During the cart ride, Astrid faced the bandits in the back and made small talk with Jonesy. Jonesy wondered how the kid had so much energy to chatter on and on for hours straight. Some of the bandits in the back complained, so Astrid threatened to put them to sleep with her hammer. She managed to collect names of all the bandits, including the eaten bandits, from the nice broken-knee bandit whose name she learned was Colt. With the threat of being swallowed by the wolf, the rest of the bandits agree not to sell Jonesy out. 

Finally, the group makes it back to town and approaches the gates, coming to a stop several cart lengths from the entrance when the guards order them to stop. It seems the guards want some space from the odd group. "What's your business?" they cautiously ask. 

Astrid stands up on the bench, hands on her hips, and proudly proclaims, "Me wolf friend and mister Jonesy here helped me catch ya some members of the Clasp!" She motions to the gaggle of men in the back of the cart. A chorus of moans responds. 

"Members of the Clasp?" they reply. "Really? How many?" A small group approaches the cart, spears in hand, hesitant of the very large wolf and the horned girl especially. 

Astrid turns and counts the members in the cart itself and then counts in her head how many the wolf ate. "Um... There were ten altogether," she says. "I've got names of 'em all, too." She quickly fishes a piece of paper out of her pocket, struggling because the gauntlets make this maneuver difficult. Finally, she presents it to the guard. 

The guards count how many are in the cart then on the paper. "Nine names, and there's only five men back here," the guard says. His furrowed brow is evident behind his helmet.

Shoot. They didn't list a made-up name for Jonesy. "Oh, right, um..." Astrid fumbles. "Well, y'see... this is gonna sound weird, but my wolf friend ate the others."

"Ate them??"

"Swallowed 'em whole!" 

"It's true!" the broken-leg man named Colt says. "It was horrifying!" While he's been pleasant to the group, it's evident he's still terrified of the wolf. 

The guard looks between Colt, Astrid, the bandits, and the wolf. He doesn't seem to believe them, but he hands the list of names to one of the other guards to check against the bounty list at the gatehouse. It's not long before the guard returns to report that one of the names, the one Astrid recognizes as the two-clubbed leader, has a significant bounty on his head, but when they bring the poster, none of the men in the cart match the description. The head guard doesn't seem to believe they handled the man. "Right... Have you got any other proof of this?"

"Um... I s'pose Wolfie could show ya how it eats 'em..."

She doesn't seem to like that suggestion, and it's immediately met with a resounding "NO!" which startles the guard. This then turns into a flurry of "No! Nononono!" as Blue Raspberry opens its massive maw to swallow one of the closer men whole.  

Astrid quickly interjects, "No, wait! We got pins! Pins from all the ones we fought!" She rifles through her bag and pulls out six of ten pins. Jonesy handed his over gladly while they were traveling. Shoot, where are the other pins? On the bodies! She looks at Blue Raspberry. "I don't s'pose you could cough up the last of the pins, could ya?" she asks sheepishly. She hopes that this doesn't result in a whole body being regurgitated too because she's convinced that would be the end of her own appetite today.

The wolf closed its mouth, a bit disappointed. They thought they'd get to eat some more, but they were very quickly told to stop. Instead, they were told to cough up the pins the men had been wearing.

Blue Raspberry thinks about it for a moment as Astrid stares at them with a hopeful expression. The men's bodies were definitely unrecoverable. They had eaten the men, and their bodies had been dissolved into more of the blue ooze that they were made up of, but the equipment should be stored safely. The weapons and armor, even their clothing, was in the same mysterious place that all the treasure Blue Raspberry had found back at the camp had gone to. They looked at the pins being handed over by Astrid and focused on retrieving the same object from inside them. They had a lot more practice putting things into that space than retrieving things from it, but it was definitely possible. They felt the pins emerge from the other items and reappear in their mouth.

The wolf lowered its head above the girl's hand and opens its mouth wide. The four pins drop out, coated in a large amount of a blue, drool-like slime. Once the pins are in her hand, one of the two clubs held by the boss also falls out of Wolfy's mouth and onto the ground with a thud. They sat down with a smile, their tail wagging behind them happily.

Part of Astrid wasn't sure that it would work despite the part of her that desperately hoped it would. So when the wolf coughs everything up into her hand, she gets excited. Though, the slimy drool kind of burns and seems to be damaging her glove. She quickly hands the pins over to the guard, who takes them with some amount of disgust showing through his visor, and she brings her hands to either side of Blue Raspberry's neck to give them a good ruffle of the fur. 

"That was perfect!" she praises the wolf. "Yer absolutely wonderful, ya big lug!" In ruffling the wolf's fur, she hopes to also clean its slobber off of her new gauntlets. It seems to work well enough, though some bits of fur stick to the metal. She decides to wipe them on her pants. 

