The Hybrid Fateful Sorrow

Chapter #3: The Wolves

In front of them, the Royal Guards Galloping heavily on the road was Amadeus, directing them in the shorter path from what he saw on the chart that he took.

As he looks forward to once again reaching his hometown Grearia, a quiet path it leads to, with the forest whooshing and the hooves of horses in the ground, it’s enough evidence that the night is closing in.

Although it was bright enough, the moon is big and complete that the road was visible for them to keep moving.

While Amadeus continues on the path, he thinks back on what the older man said. Yet, he remains focused on the ride, believing it could be Bandits, gripping his sword tighter.

A vicious running sound was heard from the forest, although the men remained riding.

While riding, Kleon looked to the forest to only see the trees swaying, and behind was the shadow of darkness; he turned to Miran, looking anxious.

“Pack of wolves?” Kleon asked.

Miran faced Kleon, trying to suppress his uneasy feeling.

“Could be, I don’t know — this path is unnervingly quiet,” Miran replied.

Kleon paced his riding as he got closer to the worried Miran.

“It’s probably because it’s not as popular as the other roads. If you have an old man scaring you with beasts and werewolves, it will be hard,” he replied.

Miran looked at the side of the road, seeing most of the wild grass untrampled.

“Even the path we are taking is undisturbed. What if the old man was right?” he asked.

Kleon peeked in the midst to see his brother Luke riding his horses with Princess Beatrice.

“Well, we will have a Princess to impress if so,” he smirked.

They can hear a loud growl through the woods; something big is preying on their path, watching them from the shadow.

The Royal Guards remained focused. Amadeus looked for a field to set a camp to rest for the night upon hearing its sounds.

Seeing a grassy open field, He asked his men to a halt and ordered them to prepare a camp to sleep near the road; it was a vast, grassy field encircled by the forest overlooking them.

The men have set their camps and campfires like an invitation to whoever is making those growls. Amadeus left to survey the field, and as he returned, a worried look from the Princess is what he met.

“Sir Amadeus, what was that sound before?” The Princess asked worryingly.

Upon getting closer, he bows and explains himself to the Princess.

“Her Highness, please take a rest, it’s nothing to worry about — it could be a pack of wolves,” Amadeus said.

“Alright, thank you! — I’ll let you get back to work,” The Princess replied, entrusting everything to Amadeus.

“Anytime, Her Highness,” Amadeus replied before he walked away to speak to Luke while the Princess retreated to the camp and rested.

“Sir Luke, have half of our men post as guards tonight,” Amadeus said.

While clutching his sword as he spies the field.

“Are we expecting trouble, Sir?” Luke asked.

‘That loud growled before does sound trouble,’ he thought.

“Could be a pack of wolves that are dumb enough to attack us,” Amadeus said.

‘Dangerous,’ he thought. “Or bandits, still we must be prepared,” he added.

Without a hint of doubt, Luke replied. “Right away, Sir,” before retreating and assigning guards for tonight.

A few hours after midnight, half of the men were already sleeping, and the other half stayed awake, tired, but they watched the land thoroughly.

Amadeus stayed awake, even though dismissing the possibility of werewolves. He chooses an open field to set up a camp to see whoever is coming for them.

The men who were awake heard a loud growl, but this time it was clear enough that it’s not some wolves they might be against.

Amadeus and most of his men clutched their swords while spying on the field and the forest. The uneasy feeling rose on every one of them, with another loud howl this time that they all heard. It was time for Amadeus to act.

Amadeus turned to speak to Luke while the rest of the Royal guards were waking up.

“Luke!, have the men prepare the horses!” Amadeus said in a louder voice.

“What could it be?” Luke asked.

“Let’s not stay and find out. Whatever it could be, it sounded big and dangerous,” Amadeus said.

Upon hearing the word big and dangerous, Miran trembles as he recalls the older man’s warnings.

“Hey, don’t worry, we are strong, and we have Amadeus in here whatever it could be, we’ll be able to handle it,” Kleon said, reassuring Miran.

Miran looked at Amadeus.

“Ah — yeah,” he replied.

Luke has asked the men to fix their camp and to get ready to depart. While Amadeus visits the Princess’s camp to explain what’s going on as soon as he is about to, their horses have gone restless, neighing endlessly. Kleon goes to calm them.

Princess Beatrice goes out to see what’s happened; seeing Amadeus in front of her camp, she immediately inquires.

