When the Witcher opened his eyes, he no longer was greeted with the sigh of the storey surface of the cave, but the sight of a dark blue sky with the full moon slowly rising past the treelines of a forest.
He looked around to see that he was indeed no longer in the witch's cave, and was outside somewhere lying on the grass of unfamiliar terrain. He managed to pull himself to his feet and saw that he had everything on him, and looked around to see if perhaps the witch was about, but was not and probably back in the cave either dead or bleeding out.
"What happened?" He muttered to himself as looked around, trying to get a feel for the area.
The air smelt different, cleaner and much more crisp like that of a colder climate. The winds blew more on his coat, and the sounds of owls and scurring nocturnal animals hit his ears.
'Where am I' The Witcher asked himself.
Desiring to know where he was, the Witcher figured the only thing to do was stop asking himself questions, and begin searching for answers. Deciding to wander for now in the hope of finding civilisation, he chose a random direction and started walking.
As he struts through the woods, the Witcher began taking in the local flora. The trees matched nothing like those in Redania, and the wildflowers at his feet were much more vibrant and colourful.
'Am I even in Redania anymore?' He thought to himself as he continued to walk.
Suddenly, the Witcher's enhanced senses kicked in once more, picking up the sound of screaming and a faint scent of blood coming not too far away.
'Trouble?' He thought as he ran.
Following the sound, the Witcher looked up ahead to see what looked like a small village of a sort, with a few figures running around while screaming.
As the Witcher ran from the trees and into the village, he saw civilians fleeing for their lives from a massive monster that he has never seen before.
It was a sizeable ape-like beast with green fur all over its body, feet, face, while the chest was a light shade of lavender. It had very long pointed ears like an elf, a cone-shaped tip on its head, and a very long chin though the weirdest thing he noted about the creature was the pink hearts that ran along the beast's massive arms.
'The hell kind of monster is that?'
"AHHHH!" A voice yelled out, that of a woman.
Looking towards the monster, the Witcher saw that it had a young woman, one with long auburn hair with, tears in her eyes, in the hands of the beast. It didn't appear to be trying to kill or eat her but instead appeared to be looking at her with what he assumed was lust.
Acting quick, the Witcher pulled his crossbow from his back and aimed it at the monster, setting his sights and pulling the trigger. The sharp bolt flew through the air and made a direct hit into one of the ape's eyes, causing it to drop the woman in its hand and hold its eye in pain as it roared and stumbled.
The Witcher than ran forward as fast as he could, his silver sword was now in hand and performed a quick slash against the ape's chest, causing it to rear back and cry in pain.
"Get out of here!" He yelled at the woman.
The woman nodded and gave a quick thank you as she got to her feet and ran away as fast as she could away from the two.
"Ahhh! stupid man stop me from getting a woman, me angry!" The ape yelled, surprising the Witcher due to its ability to speak.
"Hm, so you can speak," The Witcher noted at the dialect, similar to that of a troll.
"WAGH! I gonna crush you!"
The ape monster roared as it ran forward, first armed and ready to pound his opponent into the earth, but the Witcher cast Aard, causing a massive telekinetic last slamming into the beast and stopping its charge.
The Witcher saw that the monster was open and rushed at him to begin his attack. The ape tried to stop the hunter by attempting to grab him, but the lack of depth perception made it hard for it to be able to catch him and was holding it's hand out near him. The Witcher avoided the limb and quickly cut the beast's wrist with his blade, making it yell in pain as it promptly backed up while holding its bleeding wrist. The Witcher then moved behind the creature and starting swinging at it's back, making quick cuts into its hide.
Trying to shake the Witcher off, the ape swung his undamaged hand back to try and knock him away, but he rolled out of the way in time to avoid it, but still got him away so that it could turn it's back away from him and face him.
"Man hurt me, man gonna hurt bad!" The ape yelled at the
"Come at me then you piece of filth," The Witcher taunted, readying himself for whatever the monster had in store.
With a roar that shook the area around them, the ape charge with all the might it could muster while it was hurt, arms raised high as it ran trying to slam the Witcher dead into the earth.
As the ape closed the space between them and brought it's arms down hard, The Witcher cast a Quen sign causing a bright orange dome to cover his being and shield him from the blow. When the ape's fist crashed into the shield, it exploded and released a blast of energy that caused the ape to stumble back, leaving him wide open as the Witcher ran forward and began unleashing a whirlwind of blows against its chest, cutting deep into its skin with every strike.