"...Seven, eight, nine, ten," the guard counts. "Well, that's ten like you said. And that's... a club. That doesn't do much to prove the camp leader's identity though." 

"Oh!" Colt offers up a suggestion, "The gauntlets belonged to him. His name should be written on them somewhere."

"Good thinkin'!" Astrid says, pulling the gauntlets off with little effort since they don't quite fit. She turns them around, looking on the inside for any writing and surely enough finds some scratches on the metal that read "Property of Balder the Clubber." It's absolutely awful, and Astrid decides she'll buff that out immediately and replace it with her own name, but for now, she shows it to the guards. "Is this good enough for ya?" 

"I don't see how you would've thought to do that before now, so I suppose it'll do. Doesn't explain why you're missing a name, but we'll figure that out inside." The head guard boots the slowly dissolving club towards another guard. "Take that as evidence. Come on in, the lot of you. We'll do some paperwork and get you your reward of service." With that, the guard turns and leads them toward the gate. The cart lurches forward after him with a pair of guards on either side to escort it towards the city. 

With the cart moving, Astrid gets pulled away from Blue Raspberry and looks at her friend. "Are ya comin'? I'll buy ya a snack with some of the reward!" 

The giant wolf began to follow behind the cart, into the town. Astrid followed along, seeming very happy to be on her way to getting a reward for fighting the bandits. Blue Raspberry was also excited, but about the offer of a snack. They didn't really think at all about any kind of reward. Jonesy was also happy to have gotten out of being a bandit and was even about to be rewarded as well. The guards had no idea he had actually not only not helped fight the bandits, but had been one. They assumed he must have been part of some weird adventuring group with the little girl and the man-eating wolf. A very odd group.

"So, you seem real happy to get them gauntlets. You like armor?" Jonesy asked Astrid on their way to the town's town hall where there was a small prison and treasury. They'd be taking the prisoners there and receiving their bounties along with a bit extra for bringing in all the bandits that didn't have bounties. A reward for their hard work.

"My family used to be blacksmiths before some hard times. Had to close my shop, and start bartending." he continued. He couldn't admit within earshot of the guards to being a bandit, so he made up something else to cover it up.

Several guards also walk behind the group to keep a close eye on the giant wolf now walking through town and drawing the stares of the townsfolk, most quickly moving away from it in fear. Some watch with curiosity.

Poor Jonesy. He has no idea what he's getting himself into by bringing up the topic of blacksmithing. When he looks towards Astrid, her eyes seem to be sparkling with excitement. 

"Do I like armor?!" she asks with a haughty tone of disbelief. How could he not know that? Then again, the gauntlets are her first piece of armor all her own, and Jonesy did tune out a bit of her rambling earlier. "Of course I do! I wanna be the greatest armorsmith in all the land!" Her next questions come in a flurry. "I didn't know you were a blacksmith! How is blacksmithin'? Can ya teach me anything? What if we opened a new shop fer ya first? I could help ya with that? What d'ya think about that? Maybe I could be yer apprentice! Gotta learn the basics first, after all! Oh, but first you should reunite with yer family, then we could open ya up a shop!" She takes a breath and sits back on the bench, looking absolutely stoked. "Still, that'd be a mighty fine career ta take back up, don'cha think?" 

The bushy bearded dwarf seems taken aback by the onslaught of questions. It's like Astrid's energy went from zero to full bearth. Befitting of a girl with "storm" in her name.

Blue Raspberry is a bit curious about their conversation. They usually wore a suit of armor while trying to pass themself off as a human, but they didn't really know anything about armor. They'd just come across the armor by chance. Though, they did try to keep their armor clean by regularly absorbing anything that got on it, like dirt and mud. They had no idea how interested in armor Astrid was. They almost regretted meeting the girl in this wolf shape instead of in their armor so that she could have seen it, but realized that would have meant they'd need to act like a human and humans couldn't swallow other humans whole. They would have missed out on a lot of food and that would have been disappointing. Too bad for Astrid.

"Oh, maybe. We'll see. I don' know if this reward'll be enough to start my workshop back up, but I will be happy to see ma family again. If I do get back to it, maybe I'll give you a shout. I'd be happy to have an apprentice, though you'd have ta be ma second. Gotta teach ma own son first, ya know." Jonesy said with a slight smile hidden under his bushy beard. He really didn't expect to be receiving any reward since he hadn't helped in the fight at all. He expected the girl and the wolf to walk away with it all once they left town. He'd be free from the bandits, and that was enough. He was a bit touched to hear her talking about opening a new shop for him and being his apprentice. He almost felt a tear in his eye. He definitely grew a lot fonder of the horned girl, though he still was a bit afraid of her pet.

