Chapter 42: Endangered Cloud Wolves

His first reaction was to run, but he held it down in case the wolf might give chase. His second reaction was to attack, but he forced that one back since it also wasn't attacking him. It sat on its haunches, staring at him with unnaturally silvery eyes.

Since there was no immediate threat, Rick paused to look at the wolf more carefully. It was definitely larger than he thought wolves should be, with shimmering fur and highlights around the face that were almost liquid silver. The eyes were dark, though, deep pools that either reflected stars or were filled by them. He knew that it must be an unnatural creature, but he had no idea what it was or why it was so close.

The wolf let out a low growl. Not necessarily aggressive, yet it still made his hair stand on end. It began to move toward him and Rick realized that he couldn't let this go. Hoping to intimidate the creature away, he summoned his aura into a flaming presence around him.

In response the wolf snarled, the peace of the previous moment transforming into animal fury. It rushed for him, shockingly quick, and Rick barely managed to react. There wasn't time for a counter-attack, he just managed to duck aside. The wolf flashed past him, a silver shadow in the night, and landed behind him. He realized that he had only a split second to change the course of the fight.

Rick launched himself backward with a Bunyan's Step even as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the ether cage that he'd gotten at the Refuge. When he ended his rush of speed, he was surprised to see that the wolf was turning to look at him, jumping back in shock. It really was fast.

Not fast enough, though. Rick flashed around it with two more bursts of speed, then hurled the ether cage. When it had nearly struck, the wolf snapped at it, but at that moment the cage manifested, pale white arms extending all around the wolf. It pinned the animal until it dropped to the ground, then the cage slowly expanded so it didn't constrict the wolf painfully.

Suddenly Rick was standing in the middle of the wilderness with the sun shining overhead. He rubbed his forehead, trying to believe what he'd seen. The wolf couldn't have controlled time, that wasn't possible, so had it created an illusion? Or had it all been in his head in some way?

For now, the wolf lay in the small cage, slumped against the bars. At first Rick thought that it might have been faking, but it seemed that the cage itself had knocked the animal unconscious. Maybe some sort of reaction to the ether - he didn't really understand it, but he'd heard them talk about reactions at the Refuge. In any case, it was unconscious now but he had no idea how long it would stay that way.

After frowning down at the cage for a while, Rick decided that he had no choice. He awkwardly carried the cage at first, his eyes nervously flicking between the wolf and the ground. It was frustratingly slow, but eventually he got back to the highway and managed to reach a bus stop. Getting on the bus took a serious argument with the bus driver that the wolf was actually an injured support dog, but it got him close enough to Branton. He used his new ether tier to get a taxi driver who wouldn't ask questions and rode all the way to the Peakless Wildlife Refuge.

Along the way, he realized that underneath its glorious silver coat, the wolf was actually thinner than he thought. He could see its ribs as it breathed slowly, and one of its legs had a pus-filled injury that looked like it needed medical attention. Hopefully they could do something for it.

When Rick walked into the main Refuge office, for once Adsila was at the desk. She looked up with a smile, but had barely started her greeting when she saw the wolf and her eyes widened. "Holy sh... Wemy, get in here!"

"I told you not to call m..." Wemilat walked into the room, wiping his hands off on a rag, and trailed off as he saw the cage. Both of them just stared at it, eyes wide.

Rick awkwardly set the cage down and stared back. "Uh, I don't think this is a normal wolf."

"No shit, it's not a normal wolf!" Wemilat rushed down to kneel beside the cage, reaching out and almost touching its fur but pulling back. "This is a cloud wolf... they're critically endangered. Where did you find it?"

"Uh..." Rick paused uncomfortably long. Though he didn't want to lie, telling the truth would definitely piss off Granny Whitney and she might take it out on the Refuge staff. He opted for a vague answer. "I was surveying an area that looked like it had been used to make lucrim drugs in the past. Could that have anything to do with it?"

"It definitely could... I'm surprised it isn't sicker, if it was feeding off contaminated lucrim. The stories say cloud wolves had some kind of natural purification system, but I never really believed..." Wemilat looked up at him with a strange expression. "But why did it survive so long, then meet you?"

"Maybe it chose him."

They all turned sharply to see who had spoken, though Rick recognized the voice was Delsin's before spotting the old man. He stood in the doorway of the office, his face blank and unreadable. Though Rick wanted to reply, as Delsin walked into the room, he carried with him an air of solemn silence. Eventually he bent down beside the wolf and settled his hand on its head.

"Long ago, cloud wolves were believed to choose their protectors... it is said they became the first dogs. I had always discounted those legends, but..." The old man looked up to stare at Rick. "Whatever its purpose, this means something."

Rick stared back at him, then shook his head. "Bullshit. Why do you keep trying to trick me with the same old tripe?"

To his surprise, Delsin didn't respond with a grin. Instead his eyes tightened and his gaze became something both serious and dangerous. From beside the cage, Wemilat stood up and cast Rick an angry glance. "We don't expect you to follow any of our traditions, but we thought you would at least respect them. You've been given a gift and you spit in its face?"

"Uh, I didn't mean..." Rick desperately looked to Adsila, but even she wasn't smiling.

"There are limits, Rick." She shook her head slowly. "Poking fun at traditions is one thing, but there are some things that you shouldn't mock..."

"I..." After nearly being tripped up so many times, Rick had never expected this. He bowed in contrition. "I'm very sorry. I only thought that..."

He trailed off as Delsin let out a snicker. The old man shot him a triumphant grin, while Adsila gave a little laugh. Even Wemilat lost all sense of tension and just smiled at him good-naturedly. Rick sighed and let them finish laughing at his expense before he tried to speak.

