As her words ended, Minx lost all her strength and passed out on the spot.
Mya felt tears welling up inside her eyes and wanted to get up and help Minx, but she was out of options. She was not strong enough to go against the mage and her status in the city, while not bad, did not grant her that much of a reach. She also couldn’t stop casting healing magic on the other wolf, knowing it will be dead as soon as she did.
As all hope was lost, a powerful voice resounded from the gate, a voice that attracted the attention of every single person there.
“Since when is the magician guild in charge of protecting the city and why was I not made aware of this!”
The mage turned towards the voice with an ugly face and said: “This is my prey now. Don’t but in old man.”
The old man that just appeared didn’t seem offended by the mage’s words and fixed his eyes on the two wolves. The one captured by the mage didn’t hold any interest for him, but the other one, the dying one, did. Smiling slightly, he ignored the mage and started walking towards Mya and Edward.
Mya knew full well who this old man was and, putting on a respectful expression, said: “Guild master, please help. I’m not strong enough to heal it.”
The old man was the guild master of the adventurer guild and came here after being announced of a beast attacking the city. After arriving here and seeing the mage has taken care of the situation, he wanted to retreat, but noticed quite a peculiar thing; he couldn’t pry into the dying wolf’s soul, a thing that only happened once before, with a young man that recently joined his children’s party. Trying harder to read the wolf’s soul, the same force as last time stopped him, making him sure that, somehow, this wolf was actually that young man. Curiosity got the better of him and he chose to intervene.
Hearing the girl’s words, he nodded gently and crouched down, placing one hand on the wolf’s injured belly. Then, a bright green light came from his hand and covered Edward completely.
The guild master frowned slightly when he noticed the damage to the wolf’s body and said to Mya: “Young lady, you must be a disciple from the church, no?”
Mya nodded and said: “Yes. I’m the youngest daughter of the Greer family.”
The guild master nodded and said: “I will keep him stable, but I’m not able to heal him. Can you be a sweetheart and go call Oswin here for me? I’ll keep the wolf alive until then.”
Mya was started when she heard Oswin’s name and asked with hesitation: “Arch-bishop Oswin?”
The guild master nodded and threw her a token before saying: “Tell him Faelyn asked for him.”
Mya took the token and bowed respectfully before rushing back towards the city. She knew this was her chance to save this wolf who seemed so important to Minx. The people at the entrance immediately made way for her and she was soon out of sight.
The mage watched the scene play out from near Minx with an angry look in his eyes and, after Mya left, he said: “Old man, are you going to just ignore me now?”
Faelyn turned towards the mage and said matter-of-factly: “Go back to you guild and leave that wolf here. This matter does not concern your magician guild.”
A trace of unwillingness appeared on the mage’s face as he looked at the unconscious wolf and said: “But…”
“That’s enough, Rave. Any intruder into the city is to be handled by the adventurer guild. Now go back.”
The mage grit his teeth and, dispelling the chains tying up Minx, started walking towards the city while muttering something under his breath. Faelyn turned back towards Edward and continued stabilizing his condition while muttering under his breath: “I wonder what is the connection between that young lad Edward and that wolf…”
A few seconds after, a guard hesitantly approached Faelyn and said: “Guild master, what should we do with all the people and this wolf?”
Faelyn turned towards him and said: “Send the people back inside the city and seal the place for a while. I don’t want anyone entering here without my say so. As for the other wolf… let it stay here for now.”
The guard nodded and went to carry on the instructions. Ten or so minutes later, Mya came back followed by an old man. The two easily passed by the guards and approached Faelyn when the old man said: “Faelyn, what did you bother me for?”
Faelyn nodded towards the old man and said: “I need you to heal this beast. All it’s internal organs are crushed and he’s barely hanging on.”
“You asked me here just to heal a magic beast? Have you gone senile?” said the old man with displeasure, but Faelyn didn’t mind it and said: “I’ve taken an interest in this beast and you owe me a couple favors. You can cross one of the list if you want to.”