The group arrived at the doors to the town hall and the guards unloaded the captured bandits from the cart. A couple of them glared at Jonesy as they were brought past, but the others gave him nods. They understood his position and would have taken the same deal he had. Colt even seemed happy for him. He was the closest thing to a friend Jonesy had had in the bandit camp. Jonesy looked away, a bit ashamed of himself for not being able to help the others like he had been. For not even trying to, really.

After all of the bandits were taken in, the guards escorted Astrid and Jonesy in, but said the wolf should stay outside.

"Oh yeah, I understand," she says. "It's important to pass down the family business and all." She knows that for a fact, though she seems to wish she could be a part of that family business. Or any family business, really. Maybe adventuring is her family business. 

When they arrive at town hall, Astrid at first protests letting her wolf friend stay outside. She also worries that it needs to be supervised from eating people. But, the wolf is smart enough to be told what to do, and she'll keep her promise to buy snacks with it, so she turns to her friend and gives it another ruffle of its fur.

"Now ya better stay right here and don't eat no one while we do all the borin' stuff," she says. "If yer good, I'll buy ya some tasty food that we can both eat together! Does that sound good?" Hopefully, it does because the guards call her in again. She waits for Blue Raspberry to sit in place then heads inside.

The next hour or so is quite boring for Astrid. There's a lot of adult-type conversations and not a lot of being rewarded. The praise from the guards feels nice though. Finally, they're free of town hall, and she immediately looks for Blue Raspberry and confirms where the wolf is sitting before turning to Jonesy.

"Well, Jonesy, I'm glad yer gonna be in a better spot from here on," she says cheerily. "I know what it's like when someone helps ya from bein' down on yer luck."

Blue Raspberry sits down while Astrid and Jonesy head inside. After sitting for a while, they grow a bit bored. Well, they'll probably be back soon. They promised to sit here and not to eat anyone. They'll do it for the snacks.

After about ten minutes, they lay down on the ground, completely bored. The guards are keeping a close watch on the giant wolf in the middle of town. They know it came in with a couple of adventurers, but they're still very wary of the enormous beast in their midst. One of the guards has their spear at the ready in case it makes a move.

Another of the guards is also bored of standing here and takes an interest in the wolf. They like dogs, and this is just a big dog, right? A really, really, really big dog. Still, the guard, a young man, walks over and tried to talk to it.

"Hey, uh... what did they call him? Wolfy? You want a treat?" he says, pulling a small bit of dried meat from a pouch and holding it.

The wolf looks up at the meat with a smile and he throws it into their mouth. He walks a little closer and starts petting it on its head. Another guard notices and smirks. He picks up a rock off the ground and tosses it in the air before catching it again a few times.

"Hey, here's another treat for you." he calls before tossing the rock like the other guard had tossed the meat. He's left with a look of disbelief as the wolf catches the rock and swallows it just like the meat. They'd meant it as a joke, but the wolf actually ate it and even seemed happy about it.

"Moron, what are you trying to do, make it angry!?" one of the older guards shouts at the guard that had thrown the rock before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him away to be punished.

Blue Raspberry watched in confusion. They liked the treat the man had thrown them. Why was he being dragged away? The other guard is still a bit shocked that the wolf just swallowed a rock and worries about it causing the wolf pain later. One of the guards that had accompanied the group from the gates puts a hand on his shoulder and tells him to just leave it and forget about it. That wolf is weird. It apparently ate people whole and spit out a whole wooden club at the front gate. He doubted a little rock would do anything to it.

The guard that had been petting it grew pale and backed away, back to his normal position, glancing at the wolf in fear occasionally until Astrid and Jonesy finally emerged from the town hall.

To her delight, the wolf stayed put, and the guards don't seem to be panicking about it eating anyone! Even better! "Wolfie!" Astrid cries, opening her arms and rushing the big pup to hug it and bury her face in its fur. Oh, its fur is actually kind of sticky, and she feels bits of static buzzing at her face. Not liking that feeling very much, she pulls her face away and blinks away the odd feeling. 

"Ya stayed put! I'm glad! The guards gave us a good bunch of coin, so I'll get ya snacks just like I promised!" Astrid ruffles its fur again then turns to Jonesy. "Are ya gonna find a carriage ta take ya back home?" she asks. 

Jonesy nods, gripping the pouch of coins in his hand firmly. "Aye, I'll be doin' that quicker than a storm brews," he says. "Quicker than mead too!" He lets out a belly laugh. "Astrid, me girl, I owe ya one, I truly do. If ye ever find yerself in Bleakfort up in Frost Gale, come find me. I'll give ye a place te rest and show ye some smithin' once I get me shop set up again. It won't be an easy journey, but it'll be a worthwhile one."

