Heavy breathing proceeded the arrival of seven large beasts as they stepped out of the thick underbrush. The carriage stopped as the horses, tired from pulling through the thick mud, suddenly found the adrenaline to rear in panic and dash away through the trees. It only got ten feet before it was hopelessly stuck in the mud, and the horses were thrashing in panic.

Airow quickly cast sleep on them, causing them to slump down into the mud, where the man who had been driving the carriage, rushed to keep their heads out of the water.

Grey studied the seven werewolves as they stood in the middle of the road, contemplating the scene before them. The rain was running down their hides, exposing the muscles that rippled under their fur. Sharp teeth were exposed as they snarled in suspense of a meal. There was no intelligence in their eyes; no humanity.

Knowing that they could not expose themselves for what they were, they could only draw their weapons and prepare to fight. Argen gathered their horses, as they jumped from them, to block the wolves from the carriage.

"We were so close to town," sighed Argen, pulling the sword from Ray out of its sheath. Cherry clung to her horse, watching as they advanced on the wolves that had strangely not attacked yet.

Suddenly, the twang of a crossbow could be heard, and one of the wolves yelped as it fell to the ground dead. The other six snarled and charged at them, thinking they were behind it. Before they reached them, two more fell dead from crossbow bolts.

Airow let loose his own bolts, but the hits only caused the wolves to stagger a bit, not really doing the same damage.

Grey dodged to the side as the first werewolf went to bite her, its teeth missing by inches as she rolled in the mud. Swinging her sword up, she sliced through its hide, but the blow didn't put it down, it only enraged it more. She jumped forward, swinging her sword at its face, and sliced the top of its muzzle. A bolt hit it, and it jerked as it fell to the ground.

Guit jumped out of the way, as a wolf tried to swipe at him, and cut off the tips of its paw as he swung his sword on his way. The wolf staggered back, opening its mouth to howl, when another crossbow bolt hit it, taking it down.

Airow shot the same wolf, he had hit once already, and it finally went down. But it struggled to stand, churning the mud under it. A third shot ended its struggle.

The last wolf was hit by another bolt, causing it to slide in the mud, stopping at Airow's feet.

A man jumped down from a tree, looking tall and skinny, like a scarecrow. He had blue stripes on his cheeks.

"Saw you were in a bit of a pickle, and thought I would give you a hand."

"We sure appreciate it," said Grey, trying to wipe some of the mud off of her clothes.

"Who are you?" asked Guit, sheathing his sword.

"Name's Crow," he said, looking behind them.

They all turned to see Shiv jump out of a tree behind them and run towards him.

"Shiv! I was so worried!" he cried, rushing over to the cat girl and jerking her off her feet in a large hug.

"What happened to you?" she asked, muffled in his arms.

"I thought you had gone ahead, but when I got here, you weren't around. I thought maybe you were taking a roundabout way, to kill some extra wolves along the way, so I took a mission to distract me for a short while." His words came cascading out of him, like a river.

She laughed and said, "Some while! It's been almost a month!"

"I was heading back, looking for you! Honest!"

"Why were you following us?" asked Guit, squinting in suspicion.

"You were traveling in the same direction I was, and I was curious about the demon you mentioned."

"Shiv! You know that you're not supposed to act on your curiosity!" exclaimed Crow, horrified. She looked down embarrassed.

"I escaped.."

"Escaped!?" cried Crow, setting her down.

"There was a noble in the last city, that was a werewolf. I had tracked him across the city, to his manor. But when I went to kill him, he trapped me, and chained me up.." she explained, her head down as far as she could duck it.

"Augh! What am I going to do with you?" he grumbled, shaking his head.

"I was sure I could take him! Everything was pointing to the fact that he hadn't turned yet, and the full moon was still a long ways off!" she said defensively, her tail flicking side to side.

"At least you're okay!" he conceded, looking her up and down, as if she was only a child.

"May I ask a question?" inquired Airow, stepping forward.

The two looked up at him, as if just realizing they had an audience.

"A little help?" called one of the men from the carriage. Grey and Guit hurried over to help them.

"Yes?" asked Crow.

"Could you tell me how you were able to kill those werewolves with only one hit from your crossbow? I was hitting them with multiple shots from my bow, but none of them seemed to do as much damage."

"Oh! Well.." started Crow, moving over to talk shop. Shiv rolled her eyes and headed over to help everyone try to wake the horses up.

Cherry was finally able to do it, using a little of her magic when the men from the carriage weren't paying attention. After several more hours of pulling and pushing to get the carriage unstuck again, they were finally back on the road, and ready to head towards the village.

XxxxX

Lightening from the storm highlighted a crystallized dragonfly lying in a table, next to a strapped down child. Fear could be seen in her eyes as a shadow approached from the side.

Laughing evilly, it said in a deep husky voice, one word, "Soon!"