As they walked forward, Jack was reminded of the time they'd first approached the walls of S'haar's village after the deep freeze. Despite the temperature difference and the lack of snow, it still had a similar atmosphere, like they were approaching a ghost town. There wasn't even a guard visible by the gate.

S'haar stopped just shy of the gate and took a moment to examine it, as though deciding what to do. Making up her mind, she grabbed her sword and slammed the pommel into the wood, creating a loud banging sound that echoed into the distance.

Time passed, and Jack was just opening his mouth to suggest they try climbing over the wall when a voice called out from the other side of the gate. "Who's stupid enough to come out to this village right now?"

S'haar looked at Jack, who exaggerated a shrug to indicate he had no good answer. S'haar turned back to the gate with a sigh and raised her voice to just shy of a shout. "We're traders from the Dragon's Outpost. We come bearing meat, hide, and metal for trade!"

A moment of silence passed before they heard a thud from the other side of the gate. A moment later, it swung out enough for a rather gaunt argu'n to poke his nose out. Taking a brief glance around, his gaze stopped on Jack for a moment before finally settling upon S'haar at the head of the group. "If you have meat, you're welcome in the village. Unfortunately, we don't have much to trade for it, but I'm sure there are plenty who will give what they have for want of another meal."

When he backed away from the gap, everyone looked around, wondering what they were getting into. With no answer forthcoming, S'haar pushed the door open enough for everyone to come through, dragging their sleds loaded with goods.

As they walked inside, Jack could tell the village was smaller and even more primitive than S'haar's, but it was immediately evident that the streets were strangely abandoned, even for a village this small.

As soon as the last of their group made it inside, the village guard pulled the gate closed. He contemplated the bar, which seemed like it would be too heavy for one argu'n to lift, even if he didn't look half-starved, before nodding to one of the caravan guards. "Help me with this. It's better we keep the gate secured these days."

The guard in question looked to S'haar, who nodded her approval. A moment later, the gate was barred, and everyone took a moment to gaze at their surroundings. The interior of the village looked as run down as the exterior had. Almost all the houses looked weather-worn and otherwise in need of repairs. The streets were mostly empty, but plenty of snouts seemed to be poking out of various doorways as the residents tried to see what was happening.

Looking around, Jack couldn't help but voice his thoughts. Sare'en was so distracted that it took her a moment and a nudge from S'haar to remember her new role as a translater. "What in the world happened here?"

The guard looked at Jack and Sare'en in confusion before shrugging. "That's a better question for Lord Sal'zar. But, if you want to trade in the village, he'll want to speak to you anyway." The guard started walking away, and Jack and S'haar shared a glance before following.

The journey through the town revealed more of the same as behind them. This whole place seemed to be on its last legs. When they finally reached what could be called one of the nicest looking homes in the village, only in a very relative manner, they were ushered inside. The guards remained with the sleds while Jack, S'haar, Sare'en, and Nala'ac entered the building.

They were greeted by a small gathering of guards flanking an argu'n that, judging by the quality of his robes, could only be Lord Sal'zar. Everyone present had clearly seen better days. Their features were gaunt and their gazes weary.

Sare'en and Nala'ac offered deep and formal bows, while S'haar offered a fist to the chest and a short bow of her head. Unsure of his standing in the group, Jack offered something in between and found his place beside and slightly behind S'haar. They all waited quietly for the lord to speak.

After a moment spent sizing them up, during which he was clearly unsure of what to make of the strange malformed and hooded male in the group, the village lord finally addressed them. "What brings you to our troubled village in these dark days?"

S'haar considered her words a moment before replying. "I am Lady S'haar from the Dragon's Outpost. By my side stands Lord Jack, my bonded partner in running the Outpost and almost everything else. We originally came to this village to show what we have to offer and enter into negotiations for a mutually beneficial trade of supplies and labor. Unfortunately, however, it seems your village has entered into some hard times."

Her demeanor became a bit less formal, and she hesitated half a moment before asking the question on her mind. "What happened here?"

Lord Sal'zar's demeanor shifted, and he settled, as though bending under some great, unseen weight. "Well, I suppose there's no use hiding it."

One of the argu'n closest to the Lord started to object, but the village lord silenced him with a glare. "What use is there in the appearance of strength now? We've already spoken about disbanding the village and sending everyone out to find new homes in other villages!"

The other argu'n shrunk back, and he turned his attention back to S'haar. "Our trouble started with the deep freeze. At first, everything seemed alright. We gathered with minimal losses and were prepared to wait it out, but as I'm sure you are aware, this freeze lasted longer than most. Before the air warmed, we lost about a tenth of our village."