The old man scoffed and moved to place his hand on Edward’s body. After a few seconds, a powerful white light covered both their bodies and Faelyn moved to the side, knowing Oswin has started healing the wolf. Walking next to Mya, he asked: “Why did you start healing this wolf when everyone else was obviously scared of it?”
“Guild master, this wolf was brought here by Minx.” Said Mya as she pointed towards the unconscious Minx, “A friend of mine’s beast companion.”
Faelyn nodded and asked: “Can you tell me that friend of yours’ name?”
Mya didn’t know why the guild master asked, but replied nonetheless: “Edward Black, sir.”
“So it is that kid…” mumbled Faelyn as he fixed his eyes on Minx. Walking up to her, he placed one hand on her forehead and the same bright green light covered her body completely. Not even ten seconds later, Minx opened her eyes, a confused look in them.
Looking around, her eyes immediately fell on Edward covered by a golden light and got up to rush towards him, only to be stopped by some thin vines appearing in front of her as Faelyn’s voice drifted in her ears: “He is being healed now so it will not be good if you intervened.”
Minx stopped and turned towards Faelyn who just spoke, not recognizing the old man. Seeing Mya to the side, she felt slightly relieved and nodded her head towards the old man, a relieved young girl’s voice drifting through the air: “Thank you.”
Faelyn was a bit surprised when he saw that the wolf used magic to transmit words through the air again and took a second look at the best he chose to ignore before. He has seen beasts that were able to speak before, but none that was so weak.
“My pleasure. Were you always able to speak?”
Minx shook hex wolf head and didn’t reply as she fixed her eyes back on Edward. She didn’t feel like chatting with the old man before she made sure Edward was alright.
‘This is getting more and more interesting…’ though Faelyn as he fixed his eyes on Edward and Oswin.
You are reading story Curse of the Mad Wolf at novel35.com
It took half an hour, time in which everyone waited in silence, until the golden light receded and Oswin stood up while wiping the sweat from his forehead. Turning towards Faelyn, he said: “It’s done. Do you want me to save any other wild animal or can I go back to the church?”
Faelyn nodded towards him and said: “That’s all. Thank you, Oswin. I’ll treat you to some good wine.”
Oswin scoffed and started walking back towards the city, not bothering to reply. As only Minx, Mya, Faelyn, Edward and the two city guards were left there, Faelyn fixed his eyes on the now healed Edward that was slowly standing up on all fours.
———
Edward’s point of view since Minx started dragging him towards the city.
———
Edward, horribly injured and with his eyes closed, could make little sense of what was going on. His body turned to the side as he was being dragged over what felt like cold ice, but when he opened his eyes to see what was going on, he noticed that he was also unable to see. The explosion from before even burned out his retinas, rendering him both blind and deaf.
With nothing to go on, he could only resist the pain and try not to fall unconscious. As more and more time passed, he eventually started feeling a familiar warmth covering his body, and he remembered what it was, a healing spell. He got this feeling once before as Mya healed him just after he fell down to the second dungeon floor.
‘A healer found me… I might still make it…’ some hope returned to him and he went back to focusing on keeping his wolf form up, but his hope was short-lived because he soon noticed that, while the healing spell kept his condition from getting any worse, was not strong enough to actually heal him.
‘It’s too weak…’ and the bad news did not end there, he knew that soon, his stamina will also run out and his wolf form will get canceled by itself.
‘Should I gamble and try to let the wolf take over? Maybe I’ll get lucky and the healing spell will at least be able to keep me alive until the transformation was over? But what if I then attack the one who’s helping me?’ Edward was in a dilemma, but after mulling over it and not coming to a conclusion, he decided to at least wait until his stamina was completely spent.
Time slowly went on and, just as he was about to remain out of stamina, the healing spell stopped and was replaced by another one, a spell that brought a feeling he didn’t know. While this spell did nothing to heal his damaged organs either, he noticed that his stamina and mana were continuously recovering as the damage to his organs stopped expanding.
‘A supporting spell to restore mana and stamina? No, that’s not all, it’s also trying to heal me… more like a recovery spell…’ even if it was still not enough to heal him, at least it brought him more time.
