"And remember," the Gremlin told Axel, "if you can't find Troll Sorrow, then you need to find a wetter place."

"I got it," the Wolf-man assured the tiny Gremlin. "Walking Widows are found on tree trunks in the shade, Wandering Creep is in the sun. Troll Sorrow likes water, Ogre's Caress doesn't like water. Windy Blooms are delicate, Mother's Breath isn't. You've been going over these plants for the last hour; I've got this."

"I'm sure," the two-foot, green-skinned, red-striped woman said in a tone that didn't match her words. "Above all else, be careful. Hawks are always trying to take my herbs from me and it's terrifying. That's why I need a giant like you."

"I'll get the plants," Axel told her with a smile he hoped was reassuring. "And I'll keep those birds from taking them from me."

"Just hurry back," she said a frown still on her face. "Bad enough I have to make a Job for my research, I don't need to be caught up with talking to a brute that thinks this will be easy."

With a nod, Axel stepped out of the alchemist's shop and began to walk down the street.

"Heel, Drago," he ordered, causing the Rockwolf to fall in place behind him as they left the city for the various herbs that the Job required.

"I think I remember Inkfingers telling me that Ogre's Caress is to the east, but Troll Sorrow is north," he muttered to himself as Axel lead Drago to the south of the city. "Windy Blooms are pretty common on the Carnix Cliffs, right?"

With a whine, Drago offered his lack of knowledge.

"Yeah," Axel sighed, "I hear you, bud. We're going to be at this all day long."

"Whatcha got there?" Axel asked Drago as the Rockwolf sniffed the ground excitedly, tail wagging through the air. Inspecting the ground his partner was sniffing, Axel noticed bird tracks covering the ground. "Well, the Gremlin did say that there were a bunch of hawks in the area."

Drago didn't respond, preoccupied as he was sniffing the curious tracks he'd found.

"Come on, buddy," Axel said as he rose to his full height. "We've got better things to do than spend all day smelling some bird tracks. Let's go."

With a final sniff, Drago followed after Axel as they moved further along the Carnix Cliffs in search of the final herb the Gremlin wanted them to find.

"Windy Blooms, where are you?" Axel sang tunelessly under his breath as they moved over the dusty, rocky terrain that was dotted with scrubby grasses while the two avoided the loose rocks and soft soils that would have sent them over the edge. As they walked along, Axel noticed that they were moving in the same direction as the bird tracks that Drago had been enamored with earlier.

"Weird," he told Drago. "Birds can fly, why would one be walking?"

Drago's answering whine revealed nothing to Axel as they continued their search.

Nearly an hour later, Axel groaned in relief at the sight in front of him.

"Check it out, bud," he said as he scratched Drago behind the ears. "That's a bigger plant than these little grasses. I'll bet it's a Windy Bloom."

With a groan, Drago trudged tiredly after Axel as they approached the flower that rose twice as high as the grass around it.

"Yellow petals with green centers, looks like it'll fall over if you breathe wrong. Looks like a Windy Bloom to me," Axel grinned as he pulled out the box the Gremlin had insisted he take with him for the flower. "Let's get this and head back to the city. I could use a drink."

Drago's tail wagged at the thought of returning to cooler and less stressful climates, and he offered a woof of agreement.

Carefully, Axel used his Manipulate Earth spell to loosen the flower from the soil that its oddly hairy roots had knotted themselves into as he supported the flower and guided it to lay in the small box before he closed the lid on it and place it in his Bag of Holding.

"Done!" he declared with a grin, turning to where Drago stood next to him. "Drago? Where'd you go?"

As Axel looked around for his Rockwolf, Drago sniffed carefully at a dark patch of ground before Axel noticed him and came to see what was wrong.

"Whatcha got there?" he asked in an echo of his earlier question before recoiling in disgust. "Whoa! What the hell is that?!"

While Axel clutched his sensitive nose that was rebelling at the disgusting, cloying scent of whatever had darkened the ground, he carefully examined the patch, surprised to have his skill activate.

Corrupted Blood-Soaked Earth: A patch of earth that has been in soaked in the blood of a creature suffering from a vile corruption.

"What the hell does that mean?" he asked before a second notification added itself to the first.

You've stumbled onto a Quest!

Find the Source of the Corrupted Blood: A creature has left a trail of blood that shows signs of corruption. Follow the bloodtrail and determine the threat the creature poses. Furthermore, attempt to discover the nature of the corruption and the threat it poses.

Rewards: Unknown.

"I guess, we're following this," Axel sighed unhappily. "Help me out, Drago. Track!"

