“My husband! My husband!” The woman cried. She kept repeating herself. “Someone help!”

  She was more or less incoherent at this point, her face contorted in grief, on her knees pleading with random people to mount a rescue. “PLEASE!” She was getting louder and louder. Someone had talked to the poor woman when she first delivered the news, before she had lost her composure.

  “She only mentioned one. I did ask. She said there was only one.”

  The citizen with the information was talking to a man who seemed to be in charge. Other Apples were listening in, paying attention to their headman during the crisis.

  “It’s important to know if it’s a solitary warg. A pack is a different kind of threat entirely.”

  “I trust her. That she only saw one, at least.”

  “Well, then there probably is only one. If there’s a group they attack as a group.”

  “Is there any chance Tod is still alive?”

  “There’s no chance.” Someone interjected from the sidelines.

  “We can hope.” The leader disagrees. “The beast should be hunted down as soon as possible either way.” Looking around at the frightened villagers he softened his position. “We’ll send word to Tumas. Meanwhile, get everyone indoors.”

  The crowd of people dispersed, heading back to their own houses. Two goat riders hurried west towards the city with instructions from the mayor. The innkeeper was trying to console the farmer’s wife who had turned silent with shock. Tears running down her face, she tried to pull away, to run back to her husband. There was a sort of tragic tug of war as the innkeeper pulled the woman towards the safety of the inn.

  “Should we also run back to Tumas?” Apa asked nervously. Ichiro nodded cautiously.

  Bafarinam shook his head grimly. “We hunt the beast. We’re low rank, but we’re adventurers. It’s part of the code.”

  Apa guiltily agreed. They weren’t cowards.

  Ichiro tried to remember the wording of the vow he’d taken that morning. He thought it was open to interpretation.

  Bafarinam continued. “There are three of us. Me and Apa will pin it down with our spears. Ichiro goes in for the killing blow.”

  Bafarinam wasn’t a great warrior, by any means, but this deadly determination seemed to fit him better than the silly games they were playing earlier. The simplicity of the plan and Bafar’s decisiveness gave Ichiro a little bit of confidence. Ichiro’s instinct was to play it safe, but he had no experience in this world to go by.

  “Alright. I’m in.” Ichiro made eye contact with Bafar, trying to gauge or maybe match his bravery. Apa also nodded his head with nervous energy. They were a team.

  “You’re thinking of hunting it?” The mayor was caught off-guard by the young adventurers, but didn’t directly question the wisdom of it. “There used to be more brave men here in Apple who wouldn’t run away from a chance at glory… I’ll come with you!”

  The mayor mounted a large and solid looking gony, one whose horns hadn’t been cut down, and armed himself with a polearm of some sort. Well, it was either a military trident or a long pitchfork. He led them south along a road that followed the river. “A man should defend his own home.”

  The three adventurers jogged along with him, towards danger. The mayor kept talking. Ichiro couldn’t focus on what he was saying. His face felt numb. His whole body felt strange, like it was floating. A pressure built up on the back of his neck. Ichiro didn’t know what it meant, except that it probably wasn’t a good sign.

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  He thought he should say something, like, to urge them all to slow down and be cautious, even wait for backup. Maybe it was ok to change your mind!? Instead, he did nothing, following along towards whatever was going to happen. He tried to take some deep breaths. He rubbed his face and told himself to stay in the moment.

  Soon they came to a piece of cleared land and a small hut. It looked peaceful enough, at first. The group scanned the farm for friend or foe.

  “It’s too quiet.” The mayor said. “…TOD?” He yelled out, not really expecting a response.

  The gony was the first to notice the warg. It reared and bucked in alarm and the mayor struggled for control, yanking on the reins before being thrown off its back and onto the ground. The three boys were distracted by the display, and the riderless gony galloped, terrified, back towards the village. They looked around again, to locate whatever had scared the animal.

