The Wolf of Calamity - Book 1 - Chapter 4 - Frost Raiders (Patreon)

Year 1396 After Chaos
Month 7

Chaotic Plane

Asher

As it turns out, after walking in the direction that the direwolf had come from and trailing the smell for a little bit, I end up finding a flower that is giving off the same scent as the direwolf. It’s a pure blue color, and seems to be dripping some sort of blue liquid onto the direct beneath it, creating that very same mud that the other direwolf was covered in.

Interesting.

I roll around in the mud for a bit until my fur is covered by it before getting back up and quickly turning to look in the direction of one of those horrible stenches attached to the wraiths. And right as I do so, an ice wraith walks, or rather floats into the clearing I found the flowers in. It then begins to float straight past both me and the flowers without sending me a single glance.

Which is a good thing, since this one was even stronger than the other two.

After it fully leaves the area, I can’t help but let out a sigh and relax the muscles that had stiffened up at its appearance.

Then I hear my stomach growl from hunger, making the wraith – who had just finished leaving the clearing and was traveling between the trees – pause before turning around. I stiffen up again when it reenters the clearing, but fortunately it just wanders around for a few seconds, looking randomly across the clearing before leaving it again.

Looks like I need to eat again.

I wait for a few minutes to let the ice wraith pass before lowering myself down to my belly and slowly crawling my way just slightly above the snow so as to not wipe the mud off of my belly. Only to end up searching around the taiga like this for hours with no luck outside of a bunch of incredibly powerful, and incredibly terrifying wraiths.

Right as I’m beginning to wonder if I should just give up or not, the blizzard that’s been going on since the moment I left the cabin finally lets up, allowing me to see again. And along with the blizzard’s fading, the two ice wraiths I have been watching circle my general area for the past couple of minutes suddenly let out a loud shriek and begin fading out of existence as well, leaving me blinking in surprise.

What… just happened?

I stare blankly at the spot that the wraiths were at for a few seconds as the blizzard continues clearing up until it’s all but gone before suddenly jerking my head to look to the side at the sound of a deep sound blaring out throughout the taiga.

Okay, now what?

I crouch low to the ground, a little nervous about the fact that I’m a lot more visible now, before crawling over in the direction that the noise sounded out from until I eventually find myself at the edge of a cliff looking out over some sort of fort that I hadn’t noticed prior to now thanks to the blizzard. The fort is facing the cliff I’m on and is made out of wood from the trees in this taiga, and it has several different strange totems, similar to the ones that were in some of the books teacher read to me. Albeit different at the same time.

If I remember correctly, the totems I saw in the books were tribal totems for some sort of creature called a goblin. They were generally two meters in height with a human skull carved on the top and several spikes at the base of the skull pointing outwards from the totem.

These totems on the other hand have a skull that is very clearly not human. It’s a lot larger than a human skull and has random blue spots on it.

Other than that though, the totem is the same in every other way.

I suddenly lower myself down onto my belly as a creature walks out of the fort. The creature has pale blue skin and looks to be about the same height as teacher was, give or take a little, with two tusks jutting out from its lower jaw. It has two horns to match as well, along with a spike sticking out of the backs of its hands.

Please be weaker than the ice wraiths.

<-| Uruk | Frost Raider | PHYS - 62 | MAGIC - 38 |->

It has a name?

Actually, that’s beside the point. It’s definitely a lot weaker than the ice wraiths. But it’s also stronger than the direwolves. Perhaps a touch too strong for me.

Although… I might be able to kill it if I manage to lure it into a trap.

But how will I go about doing that?

I begin to devise different possible strategies to do that, but I don’t exactly have much to go on. I don’t even know my own full capabilities yet, much less the frost raider. And to make matters worse, as I’m thinking about this, another two frost raiders leave the fort before they all go off deeper into the taiga, each equipped with hand axes.

After hearing my stomach growl again I end up grimacing and quietly climbing down the cliff and beginning to go after them, just to notice a smell coming from their fort. So I pause for a second and walk back over to it, still with my belly to the ground.

Oh? Well, that might be a better plan than going after the three who just left armed.

What I end up finding at the fort are the scents of two different frost raiders currently fresh, along with the scents of ten others, only three of which are fresh. Meanwhile one of the scents belonging to a not-fresh one smells slightly different from the others.

Right as I’m about to sneak into the fort, I pause in place as I realize what I’ve just done.

I guess I have a really good sense of smell?

That’ll be useful.