Work Text:
Witcher: A class of one
Since: School of the Jinn
By: GardenMary
Chapter one: Witcher at play with Monsters?
4 winters and 10 moons later...
Gaja never thought families would treat each other so differently. Vampires had a very strict code of conduct with their young, and Deetlaff was a bit wild in his parenting. There was no need for a spanking when all he really had to do was disappear outside of her Witcher sense. Gaja was fearful without the vampire. She was still very young in him in years and not receiving traditional training as normal Witcher initiates would.
They had learned a few things about the Jinn Witcher, starting with- an odd side effect of her being changed, her eyes were better than Deetlaff in the distance and detailed observation. It had taken a while, but they sussed out what she could eat vs. what she wanted to eat. Mushrooms are a high priority on her list of needs. Her saddlebags often were heavy with mushrooms of all sorts and she had even asked for a few branches to be carried back to the staying place during winter, where she learned to encourage them to grow more.
Trying to keep her food supplies up to snuff while on the road. Had been interesting, given how much she needed to eat and often how little was available. Mushrooms it came to be known were a high priority on her list of needs, she slept ten times more without a large concentration of them. Her saddlebags often were heavy with mushrooms of all sorts during harvestable seasons. Trying to keep her food supplies up to snuff, given how much she needed to eat to keep growing and often how little was available. She could eat an entire deer by herself, several stewed mushrooms, and at least a dozen handfuls of fruits picked from the forest. She could eat all the way down to the marrow in every bone, even at times gnawing on the bone itself. Deetlaff never learned how humans cook, so Gaja stuck with what she had seen Ada do while Mother was alive.
Deetlaff had worried about her during her short coma stage. Gaja had been lucky and took down a medium-size bear before the creatures went to hibernate, she went into a coma to digest it all, fighting nausea the whole time. But obsessively guarded the stored bear fat, which lasted four more meals, and one event when it was not any help to forage in the snow. Which also resulted in four inches of height growth and the gold of her eyes becoming much more pronounced. Thus why he was taking her deep into the woods of Gors Velen.
Her vampire father-by adoption learned her blood was toxic to any vampire including himself. Gaja had been attacked by a hungry Bruxia, while foraging a year into their parent/student bonding time. They had to let her forage, given how much she ate and her eyes often had driven them away from any human Inn. Thus said Bruxia showed what occurred when a vampire, even a higher vampire drank from a Jinn Witcher, they explode 3 mins after the first taste.
This also led to a wardrobe change, her neck had special chain mail which draped along her shoulders and slowly developed breasts. Her arms were mostly draped in the same mail, and her trunk was wrapped in a corset that had built-in holders for many of her numbers blades and twin pouches for gathering her herbs. At 10 years old, living among the vampires she had mastered what many adult humans could not. She could be self-sufficient, and yet-her adopted vampire parent had grown attached to her.
However, she had learned much over their time together. Deetlaff's control and consideration of lower vampires were amazing. After the first vampire to try and feed off her literally exploded, Gaja witnessed ALL of them ignore her when she got injured with a bleeding wound. They were not near as blood-hungry as the tails she learned. She had the odd experience of drinking tea with a coven of Bruxa. Learning at the hands of many the history of their introduction to this world via the Conjunction of Spheres.
“Why are we going to see these friends of yours?” Gaja asked, looking around the forest.
Deetlaff smirked, “Your maker has not returned to fill us in as of yet, on whether they can take you to their realm. So I have to use what sources I know of for information. Heira has lived long enough to have learned much by way of Chaos. And your change was brought about by chaos, we need to know what your power is, and the number of times you woke up screaming, flailing as if you're fighting; it is not a good sign. So we go where there is the hope of an answer. She married recently, maybe a decade or two ago, and lives here away from humans...well all but one human.” the higher vampire finished gazing around the trees.
The youth was about to ask more when sounds of people caught her ear. Small humans, reminiscent of what she remembers from before. She slowed down gazing about, similar to hunting another vampire, small sounds pushed away from the sounds from around her. She nearly went to all fours as she moved, going to a tree where she climbed up high enough to get a full view of the sound's origin. Her almost eleven-year-old mind could hardly believe it.
A woman sat on a large chair. Heira had elven ears and a soft tan to the skin. Her belly was round with baby, and her hands working on a garment, small enough that it was likely for her baby. All the while four other creatures of child-size played in the yard. Creatures being the key term, given how these beings had exposed bone on a large portion of their heads, and some limbs looked more like plants than flesh and blood. Their ears were softly rounded, even if they had only one ear. All of them were smiling and bouncing around with joyful sounds. Watching as the elf woman interacted with them, Gaja determined that she was the creature's mother. It confused the young Witcher to no end, but voices in the back of her head purred at her, ‘Nothing new’ in what she was seeing.
Deetlaff walked into view and Heira smiled with a warm welcome, and within a moment a human male exited the home, again issuing a warm welcome to the vampire. Gaja jumped down and jogged over to the vampire's side, watching the attention of the elf woman. Heira was mesmerized by Gaja’s gold within blood-red eyes.
“So a wish caused this transformation? I have power, but not sure it's enough to undo this level of chaos-induced manipulation, and even then you may not survive it.” the elf whispered, Gaja stopped her with a laugh, “What makes you think I want to go back to being human? Dirt poor and no power to do what I need to do without an adult telling me not to do it. NO thank you.”
To be Continued. . ..