  Slowly it moved and they all saw it at once. The monster rose up silently from its resting spot in the middle of the field. It had been inadvertently hidden by the undulation of the ground and it’s crop of vegetables. Ichiro had been expecting something wolf-like but that wasn’t a good description. It was huge, as tall as a man. Instead of fur it had oily black, greasy skin. The tail was more like an alligator’s. It’s six legs were long and muscular.

  Part of the farmer, a leg, dangled and then dropped out of the wargs jaws and onto the ground. Its demeanor was something like curiosity as it observed the group that had foolishly disturbed its meal. Mouth open, it took tiny, halting steps towards the three adventurers. The two spears brandished in its direction didn’t seem to cause it any concern at all. “Remember the plan.” Bafar whispered fervently.

  The simple plan that had seemed plausible to Ichiro a few minutes ago now seemed naive and silly. It was hard to imagine fighting something so large and powerful without guns. Their spears were hardly more than sticks, and what good was a sword? He thought he should release it from it's scabbard anyway, but was afraid that it might draw attention to him. Ichiro was frozen with fear.

  The warg jumped on Apa first, almost playfully, knocking aside his spear without even seeming to try. Bafar stabbed the beast in one of it’s legs. He actually hurt the thing, and it whirled around to face him. It tested it’s weight on the leg that had been poked, and then advanced towards the teenager menacingly. Now it’s lips were pulled back in a ferocious snarl.

  Bafar turned and ran. Ichiro didn’t blame him. His spear had been twisted from his grip during his strike. Weaponless, Bafarinam sprinted for the dead farmer’s hut. The warg followed behind after pulling the spear from his leg with it’s teeth. It seemed like Bafar would easily make it to safety, but then the beast took it’s chase more seriously and two enormous six-legged leaps closed the gap.

  Bafar did manage to enter the hut, but hadn’t been quick enough to barricade himself in. The monster’s giant head forced the door open, and then it began squeezing its body through the narrow gap. It didn’t seem like it should fit, but it twisted and jerked with a tremendous amount of force. The door frame itself was breaking.

  Inside, both the warg and Bafarinam were making terrible noises. It made Ichiro sick, just hearing and then imagining what was happening. He found himself standing there, next to the monster’s tail, the only part of the thing still outside. He felt like he should stab or hack at it. But what good would that do? The terrible noises were still happening.

  The only thing to do was to enter. He knew he was too late to save his new friend. The hut wasn’t big enough to get away from the monster, and he could hear the kinds of screams that didn’t come out of whole people. But he had to try. If he didn’t at least try, he knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself later. He was buffeted violently and thrown into the walls by the thrashing tail as he squeezed through.

  The inside of the hut was too small and too full of furniture for the Warg to move freely. It had wedged itself carelessly between a post and an overturned table so that it was stuck, as it chewed on Bafarinam’s head and arms. Ichiro couldn’t see much, but the blood and gore was shocking. His body was stiff, his arms and legs wooden. He moved mechanically, inserting the sword smoothly at an angle behind the Warg’s first set of legs.

  It wasn’t a heroic strike, he had simply picked what he guessed would be a vital area and slid the sword in up to it’s hilt. The monster hardly seemed to notice until the sword’s tip touched what passed for the monster’s heart. Then it thrashed and twisted and howled even more awfully than before.

  Ichiro didn’t remember crawling out of the hut. He no longer had his sword. He wasn’t going back in for it. There was so much blood. He kept crawling away from the hut and the disturbing noises from inside which continued, minute after minute.

  Outside, things weren’t silent either. Ichiro found Apa, moaning in the grass. The mayor was there too, trying to help. Apa’s face was a bloody mess. His right forearm was also mangled, punctured and bleeding profusely. How had he been hurt so badly, Ichiro wondered? The Warg had only bitten him once. That was all it took.

  “Put a, tie a tourniquet.” Ichiro tried instructing the mayor. Apa’s face was gross, with big flaps of skin torn loose, but he was more worried he would bleed to death from the mutilated arm. He gripped it as tight as he could with his hands to slow the blood flow, but didn’t know what else he could do. He alternated between swearing at the mayor, yelling for help, and wishing he were anywhere else in the universe.