The Quest To Kill The Forest Witch

The Quest to Kill the Forest Witch

Commander Amaleen Eldenbrow stood on an inner balcony of Almerry Keep, watching the group of armed and armored women in the courtyard below. They were forming up into ranks around a handful of empty carts being hitched to horses. As she watched them the concern and weight of the last few weeks played out across her face.

A Human woman approached, cautiously taking a place by the commander's side. "I noticed the young ones are down there," she said.

"And so they are," Commander Eldenbrow replied. She glanced at the woman standing beside her, Vignette the keep's Master of Messages. "More bad news?"

Vignette shook her head. "None that came by raven or rider if that's what you meant. But you may not like what I've come to say."

"Speak your peace," Commander Eldenbrow said with a heavy sigh. She'd encouraged the senior staff to speak their mind since she'd taken over command of the keep and Vignette more than anyone had run with that freedom.

"They aren't ready for this," she said, quick and full of passion. "They are too young and too inexperienced to be sent out now. Your mother and the twins are marching an army to reinforce us and deal with this abomination growing in the heart of the great forest. They will be here soon, we should wait."

"That they will be here soon is exactly why we need to ensure the keep is fully stocked," Commander Eldenbrow replied, fists clenching the railing. "You've heard Riowondail's visions the same as me. If there is going to be a siege we need to be able to withstand it if it happens before my mother and her army arrive. And if it happens after? Then we need the stores to feed that army."

She paused, looking weary. "Every day it grows more dangerous for us out there. Every day more perverse monstrosities wander out from the corrupted forest. If we are to journey to the nearby towns to purchase all the supplies we must act now. We can't take any chances with this, it may be our last chance to get such supplies for a long time. Those carts need to be protected with every able body we have."

"But why send

THEM

? Why send those four young girls along with the rest of those seasoned warriors? Everyone calls them the 'girl squad' for a reason, that's all they are!"

Commander Eldenbrow laughed. It was a cold, hard laugh. "Three of their number are missing. The Blood Elve Amoera, the Faun Peare, and the innocent plump little Night Elve Teldy. We still have no idea what happened to any of them, but at least with the last two there was evidence they somehow sneaked out of the keep."

She paused, looking at Vignette. "They were close, all of them. Some of them have grown up together in the Sisterhood, others bonded stronger than family since they began their training here. Do you remember what it was like when you were that age? Do you remember what you would have done for your friends?" She shook her head. "I did not decide they were ready,

THEY

did. They demanded they be allowed to join the others."

"They are looking for a fight," Vignette whispered.

"Yes," Commander Eldenbrow replied. "They want to avenge their missing friends, but they have no idea where to point that fury. They hope to find danger out there on this little quest to resupply the keep, some enemy to kill. And I fear they will find it."

* * *

Four cloaked figures dashed through the night, keeping low to the ground and near each other as they moved through the hilly, open ground toward the enchanted forest that was their destination. They stopped a stone's throw from the tree line and huddled together, throwing their hoods back.

The tallest of the four girls was a freckled Human with long orange-red hair. Under her cloak was heavy armor and a massive two-handed sword hung from her hip. She looked to be barely of age but the determination on her face suggested she'd recently done a lot of growing up in a short time.

"We're far enough away now, there's no chance anyone saw or is following us," Dunla, their leader said.

The second tallest girl was a petite green-skinned Orcish girl with dainty, pretty features for one of her race. She had long dark hair that had flowers and vines growing in it and held a large staff made of gnarled wood. She tapped it on the ground and faint green light began to glow from its tip, allowing them all to see each other's faces better.

"How long do you think it will take them to notice we've slipped off?" Resi, the Orcish Druid asked.

"Long enough," a short, stout blond girl with pink-tipped hair declared proudly. She gripped a wand in one hand and gave it a dramatic whirl through the air. "A couple of quick enchantments and they won't know we're gone till morning," Gwynaetha their Battlemage declared. "Not normally the kind of magic I use but we've been planning this for weeks, I had time to prepare."

"Won't they be worried about us once they notice we're gone?" the final girl asked.

She was Emiko, their healer. A small Kittaran girl, a member of a race with cat-like ears and tails. Her hair and fur were light pink in color and her cute, innocent face was twisted up in worry as she clung to her healer's staff.

