he heard the faintest rustle of leaves behind him and immediately swung around just as the foglet jumped at him claws flinging, with a mighty blow of his elegantly crafted silver sword he cleaved the small creature in two, finalising his contract. "hmm reward time" he maliciously thought to himself "this is always the best part" sheathing his sword had become such a dull event that he rarely ever did, brandishing his large blades where ever he went. but this time he had more important things to think about so he quickly sheathed his blade and made his way across the large grain fields that had been infested with foglets. "ugh, damn i hate foglets, I'm gonna get some nice loot for this, how on earth am i supposed to get it back to the cave? maybe ill demand a cart from ealdorman, that would help" he heard a grunt, stopping instantly he listened for footsteps, or breathing. nothing, maybe he was imagining it that does happen a lot so many times he had gone running in chase of a basilisk just to find a lowly snake. he continued through the field, using a small knife to cut the grain whenever he felt like it, usually he would use his sword and sweep across large portions and then blame it on the fighting, if I'm still there by the time they notice it. "i love being a witcher" he gloated to himself, gnarled grin spread across his face.
the walk wasn't very far, just a couple fields, and luckily the ealdorman's hut was the closest building on this side. walking in to the small wooden hut that still managed to look more pleasing than the other tiny huts of the village, maybe 5 or so huts, all circled around a well. the inside of the hut was cozy enough, it had a door at the far end that contained the bedrooms while the rest of the hut was occupied by a small fire for cooking, a two person table for eating, and two chairs pushed up against the right wall. along with a couple wall mounted candles, miraculously using other candles to hold themselves to the wall, interesting. the ealdorman was waiting for him at the small table, facing away from him, walking over to sit down the witcher noticed he was crying but he didn't care about his feelings, he needed payment. sitting down at the table, the old man looked up, grey hair falling loosely about his head, covered in wrinkles almost making him almost ghoul-like. quietly he spoke, "it is in the other room, but i want nobody to know of this so i have sent someone to fetch you a small cart, that shall be the 'reward' does that not sound to your liking?" the witcher sat emotionless thinking for many minutes not a word was said but at last the witcher spoke up "the cart is here" he looked the ealdorman in his eyes "bring it behind the house"
going into the other room he found two large cases "by the sound of the cart, i might have a hard time fitting this" but he stacked the smaller of the two cases and slowly dragged them to the other side of the room, to the back door. trying not to make a sound he opened the door and continued dragging the cases out the door, stopping just outside. he waited for the cart though only a few minutes passed before it came slowly rolling around the corner of the small hut. the ealdorman was leading a frail, malnourished horse pulling the cart. with him was a young man probably the one who delivered it, he helped the witcher load the cases into the cart, one was particularly heavy while the other felt like it had much lighter, loosely packed items. leading the cart away from the small village, he headed towards his cave it was a decent sized cave that a young forktail had inhabited, it wasn't much of a fight and there wasn't much litter around the cave, just bones the forktail must have stripped even the finest bits of flesh off his prey, there was almost none to rot and stink. a day and a half went into cleaning the cave of bones, strangely he didn't find any droppings, almost as if the forktail refused to shit in its home. all the better because it saved a lot of time for him, now his cave is well decorated with various trophies, rewards, random loot he's collected it was a great home, not that he lived there much, it was just kind of a hideout for all his stuff. the cave even had a couple tunnels leading into smaller dens, some other burrowing creature must have lived there and it must have been large because he could walk through the tunnels without having to stoop at all.
a couple days journey had him come to a large swamp so thick and disgusting that the main road turns and follows the edge of the mire, never straying too close. turning the opposite way and heading into the swamp he followed the small markings he had left in trees, unnoticeable by anyone other than himself, they led to his cave which could only be entered by walking around a large pool of murky filth. though he had found a small bridge across where the bed of the mirk lifted up and formed a bridge just under the water surface though the filth was too thick and dark to see where it was. but for a watcher this was child's play and so stopped at the edge of the muck and unloaded the luggage from the cart, strapping the cases to the horse, he led it across to the other side and across to a large boulder covered in moss leaning against a hill that rose above the swamp, allowing fresh green plants to grow. he lead the horse around the boulder to a small crack where the forktail had chipped away the rock to make an opening just big enough for itself which made the witcher have to stoop to enter. dragging the cases through the gap he walked down a small tunnel, which contained the most bones, and he came to the large room where most of his loot was kept, along one wall he had rows of swords and axes and various other weapons, there were mannequins covered in ancient armour, a large bonfire was lit in the centre of the room as a tunnel led directly to the surface, smaller than the other tunnels but made much the same so he assumed it was an escape tunnel made by the burrowers. he had completed a contract for a carpenter and had him come to the cave and make furniture as he couldn't fit any through the gap, now he has excellently carved tables, chairs, cupboards, and beds although they didn't get used much and were mainly for decoration. he emptied the lighter case upon the ground, spilling out its contents which consisted of clothes, jewellery, and a small doll. he collected the clothes and and folded them all and he lay them on a bed through one of the tunnels he had turned into a bedroom, arranging the jewellery on top and the doll on top of that he went back to the main room for the heavy case. he picked it up and carried to the bedroom, he sat it on a bed and opened the box. fixated on its contents he decided to quickly write a note, he had things to do.
