?


    "I thought that you might appreciate our hunting skill. But can we go? This charm took a lot to cast, and we don''t want to wait for ages while the Witch casts another." Wolfe exined.


    "Right then. Follow us. When they said that you had a Witch, we didn''t think you meant a real Witch. But if you took that thing down, she can''t be half bad." The scout leader replied, giving Christa an appraising look.


    "She finished her first year at the Academy." Wolfe agreed, speaking on her behalf.


    "And what might her name be? Anyone special?" The scout probed.


    "Nobody special. Just a distant cousin of the Abilene lineage." Wolfe replied.


    That made the male witch straighten up and look much less suspicious.


    "Oh, she''s older than she looks then. The Abilene witches all moved to the West Coast, but a number of them went renegade after the Academy in thest few years." He replied.


    "If it''s a big deal, we can keep it quiet," Wolfe suggested.


    "No, it''s better that everyone knows she''s from a pure family. They might not treat a mixed-blood renegade well, but a Witch from one of the big Families is different. They send all sorts of supplies to us when they can." The scout replied.


    "Have you lived out here all your life then? We heard that most of the viges scattered during the warst winter. We went into the Frozen Wastes to wait it out." Wolfe asked.


    "Yeah, born and raised. Plenty scattered, and plenty were drafted, but I was on the town guard, so I stayed behind."


    They walked as they talked, not wasting any time, and the vige wasing into sight already.


    "Might as well set it up outside the wall. There isn''t a trade stall inside big enough for that monster. I will call the butcher and the reagent shop owner over for you."


    Wolfe set the snake down just outside the wall, and Grok got back to carving out the snake''s head.


    "What are you making out of that?" One of the guards stationed along the wall asked.


    "It''s my first big monster kill, so I''m going to make the head into an armour te. It''s going to look amazing." The Goblin Pdin cheered happily.


    He managed to pull the scaled hide off in one piece, then began carving the magic-infused bones into a secondary armour ting to go over his metal armour. The fangs were left attached to the center of the jaw, which made the back of his te, and extended over his shoulders when he tried the piece on.


    "Stupid snake is too big. I wanted to keep the fangs, but they''ll get in the way of the halberd." Grok sighed.


    "How about you just keep the hide as a cape and then sell the rest to the Witches? They''ll likely pay really well for the head itself, with the venom nds." Wolfe suggested.


    "Oh, good idea. Let me just dig out this rib bone here. With a hole here and here, and a bit of a twist, perfection." Grok announced as his new snake skin cloak settled over his shoulders, hiding most of his armoured body with mottled brown scales, including an oversized hood that fit over the horns on his helmet.


    It was a much better disguise than his shiny metal armour, and it seemed to dull the presence of the Demon, making him feel more like a magical creature that belonged in the woods.


    Christa cast a spell on the cloak that tanned the hide under the scales and imbued it with an aura of silence, making his armour nking nearly unnoticeable. Now he was something of a proper wilderness scout, even in his full-te Pdin Armour.


    The others could all use magic that made them silent, though Wolfe didn''t bother, as he had gotten so used to walking silently to avoid echoes in the Den that he didn''t really need to anymore. If he did, he had [Gentle Steps] or [Levitate], which would let him move inplete silence anywhere.


    A few minutester, two older witches came out of the vige and headed straight to the snake''s Corpse with greedy looks.


    "What do you want for it?" The older of the two asked.


    "We have a list of things we need. The rest we would take in coin if the swamps are all using the same one right now." Wolfe replied and handed her the list.


    It was a short list. Four bow strings, three magical des, a shower charm, a longsting silence charm, a variety of spices and two changes of clothes so that the girls could wear something normal to blend in when they got to viges.


    People expected Witches and their attendants to wear somethingfortable, but their guard and Familiar staying in armour wouldn''t raise any eyebrows. That was what the group would look like in any vige they stumbled upon since Christa was the only one with an aura they could detect now that E had hidden hers.


    "And how much coin do you want on top of that?" The younger of the two old Witches asked suspiciously.


    "Enough to pay for a tonne of magical beast meat. The rest of the order can be covered by the hide and organs. We''ve even got one eye and both full venom nds." Wolfe bargained.


    The magical des he had asked for were the only expensive part of the order. The rest was rtively cheap and could be purchased at nearly any general store in a vige full of witches. Not that there were many corner stores out here in the wilderness, but in the City, they were quitemon.


    It was a good price, so the Witch nodded in agreement. "I will send my helpers to bring that into the vige. Come with us, and we will fill your list."


    They followed the pair into the vige, and as soon as they were past the walls, it was clear that the military presence here was strong. There were tanks, anti-aircraft gun emcements, and uniformed soldiers all over the vige, making up nearly half of the people that they passed.


    If the Coven had been suspicious before, the strong military presence at the vige closest to the Academy should be a dead giveaway that things were not as they seemed to be from the official reports.