Walking with a fast pace through the Bewitching woods, the red robed mercenary relied on the guidance of his companion while his head was filled with thoughts of doubt and fear.
His hawk-eyed compatriot had sharp eyes, and was quite used to the terrain and peculiarities of the woods. He quickly picked up on the trail the trio of mercenaries had left, and took point of the group, both because he was the more experienced, and because the man in the red robes was his superior, and he had a penchant for demonstrating his best only when around those who could reward him for it.
He was a hunter by trade before he came into the mercenary life, and truly his current assignment was not much different than his past profession.
His right hand went upwards, signaling to stop. He smelled decay in the air, and while the footsteps of the trio continued forwards, the warrior of the party seemed to have been chased back the way they came. The rushed and brief impressions had made him certain that was the case, and if that were not enough, the deep indents into the ground closely following were an indicator that something had gone awry.
Following the sporadic footprints to their final source, the hawk-eyed man nearly doubled over and relieved his lunch in its entirety. The mangled mass of flesh of the warrior had been eaten, picked at, but still much of it remained, rotting in its place.
“Its Tega.” The red robed man noticed instantly, seeing destroyed and dismantled pieces of armor scattered around. “No Bloodsucker did this.”
Regaining his composure, the hawk-eyed man unslung his bow from his back and wielded it in his hands. He looked around the forest, not sensing anything amiss at the time but raising his guard nonetheless. “Hell sir, I think…” He doesn’t finish the sentence, remembering the relation of one of the members to his current companion. “I think we should go farther in.” gulping in air to calm himself, the man turned to the tracks once more.
The red robed man clenched his fists, the worry on his face evident. He followed the man further into the Bewitching woods. The footsteps led them to the clearing where Epim and the martial artist had fought.
The head of the martial artist was still on the ground, and his Bloodsucked body laid on the ground.
In the moment he’d seen it, the red robed man had left his companions side with an extreme speed, and kneeled down to the head. His eyes were shaking, his hands as well. His mouth laid open, and a stuttering noise came out of his mouth. “Aiga it can’t be!” The man was his brother, and the pain he felt in his heart was unparalleled to any other experience in his life.
His moment to grieve was cut short, as an arrow plunged into the ground to his side and a yell from his companion echoed throughout the clearing. “You stay right the hell there!!” It was a yell filled with fear. The red robed man raised his head, his eyes taking in the target of the man’s attempted intimidation.
Reflecting in his eyes, was a man of average stature. He wore a brown hat that pointed forwards and upwards, laying on his head and slightly obscuring his eyes. Brown strands of hair ran down the front of his face. He wore clothes that could be said to be fancy, an intricate design running down the right side showcasing a dragon eating a man in a stylized black ink. On the right side were quite a lot of pockets and pouches. His pants were basic, though a line of gold runs up the sides of the cloth that made them up. On his hands were brown leather gloves, plain with no embellishment. On his feet were brown boots, made of seemingly the same leather. His mouth was curled into a smile, one quite unnerving. His hands were raised in front of him, palms forward. A common sign of no aggression, though his posture gave away his lack of fear. Although his eyes were obscured, the red robed man swore he could make out the faintest of golden glows shining.
“Woah, Woah. We’re all friends here, I don’t look like a bloodsucker do I?” He moves his hands quickly from their position, his pointer fingers pressing at both sides of his mouth, showcasing his teeth. “I don’t look like a man who goes out sucking blood do I?”
The Hawk Eyed man strung another arrow, readying his aim and pointing towards the stranger’s head. He defers to his superior, willing to take the shot at any signal.
The red robed man held his hand up. “Name yourself, and why you’re here. This isn’t the place someone just wanders into.” The aggression in his voice was backed by a snarl. His face was contorted, a mixture of his current feelings towards the intruder and his brother’s death.
“Well well, I don’t want to have an arrow plunge through my head. My name is Heacrim” He pronounces his name with enthusiasm and emphasis, making sure they both hear it clearly. “As for why I’m here, oh I have my interests. Demons, maybe?” The smile creeps back up on his face, and his hands drop down to his sides.
“Be more specific! And how do you know of the demons!?” The red robed man lashes out.
