Wildwood Diaries (On Hold)

Episode Ten: Rivonia

Night befell the realm, and Wildwood was as vibrant as ever tonight. Our three had made it inside safely and without suspicion, but so did one of the most mysterious and most deadly beast hunters in all of Gemina; Rivonia Moonrose.

Rivonia had been living a normal life for 23 years; both parents were still alive and married, older brother became one of the Royal Guards, younger sister is a successful businesswoman.

Her parents had become rich off of the illicit beast trafficking and fur trading empires, and young Rivonia had longed to be part of the business. Since then, she had been hunting down all kinds of rare beasts from all over to get their pelts. Though she had been keeping the family business alive, there was one thing she wanted to get her hands on; werewolf fur. This may seem like a stretch, but she always wanted to own even a single strand of werewolf fur. The thought of even keeping a living werewolf as her pet would make her shiver.

Now, standing at 1,87m, her gray hair tied into pigtails, her silver eyes complementing the blackish red stealth outfit as well as her grayish-green skin, she's standing on a silver platter of werewolves right for the picking.

Zarya's class was outside for their first advanced hunting lesson. The teacher, Mr. Hearthstone, was addressing himself to the students. "Good evening, class," he said. He was an older looking werewolf, with gray fur, golden eyes and the sharpest teeth amongst the staff. He was the size of an elder dwarf(because he was one) donning a typical dwarven outfit. He may be old, but he is also very wise. "For all you newcomers to the school, I am mr. Hearthstone," he continued, "I will be taking you for your advanced hunting lesson. Now, this may seem like a stretch, but hunting is key to survival. There are many dangers that await once you seek your prey. Its eat or be eaten in this world, so you have to stay on your toes if you want to survive. Now I want all of you to pair up for tonight's lesson."

Everyone was soon scrambling to find a partner. Betsy had taken Pit's hand and dragged him towards her amongst all the chaos. "Oh?," Pit asked. "I promise to be the best partner ever," said Betsy, "I mean…" "Ooh, Pit's got another girlfriend," Zarya and Keaton mocked in unison. "Come on, is that really necessary," Pit groaned. "Yeah, you know Pit will be forever with Princess Arkayna," Betsy added. "You're right, we're sorry," Keaton and Zarya sighed in unison.

"Alright class, line up," Mr. Hearthstone called out. The eight pairs of learners came towards the teacher, as well as what has been prepared for tonight; a natural forest setting type exercise. "Okay class, I have prepared this forest simulation for you," said mr. Hearthstone, "let's say you have a pack mate with you and you two have to hunt for the pack. One of you may be skilled in one sense but superlative in another. You and your partner have to use your best senses and try to find one of the variety of animals to kill." "Is this a competition, sir," Leo shouted. "Ow, my ears," Hearthstone growled through gritted teeth before clearing his throat and replying with, "It is not a competition, Leo. This isn't until the School Games. Take your positions, everyone!" Everyone took to their positions, standing across the area. "Aaaand GO," Hearthstone exclaimed, and the students were soon zooming into the greenery. While he was proudly watching the students hunt, mr. Hearthstone suddenly felt a big cotton ball forced over his mouth and nose. The cotton smelled of chloroform and he couldn't breathe. "Shh, relax," a female whispered, "just relax and go to sleep." Within a few minutes of struggling, mr. Hearthstone was out. "And Rivonia strikes again," said the female voice, Rivonia's voice, in the third person, "time to go hunting." She then ran in the same direction as the students.

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Pit and Betsy were zooming through the scenery. It seemed like it was gonna be like that the whole lesson when they both stopped suddenly. "What is it," Pit asked. "Shh, I heard something," Betsy whispered, "it came from over there." She was pointing at a large cluster of bushes. "Lets try and sneak up on it," Pit whispered. He and Betsy slowly crept up towards the bushes. Tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe... Soon enough, the silence was replaced by growling, snarling and high pitched squealing. Within a few moments, Pit and Betsy came out of the bushes. Their uniforms were stained with blood as they were holding a giant dead boar. "That went well," Betsy panted. "It did, but next time," Pit sighed, "we come up with a backup plan for just in case."

