"You've got to be kidding me," Sindra exclaimed. "Now why would it run away?"
Koda shrugged. "Beats me. I'm only glad that it didn't kill us." He looked around at the circle and exhaled, running a hand through his hair. "That thing was a monster for sure, almost like nothing I've ever seen before. I mean, did that thing have wolf steroids, or..?" He began to step out of the circle, but Sindra grabbed his arm. "Wait. I don't trust this. We need to stay here for at least a little while longer, wait for it to change its mind or if it's testing us."
He nodded, standing stock-still while Sindra glared at the trees around her. It wasn't right. She didn't trust any of this. But were they supposed to spend the night here inside the sigil, in the middle of the woods? They had to leave eventually. She wasn't prepared to camp out here in the middle of the forest with a very powerful werewolf lurking around, no matter how protective the sigil was.
Sindra's hair was plastered to her neck despite the chilly air, and her back was sweaty too, all after running from the beast. Even though the werewolf was still out there, a shower would be the one thing that would clear her head and help her regain her bearings. More than anything, she wanted to stay out in this forest and hunt the werewolf, but one look at Koda told her that he also needed a refresh. So, cleanliness and rest won out. Just this time, at least.
"Alright, well that's enough for tonight. Let's just get out of here." As defeated as she felt, Sindra knew this would be the best choice for them. If they were too exerted, neither of them would stand a chance against the werewolf… no matter how experienced or motivated they were.
"Great. I am all for that decision." Koda began scuffing the dirt, but Sindra stopped him. "No, just leave it. You never know if it'll be needed after we've left."
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Somewhere in Deschutes County, Sindra and Koda found a motel and camped there for the night, making plans to continue the hunt tomorrow. Although the full moon was tonight, it was still possible the track the werewolf in its human form tomorrow. One of the best things about it was that they wouldn't be hulking and furry as humans, and much less deadly. But since most werewolves preferred to stay incognito, and most likely this one, the search could go on for days even. Deschutes wasn't that popular of a town, but it would still be like finding a needle in a haystack.
But Sindra was determined to find it and execute it this time. After finding out that it wasn't her failed assassin (to be expected), her rage only intensified until it consumed her.
She could hardly sleep that night, and as soon as morning came around, Sindra resumed the search. Koda was groggy as he slowly pulled on a wrinkled t-shirt that smelled like a mix of mothballs and old detergent. He looked incapable of hunting in his current state, but as soon as he came to they would leave. They couldn't afford to waste any time today.
"So how did we manage to get tricked in coming out here?" Koda asked as soon as he gained his bearings. He was already heading for the door, as if he sensed Sindra's own urgency to hunt.
She slowly turned to face him as she pulled her hoodie sleeves down and fanned her hair out over her shoulders. "What?"
"Before we left Florida, I had enchanted my charms to track your assassin. It's impossible for such a thing to fail… unless we're dealing with something else…"
Sindra frowned, in no mood for guessing games. "Something like what? It's not like we're going up against my werewolf… this is just another ordinary one that somehow knew to stay away from your sigil." Even that sounded ridiculous, but it still felt good to say it out loud, as if it needed to be verbally confirmed how odd this all was.
Koda sighed wearily. "Something like a sorcerer or sorceress. I dunno, it may sound crazy, but we could be going up against a sorcerer..or sorceress.. and werewolf pair. It's not uncommon for the two to come together and stand up against hunters."
He was right, unfortunately. Sindra had forgotten that werewolves and magic-wielders often joined forces with each other in order to stand a better chance against hunters. It would seem that either one would easily win against a mere human hunter or hunters, but both of their powers were limited. As such, werewolves could only shift into their beast forms on full and new moons; sorcerers and sorceresses had to have a certain moral ground in order to slay a human, since their magic hadn't ever been meant to kill. Sindra had never known why, but it never mattered to her since it meant werewolves were convincing those magic-wielders to join them to kill hunters.
"Well isn't that just a lovely morning anecdote?" She muttered bitterly. She grabbed and holstered her handgun before striding over to the motel door. "We may as well head out now. We've got quite a bit of work to do if we want to find that werewolf before the end of the day. And the possible magic-wielder teaming up with it." Because how else would that thing have known to avoid Koda's sigil last night?
"Man, this is gonna be a legendary hunt. One hell of a good fight is coming our way once we find them," Koda said as they strode out of their motel room.
"Koda, I hate to break it to you, but this is a very serious issue we're now dealing with. A potential magic-wielder to deal with was never a part of the plan, so I hope to everything above that your judgement is wrong. So keep it serious, very very serious."
