"Lord Viren! Uh, King Harrow hasn't risen yet!" Said one of the two guards that protected the double doors to the bedroom to the King of Katalis, who promptly was ignored by a slightly older man wearing elaborate black, grey, and red robes with gold accents, who shoved the doors between them open, one of his hands still holding a elaborate white cane with a purple gem embedded in its head. Neither of the guards attempted to stop the mage as he continued onward without stopping or slowing to say a word to them, and they simply decided to let him do as he wanted, seeing as he was the most trusted advisor of the king. After barging into the royal chambers of the king, Viren immediately caught sight of the form of King Harrow, sound asleep under the covers of his bed, as well as the King's pet bird, Pip, in a similar state of consciousness on top of its stand. He didn't go straight to the sleeping king's bed, instead going to the windows to pull away the curtains, causing sunlight to flood into the room, awakening Pip, who let out a short song as he was awoken. Harrow grumbled as both the light of the morning sun and the sound of his pets singing forced him to also awaken. He flinched somewhat the the bright light of the sun coming through his window, before he began to speak, shifting to a more comfortable sitting position on his bed, "Viren, didn't I tell you if you ever woke me up this early again, I'd have you executed?", a joking smile forming at the end.
Viren was caught off guard by the joke and could only give an uncomfortable cough before briefly looking away and returning the smile to his friend. "I'll, uh, give you a moment" Viren said before walking out of the room through the glass doors that let to a walk way that had an excellent view of the both castle courtyard and the surrounding area of the castle. He walked to the very end of the walkway and waited for Harrow to follow after him, watching as the morning sun slowly began to rise higher into the sky and the castle began to come to life, servants and guards began to mill around doing their various tasks. He didn't have to wait long though, as King Harrow soon came out to join him, dressed in a red and gold patterned tunic, Pip resting on his arm.
"So what's so important that you'd come into my bedroom risking your life like this?" Harrow said, petting Pip as he approached he most trusted advisor, the smile still on his face. "Assassins." Viren said, taking a deep before looking at Harrow as he moved Pip off of his forearm and onto the bird's stand, responding to Viren with a simple "I see.". Harrow then fed Pip a single piece of food, which it eagerly took and swallowed down as the mage elaborated, "A scout on patrol discovered them just before dawn.". "Well don't look so down, we've fought off plenty of assassins! Haven't we Pip?" Harrow said before going to scratch the side of his pet bird, clearly unfazed by the prospect of hired killers coming for him once more. Viren, unfortunately, didn't seem to share the stance that his king did when he spoke next, "It's different this time, we believe them to be Moonshadow Elves.".
"Moonshadow Elves?" Harrow questioned, his tone losing his earlier humor completely as his brows furrowed in confusion before widening, "Then how did the scout escape?". "I don't know, it was muddy, wet, dark… somehow he got very lucky." Viren said with an undertone of confusion as well, he hadn't asked the scout how he managed to escape before rushing over to inform Harrow of the situation, he had to make it a point to ask about that if he had the time later on. "The crown guard won't be enough to hold them back..." Harrow said, contemplating about what their options were as he fed Pip another small treat before straightening as he spoke again, "Send for General Amaya and the standing Battalion!". "The Breach is too far, they'll never make it back in time." Viren countered, shooting down Harrow's plan of reinforcing the guard with more troops with the critical flaw.
"What's tonight moon?" Harrow asked, dawning on him to ask about what very well be the most important part of the fight to come, only to get a single worded answer from Viren, "Full.". Harrow had to give a dark chuckle as he gave a "Of course it is.", realizing that was probably planned by the Elven assassins to be like that, as they would've wanted the highest chances to kill the him as possible. "With the Moonshadow elves at the height of their power, no defense will stand against them." Viren said ominously as he looked back at his best friend and king, who had his head down in thought. "Then we won't defend, we will attack!" Harrow said, realizing what was their best course of action after a moment of thought, continuing as the two both looked over the walls of the castle into the forest below, "We must find them today, in the light of the son and stop them before it's too late!".
A moment of silence formed between the two of them, each contemplating their own ideas as to how they were going to find and face this dire threat, the only sound between the two being a short song from Pip as he sensed the tension, but that changed when the dark magic mage remembered something, "If I may, didn't that Witcher you hired to clear out the monsters by the river say he should return before midday today?". Harrow narrowed his eyes as he thought on it for a few seconds, "Yes, Callum, I think his name was, said that he doubted it would take him longer than a day to kill whatever monsters that were haunting the river.", his narrowed eyes traveled over to land on Viren as it quickly clicked what he was suggesting, "You think he would assist us?". "Not immediately, and certainly not without payment. Their kind do so value their neutrality after all, but if he's still hesitant, even with the promise of coin, I think I may have something that will convince him to lend us his skills, something that will be sorely needed." Viren confirmed what Harrow thought he was suggesting causing the king to consider the matter seriously, but he still had his doubts, "I don't know Viren, Witchers aren't exactly known for taken an interest in the conflicts of kingdoms, plus… I'm not comfortable having someone as young as him fight in our battles.".
