Chapter 6: walls will not hold the winter
Viren waited outside the west wall of the castle of Katolis in secret waiting for this man who Claudia had met earlier, he breathed out and noticed that clouds were now forming when he breathed, the temperature was dropping even though it was summer.
He looked up and saw that dark clouds were falling and snow was beginning to cover the ground, "what?" He asked, then he heard the sound of horse hooves coming towards him, he turned and saw the scariest horse he had ever seen with it's rider on it.
The very same rider who I mentioned earlier in this story, next to him was another horse with a hooded figure on it. The hooded figure got off his horse and walked up to Viren and bowed.
"High mage Viren it is an honor to meet you" he said, "uh you may stand" Viren said and the hooded man did stand, Viren then saw the snake medallion that was humming on the figure's neck just like. Just like…
"You're a Witcher like Dravaan!" Viren said accusingly, "yes I was trained in the ways of the school of the serpent" said the figure, "you can just call him snake as He's of a new breed of Witchers and He has no other" said rider still on his demon of a horse.
"And who are you?" Viren asked, "I am criorbrihainn of the wraiths of Morhogg but you can just call me Hainn" said Hainn.
"Alright Hainn let's talk, '' Viren said, leaning on his staff.
In a cave underneath a mountain night had fallen and a fire was set up for Rigran and his friends, "Ez, you should really try to sleep," Callum encouraged as he glanced at his younger brother. Blue eyes looked his way and the boy sat up, his cloak falling open.
"I—I," Ezran said as he sneezed, wiping his nose, "I'm fine." "You aren't fine, you need rest." Callum said, The younger boy gave him a glare, Rather the continuing to argue, Ezran got up, walking over and sitting beside his brother. "What are you…oh," he trailed off seeing the drawing on the pages of the book.
"When you were on the ice, I was so scared. I thought I was going to lose you like we lost her," Callum confessed looking over the drawing of his mother. "But you made it. And now I can't stop thinking that maybe she was watching over us. If she knew what we were trying to do, she'd be proud. And," a smirk came to the elder prince's face, "she would yell at you to sit closer to the fire and bundle up!"
"I know," the boy whined, trudging over and plopping down beside Bait, Rigran smiled but stayed quiet, the memories of the queen flashing through his head. She was missed dearly.
"She's beautiful," a new voice spoke and Callum glanced up to see Rayla had returned. "She's your mother?"
"Yeah." Callum said sadly, Hearing the tone of his voice, Rayla glanced away trying to find a new road of conversation. "Uh, I found some moonberries," she said, changing the subject.
"And, I found these for you" she added to Ezran as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a green berry of some kind, "Bogeyberries! Ancient Xadian cure for the common sniffles." She handed Ezran two and the boy opened his mouth to eat them. "Nope, they don't go in your mouth." Rayla stopped him
"Uh…" Ezran said confusedly, She rolled her eyes, "To cure a stuffy nose, you've gotta stuff 'em up your nose." "Oh, seems doable." Ezran said
Glancing behind the brothers, her gaze flickered to the egg, "They all looked towards the egg, whose glow was darker than it'd been before, "I don't think the egg's getting better; it was glowing so brightly before, but now it's dim and flickering."
"It's even dark than when I left," Rayla sighed, "we should keep moving once the storm goes down" Rigran said, "there should be a town nearby if I remember my geography correctly".
"At least there's some good news," Rayla sighed, sitting by the fire. "We need to find help," Ezran spoke but his voice was slightly muffled by the two bogey berries up his nose.
Kaja and Walter also had to stop halfway up the mountain due to the snowstorm and that had halted their progress, "if I'm not mistaken there's a town nearby so I would wager that's where they are heading" Walter said looking at his map inside their tent.
"I certainly hope we do catch up to them" Kaja said, "do you think Rigran's worried about you?" Walter asked, Kaja was caught off guard but still answered, "Yup but he's probably put it to the back of his mind and so far as he knows I'm back at the village doing blacksmith work" Kaja said.