When she asks, he explains that Bleakfort is the underground dwarven city in the country just across the sea from Moonglade, where they are now. Astrid whips out a tiny notebook and writes directions for where she can find him again. Seeing her writing, he's not sure she's going to be able to read that later, so he draws a crude map in her notebook for her. Finally, the two of them share a surprisingly friendly embrace, and Jonesy turns to Blue Raspberry. 

"Wolfie, I thank ye fer not makin' me a snack. I hope this girl feeds ye right 'n proper." He cautiously extends a hand to pet the wolf, makes contact, takes in the odd feeling, decides not to overthink it, then steps back again. Finally, he bids the both of them goodbye and starts for the stables. 

Astrid watches him go then looks at Blue Raspberry. "I'm glad we could help him," she says, satisfaction in her voice. "I hope he gets there safe and sound. Fer now... TIME TA FEAST!"


She takes off running down the street of what she learned is Moonveil Village in town hall, and searches for the biggest meat vendor in the entire city. Being a child, she has little understanding of financial responsibility, and being a child with money, she doesn't realize how fast it will go. The meat around here is fresh from the local farms, and it's going to be much tastier than most of the things she's eaten on the road. She finds a place with outdoor seating, explains that the wolf is a patron too, and orders the two of them a massive feast. It's nothing to balk at either, as she ordered enough for twenty adults to have a full meal. She doesn't even take the gauntlets off when she sits down. The ravenous and bruised girl ties a napkin around her neck, grips a fork and knife like weapons to do food battle with, and salivates at the meal that's eventually laid out and served before the two of them. 

During their meal, she eats enough for five adults before she finally taps out, leaving the rest for her wolf friend. Other patrons avoid the disgusting display from the both of them. 

As Astrid's eyes start to drift closed while her wolf friend devours the meal, she mumbles slightly, "Wolfie, I think yer my new best friend..." 

The giant wolf happily chows down on the feast laid before it, along with a couple of wooden chairs while no one is looking. They eat the food slowly until Astrid taps the table, letting them know she's had her fill and the rest is their. Once given permission to finish the meal, it's devoured in no time at all. Even some of the plates are wolfed down along with the massive amount of food. They look at the girl, not feeling full in the slightest and expecting more.

Astrid seems to be knocked out by the food coma she must have passed into after eating so much. Even Blue Raspberry is a little surprised by how much she ate. They'd never seen anyone eat that much at once before, other than themself. They reached their snout across the table and nudged at her, but she just mumbles in her sleep.

Now might be a good time to leave. They'd finished dealing with the bandits and she should be safe now. She'd even given them the feast she'd promised. There was nothing left to do. Still, they felt a little bad leaving so suddenly. She seemed pretty attached to the wolf, but an ooze needs to slime around freely. They never planned on becoming a pet when they'd taken this form. They just wanted to run around without their armor on for a while, and they'd done that.

But before they left, they could do one thing. They leaned over the table and opened their mouth above the table in front of the girl's head and let a little pendant they'd found in the camp drop out. It was also coated in blue drool, like the club had been, but this time they were careful not to let the slime be acidic at all. They didn't want their parting gift to be corroded away. The little pendant looked like a silver wolf's head on a silver chain. It wasn't particularly valuable or anything, but it seemed appropriate.

With the pendant on the table in a pool of slime, the wolf walked away from the restaurant and out of the town, running away into the woods. They'd probably see her again, but maybe not as a wolf next time, whenever that might be.

Astrid later awakens at a feasting table alone. Someone is yelling in her ear about some missing chairs and dishes. She's bleary and can't exactly process exactly what's going on. Finally, she shakes herself awake and sees her wolf friend is missing and the table is entirely devoid of food. An angry elf who works at the place continues to scold her for the missing furniture, demanding payment after "her" wolf ate it. 

She sits up, really taking in that her wolf is gone. Her knee bumps the table, and she notices the wolf pendant for the first time. The employee tries to snatch it, demanding that it's payment, and Astrid nearly punches them in the face just out of sheer sudden violence. "NO!" This startles the employee enough for her to take the pendant and clutch it tightly. "Don't touch it."

"Well what are you going to do about our missing things??" the employee demands. 

"I'll pay fer it," she grumbles, gripping the pendant tight. 

After an attempt at haggling, Astrid ends up with only a few more coins than she started her day with. She sighs a little while she counts them, walking through the street, still feeling quite full from the feast. She asks around for her wolf friend and finds that they really have gone. A wave of sadness and feelings of abandonment overcome her, and while it hurts, she doesn't let any tears fall. Instead, she looks at the wolf pendant and decides this was her friend's way of saying goodbye. That's more than her ma did. So she wipes her eyes, wipes the dried residue off the pendant, and hangs it around her neck. 

The wolf is a wild animal after all. Perhaps they'll meet again.

[fin]