Dangerous Detour

""Now ... from the looks of it, there is a certain reason why we were brought here. Who are you and what is this reason?", I ask composed. This composure is feigned, though. Innerly, I'm very tense and insecure. What if we're getting executed for a crime we haven't commited, or because of racist attitudes? "Call me Sir Bennet. You don't have to tell me your names, if you don't wish to do so. And yes, indeed, there is a reason. You know, I have foreseen your appearance", the old man answers. A simple "What" is my only commentary to that."

- Actual dialogue from the story, translated from German.

This is an original story which was called 'Wolf and Dragon' at first, written by Jaryl, set in the Fantasy-genre. Due to being in the works since over five years, it has seen many changes and restarts, and is now currently at Chapter 9. Sadly, there is no English version yet, it's all in German. (Although you can put an emphasis on "yet", since a translator is already "under contract") Needs More Love.

The story is about an anthropomorphic, 20-year-old wolfman called Jaryl Garen, who lives on a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, currently experiencing medieval times. Though most of the other people aren't very kind to him because of his red eye color, he ignores this with utter indifference. He's wandering across the lands, traveling to a curiosity-collector in another town in order to sell a weird plate he has found. This is one of the first steps he unwittingly takes to change his life ...

This story is meant to make several allusions and stabs at the usual RPG and fantasy tropes, and with Jaryl being the Main Character and Narrator, the reader gets several insights about his thoughts and opinions, hanging a lampshade or two sometimes.

The author has took it down from dA and FA, but he has opened up a specific blog for him to post new chapters periodically. You can find it here:

Caution, Spoilers up ahead!!

'''Has a Character Page! Everything character-specific should be added there!'''


 * Alliteration: Since the story's now renamed from the rather childish sounding "Wolf and Dragon", it's this.
 * All of the Other Reindeer / What the Hell, Townspeople?: The population of Jaryl's original home falls under this because of some silly superstitions concerning Jaryl's red eyes.
 * Ancient Conspiracy: "Ancient" ... not so much, but there's definitely a Conspiracy going on.
 * Animesque: There are some influences, but nothing overwhelming.
 * Author Avatar: Well guess who...
 * Darker and Edgier: Contrary to what most people may assume whenever they see anthropomorphic animals, this story is not really a funny one, though it's not overly exaggerated. The characters rarely make any jokes, death is not played down (well, maybe with the monsters, but everywhere else...), and the main character suffers from Adult Fear and is quite far toward the cynicism end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: Jin.
 * Foreshadowing: Chapter 1 seems to do this, right at the beginning.
 * Frothy Mugs of Water: Averted!
 * Money Spider: Briefly referenced.
 * Mood Whiplash: Chapter 9!! Basically, it's about Jaryl and Jin getting to and destroying the second seal,
 * Never Say "Die": Gloriously averted. Words like 'die', 'kill' and more are used pretty liberally.
 * Non-Lethal KO: Jaryl inflicts this on a bunch of robbers in the rewritten Chapter 1.
 * Not My Lucky Day: While not being as severe as most examples on that page,
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Here, they wear pants and move and act totally human-like. Well, at least one of them is shown to do so, though it's implied that dragons have a human-like society on Jaryl's homeworld too.
 * Paranoia Fuel: Invokes this to Jaryl with an In-Universe example,
 * Petting Zoo People: The whole population of the world Jaryl comes from.
 * Power Crystal: Well, to an extent: Jaryl and Jin are encouraged by Bennet to collect special red jewels as they travel around, since he told them that they would unleash some kind of magical power if six of them would be collected and used. So far, they have three of them at the end of Chapter 9, and the only power those jewels have shown so far is glowing in a bright red light. At least this helped them see anything in the dungeon this power was revealed.
 * Shout-Out: Chapter 6's dungeon reads like it could be directly from one of the older 2D The Legend of Zelda games, while Chapter 9's one seems to be built up like those in RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei and Etrian Odyssey, while the Implacable Man-like monster stalking the Main Characters there seems to have taken its inspiration from games like Metroid Fusion.