Young Writers Society

"It's not like I go around punching animals," Ralys said to Tasha, "but I know how to fight."

He wasnt going to lie to himself though, he wasnt very enthusiastic at the thought of trying to fight the grangor. The way it looked at them just a while before lingered in the back of his mind and made his skin crawl. However, he wasnt a fan of sitting inside a cave for the rest of his life, either.

And if his ancestors could fight against big, scary animals until they learned how to survive, well, then he could do it too. Despite its size, and ominous aura, it was just another animal, Ralys reasoned.

"I'll be damned if that thing keeps me prisoner here." Ralys said aloud.

"Well then we'd better hack out a plan. I've got my sword, a dagger, and some throwing knives. Several days of rations for one person and survival equipment - flint and tinder, that kind of thing. What do you two have? Once we know our tools we can work out a way to kill this creature."

"Split between the three of us... about a week's worth of drinking water and food. The food I have is mostly various shrubs and vegetables, edible plants from the area. It's not fine dining but it's functional. I have wood, fire starters and the like. Some blankets and clothes... not much, but I'm willing to share." To withhold from them would be pretty fruitless. Especially if these were his allies and people who would be facing this danger with him together. There was no reason to be selfish.

"I have a sword. And a bullet-less gun, but a gun wouldn't be of much use anyway. They're just like splinters to a creature of that size and density. It's much more effective to hack away at weaker parts of it's frame. Or, so I've found from my failed attempts at killing it. It seems... for the most part, it is a very dense creature. Strong and fast...thick-skulled, thick-boned, and meaty."

Ralys almost felt naked as the other two listed their belongings. He refused to believe his lack of supplies made him a liability, however. "Anything I had would be in my bag," He said, hesitantly. Not because he cared about what they thought of him- no, of course not.

He approached the dying fire, sitting down next to it. Slowly, he brought it back to life. It wasn't a raging campfire, but the flame would have to do. "I have a history in fighting," He said to the others, moving close to the fire to dry his drenched clothing faster. "Like I said before, I don't punch animals, but I have had to kill them before. Not of that size, but I figure it's the same kind of thing, just a little harder."

He briefly considered pulling his hoodie off, but decided against it. It wasn't good to stay in wet clothes, but he would prefer not to feel so exposed in front of strangers.

He looked to Mike and asked, "Do you know of any vulnerable areas on the beast?"

James stuck another two logs into the fire, blowing on it and stirring up the flames which began to crackle and ignite again, growing steadily. He sat himself on the floor around the fire pit, following suit with Ralys. They were all soaking wet after walking in the rain, and the first thing he wanted to do was get warm again.

"Only place that seems to be exceptionally vulnerable is it's stomach. But to get there you have to get past it's claws, it's face, and it's tail - which, feels like getting hit by a club as thick as a tree when it whacks you honestly." He by no means meant to make it sound impossible. He was only being honest, but he realized he probably just ended up sounding pessimistic, which wasn't particularly helpful (though he always felt like he was more of a realist).

"Well that's a bitch," I observed, warming my fingers next to the fire. I took off my jacket and laid it down next to me so I'd dry off faster. "And all we have are melee weapons. We'd have to work as a team and create some sort of diversion. Have two people tag-teaming it to keep it occupied while the third tries to get in close to do damage."

"Maybe we could lure it into a trap?" Ralys suggested. "If we get it cornered, maybe we could flank it. Catch it off guard, and then we'd have the advantage."

James's eye twitched at the idea of the trap, thinking of how that went last time. "I mean, cornering it isn't... terrible. In theory. But unless we have weapons enough to face it in that position, it's not really advantageous to corner it. But there really isn't any other way around it. If we don't have it backed up against anything then it's harder to predict where it could leap and pounce... it likes..." James stared into the fire in deep thought, his hands held together loosely as one finger ran over his knuckles. He continued the thought however, as if he'd never stopped. As if, his inner dialogue had actually been audible (though it hadn't) and one complete thought.

"If one of us could distract the grangor, the other two could lay in hiding... if we could bring the grangor close enough the other two could jump out, low to the ground, and get underneath it and just stab it's stomach and hope for the best. Or maybe causing it to leap, exposing its stomach, and someone could jump in from the side and slice. I don't know how many hits it will take to get this thing to actually die. I have a feeling even if we hit its weak spot that it will still fight until it bleeds out or we hit a vital organ."

