I got an ominous feeling when I entered the clearing as if I didn’t belong here. I only managed to take several steps closer to the wooden structure before I fell to the ground gasping for air.

Pain shot from my lung area throughout my body.

‘’Elania!’’ Velariah shouted.

‘’Can’t… breathe…’’ I managed to utter with a lot of effort.

I tried moving my legs in order to walk out of this area but found them unresponsive.

What was going on here? Was this the witch’s magic?

My human hands still worked, but I doubt they’d work for long if I couldn’t breathe.

‘’Draco, Seralyn, Nira, I need your help, NOW!’’ Velariah shouted as she took my arms and started dragging me the opposite way.

Draco and Seralyn each took one of my legs and Nira took my midsection in her claws, surprisingly without hurting me, and started to beat her wings to pull me.

I felt myself cross some kind of invisible border and found I could breathe again. I panted heavily as Velariah took my head in her hands and looked me in the eyes.

‘’What the hell was that?’’ She asked.

I shook my head, still gasping for air. I didn’t know.

‘’Seralyn?’’ She turned to the other elf.

‘’You think her monster ward affects Elania?’’ The archer replied.

Monster ward? I guess I got my answer then. I guess I was some kind of monster after all...

‘’Thanks, guys,’’ I said softly as soon as I could speak.

Velariah knelt down to me but I saw her attention shift to the small wooden house. I followed her gaze and saw a figure exit the building.

‘’Ah, such lovely company we have today!’’ Came a voice from the figure.

She spoke with a voice that was almost as honey-laced as my own. If it had belonged to anyone else they could have made kings go to war over her. Unfortunately, the figure in question didn’t possess a body befitting of such a voice. Instead, she was a short woman with a wizard hat and a staff that was twice her size. She walked bent over forward as if she had a hunch on her back, I didn’t see any, though.

Below the base of the hat I could make out her ears and noted that, although they were deformed, they were not those of an elf. Rather, it seemed infections and disease had eaten away at them, leaving them all kinds of misshapen.

‘’What’s that you say? A storm rolling in?’’ She turned around and talked to the air in front of her.

I looked up to the sky and saw nothing. There was the sun and not a single cloud in sight.

She continued walking our way.

‘’Oh my, what a fine specimen.’’ She looked at me.

Maybe coming here was a mistake, I didn’t like the look in her eyes.

‘“She has a name.’’ Velariah stated. ‘’It’s Elania, and she would like to trade with you.’’

‘’Trade, yes yes yes. Very good, Very good. I have all kinds of wares. Just come have a lookie-look.’’ She turned around and pointed her staff at the sun while walking back to the wooden building.

‘’The wards are down, you can enter enter if you like.’’ She called.

Calling her crazy was an understatement.

I carefully took a few steps forward, ready to fall back at a moment’s notice should I become unable to breathe again. This time it seemed like I was able to pass unhindered and followed the others closely.

Velariah told the others to wait outside as the inside may be a bit gruesome to some people. She followed the witch inside and despite me not fitting through the doorway I managed to peek inside with my human half, unable to contain my curiosity.

She was right. This was gruesome indeed.

Everything she needed to live was in one single room. A shoddy bed, a stove with a kettle and some pans, but that was not what was out of the ordinary.

On the floor in the middle of the room was a pentagram drawn with a black liquid. I didn’t quite think it was blood, but I may be mistaken. For all I knew it could be blood belonging to some kind of exotic animal or monster. Then throughout the room strings were hung. These strings held up what looked like ears from a combination of races, elves being the predominant one.

I couldn’t stand to look at this place for long and turned around soon after observing what this place was all about.

This witch was truly crazy.

I stayed near the door so I could hear what Velariah and the witch were talking about.

Velariah asked if the witch knew about any paralytic poison that the goblins used.

I heard knocking on one of the wooden walls.

‘’Yes yes yes yes yes. Tell me your secrets. Paralyzing mushrooms? Yes yes, I have have.’’

Was she talking to the wall now? I guess she at least had what we looked for.

‘’What you pay pay with?’’ The witch’s voice came.

‘’Troll ears. Fresh.’’ Velariah emphasized that last part.