"As is a way of the Witcher" Walter said plucking his lute, "if he did know he'd probably be worried sick".
Then there was a whine from the horse outside and it sounded panicked and then there was the sound of a leopard-like growl.
The two ran outside as Walter drew out his sword from his cane, it was a banther that was eating one of the horses, "oh shit" Walter could help but say as the Banther turned to them with hunger in its eyes.
The Banther pounced at them but the two managed to roll out of the way, "infarian" Kaja said, drawing a symbol in the air and using it to shoot a burst of fire at the Banther in hopes of scaring it off.
The Banther simply sidestepped the attack and lunged forward again and swatted Kaja into a bush of brambles. Walter then charged in and cut a deep slash at the creature's sides making it howl in pain and very angry.
The Banther used its claws to slash at the two but only got Walter across the chest, "damn" he cursed as he drew a knife and threw it at the creature, it missed however and landed some way away from the babbles and Walter would be dead if it weren't for Kaja.
Walter was tackled by the banther and Kaja could see the knife not too far away, she tried getting up and rushing over to it but found that her leg had somehow been trapped by some brambles Kaja reached for the knife unable to reach.
The banther was enjoying the squirming of its captive as Walter with surprising strength held back the beast's jaws with a small branch that had been within arms reach.
Kaja reached for the knife that was hopelessly out of reach and then it began to hover as the blade heated up. She experimentally moved her hand slowly though and the blade moved with it. Hearing the roar of the beast made Kaja forget everything else and so began spinning the blade and made it fly fast at the beast, it struck its hide in the shoulder and began burning making it howl in pain.
Kaja drew her own knife and used it to cut the brambles, the Banther had had enough and so ran back into the forest in pain and hunger. Kaja ran over to Walter and looked at his injuries, they were not deep but it would be painful and their progress would be slow.
Worst still they only had one horse left to carry all their stuff, "fuck this is perfect" Walter cursed sarcastically as the two saw their situation.
Castle of Katolis
Viren, Hainn and Snake were in Virens tower, "so this bottle…?" Viren asked looking at the strange flask that Hainn had brought with him, "it contains something that can help you in whatever we need" Hainn said, Viren reached to open it, "if you ask me first" Hainn added grabbing Virens hand with a quickness Viren didn't think possible in such armoured hands.
"So what do you want first?" Hainn asked, Viren thought about it, he need the prince's dead and the egg destroyed if need be, "well accidents happen in the wild, deadly accidents" Viren said thinking about what he told his son, "yes very deadly accidents" Hainn agreed, "especially with so many deadly creatures in their path, yes?".
Viren thought about it again, and nodded, Hainn undid the cork of the flask and…nothing happened, Viren looked around expectantly, there was a creaking from the ceiling and a light breeze but the windows were shut and so was the door.
Then Viren saw a shadow near a candle next to their Shadow, the shadow climbed in Virens shadow and he actually felt bony fingers move on his shoulder, "meet our little helper" Snake couldn't help but say.
"Now…" Hainn began as he gestured for the whatever it was to come closer, Viren watched the shadow of the strange creature fly over to Hainns shadow and cut one hand behind its head as Hainn whispered something to it.
The creature then withdrew with a nod, then the window burst open and all the lights went out as the creature's shadow disappeared and a haze of a certain shape went out the window into the snowy weather.
"In the meantime I'll send Snake after your children to help them out, after all the best way to kill a monster is to send a Witcher" Hainn said, gesturing to Snake who stood up straight and made his way to the window.
"Do all Witchers like to use windows?" Viren asked, "no sometimes we drop down through the ceiling" Snake quipped as he jumped out the window.
Unknown town graveyard
The creature which Hainn had Sent traveled like the wind for it was the wind, it scoured the land looking for something, something to start something to use.
In a graveyard, there was a grave of a dead woman, a recently buried and dead woman, a woman who was kind to everyone in her village but who died while in the forest, most likely from wolves or Banthers.
