//------------------------------//
// Into the Mistwood 
// Story: Elden Ring: The Deaths of Tirek 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

After taking a moment to rest up, and channel the rest of his Runes into strength, Tirek got up and whistled for Torrent to come to his side, as this time around he was going to head across the bridge that he had walked under earlier, finding a few Hollows and Soldiers in his way. At this point in time he had nothing to fear from them, they were far too easy for him to take out with his growing power, though he did have to worry about the Brutes, as in the more imposing warriors who rode on horses and carried large swords that looked like they could cut horses in half. He had decided not to worry about those ones right now, even though he did find one where he spotted the Night Knight sometime ago, who charged him with the intent to cut him down and show that he was stronger than those that were around him. Fighting a moving target like this was bad for his health, as Tirek found that actually hitting a rider who was quickly moving around the area was a hard thing and that, in the end, it likely wasn't worth his time, hence why he headed down the path to the left of the other side of the bridge, leaving the Brute behind.

Such a thing allowed him to head down towards a large forest he hadn't seen earlier, or maybe he had ignored it in favor of the lake area, which seemed to have a smaller Erdtree resting inside it, based on what he could see, though Tirek did take out a group of Hollows that were in his way, before finding a Grace on the outskirts of the forest.

With that ignited Tirek dismounted and carefully headed into the forest, as he wanted to see what was inside it without rushing through everything, there was no telling where he might find a new cave for a powerful creature to take down, but if he needed to flee it was good to keep Torrent at full health. He knew that with a new area, an unexplored area no less, that it was wise to take some time to make note of where enemies were, where to find important structures like caves or the churches, especially given his track record of being slain as he explored new places. Tirek wanted to skip that and just get to figuring out if there was anything of importance for him to obtain in this area, allowing him to plan out where he would be going and where he would be ignoring, since his time was important and some things weren't important to deal with. The Minor Erdtree, for example, was a target of interest that he wanted to check out at some point, in fact he might find a powerful creature handing out near it or an entrance to where one might be resting, but for now he needed to do a bit of information gathering before figuring out what to do next.

As he walked through the forest, however, he found a bear, a normal bear that wasn't enhanced in any unusual manner, sleeping near what appeared to be a small bit of water, before he paused as he discovered a more massive bear, which had dim yellow markings on it's chest, that roared and knocked him backwards before it's claws slashed through him and he reappeared at his last Grace site.

"I'm sorry... WHAT?!" Tirek remarked, as he was sure that was totally unnatural, a bear that could loose soundwaves with a single roar, ones that hurt like every bone in his body might be breaking at the same time, was massive, far more than a normal beast of it's type, and barrelled into him and killed him in an instant, causing him to groan, "I hate this world... this is so stupid and unfair. What did I do to deserve this sort of foul punishment?!"

Sure enough the world didn't respond to his open wondering about his current predicament, not that he was expecting to after getting some information from a mysterious source, causing him to sigh for a second before making his way back into the forest, and to where he died. As Tirek did that he discovered something disturbing, there were more of the imposing and brutish bears hanging out in the forest, as some were resting, some were wandering around, and a few were clawing at the trees like they were a cat or something. He grabbed his Runes from the area he had died in, doing his best to avoid being struck down by the annoying bear, before he was smashed to the ground by another shockwave and found that the bears weren't allowing him to leave, those who had noticed him decided to engage him. Such a thing meant that he was slain again and again by the foul Runebears, as he was calling them that because of their markings, who showed him that they were far more in tune with the surrounding area than what he was expecting, but he was able to escape without much delay.

He was already hating his time in the forest, to the point where he regretted even coming here in the first place, but that was around the time that Tirek discovered a ruin that had a few slumbering Runebears that didn't seem interested in him, rather they seemed interested in sleeping. In addition to that he heard what seemed to be the howl of a wolf, even though it did seem different from a normal wolf's howl, before he glanced at the top of the ruins and found someone in armor, wearing a cape as well, standing at the peak. From what he could tell the figure didn't want to be disturbed, as he seemed to ignore Tirek and the Runebears, but something was telling him to go back to the ruined church that the merchant was in and see if he could get any information out of him. With all of the Runebears hanging around, however, he figured that such a thing was a good idea, as he wasn't strong enough to fight with them and didn't want them to get him trapped in a loop of death, so he pulled back and departed before any of them could do anything to him.

