Chapter One

Eyolf was on fire. His fur blazing filling the forest with a rancid stink, acrid smoke burning his lungs. Somehow, he had managed to come through the flames relatively unscathed, and above all else, still alive and breathing. Falling to the ground and rolling to snuff out the fire’s embrace, he came to a full stop up against a tree trunk with a jarring impact, rattling the teeth in his skull.

Fully unveiling his magic, he unleashed it in a glorious vortex of wild energy which spread out from his staff as he spun it around in intricate patterns, producing a swirling field of green. The ground rose to envelop his still-limp familiar, constructing a protective barrier around her, and the trees surrounding the clearing began extending their limbs in search for the hidden foes. Soon they had nearly enclosed the clearing, sealing them in.

“Who dares!?” he shouted at the shadows dancing around to the ever-moving hungry flame. “Show yourself, coward.”

The response came as a high-pitched cackle, seeming to come from all around him, raising the fur on his neck. “Oh little wolf, your mongrel kind will soon be extinct! And the land shall be free of your pestilence once again, as it was always intended.”

Out from the shadows strode a figure, suddenly illuminated by the green spell spinning around her raised fist. Her hair, a wily mess that seemed to writhe with a will of its own, was bright green much like her wicked looking face. Dancing around her shoulders, puling at her hair and looking every bit as deranged as its master, was a monkey – its crazed eyes wide, mouth stuck in a perpetual grin.

“Since my little plan to sacrificed you to the Sacred Flame seems to have failed – and oh how I had hoped to sentence you to an eternity of endless hunger as a ghoul or zombie - I shall have to finish the job myself. A dead half-breed is, after all, still a dead-half breed,” the hateful Witch finished, punctuating with another wild cackle.

Stunned by this vehemence, Eyolf stared as the witch began an incantation, the words harsh to his sensitive ears, the wild monkey dancing an eager dance in ecstasy. With each sibilance the hissing and spitting green flame in her hands grew, expanding, green shadows dancing wildly on her face as she strode ever nearer.

Enough of this, Eyolf thought and pounded his staff to the earth, channeling magic, enhanced and strengthened through his aspect of Steel, sending a solid bar of green-white light into his foe. Astonishingly, as the glow and sound faded, the witch was mostly untouched, hair slightly singed with her demented grin still in place, chant growing ever stronger as she advanced.

“Your pitiful magic cannot touch me, filth-blood. The Wild belongs to me and my kind!” she screamed as she brought her hands together, shaping the spell in her hands, compressing it, almost complete.

As Eyolf backed away he could feel the warmth of the hungry flame behind him, and just a few steps away from stepping into the conflagration he sent the signal.

The Witch screamed, falling towards him, as his familiar - now healed and restored - had completely severed her Achilles tendon with her razor-sharp incisors. Quickly shuffling aside, spinning his staff in a mighty arc, he slammed the steel enforced length of wood into her back, sending her flying into the inferno.

This time it was the witch who did the howling, and this time nothing emerged on the other side.

Entered by: 0xa23C…9953 and preserved on chain (see transaction)