S'haar looked like she wanted to speak but held her tongue as the village leader continued. "After the freeze passed, we were prepared to recover as we must, but the forests were unusually empty, and our hunters were bringing back far less meat than we'd hoped. Then some of the hunters stopped coming back altogether."

Lord Sal'zar shook his head. "We knew that if it came down to it, we could survive on our kovaack herds for some time until we were able to put together a proper hunting party to deal with the new threat in our forest, but then the final blow landed. When our largest herd was out grazing, two wolgen attacked. That which they didn't kill, they drove away, leaving us with few food supplies, a hungry and exhausted population, and a handful of missing hunters."

The village leader sighed. "We've sent runners to other villages, asking for aid, but none have returned. So either our requests fell on deaf ears, or the runners never made it to their destinations. That brings us to your arrival. Your group is much too small for wolgen hunting, so I gather you're simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was probably simple luck that got you through to our village, but I wouldn't depend on that same luck getting you back home. I'm afraid your fate is now tied to our own..."

S'haar shook her head. "This is grave news. Unfortunately, I'm not certain how much help we can be at this time. If you'll excuse us, I would like some time to speak with the other members of our group, so we might decide how best to proceed from here."

Lord Sal'zar nodded wearily. "Go and speak, though I fear your options are somewhat limited."

-

Angela decided it was time to take things into her own hands. She wasn't going to go outside the parameters of what Jack and herself had agreed on for the people of this planet, partly because she didn't want to go against Jack's wishes, but also because there was no time to do so effectively. However, she was going to push things a little further than Jack would probably like. Appearing in front of Em'brel, Ger'ron, Fea'en, and Lon'thul sitting down for dinner, she cut right to the chase. "Ok, so Jack and S'haar are in trouble again, of course. The village they're stuck in is currently in the middle of the hunting grounds for a mated pair of wolgen, and I feel like they are about to do something very stupid about it, and for once, I want to beat them to the punch."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

That got everyone's attention. Turning to Fea'en and Em'brel, she continued. "Ok, so I'm going to cheat a little, but I need more raw materials to do that. Run to Tel'ron, and tell him I need several dozen pounds of metal!"

Em'brel looked like she wanted to stop and ask a dozen questions, but set her jaw, nodded, and ran off with Fea'en not far behind, even though the older woman moved slightly slower.

Lon'thul looked confused. "Shouldn't I be the one going? I'd get there and back more quickly!"

Angela shook her head. "No, I need you in the med bay right now. We're going to perform some tests, so I can move on to the next part of my plan.

The hunter looked more confused than before but stood up from the table and walked to the med bay. The guard captain finally spoke up. "Mind if I come along?"

Angela nodded. "That won't be a problem. Just make sure to let Lon'thul focus.

Once in the room, Angela directed Lon'thul over to an odd device that looked like a handle attached to a pole she and Jack had set up, intending to test several argu'n. "Alright, grab the pole with your left hand, and pull back on the handle on your right. I'm gonna be testing your strength and endurance."

Lon'thul nodded and grinned. "Just like Jack's toy bow, huh?"

The AI nodded. "Yeah, but I want to design one for argu'n physiology. Or, more specifically, your physiology."

The hunter grinned. "Oh, this is gonna be fun!"

Anglea shook her head. "I'm glad you think so now, but you might disagree in a bit. Now get to it!"

Lon'thul complied and began pulling the handle back and then releasing it, letting Angela adjust the weight and trying again. Ger'ron watched with fascination. "I've heard some stories goin around camp about Jack's new idea, but what am I looking at?"

Angela explained while Lon'thul worked. "Well, for millennia, human's maintained their position at the top of the food chain on our planet and did so without the weapons you're familiar with Jack using. Instead, they often used what's called a bow and arrow. It works by essentially throwing small spears faster, further, and harder than a human could possibly do on their own."

Ger'ron tilted his head to the side in thought. "When it comes to thrown spears, the heft of the weapon is a large part of how hard it hits. So how would these smaller spears work?"

The AI grinned with a surprisingly predatory smile for someone with a human form. "How hard something hits depends on its mass and speed. If something has less of one, it can make up for it by having more of the other. In this case, the arrow might not hit quite as hard as a thrown spear, but it more than makes up for that in range, accuracy, and the speed at which it can be fired. In the case of a bow made for an argu'n, I can make something heavier and faster than a human arrow because of the far greater draw strength you are capable of."

The guard captain was silent a moment. "So if speed and heft determine how hard something hits, this argu'n arrow..."

