The fish soup had been passable, but drinking tea afterwards left a lot to be desired. They didn’t have much of their watered wine left, and it was probably best to save it. The three of them had spread out the assortment of documents on the floor, sorting them by household and language. Lars only knew enough common to pick out names or household. She also understood basic bookkeeping and would actually read ledgers.
Keltyr had immediately passed that duty off on the rogue, insisting that he read enough ledgers during his usual duties. He was not going to do it now. Of course, that meant Dorri and Lars both had to look at any ledgers they found together, because Dorri had to read the account names.
Keltyr gleaned through the correspondence, but none of it was going quickly. While he leaned back and lit up some thistle, Dorri looked over the scattered papers and started to feel itchy.
“Light, this is getting us nowhere!” Dorri snarled, straightening up a few of the piles. “The only thing we found from the Hewell’s are some accounts of wool trade and some stupid love letters between some an idiot girl and the boy without the sense to do her when he had the chance.”
“Wait, wool trade?” Keltyr looked up suddenly.
“Yeah.” Dorri looked at Kel curiously. “Some records of sheep being transferred from one family to another.” she looked through the ledgers and pulled one out. “Well that is odd. It was definitely found in the Hewell house, it has some mention of them in it. That’s not the Hewell crest on the ledger.”
“Right!” Kel went to dig through one of the other piles, and then looked surprised when Lars handed over the paper he was looking for. “That’s house Atherton. And they didn’t deal with sheep.”
“Horse traders.” Lars added, stealing a little of Keltyr’s revelation. Dorri wondered if the other woman saw the frown Keltyr gave her. Who knows what kinda of trick he was going to play on her for that.
“So, why record a trade in Hewell sheep?” Dorri tapped the line on the ledger with a scowl. she scribbled the question on the pad of paper on her knee, where she had been keeping notes of odd things all evening. It was not the first odd transaction they had found, but for some reason it stood out for her.
“There is something else odd there.” Dorri nodded at Keltyr, but whatever else he was going to say was lost in the sound of claws across the wooden door.
“Little pig, little pig,” A gravelly voice called out. “Let me in.”
“You can go to hell, dogboy.” Dorri shouted back. Keltyr tossed her a sword. They were unarmored, of course, but that did not matter in the end. Dorri kept gathering up the papers, shoving them in the bundles they had been in before.
“So hungry….”
“It’s speaking common.” Keltyr kept his voice low. “We might be able to reason with it.” Dorri glared at him. “Might have some useful information.” She continued to glare. “Fine, beat it up a little, try not to kill it.”
Wearing her civy pants and her Prophecy tabard, Dorri unbarred the door and hurled herself at the worgen outside.
Lars eyed Keltyr, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Not if we want a live one.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of what I was afraid of.” Lars checked to make sure her daggers were loose in their sheaths before heading into the other room. The windows were still shuttered. The rogue tried to push them open but they stuck tight. A couple of slams with her shoulder and finally they gave. Around the front of the house the worgen was all slashing claws and snarling teeth, spittle flying in the ferocity of the combat. Dorri had him well in hand but Lars was afraid the worgen wouldn’t survive the encounter, making it exceedingly difficult to question him. She slipped under a furry well-muscled arm, slamming her dagger hilt down on the worgen’s head, almost losing her hand to Dorri’s sword in the process.
“Watch it with that thing, would ya!” The rogue grumbled as the worgen slumped to the cobblestone porch.
“Keep the hell out of my way!” Dorri’tow snarled in frustration at the rogue.
She leaned down to grab the unconscious figure under the arms, “Oh calm down and help me get him insi…” She was cut off by snarls that seemed to come from all sides. “That can’t be good… You may want to tell Kel to get out here. One o’ you got a plan? I hope you’ve got a plan ‘cause I’m bad at plans!”
“Yeah, the plan is ‘kill them all.’”
“I can work with this plan.” She eyed the worgen sprawled at her feet, “Can you cover me while I get him inside?”
“Which means I stab things while you do the boring stuff? I think I like having you around.” Dorri grinned.
