Chapter 3: Breakout and Answers
Gold cat eyes open hearing soft footsteps walking down the hallway. After his meditation was broken he notices how dark the room has gotten realizing that the sun has fully set so it has been hours. He wonders if someone had escaped from their cell.
He wasn't the only one who heard that. Katya, his fellow inmate, wondered that too.
"Hey cat lady, how'd you get out of your cell?" She asked.
"Oh, I'm not a cat lady! Or a criminal."
"Not yet your not!" Said an unknown voice.
'Wait.' The Witcher found the first new voice a little too familiar.
The voice of Katya continued. "Neither are we! We got locked up for being different for society. I got locked up because I like writing fanfics about food falling in love. I like food, I like love. Just let me write about it!"
During this discussion, Darek gets closer to the gate looking to his right and his suspicion was right. It was the human girl he encountered in the market earlier, and she brought a pet dog or something that's standing on its hind legs.
It had black fur with a white underbelly with what looks like a skull for a face with yellow eyes and horns with one broken off. It also has a red collar with a golden tag.
'Hm. Pretty cute.' He thinks to himself.
"I'm here because I keep eating my eyes." Said the other inmate that was next to him.
After he gave his name to his cell neighbor he learned that this guy's name is Bertrand. And he also learned of the other inmate whose name is Tinella Nosa or Tiny Nose as she's also called.
"We are agents of fwee expwession! The world will never siwence us!" Yelled out the conspiracy theorist.
"She's really into conspiracy theories." Katya explained to the human.
"The world is a triangle! We are pwaythings for a higher being!"
'Damn, okay maybe she might need a little help.' Thought the witcher.
"Wait, these are not crimes. You're just outcasts, weirdos. Like me." Luz looks down with a sad look.
Katya interjects. "Well maybe except him, he's the only one of us here that did technically do something illegal which was attacking guards with magic or something."
Darek stiffens at being called out like this glaring to his side towards her, unprepared for the spotlight of the human who is now looking at him not realizing that another prisoner was there.
"Woah, why did you do that? And what's with those eyes? You look like a-"
Her face went from surprised and amazed to shock and realization at who she was talking to.
She points at him. "Wait, you're the guy who helped me at the market! You used a mind trick and fought those guards as we got away!"
She squints closer and her eyes widen.
"How come you have round ears like mine, are you a human or something? And what's with the cat eyes? Man, they are so cool!" Her eyes sparkling at the end.
Darek was about to speak up when heavy footsteps started getting closer to the door.
He whispered loudly to the human. "Get out of here kid! Hide!"
She looks around and spots an empty cell and her and her furred companion dove in and hid up at the back in the shadows hoping to be out of sight.
The door swings open with a bang.
"I can hear you…"
Everyone was silent as a cemetery as he walked until he spotted something on the ground. He bent over and picked it up showing that it is a wanted poster.
"Eda the owl lady." He growled out.
"One day I will capture you." He turned his hand into a hammer and slammed it into the cell door that Luz was hiding in.
Tiny nose kept yelling despite the warden in the room. "Welease us you old cweep!"
He promptly releases the lever and the cell door of Tiny Nose moves upward.
"Hooway I'm fwee!"
*Squeeze*
"Yelp!"
The warden snatched her out and now the Witcher can see what she actually looks like. She's a tiny little white creature with stubby arms and legs with orange hair and a massive nose.
'Fitting nickname.' The Witcher thought dryly as she's suffering the grasp of the warden.
The behemoth of a warden tells everyone in the vicinity. "Let this be a warning for all of you. There is no place for you in society if you can't fit in."
He promptly storms off with Nosa in hand and shuts the door.
Luz quickly maneuvers her way out of the broken gate with her doglike companion.
Katya tells her to quickly free them but the girl is having trouble with all this as she can't lift the lever.
"Nooo! My weak nerd arms!" She cries out in defeat.
Darek couldn't stop himself from commenting which was dipped in sarcasm. "Have you ever heard of a pushup? Cause those would've been pretty beneficial right about now."
She glares back at him with annoyance before she lights up remembering something earlier outside the prison.
