"When one can wield the fire of stars, what use is flesh and bone?"
- Sunbreakers description
The Foreboding Forest
Everfree Forest, Equis
Level ?? Story Normal
Scout the forest and identify any signs of hostile life or minions of the Darkness.
>>Fireteam: 1 Player
>>Solo
Modifiers:
Mortal: No respawning
Heroic: Enemies appear in greater numbers and are more aggressive
Angry: Enemies will not flinch, even after taking massive damage
Embargo: Expect little to no ammo drops
Rewards:
Unknown Rewards
Respawning Restricted
Whish!
I landed on my feet with a small thump, muffled by forest undergrowth. Instinctually, I raised my primary weapon, which happened to be Toland's former weapon Shadow Price, and looked around in all directions, scanning the greenery around me for any foreign life-forms. Seeing no movement or any red spots in my radar, I lowered my rifle slightly, still not letting my guard down. I took a moment to analyze my surroundings more thoroughly.
Predictably, the forest was densely packed with trees and other plant life, to the point of me not being able to take more than few steps without walking smack-dab into a tree. The plant life itself, to my relief, closely resembled the flora of Earth's, and made me feel slightly less away from home, rather than some completely alien planet. I heard the nearby chittering of insects and the occasional bird whistle, the nature reminding me of my patrols in Old Russia. A natural setting, completely claimed by the wilderness.
Minus the Fallen and Hive, of course.
'So this is what it's like, being in a forest...' I thought as I looked upward.
The midday sunlight sparsely leaked through the small gaps in the treetops, giving me just enough light to see without the assistance of my Ghost or the adjustment of my own optical receptors. Though I was fully armored, the stagnant humidity in the air was palpable. Colorless particles floated about in the damp air, dotting the atmosphere for as far as the eye could see. As I held Shadow Price in my line of sight, I noticed dewy droplets of condensation forming on the weapon and on my gloves. A slight sizzling sound emanated from my Sunbreakers, most likely the result of stray water droplets evaporating on the gauntlets' glowing surface.
The planet, at least in this particular forest, seemed quite similar to Earth. But to what extent precisely were they similar? I had yet to encounter any animal life, much less other sapients. Perhaps the air would reveal something, I mused as I beheld the thick air of the environment.
"Ghost, run a scan of the atmospheric composition."
'Can do,' Ghost said from within my head.
I shifted my weapon to my right hand. I held out my other hand. My Ghost appeared in the air above my palm, as it had gone into its pocket dimension during transmat to the ground. It hovered above my palm and rotated its shell as it sent greenish waves of light and faint buzzing noises reverberating through the forest's stagnant air. After a few moments, the Ghost, seemingly satisfied, disappeared into nothingness once again.
'Scan complete.'
"And? What'd you find out?"
'The troposphere is nearly identical to that of Earth's, notwithstanding a few negligible gases below one percent,' the Ghost's voice echoed in my mind.
I didn't know what to think about that. So...were we on the same Earth or not?
"Is the air safe, then?" I asked instead, still keeping an eye out for any kind of movement in the forest.
The Ghost would have rolled its one eye if it were visible, I imagined. "Yes, but it's not like you need to worry about breathing. At any rate, the air isn't corrosive, so you could likely survive without your helmet. Still wouldn't recommend it, though."
"Roger that. Anything else?"
My Ghost shuddered. It hesitated as it began its report.
"I've got good news, and I got very bad news."
I would have facepalmed if I wasn't currently on alert holding a weapon. This mission so far has been nothing but very bad news and kicks in the groin. Metaphorically speaking.
"Good news?" I asked, hopeful.
"Whatever this place is, the authority groups here clearly don't anticipate Guardians, since there don't seem to be any countermeasures set up against ships or transmat networks. You should have constant access to your Sparrow, and your ship in orbit."
Well, I doubted I would have any use for my Sparrow in the claustrophobic space of a forest, but being able to teleport to my ship without calling it down would be boon to keeping a low profile.
Right, and the kicker.
"What's the very bad news?" I asked.
'Uh, well, to cut to the chase... I won't be able to revive you if you die.'
'What?!' I almost blurted aloud.
My Ghost appeared in front of me. It solemnly spoke. "We should have predicted this. Without the Traveler, we would eventually cease functioning on our own, even if we restricted use on your powers."
