You Poor Unfortunate Soul~ (GxG, Pafp)

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    Plot
    My Charrie :)



    It was a particularly lovely night this night. A light mist had settled over the thick forest around the old stone and wood house as the rain poured down from the bleak sky. "Indeed, a lovely night." Gwyneth sat in her comfiest chair as she stared into her fireplace, enjoying the flames licking the stone as the rain made a soothing noise outside of her home. She liked it deep in the forest, plenty of animals and plants that were get to be disturbed by the residents of Tesynvale.


    She hummed in surprise and glanced at her front door as she heard a knock, a small smirk appearing on her face. The witch stood up and stretched, making her way over to the door and opening it to see her...heh...guest.


    "Well hello there~"

    Display Spoiler


    Anabel has been walking through the rainy forest for what feels like hours. Her boots are coated with mud and her jacket did nothing to stop the rain. Finally, she saw a light in the distance. Anabel continued to make her way towards it, all the while grumbling. If this witch even existed and didn't help them, she was gonna be so mad. The closer she stepped towards the house, though, she realized how nervous she actually is. She has heard the stories of Gwyneth, of course she has. She knows that people that visit her never return. She knows all of this, but unfortunately she doesn't have much of a choice. Plus, if it was gonna be anyone it might as well be her.


    When she walked up to the front door and knocked, she felt her heartbeat speed up nervously. The door opened and Anabel had to bite her lip to keep herself from gasping. She was real. She was actually real, there was a witch living outside of her town. Anabel forced herself to speak after a moment of almost awkward silence.


    "Hello, Gwyneth? I'm Anabel from Tesynvale and there is a terrible plague in the town at the moment. You're the only thing that can fix it, and I was wondering what it would cost me." Anabel seemed to gain her confidence again as she spoke. She brought all the gold her family and neighbors could afford to give, but she had a strong feeling that the gold wasn't enough.

    The witch looked her visitor up and down for a moment, not even bothering to hide her scrutinizing gaze. She smiled after a moment, but it was sickly sweet. "Anabel~ How brave of you to come here." She stepped back and gestured inside. "Come in, you look awfully cold. I'll make you some nice hot tea and we can talk all about this little plague of yours hm?"


    Gwyneth didn't bother to wait for the girl's reply, already heading towards her small kitchen to start making the tea. She had seen that look nearly a thousand times now, a hopeless look that sought to cling to anything that might help. She smirked to herself as she thought about what Anabel had brought her in payment. The poor girl probably had no idea that she had just signed herself away.


    She almost pitied her for a moment, but she had tea to make and there was no time for pity in her home. Oh no, now it was time for business.

    Anabel followed Gwyneth in, shutting the door behind her. When she closed the door, she felt a shift in the energy. Perhaps that was her fear catching up to her. She glanced around at the cottage and she moved a few steps towards the fireplace. Anabel turned back to Gwyneth, curiosity getting the best of her.


    "How long have you lived here?" Anabel asked. She thought it may be dumb to be asking questions like that to someone in their own house, not to mention the fact that she was asking these questions to a witch who was known for making people disappear. She shrugged off her concern, though. Her fate was sealed the moment she knocked on the door.

    The witch giggled at the question, casting a glance back at Anabel before she replied. "Since I was born, my mother raised me here. If you want an actual answer though? A little less than a century and a half."

    She was glad that Anabel had asked a question, she was already much more polite than the last few that had been to visit her.


    It was always unadulterated fear or rushing to get everything done. No time for talk or getting to know each other, although it didn't bother Gwyneth too much. At the end of the day, she still got paid.


    After another minute Gwyneth walked over to Anabel with two full glasses of tea. "Apologies, all of my finer cups are being washed today. I wasn't expecting visitors." She handed the girl one before plopping down in her chair and gesturing for the other to sit in the couch across from her.


    "Alright, tell me about this plague of yours."

    Anabel raised her eyebrows at the answer to her question. A century and a half. How she could keep herself busy in a town as dreadfully boring as Tesynvale. Maybe it was less boring in the forest. She sat down and accepted the tea gratefully, letting the cup warm her hands. When Gwyneth asked her own question, Anabel thought for a moment before responding.


    "I'm not quite sure what the plague is, but it is horrible. It has infected nearly a third of the town, and those infected get blisters all over and infections follow. They smell of rotting meat." Anabel hasn't seen many infected other than her family, but what she has seen was not good.


    "I suspect it is coming from the water. Many of us drink from wells and recently a few wells filled up faster than usual. This was right before the plague began to spread."

    Gwyneth sipped her tea as Anabel spoke, watching the girl with that same gaze that she gave her when she first saw her. She hummed for a moment before she replied. "Sounds like purposeful contamination, I should be able to get rid of this plague of yours by the end of today."


    Then she smirked, a strange glint in her eye as she sat back in her chair. "However, I'm not hunting down whatever poisioned your water, nor is this going to be any cheaper. I have but one price for all of my services, and I expect it to be paid before I begin my work."


    The witch leaned forward slightly, setting her cup aside as she stared at Anabel. "Are you prepared to pay that price Anabel? I only ask for one little thing, and I'll save your family and your whole village."


    "I want just one thing. I want you~"

    Anabel felt her breath hitch in her throat. She shouldn't be surprised, she knew that. She forced herself to nod before she had time to second guess her plan.


