Gurt and I ended up following the scent of our parents all the way to the river where we ran into Westra and Kurt. I waved when they came into sight and they waved back. When we got into shouting distance of them I yelled, “Where have you guys been?”
Kurt yelled back, “The barbarians ran away and we have been trying to track them down.”
My face scrunched up as I was puzzled by that bit of information. I’d just told them less than two days ago that I would be escorting them home and they end up taking off. It just didn’t make sense, why brave the wilderness and potentially hostile residents of a country not your own when you could have an escort home. Apparently something was lost in translation, either that or they didn’t trust me.
Gurt and I jogged the last little bit until we could hold a conversation without shouting and I asked, “So where are my parents now?”
Kurt answered, “They are still searching for the barbarians, right now your father and mother should be searching upriver for them. We found a false trail that threw your Dad off for a while, then he realized the barbarians were trying to lose any pursuit and so he ran off north as that’s the direction of their homeland.”
I nodded and said, “Well I guess that makes sense, but if Dad went north then I’m going to check to the south just to make sure they didn’t pull another fast one. Gurt you should go home with your parents, I’m going to have to run if I want any shot at catching them. Kurt would you mind telling my parents where I went if they return before I do?”
Kurt replied, “Sure Swift, just do your best to stay out of trouble and remember the barbarians are desperate enough to run away, they probably won’t return quietly so you may have to put them down. I know you put in a lot of work saving them, but if they got loose they could seriously hurt some people and then that would be on your conscious.”
I said, “I know, and if it comes down to it I will do what’s necessary, but I think they probably didn’t understand that I planned on taking them home, they are probably just scared and thus acting out. If I can’t calm them down and bring them home peacefully I will do what I have to, but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”
I jumped into the water and crossed the river without waiting for a reply, frankly I didn’t want to hear any more advice that I should kill the only two humans I’d seen in this world. Sure I’d been a Susi for the last nine years now, I’d come to love my family and gotten used to my new body. I can honestly say that I actually enjoyed my life now even more than my old one. I mean sure the tech base sucked, but I got to play around with magic and I was so good at martial arts I’m pretty sure I could make Bruce Lee my bitch. And on top of all that with the aid of magic I could actual heal sicknesses that modern medicine didn’t have a shot at curing. I went into medicine because I wanted to be able to help people and in this world I really could do just that, but I also missed my old world.
I missed being able to just relax on a Sunday, watch TV or a movie. I missed being able to order a pizza and have it delivered to me from miles away. I missed driving my old Toyota, I mean sure it couldn’t break 100 mph to save my life, but it was reliable and sure as hell made my life more convenient. Most of all I missed the people in my life, my friends, my old family, I missed humanity. So I honestly doubt I would be able to kill the two humans that ran away. I mean sure we hadn’t really had any meaningful conversations but they were a reminder of who I used to be and there’s no way I could just kill them out of hand.
I faintly heard Kurt yell, “Be careful Swift.” But I ignored him and pretended that I didn’t actually hear what he had to say. I needed to catch up with those two humans before they hurt someone, or got themselves killed.
I moved quickly down the bank of the river, it was often overgrown with brush and I was forced to avoid a lot of low hanging branches but I still made good time, hopping into the water where necessary. I didn’t try to find their exit point through sight, I mean sure I kept my eyes open for any obvious signs but I was primarily relying on my nose to track them down. It was the only method that would allow me to move at a pace fast enough to actually catch up with the escaping humans.
Now normally when trying to track something by its scent you want to have a fresh sample of said scent in order to help the dogs pick it up. Fortunately for my quick search method I was a little smarter than your average dog, so I was smelling for things other than just their personal scent, like metal, leather, or river water where it shouldn’t be. That last one led me down a couple of false trails but eventually after an hour of searching when the sun finally sank beneath the horizon and the moon was beginning to rise I finally caught a whiff of their actual trail. It was the smell of wet leather that really stood out.
Once I found their trail it was easy to follow, I couldn’t really see any tracks but the smell of leather and eventually sweat let me know I was on the right path. I was also able to really pick up the pace as the humans were moving along a game trail so I didn’t have to go crashing through the underbrush. I started jogging along the path as it headed generally westward slowing down briefly every now and then to confirm I was still on their trail.
I could tell I was getting close to the humans as their scent was getting rather fresh, but then I caught a whiff of something that instantly put me on guard. It was the scent of Susikin… this world’s equivalent of wolves. I wouldn’t be too worried if it was only one Susikin, but I was getting multiple scents, apparently a pack had caught wind of my humans. I stopped moving forward for a minute and did my best to discern how many Susikin I’d have to deal with. My nostrils flared as I took a lot of quick breaths, I walked around the path for a few seconds, stepped off it in both directions and eventually came to a count. Ten Susikin, four females and six males, don’t ask how I know that, you won’t like the answer.