"Aye aye, comrade."
"Don't call me that."
She could tell he was about to say it again but quickly silenced him with a look as he pulled his phone out to schedule an Uber. As soon as their ride showed up, Sindra instructed her to take them to the rental car shop in town. As long as they were in Deschutes hunting this werewolf, they couldn't keep taking Ubers and spending that kind of money. Getting a temporary rental would be their best bet for multiple obvious reasons. Besides, Sindra was sure some innocent Uber driver would NOT want to see a disembodied werewolf head as soon as their hunt was finished. Sarcastically speaking.
Their Uber dropped them off at the rental car shop, and Koda instantly began to freak as he looked at all their potential rides. Aside from being a werewolf hunter and magic practicer, Koda was a hardcore car nut. It was a far more mundane fixation in comparison to his life as a hunter, and so it was one of the only things that kept him sane when he wasn't stalking a werewolf.
"Oh oh, check this one out!" He exclaimed as he marveled over a slightly lifted Toyota 4Runner. "Ooh, or this one!" He pointed at a Jeep Wrangler.
Sindra rolled her eyes, but admittedly, these could all be great cars just in case they needed to go off-roading in the forest somewhere. "Hold on, let's keep looking at all of the others first before we settle on one. We've got lots of great options here."
Koda nodded stiffly, feeling fixated on the Jeep in particular, then reluctantly followed Sindra through the lot. She ignored all of the sedans and minivans, but kept her eyes peeled for any SUV or truck that would best suit them for a werewolf hunt. It wasn't long before they were joined by a portly man with a blue shirt and yellow tag at his breast that said, 'Hi, My Name Is Carl.' "Hello there folks, how can I help you on this fine day? Are we looking for anything specific? And just let me know if you have a price budget, because we can certainly accommodate that."
Sindra and Koda exchanged a glance, then Sindra cleared her throat right as Koda opened his mouth. "We would like something that is best suitable for off-roading," she said. "Something sturdy but not too big. And as for pricing, all you have to worry about is not screwing us over, because I do not tolerate that. Got it Carl?"
Carl was speechless for a couple seconds before he quickly nodded, unsure if she was joking or not. "Oh, of course. Yes ma'am." He chuckled nervously. "Right this way folks, I believe I have the perfect car that fits that description."
As Carl led them through the lot, Koda silently laughed at her side. "Wow, going macho already, huh? It's hardly ten o'clock."
"Yeah well, I'm ready to find this werewolf and kill it so we can get the hell out of here and find my original werewolf." She kept her voice very low, because Carl wasn't too far ahead of them. "And I've been screwed over by these car guys way too many times before, and I will not let it happen again."
Koda dragged a hand through his hair as he looked over at a row of Ford F-150s. "We seriously need a name for that thing. We can't keep calling it your werewolf, or the werewolf… it's a little confusing. We should call it… X, or Alpha, or Assassin… I don't know, just anything that's not vague."
Sindra couldn't hide her smile. "Okay fine, we can change the name, it just wasn't that high of a priority to think about. I'm fine with X, it's simple and I don't feel like I'm wasting my breath with such a long name."
Before they could keep talking, Carl had led them right over to a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. "This one just came in, but for you guys, I can lower the price by twenty percent. Let's call it $35 per day? What do you think?"
It certainly wasn't a bad deal, and Sindra honestly didn't feel like looking at more cars, so she told Carl they would take it right at the same time that Koda asked about the Wrangler's price per day. She exchanged a look with him, and he simply shrugged. "What? Can't be too curious, no matter how good the deal is on this one."
Sindra fought the urge to roll her eyes again, but Carl simply nodded and motioned back over to the Jeep Wranglers. "Well it couldn't hurt to look at those again, right?" He let out another nervous chuckle. "Maybe I can settle you guys in for another twenty percent discount on one of them…" Which sounded way too good to be true, but Sindra decided she would hear him out, despite their time crunch on finding the werewolf.
This time she let Koda do most of the talking since he was the avid car nut, while she kept watching the time over and over. It was now ten fifteen. They needed to leave. "Okay, maybe we should just decide on something at least and go with that," she said, trying her very best not to sound bitchy. "I really liked the Grand Cherokee."
"But with the Wrangler, we can get the same discounted price on it!" Koda exclaimed as Carl grinned nearby. "Come on, let's just go for it. We may have a better time going off-roading in this one anyway."
"Okay fine, let's just do it." She really didn't feel like arguing over a rental that they may not even use the entire time. She looked over at Carl. "So $35 a day, right? Where can we sign the papers?"