"I feel terrible doing this," Emiko told her companions. "They are going to think whatever happened to the others happened to us."

Dunla shook her head. "They'll know what happened this time, I made sure of it. Gwynaetha helped me write a letter explaining everything. It will appear in the detachment leader's hand the moment she notices we're gone."

"What does the letter say?" Resi asked.

"That we know where Amoera, Peare, and Teldy are and that we've gone to save them. But it doesn't explain anything past that, just that this was something we had to do on our own and we knew they wouldn't let us."

"Did you mention the Forest Witch?" Emiko asked, her voice quiet and full of fear.

"No," Dunla replied quickly. "But... Well, with my family history, they may figure it out."

They were all silent for a long time, unsure what Dunla meant. Finally, Resi spoke up. "We all agree the Forest Witch has them?"

"We've all had the same dreams," Gwynaetha said, glancing at the nearby forest with angry determination. "Amoera begging us to come to her. We all know what we have to do."

"Save her," Emiko whispered.

"And Peare and Teldy, too," Resi added.

They all looked at Dunla. She was staring at the forest, a hard, cold look on her face. "You're all here to save them. Each of you has talents and abilities we'll need once we enter that evil place. And I'm going to lead us, I'm going to help you save them. But that's

not

why I'm here. I'm here to

kill

the Forest Witch."

Emiko gasped, throwing a hand over her mouth. "Dunla! You're scaring me."

"Dunla... you

CAN'T

kill the Forest Witch. We read all about her when we sneaked those books out of the library last week, remember?"

The tall redhead shook her head. "This is why I am here. Why I was brought to

THIS

keep at

THIS

time. Don't you all get it?" She looked at them, annoyed they couldn't see what she did. "Didn't you all wonder why my mom was so famous within the Sisterhood? What great deed she accomplished?"

When no one answered she continued. "She killed one of them. And do you know what

HER

mom did? She killed a Forest Witch too. And so did

HER

mom. I always thought it was just a coincidence, they've done so many other things to bring themselves glory. But I can't believe I didn't see the pattern, didn't see it's the destiny of my bloodline to kill one of them."

"But Dunla, the book said-"

"Never mind what the book said! It was wrong. There isn't just

ONE

Forest Witch. There are countless ones, all copies of the same base but they each become their own evil thing after enough time. You can't kill

THE

Forest Witch, there will always be another one, but you can kill

A

Forest Witch." She pointed to the forest. "

THAT

Forest Witch."

"But how?" one of the girls asked her. They had all pulled back from Dunla, scared by how intense she'd gotten.

"With this," Dunla said, patting her sword. "I've had it the whole time we've been training, I've just never used it. It was my mom's. And her mom's. And

HER

mom's. It's already killed three of the Forest Witches."

"It can't be as simple as stabbing her with an enchanted sword," Gwynaetha said combatively.

"It's not. I know what else we'll need to do but you three don't need to worry about that right now. You three need to worry about keeping us all safe until we find the witch's cabin. I'm pretty sure that's where we'll find the others or at least Amoera."

"What is going to happen when we go into the forest?" Emiko asked nervously as they all turned to look at it.

"It's not a normal forest," Resi said. "I can feel it... It's not even an enchanted forest, it's like it's not real, like it is pure magic."

"I can feel it too," Gwynaetha said. "I think things are going to get really weird when we go in there."

"It doesn't matter what the forest sends against us," Dunla declared. "It doesn't matter what the Forest Witch tries to do to us. We know she can't kill."

"Dunla, we're still going to be in great danger," Resi said.

"We all know that," Gwynaetha replied. "Come on, let's stop putting this off."

"We go in together," Dunla said. "We stick together. We find Amoera and Teldy and Peare."

"We save them all," Emiko said.

"And then we kill the Forest Witch," Dunla added as the four entered the forest together.

* * *

"Dunla, I think we're lost," Gwynaetha said, pushing her way through a bit of thick underbrush. "Nothing in this place makes sense. It's like the forest keeps shifting and changing around us."

"It is," Resi said, tapping her staff on the ground and making a patch of undergrowth that had been slowly creeping towards them pull back. The top of her staff radiated green light that grew gradually brighter as she strained against the magic she was fighting.

"What are you doing?" Emiko asked, biting her nails nervously.