Viren tightened his jaw as he looked briefly looked away down at the courtyard, watching once more as the various servants of the castle continued to their jobs, completely unaware of the coming threat, "True, though we're not exactly in the position to not at least see if he is willing, and despite his age, he is still a Witcher, one who we hired already to clear out a den of monsters. Death would be nothing new to him.". Harrow merely grunted, clearly not exactly enthused by the idea of hiring the inhuman monster hunter, but accepting that he may not have a choice in the matter if he wanted to live long enough to see the sun rise the next day. He didn't speak for awhile after that, something that Viren took as a sign that he was at least considering it, which caused him to let out a small breath of relief. If they could convince the Witcher to join their forces, and Viren was certain that he had something to do the trick, it would drastically increase their chances.
"I'll… make sure to ask him if he does make it back in time, but for now, make plans to find the Moonshadow elves as if he already said no to the offer." Harrow said without looking at his advisor, his eyes looking beyond the walls of the castle toward the nearby river. Despite him knowing that Harrow wasn't looking at him, Viren gave a respectful bow of his head to his king before turning around and walking away, briefly stopping at the doors that led back into the king's bedroom to look back to see that Harrow still hadn't looked away from the river. Viren let out a sigh, whenever Witcher's were brought up, Harrow had a habit of getting deeply lost in his thoughts and being almost impossible for him to get out until they had finished whatever path it had started on. So despite the urge to try and break his friend free from whatever thoughts that held him hostage, Viren knew that it would be both faster and easier to just let them run its course, and he had a lot to do with very little time. So he turned back around and walked back into the castle to prepare for what was comin, leaving Harrow alone as his thoughts drifted closer and closer to the Witcher that had just been the subject of conversation.
When humans had been exiled from Xadia by the elves, they had quickly found that the Western half of the continent was nothing like the East. It was every bit as wild and untamed as it was harsh and unforgiving, but that was to be expected. Besides the few settlements elves had made here and there for the purposes of being more connected to magical sources, most had never had interest in pushing very far into the western half of the continent, the reason being that it was simply too dangerous. For some reason or another, the magic that was connected to the land behaved strangely in comparison to that of the East, it was wild, unpredictable, and impossible to control, and the wild life clearly shown the effects. Creatures that could only be described as monsters roamed the untamed parts of the continent of various shapes and sizes, some were as small as a child, others just a head taller than a fully grown man, a few being able to grow as large as entire castles, one thing most had in common though was that they were extremely hostile toward the likes of humans.
One by one, human settlement after settlement had been overwhelmed and destroyed by monsters that they simply didn't know how to fight against, as creatures such as these were kept back under the protection of dragons for most of history. Now though, the dragons had retreated beyond the border, leaving the humans at the mercy of the monsters, which continued to slaughter them for decades. At one point, not even half a century had passed since they had been removed from Xadia, the threat of these monsters had been so great on humans that several groups had risked their life and returned to the border to beg the elves to let them return or the dragons to save them. They all had been refused, but not all had the luck to return unscathed or even at all.
So it had continued for another human lifetime. Entire settlements disappearing one night, never to be heard of again. Soldiers sent out in droves toward their deaths to scare off a beast that had attacked their homes while their loved ones attempted to escape into the woods, only to be hunted down by scavengers that had followed the bigger one for an easy meal. Each day, hundreds of humans died at the hands of the various attack monsters, some even becoming new forms of monsters themselves when coming in contact with random bursts of wild magic. Finally, only a handful of human villages and castles remained, having the fortune to have a strong enough garrison or a black magic mage that had the ability to actual drive off monsters, all the while the elves and the dragons sat in safety on the other side of the border, neither raising hand or finger to help.
Many had considered the end of the human race to be nigh, as only a few hundred of once had been thousands had remained, and desperation soon set in. In a desperate last ditch attempt at stopping the extinction of their race, the remaining dark magic mages had joined in a naturally secluded mountain range. It was there that the first Witchers were born. Using the power of Dark Magic, the mages had found a way to fundamentally changed the bodies of many of the orphaned children, making them many times stronger, faster, and smarter than a human ever could be, as well as many other benefits that would later be discovered down the line. However, the process to change the children was a brutal one, as those who were subjected to what would later become the Witcher Trails suffered from horrible fevers, non stop vomiting, and terrible hemorrhaging, and by the end of it, most of the children had died horrible deaths in absolute agony.
The general public ignored this though, as when the children that had survived the mutations had returned several years later, having undergone brutal training and intense studies on all of the monsters that had hunted humanity, there was a new weapon that was soon released to hunt down their prey. The newly named Witchers had done their work well, and soon, swarms of monsters were either slaughtered or driven back into the wilds. Finally, after a century of constant fear and suffering, humanity now had a chance to recover and expand once more after facing near extinction. Kingdoms had once again began to form out of the surviving settlements that had managed to survive until the birth of the Witcher, each one focused on rebuilding and survival rather than conquest, so they're had been peace for a time under the protection of the Witchers.