‘’Oh, very nice very nice. Let me see where I have them.’’

I heard a squeaky door open and Velariah stepped outside and sighed.

‘’She’s really crazy, isn’t she?'' I asked her.

‘’This is why I don’t like coming here. She creeps me out.’’

‘’Yeah, no kidding,’’ I stated.

‘’And now she is in her basement, God knows what she hides in there. I don’t think I want to know.’’

‘’Think she grows those mushrooms there herself?’’ I grinned.

‘’Wouldn’t surprise me at this point anymore. She has all kinds of crazy ingredients. These are generally not the kind of ingredients we need for our potions, they are for a different kind entirely.’’

‘’Such as?’’ I inquired.

‘’Sleep potions, diarrhea inducing potions, potions that make your fingernails grow to ridiculous proportions, potions that make your hair fall out, stuff like that.’’

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‘’Sleep potions can be useful though, the rest? Not so much.’’ I answered.

‘’True, except that these make you experience nightmares for two days straight and you can’t escape them.’’ She stated.

‘’Yikes.’’ I let out.

‘’Ooooh, Veeeel.’’ The witch called from the inside.

The elf sighed.

‘’It’s Lady Velariah for you.’’ She said as she walked back inside.

‘’Yes yes yes. I have what you need. Show me the ears!’’

This witch has one weird ear fetish.

A moment later the witch let out a maniacal cackle.

‘’Yes YES YES, it’s time for the summoning! Out you go child lest you want to leave those lovely ears behind, I won’t mind mind.’’

‘’No thank you,’’ Velariah said as she stepped out of the building.

She faced me. ‘’I got what you wanted, let’s get the hell outta here.’’

I nodded. ‘’Agreed.’’

I hoped this trip was worth it. We could check if I was immune to its effects and check if they were of use for Seralyn to use on her arrows. If either of those yielded a positive result, we could try to cultivate them ourselves. It shouldn’t be too hard to recreate a cave environment. I imagined the volcanic ash may be useful to try to grow them in.

Well, that would be for later.

Velariah put a dirty grey bag inside her pack. I assumed the mushrooms were inside it.

The witch stepped outside of her house and started dancing on the grass.

‘’Yes yes yes.’’ She called out looking to the sky. ‘’A storm is forming. Let it rain!’’

I looked at Velariah and she shook her head.

Crazy indeed.

I found my dropped spear and continued walking behind Draco and Velariah on our way back to Dawnleaf.

We walked out of the clearing and I let Nira sit on the chest on my back again. I continued looking up to the sky every now and then on our journey back to the village but saw nothing that could resemble a storm. I hoped it was just her being crazy and not some kind of preposterous prophecy. Nothing was going to surprise me anymore, though.

It wasn’t long before we walked into a goblin camp. We hadn’t noticed until we were literally in the middle of it and goblins screamed as they charged at us. The nearby vegetation hid their tents, we knew we had made a mistake when we saw an extinguished campfire in the dirt.

An arrow soon struck my behind and Nira gasped as it did.

Seralyn quickly identified where the arrow came from and killed off the goblin archer that fired it. He never even knew what killed him, Seralyn’s reflexes were top-notch.

‘’Don’t worry, Nira, their poison does nothing to me,’’ I told her. I charged into a group of three goblins with extremely short-range weapons. They carried daggers that wouldn’t even be able to reach to the parts where I would be vulnerable.

I felt dirty for picking on easy targets, but these goblins didn’t seem to be interested in peace. After what they did to Dawnleaf and continued doing, I would no longer show them mercy.

A wild swing with my spear managed to decapitate one and cut another one across his chest. I pinned another down with my pedipalps as I pierced his skin with my fangs and pumped some venom into him. I tried not overdoing it to check how much would be needed to finish off a goblin. The goblin beneath me died in seconds, even with a low dose. While I was down to the ground, the last goblin standing charged from my side. I impaled him with one of my legs before he even made it close.

These legs of mine seemed to be just as effective as a spear against lowlier enemies and I had eight of them! Well, seven.

Another arrow came my way but bounced off my chest plate. Seralyn turned and took down the shooter after hearing the sound of the arrow on my armor.

