Butcher of Buki. (Part 3)

"And what will make me believe that you won't shoot me with that crossbow of yours?" - said Alan, as he can read the man's intentions.

In the middle of the room, he dragged his hostage to, was standing a lean and tall man garbed in colors of Kaedwen, but it was clear he was anything but a soldier of this country.

"Nothing. Because if you make any wrong move, I will do it." - said the man still pointing weapon at Alan. He didn't lie one bit. The later smirked and surrounded himself with new protection spell he and Triss constructed together.

They have no mages here and their weapons don't have any hidden aura, so no enchantments too. They can't actually harm him, but he preferred talking to fighting and meaningless bloodshed.

"As I said, I have contract here. I have been following caravan from the bridge and came here to ask the mayor..." - Alan glanced at the dead man, whose hands were nailed to the table with daggers and directed his gaze at the commander of Blue Stripes again. - "But it's clear he is in no condition to talk. And hardly will be."

"Who hired you?"

"It is self-proclaimed."

"Really now? Since when witcher do charity job?"

"Since now." - said Alan unimpressed by his threatening gaze. - "Listen, I'm not your enemy. I don't know who you are and where you came from. I'm after the monster that killed people on the bridge."

'Better not tell him that I know nearly everything about his brigade and him, the man might as well go to any lengths to kill me. He is inside the territory of another country, doing who knows what and with his patriotic character coupled with brutality even to himself, one can already know what Vernon Roche will do. His head is full of only one thing – Temeria. The last thing I need is more corpses here.'

Vernon suddenly thought that hiring a witcher to kill it is in no way bad addition to the chances of successful operation of the team. As for loyalty, everyone knows where it lies for a witcher and in no way it is about territory or country.

"We can help each other witcher. But first let go of my man. Then we will talk." - said Vernon.

And this time he really intended to negotiate.

"Fine with me." - Alan nodded and pushed the man forward with force. Vernon looked at the youth in front of him in wonder and with question deep within his black tense eyes. - "I don't want any retaliation. He won't die from a simple push."

"He won't." - nodded Vernon his head and lowered the crossbow, but didn't put it aside. Understandable. If one is experienced fighter and not cautious in front of the witcher there will be only two possible explanations.

Either he is an idiot or already dead.

"Lyrt, I want him beaten black and blue!" - came a scream and a freed girl rushed to the room.

'Code names. And she used it in such rage. Despite her tomboy appearance she is clearly a very level headed person and not some idiotic chick. Well, if she was, Vernon would have never took her in.'

"Calm down, Lisa." - strictly said Vernon with even tone. Actually he was normally very provident man. Tense, distrustful and ruthless to his foes, but collected and coherent with clear goal and logic in his every move. - "We need him for the cause."

The woman called Lisa, whose real name was Ves, stomped her foot in rage.

"I'm not trusting a mutant freak." - she said and walked towards another room. But she was clearly more upset about her loss, than the fact that Alan resembled some variant of a human being.

"Okay, let me introduce my team to you. Here, the man you took hostage is Van." - the introduced member of Blue Stripes nodded silently, From his vibes Alan surmised that he is quite easy going man, who loved booze and good one night stand. And he wasn't at all unwilling to work with a witcher, as he dreaded the creature from the caravan quite a bit.

"The one already coming to his senses is Kron and that unconscious mess on the floor, Kron without a doubt will take care of..." - with that Vernon aka Lyrt directed an ordering gaze to the man and continued after receiving a nod. - "...is Ron, or you can call him by his alias Weasel."

'Ron aka Weasel... yeah, right. No wonder he went down first.'

"Alan. Witcher. School of the Wolf." - he nodded and took a seat opposite to the dead mayor. He looked at the old man, who gradually terned cold in his vision and asked. - "Was that necessary?"

"Yes." - simply said Vernon.

Alan only scoffed at him in response. The man just tried to save time and opted for the torture. He was ruthless for the cause. For his country. And didn't mind killing innocent people as long as he can keep his king and Temeria safe.

King Foltest really got himself a perfect right hand. Decisive, brutal, not minding to get his hands dirty. Perhaps, if Foltest ordered him to hang himself he will just ask on what tree.

'He can't be trusted. On the other hand as long as I play in his hand he will be absolute ally. But the problem is, most likely I won't. Not with her here. Of course, if she is involved.'

"So, what is your agenda, Lyrt?" - asked Alan, noticing that Ron began to show sings of life.

