[Child of the 7th Age]

The two remaining wolves raced out of the village and slunk into the woods, this time heading south and east. Exhausted and bleeding, they threw their bodies down on a nearby stream bank, assuaging their thirst by taking large gulps of water and then stopping to lick the gashes and bruises they had suffered during the engagement.

"Nilak," growled the other wolf. "This did not go quite as we planned."

"No, someone must have warned them. For they were as well prepared as any of the two-leggeds that I have ever since. But what I really do not understand is how they got those birds and animals to fight beside them. Pah! They cheated. Man and beast do not fight side-by-side. There is some foul magic at work here. It is almost as if they could speak the languages of these different creatures. How else could they have gotten them to do exactly as they wanted? It's unfair, I tell you."

"So what do we do now?"

"What we've done in times before. Go steal some hen eggs to get us by and wait for tomorrow. We have definitely been misled. I tell you, Grulak, it is not the North that will save us but the East. Our time is coming. I can smell it in the air. Let us find an isolated farmyard to the east and slink inside for a little snack, anyplace that doesn't have hobbits and wrens acting in tandem. And meanwhile, we'll begin recruiting again for a new contingent of companions, ones that are worthy of our strength and ability."

With that, the two wolves slipped off together into the darkness. Yet on the horizon, the first streaks of daylight were just visible to the eye.