Joedan held the longsword across his lap. Grabbing the grip with his wrist, he held the sword forward, focused on the point of the sword as he held it out.
He heard a twig snap off in the distance. Putting the sword back down, Joedan hunched down and tried to listen for any more noises. A couple more twigs snapped. Gripping the sword low with the point up, Joedan peeled his eyes open, trying to determine where the sound was coming from.
Another twig snapped, across the clearing, a pair of glowing eyes met Joedan. A growl followed. Joedan gulped and tried to make himself tall. Not moving, but not backing down. Kicking the tent flap, he tried to wake Amelia, not taking his eyes off the wolf in the woods. The wolf opened his mouth, teeth exposed. This wasn't gonna be good.
Amelia peeked her head out of the tent. Her eyes settled on Joedan and on what Joedan was focused on. Seeing the wolf, she grabbed her mace and joined Joedan at his side. Both as steady as they could be. Another twig snapped. To the left and to the right. Two more twigs snapped. Two more wolves had gathered around them. "Amelia, have you ever used that mace before?"
"No, but I think it's pretty self explanatory." she said quietly.
"I think, there's a good chance you're gonna need to use it." Joedan said as he continued to watch the lead wolf.
More growling from the wolves. The lead wolf lunged. Joedan tightened his grip on his sword and prepared to meet the wolf. As the wolf lunged, Joedan stepped to the side, the wolf just barely missing his neck. Swinging the sword to the right, Joedan managed to cut into the side of the wolf. The wolf bent its back leg, limping but stood back, eyes locked on Joedan.
Amelia had her eyes locked on Joedan and the other wolves. One of the wolves that hadn't entered the fray yet charged. Amelia cocked the mace back and swung it forward right across the path of where the wolf's head happened to be. There was a thud and a welp as the wolf went down. The wolf stayed down. Amelia's nerves were on the fritz. She tried to shake off the fear and control her breathing.
The lead wolf lunged at Joedan again and went for his wrist holding the sword. The wolf bit down, teeth digging into Joedan's wrist and Joedan cocked back with his other hand and brought it down hard around the wolf's neck.
Grabbing a hold of the struggling wolf, Joedan dropped his sword and grabbed his wrist that was wrapped around the wolf's neck. Using his weight to push the wolf down to the ground, Joedan dropped and started to squeeze. The wolf became frantic, kicking out with its paws, trying to get a hold of Joedan, but Joedan continued to squeeze. Squeezing tighter until the struggling stopped.
The wolf stayed down. Standing shakily, to his feet, Joedan looked at his injured wrist. There were several puncture sites from the wolf's teeth. This could get ugly, he said to himself. Amelia stood in front of Joedan, eyes on the last wolf.
"Come on, big guy. You want some of this?" She challenged.
The last wolf looked at her, looked at Joedan and then turned and ran off into the woods. Wolves dealt with, Joedan turned to his pack and pulled one of his shirts from the bag. Tearing a strip, he asked Amelia to help him wrap his wrist. She tied it in a knot for him and helped him to sit down on the log by their tent.
"What do you think we should do with the wolves?" she asked.
"We can't cook it, it'll make too much light and could attract unwanted attention." Joedan said.
"We need to settle everything as quickly as we can and get ready to move out. I need a couple hours of rest and then I'll be good to go," Joedan said, as he made his way towards the tent. Before turning in, he said, "You were tough out there." Letting the tent flap close, it wasn't long before Joedan hit the ground, sleep catching him.
Amelia sat in their clearing with her mace across her lap and two wolves laid out on the forest floor. She couldn't believe how crazy things had gotten. Kidnapped a few days ago and now I'm traveling through the woods with basically a stranger and I just survived a wolf fight. She felt bad for the wolves. She knew it was them or her. The wolves wouldn't have left them alone. She shook as she tried to calm her nerves. Her adrenaline was still going from their fight. She hoped Joedan would be okay, his injury looked pretty nasty.
Sitting on the log, she looked up at the stars and wondered what was waiting for her when she got back home. Would life go back to how it had always been? Was it her destiny to just be a duke's daughter? Or did God, or whoever, have a bigger plan for her too? She knew she had given the same advice to Joedan back at the inn, and she knew it made her a hypocrite to not follow the advice she gave him then, but being a duke's daughter was so much different than a farmer. Their situations were totally different. "It definitely wasn't the same thing" was the last thing Amelia thought as she waited for Joedan to wake up so they could continue back on their journey.