("So what are we going to do about them?") I asked Luna through the rings.

She scribbled the words in the dirt for the others to discuss while the four of us ate the grilled venison. Our two prisoners were put off to the side and given some steak of their own. The two were ravenously tearing bites off with hands and teeth, none of us trusted the two enough to hand them forks and knives. Even allowing the mage to unwrap his hands to eat had been a tough sell, Luna had told me the man had begged and promised not to cast any spells before Maxwell gave in.

They had been starving, the scout told Piper he hadn't eaten anything in days. He hadn't been a skilled enough hunter to find any game and their two fighters had been on the verge of killing him over it. He had already been contemplating running from them but the mage, his friend, had promised to keep them from attacking him. None of us were sure how much of that story was true but their attitude toward the food seemed real enough.

Maxwell grumbled something indecipherable to me and Piper let out a sigh in response. Luna frowned but it didn't seem like she intended to translate that one for me. I hoped that wasn't a barb aimed at me but I didn't think it was. Of all of us, Maxwell had been the most pissed off by the situation. I hadn't fought in the melee, I had only dealt with the scout and the mage from behind so maybe it hadn't felt like they had actually been trying to kill me the way that it must have felt for everyone else. I still wasn't happy with the situation though...

"Let them go?" I asked the group.

That brought a scowl from Maxwell and another sigh from Piper. I was left a little confused by the interaction so I looked at Luna, hoping she would explain what was going on to me.

She got the hint and started talking to me through the rings, ("Maxwell wants to kill them. He says that they tried to kill us so it's only fair. If it hadn't been for us, they might have killed a different group and stolen their food. Even if all they did was take another group's food without killing them, that would mean that other group would also have had to find food or die anyway. Attacking other hunters in a dungeon makes them criminals punishable by hanging. You're on the other end of the debate, you don't want to kill them and we've known that the entire time. Piper and I are somewhere in the middle but we don't really know how to reconcile this disagreement."

I glanced at Maxwell. ("Is he mad at me?")

("No, he's not mad at you, just really frustrated. He would have been more likely to let them go before the other one attacked him while you were gone.")

("But... didn't he kill that one? Why would that make him push to kill the other two?")

Luna let out a scratchy sigh. ("That's what he and Piper have been arguing about all this time. Piper has been saying that he shouldn't feel vindictive toward the ones that didn't attack him but he's been digging in his heels. He says he doesn't trust them not to stab him in the back anymore. The conversation has been exhausting and I'm not even the one arguing with him.")

I scratched the back of my head and glanced over at them. We've been resting here for hours now but the daylight hasn't changed at all. Somehow it was a little bit easier to adjust to it being dark the whole time instead of daylight the whole time. I was starting to actually get sleepy now. None of us had gone back to sleep after we were attacked, Piper and Maxwell hadn't finished getting a shift of rest, and Luna and I haven't slept at all. Things had been easier when we hadn't needed to figure out what to do with these guys.

When the scout noticed me watching them he flinched a little. He looked around at the others before cautiously calling something out to me. ".... are your .... .... ....?"

I frowned and turned to Luna. She frowned too but decided to translate anyway, ("He's asking why your eyes look like that... he called them scary.")

Laughing I turned back to the scout. My amusement seemed to freak him out even more because he shrunk down when I focused my attention back on him. I didn't have the words to even begin describing why my eyes looked the way they did so I just shrugged at him. I'm not sure if he fully got the message but I didn't really owe the guy an explanation. Based on her reaction when translating I think Luna found the question to be very rude based on her tone, it was cute seeing her defend me.

I patted her on the thigh. ("You don't need to be offended on my behalf. My eyes are scary. I would know, I had to fight off an umber hound myself.")

Luna's ears went back and she glanced at the others before settling back on me. ("How did you kill it anyway? You never told us and I had been wondering...")

("Oh, uh I just stabbed it in the throat with my knife. I probably would have died from the fight if I didn't start healing so quickly afterward though.")

I grabbed my purse and pulled out the survival knife my dad had given me. ("I used this to stab it in the throat. The whole thing was frantic, I was trying to stab it in the throat when it was on top of me but I was mostly just flailing wildly, trying my best to fight the thing off.")

I popped open the snap and slid the knife out of the sheath and handed it to her. ("Careful, it's sharp.")

The knife had unexpectedly gathered the attention of everyone. The six-inch fixed-blade knife was a little large to carry around but I figured it might come in handy if I got stranded hiking somewhere and the knife laws where I lived were pretty lax. It fit in my purse vertically so I usually carried it with me everywhere I went. Since I went hiking all the time, keeping the knife with me seemed practical. Good thing too, it saved my life.

("This is a really well-crafted blade...") Luna pointed out the writing at the base of the blade. ("Is this writing? What does it say?")

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I looked at where she was pointing. ("That's just the name of the company that creates these knives. Not sure what the numbers mean. Batch number maybe?")

She gently ran her thumb along the serrated edge of the blade. ("There's still some blood on this spot, you should make sure it doesn't rust.")

