9 The Trial

Before the twins was a fog covered forest. The trees were close enough together to prevent the sun from providing enough sunlight to give the forest quite an ominous appearance. Taking a deep breath Katrina and Stephen both trudged forward through the dense foliage, at the beginning of their trek into the woods they were jumping and flinching at every animal call or snapped branch, but after around thirty minutes of not coming across any threat they continued their hunt by looking for tracks of creatures known to make the forbidden forest their home.

With another half hour passing Stephen spotted a large spider's web and broke off from Katrina to give the area around the web a closer look. Finding no clue for where the acromantula could be he prepared to group back up with his sister only to hear a clacking coming from above, not even glancing he dove out of the way only for a second acromantula to spring up from the ground and clamping it fangs on his vambrace in an attempt to inject him with it paralytic venom, he gave it a few punches in an attempt to have it let go only for Katrina to come running and kick the acromantula away. Helping her brother up and making sure he was okay they unsheathed their swords as they prepared for their first life or death fight.

Under a disillusionment charm about fifty feet away Wulfric and Stella were watching the battle unfold before them. Noticing the rigidity of their movements wile they dodged out of the way of a couple lunges they seemed to get into a rhythm as they started parrying strikes from their legs and scoring some light scratches on their carapaces but not causing any real damage settling in from where he was watching he prepared to move should anything go wrong with the fight.

Parrying another strike Stephen took a moment to take in his situation, he could hear his sister in battle with the other acromantula and glancing down to his arms he noticed that when we were bit on his forearm, they acromantula failed to penetrate his vambrace. Noticing this he came up with a bold idea, while waiting for the spider to make its move Stephen faked a stumble, releasing his sword with his two-handed grip. The spider lunged at him but before its fangs could find its target in his flesh, he threw up his now free arm and shoved the bracer into the acromantula's mouth.

With the acromantula biting at his arm he drew back his arm that still held his sword and thrust it right through one of its many eyes. Hearing the squelch and seeing to gore that leaked out of the spiders wound Stephen realized that he had succeeded in accomplishing his trial to become a Witcher. With that in mind, he turned to watch his sister as she too would need to overcome the acromantula in front of her to succeed as well.

Katrina would hate to admit it but finding herself in this battle for her life she couldn't help but smile at the fact that all the blood, sweat and tears that she spent training these last nine months actually paid off. She was satisfied that all her effort amounted to something, from eating out of a dumpster to fighting a dog-sized spider with a sword. She felt that she and her brother made the right choice in agreeing to come with professor wolf to this magical school.

As she side stepped a strike from one of the spiders legs she shifted her footing and raised her sword and delivered an overhead chop, lopping off the leg that meant to do her harm she watched as the spider screeched and tried to step backwards but Katrina wasn't going to give it the opportunity as she took a lunging step and thrust her blade right into its mouth causing blood to gush from its open maw. As she watched the spider curl up on itself, she approached and drove the sword through its head calling an end to her first hunt. Glancing at her brother who finished his fight before hers they smiled at each other and couldn't wait to return to the tower and finish their trials.

After watching the kids each come out successful in their battles, I smiled to myself and grew giddy at finally having the chance to make some more Witcher's. Watching as they harvested their spiders, I snuck up on them and revealed myself giving a loud clap with my hands imbued with a little magic to make the sound louder than it should I got their attention. I told them that they did a wonderful job and that they should head back when they are finished up and grab something to eat and meet me in the workshop on the fourth floor when they were ready.

Walking to the workshop I started to set up a cauldron and got the ingredients ready to make the potion, lining up what was available in the workshop itself I made my way to the first floor to get the final and most important material for this potion to work.

When the children arrived, I began to add the ingredients while going over what the process would be like one the concoction was injected into them. I told them about how painful it would be, but that didn't seem to deter them. I had gone over the possibility of a long life and maybe not being able to have children. They seemed to really think about all the pros and cons, but eventually came to a decision that would change the rest of their lives.

After preparing them mentally I had each of them hop onto an examination table and took my time strapping them in to keep them from thrashing about during the process to prevent them from hurting themselves. After finishing that up I walked over to the cauldron where I had finished making the concoction earlier and filled two syringes and walked over to them asking who wants to be first. After getting a reply from Stepheni injected the syringe into his arm than did the same with Katrina than took a seat next to the two of them so I could at least be there with them in spirit.