Luz, King, and Eda are currently looking at the giant tower of the conformatorium about to embark to get back King's crown to return the power that he lost.
After going over the plan which was to lift King and Luz to one of the upper windows while Eda will circle around and find another way in. After that they will reconvene at the evidence lockup.
Before Luz in her purple cat hood could depart Eda stops her.
"Wait human, I almost forgot." She turns to her and the witch continues. "If you see the man we saw in the market earlier today make sure to get him out of his cell." The Owl Lady says to her new ally.
"Woah, really?!" Luz says in surprise not expecting her to say that after all she has known her to be a criminal.
King adds in. "Why? Is it because you left him behind earlier? Aww does the all powerful Owl Lady feel bad?" He says in a teasing manner.
She blushes in embarrassment. "No! It's just basic witches code. Just to pay him back after helping us, nothing more, nothing less."
Even though Luz won't admit it to the witches face, she has a feeling that Eda feels pretty bad about leaving the cat eyed guy behind to fend off the guards. As rugged and nutty as she is there is a sense of a conscience in there.
Luz gets closer to the bars and starts pushing on his cell door lever even harder now.
He eyes at her with confusion. "What are you doing?"
"Getting you out, cat man." The dog creature said.
His eyes widening at hearing the creature speak but shrugs it off while looking at them with suspicion.
"What's the catch with this?"
Luz stops, confused at hearing this. "What do you mean?"
He crosses his arms. "There's always a catch with you magic users. I accept your help, get out, and then what? I do a specific contract for you since my soul is essentially bound to do your bidding until I do what's needed to be free. This ain't my first experience with sorcerers."
Meanwhile the Dominican girl is baffled at what she's hearing. Clearly this guy must've gotten seriously screwed over by witches or maybe that's how favors work in the Demon realm since technically she's in the middle of one right now. Get the crown for King and then she can go home.
"Uh, no? Eda said she wanted to pay you back for helping us."
"And by 'Helping us' you mean throw me to the guards like bait while you all flew away on a flying broomstick?" He continues looking unimpressed as well as angry. "Yea. Sounds like she REALLY wants to help me out."
The Dominican girl wants to retort but stops knowing that it did look really bad back at the market so saying anything against that would've been considered moot. Despite that she also feels intimidated seeing those gold slitted eyes staring down at her with contempt.
The demon rolls his eyes and looks to Luz. "C'mon human we mustn't waste time! My crown is somewhere in the evidence lockup!"
He's pulling at her trying to get her away towards the evidence lockup but she isn't budging.
Luz kneels down and looks him in the eye.
"I'll be back soon. I promise, me and Eda will get you out." She smiles nervously as she stands up and moves out of his sight.
He looks after her in bewilderment. 'Since when did a human or hell a mage for that matter give a crap about me, a Witcher?' He thinks to himself.
In his 50 plus years of being a Witcher he has never seen someone go out of their way to help him, other than other Witchers of course depending on which school they are from. The only other times he knows of anyone helping him is for a favor or something to the equivalent of that. However since the human from what he saw didn't portray herself as a mage nor did her heart beat speed up when explaining her intent it seems that maybe she might not have ill intentions.
'No. Mages and Witches lie. They always lie.' He thinks bitterly at himself knowing full well what magic users are capable of to innocents caught in their path.
"It's moving towards the carriage!"
"Run!"
"Call it off, please!"
"Ahhhh!
He snaps out of it feeling pain in his palm. He saw that his nails broke through his skin causing it to bleed. He takes deep breaths slowing down his heart before kneeling back into his meditation, needing to clear his mind.
"EDA GIVE ME A HAND!"
Darek is ripped out of his short lived meditation hearing the human yelling. One by one the cell doors open including his own. He steps out and his eyes widen at what he's seeing. The human girl is flying quickly on a wooden staff with an owl at the head with the talking horned dog and the witch at the market behind her hitting all the mechanisms causing every cell door to fly open. Prisoners one by one slowly exit not believing what they are seeing.
But for him he's shocked and trying to wrap around the fact that the witch's head is in the human's lap while her body is completely functioning fine.
