The Ranger's Choice

Story So Far

Corvin, Brek, Fenwick, and a fourth member camped in the Ashenveil forest at dusk under an uneasy truce, with a silver-furred creature staked in a net nearby. The lead man cited Millbrook losses and council papers, the fourth member recalled the creature's image of the eastern tree line and a gap in the oaks, and they agreed to move at first light toward Durn to report to the council.

Before dawn one member gathered mushrooms at a split oak, the smell woke the others, the pan was passed around, and camp broke quickly. The creature was lifted net and all and the group moved east in first light.

On the narrow east path, Brek and Fenwick carried the netted creature while the rear walker learned the names Corvin, Brek, and Fenwick. The men explained they had spread wide, driven the creature toward the eastern gap, and watched it sit and let the net fall over it, which Fenwick still called a trick. Corvin recalled a smaller grey Greywood specimen that had died and was said to give clear dreams, Brek reported strange Ashenveil tracks, and Fenwick said the creature had looked at him like a person deciding something about him.

The fourth member scouted ahead in a wide arc, found no sign of threat, and returned to find Corvin speaking low and fast to Fenwick, Brek's poles set down as he watched north, and the netted creature with its head raised, pale eyes on Corvin's back, and silver fur lifted along its spine. The fourth member ran back, nocked an arrow, warned Corvin to watch his back, and the group turned to face north. A low hum led to a second pale-eyed silver-furred creature resolving in a gap between two old oaks, four yards out, and the fourth member held a bow raised while Corvin drew his sword and Brek kept his hammer up.

The fourth member called toward the shadow, aimed at the netted creature, and ordered the hidden creature to show itself or its companion would be shot. The second creature stepped out, stopped six feet from the gap, sat, and answered its companion's soft sound. Fenwick slowly described a place with trees, a hollow, and something underneath while the outside creature fixed on him and the two creatures exchanged a low rhythmic sound. Corvin grabbed Fenwick's collar as his knees buckled, Brek turned with a raised hammer, and the fourth member kept the bow drawn and demanded the outer creature stop whatever it was doing to Fenwick. Fenwick gasped, pressed his temples, and regained sharp frightened focus.

The ranger lowered the bow, Corvin ordered the net cut, the creature was freed, joined its companion, and both vanished into the gap. Fenwick reported a hollow under the roots with something buried there. Corvin accepted going to Durn to tell the council what they saw and ordered the group east for nightfall. Corvin carried the empty net and papers, Brek had his hammer, Fenwick rubbed his head, and the gap looked ordinary again.

They walked east into damp grazing land and Durn's outer buildings came into view. At the gate the guard recognized Corvin, and the group entered the council hall where Corvin set the folded empty net and the council papers on the table and told three council members they had released the creature with complications, naming the ranger as witness. The older councilwoman told the ranger to speak.

The ranger recounted the netted creature sending a mind-image of the eastern tree line and the gap, the second creature appearing, Fenwick buckling with a vision of a hollow under the old oaks' roots with something buried there, and the two animals communicating across the clearing, choosing what to show, and understanding speech. Fenwick gave a short reluctant nod and the councilwoman's hands tightened on the table.

The council discussed the visions: the councilwoman tied Greywood sightings and vivid dreams to Millbrook, the left councilman said the hollow may be a deliberate message, the right said something older could be buried there, and the councilwoman said the two visions were chosen separately because one showed a way out and one showed what was hidden. The councilman then stated plainly that the creature's message to the ranger was to leave, go east, and not come back to this place. The room fell quiet, Fenwick looked up from the table, and Corvin stared at the folded net.

The ranger accused the councilwoman of knowing about the creatures and the hollow and sending Corvin to test them. She admitted they knew the Greywood accounts were real and sent Corvin because the creatures would react to him, but said they did not know what was under the roots. Corvin stood very still, Fenwick pushed back from the table, and the councilman unfolded his arms.

Fenwick started to rise as the ranger asked why the creatures respond to Corvin. Corvin said his trapper father once brought home a sick grey creature that showed him things before dying and wrote pages from it, and the council had relied on Corvin's familiarity with those descriptions. Fenwick objected that Corvin had never told him, was told easy, and the councilwoman told Corvin to tell him. Fenwick settled back, Corvin turned the folded net and looked up, and the councilwoman kept her hands flat on the table watching.

The ranger leaned on the table, told the council they had aimed the group at the hollow, and stated the creatures were intelligent and seeking something buried under the roots, then said any further investigation needed supplies, backup, and a clear agreement on whatever was found. The councilwoman asked what would be needed.

The councilwoman offered a folded packet holding the Greywood accounts, the trapper reports, and Corvin's father's transcriptions. The ranger took the packet and requested a Psion against the creatures' mind-work and blades for Fenwick and Brek. The councilman named Maret of Durn, and the right-hand councilman was sent toward the back of the hall. The group was told to ask Maret that night and seek her first, and that she must agree because she would not be ordered.

A councilman brought two short blades in worn leather sheaths; Fenwick took one and Brek took the other and clipped it to his belt. The councilwoman said they would use a back table at The Tallow Sign and reconvene the next morning if Maret agreed after word was sent that night. Outside, Brek carried the new blade beside his hammer and the folded packet of papers rested inside the ranger's cloak.

At the Tallow Sign, the ranger brought Corvin, Brek, and Fenwick to a back corner table, ordered spit-roast and ale, and said food came first and that the packet would be read only with all of them present, with no separate knowledge. The ranger told of a woodcutter father and a mother said to have walked away, and noted the creature's deliberate notice after the gap in the oaks. Corvin said his father came back from twenty years in the Greywood changed and writing after the grey creature died, Fenwick recalled old hill women who went quiet and never returned to themselves, and Brek studied the ranger in silence. The packet remained unopened on the table.

Corvin said his father's pages read like a man trying to understand something that had already decided to use him, and Brek and Fenwick each agreed to go. Corvin said all four would read the papers that night, go at first light, and that the ranger should tell him before they dug if whatever was in the hollow knew the ranger's mother. The folded net had been left in the hall.

The packet was opened on Corvin's terms and the reader found council sheets over older brown-edged folded pages. The records covered salvage, Millbrook grazing boundary, and a nuisance study, then older entries stating a creature had watched Aldous, shown him a stone-lined underground room, and tied the hollow to his blood and the women who came before. Corvin set down his cup and stared at the page with a tight jaw, Fenwick's hand stalled near his head, Brek watched the reader, and more pages remained in the packet.