Angela's eyes almost glowed with manic glee. "Oh, unless I miscalculated somewhere, and we all know I didn't, this should hit at least as hard as most human guns are capable of."

Lon'thul was clearly reaching his limit, as he was unable to draw the handle back to its full extension any longer. Angela frowned. "Argu'n physiology means you won't be able to draw a bow at your upper limit as long as a human can. Jack might have some clever way to work around that, but we'll just have to work with taking fewer shots for now. So long as they hit hard enough, that shouldn't be a problem."

There was a clamor at the ship's entrance as three very exhausted argu'n pulled in their loads of iron. Letting Lon'thul take a break, Angela flew over to them. "Excellent, this is a great start! Please take everything over to the fabrication room. I'll need all the raw materials I can get!"

-

Lord Sal'zar allowed S'haar's group to utilize one of the recently vacated homes for their discussion. The two guards stood just outside to make sure no one got close enough to overhear their conversation in detail.

Jack was trying not to look around and wonder about the previous inhabitants or what happened to them. For better or for worse, there was no helping them now. Instead, they had to focus on those still living. He tried not to dwell on the image of the young raider that flashed through his mind at that thought.

S'haar took a deep breath and broke the silence. "I'm just going to say it. We want to help these people, but we don't have the capacity to do it right now. As a group, we might be able to take on one wolgen, but two is simply more than we can handle. Even if we're lucky enough to find one alone, there's no guarantee how far behind the other will be, and if a second one appeared in the middle of fighting the first, we'd all be dead."

Sare'en looked back and forth between S'haar and Jack. Before this moment, she'd hoped Jack would just produce one of his many marvels and solve the problem with a wave of his hand. But, in hindsight, she supposed that was asking too much even of him.

Jack sighed deeply. "While I don't know a lot about a wolgen, from what I understand, your assessment is accurate. Maybe if we had some more supplies from the ship..."

Angela spoke up over the headset. "What kind of supplies are you thinking?"

Jack shook his head. "It doesn't matter. If what we heard is accurate, sending another group through this forest would almost be suicide."

Angela refused to be discouraged. "I agree, which is why I'm sending the one person I trust to be able to get to the village safely, and I'm sending him better armed than anyone on this planet, other than maybe yourself."

Jack took a deep breath. "While I agree this situation might call for the bending of a few of our ideals, there's no time to properly train Lon'thul to use a firearm, let alone safety and maintenance."

Angela's voice sounded a little smug. "You're right, which is why I'll send him with a weapon you've already trained him to use."

Jack furrowed his brow in confusion. "I don't think that little bow I made will be very effective against any large game, especially on this planet."

"Which is why I'm designing my own variation designed exactly for Lon'thul's physiology and capabilities!” the AI agreed. “It might be bending our rules a little, but trust me when I say this thing will be comparable to a siege ballista when I'm done."

Jack shook his head, smiled, and sighed. "Well, on the one hand, I'm not happy about giving anyone on this planet such a powerful weapon so handily. But, on the other hand, I'd rather not die. So, alright, I'm on board with this."

Angela laughed. "Well, I'm glad you're 'on board', because I was going through with it with or without your approval."

Jack bit his tongue at his response before turning to S'haar. "Ok, we'll be able to plan more effectively if we know more about the physiology of a wolgen. We need details. Let's start with a description."

S'haar tilted her head to the side. "Well, for one thing, they're huge. I've never stood next to a living one, but I've heard it said that they stand taller than an argu'n male. They also weigh more than four argu'n adults. They have claws on all four feet, but the front claws are exceptionally long and often used for digging. They usually walk on all fours but can easily balance on their hind legs and use their front claws with deadly efficiency. Their mouth is filled with teeth, including a pair of fangs nearly as long as your forearm. If that wasn't enough trouble, their back is covered in spiny ridges, and their tail has a hardened tip, effectively giving them another weapon to use from behind."

Jack didn't like what he was hearing but tried to envision the monster with his eyes closed. "What's with this planet and all the spines, spikes, and horns everything has? Nevermind. What are they covered with? Fur, scales, or bone armor like yours?"

S'haar tilted her head to the side, brow furrowed as she tried to recall. "They have matted fur. It's thick, coarse, and not very comfortable, but it does give them a sort of armor against slashing and blunt attacks."

Jack nodded. "What about their vision, hearing, or sense of smell?"

S'haar frowned and shook her head. "I don't know. Honestly, we don't know much more about them other than we need to kill them or drive them out before they set up a territory near one of our villages."

Thinking about the village they were in and the trouble it now faced, Jack could now understand why. "Alright. It's not as much as I'd like, but it's more than we had before. Let's put together a plan that might just get us out of here alive."