It struggled to find the words to continue. "Back at... our Earth and the other planets, you would die in battle and I would take a few seconds to gather enough Light from the Traveler to revive you. Now... Especially without any assistance from the Traveler or other Guardians' Ghosts, I just don't think I'll be able to scrounge up enough Light to bring you back to life if you fall."
It looked down. "I'm sorry. I should have seen this coming before we landed here."
I thought long and hard about our circumstances. Here we were on some completely unknown rock that looked similar to Earth, completely isolated from any human or Awoken civilization and the very entity that enabled us to live. We had no idea what we were up against, and to top it off, my Ghost and I were rendered functionally mortal.
The odds were incredibly against our favor. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought we had nothing going for us.
...But I knew what we did have.
I had my Ghost, a Sparrow, a ship. I had weapons, armor, experience. I had my Light, and last but not least, a purpose. A singular purpose, sworn by all resurrected Guardians serving under the Light: to defend the Traveler and, by extension, the myriad life it allied itself with.
The Traveler sent me here for a reason, I realized. It was no fluke, no mistake. It was perfectly intentional, and it's my duty as a Guardian to find out why.
And I was going to do my job by the book, damn it. Mortal or otherwise.
"...Well, thanks for telling me this." I looked up and said sincerely, with newly enkindled resolve in my eye lights. "But it doesn't matter. We won't get anything done by standing here and moping."
I realized what I had said. 'I sound like a Titan now...'
A sense of surprise radiated from my Ghost. Obviously, it had expected the bad news to intimidate or demoralize me, rather than motivating me to complete the mission. It wasn't going to ignore the opportunity to get off the macabre topic, though. I could tell it was just as disturbed as I was.
"Let's not waste any more time, then!" it said without questioning my newfound enthusiasm.
"Lead the way," Ghost said, floating out of my way to reveal more unexplored forest ground. I nodded. Once again, I brandished my rifle, checked my other weapons, and resumed our trek into the unknown depths of the mysterious forest. As I marched forward, my Ghost piped up suddenly.
"But look on the bright side! You'll be more careful from now on, and I can finally take a vacation!" Ghost joked, dispelling some of the lingering tension.
"...I'll still need you to unlock doors," I said, smirking.
"That's the spirit!"
A few minutes later...
Equestria
Everfree Forest
Twilight Sparkle briskly trotted along the pathway leveled out between the countless trees of the Everfree forest. The dirt path was still perfectly illuminated by the daylight, and the forest seemed calm as ever. Considering what has happened in past experiences with her friends in the forest, the Everfree was surprisingly idyllic.
Humming the tune of Winter Wrap-Up gently to herself, she absently reflected on the past days' events. Fluttershy performing an ensemble with the Pony Tones, the Cutie Mark Crusaders visiting the library for another session of 'Twilight Time'...
Twilight smiled when she thought of her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It felt so long since she first came to Ponyville. She realized that everything before she came to Ponyville, barring her time with the Princess, seemed like distant memories. Nothing could ever trump being with her friends. Not even reading. Reading alongside her friends was even better, she thought with a fond smile, recalling the times she read Daring Do with Rainbow Dash.
The purple alicorn stepped cautiously over a patch of flowers, her violet eyes preemptively catching sight of the Poison Joke. More memories of her with her friends came flooding back, though they were not necessarily fond memories.
"Never again," she muttered, referring to the dark-humored twisting of Twilight and her friends' special talents.
As Twilight kept on the path, the flowery blue menace averted, it occurred to her that she had planned to meet Fluttershy and the others for the annual Breezy migration in a few days. Twilight had yet to effectively schedule for that day, and for the days after that... It gave her all the more reason to find this book for Princess Celestia quickly.
Twilight's brow furrowed, and she slightly pouted as she thought. Why does the Princess have such a pressing need for one book in particular? One about 'The Darkness'? And what could this book possibly be about? Sounded like a mystery or a romance/adventure novel...
She conjured the mental image of her mentor reading dramatic books with a flashlight under silk bedsheets. Twilight giggled at the thought. Rulers needed entertainment too every now then, didn't they? Late night escapades, as they were.
Twilight was wrenched from her thoughts by the howl of Timberwolves in the distance, sounding from deeper into the forest, perpendicular to the direction of the castle she was headed to. She faced the direction of the wooden creatures' howling, feeling apprehensive but not fearful. Twilight had learned from a certain friend that the forest creatures only raised a ruckus when they were feeling disturbed, or were hunting. Since ponies, especially alicorns, were not a normal component of Timberwolves' or other creatures' diets, forest creatures tended to avoid her, so she had nothing to fear.