“Oh, oh! And I was hoping you’d introduce yourselves in response. Oh well. I’m here because I’m a doctor, of sorts. The blood of the Bloodsuckers intrigues me greatly, and the prices for it disgusts me greatly. So I decided to take a walk in here on my own, and here we are! From my perspective it’s quite frightening, seeing two of my own kind standing over a decapitated emaciated body.” He stifles a laugh. “Sorry, I'm getting nervous and I just can’t control my laugh when that’s the case. A horrible habit, really. Oh I could tell you-”
An arrow whizzes past the face of Heacrim, piercing through a tree behind him and continuing on for quite a ways. Already the hawk-eyed man had notched another arrow.
“Well, as for the demons” His hands move quickly again, tipping his hat upwards, revealing the gold of his eyes. His face is pale, almost giving off the impression of translucence. “I’ve got good eyes, I can tell when the natural world has accepted something unnatural. I’m sure you two know as well, if it's true you work for that witch.”
His hands go up to his mouth, covering them in feigned shock. “Oh, sorry for me speaking of rumor. I just can’t help myself, it’s really such a bad trait I have!”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Heacrim irritated the hawk-eyed man, and he was growing close to releasing the shot himself.
The red robed man stared at him, and Heacrim right back. “And how do I know, you weren’t the one who killed our men… my brother!”
Heacrim shrugs his shoulders. “I’m not a bloodsucker, for one. I’m a doctor, not a murderer, for two. And I suppose if my character and my profession are not enough, that friend of yours could track my footsteps back to where I came from. You’d both be able to tell that I would have been traveling the day of your brother’s murder. Which judging by his head… must have been about a day ago?”
The red robed man continues to stare, while thinking of the words it was a fallible logic, but one too obvious of bait. He looks around the clearing, knowing a line of trees that were broken in half. “If you’re a doctor… tell me, was my brother killed by a Bloodsucker? If you can answer that, then we’ll introduce ourselves.”
Heacrim didn’t move his body an inch, only his head as it looked around the area. “Well, no. He couldn’t have been. Bloodsuckers don’t use blades, and their claws and fangs could leave no such thing as a clean cut. My evidence is his severed head. Ever heard of them doing that? Hell, I’ve rarely heard of people who can cut that cleanly. What must have killed your brother was… a man. Or, a demon? It could be, it could be. Without a doubt his body was desecrated by a Bloodsucker though, that’s their signature style alright. After death though, which certainly is a bit odd. The reasoning being his head emptied of blood naturally, not sucked out. And your friend over there can probably tell you the rest, based on the tracks instead of the obvious evidence in front of us.”
The red robed man turned to hawk-eyes and nodded, assenting him to give his opinion.
Taking the que, he lowered his bow and kneeled to the ground. His hand traced the ground, and his eyes began to hone into the ground. It was as if he had tapped into another world of observation, the faintest hints of intentional action revealed themselves to him.
“I hate to say it, but it couldn’t have been him. There are the same huge marks in the ground we saw near Tega, looks like he made the first move and whatever the thing is it took him to where we found him. Then… I got no clue about Ash. Her footsteps just up and disappear, though the trees behind them give a clue. As for Aiga… It looks like there was a long bout of combat. Between two men, but the prints don’t match his.”
Slamming his fist into the ground, Aiga’s brother yells in frustration. “You’re telling me he was beaten in one-on-one combat!? I trained him to run if he thought…” Again, his fist slammed into the ground.
The silence covers the clearing for a moment, before the man quickly composes himself and stands. “Fine, I believe you. My name’s Arch, the guy with the bow is Yi. We’ll talk.”
Yi nods his head, lowering his bow in a sigh of implicit trust. The moment he does, Heacrim stands next to him, seemingly moving across the ground at an unobservable speed. His hand grips the wooden riser of the bow. “Your hands are shaking. You would have missed the next shot, even if you did take it.” He promptly releases it, looking into his eyes. “Just thought I’d let you know. Wouldn’t want to make that mistake again when real trouble comes, right?”
Yi feels an overwhelming pressure wash over him, and nearly collapses to the ground. Arch is stunned by his lack of reaction, but grits his teeth as he realizes that if the man ever meant any harm, it would have already been done.
“I’d like you to explain to me, where exactly do those tracks lead, after the battle? Surely you can tell, with your sharp eyes?” Although Heacrim does not actively intimidate Yi into answering, he still does so out of a deep fear.