"Trying... to keep... the forest... back..." Resi said, gritting her teeth from exertion. With a grunt of pain she stumbled back, the light at the top of her staff dying. The underbrush she'd been pushing back began to quickly creep towards them, easily recovering the ground it had lost.

"Quick, everyone, this way," Dunla called out, drawing her sword and cutting a way through the underbrush till they were out of it. Once clear of it she put her sword away and threw her head back, groaning in frustration. "It's like this place knows where we want to go and is doing everything it can to direct us somewhere else."

"I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it's doing," Resi said weakly as she rested on her staff for support.

Emiko rushed to her side and placed a hand on the tall Orcish girl's chest. Pink light radiated from her hand and when she pulled it away Resi looked refreshed.

"Thanks, Emiko. I don't know what we'd do without our healer."

"It's nothing," the shy Kittaran girl said, blushing and looking away with her big fluffy pink tail lashing behind her.

"How long have we been lost in here?" Gwynaetha asked, holding her wand out and making the tip light up like a lantern. "Shouldn't the sun be rising soon?"

"I don't think it works like that in here," Dunla replied, grunting and kicking away a vine that had been trying to wrap around her ankle. "I don't think we see sunlight unless this place wants us to."

"Great," Gwynaetha grumbled. "So we just have to keep stumbling around in the dark like this?"

"But you have your wand," Emiko pointed out.

"Yeah, but the light spell keeps fizzling out," she said, just as the illumination coming from her wand began to flicker. "

SEE!

GAH!

This is so annoying." She grunted, stumbling forward on a root as the light died completely for a moment. "Come on you stupid frick'n wand. Light up!"

The others could see through the dimly illuminated forest that she was angrily shaking her wand.

"Gwynee, please be careful," Dunla called out. "You're pretty far away from the rest of us. If something-" The stocky Battlemage's wand lit up, illuminating the world around her. "Don't!" Dunla called out, too late.

"Don't what?" Gwynaetha asked as she stepped into a patch of big puffy red mushrooms. They exploded, expelling a thick spore cloud that billowed unnaturally up to her face. She began coughing and trying to wave the cloud away, then remembered her wand and summoned a blast of air that blew the spore cloud harmlessly away from her and her friends.

"That tasted really weird," she groaned. She groaned again, throwing her free arm up to hold her chest. "Something's wrong with my breasts," she told the others.

Resi chuckled. "What breasts? For a girl as bottom-heavy as you are you're almost as flat-chested as me."

"That's very inappropriate," Emiko chided her. "And mean? I think it's mean." She stomped her foot. "Things like that always confuse me since I've never been in heat."

"Emiko, please don't stomp your foot like that again," Dunla said, her voice suddenly serious. "Everyone, please stay still. Gwynee, are you okay?"

"I don't know," the girl responded, holding her chest and wincing as the light coming from her wand died again. "I think that spore cloud did something to me. My breasts feel weird. Really sore and tender all of a sudden and very,

very

warm. I-- Oh!"

"I'm coming," Emiko called out.

"Don't," Dunla said, grabbing the Kittaran's arm and pulling her back.

"But she needs healing!"

"But we can't see where we're going. There might be more of those mushrooms."

"Dunla," Gwynaetha whined, "I don't want to alarm you but... But I think my breasts are growing."

"Did Gwynaetha just say her breasts are growing?" Resi asked. "I'm going to go grab her, you can't stop me Dunla so don't try. I'll- AH!" Resi had stepped on more of the mushrooms, sending a thick spore cloud up into her face. Her scream of alarm only ensured she'd sucked plenty of the spores in. She fell to her knees, dropping her staff and coughing.

"Resi!" Emiko called out, moving to go to her aid.

"Don't," Dunla growled, grabbing the Kittaran girl and pulling her back. "I am

NOT

letting you go over," she said, holding her by her side.

Gwynaetha groaned and dropped to her knees, doubling over and hugging her chest. She whimpered for a moment then screamed as she sat up, arching her back and thrusting her chest out. The tight-fighting Battle Mage armor, designed more for mobility and to look intimidating than to provide actual protection, bulged and then ripped open as the Human girl's breasts ballooned in size. She screamed again when she looked down and saw massive heavy breasts bounce free out of her clothing.

