The witch can wait, right now i needed to gather the materials. I decided to go to the abandoned camp first to see if they had anything useful. Suddenly something slowly floated by my head and I quickly snatched it out of instinct, it was a long silky smooth hair. My smile only increased, it was a hair from a small girl. With this single item I could track the witch no matter how hard she tried to hide as long as she had recently been in contact with the girl. With careful hands i placed the delicate hair into a special container that was by my knife. 

     The ceremony needed to be completed when the sun or moon was at its highest, so i had a bit of time to gather and process the needed items. Still time was precious so I sprinted towards the camp and arrived in a few seconds. I quickly began ransacking it searching for anything of value. After a few minutes i had two metal one gallon pots, a box filled with four lilac scented candles, three wooden bowls, a purse of what looks like silver coins, two purses of copper coins, and eight well made black cloaks including the one I had grabbed previously. After thinking for a bit I decided to pack one of the large hiking bags and take it with me.

     I started to head back along the path i had taken previously. I took this chance to observe the energies around me, i had already failed to notice the witch and I didn’t want to miss anything else. I could feel quite a few different kinds of spirits and monsters. This forest apparently had an abundance of supernatural forces, all the more reason to complete the claiming ceremony. A sigh escaped me, so much to do and so little time to do it.

     After a few I arrived back to my necklace and sack. I put on my necklace and slung the sack over my back. Even though I wanted to check the cave I awoke in for spacial anomalies, I needed to set up the ceremony. Instead of going further up the trail I decided to follow it back down to the blood soaked clearing. The blood will act as a good catalyst to bring out any spirit who wished to dispute my claim.

     I dropped my supplies in the middle of the clearing and adventured off to gather the needed herbs, fungus, and tree sap. I did not truly need these materials but the ceremony was more formality than anything. I knelt down and sent a magic wave into the ground, i carefully intertwined my threads with the web of light green strands that interconnected the forest. Once connected with the network a wave of information flooded my mind, most of it went from one ear and out the other but i was able to filter out the information i was looking for. The forest i was in was apparently much bigger than i first thought, the cave I woke up in was on the edge of a large mountain range that stretched on a few hundred miles and beyond that was the area i was currently in which also stretched as far if not farther than the mountains. The town, Rafton, was not at the edge of the forest but was actually quite a distance into it. While i was in the network I decided to look for the witch as well but when I tried nothing came up as expected, she either has a close connection with the forest or a heavily warded area.

      Now for the real reason i was doing this, the ingredients. I needed a grove of bloody leafed ferns, forty two petals of bone fall flowers, one devouring tree, five feet of flesh vines, eight seeds(doesn’t really matter what kind), a tortured tree, a bundle of pine needles, etc. each where surprisingly easy to find, I suppose it’s the abundance in mana. Most of my materials are just normal plants that just had to be grown in certain conditions.

     After receiving the needed information I disconnected from the network and began to venture out to collect them. Each where in a reasonable distance so I began rushing to gather them. The day had reached around mid morning by the time i had finished my adventure. With a sigh I began my preparations, first I needed specific tools. This is where the fledglings bones come in to play. I gathered a bundle of sticks in front of me and arranged them into a standing cone. With a wave of my hand the sticks instantly combusted and a flame rose high into the air. A mere natural flame wouldn’t work for my needs so I grabbed the bag I prepared before hand. It contained forty two different ground up herbs, the left foot of a weird rabbit I found, and three feathers of a crow.

     When the bag made of grass landed at the bace of the fire it blew up into a ball of green flames. The green fire spread until it was all a menacing green.

Now the next step, I grabbed the pot beside me that was filled with water and set it into the fire. Almost instantaneously the water rose to a rolling boil, I grabbed the wooden bowl beside me and dumped the assortment of freshly crushed black blooded fungi and twenty one petals of fall bone flowers. The water stopped boiling and turned viscous, i needed to wait for it to boil again. After a few the rolling boil started up again and now the last step could be performed. I retrieved my knife and raised it above my left forearm, without hesitation i drove it in-between the bones. With a twist a few black drops of blood fell into the pot, turning it into a pitch black. I proceeded to slowly place a doll of grass, blood, and hair into the pot and it pumped out a volatile mana infused with the curses I gathered from the expedition. Screams erupted abruptly from the black viscous liquid, each yelling and spitting the worst curses imaginable. A small chuckle came from me as I listened to the  beautiful symphony.

A/N- I have a discord if you want to join https://discord.gg/BkUP7Eg2WJ