Hearing the witcher's suggestion, Marceline's eyes widened, and her throat went dry, "No… I cannot lose my leg! There should be another way! You are a witcher, you should know how to—"
The witcher could not pass the opportunity in front of him, and he bargained with the vampiress, "Give me your youth, a part of your soul and the lustre of your hair. I will try to think about something better—"
"No! You cannot take anything from me!" Marceline pointed the gun back at the witcher, and she said, "If I tell my family that you were the one to curse me, do you think they will let you live?"
"Then came the vile and ugly self of the woman when she was cornered," the witcher's eyes were nothing less than a snake with green slit eyes that glowed in the dark forest. "But I wasn't the one to curse you. I will expose you that you tried to curse someone."
"My family. Do you think they will believe me, or an outcast who hurt their poor daughter, and the woman of the high standing society," Marceline was desperate. The last time she had arrived at the witch's door for help, she thought it had been a bad time. But this time was worse than last time, and she didn't want to keep circling the witches.
When Marceline pulled the cork off the gun and aimed at the witcher, the witcher finally said, "What has happened, cannot be fixed and the curse that you have wished for, it is strong one. But," he said, cautiously raising his hand forward and continued, "You can stop the curse. It's called the four directions of curse. You need three sacrifices, and each of them fulfils the requirement."
"What is it?" Marceline was impatient to get to undo the curse. She had brought the curse upon herself, and her inner conscience tried to let her know, but she stubbed it down.
The witcher said, "You need to do four things. Stab an animal and place its head in the direction of the West. Then cut the human. It should be an unmarried woman or man, it will be easier to find a child. The easiest, cut the branch of a tree, whose branch has never broken. Let them bleed to death with a dagger that I give you."
Marceline was happy to hear part of the solution. Something was better than nothing. She eagerly asked him, "Where is your dagger?"
The witcher pulled out a dagger from his black cloak, and he closed his eyes, muttering curses under his breath. At that moment, Marceline noticed a green string of light floating around the dagger, and her eyes shone with happiness.
Once the witcher finished muttering the spells, he offered the dagger to the vampiress, who hadn't stopped pointing her gun at him all this while. She stared at it, and he said,
"I am not done with it. There's the fourth thing that you need to do."
Now that the dagger was in her possession, Marceline's mood had improved and she asked, "What is it?"
"As you are the one who has been cursed, you will need to sacrifice something that you hold close to your heart. Be sure to not trick or the curse won't stop. The blade of the dagger will glow every time you have made the right action," the witcher explained to Marceline.
"What about fixing my leg back to normal?" Marceline questioned the witcher.
"I already told you. There's no way to return it the way it used to be. You need to amputate the leg until the place where the curse has spread. Maybe ask someone from your society who can use their magic, but we witches, we don't know. This is what happens when you wish ill upon others—"
BAM!
Marceline had pulled the trigger of the gun, shooting the witcher to his death. The witcher fell slack on the ground. The vampiress stated,
"Don't you dare preach to me what I can and cannot do, you filthy kind. It is because of your kind, that I am in this mess," and heavily breathed.
Timotei noticed the cold increase around the vampiress who didn't care about anyone but herself. He said, "I should let the others know what this crazy vampiress is up to." He quickly climbed down the tree before prancing back to where Marceline's carriage was parked.
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With Marceline, who had difficulty when it came to walking, there were still good minutes before she reached the carriage. Timotei looked back and forth between the carriage and the direction in which he had come.
"Grrrrr…."
Marceline's coachman, who stood next to the carriage, jumped when he heard a growling sound from the bushes. He softly gulped, while moving backwards.
"Grrrrrr—rrrrr!" Timotei made sounds like a panther while he hid behind the bushes, his tail swishing on the snow.
The coachman continued to walk back, and he gasped when his back hit the vehicle.
Adam, Marceline's coachman, turned in the direction where his miss had disappeared behind the thick woods. He wondered when the vampiress would return, because if she didn't return soon, he would be bitten and dragged by whatever animal was behind the bush.
Timotei wasn't happy that he, who had the body of the panther and only that he was smaller in size, couldn't scare the coachman here. His eyes narrowed, and he licked his sharp teeth. Raising his paws, he shook the bushes this time, as if the animal was readying to pounce on the human, and he opened his mouth wide before sending a louder growl,
"GRR!!!"
The coachman turned scared on hearing the deep growl of the hungry and ferocious animal behind the bush. He quickly got on the coachman's seat, waiting for the vampiress. Where was she?! Forget about her killing him, he would be dead before that!
"…rrr….." Timotei purred deeply, while hearing a rustle behind him. But his focus was in the direction where Marceline was coming, making sure she hadn't reached yet.
