Shock and Claw
This piece from Wolfgangcake back in October of 2022 is a crossover between my Edmund and a Ferris, a werewolf character owned by a friend of mine, ig88_0x. We collaborated to write twin stories telling the tale from our respective characters’ perspectives. My half of the collaboration, showing Edmund’s investigation into a mysterious incident, can be found below, while the other half can be found on FA.
By their nature, crossover works cannot be cannot. And while I was still clearly working on getting Edmund’s voice correct back then, I enjoyed giving Edmund a chance to show off the detective skills that his mentor has been drilling into him. The finished work still makes me smile as I read it.
“Faunhaven, due west of the city, has reported that the monster population has fallen under unusual decline. Normally, this wouldn’t raise too many alarms, but the townsfolk claim that the depopulation is impacting their local ecology and food supply.”
“Ya wan me tah see what’s happin’, teach?”
“Yes. You’ve been my apprentice for quite some time now. Enough for me to trust you can handle a job like this on your own. If you can stop it, do so. Otherwise, just find the root cause.”
“You got it, teach! I’ll make ya proud.”
“You already have, Ed.”
Soaring over the road to Faunhaven, the tigerkin, dressed in his loose-fitting Magistrum uniform, replayed that conversation in his mind once more, blue glowing eyes focused on his destination, now in view.
Having reached the outskirts of Faunhaven, he loosened his control of the winds, slowly descending down to the forest floor after flying most of the way. No longer charged with mana, the glow vanished from his eyes, allowing his more natural emeralds to shine through. As he ventured close, the town watchmen nodded as he passed through the town gate. Recognizing him by his uniform, one of them guided the young student to the town’s mayor.
Once inside the two-story manor, he heard a voice from inside what looked like a spacious office in a corner of the ground floor.
“Right this way, please. You’re from the Magistrum, yes?”
As he followed the sound of an elderly man, leading him to the office, he allowed his chest to puff up with pride.
“Dat’s me. Edmund Azurium, Professah Rabrandt’s apprentice.”
Once Edmund’s bulky frame had come into view, he could see the raised eyebrow and cocked head of the old mousekin, sitting at his desk.
“The Great Detective? You’re his personal apprentice?”
“Dun act so surprised, mistah.”
Realizing his mistake, the mayor quickly regained his composure. As they started to discuss the problem, both parties started to grow more comfortable. Despite his gruff exterior, the mayor noticed the young man stood silent and attentive as he explained the situation, only interrupting to ask questions and clarify points being made.
He explained that the problem started suddenly, a few weeks ago. The village hunters, going out each day to bring back the spoils of their kills, had started to notice the reduction in the manticore population. In time, other species began to be affected, to the point where their supplies of meats, hides, and alchemical ingredients had taken a hit. Not only was it a loss to the town’s economy, but also their pantries. Without corpses, game trails, or other forms of evidence to go by, the town was at a loss, which is why they sought assistance from the scholars at the Magistrum.
“So ya want me tah look into it, and stop whatevah is disappearin’ all the monsters?”
“Please. We would owe you and the Magistrum a great deal.”
To calm the anxious leader of Faunhaven, Edmund gave a soft smile, raising his hand to silence the mayor, and then holding it over his heart.
“No need tah lay it on so thick, Mr. Mayor. I’ll get tah the bottom of it, promise.”
After leaving the manor, the tigerkin fell back on the principles his mentor taught him. Without a solid lead to go on, he began to question the townsfolk. In particular, he wanted to talk to the village hunters. Innocently popping the question to a local merchant while browsing her wears, Edmund learned that they all congregated in a lodge on the edge of town. Negotiating down the price of his souvenir, he took a hike to his next destination, where a lithe, athletic rabbitkin, bow and quiver slung over his shoulder, dressed in light leather armor, greeted him as he got close to the entrance.
“Whoa there, big guy. You gotta request for us?”
Giving a smile and nod in response, the mind mage’s apprentice began to speak. “Somethin’ like that. I’m here to look intah yer monstah disappearances.”
“You’re the Magistrum rep? You don’t look like the bookish type.”
“I get dat a lot. ‘Ow long has it been goin’ on?”
“Not long, about two weeks. But it’s makin’ us nervous.”
“And ya have no leads at all? No bodies? No trail?”
“Notta one. We haven’t seen anything during our day patrols.”
“And at night?”
The hunter began to chuckle. “We don’t go out at night.”
“Why not?”, the young tigerkin cock his eyebrow and neck curiously.
“Manticores around here are nocturnal, as are many of the other big beasties around here. It’s easier to poach’em in broad daylight, when they’re asleep. Just gotta make sure we only kill enough of’em to get what we need. Otherwise, well you see what’s happening now.”
“Which means none of ya have any idea wut goes on at night.”
