Pearl waited, hiding atop the branches of a tall tree. His eyes were affixed at the trap they had set up below. There were more hunters on the tree and in the nearby trees as well. Twelve volunteers from Nanarin had come forward to help. Eight of them were from the village militia, the bearded man named Talon led them. Other than them, there were three who had lost a loved one the beast. Then there was the Alderwoman's grandson, Vale, who despite being only fourteen, wanted to help.
This part of the plan was simple enough. With the help of the volunteers, Pearl built two more traps, both of the same design but somewhat different from the ones he had built yesterday. One he had placed in the part of the Beast's territory that was farther from the village, the other he had placed just near the stream. Now all they had to do was wait for the beast to come seeking it.
Eranae was atop another tree with another small team waiting with her. Pearl, however, doubted that she would be any help with her being adamant on using that cudgel. But he also remembered Rel mentioning that it was imbued with some elemental power. Pearl wondered whether this was why she was gathering her strength, in order to make that power work if things went sideways.
Hours passed as they waited on the trees, listening and watching. The sun had set an hour ago, if Pearl remembered correctly. It was a bright full moon that towered the sky that evening, allowing much more illumination than one might have expected. Of course, lack of illumination barely affected Pearl and Eranae since lifesingers could adapt their eyes to look in the dark. However, this wasn't the case for everyone else present there. Hence the moonlight could prove to be a great advantage for them.
They continued waiting, but nothing seemed to be happening. Several hours had passed since the sunset now and there was still no sign of the warg. Pearl couldn't decide why the beast was taking this long to get here, but hunts like these did require patience. His mother had taught him to wait for the prey to arrive even if it took hours and hours, it was one of the reasons he preferred staying in the village.
Pearl touched the tree, which was connected to the earth, to sense the lifesong of organisms nearby, and a jolt of horror ran up his spine. He turned behind and saw it. An enormous animal with the body of a primate and head of a wolf crouched above, in the branches of the tree behind. It's long muscly tail wriggled in the air, it's massive claws gripping the tree's bark. It's eerie yellow eyes glinted in the shadows, meeting those of Pearl who just realised that it was the beast that waited for them. Realising that Pearl had noticed it, the warg let out a growl and pounced on the tree where Pearl was.
Pouring lifesong into his legs, Pearl jumped from the branch to move to the ground. The warg landed on the branch with great force, causing it to snap and break. The warg too now fell from the tree. Pearl reached the ground, landing on his feet a few paces away from the tree. The warg dropped right at the tree's base. It growled in rage and charged at Pearl, who notched and loosed an arrow that struck the beast's arm. It stopped for a while, removing the arrow with its mouth. The wound then healed immediately, indicating that the beast was of Third Cadence.
"Rel!" Pearl called out in his mind, "Inform Eranae about this. Tell her that I am bringing it her direction."
The hunters on the trees finally snapped out of the shock and realised what was happening. Talon and the five others who were on the tree with Pearl began shooting arrows from their bows. Their aim was just as mediocre as Pearl's with only a couple of arrows hitting the beast's back. That was enough for enraging it even more and causing it to leap at Pearl with incredible speed.
Pearl, after shooting the beast, had begun sprinting in Eranae's direction which was almost at the stream's shore. On sensing the warg jump at him, his first instinct was to dash even faster but then decided against it and stepped forward instead, to avoid the claws. He then strengthened his arms with lifesong, raising them when the beast was exactly above him and pushing it back with all his strength. The warg squealed with pain and then jumped backwards, twisting and slamming it's mighty tail against Pearl. This sent Pearl flying off several feet high in the air. His body was ringing with pain and he felt a crippling fear of crashing to death.
Distributing lifesong evenly to the backside of his body, Pearl braced himself to feel his bones crack.