The wolf contract (A solo mission) (complete)

Aberham had been rather aggressively looking for work after his near death experience. The surgeon was kind enough to save his life without pay, a rather good benefit about where he got it. The bad part was that since he got it out in the middle of nowhere he did not have any medication to ease the process along. He did give him a taste of some home brewed stuff that got him back on his feet.

It was then that he decided that he was life's plaything no more! He started looking for work immediately and used every trick he knew as a mercenary to secure a viable contract as a wolf exterminator for some shepherds. Not the most heroic of tasks but a six figure payday was good enough to Aberham. Tracking them down was the most arduous part of the entire job. He was no skilled hunter and after he had made a map of all the shepherds that were complaining and triangulated the area that the wolves might be he had a big fat triangle that encompassed almost all of the hyrule fields to search through.

This is when he decided to be proactive and instead of searching a breathtaking large surface area for a few mangy dogs that would probably be hiding in the last place he would check he instead waited near a shepherds flock that was having the most trouble and began watching them and waiting for a wolf to come. This took a few days and he was sure that his clients would be very displeased with his tactics.

In some ways he liked viewing the farm, it reminded him of his childhood when he would crawl up to the hill next to their farm with one or two of his brothers and shirk their chores for an hour. But he also hated the fact that he left the farm over a year ago to become an adventurer and now he was still stuck working around barns. Same barn smell, same barn heat, same barn life, he was sick of it!

So on the the third day when he finally saw a wolf drag off a straggler sheep he almost couldn't keep himself from running down there and lopping off his head. But he contained himself and merely crept closer. Glad for once he wasn't clad in armor that made a load and a half of noise. He followed the wolfs tracks and it lead him to a group of six wolves including the one that he had followed.

He sat down on a tree stump where he could safely see them downwind and resolved to wait until morning to attack. He spent quite a long time faffing about. He took a rag to his skin and made sure that his scent would not be detected due to a sudden wind change, he sharpened his sword until the edge was nice and sharp, then he oiled it to give it a shine. Three hours later the moon was still high in the sky. There were two things he resolved he would not do. He would not sleep for fear of ambush and he would not cook food for fear of the fire drawing them in or worse, scaring them away.

Two hours later he was cursing himself for not bringing any bread or cheese on this excursion. Just some bread and cheese! Wolves would not want any of that surly, it wasn't like dried meat where once you heat it up you have to beat the dogs off for a mile aroun- MEAT! he thought to himself. He had an excellent idea. Why would he attack the wolves and draw himself out, when he could lay a trap and make them do all the work?

First things first he would need to find an animal that was apitising enough to a wolf that it would want to eat it. There were plenty of small birds around. But for animals that where not starving surly he could need a bigger beast. Then he heard an owl hoot, almost in volunteer. He reached down, grabbed a rock, threw it as fast as he could and!... hit the tree branch instead. He slumped over and briefly imagined how long it would take to find another before he heard the flapping of wing beats and the sound of something falling down a tree and hitting several branches.

He looked up and saw that the bird had lost it's balance and had fallen down after he threw the stone! It was flopping around and trying to get back up immediately however. He ran over to it and jumped up on down on it almost in glee until it stopped moving entirely. When he picked the thing up to go take it for the trap he wondered if they would be interested in something with a broken wing. Then he remembered when he would feed one of the dogs that was a family pet and it would try to eat the bowl afterwords. Even if they fed it until it was sick! It would be good enough he pondered.

As he lay the bird in the clearing he wondered if he could poison it. Immediately he realized that he was not a master of herbs and if he could find something suitable around here then he would not know what it was. It was such a shame he did not think to bring any hemlock or pest control with him. But when he imagined this encounter in his head he thought he would simply charge them right out of the gate and deal with them that way. No, he laid the trap and waited for the sun to come up.

Then he waited for a few more hours for the wind to shift and the bloody beasts to catch wind of the thing. His stomach growled, he thought that the bait would look pretty apitising roasted over a fire.... but this was not his first monster all nighter and he waited for a while until sure enough the wind shifted and a wolf came. It started nibbling on the delightful meal before the rest of its mooching wolf friends came around for a bite as well. Once the group had moved entirely to the bird he knew it was time for him to do business.

