Hero Scout 76 Chapter 4 - Journey To Essenark

"Kenji, how much longer?" Tenko huffed, having asked that same question all morning.

"An hour, if this map is to be believed. Since it's just a collection of landmarks that's hard to say really, we might be wildly far way or right snuggled up against the village perimeter for all I know," Kenji's head lolled to the side. Bored, he watched the swathes of green forest pa.s.s in a blur.

"Tenko can go faster, hold on Kenji! Hold on Tenko's pack!" Focusing, Tenko pushed herself harder, their speed increased dramatically although Tenko's breathing became quickly ragged.

"Don't push yourself too hard," Kenji warned. "These roads are normally blocked with monsters according to the guild, you'll need to be ready to fight if that happens."

Ignoring him, Tenko bound along even harder, eyes focused only on the road. Sighing, Kenji let her. With his stored forms, any monster that would pose a threat would have to be something truly spectacular, and willing to attack a giant wolf at that.

"Kenji, a body," Tenko whispered, slowing down as she peered at a nearby bush where a leg stuck out. The tree above it was filled with ripped cloth, the poor victim's head seating on a branch, his goatee drenched in crimson.

"Turn back to your normal self, and let's get going," Kenji whispered, pulling his stone-fused sword free as he stalked forward. Arthur had called the blade 'Honour' in life, and how that very same Honour lay in his firm hands again. Well, Kenji's copy of Arthur's firm hands at least.

"We aren't at Essenark yet, Tenko doesn't want to waste time!" Tenko growled. Kenji merely pointed at a waystone, writing on it indicating that Essenark was less than a mile away.

Growling deeper, Tenko turned back into her regular form and grumpily allowed Kenji to put a thick cloak over her. These were folk that had had werewolves in their forests and had hunted said werewolves for generations if the reports were to be believed. Not the type to flaunt in front of, not when they were all descendent from those rangers and explorers to thick in the head to realise setting up a community so far into the monster-infested territory was a terrible idea.

"The Hunter General can't detect Tenko, Kenji, it'll be fine," Tenko said. Kenji bound a thick blue scarf around her neck all the same and pulled it up to obscure her pointed teeth from view.

Not much he could do about her luminous moon pupils, however, wishing he had a pair of those aviator sungla.s.ses cool cops wear in TV shows on hand. For now, he just pulled down her hood, the pair of moons reduced to a soft white glow in the dark folds of cloth.

"The fact they have an entire organisation dedicated to hunting down your kind at all should concern you Tenko. I'll be honest, if you're going to be this hasty then perhaps you should head back to Tariak."
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In response, Tenko started waddling forward even under her stifling layers of cloth. Following over a hill, Kenji's eyes widened as he found Essenark lain out before him in all its glory.

Sleepy hunting lodges, restful wooden cabins, well-tended too flower beds and little plots of farmland lay scattered about ancient trees and grand glacial mountains that rose like the backdrop to a play. Kenji had the odd reminiscent feeling of watching a North Korean propaganda ad on MeTube, that had seemingly shone an idyllic village lifestyle only half as pretty as this.

As they walked down the road they found children playing with streamers, townsfolk trading produce, and little cartloads of pelts and food rumbling down freshly gravelled roads. Yet no donkey pulled the carts, but scantily clad, wolf eared, and twitching werewolves instead.

"Ho their travellers, where might you be heading to?" said the farmer with a sunny smile and a whip in hand, speaking in the hissing local accent, as if every word had to be whispered in secret.

"Eh, looking for the Hunter General actually. Wanted to learn about the local werewolf packs. The Hero Guild is thinking of setting up a chapter house in this town, and I wanted to find out what we might need to know first."

The sunny farmers smile faded, and a look of deep concern fell over his weathered features.

"Best you be gone soon, adventurer. Those that deal with the Hunter General don't last long these days, The Hound comes for them all eventually. Last two general's already died from the beast, the current does nothing but drink and scheme at the Townhall now. We're prosperous besides in these parts, so we common folk at least have no need for your guild. The Mayor might though, thought I heard through the grapevine he was looking for someone."

Kenji bit his lip as he thought, but they really did need information. Tenko knew this region was where her pack had been before the Church's raid but hadn't the slightest clue where they might be now.

Tenko meanwhile stared at the twitching werewolf boy pulling the cart. Shaking all over, eyes rimmed in sleepless black, and constantly scratching at his side, Kenji felt he looked high or something. But surely narcotics couldn't be smuggled into a fantasy world, so just what had happened to the poor boy?

"Don't mind him little one, he won't bite. Not anymore, show her Gary," the kindly man raised his whip, the werewolf boy quickly opening a mouth lacking teeth.

Kenji had to turn away, Tenko's grip on his arm painfully tight as he heard the softest of growls beneath her cloak. The werewolf boy's ears raised, as he stared at Tenko with a knowing intensity in those yellow eyes.

"Come now you two, hop aboard and I'll give you a ride in to town. That way you can see the Mayor today and be about your business. Come, come," beckoning them a board, the man then barked an order to Gary who got pulling. Even as powerful as a Werewolf was, the added weight was making him strain himself to the limit.

Forced to listen to the man's kindly words, and the slave Werewolf's sounds of exhaustion, Kenji and Tenko entered the hidden village of Essenark.