Arriving at a small town were riders with a red wolf head with claw marks on their armor and clothing. They startled the whole town as they finally stopped before a tavern. "You sure he's here?", Morgan asked. "This is where the scent ends and what happened in the previous town was months ago, so I doubt it, but I bet we can find clues to where he went", Ragnar answered.
"I must say this werewolf we're hunting seems to like taverns a lot", Winter said. "Is he an alcoholic or something?". "We can't really get drunk, we could take barrels of beers, whiskey, or whatever but that would only do so little", Ragnar answered.
"Can't get drunk?", Winter asked surprisingly. "What the hell are you talking about!? I've seen you drunk more times than I can count".
"Well normally we can't but adding a little wolfsbane does the job, and when you say 'more times than I can count' do you mean seven? You've seen me drunk about seven times so are you telling me you can't count more than seven times", Ragnar said.
"That's quite surprising. Because from how you've been talking and acting I assumed you were quite well educated. Who knew a six-year-old was smarter than you are".
"Why you… ", Winter said but was interrupted. "Enough, the both of you!", Morgan demanded. "I swear your arguments are getting more annoying. It's like I'm babysitting children".
Winter raised her head down in shame after hearing Morgan's comment. "I'm sorry father". Morgan didn't reply to Winter's apology, he didn't even turn around as she gave it. "Ragnar and Winter, the two of you will come with me", Morgan demanded.
"Ragnar see If you can speak up some scents from the werewolf that came here".
"I'll try, but like I said earlier that was months ago, this place no doubt reeks of alcohol and vomit, those two combined tend to mask up scents.", Ragnar said. "I don't want to hear your complaints. You were put in my squad because of your usefulness you know what will happen to you If you stop producing results", Morgan said.
Ragnar heard this grunted silently and gritted his teeth. "No sir", Ragnar said. Seeing this, winter smiled. 'Good, he deserves to be put in his place everywhere once in a while', Winter thought.
"Let's go", Morgan Ordered. The three of them got off their horses and entered the tavern. It was late at night so it was quite busy. When entering, a lot of people noticed their armor and weapons. "That's silver they're wearing, you think those three are hunters", a customer asked. "Didn't you hear what happened in the town closest to us a few months ago? Just because they were silver doesn't mean they're hunters they could be fakes", a second customer said.
"Maybe he's right, maybe they are fakes. I've met a few hunters before and none of them were as sexy as that young woman with the ashen hair color", a third customer.
Winter felt disgusted after hearing the last comment from the customers in the tavern. It had come from a man looking to be in his fifties. He reeked of booze and was well-unkept.
Surprisingly it seems Morgan felt the same way because he gave the three customers a death glare which showed murder in his eyes. Seeing this the three of them looked away immediately.
'Well, I guess he can act fatherly when it counts', Winter thought. Morgan approached the barkeep. "What can I get you three? Our three top drinks are beer, beer, and best of all beer", the barkeep said with a huge smile.
"That won't be necessary", Morgan said. "We're looking for someone who came here a few months ago. We were hoping you'd remember them".
"Sure as long as you buy my beer", The barkeep said. "I'm not interested in buying your beer", Morgan said. "Well, think of it this way you're paying for information, and the beer is just a bonus.", the barkeep said.
Morgan gave the barkeep quite a glare while the barkeep just kept smiling at him. "Fine", Morgan said. He placed three bronze coins on the serving table. "Three of your disgusting beers".
"Three beers coming right up!", the barkeep exclaimed. Three wooden mugs were placed on the serving table. Ragnar quickly picked up his and started chugging it, winter awkwardly took sips from hers and Morgan didn't touch his.
"Now back to the matter at hand", Morgan said. "Right, you're looking for someone who came here a few months ago", The barkeep said. "I'll be honest with you, not many people come to this town. Although … There was one young fella. Didn't say much".
"Do you know where he is?", Morgan asked. The barkeep didn't answer and looked at the group of three. "Before I answer, mind telling me why you're looking for this fella?", The barkeep asked. "You don't seem to be friends of his".
"That 'young fella' as you keep referring to him is a werewolf. A beast that pretends to be human, A beast whose only purpose in life is to kill innocent people, and one who only has one emotion untamed rage", Morgan said. As he did his teeth gritted, his voice was raised so much that everyone in the tavern could hear him and veins were building out of his head.
Winter bowed her head. Her father would always get like this when talking about werewolves. "Geez, really?", The barkeep said. "I didn't see any of that from the young fella, he was just quiet and direct, honestly I kind of liked him".