But the creature looked over her grave and dived into the earth where the body was, after a second it returned and flew off to do other dark business And from the grave a black disgusting clawed hand shot out of the earth along with a hair raising high pitched scream of a banshee as the creature arose and walked into the forest to cause dark business.
"There it is, a town!" Rayla exclaimed in relief as the group trudged over another hill. "I knew I saw smoke. Maybe we can find help.", "what about me? I'm the one who remembered my geography" Rigran said, "then why did we go in circles three times?" Ezran asked.
"Ok, sure. We might find a dragon egg expert, but we will definitely find a bunch of elf-hating humans," Callum reminded. "No problem," Rayla smirked. Reaching into Ezran's bag, she pulled out his cloak and put it on, covering her horns and pointed ears. "Meet human Rayla!"
"I'm not sure that's gonna cut it," Callum muttered. The elvish assassin scoffed, "Just wait. Once I pair my disguise with my perfect human impression, the illusion will be complete."
"Really?" Callum asked sceptically, "Greetings, fellow humans! Human fellows! I sure do like hanging out with other humans," Rayla began elbowing Callum playfully, "and talking about things like money and starting wars."
"How about we just say you're shy and leave it at that and try not to interact with anyone" Rigran suggested, "okay why?" Rayla asked, "because no one is going to buy whatever you were doing" Rigran deadpanned.
"Well you can use these as hand disguises," Ezran said, holding a pair of Gloves that he had grabbed from a nearby snowman. "Good thinking" Rayla said as she put the gloves on, the only trouble was she only had 4 digits and the 5th digit on the gloves kept limping around whenever she moved her hand.
"Maybe we should find mittens," Rigran suggested, "or just don't shake hands with anyone," Callum said.
The group then walked into the town trying to blend in as best they could, Rigran's weapons made people glance at him but other than that it was pretty smooch sailing.
"Just walkin' into town without a care in the world despite my sub-century life expectancy," Rayla smiled, trying to act human, "being shy means not talking" Callum said, "maybe we should have just gone with mute instead at least she would be quiet" Rigran thought.
Walking into the main square, they stopped seeing a large crowd surrounding a redheaded man standing on the edge of a fountain. "I defended the border against all manners of horrors and monstrosities. Things you can't even imagine. There's nothing I fear now!"
Callum grabbed their arms, and drug them further into the crowd to get a better view.
"In fact," the man continued, "I wager I could defeat any challenger here, with nothing but my dagger!" The crowd gasped and the man stepped off the fountain looking over the surrounding people before pointing to a random citizen. "What about you?"
The man smirked, ready to walk forwards and face the challenge, only to have his wife yank him back and drag him off.
"Maybe…you," he turned pointing right at Rayla, then caught sight of Rigran, he was about to challenge him when another man stepped into the arena, The size of the man made the group blink as they stared, confused, since when could humans get that big?
The giant chuckled, yanking a massive sword off his back, "This isn't even my biggest sword."
"I'll take that bet!" Said one man in the crowd, "My money on the big guy!" Said another, "Mine too!" Said a third.
"They're distracted, we should go," Callum said, "Wait," Rayla—of all people—protested grabbing their arms. "You'll wanna see this."
The giant swung his blade down, forcing the short ginger to dodge. Landing on his feet, the man pulled out a dagger, one that was glowing red hot.
the man sprinted forwards, slicing the tip off the sword like it was made of butter. Ducking under the next swing, the knife cleaved the sword in two one more, before breaking it with one last strike as it was reduced to a short hunk of metal just above the hilt.
"Well, I certainly hope that wasn't your biggest sword," the knife-wielder taunted as the crowd laughed, causing the man to run off sobbing. "Ha! Anyone else?"
"What was that?" Callum asked. "A sunforged blade!" Rayla grinned. "Wow, I can't believe I just saw a real sunforged blade!" Ezran exclaimed. "What's a sunforged blade?"
