“Wendigos?” Asked Chelsea in confusion after we got back to the lodge. “I don’t know if I I’ve heard of those.” she paused. “It sounds familiar though. Maybe I’ve read about them? I feel like I’d remember if I’d seen one in person.

Jessie snorted. “You would have.” She said bluntly. “I know I sure do. Randall handled the last one we ran into. Back when Serenity was trying to take over the circus. I never did ask where the Peace Lord got the one he let loose on us. They’re not pleasant. Big hulking monstrous things that eat human flesh.”

“Agreed.” I grimaced. “They also have a natural affinity for ice and snow.” I pulled some paper from my ring and sketched out a picture from memory. With my Perception and Focus, sketching pretty much anything I wanted was child’s play, especially if it was a recreation of something I’d seen. “They look like this.” I said when I finished.

I shuddered at my own memory. “They’re demons, which is a catch all term for more monstrous bearers of various racial traits.” I continued.” Not fae or devils, but still powerful and dangerous.”

My sister picked up the paper, glanced over it with disgust, and then set it back down. “So…fifteen foot tall horned monsters covered in pale grey skin? How does something that size vanish into the snow? I mean, it looks right, but it seems like something that size would have trouble hiding.”

I gestured to Callie. “How does she vanish into shadows? It’s just what they do. Wendigos are terrible things. They lose all their humanity in exchange for some pretty horrifying bonuses, and from what I remember of my research, they’re WAY harder to kill in the cold. They suck the stuff up like shuttle fuel.”

“Callen, can you help?” Asked my sister beseechingly. “With a D-ranker helping it should be easy enough to take care of them. With Liss not allowed to participate, and Zeke and mom out of the running, I’m sure we’d all like a ringer.”

The big swordsman shook his head. “If they’ve been seen here before it’s a local matter. We’re with the Church, and this is RIGHT next to Cult territory. We can be here because of the wartime truce, but if we start mucking about with local politics we’ll give them a justification to start a fight, and none of us can afford that.”

“But grandma is going to talk to Black Sorrow.” Protested Chelsea. “They’re going to sort the whole thing out.”

He shrugged. “Key words there being going to. As of this moment they’re our enemy, if a somewhat defanged one. We can’t give them any excuse. Besides, I’m sure you can handle a few Wendigos. The one you fought before might have been powerful at the time, but think how far you’ve come. There’s no way it’ll be a match for you as you are.”

He wasn’t wrong. We’d all taken a level in badass while we were gone. Benny’s Dracolich Path, Jessie’s new evolved Companion and her absurd stats, Callie’s upgraded ability. The Wendigo wouldn’t be a match for us.

“Alright.” I said slowly, coming around to the idea. “I can get behind a direct approach.” I glanced at Abel. “You think fighting a Wendigo Pack would be enough for the Path upgrade you need? They’re no Volcanic Ape, but they honestly probably suit your Path better. Wendigos eat people, they’re all about blood and victory.”

My mentor just grinned. “Even if I didn’t I’d still want to come. It sounds like a party. The question is, how many of them are there? I’d never heard of a pack out here, though I guess it makes sense. The one the Peace Lord was using had to come from somewhere.”

“Wendigo’s are monsters. The catalyst for becoming a wendigo involves using the actual heart of another ascendant. It’s actually much cheaper and easier to get the trait than most powerful racial traits, but the effects on the psyche are so extreme that no one does it if they can help it. What’s the point of getting stronger if you turn into a horrifying monster with an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

“That’s what was watching us.” Bethy said with a grimace. “It felt hungry and predatory. Trust me, I know the sensation. We should eliminate them. Monsters like that don’t add anything to the world. I’m in for the hunt.”

Gabe nodded solemnly. “Abominations that prey on the weak? You have my lance as well.”

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“Chelsea, you might be one of our best weapons against them.” I said after some thought. “Maybe your flames of purification…” Zagan might help too, but I didn’t think cleansing someone of a racial trait was possible. Unlike my green fire, Chelsea’s flames of purification did actual damage to impure things instead of just deep cleaning.

Effects like the ones that Primal Chaos Forest disciple used were one thing, but these Wendigos had BECOME something else. Even my power couldn’t erase a complete change of species, no matter how much it would probably help.

She nodded thoughtfully. “I can do that. We’ll need to track them down. You said they’re at home in ice and snow. Can you even track them in the near permanent blizzard surrounding this place?” She held up her scan ring, typing in a few commands before flicking a screen up in front of us with a similar picture to what I’d drawn.

I read over it, recognizing the page. “Yup. They blend in the cold better than most. Apparently when they absorb enough cold air their flesh turns clear and crystalline. Makes tracking them by sight in the tundra almost impossible. Damn it, my Eye of Revelation is probably our only shot. Although…” I glanced at Bethy. “Do you think Luggage could track them?”

