh” motion.

What’s going on?

He lip-synched a “there’s a wolf.”

Jace lifted his head slightly and looked around, noticing nothing.

With the eyesight he’d honed down over the course of the day, he could even spot silverleaf grass in the bushes, and if there were wolves it would be hard to hide at all.

“Are you sure?” He leaned in close to Grid’s ear and said in an airy voice.

Grid wrinkled his nose and said, “Smell.”

Good lord, you can smell an animal like a wolf that is so careful and good at burying its tracks? Is it possible that dwarves have some kind of special ability?

Jace tried sniffing, but of course, he didn’t notice anything.

But Grid wasn’t so much of a nuisance that he had nothing to do with it, and Jace slowed down and ambled along a little after him.

The mill was less than 20 meters ahead, and still no sign of any wolf.

Jace glanced up, and the fan blades of the tall mill, only one of which remained, hung low, as if an immensely tall giant knight clad in gray armor stood in the darkness of the night with his hand braced on a broadsword.

Grid crouched and watched for half a day, trying to wait for the possible beast to reveal itself, but after a long wait there was no apparent movement.

“Strange.” His nose twitched and he whispered, “Let’s go in, then.”

Jace nodded and groped his way to the wall of the mill, and just as he approached the doorway he heard a not-so-subtle, slippery, strange sound.

This time it was his turn to shush, and Grid was stopped, listening quietly for a moment, his eyes slowly widening as well.

Just as the two men were listening carefully, the rustling and strange sounds were broken by the movement of a bone snapping.

Basically, I was able to determine that it was the movement of a predator feeding.

Jace’s grip on the axe went up an extra piece to make sure he had a tight enough grip, and Grid drew an arrow to his bow.

The two men nodded at each other and slowly felt their way through the door.

Just as he walked through the door, he couldn’t see anything clearly in the dark mill, and after his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, Jace caught a glimpse of a huge, silvery-gray thing bobbing along behind the cobwebs of discarded tools and collapsed partition walls.

He glanced at Grid, and the other man’s eyes were wider than his.

The dwarf lifted his bow and arrow and aimed it at the behemoth, drawing his bow to full strength, the bowstring tightened with a squeak of movement, and the behemoth came to a sudden stop.

As soon as it turned back, Grider didn’t know whether to shoot decisively or to disengage suddenly in terror, and the arrow followed with a whoosh through the spiderweb and the crack in the dividing wall right in the behemoth’s neck, and a frantic roar exploded violently through the cramped mill, blasting Jace’s ears to the bone.

The behemoth jumped out and crashed through the wall and a large pile of damaged farm equipment on the floor, its fur still glinting a lurid silver even in the little shimmering light that shone in from outside.

Jace pushed aside the dust and wood shavings that covered his body and leaned close to the wall, his axe gripped tightly in his hand as he glared at the creature, this was no werewolf, but a giant wolf that was almost as tall as his shoulders already, not at all comparable to those wild dog-like forest wolves up north.

The giant wolf’s charge separated the two men on either side, and Grid climbed to his feet and put up his sword, and with a single padded step he sent it into the giant wolf’s flank, so deep that his arm was buried in the fur.

Yet the wolf, frantic with pain but not drained by his injuries, twisted around and slapped Grid to the ground in one fell swoop, looking to pounce on him.

Jace had heard that a dog’s loins were the thinnest and most fragile, that wolf should not be too different, he lifted his axe and smashed it squarely on the wolf’s loins, the giant wolf was about to reach up and nibble on the dwarf who was pinned down by himself, when the axe smashed down it wailed, and its entire lower limbs convulsed uncontrollably.

Grid yelled and crawled out from under the wolf, the monstrous wolf kept twitching and wailing but couldn’t make any counterattacks anymore, neither man dared to get any closer than they had to and had to wait for him to slowly run out of stamina.

After a long time, the giant wolf finally stopped moving, and the blood that flowed out had soaked the entire floor of the mill.

After the scene quieted down, Grid muttered, “If I hadn’t gotten that elf in the leg, I would have slaughtered this wolf long ago! Where would I have let him hold me down?!”

Jace looked at him, only to see that he was covered in blood and his whole body had turned red.

“Are you hurt?”

“I, huh?” Grid lowered his head, warbled at the sight of blood on his body, felt back and forth and said, “No, it’s not my blood.”