Symar

Two days later…

They came to a halt, before them was an old sign with the words' welcome to Symar' written on it, The whole town was filled with snow.

“ Snow … ” Teresa mumbled with a smile on her face.

“ How did you know there was a shortcut? ” Elex asked.

“ I studied a lot” Amaria replied,“ go” she ordered her horse as tortes toward the town, Then Elex and Dove followed.

Standing at the entrance was a guard, he spotted them from afar and stood in the middle of the entrance. When Amaria reached the entrance, the guard unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Amaria.

“ Who are you? And what is your business here? ” he said. Amaria sighed and brought out the crest of the Moonstone pack, the guard's eyes widened and yelled,“ thank the goddess, the Alpha King has finally sent someone to help us”

Suddenly, everyone came out of their houses and stared at them with expressions full of hope.

“ What does he mean by' finally '?” Teresa asked Amaria, and she replied,“ I do not know”

An elderly lady walked towards Amaria's horse and said,“ please come,”, Elex, Amaria, and Teresa nodded and dismounted their horses while Dove shifted back to her human form.

The elderly lady led them to an inn, it was the only inn in the town, and she runs it by herself.

“ Please sit, you all must be hungry” she asked as she watched them sit on the wooden chairs that were available, except for Elex who prefers to stand.

“ Yes I am, I don't know about them, but I'm hungry,” Dove said with a childish grin on her face.

Amaria watched the woman serve them the hot porridge she had prepared.

“ Thank you, ma'am,” Amaria said with a bow.

“ No, it's pleasure, just eat,” she said with a smile on her face, Amaria nodded, and they began to eat.

“ So can you tell us what is going on here, the daemon boars, what harm have they caused?” Amaria asked.

The elderly coughed and said,“ it's been three years since this daemon boars appeared”

They all had bewildered expressions on their faces as they stared at the lady.

“ Three years? That's too much,” Teresa said.

“ You should have just sent a letter to inform The Alpha King or any guild around,” Dove said. The elderly lady cackled sadly and said, “ we did send word, but no one came, but we are glad the Alpha King finally sent you four”,' they sent word? All the guilds ignored, that's odd,' Amaria thought.

“ This daemon boars, invade our town, take our children, and sometimes hang a body of one of the children on the sign, and the worst part is, the child's face would be unrecognizable… and t-their bodies would appear completely decayed” The elderly lady stuttered. Amaria's eyes widened as she gulped her last spoon of porridge.

They were all dumbfounded. ' Hanging the child's body? Making their faces unrecognizable? Can a level two daemon boar do that? I doubt. Something's not adding up' Amaria thought.

“ Don't worry, we will help this town, and we will get rid of that daemon boar” Amaria said, the elderly lady smiled and nodded slowly as she stood up and said,“ thank you” and left the room.

“ Are you out of your mind? ” Dove asked Amaria.

“ Why would you promise her that? How are you so sure we are going to get rid of the Daemon boar?” Dove asked again.

“ I just told her what she wanted to hear,” Amaria replied and sighed.

“ That's one thing with you humans, you lie,” Dove said.

“ I'm not a human,” Amaria replied sternly.

“ Why bring humans into this discussion? ” Teresa asked.

“Ten why haven't you had your first transformation? ” Dove asked mockingly. Amaria furrowed her eyebrows and ignored Dove's question.

“ Hey! Dove just stop it,” Teresa said, Dove scowled at her and said,“ As a human such as yourself, you have no right to speak when a werewolf is speaking”

“ Huh? Who made such a ridiculous rule?” Teresa asked angrily. Dove pointed at herself and said, “ I did”

Elex massaged his temples in a frustrated manner and said,“ Dove, Teresa, just stop with this pointless bicker” but they ignored him and continued to bicker. Amaria felt a wave of disappointment as Dove's mocking words replayed in her mind.

Amaria clenched her fist and stood up,“ Both of you be quiet, as Elex said this is a pointless bicker, we have a massive issue on the ground, let's just focus on that and keep our differences aside and just work together”

Dove and Teresa reluctantly agreed to what she said and stopped their bicker.

“ Let's begin our patrol now, it's almost evening,” Amaria said as she hung her bow with a quiver filled with arrows on her shoulder and walked out. Elex followed.

Dove and Teresa glanced at each other for a while. Dove averted her gaze and said,“ I don't care, I still don't like the fact that a human is traveling with us ”, and stumped out. A small puppy squirmed out of Teresa's bag and growled as Dove slammed the door. His fur was white, and his eyes were as red as blood, with a silver loop around his neck. Teresa chuckled as she stroked its fur gently,“ It's alright, Rex, go back into my bag, they mustn't find out that I carry a daemon dog along,” it understood what she said and hid back into her bag, she smiled and walked out of the inn.

The four went to separate parts of the town to patrol, but they weren't that far from one another, Dove watched from above, Elex was at the entrance, and Amaria and Teresa were in the middle.

Amaria glanced back and saw a man kicking a kid who looked the age of six, out of his bakery, yelling,“ Wretched serf, how many times have I told not to come back to my bakery, I don't have anything I can give to you,” and slammed the door.

The kid wore dirty gray clothes that were little more than rags draped over a frame so thin. Amaria looked on as he stood there shivering in the chilly wind but still trying to stand up straight. Amaria felt a wave of sadness, so she walked towards the bakery, entered the building, and paid for a loaf of bread.