Chapter 2: The lucrative contract

In Karack the witcher acquired a mount and went on his path. He roamed the countryside taking contracts where ever he could, they were mostly contracts with the small folk of the land who paid what little they could for every ghoul and drowner he killed. The witcher wanted more coin but he knew that that was all they could spare. That was until he reached small merchant town near the border of Kerack and Temeria. Gaetan entered the town inn, looking for a fresh cooked meal and maybe a room to stay fro the night, sleeping under a tree might be relaxing but after a wile you start to miss the comfort of a normal bed. The approached the innkeeper and asked for food and lodging witch the man gave him. For dinner he was given chicken stew which wasn't bad but he did eat much better ones in the past. He noticed that since he arrived most of the peoples eyes were on him.

There was a group of traveling merchants sitting on one table with their servants sitting on the other, several town guards that were getting drunk on chip vine and some other towns folk. He tuned his head to look at the other side of the inn, there he only saw a woman sitting in the corner of the room with a dark hood over her head with some strands of blond hair visible, unlike the rest of the crowd here she smelled like roses and lilac. He deiced to return to to his meal, when he was done he took another look around and saw that the woman was gone. While on his way to his room for the night he was stopped by one of the guards shouting at him.

"What are doing here mutant? Leave before something bad happens to you."

The witcher did not move, only responded in a calm voice "I'm only passing by. I don't want any trouble."

"You stepped I trouble the moment you came here mutant. You are nothing more than an abomination, a freak. Witchers, elfs, dwarfs all of you are the same."

"As I said I don't want any trouble. Leave."

"Leave? Us? You got it wrong freak, you will leave now or get punished."

"I'm not leaving, not until tomorrow"

"Then punishment it is." The solder lifted his fist and aimed it for the witchers face but the witcher dogged it easily. Several more strikes came form the guard before Gaetan had enough and decided to end this. He dogged the incoming attack and grabbed a bottle from a near by table and smashed it on the mans head. The two other guards watched as their friend fell to the ground. They immediately longed at the witcher in hope of avenging their friend. Fists started flying in all directions, but non came close to striking the feline witcher. The second one he dispatched by punching him in the stomach and the third one by knocking him out with an uppercut. When it was over Gaetan glanced around to see the reaming few guests of the inn were staring at him with fear in their eyes.

He looked at the keeper and said "I will be in my room. No one disturb me." The keeper only gave him a nod in confirmation. There weren't any other incidents during the night, so he slept well. In the morning as he was preparing to leave a messenger arrived. He told the witcher that he was wanted at the De Viret estate. He was intrigued by this news, he is rarely invited to the homes of anyone especially the ones that belong to the upper class. After accepting the invitation, he followed the servant to the manor. At the gate he was gritted by two servants, one took his horns and the other lead him inside the large house. There he was told to wait for the owner to come and talk to him. He waited in hall with large steps that lead to the upper flours. Sometime past and there was still nobody there that wanted to talk to him. He was starting to grow frustrated when he heard a voice coming from the large steps.

"Forgive me for keeping you waiting, I had some important business to take care off." It was a woman. She had blond hair. Green eyes and wore an extravagant blue dress. She also smelled like roses and lilac."When I first ordered my messenger to bring you here I had my doubts that you will come. But here you are."

"It is rear for me to be called to someones estate like this, so care to tell me what you need?"

"Right to the point. You witchers really are a serious breed." She was now standing only few meters from him. "We will talk business but I always first like to know with who im doing business with. I'm Olivia de Viret lady of this fine estate and your name is?"

"If you have to know, my name is Gaetan, as you already know im a witcher. Now tell me why you summed to here."

"If you wouldn't mind, it has been quit the morning for me and I would like something to water my throat with. Follow we to the garden and there we will talk." Gaetan only looked at the women, but did not protest. Once they arrived at the garden Olivia ordered one of the servant girls to fetch some wine from the cellar for her and their guest. The girl returned with a bottle of fine Toussaint wine and some cups. She placed them on the table and poured and wine into them. "You can leave wine and leave." The girl did as she was told and left. Lady Olivia took a sip from her cup and returned to their conversation. The witcher was now certain that she was the woman from the inn. They say that the curiosity killed the cat, but the witcher wanted to know why was she there last night.

"You were there in the inn when I arrived last night, weren't you?"

"You caught me red handed witcher, yes that was me."

"Why if I might ask?"

"To see you of coarse. When I heard what a witcher had entered the I had so see it for myself. Its is a rear thing to see a witcher. I also heard that you came into confrontation with some of the guard, shame I wasn't there to see it."

