Chapter 45: 1.44 Mysteries in the Forest

I woke up with white hair on my face. 

As much as Seralyn had made fun of the situation, I did end up using Velariah as a pillow. I had moved my remaining legs under her armor so that she wouldn’t have to sleep on the cold floor. I then lay on top of her as comfortably as our armor allowed. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it turned out to be comfortable enough to at least fall asleep.

Draco insisted that I get a full night of rest and denied me from being on guard the night before. He and Seralyn would fulfill those roles. Seralyn had complained briefly, but ultimately agreed to it. 

Nira had fallen asleep a bit away from the campfire, she said she didn’t want to have her wings caught in the fire while she slept. Her remark had humored me, but as it turned out, her wings would allow her to keep herself warm at night. 

The crackling of the flame and Velariah still snoozing below me brought me back to the present. 

My leg still hurt, but not nearly as much as the day before. Like my arm before, it had turned into more of a whining pain than a sharp, mind-numbing pain, present, but not unbearable.

I still wanted to have Pylanor have a look at it.

I had told Velariah too and she agreed to pay him a visit once we got back to Dawnleaf.

I turned to face Velariah’s cheek. I could never really get a look at how she slept. She was beautiful from so close up. I decided to simply lie there, not wanting to disturb her by moving away. I wasn’t evil, unlike some people here…

It seemed the elf I was referring to was asleep next to the campfire. Draco was the one on guard duty right now. At least that meant I wouldn’t be disturbed anytime soon. 

Velariah was way too adorable.

How she could sleep, cradled in monstrous spider legs was a miracle to me, but she seemed to be content. 

Maybe she did have the weirdest leg fetish?

I wouldn’t judge her for it.

Nothing eventful happened last night. We had simply discussed our course of action for the next day. We would simply go back to the village, inform Valtheril, then see where we go from there. 

There was still a dungeon to explore and technically we had a healer with us now. We just hadn't mentioned anything about that yet to Nira. She was not part of our party and she was free to do whatever she wanted. I did not want to make her feel guilty and pressure her to come with us. We would give her time first, maybe ask the question some time after returning to the village. 

I imagined she would make a great addition to our freak show, though. I inwardly giggled at the thought. 

Three monsters and two monstrous elves, imagine.

Velariah stirred beneath me.

No, don’t! You were so cute like that!

‘’Hmmm.’’ She moaned softly. ‘’Good morning, Elania.’’ She said without even opening her eyes.

‘’Good morning Velariah.’’ I answered softly.

I started to move my upper body upwards, but Velariah’s armored hands pulled me back down.

‘’No need to hurry, you’re fine, right?’’ She said.

‘’I think I am. The pain is a lot less already today.’’

‘’Good.’’ She smiled and opened her eyes. 

Gods they were beautiful. Her heterochromia really gave her eyes a certain exotic flair. I might actually find myself falling in love at this rate…

‘’You lovebirds about ready to get up?’’ A voice asked way too loudly.

Why did she always have to ruin the moment?

I got up and released Velariah from my legs. I saw Nira wake up from Seralyn’s voice as well. 

‘’Seriously Seralyn, could you be any more rude?’’ Velariah asked.

I thanked her in silence. I was about to ask the same question. 

‘’Figured we should get back to Dawnleaf as quickly as possible. There’s no need to linger in the area.’’

She had a point there, but still.

‘’Have you recovered all of your arrowheads?’’ Velariah asked as she reached for Draco’s bag.

‘’All but one. One remained stuck in a troll’s skull when I pulled out the shaft. I couldn’t be bothered to retrieve it.’’ 

‘’What happened to the troll warlord, anyway? I mean, what killed him?’’ I asked.

‘’Seems it was your venom. Good job on recognizing what I had in mind, by the way.’’ Seralyn complimented me.

‘’How did you know I could do that anyway?” I asked. 

Did she continue to stalk us after she had supposedly left our training session the other day?

