Jeanne and Kveldulf followed Cid to the entrance of the manor, seeing a lone man standing there next to Benkin. He was a head shorter than Ben, wearing a green long sleeve cloth shirt with a brown leather vest over it with tan pants and a pair of boots covering up the lower half of his calves. He had smaller pointed ears compared to Maeryn and Jeanne noticed his fingers a longer than most, and constantly moving even when the rest of his posture was still.

“I was told you were looking for me?” Cid asked the man.

The man nodded. “Uh, yes, yes I have. Cillian is my, I live in a small log cabin not too far away from here.”

“So, you’ve probably heard a bit of the ruckus that happened here a while back?” Kveldulf asked.

“I thought I heard something,” Cillian said, “But you know what they say, fools rush into a fight not their own.”

“I’ve heard that one a few times,” Cid replied, holding a hand out. “So what you brings you all the way out here?”

“Well, I was hunting deer for myself and my son when I saw someone running through the forest,” Cillian said. “They were going into the direction of Cave of the Storms, and I thought I’d follow a bit and see if they went in.”

“That was pretty risky,” said Jeanne.

“I’ve stalked more than my share of predators,” Cillian said, “and I knew to keep my distance and not tempt the Shepherd’s mercy.”

“So, what did you find?” Cid followed.

“I saw the person run into the cave, letting out a horrible scream and then I made my way back to my home. Next day I heard you dealt with a vampire back at the manor here and well … I put two and two together.”

“He found the brother then,” Kveldulf said.

“Seems so,” Cid said before turning back to Cillian, “Do you get a good look at the man in question?”

Cillian nodded. “Oh yes, he seemed in a bit of rough shape. But he definitely seemed like he could give someone a hard time in a scrap.”

“We should go out in full force than,” Jeanne said.

“Agreed,” Cid replied. “Why don’t you spend the night here and we’ll move out in the morning.”

“Well,” Cillian said taking a half step back. “My son is still at the cabin and Pastures forbid the fiend comes out and find the place.”

Cid nodded. “Right, why don’t we meet up here and see about paying this man a visit.”

Cillian nodded, touched his first finger to his forehead and quickly made his way out of the area. Jeanne lifted an eyebrow up and turned to Cid. “Did he seem, odd near the end?” she asked him.

“He seemed a little off throughout the whole conversation,” Kveldulf said. “What do you think Cid?”

“I want to say he’s letting his nerves get the better of him, but let us see what the morn brings.”

***

Jeanne took watch at the door with Hypatia as the others finished their morning meal and prepared their gear. Jeanne was leaning against the opening, her arms crossed and peered out to the road before them in the direction of the town. Hypatia was short distance away casually practicing her sword swings and making light notes from her blades.

“You seem to be pondering,” Hypatia said as she practiced.

Jeanne, keeping her eyes on the road, said, “Had a few things to think about since last night.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“The hunter fella?”

“Yeah.”

“You think he’s not being honest with us?”

“He seemed to be nervous, Hy, real nervous.”

“Well he did say his boy was back at their cabin.”

“That’s if he has a boy.”

“You think he’s setting us up for a trap?”

“My gut’s telling me something is up, and I don’t like it.”

“But why?” Hypatia asked, turning to Jeanne. “He wouldn’t have anything to gain from it.”

“I can’t figure that out either, and that’s bothering me more.”

“Is that why you’ve been having trouble sleeping?” Hypatia asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Jeanne, we’ve all seen you sit up awake and just stare off into space. Or stay on watch longer than normal and not let others take over.”

Jeanne took a heavy breath. “I guess I wasn’t that subtle about it, was I.”

“We’re just worried.”

“I know, I know. It’s just hard for me to sleep when you’re worried about things going wrong, or creeping up on you when you’re not expecting.”

“Be a lot better if we were dealing with vampiric charlatans.”

“You can say that again.”

“Well, we can see what the cave is like and if he’s not on the up and up, we can just leave him in it.”

