Arc 716, 2nd of Vhalar
Nightshade had spent most of her time since moving around Etzos learning the area and practicing how to draw. She was competent with a sword but she wasn’t all that good with her drawing abilities, which made mapping more difficult than it already was. She was finally starting to become comfortable with her daily routine as well as the city itself, but she still didn’t feel too good about having to be with people so often in a large city. She felt like an enemy could come at her at any time to try and kill her for her half breed blood walking down the city streets. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being followed, and she certainly couldn’t shake off the follower if it was true. She wasn’t the most observant person, since the hunter usually isn’t used to being hunted, but this person was far from stealthy.The clicks of shoes on the wrong piece of cobble, the sound of something getting knocked over, even just the general feeling of mal intent. Though the last thing could have just been her imagination acting up on her again. Whatever it was that was following her was starting to get closer. Her wing feathers were starting to pickle, like an angry cat’s fur her feathers tended to stand on end when she felt threatened or angry. One time as a little girl her dad told her it was a natural bird-like defense to look more intimidating. Rarely did it work for her though. She could practically feel the breath on the back of her neck, sending the over defensive half breed over the line. She whirled around quicker than she could handle and nearly fell over, but she was able to recover and take a few steps back.
“Whoa! Calm down, I mean no harm,” the stranger said holding up both their hands. Nightshade sized what seemed to be a young woman up. She looked for the most part to be a typical human woman not much older than Night herself.
Night relaxed slightly, and although she was still in a defensive position, she wasn’t ready to strike in case of a fight. “Is there something you need? People don’t usually approach Avriel with good intent in this city, half breed or otherwise,” Night responded, stomping all of the rudeness out of her tone before she spoke. She was already tired and antsy from being surrounded by mass amounts of people that morning, which made acting kindly a little harder than usual, even if she was benevolent by nature. There was still a rude, arrogant, ass like half in her blood that wanted to yell at people. She wasn’t going to let that half win.
“Actually, I heard around from a couple friends of mine you’re starting to make a name for yourself here in Etzos. Not a very big name, but not a bad name either. A couple of my friends are map makers and they’re said that you’re pretty strong, that they’ve worked with you and you’re able to take down monsters without too much problem, at least the weaker ones. So I was wondering if you would be willing to help me out. Of course I’m willing to pay for your time and service! It’s just, the problem is kind of dire and could lead to something bigger if left unattended,” The stranger said looking downwards cautiously. That look was obviously one of fear, something Night saw often enough to recognize. Fear of her or fear of rejection was a different story, but she was willing to bet it was the latter.
“Alright, let’s hear it,” Night said taking a confident and relaxed kind of posture. In all truth she wasn’t relaxed what so ever, but she made effort to keep her body moved in a way that made it look like she was completely at ease. She had discovered that lying and making people believe things about you were two very valuable skills, and didn’t necessarily have to be used to manipulate people in a bad way. In Night’s mind there was a good and a bad way to manipulate people. The first thing she was practicing was how to appear more confident and relaxed than she really was. This wasn’t generally a problem if she let her arrogance run wild, but that led to entirely different set of problems.
“Well, you see, my husband and I are farmers. We live on the outskirts of the area and farm a small plot of land. It isn’t a very good living, but it’s a living none the less. Recently we noticed that a lot of our crops have been getting destroyed. Devoured and uprooted, sometimes just shredded for no apparent reason, so my husband went around and explored the general area. We couldn’t find anything until he came back home only to stumble upon a plague rat den smack dab in the center of the farm. By the looks of things it’s rather recent, not to mention the plants have only been getting devoured for about a week now. Obviously this is too serious of a problem for me and my husband since they’re destroying our livelihood, but it could evolve into a problem for Etzos if they’re diseased. We might have to burn our entire fields now. We tried to get the guards to help but they couldn’t come deal with it fast enough due to… recent problems. After all it’s only been about 20 trails since that big explosion. They still have too much to deal with,” the lady said with a miserable look.
“So a friend of yours told you about me and you’ve been stalking me for half the day trying to get me to help you out. Not a very good approach lady, but I can’t say that I blame you. I wouldn’t really want to approach me either if I was an average run of the mill citizen,” Nightshade said with a small laugh finishing off the story. “Alright then, I’ll see what I can do about your little rat problem. Just lead me to the scene of the crime and I’ll have those little beasts running for their lives.”