He did not try and be subtle even a little bit. He stood up, stretched, and charged forward with sword and shield! A wolf that was facing him was the first to stop eating and growl but he was able to stab one before the entire group was alerted. The wolves all backed off and bared their teeth, giving a low growl and getting ready to attack. Others would have been terrified if a group half as large as this one was attacking them, but not Aberham! A bold wolf charged forward and leapt up for his throat. He smashed his shield right into it's snout and he heard a whine of pain. Another wolf came and he decided to provide further deterrent. When it jumped at him he swung his sword and split open it's chest, it whimpered and fell over. It could not get up fast enough however, and Aberham ran it through with it's blade. Mercifully finishing it.

The group as a whole did not take kindly to loosing a member. Just so happened he had just stabbed the only female. They got much more aggressive, Aberham just tightened his grip on his sword and got more aggressive right back. They circled around him and had him surrounded. Classic pack behavior. Three made their attacks one after the other. For the first he twisted around and slashed it right in the face. It whined and rejoined the circle. For the seconded he turned and blocked the attack with his shield. Sharp claws scratched at the metal, but could not get passed. He pushed him away with the shield and kicked it in the belly. For the third one overestimated the jump and jumped so high he would have landed on Aberhams shoulders... if he had not stabbed through the heart with his sword and killed it.

Aberham was getting tired, he breathed deeply and the side of his torso where a Moglin spear had met it's mark throbbed painfully. The wolves sensed his weakness, one bit his ankle from behind and made him cry out it pain. The blood of their prey was in the air now, making them more vicious than ever before. A wold that had so far escaped injury came to attack him immediately and got an adrenalin fueled slash going on his side from his check to his tail. It limped away but for fear of it's pack abandoning him stayed in the battle.

Aberham took his sword in both hands and two wolves that came at him got hurt, one was stabbed non fatally and the others leg was cut. He took a moment to place his injured boot heel firmly on it's collar and apply pressure until it snapped. This aggressive move costed him however, when a wolf jumped on his back and drove him to the ground.

The remaining wolves took the opportunity immediantly to attack. One bit his shield arm insuring that he would not be able to use it to defend, another bit at his legs, mostly  focusing on the nice uninjured one, and the most injured wolf started biting his upper body. He immediately panicked and started fighting, or struggling would be a better term.

Thats when he realized that besides his arm nothing really was hurting him that badly, he paused for the slightest of moments. I guess I just figured that without my armor I would be eaten alive. The wolves were struggling to break his leather under armor, the stuff he normally wears under a second skin of steel. Thats when he realized that he was like a man sized chew toy. Adding to his safety was the fact that two of the three wolves were injured, one of them greatly on the side and one on the face. It hurt, but unless he stayed there and gave up they would not be able to kill him easily.

He let out a roar, which was half the laughter of a madman and half the cry of a great warrior. He wrenched his left arm free and punched the wolf chewing on his other side right in the mouth. He kicked the one knawing on his foot right in its facial injury and stood up quickly. He grabbed the most injured one with his left arm and finished it with a sword strike from his other arm. The uninjured one jumped on him, trying to bring him down again. But he was ready. He slammed his shield into it and sent it to the ground. The injury in the arm causing a fresh wave of pain to go through him. He planted one boot on its side and stabbed it in the heart.

The last wolf did not have the will to fight anymore. It whined, and ran away to safety. Aberham sat back down next to his defeated prey and caught his breath. Gods he was sore! After a few minutes he bandaged himself up to staunch any bleeding, he took out a knife and began collecting the proof of kill. It reminded him of a joke. He muttered it to himself, then had a laugh.

"Bring back the ears they said."

"Well it could be worse."

1929 words!

That's almost double what was agreed with in https://lozsop.forumotion.com/t133-abraham-s-contract-requests

Perhaps a small bonus is in order?

Approved, 123K 75 EXP