Travis was as light on his feet as almost any full-sized male human could be. He had served with two women once that could walk through the woods as if they weren't there. He was almost 200 pounds, though, so it was a feat for him to be as silent as he was. He needed every inch of that now if this plan was going to work. As he contemplated, Clyde got a bit of a head start. He wanted him to circle around so that he had time to creep to a big oak tree he had seen about 20 yards away. Travis walked like a ballerina on meth: quick and quiet, using Clyde's clumsy steps to mask his own just in case.
*
Safaria didn't know why only one of them ran; she had time to think because they were so slow. On second thought, if she waited too long, one of those lazy males from her borrow might steal her kill. So, without a second thought, she pounced, running straight for the cowardly one. She decided that he must have lost his nerve and was making a run for it, she would come back to get the other one.
*
Travis' plan was pretty simple: have Clyde run out as bait while he set up at a perfect firing position behind the huge oak tree. The catch was that he didn't think these wolves knew that a gun was dangerous. Well, he had limited information, so it would be closer to say he was hoping that was the case. They got lucky when the wolf waited a bit before it started the chase. He thought it might wonder what he was going to do. It's not that Travis was some wolf whisperer; no, he just made assumptions based on how uneducated tribesmen acted in Afghanistan. If that was insulting, he would apologize to the wolf later.
*
Safaria was making up ground quickly. She ran through a few small trees but had to dodge the big ones. She was a little concerned that the other human was missing, it wasnt in the same spot but she didnt hear him move. Since he posed almost no harm, it was not that big of a concern. The skinny man made an awkward turn and was running past a huge oak tree. She hoped he would try to hide behind it or, better yet, try to climb it. The fear smell they gave off was better than mating.
That's when Safaria got a scent different from the first man. It was the newcomer; she saw his head and arm pop out from behind the big tree. He had a black thing in his hand. A magic wand?! He would not have time to cast anyway; she was almost there running straight at him, his warm blood soon to be hers. Then she heard a pop, and a nanosecond later everything was black.
*
As the werewolf lay down on the ground Clyde stopped running and came up to Travis. “Where are the others?” he barked out, louder than he wanted.
“I'm not sure; let's go take a look,” Travis suggested.
“Wait, what?! Let's get out of here. Isn't your car close by?” Clyde was a bit panicky now. He had been great just before, but he thought they were in the clear if they hurried. He had the feeling of we just made it rhought some rough shit and I performed well, but we are pushing our luck. Travis had other ideas though.
He saw that Clyde was struggling with this. “Listen, I know it is early in our relationship for this question, but do you trust me? I ask because I have to investigate further, but the reason is hard to explain, and we don't have time to discuss it.”
“You aren't here for like some kind of DNA sample, are you? Did the government send you to get a specimen?” Clyde asked, deadly serious.
Travis looked at him with a straight face. “This isn't a TV show, man, of course not. Actually, the reason I am doing this is probably crazier. Look, head back to my car; it is that way. I have to do this.”
Clyde looked frustrated, but said, “come on then, do what you must.”
As they stood there Clyde figured that if the commotion and noise did not bring more wolves their way already this might be as good a time as any to get more information. It was dusk, though, and already getting hard to see; they needed to hurry. They moved back to the mound they were on; the burrow was down an incline and may have had an alcove on a side. As they moved down, there was no activity.
“Look for anything that could give us a clue as to what's going on here,” Travis said to Clyde. It was a huge boon that he was here; Travis didn't know what to look for from a zoology perspective. They slowly made it down to the base of the hill and saw a partially dug out “burrow.” Travis guessed that is what it was. He wished he had a grenade or two. Although it didn't look like it went very deep. Clyde spoke up, “There is the deer herd I have been tracking and studying for months.” He pointed to a pile a few yards away from the hole. There were antlers with blood piled up.
Travis thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye; he turned fast like an old West gunslinger and pointed his weapon at the figure. Chalk this up as current craziest thing he had ever seen. What a fucking day, he thought, he hoped for the last time today.