Taking aback by the comment, realizing the implications, the rabbitkin lowered his head, covering his visage with his palm, sighing deeply to himself.
“No. If something was happening in the dead of night, no one would have any idea. We’d have never thought to look.”
“Sounds like dats where I come in, then.” He took out his Magistrum-issued communicator, and pressed a few buttons, which generated a illusionary yet accurate map of the area. “Can ya point tah any monstahs left around here? I can scout’em out tonight.”
“Ya certainly look like ya can handle yourself, but be careful all the same. We don’t wanna start losing people too.”
Beating his chest twice in a mock display, Edmund gave another reassuring smile to his conversation partner. “I’m Professah Rabrandt’s apprentice. I’ll be fine.”
“You? You’re the Great Detective’s trainee? I would have never guessed.”
“Yeah… I get dat a lot.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean…”
Without dropping his smile, the student simply nodded his head. “S’okay. I don’t really bother tryin’ tah correct people mosta dah time. Nah worth it.”
“In any case, be safe, kid.”
Without much else to do until nightfall, the apprentice made his way to the inn, where he checked into the room reserved by the Magistrum ahead of his arrival, asking the innkeep to wake him up just before nightfall. Perplexed, but nonetheless agreeable, the innkeep obliged.
As the sun descended in the sky, Edmund was roused out of his catnap. Thanking the proprietors, he took care to create some distance between himself and Faunhaven, lest the sound of his take off wake up the sleeping villagers. Eyes aglow once more, the winds at his command lifted him off the ground, speeding him to the location the hunter marked on his communicator’s map.
Looking down at the manticore pack from his lofty viewpoint in the clouds, the mind mage’s apprentice didn’t notice anything unusual about the creatures. What did catch his attention was an eerie green glow emanating from a vantage point above them, off a set of vicious-looking claws from what he could see. And attached to those claws was a beast, the likes of which had never been seen before on the plane of Crossroads.
The beast was bigger than any of the other meatheads back at the Magistrum’s training facility, by a wide margin at that. If he didn’t know better, Edmund would have assume the creature was a wolfkin, but no beastkin in his memory moved with such feral precision. With a single leap, the beast had pounced on one of the manticore in the pack. While still in mid-air, it had made contact with its target. Before its predator had hit the ground, the prey was practically already dead. From his vantage point, the apprentice watched as the beast slowly turned the manticore into ash, recording the process with his communicator.
Faunhaven and his teacher had only requested the Edmund find the source of the problem, and by all accounts he had succeeded on that front. He could send in the recording as proof. Any normal detective would have been content to call it a day, but not the apprentice of Crossroad’s most famous detective. Some would call him cocky, and others merely confident, but either way Edmund believed he could do more than discover the cause for the monster population’s decline: He could stop it.
The creature must have been too focused on its recent kill. Otherwise, it might have had time to dodge the bolt of lightning aimed directly at it. Though to Edmund’s surprise, as he descended to the forest floor, he could swear the electrical burn he just cause had already begun to mend itself good as new. All he succeeded in doing was agitating the beast.
“Who’d thunk dat a mutt was the one makin’ all dah monstahs disappear?”
As he charged his palm and unleashed another bolt, the creature lunged at him with ghastly green claws. While Edmund used his natural speed, combined with the aid of the wind, to move himself out the way, his opponent angled their body to avoid the shock. Despite neither combatant being harmed, the adversary, and his ability to reduce organic matter to ash, was perilously close. Without thinking, the tigerkin summoned another surge of mana to conjure a hurricane force wind, knocking his foe backwards to create some space.
“Sorry, beastie. Can’t let ya kill too many more monstahs.”
Hearing the young tigerkin taunt it so, the wolven beast’s ears perked up as it recovered, in recognition of the words. It walked slowly… away from the young man, towards a nearby tree, stripping a section of its bark. Cocking his head and eyebrow in confusion, Edmund nevertheless kept his palm charged with electricity. With a hitherto seen calmness, the lupine raised its claw, having lost it glistening green luster, to the bark the way Edmund himself might raise his quill when taking an exam. When it had finished, he turn the scrawl around so that the writing would be it full view of its seeming adversary.
It read, “I had to hunt, or risk being a danger to the village.”
“Hate tah break it to ya, beastie. But yer already a danger. Dah people’re goin’ broke ‘n’ hungry without monstahs tah hunt.”
Stripping another segment of bark, the beast replied in the same manner as before, “Better monsters than villagers. The moon forced me to hunt.”
Sensing the change in atmosphere, the apprentice detective released the mana charged within his palm, lowering it in turn. “What’s dat supposed tah mean? Who’er what are ya anyway?”
“A werewolf, turning his curse into a blessing.”