After determining the size of the pack I started jogging again. I wish I’d brought a spear or something to help ward off the pack, but it looks like I’d have to rely on my fists, my claws, and my magic. Fortunately I fought with those three things more than any other weapon, so even though I wasn’t armed I in no way felt helpless. I picked up the pace a bit when I caught the faint noise I’d learned to associate with battle. I didn’t sprint, but I did pick up the pace even more, I also thanked Sister Moon for shining so bright tonight, allowing me to see the forest floor well enough to maintain such a fast pace. That’s right I was thanking a Goddess for the moon being so bright. If I hadn’t died, been reincarnated and wound up as a wolfman on another world I would never have attributed the brightness of the moon to a Goddess, but hey, when you’ve done all of that…
Sorry for the digression, anyway after thanking the Moon Goddess of my people I continued forward as fast as I safely could, that is until I caught a glimpse of my humans fighting for their lives. There were nine Susikin in front of them snarling and drawing their attention, one was injured but still active. Unfortunately the alpha was not amongst the nine, which could only mean one thing. I took off at a sprint, the alpha obviously heard me coming because it stepped out of the underbrush and after a quick warning glare it prepared itself to leap at the older human’s back. I howled to give the two some warning, but that just seemed to act as a starting gun for the Susikin as it leapt in an attempt at killing the old warrior before I arrived.
I knew there was no way I could reach the two before the Alpha was on them, at least not physically, so I sent my mana ahead of me. The warrior spun quickly upon hearing my howl, but he had no chance at defending himself before the Susikin would be on him, so I used the mana I’d sent ahead to gather some earth and launch it at the leaping Susikin.
It didn’t do a lot, my timing wasn’t perfect and I wasn’t able to gather anything hard like a stone, but I managed to do enough to save the old warrior from instant death. The Susikin’s mouth missed my human, its legs were swept to the side as the dirt connected, and the alpha ended up crashing into the warrior. Both of them went down in a tangle of limbs and teeth, but it allowed the boy enough time to do something. When the Susikin righted itself and moved to attack the downed man the boy swung his shovel with all his strength. The hit was brutal and had enough power in it to knock to Susikin several feet away from the old warrior.
The alpha got up, a little shaky from the hit, the kid had probably broken a couple of its ribs, and the other Susikin began advancing again. Unfortunately for the Susikin they didn’t act fast enough and I was able to leap in front of the two humans. I bared my fangs at the Susikin and challenged them to come at me. Two of them were foolish enough to do so, the light grey one on the right leapt at me, while the darker grey on the left kept low and went for my leg. They acted fast and were well coordinated, it was probably something the two had done hundreds of times over hundreds of hunts, of course I wasn’t some dumb deer that had never had to fight a wolf before. I fought my father on a daily basis and if I lost to the first pair of Susikin that attacked me he would probably spit on my grave and thank them for saving him from the embarrassment of having a son that couldn’t even fight off a couple of Susikin.
I swung out my right hand and grabbed the leaping Susikin by the neck I then continued the motion, redirecting the Susikin’s momentum down and to the left. Its lower body went crashing into the head of the other charging Susikin its head was slammed into the ground, causing a small dent in the trail and breaking its neck. I then leapt forward toward the mildly disoriented Susikin. It was still recovering from having its pack mate’s leg hit it in the face which left it ill prepared for my sudden charge. I lead with my left hand and dug my claws into the beast’s fur and flesh. I sunk my claws deep into its throat and then ripped them out severing its windpipe and an important artery along the way.
Blood gushed out of the wound and the Susikin collapsed. I then growled at the eight remaining Susikin, they started to bunch up around their injured members, three were gathered in front of me around the one the human had hurt and the other three were gathered around the alpha. I growled again and the Susikin stayed on the defensive. They now knew that fighting me would be a losing proposition but they also couldn’t just flee due to the injuries some of their members had received, so I started backing up toward the humans.
That’s when I noticed that the boy was chanting something, I looked back and saw him gathering ice in between his hands. Apparently the boy could do some magic which was odd since I didn’t find a mana core in his body while healing him. Then again he was chanting something in a language that didn’t quite sound like his own, so maybe had found a way for people to use magic even without a mana core. Either way I sent out a wave of my own mana to disrupt his casting, I didn’t want him foolishly aggravating the pack when we had an opportunity to just walk away.
