The boy continued to run all through the night continuing on till daybreak until his body could no longer keep up, panting in exhaustion the boy lay down on the cold, hard ground and thought about the events  of  the  previous night. As the boy pondered the deaths of the wolves he did not shed a single tear, for their deaths only made him feel rage, rage at the man called Mervyn Oakshield, and with a burning hatred in his heart the boy set off to find a snake, a snake called Darius. 

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Back at the humans' campsite the earthen walls that had surrounded the Lord and his party crumbled and soon there was only a circle of rubble surrounding them. Filled with relief, the lord sighed contently until a knight gasped in shock alerting him to the sight outside, where the walls had stood. Around the campfire lay the brutally mutilated corpses of seven shadow wolves and right in the middle of it stood the man in the purple robe. "What ...what the hell happened here? " cried Lord Varet.  "How did this happen?" The man in the centre of the campfire smirked with arrogance.

"Did I not say it earlier my Lord, that if I could see it I could kill it." The Lord stood there in a dazed stupor hardly believing what he could see when he remembered "my son," he cried to the knights closest "someone go find my son and bring him to me." Two of the surrounding knights turned to leave to Elias's tent when they were stopped by the purple robed man "No need to check," said the man in a cheerful tone "he's already dead." 

Upon hearing this the campsite froze, it was not the news that made them freeze, in truth after seeing the wolves last night they had feared for the worst, what made shivers run down their spines was the cheerful way in which the man presented the news, as if he was merely commenting on the weather.

The Lord's shoulders sunk upon hearing the news, his soul wracked with grief, yet burning with vengeance. But, as he looked around he remembered there was no vengeance to be had. The wolves were dead. As if reading Lord Varet's thoughts the purple robed man spoke once more "Revenge is still yours to claim my Lord." The Lord stared at him "what in seven hells do you mean, the wolves are all dead there's no one who....." the lord trailed off in sudden understanding

"The boy, the boy did it?" The purple robed man grinned at the Lord, "aye it was the boy who killed your son with a stab through the chest." Reinvigorated at the news that he could still claim vengeance for his son the Lord yelled his next order. "After burying my son we hunt, this time our target is the boy not the beasts." The hunting party cheered many having lost friends to the child. In the background, Mervyn smiled happily at the turn of events, all according to plan.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

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In the forest, the boy still lay on the ground blissfully unaware of the turn of events. Having grown up with the wolves the boy had naturally explored many parts of the magical beast forest. However, as he grew up he was always warned to avoid the centre of the forest and though he asked why the responses were always the same.

"Because we don't trust the snake." And though the boy had enquired many times as to who this snake was or why they didn't trust him, he was answered with vague replies or more often than not a change in subject. Yet despite all this, the boy had been told to see the snake, so see the snake he shall. 

Having strengthened his resolve the young boy resumed running once more towards the centre of the forest, it was about an hour later when the boy first saw the spiralling smoke in the distance. Believing it to be the snake, the boy ran at full speed desperate to get to where the snake was, when he emerged in a clearing. In the centre of the clearing there was a small wooden hut with smoke pouring out the chimney, overwhelmed by relief at the sight of the hut, fatigue caught up with the boy and he fell to the ground and entered a peaceful slumber.  

Some hours later an old man exited the hut and stared at the slumbering child outside on the ground. "Ohohoho,now what do we have here? What fool of a child has entered my domain so willingly?" The man approached the boy and suddenly stopped silent as he sniffed the air.

"Shadow wolf," murmured the man under his breath "why does this child smell like a shadow wolf?" Wasting no time the man picked up the child and placed him on the bed inside the hut by the fire. "Well now," said the man "what sort of story will you have to tell me when you wake up?" With this the old man cackled as his form began to change until a giant snake sat where the man once was "things are going to get interesting again" thought the snake as it drifted into slumber. 

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hi guys i would like to once again thank you for reading and comment one a few of the posts made in my last chapter telling me i should have added a tragedy tag in truth i did consider it but im not planning on adding much more if any tragedy so i hope you understand and reading thanks a lot :)