Chapter 5 - Mysterious Gift
As soon as she straightened her back from the low crouch at the lantern, the familiar screeching noises of mutated crows filled her ears. These creatures could be found everywhere in Yharnam and as a result she had much practice in killing them. How they had grown so monstrously large was probably a reason best left unmentioned, but it certainly had something to do with all the beast corpses they were feasting on.
Due to their mutated size they were not able to fly more than a few meters before gracelessly flopping back to ground. So a few well aimed slashes of her Threaded Cane were enough to dispatch them.
"Annoying..." she muttered under her breath as she plucked a feather from in between her blades.
The ear-grating sounds from the bloodthirsty animals had alerted two amateur hunters with torches and axes who promptly made their way over the bridge. They might have been fast for a normal human, but since Tanya had begun to channel to echoes of the fallen through her blood she had been anything but ordinary. Her sharp whip lashed out in one fluid motion and wrapped around the face of one of them.
She pulled with both hands and skin, muscle and bone fragments came loose as she ripped apart his head. A quick shot into his partially opened brain released him from his misery and she turned her full attention to the second one. He was in the process of loading his pistol mid combat (which was a critical mistake if she ever saw one) and so she dashed forward and hammered a knife through his eye. Only one more stab from her transformed cane and he kneeled over dead.
Why would they be here after nightfall? Out in the woods? Honestly they deserved to die just for their sheer stupidity.
Tanya crossed over the small stone bridge and instinctively threw herself to the side immediately after. A decision that ultimately saved her life as she narrowly missed a giant, spiked log that swung down from the trees! It narrowly clipped her hat and pushed it from her head. Traps at night? Were beasts and madmen not already bad enough? She groaned in frustration. Her vacation was definitely long overdue.
Treading ever more carefully to avoid swift impalement from above she came upon a small valley filled with dogs and more blood-crazed citizens. At least she had the advantage of a high point and her scent was being masked by the fresh she had spilt on herself. The dogs were luckily absolutely desensitized to that smell due to the ambient "aroma" of Yharnam.
Seeing as many of prey held torches and stood clustered together she hatched a plan.
She clasped an oil urn from her belt and took aim. The small container flew in a graceful bow through the air before impacting the largest man in the crowd, splattering him and his companions in highly flammable substances.
Confused and enraged sounds were coming from the small group, but she paid it no mind. With one flick of her wrist the sulphur stick between her fingers rubbed against the rough leather of her overcoat and caught fire which soon spread to the fuse of her Molotov.
Another well aimed toss and the half-beasts and their dogs were set aflame.
While the rest of her current enemies were distracted by the delectable smell of cooking flesh and the guttural cries of pain that were a universal invitation for dinner, she managed to construct an extremely weak flight formula and jumped from the five meter cliff. Her bones had become far sturdier than the ones of a normal human, but she wasn´t willing to risk a sprained or twisted ankle when surrounded by hostiles. Better safe than sorry.
The spell slowed her descend just enough to make it absolutely harmless with the added benefit that it was quieter. Stealthily she crept up behind a lone beast man and jumped on his hairy back. His balance dramatically shifted and as a result he fell flat on his snout. Immediately two poisoned daggers found purchase in his throat and opened up his jugular. She retracted one blade and drove it into his spine before had the chance to even make a sound beyond wet gurgling.
Tanya went on to dispatch the rest in a similar fashion until one of the mangy mutts managed to sink its fouling fangs into her left arm and would not let go even in death. Breaking its entire jaw was harder than expected and pulling the yellow teeth from her flesh was also not a pleasurable experience. Had her pain tolerance not been absurdly high she would have cried like a little girl. Still, it was nothing a blood vial couldn´t fix.
Not long after this (literal) warm-up she reached the outskirts of a small village. The houses were obviously long abandoned and had fallen in a state of absolute disrepair. A few long lost inhabitants were still viciously defending their territory, but their small numbers made them almost a non-threat.
(For some reason Tanya couldn´t help but think that their blood tasted like resin and mildew. Their residence in the forest impacted their live fluids unpleasantly. Well-fed townsfolk were much better.)
Among the decaying huts and windmills a single, red lantern served as the only illumination in the vicinity and appeared strangely alluring. It had a quality to it that seemed to draw her in with the promise safety and comfort. Because both of these things didn´t exist in Yharnam she became immediately she was cautious. This whole scenario reeked of a trap.
Silent as a shadow stepped the young hunter over fallen leaves and twigs until she stood near the lamp and eyed it carefully. Her back was slightly turned so that she could sprint off faster and her knees were tensed in preparation for a jump. Slowly she extended her weapon and used it to knock on the wall.
From behind the rotting boards that barricaded the door a pale, bald face emerged and smiled nastily back at her. She readied her throwing knifes.
"Oh, a hunter of beasts, are you? Glory be. You know not the value you possess..."
Well, it was nice to receive a compliment for her community service once in a while. At least he showed some level of respect for her profession.
"Greetings. I humbly thank you for your kind words citizen."
Before she could continue and ask him for a map of the area (not very likely, but that could potentially save her a lot of time) he interrupted her:
"But, more's the pity... The hours of the night are many, and the beasts more than I can count. A veritable hunt unending! Not even death offers solace, and the blood imbibes you. Ha, a most frightful fate, oh my."
Tanya wanted nothing more than to agree, but she couldn´t openly badmouth her employer. Who knew if he was watching! Subconsciously her gaze flickered upwards to the moon in the sky.
"But I'm willing to do you a kindness. Step lightly round to the right of the great cathedral, and seek an ancient, shrouded church... The gift of the godhead will grant you strength... Yes, I'm unquestionably certain, heheh..."
Great. Just when she thought she had found an empathetic sympathizer to her cause he revealed his true colours as a lunatic! Why were insane people the only ones to survive in Yharnam? Natural selection was supposed to eliminate them first!
Her eyes must have played a trick on her because what he stretched through the cracks in the door were no human fingers. Instead they looked more like insect legs; black and smooth. Whatever. It was probably only the dim light on a leather glove anyway. She had seen stranger. The stranger dropped a small object and she was quick enough to catch it.
It was a black, oval stone covered in strange grooves and holes. From what she could make out the thing appeared organic, but it was cold and heavy as metal. The stranger didn´t offer further explanation regardless of much she knocked and whispered out to him so that was a disappointment.
Tanya had honestly no idea what the hell the organic stone was, but she didn´t want to touch it for too long so she slipped it into her pocket and decided to examine it later under better lighting conditions. Even if the bald guy who had gifted her the stone was most likely not of sane mind she would need to investigate his mysterious hint. If she could truly gain something valuable from this "godhead" then she would be a fool to pass this opportunity up. The worst that could happen was that she would waste some time.
Onwards she went to Byrgenwerth.
.
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Note: Do you know what that stone could be? :)