‘I wonder what the hell is going on? Why are there so many healers around my wolf body and why are they trying to save it so bad? I’m no different than a beast right now… they should instead kill me for some easy life force…’ thought Edward, the entire situation making no sense to him.
After a while, the recovery spell also stopped and was now replaced by a healing one once more, this time only a lot stronger and he could feel his internal organs actually recovering slowly.
‘The fuck? Did the entire church mobilize to save a random wolf near the city?’ thought Edward, more questions appearing in his mind than answers with each passing moment. Either way, he was happy. He was slowly getting healed.
After what felt like and eternity, all the pain he felt before was finally gone and he recovered completely. He had no idea what has happened during all this time.
With the healing spell’s effect disappearing, he decided to play dead for a bit and try to listen and at least make some sense of the situation.
He heard a voice he didn’t know, apparently coming from an old man, but next, he heard someone he actually know. The guild leader of the adventurer guild.
‘Oh shit, it’s that guy Fenrir told me to stay away from. Guess that’s not an option right now…’ knowing full well that he couldn’t play dead in front of the guild master of the adventurer guild, Edward opened his eyes and slowly stood up, while taking in the sights around him.
He noticed that he was at the city gate and that the guild master was indeed there, but he was surprised when he noticed Mya sitting next to him.
‘Was she the one who found me and healed me at the beginning? Now that I think about it, it’s probably like that, but how do I deal with the situation? Do I turn back in front of them?’
As he was unsure on what to do next, he felt a small nudge from the side and he turn to see a blueish-white wolf rubbing it’s head against Edward’s soft fur. Edward took just a moment to know that, while looking quite different, this wolf was his trusted companion, Minx.
‘Minx? Figured she must have noticed the explosion since it happened so close to her hiding spot, but why does she look like this? Is it because of those cores she ate?’ wondered Edward, but since Minx and Mya were here and the guild master’s children already know of his class, there was no need to hide, he canceled his wolf form.
Both Mya and Faelyn watched with their mouths wide open as the wolf’s hair all over his back started receding back into his skin. His snout also started getting smaller, his face slowly turning into a human one. As Edward was finally back to his human form and stood up on two legs, Mya moved her head downward from his face.
“Kyaa” a loud yell resounded through the area as Mya covered her eyes with one of her hands and blushed fiercely. Seeing her reaction, Edward also looked down and remembered that his trusted trousers ended up getting burnt in the explosion.
“I guess even Bruce had his share of accidents…” mumbled Edward with an awkward expression before turning towards the guild master and saying: “Guild master, do you happen to have something that I can cover myself with?”. He couldn’t really ask Mya who was now as red as a tomato.
Faelyn chuckled and waved his hand. To Edward’s amazement, a small sapling grew from the ground and circled around his waist. Next, branches full of leaves grew out of the sapling, covering his lower body before it snapped, leaving Edward with a skirt made out of leaves and soft branches.
“Cool trick.. And handy.” Mumbled Edward as he turned toward Mya and said: “I’m sorry, Mya. You can look now. I forgot that my trousers got burnt…”
Mya slowly opened a small hole through her fingers and, after noticing that Edward was no longer completely exposed, let out a sigh of relief and removed her hand completely, the blush still present on her face.
Edward, now that he was not naked anymore, moved his hand to rub Minx’s head affectionately while asking: “Can someone now explain what happened?..”
Mya wanted to say something, but first looked at the guild master next to her, seeking his approval. Faelyn ignored Mya’s look and asked Edward with a raised eyebrow: “Don’t you think you are the one who should explain some things, Edward?”
Edward felt a bit awkward and said: “Ingvar and Kara already know, but they must have not gotten the chance to tell you yet. I have an unique class called shape-shifter that I got about a month ago. It allows me to turn into a wolf as long as I have the stamina necessary to keep the transformation active. This morning, I was attacked by a strong flying type magic beast and ended up like this after it launched a suicidal attack. I don’t know what happened after that….”
Faelyn nodded and said: “I’ll let this young girl tell you what happened since I have some stuff to take care of. Come by my house this evening, I have something to speak to you about.”
Edward thanked Faelyn and watched him walk away before turning towards Mya and asking: “Mya what the hell happened and why was the guild master here?”