Putting his hand to his chin, Edmund puzzled for a moment before replying, “I dun think anyone has evah seen a werewolf on Crossroads before. Aren’t ya a bit outta place?”
“No. And who are you?”
Chest puffed out, pointing at himself with his thumb, the apprentice boldly proclaimed, “Name’s Ed. Imma detective, tryin’ tah keep tah ecosystem from breakin’ down. People’re getting nervous that the game’s run dry.”
A glimmer of realization raced across the ‘werewolf’s’ eyes. Retracting his claws, and with a heavy sigh, he began to advance towards the tigerkin. With the bark from his last reply still clenched in his paw, made an effort to avoid sudden movements, keeping tension to a minimum. Recognizing the more obvious tells, Edmund met him halfway, marching forward in lockstep, having already eased his stance.
“And I hate tah say it, big guy, but right now all yer huntin’ is causin’ big problems.”
Having closed the gap, the towering behemoth of a wolf began to kneel down, in an apparent effort to close the gap in respective heights. Using another free patch of the bark in his hand, he penned more scrawl with his claw.
“The cursed hunger compelled my excessive hunt, but my mind is recovering.”
The young man took a moment to take in everything that he had discovered over the course of his ‘conversation’ with the supposed werewolf. Taking in a few deep breaths as he taps his temple with a stray finger.
“Look, I ain’t here tah hunt ya, er even tah hurt ya. I just need ya to lay off the huntin’ so that the monstah population can recovah. If ya can do dat, we ain’t gotta problem.”
Time stood still as the creature thought through his response, before once more taking his claw to the piece of bark. “I only need to hunt like this once a decade or less, and I’m working on a longer-term fix. I promise to leave, and let this place recover. I’m sorry.”
Looking from the bark to the face of the beast who wrote on it, Edmund released a breath he never realized he was holding.
“Sound like we gotta deal then. Glad tah have dat all settled, big guy. Remembuh to keep dah ecosystem in mind next time, got it?”
With an almost relived chuckle, the beast nodded his head before lowering in deeper, eyes closed in an imitation of a bow.
But before their business concluded, the student-detective had one last question. “While yer still here, do ya find if I take that bark you’ve been writin’ on?”
The beast’s low growl was the only response needed, saying more than words even could.
“Yeah. Had ta ask.”
Perplexingly, the large ‘werewolf’ began to attack… just not the young student. Rather, it appeared to be taking out its frustration on the dirt beneath their feet, pounding it with wild abandon before calming himself once more. Taking up the bark again, he replied.
“I don’t want people to know about me.”
“Sorry, man. Ya took out a whole forest’ah monstahs. I gotta tell people wha’ happened an’ how.”
Clearly, the tense and pained expressions made by the creature indicated to Edmund that his answer wasn’t what it was looking for. Whatever was going on in its mind must have been difficult. As he stated to write once more, Edmund swore he could practically hear the beast’s blood pressure rise.
“I’ve never harmed innocent people. I just want to be left alone.”
As Edmund chuckled, shaking his head, it was the werewolf’s turn to look confused. “Ya dun gotta worry ‘bout that. Keep yer nose clean and we dun got a reason tah hassle ya.”
The young detective could feel the tension release itself from the creature’s posture as he released a deep breath. It didn’t take his mentor’s psionic powers to deduce what the smile in its eyes and the gentle, if oversized hand on his shoulder were meant to signify. Its business concluded, the wolven hunter was quick to depart.
After taking a moment to himself, relaxing after his recent adventure. Sunlight peering through the trees to the east, his eyes once more began to glow as the winds lifted up off the ground, soaring into the air towards Faunhaven. Behind him, he could feel a presence keeping tabs, but by the time he put distance between himself and the forest it was long gone.
As day broke over the town of Faunhaven, villages stirring from peaceful rest, Edmund greeted the night shift guard, who let him in before taking off to rest once his daylight compatriot relieved him of duty. The fledgling detective’s first stop was the mayor. Explaining the situation, and showing him the recording from his communicator was enough to allay some of the old mousekin’s concerns, but not all of them.
“Well, that takes care of the big problem, but… we’re still up shit’s creek until the ecosystem recovers from the ‘cursed hunger’.”
Putting one hand up once more, to conform the ailing elder, Edmund put on his most convincing smile.
“I’ll make sure dah Magistum sends ya some relief packages in dah meantime.”
“Oh ‘walkers grace you, young man. The Great Detective chose his apprentice well.”
“Awwww, tanks mistah.” Edmund turned red and he layed a hand on the back of his neck, grinning despite himself. His own business concluded, Edmund stayed for one day and one night longer to correct his sleep schedule, before departing the village.
He was a detective by his own merits now, having solved a case by himself, no more just an apprentice to the most famous one in Crossroads.
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