Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Human Foes

"Where are they?! Where are these creatures you speak of?!" Yelled Mr Barnes, the mayor of Margery town. He and the sheriff, along with a search party that were residents of the town were in the woods actively searching for I and my kind. I could hear their voices from a mile away.

"Those beasts that you saw, they don't exist. Those were probably just costumes" said Mr Barnes as he addressed the search party. "No! We know what we saw. We are not crazy. These creatures have been bullying and stealing from us. We only just started seeing them a couple weeks ago. They always moved too fast before" said Mrs Smith, one of the residents within the search party.

After arguing back and forth for a short moment, they proceeded with the search. "There! What house is that?!" Exclaimed Mrs Smith as she pointed at a brown two storey building. "That is the house of Baron Augustus, a very renowned artist in this region" replied the Mayor. "What?! How can someone live within the woods? And this house looks like it belongs to a very wealthy person. What is the source of his wealth?" Asked one of the residents as they moved closer to my house.

I am a light skinned man of average height, dark hair and blue eyes. I don't know if I am physically appealing because I never had a soulmate to tell me that. However, I have had a few escapades with some humans who have told me I had a square jaw and look really attractive.

Over the years, I had gained some wealth from my exploits with my rogues. I built that place as a cover-up so we could blend in as humans. However, I and my rogues barely lived there. We responded to our more primal nature and constantly scampered through the woods. We have marked different territories, and are immensely feared.

I paid the mayor a huge sum of money to allow me erect that building in the woods and I always paid him to look the other way. He knew about the seventeen other people I had in my care. However, he wasn't aware of the kind of beasts that we were.

I listened to the mayor and the search party along with my rogues from a long distance away.

"We can't step into this building. We would be trespassing. I don't want to do that. I'll tell the sheriff to bring him in for questioning later" said the mayor as he addressed the search party. "No! We want to see him now. We need to search these woods thoroughly" replied one of the residents.

On hearing them, I then addressed my rogues saying; "Alright everyone! We have to be swift. We will pass through the back of the building. We can't afford to be seen. Once we're inside the compound, I'll hide all of you in the attic. Do you understand?!". "Yes we do Baron!" Replied my rogues in unison.

When we got to the building, I and my rogues did as planned. After that, I put on a black Jean trouser and a blue T-shirt. I wanted to look casual. I then stepped outside the house where I found all of them standing right at the front.

When one of them saw me, he exhaled loudly as I could hear him. He pointed in my direction and said; "Look! That must be Baron Augutus". The rest of them then looked in my direction. I simply wore a casual smile on my face and began approaching them. They all looked in awe. It was as though they were expecting me to have a different look.

"Good morning Mr Baron! I'm very sorry for the disturbance" said the mayor as he approached me. "This is very unusual" I replied. "Yes I understand. You see..." "Mr Baron! Let me ask some questions" interrupted the sheriff as he came toe to toe with me. "Sheriff Winston what are you doing?!" Said the mayor, as he turned to the sheriff expressing some anger for interrupting him.

"Allow me sir. I just want to ask Mr Baron some questions" replied the sheriff after which he faced me. "It's okay, I'm ready to answer all your questions" I said.

"How long have you been staying here?" Asked the sheriff. "Five years" I replied. "Wow! Incredible. How is it that I don't know of your existence in this town?" Asked the sheriff again. "Well, that is your shortcoming. The mayor here has known me for years. Kindly tell me what the problem is. I need to go back to my paintings" I replied.

"Well, these people claim they've been seeing beastly creatures steal from them" said the sheriff. "Wow!" I replied, after which I began laughing. "Okay, what exactly does that have to do with me?" I replied again. "Well, we are trying to connect the dots. We are sorry for disturbing you. We truly are. It just looked quite peculiar seeing a building like this in the woods" said the sheriff.

"I completely understand" I replied, after which I turned to the search party to address them. "Everyone! My name is Baron Augustus, and I have been living here for the last five years. I and your mayor are very good friends..." "You look very young" interrupted Mrs Smith as she approached me. "Yes I am. Were you expecting someone old?!" I replied. "Well, living in a place like this would be expected from someone vintage" said Mrs Smith.

I then laughed in reply. Some members of the search party began laughing as well. I observed Mrs Smith warming up to me as she wore a warm smile on her face. "Okay Mr Augustus, we are sorry for the disturbance, but please if you do come across these creatures stealing from us, kindly inform us. They look far stronger and faster than us but we will always find a way to hunt them down. Nothing can terrorize us in our own town" said Mrs Smith. I then chuckled a little.

"You find this funny?" Said Mrs Smith. "Of course I do. You are talking about seeing beastly creatures. How is that possible?" I replied. "We know what we saw!" Yelled Mr Charles, one of the residents among the search party. "What you saw could be humans dressed in costumes so they can scare you. Did you consider that possibility?" I replied.

"Well, let's not drag this argument any further. You are obviously a decent working man. You look like a proper man of society. Please report to us if you discover anything peculiar" said the sheriff. "Alright I will" I replied, after which they all left.

"What do we do Baron?" Asked Red, one of my rogues as soon as I stepped into the attic. "Well, we have to lay low" I replied.

I then decided to address all of them. "Everyone! These past couple years have been glorious ones. As rogues, the werewolves expected us to suffer, but here we are. We have fought different battles with the werewolves and we have won all of them. This is because we are superior creatures and they envy us. I have led all of you to victory. There is one more pack we need to take down before we can truly rule this region, and that pack is the Luna pack. I wanted to attack them once I discovered enough shapeshifters like us but over the years, we haven't discovered any new ones. It appears they were wiped out from this region or maybe absconded to somewhere else. Nevertheless, I have one thing I want to tell you all. I have decided to have a truce with the Luna pack. I want peace. We can't afford to have the humans knocking at our doorstep. We will make sure all the packs that we have defeated in the past are going to come to an agreement of peace with us. Hopefully, this will be our last fight".