"In Xadia, Sunfire elves can make magic weapons that stay as hot as the moment they're forged for hundreds of years," Rayla began to explain. "See that?" she pointed as the man sheathed the dagger, "The sheath's inscribed with special runes to protect him from the heat. Otherwise, well…"
"His pants would be on fire?" the youngest prince offered."Yeah, his legs too," she chuckled, "wonder what Kaja would think of it" Rigran thought to himself.
Kaja?His thoughts wandered to her and he began to wonder how she was and wondering what she was doing and if she was worried about him.
He would have a lot of explaining and maybe apologizing to do, "Rayla," Callum spoke up, snapping Rigran out of his thought "if that blade can cut through a steel sword like butter…would you say it could cut through pretty much anything?"
"Not pretty much anything, it can cut through anything," she replied before her eyes widened as she caught what he was hinting at. "My wrist binding!"
"You have to go get that dagger." Callum said with conviction, "But what about the egg?" Rayla asked "Ezran and I will find help for the egg, you and Rigran handle the knife. We'll meet here at the statue." Callum said.
"How will you guys even get the dagger?" Ezran asked, "maybe Rigran could fight?" Rayla suggested, "no let's just ask him politely" Rigran dismissed, and the Witchers didn't fight for the sake of it.
"If we must," Rayla said and the group split up.
Winter lodge
Soren paced up and down the bridge as Claudia sat on the edge of it, hands on the sides of her head thinking "so what are we gonna do?" Soren asked pacing, "can you just be quiet for a minute?!" Claudia exclaimed in frustration, "I'm trying to think".
"Every minute we sit here, the step prince and the crown runt get further and further away" said Soren, Claudia sighed, "I know a tracking spell but, first I need something from the princes" she said, Soren held up a dirty shirt that the step prince trained in and was filthy with mud.
"No something more personal than a…" Claudia stopped mid explanation as something flew past the two cutting the dirty shirt in half and embedded itself in a nearby tree. It was a large nasty looking sickle the two turned to Soren drawing his sword.
"You?!" Claudia exclaimed upon recognising the snake, "you know this guy?" Soren asked suspiciously, "he wanted an audience with our dad and i think it would go well if he is here" Claudia said, Soren sheathed his sword.
"So uh you're here to help us?" Soren asked, "yes" Snake said, "well then nice to meet you I'm Soren and you've met Claudia" Soren said presenting his hand for a handshake, "snake" Snake said shaking Sorens hand for politeness sake.
Snake then looked at the dogs, "let me guess they went by river" Snake guessed looking at the river, "uh yes how did you…" he then noticed Snake's serpent shaped medallion, "hey Dravaan has one just like it" Soren said pointing to the medallion.
Then it hit both of them, "your a…" Claudia began, "yes" Snake interrupted, retrieving his sickle, he had another one holstered on his hip "so any new ideas on how to search?" He asked.
"Well I was talking about a tracking spell but I need spit or toenails to use it" Claudia said, Sorens frustration returned, "we don't have time to search the whole lodge for Toenails Claudia" he said.
"Well I don't see you doing anything to help" Claudia shot back, Snake decided to do his job and let the two argue and blow off some steam, the quicker the job the quicker the payment.
"We have to do this!" Soren exclaimed, "if I fail, I don't know what dad will do to me! And I'm already failing at step one. Never mind…" he stopped as Claudia gave him a raised eyebrow of suspicion.
"Nevermind what?" Claudia asked, but looking at a tree behind Claudia Soren noticed something, Claudia waved a hand in front of him to grab his attention, but Soren pushed passed, "found something?" Snake asked.
Soren examined what he had found, which was an arrow with a bit of white elves hair on it, "you said something like spit or toenails?" He asked as he pulled the arrow out and presented it to Claudia and Snake "What about elf hair?".
Claudia smirked, "yes this is perfect" she said, "if we find that nasty bloodthirsty elf we find the princes" unknown to the both of them and even to Snake himself, Snake's fist clenched.
"Cute braid though" Claudia then added.