As the Skill took hold of Drago, Axel watched as his Rockwolf took a deeper sniff of the nasty scent before setting off. Following after his companion, Axel offered a measure of distance as they moved. It wasn't long since starting before he was kneeling beside a larger patch of blood-soaked earth and looking at the ground around it.

"This is weird," he muttered to Drago as he attempted to pick up more of the scent they were following. "The dirt looks like it's been pushed around by wind, but there hasn't been wind in the last two-ish hours. What did this? Birds?"

With a chuff, Drago found the trail and lead the two further along the path before Axel's question answered itself.

"Birds was the right guess," he muttered to himself as he knelt beside the dead bird on the ground. "What was this? One of the alchemist's hawks? It's been torn up pretty bad. Whatever did this was mean. And angry. Examine?"

Windy Hawk Corpse: The corpse of a Windy Hawk. A trace of corruption can be found within the wounds.

"A trace of corruption?" Axel asked aloud, leaning closer to the dead animal. "How do I tell tha- Oh! There it is."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

As the cloying scent of the corruption wafted into his nostrils, Axel leaned back from the dead bird, clutching his face in an attempt to prevent the smell from reaching him again.

"Oh, that's still gross," he complained before Drago's soft woof pulled him from his examination of the hawk's corpse. "Got the direction, bud? Let's go."

With a wave of his hand, Axel moved the sandy soil aside and buried the dead hawk with his spell as he stood up and followed after Drago.

Further, they followed the trail, and along the way they found more signs of the corrupted creature having fought and killed indiscriminately as they passed more hawk corpses on the clifftop. Finally, Drago sat back on his haunches as he and Axel looked down into the ravine that they'd followed the trail to as they watched two hawks fight one another visciously.

"I think we found the corrupt animal," Axel said as the now familiar, disgusting smell wafted over them from the two hawks. "What's the bet that the infected one is the one that's got the red eyes and almost no feathers?"

Drago answered with an unhappy groan as he tried to paw the scent away from his face.

"Yeah, I know, buddy," Axel said in sympathy. "Let's get down there and take care of this."

"Sic the corrupted one!" he ordered as he and Drago dashed toward the two birds, locked in mortal combat with one another.

Hearing Axel's voice, the two hawks broke apart and screeched at one another as the uncorrupted hawk took flight away from the mangy, corrupted one and sent glowing green feathers shooting across the distance between them as the near-featherless one flapped its wings uselessly and scratched outward with its taloned feet. With a growl, Drago dodged the flash of red light that swept toward him from the corrupted hawk's claws before a deeper growl reverberated through his chest and his own iron-coated claws gleamed dangerously as he swiped out in three rapid strikes toward the grounded bird.

Screeching, the flightless hawk attempted to hop backwards and avoid the strike, only to be struck by the feathers from the now-flying hawk to be driven forward into the third claw strike from Drago. As the Ironclawed Rockwolf's signature claws tore into the hawk's unprotected body, Axel watched as lines of red energy seemed to leak from the bird before disapating into the air. With a motion of his hands, Axel raised a portion of the soil and rock around him before driving it bodily down on the bird that he noticed was nearly twice as large as its feathered counterpart.

Springing backward, Drago avoided the mass of earth as the flying hawk sent several more glowing feathers toward the corrupted bird and forced it to remain in place to avoid them as the heavy earth fell. Holding his breath, Axel waited, watching for any sign that the corrupted hawk might have survived before a deep cry, muffled by the earth sounded out and the bird pushed its way bodily from the ground. With a screech the corrupted hawk engaged Drago again as Axel turned to look toward the flying hawk.

"Try not to get hurt anymore," he ordered the bird, hoping it would understand him. "Leave the rest of this to us, just help keep it from escaping."

Without waiting for an answer from the animal, Axel turned back to the fight between Drago and the corrupted bird that now had visibly broken bones and was much larger than before, almost as large as one of the small wolves that he'd fought the day before.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked himself as he triggered Examine on the corrupted bird.

Corrupted Windy Hawk: A Windy Hawk that has been infected with a vile corruption. Each attack the creature makes against another risks infecting that creature.

"Oh shit!" Axel swore, stepping quickly toward the fight. "Drago! Back off some, don't let it hit you!"

As the Rockwolf obeyed him, Axel barrelled into the side of the corrupted hawk as it attempted to chase the wolf. Off-balance from the sudden tackle, the hawk wasn't able to react as Axel alternated slamming his fists into the animal's head and scratching deeply into the strangely soft flesh that covered the animal. Feeling his claws score deeply into the bird's body, Axel watched with sick fascination as his claws ripped long, deep furrows in the corrupted animal, stopping only once he hit bone. As the deep scratched parted the bird's flesh, Axel watched whisps of red smoke waft upward from the wounds before the hawk let out one long, keening screech and fell still beneath him, its body engorged to nearly three times its original size.

