Meera followed the Shade, who hadn't said a word ever since she told him of her true intentions. She hoped she could trust him, or this kingdom would soon become a warzone. Seeing as he was a Shade, I hope he still holds some love for his country.

The forest was like any other she had been—dark and filled with trees. Though, it wasn't as ominous as the forest of Rothedon. That forest gave her a feeling of always being watched, but that could mostly be chalked up to those infernal monkeys.

She focused on the now, putting away thoughts of those monkeys. She heard a howl in the distance and almost pulled off her chakram, but thanks to her Gem of Echoes, she heard the wolves moving away from them. Of course, Dirik was oblivious to all this, though he did pick up the pace.

It wasn't long before they reached a small tree with lots of shrubbery around it.

"It's here," Dirik said. "This is where we saw the blood drops."

"Okay, let's look around." Meera pushed around the bushes and brought her torch closer to get a better look. When she found nothing, she moved to the next shrub, and there was nothing there either. The same was true for the next one.

Meera had just about given up when Dirik exclaimed. "Found it. Here!" He pointed to a spot on the ground. Meera brought her torch closer and saw the reddish-brown blood stains. It had dried, but she had seen enough blood to know what it was.

"Well, I can see why Zona didn't think much of this," Meera said.

"Yes, but as I was leaving, I found more," Dirik said. He moved around some more bushes. "Must be here somewhere. Ah, there it is." He pointed to another stain of the brownish-dried drop of blood.

"Again, that's not enough, Dirik," Meera replied. "These drops could have easily been made by a small animal who cut itself on a thorn or something like that."

He nodded and kicked the closest bush in frustration. "Well, then we're left with nothing again."

"Maybe not." She moved for the bushes where he sat. "Get up." She moved the bushes around when he got up, and there were some half-eaten leaves with dark stains. It wasn't blood but something else. She took a leaf and sniffed and recoiled at the stench. It had the metallic tang of blood and something else. Something she couldn't place, but it smelled terrible, like death.

She held the leaf out to Dirik. "Smell this. I can't place what this smell is."

He smelled the leaf and immediately recoiled. "Oh, that is foul. If I didn't know better, I would've thought I was smelling a rotting corpse."

"Are zombies a thing in this world?" Meera asked.

Dirik tilted his head. "What are zombies?"

"You know when something dies and comes back to life to eat you."

"Oh, you mean the Undead."

"Yes… that's what I meant."

"Didn't know they were called zombies in Ealisto," Dirik said.

Meera crossed her arms, knowing where this was headed. "Why do you think I'm from Ealisto?"

"Uh, because that's where the Varsha empire is…because you're Varshan, right?"

Meera leaned in. "Not. A. Varshan." She poked his chest with every word.

"Yes, I remember now." He stepped back from her. "I won't make that mistake again. I'm sorry."

"Anyways, so the undead, they're real?"

"Some say they're a myth, but others claim to have seen them," Dirik said. "Back at Tearsfell, we were taught to believe that if there is a story behind it, then chances are that it's real. I mean, we have dragons, and the great prophecy is about to come true now that the Champion has shown himself, so why can't the dead come back to life."

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She wanted to ask if he had seen the Champion, but she tabled that for now and kept her focus on this new problem. If it were a problem, she had a very shiny solution to it dangling from her arms.

Meera shrugged. "Well, there are world-killing dragons and ancient prophecies, and I've killed literal ghosts, so why can't the undead be a thing."

"Wait, you've killed ghosts?" Dirik said.

"I'll tell you about it later. We need to investigate this thing."

"But how does one go about killing ghosts?"

Meera smirked. "With very special weapons."

She left the stunned lad to think on that while she inspected the nearby bushes. Mirror Eagle's Perceptivity showed her where this undead might have gone. The bush next to it also had a half-eaten leaf with rot.

"It's this way," Meera said.

In the distance, the wolves howled again, making Meera wonder if they howled at Mirithia instead of the moon. They didn't even have a singular moon but moons and the two big ones, the other two words—Gethys and Ealisto.