"We cooperate, witcher. So let's cooperate. Tomorrow in the early hours at dusk we will attack the caravan camp. You kill the monster, we – everyone else."

"I won't fight if there is no monster and after taking care of it, I won't lend any help either."

"Deal."

"Now, can you enlighten me what is the monster you are talking about?"

"I know that it might sound insane, but it is a..."

* * *

Alan walked on the street deep in thought. Albeit it was already night, Tanhir actually never left, he found him exiting the building and approached young witcher with something on his mind.

"So? Heard anything new?" - Alan immediately knew that something was off.

"Yeah... it was yesterday, Timoh, a boya from the inn, yeah, found a ruined part of the forest today and said it was like... hurican... there." - Tanhir was Tanhir after all. Uneducated mess of a man.

"Hurricane." - said Alan.

"Ya know, right!" - farmer was impressed.

"Show the way."

"No-no... it is there..." - he waved his hand to the east, at the direction of the mountain range. - "Imma don't wanna go, mast'ar witch'ar... still don't have a wife, and son, and daughter..."

"Whatever. I will go myself." - it was a drag to take that guy with him for a clearly witcher related investigation. So he just mounted Sparky and sped in the direction of the place. He quite quickly came to the edge of the town and exited it from the other side.

'Hm... some fire energy here is way more pronounced.'

Alan dismounted the horse and jogged seamlessly through the uneven slope into the forest area. Soon his acute senses were tugged with a threatening smell of burned ground and cinders.

'Wow... that is really like a battlefield.'

What he saw after several hundred steps of constantly swerving path is a huge expanse of burned forest with dozens of trees being snapped or upturned from the roots. It was clear that whoever fought here were two behemoths and not your regular creatures.

'Two different scents of blood. One with fire aura and another have clear signs of latent poison. Two different footprints on the ground, relatively even in size, one from a tiger or a lion... another a reptilian. Looks like I was right.'

Alan walked among the landscape seething with picturesque destruction and got down. He removed some ashes and dirt, revealing a beautiful bronze colored scale. It was slick and elegant, drawing attention in one look and his medallion reacted to it.

It had a faint green luster to it.

'So it is like that.' - he already guessed what three green connections of the dragon medallion were, so he put it on and hid wolf one behind the belt, while returning to Buki, but this time entering it silently. He maneuvered between houses, avoiding light of the torches and entered a little yard, where a small bathhouse was standing near the slightly bigger wooden shack.

Coming to the entrance Alan froze in the shadows, hearing some talking.

"Don' ya worry, my love, imma protect ya!" - what a very familiar dialect. It followed him in Buki for quite a while.

"I don't need you protection. Although I'm thankful for your care, you can't simply imprison me here!" - said a clear and valiant female voice. It was young, perhaps Ciri's age, belonging to a thirteen years old girl.

"Imma will prove to ya, my love! Imma met a witch'ar, he helps me train and imma be a knight!" - the male said with certainty of a brain dead person.

"W-What? A witcher?" - there was a tinge of panic in her speech now. - "Tanhir, don't tell him about me! He will kill me! They always kill..."

"Witch'ar kill'a monsters, ya my love and wife in the fu'cha! He never kill'a ya!" - something clanged inside. - "Eat... I cooked it, nice one!"

"Tanhir, if you really love me, unchain me and let me leave. I can't stay here!"

"No! We will'a marry in the fu'cha!" - he said adamant on his right decision. - "Ya just stay here like obedient wife will'a do and wait! I will'a be knight and will'a marry ya!"

Alan shifted behind the corner and watched how not so bright knobhead of the Buki town walked away, not forgetting to close the doors using an excuse of a lock.

He waived his hand, soundlessly unlocking the door and entered a little room. There, on the roughly made bed he discovered a girl eating bread slowly. She didn't notice him entering, clearly being weak after the fight and absolutely defenseless.

Alan walked up to her and sat on the only chair.

Girl looked up and her eyes portrayed dread, after noticing his two swords. But she immediately composed herself and simply looked at Alan's eyes with her clear gaze.

'She is not like portrayed in the game, innocent, weak and far more beautiful. As expected of her unique specie.'

"You are hurt." - finally said Alan and his voice wasn't threatening or cold. She clearly understood that this witcher was young and came here for some purpose. Perhaps the one she dreaded the most.

"What do you seek from me?" - she asked with low voice.

Alan thought for a moment and stood up, unsheathing his sword.

"I'm just doing my job." - he said and silver flashed down.