With a vigorous cry, the Witcher backed up a bit before thrusting his sword directly into the monster's belly, and with high strength cut the beast open like a can of worms as blood and guts came rushing out. The ape fell to its knees, roaring in pain and holding its stomach to try and keep it's internal organs inside. While it did so, the Witcher rose his sword up before stabbing it into the ape's jugular before tearing it out, causing blood to fall like a waterfall down its neck and body before collapsing to the ground while gurgling on its blood.
Backing away from the giant now dead ape, the Witcher watched as its body spasmed a few times before going ultimately still, no longer a threat to the town.
Turning around, he watched as the townsfolk came out from their hiding spaces and homes, whispering and gazing at him and the headless beast that was threatening their town only a moment ago.
"Did you see that he killed it, he killed the Vulcan!"
"He was so fast, and those weapons!"
"Could he be a mage, that was magic he used during the fight, right?"
"Is he a member of a magic guild?"
As the Witcher listened to the townspeople mumbling about with his hearing, he watched as some of the people gave way as a small figure came in front of them and quickly made his way over to him.
He was a short older man that didn't even come to the Witchers waist, with short thinning grey hair and blue eyes and wearing some black suit.
"You, did you just kill that Vulcan!?" He asked.
"You mean the ape?" The Witcher asked while pointing his sword at the course, "Aye, what of it?"
"Come with me quickly! I need to talk to you at once!" The man said quickly, attempting to grab the Witcher's wrist, only for him to slap it away.
"Hold on a minute, who are you and what's going on?"
"There's no time, come on!" The man pleaded as he ran, which the Witcher decided to follow to get some answers.
After being dragged by the older man, the two eventually found himself in a large house was the Witcher saw the woman he saved standing in the hall.
"Papa!" The woman cried as he ran over to him and knelt to hug him.
"There there Elizabeth, are you alright, that Vulcan didn't hurt you or anything did he?" The Older man asked.
The woman shook her head as she still held onto her father.
"No, I was lucky to be saved by a man, he showed up in time to-oh it's you!" the woman yelled a bit, just now noticing the Witcher behind her father.
"Hey," The Witcher said while raising his hand slightly.
"Elizabeth dear, this here's the man who just saved our town, I believe he can be the solution to our problem," The man said, addressing the young woman.
"You think so?" She asked as she turned to the cat eyes young man, "Thank you for saving me, I thought I was going to be a goner or... worse," she shivered a bit, terrible thoughts invading her mind, "But anyway, I'm Elizabeth, could I possibly know you're name?"
"Arthur, Arthur of Kaer Trolde," The Witcher introduced,
"Arthur of Kaer Trolde huh? Well, you have my thanks. If not for you, I fear my daughter would be taken by those damned Vulcans and be used for things I don't even want to think about!" The man said as he clenched his fists at the thought, "Oh but where are my manners, the name's George, I'm the mayor of the village, and this here is my daughter Elizabeth."
"Hello again," Elizabeth said while giving Arthur a warm smile.
"Well it's nice to meet you both, but I'd rather know why you dragged me here?" The Witcher asked, "And I also have a few questions I have to ask you first."
"Straight to business, eh? Well alright, but not here, follow me, and I'll take you to my study where I'll explain everything," George said as he led the Witcher to his study with his daughter coming along.
When they reached the office, the elder sat behind his large wood desk while the Witcher stood in front.
"Before we begin, I have a few questions if you don't mind."
"Very well boy, ask what you will and I'll answer what I can, but I prefer we be quick about it if you don't mind," George said, hoping that Arthur wasn't going to take too long.
"Alright, how about where am I exactly, last I remember I was in a cave fighting against a witch?"
The mayor and his daughter looked at Arthur with a raised eyebrow before answering.
"You're in the village of Dandelion Mr Arthur, in Fiore," He answered.
The Witcher raised his brow in thought, never before heard of this 'Fiore', at least not in the northern kingdoms. Could it possibly be a province in the Nilfgaardian empire?
"Okay, but where exactly is Fiore? I'm afraid I've never heard of the country before. Is it a part of Nilfgaard?"
"Nilfgaard? Are you perhaps from another country?" Elizabeth asked.
Arthur put this into thought. How could these people not know of Nilfgaard? It was one of the largest superpowers in the world.
He thought back to the cave, back to what the witch was saying before he intervened.
'Soon, I will be free from this gods-forsaken world and be sent to a land free of this world's prejudice!'
Remembering the witch's spell, Arthur came to two possible conclusions.
The first that somehow he was possibly transported to some other continent on the other side of the world perhaps were they haven't heard of the kingdoms, witchers, and all.
The second, which somehow for some reason made more sense for him, was that he was transported to not another continent, but another world.