She brightened. “Maybe!” She said excitedly. “He doesn’t love the cold, but it doesn’t slow him down much. I bet he could track them down.” She frowned. “But…we’re assuming that they’ll be together. Predators like that tend to have their own territories. Even if they’re a pack, they most likely spread out. What if we miss some?”

I considered that for a moment. “Hey, Chelsea, there anything in there about where their lair might be? Seems weird there’s a whole bunch of E-ranked monsters out here and no one knows about them. I imagine eating the witnesses doesn’t hurt, but this is a resort town for E-rankers.”

“That’s because they’re not E-rank.” Said Stella as she and Zeke appeared on the other side of the table and sat down. “Or at least, they weren’t. There IS a pack of Wendigo out in the tundra, but they’re not nearly this cohesive, and they don’t come near Wintervale because of all the powerful Ascendants. Are you sure you saw one in the city?”

I shrugged. “Well it was either that or a really ugly deer sitting on a gorilla’s shoulders. Which, while theoretically possible in the world we live in, seems…unlikely.”

“He’s right.” Said Jessie seriously. “Gorilla’s have like…no neck. Sitting on one’s shoulders would be nearly impossible.” We all rolled our eyes as she winked at Stella, who chuckled lightly.

Amusing as that was though, we needed to focus. “Bethy is right though. We’ll need to go out in groups. Abel, Bethy, Mel, Callie, Gabe, Benny, Jessie, and me. Seven groups outside mine, which means one wish for each. I won’t tell you what tracking method to wish for, obviously, but since my Eye of Revelation will work on its own, that leaves each of us with a way to track them.”

Callie nodded thoughtfully. “If we wish for the right tracking equipment, we can make sure to clear them all. That way when they stop working we’ll know we’re done.”

“That’s up to you all.” I said blandly. “I can’t really weigh in. But everyone will take a team. I don’t care if they’re random church initiates that Chelsea brought with her, or friends you made here. Nobody goes alone.”

We were light on E-rankers, but this entire situation was rubbing me the wrong way. Sudden appearances of powerful groups of enemies who had grown out of nowhere, possible issues with Cicero, and that Wendigo getting noticed at exactly the right time to lure us out to the edge…this was all really convenient, and I didn’t like it.

Luckily, we’d caught on early. We still had about six days to the wedding, and I wanted to get out there, take care of the Wendigos, and investigate where they came from in time to finish the variety of wedding chores I still needed to do.

Callie reached out and grabbed my hand across the table, squeezing it. “It’s fine.” She said in my head. “Everything will be alright. We can take care of this in no time, and everyone will be safe to attend the wedding. Nothing in this world is going to stop me from marrying you.”

I made sure she felt the burst of warmth and love that flooded my heart at those words, and I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it softly, her smile lit up the whole room.

“I hope they stop doing this after the wedding.” Groaned Benny in exasperation. “But realistically I know they’ll be even worse as newlyweds. We should pick our teams. Celine, you want to come with me?”

She nodded. “I’m in. Though I’m not sure any of my nature magic will do much good in the tundra, I’m still E-rank, so I should be able to help.”

The rest of us picked anyone we thought could help. Alex went with Callie, Jessie brought Randall, obviously, Bethy had her animals, and so on. I decided to take Nat with me, and the few of us without backup were assigned a Crusader from the church. It didn’t count as interfering in local politics if the help was E-rank or lower.

Once we got that set up, everyone made their wishes. I charged Fantasy points, ten each, because I’d been trying to stockpile those to help with my Path stuff. I was up to nine thousand six hundred and seventy points in that stat, so I was making decent progress. Once that was finished, we all headed for the edge of Wintervale, where we’d seen the Wendigo.

Unsurprisingly, the snow had covered any obvious tracks, but my Eye of Revelation let me pick up the non obvious one. I could see the hideous clawed footprints in the drift, like they were glowing in under the light of the aurora.

“Alright everyone!” I called. “Stay together, if anyone has any trouble, use the flares that Benny gave you, and the rest of us will converge. Keep your compasses handy, and once you don’t have a lock on anything reconvene with the nearest group and we can all meet back up here.”

Everyone had decided to wish for silver compasses that could track the Wendigos, and Benny had supplied the flares from his personal stash. Apparently he had a ton of random stuff from inventing practice that he never had a use for and just stowed in his ring for just such an occasion. I couldn’t complain about the added safety, I felt much better knowing we had signals.

With that finished, Nat and I headed out into the snow, taking our time and following the trail left by the same Wendigo I’d chased earlier. It wasn’t going to get away this time. I saw my cousin draw a matte black stiletto with an icy blue gem in it and smiled. Apparently running a territory paid well, that was a D-rank dagger.

As we moved further away from the valley, I paid more and more attention to my Danger Sense, just waiting for any sort of tipoff. I wasn’t getting ambushed, especially not with my cousin around in need of protection. As the storm swallowed the protrusions of ice surrounding the valley, I focused my senses to the peak. It was time for the hunt to begin.