Tensions soon began to grow, however, as a century went by in the blink of an eye and without the constant threat of the monsters to force the kingdoms to work together, along with clashing interests, war soon began to break out. Of course, each of the Kingdoms had tried to wrangle the Witchers underneath their domain in an effort to have a overwhelming advantage against their enemies by having what were essentially human made monsters on the front line, as well as threatening them by not allowing the monster hunters to do their work for their opponents. The Witchers, however, resisted every attempt that was made to get control of them. Their numbers were made up of individuals from every kingdom, so they didn't get the point of the conflicts that would tear their ranks apart, and besides, their job was to hunt monsters and they weren't even considered human anymore, why should they fight for the human kingdoms? The newly established "Witcher Neutrality" had caused some friction between the human governments and the Witchers, it wasn't enough to spread all the way down to the common folk, but it still caused bad blood amongst the higher ups that were no longer fans of the influence Witchers had.
Overtime, more and more incidents occurred that only continued to sour relationships between humanity and what was supposed to be their protectors. During times in which monsters were no longer as big a threat, parents, understandably not exactly thrilled at the prospect of sending their child away to live a long brutal life with the almost inevitability for a horrible death, had began to stop sending children to the Witcher schools. Due to this and their mutations rendering them unable to reproduce, Witcher numbers slowly began to dwindle as fewer and fewer children both came in to train and survived the trials, and more and more of them continued to die during hunts that had gone wrong. It had gotten to the point that the Witchers were forced into doing something drastic and had introduced the infamous "Law of Surprise", in which when a Witcher saves the life of a human and that the human can not pay them back in coin, they must pay the Witcher the first thing they lay eyes on when they return home, including their children. Outrage at this law quickly erupted across all of the human kingdoms, riots against the Witchers commenced in vast numbers, some turning violent and taking the lives of both humans and Witchers alike, but in the end, the law remained, as the only alternatives were to let the monsters come down on their homes like a plague without anything to stop it or to face an angry Witcher that was demanding their payment.
From there, the Witchers began to slowly fall from grace as humanity began to shift their stance on them. Their inhumanity that had once been something that had neither been good or bad was quickly turned negative as more and more people began to ask why the Witchers should fight for them when they were more freaks of nature than the monsters that they fought. Their numbers still began to plummet despite the "Law of Surprise", as the law only gave the Witcher a child half of the time, the rest of the time giving them only a tool of some sort or something completely useless, and the parents that had been willing to give them one of their children quickly began to change their minds. In order to make up for the shrinking numbers and the rising distrust in Witchers, the kingdoms had begun to employ their own, state sanctioned monster hunters or simply using the Kingdom's own armed forces depending on how dire the monster that needed slaying was. The results of which… varied to say the least, and hiring a Witcher still remained the most reliable way to get a monster killed.
Many though, always proved hesitant to hire them. Whether it was because money issues, prejudice against those that were no longer human, or either they or someone they were closed to had some kind of personal grudge against them, they would always wait to hire the Witcher until they had no other option left. King Harrow fell somewhat into the last category. He personally had no problem with Witchers as a whole, and he had even employed more than a few when he was younger without a single issue ever arising from the deals. Things had begun to change though after he had married his late wife, Sarai.
He didn't know the full story, just that Sarai had once had a son that she had risen by herself after her original husband had died from an attack done by some unknown monster, and despite living on their own, besides the occasional visit from her sister Amaya, they had lived happily. Then one day, Sarai had been attacked during a rainy night on her way home by a monster. The attack had been a brutal one, the monster almost instantly killing her horse and pinned her to do the same, but just in the nick of time, a passing Witcher had come to her rescue and despatched the monster quickly. In exchange for saving her life and killing the monster, the Witcher had asked for payment, something Sarai, herself being a high ranking officer, would normally have no problem with, but her son had recently gotten sick and she had spent a fortune on medicine to bring him back to health, so she had been unable to pay the Witcher at the time. So the Witcher had invoked the Law of Surprise, and Sarai, unaware of the true nature of the law, had brought him home with her after a brief and detailed explanation of what it was, expecting to give him some food or a spare sword that she had laying around. What she hadn't expected was to open the door to immediately lay eyes on her son, who had raced down to greet his mother.
What Harrow was able to gleam from his sobbing wife was that she had tried to fight the Witcher off, to prevent her son from being taken away from her, only for her to blink and they were gone with the door wide open to the stormy night. During these nights where the issue arose, usually when someone would ask when they would give the kingdom an heir and cause Sarai's mind to drift to her own missing son, Harrow had never pushed for details, only wishing to comfort his distraught wife. It was through her that Harrow's own discomfort with Witchers began to form, beginning simply as him not hiring them anymore upon noticing Sarai's discomfort around them. It only further developed as he saw that his wife never got over the loss of her son, even after the birth of Ezran, any mention of what happened that cursed night would bring her to tears. It was something that absolutely disturbed Harrow to see that the woman that he loved so much and was so much stronger than him in so many ways, brought down to her knees so easily, and the images of those nights he would spend hugging her as she cried into his shoulder haunted his nightmares just as much as her death did.