"Do you know where he is or not?" Morgan asked. "Unfortaley, No", The barkeep answered. "He stayed the night and left the next day".
"Do you know anything else, anything that may help us find him?", Morgan asked. "Nope.", The barkeep quickly answered. Morgan turned to Ragnar who looked to have finished his drink.
"He's lying", Ragnar said. Morgan turned back to the barkeep. "What makes you say that?", The barkeep asked. "Oh I just know, trust me", Ragnar said. "You could say I got a sense for this kind of thing".
"You heard him, so please tell us anything that can help us find this werewolf. I would truly be grateful if you did", Morgan said. "Your gratitude is worth less than the coins you used to buy those beers, so not much" " the barkeep said.
"Now you're more than welcome to stay and enjoy the services of my tavern, but if you want to have a conversation that doesn't include drinks or lodging, I have nothing else to say to you".
"I see, well that is unfortunate, I was hoping not to go with the hard way this time", Morgan said. He grabbed on to the barkeep's head and slammed it on the serving table.
"Ragnar!". "I'm on it", Ragenar said. Ragnar went around the tavern picking up tables and throwing them all over the place. This startled everyone in the tavern.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?", The barkeep exclaimed. He tried moving his head but had little success. Morgan's grip on his head was extraordinarily strong.
On closer look, there were runes seen glowing the color red on his breastplate. "What am I doing?", Morgan repeated the question. "I'm just doing my job".
"Terrorizing innocent folk?", The barkeep asked. "No, hunting werewolves", Morgan answered. "No werewolves here and I already told you the young fella left" " the barkeep said.
"True but you know more than you're telling and by law, anyone helping werewolves no matter who they are, commoner, peasant, nobility, royalty, or even a bartender like you is an enemy, which makes what I'm doing here completely justified.", Morgan said.
"Now, are you ready to tell me what you're hiding or do I need to persuade you some more".
"Screw off!", The barkeep yelled. Morgan still had his head pinned down on the table. "Just remember you chose this", Morgan said. Morgan started to press his hand more strongly on the barkeep's head and blood started to fall from the barkeep's nose, eyes, and mouth.
Winter watched in horror and was left speechless. She tried to say something, anything to make her father stop what he was doing but the words didn't come out.
"There was someone who came here a few months ago, a stranger not from here. I think I remember him", a voice said. Turning around, Morgan could see it had come from one of the three men who were making remarks about them.
"Yeah, I think I remember him too, dark brown skin and curly hair", another man in the group said. "That's right maybe we would have forgotten about him but he went around town asking If we all knew a blessed one that was pretty unforgettable", the third man said.
"Yeah, I think I saw him talking to Rosa" " the first man said. "The three of you, shut your traps!", the barkeep screamed in pain. Hearing the conversation from the three men, Morgan let go of the barkeep's head, and his body slumped on the floor.
Winter, seeing this, went to check on him. "Tell me, who is this Rosa you speak of?", Morgan asked. He was slowly approaching them, and they all started to panic. They didn't want what happened to the barkeep to happen to them.
"She's just a widow that lives in the town, she's harmless", The first man said. "The stranger kept asking everyone in town if we knew about a blessed one, then Rosa approached him and they went back to her house".
"Sir she's harmless, she's never done anything wrong please don't hurt her".
"That depends on her", Morgan said. "Ragnar that's enough". Ragnar was in the middle of slamming a large table on a group of customers. He dropped the table and walked back to Morgan and Winter.
"Are you okay?", Winter asked the barkeep. "Like you give a damn?", The barkeep's side. Part of the head seemed to be fractured, and blood was still running from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
Winter pulled something from her clothing and brought out a vial of blue liquid. "Drink this it's a healing potion, it's a basic one so it won't heal all the damage done to you but it will do something, you can look for a mage to heal the rest", Winter said.
The barkeep tried grabbing the potion from Winter but kept missing. See this Winter decided to pour the potion down the bakeep's mouth. As she did she could see the fracture slowly start to heal.
"Tell me, where does this Rosa live?", Morgan asked. The three men gave the directions to Morgan. "I see, Excellent. Ragnar, Winter we're leaving I found another lead".
Morgan left, and so did Ragnar. Winter was yet to leave, she was looking at the destruction caused. He could see people trying to hide, they were terrified. She saw broken tables, chairs, and walls.
She could see the injured barkeep still not fully healed. "Sometimes I think we're the monsters, no the werewolves", Winter whispered to herself.
"Winter, What are you doing? Come on you can't keep slowing us down!", Morgan yelled.
Winter following her father left the tavern.