"I can distract it," I offered. "Back at home, I do this type of combat for a living, though admittedly it's against smaller predators. Besides that, I can howl, and that seemed to get its attention last time." And, if it gets to close to getting me, I can change forms into something much bigger and much scarier than a mere human.

James looked at Tasha with a focused stare, observing her body language and measuring the confidence behind her words. This was one of those situations where, though fighting the grangor again was in all honesty, inevitable, could be put off. They did have the option to wait. But as he witnessed the conviction of the soldier even in the face of the great danger that laid in wait for them, he felt a hope rise in his own heart, that, it might just be possible to escape this place in one piece. The desperation of his situation that had been weighing on him the past few months as he faced the creature on his own began to lift... just a little.

"Alright."

"I can go in underneath with my sword." His gaze drifted to Ralys, whose face was shadowed by his wet hood. "...do you know how to wield a sword, Ralys?" The man had said he had experience with fighting and killing animals, but that could mean a number of things. Of course, if Ralys thought it relevant to bring it up, it meant he could probably handle himself - to some degree. Fighting the grangor would be different, but Ralys already knew that.

Ralys contemplated his answer for a moment. "No, not a sword. Guns and knives are more my thing." It came out sounding more boastful than he intended, and he realised they probably wouldnt be impressed considering they were fighters themselves. "I've never fought with a sword, so the balance would throw me off."

He wondered how fighting the grangor would work. He wanted to believe that their determination and past experience with fighting would give them enough of an advantage to beat this thing. He felt something in his stomach that made him sick, though. Fear. He would have to fight through that, though.

Ralys looked at Tasha. "You mentioned you had daggers," He said. "Would you mind?" He asked with an outstretched hand.

He remembered a day someone asked for a knife of his. In situations where you can only rely on yourself to survive, your weapons become your best friends. Or maybe that was just him... Either way, he hoped Tasha wouldnt be as attached to her weapons the way he was back then.

I hesitated - I had several, mostly hidden, but there were so many nights and days where I'd survived only because of a dagger near my reach. Some of them I'd had since my first day as a hotblooded pup reporting in for training. But if we were to survive this, we needed to work as a team. Which meant I needed to stop being so wary and work with them.

Fighting back that voice in my head telling me I couldn't trust them and not to dare hand Ralys a weapon, I knelt and drew a long, curved blade from my boot. The blade itself was about as long as my forearm, from my wrist to my elbow. It was silver and slim, made for combat in close quarter mêlée combat that relied on agility instead of strength. It couldn't be thrown, but the balance was superb and the steel solid and reliable. It'd served me well for over fifteen years.

"Here." I handed it to him, handling it carefully as to not cut either of us. The blade was sharp and the black leather-bound hilt wasn't very long. Wolfsbane watched acutely, ears pricked and eyes glued to the man as I armed him.

James watched the tense exchange as Tasha gave Ralys the dagger. The question of: "do I trust you?" written on both of their eyes. He took in a short breath and let out a sigh.

"Ralys," He began, watching him closely, though his eyes flickered to Tasha. "Tasha. I know you guys said you don't remember, or know how you got here... but... where was the last place you can remember being?"

Ralys examined the knife, and took in Tasha's face and body language as she extended it to him. He matched her thoughtfulness with handling it as he took it from her. "Thanks," He said. "You'll get it back when all of this is over."

It had a good weight to it, he thought. Aesthetically, he could easily say it was a beautiful knife. He would have to find out for himself if it would aid him well in a fight.

Ralys carefully found a place to put the knife around his belt as Mike began to speak, "Where was the last place you can remember being?"

Ralys stifled a scoff. He remembered bits and pieces of where he had been before waking up in this mess. He was hesitant to speak, however, because he knew how it might sound. His hand inadvertently went to rub one of his scars through his sleeve again. "I'd been in a little town before waking up here, finishing up a job someone hired me for." He explained, "Once it was done, I rewarded myself with..." He trailed off for a moment before picking up again, "one too many drinks. It's all a bit of a blue after that," He said with a humorless chuckle. God, he hated not being able to remember.

I thought about it. It was a bit difficult to remember; everything was happening so fast. The forest, the hunt, the howl of the wolf and the call of my horn. Thundering hooves, the scent of fear in the air...

"I was in the Packlands," I finally said. "I was in the forest there, hunting...I was after Lupus, and he was leading me on quite the chase. Not sure where in the forest I was."