This turned into a massacre really quickly. These goblins stood zero chance against our party. Velariah seemed to be having a blast with her new sword. In fact, she seemed to enjoy this slightly more than I considered sane. I hoped that was just pent-up rage from the fight with the trolls from before and not the beginning of a psychopath.

Draco was just showing off his new weapon. I reckoned against goblins he could use his old weapon to cleave two of them at the same time but he seemed satisfied using his new one. To be fair, it may as well be of the same effectiveness considering the fact that it was enchanted. He even literally bashed in the head of one of the goblins with it.

Even Nira didn’t sit idly. Despite not being in top condition for flight, she still managed to jump on top of a few unsuspecting goblins and rip them apart with her talons.

So much for being a healer.

Nothing was left of her angelic appearance after she was done with a few goblins. Her ‘’feet’’ were covered in blood and a few splashes landed on her wings too, making her look more of a predatory bird than what her inherity intended her to be.

She was a dangerous one.

The battle ended as quickly as it began with one or two goblins running off in the end. Seralyn struck them down from afar without much of an issue and then ran over to them to recover her arrows. I looted several from the goblins we killed nearby in order to leave this place quickly. I wasn’t going to linger longer than necessary. These goblins were hardly alone and for all I knew we could have a horde advancing upon us at any time.

‘’You said you’re fine with arrows in your body?’’ Nira asked me as she cleaned her talons on the nearby vegetation, wiping off the blood.

‘’Yeah, I feel them, but they don’t actually hurt.’’

‘’You said their poison is ineffective against you?’’ She asked.

I thought me mentioning it before would have made her aware? Maybe she wasn’t paying attention when I talked to Velariah about visiting the witch.

‘’Uh, yeah. Seems to be related to my inherity, I’m not sure.’’

‘’You don’t know your inherity?’’ Nira asked.

I sighed. ‘’Long story. I haven’t exactly been among civilization for long. Not sure if I can tell you more than that.’’

‘’I didn’t dare to ask you about it, but I haven’t seen anyone like what you are before.’’

‘’Yeah, I’ve heard that before.’’ I told her, ‘’Haven’t seen anything like you before either if I have to be completely honest.’’

‘’Where did you come from anyway?’’ She asked. ‘’Are there more like you?’’

Velariah decided to step in.

‘’She just said she doesn’t know if she can share more.’’

‘’Oh, I’m sorry.’’ She looked to the ground in shame.

‘’We should keep moving.’’ I decided to change the subject as I lowered myself to allow Nira to hop on.

As I looked at her stepping on the chest I saw two arrows stick out from my behind. I never even felt the second one connect.

‘’You mind getting those arrows out in the meantime, Velariah?’’ I asked.

‘’No problem.’’ She walked up behind me and pulled the arrows out quickly and discarded them.

‘’Must be nice not having to fear their poison,’’ Nira commented as she looked at the elf pulling the arrows out.

‘’It is, actually,’’ I admitted.

It was one less thing that could kill me. How was it not a nice thing?

We continued our trip to Dawnleaf after a very swift search for any valuables on the goblins. We had found one small coin purse which we tossed with the rest of the money in the chest on my back. Their weapons would not be worth anything for the elves, but we did find one small red gemstone which might be worth something. I believe it was the same kind of gem we inserted on Velariah’s sword so it might be worth saving.

Nothing of note happened and after one stop to drink some water, we reached the edge of the forest. The elven village, with its massive tree in the middle came into view again and I let out a slight sigh of relief. Adventuring was an interesting business, but being able to conclude a quest held its own value entirely.

I also really wanted that bath…

First, we would get Nira and myself to the treemenders. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have Draco checked out as well. Even if he had been healed, that blow he received before I got him out of danger was a heavy one, it wouldn’t surprise me if the lizardman was just pretending to be fine.

I guessed it was some time past noon and I invited Nira to have lunch with us at the guild hall. She seemed eager to join us but also hesitant. I decided to ask what was wrong.

‘’You see, I don’t have much money left. I left most of what I had at the inn I’m staying at, but I need to buy a new wand…and tag.’’

Tags were one silver if I recalled correctly, just how tight on money was she?