Harrow finally looked away from the river finally to look up into the morning sky, where he wondered if Sarai was looking down at him. He also wondered what she thought of what he was doing and what he had done. He completely doubted she would have agreed with him on allowing Viren to go through with his plan to kill Thunder, and maybe she would've been right, now he apparently had to deal with the Moonshadow Elves that laid hidden somewhere in the forests. Seemingly sensing the direction of his masters thoughts, Pip let out a short song of chirps, which snapped Harrow out of his trance. Harrow looked down at his pet bird with a tired smile before running a hand it down Pip's feathery back, causing the bird to let a pleased chirp. The smile was replaced by a frown not even a few seconds later as his eyes drifted back to the river just as his thoughts returned to the source of his latest discomfort.
Several weeks back, a large group of drowners had been gathering around the river for some unknown reason, harassing more than one unfortunate merchant or armored patrol that had passed through the area. Fortunately, no one had been killed despite a few injuries here and there, but Harrow had not immediately taken the simply solution of hiring a Witcher to find and destroy whatever nests the monsters had. Instead, he had sent the crown guard on numerous expeditions to see if they could find their holdout, but despite each of the knights that protected him being capable warriors within their own right, none of them were highly skilled in the art of tracking monsters. There were several incidents as well throughout each of the expeditions where the drowners would ambush the knights when their guard was down, and while drowners weren't exactly the most dangerous species of monsters, repetitive attacks wore down the elite guard. Finally, Harrow had felt his hand being forced when Soren, the son of his best friend and someone that was practically his nephew, had nearly been killed when a lucky drowner had pulled him into the river, only just barely being saved when a nearby member of his squad managed to kill the drowner and get him out in time.
A little over a week after the contract was sent out, a Witcher had arrived at the castle gates asking to take up the job. Harrow had been… hesitant to hire him still, but not just because of him being a Witcher, there was also the fact that he had what was essentially a kid coming up to him saying he'll kill the monsters that his elite squad of knights have failed to. At first glance, Harrow had doubted the boy in front of him that could've only been a few years older than his own son was even a Witcher, but one look into the pair of cat eyes that stared at him dispelled all doubt. After Callum had departed to complete his job after a short period of preparation that lasted about two days, Harrow had brought this up to Viren at random during conversation, who had explained that due to the decreasing numbers of Witchers, which was currently at an all time low, it had become increasingly common that young Witchers had to finish their training early due to a variety of reasons. Either their mentors had died during a mission, they had proved exceptionally skilled, etc, it still wasn't commonplace, but it wasn't exactly rare anymore either.
There was another source of discomfort around Callum that extended beyond that of his age or status of being a Witcher. Whenever Harrow looked at Callum, the king would get this odd sense of… familiarity, and he could never quite place where it came from. Everytime the king felt he was getting close to figuring it out, one look at the telltale eyes of a Witcher would ruin any progress he had made and he'd be back at square one. It left him feeling mildly disturbed and frustrated whenever he was around the young Witcher.
Harrow let out a sigh to let out some of his frustration as his thoughts only continued to swirl around and around to only return back to the young Witcher. He briefly looked back up to the sky, wondering about the fate of his wife's missing son that was taken to her, wondering if he had died during some grueling part of the Witcher training or the trails and was now reunited with his mother or if, by some miracle, he had survived and became a Witcher himself. Honestly, Harrow didn't know which of the options he would choose if he was able to. On one hand, he would've preferred if a child didn't have to die such a horrible death, but on the… he didn't know what Sarai would of thought to see her son become the very thing that took him away from her.
Pip let another chirp before the bird flew up to land on Harrow's shoulder, causing the king to jump in surprise as Pip began to press his head against his cheeks, clearly trying to distract Harrow from whatever so clearly distressed him. Harrow let out a chuckle at the actions of the bird, raising a hand to scratch the bird's head. "I'm fine Pip, just got a bit lost in some thoughts." Harrow said with a tired undertone as he continued to pet the bird, which let out a series of pleased noises as it enjoyed the attention. A fond smile donned Harrow's features as he made a glance at the sun to see how long he had been there, finding it had only rien a small amount more than it was when he had first come out, meaning the longest he could of been there was about half an hour.
Deciding that he had spent enough time with his thoughts, Harrow turned around as he kept scratching Pip on his shoulder, and began to follow after Viren. But not before sparing another glance toward the river and the sky, each causing his thoughts to briefly return to both the Witcher, Callum, and his wife Sarai respectively, with the thought of the step son that he never got to know coming up in the middle. He managed to shake the thoughts out of his head before he got lost within them once more however. He had already spent enough time thinking on such things today, and it was not the kind of day in which he could afford to waste more time than he could afford. So Harrow headed off back into the castle walls to go find Viren so they could both properly prepare to deal with both sets of guests that would be coming later today, one only slightly less wanted than the other.