He looked up at me, startled at what I had done, I then shook my head at him and indicated that he should start backing up. He nodded, still a little shocked that I had dispelled his magic and started backing up, shovel in hand. The old warrior had regained his feet at this point and did the same. He still gripped the hoe tightly, but he was also too worried about the Susikin to be much of a threat to me right now. The three of us continued to back up along the path until we got a couple hundred feet away from the Susikin, then I heard the swoosh of the hoe and I had to duck and leap forward simultaneously in order the strike aimed at the back of my head.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I rolled out of the leap and turned to face the new aggressor. The old warrior shook the hoe at me and tried to look as menacing as possible, meanwhile I just laughed. The proud warrior attempting to take me out with a hoe was just ridiculous. I sent out a little bit of my mana and encased his feet in the earth. Once he was immobilized I leapt forward and wrested the hoe from his hands. Julius started chanting again and I could see the ambient mana begin to gather between his hands. I’m guessing if I waited long enough ice would have started to form there, but I decided not to give him the chance, I sent another wave of pure mana toward his spell and disrupted it. He looked up at me and glared, apparently he wasn’t a fan of my ability to disrupt his spells. I grinned at him and then held out my hand, he continued to glare for about a minute before sighing and then tossing me the shovel.
After disarming the pair I released the old warrior’s feet from their earthen prison and pointed back down the path. They turned around and began trudging home. When we got a little further away from the Susikin I said, “Claudicatus” Which I’d learned meant stop in their language. When they stopped I walked around them and sat down, I pointed to the ground and then said, “Sit.”
They sat down on the game trail and we started talking. I realized that something had gotten lost in translation the last time I spoke to them so we went over everything all over again in both of our languages. I told them my name, they responded with theirs, the boy was Julius, the warrior was Rufus. We went over sit, stand, stop, walk, run, follow, magic, home, Susi, Human, village, town, city, water, food, me, you, one through twenty, day, night, yes, no, understand, and help. Basically I confirmed that I had all of the words right, so I was a little puzzled as to why they would run away so soon after I told them I would take them home, so this time I decided to use visual aids.
I summoned my magic and created small earthen models of myself, Rufus and Julius. Then I made a miniature model of my home. After that I did my best to recreate the continent we were on. It wasn’t great, but I blame a lot of that on the maps I’d been shown and not on my lack of artistic ability. I’m pretty sure they understood though since I made little trees to represent the northern forest and made a lot of small homes and a castle to represent the capitol city. After the map was made I put my home in its proper position and then I walked the figurines from my home to the city and then north toward where the humans were from. After the dolls arrived north of our territory I left and continued to walk the dolls north on their own. I even created a border with little Susi dolls on one side and human dolls on the other. Then I asked, understand? I walk, you follow, you home…”
I saw the light of understanding in Julius’ eyes and he asked, “I vade home?”
I nodded and said, “Yes, twenty day, I walk you home. Understand?”
Apparently he understood because he began nodding and said, “Yes.”
I smiled at the two of them and then got up and said, “Follow.”
Rufus and Julius copied me, and we made our way back east toward home. I hung on to their improvised weapons while we walked for two reasons, number one, I couldn’t be 100% sure they wouldn’t try to attack me again, at least not until we could understand each other a bit better and number two was that they were exhausted. I mean sure I was tired myself, but it was already getting fairly late into the evening and the two had just worked for most of the day then followed that up with almost no food and then travelled close to 20 miles through rough terrain.
Now I would have liked to just rest for the night, fed the two escapees and then made our way back in the morning, but I wanted to engrave this memory in their heads, escaping sucks, and recapture wasn’t going to be any fun either. So while we made our way back home I made a resolution to never let this sort of thing happen again. I allowed myself to get way too absorbed in my own thing, building the new house, completing Raha’s challenges, meanwhile I left two humans alone amongst people they would think of as enemies. I ignored them and then when I came to a decision I simply told them what would happen without really making sure they understood it. Until I returned Julius and Rufus home they were my responsibility and I’d failed them.
So starting tomorrow I was going to spend at least two hours every day getting to know them better, I would do my best to include them in what I was doing as opposed to just leaving them in the care of my parents or the Taikas. I’d obviously have to talk to my parents about reprioritizing my lessons a little bit, but there was no way they would survive if they ran off like this in the capitol, or on the road. I nodded and decided to start practicing their language and teaching them mine.
As we walked I began pointing out things like trees, rocks, the path, leaves, basically anything I saw. Then I’d ask them for their word for the objects I pointed out and did my best to memorize them. It was slow, repetitive and boring, but it did help pass the time while we made our way back home.