‘’I may have stuck around the other day, I was curious if you were going to pull off any interesting stunts, turned out you actually did.’’

So that’s a yes. 

I sighed. I hated the fact that I wouldn’t be sure if I was ever truly alone with Velariah, but I was also glad she knew what I was capable of. I should probably have informed my party members beforehand. I considered that a mistake from my part.

The others had a quick breakfast. I just had some water. 

As I took the canteen I had suggested cleaning Nira’s wounds with alcohol to prevent infection. She seemed to be hesitant to the idea, probably because of the pain, but couldn’t deny the fact that it was probably a good idea. 

As such, I created some silk and formed it into a ball. Draco then soaked it in alcohol and used it like a sponge to go over Nira’s wounds. I could see her bite her lips from the pain, but she didn’t really scream out or anything. She may be tougher than she looked. 

She too, would visit the treemender’s oak. 

It seemed she did now have enough energy left to fully heal her own wounds. It appeared she chose to heal Draco and me over herself which was really kind of her.

I asked Nira how healing magic worked and its relation to inherities while the others were packing up and preparing to leave. 

She explained that her wand was used to channel her corium into healing spells and that without it, she wasn’t nearly as powerful. Her earrings did help her out somewhat, but it wasn’t anything like her full capabilities. The harpy explained that her inherity was one of ‘’nature healing’’ and that she could evolve it by either killing creatures with corium or by healing others who were either engaged in or close to creatures with corium. 

Apparently, healing inherities could work in several ways and hers allowed her to absorb corium residue that was left in the air from combat. She explained that she wouldn’t be able to evolve hers if there were no creatures nearby. In other words, she could still heal people back at a village but it wouldn’t make her stronger. She also explained that technically she could channel healing magic into people that were uninjured but that too, would not make her any stronger.

I had asked her why she wasn’t in a party as it sounded like her inherity looked to be ‘’made’’ for that. 

I had asked her before I even realized.

‘’I’m…’’ She started. ‘’I-I.’’ She stuttered. ‘’I’ve been in a few parties.’’ She looked at the ground. ‘’Haven’t really found a fit yet, I guess.’’

‘’Hey, no need to be sad about that.’’ Velariah said as she extended a hand to help her up.

She accepted the gesture and thanked her for the nice words.

I got up as well and walked around a bit in the small area in the back of the cave. I still managed to walk fine, but missing one leg, or well, half of it, felt… odd. I never imagined I would feel that way. I still moved the stump as if I still possessed the leg, but not feeling the ground was weird. 

I hoped Velariah and I would still be able to pull off our cavalry tactics…

I walked out of the cave as Draco extinguished the campfire that was almost out already. 

I walked a few more circles through the grass to try to get used to walking like this. Fortunately it had only been one leg…

I observed the corpse of the troll warlord. It’s back looked like it had been decaying for weeks, a gruesome mix of brown and red that was previously a liquid had eaten through his skin and exposed his spine that wasn’t entirely unaffected either. It seemed my venom had continued to spread through his body even after death and had literally melted through his skin.

I didn’t care to look at it for much longer. I turned back to the cave when my eye spotted the grave that I had made.

I walked over to the grave to see it was still in its original state. This actually surprised me. I’d expected these trolls to desecrate this as well. They didn’t seem to be creatures of manner, after all. The skulls they wore as trophies were enough proof of that, it was simply macabre.

The tag still hung around it as well which gave me an idea.

‘’Hey, Draco, can I get your help over here for a sec?’’

‘’What would you require assistance with, miss Elania?’’ He asked politely as he walked up to me.

‘’This tag, can you read it?’’

Draco used to live among humans, I was certain he would be able to decipher this guy’s name.

‘’Let me see here.’’ He said as he knelt down and took the tag in the palm of one of his hands. ‘’Nick Miller it says.’’

That sounded like a far too generic name.

‘’That name tells you anything?’’ I asked.