In the castle Courtyard
In between two of the bushes that decorated the courtyard of the castle, a metal grate was moved out of its position of the vents. Out of the vent came out a ten year old boy with a huge grin plastered onto his face as quickly popped out of the vent, quickly moving the grate back into position with one hand as the other one held onto a collection of triangular pastries. Once that grate was safely back into its designated spot, the boy quickly peeked outside of the bushes to see if anybody was around before he bolted out of the bushes toward a nearby corridor. The smile never leaving his face while he grabbed one of the pastries that he held before bringing it to his face and bit into it, letting out a moan as his taste buds came in contact with the delicious treat.
The boy was Prince Ezran, the current heir and future king to all of Katalis. He had an completely untamed afro that clashed in nature with his elegant gold accented red shirt with a brown belt with a gold buckle that was overlaid on top of it, and had a set of dark brown trousers that were tucked into a pair of grey and brown boots. Right now, he was supposed to be in his room studying for his future as king of the largest human kingdom, but instead he decided to carry out one of his infamous "Jelly Tart Heists", in which he would sneak through the vents and secret passages of the castle in order to get to the kitchen and steal some of the freshly made pastries. Now, he could simply just order the treats to his room to study and avoid getting in some trouble with the castle chief, but where would be the fun in that?
Ezran rounded the corner of the corridor quickly, his goal being another vent that was placed about halfway through that was usually unwatched, the only thing protecting it was just a wood and metal grate and the occasional barrel that could be pushed out of the way with ease. What he wasn't expecting was to immediately ram straight into the lower half of someone who had been coming out of the corridor. Ezran let out an "Oof" as he fell onto his butt, the jelly tarts that he had stolen falling onto the ground around him. The royal groaned in minor pain as he ran a hand over his now sore butt, his mind currently attempting to make sense of whatever had just happened. "Uh, Are you ok?" an unfamiliar voice said, catching Ezran's attention and causing him to look up in surprise, which only grew when he looked up to see that he had just bumped into a strange boy that looked to be roughly five years older than him, hand extended at Ezran, ready to help him back onto his feet.
The first thing about the boy that immediately stuck out to Ezran was his eyes, as the boy in front of him had a pair of yellow cat eyes rather a pair that a normal human would have, which was rather unsettling for the young prince to have stare down at him. Along with the unusual eyes, there was something else off about the boy, that which being he had two or three light scars on that stood out against the tanned white skin of his face, one going over his left cat eye. On his back, Ezran could see that he carried two different swords in their sheaths over a black hooded cloak, though the hood was down so Ezran could properly see his short brown hair that just reached his neck on the back while front was kept fairly short, most likely to keep it out of his eyes. The cloak blocked most of what the boy was wearing from view, but from what Ezran could see, he had a dark blue jacket on top of a purple over shirt, the jacket closed near the bottom so that whatever was underneath it was blocked from view. He also had a pair of tight black trousers that were tucked into dark brown boots, with each aspect of his clothing looking like it had some sort of armor underneath it or built in. Ezran also noticed that there was a small but rather noticeable bulge at the hip area of the boy, but he wasn't able to see what was underneath it.
"Yeah, uh, I'm fine." Ezran said as he shook his head once he had managed to get through the initial shock of seeing such a bizarre boy standing over him, taking the offered hand, "Sorry about bumping into you.". The boy brushed off the prince's apology as he pulled Ezran off of the ground, "It's fine, I'm not in a rush and I didn't drop anything, the same can't really be said about you though, can it?" He said after after Ezran finished getting back onto his feet and let go off his hand to brush off his trousers before using the same hand to help the prince up to point at the the pile of jelly tarts that were dropped just a second ago.
Ezran's eyes went wide as his body went stiff when he realized that he dropped his precious freshly made jelly tarts onto the ground when he had fallen. Less than a second later, he dived back onto the rough stone floor to quickly gather up the jelly tarts in his arms before they could further spoil. So desperate was his hurry to save the delicious treats from the dangers of the ground that he had shoved one of the jelly tarts in his mouth when he was beginning to have difficulty holding all of them, scarfing it down rather than saving the taste of the treat. He had even forgotten about the strange boy that he had just bumped into to cause his precious jelly tarts to be at risk, who had ended up watching Ezran's small crisis with equal parts amusement and confusion as to what to do.
Eventually, he elder boy knelt down to grab that last of the jelly tarts that were still on the ground with his right hand, his left grabbing onto the rim of his cloak to keep whatever was under it concealed. Ezran didn't know wether or not he was going to take a bite out of the stole treat or if he was going to simply give it back to him, but whatever he was aiming to do, he suddenly found himself unable to do so when a long slimy tongue shot out of nowhere and snatched the jelly tart right out of his hand. The boy blinked his yellow cat eyes as Ezran did with his blue ones in surprise as they stared at the suddenly empty hand before they both simultaneously snapped their heads in the direction of where the tongue had came from. Ezran's face busted out into a wide smile as the prince's pet Glow Toad bounced repeatedly toward him before jumping onto his shoulder, which caused the boy to furrowed his brow in moderate confusion as he stared at the Glow Toad.
