Balto was standing there, embarrassed of what he had done. Sure, he could've done something else, but headbutting is much easier than climbing up the tree. He lowered his head and looked down to the ground.
But from the perspective of the other two dire wolves, they were on guard and worried.
"Hey, Beowul, have you ever seen a dire wolf like that before?" The younger dire wolf whispered to the older and scarred dire wolf. Beowul, with his eyes still locked onto Balto, whispered back.
"No, I have never seen anyone looking like that, but he seems to be dumber than you, Radolf." The old dire wolf answered back.
Balto being a dire wolf is something the two can agree on. However, Balto was much too different from a regular dire wolf. The size of him can be easily explained. It isn't impossible for Balto to be simply gigantic, but the red stripe is everything but normal for a dire wolf to have. The color of the stripe is a deep, bloody red. Instead of hair, it looked much more like grass to have grown on his back. They have been stalking him for a bit as well. Balto, in the eyes of Beowul, was way too clumsy for a normal dire wolf. As if he wasn't used to his height.
While Beowul is grumbling to himself about something, Radolf gets closer to Balto.
"Radolf, don't get too close to him. Something is wrong about him." Beowul harshly reminded him, but Radolf ignored him and walked to Balto.
"Hey, I am Radolf and that stone over there is Beowul. Now that you know who we are, who are you?" Radolf said as he sniffed Balto all over. Balto was way too embarrassed to say anything.
"Hey, hey? Can you hear me? Beowul, I think something is wrong with him!" Radolf shouts to the mumbling old dire wolf.
"I know something is wrong with him, be careful. Who knows what disease or curse he has." He growled back and also went up to Balto to get a better smell. Balto's eyes were darting between the two dire wolves, the crow and the goblin in the tree. The goblin has stopped long ago when the dire wolves showed up. As the dire wolves were too busy with doing other things, it slowly climbed down the tree, making sure that it made as little noise as possible. As the goblin was halfway down the tree, the crow let out a scream and Beowul dashed towards it. Beowul flew towards the goblin at incredible speed, faster than Balto could ever dream of. The goblin was startled by the crow scream and tried to climb back up the tree, but was too late. Beowul was already in the air, ripping the goblin off the tree.
In one fell swoop, the goblin was dead on the ground with its throat ripped open. Balto stood there with wide open eyes, but Radolf didn't care about that and kept sniffing Balto.
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"Hey Beowul, I think you scared him. Hey, weirdo, are you alright. Blink once if you are OK, twice if you aren't okay." Radolf has stopped sniffing Balto to ask the question. Beowul walked over to the two with goblin blood slowly dripping from his mouth.
"Stop being all cozy with the stranger." Beowul stood in front of Balto with a raised head with a look of superiority in his eyes.
"It doesn't matter what his name is, he will either tell it to us on the way or he will tell it to the alpha. If not, well, I wonder what his guts look like under the sunlight." Beowul snarled, showing his teeth before walking away. The crow gives another screech out and disappears above the trees. Balto is standing there scared of the old dire wolf, but Radolf seems to be annoyed instead.
"Don't worry about what that rock says. He is just old and tired. Come on, you don't have anything to be scared about. He might look tough when he killed that greenskin, but he can barely chew for his life." Radolf said while nudging Balto forward. Balto wasn't as scared as Radolf thought he was, but rather he was way too embarrassed about headbutting the tree. Also, why were they so surprised to see him doing it? The bark bear did it, and that elk abomination also did it. 'Is it because I don't have a big head?' he thought to himself while following Beowul, with Radolf next to him throwing all sorts of questions to him.
"Hey, hey, why are you so big?" Radolf said to Balto with big puppy eyes. Balto didn't answer, because he didn't know why he was so big, either. The silence didn't stop Radolf.
"Hey, hey, why are your nails so weird to look at? Did you step on something weird that you didn't understand? Ulva says that if you don't understand something, you shouldn't touch it. Oh, right, you don't know who Ulva is! Ulva is"-
Balto now understood why that old dire wolf, Beowul, was so grumpy and scary. It was probably because of this Radolf who can't shut up for a second. Hearing that Radolf has started to bombard Balto with questions, Beowul turned his head to look at Balto with an expression that said 'Sucks to be you, dumbass' before looking ahead. If Balto could, he would love to throw one of those pointy sticks the green creatures had.
'Dang, I didn't get to eat one of them. If I wasn't so busy being attacked by them, I could've eaten one of them. They tasted kinda like turds, but I bet that maybe the guts would taste better?' Balto thought to himself, with Radolf was talking into his ear about squirrels. They were stopped by Beowul, who had turned around to look the both of them.
"Alright, now listen. If you try to run, you die. If you don't answer any questions that the alpha asks you about, you die. If you start to get annoying, you die. Get it? And Radolf, could you be so kind and shut your mouth. I am pretty sure you filled the poor idiot's brain with spit by the looks of it." Beowul looked at both of them before leading Balto to a small clearing. In the clearing, a silvery gray dire wolf slept.
"Duke, I found someone weird. He wouldn't speak to us where we found him, so I brought him here." Beowul said before leaving the two alone. Balto looked at the sleeping dire wolf, but noticed that one eye was open and looking right at him. The dire wolf got up and, to Balto's surprise, he was almost as big as himself. The silvery dire wolf walked around Balto in silence, getting a good look at Balto's size and form. After doing a full round around Balto, he sits down.
"So, who are you?" Duke, the alpha, asks Balto and signals him to sit down as well.