After walking for what seemed like an eternity, they came upon the edge of the forest and saw a town in the distance. Karahura Town. It seemed to be a very active town with three-fourths of its population being beast-men and the rest were humans. While they did co-exist, prejudice was still quite adamant in the community.
The boy led Ari and the Shock Wolf across a wheat farm southwest of the town. They trotted across town avoiding many eyes. Ai didn't really understand why he kept dodging so many people as if he was hiding from someone…
"Hurry up!" he yelled after her.
After a few minutes, they arrived at what looked like a really clean, abandoned house. As the boy was about to say something, they heard a bunch of voices on the other side of the house. The boy motioned to her and they crept to the wall to slowly peek at the other side. They saw some coyote folk and an old man. It looked like they were arguing about something. The boy observed the situation for a moment and proceeded to pull out his dagger. Ari just watched and held her shock wolf close to her chest.
"Come on old man, there are 3 of us and one of you, you puny humans never stood a chance to begin with. Just hand over your cash and we'll leave quietly."
The coyote folk began slowly advancing towards the old man.
"Youngins these days." the old man remarked as he spit on the ground.
The coyote folk laughed and surrounded him, while the boy gripped his dagger about to lunge at the nearest one until he saw the old man drop the wheat straw he had in his mouth. The boy relaxed and smiled a tad bit excited about what was about to unfold.
The coyote folk lunged forward at the old man, he stomped the head of the hoe that was laying beside him. It spiraled in the air narrowly missing the coyote in front of him. It caused the coyote to lose balance and fall backward., the old man then grabbed the hoe out of the air and spun hitting the other two coyotes in their faces. Before they knew it, the three of them were on the ground looking very helpless. They began getting angry and decided to make another attempt of getting him. They lunged again but he ducked, spinning the hoe and catching one of the coyotes in the throat. He completed the spin and slammed the coyote into the ground decapitating his head. Starting terrified at the old man, they wanted to make an attempt to run but the menacing figure that stood in front of them filled their head and movements with utter fear. The two finally mustered the will to run and got up scrambling in the direction of the forest screaming. The old man was contemplating on letting them live but he realized they would just bring their friends to cause more trouble for him. He took 1 step forward and threw the hoe directly into one of the coyote folk's head and he fell flat on his face with a pool of blood gradually growing around him. The old man took off chasing after the other who was running and screaming like a lunatic. The old man grabbed his hoe and within a few steps caught up to the coyote. It saw nothing but the floor of the hoe directly in its face as the old man pulled back and grabbed it by its head and said
"I warned you"
He smashed the coyote's head into the ground and snapped its neck. The old man arose and lit a pipe that was sitting in his pocket. It was then he noticed the 2 children behind the building. Hw took a puff of his pipe and stared into the sky for a few minutes.
"These youngins never learn." he said in a slightly triumphant voice.
He was about to call the boy to help him before he heard rustling coming from the nearby forest entry. He motioned for the boy to take the girl to a safer position. He realized that with all the screaming the coyote folk had alerted some of their kin who were lurking in the forest. He took one last puff of his pipe before putting it out and releasing a large cloud of smoke into the sky.
The group of 5 coyote folk came out of the bushes expecting to see their comrades with some loot. What met their eyes were the dead bodies of their comrades and their blood soaking into the ground. They stopped and sniffed the air, the mixture of human scent and blood was fresh and scrambled together. What seemed to be the leader of the pack gave silent gestures for them to start surrounding the area and to try and ambush whoever was still in the area. One of the coyotes signaled that he would stand to watch for stragglers when in fact he was terrified of what he was seeing. After a few minutes of advancement, the silence began striking even more fear into him, and as he spun around to abandon his crew and run away his eyes widened to the old man standing behind him.
"The cowards are the first to die"
Those were the last words he heard before his head fell to the ground. The old man proceeded to go after the 2 closer to the kids since he had traps set up for the other 2.
Ari and the boy were hiding in a small warehouse in the back and Ari was sitting and staring at the boy as he was making some sort of contraption in front of the barn door. She didn't understand what happened but somehow felt like she did. She wasn't scared, rather intrigued by the deaths of the coyote folk.
"Hey stay down there, don't get up for anything until I tell you to."
He disappeared into a small bulk of wood and her eyes followed him till she couldn't see him anymore. It hadn't been even 5 minutes until one of the coyotes came busting through the door. Before he knew what had happened a huge log crushed him into the wall and his lifeless body lumped down onto the ground.
The leader of the group coyote, who was behind him, saw what had happened and became more cautious as he entered the warehouse. He sniffed around for more surprise traps and when he sensed none, he set his focus on Ari who was sitting there. The shock wolf that was with her began growling at the coyote but she put her hand on it and it stopped. Ari arose with the dagger that was left with her and stared at the coyote with a blank face. The coyote began laughing at Ari.
"Bwahahaha little girl, what do you think you are going to do with that."
The boy heard the commotion from when the door collapsed and had rushed there, just to see Ari lunge forward with unfathomable speed and cut both feet off the coyote. The old man arrived at the same time to behold the sight of a coyote impaled on the dagger Ari was holding up behind it. The two of them were left speechless and Ari moved from underneath the coyote and it landed on the floor with a soft thud. She went back to her shock wolf and resumed playing with it as if nothing had just happened.
"Take care of her, I am going to deal with the other two." Were the words of the old man before he left.