I finally got into this other town and immediately started to look for some work, since I was out of money and out of food. I walked into a tavern that grabbed my attention for some reason. Normally people walked up to me offering some work in those places, but I wasn’t expecting things would go the way it did.

 

As soon as I entered the tavern people were staring at me, and weren’t really being discreet about it either… I took a sit in an empty table and tried to ignore the way all of their eyes seemed to be focused exclusively on me, until one man finally approached me

-Erm… I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but notice your equipment. You don’t happen to be a hunter, do you?

-Ah… Yes, I am.

When I said this was when everyone in the tavern came closer to me, surrounding me.

-P-Please sir, your need to help us. – One woman cried.

-Finally a there’s a hunter in town. I don’t know what we would do without one here. – An old man complained.

-Thank God you’re here. He must have sent you to save us – An old lady exclaimed

 

I was slowly getting overwhelmed. The heat from all the bodies around, the sound of all their voices and the ones in the back that figured they needed to shout so I could hear them. Thankfully a man finally shouted to the crowd.

-Let’s calm down, everyone. We don’t want to scare our guest when we finally have a hunter in town, do we? – As he addressed the crowd, they slowly disperse and I can finally breath freely again. The man was wearing some fancy clothes, a waistcoat and an overcoat over it, as well as a hat and a thick mustache.

-Thank you for that…

-Don’t worry about thanking me. I believe we need your help more than anything, after all.

-And what do you need my help with to justify all this commotion?

-You see, we have this problem with a pack of wolves attacking the city at night. At first, they were just killing some sheep, maybe some bigger cattle, but recently they’ve grown more violent, trying to break into houses, attacking anyone who goes out at night and they even killed two people already, including a child.

-It seems like things really went out of control here, huh? But this is a pretty big town. Don’t you have any hunter to deal with this situation?

-Well… we had… but he went missing after going after them… We believe he is one of the people killed by the wolves.

This whole story is pretty weird. A single wolf appearing in a farm and eating some cows is normal, but a whole pack attacking the town like that? I would need to look further into all of this.

-Did anyone saw any of the wolves when they showed up in the city?

-I believe the widow of the hunter is the only one who have seem the wolves in the city. She saw the moment they dragged her husband, the poor thing.

-Can you show me where she lives? I would like to ask some questions.

-Sure, but she wasn’t been really cooperative for the past few days. I believe she’s really traumatized about the whole thing.

 

The man directed me to a small house on the outskirts of the town. Over grown grass surrounded the house, and honestly, it looked like no one had lived there for some weeks now.

-This is where she lives. Her name is Annabelle and I haven’t seen her outside her house ever since the incident… Please be patient with her. She’s been really depressed since everything…

-Don’t worry – I reassured – I just want to ask some simple questions.

I knock in the door, but once no one answered, I noticed the door wasn’t locked, and carefully opened it and got inside. The woman was sitting in a couch in the room. The fireplace was lit and she was organizing a bag in front of it. She notices my presence and looks my way but completely ignores me and goes back to organizing the bag.

-You’re Annabelle, right? Someone told me I could find you here.

-I don’t think I needed to be found. Is this all you came here to do? To “find me”?

 

She clearly wasn’t in the mood to talk, and neither was I, but I tried to be patient as the hat man had said.

-I am a hunter. The people in the city want me to deal with the wolves that’ve been running around lately. A man told me you’re the only one who ever actually saw them though.

-You’re the hunter they found? Sure, you’re tall, but you’re a little bit more on the fat side than I would expect. - She said in a mocking tone.

 

I knew exactly what she was trying to do (I do the same after all). She was trying to be rude so I would leave her alone. Unfortunately, for her I was already used to the rudeness of most people.

-I just have a few questions about the wolf pack the people in the city have been talking. After all, it’s not common to see animals enter the cities like this, let alone wreak havoc like it seems they’re doing. How were the wolves when you saw them?

-I just saw them once, and I was too occupied trying to save my husband to notice anything. Why don’t you just leave me alone? – She said, very clearly irritated.

-Your husband was a hunter, wasn’t he? Surely he also thought this whole story with the wolf pack was weird?

-What you mean ‘was’?! First of all his name is Evan. All of you seem to forget he was a human before a hunter. – She shouted, even angrier than before. - And they never found my husband’s corpse. He’s still alive for all that we know.

-I’m sorry. I just meant…

-It doesn’t matter what you meant – She interrupted me – We already didn’t needed all those idiots from the city bothering us. We certainly don’t need an outsider coming here thinking he can solve everything. I will deal with all of this ‘wolf’ problem by myself, and then I’m going to bring Evan back home. Now get out of here!

 

She was shouting and trey her bag in my direction, spilling all of the things inside it, just some food and clothes. She had made clear that she didn’t wanted me there, and I also understood she wouldn’t be so helpful anymore.