    "Of course, I'd do anything for my town." Anabel's voice was a lot quieter than she intended, and it sounded almost like a whisper. When she had a moment to think about what Gwyneth had said, though, the only thing that stuck out to her was that she would not hunt down whoever poisoned her village. How were she to know they would not turn around and do it again once she agreed to this? Another thought came to her, too.


    "What are you going to do with me, if you don't mind me asking?"

    Gwyneth smirked at her answer , although she didn't expect anything else. She finished off her cup of tea and set the empty glass right back down before standing up and dusting herself off.


    At the question she couldn't help but chuckle, simply winking at Anabel in response as she walked towards the back of her house. "If you want to watch me save your village then feel free." She'd have all the time in the world to play with her new toy later, she had to keep up her end of the bargain.


    "So let's see, blisters, infections, awful smell, transmitted through water." The witch muttered to herself as she arrived at the back of her house, where she kept all of her spell ingredients and magic books.


    She lightly hummed as she set to work snatching various strange things off of the shelves that lined the walls.

    When Anabel didn't receive an answer to what seemed like an important question, she got nervous. Nonetheless, she followed Gwyneth, placing the cup she barely touched down next to the empty one. She watched as the witch went through her things in search of what she wanted to assume was a cure for her town's plague.


    Anabel hated that she had to just blindly trust this woman, but both her and her town were in no position to do anything but that. So she watched her cautiously, still somewhat worried for her own wellbeing and whether or not she would survive this trip into the woods. At the moment it wasn't looking too hopeful.

    After she had gathered about ten different things, Gwyneth poured them all out onto a table in the corner of the room and set to work grinding them all down into a strange paste. "Tell me about yourself Anabel. Why did you come here? And not the obvious reason, I mean why you?"



    She shot a glance at the girl as she spoke before quickly getting back to work, grabbing a large, empty jar off of a nearby shelf as she crushed up the paste. It was a strange grayish color, and it moved like honey rather than what you'd expect. Regardless she scooped the substance into the jar and sealed it.

    Anabel sort of shrugged at the question. To her, she didn’t even stop to consider who else would go. It just seemed to make sense that she’s went.


    “I was healthy enough to, and everyone else who hadn’t gotten sick are very important to the town,” she explained. “I was also one of the few who were willing to go.” Almost all of the healthy people were either male farmers, women who taught the children and made clothing for the men, or they had some important role that could not be replaced, like their healer and their priest.


    She also grew up extremely skeptical and wanted to be sure if this witch actually did exist, but she ignored that reason.

    Gwyneth chuckled and turned to look at Anabel, striding right up to her until they were barely an inch apart. That strange glint was in her eye again and her smirk matched it. "You smell nice, I like you. I might just keep you."


    With that the witch reached around Anabel, plucking a quill and vial of ink from a shelf behind her. She stepped away and drew a strange symbol onto the jar, setting the quill and vial on another shelf once she was done.


    "Get ready, we're heading back out into the rain." Gwyneth muttered as she walked past Anabel, purposely brushing against the other girl. She shook the jar for a moment before setting it down to put on her black hooded leather robe, the rune on the jar seeming to glow slightly.

    When Gwyneth walked up to her, Anabel felt every muscle in her body tense up. Keep you...what does that mean? She stood in the same position until Gwyneth had what she wanted and turned back around. She felt the tension leave her muscles, but her mind was still going a mile a minute. She barely even noticed what the witch was making.


    When Gwyneth mentioned that they were going back outside, Anabel instinctively tightened the coat around her. She took a shuddering breath when she felt her brush past and took a moment alone in the room before turning around and following her.

    Gwyneth smothered a giggle and smirk at Anabel's reactions. Yes, she'd keep this one around for a little bit. It would be nice having a bit of company anyway.


    The witch shook her head to clear those thoughts, she had work to do. With a quick glance back at Anabel she opened her door and stepped out into the rain. "Do lock it behind you dear, we wouldn't want anyone wondering in and messing up the place now would we?"

    Anabel only nodded in response as she followed her back out into the rain. She pulled her hood back over her head and closed the door behind her, making sure to lock it. Then when she turned around, she moved closer to Gwyneth. She knows she’s just a payment to Gwyneth, but she would rather stay with her than get lost in these woods. A lot of strange creatures roam in the night, and, ironically, she does not like being a victim.

    Gwyneth glanced at Anabel and, after a small moment of thought, took her hand before she started walking towards Tesynvale. "Stay low and keep quiet, the creatures will know that your village won't help you." She whispered, only half-kidding. They did seem to have some sort of strange sense every now and then, but she didn't bother investigating unless it became a problem. "Do the same when we get to your village, I'm not having you get sick alright?"

    Anabel glanced up at Gwyneth confused when she grabbed her hand, but she didn't mind if it meant she wouldn't get lost. She nodded along to what Gwyneth told her about staying low and quiet. Anabel didn't risk responding because she didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention, and she was just wanted to get whatever it was they were going to do over with so no one will have to deal with this plague anymore.

    The pair moved nearly silently through the dark, thankfully the rain had slacked off by now so they weren't completely drenched. It took the better part of half an hour for them to reach Tesynvale but they eventually emerged from the forest at the edge of he clearing that it occupied. "Hm, they finally built that new town hall." Gwyneth muttered, scanning over the town for a moment. It had been a few years since she had last visited here, although there was no time for sightseeing. "Take me to the main areas of quarantine." She looked back at Anabel as she spoke.