The Path: A witcher's tale

Chapter 1

     It was my first contract, the details were limited, all I knew was that something in the woods was killing villagers. I asked the contract issuer where the victim's bodies were found or if there were any witnesses. The man replied, "The only sure witnesses are those who were killed, but the bodies were found in a clearing in the center of the forest." I was also able to examine the bodies, and what the wounds I saw were odd, to say the least, multiple puncture wounds around the body, each hitting an artery, blunt force trauma, making internal hemorrhages, and bite marks. All I could know for certain was that the bite marks we're post-mortem, made by necrophages, young ghouls most likely, given how they were no creatures when the bodies were found.
     I decided to view the scene of the deaths, I traveled and found the meadow, the heavy stench of death and decay hung in the air and the ground was saturated and black with blood meaning the victims bled a lot before death, poor bastards. Just before I thought I lost all possible leads were busts, I saw some peculiar tracks leaving the area, judging by the size, shape, and distance between the tracks, the beast was bipedal and large. I followed the trail and it led me to a grove, dappled with scattered patches of sunlight that broke through the overhead foliage, and a large tree full of crows at the center of it. Now that I saw that, everything made sense, the monster was a leshen, a powerful woodland spirit. Crows are servants of leshens, who use the environment and surrounding creatures to their advantage during a fight. Using the roots of nearby trees, the leshen precisely punctured the arteries of the victims and the hemorrhages were made by some victims being smashed into trees with the great strength typical of leshens, and the bite marks could also have been wolves that were summoned by the leshen.
     This must be an old and strong one, given how it outsmarted village hunters and quickly killed the unlucky souls who caught the leshen while it was on its daily hunt. I decided to prepare for the fight by downing a dose of swallow so I don't get killed by getting hit by a tree and a dose of thunderbolt to keep me alert, the potions we're vile and induced convulsions, pain, and temporarily wrought havoc on my insides. But they got the job done. The monster revealed itself quicker than expected, once my medallion started humming, I heard a rustling in the leaves and something rushing towards my head. I turned around to see a root about to puncture my skull, I rolled out of the way just in time, I cast quen and drew my silver sword to combat the beast. It emerged and revealed it's tree-like body made of wood and moss, adorned with the skulls of other victims, as well as nicks and marks which suggested that this wasn't it's first encounter with a witcher. The eye sockets of it's deer skull head burning with something akin to a blue flame bored into me.
     With a twist of my fingers I set it aflame with igni and advanced, slashing and hacking at the monster. Unfortunately, the monster was just as on edge as I was, it was caught aflame but it blocked my blows with primal rage coursing through its body. The beast then tried to catch me off guard and sent a wolf lunging at me. Once the wolf hit me, quen shattered and sent the wolf flying as it hit a tree and shattered its spine and killing it on impact. The leshen seemed to be overconfident and let it's guard down every  so often. I was able to inflict a few good blows with a pirouette here, a sinistra there and whirling around all the wile. Each blow sapped strength from the beast and seemed to weakened it a good deal. But that didn't make it any less lethal. It wasn't dead yet.  It tried to grab me to hurl me against a rock or tree. It did manage to grab me, but once it did, I summoned my strength and hacked off its arm and I chopped off a leg as it dropped me. Then, the beast was left at my mercy, on its knee. I looked once more into those eye sockets and saw years of death and killing in the monster's path, but it seemed to be for a reason. Humans we're encroaching its forest and it needed to take a stand. But I needed the coin. I delivered the killing blow and lopped off its head.
I sat down to recover when I noticed the leshen left me a souvenir, a large cut running horizontally across my abdomen. Must've been from when it grabbed me, but thanks to the swallow potion, the pain was dulled and the wound was in the early stages of healing. Despite the potions, recovery took time, the use of potions puts strain even on a witcher's body. I collapsed in the forest, while the songbirds we're singing in the foliage above me, at least, that's what I remember. Afterwards, I put the severed head on a hook I had on my belt and ties it to the saddle on my horse, Wasp, and rode to the village. However, before arriving at the village, the heavy scent of smoke and fire penetrated the air, as I got closer, I could hear the crackling of the flames, and the screams of people being burned alive; something was set aflame and I had to get there fast. I spurred Wasp on to a gallop, but I was too late. When I arrived, there were scorched bodies, burnt to a crisp, all over the ground, and the few remaining houses were burning to the ground. I looked around found some hoofprints and said to myself, "So, the plot thickens" and rode off on my mare, Wasp to hunt down the perpetrators of this massacre.