Prologue.
With one final effort, the hunter took the extended axe and leaped towards the nightmare known as Mergo's Wet Nurse. The great one was already waiting for the warrior with her sharp swords raised in the air ready to kill her. The shine of the moonlight was reflected on the edge of the axe before it hit the creature's body. Mergo's Wet Nurse couldn't even move an arm, she froze in her place, her hands dropped the swords and her wings closed over her back just as the hunter stood up to watch the nightmare fade into the air.
The battle was over. The hunter activated the mechanism of the weapon and the axe returned to its short form. The arena was in calm once more, however, in the distance she could still hear the cry of a baby. As a last act of kindness, the hunter extracted from a pocket of her long coat a small musical box and made it work by turning the small lever on its side. The melody was heard all over the place, the sobbing of the baby ceased and were replaced by cheerful laughter that lasted only a few seconds before the place ended in complete silence.
The hunter sighed deeply; her mission had come to an end. The pale messengers appeared some meters away from her along with a lamp. She walked in the direction of the object then stopped in front of it and lit it. The cold feeling of the magic of the lamp filled her body causing her muscles to relax and her eyes to close as the astral travel back to the workshop began.
Countless times she had returned to the workshop to rest and to let the Doll increase her abilities. Throughout her journey, that place had become her home, her refuge, a place of an strange peace where no beasts lurked, a place where she could have a breath of fresh air, the scent of the white flowers in the gardens of the workshop helped her to forget the stench of rotten meat and blood that filled the streets of Yharnam, even if it was for a couple of hours.
The hunter finally appeared on the small cobblestone road that lead to the house, however, when she opened her deep green eyes; the scene she found was not that of tranquility, in fact, it was the opposite.
The old workshop was in flames, the creaking of the wood while the structure was being consumed by the fire seemed to be a dying lament. She immediately ran towards the building. The doll was standing at the foot of the stairs waiting for her, just as she had done during the long night of hunt.
The hunter didn't know what was happening; she looked at the doll and realized that she was as calm as ever, as if the fact of the destruction of her home did not bother her at all.
The doll looked at the hunter and smiled.
“Good hunter, you have come...” She bowed at the hunter.
“Dawn will soon break... This night, and this dream, will end.”
“Gehrman awaits you, at the foot of the great tree.”
The doll pointed to the once locked door at the left of the workshop.
“Go on, good hunter...”
The hunter looked in the direction that the doll had said. She removed the hat and the scarf that covered her face letting her long black hair fell over her shoulders and back, her deep green eyes showed sadness, and at the same time, peace.
The hunter nodded and took the strangely warm hands of the doll to place a kiss on the back of each one. The doll grabbed the hands of the hunter and took them to her bosom with a saddened smile.
“Farewell, good hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.”
The doll said her last words at the hunter. The hunter put on her hat and scarf again, she then walked to the garden where she found Gehrman sitting on his wheelchair at the top of a small hill. The full moon in the sky was not pale anymore, it now had a yellowish tone that marked the soon to be sunrise.
Gehrman looked at the moon and then at the hunter.
“Good Hunter, you've done well, the night is near its end.”
“Now I will show you mercy. You will die, forget the dream, and awake under the morning sun.”
“You will be freed from this terrible Hunter's Dream."
The hunter nodded, turned around and kneeled over. It was time for her to finally rest from the nightmare. Gehrman stood up and placed the blade of his scythe on her neck.
“Farewell, my keen hunter. Fear the blood.”
Gehrman said to her, the blade of his weapon rose in the air and with a swift cut it decapitated the hunter. There was no pain, not a sensation at all.
After a moment, the hunter started to wake up, her body felt numb and there was a cold sensation creeping all over her. Her eyes fluttered open and she found herself inside what appeared to be a very old and ruined temple.
Faint rays of light entered through the holes on the walls and the ceiling of the building, the place was so cold that she could see her breath; luckily, her clothes helped her to keep her body warm. Certainly the place reminded her a little of Castle Cainhurts, but that was precisely what made her understand that something was not right.
She made her way outside of the building only to find an icy and desolate landscape, a snowstorm covered her surroundings accompanied of powerful gusts of wind that sounded like wounded beasts, her only sing of life, or better said, of what could be a village was a white and pink peak that reflected the scarce sun rays, it appeared to be made of crystal and it was located far away from where she was standing.
The hunter entered again into the building, there was something on floor near of where she woke up, something that she didn't notice the first time. A broken lamp stood over its fragile base, it didn't have light and there was no way for it to be turned again. She saw a small piece of paper inside the broken lamp and took it, there was a message written on it.
"Good Hunter, thanks to you Yharnam is now free, but there is another place where you may be needed. I have no right to ask you for this, but if you accept, you will finally find rest, the waking world where you are now it's filled with harmony, but dark forces will try to destroy it, please, don't let that happen."
"Farewell, Good Hunter, may you find your worth in the waking world."
The hunter took the piece of paper to her chest and then placed it inside her coat. Another item was at the floor at the side of the lamp, it consisted of a curved sword attached to a long mechanism, together they formed a large scythe, the same kind of weapon that Gehrman used. She stood up admiring the weapon, she started to perform some movements with it, it certainly was a very agile weapon, its low weight helped to move it faster, faster than her trusty axe.
