After three days of building hand carts for the villagers, the two witches come to a grim realization that they can't keep airlifting food forever.
"We need to go out and buy some cattle for this place, but we're going to need a lot of pasture, even is we could get just two oxen and two cows!" Seloniel pleads with Janick.
"Fine, I'll go out of this village and go to the next village over. However, our flying carpet can't support the weight of even one of these animals plus one of us, so I'll need to get the beasts overland" Janick starts thinking of the main obstacle of this plan to get the cattle to Laverton. "So I will be out of the village for about two or three days since I need to protect the livestock on the way here"
Last I heard about the prices of livestock, each of these animals can cost five hundred gold apiece. However, it's only been a few days since I went out to market; I don't think they could go through the magical wine that quickly, especially not when people often tended to dilute the wine with water, Janick realizes that she can't hope to sell nearly as much magical wine as she did last time, and therefore needs to carry a purse large enough for 2000 gold.
But when, after flying to the nearest village on her besom, she arrives at the marketplace, she looks for people who have livestock for sale. Especially oxen and cows. When she finds a vendor with only two oxen for sale...
"Hello; I have some questions about these oxen" Janick then asks the merchant. "First, were they previously used to pull wagons?"
"No, only to pull a plow" the merchant answers.
"I'll think on it"
Or perhaps I can change an ox for a cow if I can get my hands on a third cow! Three cows producing milk are better than two, and we might even be able to rotate the cows on the cart! Janick seems to have a flash, while other farmers might want to sell cows.
At the same time, she hears about refugees traveling the land in search for a new place to call home on the frontier. While Janick is looking for cows, especially younger cows, a family of these refugees begs Janick for assistance:
"Help! We lost everything in a bandit attack!" Kix, the refugee father pleads with her.
"Why are you unable to find a place to live?" Janick asks the refugee family.
"Looks like the landlords of this region had no available tenure remaining!" Madritza, the refugee family's mother, whines about their predicament.
"Before this bandit attack took place, what did you do for a living?"
"We were farming! Before the bandits attacked, we had our cows and some apple trees!" Samka, their daughter, answers the alcohol witch. "Speaking of apples, are there any apples left here?"
"Why?" a confused Janick asks.
"Do you know anyone who has a tenure left?" Kix asks her.
"Yes, it's also tax-exempt, but to get there we need to travel some distance across the forest, with all the dangers that implies"
Said dangers are going to be mostly under the form of monsters since bandits prowl where there are travelers. In the frontier area where Laverton is, there's hardly anyone to attack and hence no use mugging in that forest, Janick realizes that she must be prepared to tramp the forest on foot with cows in tow.
"Just a bit of patience; I just need to get some cows, and an ox" Janick signals the refugees.
And, for some reason, it seems like some dairy farmers were unable to sell cows for weeks, and people shied away from buying cows for some reason. Perhaps some of them already had their hands full with their existing livestock...
"I'm not picky, my farm needs some animals to replace those killed in an uprising" Janick tells the first cow vendor what she wants in a dairy cow. "We're going to use the cow for pulling a wagon, though"
"That will be five hundred gold for her" the first cow vendor rejoiced at the prospect of selling the cow off.
Quickly, Janick realizes that cows and oxen that can thrive in an environment like this region would be pretty hardy, so she's confident that she can buy two more cows as well as an ox, and the village would then get some use for them once the cows arrive.
"It should take a day or two through the woods to get to the frontier village, and, with the road under construction, we should be cautious" Janick warns the refugees before they get across the forest. "We need to buy apples, too, so we can eat on the way there"
"I'll keep the cores for when we arrive at this frontier village of yours" Madritza announces.
Since one edge of that village is bordered by forest, and the "road" to Laverton starts there, they start tramping across rough terrain. Something tells me that Madritza is a life witch, since she wants the apple cores, presumably to enchant them. Yes, I know about how you could grow apple trees in this region. However, I mostly knew life magic for its healing uses, since the more adventurous life wizards are rental healers, Janick seems to take a while to process Madritza's request to keep apple cores.
Also the party needs to watch over the cows on this path that becomes narrower the deeper they go in. They can feel that some creature is hidden into the woods, on the prowl, waiting for its chance to strike at the cows and/or their custodians. However, the dense woods don't seem to make life easy for monsters.
"Stay alert; if the enemy is airborne, I will need to take to my besom!" Janick warns the refugees on the ground, who never saw an air superiority witch in their lives, and her besom on the ox's back.
