The sound of someone else's voice made me pause as the chilly wind blew through the trees. Between two tree trunks, I could see the small fire and the shadow of someone near it. But, because of the light, I couldn't make out who it was.

"Hello?" he called, taking a step closer to me. Above his head appeared a tag, Michael. It was familiar. "Is anyone out there? I mean, no harm. The fire is warm."

The howling in the distance increased, and Michael jerked closer to the fire, moving away from me. The wind also picked up, and as I shivered, even with the coat, I didn't see another choice. The trial led in this direction, so my assumption was this was where I needed to go. Michael wasn't a diver, which meant he had to be an NPC. Maybe he was the one I needed to help. I took a few more steps forward, my boots crunching in the snow.

"I'm going to join you at the fire," I said, keeping my voice friendly. The knife was still in my inventory, along with the lighter, but the hammer was in my hand. I moved within the ring of trees and could feel the difference in temperature that the small fire was making. "Hi."

Michael said nothing as I walked toward the fire, but from here I could get a better look at him. He was tall, with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. His clothing wasn't like mine. His pants looked like leather, and he had on a thick cloak. It blocked most of his body, making it impossible to see what else he was wearing. Dirt covered one side of his face, and he had a knitted cap on, which was a deep forest green. The cap kept drawing my attention, but I didn't know why.

"I'm Michael," He said. "It's good to run into someone else out here."

"I'm Alex. Yeah, I didn't expect to see anyone else. What are you doing out in this weather?" I asked. Each step toward the fire felt good, but I saw only a very little wood supply. Just a small stack of branches near one trunk. The areas between the trees weren't large. Maybe ten feet across, if that, with the fire in the center. The snow had melted in a ring around the heat source, showing hardened dirt.

Michael snorted. "This isn't bad weather, not really. Pretty normal for this time of year." He shook his head. "The wolves are the issue." He eyed the hammer. "I hope you can use that."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm good enough." Which was only partially true. While I had practiced with a hammer at the gym with Daniel, I didn't have a ton of fighting experience with it. "But you didn't answer my question."

Michael sheepishly ran his hand over his face. "Sorry, it's been a long day with the wolves and it's a pretty wild story. I don't know if you're going to believe me." He motioned to the fallen log next to the fire. "Wanna sit?"

I moved closer to the log but kept my distance from him. "I won't know if I'll believe you until I hear it." The warmth felt good on my legs as I sat down on the farthest end of the log from him. Still, the fire wasn't going to last all night, not with only those few branches to feed it.

Michael took a seat, keeping his distance. "I'm out here trying to save my town," he said, pausing for a moment. "The wolves are attacking everyone, but there is a secret cave not far from here that has the magic to stop them. I'll be able to stop the bloodshed, if I can get there."

"A magic cave?" I asked.

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"Yes," he nodded, looking hopeful. "The wise man of our village said I needed to bring an offering to it, and that would reinforce the magic, keeping our homes safe." He motioned to the fire. "The fire is the only thing that keeps them at bay."

"You don't have much wood to keep it going," I said. I hadn't seen any wolves in the forest, I’d only heard them. I'd walked almost all day with no problems. Harold and Fennel couldn't say the same. Their two bodies had been left in the snow, but I wasn't sure what had killed them. Fennel had a wound on the back of his head, but neither of them had been eaten.

"No, I used a good amount of it keeping it going so far. I need to go looking for more wood, and was going to do that when I heard something." He smiled. "And then you showed up. It must be a sign of fate that I will be able to save my town."

"How about you stay here near the fire and I'll go grab some wood?" I asked. I'd rather have him where I could monitor him.

He nodded in reply.

I got up and headed back the way I'd come toward the trail. We would need plenty of dried branches and dead wood to keep the fire burning, and I’d passed a large evergreen tree with a ton of dead lower branches only a short way back on the trail. The hammer stayed in my hand as I hurried back down the trail, but nothing moved outside the flickering of the fire. The tree was right where I thought it was, and I started breaking off the dead branches. A pile quickly grew by my feet, as I added every piece of wood I could to it.

"I wonder," I muttered to myself, before trying to put some of it in my inventory. The wood vanished, and I stashed all of it inside. That made things move faster, since as soon as I broke a branch off I could put it inside.

A low growl caused me to freeze, and the hammer appeared in my hand. I'd put it away to deal with the wood. Several feet away, two yellow glowing eyes peered out from behind a tree trunk. "I mean no harm," I said, trying to figure out what to do about this situation.

It stepped closer and I could make out the dark shape in the little light I had left. Its ears flickered toward me.

"I just need firewood to keep warm tonight."

The growl cut off, and it didn't move any closer.

"Alex, you okay?" Michael's voice broke across the forest, and the wolf turned in his direction before vanishing behind a tree.

"Coming!" I called back, wondering why it hadn't attacked me. By the time I got back, the fire needed more wood, but the small stack was still near the far tree trunk. I glanced at Michael but he was looking into the darkness between two trees. Shaking my head, I grabbed some of the dried wood and tossed it on the fire. It immediately perked up, spilling more heat across the clearing. I added some of the wood from my inventory to the pile. It probably wasn't enough to get through the night, but honestly, I didn't know. The few times I'd gone out camping we had purchased nice seasoned wood for the fire. Besides, keeping the fire going all night in a public campground wasn’t nearly as important as it was going to be here.

Growling caught my attention, and I spun around. Five feet in front of Michael was a large black wolf. Its yellow eyes focused on him, taking a careful step forward. I rushed toward the wolf with my hammer out in front of me. "Get!"

The wolf took off away from me, and I quickly glanced over my shoulder at Michael. He just stood there, his eyes narrowed as he gazed where the wolf had vanished. It wasn't a fearful look. Then it was gone, and he gave me a bright smile.

"Those horrible wolves!" said Michael. "I'm glad you’re here to protect me. Maybe I can finish this quest." He turned and sat back down on the log next to the fire.

Uncertainty filled me as I sat down on the log. Maybe getting Michael to the cave would solve this dive and I could get out of here. It wasn't as straightforward as the level one dive had been, but maybe that was the difference as levels went up. This was a level three song, after all.

Another gust of icy wind blew through the trees, and I stuck my hands in my pocket after putting my hammer away. It was going to be a long night, so I moved closer to the fire. Just as I was beginning to settle, howls broke through the trees.