[AuroraSky]

Dolores felt for the man's temperature. He was still warm, which was good. Sure, he was dead, but him still being warm meant that he had died pretty recently and whoever, or whatever, killed him couldn't have been too far. "I-It's the f-fifth one this month." A very terrified shopkeeper stuttered behind her. Dolores felt around the dead man's face, noting that it felt a little spongier than usual. "So he was just sitting here, eating his soup, and then..."

"And then, plop! Dead as a doornail." The shopkeeper shook his head and dabbed his forehead with a cloth. "Of course, I thought maybe he had just passed out, but nope. Dead." Dolores nodded, pulling out a stirring rod from her waist belt and stirring the victim's soup around. Nothing looked peculiar, but Dolores could tell for sure that he had been poisoned. From what she had heard about the other victims, likely a potion. Which meant that there was the possibility that Dolores was dealing with a witch or a wizard. "C-Can you help us?"

Dolores stood back up straight, wiping the stirring rod on her pants and giving the shopkeeper an encouraging smile. "Of course I can."

-

After helping the authorities to take up the body, Dolores left the shop where the man had died. By the time the whole fiasco had been over, it was well into night. Probably close to midnight now, Dolores guessed. But this was the time when she worked best, under the cover of nightfall. Now was the time for her to do a little surveillance of the little town, find any suspicious activity.

This witch didn't stand a chance.

[1]

[Jaykobell]

"What a shitty day."

He sighed as he let himself sit by a large tree in the forest. He crossed his arms for a moment before using a hand to scratch behind his head. "Bah," he grumbled, pulling out a small bag of money from under his coat, "at least it pays well enough. What a hassle..." He sighed again, though part of it sounded like a displeased groan.

He was a toxic ninja: not a little mercenary for hire. Sure, he took on missions left and right, but his services could be used for grand things. His tonics and poisons could be insanely powerful and life-threatening, depending on what his clients wanted. He could assassinate the most powerful with just enough stealth and the right dose of poison.

And yet here he was right now, taking on a lame job of killing off just a few specific civilians. He assumed it had to do with politics, but he couldn't really care less. He needed money to survive, and if money came to him from killing others, he would take it. Survival of the fittest: the strong lived, and the weak died. It was a very simple formula.

That one guy eating his soup had been incredibly easy to kill, and he'd spent the majority of his day chilling around town. As nice as it had been to have a day off, so to speak, he was now tired and quite frankly, bored out of his mind.

He craned his head back a little, leaning against the tree, his hands intertwined over his stomach. He had no plans to sleep like this in the open; his suit, while primarily black, also had bright green markings running across, and they made him stand out like a sore thumb in the dark. For now, he just wanted to rest his eyes for a minute. It's not like anyone had seen him leave and come and go around town, anyway; apart from the ninjas of the forest that did have a vendetta against him — it was nothing new, really — he really had nothing to fear, right now.

[AuroraSky]

((Oof, sorry for the late reply! School is busy! Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! <3 <3))

She hadn't been walking for too long, but Dolores' surveillance was turning out to be quite a bore. News of the latest victim had spread quickly, and in no time at all the shops had been closed and the streets deserted. Everywhere Dolores looked, shutters were being slammed shut and lights turned off. She didn't really understand why, boarded shutters wouldn't prevent any of them from being poisoned, but paranoia was a dangerous thing. If the witch or wizard was still here, they must have been in hiding too.

Sighing, Dolores reached into the side of her pack, removing a small, brown leather journal. Since she had just gotten here, she hadn't had time to sit down and do a detailed log of what had been occurring here so far, something that she had found incredibly useful in the past. Eyeing a small bench under a very dimly lit streetlight, Dolores decided that now was as good a time as any.

Dolores removed her pack and set it beside her, crossing her legs and pulling out a pen. Flipping through, past her previous logs, she found a fresh page and titled it 'Whisper Forest: Swell', the name of the town. She scribbled down the date and time of her arrival, and then the details of the victim.

It was then, amidst her detailing, that she looked up and across the little field to see something very green against the black of the night. It looked almost fluorescent. Craning her neck a little and following the outline, Dolores could see that it was the shape of a person lying against a tree, though man or woman she wasn't able to tell. That was odd, the rest of the townspeople had been in the 'safety' of their homes.

She set the journal beside her and cautiously came to stand. Yes, it was very odd indeed.

[2]