I skidded on the tiles, my shoulder slamming into the hard door frame as I tried to make the corner. I swore and steadied myself before continuing into the long hallway from the restaurant. I burst into the small cleaning supply room and snatched the box from the high shelf. I grabbed the music box and dropped the rest. Stella yelped, scampering away from the box that almost hit her.

“Sorry, girl,” I said absentmindedly as I turned the box over in my hands.

I dug a hand into my bum bag and drew out the key. My hands shook as I tried to force the thing into the small keyhole. I had to take a few calming breaths before I actually managed the simple task. I opened the box, ignoring the high-pitched tune it played as the little ballerina spun in circles and snatched the folded paper inside.

I unfolded it carefully, unable to keep the giant smile off my face. I’d found it! And with a good forty-five minutes to spare.

Only, it wasn’t the recipe at all. I was just another drawing of a dragonfly. This one was a little more intricate than the others and painted with fanciful watercolors. On the bottom were the same words I’d found on the statue outside, ‘live in the moment’.

Fuck.

I was out of time and was now at a loss as to where to search next. I shoved the paper and the key into the box and stuffed it into my bum bag.

“Come on, Stella. We have to get out of here!”

I ran as fast as I could, Stella at my heels. We reached Sob standing at the end of the path in record time. I tried to approach him carefully. We had to escape. There was no time for him to be an asshole. The horse shied away from me, his ears flattened atop his head and a horrid sound escaping his muzzle.

“Sob, we don’t have time for this. We have to go!”

The horse reared and flailed his forelegs. I stumbled back away from his deadly hooves. Stella growled and barked, her tail stiff and pointed.

“Sob! Seriously. We have to run!”

“Tutt, tutt, tutt.”

I flinched at the rough brogue and turned to face the wolf. Sob squealed like one of the pigs and bolted. Stella chased after him, barking as she ran.

“Such a shame, I was rather fond of that dear lady,” the wolf said, watching them go. Then he turned his golden eyes on me. “I believe I asked you not to run, stranger.”

“I wasn’t…”

“Don’t lie to me!”

I flinched at his vicious snarl, cowering in my croc skin boots. My hand flew to my dagger but I knew it would do next to nothing against this beast.

“It’s time for you to join my little collection,” the wolf said.

“No! I still have thirty minutes!”

“You lost that privilege when you tried to run.”

I screamed as the wolf grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me kicking and bellowing all the way back to the office I’d found him in.

“You don’t have to do this,” I bellowed as he dropped me to the floor.

The pigs scampered away, hiding under the desk.

“You have left me no choice. I gave you ample time to locate the recipe, just as I did all these fine folks. Not one of you has completed my simple task. I told you not to try and run and that is just what you did. It is simply uncouth behavior given how generous I have been. I will not abide rudeness in my own home.”

I scrambled back, pressing my back against the wall. “If it's anywhere, it has to be in here. Why would the Barlow Brothers keep it anywhere else?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The wolf sliced the air with a muscular, furry arm. “This room has been searched from top to bottom. It is not here. Now be silent. I do not enjoy speaking to my meals.”

“Wait, please. Just give me the twenty minutes I have left. Please,” I begged.

The wolf glared down at me. Then huffed and waltzed around the desk, flipping back the tails on his strange vest as he took a seat. “Use your time wisely stranger. You may not leave this room. You had better hope the searchers before you missed something.”

I sighed and climbed to my feet. I looked behind every picture hanging on the wall and yanked every book out of its place on the shelf by the door. Time ticked down so quickly as the wolf chuckled at my scrambled search.

“Tic, tic little human. The clock is running low.”

It was getting hard to breathe again. I yanked open every drawer on the enormous desk but nothing inside it was helpful at all. Where was it? It had to be here. I dug the music box out of my bum bag and smashed it on the ground, just in case I’d missed something. The key skittered across the floor. The drawing of the dragonfly unfolded itself, its words teasing me; ‘live in the moment’. It's hard to do that when your death is literally minutes away.

The wolf chuckled. “You are a messy one, aren’t you? Perhaps I’ll have you tidy up before I eat you.”

I wanted to scream at the beast but did not want to make my life any shorter than it needed to be. I had to be missing something. Something probably painfully obvious. My perception skill was pretty high, so why wasn’t it helping me now?

I should have done one of the other quests I’d gotten. Even if I succeeded somehow in this ridiculous endeavor, what would my reward be? A beer? It hardly seemed worth it at this point. I’d need a couple of slabs just to forget this madness.

What was with the wolf anyway? He gave off the same vibes as the demon sheep I’d come across before. Like a story torn from the pages of a children's book and warped into some horror by the aliens that had brought the crocs. I almost missed the simplicity of the crocodile monsters. It was either run away or fight with them. There was nothing else to it. Two choices.

The pigs came out from hiding and surrounded me. I couldn’t be sure but I thought the one with the splotch on its ear was the same one that had led me to the statue, I bent and stroked its little head, glad that Stella wasn’t here for this. Hopefully, Sob would keep her safe. Out of all of us, I was sure that damn horse would live the longest.

“Fifty nine… fifty eight… fifty seven…”

I flinched at the wolf’s words and glanced at the timer. He was right. I had less than a minute. There would be no living in the moment now.

I wanted to drop to the floor and weep. It seemed like a reasonable use of my final seconds on this earth. Instead, I riffled through the papers on the desk. Just a bunch of business papers and executive legal documents for signing. On each of them, the little blue dragonfly stood out in the brewery’s logo. I guess the dragonfly really was somewhat important to this place.

“Thirty two… Thirty one… thirty…”

I hit the desk with my fist and swore. The wolf laughed. A clock balanced on the edge of the desk rocked back and forth, almost tumbling from its place. The wolf stood and looked down at me, licking his chops as he flexed his clawed paws.

I swallowed, my eyes locked on the little second hand of the clock as it slowly counted down.

“Ten… nine… eight…”

The clock! I leaped across the desk and shoved the thing off the desk. It fell to the ground and shattered, cogs and springs scattering everywhere. A tiny folded bit of paper fell amongst the broken fragments. I tumbled off the edge of the desk and snatched it up.

“…two…one…”

“Here, take it!” I roared.

The wolf paused his count. Not that there was really anything else for him to count, and turned toward me, eyeing the paper in my hand. It was hard to tell given his wolf face but I thought he might be frowning. He approached holding out a paw for the tiny piece of paper.

I handed it over and crumpled to the ground, sucking deep breaths into my lungs as sweat rolled down my face and dripped onto the floor. I hadn’t looked at the thing, there was no time for that, but it had to be the recipe. It just had to be.

“Well, I’ll be,” the wolf said, his harsh voice now somehow gentle. “It really was here all along. How silly of me. How did you know?”

“Live in the moment. What better way to know what that moment is than to look at a clock?”

Quest complete: Barlow Brothers Brewery

Reward: 500 gold, 800 exp, a bottle of Bluedart Brew

I watched the words fade still shaking on the floor. The little silver bar under my health grew, flashed, and emptied.

Level 3!

“Congratulations little man, I guess you get to live this day.”

I curled my hands into fists to avoid flipping him off. “Thank you, kind sir,” I said with as much scorn as I could muster.

The wolf chuckled again. “I like you. You have an impressive set of balls.”

“Sorry man, you’re not really my type.”

The wolf howled and shoved the recipe into his pocket along with his shiny pocket watch. “Be off with you, before I decide to keep you as my pet.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”