Animal Trap

Animal Trap was a short story by M.C. (Mark) Sumner published in The Duelist #4. It was later re-published in the Tapestries anthology.

Kolli was a 14-year-old city girl who heard from Dason that the fur trapper Morl was hiring a thief, though he warned her the pay would be too low for most hires. Morl agreed to pay her if she could discover where the Keldon fur trapper Kalenth Ush was obtaining silver wolf hide from.

She found Kalenth Ush's home outside the city gates of Keldon and observed a few things:

• Sheep in pens
• Sheds that were extremely strong, locked from the outside with simple bars
• Some of the sheds were open and empty
• Rumors the next morning of travelers being killed by a giant wolf

She returned and told Morl that Kalenth Ush was raising silver wolves and that some had clearly escaped. He didn't buy her story but agreed to pay two additional silver coins along with her promised reward if she could tell him exactly what was inside the barns after seeing it herself.

She went back, opened a shed, and told a man trapped there that she would free him. Instead, Kalenth Ush ambushed her from behind and took her hostage. While captive, she observed a pile of money from sales and another pile of loot from the attacked travelers. She accused Kalenth Ush of using his silver wolves to steal from travelers. Then, he bit her and turned her into a lycanthrope.

In wolf form, Kolli went to tell Morl what she'd learned. He mistook her for an animal, but Kalenth Ush had followed her and killed Morl immediately. Kolli avenged Morl's death by killing Kalenth Ush, and then (in human form in the daylight) went to tell the story of how the two finest fur trappers had been killed and to return the stolen loot.