[Jon's POV]
"WHO IS THERE?"
I heard someone shouting from the camps direction.
Crap! If these people are all werewolves then Jull may be in a grave danger.
There are almost thirty meters between me and her, I was about to rush to her location but I halted as saw her coming my way fast.
Thank goodness!
I was about get calm and put my guard down but suddenly, a cold chill ran through my spine.
*swoosh*
An arrow was breaking the air and its target was Jull's back.
This bad!
I've got to do something!
There is no time to cast any spell.
Jull is only two meters away from me now.
The arrow is fast!
There is only one way!
I rushed at Jull with only one thought in mind and reached to her before a second before the arrow does.
Just as I managed to push her with my right arm, the arrow pierced through it.
"AAAARG!"
Painful!
So painful!
Dammit!
"No!" Jull who saw that freaked out when and was about to get panicked. This is bad, she let her cool down.
And now me too.
I am pissed!
My right arm hurts so much.
That's why archers are the most dangerous counter to any mages.
My left was free and I could only cast spells with it now.
I evoked 'Fireball' and shot it few times towards the archer.
Jull also managed to calm herself down and started shooting arrows with magic too.
"Hurry up! They enemies are mages. Transform!"
I could see the silhouettes of the hunters moving around the pushes and hiding behind some trees. They started to transforming into werewolves.
The transformation process was very fast! Much faster than Sinding.
In a few seconds, the four hunters became werewolves and howled in terrifying manner.
It was too scary to just endure those howls. If I was a bit weaker than my current self, I would have lost my mind and got paralyzed with fear.
Sure as hell Jullanar was paralyzed with fear now.
She can attack no more and held her head with terror.
So that is the true might of a werewolf.
Amazing!
I am now in a tight situation.
Jull is panicking, my dominant arm is injured, the enemy is strong and outnumbering us, they also are moving in every direction to surround us.
They are stronger than Sinding, I can tell by the air around them. If I want to get out of here alive, it will be a challenge.
At least, if I am not going to cheat.
But I don't think this is a situation where I want test my limits or anything. First priority is to escape now.
Even though I am sure that the werewolves can't be as fast as a Flame Atronach Horse, the area is not suitable for galloping at all.
My options are very limited.
I will have to use the magic I haven't completely mastered yet.
I carried Jull with my injured arm and prepared a spell with the free one.
The werewolves sensed my moves but they were still wary of me and trying to close the encirclement.
Well, not that it is going to work anyway.
The spell was finished and I casted it near to where I was standing.
Void distorted...
… A creature of flame came out.
Two meters tall body that is too large and unusual with the shape of the creature, it also was standing on two thin feet with sharp talons, the creature spread its arms and it turned out to be wide large wings.
This was the new form I created for the Flame Atronach.
It was a Giant Hawk!
A Hawk of flame that is two meters in height and its wing is almost three meters long each. As an Atronach, it was not a real hawk except for its form.
I ordered it to lean forward and jumped on its back.
Following that, it stretched its wings wider and flapped the, while taking a step forward.
The hawk's flying capabilities are high but I still has no full understanding of them so the 'Flame Atronach Hawk' won't be working as perfect as the 'Flame Atronach Horse' but it will do for now.
More than that, the Flame Atronach Hawk is not using the normal way of flying like birds, it uses the principles of levitation magic which is a second nature to all Flame and Storm Atronachs. The role of the wings were only to give it more flight speed and control.
The hawk started flying and the werewolves were frozen from what they witnessed, they may look like beasts but there minds is still that of a human. They may not fear fire like actual wolves but they will lose their cool when they see something unusual as this.
Just as we started to gain altitude, I charged a 'Fireball' spell and shot it at the place I was standing on just before I jump on the hawk. This will be enough to erase any trace of my scent.
***
We returned to Falkreath.
Jull was in some mental trauma from the werewolves' howls.
A 'Calm' spell was enough to make her return to her normal self but she was still upset about losing her cool like that.
"It is not your fault you know!"
"But still…"
"Don't worry, it was just a mistake. We now know enough about them and they can't come and attack us here."
Jull was sitting in the room and was really pissed.
I could only explain what happened to her so that she can cool her head.
In my opinion, we were lucky to survive from the werewolves encirclement as we were not prepared at all. I was really reckless to think that it would be easy to track that sort of monsters in their habitat.
And it was a good idea to develop the 'Flame Atronach Hawk'. If I didn't have it, I would have to fight four werewolves alone with Jull on a mental breakdown. Not that I can't fight the four alone but I would have to suffer grave injuries and there was no way to protect Jull around.
The arrow in my arm hurt like hell as its head was some sort of special arrowhead to bring down big animals. It hurt but I managed to take it out and heal the wound with magic.
I now need a new plan.
