Monster? Girl?

"Oh! It is you... finally! Come in fast!" - he didn't smile or really greeted them warmly, no, it was more like a relief of a person afraid for his life.

The duo entered the house, but old man was the only one, still, looking around they found several other auras. Perhaps he knew they were coming and chased them away, or his family simply went to work.

"Witcher, I hired you to kill a monster, go and kill it! Stop talking bullshit with me, I need it killed now!" - old man said impatiently before the duo can even start questioning him.

"First I need to ask some questions." - said Coen not minding the outburst of the old man, as if it is a passing air. - "May we sit down and talk?"

"Ask, but don't waste my time." - old man was restless, as if sitting on needles.

"Explain to me what exactly happened, when and where." - Coen sat down lazily, but his hunter instincts and predator gaze were firmly agglomerated around the interlocutor.

"It was couple of days ago. I had a drink with Harper, yeah, my buddy from the pottery, and headed home. It was dark like in ghouls ass and all, so I went into a shortcut to get home faster, yeah, and then this shitface jumped out and I was hit and all was dark. Woke up in the forest and that... that... spider like thing was near me! So... you know, I ran back, it chased and tried to kill me, but I hit it with a stone and escaped." - old man said some really strange things. Well presumably he was dragged all the way from the center of a town to the forest by a monster, that in itself just... smells fishy. But assuming it is truth, what was with monster being near? Just waiting for him to wake up, or what?

Coen looked at Alan and saw the look one only gives when heard a total bullshit. There is not even a need to use Vibe, he saw it with naked eye. Actually, Alan didn't want to enter the old mans head. He felt he won't like it at all and assumed a role of observer for Coen to do his job in regular witcher way. It might be experience of it's own.

"And you want me to get rid of the monster?"

"Yes! What else do I need a freak like you for? Do some chores?" - old man nearly spat at witchers face. - "So I pay, you go kill it."

"Why did it kidnap you instead of attacking on the spot?"

"How should I know what's on the mind of that monster? Ya the witcher, yeah! Ya tell me!" - old man said with emotions all over the place.

"Did the woman have any intentions to harm you?" - Coen deliberately said she was not a monster to see a reaction on how the old man will react.

"The bitch tired to kill me!" - screamed the man. Witchers eyes slightly dilated. - "I hired you to kill, not to talk shit! Go and kill her!"

"Calm down, I need to know what we are dealing with, it is clear by the description it is some kind of a monster."

"Yes, monster, a monster!" - old man nodded frantically.

"Do you know where it might be? Where were you attacked and where in the forest you were taken to?"

"It was dark and I was drunk, I don't remember!" - his gaze was all over the place. It was really hard for the elderly to withstand demanding eyes of the witcher. Especially if ones are known as coldblooded butchers.

"I will find the monster, as for payment, three hundred ducats, no more no less."

"What?" - the old man screamed like his life depended on it. - "F'ck you, freak! At most I'll give you hundred, take it or leave it, yeah!"

They went on bargaining with all vocabulary of port worker in play. Alan didn't listen as he was deep in thought. It was clear the old man lied nearly everywhere in the story, the question is not really what he lied about, but more like why?

Alan looked around with his unique vision that he didn't bother to remove since first coming close to the town. He acquired the habit of using it around people after first try and now exploits it frequently. What can he say about the house? It was little less personal than one can think of home, but that was understandable. No photos, not the age for that, and lack of money left nothing to see. No clues here at all.

But he clearly have relatives.

"I'll wait outside." - he said to Coen and left without further thought. He had a tinge of quite pure aura lingering all over the old man and it was suspicious. He closed his eyes slightly and went into memory, shifting from one person to another and finally saw the other two who had it and with similar intensity.

"No clue here, only thing left is asking and searching the place ourselves." - Coen exited the house. - "But old man is lying in nearly every sentence. Still his fear of monster is real at least."

"I might give you a clue, but we need to have a good chat with couple of guards who stood at the gates."

"How good?" - Coen's signature predator smile was all over the face.

"You guess." - snickered Alan and walked to the guard post. If his hunch is right, both old man and these two are not the greatest people out there.

* * *

"Hehe, it is there, there... wanna try ya luck fella?" - one of the drunk guard was hugging Coen with a bottle in hand, while the other strolled in stupor behind.

"Of course! Ya said it was Fela, right? The prettiest in town, hehe." - said the witcher, but it was clear as day he was nowhere drunk or having fun.

"Do ya think Imma boasting? I tell ya, it was a great fuck, yeah! I wanna ram her pussy for years since coming here, yeah! Like dream came true!" - the guard laughed and Alan by the side wanted so much to test his new sword, hanging on his back. - "We, like, followed and damn she was good! Swallowed all and got her butthole and pussy all owned by us, yeah! But I was first! I took her virgin pussy, hehe!" - he said with pride, as if conquering a country was his deed and not blatant ****.

"Coen." - the witcher heard a bone chilling voice. - "Get done with it, or I will slaughter both these shits, I swear to you on my name if they don't disappear from my sight right now you will have an issue with two dead men to dispose off. And they will be all over the place. Nothing like a neat and bloodless kill you expect."

"My thoughts exactly." - he said with gloomy voice and gave a guard steel gauntlet with all his might. Man cried like a pig before losing consciousness on the ground.

Alan turned around at that moment and without any words sent the second guy flying, slamming him into the tree.

"So you said that old man has the same aura, huh." - grumbled Coen while giving everything an apathetic glance. He wasn't new to such occasions. At all. - "Speaking of nature of humans."

"Isn't it already clear. Old man kidnapped a girl form town to ****, but guards followed and did her before him. He, by the way, did it anyway, but, perhaps, after the guards left, thus aura on him was slightly more distinct." - said Alan with dark look. - "But what I don't get where all this monster part comes from? And according to others that Fela girl disappeared from town three months ago, no less."

"Let's first look around. It still have lingering smell of her blood. Virgin blood have a particular sweet smell." - Coen said while sniffing the air.

"Coen, can you do it without comments?" - said Alan with tension in voice.

"Boy, take it easy." - said the witcher going deeper in the forest.

"Easy? You say it as if it is nothing! These shits raped a girl! Three at once! And left her there to the monsters as a snack. You go and take it easy, okay?" - Alan hissed through the teeth.

"Why?"

"What why?"

"Why so emotional?" - before Alan again exploded in curses, he continued. - "I don't mean this thing is okay. It is not actually and I'm angry too, but we are bystanders here in fact. Neither you nor me could have done anything to prevent it."

Coen turned around and looked at the youth in front of him and sighed, while suddenly putting a hand on his head and ruffling long black hair. Sometimes he tends to forget how old Alan really is, because he acts more mature than his age, more eloquent and understanding, with way more profound view on the world and it's complexity than a kid his age should have.

And coupled with his somewhat peer attitude with no respect to the age when he talks to him it all created an impression of an equal, not someone to take care of or someone who needs protection. Of course his magic arts are one of significant reasons too. It is hard to not take seriously a magical juggernaut capable of implanting you in a wall with a wave of a hand.

"What I mean is you are not at fault. You did your best already. We will see through it until the end."

"I..." - Alan surprisingly didn't fling away his palm, but stood there dumbly with lost look. - "I know... it's just..."

"We have time, if you want to talk." - witcher said, while removing the hand and pressing it on his shoulder.