The entire pack of wolves had lined up obediently, waiting for their turn.
Nicholas made thorough checks on each wolf, carefully inspecting there teeth, pulling back there lips and running his finger over the fangs one by one, looking for any abnormalities, he peeled back their eyelids and engaged in intense staring contests, he made some soft noises around the wolves ears, followed by some rather less pleasant sounds, he patted down their entire body, searching for some deformation, and finally, he tapped their joints to test for their reaction.
most of the wolves where allowed to simply go back to lazing about or continuing their hunt, but some where pulled to the side for further inspection, and the process was repeated, until only six wolves remained, huddled by Nicholas.
"So how is it?" Alex asked Nicholas when he finally pulled away from the pack, "what's the damage?"
"Well," Nicholas said, letting out a sigh, "the only real problem is most of the older pack members are underfed, lot better than what I was expecting really, but, those six over there are a real problem"
"Why?" Alex blurted out in a panic.
"Genetic defects, infected wounds, food poisoning, and probably many other things I could not find," Nicholas explained, "for most of them, a quick swig of potion will fix them, but two of them, it is probably a mercy to end it for them now"
"Why, I mean, isn't there something you can do?"
"Maybe, I don't know the real damage they have as I have no medical equipment"
"But from what I can gather, that one" Nicholas continued, pointing out one of the six wolves who was panting heavily, it looked like it wanted to collapse to the floor, but was holding on out of sheer obligation, "has a damaged respiratory or circulatory system in some form or another, not that I can really tell, and I am just guessing here, but I think that it can't get enough oxygen from its blood, any strenuous activity will make it collapse"
"And that one" Nicholas turned his gaze to another wolf, Alex didn't need a veterinary degree to see something was wrong, "its legs are gone, it probably can not even run"
Nicholas was right, the wolf's legs where at an odd angle which reminded Alex of people with rickets, it had trouble even walking, how it had survived so long was a mystery, though another peculiar note about the wolf was the way it held itself.
Despite its physical impairment, it moved through the other wolves as if it owned them, as if it was the pack leader, not Alex.
Alex decided to dig deeper, thanks to the handy kingdom UI, Alex was able to check the stats of any of his subjects, an invaluable feature that would help him to no end.
It was his first time using it, but thankfully, the game provided an inbuilt tutorial, so no hour would be wasted messing with the complex UI.
Once Alex opened the section showing all of his subjects, he was met with a quaint little display. Each of the wolves had their portrait plastered next to their name, though non of them had any, accompanied by a little pixel art sprite.
Alex quickly found the wolf with splayed legs, it wasn't hard as his profile was quite unique, the main thing that caught Alex was that it was named.
Arf was its name, creative I know, strange, but not too concerning.
Then he opened it's stats.
[Name: Arf
Species: Blood red dire wolf (E)
Level: 23
Str: 12
Dex: 17
Con: 5
Wis: 50
Int: 50
Cha: 19
Hp: 200
Mp: 1000
Skill paths: Wolf combat (Novice) 3/100 (auto growth), Minor blessing of intellect 10/100, Wolf's hard claws 5/100, Wolf's hard fangs 3/100, Wolf's tough hide 5/100
Titles: Strategist of the pack (Murmur grade), Blessed by the pack deity (Tale grade)]
Well, that was, unexpected, at east that explains it attitude, it was probably used to being the smartest thing in the room at all times.
"I'm sure it will be fine," Alex murmured, half to Nicholas, half to himself, "just do what you can for now, if any of them die, nature has just taken its course, but if we save them all, don't you think it would be cause for celebration?"
"Spare the flowery words," Nicholas chuckled, "I'm a vet after all, seeing an animal leave healthy is enough for me"
"I hope you have success," Alex said, turning to leave, "I have a few questions that need answering, I heard there was a library in town, that sounds like a good place to start"
"Good luck" Nicholas called back, already beginning to busy himself with his work, Blanc watching with interest.
Alex wandered through the forest, the cool breeze feeling good on his skin, after a while, he began to break into a run, deftly weaving in between the massive pillars of wood that made up the forest.
He ran for a solid half an hour before he decided to stop and catch his breath, his muscles where beginning to send dull waves of pain to his brain, but it felt good, this was the realism he craved, that he had searched for but failed to find in so many other titles, it truly felt like a new world, and he couldn't wait to see what it offered.
He continued his run, laughing to himself, when he first opened the game, he was thrown right into the deep end with no chance to breathe, and the city just felt stifling and claustrophobic, this was probably the first time in the game he could just enjoy himself.
All his cares began to melt away, he should just enjoy himself, why fret over a fake world, or a real one for that matter.
