We sat down and made a bit of a fire.

“Let me begin by saying that I’m sorry that I didn't talk it over too much before I sent you away. I didn’t want you guys to try and change my mind. I still feel that I did the right thing.”

Aura stood up and shouted “We get why you did it. But you need to get it into that thick brain of yours that we are not weak. We don’t need you to protect us, or to make those decisions for us.”

Missy stood up and put her hand on Aura’s shoulder and made her sit down again. “We saw the pile of corpses left after the battle. We also saw signs of how many were left afterward. I don’t think we could have held even if we were all there. So thank you. But you still need to understand that those decisions are ours to make, not yours.”

Grim then spoke up. “We also need to talk about the first time you decided to take matters into your own hands. When you took on that other band of adventurers in the woods. I know you didn’t tell us everything that happened that night. We need to know what transpired and why.”

“Ok, please sit down and I’ll tell you guys everything. If you want to walk away afterward, I won't stop you.” And I proceeded to tell them the whole story of how I tortured the adventurers to get them to tell me what they had done and why, and how I executed them.

“The why is harder to explain. Ever since I was a child I have hated bullies and those who mistreat people or animals that are weaker than what they are. When that happens I see this red behind my eyes. All I can think of is to hurt those that have done this sort of thing. When I saw what they did to those animals I couldn’t stop myself. All I could think about was hurting them as much as they hurt those animals. I think it might be the part vampire in me.”

Then looking at Sissy “Seeing the hurt in your eyes only steeled my resolve in that. I told myself that I executed them because I didn’t want you to get your hands dirty. I told myself I was protecting the innocence of the shy, cheerful girl that I had gotten to know those last few years in school. That’s what I keep telling myself. It’s what I need to keep telling myself.”

I then turned away from the group and started to walk away. Two big hands came up behind me and grim lifted me up and sat me back down at the fire. He put a hand on one shoulder while Aura sat down next to me and hugged me.

Grim spoke up “You are not getting away that easily. We all have a dark side. Hell, I’m half-orc. You yourself spent most of our childhood helping me get out of scrapes. I cannot say if those men needed to die in that way, but I do know those two girls.” Looking over at Missy and Sissy. “They would have done much worse things to those men if they had gotten their hands on those men. I saw how mad they were at the time.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Missy and Sissy both nodded at that. “They deserved what they got. Who knows how long it would have taken them to go from torturing animals to doing the same to other people.” They said.

Grim lightened the mood by telling me how his first meeting with the twin’s dad was, how they got drunk and had to sleep in the living room. We all snuggled up together by the fire looking up at the stars and one by one all fell asleep.

The next couple of days we spent gathering the materials needed for a minimum of two weeks of travel. We had two carts made ready to be hitched behind Ethel and behind Tobias.

Aura had been able to get the second Wolf Iron golem made, leaving the last few finishing touches for a small ceremony. Figuring she might as well do this right.

She had us all meet in the village square. At one end of the square, she had her tinker cart set up as a sort of makeshift altar. With her standing behind it. All that was on it was the large body of the wolf. From the altar she had Moira’s Wolves lined up in two long lines about 5 feet apart, making an arch with their spears extended making a small road between them.

With most of the village sitting on either side of the arch. A small procession appeared. Freki leading it. Behind came the drummer-boy and a few older children that were chosen to carry the four legs of the golem. At the rear was Moira with the wolf's head. They made their way to the altar with Freki taking up position next to Aura behind it. The children one by one handed her the legs which she attached. She then made them step back and had Moira come forward with the head. When she attached it a bright flash happened and both Freki and Geri were now standing about twenty feet behind her. The Altar being empty.

They both let out a great big wolf howl, looking up into the sky. Hearing this Ethel and the cubs rushed over and joined them. And one by one the few wolf-kin in the village joined in as well.

They stopped and everything went quiet again. Both Iron wolves moved up to Aura. Geri spoke. “Thank you young one, it has been a while since we have had some fun. In reward for making these vessels in our honor, we offer them our boon. Once a day you can summon our spirits to inhabit and empower them for ten minutes. Either for battle or advice.”

Freki added, “Or to just have some fun running around with a pack again.” Looking over to Ethel and the cubs. “We can’t be gone too long or the big guy upstairs would get lonely.”

Geri then spoke again “Speaking of which we don’t have much time left.” And he proceeded to run over to Ethel and the cubs and started to play a version of tag with them. First Tobias and then one by one the children of the village joined in and everyone had a good laugh at all the antics. After a few minutes Geri and Freki Laid down next to the cart and you could see the intelligence go away. Tobias the wolves and the kids kept playing around them, while all the adults went and had a feast that Grim prepared.