-Not any luck, huh? – The man said after seeing me being kicked out of the house.

-Yeah… I feel like she’s not feeling really helpful right now. You seemed pretty sure it was a whole pack of wolves running around the city. I never seen something like that happen with an entire pack before. Are you sure this wasn’t a single wolf or even some other animal?

-Yes, I’m mostly sure. – He stated – We all heard the howls at night, and there’s been many different places around the city being attacked at the same night. A single wolf could never run around town so fast.

 

It did seemed almost like a mystery how this whole situation could have happen. It was all too confusing with the information I had in the moment, so I decided to gather the evidence I needed personally.

-The sun is already setting. Is there any place in town where I can get a good vision of the entire city?

-Well, there’s the church in the center of town. You could probably watch the whole city trough there. But what are you planning exactly?

-I’m going to be on lookout over the city for when these wolves show up, and maybe scare them away if needed.

-What? You’re just going to attack all of them without any plan? You’re going to end up just like the Evan.

-Don’t worry about me. I’m not planning on charge on them without a plan.  I’ll just scare them away if they try and attack the people.

-Well, if that’s all that you’re going to do, that’s fine… Just take care of yourself. We don’t know when’s the next time a hunter will show up in town.

As the sun settled, I walked to the church in the center of town and went up the tower in it. From there I had a nice view of the forest and the mountains in the sunset. When the night finally approached, I kept close watch on any commotion that could be happening around the city. Some drunkards starting a fight in the taverns, a couple of kid play-fighting and a couple arguing in front of their house, but no wolf in sight.

 

However, near midnight, when there was no one in the streets, I heard some tumult coming from the woods and some animals running away from something in the forest. It was only then that I heard a loud, almost deafening, noise. An unnatural howl, like it shouldn’t be coming from any animal. Then from the shadows of the forest, it emerged a creature. Tall, hairy, it face looked deformed, it eyes were too big for its face, so was it’s nose, or more accurately, it’s snout. The arms and legs were also disproportionate to the rest of it’s furry body. I knew for certain what that was; a werewolf.

 

The forest animals all ran throughout the city, trying to escape from the creature. They would stumble on each other, causing an immense chaos all around the town. The monster, on the other hand, looked calm, as if it was choosing which one of the distressed animals it would attack. A deer, driven to desperation, crashed through a door and into a nearby house, its panicked flight leaving the entrance gaping open. Knowing I he had to act fast and with no time to descend the tower safely, I made a split-second decision and leaped from rooftop to rooftop

 

Luckily, the creature moved cautiously, as if it was stalking the house. On the roof, when it was under me, I jumped on it with my sword at hand. I stabbed the monster in the back, but the sword was met with unexpected resistance. Somehow, the skin and the thick fur managed to stop the blade as I tried to push it deeper into the werewolf’s back, but, filled with anger and pain, it slamming itself on the house walls, crushing me in the middle of it. I lost grip of my sword and fell to the ground, as the creature ran into the forest, with the sword still stuck into its back.

 

I figured the werewolf wouldn’t be a risk to anyone for tonight, and went to check on who was inside the house. In the main room, a woman was on a fetal position in the corner of the room, shivering and crying. As I approached her and slowly touched her shoulder, she flinched and started screaming at me scared.

-Get out of here! Don’t touch me! – she screamed in panic.

-Calm down. The monster already went away. Are you hurt anywhere? – I said, extending my hand to her.

-No! – She screamed, horrified out of her mind. – You demons already took my baby. Why don’t you just leave me alone?!

I tried to calm her down and as I did the man I had met in the tavern came into the house.

-Hunter? What happened here? Are the wolves gone? – He asked looking confused.

 -There were no wolf. But before that, can you help me calm her down? – I said pointing at the woman.

-Oh, her… Maybe we should talk outside and just leave her alone for a bit – He was looking awkward uncomfortable as we headed outside. – So, you see, that’s the mother of the child that died. She went completely crazy after it.

-She is alone in the house. Where is the father of the child now?

-No one knows. I don’t want to bad mouth anyone, but let’s just say she was… a night worker, if you know what I mean…

-So she’s a prostitute?

-Yes… she is… No one in the city wanted to claim the child as their own, obviously, so she took care of the kid by herself. She then focused all of her efforts into raising the baby, until, well… that happened. Which is really a shame. Everyone could tell how much she cared for the boy. It’s no wonder she went insane when he died.

-Is she going to be okay?

-Honestly, I don’t know… She was already in a pretty bad place before, but she seems even worse after whatever happened tonight.

-About that, I need you to tell the people of the city that there’s no wolf pack in the woods.

-What do you mean? What was making all that chaos right now?

-A werewolf.