Once he got back to the Grace, and made sure that none of the annoying bears had followed him, Tirek pulled out his map and warped over to his next destination, returning to the ruined church and found that the merchant was still sitting near his small fire as his pack mule stood off to the side.

"Merchant, I was in the forest to the northeast of here and heard a howl while I was near some ruins." Tirek stated, though as he said that he found that the figure in question was playing on some sort of instrument, and well despite the fact that he had no desire to learn or appreciate the art.

"The howl of a wolf, in the Mistwood?" the merchant inquired, where he stopped playing with his instrument for a moment as he considered Tirek's words, meaning he must know something about what he had heard earlier, before letting out a light chuckle as he found his answer and turned towards him, "I suppose he must still be skulking about... hm, I know. Why don't you meet him for yourself? Next time you hear the wolf's howl, make this signal right under the source and you'll meet him face to face... trust me, there is nothing to fear. I just have an inkling the two of you might hit it off."

The 'signal', as it turned out, was a snap of the fingers that could be heard at a specific frequency, that much Tirek got from watching the merchant demonstrate it for a couple of moments, and it made sense since the figure in question had to be a wolf of some kind. With that in hand Tirek returned to the Grace outside the Mistwood, as that seemed to be the name of this place according to the merchant, before carefully making his way back to the ruins he had seen the strange and mysterious figure at the peak of. Once more he did his best to ignore the Runebears that were roaming around the forest, since he didn't want to perish to them again, before he heard a now familiar howl and made his way to the ruins in question, only coming to a stop when he reached the area below the howling figure. In the next moment he made sure to brace himself, as this could be a bad idea, before snapping his fingers with the frequency that he had been taught, in the span of a couple of seconds, where the howling stopped and the figure jumped down to where Tirek was standing, as it landed right to his left.

In that moment Tirek found that it was a figure like him, only instead of pony parts mixed in it looked like this person had a wolf's head, possibly a tail hidden by the furred cape he was wearing, and it was possible that he had the claws on both his hands and feet, though it was hard to tell with the armor that was over his body, making him look like an imposing warrior, especially since he was slightly taller than Tirek.

"Who goes there?" the beast said, surprising Tirek by the fact that he was able to speak with ease and that the fall had done nothing to him, though he suspected that he wasn't a Tarnished, as there was something different about him that he really couldn't put his finger on.

"I am Tirek. I told a merchant about your howling and he offered me this signal." Tirek replied, where he stared at the large and imposing humanoid wolf, as the more he looked at the figure the more he realized that he was definitely half wolf, because he was positive he saw a tail, but decided to focus on the beast himself.

"Kale sent you, did he? Ever the bloody busybody." the beast said, as if he might be a little annoyed with the merchant, or at least it seemed like he was annoyed, before he paused and looked over Tirek for a moment, which was easy for him to do since he was larger than Tirek was, "Hmm... Maybe to him, you don't seem so strange, since you're similar to me in some aspects. The name's Blaidd, Tirek, and I'm looking for a man who goes by 'Darriwil'... he supposedly fled somewhere nearby, or so I've heard, and I haven't found him yet. Come tell me if you find him before I do, as I can offer you ample reward for helping me put an end to a traitor."

As Blaidd said that, however, Tirek felt something in his mind and realized that whatever force was guiding him might be pointing him in the direction of the very person that the figure was searching for, something that caused him to quickly turn his attention back to the figure that was in front of him.

"Hey Blaidd... do you believe in coincidences?" Tirek inquired, because based on his discoveries of this world there was no way for him to assume that what he was thinking was going to work at all, even though the golden light seemed to point him in the right direction from time to time, and he could see the wolf man raise an eyebrow, "I think I might know where to find this 'Darriwil' of yours."

"Well then, lead the way and let's see if you're right." Blaidd replied, though while he had his doubts that Tirek, who was a random stranger, had already found his target, he was willing to see if his hunch was correct and that Darriwil was within reach of his large greatsword, which Tirek suspected would be used on him if his guiding light happened to be leading him into a trap.

Tirek nodded and called forth Torrent once more, as the guiding light seemed to be pointing back towards the Grace that was outside the forest, and maybe further to the south than he had been so far, and as he rode out of the Mistwood he found that Blaidd was able to keep pace with ease, causing him to focus on what was ahead of him and his ally.