He can barely process what he just saw before hearing an explosion at the lower level of the tower. Most of the prisoners took this as their opportunity to whoop and cheer as they fled towards their freedom. However for the witcher and his neighbors they walked out of their respective cells still trying to understand what was happening.
Darek looks to his sides and now sees who his cell neighbors are. Bertrand resembled close to that of a blue troll but with multiple eyes and without a rocky back. He was wearing a brown loincloth.
Katya was a rather attractive young woman with dark skin, hazel eyes, pointy ears, sharp canines with brown hair in a ponytail. She is wearing a purple dress with black shoes.
As they slowly move towards the hole not knowing what to make of their opportunity, Darek grabs the woman by her shoulder. She looks towards him in curiosity and slight shock in realizing just how rugged and on the surface intimidating he looks.
He asks, "Do you know where the evidence lockup is? I need to get my supplies."
She gestures behind her towards the hallway. "M-maybe that way but I don't know." She says nervously.
"Second thoughts on escaping or are you surprised by how ugly I look?" He asks/jests seeing how uncomfortable she is.
She blushes in embarrassment. "N-no I think you look fine, it's just that." She breathes deeply to collect her thoughts before the young witch continues. "I just think that we will just get captured and thrown in prison again. Warden Wrath is a powerful witch and if he catches us, then well…"
She looks down in sadness knowing that despite this opportunity it can easily fall apart and a small part of her feels that she somewhat deserves this for her overall weirdness. She never fit in anywhere so what's the point?
He shakes her softly to get her to look at him. Darek looks at her with steady and strength in his features. "Better to at least try and fight than lay down and cower like a baby. Believe me, you'll hate yourself even more if you just quit." He walks past her and speedwalks down the hallway towards the evidence lockup, not noticing her gaze at him. She resolves herself a little and continues her way towards the gaping hole in the tower towards the courtyard.
After sneaking his way through the stone walls and hiding from running guards, he finally found what he thought was where his armor and swords were. A large wooden door with a plaque next to it that says Contraband. He pushes open the door and sees a pile of items in the center of the room with a beam of light surrounding it. He makes his way inside now realizing the cracks and craters in the ground. Based on the impact he concludes that a fight broke out.
However, that's not what's important. He gets closer and recognizes his armor, swords, crossbow, and leather supplies bag at the bottom of the tower.
What he didn't realize was the literal wall separating him from his stuff.
"Oh fuck me, of course it has got to be a magic field!" He curses loudly. Some kind of magic was keeping him out from getting his stuff, and frustration was MILD compared to what he was feeling now. With both hands he strains, begins pushing as hard as he can through the light. "I swear." He grunts in exertion, letting out all of the frustration he has been feeling the past few days. "I will destroy. Every single ONE OF YOUUU!" He yells as inch by inch he finally makes it through the barrier keeping the Witcher from his tools.
"I am Luz the human, champion of peace! Now eat this SUCKA!" With all her strength and accuracy Luz hits her class project, which was a jumble of fireworks strapped together with ropes and tape with Edas owl staff and it flies into warden wrath's giant fire breathing maw.
After getting tackled by his former prisoners and getting his tentacle-like arms getting knotted into a bow, the terrible and venerable Warden Wrath now feels the explosives starting to ignite in his jaw from the heat and flame..
At the last moment he spits it out
BOOM!
In a large colorful display of red, blue, and green decorating the sky he is flung back with his teeth utterly destroyed. Miraculously his jaw remained intact but still faced the brunt of the explosion. He gets up with his face blackened and burnt. Engulfed in an unadulterated rage he rips his limbs free from the knots and starts stalking towards his assailants like a tiger circling his prey.
Luz gulps in fear realizing that her plan only partly worked. She backs up towards her new friend and acquaintance, the owl lady, hoping that she's got a plan.
"Kid, King, you all better get on quick! We better bounce!" Eda calls to them not liking this turn of events.
The warden growls. "I was originally going to capture you all. But now I'm just going to enjoy ripping and tearing you all limb from limb!" He roars about to leap forward and begin his evisceration on the frightened outlaw, demon, human, and prisoners.
…
"WAIT!"