“What is happening, Sir Amadeus?” She nervously asked.

Amadeus guided the Princess to the horse.

“Her Highness, we need to go. I am afraid there could be trouble if we stay any longer,” as soon as he said that, they could hear a shout from Luke.

“Kleon, watch out! There are wolves!” Luke Shouted while he went to help his brother.

Upon noticing the wolves, Kleon unsheathed his sword and grabbed the nearby torch to scare the wolves, but the wolves didn’t react to the fire and attempted to attack his leg.

Kleon instantly swings his sword down, decapitating the wolf’s head as it squeals for a bit before dying. The rest of the wolves howl at him.

He realises there are too many wolves that he can take alone; he hurries towards his brother Luke.

“It’s dark, but there are over twenty of them!” Kleon said.

Each of the men prepared themselves for battle, equipping their helmets.

Amadeus ordered the men to cover Kleon’s retreat and ordered Miran.

“Stay at the Princess’ side, no matter what!” Amadeus said, to the worried look of Miran.

Miran calmed a bit from Amadeus’ stern voice.

“Yes, Sir!” he replied.

Amadeus soon rushed to help the rest of his men but was interrupted by the ground, shivering. There the beast runs wild, targeting his men; it was enough to send fear from their feet, legs, and into their minds.

It was dark, but the beast was a silver-white-haired werewolf, a big one running viciously at them, using all its limbs to run.

While guarding the Princess, “It was true!” Miran shouted.

“What is it?” The Princess asked nervously.

Before Miran could answer, Amadeus yelled at them.

“Miran! Go! Mount the horse and escape with the Princess.”

Kleon halts to peek at his back to see the cause of his fellow men looking paled.

He sees the beast jumping onto him, delving its claws through his steel armour; it clatters and through his torso penetrating his back.

The werewolf lifts him to see his almost lifeless eye, as the last thing Kleon can see was its red eyes and silver-coloured hair before the werewolf completely tore him apart.

Luke, witnessing his brother’s brutal death, shouted in rage in hopes to fight the werewolf.

“Damn you, beast!” Luke yelled as he charged with his sword.

Amadeus quickly followed to stop Luke on his suicide charge, while Luke was so focused on the werewolf that he didn’t notice one wolf jumped in his side.

Amadeus quickly reached his long sword at his side and pierced the wolf’s head, killing it as it splattered blood to Luke’s helm.

He grabbed Luke on his shoulder.

“Stop!” he ordered.

Luke glared at Amadeus, still in his rage but waiting for what he’s about to say.

Amadeus responded with a logical response.

“Let’s retreat the men, we are Royal guards for the Princess!”

Upon realising this, Luke started the order for the retreat, and Amadeus left to help cover the withdrawal of his men, killing more wolves on his way.

Amadeus saw the werewolf’s eyes gazing at him, feeling he was next. But, instead, he stood with his long sword to the ground and lifted off his steel-plated breastplate as he thudded it to the ground.

‘It damn won’t help me from this beast’s claws, it would just make it harder for me to dodge,’ he thought as he picked his long sword and readied himself to fight.

Luke witnessed the bold move of Amadeus.

‘Ah, I can understand now, he does look like he doesn’t want to die,’ Luke thought before yelling at Amadeus.

“Go! I will give you some time to escape, go with the men.”

The werewolf positioned itself to attack Amadeus, but Luke again charged at him, shifting his target.

Amadeus didn’t have time to reply; instead, he used the time to help more of his men escape, killing more wolves in his path.

The werewolf saw Amadeus killing his wolves; it growled in rage! Then, the beast shifts back to Amadeus, directly running to Luke, stomping him on the way.

As he gets stomped over by the werewolf, grunting with every step, he still clings to its tail, only to strike his sword, slashing to one of the werewolf’s legs, plummeting it to the ground and crippling the werewolf for a few minutes.

Amadeus saw Luke’s hard effort on his own; he attempted to charge head-on, but Luke stopped him through his words.

“Go! Sir Amadeus, protect the Princess!” Luke pleaded while on the ground with broken ribs, spewing blood as he spoke.

The werewolf recovered from the assault and once again growled in rage, pointing to Amadeus.

Amadeus saw how helpless Luke was, understanding the situation. He mounted his horse to escape and to look for the Princess. “I’ll come back for you!” Amadeus shouted as he galloped away.