Elder Blood Witcher 250 Luke, That Is Your Father...

Nerissa continues to lead them through the thick foliage of the forest, her bare feet seem to be incredibly resistant against the harsh forest floor. She occasionally moves ridiculously fast for a 13 year-old but he remembers her race when she glances at him with her almost glowing red eyes. When the path is blocked by thick branches she simply waves her hand and Reima spots claws forming and slas.h.i.+ng them away, she's pretty scary in all honesty, if he were still just a regular human and was never reincarnated he'd probably s.h.i.+t his pants at seeing this.

The group eventually reach the small lake and spot the various supplies laid out by what could only be Luke's father, a small grill is set aside along with a cool-box containing bottles of water, beer and sweets presumably for Luke. The two fis.h.i.+ng rods still stand propped up facing the lake, one of them appears to have caught something while the other seems to have been snapped in half. Luke runs up and quickly reels in whatever was caught but unfortunately it manages to get away.

Reima "You're fathers missing and you want to fish?" he asks disbelievingly.

Luke "Dad said to never look away from your line..." he says as he sniffles. Ciri rubs his head and he hugs her waist, his tears quickly moistening her tracksuit coat. Nerissa watches on seeming disinterested and Reima starts looking around, he poses with one hand covering his eye, "Activate Witcher Sense!"... Nothing happens and everyone ignores him, he probably deserves it for trying to cheer everyone up...

At first it looks as if nothing untoward had happened here, but if one examined it closer you'd see some rather disturbing clues.

1. The tracks of an adult male leading to the fis.h.i.+ng rod don't seem to have gone anywhere, the only thing that'd make this possible would be if he suddenly grew wings and flew off, was taken or fell into the lake. From what Luke had told them he'd likely been kidnapped by a flying creature.

2. Whatever took him hadn't disturbed anything nearby, a.s.suming this is a flying creature Reima had focused on the higher foliage. This revealed nothing however as nothing was damage, it was as if Luke's father had been apparated away. However Reima knows that this isn't possible as Vampires can't use magic.

3. No lingering scents of any creatures, this doesn't surprise Reima as Nerissa herself doesn't smell distinct, in-fact she doesn't smell of anything. He'd thought this might be a unique trait but apparently not.

He sighs and crosses his arms, "You guys found anything? There is nothing to indicate where he could have been taken."

Ciri shakes her head forlornly, "Nothing."

Nerissa seems to sniff the air and suddenly speaks up, "I can smell something... It smells familiar?"

Reima "Are vampires blood-hounds now?" he jokes, drawing a glare from Nerissa.

Nerissa "It smells like my parents... Only different? I'm not really sure what this means."

Ciri "Can you follow it?" she prods.

The young vampire nods and walks around with her nostrils occasionally flaring. She suddenly swings her head to the side and starts walking North yet again, the others follow, Reima drawing his Divinely enchanted Silver sword and Ciri drawing her own steel sword.

They follow Nerissa for 30 minutes, she occasionally stops to recapture the scent but she seems quick good at this sort of tracking. The forest starts to thin and they eventually reach the treeline where Nerissa says the scent ends, Reima looks around and imidiately smells something himself, he glances at his vampire companion and sees her licking her lips... It seems she can smell it too, blood.

He whispers this information to Ciri and she tries to persuade Luke to stay back and wait with her for them to search for his father but he absolutely refuses... In the end he comes along as they follow the strong scent. They exit the treeline and see a village not faraway, over in the distance they see a large group of people, some gasping, some crying but most seem absolutely distraught.

As it's extremely cloudy and approaching dusk Nerissa doesn't have any trouble as the group approaches the ma.s.s of people, he hands the vampiress some sungla.s.ses and wears some himself to try not draw attention. They slowly make their way through the crowd but stop when they see what they're all staring at, the scent of blood is think in the air as everyone sorrowfully looks at the naked man crucified to a brick wall... All of his skin from the neck down has somehow been removed, the blood pools beneath the man as he lays up there, dead. The one thing Reima notices before everyone else are the two teeth marks in the man's neck, clearly from a vampire... But why would they do something so public? No only that, this doesn't seem to be for his blood as they've completely ignored it.

Luke escapes from Ciri's grip and runs towards the man while shouting "DAD! Dad!! Please wake up! Dad?" the crowd doesn't do anything and just watches the young boy tug on his fathers skinless foot to try and get a reaction. Suddenly police sirens blare and everyone clears off, leaving Reima's group still standing there.

The officer wearing the typical blue outfit steps up and clicks his tongue when he sees the body, "You lot, what're you doing there?!?"

Reima "What do you mean what are we doing? Look at this man, he's been murdered!"

The policeman pulls out his baton and radio's "There's been another, send social services and an ambulance... Just remember to bring a body bag." he looks at Reima, "Look, this is none of your business. Just let the authorities handle it, I a.s.sume that's that kids father?"

Reima can only nod before he and his group are escorted away, Ciri tries to comfort Luke but he's whisked away by some social service agents.

Ciri "What on earth is happening in this town?"

Reima "I have no idea, none of this makes sense..." Nerissa nods with him "My family are the only residence of the forest, perhaps this is a territory dispute?"