The two walked one after the other along the edge of the riverbank. Gerred looked at those high slopes close to the woodland. While holding a torch and waving it back and forth, he illuminated the pits hidden by the protruding tree roots on these low cliffs.
"What if the wolf den isn't here?" Jess was so sleepy that he could barely walk anymore, but Gerred was unexpectedly energetic, completely unlike his past image.
"Let's make a bet." Gerred said. "Just bet five copper coins. We will definitely find the wolf den within half an hour. I can already smell it..."
"Who would bet with you." Jess said. "Why not follow those fleeing wolves?"
Gerred shone the torch in front of Jess and said, "If those wolves had fled normally, of course we could follow them to find the wolf den. But now those wolves are completely terrified by you. And their leaders are all dead. What wolf den is there to speak of? If you observe carefully, every wolf runs in a different direction. Which one would you follow?"
Jess recalled the scene at that time. His mind was only in chaos and he couldn't remember where those wolves had gone at all.
In just the short time of daydreaming, Gerred had gone far away.
Without the sound of footsteps or the crackling of the torch burning, there were only the sounds of the river flowing, the wind blowing through the forest, and the rustling of leaves.
Jess took a deep breath and looked towards the river. At this moment, the silence seemed to finally give him a little breathing space.
Gerred's words earlier made him very uncomfortable. The path he had finally found with great difficulty was not recognized by his closest friend.
But this actually couldn't be blamed on the dwarf. As an old player who knew the history of World of Warcraft, he should have remembered the ancient hatred between the Wildhammer clan and the power of shadow.
But shadow magic... seemed to be the only path to growth that he had opened up since coming to this world. If he gave up like this, then he might only be able to live the rest of his life as an ordinary person secretly苟且 from now on.
After all, he was about to turn 18. If he didn't seize this opportunity, how many paths were left to choose?
The heroes of Azeroth mostly showed their talents and made achievements at the age of 18. And he was still just a casual laborer in the Elwynn area.
Suddenly, Jess heard a crying sound coming from somewhere he didn't know.
On this quiet night, this cry made a chill run down his back. Then he realized that this might be the child of the Giant Lake Farm family!
"Gerred!" Jess shouted loudly. The dwarf responded from a long distance ahead.
"Did you hear it? A child, there's a child crying!"
"What?! You heard it? I can't hear anything..."
"Over there! On the other side of the river! Right over there!"
The two of them waded through the water towards the other side of this tributary together. From stepping in the water to floating, and finally swimming hard against the rapids. After reaching the other side, they could hear it even more clearly.
Following the child's cry, they walked deep into the forest. Not far away, they came to a mud cave dug out under a low slope covered by bushes.
Jess didn't care about the danger at all and directly got into the cave. Gerred originally wanted to remind him that there might be something else inside. However, before he could open his mouth, Jess had already got in with his thin body.
"We've come to save you, little Fryer!" Jess crawled all the way inside until he reached the deepest part. Then he realized that he couldn't see anything. It was completely dark in front of him.
Jess couldn't hear the child's voice anymore. But at this moment, he just remembered that this child was only a few months old and definitely couldn't speak. Now that she was silent, she was probably frightened.
Gerred was shouting his name outside. Jess responded and explored further inside.
The deeper he went, the more obvious the stench of decay and the smell of wolves became. His stomach was already churning.
Enduring and continuing to walk inside and feeling around, he felt that he had touched some dead small animals. They didn't seem to be prey caught and killed but more like dead little wolves.
Is this the wolf den?
Why would the cubs die in their own den?
Following the faintly audible breathing sound inside, he continued to explore forward. Finally, his hand touched a wet cloth-like object.
Jess felt a tingling sensation on his scalp. Touching a wet thing in this place, what else could it be except blood?
He rubbed his fingers. There was no stickiness like blood.
He touched that wet cloth again and felt upward. When he touched the slippery skin, the child suddenly cried. He felt that he had touched the girl's lips and teeth. It turned out to be saliva.
