20demayo 41. The Silver Wolf
41. The Silver Wolf
Ike sat at the edge of the waterfall, reading Orin's guide for a bit. At last, he stood, brushing off his pants. Bustling around the edge of the waterfall, he set up his camp for the night. He put the side of the tent to the Abyss wall and the back to the dropoff, cutting off two ways the wolf might approach him. Looking at the tent, he nodded, then set off into the forest. Using the ruined sword, he hacked down little trees, then used his razor to whittle their ends to points. Those he planted in the ground along the broadside of his tent. He set them in the ground at a forty-five degree angle so their pointed ends stuck out away from the tent.Ike stepped back, surveying his work. He brushed one of the angled sticks, and it nearly toppled. Clicking his tongue, he knelt to dig it in deeper. With only his primitive tools, he didn't want to waste the time and effort to set the sticks deep enough to actually be a threat, let alone a defense, but that wasn't the point. Dogs balked at strange things. Something like a wall of spikes should be more than enough to get the wolf's primitive brain to hesitate.
And if it isn't… I'll have a lot of stitching ahead of me to fix the tent.
Moving away from the sharpened sticks, he wandered through the undergrowth, gathering up dried twigs and leaves. Kicking his way through the brambles, he returned to his campsite. He walked around the tent, scattering the twigs and leaves in the undergrowth, where they wouldn't be seen, but would be heard. The side of the tent up against the wall and the drop didn't need twigs. Ike peered over the edge of the waterfall. The slate stone clunked together in loose piles down the wall, noisier than his leaves and twigs would be. If the wolf approached by climbing the waterfalls, he'd hear it slip on the loose stones. As for the wall… Ike snorted under his breath. If it comes at me from that direction, I'm fucked. But if it's smart enough to do that, I'm probably fucked anyways.
I can't ignore the possibility that it's as smart as Silver. Or at least somewhere on that scale. If it is… Ike stood, dusting off his hands. He gazed out into the Abyss, into the tangled mess of trees and mist. If it is that smart, then maybe I gain something more valuable than a skill tonight.
With all his traps set up, the wolf would only have one option: dead ahead, into the front of the tent. There, Ike set up his final trap. This one took the most time and effort of all his traps, but it was the most crucial piece. The only part that mattered.
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Abruptly, the wolf leaped forward. Ike's eyes widened. He held his breath, freezing where he crouched. Come on! Go for it!