Arn felt the strain of the dead weight as he lifted the man as carefully as he could.  His brow furrowed at the inconsistency between weight and the way the man looked.  This could mean that the man had not suddenly taken to living in the wild.  This sort of weathering and muscle mass could only be the product of living in the wild for many years.  

The hunter looked down at his catch.  The man did not appear to be young.  It might very well be that it was older than him.  However, the face was eerily smooth.  No north man that he know was clean of hair unless they shaved.  Even then, a stubborn stubble was hard to get rid of and most men did not have the time to shave daily. 

The big man’s eyes eyed the woods warily.  A man who has lived so long in the wild would have very few predators.  Even the wound seemed a shot of opportunity.  It did not seemed to have been aimed to kill.  The chest or neck were better targets.  The stomach would cause much pain and would be hard to treat and eventually the target would die. 

That meant that the fear the creature expressed was not directed at him or Gwendolyn.  Arn remembered the forewarning of danger.  The forest had warned him.  Even if the spirits had meant the man currently in his arms, a sense of unease did not go away.  Could there be something more dangerous than the man wolf?

The big hunter could not imagine anything more dangerous than a man who thought himself an animal but had the reasoning of a human.  As it was, Arn had been hard pressed to subdue the man wolf and would have hated to encounter it at full strength.  However, something told him that at full strength it would have not been so easily found in the day light. 

His muscles strained as he carried the deceptively heavy man.  The hunter followed the young healer saying nothing.  Even holding the man wolf, the pelts shifting under his arms as he had to fix his hold every now and then, felt strange.  This was not normal.  It seemed as if the man had fully integrated with the spirits of the dead animals.  Dark magic was often rumored to exist but many believed them to be just myths.

No matter how unintelligent the hunter seemed to the villagers, Arn was anything but.  First the report from the young guard Bauld about dangerous animals.  Then the appearance of the woman who seemed to be the human version of ravens.  Now this man who dressed and behaved like a wolf. The big hunter did not like these omens at all.  It was seldom coincidence when more than one even happened like this. 

Thankfully, the village came into view as his arms were beginning to burn from the strain.  Though he would have taken a break, he did not want to appear weak in front of the young healer.  The fight hat taken some energy out of him and having to carry a man across forest floor was not an easy task. 

The sudden appearance of the young lad made Arn hold the man almost protectively.  His suspicions grew as the young man appeared to recognize the man wolf in his arms.  [color=0054a6]“Have you seen this person before lad?”[/color]  Arn asked in a gruff voice. Both from the strain of carrying said man wolf and because he was a bit annoyed that perhaps the arrow that had cause the wound could be this lads.