Jeanne turned to Hypatia, her eyes widening. “That’s a sharp turn, Hy.”

“After that bitch tried doing us in back at Brenin, I’m am officially done with people like that.”

“Fair enough,” Jeanne said. “I still want to repay her for that kindness.”

“Agreed.”

“Why would she even do that? We tried to save her child and everything.”

“Some people are just in it for themselves, some simply see others as means to an end.”

“You … you don’t think she blamed us for her child’s death, do you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, we never really contacted her after the fact, make sure she was all right.”

“No … no I guess we didn’t.”

“Still, I could see her not wanting to talk to us. But that, I just can’t get over it.”

“Yeah,” Jeanne replied looking down at her feet, “we were all taken aback on that one.”

“I hope she gets what’s coming to her before the end.”

“You and me both, Hy, you and me both.”

Hypatia turned to a small path across the road leading into town. “Hey, I think I see someone.”

Jeanne turned to where Hypatia was looking and saw Cillian walking up to them, she could his sweat already beading on his brow. He placed a hand on the palisade wall and took several labored breaths. Hypatia walked up to him, “Are you all right?” she asked.

He nodded, trying to wipe the sweat from his forehead as quickly as he could. “Oh … oh yes,” Cillian said, pausing to catch his breath, “just been a long night.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to rest?” Jeanne asked as she walked up to him.

Cillian waved the question off, saying, “Oh no, wouldn’t think of it. Just need to catch my breath and I’ll be good to go.”

“Very well then, Hypatia, why don’t you let the others know Cillian’s arrived,” Jeanne said.

Hypatia acknowledge the order and moved into the mansion. Jeanne turned back to Cillian, who was looking around the area. “Something on your mind?” Jeanne asked.

“No, no,” Cillian said, lightly chuckling, “just an old habit you get into when you’ve been out in the woods for a while.”

“Fair enough. Learned to keep my head on a swivel, too, in our line of work.”

“I can imagine,” Cillian said, “I couldn’t think of taking on mercenary work, just the idea of joining never seemed like something I could do, no offense.”

“None taken,” Jeanne said, waving away the comment. “This isn’t a line of work for everyone.”

“Still, it’s a service that is popular, heh,” he said, opening and closing his hands repeatedly as he twisted his torso.

Jeanne turned as she heard the rest of The Wolves arrive to the entrance. Cid greeted them both, “Good to see you’re both enjoying a nice conversation.”

“Is that not a normal thing?” Cillian asked.

“Our good Jeanne’s strongest suits is not in diplomatic matters,” Kveldulf said.

“I can be diplomatic,” Jeanne replied.

“Fists don’t count,” Kveldulf said.

“And that’s why you’re no fun,” Jeanne said, rolling her eyes.

“That’s enough,” Cid said, “Good Cillian, are you ready to take us to this cave you mentioned?”

Cillian nodded. “Yes, this why,” he said, waving his hand for them to follow.

Jeanne watched the others walk on by before she positioned herself at the very back. Following behind Leonidas, they had walked a short distance before he turned behind her, saying something she didn’t hear as she looked out into the fields. “Jeanne,” she heard him say, snapping her out of her fugue.

“Hmm, what?”

“I asked if you if something was wrong?” Leonidas asked her, “You were quiet when I was saying something to you just now.”

“Oh sorry.”

“I’m not offended, just wanted to make sure you were doing all right.”

Jeanne nodded. “I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“Anything you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know. Just have a bad feeling about this whole thing.”

“You too?”

Jeanne moved her head back slightly. “You have it too?”

“I mean, all the time. But in this case, especially.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I did, I told Cid personally and he said he was just as suspicious of the man, but also we won’t know exactly what’s in that cave unless we check it out.”

Jeanne closed her eyes tightly before rubbing her forehead. “I swear his no stone unturned policy can drive me crazy sometimes.”

“Can you blame him?”

“No, and that drives me crazy even more.”