7 Saun 721
Continued from here
Turtle Ridge was only a couple breaks’ walk away for the active Rangers, and those breaks largely passed without incident. Until Oram and Sh’ron saw the wolves.
Oram counted seven of them, interspersed among the trees on the hillside, grey and lean and alert, spread out in a shallow arc before the pair. They made no move. Choir froze when he saw them, tense and anxious, though neither he nor the wolves before them made any aggressive move or display.
There weren’t just wolves. Some eagles and hawks perched in the branches of the same trees the wolves prowled beneath, gazing steadily at the humans with intense yellow eyes. A curious weasel-like face rose above the underbrush to regard them as well. A marten, Oram realized after a moment.
Cautiously, the two Rangers and the song wolf edged closer together. Oram readied his spear while Sh’ron nocked and arrow.
”They won’t hurt ye unless I let ‘em,” called out a gruff voice from one of the larger trees in front of them. A large, crudely-be-leathered man with unkempt hair and beard emerged partly from behind it, glaring balefully at Sh’ron and his bow. ”Question is: why shouldn’t I let ‘em?”
Oram briefly considered reaching for one of his Ezere abilities, but decided to wait. He just spoke first. Lowering his spear, and resting it point-down on the ground, he said: ”I am Oram. This is Sh’ron. We are Rangers from Egilrun, and we’re here looking for a little girl from there named Priscilla. We want to take her home.” He glanced over at his partner and gestured for him to lower his bow. Reluctantly, Sh’ron did so.
He waited, even though the tension in the air urged him to keep talking, keep explaining. The traveler had a sense that this was a man with little patience for explanations.
For several trills neither man nor beast stirred. At last the wild man said slyly: ”What makes you think I’ve even seen such a girl, let alone have her?”
Oram suppressed an irritated frown. He hated when people played dumb like this; it was tedious. ”You are not the only person with friends in the Sweetwine,” the hunter declared, casting a meaningful look at the animals. He paused just a breath to see whether Argua -assuming this was Argua- would take the point, or whether he needed to persuade further.
The wild man took it. ”Heh,” he chuckled, his tone a mixture of mild annoyance and mild amusement. ”Lemme guess: fairies. Hope you didn’t eat any of their food.”
”Not this time,” Oram answered. ”I learned my lesson earlier.”
The wild man’s manner relaxed just a bit more. He finally emerged into full view from behind the tree. ”Heh! I bet you did. Well, yeah, fine. I got her. Paid a small fortune to ransom her from those thwarthides. Don’t expect me to just give her to you.”
An angry growl came from somebody’s throat at that; Oram wasn’t even sure if it was Sh’ron’s or Choir’s. He shot a nervous glance at both of them. Things were just starting to look up, but could still go badly awry for them. ”For now, I ask that you welcome us in peace,” he offered quickly, before either of his other party members could do anything rash, ”and simply let us see and speak to the girl, make sure she is alright. We can talk more then.”
The wild man looked expectantly at Sh’ron, who still had an arrow nocked, albeit pointed at the ground. To his credit, the Ranger took the hint and put the arrow away. ”We gave you our names,” he said as he did so, a bit defiantly. ”You never gave us yours.”
The wild man’s face held a blank look. ”Why, no, I suppose I didn’t,” he drawled blandly.
Oram cut in: ”The fairies said you were known as ‘Argua’. May we call you that?”
The wild man’s eyes swiveled back to the traveler and he grinned wolfishly. Then he shrugged. ”You can call me ‘King of Turtle Ridge’, if you like. Yeah, sure, Argua is fine. Welcome to my camp. Follow me, and I’ll show you the girl. You can speak to her, too, but I don’t know if she’ll talk back. She ain’t said a word since she arrived.” He turned then and made a curt, beckoning gesture, then began to stride swiftly up the hillside. As he did, the animals melted back into the woods.