She put the wolves out of her mind and found the next clue the undead left behind. It was animal droppings. Meera disregarded them, but Dirik stopped and stared at the pile.

"Do you think it could be an undead animal?" he asked, staring at the animal feces.

Meera squinted at him. "What makes you say that?"

He bent down, took a whiff of the pile, and recoiled. "Sheesh, that smells bad. It's been here for a day or more and smells of rot."

"Please don't tell me they taught you to smell animal poop and figure out how old it was back in Shade school," Meera said.

He chuckled nervously. "They called it tracking, as many people travel on horses and other animals. Please don't give me that look. It came in handy before."

"Fine. Fine. If we're tracking an animal, we should look for tracks."

Dirik bent down and brought his torch closer. "There are too many tracks. Definitely some animal, that's for sure. A few of them, in fact, and they're all moving in the same direction."

Meera zoomed in with her eyes on the tracks. "Oh no, I know those tracks. Those are wolf tracks."

Dirik frowned. "How do you know that?"

"I've had the pleasure of hunting them before, and last time, I followed them into a heap of trouble," she said, rubbing her chin.

"Well, there's no reason we can't hope for better luck."

Because all I've had is rotten luck ever since I stepped through that mirror.

Meera took the lead, and they followed the tracks through bushes and around trees. The wolves left some fur here and there that Dirik caught, which told them they were heading in the right direction. On occasion, they also found dried blood, but it was so inconsequential that she only caught it because of Meera's enhanced vision.

Another thing that told them they were heading in the right direction, which was not a good sign, was that the wolves' howls kept getting louder. They passed through a line of shrubbery and entered a clearing. The howling stopped abruptly.

"That doesn't sound good," Dirik said.

"Can your darkness hide us from wolves?" Meera asked quickly.

"It could, but then these are predators. They hunt with more than their eyes."

"Shit. Quick, climb a tree."

Meera tossed a chakram to the highest branch of the closest tree and teleported to it. She was safe while Dirik disappeared and stepped out of the tree's shadow. He had just begun to climb when the wolf pack jumped into the clearing from all sides—there must've been nine in total.

That wasn't even the most fearful thing about them. They looked like zombies in movies, with rotting skin and missing fur in patches. One even had his ribs showing, and most had milky-white eyes.

Meera used Identify right away.

[Undead Wolf – Level 181]

[Undead Wolf – Level 183]

.

.

[Undead Wolf – Level 192]

Dirik stopped trying to climb and pulled out his Shadowsteel sword. Meera knew the odds weren't on their side, and the wolves had them surrounded, and there was no running from them.

"Dirik, get up here, and we'll fight them at a distance," Meera said.

"M-Maybe, I can kill them from here." He placed his hand on the ground, and the tree's shadow extended to cover the entire clearing.

Meera knew this attack. She had died to it a few times during their training. He could handle it by himself if she let him, but she wasn't about to let all that experience go to him, and not to mention she had a few open skill slots that needed to be filled.

Dirik made the first move by driving his ground into the ground. A massive shadow version of his sword erupted through the ground and speared a wolf through the stomach.

Meera took five of her chakrams and launched them at five different wolves. She got three easily. One's head cut through the middle. The next tried to jump, but the chakram ripped through its shoulder and all the way through its length. The last stood no chance, and the chakram cut it in half. The other two jumped to safety, but Meera brought her chakrams to bear on them and cut them easily.

Her Shade friend took care of the last three with his Shadowsteel blade, throwing dark slashes at them. They took care of that pack in less than a minute.

Meera exchanged a look with Dirik, and they both flew into laughter. Meera recalled her chakrams and jumped down from the tree to revel in their victory.

"Were they this easy last time as well?" he asked.

Meera smirked. "Last time, I ended up hunting them. But we must figure out where they came from and how they became undead."

"I have a feeling our monster is connected to it somehow," Dirik said.

Meera's Wild Instincts spiked, and she pushed him out of the way and jumped aside. Right where they stood, a monster appeared and slashed where they were. The torch's light lit the huffing monster, and Meera's eyes widened.

[Undead Werewolf – Level 258]