I nodded as she handed the blade back to me. ("Thanks. My dad gave it to me before he died and... it's all I have left of home now besides a few other things in my bag.")

".... I see it?" Maxwell asked.

"Give back after. Careful." I slid it back into its sheathe and handed him the knife.

He slid it out of the sheath and looked at it closely. He said a few words about it that I didn't recognize but they sounded approving. He flipped the knife over and ran his fingers over the name stamped into the base. Looking up he asked me something.

I turned to Luna who translated for him. ("He's asking if you can read and write this language on the blade.")

Looking back at Maxwell I nodded. "I can." I switched back to English, "My native tongue is English, I was going to college so I've written a ton of papers you know."

His eyebrows rose and it made me smile. Somehow proving that I could do more than speak in cave-man language made me feel better. I honestly was pretty proud of how much I've picked up already, it's kind of amazing how much you can learn when a different language is all you're hearing all day. I knew he didn't think I was an idiot but it was nice getting some recognition that I wasn't just... a beast.

Maxwell handed the survival knife back to me and I stored it in my purse. There were only a few things left in my bag, just my broken phone, my knife, my wallet, and a little bit of makeup. Everything else disappeared when I got here. Probably was still on the trail I was running on.

I looked back over at our prisoners and frowned. After they had finished eating they basically crashed and were asleep now. Maxwell followed my gaze and stiffened.

("You really don't think we should kill them?") Piper asked me through the rings.

I turned to her and sighed before replying, ("No... but I understand there are risks. If we leave these guys might try and find us again.") I looked over at the scaredy cat. ("Not that I think the scout wants to fight with us anymore... I know that they attacked us but I don't want to be in the business of killing people who were desperate to survive if I don't have to. Maybe we should just leave the rest of the deer here and take off while they're still asleep.")

Piper stared at the two of them sleeping in the grass. ("Do you think you're still good to travel? You and Luna haven't gotten any sleep yet but if we're going to leave them here we should do it now. You might need to carry Luna though, she doesn't look like she's ready to move.")

I turned to look at the fox girl and found her slumped forward with her arms crossed over her knees, passed out. The two of us have been awake for a long time now and we would need to find a different clearing at the very least if we didn't want to run into these guys again. I yawned at the thought but shook off the sleepiness.

("I'm a little tired but I think I have enough energy to keep moving for a while still, even if I do have to carry her,") I said, giving a nod toward Luna. ("We'll need to find another clearing far enough away from here that these guys won't be able to find us though. Do you think that's likely?")

Piper nodded. ("It shouldn't be too hard. As long as you avoid the plants this forest isn't that difficult to navigate. We even know the general direction the stairs up are, so we can head a bit out of the way to avoid running into any more people. Luna was already starting to side with you and I think you've convinced me. I'll talk to Maxwell and get him to cave, he doesn't like to do this kind of dirty work anyway. Three on one, he'll listen.")

I smiled. ("Thanks, Piper.")

("Don't mention it, but remember, if this comes back to bite us, Maxwell will be insufferable,") she said with a laugh. She pulled out one of the slime cores and started to pull the mana out of it before turning back to Maxwell and starting up another argument.

It didn't take long for Maxwell to cave so we started preparing to leave. Maxwell and I started packing up the tents as quietly as possible while Piper watched the prisoners and Luna got some rest. It didn't take a ton of time to gather everything together and all that was left was the prisoners. We unlooped some of the cord we had tied them with and left them only a little tied up. We didn't want them to follow us immediately if they woke up, we wanted them to have to untie each other first.

We left them some of the butchered meat nicely wrapped up for them in clean cloth. It would be stupid for all of this to repeat itself just because they got hungry again, better to give them something to tide them over. If they're smart they'll spend some time making jerky out of it before heading back to town. Piper explained to me that most hunters knew the basics of making jerky in the wild because having to scavenge for food in a dungeon isn't too uncommon. It would also slow them down massively if they took the time to do it.

When we were finally ready to go we left them with most of the gear their friends were carrying. Maxwell took the spare sword but we left them with the spear. Since I had destroyed the guy's bow he might need it. I used some of the cord that they had used to tie the third guy up to fashion myself a sling for my axe, it wasn't very sturdy but I wouldn't be able to carry it in hand if I was also carrying Luna. It would be awkward if I needed to wield it but for now, it was securely tied to my shield.

I shifted to my werewolf form, carefully picked Luna up, and tucked her against my chest. She was still exhausted so she didn't wake up. It was a bit awkward getting her dead weight into a comfortable position but once I was able to, she was light enough that I would be able to carry her without any trouble. Once she was in a good enough spot I nodded to Maxwell who led the way for us.

Before we left I glanced back at the two sleeping men. I hope we made the right choice... I didn't truly know if letting them off the hook was a good thing or a bad thing but at least I wouldn't have to watch my friend execute two unarmed men. I turned away and followed Maxwell back into the forest.