He turns towards the hole in the tower and there with his silver sword unsheathed is the other prisoner that was captured now fully equipped with his gear and his bag to the side. Breathing heavily in either exhaustion or anger, he walks towards the warden.
He glares and says in a low voice that carries across the courtyard, "You better crawl back to whatever cave you came from."
The warden laughs. "Oh? And what will happen if I don't?
He stops walking, glaring intensely at the behemoth before him. "Then I will cut out your heart."
Luz as well as Eda and King are shocked at what they are seeing. A man that is sort of human having no fear whatsoever against the larger demon.
Only rage.
"Then come and take it, freak!"
He quickly charges and slams his limbs down into the ground causing cracks and dirt to fly everywhere. He lifts them up and sees nothing underneath, before he feels three quick sharp pains in his back.
"AHH!" Wrath screams in pain at feeling the slashes decorating his back.
As they start to heal he turns around and sees the warrior rolling back away from him.
His sword now drips in blue blood.
"What are you?!"
He responds by twirling it into a reverse grip. "I'm a professional who hunts and kills monsters and ugly freaks of nature like yourself."
"A Witcher."
"Eda, what's a Witcher?" She says to her witch companion believing that she would have the answers.
Eda replies. "I have no idea, kid. But whatever that is, he's gonna be in the fight of his life without any serious magic to back him."
"So be it, Witcher." Warden wrath unveils his limbs into large blades and the two begin to clash.
Even with his strength, Darek is not enough to out muscle the pissed off warden. So he had to rely on his enhanced speed and technique to whittle him down, and possibly use an extra tool or two to even the odds if need be.
On the defensive the Witcher is moving his blade as quickly as possible to parry his attacks while moving around him trying to find an opening.
Meanwhile the others are gobsmacked at how an individual is using a sword to defend himself from a powerful witch with such finesse.
Luz is in awe at seeing him fight like a character in her video games or anime that she watches.
King is meanwhile awed but also wondering whether to recruit him for his army or as a personal bodyguard or assassin to do his bidding. If he survives that is.
The escapees are shocked at seeing their fellow inmate showing such skill now realizing just how dangerous he was presented as by the warden.
Eda meanwhile just keeps studying his movements.
Darek uses a free hand to conjure a blast of air causing the warden to stumble, giving him an opening to lightly slash him across his side. He moves back and is surprised at seeing his gray skin heal. 'Shit he's like an Alghoul. He heals from what I can typically throw at him.'
The warden slams down overhead causing the Witcher to leap out of the way before slicing him again in the back.
Right after he leaps back and summons a gold covering around him with a gesture from his hand.
"Agh!" The warden yells out in pain from the slash, extending his limbs even farther before whipping them around like a helicopter's blades at intense speed trying to either slice his opponents head off or cut him in half. The Witcher tries to get out of the way but is too late.
In a gold explosion the warden hit the Witcher causing him to fly backwards from the force tumbling across the ground.
"No!" The human yelled out. She rushes forward but is stopped by Eda. "Kid, trust me you can't get in between this without getting killed. Besides, you're extremely fragile and most likely will get squished."
Eda has lived a long while and during her adventures and exploits she has no idea what she is witnessing. Seeing witches wielding swords is nothing new but watching him do it with such speed and finesse is something that she has never seen before. But what truly trumps that is the magic he's using. She noticed how he structured his fingers causing the most basic of spells such as a force field and a blast of wind without a circle. 'That's impossible.' She thought not believing in what she saw.
"But we have to help him!" Luz exclaimed not wanting to stay on the sidelines. Even though she just met him, she doesn't want the man who helped her earlier to die because she freed him.
Before the Owl Lady can respond they hear him.
"No!"
He stands up looking determined.
"He's mine."
He examines his opponent and thinks about his options.
'I can probably cast Axii, and cut him to bits if his structure is that of an alghoul. Ugh, but if that fails I'll be dead if he attacks me like that again since it'll be a few moments before I can cast Quen again.'
'At this point I have to cut him down as quickly as possible before he can regenerate. Looks like I'm gonna need a boost.'
