The wolf's bloody path

chapter 27

This forest... its utterly dead. No life grows here, a wasteland would be a better way to describe the place.

Clearly, it wasn't dead.

Something's here. I just don't know what. That, is the problem.

'Have you noticed it too?' Merlin glanced to me with a sly grin.

'Of course I have. I may be an incompetent magus, but I do have clairvoyance.' Future sight? So she knows the future, but how far, and how much does she know about the entity.

'There are different types of clairvoyance you know. Past, present, future. I can only see the present. But moving on, this creature is an odd one. It's aligned with nature in some way. It shifts between forms before hiding again. It's stalking us.'

'Merlin, I can see the present. A better description is viable to the importance of a mission.' The old magus sighed at the assessment.

'I'm not old... I guess calling it clairvoyance is inaccurate, its much more like viewing other locations outside of my sightline. Are you happy now?'

'Yes, do you have a description of the creatures original appearance?' No time to waste, we could die at any moment.

Information is key.

In war, information is invaluable. False information is often worse than none.

'The creature is around 11ft tall, lanky frame, it's ribs are visible from outside. A large skull mask on its face, orange eyes. Black skin with fur.' Inhuman, must not focus on physical strength if it has a lanky frame.

Shape-shifting. That is the most troublesome aspect. If it was to shift into myself, would its physical capabilities be equal to my own? That is an interesting thought, but also a concerning one.

'Tell me when it makes a move.' Seems I must remain vigilant. This creature will pray on any weakness it sees. However no weaknesses are protruding at the moment.

I must first make an assessment.

'Merlin, I'm going to split off from you three.' There was silence through the link before she responded in a curious yet knowing tone.

'Why?'

'The creature is not a physical fighter, it's frame confirms that. Therefore, it is definitely more of a hunter. And hunters strike easy prey. I must determine who, is the easy prey.' There was no response from the wizard, I took that as confirmation before cutting the link.

I didn't take my time and turned to Mist. Risky, as it may lose me, but if I'm considered the easy prey, it will hunt me instead of the group. But, I suspect that I'm not the easy prey.

I reformed a fair distance away, not far enough to where I had no chance of getting back though.

What would make for good bait? Ideally, a sleeping target. But faking a nap immediately would draw suspicion, assuming an observative beast is what the creature is.

It's decided.

So for the next twenty minutes or so, I acted tired. Occasionally closing my eyes before rapidly opening them, lowered head, leaning against the tree. Until finally, I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing.

To a normal person, it may be tedious.

Not to me. It's just apart of the mission.

I felt slight deviation in the air current. As if a light breeze had blown by, this creature is good. It may have even fooled any other natural werewolf.

But not me.

This creature is skilled at hiding. The forest is permeated with the stench of blood, it's good enough to easily stalk a normal person and avoid their sight. Almost avoiding my own. It carefully blends itself to the air currents, not perfectly, but well enough that not even a majority of natural werewolves would notice.