Which only continued to grow when a second later, the Royal Chef bounded around a nearby corner in the direction that Bait had coming through, panting hard after running after the pet for so long. "Prince Ezran! There you are you little thief!" The chef yelled angrily as he approached the two boys after a moment of catching his breath, causing Ezran's smile to turn into a more nervous one and the cat eyed boy to widen them slightly in realization as to what was going on. A small amused smirked quickly formed as he stood back up and crossed his arms, seemingly content with just watching the events that were about to unfold with clear amusement as to what was about to happen. Ezran didn't notice this however, as he was a little preoccupied with putting on a fake innocent smile on his own face a s the chef continued to approach them. "Thief? Don't you think that's a little harsh?" Ezran said, the all too innocent smile stretching across his face as he got back onto both feet while holding onto the remaining jelly tarts in his arms, noticing the boy back up a bit to lean against the nearby wall and stay out of the way of what was about to play out before him.
"Well what else am I supposed to call someone who steals something that doesn't belong to them?" came the quick response from the currently fuming chef, voice laced with anger and frustration at not only having his freshly made jelly tarts stolen right in front of him but also to spend the better part of the last half hour chasing around the elusive little monster that was Bait. "To be fair, most of those were probably going to go to me and Bait anyway, sooo, it's more like I just took what belonged to me earlier than expected." Ezran said as the chef got closer, the fake innocence that laced his voice only proving to further frustrate the royal food maker. "That maybe true, but that still doesn't mean that you're allowed to break into my kitchen and steal the food that I made for people that aren't you." the chef all but growled out when he had finally approached enough where that the young prince and the pet glow toad on the heir's shoulder was just out of arm's reach of him. Ezran, however, was unaffected by the decreased in the distance between him and and a very angry adult that was twice his size, keeping both his innocent smile and tone as he spoke next, "Well, you work for my dad and my dad owns the castle, including the kitchen, so technically speaking, its my kitchen more than it is yours.".
That certainly didn't help matters as the chef's face turned a deep red color, and he made a move toward Ezran, intent on dragging the prince to his father so the king could give a proper punishment. Before he could take more than a step toward the prince, an arm shot out from the side and blocked him off from the young prince, who had taken a nervous step back as he realized he had taken it a bit too far as Bait just continued to perpetually scowl at the angry chef. The adult man was quickly caught off guard though when he looked to see who was the owner of the arm that dared to block his way when he was so rightfully angry, only to find a pair of cat eyes staring back into him. Evidently, the strange boy that had just been content with just watching had decided that he should step in before it would escalate, though he still was amused by the whole situation, shown by how the amused smirk had yet to leave his face.
"Sorry about interrupting this, but how about you just let him off with a warning this time?" The boy said with a strange mix of stoicism and amusement, snapping the chef out of his momentary shock and causing his anger to return, this time also directed at the boy he recognized as a witcher. "This time?! This is the fifteenth time I've managed to catch him in the act alone, and I've lost count of the times jelly tarts I just made have 'mysteriously' disappeared when I look away! I've had enough of this and it's time his father finally did something to stop this!" The chef growled surprisingly unfazed on having a witcher stopping him in his tracks, he tried once more to move towards the young prince, but was blocked once more by the surprisingly strong arm of the young witcher. His words did cause the eyebrow of the monster hunter to raise in moderate interest, tilting his back to look at Ezran, who gave a nervous smile and was unable to keep eye contact for long. "Hm, well, that maybe true, but all the same, there's a couple of reasons why you should just let it slide for just one more time." The Witcher said once he returned to facing the seething chef, who then got up close to his still smirking face as he all but spat out, "Oh yeah? And would those be?".
"Well the first reason would be that you would be avoiding giving your future boss a grudge against you, and believe me I've dealt with plenty of those to know how they suck." The Witcher said with moderate amusement still in his voice, showing that he was unsurprisingly unaffected by the chef getting into his face, something that caused the latter's frustration to only grow. "The other being…" the Witcher began before briefly pausing, his hand that he wasn't holding the chef back rose in front of him before he did a series of small gestures with it that began to produce a dull white glow as well as white symbol of a hollow upside down triangle with the right leg just failing to meet the left at the bottom corner. "You still have a lot of work to do, including making an extra large batch of jelly tarts for everyone." The Witcher said, his tone attempting to be serious, but was laced with too much amusement to pull it off well, as he spoke, a white glow covered the chef's head causing him to visually calm down.
"Yeah, I...I have a lot of work to do...large batch of jelly tarts." The chef said, his words somewhat slurred as his voice suddenly heavy in drowsiness, sounding almost as if he had just woken up after a long sleep. He turned around slowly, his anger at Ezran for stealing the food he made suddenly forgotten as he began to walk away on unsteady feet that dragged across the ground, causing him to stumble at every other step forward. Once he rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, Ezran, who had been watching everything with wide eyes play out by looking out from behind the Witcher along with Bait on his shoulder, had finally decided to speak up again, "Wow, what did you do?". The Witcher look down at the head of wild hair that was peaked out from his side with his smirk never disappearing as he he turned back around to face the prince so he could speak face to face with him, "Nothing much, just a little Witcher trick to get him to calm down.". Ezran's eyes went wide as soon as he registered what had been said, before he gained a nervous smile, pressing the jelly tarts further against his chest as he took a step back, making it look like he was about to make a run for it as he spoke, now almost as nervous as when the chef was approaching him "Y-you're a Witcher?".
