The Path: A witcher's tale

Chapter 11

People say various (usually false) things about us witchers, like how we are harbingers of plague and destruction. The most common and widespread misconception about us however, is that we are emotionless and heartless beasts, no better than the monsters we slay. In this aspect, there is a grain of truth in this statement, while the degree of emotional expression varies, us witchers always have it at a minimum, as our training and mutations cause us to be unable to express emotions like normal humans do. We do feel emotions, but they are not expressed unless felt very strongly. Karadine however is different, for a witcheress, she is very emotionally expressive compared to other witchers, including myself. For example, she has been known to reject a reward if she felt disgusted by who is offering the contract. In that scenario, most other witchers would take the coin, tell the issuer to plough themselves and move on. I guess the mutagens affect women differently than men, leaving them able to express emotion as they please.
A more recent account of her emotional expression is when we had a contract on something that had killed 3 Ducal guardsmen in the city of Beauclair on one isolated incident. The corpses had severe burns and the wounds did not appear to be something cause by any normal flame. Upon further investigation, the culprit was a succubus who had taken residence at a local brothel. Succubi aren't inherently evil and do not attack without provocation, meaning that the guardsmen were not killed for the purpose of killing. I relied on my bestiary and the witcher's code, to not kill any harmful sentient monsters, to decide what to do with the succubus, while Karadine relied on emotion. We agreed to hear her out, and she had stated that the guards had corralled her into an alley and tried to kill her out of an act of racism. Upon careful consideration, I had agreed with Karadine to let the succubus live and leave the city. However, I added a condition, if she were to kill any men without provocation, I would hunt her down and complete my job. She thanked both of us graciously and offered to repay me with what succubi know how to do best. I declined and said a lock of hair would suffice to provide proof and collect the reward.
With winter approaching, I had told Karadine that is was time to start moving up north, but I heard of a potential job with good money. The contract came from Skellige near the mountains on the center of Ard Skellig. The reward was from a local jarl that said something in the mountains was killing livestock and, in rare cases, villagers. We agreed to the job and upon leaving to examine the bodies of the livestock, for the people were already buried, the jarl had told us, "I want the beast's head!" Given how serious he was while saying this, I was going to bring him it's head. The livestock seemed to have died from venom injection in various puncture wounds around the body, the bite marks left had shown that the monster had an impressive set of jaws, more than capable of tearing a man apart. We returned to the scene of the deaths and with the first snowfall already starting, any tracks were covered. However, the monster had left a patch of hair on a fence post and the monster had a stench of blood, making it easy to follow.
The scent led to a secluded cave on the mountainside. The beast was resting up from its latest kill and was digesting the remains, it caught our scent and knew of our presence. The monster was a manticore, about 60 years old and a male. It must've outgrown its regular diet of mountain goats and such and went for bigger prey. Just was we started to approach it, it woke up and sent its venomous barb right at Karadine, unfortunately it hit her and left her wounded. After that, I lost control of myself and everything else was a blur. When I regained my senses, the beast was lying dead at my feet, full of deep cuts and mortal wounds. I severed the head and went to see the jarl after I had bandaged Karadine's wound and gave her Golden Oriole to help neutralize the effect of the venom. I threw the head at the jarl's feel and he looked at me and said, "Why'd you bring me this, witcher! When I said I wanted the beast's head, it was a ploughin' figure of speech!" We exchanged a quick laugh and I collected the reward, along with a small bonus for fulfilling the directions to the letter.
I put Karadine on Wasp and we went to an inn to rest up before going to Kaer Morhen. When Karadine came to, I was sitting at her bedside to make sure she was alive. She awoke with a start and asked how she got here. I explained that the manticore hit her and I helped dress and heal her wound, I also asked how the manticore died. She had said it was very peculiar, she had seen my black hair turn white from a white streak of hair normally on the back of my head, and my normally amber eyes turned blood red and my silver sword seemed to glow from runes that were etched on the flat of the blade. I thanked her for telling me and let her rest.
Afterwards, I went through my bestiary and looked at what monsters exhibited these abilities of rage-induced transformation. It seems that with the closest attributes to my transformation was a species of monster called ulfhedinn, a breed of werewolf found in Skellige that is much larger, voracious, and ferocious than its continental brethren. I now realized why I was separated and given different compounds during my trial of the Grasses. I must've received ulfheddin mutagen, which gave me this ability. It's a miracle I survived, as this type of mutagen is very volatile when ingested. I decided to call it a night and discuss it with my fellow witchers at Kaer Morhen.