Now to some ordinary folk, the idea of another world would sound like pure madness, but it wasn't. It wasn't exactly common knowledge, but there were other worlds out there parallel to his. That's the idea of how monsters came to be. They weren't of this plain, but rather another plain that connected to his, causing what's known as the 'Conjunction of the Spheres', were monsters came to the world by force.
Whichever was the real explanation, Arthur decided to go with the fact that he was just from another continent since he doesn't want to sound like a madman. It wasn't technically a lie after all.
"Aye, I'm actually from a whole different country, probably even from another continent since you haven't ever heard of the Nilfgaard," Arthur said.
His little half-truth seemed to work, as the elder and his daughter didn't look to suspect a thing and was going along with it.
"Oh my, from a whole new continent? What exactly are you doing here then?" Elizabeth asked curiously.
"To be honest, I wasn't even planning on coming here. I was actually on another job trying to investigate a witch who had caused some trouble for another village. We ended up fighting, and I can't exactly remember how, but some ritual she was doing activated and the next thing I know I'm in the forest, rest is history."
"Well, that's quite the tale if I were to say," The mayor commented, "Though if that's all the questions you have, I would like to move onto a more worrying topic."
"Alright, go on," Arthur said.
"You see our village has been under siege by those Vulcans for over a week now. Every so often they like to come over one by one and terrorise us, threaten to take our women and start destroying things unless we provide them with food. Unfortunately, we have no fighters or people willing to stand up against them in our village, so we had no other choice but to accept. Days went by as the Vulcans would come by and take tons of our stocks, leaving our people to go hungry and without food."
The mayor went silent for a second, remembering the hard times that followed after the Vulcan's came to his village.
"So when one of them came by earlier expecting us to give them their share, we, unfortunately, couldn't provide as they had taken so much already. When we tried to explain why we couldn't give them what we want, the Vulcan went on a rampage and almost ran off with my dear Elizabeth. But then you came and saved the day, but frankly, I fear that when that Vulcan you killed doesn't come back to its group, they'll come into our village to investigate and start destroying everything."
"So let me guess, you want me to take care of these Vulcans and solve your monster problems?" Arthur guessed.
"Exactly, you managed to take on that Vulcanon all by yourself, so you're the only one at the moment who can help us."
"Well, you're in luck, hunting and killing monsters is what I do. However I'm going to expect payment for this, and I'm not very cheap, especially after what happened to me recently," Arthur said, remembering that since he was probably thousands of miles away or more, he would not be getting paid from his previous contract.
"Yes, of course, I wouldn't expect anything else. That's why I'm willing to offer you two hundred and fifty thousand jewels if you take care of our problem."
Arthur almost fell out of his chair from shock as he heard the mayor's proposal.
"Wait a minute, two hundred and fifty thousand jewels? how the hell can you have so many gems to offer me?" Arthur asked in surprise.
The mayor and his daughter looked at Arthur with a bit of surprise and shock, but then remembered that he was of a foreign land and probably had no idea that the elder meant jewel as in Fiore's currency.
"Two hundred and fifty thousand gems? No, my boy, I said Jewels, as in the currency of Fiore."
"Oh, forgive me, I was under the impression you were offering me two hundred and fifty literal jewels as payment," Arthur said a bit sheepishly.
The mayor looked at the man a bit confused, but just shrugged and waved it off.
"Don't worry boy, though I got to say you had me a bit confused there if I had over two hundred and fifty gems we probably wouldn't even have to worry about those Vulcans from all the security I can hire," George said jokingly.
"Right, sorry."
"No need to apologise, but moving on, what do you say, my boy, will you take up my offer?"
Thinking it over the offer sounded pretty nice, although he had no information on these Vulcans, and had already just finished his other contract, he doubted he was going to receive payment from that anytime soon. And while he was unfamiliar with the currency of Fiore, two hundred and fifty thousand sounded like a lot of money that he could use in this country.
"Alright, I'll take the job."
The mayor looked at the Witcher with stars in his eyes, and reached over the table and enveloped him in a crushing hug while tears poured from his eyes.
"Oh thank you thank you! You truly are a blessing thank you!" He cried, being overdramatic again.
"Please stop hugging me," Arthur said, finding the whole scene to be a bit awkward and to overdramatic.
After managing to pry the mayor off himself, Arthur found himself walking through the woods for the third time today. The Witcher found himself getting a sense of deja vu as he spent a few moments looking for any more clues leading to the Vulcan's den before he spotted large footprints embedded into the search that looked like the same creature made them.
'Tracks look pretty fresh, no less than a few hours old, must be getting close,' He thought to himself.