‘’You can stay with us for a while if you’d like,’’ Velariah suggested. ‘’Get some food, get some rest and then join us for quests in the nearby area.’’

That was smooth. She wasn’t directly inviting the harpy to join our party, this sounded like some sort of internship. To be fair, I imagined Nira would be a great addition to our party. If she could fly and heal at the same time, she would be incredibly safe from any non-ranged attacks, although I doubted such a thing would be possible in dungeons. Then again, she could defend herself in a pinch.

I wondered what rank she was? She never revealed that to us. I guessed we’d find out soon enough at the guild.

We passed the checkpoint and soon entered the village. From there it wasn’t far to the treemender’s oak. I was happy to see Pylanor free of work and watching us enter.

He soon walked up to us as I let the harpy jump off my back.

‘’You guys look like you’ve been through hell.’’ He told us as he eyed us slowly.

Gosh, I wonder what gave it away. Maybe it was all the blood?

There was still a fair bit of blood on my body, The lower part of the leg I used to impale the goblin was practically soaked in it. Nira still had a fair amount in her feathers and some on her talons she couldn’t wipe off in its entirety.

‘’Master Pylanor, could you check on Draco, Nira and Elania here, see if you could help them out, please?’’ Velariah asked of the treemender.

‘’Not a problem. Please take a seat, Nira, yes?’’ He asked the harpy.

Nira nodded and sat down on a nearby bed.

Pylanor put his hand on her forehead and I could see the familiar green glow course through her body.

‘’Seems you’re mostly fine, no internal damage as far as I can see.’’

He continued his work for a while and I could see her wounds start to close properly but not fully.

‘’I suggest to clean yourself properly and allow the wounds to do their final healing naturally,’’ Pylanor said when he pulled back his hand.

‘’Who is next?’’ He asked.

‘’You go, Draco.’’ I said.

I think Draco may need it more than me. I doubted there was anything Pylanor could do for me in the first place.

Without a word, he sat down on the bed after Nira stood back up. Her wounds looked significantly better already.

The treemender put his hand on the forehead of the lizardman and let his magic flow through him. I saw the glow settle in his chest and Draco let out suppressed moans of pain.

‘’Many bruised ribs. Not too serious, but painful when healed forcefully. You must have received quite the blow.’’

‘’Yeah, you could say that,’’ Seralyn mentioned.

I knew he was injured from that hit. Even if the shield managed to absorb most of it. An enraged troll warlord was not to be taken lightly. At least we had a proper plan of action now if we had to fight one again.

‘’Thanks.’’ Draco groaned as Pylanor finished his work.

When he stood up I walked over to the bed and lay my human body and midsection down on it, my legs were still on the floor.

‘’Hmmm.’’ He said before he put a hand down on my head. ‘’I’m not sure if I can replace a leg, but I can still look for other injuries.’’

‘’I expected as much.’’ I sighed. ‘’Anything would be appreciated, thank you.’’

He put his hand on my forehead and I could feel his magic flow through my body. It went all the way from my head to my abdomen where it concentrated on where the arrows had hit me. I could feel some pain as the wound healed, but it wasn’t bad at all.

‘’Strange…’’ Pylanor said.

He removed his hand from my head.

‘’What’s strange?’’ I asked

‘’You seem to be completely fine.’’

I was about to mention my leg when he finished his sentence.

‘’But I can see you are missing part of your leg. I am actually at a loss for words here…’’

I knew he wasn’t mocking me, so I tried to think about what it could mean.

‘’It’s as if your leg is still whole…’’ He continued. ‘’My magic cannot find a defect. How strange…’’

That did sound strange indeed. Did it mean it would heal? That would be quite the feat.

‘’I’m sorry about that, Elania. I have no idea how your… race works, so to say.’’

‘’It’s fine, I have heard I am the first known of this… species, so I can’t blame you for not knowing.’’

‘’I’m happy you understand. Please do visit again if you need any assistance.’’

‘’Will do, Master Pylanor, thanks for the help anyway.’’ I politely thanked him and we walked out of the large tree.

‘’Time to eat.’’ Seralyn greedily said as she rubbed her hands together.

Once more I was left with a lot of questions…