once all was finished he had used an old pickaxe he had to carve a large chunk of rock out of a room he used for useless storage, he heaved and carried the boulder to the cave entrance, it took all his might but now he had something to block the door and stop intruders. he moved the boulder aside and moved into the opening, he then pulled the rock back to close it again, perfect. jumping on the horse he tried to a tree near the entrance, he galloped as fast as the weak horse could. he went through all the nearest towns buying fruit, bread, salted meats, cheese and feed for his horse. he stopped in a small town to let his horse eat and rest while he went and looked at the notice board. nothing interesting, someone wants to play gwent, looking for a lost doll, stolen cheese. "waste of time" he grunted and walked back to his horse and as he mounted someone came up and began hammering a parchment onto the board. he got down and went to investigate, the person was gone by the time he got there but it didn't matter, he read the notice."my wife is missing! someone please help me find my wife, i woke up this morning and she was gone, a hunter would be good, or someone who knows how to track" he grabbed the notice and went in the direction the person went who hung up the notice. he followed a fresh trail of footprints from the notice board, undoubtedly him. it led him to a small house near the edge of the village, walking in the man got up from a small table and turned around. " a witcher?" he stammered "are ye here to help me look for me wife? please kind sir I'm worried sick" the witch walked up to him and spoke "don't worry ill help you find you wife and i wont even charge you for it, i know what its like to lose a loved one" he broke eye contact and looked elsewhere, "first you'll need to tell me some things, like was she doing anything unusual?" "aye well, she has been coming home late at night with no explanation as to where she's been, her hair all messed up, clothes all tattered as if she's been attacked, yet not a scratch on her, last night though she didn't come back and I'm fearing the worst" the witcher looked him in the eyes, and calmly spoke "sounds like lycanthropy" the peasant looked at him confused "a what now sir?" the witcher didn't reply but instead began looking around the room for clues. "what are ye doing?" the man asked him, "looking for anything that might tell me what's happened, be quiet" and with that the man spoke not a word until the witcher had left. searching around the room he noticed hand marks on the windowsill near the bed, someone had climbed out the window, the hands were too small to be a mans so they must have been the mans wife. he leaned out the window and could see faint bare footprints leading away, he needed to follow them. he walked towards the door and without looking at the peasant he announced he had a lead and left the hut before he could respond.
following the trail he found himself in a peaceful wood, with birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind. as he walked further through the trees he found a cloth dress, dirty and torn, "must be his wife's" he murmured to himself "really does look like lycanthropy now" further onwards he found more clothing, this time her undergarments "huh, maybe she's trying to strip herself before she turns to keep her clothes intact, pretty common" not long down the trail he could hear a voice but not what it was saying so he continued walking, getting closer he could hear that the voice wasn't speaking but moaning, and it was a female's. "this is getting suspicious" he whispered. there was a clearing ahead and he could hear the moaning clearly, he stopped behind a tree on the edge of the clearing, facing towards him was a young woman, fully naked laying flat on her back with another young, naked woman on top of her face, the moaning was coming from her. he noticed her eyes were closed so he slowly started walking towards them, not making even the slightest noise he got just a few steps away when he stopped and looked down at them, her smooth, perfectly shaped breasts swaying gently as she rocked on the other woman's face. he cleared his throat and the women jumped up covering their nude bodies, the woman on the ground's face was covered in the other's love juices. "one of your husbands is looking for you" he spoke calmly. the women looked at each other the one standing up spoke first "please you cant tell him about this, he believes i love him but i just can't bring myself to enjoy him, my body only lusts for the supple body of a woman" the other woman stood up and began "just tell him she died, attacked by wolves or something, then just say you killed the wolves and avenged her." the witcher looked at both of them "what's it worth to you?" the and wife went to say something but was interrupted by the other woman "i'll give you what you want, i don't want her to have to go through it" she dropped her arms and walked over to a flat rock, sitting down she spread her legs wide "just be quick so you can leave" the witcher walked over to her and looked down at her young body inviting him with her smooth pussy. "the mans wife said nothing but stood there staring at the ground. the witcher leant over the woman and whispered to her "i'll do what i want to you, thats sure" and as he reached towards his trousers, the woman leaned back and gripped the rock, clenching her eyes shut. the witcher instead reach into pouch on his belt, where he kept a cloth he had soaked in a sleeping agent for people who wouldn't pay for contracts. holding it over the woman's mouth, her body went limp before she could react. he slowly stepped back and towards the other woman who was still looking at the ground. he stepped behind her and held the cloth to her mouth stifling her screams until she also went limp. he sat the women on the ground next to each other. "ill come back for you two" turning, he ran back towards the village.