"I feel like we're being watched!" Kix keeps his voice a little down, believing that noises that are too loud could attract the monster's attention, if any.
"Quiet please" Samka asks the party, but not expecting much, on a noise level, from the four animals they must keep safe.
But then they must keep quiet and, as they advance, they feel as if the road's construction has stalled from the village they left. I really hope the Supreme Council puts its act together and have both ends of the road build, and not just the Laverton end; they ask me to get a village back on track, but there's only so much a village can do, or grow, without access to the outside world! Janick starts wondering if the Supreme Council has been asking too much of her and/or Seloniel. She then prays that the four animals keep quiet as they quietly advance through the woods along what feels like little more than a path through a nearly virgin forest.
A few minutes later, as they advance towards Laverton, the ox seems to be mooing for no apparent reason. And some forest creature which, until now, was still some distance away from them, suddenly finds itself drawn to the sound of a mooing ox. And closing the distance, fast, with its slithering lower body.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
However, the creature doesn't appear to be attracted to the ox who mooed out of the blue. Instead, that creature casts a spell on the male refugee from behind a tree.
As the spell from the creature hits the male refugee, he seems to see not only Madritza and Janick as attractive, but the creature's illusory body appears to come out straight from a dream to him. In that, while under the effects of the creature's magic, he seems to lust after what his magic-afflicted mind deems to be the prettiest woman in the world, but only seems to be focusing on her upper body.
Meanwhile, Janick keeps some distance from him, believing that danger is afoot because of that creature's magic. Especially since the magic-induced lust of the father for the creature seems to drive him crazy. However, for some reason, the creature appears to cause only the father of the refugee family to be engaged in magical seduction.
As he is about to kiss the creature, whom he only sees as a pretty girl about Janick's age, but everyone else sees for what she is. A creature whose body, up to about her waist, looks exactly like what one would expect of a girl who can appeal widely, but have a serpentine lower body. A lamia.
"I love you..." the creature tells Kix as it's about to kiss him, in a seductive tone of voice.
"Oh no, you don't!" Janick screams in the direction of the creature, about to cast an alcohol cloud spell at both because of the indiscriminate nature of the spell.
Mere moments before the creature's lips could touch the refugee father, Janick casts an alcohol spell covering both in a mist containing fortified alcohol. The alcohol cloud spell causes both of them to breathe from an alcohol mist, and the alcohol mist makes the two increasingly drunk. The increase in the lamia's blood content disrupts its control over the seduction spell and, of course, makes the creature angry. Angry that it couldn't make the most out of the seduction game it was playing with Kix. And also the alcohol mist could pierce the lamia's magical illusion.
And then the other two refugees realize what's happening. By doing so, Madritza and Samka use the distraction left by the creature interacting with Janick and Kix to get the four bovines to safety. And, of course, getting these bovines to their destination as well.
Yet Janick hides behind a tree, knowing that the lamia could wield some kind of weapon against the father in a fit of alcohol-induced rage. And maybe hurt him. However, the lamia's own blood content is going up, making its own movements less coordinated. If I use fire magic to burn the lamia's upper body joints to a crisp from behind, I'll eat burns, probably beyond what a rubbing alcohol spell can do. However, if I use another alcohol spell on the creature, I would get drunk, and I would need to aim for an ear or even get angled for it, and wait for its mouth to get wide open, Janick furiously thinks of what to do next.
Either way, the lamia swings its short sword in Kix's direction. Rather wildly, but it makes Kix run for his life and in the general direction of the rest of the family. Just not necessarily being the most coherent about it.
"Your child is mine!" the lamia yells at Kix while he's on the run, hiding behind a tree for a few seconds, before resuming his flight.
Janick, on the other hand, tries to get sideways to the creature, and, to do so, she runs across the trees to get the right angle for casting another spell at the drunk lamia. Not that a lamia is particularly fast to begin with. She casts a fireball just strong enough to get her a first-degree burn once she has a clear enough shot at the lamia.
Which, unfortunately, doesn't kill the lamia outright, but causes it to drop the short sword on the ground. The lamia then gets burns that makes it roll on the ground in an attempt to put out the magical fire, but by this time, the damage already set in.
Meanwhile, Janick casts a rubbing alcohol spell on her own burns, healing the burns but doesn't kick in instantly. While her burns are still recovering, she focuses on the lamia's stomach for one more spell. However, as much as I would have liked to focus on the lamia's stomach, I must accept that some of the booze will go out of the body since the lamia is rolling its body on the ground to put out a magical fire, parasitic thoughts seem to gnaw her and cause her to hesitate in casting the spell.