She smiled under her scarf, with a simple movement she unattached the blade from the base and then placed the folded piece of the weapon's handle on her back. With the curved sword in her right hand and her Evelyn on the left, she was ready to start her way towards the crystal tower.
Just as the hunter started to walk, something crashed against the ceiling of the structure, whatever it was, the impact send it to the ground and it landed just a couple of meter away from her. The hunter stood in her ground ready to attack at the minor signal of danger, even with the greater quantity of dim light that the hole in the structure was giving her; she couldn’t get a good view at the object that was in front of her, she was only able to see flashes of golden metal but no more.
Suddenly, the ground under her feet started to shake before it crumbled; both she and the thing that passed through the ceiling fell down the hole. The hunter opened her eyes, but the place was dark as a beast maw. She reached her belt and shook the small lamp attached to it, the lamp emitted a pale yellow light thanks to the flame in the interior, it was not the best source of light but it would help.
The hunter stood right under the hole where she had fallen, at least four meters separated her from the exit, so she needed to think of a way to get out from that place. At her back, there was some groaning that alerted her, acting fast, she grabbed her blade and pointed her pistol to the direction of the sound. The groaning continued but there was no other sound, no steps, no scratch of claws against the stone, just sounds of pain, as if the owner of the voice asked for help.
Against her own survival instincts, the hunter walked forward until the light of her lamp illuminated something in the ground, something that left her speechless. White fur covered the body and wings of "the thing", golden pieces of armor with blue details protected the chest, stomach and back of a winged horse, a pegasus to be precise.
There she was, standing right in front if a mythological creature, something that should not exist, yet again, during her horrid adventure in Yharnam, she saw many things that defy the same fabric of the reality.
The pegasus moved a little and opened a pristine blue eye, when he looked at the towering figure, the first thing he felt was fear, but the pain in his right side made him forget it, he just wished that whatever this thing was, it could understand him, more important, that it was friendly.
“P-please… help m-me…”
It talked! The pegasus talked! The hunter gave a step back in shock, to what kind of crazy world was she sent?
That was the only question in her mind at that moment, that and what she should do with the pegasus at her feet. Seeing that the creature looked like its brain has melted, the pegasus tried to incorporate, but an intense pain shot from his right back leg up to his shoulder and with a painful scream he fell again to the floor.
“I’m going to die here… what an idiot I was...” He said to himself aloud. “Why did I accepted this suicide mission on the first place?”
He closed his eyes, but a moment later, he felt a pang in his neck and the warm feeling of a liquid moving under his skin. He opened his eyes and saw that the creature had kneeled in front of him and that it had injected something to him. Thanks to the light of the lamp in the belt of the creature, he saw the uncovered part of its face and its beautiful emerald eyes behind red glasses.
The creature pullet out the needle from his neck and put the empty vial back in a satchel, then, it looked at him intently, neither of them daring to make a move.
“... Don’t move... the first blood treatment can be a little painful...”
The hunter told him and finally pulled down the fabric covering her face, the pegasus was perplexed, the creature could talk in his language, not only that, if the soft, almost calming voice that she had was not enough proof, her face that was strangely alluring and the red lipstick on her lips leave no doubt that it was a female, and an attractive one to say the least.
A smile appeared on the lips of the pegasus. The pain he was feeling had almost disappeared so he offered her a hoof.
“Name’s Red Harvest... it's a pleasure to meet you... miss...?”
She looked a little confused at first, but then returned the smile and wrapped her hand around his hoof giving it a firm shake.
“…Nightshade… Alexa Nightshade…” She told him.
Their brief conversation was cut off as another voice shouted behind them.
“Hey! I found the bastard!”
Alexa turned around and saw another horse under the beam of light that the hole had left through, but this horse seemed more like an insect with gray pieces of shell all over its body and sickly lines of green along the edges of its body, large fangs and pointed teeth filled its mouth, his front and back legs ended on what appeared to be a single large claw with sharp edges, two pairs of large transparent wings on its back and a small green crown made of flesh on its head.
The Hunter incorporated and covered Red Harvest with her body, he was still weak and there was no way he could fight against this thing. To her surprise, at least seven more insectoid horses entered through the hole and formed a semicircle around them; this was going to be an interesting fight.
“And what in the name of the king is that?” One of them said.
“Who cares, we need the grass eater behind it.” Another spoke. “So let’s kill this thing first and then…”
There was a flash of light, a gunshot, and the insectoid horse fell to the ground with a smoking hole on his head. All of its companions looked at the dead body of their brother and then to the biped creature.
With a mighty roar, all of them lunged at Alexa. She pulled up to her nose the fabric of the scarf, then she used the mechanism of the weapon and joined the blade to the handle on her back, she ended holding the large burial blade with both hands.
She waited for the right moment and when the insects stood on range, she jumped some meters on the air taking them by surprise before she brandished the weapon against them with brutal force.
The hunt had begun again.