Chapter 4

Werewolves are creatures of the full moon. During the day they appear as one of us, a human. During the full moon they shed their mortal skin and become invincible creatures 10x stronger than any man.

Werewolves are often accompanied by various other magical environmental changes. A werewolf, when settled, creates a lair. No creatures may leave that lair except during the full moon when the creature is its strongest. Because of the mystical nature of their existence, the earth rises up to fight the anomaly. Certain plants like wolfsbane arise in order to provide poisons to fight against this creature.

Killing a werewolf is nigh impossible. While wolfsbane has shown signs of weakening the creatures, no one has ever successfully destroyed a werewolf entirely. No steel or iron has injured the creature. When the werewolf's human form is discovered, killing him as a human will not remove the curse. It is instead placed upon the killer. A bite from a werewolf (if survived at all) will result in the spreading of the curse, creating more werewolves.

If you encounter a werewolf, you are likely already in its lair. There is no escape, instead create a fortress surrounded by wolfsbane to keep it at bay. Good luck.

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The parchment ended there. There was no known way to defeat the werewolf.

Catherine marvelled at the strange text. Magic wasn't too uncommon. But a mythical creature like the werewolf was usually just a fairytale. She curled up the parchment and placed it in the shelf.

As she wandered the street back to her inn she twiddled with her holy charm, a silver necklace with the insignia of the All Mother on it. It had a sword with a sharp tip at the end which Catherine always thought was a bit dangerous.

She passed a local pub and heard a rowdy cheering coming from several people inside. She caught a glimpse of a woman dressed in leather arm wrestling with a muscle head. She drank her beer as she pushed his hand down to the table. Everyone cheered as she lifted her arms up in victory.

Intrigued, Catherine entered the pub. The stench of alcohol and dirty sweaty men filled her nose. She covered her mouth in hopes of keeping the smell away. The woman who had just won the arm wrestling match was now sitting alone, drinking her beer as the other men teased the loser.

Catherine approached, "how did you manage to pull that off?" She asked with a curiousity in her voice.

The leather wearing woman gave her a drowsy look up and down, "oh another one of you lot. Heh heh heh, they just keep sending them down here don't they!" She took a long sip of her drink. "Between you and me, saintess, this probably ain't the best place to be for such a pious woman eh? Hahaha!" She laughed heartily.

Catherine shrugged, "well since I'm stuck here for another half month I figured I might as well get to know the town." She held out her arm to wrestle the leather wearing woman. She had brown hair tied up in the back.

The leatherwearing woman gave Catherine a smirk, "alright let's see what you're made of" The woman gripped Catherine's hand tightly and rotated the wrist towards herself, then as they both pulled, Catherine realized she didn't have her usual strength and lost almost instantly.

She smiled, realizing that this woman wasn't strong, she was smart. "You aren't from around here. You are a Fortheran... A tracker" Catherine introduced herself, "I'm lady Catherine Pembrooke." She bowed slightly.

The woman squinted at Catherine, "it is remarkable that you could tell my profession just from my grip... My name is Pearl. Pleased to meet you saintess."

Catherine massaged her now sore hand, "only fortherans could come up with such a trick. We shall see each other again Pearl."

Catherine left the pub and wandered once again around the town. Bergy started to approach her. "Ah saintess... We have a problem. The person who was attacked last night... I don't think they died. I found the place where they were attacked. Usually the creature leaves a corpse, but this time, the victim crawled away. They might still be alive. Unfortunately my tracking abilities aren't what they used to be. If that person is still alive then we should try to save them."

Catherine groaned audibly. "That's not good... If they are alive, then you're gonna be hunting two creatures Bergy... It spreads through biting people."

Bergys eyes widened, "oh... Oh no"