The sudden cry of the child in this narrow space was extremely harsh, but he didn't feel annoyed at all. Instead, he held the child tightly in his arms.
"Did you find it?" Gerred asked from outside.
"I found it. I'll come out soon!"
Jess came out with the girl. After the dwarf shone the torch on Jess's face, he found that he was covered in blood and wolf fur all over his body and face.
"Why is there so much blood?"
"I don't know." Jess said. "There's a strong smell of blood inside. There might be other meat or animal remains or something. I can't see anything."
"Are there wolves inside, cubs?" Gerred asked.
"Seems so, but they're all dead." Jess said. "It might also be other prey. I'm not sure."
Jess looked at the girl and sighed in relief. "Just think how happy your mom will be."
The girl stopped crying intermittently and just looked at Jess's face and reached out to touch the mud on his neck and forehead.
Gerred looked at this evil warlock who had just scared a dozen wolves and himself half to death with fear magic and couldn't get angry at all.
He glanced at the cave again and said, "Should we drag out a wolf corpse to take a look? Couldn't it be that this child killed it?"
Jess looked at this baby girl who was not even half a year old and thought it was unlikely. But his strong curiosity still drove him to decide to go in and feel around again.
He handed the child to Gerred. He bent down and got in. He dragged out the corpse closest to the entrance.
The death of this cub was rather ugly. There were no obvious external injuries on its body, but it was covered with swollen pustules. It definitely wasn't starved to death or died in any other normal way.
"Does it look like those zombies in Duskwood?" Gerred asked.
It really did. Jess suddenly remembered that cemetery. Looking at his bandaged hand, he thought, could it be that he was poisoned by corpse poison again? He had to go to the Light Cathedral again to check.
"Why did these cubs die from corpse poison?"
"It's simple." Gerred said. "Probably because they ate the poisonous corpses brought back from the southern forest by the adult wolves. They wouldn't eat the meat cooked like those people in Raven Hill. The strange thing is, why didn't the child get poisoned?"
"She's picky. Consider her lucky." Jess wiped the mud off the child's face and said, "But no matter if she ate it or not, we should remind her parents to check the child."
"That's true." The dwarf nodded.
Jess said, "Perhaps it's also because of this reason that this wolf pack went crazy."
Gerred agreed. "It's possible. Those wolves might also be infected. Just like those sickly wolves in the south. There might be other wolf dens here. For such a large wolf pack, it's impossible to occupy just this small hole. And this hole doesn't seem to be dug by wolves. It's more like it was dug by a bear first and then occupied by wolves."
Jess asked, "A wolf pack that escaped from the south to here?"
"Who knows." Gerred said. "Anyway, we found the child. We also almost wiped out the wolf pack. Even if those wolves can gather again, they won't come back near here. Let's go back."
When they returned to the farm, the sky had turned dark blue. The moons had disappeared.
The girl was fast asleep on Jess's back. Gerred could barely keep his eyes open.
Seeing the man running over from a distance, Jess even vaguely thought that there were wolves pouncing again in his daze. He was startled all over.
"Child, child..." The man grabbed the child's clothes and mumbled incoherently for a while. Then he nervously wiped away his tears and looked at the dark forest behind. He said, "You are injured. Are there wolves chasing? Do you want to..."
"There are no wolves. They're all dead. In the southern forest. Not far. It's just a short walk. You can go and take a look." Gerred chuckled and mumbled. "Probably the ones still alive won't dare to come back. Their grandmother is dead!"
As if hearing the voices here, the woman also poked her head out. When she saw her child being brought back by the man, her legs went weak and she almost fell to the ground.
The girl seemed to have no idea what had happened. She opened her eyes and looked at her parents. And this couple could no longer say anything coherent. They just hugged and cried non-stop.
Jess sat on the baseboard of the outer wall of the house. He found that he couldn't hear what the couple were saying either. He just wanted to sleep now.
Looking around, Gerred was already sleeping soundly by his feet.
Seeing him sleeping so soundly, Jess couldn't hold on anymore. He tilted his head and lost consciousness.