The group left the clearing and made their way into the forest continuing their journey...
A thick column of smoke can be seen from the area where that had camped earlier.
Before starting the journey,John had asked his guard to lit the fire to the mound of dead wolves.
Uncle John, let me do it. Alan took the burning torch from th guard and lit the corpses on fire. He stood there for couple of minutes bowing his head.
Helen knew about this and after last night John also understood Alan's reasons behind his present behavior.
The guards were staring at him in confusion but no one asked him anything.
After last night, they were in AWE of this little boy. Even most of the A-class Adventurers would not had achieved what this little fellow had shown yesterday, let alone come out unscathed.
"Almost...." they thought bitterly seeing a small piece of cotton cloth binding on Alan's left forearm.
Alan dejectedly, started walking towards the carriage. To everyone's surprise. All the horses came to him one by one, nuzzled his head and went back to their positions. Like they were trying to thank him and cheer him up.
To Helen and John's surprise it seemed to work, as he looked much calmer when they entered the carriage.
"Uncle John, did you encounter similar situations while coming from the Green town?" Alan asked curiously...
"No my boy. Usually wild beasts roam alone or in pairs. Which gives people travelling in a bigger group an advantage. There are only few beasts like the Wolves we encountered that are known to travel in packs."
"We may encounter an outbreak of the wild beast but those are rarest of the cases." John looked towards Helen, who noded solemnly.
Alan understood what he was referring to and did no persuade the topic further.
"Which are the other animals that move in group or packs uncle John ?" Alan asked, eagerness visible in his eye.
John laughed & started listing the names out....
"There are grassland and Mountain Lions which lives in open grassland and Mountain areas. Far from this region. They are ferocious animals. The male Lions will even be bigger and stronger than the fully grown red eyed tiger. They will generally be in a group of 4 to 15."
"There are wild dogs which although are not as strong as the Wolves, have their strengths in numbers. They will have atleast 100 of them."
"There are one more species called black Hyena. They are one of the most vicious wild beasts. They are cunning, eat everything including other beasts. They even eat rotten corpses and will not even leave the bones of their preys either. If you get bitten from one of them then the chances of you surviving without a magical healers intervention ontime, is almost less than 20%."
Alan was surprised at this news and made a note in his mind to be extra cautious around those beasts.
"The wild dogs and the black Hyenas usualy lives next to each others territory. So these will always be bad blood between them." John explained to Alan.
"These are the known wild beasts who live in packs in this region and kingdom."
"There are rumors and even written records of many other beasts unknown to this region." John told Alan.
This peaked Alan's interested.... He thought of seeing those beasts himself one day when he grow up.
They halted for their lunch in the noon.
Alan was almost back to his normal self and everyone relaxed and felt happy to see him doing his work as usual.
That day Alan requested Captain Kevin to lend him his horse to ride. Kevin obliged happily but cautioned Alan not to ride too far ahead.
Alan thanked him.... Took the reign of his horse and scratched its head.
Then he softly asked the horse. "Will you let me ride you my friend. I promise I will not harm you." His words were only audible to horse's ears.
It bobbed its head. With a wide smile Alan got onto the horse.
"Be careful Alan. Hold the reigns tightly." Helen cautioned him.
He noded and started to move ahead. Horse trotted forward slowly. Alan felt at ease sitting on the horse's back. After a while he increased the speed of the horse and ran in a moderate speed for a mile or so. Alan didn't wanted to push the horse to its limits and hurt him in any way as they were in thick forest area.
It was almost two hours since Alan went ahead of them riding the horse.
Helen, John and even Captain Kevin started worrying about him when they suddenly saw Alan comming towards them. The horse was galloping....
Watching this everyone halted their march and waited for them to approach. They were slightly worried that they might be hearing a bad news. Last night's incident was still fresh in their memories.
As they drew closer, they could see both the horse and the rider in an agitated state.
Alan got down the horse and held the rain firmly standing beside it and staring at the horse. The horse also looked at him sideways.
"What is the matter master Alan. Is there something wrong. Did my horse gave you a hard time riding"? Kevin asked.
"Nothing like that, we just encountered a wild bear." Alan fell into silence after that.
Everyone exchaned looks.....
"Did the horse got panicked and ran back?" John asked this time. Kevin also guessed the same and was nodding his head.
Alan let out a sigh....
"Actually we went running into the area where the bear was resting. It got offended and tried to attack us...."
Everyone was listening with wrapped attention...
"As I had killed many beasts last night. I didn't wanted to kill the bear and it was us, who disturbed its peace in the first place. So I punched its ribs and broke couple of them on purpose. The bear panicked and started running away."
"This one wanted to chase and teach the bear a lession and let him know not to mess with us. And I had to dragg him back." While talking, Alan swatted the horse's rump and said" with irritation clear on his face.
The horse already agitated, swung its tail towards Alan's back, who jumped in surprise and started rubbing it.
"Hey.... you...." Alan starting berating the horse. Which in-turn snorted and neighed at him.
It looked like two kids fighting over a silly reason.
Everyone burst out laughing...
Captain Kavin fell down laughing and rolling like a maniac. He had never seen his horse behave this way. It was hilarious.....