Arthur followed the tracks for a good twenty minutes before he caught the scent of a hairy musk entering his musk.
'smells like sweat and fur, must be the other Vulcans, a couple of them too, at least three of them.'
The Witcher followed the stench for a while before he saw a large clearing up ahead and began to sneak forward and use the bushes for cover.
Peaking into the clearing, Arthur saw three Vulcans, just like the one he killed, all sitting down under a rocky cliff seeming only to be minding their own business, scratching each other's backs and eating random bugs and plants like a bunch of primates.
'Okay three of them, the last one wasn't much of a fight, but three on one is a bit of a challenge, I'm going to have to try and pick them off somehow.'
Reaching into one of his pouches, Arthur pulled out a Dragon's Breath bomb.
'These things are covered in fur, so Dragonsbreath should be able to light them up since they're close enough together and hopefully send them into a frenzy.'
lighting the bomb's wick, Arthur counted down slowly before throwing the grenade at the right moment right in the middle of the three Vulcans, exploding and covering them in a thick cloud of green gas.
"Ahh, who do dat!" One of the Vulcans cried out in surprise.
As soon as the bomb went off, Arthur charged right towards the cloud with his silver sword drawn while sticking out his arm to cast Igni. The sparks from the sign flew into the gas and ignited it, turning the cloud into a massive fireball, causing all three of the Vulcans to catch fire and begin to panic and try to put the flames out.
One of the Vulcans seemed to be doing better than the rest and looked over to see Arthur out of the bushes and running towards him.
"What da, man try and attack me, he gonna pay!" The Vulcan cried as it charged at him with his fists, ready to pound him into the dirt.
Arthur jumped out of the way in time as the Vulcan came crashing with its fist into the dirt, causing the earth to crack.
Acting fast, the Witcher spun forward with his sword in hand, and performed a massive slash at the beast, cutting through its shoulder and causing blood to pour out. The creature reared back in pain, holding its shoulder as it cried out in pain, it's wound seemingly stinging with neverending pain from the silver.
"AHH!"
"How you like that silver!" He taunted.
Charging forward, Arthur continued his assault by continuing to cut the Vulcan's body with precise slashes, before delivering one last cut upwards that also managed to knock it back and fall to its knees. The Vulcan was leaning forward a bit, and its throat was just in reach, so Arthur charged forwards and performed a precise cut along its throat, causing blood to erupt from the wound and knock the beast face first onto the ground as it gurgled on its blood.
'one down three to ' Arthur noted as he turned to the other two Vulcans who seemed to put out the flames, their skin visibly burned and missing some fur from the fire.
"Man killed friend, man die!" The first Vulcan yelled in rage as it charged forward with its friend to avenge their fallen comrade.
The Vulcan ran forward and jumped into the air to try and pound him into the earth, but Arthur cast a Yrden trap on the ground. The Vulcan was a big creature sure, but the Yrden trap unleashed a quick bolt of energy that hit the Vulcan straight in the chest, knocking him off balance and causing his massive form to come crashing into the earth below, burnt and damaged by the attack, but still very much alive. It tried to get up to try and beat the man who killed his friend, but the Yrden trap was not done as it continued to blast the ape with more bolts of energy, keeping it pinned for the time being. The second Vulcan meanwhile decided to try and avoid the rap by going around it and managing to avoid the bolts of magic and ran at the Witcher to try and punch with its fists.
"Die, man!"
The Vulcan threw his fist forward to try and hit Arthur, only for him to sidestep the incoming blow while raising his sword above his head, bringing it down on the open limb and cutting it's hand clean off. The Vulcan reared back in pain before Arthur cast unleashed a barrage of quick and precise slashed along the beast's front before casting a large Aard sign, knocking the creature down on it's back. The Vulcan tried to get back up to its feet, but Arthur ran forward with his sword raised high above his head, stepped onto the Vulcans chest and stapped his sword straight through the Vulcan's forehead, piercing through its brain.
'And that makes two,' Arthur thought as he quickly took his sword out of the ape's head and got off its body.
Looking forward, the Witcher saw that the Yrden trap dispersed away, and the last Vulcan managed to get to its feet and glared at him with rage very visibly in its eye. It let out a roar that shook the forest around them and looked directly at the Witcher with its vengeful eyes.
"WAUGH! ME GONNA KILL YOU!"
It yelled as it charged forward with its fists ready, planning to pound its hunter into a bloody puddle. Arthur stood in his place but quickly cast Quen in the form of a dome right as the Vulcan was right in front of him. Its fist clashed into the orange dome before it exploded into a blast of energy that knocked the ape back and caused it to stumble a bit.