Still, it was unusual... Weren't Timberwolves nocturnal hunters? What could possibly have them riled up in the middle of the day?
Twilight tried her best to ignore the wolves' howls, which continued to persist and grow in intensity. She continued to trot on the dirt path, and estimated that she was only one or two minutes away from the castle.
Then she heard the sound.
It was constant chattering, pounding, unlike anything pony-made, natural, or magical that she had heard before. The closest she could equate it to were firecrackers, like the ones ponies used to celebrate the complete revolution of Equis around the Sun. However, Twilight had a sinking feeling that the sound was not from anything used for celebration. The constant, seemingly never-ending ratatatatatata! was, to her sensitive equine ears, perverse and unnatural, more so than even the Everfree Forest's twisted laws of nature. It was giving her a headache just from listening to it, and the alienness of the sound filled her with an unplaceable sense of dread.
At that exact moment, Twilight could have done a number of things. Run in a direction opposite to the terrible sound. Ignore it and be on her merry way. Go back to Ponyville and report the occurrence, like any sane pony would do.
And yet, against all rational thought, Twilight strayed from the dirt path leading to the former castle of the princesses, and started galloping as fast as she could manage toward the sound. She didn't know if it was a matter of curiosity, or of a sense of duty to protect Equestrian interests and her friends from the unknown, or both.
But mainly, the feeling was inexplicable. Like it was destiny. Twilight had certainly had her share of time travel to know that destiny was not to be, or was able to be, trifled with.
Twilight wasn't an unreasonable mare, by any means. She often liked to have firsthand observations of phenomena before she accepted them as fact. However, there were many things in the world that she was forced to accept, despite being totally nonsensical and having no scientific rationale whatsoever - Pinkie's sixth sense, for example. This, to her, was one of those instances.
And with that, Twilight's decision was made resolute. Her face steeled as she ran. This was an act of fate. If she didn't confront the source of the sound now, it soon would confront her and her friends anyway, if destiny was as inexorable as it was foretold. And risking her friends was out of the question.
The light in the forest suddenly dimmed, as a result of denser-packed trees eclipsing the sunlight. Near-total darkness engulfed Twilight. The purple alicorn used an illumination spell to light the way forward, causing her horn to project similar lighting to that of torchlight. More than enough to see the trees in front of her and follow the sound, she figured.
As Twilight continued to the source of the sound, it not only got louder, it appeared to be intertwined with the cries of Timberwolves, identical to the ones she heard earlier. Just as Twilight thought she had reached the point where the sound was at its zenith, it suddenly stopped and fell silent, along with the pained howls of the Timberwolves. Twilight looked around frantically to try and pinpoint the where the sound had last come from, but only saw more trees and foliage. She decided to take a chance and move in the direction that she thought she had last heard it.
Still, nothing but trees and overgrowth.
Just when Twilight was about to retrace her steps to a less dense area to identify the source using flight, a small sliver of light caught her eye. Out of a tiny gap in between tree trunks, weak daylight steadily trickled. Twilight tentatively inched forward and inspected the gap, which appeared to be barely large enough for a pony to fit through. Twilight dispelled the illumination spell she had cast and peered through the gap, wincing as her eyes were assaulted by the transition from near-total darkness to low lighting. Once her eyes adjusted to the increased brightness, Twilight analyzed her new surroundings.
There appeared to be a small clearing, enough for sunlight to permeate onto the forest ground. While clearings were certainly uncommon in the Everfree especially, that was not what had Twilight's attention. The ground in the clearing was scattered with what seemed like blackened twigs, sticks, and small branches, and patches of the grass in the clearing were singed black, as if small fires had spontaneously erupted in random spots.
But what stood out the most above all the carnage was the two-legged being with the glowing sunset-hued wrists and intricate trench coat.
Everfree Forest
A few minutes before the "sound"...
I held Shadow Price gingerly in my grip, feeling comfort in the gun's simple yet meticulous design. I took great care to step around tree roots protruding from the ground to avoid tripping and leaving myself vulnerable to potential hostiles.
I navigated through the forest for a few more minutes before arriving at a small open area surrounded by trees - a clearing in the forest. Welcoming the change in setting, I stepped into the clearing, registering the small amount of sunlight infiltrating through the treetops. The area, as a result, was noticeably more illuminated than the rest of the forest.