Draco shook his head. ‘’There’s many Millers where I come from, wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more than one person called Nick too.’’

I knew it.

I sighed. This alone would get us nowhere, hopefully the wooden rabbit would be some sort of tell. Valtheril did tell us he would be leaving for Goldleaf soon, maybe he could inquire there about a certain Miller family associated with wooden rabbits?

I wasn’t sure if there was a hundred percent connection between the two, but there might as well be. I decided to be honest about it and give him as much info as we had. Valtheril, despite my first impression of him, has been reliable and kind to me. Hell, he even trusted me enough to have his daughter sleep with me.

That was a weird thought. I didn’t mean it like that! 

I could feel my face flush at the thought and quickly walked away from Draco. 

Did Valtheril know Velariah would sleep in my room? Would he mind?

I doubted he was completely unaware there was something going on between us. The man wasn’t oblivious. 

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As I walked around the clearing I thought of something Nira said earlier on. She got shot out of the air by an arrow dipped in some kind of paralytic poison. It made me wonder if I would be resistant to that kind of poison as well. Should I try to find out the hard way? Should I literally try to paralyze myself with that poison?

If all it did was paralyze it couldn’t be that harmful anyway, right? I could do it in a controlled setting to check its effects on me. It should be entirely safe to do back at home. The question was: how would I get my hands on that poison? I doubt goblins would willingly share it. 

I decided to check with Nira, maybe she would know more.

‘’Nira?’’ I called for her as I approached the cave again.

‘’Yes?’’ She replied. She was standing next to the entrance. It seemed everyone finished eating and packing.

‘’It may be a weird thing to ask, but do you know where the goblins get their paralytic poison from?’’

‘’I’m not sure.’’ She spoke. ‘’I have seen goblins grind yellow mushrooms and apply the paste to their arrows, that could be it, but I’m not quite sure, they have multiple nasty poisons.’’

‘’Thank you Nira, I hope you didn’t mind me asking that.’’ I said.

She had looked a bit shocked when I asked the question. No wonder, she was felled by that poison, after all.

She shook her head.

‘’I know you have no ill will. I assume you want to use it against them or something?’’ 

‘’Uh, something like that, yes.’’ I answered her new question.

It could be an interesting addition to Seralyn’s arsenal depending on how easy it would be to paralyze certain creatures. If one arrow could bring down a harpy I doubted it would have problems with goblins. Although, using it on goblins would be completely pointless. If trolls could be affected it would make things a bit easier.

I looked at my severed leg.

Gods, I hated trolls.

I thanked Nira and turned my attention to the white-haired elf.

‘’Velariah?’’ I called her. ‘’Do you think we can get our hands on goblin poison by any chance?’’

‘’What?’’ She looked at me. ‘’You weren’t planning to raid them or anything, ‘cus let me tell ya, that ain’t happening, not with you in that state.’’ 

In my state? I was pretty sure that I was fine besides missing half of a leg. I could still do just as much as I could do before. Okay, the pain wasn’t exactly pleasant but I wasn’t a crybaby, I think...

‘’Uh, no. I was thinking if there was some other way to get our hands on their materials, like, do you know of a cave where they gather they materials for poison?’’

Velariah shook her head. ‘’No.’’ She paused as she gritted her teeth. ‘’But there might be someone else that could help.’’ 

‘’You don’t mean…’’ Seralyn asked as she walked up behind the knight.

‘’I'm afraid so Seralyn.’’ Velariah replied.

What was going on here? Could someone fill me in?

‘’Uhhh?’’ I let out.

Velariah sighed. ‘’The witch of the forest.’’

That didn’t sound good.

‘’Witch of the forest?’’ I asked.

‘’Some crazy old hag.’’ Seralyn said. 

‘’But she may have what Elania asked for.’’ Velariah turned to the other elf. 

‘’Probably. It does sound like something she would have.’’ 