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The biggest problem when one is in the position of dealing with a plague rat colony is the risks one faces. A simple bite or scratch can lead to serious disease if precaution isn’t taken. Now the problem for Night was figuring out how to get rid of these stupid little rats without letting herself become a chew toy or worse, a carrier herself. She didn’t feel all too keen on dying of some horrible disease that slowly destroyed half of Central Idalos because of her. It certainly wasn’t the most appealing idea at the very least.
Just as the lady had said, the rats had made themselves a little home smack dab in the center of the couple’s fields. Night had been slightly disturbed when she met the man of the house, considering his age at the very least doubled her own and this woman was the very most was the same age as Night if not younger. Of course she honestly shouldn’t have been surprised as she was, there were a lot of things that could lead to that kind of age gap in a marriage, she just didn’t want to know any of the details. With that in mind she wanted to get rid of this problem and leave as quickly as she could, which seemed about as likely as her getting decently paid for the job itself. Trouble compared to the amount of cash the couple had to have on hand did not seem like a fair bargain in the least, but being a good person came before her own personal safety and care.
So here she was, Nightshade Eld, the woman to become one of the greatest and most powerful warriors the world had ever known, repeatedly stabbing a sword into a hole trying to get any of the rats out that she could, or at the very least kill one inside of it. She heard a scream of pain from inside the hole and retracted her sword. It showed a small amount of blood on the tip as well as very angry rat, which came out to try and bite her before retreating back into its hole. “This isn’t gonna work,” she was forced to admit to herself. At least this situation wasn’t gonna get any better with her sitting at a hole in the ground trying to stab some rats.
When she was a child she remembered having to get rid of an infestation of normal rats. Smoking them out of the hole or poisoning were two good options. She wandered off into the nearby forest. The weather had just left Saun so it wasn’t cooling down yet. Early fall meant Deadly Nightshade to her mind, one of the few plants she knew well thanks to it being her namesake. She checked nearby places that would be the warmest, moistest, and most sheltered. “Perfect,” she said with a triumphant smirk as she actually found one of the plants hidden among the nearby growth without too many problems. The plant was only about 2-3 feet tall, it was more like a shrub with dark leaves of mismatched sizes. The familiar jet black berries and drop shapes flowers were the giveaway though. She moved a little further out to find a rabbit hole and waited outside of it for a rabbit to come out. She perched in the tree above the hole and waited. When the rabbit finally came out she swooped down on the creature. She had to give credit to her Avriel half, hunting small animals like rabbits or mice was a lot easier than she expected other people to have to deal with.
She cut open the creature and uprooted one of the plants. After doing both tasks she began to stuff the animal with the roots of the plant, which were the most deadly part. A handful of berries could kill an adult human, so could a single leaf or a shred of the roots, the roots being the most deadly part. It truly was a deadly plant. Ironically things like rabbits or cattle weren't effected by its toxins. “Sorry you had to die for this little guy,” she said feeling a little bad for the rabbit. She closed the hole in the gut up as best she could. She also made sure to snag a couple extra plants and shoved them into her clothing before she went back to the rat hole. “Alright, dinner time!” She said tossing the rabbit down the hole.
A couple of the rats came out of the hole after a chorus of painful screech like noises came from it. Nightshade beat her wings a little bit rising just out of reach as one of the rats jumped at her. She thrust downwards with her sword letting herself and it drop from the air. Two were crushed under her taloned feet and the third met its end at the tip of her blade.
She waited quietly for a little while, seeing if anymore would make an appearance, before she asked for a shovel from the couple.
As a safety precaution she planned to bury the hole. After she was given the shovel she started to throw dirt into the den. There was no kind of movement to try and get out; there was no movement at all. She sighed in relief, continuing and finishing burying the hole. “Thank you so much,” the pair said approaching her after the deed was done.
“Yeah, no problem. I wouldn’t suggest using this soil for a while. I’m not an expert but whatever diseases these guys might have been carrying could bleed into the soil. Again I might not be right. I’m not sure, but caution is better than killing whoever you sell the crops to,” she said with a small shrug. She didn’t really know how things like this worked, she was no farmer. She smiled happily and did a tiny bow after being paid. “Bye, come and find me if you ever have any other problems,” she said heading back for town.
