Chapter 43

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Chapter 043: Wolf’s Den

The two walked side by side along the edge of the riverbank, Greed looked at the slopes near the forest, waving a torch back and forth, illuminating the earth pits covered by the tree roots protruding from these low cliffs.

"What if the wolf’s den is not here." Jesse was almost too tired to walk, but Greed was unexpectedly sharp, completely contrary to his previous image as a goblin.

"Let’s make a bet," Greed said. "I bet 5 copper coins that we will find the wolf’s den within half an hour, I can already smell it…"

"I’m not betting with you," Jesse said. "Why not follow those fleeing wolves instead?"

Greed shone the torch in front of Jesse’s eyes and said, "If those wolves were running away normally, of course we could follow them to find the den, but now those wolves are completely scared by you, and their leaders are all dead, so where is their den? If you observe carefully, each wolf is running in a different direction, which one will you follow."

Jesse remembered the chaotic scene and couldn’t recall where the wolves had gone.

Lost in thought, Greed had already walked far away.

Without the sound of footsteps or crackling torches, only the river flowing, the wind blowing through the trees, and the rustling of leaves could be heard.

Jesse took a deep breath, looked towards the river, and felt like he finally had a moment of peace and quiet.

The words from Greed had made him very upset. The path he had worked hard to find was not appreciated by his closest friend.

It wasn’t entirely the dwarf’s fault. As an experienced player who understood the history of World of Warcraft, he should have remembered the ancient enmity between the Wildhammer clan and the Shadow Magic.

However, Shadow Magic… seemed to be the only path to growth in this world. If he gave up now, he might only live the rest of his life as an ordinary person struggling in secret.

He was about to turn 18, and if he didn’t seize this opportunity, what other choices did he have?

Most of Azeroth’s heroes showed their talents and made a difference by the age of 18, while he was just a laborer wandering in the Elwynn region.

Suddenly, Jesse heard crying coming from somewhere unknown.

On a quiet night, this crying sent shivers down his back, then he realized it might be a child from Great Lake Farm!

"Greed!" Jesse shouted, and a dwarf in the distance responded.

"Did you hear that, child, the sound of a child crying!"

"What?! You heard it? I didn’t hear anything…"

"Over there! Across the river! Just over there!"

The two of them ran across this tributary together, starting from stepping in the water, then floating, and finally swimming against the rapids. Once they reached the other side, the crying sounded more distinct.

Following the sound of the child’s crying into the deep forest, not going far, they arrived at a low slope covered by bushes, where they found an excavated dirt hole.

Jesse disregarded the danger and immediately went into the hole. Greed wanted to warn him that there might be something inside, but before he could speak, Jesse had already squeezed in with his slender body.

"We’re here to rescue you, little Folair!" Jesse crawled inside until he couldn’t see anything clearly and everything was dark.

Jesse couldn’t hear the child’s voice anymore, but then he remembered that the child was only a few months old and probably couldn’t talk. The child must have been silent out of fear.

Greed called his name from outside, and Jesse responded, venturing further inside.

The deeper he went, the stronger the smell of decay and the stench of wolves became, making his stomach churn.

Enduring the smell, Jesse continued to walk inside, feeling around, and he sensed some dead small animals. They didn’t seem like prey killed for food, but more like dead young wolves.

Is this the wolves’ den?

Why would wolf pups die in their own den?

Following the faint sounds of breathing inside, Jesse’s hand finally touched a damp cloth-like object.

Jesse’s scalp tingled as he felt something wet in such a place. Besides blood, what else could it be?

He rubbed his fingers and didn’t see any sticky blood.

He touched the wet cloth again and as he moved upward, he suddenly felt the smooth skin. The child cried out as he realized he had touched the girl’s lips and teeth, it was just saliva.

In the narrow space, the child’s sudden crying was piercing, but he didn’t feel annoyed and instead hugged the child tightly.

"Have you found it?" Greed asked from outside.

"Yes, I found it. I’ll come out right away!"

Jesse emerged with the girl and when the dwarf shone the torch on Jesse’s face, he saw that he was covered in blood and wolf fur.

"Why so much blood?"

"I don’t know," Jesse said. "It’s all bloody inside, maybe there are other flesh or animal limbs, I can’t see anything."

"Are there wolves inside, baby wolves?" Greed asked.

"There seems to be, but they’re all dead," Jesse said. "It could also be other predators, I’m not sure."

Jesse looked at the girl and sighed with relief, saying, "Just think of how happy your mom will be."

The girl stopped crying for a moment, gazing at Jesse’s face, reaching out to touch the mud on his neck and forehead.

Greed looked at the evil warlock who had just scared a dozen wolves with Fear and himself half to death, unable to get angry at all.

He glanced back at the cave and said, "Should we drag out a wolf carcass to take a look? Could it have been killed by this child?"

Jesse glanced at the baby girl, less than six months old, thinking it was unlikely, but his strong curiosity drove him to go back in and investigate.

Handing the child to Greed, he bent down and crawled inside, pulling out the closest body to the cave entrance.

The dead pup looked horrible, with no visible external wounds, covered in swollen sores all over, definitely not from starvation or any usual cause of death.

"Doesn’t this look like those zombies in Duskwood?" Greed asked.

Indeed, Jesse suddenly remembered the graveyard and looked at his bandaged hands, wondering if he had been poisoned by the corpse again. He needed to go back to the Cathedral of Light.

"Why did these baby wolves die from corpse poison?"

"It’s simple," Greed said. "They probably ate poisonous bodies brought back from the southern forest by adult wolves, and they didn’t cook the meat like the people in Raven Hill did. It’s strange how the children weren’t poisoned."

"Maybe they were picky eaters and got lucky," Jesse wiped the dirt off the child’s face. "But whether they ate it or not, we need to remind their parents to check on the children."

"That’s true," the dwarf nodded.

Jesse said, "Maybe that’s why the wolf pack went mad."

Greed agreed, "It’s possible. Those wolves might have been infected, just like the sickly ones in the south. There might be other wolf dens around here. With such a big wolf pack, they can’t all fit in this small cave. And this cave doesn’t look like it was dug by wolves, more like it was first dug by a bear and then taken over by the wolves."

Jesse asked, "The wolf pack came from the south to here?"

"Who knows," Greed said. "Anyway, we found the children, and the wolf pack has been mostly dealt with. Even if the wolves manage to regroup, they won’t come back around here. Let’s go back."

When they returned to the farm, the sky had turned deep blue, and the moons were nowhere to be seen.

The girl fell asleep on Jesse’s back, and Greed could hardly keep his eyes open.

From a distance, Jesse saw a man running towards them, and in his drowsiness, he thought it was a wolf pouncing on them, making him shiver in fear.

"Child, child…" the man mumbled incoherently as he held onto the child’s clothes, wiping away tears nervously. He glanced towards the dark forest behind them and said, "Are you injured? Is a wolf chasing you? Do you need help?"

"No wolves left, they’re all gone, just in the southern forest, not far away. You can go and see for yourself," Greed chuckled and muttered, "Even the surviving ones won’t dare to come back, their grandmother is already dead!"

The woman heard the voices and peeked outside. She nearly collapsed when she saw her child being carried back by the man.

The girl opened her eyes, looking at her parents as if she had no idea what had happened. The couple could barely speak, holding each other and crying non-stop.

Jesse sat on the wall outside the house, unable to understand what the couple was saying. All he wanted now was to sleep.

Looking around, Greed was already fast asleep by his feet.

Watching him sleep so deeply, Jesse couldn’t hold on any longer and drifted off, his head slumping to the side.