Chapter 45: What Comes from the East

I followed the highway east beyond the bridge.

I would inspect only what could be seen from above. I had flown from Rue to Sedol and then to the bridge; exhausting the magic needed for my return would trouble more than myself.

The road continued through woods with occasional gaps.

Not far from the bridge, I spotted three gray shadows. Their black horns were visible even from above.

They moved west through the forest, not along the road. When I approached, one looked up and all three scattered deeper among the trees.

I didn’t pursue.

Farther east, two more crossed between the trunks, again moving west.

(This isn’t only the group near the bridge.)

A chance encounter with one pack no longer explained it.

I slowed and balanced altitude against visibility. Too high, and the canopy hid everything. Too low, and branches demanded all my attention.

A broad patch of roadside grass had been flattened. I circled back, but couldn’t tell whether wolves or another animal had made it. There was nowhere nearby to land.

(Dario would probably know.)

I could only observe in my own way.

Where the road curved into an opening, four wolf-like beasts stood on the highway itself. One limped.

All had been moving west. When my shadow passed over them, they stopped. None bared its fangs. Some tried to reach the trees; others crouched.

I focused on Racial Trait (Magical Beast Empathy).

No words reached me—only powerful caution, fear, and a heaviness like exhaustion.

This wasn’t the feeling of predators chasing prey.

I flew past without descending. Behind me, they watched for a time, then resumed westward.

(Are they fleeing something?)

The trait couldn’t tell me what had happened or where.

I considered continuing.

Then my body felt heavier.

I wasn’t exhausted, but every additional distance east lengthened the return.

The highway continued through empty country.

The cause might lie in the forest, farther east, or among the wolves themselves. I couldn’t decide.

(This is far enough.)

Being uncertain wasn’t a reason to advance forever.

The bridge had injured people and Sedol’s responders. I should first report what I saw.

On the return flight, I climbed a little to survey the wider forest.

The westbound wolves weren’t concentrated together. Small numbers appeared at separate places. Some might be the same individuals seen twice, but gray shadows extended across the route east of the bridge.

This wasn’t only a problem at the bridge.

◇

At the bridge, the injured man had a splint and had been moved onto an improvised stretcher. The bitten man could walk but looked pale.

A guard ran over when I landed.

“How was it?”

“…They were east too. Several places. Moving west.”

“How many?”

I didn’t claim certainty.

“…Don’t know. May have seen same ones again.”

The man accepted that.

“Cause?”

“…Don’t know. But didn’t feel like hunting prey. Some afraid. Some tired.”

“Fleeing something?”

“…Maybe. Don’t know.”

I refused to turn a possibility into a fact.

The humans decided not to enter the forest now. The injured came first. They separated portable cargo and planned to recover the damaged cart later with more people.

I offered to carry cargo.

Someone joked they couldn’t let me take everything in flight and drop it. Strength wasn’t the problem: claws couldn’t bundle bags and crates, and I had no carrying harness.

“…If walking, I can carry.”

They gave me one heavy box, looping rope so I could hold it in my mouth. The weight was easy; not crushing the box was harder.

“I never expected to carry cargo beside a dragon,” someone said.

“…Strange?”

“No. Helpful.”

The party walked west toward Sedol. I stayed behind because the horses disliked me.

Two eastbound men with packhorses stopped at sight of the stretcher.

“What happened?”

“Horned gray magical beasts in the east.”

“Again?”

They had heard that travelers from the east saw several the previous day, though without an attack.

After seeing the wounded group, the pair chose to return to Sedol.

At least one group wouldn’t walk unknowingly into danger.

Near town, people stared at the great dragon carrying a suspended crate behind the injured travelers. Word spread with every question.

I set the box down inside Sedol.

Elmer hurried over.

“All five?”

“All alive,” the rescuers said. “But similar beasts remain in the east. Val saw them from above.”

Elmer asked how far I had flown.

“…A little beyond bridge. Saw them in several places. Moving west.”

“Why?”

“…Don’t know.”

Elmer didn’t press me to invent an answer.

Crowds gathered: travelers bound east, people newly arrived from there, acquaintances of the injured, and the merely curious.

“Will the highway close?”

“We have cargo to send!”

“Add more guards.”

“Those guards just returned injured.”

No one was discussing only wolves. Some needed commerce to move; others prioritized life.

Elmer asked me to repeat only what I had actually seen.

“…East of bridge. Wolves several times. Moving west. Reason unknown.”

The voices quieted.

No one yet knew what was happening east of Sedol.

But knowing that something had changed was better than using the road in complete ignorance.