Witches (The Order)Revised

Chapter 33

Merianna

I was stuck...

I couldn't believe it. I was on my first bounty since becoming a member of the Order, and I was stuck in the midst of a Ripper Nest, which wasn't mentioned in the parchment mind you, or Noch for that matter. You would think that when the plant grows in places with bad energy, that the person that wrote up the request would have had enough sense to forewarn the individual that would take up the request about the millions of ways that this could go wrong, right? Apparently they couldn't have been bothered.

Or on the other hand, as sadistic has Noch can get, I swear that he didn't bother to mention this little tidbit just to see if I would come home alive or not. Then in some magical way blanked out any warnings that may have been on the request before I took it from him to have a look myself.

And on top of that, he sent me to - what must be - the one place in this realm that the Rippers used as nesting grounds. Obviously the perfect habitat for the Ladsney herb. He must have known where he was opening the gate to. Yes, the rare plant seems to be growing here in abundance, BUT THERE IS A RIPPER NEST TOO!!!

Forget about burning him on a pyre when I get home. I would gut him, tie his entrails around his neck and then drag him behind me while riding on one of the horses through all sorts of fermenting manure piles, and more until his skin had shredded off of his body, his flesh been grated away by the earth and his bones crushed into dust by the beast's hooves.

Looking at what was in front of me, I lifted and eyebrow and decided that, yes, that image of Noch suffering till his death sounded like a brilliant idea if I managed to get out of this alive. The forested area surrounding me started to writhe and undulate with glowing yellow eyes and sharply pointed gnashing yellowed teeth.

And to think, this predicament started with me innocently picking the leaves and flowers from the herbs around the area and stumbling across a small cave-like burrow. Before I knew it, I had to start running. Do I have weapons? Yes. Have I thrown spells at them? Yes. The bad thing about this situation is that it's a NEST. And Rippers are a stronger version of Wraiths. Which made this situation my least favourite outing ever so far.

My energy was basically spent at the moment. I've started getting scratches every time one of them managed to catch up with me, and looking at the position of the shadows cast by the sun, it's around mid-afternoon at the moment. Noch said that he will open a gate again in the evening, which would give me time to "experience and explore", he said.

"Experience" and "Explore" my cursed little behind! Like this is something that I would be happy to explore!

Wait a minute... This is slightly reminiscent of the Final Trail that Fog described for the trainees, now that I thought about it... that slippery eel Noch.

A rustle to the left had my attention turning back to what was in front of me. A juvenile Ripper had suddenly lunged from the forest's brush and was aiming to take a bite out of my leg.

I jumped out of the way just in time and brought the Rune Reaper down on its black neck as it was about to bite. It screeched and flopped to the ground where it stayed lying still.

Yes I was armed with the Rune Reaper. When all this started out I thought that Noch was finally going to be nice for a change when he handed it to me just before he opened the gateway.

"Thank you!" I had squealed in delight and I hugged it close to me.

"You're welcome, although it's only for this bounty that I'm loaning it to you." He said with a self-satisfied huff. My alarm bells had started ringing dully then, but I didn't give it much thought as long as I had the Reaper.