Panting, Axel pushed himself off the massive, corrupted hawk to stand beside Drago as they stared at the dead animal.

"What the hell was that?" he asked his partner.

Before Drago could answer, the Corrupted Windy Hawk's body seemed to boil before a large amount of red mist, thicker than the smoke that had been released from its injuries, came out of the body. As Axel watched, the mist flowed together, swirling, before it formed a shape very close to his own and faced him.

Staring at him, the red mist opened its mouth in a silent screech before flowing toward him.

"Drago, run!" Axel told his Rockwolf before springing to the side and watching the red mist whirl around to face him, its body speaking of the anger and hatred that filled it.

Sweeping his hand upward, Axel summoned another mass of earth before sending the entire thing swirling around the mist, sending dust flying and obscuring the corruption's vision.

"That's not working," Axel muttered to himself as he watched the misty figure flow through the man-made dust devil without slowing as it approached him.

While the figure moved closer to Axel, Drago released a deep growl and swiped out visciously with his claws at the figure's side. As the Ironclawed Rockwolf's claws flashed through the misty figure, it seemed to stumble and scream silently in pain as clouds of mist clung to Drago's claws and fell to the ground, dissapating uselessly on the ground. Whirling to face the beast, the misty figure fell onto all fours and changed its shape to mimic his as it stalked toward the wolf. Growling, Drago faced the mist down as Axel called the loose soil from around him to condense together into crude rock, coating his claws as he sprang at the mist and swiped heavily at the figure.

With another silent cry, the mist faced him and took on Axel's shape as it lunged toward him and attempted to grab onto the Wolf-man's arm. Dancing backward from the grasping mist, Axel avoided the figure's hands as several glowing, red feathers suddenly rained downward on the mist and brought an audible screech from its mouth.

Crying in pain at the high-pitched screech, Axel grasped at his wolfish ears atop his head and vaguely noticed Drago whimpering in shared pain as he crouched low to the ground and bared his teeth to the corrupted mist that now swirled into a shape of a hawk once more before flaring its wings and crying, silent once more, in challenge to the sky. Answering the smoky figure's challenge came a heavy volley of green feathers that pierced the mist to imbed themsevles into the ground.

As the mist mimicing the shape of a hawk silently cried out again, an orange and red blur darted downward and violently swiped its talons through the mist's chest, sending the remainder of the corruption to dissapate lifelessly to the ground.

"You okay, Drago?" Axel asked his partner as he rose to his feet and approached the whimpering wolf. For safety, Axel checked his friend's status.

Drago Ironclawed Rockwolf

Earthsense

Iron Claws

Rocky Hide

Wild Senses

Innate Tracking

Art of Tearing Claws

Tired

Lightly Wounded

"I'm not seeing anything about corruption from you," Axel said as Drago rose to his feet and padded toward him. "I guess that means you're okay."

With a soft, tired chuff of agreement, Drago sat heavily as he watched the newcomers that had ended the fight between the two of them and the corrupted mist. Following Drago's gaze, Axel watched as several hawks, all sharing the coloring of the Windy Hawk they'd helped survive the Corrupted Windy Hawk's attack, descended to land on the ground and rocks all around him. Standing proudly in front of Axel, chest puffed out self-importantly, was another hawk with orange and red feathers. Unlike its brown and gray counterparts, this one seemed to have heat flowing off of it as it watched him carefully.

"Excuse us," Axel said awkwardly, unsure if the bird could understand him. "We were just trying to help with whatever that corruption stuff was. Thanks for the assist."

"No trouble," an answer came to Axel's words.

"Ummm, what?" Axel asked intelligently.

"Over here," the voice chuckled, causing Axel to look over and see a figure standing at the edge of the flock of birds. "Didn't think I was a bird-brain like King Burny over there, did ya?"

"Uh, no," Axel said. "I just thought that a bird was speaking to me."

"Well," the figure chuckled as they removed their hood from their head, revealing one of the rarer bird-type Beastkin as the speaker, "I suppose you're not wrong about a bird talking to you, Little Pup. My name's Harn. What's yours?"

Quest Update: You've found the original source of the corrupted blood and slain the Corrupted Windy Hawk responsible. You've managed to dissapate the Risen Corruption that came from killing the Corrupted Windy Hawk. Find what corrupted the Windy Hawk and put an end to this.

"Axel," the Wolf-man answered as he read the notification that popped up in front of him. "The handsome fella here beside me is Drago. Nice to meet you, Harn."