The Human (A Witcher Fanfic)

Chapter 8: Strength

A wind did catch the embers just right, stoking a growing flame in Ves' chest. It was the shadowy figure crouched down in the tree line. Snapping a twig under their foot and it caught Ves' attention. When their eyes locked, Ves' mind raced. Swirling were thoughts of revenge and anger, by depriving her of her triumphant return. By the destruction of her childhood home, by being yet another thorn in her side just from trying to do the right thing. She came to her senses to not to wait and see what fate would bring, she'd done that her whole life. No, she was going to determine her own fate. Not fall into a defeatist mindset again. Lance had walked up beside her, nessling his nose against her arm, almost as if he approved of the shift in resolution.

Ves stood and the shadowy figure retreated, quickly disappearing in the darkness of the forest. Ves hopped on Lance, her thoughts on pursuing but before she could speed off the guards entered Ambra on high alert. She wanted to ride after the culprit but she couldn't quite ride Lance through the thicket of the surrounding swampy lands. She didn't have enough strength to give chase to the mysterious person and she couldn't let herself be caught and thrown in a damp dungeon for god knows how long either.

Ves' heart grew heavy as her only plan of escape formed, she pointed Lance directly at the group of blue cladded guards and hopped off. She gave Lance a good smack to persuade him into running and he barreled toward the guards as Ves ducked and ran behind a neighboring house. She watched at the corner as the guards, under the light of all of their torches, met Lance and grabbed his reins, but they didn't leave with their prize. They wanted their own culprit.

The house Ves hid behind belonged to the Placto family, or used to. They had long since left and the house now set abandoned. Ves climbed in a window and began looking for supplies. She ransacked the house as the guard's attention was now split between Ves' home burning and rounding up the townspeople in search of Ves. Their torches dotted the landscape and swarmed like fireflies.

A banging started on the door of the house Ves was scavenging through, she grabbed what little she could. A knapsack that she filled with a change of clothes, some cloth for makeshift bandages, some twine, an old dagger. The house was mostly picked clean. She climbed back through the window and just as her feet touched the ground the guard kicked down the door to a now empty house. Ves darted into the trees, the same path the arsonist took for escape.

Ves ran and ran, not once looking back as she left her home and everyone she loved but she couldn't throw herself to the wolves, not now. She needed to hide and nurse her wounds the best she could alone in a swamp. Her journey has been hard yet it'll only get harder still, but she was ready to try. Try to live.

She found a dominant strength that she wished she had a long time ago and maybe it had been there. She wanted to hang onto it now that it's been found. She wanted to make her own way in the world. She slayed a monster and saved a whole town, including herself and now she had a will to fight, to live. She wanted justice, to clear her name and reclaim it. Vesless, the human.