When we finally got close to home I saw that there was still light in my house which could only mean that my parents were still awake. That didn’t bode well for me as it meant they were worried about me, and probably concerned that the humans had fled into the countryside. When we got home I opened the door and my father was sitting at the table, elbows resting on the table top, chin resting on his clasped hands. My mother was nowhere to be seen which meant she was either out looking for me or she had gone to bed. I was hoping for the latter because if she was still out looking for me I was in deep shit.
I walked inside and said, “Hey Dad, is Mom already asleep?”
He nodded and said, “I wouldn’t exactly say she was asleep, but she is in our room, she didn’t want to be out here for this talk.”
I nodded and grimaced a little, “I’m guessing this isn’t going to be one of those it’s no big deal Son, just glad you got home safe talks?”
He shook his head and replied, “No Son, nothing so pleasant, the barbarians ran away today and if they had hurt anyone it would have been on all of our heads. They are dangerous and I think they need to be put down. There is simply no controlling them and I don’t want to risk anyone’s life because you have a soft spot for our enemies.”
His sentences were cold, he wasn’t talking like a concerned parent he was talking like a judge delivering his sentence. I sat down at the table and responded the only way I could, I got equally cold and logical before I answered, “I can understand why you would feel that way Dad, they represent a risk, you believe I am taking that risk with no real thought, and you may have been partially right about that. I left them in your care and I shouldn’t have done that, I made assumptions that I shouldn’t have and basically I messed up. I got wrapped up in my own world and forgot that I still needed to make sure that they were taken care of and that they understood exactly what would happen with them. I regret allowing this to happen and have already determined the steps I need to take in order to ensure this doesn’t happen again. I’d like you to keep an open mind about not killing them while I run through my thoughts and planned changes. Can you agree to that?”
My father replied, “I’ll listen for now…”
I took a deep breath and calmly explained, “When I first saw these two on the plains about to die I knew I had to do something, it didn’t matter if they were my enemies or not, they were hurt and needed help. So I helped, I healed their wounds and brought them home, even though they may be the enemies of our people they are still sentient beings, they have thoughts, feelings, they can communicate even if it isn’t our language I know eventually we will be able to speak to each other. With all of that in common how could I just kill them out of hand, as far as I know they have never done anything to our people, they have committed no crimes so “putting them down” as you put it just seems fundamentally wrong. Now what you are worried about is that they might run away from here and cause trouble, that they might hurt someone while they try to make their way home. That fear is perfectly justifiable, they may very well see us as their enemies in which case killing one of us while they escape would just be a bonus. But as we both know they are intelligent that means we can reason with them. Our biggest problem has been that we have not been able to communicate I plan on changing that. I plan on keeping the two of them by my side from now on, they will go wherever I go, and I will devote at least two hours every day to expanding both their vocabulary as well as my own. I will also be with them all the time because I am pretty sure I am the only person they feel any sort of trust towards. When I got wrapped up in Raha’s challenges I pretty much ignored the two of them, I left them alone amongst hostile strangers. Wouldn’t you also try to get out of a situation like that? I’m asking for one more chance to sort this mess out without us resorting to killing two potentially innocent men. Will you agree to that Dad?”
He sat there thinking, Julius and Rufus stood behind me, frozen, they might not have understood the words being exchanged but they clearly understood our discussion was important and they didn’t want to draw any notice upon themselves. After a few minutes of contemplation my father seemed to come to a decision, he said, “Fine, this is their last chance though, you need to accompany them at all times, if they leave the property on their own at any point I will have the guards kill them. They are your responsibility, don’t let something like this happen again.”
I nodded and said, “Thank you Dad, I’ll make sure they learn what’s expected of them and I’ll make sure nothing like this happens again.”
With that we shook hands and he went to bed. I grabbed some bread from the pantry, gave it to the two then led them to their bedroom. After shutting the door I walked into my own room fell on the bed and did my best to fall asleep. I laid there for way too long, but I was still amped up from my conversation with my father. I was really glad I got him to go along with the first option, because the second option was me leaving with them right now, and I didn’t want to have to go through that.
With that thought in mind I slowly drifted off to sleep, the next month was going to be a busy time for me.
--------------------------
AN: Well here is the conclusion of Swift's life on the farm. I spent a lot more time on this part of the story than I initially planned, but I had some fun writing this section of the story and I hope you guys have formed an attachment to Swift, because his childhood is over. Once he leaves the farm people will be actively trying to kill him and he will have to make some morally questionable decisions. To everyone on my Patreon the new chapter will be uploaded later on tonight. I also want to issue a Big Thank You to everyone who has donated money to support me. You guys have allowed me to avoid asking my parents for money for the last month.
Cameron Gully, Francisco Villalta, Anton Schmidt and Benjamin Johannsen Thank you!!