Throughout his entire life, Ezran had heard many things about witchers from the people around him. A few of them had painted the paid monster hunters as noble warriors that lived by a code, and slayed the monsters that threatened innocent villages, as long as someone was able to give them a proper amount of pay. Most, however, had depicted the Witchers as inhuman creatures that were little better than the monsters they hunted, and some even treating them just as bad, if not worse, than the elves. This boy, who had just helped him out of nowhere, didn't fit into any of the images that Ezran had created based off everything he had about the monster slayers, but he still couldn't help but be suddenly nervous around him. After all, one of the most common things he had heard about witchers were that they occasionally took away children away from their parents.
The young witcher didn't seem to to notice his sudden nervousness, though his cat eyes lingered on the prince's form a small bit after he had spoken. Instead, the smirk he had grew a small bit as he put his right hand on his hip before he spoke "Yep! Speaking of which… since I just helped you, it's only fair you pay me back somehow, right?". Despite his tone getting more mischievous the later in the sentence he got, Ezran got nervous at the mention at the mention of payment from the boy witcher, "Uh, what would you want? I don't really have anything important besides these, uh, jelly tarts?". The Witcher seemed to consider it for a second or two, before he made up his mind with a shrug and spoke again, "Tempting, especially since something kind of prevented me from trying them earlier.", he finished with sending a glare at the glow toad on Ezran's shoulder, who of course just scowled back. "But no, I have a better idea." The Witcher said before his smirk turned into an actual smile as he lifted his hand off of his hip and reached toward Ezran, causing the young prince to flinch on instinct, but to suddenly relax as the hand gently patted his head and ruffling his already wild hair.
"How about you try not to make that guy's life so difficult any more? You seem to give him a lot of trouble." The Witcher said before the smile turned mischievous as he pulled his hand back and closing it into a fist with his index finger extended and pressing it up against his lips, "Or at the very least make sure you don't get caught in the future. Save you and him some trouble.". Ezran blinked somewhat out of shock before a giggle erupted out of him that he wasn't able to stop. He had been afraid, albeit briefly, of this kid? "Sure, I can make sure of that at least." Ezran said through some giggles, making the smile of the young witcher seem to grow, though he could of been imaging that. The giggles eventually subsided, he smiled back at the slightly older boy with cat eyes before it suddenly occurred to him that he still had yet to get back to his room, where he should already be.
The human prince quickly looked around him to see if there was anyone other than the witcher was around before turning back to face the monster hunter, who had his eyebrow raised in question as to what he was doing. "I really should be going, but thanks for your help!" Ezran said gratefully before he tilted his head just enough to nudge the glow toad on his shoulder, "Come on, you have to say thanks too, Bait!". The creature instead gave a sort of grumbling growling sound rather than one that seemed to give any gratitude, but the Ezran seemed satisfied with it. The Witcher gave one more odd look at the glow toad before smiling again at the prince as he spoke next "It wasn't a problem, but remember my 'payment', otherwise you might have to give me one of those tasty look jelly tarts instead next time I save you from an angry chef.". The goodbye prompted one last laugh out of Ezran, but once it was over, he quickly ran off into the corridor that he had originally wanted to go through, Bait holding onto his shoulder as he did the same with the stolen jelly tarts.
The Witcher had a lingering smile as he watched the young prince disappear down into the corridor he had came through a few minutes before, though with his enhanced sight he could easily see the young boy stop about half way through to pull a grate out of the way before he slipped into what looked like a vent or secret passage. It was soon replaced though by a stoic expression as he turned around and looked at a nearby corner of a wall, the same one that the chef had both came around from and disappeared behind. "Are you going to come out now that he's gone or are you going to just stay there?" He called out as he crossed both of his arms across his chest, allowing a small bit of satisfaction when a sharp female gasp of surprise had erupted out from behind the corner. A few seconds later, a woman came around the corner slowly before to beginning to approach, allowing the witcher to briefly inspect her as she got closer.
She looked to be a year or two older than him, making her a couple of inches taller than him, but not by much. She had a set of long straight black hair that went down to be at her waist, where the tips of the hair were dyed to be be a violet color. She also had a light complexion, making the dark purple she had painted her fingernails to be stand out even more, but also meaning that she probably didn't get out to much or she mostly just stayed in the shade when she did. In terms of clothing she wore a mostly black collared robe with certain parts being a dark grey, gold accents separating the two colors with a black and brown belt that had a purple gem in the middle sitting around her waist. She also had a pair of black pants that were tucked into a pair of dark grey boots that completely covered her lower half along with a black satchel that had a blue feather tied to the sash and looked to be filled with various different items. Along with everything else, she had a bracelet on her left hand that made it look like a silver snake was wrapped around her wrist and a pair of earrings, but the pair of emerald eyes she had were definitely the brightest thing that she had, which were currently directed straight at him, narrowed slightly in an inquisitive manner.