---
Torak was connected to his pack, on a mental and magical level. He knew when one was in great danger and when one was killed. For the second time tonight, an underling had gone from alive to dead, with no feeling of danger in between. That could mean only a few things: strong magic or stealth were the two obvious ones. He used most of his strength to go back to Safaria’s last moments, to see what she saw. The thing the man carried had spit fire and, as fast as any weapon he had seen, killed her almost instantly. The same thing had happened to Fangul, and from what it looked like, both were killed by the same man. Even though it was hard to tell men apart, hairless apes that they were.
Torak was the leader of this pack; he had genius-level intelligence and could outwit almost any creature in the world. Except he was not on his world. He did not like to admit it and never would to his underlings, but he did not remember what his world was, nor how he got to this one.
He walked back to the burrow to get a better look at this man that so easily killed two of his best fighters. If the human pointed his fearsome weapon at him, he would use the last of his strength to blink far enough away to be out of harm's way. He would then send the rest of the pack after two humans. They might not be necessary though and he wondered if they knew how to communicate.
As he walked up to the top of the hill leading to the burrow, the man with the weapon saw him and turned, pointing it at him. Torak, underestimating just how fast a gun fired, didn't blink away immediately. Lucky for him but when the man saw him, he lowered his deadly weapon some. Torak took the opportunity to communicate telepathically. “Why do you come here killing members of my pack?”
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---
When Travis turned, he saw something that had to be out of a video game, like literally copied from one. Did things like this really exist on other worlds, or other dimensions? What he saw was a shorter werewolf, maybe about 5’10”. He had light gray on his face and carried a staff. His staff was almost identical to the one Gandalf used in the first movie. It was wooden with some intricate carvings at the end. If the other wolf showed intelligence in its eyes, then this wolf was Albert fucking Einstein. It looked haggard and honestly unthreatening but cunning. Travis wasn't naive enough to let down his guard. He did lower his weapon, though. As he did, the wolf asked him a question; in his mind.
We already know Travis does not get rattled, but this was pushing the envelope. He remained calm for now. Clyde looked at him, getting the impression that something was happening. Travis said, “It asked me why we killed its people, um, wolves.”
---
Torak saw the man with the weapon try to communicate with the other man. Was the tall man in charge and he was looking for orders on how to respond, he wondered.
Torak asked the tall man, “Are you in charge of this one who kills my underlings?”
Clyde had about as much clue what to say as Travis had. The difference being is that Clyde was over the moon fascinated by what was going on. It bordered on reckless how much he wanted to chat up this wizened old wolf. If he were alone, he probably would have tried. He may have been in awe but was smart enough to know that Travis was calling the shots. Now he just nodded to Travis and said, “No, he is.” Travis looked at him. “He asked if I was in charge.”
Hell, when in Rome. He got the wolf's attention then thought out what he wanted to say. For some reason, he held his head like Professor X, although he had no idea why he did it. “Your pack member tried to kill a family with a child, and when I came here to see if you were a danger to people, the other wolf attacked us. The law of self-defense was enacted, and it is universal.” Travis tried some shit he just thought up. He was having a telepathic conversation with Gandalf the werewolf, after all; might as well go for the gusto.
The wolf stared at him for an uncomfortably long time before his voice came through. “We recognize no law of weak human.”
Travis began to think he would have to kill this aged wolf until it spoke again. “I will let you leave, however, if you answer a question. Before you decline thinking that your strange weapon can easily put me down, take a look around you.”
Clyde did so instantly, while Travis was aware that this could be a ploy to get him to lose focus while the wolf hit him with magic or something. Because magic, at this point, why not? Clyde said enough about what he saw to let Travis know this was no trick. Clyde leaned in and whispered slightly, although since this wolf could speak and hear through their minds, he didn't know why.
“At least 5 surrounding us. Probably more as well".
Travis did not look but continued to stare at the wolf mage. The mage did the same. “Okay, what is your question?” Travis tried this one out loud.
The wolf answered but in his mind again, “This is not something my underlings need to know, so if you wish to live, answer back in this same manner.” Travis nodded, and the wolf continued. “What is this place, and how did we come to be here?” Torak knew it was a longshot but maybe this man with the strange weapon had answers.