He then charged forward with his sword ready, swinging it right at the Vulcan's leg and chopping it clean off with a massive swing. The beast cried out in pain as it's leg was severed from its body and came crashing down onto the earth below face forward. Arthur stepped out of the way from the towering beast, and as it came smashing face forward, he saw that its neck was open. He raised his sword high above his head and let it come down, aimed right in the middle of its neck. The sharp silver blade cut right through the muscle and bone, severing the head from the body and causing blood to shoot out from both ends and make a small growing puddle under it.
Letting out a deep breath, Arthur flicked the blood off his sword and sheafed it behind his back before looking at his handiwork. All of the Vulcans were now dead before him, and his job was done just about flawlessly.
'Well, that was fun. Now to take one of its heads. I can't take them all, but one should suffice as well as my word that I killed the rest. Besides they could probably send someone out to come and check the bodies.'
Deciding to go with the one he had already cut off, Arthur took his trophy hook and hooked it right on the upper part of the mouth, and raised it a bit so he could sear the bottom of it with Igni to stop blood from getting everywhere.
"Now let's see about finally getting paid," Arthur said as he made his way back to the village.
Carrying the severed had with him, Arthur made his way back to the village where he saw all of the villagers come out and look his way. They all saw what he was carrying in his hand, and a few of them gasped while most of the parents of children tried to cover their eyes from the scene.
Soon after, the mayor and his daughter came rushing out, gasping as they saw the head disembodies head of a Vulcan in his grasp. The mayor looked at if for a second and up to the Witcher, before running up to him and crying out in joy, spluttering mixed words of thanks for what he had done.
With the Vulcans now dead and his job done, the village threw a small party in the town Inn were all were coming to celebrate being free from the Vulcans wrath. There were drinking and games, and everyone would come over to Arthur and to shake his hand and give him thanks for saving them, a, while the also getting some more than friendly looks from the young ladies of the village. It was a bit of a surprise to the Witcher that everyone seemed to be celebrating him in this manner. Usually, whenever he finishes a job, he just gets paid and sent away, sometimes without a thank you. But judging the fact that this country somehow hasn't heard of Witchers and probably more magic friendly was perhaps a factor to all of this.
As promised he as given more than his fair share of food for completing the job. He received a whole roast chicken with a platter of fresh fruit all for him, as well as-as many drinks he wanted for the entire night.
After the initial festivities and people began to head back to their homes to turn in for the night, Arthur decided to have a small talk with the mayor to discuss his little problem, that being to find more about this country and if there was a way to get back home. Unfortunately, George had no initial idea of what to do, but he did give him a hint of where he could find answers.
"Fairy Tail?" Arthur asked as he sat at the Inn's bar with George.
"Yes, that's right. It's one of the many guilds throughout all of Fiore and is debated to be the best one as well. It's a wizards guild located in Magnolia a long ways southeast from here. It's about five days walk from here give or take, but there's a small port town, Hargeon, which has a train that could get you there quicker."
"And you think they could help me out?"
"Well, it's the best thing there is. Though there's always the magic council, since your technically a foreigner from an unknown land they'd sooner interrogate you for some reason before helping."
That was indeed something Arthur didn't want to happen, getting caught and arrested by the government and taken into custody. Witchers weren't the best with politics anyway, so best to try and stay low and get to this Fairy Tail guild as best as he could.
"Well, that settles it then, I leave for Fairy Tail as soon as possible," Arthur declared.
"Well I wish you luck then on your Journey Arthur, but first," George said as he reached into his pocket, pulling out an envelope of money, "Your reward, as promised."
Taking the envelope, Arthur opened it to see a massive stack of coloured paper bills.
"As said before those are Jewels, the currency of Fiore, two hundred and fifty thousand all for you. A ticket to Magnolia should cost about a thousand, while you could use the rest for supplies and food when you get to Hargeon."
Nodding his head towards the mayor, Arthur pocketed the money before sitting up from his seat, ready to head off.
"Thanks, but what about Hargeon, how exactly can I get it?"
"Follow the road outside of town, it's a long walk, and if you leave now, you should get there by midday tomorrow. But are you sure you want to leave now, your welcome to stay the night and all."
Arthur thought about it for a second but waved the offer off. It was tempting, but he preferred he get on the trail as fast as he could.
"Thanks, but I'd rather get going as quickly as possible."
"Very well," The elder said, "Farewell young man, and remember that you'll always be welcomed back whenever you like, you're our hero after all."
The Witcher looked back one last time and gave the mayor and anyone else still in the building a small wave, before walking right out the door and into the night.
[END]
{THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED AS OF 06/23/2019}