I stopped in my tracks. It came to my attention; something wasn't quite right, and hasn't been since we had our little mortality revelation. Question is, what was it?
I tilted my head, carefully listening for forest ambience.
'Guardian? What do you hear?'
"Nothing," I said flatly.
'So what's the problem?'
I didn't answer. I took a few steps forward. The only thing I could hear was the audible crunching of undergrowth and fallen leaves beneath my boots with every step I took. The insects and birds I heard earlier were mysteriously quiet. I looked around, swiveling my auto rifle to align with my sight, sensing no change in my environment.
Still. Complete silence. I could very well have been on the airless surface of the Moon, and there would be no difference in ambient sound.
It was as if I were under heavy scrutiny by the forest itself. The forest was watching my every movement, and it, unlike myself in the Cosmodrome, had the home advantage. The familiarity the forest initially granted me dissipated, leaving only an eerie sense of being watched.
I looked around somewhat nervously, almost wishing that some deformed monster would just attack me already and be done with it. Whatever it was, if there was even something, it was taking its sweet-ass time making its move.
"Too quiet," Super Good Advice whispered suspiciously from my back, talking for the first time in half an hour. A new record.
I kept an eye on my radar, but I deemed it more important to rely primarily on my physical senses rather than technology. I learned from experience after being ambushed by Stealth Vandals that the radar doesn't always give me information on time.
The feeling didn't cease. A million eyes were on me. Every tree's individual leaves had grown eyes and were watching me, every denizen of the forest leering at the strange being who had dared trespass into their domain. The forest was waiting for me to make a move as much as I was waiting for it, judging my potential as a threat to its natural equilibrium.
Snap!
I heard from behind me.
'Shit.'
I turned. A wood-like abomination leapt at me, jaws agape, obviously with the intent of taking a hefty bite of my cranium. I reflexively swung Shadow Price at my attacker like a bat, causing a sickening crack to echo throughout the forest. With a whimper, the abomination flew back from the force of the swing and collided with a tree. After chipping the tree bark with its momentum, the abomination landed on the ground unceremoniously, unmoving.
'Wish granted...' I glibly thought.
I approached the creature slowly, my gun's sights trained on it. I stood over it, and lightly nudged it with the tip of my boot.
Dead.
Ghost appeared next to me and floated over to the abomination's corpse. The creature's head was twisted at an awkward angle, and its eyes (or lack thereof) were lifeless. However, its body, more specifically, its constitution, proved more intriguing.
"It's a wolf. Except it's made of...wood?" the Light construct asked in confusion, giving voice to my thoughts.
The wooden wolf (or should I say Timberwolf?) truly perplexed me. Sticks and branches seemed to make up its entire body, and didn't just serve as an exoskeleton! Did it have organs? A brain? What could possibly be powering such a creature? What else did this land have to offer? For this moment, my inner Warlock's thirst for knowledge, which I usually hid behind a facade of wry humor, overrode Guardian protocol.
As I was excitedly contemplating transmatting the wolf to the ship for study, my Ghost hovered in front of the dead wolf's muzzle. I could tell Ghost was equally enthused by the finding.
"I wonder why it attacked us," Ghost mused. "Perhaps its kind is territorial? Or-"
All of a sudden, the wolf jolted to life, its eyes lighting up with a sickly glowing green color, reminiscent of a Hive creature. It immediately began snapping its jaws haphazardly at my Ghost, who barely had enough time to avoid the attack. The Ghost in question yelped and promptly zipped away from the wolf, hiding behind me. The wolf's head, spurned by some unseen force, loudly snapped back into place, and the wolf began to lunge at us, growling menacingly.
My scholarly interest in the wolf waned, replaced by remorselessness. I brought up Shadow Price and shot a burst of bullets into its forelegs. The wood composing its legs, all but brittle against lead, shattered and snapped into pieces as a result of the kinetic force of the bullets.
I was shocked to see the wolf not recoiling in pain, but inching slowly toward us despite the loss of two of its legs, with a die-hard intent to kill us. The splintered wood on the ground that were formerly its forelegs swiftly moved to replace the missing limbs. The splintered wood, once in place, shifted and clicked together to resemble the lost forelimbs. The wolf casually regarded its newly constructed forelegs and prepared to leap at us.
"Are you kidding me?" I asked to no one in particular. I could hear my Ghost's shell quivering in fear behind me.