arriving at the mans hut he slowly walked in and quietly spoke to the man "your wife, i found her in the woods, though she was not alive as she had been attacked by wolves. but this was after she had been making love to a woman from another village" the man sat dumbfounded, no words came from his mouth. "i need some bags to collect her remains so that necrophages don't attack your village. and then walking over he emptied two large sacks of cabbages and potatoes and walked out before the man could respond. he got on his horse and made his way back into the forest where the two women were still unconscious, he doubted that he could carry both women with him on his horse and it was too far a distance to make two trips, they'd get found by necrophages before then. "hmm, i wonder if i could convince someone in the village i killed a beast in the forest that would have attacked them. i would demand a cart to take these back to the cave" with that he turned and rode back to the village to the ealdorman's hut walking right up to him the witcher started "i just killed a leshen in the forest south of here, if it was still alive it would have attacked the village and it would have killed everyone" the ealdorman looked at him and slowly spoke back to him "i guess you want a reward? that is what you witcher's do after all. alright, what would you like?" the witcher thought for a bit then asked "would you happen to have a cart? i need to take the leshen's body to see if i cant find some weakness to make it easier to kill." the ealdorman sighed "so be it, go to the eastern most house in the village, take him this note, he'll give you a cart" a servant brought a parchment and quill and the old man wrote a quick note and handed it to the witcher "next time we must arrange something first" the witcher looked at him "next time i may not kill it and let it ravage the town" and with that he stormed out of the hut.
with a cart that was much better built than the previous, he rode back out to the woods and picked up the women and put them in the large bags and loaded them onto the cart. he rode back out towards his cave and by sunset he had returned to the boulder and pushed the small rock out of the way, he then awkwardly carried the bags in through the doorway, taking them both into the bedroom he took them out of the bag and noticed that the case from earlier in the day was empty. "i wish axii lasted longer, i really do" and stopping what he was doing he listened for any noise, he could hear breathing coming from the other room, walking through the tunnel he could hear that it was coming from another room, not the main room. stepping out of the tunnel he pinpointed the breathing to the storage room, where he kept most of his treasures and money. he could hear shuffling from in the tunnel so he began walking as quietly as he could not making a sound, he could see a young girl leaning into one of his chests rummaging through it, he recognised the box as his orens and florens, which he has yet to take to the Vivaldi bank to exchange them. the young girl looked to be in her teen years, the witcher recalled something the ealdorman said as he left to kill the foglets "16 winters, all for naught" he then had disregarded the comment but now it made sense to him. he cleared his throat and the young girl stood up and looked at him not speaking but glaring at him intently. "what are you doing?" the witcher asked without emotion, "what kind of coins are these? do you make fake coins? why am i here?" the witcher waited for a moment before replying "they are old coins of a nation that is now no more, i collect them not make them, and i will explain that soon, come the others will wake soon." the young girl stepped back "why? where? who? explain this all to me right now!" the witcher just waved his hand at her and calmly spoke "calm down, everything will be explained soon, follow me" the girl stopped for a moment then she relaxed and followed the witcher back into the main room.
end of part 1, if enough people get an interest in this i'll totally make more and even take suggestions. leave a review if you can, i need to know if people like it and if i should even bother with it.