He reaches behind his belt and pulls out a bomb and tosses it. It explodes at the warden's feet causing him to move back and cough at the black smoke and debris.
The warden moves through the smoke to get a view of his opponent. He sees him downing a potion of some kind.
The green contents go down Dareks throat and he drops the empty bottle at his feet causing it to shatter.
His nerves throughout the body feel like they are being lit on fire, black veins spread across his body and his dark skin begins to pale.
"A potion won't save you, Witcher." The warden gloats as he uses his limbs to create orange spell circles. Fire blasts begin to maneuver towards the monster hunter. Standing his ground he summons Aard and thanks to the elixir he took enhanced his signs as well as reflexes, allowing the massive blast to disperse the fire.
The warden is baffled and shocked at what he saw. A mere freak of nature summoned so much air and power to cancel out his blast.
"Hehehe."
The sickly looking Witcher stares at his opponent with a sadistic look and grin on his face.
Using his freehand creates the axii sign causing a white triangle from the hand gesture. Instantaneously the warden's vision gets distorted, his head pounding like a drum.
"My turn, prick."
He rushes forward at lightning speeds, easily maneuvering around the warden's desperate cuts and causing deep gashes combined with the sign now doing more damage than what can be healed. Warden wraths vision has cleared and does his best to block but unlike before it's harder now to outmuscle him. So now he's desperately moving back to engage in long based attacks and magic. He leaps backwards and creates multiple spell circles of different colors. Fire, ice, lightning, and unstable blue balls of energy began flying towards his location.
Darek leaps and rolls to the side as far as he can as they hit where he was causing a massive explosion. He flies away from the blast knocking his sword from his hand about 8 feet away.
Wrath charges forward ready to finish him.
"DIE!" He turns his hand into a hammer ready to smash him into a squashed tomato.
Darek, laying down, quickly unbuckles his last bomb from his belt and chucks it at the wardens head.
The bright green blast as well as the shrapnel blinded the warden as he stumbled back grabbing his face.
He tries to summon magic but can't. Wrath then feels the urge to throw up feeling like he came down with the worst case of the common mold. Green electricity sparkles the air surrounding him, as he finally empties the contents in his stomach, grossing everyone out except the witcher and Eda.
Darek rushes forward grabbing his sword and flies forward.
What Luz and the others then saw will stay in their respective prefrontal cortex for many years to come.
The Witcher backflips cutting the warden's right arm clean off then after landing crouches and spins cutting off his left leg in one swift movement.
"AHHH!"
The warden falls over clutching on his desperately healing stumps gushing in black blood.
Darek sees his prey trying to pathetically crawl away and moves in closer to put his boot on his shoulder pushing him on his back forcing the warden to look at his predator.
"P-please. Don't kill me. I have a son!" The warden exclaims in fear and moves his hand up to desperately defend the killing blow.
The Witcher ignoring his victims' pleas brings his sword up in a reverse grip ready to stab into his head and make good on his threat.
"Hold on!"
Darek doesn't need to look behind him recognizing the voice of the human girl.
"Don't kill him! Look at him, he's not a threat anymore."
Darek speaks coldly. "He's a monster in every sense. He doesn't deserve to live after what he did to so many people here."
Luz gulps in anxiety."I know he's a full fledged jerk, but he doesn't deserve to get killed. And is it fair to take a parent away from their kid?" She says with emotion.
His eyes widen.
"Whore!"
"Hang her and the half breed!"
"Mom!"
A pregnant pause fills the air for about 10 seconds. And finally without a word he sheathes his sword on his back.
"Go back in your hole. If you refuse or come after us in any way I will cut your head off and mount it on my horse as a trophy."
He leans down and grabs his maw.
"Understand me?"
Wrath looks fearfully at the Witchers gaze. "Y-yes. I won't come after you or anyone else. I promise."
"Good." He lets go and steps off the warden, walks back towards the human.
Luz lets out a huge exhale, glad that no one got killed. She looks at the Witcher with a nerve filled smile. "Hey, I gotta say man, that backflip and sword skill was ama-." Walks right past her without a look in her direction. "-zing." Her face falls in disappointment.
'Great conversationalist.' She thinks to herself.
