Jess listened as Grit added his piece and then turned his attention to the door where, unbeknownst to them, a young man had been standing, looking at them as they were packing up.

"I'd like to ask you," the young man said coldly. "I'm a guard in the town. What are you doing in Raven Hill with all these weapons?"

Jess sized the guy up and found that although he claimed to be a town guard, he carried no weapon nor wore any uniform. Could this guy be some kind of scammer looking to extort money from them?

"We're just passing through," Jess said. "We came from Sentinel Hill and our luggage got wet while crossing the Napheri River, so now we have the chance to check if anything's been damaged."

"Ah, right, right," Grit hastily agreed.

"I don't trust you," the young man said. "Come with me, or else don't blame me for being rude."

Jess thought to himself about what kind of rudeness this young kid could possibly mean, glancing at Grit, who seemed to have caught on to something as well.

Suddenly, Jess stood up, tackled the young man to the ground, and pinned him down. However, the young man, screaming like mad, managed to flip Jess under him. Just as he was about to punch, Grit grabbed his arm, lifting him into the air with astounding force.

"Morgan!"

A girl's voice halted all three of them.

At the end of the hallway, a blond girl stood, her face a mask of shock, looking at the boy being held up and asking with a sob in her voice, "What are you going to do to him?"

"And who might you be?" Jess inquired.

"I'm his wife," she stated firmly.

Wife? Jess was taken aback for a moment. This guy looked about his age; was he really married so young?

While such things weren't unusual in the medieval setting they were in, still...

"Let me go," the boy struggled vainly against Grit's grip. "Liss, go back, I... I can handle them!"

Clearly, even though the boy was still talking tough, even a girl who looked like she had never been in a fight could see the current dynamics among the three of them.

"Is he really a guard?" Jess asked.

"He... kind of is," the girl hesitated before responding.

"Either he is or he isn't, what do you mean 'kind of'?" Grit questioned Jess. "Should we put him down first?"

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Jess nodded, and Grit threw the boy down, who promptly stood up, fixed his collar, and said, "You're pretty strong."

Grit scoffed contemptuously, "Ever seen a dwarf, kid? Here's a lesson for you."

"So what's the deal here?" Jess asked.

The girl hesitated for a moment before saying, "You explain, Morgan. I need to take care of Sarah."

Despite not intending to fight again, the three of them still eyed each other warily as they moved downstairs to find a table to sit at.

"Morgan, right?" Jess asked. "What are you really doing?"

Morgan eyed Grit, still not entirely dropping his guard, then after a while, responded, "Actually, I'm a guard from Granville to the east."

Jess continued, "You're a guard from Granville, so what brought you to Raven Hill?"

"I'm a resident of Raven Hill, went to Granville for Liss, the girl you just saw, my wife. As more and more residents left Raven Hill, the original guards didn't want to stay either, so I asked the captain of the guards in Granville if I could come back, and he agreed."

"Why are all the residents leaving?" Grit asked. "I heard there are quite a few people in Granville."

Morgan answered, "Granville is alright if it weren't for the gnolls in Redridge Mountains blocking the way recently. Life could be decent. But Raven Hill... Raven Hill..."

He paused, lips pursed, then said, "There are werewolves."

Grit frowned, "Werewolves? What's that?"

Morgan admitted, "I haven't seen them myself, but that's what everyone says."

Jess looked disdainfully at Grit, who claimed to be sixty or seventy years old and yet hadn't even heard of werewolves.

"Werewolves are creatures from human folklore, half-man, half-wolf, very powerful, known to steal children at night," he explained.

"What's so great about being half-man, half-wolf?" Grit remarked. "Dumber than a human, stupider than a wolf, sounds like a waste to me."

After Morgan finished speaking, he sighed anxiously, "Outsiders never believe."

Grit retorted, "You haven't seen one and yet you're so certain."

"Somebody got injured by a werewolf," Morgan said. "His chest was torn open, all bloody, and he kept saying he encountered a werewolf before he died. But before we could bury him the next day, the body disappeared. Many believed he was attacked by a werewolf, cursed, and turned into one, escaping."

"Maybe a ghoul got him and turned him into the undead," Grit suggested.

"Raven Hill was famous for its funeral industry at its prime," Morgan stated. "If someone were bitten by a ghoul, infected with its venom, there wouldn't be another place in the whole Kingdom of Stormwind that knew how to handle it better than Raven Hill. But his wounds were different, no venom, just terrible shadowy energy."

Listening to this, Grit's expression hardened, he asked, "So you still haven't seen a werewolf."

"Indeed, I haven't," Morgan admitted.

He added, "You don't look like bad people, I'm truly sorry about before. I'm just wary of all outsiders, especially at times like these. Whatever you're here for, just remember not to go out at night, don't ever go out at night. There have been talks of werewolves prowling in the dark. Even if there are no werewolves, the Duskwood at night is far more dangerous than during the day."

"Thanks for the warning," Jess said.

"It's my duty," Morgan stated. "Haven't introduced myself, Morgan Radimore. If you run into trouble, you can find me. Everyone in town knows where I am."

"Grit."

"I'm Jess."

"Nice to meet you, may the Light be with you."

Morgan went upstairs, and Jess looked towards the door, feeling the town somehow seemed even more sinister than before.

"Do you believe what that kid said?" the dwarf asked.

Jess replied, "Since he mentioned it, we might as well consider gathering herbs tomorrow. No harm in being cautious. During the day, there might be fewer zombies and beasts, perhaps to them, the difference between night and day is significant."

Werewolves certainly exist, and in the game realm, they are notoriously rampant in the Duskwood area, wreaking havoc everywhere.

But Jess remembered that this should be something from much later, related to an ancient relic left behind by a slain night elf – the Scythe of Elune. Could it be that the werewolves of Duskwood existed even a decade earlier in the present?

Perhaps, as Grit suggested, the people might have mistaken some other monster for a werewolf, given that the stories of werewolves had always been a popular bedtime story for children here.

"Good, I'm exhausted from traveling all day; I'll head up to lie down," Grit yawned, prompting Jess to feel sleepy as well.

Listening to the dwarf's thunderous snoring in the middle of the night, Jess looked at the tranquil forest outside the window, taking a long time before finally falling asleep.