“Well, the direction they’re heading from here is towards the Bloodsucker’s village. They must have saved a prisoner, and that prisoner led them back to his home.” Yi spits out the words quickly and precisely. “One of the trees has dried blood, not human though. And the tracks earlier showed they had something with them.”
Arch’s eyes narrow. Heacrim turns to him, looking him in the eyes once more. “Well how about that, looks we know where your brother’s murderer went.”
Standing up, Arch scoffs. “No good that does to us. Going into that village would be signing a death warrant. That lord Alucire- he’d wage war if he knew what we were doing.”
Another laugh from Heacrim, though this one clearly intentional with no nervousness calling it forth. “Oh, really? The lord who hasn’t left his castle for five hundred years? And what war would we be starting? We’d only be going to seek vengeance for your mercenaries.”
The implication was obvious, Heacrim was insinuating that the three of them go in and kill the ones responsible. Why Heacrim had suddenly decided that the three of them together would go, they had no clue. “Arch, we can’t… We don’t even know if Ash is alive!”
Pointing towards the broken line of trees, Heacrim speaks. “Well why don’t we go see. You had a good theory right? Surely she couldn’t have just flown off forever.”
“Explain yourself. Before we go any further. For what purpose are you here, really.” Arch stands up, the muscles in his body beginning to pump with energy.
Waving his hands and closing his eyes, Heacrim responds with no real care. “I’m here for blood, didn’t you hear? We have a rare opportunity on our hands to go verify the legends ourselves, and you have a great cause. Vengeance for allies, there is nothing as noble. And if it turns out that lord really is no longer there, or even if he is but doesn’t care about the capturing of his people… Well, your product might be just a bit more easy on the coffers.”
Arch shakes his head, knowing that he wasn’t telling the full story. But, the want for vengeance for his brother was very real. “We’ll find Ash’s body first, then we’ll make a decision.” He gestures his head, and the three walk into the woods, following the line of destruction.
The trail of broken trees went on for quite a while, until the ground showed where she descended. Burns from magical attacks marked the area around them, but much more significantly, there were multiple trees that had been ripped clean out of the ground and thrown around. Arch and Yi had never seen anything like it, and even Heacrim’s eyes scanned the area in flabbergasted delight. “A demon, that theory sounds just a bit better now doesn’t it?”
Ignoring his words, they scan the area and find a patch of dirt unlike the surrounding area. After a quick inspection, they realize it is Ash’s grave. Arch stays silent, and Yi is immediately overtaken by panic.
“Sir, please. Please, it’d be foolish to go into a village of Bloodsuckers! And with a stranger..” Yi’s eyes dart to Heacrim, who has maybe the friendliest smile he has ever seen plastered over his face, and then quickly back to Arch. “It’s just…”
Arch stands up, walking over to Yi and looking him in the eyes, slightly towering above the man he makes him look up to match his eyes with him.
“It’s not an order. It’s a chance. You know why I want to go, but you also know what he said was true. If we confirmed there’s no lord, what kind of reward do you think we’d have? We don’t have to go into the village, we can wait outside and make our move when the time is right. Your eyes are the best chance of that.”
Yi looks back and forth again, and he looks back the way they came. He breathes in deeply, letting out a sigh. “Ok… Ok. But… Please, can he walk in front?”
Heacrim nods. “That’s reasonable. I could kill you even if I am, but it’s normal to want to see a potential betrayal coming.” He laughs, this time based on the nervousness of Yi and not his own, making Yi think the nervous laugh was just a facade.
Heacrim looks at both of them, nearly laughing but keeping it down out of necessity. “Do you believe you can fight the monster that can kill your brother, and the one that created such destruction as this?”
Arch, and Yi looked at Heacrim. An aura of confidence stemmed from them. Yi spoke for Arch, knowing that he would hate the meaning of it. “Frankly, they were not strictly talented. They were sent here because it was easy. The bloodsuckers as an entirety would kill us, that’s obvious. But unless it's as fearsome as that dragon on your shirt, we won’t be worried.”
Clapping his hands together, Heacrim smiles again, the answer being quite pleasing to him. “Shall we, gentlemen?”
Arch clenches his fist. His brother’s killer was not far, and he would make him pay the price.
So Yi and Arch set forward, led by Witch Doctor Heacrim, a man who was familiar to the Bewitching Woods, and the denizens of the castle that stop atop the cliffside.