Back at the town
Callum and Ezran found a vet shop that had a very nice doctor who was looking at one of the horses that were in his shop, "uh what's wrong little sweety" Ezran asked, the horse whinnied, "oh you saw something scary didn't you" Ezran responded hugging the lord thing.
"She sure did, her rider was not so lucky" said the doctor sadly looking over to a body under a blanket a hand dropping out from The side, "she ran up the cursed Caldera, whatever it was it only scared her but her rider…I don't even want to know what it was" the Doctor continued.
He then turned to the boys, "so what can I help you with?" Asked the doctor, the boys were all of a sudden not sure what to say.
Rigran and Rayla's target moved along the streets as he tossed the bag of coins in the air making them jingle and jangle, however he sensed someone behind him, he spotted Rayla's cloak as she moved to cover and he broke into a sprint, with Rayla after him.
Rayla jumped to the roofs as the man moved, he jumped over a hay bail but it was a dead end for two reasons, one Rigran was waiting for him arms crossed and leaning up against the second reason and that being a very high wall.
The man drew his dagger, as Rayla jumped down, "I won that money fair and square," he growled holding up the dagger. "We want the dagger not the money," Rigran told him.
"We need to borrow it," Rayla said, lowering part of her glove to show the binding, "to cut this." "Oh, you just wanna borrow it?" he scoffed.
"Fine, then you hold it!" she interrupted. "Just cut this thing off me!", "But it'll burn you." The man said with slight concern, "I don't care! Just please do it!" she pleaded.
The man nodded and stepped forwards, taking Rayla's hand. Looking at her for a moment, before turning his head down to focus on what he was doing. The tip of the burning blade slipped under the binding, but the only thing that caught fire was Rayla's glove.
Yelping in pain, she yanked the glove off, shaking her burned hand. The man gasped, "You're one of them!" He exclaimed, Rayla went wide eyed as she tried to hide the fact, "Who me? I'm just a simple human girl who likes human things," she tried.
"No! You're an elf!" The man spat "Fine, I'm an elf!" she said, lunging forwards and snatching the dagger from his hand. Seeing his shocked expression, she rolled her eyes, "Calm down, this'll only take a second."
Lowering the blade to the binding, Rayla grimaced at the initial sting. She bit her lip, praying it'd be enough to handle the pain to get the binding off, but unfortunately, her instincts got the better of her.
Releasing another cry of pain, she dropped the dagger, looking in horror at the binding still firmly planted on her wrist. "No! Nothing can cut this stupid binding!"
"Just take the dagger," the man begged, "don't hurt me please.", "calm down" Rigran said, stepping forward and readying a Witcher sign, "You—You're human? But…she's an elf!" he exclaimed. Narrowing his eyes, "no she's human" Rigran said and used the sign Axii on the man.
The man blinked a couple of times as the magic took effect, "I'm sorry that hurt and sorry it didn't cut your bind" the man said apologetically forgetting the fact that Rayla was an elf.
"No problem, thanks for the help anyway and sorry for the trouble" Rigran said as he helped the man to his feet, the man nodded and walked away. Rayla, meanwhile, stood there completely mystified, "wait was that the same sign you used on Ezran back at the lake?" She asked.
"Yes it's called Axii a mind influencer" Rigran confirmed as the two went to find Callum and Ezran.
Claudia was looking for something in some bushes, Soren just stood by looking skeptical and Snake was busy sharpening one of his sickles while looking at the rock face of a cliff, "so what are we doing here?" Soren asked, "just need one more thing for the spell," Claudia said, "like a special rock?" Soren asked.
"Would it by chance happen to be down here?" Snake asked as he cut away a section of bushes and revealed a large crack in the rock face that led down a narrow tunnel.
"Yes" Claudia said, she was about to go in but Snake stopped her, "I'll go first I have the better eyes" he said as he shuffled down the narrow crack, Claudia followed.
Soren was about to go in but realised how narrow it was, "your kidding" he said dismayed, "take your Armor off then" snakes voice said back.