He makes his way to his leather bag and digs through it before pulling out a potion of white gull and downs it. His paleness and black veins go away substantially allowing him to breathe easier and feel better. He puts the empty bottle back in the bag and picks it up and begins to make the long trek back to civilization. Hopefully away from the town he was busted in.
"Wait."
He stops and turns to see the cat witch as well as the other inmates that were in his proximity.
As exhausted as she was, she looked at him with genuine gratitude. "Thank you. For not just this but earlier for what you said to me, and in extension, us."
The others nod in agreement fully backing up what their former inmate said.
His expression softens, before nodding and continues to move away. Hopefully towards a boat to get off this magic infested rock.
"You! Weapon wielding witch!" Bellowed a high voice.
He stops looking down to the voice which belonged to the anthropomorphic dog-like creature.
He raises his little arms. "Your skills have impressed me! I am making an offer to you! Bow to me and join me in my army to reclaim my throne, and to rule the isles!"
…
…
"Pfft!" Darek lets out an uncharacteristic snort. For the first time in years.
He waits for either the creature or those surrounding him to laugh. But they didn't.
"Oh, you're serious?"
"Yes! Do not mock me! I am the king of all demons!"
Realizing that this small anthropomorphic dog actually thinks of himself as a king, he thinks for a moment then decides to play along.
"Sorry your highness but as a Witcher I swore to not take sides with kings or wars. Afraid you'll have to find someone else to join your ranks."
After consideration the witcher decided he wasn't a threat, and besides he was a little cute so he wouldn't crush his dreams that no doubt will inevitably fail.
Someone else will do that.
"I see. I respect that you will keep your oath! Farewell warrior!"
Darek swiftly turns and walks the other way. But is stopped by yet another voice. One that he wanted to never hear again.
"Hey."
He breathes deeply through his nose before facing the woman that left him behind in the market.
"Look, I just want to say that was some very impressive-Eep!"
Eda couldn't finish her compliment when in an instant his silver sword was out and pressing against her neck while he was standing dangerously close, allowing her to see the sharp hatred and killing intent in his eyes.
"Don't think I forgot what you did to me at the market, as well as you endangering a child. If you try or do anything to me, you will end up like fucking stumpy over there." gesturing to Warden Wrath who is still recovering from the Dimeritium Bomb, trying to close his wounds and regrow his missing limbs.
"The only reason why I'm not killing you here and now is that you helped free me, and the kid who vouched for you kept her word, and therefore yours. But if I see you again, you're dead." He sheathes and continues to walk away leaving her stunned at how quickly he moved.
Luz catches up to check on her but before she can snap at the witcher for how cruel he was being, Eda stops her and pursues him.
"You're not from the isles, are you." She said with absolute confidence with a hand on her hip and a smirk hiding her underlying nerves.
He stops walking but doesn't face her.
He chuckles. "That obvious huh?"
"You can cast magic without a spell circle and you have human qualities. Well except for the eyes, weapons, and speed that is."
Still not looking at her he responds impatiently. "Yea no shit. Your point?"
"My point is that despite all those little quirks, I can tell that you have no idea where you are or what everything is. Practically everyone on the isles knows that there is no talking down the emperor's coven without threat of arrest, or worse which you demonstrated in the market earlier today in quite possibly the coolest way possible."
She continues. "Also before that fun chase you asked the human about going back to a place called the Continent. After we escaped I asked her and she said that she had no idea what you were talking about or what kind of human you are. And after watching that fight, it was pretty clear to me that you, like this little ball of chaos here," She ruffled Luz's hair causing her to squirm and pout in mock annoyance. " are from another world."
His eyes widen but his face remains stone cold, not wanting to break his demeanor. 'No. No, that is not right. Nothing can cause that except for the conjunction. She's lying,' He thinks to himself denying what she is saying. "What you are speaking of, is something that hasn't happened in almost a thousand years. The conjunction was the only time worlds can be crossed. That is not possible." He says looking serious while internally panicking, praying to whatever gods are out there that this isn't real.
"What's a conjunction?" Luz asks curiously. Before he can answer, Eda interrupts.