I shot the wolf once again, this time in the head. The wolf's head exploded in splinters after the fifth shot, the body collapsing immediately after.
'Well, I guess that means they don't have brains...' I thought in slight disappointment. So much for a vivisection. I ejected the spent magazine and replaced it autonomically, the movements long drilled into my head since I first became a Guardian.
I wasn't allowed to do much else, as I heard the rustling of plant growth not far from here. Out of the foliage came a wolf of the same kind as our headless wooden friend, only noticeably larger in stature, with sharper wooden fangs and claws. Its muzzle and snout seemed to be weathered by past damage, resembling scars. The wolf glared at me with those Hive-like eyes, and howled into the forest air. Not a second later, several more wolves arrived on the spot, all smaller than the aforementioned wolf, but threatening nonetheless. The pack of wolves, ushered forth by the presumed alpha male, formed a circle around me, encompassing nearly the whole clearing, with myself at the center.
"Ghost. Hide," I hastily whispered to my Ghost, who was still behind me.
It had no problem taking refuge in its pocket dimension. But it knew I couldn't follow it to safety. I stood, still facing the alpha male in defiance.
'You can't possibly be thinking of taking all of them on alone!"
"I am."
'I could get you to orbit!'
"No."
'Why not?'
"We won't make any headway from inside the ship. We'll just end up coming back down here, and fighting anyway."
I tilted my head in the direction of the Timberwolves. "Besides. This is much more interesting," I said, smirking dangerously at the alpha male. It howled in response, despite not being able to see the mocking expression behind my helmet. Signaled by the alpha male to attack, all the wolves concurrently rushed at me, barking and growling.
'Suit yourself. Just...be careful.'
Before I could prepare a smarmy reply, an estimated ten or so wolves charged at me from every direction. I brought up my rifle and dispensed a magazine into four of the wolves' heads, causing the creatures' headless bodies to collapse. I waited for the rest of the wolves to be within biting range, then I activated Blink, appearing a meter away from my original position. The wolves, who had not been expecting their target to be a reality-bending Warlock, pounced on where I originally stood, all at once. The six wolves collided with each other in midair with a crack, and collapsed in a heap.
I snickered at the hapless creatures. I knew they weren't finished yet, though. I dematerialized my auto rifle and unholstered my shotgun, The Crash, from my back. As I switched the safety on the weapon to off, I noticed a red blip on my radar, slowly and disarmingly closing in.
The alpha male, who had been watching the entire thing, apparently thought that I was an easy target to sneak up on. It leapt at me in the same manner as the first wolf I had encountered. I sent a blast of energy from my palm into its face.
It was not fazed in the slightest, nor did it flinch.
The wolf tackled me, sending me tumbling to the ground. I landed on the ground harshly, my shotgun clattering to the side. I grappled the large wooden wolf, holding it back with my two arms as it snapped its jaws ferociously. The sheer amount of force it was taking just to hold back my assailant was enormous. Just where did its strength come from?
The alpha male, sensing my physical strain, redoubled its efforts to kill me. I held it by the neck, recoiling as its bites were getting closer and closer to my visor...
Throttling it would be useless, I realized. How would you choke something that wasn't even flesh and blood?
I looked to my side, in between audible snaps of the wolf's jaw. My shotgun was well within arm's reach. All I needed was an opportunity...
I had to think fast. I internally delved into the reservoir of Light infused in my being, not seeking out the Void, but the brighter Light. A more raw energy, more direct than the mysterious dark energy of the Void. There, I found the Light akin to a second Sun. It was dimmer than normal due to the absence of the Traveler, but it still crackled fervently. I willed my mind to touch the Light. Let it engulf my mind, and embrace the pyre.
Don't burn. Kindle, and become one with the Solar Light.
There are are flames that even the Darkness cannot extinguish.
I returned to reality, to the lovely sight of the alpha male's wooden jaws a centimeter from my visor. Immediately, I felt a rush of power throughout my being. I focused the newfound Solar Light into my Sunbreaker gauntlets, causing them to illuminate ever-brighter. I swiftly intercepted the wolf's bite with my left Sunbreaker. The creature made the worst mistake of its life.
It bit down.
