Me: “What’s happening?”

Len: “It’s payback time.”

Rue: “”No, we will stay inside the village. They will take care of the monsters by themselves.”

Len: “What? Why?”

Eaglewoman: “Because that was our agreement with the Hunter Guild, we will deal with them without the need of your help.”

 

Before we even realized it the eaglewoman was already standing behind Len and Rue. She said that they had the agreement with the Hunter Guild that let them go at the monkeys alone and of course they will also take all of the loot from the fight. I did hear Rue talk about it in one of my training, that hunters could negotiate the job requirement and reward with the guild. Of course the guild won’t let them just add whatever requirement they want, but as long as the request is doable then they will be granted.

 

Len: “There are dozens of those bloody things waiting outside. How can you take care of them with just 4 people?”

Eaglewoman: “There are 67 monkeys outside to be exact and you don’t need to worry, we are already experienced in this kind of job. All you have to do is to sit here and wait for the good news.”

Mojak: “Now now boy, calm down. Why even go out there and hurt yourself fighting monkeys? They already got the okay from the guild anyway so there is nothing you could do.”

Eaglewoman: “Well then, now that the chief has spoken I’m sure that this matter is done. I’ll see you later after the extermination.”

Mojak: “Good hunting, young lady.”

Eaglewoman: “Thank you, sir.”

 

The eaglewoman then took a few steps further from us, spread her wings wide and flew to the sky. It seemed that there was nothing for me to do which is a shame. I spent so much time training inside the village so I thought I could at least fight 2 or 3 monkeys to see if my training bore any fruit. Meanwhile Len was swearing up a storm while walking towards the chief’s home.

 

Rue: “Should we continue our training then?”

Me: “Sure.”

 

It had been a few hours since the eaglewoman came to the village and delivered the news to us. Rue and I are currently casually chatting with each other while having our lunch (do you know that you can actually make a wine from any fruit? What a nice trivia). While I was busy cleaning the plates that we used I saw Rue staring at the village wall.

 

Me: “What’s wrong?”
Rue: “It’s too quiet. It has been a few hours already, they should have started the extermination a long time ago.”

Me: “Maybe they were just doing it really quietly?”

Rue: “That’s impossible. Those monkeys will scream if they even hear a twig snap. That was why Len was chased by so many of them. Just one scream a whole forest of monkeys will follow after.”

 

After saying that Rue stood up and walked to his storage room to take his ladder. I quickly cleaned all of the dishes and followed after him. Putting the ladder against the wall Rue signaled me to be quiet and climbed the wall. He reached the top of the wall and looked around. Since he was so high up I can’t really see his expression. He then climbed down the ladder and looked at me with his usual expression.

 

Me: “So?”

Rue: “Nothing.”

Me: “No change?”

Rue: “No, I mean literally nothing, no monkeys, no hunters, nothing.”

Me: “So they succeeded then.”

Rue: “Again no. there was also no blood or any trace of fighting. This is really weird.”

 

Feeling that something really amiss was happening Rue once again walked to the chief’s house to report the situation.

 

Mojak: “Nothing at all?”
Rue: “Yes. At least from what I can see from up there.”

Mojak: “Hmm… weird indeed.”

Rue: “Should we send Len and some others to investigate?”

Mojak: “Forest Witch.”

Rue: “What!?”

Me: “What?”

Rue: “Forest Witch. A monster in a human shell. They are an evil creature that could appear in the forest seemingly randomly. They could control monsters to do their bidding and they can also use multiple dark magic. They usually kidnap children and drink their blood as fuel for their magic.”

Mojak: “Ho Ho Ho now everything makes sense. It seems that one appeared inside the forest and used the blood monkeys to gather blood for itself. If it uses blood monkeys then there will be less suspicion on its existence after all. When people got attacked they could just blame the monkeys.”

Rue: “but chief how can you be so sure that it is a forest witch?”

Mojak: “Just call it an elder’s wisdom. You start to pay attention to mundane things when you get this old. Wait here.”

 

The chief went back inside his house, most likely to grab something else from his old hunting days. I did wonder what kind of treasure trove was hidden inside his house, maybe I could find something that would help me in my travel like a magic carpet or some flying brooms. While I was distracted with magic thingies the chief came out with a tiny round yellow ball the size of his fist.

 

Rue: “That’s…”

Mojak: “Rue grab Len and go find the witch. Use this only when you are sure you can kill her.”

Rue: “Yes.”

Me: “Wait, please explain to me!”

Rue: “There is no time to explain, the four hunters might still be alive so we need to hurry.”

Me: “Then can I go with you?”

Rue: “No, do you think someone who trained for only a few weeks can keep up with us?”

 

Rue then ran towards his guard house and grabbed his equipment and rang the bell. A few minutes later Len appeared still looking angry, but after he and Rue talked for a while he ran back to the chief’s house to also grab his equipment. With all of their preparation done they opened the small door at the gate and ventured into the forest.

 

Me: “So chief, what did you give them?”

Mojak: “Hohoho that’s a  Lightning ball. Throw one and you can see what happens when you anger the gods.”

Me: “Why didn’t you use that from the start then?”

Mojak: “That thing is not easy to find, you know? I only have one of those.”

Me: “Ah, can you explain the situation now?”

Mojak: ”Sure.” 

 

So from the explanation from the chief I can say that the Forest Witch is a slug like monster that can enter a human corpse and control it. It is also an enemy for humans because other than taking over our corpses it will also feed on us. Basically a forest witch is a monster that likes to drink human blood, not because she needs it to survive like the vampires but to increase her own power, which is really bad. The worst thing is that we let it do whatever it wished for more than a few weeks now. One has to wonder how many people fell victim to it. And if we just let it continue she will just keep drinking blood nonstop until the body can’t take it anymore and…

 

Me: “Boom!”

Mojak: “Hohoho no. That would be better actually. It will spawn a huge egg full of those slugs and they will use the 4 hunters body for their new house. The stronger and fresher the body the better for them after all.”

Me: “Right. So what am I supposed to do now?”

Mojak: “Whatever you want to do?”