"Look buddy, whether you like it or not, you are in the same boat as Luz here. You're from another realm."
He desperately looks around the scenery trying to reconfirm how ludicrous this was. Until he remembers the citizens, and the architecture, and most importantly the magic that he has seen which works way different than what he was accustomed to. 'Maybe, this is..'
"No!" he yells. "My land is on the other side of the world! These isles are just in the middle of the Great Sea!"
"There's nothing out there that describes what you are saying." Eda said, looking dead serious. "From what I've heard, there has been nothing beyond these isles and no explorers have found anything."
'That we know of.' She thinks to herself, because there is an itty bitty chance there is something but Belos has covered it up, but from what Savage Age books she read there has been no mention of other continents or land masses, beyond a few small islands here and there. But she didn't want to give the warrior unnecessary hope.
Reality is sinking in. His stomach feels like he got punched by a troll, and his throat begins to dry up, while his breathing gets heavier, feeling something he hasn't felt in a long time.
Anxiety.
Fear.
These emotions he has been taught as well as chemically to be maintained and suppressed as much as possible. Now for the first time in over 50 years he feels it.
As skittish as her mind is, Luz is very good at reading emotions. She can see the fear and realization being put on his face, realizing how hard he is taking this.
"Hey, Are you okay?" She asks. "Cause it's okay, we can help you! We have a portal that you can use if that'll help!"
Edas face pales realizing one of her secrets is being revealed. "Kid…" She warns while doing the 'cut it out' motion with her hand.
"Cause when I go back home with her, I'll get back home too!"
"Kid."
"And she can help you too!"
"Kid!"
She grabs her and pulls her aside. "Yea, and tell him my address and snail deposit box number while you are at it!" She yells/whispers to her. "We don't know this guy, for all we know he can be an interdimensional serial killer, which judging by his threats as well as his looks and skills I won't be surprised in the least."
"C'mon, like what you said, he's in the same boat as me. Also he helped us with the warden, isn't it fair we help him? Witches code, remember?" she says while smiling hoping her puppy dog eyes can break the witches exterior.
"Mweh!" He jumps onto Luz's shoulders. "Besides!" King butts in. "If all else fails, I will force him to join my army!"
Thinking on her options Eda realizes it's only fair to at least try and help him.
Unbeknownst to them, during their little secret discussion, the monster hunter picked out a small bottle from his bag. It's a clear liquid substance which has a dropper installed as the lid. He unscrews it with one hand and as discreetly as possible squeezes hard on the rubber dropper filling up the thin beaker, pulls it out and sprays the liquid about 4 feet away, coating the bottom of Edas staff as well as both of the witch and human shoes. On each refill and pull out he turns away and walks for a bit before hiding the bottle in his hand as he is facing them.
Miraculously they didn't notice. He quickly puts away the bottle.
Eda turns to him. "Okay so thanks to our little human here, she has convinced me to help you as well get back to wherever it is you came from as well."
He looks coldly at her for a few seconds. Then he sheaths his blade. "The day where I accept help for something as big as this, from a witch, will be the day where I befriend a nest of Nekkers and we have a wine bender out in the city of Novigrad."
While King was confused by the analogy, Eda was annoyed and Luz was a little disheartened.
"Fine then." Eda said snarkily. She gets on her staff with Luz and King and they fly away. While in the air Luz keeps looking back at the stranger as he gets further away as they go over the trees.
When they got far enough away Darek picks up his pack and straps it on. "Good. Time to get to work." He began following on foot to where they flew off. "Whatever crap this witch is planning with this human, I need to intervene on it, and fast." He says to himself as he smells the liquid that he put on them which is a combination of Fiend pheromones and Nekker sweat glands resulting in a pretty rank stink bomb to the witcher but to everyone else the smell is comparable to that of average Body Odor or a rotten onion smell.
He smells the trail and he sprints into the forest.
After about 30 minutes of jogging he reaches closer to where the smell ends. Crouching in the bushes he sees the probable residence of the witch. It is a house made from white bricks resembling your average house in a village except this had what he presumed to be a guard tower however it is falling apart. The thing that really stands out about this home however is the large stained glass window at the top resembling an eye. That and the door from what he sees has an owl face carved on the door in the middle of the upper half.