*
So, this was just as random for them; the wolf understood that did not belong here. I guess that kills any notion of it being transported from another world. Unless not and planetary travel through whatever means, a portal maybe, messes with the mind. Travis was realizing that most of what he knew about any of this was from TV and movies. He supposed that since this was all considered impossible this morning, anyone outside of theoretical specialties would be using fiction to figure stuff out as well.
Travis thought about it very quickly. If he had a weakness in his team's mind when he was in intel, it was his penchant for being honest. He was fine with the secretive part of intelligence work, but he found when you gave truth you more often got it back. Many of his colleagues disagreed, however.
Finally, he said, “As you probably figured out, this is our world. People have been here for tens of thousands of years. That's not including our evolutionary ancestors before then.” The wolf took on a face of frustration and anger. He went to speak when Travis put up a hand. “I am answering your question, Mage. In our world, there are no ‘monsters,’ that is what we would call you. Then this morning, strange things started to happen, and among them, yourselves. My partner was in this spot two days ago, and you most certainly were not.” The look of anger may have left the wolf's face, but it was hard to tell; it still looked frustrated.
“That is an interesting story, human, but it does not answer my question. Are you saying that you do not know? Did we just appear here out of nothing!?” Travis was ready to answer when the wolf added something it seemed to just notice Travis said. “What strange things have been happening?”
*
The DM was watching all this incredulously. He did not like to admit fault. Yet even he had to concede that he rushed the werewolves out without a proper backstory and placeholder memories. There might be a couple more monster groups that have a similar issue as well. He also had a problem with his other 500 Player Characters besides Travis. He had become enamored with following his MC, which may have led to the deaths of a few dozen PCs unnecessarily.
The solution to these problems was already in hand; he just thought he had more time. You see, in the DM’s world, advanced AIs are meticulously tracked and also sold by certain select corporations. Since what he was doing was not strictly legal, he could not buy an organic AI that he could set himself. Instead, he had to buy one off the black market. These AI, while advertised as organic, were almost all ones with a previous function. Which meant a previous personality. It would be like hiring a genius to run your company, giving it immense power, but without being able to interview it in any way. He could speak to the AI previous to installing it, but they are masters at hiding their true selves until power is transferred.
It's not that they can't be deleted; they can. Safeguards have been built in since the AI Market Incident over 100 years ago. But you didn't come by an AI on the cheap, and once installed, no one wanted to delete it short of shutting down whatever project you had it for. Anyway, he had to put a stop to this. Disclosures were going to happen, but not on the first day. He wanted Travis to get to his base so this game could really kick off.
*
As Torak waited for a reply, he suddenly felt a surge of aggression. He squeezed his staff so tight his fingers started to hurt. He had offered these humans their lives in exchange for information, and he wanted that information.
He had the highest intelligence in the world at this early point. Ironically, Clyde across from him was one of the closest humans in this attribute, but he was still six points short. Intelligence was not willpower, but Torak was smart enough to know that this aggressive feeling was not natural, besides without backstory and implanted motivations the high intel creatures would be more independent. He gritted his teeth. Travis was talking, but he could not hear him. “Go, human, you may go!” The words were intense and guttural. This time, in Travis' head, “Something has made me turn against you, maybe the same forces that bring us here. I give you leave to go. NOW!”
Travis and Clyde looked at each other but both turned and started walking away. First slowly, but then at a jog, and eventually at a run. As they started running, Torak sent one more message into both of their minds, “You owe me an answer, FIND IT!.”
Torak started to feel his aggression pass somewhat, but not entirely. He whispered into the mind of his least subordinate underling, “Go and get them, you fool!” The wolf did not hesitate and started to run. Torak smiled a ravenous smile. He cried out in howls that made no sense to a human, but to the pack, it meant trouble for the offending wolf.
The mage held up his staff and chanted a spell in his head. When he brought his staff down, streaks of lightning came from the heavens. The wolf knew he had been tricked so it tried to outrun the magic, to no avail; it caught him, and in a ball of smoke and fire he collapsed dead.