Bit of a shorter one this time by about 1000 words, but sometimes that's just how it is.

Part Three:
>It's a new day, you're looking for a new cave, and (you)'re still the cranky immortal wizard, Hermitnon.
>Why a new cave?
>Well, there may have been some miscalculations
>Laughing it off when that Zebra almost fell in the moat
>Stealing Purple's grimoire to see if she had any interesting spells you could crib
>Total mixed bag there, for every cool ritual it's like she purposefully piled in a bunch of dumbass cantrips to make up for it
>Why does she even have a moustache growing spell, what the Hell is this mare doing in her spare time?
>Most costly by far though was scaring the piss out of, and pissing off Yellowquiet
>Apparently blasting her into next week with the sheer power of your Thu'um is one thing, but using those squirrels as incentive for your training program is the kind of thing she isn't going to let go
>It seems that has left her with a bone to pick with you
>And when one of that group has an issue, it spreads like a virus until they're all dealing with it
>So when you heard voices traipsing around your literal neck of the woods calling out for you, now seemed like the best time to relocate
>Way too many ponies were getting a good idea of where to track you down for your liking
>And it gives you the opportunity to tackle another aspect of your Timberwolf study that required a bit more hoofwork than lazing around the cave
>Today's subject:
>'What the Hell are these things even doing out here'
>It's been on your mind for some time now
>Timberwolves don't eat food, so they don't necessarily need hunting grounds
>But they absolutely have territory, and a fucking ton of it, as you discovered before when hunting down your initial subjects
>So, cloaked in a potent combination of a chameleon spell and a cantrip to neutralize your scent, you traipse through the Everfree to observe the various nests the Timberwolves have claimed
>After a few hours you've already found some interesting common traits to their dens
>First off, none of the assembled wolves were at a size where you could comfortably dub them as 'Timberpups'
>Which makes some sense, you really doubt they have any working organs made out of wood pulp and bark inside them
>Finding that shit out proved to be a huge ordeal
>You can't dissect them, they seem very reluctant to staying dead
>And staying still is a pretty important part to the organ identification process
>Either way that means these things aren't boning to make more of them
>Bit of a ramble there, focus
>Secondly, you may have missed out on a vital part of their 'diet'
>Every den you've uncovered so far has been in the vicinity of something magical
>A small pack haunting the blocked off entrance of the Mirror Pool
>Scratch marks on the boulder seemed to suggest they really wanted in
>Another bordering a swamp you didn't like the looks of
>Especially those flowers floating on the lilypads
>The biggest congregation seems to be near that old rotting castle, however
>The sheer amount of magic emanating from the ruins makes your teeth hurt
>And an odd sense of... longing
>Regret?
>You've never explored the castle - beyond some scraps of civilization fully devoured by time and nature, it's pretty much the only hint that Ponykind ever actually settled in the Everfree
>Making it pretty much the most obvious place ponies might go to look for people squatting in the Forest, aside from the Zebra
>And her one-in-a-million luck finding a perfectly hollowed out living tree to dwell in
>Still
>Even if the other nests don't set you on edge, there's still the matter of them resonating with magic
>Do they use magic to sustain themselves? Does the ambient mana perhaps make them duplicate?
>And if either of those aren't accurate, then what draws them to such areas in the first place?
>You start to wonder
>This forest, this 'unnatural aberration' is over a millennium old
>What if you weren't the first magic-obsessed hermit to squat in it?
>Shit, you're not even the only one doing that right now
>The Zebra may not be magical, but her alchemy is a damn good substitute for a bit of horn waving and incantations in a lot of cases
>Maybe... maybe these dens weren't the result of natural migration by the Timberwolves
>But a very deliberate placement
>To what end, though?
>You've stalked the breadth of the Everfree and you haven't found any other neighbors beyond the aforementioned zebra
>Living ones, at any rate
>Did whoever set up these sentinels get ran out of the forest?
>Or did time simply do what it does best and take them out?
>Heavy shit, Hermitnon
>But that's the sign of progress baby
>One venture opens up new avenues to explore and get more answers
>For now though you have a secondary objective to accomplish
>And after bullying some bats out of a nice, cozy den
>You got yourself a new cave to call home
>Just shuffle around the moss a bit, carve out a new moat outside for future Timberwolf subjects
>and it's like you never even moved out
>Now...
>It would probably cause more problems in the long run
>But it would be really funny to steal some of Purple's chairs so you could get some use out of that Furniture Animation spell
>And hey, you still have that chameleon spell going
>Time to go out on the town