Then the owl's eyes opened revealing it to be alive.
"Wha-" before he can take in what he saw the face extends itself revealing a long brown tube and immediately slammed into the ground tunneling in.
Feeling the vibration of the ground coming closer and closer, Darek runs and leaps to the side and where he stood something emerges from the ground in an explosion of dirt. What it is can be described as probably the freakiest thing a witcher can ever see.
An owl with a flat face and a long neck with no body whatsoever coming out of a door.
"Hoot! Hello!" It says in a nasally high voice. The sound alone stabbed his ear drums like a knife.
Darek quickly moves in and swings his sword but the bird tube ducked and immediately coiled around him like a snake. "I've always wanted to meet new friends!" He yells in happiness while strangling the witcher before dragging him away towards the house. "Shit!" His voice is muffled inside the owl creature.
Darkness consumed him while being wrapped up and moved quickly, disorienting him. He heard muffled voices and light came to him as he was dumped onto the floor in the house.
"You!"
He looks up seeing the witch, with her dog and the human staring at him in surprise.
Darek sighs. "Fuck."
On a yellow throne in a large stone room embroiled with fancy yellow tapestries and a large gray heart beating above with blue energy coursing through it is a tall man wearing a white cloak with a gold clasp of the emperor's coven wearing a gold mask with what appears to be antlers and gold gloves, and a white staff with a red orb held firmly in his right hand. He sits there eyes closed listening to the Titans heartbeat relishing in the power being emanated from it.
He opens his dark yellow eyes as the large doors at the end of the throne room opens and a small creature in a white cloak walks in. She is no bigger than three feet tall, red skin color and black hair that resembles a hand covering one of her yellow and red eyes.
"Lord Belos." She says.
"What is it Kikimora?" He responds in a calm low voice.
"We… have a situation at the conformatorium."
His eyes narrow. "And what situation is that?" he asks.
"There's been a breakout. The owl lady was involved. As well as eye witness reports of a human child accompanying her."
His eyes widened.
"Also there was someone else." She continues. "A wild witch we believe but he was also human and had eyes like a cat and carried two swords. He defeated Warden Wrath single handedly, my lord. He used magic without a circle, according to the guards who witnessed this but I assume they are exaggerating."
For about a few seconds the large heart above them speeds up and then slowly calms down to its normal beat.
He stood up and walked towards her. She keeps her eyes to the ground slightly unnerved at his presence.
He walks past her. "Hm. It now makes sense." He says.
"Emperor?" Kikimora asks curiously.
"The Titan spoke to me some years ago and informed me of unusual visitors will come to the isles. And that they will have their purpose to bring great change to the isles." He says calmly.
"Should we capture them?" She asks.
"No. The Titan has also informed me that they will be important for the eventual Day of Unity. Inform Lillith to be on the lookout for these visitors and inform me of any developments for the future." He says still facing away from her.
Kikimora sputters in confusion. "B-but Emperor Belos, they broke out prisoners. Clearly they are a threat that we should squash immediately. And I'm sure we can send someone else other than Lillith to handle this. You know of her relationship with the Owl Lady? It'll be a weakness for her"
He turns to her, staring her down. "Are you questioning the Titans' will?"
"No! Of course not!" She yells.
"Good." He walks back to his throne. "Bring this information to Lillith immediately."
"Yes Lord Belos." She bows and speedwalks out of the throne room closing the doors behind her.
He goes back to his throne and sits down. His eyes glow a bright blue.
"Finally. Now we will wait."
About time this came out. I'm sorry this took longer than expected. Got my Bachelors degree, My grandfather passed, My mental health fell apart, and now I finally got a good job and soon I will start grad school this fall.
Anyway I loved building the fight scenes in this chapter wanting to make this as exciting and stress inducing as I could XD.
Anyway I can't wait to start building relationships between our WItcher and his new compatriots, and have him meet our other favorite side characters and then we get into the real meat and potatoes of this story. I don't know when the next chapter will be but please know it will come.
See ya later!
Azrael-50