"How did you know I was there?" She asked somewhat suspicious, causing the witcher to raise his eyebrow in a unimpressed manner. "One, when the chef went back around the corner, I heard you let out a small gasp when you had to jump out of the way, and two, you were trying to sneak up on a Witcher in boots on a stone walkway…" the young Witcher deadpanned, causing the slightly older girl to blush red in embarrassment and scratch the back of her head as she gave an uncomfortable chuckle, "I had, uh, forgotten that witchers were supposed to have some incredible sense of hearing…". "Since I answered yours, I suppose it's my turn to a ask a question: why were you hiding there?" The witcher asked in an emotionless voice causing the girl to jump slightly before she crossed her own arms to imitate the inhuman monster hunter before she spoke in a stern tone, both probably an attempt to intimidate, "If you must know, I had been minding my business when I saw a glow toad being chased by the chef, and I figured I should follow after to make sure Prince Ezran didn't get in trouble. Imagine my surprise when I instead found him talking to an armed witcher who has no business in the castle.". Despite her best efforts, the witcher was very obviously not affected by her, or her accusatory tone at the end, the only thing she managed to do was cause him to be mildly agitated.
"I actually do have business here, seeing as your king hired me to clear out a den of drowners that were nearby, which I did. Now I need to get paid." He said in a neutral tone before moved his left arm slightly to move the left half of the cloak just enough to reveal what was underneath it that was causing the bulge. The girl quickly gave up on the stern face she had and replaced it with a hard grimace at the truly ugly sight the teen witcher had hidden underneath his cloak. Attached at his hip was a severed head, one that vaguely resembled an old woman's, but anything more than a glance through a blindfold would quickly say the head clearly did not belong to a human. The head that once belonged to a monster the witcher had killed mostly had ugly blue fish like skin with patches of light brown here and there, but no matter what color or where it was, it was covered in a truly horrendous amounts of wrinkles and warts covering as much space as they could. In addition to the terrible condition of the skin, there was also the long and crooked set of yellow teeth that must of never been taken care of and long ugly grey hair that was tangled and just as uncared for as the teeth. When it had been alive, the creature must of had a pair of blank yellow eyes that gave off a yellow glow, in its death, however, one of the yellow eyes had gone dark as the eyelid was half way down while the other had a metal meat hook impaled through it, which was what supported the head against the witcher's hip.
"By the way, a Water Hag had claimed a cave just a bit further up the river as its lair, that was what caused all those drowners to group up." The witcher said as he put his arm back into its original position, letting the cloak fall back to cover the "Water Hag's" severed head, something the girl was clearly thankful for. "Oh, so you were the witcher my father had said had taken the contract." She said uneasily as she remembered the conversation from a few days ago that her father had indeed told her and her brother that King Harrow had hired a witcher. The witcher just shrugged at her apology however, "It's fine, guess I can't exactly blame you for being worried for your prince if he was talking to someone that was known to take children if they aren't paid properly. Honestly though, I'd probably be more worried about the state of your kingdom if your king couldn't afford to just pay one witcher.". Despite herself, the girl could stop a small laugh that came from the dry comment, though she still was a little green from the monster head the witcher had shown her,
An awkward silence fell between the two as the girl found herself not knowing what to say due to the embarrassment of her jumping to conclusions and accusing the the witcher of doing something wrong. Eventually though, the witcher decided to break the silence as he scratched the back of his head with a moderate amount of embarrassment, "Actually… it would be great if you could help me out a bit. I need to get to the throne room to speak with the King about him paying me and everything, but I kinda… forgot how to. So if you still want me gone, I'll leave a lot faster if you can tell me how to get there.". The witcher couldn't stop the sigh that came from him revealing the reason why he had been wandering around and had ended up bumping into Prince Ezran, starting the whole mess. In a similar situation, the girl couldn't stop herself from laughing at the embarrassment of the witcher, who could only weakly glare at her while she finished laughing.
After she finally stopped laughing a few seconds later, the girl wiped a tear out of the way from her eye before she gave her own sigh that gave way to a small smile. "I think that's something I can do, provided you behave yourself." The girl finally gave the witcher an answer, but also causing him to roll his eyes before he spoke with his voice laced with sarcasm, "Don't know if I can do that, it's totally not like your leading me to a large bag of gold with my name on it.". The girl smirked as she pridefully with her hands on her hips looking like she was about to turn around to lead him toward the throne room, but stopping herself just in time to give the witcher a genuine smile, "Before I forget, thanks for helping the Prince out when you didn't have to...uh," the girl began before stalling out as she attempted to remember the name her father had told her as she stared at the questioning pair of cat eyes that were directed at her "...Catum?". The Witcher could only give a hard deadpan stare at her that showed her thorough lack of amusement, not even caring how she had a rough approximation of his name, "It's Callum, actually, but good guess.".