Change of Heart - A Cahir X Reader story

Chapter 33 - Training

"Really? How did this happen?"

"We talked after everyone else went to bed. We got along quite well, we laughed and had fun... and then he offered me to keep him company during the night." Cecilia explained. "And what did you do?" I understood her struggle. She didn't know if it was right to follow Jaskier into his bedroom.

"I turned his offer down." She said. She looked kind of unsure about whether it was the right decision or not. She sighed. "But now... I think maybe I shouldn't have... I mean time has passed since... he died and, I don't know what to do. He told me that I could always change my mind and soon he'll be gone again. But it probably isn't the right time yet."

I slightly smiled at her, trying to comfort her. "Listen, Cecilia." I said. "There is no right time for that. You should do whatever feels right to you, it's a decision that you make and nobody else. So don't let him convince you to do anything, do it when it feels right to you and when you feel ready."

She hugged and thanked me before she told me that she actually knew what she wanted to do now and with that, she left. Since I still had some time before I would meet my husband in the courtyard, I decided to secretly follow her to see where she was going. She went around corners, up some stairs and through long corridors until she finally arrived in front of the door of the bedroom where the bard was sleeping. She knocked and he quickly opened, she entered and the door immediately closed again. I didn't want to invade their privacy any further so I made my way to the courtyard where Cahir was already fighting some of the new recruits that had arrived only some days ago. He was making it too hard for them to defeat him.

Alice was there as well and when she saw me, she proudly showed me her new sword, Cahir insisted on her getting a steel blade, not a sharp one though, I was glad we were able to at least agree on that. Then she showed me some of the new techniques she had learned and I acted really surprised by what she did. The way she was running around with the sword wasn't effective at all but she was still a little child and it was cute to see her having fun and always talking about how she wanted to become a knight like Cahir when she was older.

Then Cahir told the recruits that they could have a small break and came over to greet me. We stood there talking and I absolutely wanted to tell him about Cecilia and that I saw her entering Jaskier's bedroom. He was fairly surprised but told me that he was also glad that Cecilia was able to enjoy herself again. Then it was time for him to get back and do his work. He stood in front of the recruits as he spoke to them. "You all are too afraid to use your sword. You're soldiers, if you keep this up, you'll die in no time and I'm here to make sure this doesn't happen. So we'll try again and this time, you will defend yourself."

I liked how he used his commander voice, he was scaring the poor young men but I loved when he talked like that, with this harsh tone as he ordered people to do things. But I didn't want to just watch them fight.

"Perhaps a proper demonstration would help?" I said as I approached them. The men seemed to be amused by what I said, whispering about me only being a woman that that I didn't stand a chance against anyone of them. Cahir noticed this and agreed to fight me. He trained me and I knew everything he liked to do while fighting, I knew the points where he was weak and I used this knowledge but of course, he knew everything about me as well. So we fought like we always used to and it was nice to do that again. The recruits seemed impressed but then I didn't watch for a moment and Cahir was able to win our little battle.

"See, this is how you fight correctly." He told the men. "And now it's your turn. Come on." "I don't want the others to just stand there watching." I said. "I can take on you as well." The men now looked amused again. "Just because a very experienced knight defeated me doesn't mean you can too. So come on if you're not too afraid to lose to a woman." Cahir quickly looked at me and I noticed him smirking. I knew that he loved it when I was a bit harsh to his recruits too.

So after some time, one man finally decided to fight with me and I was actually able to throw him to the ground quite quickly which made the others laugh at him. "Don't do that." I said. "I'm experienced as well in case you didn't know. So you'll have to defeat me before you can laugh." More and more of them tried but I managed to win every time which impressed my husband.

And that was when we saw Geralt walking towards us. Cahir asked him if he wanted to join us, fighting all the recruits at once and after a while of thinking he agreed, saying that he had to wait for Jaskier anyways.

So now there were over a dozen inexperienced men against the three of us- a witcher, a knight and me, who only learned how to fight for fun. And it was rather easy to defeat them, my dear husband not being amused by that at all. Alice watched us in awe, especially Geralt, cheered and clapped.

Cahir gave a long speech about what was still about to come for the recruits and how every day they trained was going to get harder. He told them that enemies wouldn't wait for them to prepare for the fight and that they had to learn how to improve their reflexes.

After that, Jaskier came to us as well as Cecilia, she was smiling widely, he was looking content after all. He announced that now it was time to get going for him and Geralt, so they got on their horses, thanked us for the food again and then left.