‘’So, could we visit her?’’ I asked.

‘’We could…’’ Velariah started, ‘’But she is crazy, that wasn’t a joke.’’

‘’How crazy?’’ I asked.

‘’Oh, you know, the usual.’’ Seralyn started. ‘’She wears a pointy hat, talks to walls, hears noises that aren’t there, tries to summon demons, collects elf ears.’’ She said nonchalantly.

‘’What?’’ I asked dumbfoundedly.

Velariah sighed. ‘’Yes, that kind of crazy. We could visit her, it’s only a small detour, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.’’

‘’Remember that she has rather… exotic demands when it comes to payments.’’ Seralyn added.

‘’Uhhhh?’’ I let out again.

‘’Maybe we can use some of these troll ears as payment.’’ Velariah said to Seralyn.

‘’Perhaps, I’d hate to lose mine.’’ Seralyn replied.

‘’Wait, she takes elf ears for payment?” I asked.

They both nodded.

Just how crazy was this witch? Her list of quirks was long and I imagined it would be extended when I got to meet her. She tries to summon demons? I sure as hell hoped she wouldn't succeed. The talking to walls and hearing noises that weren’t there wasn’t a danger to us so it didn’t really bother me. 

‘’Any chance we can pay her a visit then?’’ I asked. 

If it was only a small detour I had the feeling we might as well. Using some troll ears for payment would be fine too as I imagined the guild would be most interested in the ones that belonged to the troll warlord. They had a distinctly different color, after all.

Velariah seemed hesitant. ‘’I mean, we could, if you think it’s useful.’’ 

I nodded. 

‘’If you don’t mind, then yes please.’’

How bad could this be?

Fuck.

I just jinxed it, didn’t I?

I inwardly sighed at my stupidity. 

Draco walked outside the cave with his axe-shield in hand and his battle-axe bound to his back again. He also carried the chest filled with coins which caused him to walk a bit unsteadily.

‘’Velariah, can you get that chest bound to my back?’’ I asked the elf.

‘’Are you su-.’’ 

‘’Yes.’’ I answered before she even finished.

Velariah took the chest from Draco and put it on the flat section of my back. She then walked behind me and pulled some threads from my spinnerets. Finally, she tightened the chest around my body.

It seems I wasn’t just mere cavalry anymore. I’d been promoted to transport valuables now.

Seralyn handed me my spear and we went on our way. Instead of going the same way we came from which would be westbound, we walked northwest. 

Nira seemed to not be the fastest walker. I imagined her claws weren’t really made to walk on. She possessed large wings she could use to fly to get somewhere, after all. I had asked her why she didn’t just fly back to the village instead of going with us and she shook her head and replied that she wasn’t in a state to fly yet. She would need rest to recover her strength and allow her body to heal. She also seemed to be fearful of flying, something for which I wouldn’t blame her. If she was shot down once, it could happen again. 

Thus, it didn’t take long for me to have her ride on my back. 

She was hesitant at first but Velariah pushed her into accepting the offer. The faster we went the faster she could get healed and get the rest she needed. 

She even got a nice seat. The chest that was on my back was an ideal seat for her. I imagined those claws could have been quite the issue otherwise. I was still fearful of them for a while, but I soon found out that she could hold on to the carapace on my back without hurting me.

I could still feel them, but the carapace protected me well enough. My abdomen was not covered in a layer as thick and was far more sensitive, I imagined that would have been an issue.

Velariah walked next to me for the trip and looked at my leg more than a few times. I guessed I should give up on telling her that I was fine. I was glad that none of us got severely injured, this could have been a lot worse. 

Nothing uneventful happened on our journey. We walked for about an hour until we came across a small clearing with a small, wooden house in the middle of the forest. It seemed odd to have a house here, would the goblins not attack this? Maybe this witch of the forest possessed some crazy powerful magic that kept them at bay.

I shuddered as we entered the clearing. 

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