She collapsed onto the ground, curling up on her side and hugging her enlarged breasts. "I don't like this," she whined. "They feel so tender and so... I don't want to walk around like this. Emiko, please! Come heal me!"

Before the group's healer could respond Resi groaned and doubled over, holding her chest. "I think it's happening to me," she whimpered. She scrambled to her feet, abandoning her staff, and stumbled towards Emiko. "Help me," she moaned as she reached Dunla and Emiko.

Emiko reached out to grab her just as Resi started screaming. Her outfit was low cut allowing her to tug the front down before her breasts began to grow. She was right in front of the others. The trees above shifted, letting moonlight shine down so they all saw clearly what happened. Resi's breasts swelled like they were being inflated, at first just a little then exploding into huge mounds of soft flesh that sagged under their own weight.

"I've got you, Resi," Dunla said, grabbing hold of her. She held the Orcish girl to comfort her while looking at Emiko. "You have no idea how to heal something like this, do you?"

The pink-haired Kittaran's eyes were huge. "No! Dunla, we shouldn't have come here. We are not prepared for this!"

Dunla could see the girl was terrified and that she was going to panic and do something unpredictable. She shifted Rezi to one arm and grabbed Emiko's wrist. "Do

NOT

run off," she told her firmly. "We

CAN

do this. Do you hear that, Gwynee?" she called out to the other nearby girl. "You pull yourself together and come back to us even if it means going through those mushrooms again. If we stick together we can overcome anything. We

WILL

save the others and we

WILL

kill the Forest Witch."

They saw Gwynaetha get to her feet, one arm wrapped around her enlarged breasts. "Dunla," she whimpered as she struggled to regain her composure after reaching the others, "I lost my wand. And the mushrooms are all gone like they were never there."

"It's going to be okay," Dunla said, trying to calm the others.

"Is it?" a woman's voice called out.

The four girls all drew in close together, turning so their backs were together and they were looking out in every direction.

"Where did that voice come from?"

"I don't know, it sounded like it came from that way."

"No, it came from

THAT

way!"

"Try to remain calm," Dunla hissed, putting her hand on the handle of her sword.

"Such scared pretty-pretties," the woman's voice called out again.

"It sounds like it's coming from every direction at once," Emiko said, her chest heaving as panic threatened to overtake her again. Her large fluffy pink-haired tail was lashing wildly behind her, slapping into the other girls' backs and adding to their sense of panic.

"Emiko, don't run away! Stay with us."

The Kittaran grunted. "I couldn't even if I wanted to! My feet are stuck, there are vines or roots or something wrapping around them.

"Oh gods, me too," Gwynaetha said.

"And me," Resi moaned.

"Just hold on," Dunla said, drawing her sword. "They have me too, but I'll cut us free."

A vine whipped down from above, wrapped around Dunla's sword then ripping it from her hands. "No!" she screamed as the vine flung the sword away from them. She grunted, trying to break free of the vines and roots keeping her feet stuck in place. "I can still see it, I just need to get it. I need it to kill the Forest Witch! That's who's talking to us, you all know that, right? I need to get my sword before she gets here."

"But I'm already here, pretty-pretty," the Forest Witch said, stepping out of the shadows from behind a tree just out of arm's reach in front of Dunla.

The other three girls screamed and thrashed desperately to break free. Dunla, however, did not scream. She stopped struggling, stood tall, and stared defiantly at the Forest Witch.

"What's wrong, pretty-pretties?" the Forest Witch asked, swaying her hips sensually as she began walking around the trapped girls, allowing each of them to get a good look at her. "Not what you expected?"

Her overpowering presence forced the three screaming girls to calm down. The roots and vines around their feet retracted with only the ones holding Dunla in place remaining. Freed, the three girls crowded behind Dunla, cowering as they stared in awe at the Forest Witch as she stood before their group's leader.

"Y-y-you're not an old crone," Emiko said, voice shaking.

"Of course not," the Forest Witch said. She spread her arms out and slowly turned so they could see all her body. "I'm a shapely woman. Sexy. Sensual. Alluring. And beautiful to behold, am I not, little pretty-pretties?"

The Forest Witch was a Faun whose age seemed to shift as they stared at her. Sometimes her figure would be a bit slenderer and her face would look as young as theirs. Other times her body would seem thicker and her face would look far more mature, never old, just no longer young.