127 Fishing hamle

"Hey Alenka, snap out of it we have to stay focused," A hunter with a husky voice addressed a woman dressed in plain white. She was a church doctor appointed by Laurence to help the hunters scout a nearby fishing village.

She had just joined the healing church after graduating from Byrgenwerth. After Laurence split from the academy to establish the church, many students and scholars followed him to Yharnam. They all believed that blood healing was the future for humanity.

Hunters accepted to work together with the healing church in order to chase out the beastly scourge that had plagued Yharnam recently. Alenka was a curious doctor. She loved experimenting with these abnormalities. If the hunters' job was to hunt and kill beasts, she considered hers to be studying them.

She believed that if they took enough time to study these creatures, they would eventually find a way to suppress them. It was no secret among doctors and hunters that most beasts were just humans like them. Not everybody reacted the same way to blood infusions. Alenka was fascinated by this transformation.

It is important to note here that church doctors didn't look for a way to cure the beasts from their transformation. The moment a beast appeared, the best way to cure it was to offer it a quick death. Church doctors studied the beasts to understand the impact of old blood on humans.

Therefore, doctors harvested organs to study. Alenka was diligent and good at her job. That was the reason she was chosen to observe the fishing hamlet. There were rumors about a Great One inhabiting the lake near the village. Alenka's job was to infiltrate the village as an immigrant then to socialize with its people. The Church's orders were to gain their trust in order to allow for a close examination of the lake.

The lake was a sacred place to the villagers. No outsider could get close to it at any time. Guards were put next to the entrance all day long. The hunter had accompanied her during to journey to provide extra protection against the beasts on the way. Alenka was a good fighter, but her skills could never compare to those of a hunter.

As soon as the two of them got closer to the village, they felt the air pressure change and clouds started gathering in the sky. In no time, the sky had darkened and rain started falling. The rain meant that they were approaching the village.

"Alenka, stay on your guard here. These woods are teeming with beasts that can end a hunter's life in a flash." The hunter observed his surroundings as he slowly walked through the dark woods. In order to reach the fishing hamlet, they had to traverse dark woods that were brimming with abnormalities.

As they walked in silence, rain drops hit their surroundings and hid all sounds. Alenka didn't have hunters' senses but she had a hunter on her side. She walked in silence behind the hunter while she nervously looked around.

Because of the rain, it was impossible to notice any change around her. Suddenly the hunter in front of her froze. Alenka could hear her heart pounding against her chest as she stopped as well. The hunter signaled Alenka to wait then rushed ahead. A few growls were heard in the distance followed by whining sound. The hunter came back, covered in blood and signaled Alenka to follow him.

From time to time, Alenka would be asked to wait while the hunter chased after some beast she couldn't see. As they got closer the beasts became more numerous. The hunter didn't display any signs of fatigue. It was like he was doing some basic house chores.

The rain intensified as they walked through the forest. Alenka was left alone again. She got used to it and no longer feared the silence in the woods. She was no longer worried that the hunter was going to perish to the beasts here. As she waited, Alenka started hearing a cry not too far from her.

Due to the heavy rain, she couldn't make out where the cry came from exactly. The voice sounded too familiar to her. She knew she didn't have to move from where she stood. After all, the hunter made sure to choose the safest place for her to wait. But the more she waited, the more she could hear the crying noise.

She didn't know whether the noise was just a manifestation from her mind or a real crying person. 'What if it's mister hunter? What should I do?' To her, it felt like she had been waiting in that clearing for ages. She'd pinpointed the source of the noise to come from her left. All she had to do was to move and investigate.

She knew that the wisest course of action was to patiently wait for the hunter to come back then ask him to investigate. But her mind kept on pressuring her under the pretext that it might be the hunter himself in mortal danger. She had a lot of blood vials. So if she acted quickly she could save his life.

She started walking towards the source of the noise. Her boots got stuck in the mud and every time she made a step, her feet squishing against the mud would terrify her. She was afraid of being ambushed in the forest. She was taught to fight against humans, but never against a beast. She didn't even know how to react if it were a horde of them.

The cry intensified. Alenka felt that she was getting closer to the source of the sound. The closer she got the more certain she was that it was a human sound. It wasn't a cry, but more like a moan. Someone was in pain and needed her help.

She hurriedly moved towards the sound, soon after Alenka froze in place. Her heart skipped a beat. In front of her was a woman sitting on a wooden chair. There was blood all over her clothes. She could see that there was an opening in her stomach. It looked like someone tried to stitch the wounds together but did a poor job at it.

What puzzled Alenka the most was the presence of a chair in there. What was a wooden chair doing in the middle of the woods? Moreover, who would carry a wounded woman on a chair in the middle of the woods? She brushed those questions aside and went to examine the injured person in front of her.

Her wounds, from Alenka's expert observation, weren't inflicted by a beast but by some kind of sword. The stitching on her stomach seemed to be poorly done, she didn't even know how anybody would try to stitch wounds using thick golden threads.

She looked at the woman and sighed, she was definitely a goner. Her blood could heal her but Alenka wasn't sure how this person would react to blood infusion. As she got a vial out of her pocket, a ghostly hand caught her arm. Alenka was startled. She didn't think the woman capable of movement.

"Give me just one." Her voice was hoarse and could barely speak. "I hate using this blood." As soon as she finished, the woman lied back on the chair then closed her eyes. Alenka's eyes widened. She'd never met someone who wasn't a hunter but could take the blood without turning.

For a moment Alenka forgot where she was. She was excited to meet such a rare sight. Hunters recruited the elite warriors all over the world. This woman might have been traveling to Yharnam when she encountered danger. 'Wait a minute, this doesn't make any sense, she wouldn't know about the use of blood if she were an outsider.'

"Alenka, why did you-" The hunter with a husky voice stopped as he saw the answer to his question. He was covered in blood and only the white of his eyes stood out from the red that smeared his face. "What's this?" he asked. "I don't know, I found her here then she asked me to use just one vial on her. Do you know her?" The hunter's order was just too big. It was hard to keep count of all of them.

The hunter shook his head then said: "She doesn't bear the mark of hunters. You should at least know that you're a doctor." The hunter frowned and looked at the body that sat on the chair unconscious. "Inject her with a blood vial and I'll carry her," said the hunter. "We're close to the village, I'll leave you at the entrance per my orders then I'll carry her back to Yharnam. We'll observe her then see what to do with her."

Alenka nodded then followed the man. They were both puzzled by the appearance of the mysterious chair and the lady on top. It wasn't common to see an outsider willing to take a blood injection. Outsiders generally used healing blood by drinking it.

Only special cases were admitted to the hospital where they would receive blood injections. The ones who reacted well to treatment would be candidates to receiving ministration. As to the rest, doctors didn't have to always have successful results, did they?

Alenka eventually split up with the hunter and entered the village. She was determined to see her mission through despite her excitement to study the new specimen she stumbled upon. As for the hunter, he carried the unconscious woman then hurried to the Great Cathedral. He had just found something worthy to report to the ministers and Gehrman. The appearance of a woman in a chair in the middle of the woods was bound to result in a thorough investigation and he was the only witness in place.