Lars rolled her eyes leaning over to pick up their captive again, “I need a drink…” she grunted under the weight of the worgen who was at least twice her size. “Kel! A little help here!” Behind her she heard more snarls as the waiting worgen attacked.
“Coming, just needed somewhere to put the mutt.”
With Keltyr’s help, Lars dragged the fuzzy dead-weight across the threshold and tossed him unceremoniously into a corner. Lars headed back out towards the door while Kel hog-tied the worgen and bound the end of the rope off like a leash.
“Stay!” Keltyr barked at the restrained worgen, slapping him on the nose with a flat palm.
He reached the door shortly after Lars. During their absence Dorri had taken out one of the mob. He lay at her feet a mass of blood and fur.
“How many are left?” Lars asked.
“Plenty more where that one came from.” Dorri did not bother to look behind her. “They’re being more cautious than this one.” She kicked the dead worgen at her feet. “I can hear them but I can’t see them.”
“I’ll fix that.” There was a hiss and Keltyr threw a bright blue flare over their heads, revealing a number of lurking forms in the light copse of trees close to the house where they had taken refuge.
“Well that ruined my night vision. Though its probably worse on them.” Lars tossed her companions a salute whether they were watching or not and slipped of into the shadows. A few seconds later there was a high pitched yelp, then a snarl, followed by a slightly deranged sounding giggle.
Somewhere off to the right someone started barking orders. “Form up! Don’t let them catch you alone!” Three large figures came loping out of the shadows.
“That sounds like an alpha, we kill him, and they should scatter.”
“I’d rather just kill the whole pack.” Dorri purred with the desire for blood and violence.
Keltyr noticed the familiar gleam in her eyes and knew this was probably not going to go the way he wanted. ““You want to go have fun? Fine. But no baths tonight.” Dorri’tow gave her lover a petulant look. “There’s not enough water. You’ll have to sleep with blood in your hair.”
Just outside the range of the flare, there was another yelp and a slightly wet sounding thud.
“Can’t let the damn rogue have all the fun!” Dorri tightened the grip on her sword.
“And we don’t have time to kill everything that growls at us. Take care of this first, there’ll be time for hunting strays after we’re done.”
Lars dropped from the roof of the house landing behind them, “They’re getting it together, tightly grouped now. That’s way more chances for punches to the face than I’m comfortable with. So, have fun!”
A large worgen stepped into the edge of the flare’s light. His shoulders were far wider than they had any right to be. His fur was a black so dark, it swallowed the light his well cared for armor reflected. He had a long snout with fangs that were almost as long. Two swords crossed across his back. He sniffed the air and turned his gaze on the three elves gathered outside the door of the house. “If you would be so kind as to release your captive, we’ll give you a head start before we hunt you down.”
Dorri snarled in reply, her eyes moving from the three large worgen coming in from the side and the large one directly in front of her.
“Better idea, you answer a few questions and I’ll talk her into not killing all of you.”
“I’d listen to him if I were you.”
A smile crept across the worgen’s muzzle as he looked the three Sin’dorei over. “I don’t think you are in the position to bargain.”
“You really think you stand a chance? Even with the three you’ve got sneaking around over there, we can take you. I think I’ll leave you maimed. Which one of them would kill you so they could lead?”
The worgen looked towards one of the three worgen to the side. Without prompting, Dorri leapt at him. His two companions were immobilized by the light as she sliced the wolfman open, flicked the blood from her sword and walked back to Keltyr. The blood knight came to halt next to her commander, crossed her arms and looked up at the Worgen leader with one raised eyebrow. Behind him, the blue flare faded away, leaving the trees in darkness again.
“Hold!” The worgen leader looked away from them, without turning his back. Angry grumbling was his answer. The two Dorri had stunned began to move forward, their eyes on the blond haired paladin. “I said hold!” The worgen turned back to the elves. “You’ve made your point. I’ll answer your questions as I see fit.”
“If I am satisfied, I’ll let your puppy go free.”
“Oh? Are we done? I’m going to take a nap now.” Lars took a step towards the door.
“You’re keeping an eye on the rest of these hairballs while we chat.” Keltyr did not look away from the Worgen, but Lars leaned against the doorway acting as if she had intended to do that from the start.