The spell goes off and it feels like the lamia's stomach is full of magical wine that it didn't taste, all the while its upper body is covered in third-degree burns. Some of the wine got directly into the creature's bloodstream and that also causes the blood content of the lamia to rise sharply.
The sudden influx of alcohol into the lamia's bloodstream causes it to get aneurysms in several locations in its uncoordinated body. A few seconds later, pop goes its coronary arteries, followed by other key blood vessels and then bleeds internally. However, the signs of things going awry for the lamia become clear when the lamia vomits blood.
Leaving the alcohol-poisoned lamia for dead, even as the lamia gets a heart attack as well as a stroke at the same time, a drunk Janick starts stumbling and vomiting, narrowly missing trees in the process. And she is even wondering where Kix, Madritza or Samka are, as well as the bovines she bought before setting out on their trek through the forest. I hope that Madritza and Samka are all right. However, since the lamia encounter was pretty short, they can't be very far from here, Janick sighs, while she now have a better idea of how to go around using alcohol magic in battle and picking up the lamia's short sword. Which she uses as a walking stick to keep herself stable while getting back to the bovines.
However, now, she doesn't feel the same about any of the bovines mooing than she did prior to the lamia encounter. As she tries to return to the path leading to her village, she finds the hoof tracks of the bovines she bought just a few hours ago. Which leads her to a clearing, and the four bovines start eating the grass and mushrooms.
And, of course, with Madritza and Samka both being close by, resting around the remnants of a bonfire.
"The creature that attacked... hic! your dad... hic! is now dead" Janick announces to a frightened Samka, while still hiccupping.
"Kix lost his scythe in this bandit attack; how did the creature die? I don't think he could have killed that creature unarmed" Madritza was puzzled by the death of the forest creature.
"The lamia... hic! drank alcohol... hic! to death" Janick, still reeling in from the effects of casting alcohol magic, explains to the two.
"But we don't have alcohol, only these animals and your broomstick!" Samka retorts in a high-pitched voice.
"She's an alcohol witch! I never thought I would see one in my lifetime!" Kix draws his conclusion about the lamia's death.
The two female refugees ask what exactly is a lamia and what the lamia did to Kix. After Kix answers the ladies in the family...
"I wonder if our little daughter has any aptitude for magic. However, I realize that training young kids, like her, in magic might be a little dangerous" Kix sighs.
"I apologize for not having introduced ourselves before, but I didn't feel comfortable back at the village" Madritza introduces herself and her family. "I am Madritza, my husband is Kix, and my daughter her is Samka"
"You're... hic! Forgiven. I am... hic! Janick"
The four eat apples around the extinct bonfire, a little hungry, before resuming their journey to the frontier village. I really hope that the bovines mooing will not cause us to get attacked again, Janick starts regaining some semblance of mental clarity. I'd love to see the faces of Seloniel and the other villagers when I tell them about the lamia fight in the forest, and its alcohol poisoning. After their break ends:
"Let's go!" Kix hustles as they resume traveling with four bovines in tow.
So they must remain mindful of other creatures that could prove hostile to them. And, of course, of the bovines' mooing at random, as well as whether they could be alerting forest creatures to their presence, either by causing them to flee or by luring them. But, for the most part, most wild creatures that are native to this area seem to flee when they hear the moos of the cows, presumably because of their lack of familiarity with bovines.
"Looks like going to your village is an adventure onto itself" Kix comments on the trip through the woods the refugees are taking just to get to Laverton, where, hopefully, they can start their lives anew on the frontier.
"At some point, you will hear people swinging axes, and maybe even the sound of falling trees" Janick warns the refugees hours before they get to the point on the path where the swing of axes and trees falling can be heard.
As they advance through the woods, the trekkers remain mindful of the direction they are taking, right until Janick hear familiar voices by nightfall:
"Timber!" one of the villagers yell, making the refugees keep some distance from the trees, at least around where the lumberjacks seem to be yelling Timber left and right.
Perhaps the Supreme Council would still appreciate that Laverton could produce lumber before the iron production can actually restart. Completing the road would still be a matter of months, and the refugees seem not to get here at all, Seloniel thinks, while issuing a new set of instructions for the residents and carrying bread on a flying carpet.
"From now on, you will sleep on the road, leave the fallen trees laying around, on the edge of the road, for the lumber millers to pick them up later. Food will be flown in until completion of the road, at which point you will be able to return to your homes" Seloniel instructs the villagers while the refugees tramp the woods past her.