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Meanwhile, Keaton and Zarya were sprinting through the scenery in a blur. After a while, they stopped to catch their breath. "You think we're gonna find something," Zarya panted. "I sure hope so," said Keaton, "I'm only guessing that this is for marks, so we gotta… what's that stuck on your tail?" Zarya took one look at her tail and saw a dead leaf stuck on her tail. "Ugh, gross," she cringed. "Gross? This is anything but gross," Keaton retaliated, "this is treasure. This leaf is actually one of the rarest species to ever go in my collection. I bet it has a very fine smell too." "That's weird, dude," Zarya laughed, "but if you think it's amazing, then there's no complaining about that. Come on, we have to get back to the hunt." With that, Keaton gently peeled off the leaf from Zarya's tail before the two kept on going.

It was not long before they continued that something dangerous was brewing. Zarya and Keaton were just walking for now when they both caught a very odd smell. "You also smell that, right," Keaton asked. "I do," Zarya replied, "it smells like chloroform… and it's heading right this way. Keaton, watch out!" Zarya heroically pushed her friend out of danger as a dart filled with paralyzing chloroform struck a tree between them. The both of them looked at where the dart came from and found a shadow figure standing on a tree branch looking directly at them. The figure swiftly lept from branch to branch, leaving Keaton and Zarya in a web of confusion. "Do you think one of the other students are trying to sabotage us," asked Keaton. "There's no possible way," Zarya mumbled, "I'm the alpha...they possibly can't, right? Right?"

There was all of a sudden a loud scream that came from beyond where the two were situated. "That sounded like Betsy," gasped Zarya worryingly. "Well, what exactly are we waiting for," said Keaton, "we have to help her." With that, the two ran off to where Betsy was, at least hoping that Pit is protecting her.

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There was an epic confrontation between Pit, Betsy and the stranger. Betsy was lying on the ground and holding on to her ankle, which was seriously injured. Pit was standing in front of his lesson partner, showing off his sharp fangs as he growled at the stranger. Keaton & Zarya had just entered the scene and witnessed the stranger playing around with Pit and Betsy's kill. "What's going on? What happened," Zarya asked. "Some stranger just went ahead and threw a silver dagger at Betsy," Pit replied. "It hurts really bad," Betsy moaned. "Looks like I have to go," said the stranger, "three's a crowd, but four's just insane. See ya." With that, she lept through the trees out of the premises. "Who is that stranger," Pit asked. "I don't know, Pit," Zarya replied, "but something tells me that it won't be the last time we meet. Meanwhile..." Both werewolves now focused on Betsy, whose ankle was being healed by Keaton. "Thanks again for helping me, Keaton," Betsy sighed, "you're a hero." "Your welcome, I guess," said Keaton, "but if anyone talks about my tail wagging, then you're a liar."

There was suddenly loud howling that brought distress to the four. "That sounded like the class," said Betsy. "Let's see what all the commotion is about," said Zarya, "Betsy, are you gonna be okay?" Betsy nodded, but that was good enough as any answer for the alpha.

Meanwhile, the rest of the class were surrounding mr. Hearthstone, who was still unconscious. Zarya, Pit, Betsy and Keaton entered the scene and gasped in horror at such a sight. "What happened," asked Keaton. "Some of us were here to get our grades when we found mr. Hearthstone lying here," a male student said. "We found this cotton wool ball next to him when we found him," a female student, the male student's partner, continued. Zarya took the ball from the student's hand and sniffed it; the same sickly smell of chloroform that almost killed her and Keaton. "We have to report this to Mr. Da Vinci," she then said. "Yeah, but are you sure he'll believe us," Betsy asked, "he looks like a very judgmental person." "We have plenty of evidence and some possible witnesses," Zarya replied, "besides, he has to believe us. I'm the alpha."