Departure

"ughh.. What time is it.."

Lucian sat up after waking up from what felt a mere nap and went into the other room, seeing Richard sharpening his axe.

"Aren't you an interestin' fella."

"Huh?" he rubbed his eyes due to just waking up now "What do you mean?"

"It's exactly 4pm and you woke up just now. That's interestin'. Anyway, it's about time to go so let's get a move on shall we?"

"Let me grab my things."

"Have at it."

Lucian went to the room he woke up in and took the rusty hatchet off the wooden table, heading back outside and leaving alongside Richard, greeting Anika and Bowie on the way out to the forest.

They walked past the buildings and immediately took a right turn after passing the last building in that section, being met with a forest in front of them which had a path.

It was quite calm.

The two walked into the forest and looked left and right, not noticing anything in particular until...

"Richard, look at this." Lucian said as he left towards a tree, noticing a small piece of blue cloth on the ground.

"Hm.. Must be someone who lost it. We're on the right track, that's for sure!" he said, holding his hatchet firmly and continuing to check the area, noticing a small spray of blood on the tree.

They looked at it, unable to figure out who it could be. 

The two ventured further into the forest, noticing multiple pieces of leftover cloth and an occasional spill of blood on either the trees or on the grass.

Following the path, at one point they didn't see anything anymore, so they chose to go backwards, retracing their steps and carefully examining the area and looking around to see if there's any blood spilt leads for them to follow.

"Here!" Richard exclaimed and pointed to Lucian who approached him, noticing on the ground multiple piles of blood.

It wasn't unusual for blood to be in forests, especially with all the animals and creatures in them, but this was apparently a calmer forest.

Not only that but the blood was overlapping one another, some looking dark brown and even black of just how old and dried it is and some looking fresher.

The two continued on tracing it, here and there losing themselves in the pile as or something was covering or secluding it to an extent.

What felt for hours, they followed it and chatted.

"So Lucian, what exactly do ya intend to do with the sword?" Richard asked, looking down and back up so he doesn't lose the track and dwindle someplace else.

"Honestly, I plan on going on and about to explore the world, meet people and fight monsters. It's silly to say like a witcher, but if there's a chance I can help and bring a dream to reality, then why not? Witchers aren't the only ones who have to necessarily fight and kill monsters after all."

"Your ideals are great kid, though in that line of business, you will only get hurt if not killed."

Holding onto his axe firmly and walking side by side Richard, Lucian was quick to respond to that.

"I know."

Richard didn't like Lucian's plans, but had to bear with it. After all, Lucian is a newly met person to him, one who has proven to be interesting and nice but he cannot stop him.

"Witcher business huh? Last news I heard about them, there was one in Novigrad lastly, about a few days ago I believe. Don't know which one though."

"That's good enough for me. Even if I never meet one, that's fine by me." Lucian said, pushing the branch off in front of his face.

The two continued on from topic to topic and it was quite dark out already with the sun being entirely set and their legs a bit tired. 

Catching a break, barely being able to see the blood too in the darkness, they sat down and rested for a moment.

During the course of their break, a rustle in the bushes around them occurred closer and closer. Both of them stood up and looked around.

"You see anythin' boy?" Richard asked him, having his axe at the ready.

"Nah, nothing." 

Hearing it be very close, a wolf jumped from the bushes right at them. Reacting quickly to it, Richard swung his axe and hit it in the stomach, knocking it to the ground as 3 more came out and circled them.

Richard quickly pulled the axe out of the wounded wolf, confirming the kill and having it at the ready as blood dripped from it.

"You ready to kill some wolves, kid?" Richard asked him, staring down at them, being at the ready of their next move.

"I've never killed any type of canine before."

"And you want to become a monster slayer? Odd."

Quickly, the wolf rushed at Lucian, so he moved out of the way just barely, avoiding it's claw strike. The other two were quick to follow.

Richard swung his axe full force, hitting one in the throat as it jumped at him, and decapitated it after exerting more strength to kill it. "Agh!" he yelled out upon striking it.

The other two jumped at Lucian, so he swerved out of the way, jumping into a roll and avoiding the other one's strike.

One rushed at him, going to bite him, so he instinctively kicked it in it's mouth as Richard slammed his axe down the middle of it, bisecting it in half.

The remaining wolf jumped at Richard, attempting to bite him as he fell to the ground battling it, in the attempt to push it off as it's sharp teeth were close to his face.

Lucian quickly stepped in, kicking the wolf off him, giving Richard the opportunity to grab the axe and slam the blade of it into the wolf, killing it quickly.

"Thanks kid, but it's best if we get a move on now." he said as Lucian gave him a hand up.

"Yeah alright."

Both quickly left the scene and continued following the path for about a 100 more meters before getting to an opening that had a stone type of tower, similar to that of a castle's. It looked pretty old and banged up, but the blood was leading in there, barely any being visible now.

"You think they're in there?"

"I hope so." Richard said, approaching the door. "You ready, kid?"

"Yeah." Lucian gripped his axe more firmly as he stood right in front of the door.

Richard opened the door and both of them went inside, and it was much larger than from outside.