"Alright, fine. But you're not going to tell me that this is just some normal animal."

"Oh, it's a real cloud wolf." Delsin poked the cage with his foot and grunted. "I don't personally give a fuck, but some people care a lot about that sort of thing."

"For good reason!" Wemilat scowled disapprovingly at his uncle and moved to push him away so he couldn't kick the cage anymore. "I wasn't joking about them being critically endangered. It would actually be irresponsible for us to take care of it here, but we can try to nurse it back to health and let it be introduced into a better controlled wildlife reserve."

Adsila came from around the desk to crouch by the cage. "Come on, do we absolutely have to? Imagine what we could extract from this thing!"

Wemilat stared at her in horror and put his arms around the cage defensively. "Absolutely not! That's a crime against governmental and ethical laws alike!"

"At least let me take some fur? Surely it will shed some or you'll need to shave it or something?"

"Stop drooling over it! This is a noble creature, not a body for you to loot!"

While the two of them traded barbs, Rick looked back to Delsin. The old man had sat down on one of the couches in the entrance chamber and just seemed mildly amused by the whole thing. Rick went to sit down beside him. "Why do you think I actually ran into it, though?"

Delsin shrugged. "Either it sensed your surveying technique and came to investigate, or maybe it wanted to eat something you were carrying. That sphere they gave you, for example. Maybe that's tasty to a wolf, how the hell should I know?"

"Alright, that makes sense. If Wemilat can take the wolf somewhere safe, then I'm done here." Rick glanced outside and saw that it really had gotten late, given the amount of time it took him to transport the cloud wolf. Since he had Delsin here, there was really only one productive thing he could do. "I won't ask for any compensation, aside from what I've asked for from the beginning."

"Yeah, fine." Delsin glanced over at him with a cool gaze. "I've been thinking and I'm willing to give you a shot. You might have enough of your generation rate free, maybe not. But you definitely need to improve the rating of your foundation. You do both of those things and come back here, then I'll teach you something."

"Good. Thanks." Rick got up and bowed to him, but the old man just waved him off. After glancing around at the three family members, still bickering over the good find, he headed out the door.

Though Rick wanted to take an easier method, he made himself bike again, even as it got darker. The cold ride gave him time to think and sort through everything that had happened during the day. It had been a stranger one than usual.

He wasn't a bleeding heart for animals, but he clearly remembered how noble the wolf had looked when it stared at him. The idea that it could go somewhere safe to be with its own kind was somewhat satisfying. However else his job shook out, that was a decent thing that he'd accomplished.

When he arrived at home, Rick discovered that Melissa had fallen asleep on top of her papers. He considered moving her to her bed, but decided that if she wanted to sleep on her work that was fine. Instead he just found a pillow and moved it under her head so she looked a bit more comfortable.

That night he dreamed of walking in the night and staring into silver eyes, but he was fairly certain it was only a meaningless dream.

~ ~ ~

The next day Rick headed out promptly, hoping to wrap up Granny Whitney's task as soon as possible. It didn't take him long to return to the region, but arriving left him a bit disoriented. All the residue was so unusual, it took him a while to get his bearings back. Eventually he felt like he had the pulse of the surveying technique and set out to finish his work.

Fortunately, he didn't see any sign of the camper or any other meth lab. Apparently his threat had worked. Technically that didn't clean his conscience even slightly, but at least it let him focus without any worry of getting shot by some methhead.

After all the excitement of the previous day, this was utterly boring. Rick found himself going back through exercises just for the sake of having something to do, even though he'd already passed the point of optimum benefits. The boredom made him wander too far occasionally, losing the thread of his work, so he had to double back to get it right.

Eventually he found the anomaly in the middle of a normal field. When walking closer he did notice an area of dead grass that smelled like something toxic had been dumped on it. Otherwise, there was absolutely nothing unusual about the area. Maybe Granny Whitney had used it to hide something and maybe it had drawn the cloud wolf, but either way, it was over now.

Since the area was particularly clean with the departure of the rolling meth lab, Rick registered the find with the wooden sphere. After he got confirmation, he decided to check the merit scoreboard again.

[1) [redacted] - 248 merits

2) Pan Zhou - 244 merits

3) Kate Durham - 233 merits

4) Heidi Cunningham - 225 merits

5) Damian - 220 merits

6) Machk Bearan - 207 merits

7) Jack Ganess - 206 merits

8) Oswaln - 190 merits

9) Elliot Rutherford III - 189 merits

10) Rick Hunter - 186 merits]

He was surprised to find himself back in the top ten, potentially higher once he got credit for the anomaly. It was possible that others would also gain merits before he received his, yet many of the numbers looked stagnant to him. Most likely just a symptom of lucrim anomalies in the region drying up, though he wondered just how far they could extend from Branton. Far enough and he wouldn't be able to bike there and back.

Getting into the top ten was a strange thing and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Continuing to draw a paycheck and get large bonuses... those were definitely good things. But even if he wasn't ever called on for another major assignment, he wasn't sure he wanted the attention that came with the position. Basically everyone had warned him about the potential consequences.

Rick put his phone away and looked back to the road, trying to decide if he would keep working or not. It was the afternoon and he was hungry. There were still a lot of hours left in the day, but having found one lucrim anomaly he wasn't likely to find another. Maybe if-

Aura flared nearby and Rick threw himself to the side a moment before something tore into the earth where he had been standing.

The force from the explosion prevented him from standing and he skidded on his side. Dragging one hand in the dirt, he managed to slow himself down and then vaulted to his feet. He wasn't hurt, but as Rick raised his fists, he found himself staring at the man who had attacked him.

"There you are!" Jack raised his hands to either side, aura burning brightly. "Finally got you without anyone nearby... let's finish this!"