The wolf's jaw caught fire, and it comically began flailing its head around with its mouth aflame. The mental image of the wooden wolf shaking its flaming head from side to side was forever saved in my databanks, courtesy of perfect Exo memory. Once the humor wore off, I reached to the side and grabbed the misplaced shotgun. I pulled the trigger, causing a crash to resound throughout the clearing, with the added effect of blowing the wolf's face away and dousing the fire.
With that threat out of the way, I got back to my feet, only to find that all the wolves I had previously incapacitated, even those whose heads I had completely shattered, were now recovering and rebuilding their lost body parts. I looked at the alpha male and saw that it was rebuilding its head, using twigs and sticks from the environment.
To put it bluntly, I got pissed, which was quite unbecoming of a Warlock, who were supposed to be disciplined, emotionless, scholarly enforcers of the Traveler's will. I approached the alpha male, who was almost finished rebuilding itself, and shot it multiple times, point-blank.
"Why. Won't. You. Just. DIE?!" I maliciously yelled at the abomination, punctuating each vitriolic word with a trigger pull.
After I spent the remaining five shells in anger, only a pile of shattered, burnt twigs remained. To my immense surprise and fury, even the pile slowly began reconstructing itself.
The wolf's subordinates, who were finished rebuilding themselves, lunged at me, reigniting the conflict.
Reigniting...
I thought back to when my Sunbreaker set the alpha male on fire. Fire seems to send them into a panic, and slows down their reconstruction.
'Of course!'
I dematerialized my shotgun, freeing both of my hands for use. I conjured two Solar grenades and threw them in front of me. A sizable barrier of fire separated me and the pack of approaching wolves. Two wolves that weren't quick enough to halt their charge were irreparably incinerated by the wall of fire from the Solar grenades. Their howls of immense suffering reached their fellow wolves. The rest of the pack looked at the burning remains of their brethren and stood back, howling and barking at the strange being who dared intrude in their forest and harm their kin.
While Sunbreakers increased the time that Solar grenades remained active, they wouldn't last forever. I could have just carpet-bombed the area with Firebolt grenades, but that was costly in terms of energy usage; I needed to ration my Light shrewdly. So I turned to the huge red machine gun on my back, who was surprisingly quiet throughout the whole ordeal.
"Care to offer some super good advice?" I asked as I unstrapped the huge weapon, firmly holding it in my arms.
"Just some calculations."
"Give 'em to me."
"Your odds of survival are 3,721 to 1..."
"Unless?" I asked expectantly.
"Unless you pull this trigger."
Super Good Advice disengaged its own safety mechanism with a click. The wall of fire from the Solar Grenades petered out, giving the enemy leeway to attack. The wooden wolves resumed their hunt, planning to overwhelm me with sheer numbers. I pulled the trigger and held it, firing from the hip, as accuracy was not a concern with Super Good Advice, nor was ammo.
The powerful, terrible sound of a continuous machine gun barrage permeated the stagnant air. Solar-infused rounds zipped forth indiscriminately and hit their marks on wolves, tree trunks, and on objects deeper within the forest. The unsuspecting wolves were ill-prepared for such mediums of attack, as the Solar rounds had the effect of puncturing cleanly through wooden limbs and craniums, other instances outright setting the wolves on fire. Wolves who were quick enough to rebuild their lost limbs were promptly cut down by the seemingly infinite slew of elementally-charged bullets. By this time, the alpha male had rebuilt itself to reasonable functioning capacity (three legs and most of its head). It let out a guttural high-pitched cry. Instantly, all wolves who had legs turned tail and began to flee.
Finally, I released the trigger, choosing not to fire on the retreating wolves. Super Good Advice halted its rapid flurry of bullets, its barrel literally smoking. I checked the magazine.
...Half empty. Or half full, depending on how you look at it. Not bad at all.
Super Good Advice didn't seem to agree with me. "Just because I recall almost all missed shots to the magazine doesn't mean you should, you know, miss almost all your shots!" the gun wailed.
I ignored the gun's complaints, choosing to observe as the last of the wolves had retreated. The alpha male turned to look at me with its glowing green eyes and let out a growl. I raised Super Good Advice and fired a warning shot near its feet. The wolf yelped and hastily disappeared into the foliage.
"Yeah, that's right, run like a little bitch!" Advice eloquently taunted.
The foliage behind the wolf rustled, then stopped altogether. Once again, the forest fell unnaturally silent. Yet, the feeling of being watched never went away. I looked around the clearing, then stopped as I saw it.
A pair of seemingly glowing violet eyes peering at me from a gap in the trees.