As Jon started the long trek home, he failed to plan for his return and ended up not having food to eat for several days, until he could return to the rivers and catch more fish. This did him no favors when healing the deep wounds to his face. As the wound healed, it began to itch, making it incredibly hard to let the wound heal, as he would scratch his scabs off every once in a while in his sleep. He woke many times in the following nights to cold, drying blood on his hands and face from the itchiness of the wounds and scratching the scabs off.
His wounds were nasty, but never began to smell, as this was a sign of infection. Jon was very lucky, because the talons of the beast could have been covered in sh*t for all he knew. He would be long dead if that were the case.
As Jon made his way down the mountain, book in hand, he encountered increasingly aggressive animals, almost as if they were trying to stop him. It was a random bird diving into the ground next to or in front of him, followed by multiple birds and then a small wolf. These animals were frothing at the mouth with malicious intent. Jon knew this was not normal and knew they were probably very sick. He gave them a painless death as he believed the animals were suffering.
Traversing the rugged landscape, Jon came to a clearing in the mountainous forest about halfway up the Svey mountain range. In this clearing there was a large stone, which looked to be placed there and completely unnatural.
The rock was a different color than the mountains and the only explanation was that this was made by an intelligent creature. All of the sudden as if caught in an invisible tornado, Jon felt trapped and as if he could not breathe. From behind the rock, a curvaceous figure floated up and stood on top of the rock. The woman looked dangerous as this was probably her spell holding Jon in place.
"That book is not something to play with, boy. Give it to me and I will dispose of it properly." The woman called to him, looking him in his eyes, smiling in a a mischevious way.
"No I have been tasked with delivering this book to a powerful person. I can not afford to fail, woman." Jon replied and flashed a toothy smile. He felt the invisible bonds and the space between them. If he could keep her talking long enough he felt he could slip out and fight her or escape.
As he thought this she looked at him and cocked her head to one side saying, "Do not take me for a fool, I see you struggling to be free. Move from here and you will lose your life." As soon as she finished speaking, she made a fist and Jon felt the invisible fetters tightening around him, squeezing his breath from his lungs.
Feeling like he had nowhere to go, he focused his energies and called out for Woden. Asking for any blessing or opportunity, he felt a cool breeze coming from behind him. This wind swept into a small cyclone and upon seeing this the woman lost her balance and almost fell from the altar stone.
Knowing this was his opportunity, Jon focused on transforming, hoping his size would break the fetters around him.
As Jon began to grow, he focused his energy outwards and felt a strange heat passing through the now familiar fur growing from his body. There was a sizzling noise coming from the space around his body as he felt the invisible fetters loosening.
Making the full transformation in a second, and now no longer bound, Jon leapt at the woman, ready to smash her into a red paste. However, Jon found that as soon as he was in the air, he was being sucked backwards by an unimaginably strong gust of wind. It was as if the Gods themselves were cradling him and taking him away from the danger. As he was being whisked away, he saw an ominous greenish, grey storm cloud over the area he was just in. He began to see flashes of light in the clouds and he could hear the low rumble of thunder, slowly creeping towards him. Very soon almost impossibly, dozens of bolts of lightning hit the ground surrounding the altar, as if Tor himself were fighting this sorceress.
Eventually, Jon was far enough away that he could no longer hear the sounds of thunder. Slowly the pulling forces weakened and eventually stopped around his body. He knew the Gods just saved his ass, because that woman was leagues above him in terms of magical skills. If he could not get close to her, it would not matter if he was any good with a sword or not.
Feeling defeated, because without help, he was, Jon just walked the rest of the way home, feeling completely drained of his energy. Not stopping for anything, his eyes were barely open as it was and the walk home only took a surprisingly short few hours. He had not realized how far he was whisked away. At this moment, he could not care less, he just wanted to rest.
Finally making it home, Jon walked through the doors almost collapsing on the floor. Jon was about to collapse, the world becoming a blur of greys and browns as he could hear frightened cries around him. The next thing he knew was he was on the floor, on his side and then it was dark.