Meanwhile Ezran and Callum had shown the doctor the egg after he assured them that he would keep his mouth shut and not judge, "mmm" he hummed, "I have never seen one before, only pictures and books but I'll do what I can" he reassured.
Ezran then looked at the corpse for a second, "we have a friend who knows about monsters, maybe he can tell you what kind of monster did….that?" He said pointing to the corpse. "Hmm alright then I'll continue studying the egg" said the doctor, "I'll go find him" Callum said rushing out the door.
Callum found Rigran and Rayla at the statue, "how's the egg?" Rayla asked, "a doctor having a look at it now" Callum responded then turned to the younger Witcher "Rigran the doctor wants you to help identify a monster" Callum said.
Rigran gave him an odd look. Minutes later Callum, Rayla and Rigran returned, "uh nice to meet you all" the Doctor said, "did it work?" Ezran whispered to Rayla, "no" Rayla sighed with defeat.
"How's the egg?" Rigran asked, "I'm afraid it's dying" the Doctor said, "what!" Rayla exclaimed, "I'm sorry young lady but there's nothing I can do" the Doctor said then an idea struck him, "actually there is supposed to be a mysterious miracle healing in the forest" he said thoughtfully.
"It's incredibly dangerous but maybe she can help", "where can we find her?" Rayla demanded hurriedly, "go ask the last person who saw her, it was a few years ago I'll take you to her as soon as I can".
"First you wanted me to identify a monster?" Rigran asked, "if you can," the doctor said, bringing the boy over to the corpse.
"This may come as a bit of a shock" he warned before removing the blanket, it was the Boyd of a middle aged man with deep gashes on his chest, Rayla felt a bit dizzy at the sight of it as she leaned against the wall and tried to breath.
Callum covered Ezran's eyes from the sight of it, Rigran meanwhile followed the long gash with his finger, "what kind of monsters live in the cursed caldera?" Asked Rigran, "all sorts, spiders, some Banthers with Rabies, and evil spirits" the Doctor said.
"This isn't any of them this is new" Rigran said gravely, "well if you get any more information about it it would be appreciated now I'll take you to who you need to see".
The group then met a girl called Eliss who had a pet grown wolf called Ava, who was actually pretty sweet, she told them about how Ava lost her leg and how the two had ran up the cursed Caldera and met the miracle healer had in a flash of light regrown it right then and there.
"That's it we have to find her" Rayla said with conviction, Rigran wasn't to sure, "I'm not to sure if all this is accurate" he admitted, "we have to find her Rigran, if she can heal a wolf's missing leg then maybe she can heal a dragon egg" Callum said.
"A what?!" Eliss exclaimed, the group looked awkwardly at each other, "you didn't hear anything" Rigran said, performing Axii, "I didn't…" Eliss started, then her wolf liked her face, and effectively cancelled out the spell mid effect "oh sorry what was that about a…" she began coming back to her senses but the group was already gone.
Back with Claudia, Snake and Soren they were still tracking down the tunnel and adorn had taken his Armor off like Snake said to make the trip a little easier, "this is why I hate magic" he complained, "it involves something creepy" he then pressed his hand against some kind of glowing goo, "urgh or gross" he finished.
"Welcome to the life of a Witcher" Snake said snarkily, the tunnel then opened up into a large cavern and Claudia waved the light eminenting magically from Her hand.
"Where is it?" She asked, then an idea struck her and she literally closed her fist on the light and it went out. It wasn't a problem for Snake since his eyes adjusted easily like a cats but Soren was not happy, "what are you doing?!" He exclaimed.
"Then light slowly appeared down a side tunnel and the trio went down it into a cavern of glowing algae and spires, "still think magic is creepy and gross?" Claudia couldn't help but ask in her usual snarky manner.
"Okay so what now?" Soren asked, "nothing we're done" Claudia said, "really?" Soren said relieved, "yeah all that's left is to climb to the top of the tallest mountain in katalis"
Sorens face fell as Claudia smirked, "it's a fun spell" she said with a smile.