I am not exactly after 'Hircine's Ring' but I am after the cursed version of it.
I had my own reasons.
Now I know where the ring is and I need move after its own. What I need to do is to make a werewolf to steal it. As long as it gets stolen, Hircine will curse the ring and another reward will be available for retrieving it back to the Daedric Prince.
That is the reward I am after.
I still need to monitor 'Cracked Tusk Keep'. It will be a good idea to go there tomorrow.
The problem is, Sinding and his pack will be alert to my movements now. They are after the ring too but they will try to take it in the traditional way. I think it is by challenging the owner and taking it from their dead corpse or getting it passed down by the owner will, else it would be cursed.
In the game and four years from now, Sinding will have the cursed version of the ring, which means he will steal it or try and fail looking at how I interfered with the future so far.
This is getting complicated but all I need to do is to keep watching them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Sinding's POV]
To think I was followed!
And those people could sneak up on us to this close distance.
Torkild and Rissing as well as Eriana and Heratar were trying to track those people down but to no avail.
It is a mystery how we couldn't sniff them back.
The more to the mystery is that they could summon that flying fire bird, in all my life I have never seen anything like it.
"They were mages!" I said my mind.
"No shit?!" Eriana was angry and wanted to let out her anger on someone. She was about to come and pick a fight with me but Torkild stopped her.
"This is not the time." He said. "Someone else is on our trail. We don't know who they are but they are not simple. We were lucky to get to notice them this time. If they were to go away unnoticed, we wouldn't have known how it would have ended for us."
"And what do you think we should do, huh?" Heratar was as angry as his sister Eriana.
"We can't track them down anymore, but it seems that the Vigil that appeared in Falkreath that morning is one of those two. Right, Sinding?" Torkild said.
"Yes." I replied. "He is most certainly the tall one."
"I don't know what they are after but they didn't seem to be trying to attack us. They maybe after the ring too but I didn't feel that anyone of them was a werewolf to begin with. Maybe some treasure hunter!" Torkild said.
"What is the point of knowing that? We Just need to kill them as soon as possible." Eriana said.
"We may not be able to. They can use some strange magic and they will get prepared to fight us the next time we meet. I can only think that they are staying in Falkreath judging by the direction they flew to." Torkild explained.
He sure know how to deal with this sort of situation, he is the pack leader anyway.
It was also said that he belonged to some family that was blessed by 'Hircine' for many generations. More like cursed to me!
"The only thing we can do right now is to hasten our plan, we need to get the ring by force from those Orcs." Torkild set the goal for the pack now.
Doing this meant I can't return to the farm anymore.
Why the hell did this happen to me from the beginning? I should have refused this curse and lived like a normal hunter. Now my life is ruined.
No, there is a chance.
I only need to get my hand on that ring and control this beast inside me for good. There is no way I can live like this anymore.
Rissing who remained in his beast form was standing there silently until Torkild looked at him.
"Go sniff out the situation around Falkreath and 'Cracked Tusk Keep'. We'll meet you at dawn near the road to the keep."
It looked like the fight is happening sooner than I thought.
"Sinding, can you transform anytime soon?" Torkild looked at me and asked.
"No, my body is barely moving like it used to be, I need few more days at least to transform again."
This is the truth, transformation is not something a new werewolf like me can do as these old ones.
"Then grab a weapon and get ready! At least you can do that right?" Eriana is still going on with bullying me again.
I guess I need to listen this time around.
I just need the ring and that's all for it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Jon's POV]
The next day came and we are readying for round two.
Jull is preparing her arrows with all the hate in the world. I kinda don't want to anger her from now on.
Nefertiti was staying with the innkeep all the day yesterday and got angry with me when I said I'll be leaving her again.
Sigh!
I have to prepare a big reward for her after all of this is over.
"Sorry, little one! This worthless hooman is will make it up for you later."
"...."
Ignored!
Completely ignored!
My cat didn't even look at me.
"Hey, I will get you the fish you like!"
"...."
"A lot of fish!"
"...."
Still no response.
She didn't even look at me!
I feel my self-worth a cat owner is going down the drain.
More like being owned by the cat now.
This is bad.
My Nefertiti never ignored me like that before.
"Sigh! I am truly sorry."
"...."
Fine!
I'll try to fix things later.
"Are you done with the annoying cat?" Jull came to me declaring her utmost readiness for taking down some werewolves.
Why? Just why do I have to deal with the two most stubborn females in the world in the same time?
"Yep, ready!"
I said as I went ahead.
We went out of the inn and to the outskirts of town.
It was still early in the morning.
Just as we found a safe place, we summoned the Flame Horse Atronachs and rode to the keep.
If my guess is correct. The werewolves should be moving too.
I hope it all turn out well