Among The Wolves

Bruises

I figured that Bal’Tiq had gotten awkward after our last conversation. I will wait to talk to him tomorrow. Or maybe I was just awkward all by myself. Who knows, but perhaps by tomorrow he will have forgotten some stuff. I did not want to have a case of “I like you” going on. If he did such a thing, I already had an answer for him. In fact, I had been reciting it all morning. To the point I was annoyed with myself.

I desperately hoped that it was just because he enjoyed my company and nothing more. I would never never never never ever consider a wolfblood as a compatible spouse. They were vile creatures and that was enough. But even if he was human, he had too many character flaws. His high ego would not allow him to be a good husband, and that would bleed into his ability to be a good father and good leader of the home.

Instead, for the rest of the day, I was going to pursue another idea.
Before the discovery of the body, I had found that one area of blood. Originally, I had thought an animal had died; however, it was more plausible that the victim died there. That did not explain all the fur I found at the site, but right now a lot of things were unexplained, and I was just going to have to be content with guesswork until questions were answered.

After I filled the golf-cart trailer with local garbage I drove it down to the dump. I left the trash as it was as I was impatient to find that tree where I saw the blood. After thirty minutes of searching I finally found it. There was no indication of blood which was not surprising after a month of weather exposure. I took my grappler and moved the grass around. Looking closely I could still see that there was some fur remaining. I knelt and looked even closer when I saw something else. Fabric. I used my grappler and pulled a 1x2 inch piece of black fabric from the confines of the grass. I knew immediately that this was a piece of her dress.

“Psst, Vae.”

I was looking around me when I saw Mr. Homeless-look-alike waving at me. Without letting go of the fabric I walked over to the man hiding behind a tree. I needed to tell him that I could not find my way back to that old tree. Knowing its location seemed important to him before, so I figured that I should probably refresh my memory.

I did not stand too close to him. That man still never washed up since I last saw him so the odor of his clothes and body were extremely potent. It made me prefer the trash smells over him. “Hey, about that tree-“ I started to ask when Mr. Homeless-look-alike held his hand up.

“I am not here because Joinervetti sent me. There is nothing you need to do yet. I am not even supposed to be here.”

That I need to do? What is he talking about? Is Joinervetti going to have me do something? I ignored the questions flying about and tried to get back onto my initial topic. “I need to know where that tree is again.”

Mr. Homeless-look-alike looked at me in disbelief. I could not blame him. It was only 100 yards from this place, and so big with a large rock next to it. If anybody were to lose it, they would be blind or just stupid. Oh dear.

The smelly man placed his head on the tree, that is when I first noticed that he was covered in sweat. His breathing came in short rapid breaths and there was a slight tremor to his hands.

“Knotted fur! You are such a noghead!” the veins in his neck protruded visibly. It looked like he was in pain. “Whatever, I will show you later. Do you have any Big M on you right now?”

I would have gladly reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of paper to cut it out into an M if I thought it would help this guy, but I had my doubts. Why does Mr. Homeless-look-alike want a M anyway? Maybe he is referring to a giant M&M. I pondered the thought. Naw, that doesn't make sense. “Why do you want a Big M?” I asked.