Alex approached the city walls in high spirits, ready to hit the books.
After a quick routine check from an exceedingly bored guard, he was allowed entry into the city, and for the first time since entering the the town, he noted the atmosphere.
He didn't really have a chance to take it in when he first entered, a he had come to find that the game saves how your character would be feeling when you log of, so he entered the world just coming down from an adrenaline rush and still slightly punch drunk.
There was only one time he had ever been to a place like this: Alex was able to go to a good school, due to his family background, while it wasn't the happiest of times, the school did all it could to enrich its students lives, which included trips abroad.
On one such trip, Alex had gone to Indonesia, the purpose of their trip, volunteer work. At the time, Indonesia had been hit by one of the largest typhoons in all of human history, Typhoon Juliet as it was dubbed tore straight through most of Indonesia, causing only a handful of deaths due to the countries advanced typhoon defences, but still took a massive blow to the infrastructure of Indonesia, causing so many more deaths as a consequence.
The town reminded Alex of some of the towns he had volunteered in after the typhoon struck, the haggard faces of the occupants, the clear signs of malnourishment on all faces, the frequency in which he ran into those with debilitating injuries, or those mourning those lost.
the only difference was how the people acted, while in doing disaster relief, there was a certain sense of comradery, as if everyone just needed to pitch in and do their bit and all would be fine.
Here however, everyone seemed to have a sense of constant, lingering despair, but also a subtle optimism, many of the occupants seemed to have a look on their face, not hope, not perseverance, but a desperate optimism, as if things had to get better.
Another common trait between all occupants of the outskirts of the town, almost none of them where human. Horns, tails and fur adorned almost every citizen he passed, with a few more, interesting features.
As Alex walked further into the city, the change was so drastic it was as though someone had flipped a switch. Families walked by hand in hand, shop workers busied themselves with customers, old folks walked down the road, there nurses and caretakers fretting endlessly over them.
But the change in atmosphere was even more drastic, when he walked by, the occupants did not give him looks of scorn or disgust, as he was expecting, but fear, genuine fear.
It was as if they thought he would go berserk at any time and start wildly attacking them.
Another thing about what Alex had dubbed 'The inner city' was simply how extravagant everything was, the architecture of each building was flamboyant and flashy, the meals that where being served where exotic and where immaculately arranged, not to mention the clothes, How many frills could one dress have?
The centre piece of all of this was a castle, placed slap bang in the centre of the town.
Versailles, that was the image in his head he had when he looked at it, raised above the town, as if placed on a pedestal, more important than the town it inhabited.
While it was impressive to look at, Alex had other matters to attend to, namely, reading.
Alex made his way to the towns public library with a small spring in his step, he loved books, the rough feel of the paper between his fingertips, the subtle smell of aged paper and ink, and the feeling of diving into a new world, or learning about the one he lived in, he loved it.
The library was situated inside the main commercial district of the inner city, grand shops adorned with complex architecture and adorned with golden embellishments and silver adorning wherever gold did not.
Alex was almost blinded by the sheer amount of gold on display, he had only been to the small outpost of the trade centre in the outer city that was meant for, lower class citizens, and that place was pretty run down.
Compared to that, this was just excessive.
After suffering many looks of terror, and even one family flat out running away from him, Alex finally managed to gain directions to the public library.
Alex was surprised when he arrived, the library stood out like a sore thumb in this lavish display of wealth they called a commerce district, simply for how plain it was.
It was made of a simple, boring, grey stone, everything about the building screamed ancient.
no gold or silver was anywhere to be seen on the building, while Alex did manage to spot some odd grooves in the architecture where he assumed some kind of decoration did once go, but it had been long since stripped away.
Alex stepped right in to find an elderly woman busying herself behind a counter.
From the list she held in her hand, and the pile of books next to her, she seemed to be doing some light inventory management.
When Alex walked in, the elderly woman looked up from her list for only a second, before immediately getting back do her list.
"Don't tell me the revolution has already started?" She said in an exasperated tone, "you should no the rules, libraries off limits for pillaging"
"What?" Alex said, not really sure how to respond.
The woman took another quick look at Alex, and then let out a long sigh.
"Sorry," she said, without an ounce of sincerity in her voice, "everyone gets a bit jumpy this time of year"
"May I ask why" Alex enquired inquisitively.
"Second floor, shelf sixty five, anything from that shelf should help", she answered in a bored manner, still working on her list.
Alex made his way towards the rest of the library, but the woman stretched out a bony hand to stop him.
"Five silver per day" she said in an commanding tone, a genuine smile splitting across her face.