"There wasn't much to see. They attacked me and I defended myself, that is it. Now tell me why did you bring me here?"

"You see I'm in need of your services master witcher and I'm ready to pay the price you ask for taking care of a certain problem for me."

"It depends what that problem is. And judging from the estate you can pay anyone to take care of this for you.""

"The estate isn't mine, it belongs to my husband but I do run it and all other important things. My problem master witcher is that caravans caring my goods have been attacked at every point for the past few months."

"And what im supposed to do with that?"

"Kill the thing attacking them, because you see it is a wyvern that has been cosign me this trouble and its starting to get bad for business. I'm losing a lot of potential profit." Gaetan took a sip from his cup and gave it a thought. This might be just the job to get him out of the hole.

"I will kill the creature for you, but it will cost you."

"I can pay any price you ask, with in reason of course."

"If it is as big of a nuisance as you say, 250 crowns."

"That is a lot, 150 crowns."

"200 and not a copper less."

"You drive a hard bargain witcher but im in need of your help so I except. You will receive your payment after you slay the damn thing. It has been mostly attacking the caravans going along the north path, I suggest you start there." The witcher was delighted by the news but he did not show it, his face remained stern as the moment he set at the table with her. He knew well what kind of a beast he is going to face. The wyvern will try to attack from the air, attempting to knock him down using its wings. After it lands it will attack with its tooth-filled beak in an attempt to draw attention away from its most deadly weapon, the stinger that can be found at the end of its long tail. A single strike from this carries risk of poisoning from powerful toxins. Even a witcher will experience wrenching pain when injected with the venom, so preparing ahead of time with golden oriole should do the trick. The witcher drank the last few drops of wine that were in his cup and went about completing the task. He carefully gathered the herbs he needed for his potions, once he was done he mounted his horse and went to face the beast. Gaetan tracked the creature down the east road and into the forest. Following its tracks through the forest the man came to a cave which he suspected was the wyverns den. He consumed bindweed and blizzard potions for increased resistance to acid and toxins and to boost his reflexes. Once he was ready he entered the cave, it dimly lit but he could see perfectly thanks to his witcher eyes. Carefully traversing the inside of the cave he listened to any sign of the creature but did not hear any, there were only bones and pieces of clothing lying down on the ground. He arrived at a large room which had stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the cave, carefully he looked around making light steps as he did so. Then he heard something coming from behind him. The witcher turned and saw the wyvern standing on a small platform above him, it immediately jumped on him. He dodged the attack and prepared himself for a strike of his own but the wyvern attacked again but this time with even greater force. Once again Gaetan dodged the incoming attack but this time it came close to striking him.

"Enough games. Lets finish this." Gaetan charged at the beast carefully avoiding its deadly stinger. He managed to cut just below one of its knees and then slash it across its chest. The wyvern screamed in pain. Angered, it charged again at the brave witcher who performed a pirouette and slashed his silver sword across its tail cutting of its stinger. Few seconds later the beast fell to the ground, barely breathing, its eyes looked up at the witcher who brought his sword to its head and pushed it down between its eyes. The wyvern was finally dead and he could now collect on his reword. To have proof he slew the beast Gaetan cut of its head and brought it back to the manor. The sun was setting when the witcher returned back to the manor and the beasts head was hanging from the saddle, lady Olivia came out to greet him.

"Have you done it? Have you killed the beast?"

"See it for your self." The witcher pointed to the head hanging from his saddle. Olivia came closer to it, looking at it curiously. Most women that look at something like this would usually faint of throw up but not lady Olivia, she only stared at in with awe. Gaetan finally decided to bring her back into reality.

"I took care of your problem and now I expect to be compensated for that."

"Of course master witcher, I'm a woman of my word after all." a servant came holding a bag of coins and handed it to the lady. "All is here, as we agreed. You can count if you wish." She gave the bag to the witcher.

"I will trust you on this one. Now I must return back on the path."

"One more thing, I will give you another 25 crowns for the head. I wish to hang it as a trophy. Axoc agreed, he tuck the money while the servant took the wyvern head.

"Why don't you stay here for the night, it is almost dark after all."

"No thank you, but I think I had it with this place for the time being. Goodbye."

Olivia smiled "Goodbye master witcher, I hope we meet again." And with that Gaetan climbed on his horse and set off to the next part of his journey.

AN: This short story was really fun to write and I hope you guys like it. Feel free to leave your oppinion.