Chapter 44 - Selkiemore -

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After it got warmer Geralt and I made our way back to Posada. We didn't stay there for long. "Evelyn Brown, do you know how much I worried over you?" Jaskier yelled as I got off of Amber and put his hands on his hips. I laughed a little. "I know." I simply said. Geralt brought the horses into the stable. "You got yourself under a spell, again?" he asked and gestured at my eyes. I bit my lip and sighed a little. "Well, uhm. Let's make this quick, you know getting quickly over it." I said and he looked confused at me. The door opened behind Jaskier and my father looked at me with raised brows and his hammer fell to the ground. "You went through the trial." he mumbled and Jaskier looked somehow shocked at him. "What?" he asked, he didn't understand. "Geralt!" my father shouted. I rushed over to him and grabbed his hands. "No, it's not his fault. It's mine. It was an accident."

"What was an accident?" Jaskier asked louder, so somebody would answer his questions. "Never thought that the serum, of which I didn't even know, was still intact." Geralt now said with crossed arms. "Would somebody please explain to me what is going on?!" Jaskier demanded. "She's a Witcher, Jaskier." Geralt stated. "Dear lord-" he said and held onto Geralt to not pass out.

What I forgot to mention... A month ago I had to go through that cave where the exam would take place. In it were only a few ghouls which I could take down easily, that was because of the winter. Usually, the exam was held in summer or autumn. The cave wasn't the hard part but the trolls waiting at the exit. They told me that this was their place and that they would 'crush crush human if human no go'. They were pretty annoying. They weren't very intelligent creatures so it was easy for me to use Axii on them. I told them to let me through and they let me. At the top of the mountain, I had to climb, there were candles and a large rock on which laid my medallion from the wolven school. I was, since then, an official, real Witcher from the wolven school. Usually, it would take years to finish the process of becoming a Witcher, but I didn't start on zero. I guess, I was lucky enough to survive this and get through it that quickly.

During the years Geralt helped me improve on my signs, fighting and alchemy. Jaskier accompanied us a few times but stayed at a town and told us to continue our journey to wherever. On my 21st birthday guards of Lyria and Rivia tried to find me to congratulate me in the name of my parents. They asked me to come with them but I refused. They accepted my wish and delivered the message that I am no princess but a Witcher. Confusing times, we're living in, now.

It happened that five years past and we found ourselves in Cintra. Geralt was asked to kill a selkiemore. A creature he refused to take me with him to kill it. He was always overprotective. I didn't complain about it, though. This was something I would be in the way and I didn't want him to die, so I stayed. Alone he could handle such a beast better than with me. I was still too inexperienced to kill something like that.

"I tell you no lie, it swallowed the whole village, it did." a man said, he was covered in mud and blood. People in the tavern were gasping at what he told. I was unimpressed. I knew these things. It was a gigantic beast with thousands of teeth yet it was a plankton feeder who accidentally swallows ships while eating, so they hire a Witcher to kill it. 

"Not a bone to be found! Oh don't give me that look, shitling." he continued and looked into the crowd of people who were listening closely. I was standing beside this whole thing. Near the door, leaning at the wall with my arms crossed. "That's why we had to call him..." everyone looked at him and expected him, to say his name. The man stood up from his chair. "The White Wolf!"

"And he stood in the middle of that frozen lake like he knew it was coming for him." he paused and the people were still silent, some even shivering in fear. "The ice cracked open and a selkiemore shot out!" he imitated the situation with his hands. "Oh, you've never seen one, but it'd take down a ship with his cavernous mouth full of devil's teeth!" Gasping went through the room and I could understand, he made the thing seem more dangerous than it really was. 

"And it swallowed... that Witcher whole!" his expression fell and the people got anxious. Of course, I was worried by what he said and that Geralt hasn't returned yet but there's no way he would himself getting killed by that.

"Oh, this is brilliant!" Jaskier wrote everything down and got shocked looks by everyone except me. He was sitting next to the man who told the story. "Oh, sorry. It's just Geralt's usually so stingy with the details and so is she." he apologized and pointed with his feather over at me at the end of his sentence. "Uh... and then what happened?" Jaskier asked and I put one of my hands against my forehead. What does he think happened?

The man gulped and tried to speak as best as he could. It was visibly hard for him. "He died." Another round of gasping. What the fuck? As if they couldn't have come to that conclusion for themselves. I would think, too, that he died but I know for a certain reason, he didn't. 

"Eh... He's fine." Jaskier agreed with me without him knowing. "Look, I was there." The man tried to explain. "I saw it with my own-" he got interrupted. Everyone turned around to see where that bang came from. Everyone held their noses. "See?" Jaskier said without bothering to look up. Geralt came through the door, covered in selkiemore guts and his armor gone. 

Jaskier laughed while everyone else was gasping in pure shock. "Oh, what's that stench?" the man who told the story asked and looked Geralt up and down, horror filled his eyes. "Selkiemore guts." he simply stated. "Had to get it from the inside. I'll take what I'm owed." he continued.

Jaskier stood up and began to sing. "Toss a coin to your Witcher. O' valley of plenty." The man did as he was told and tossed a bag full of coin to Geralt. The crowd kept singing with Jaskier. "Toss a coin to your Witcher. A friend of humanity!" His song was still a hit and I completely understood why. Jaskier went over to Geralt and wanted to touch his shoulder but didn't when he realized soon enough that the selkiemore guts are disgusting as hell.

At the bar Geralt put down his sword and tried to rub his palms clean. "You're welcome." Jaskier told the Witcher and Geralt sighed. He took a cup and take a sip from it. "And now, Witcher, it's time to repay your debt." Geralt spit out the beer he got and I knew I wouldn't be getting some of this. 

"'What debt?' you're probably asking yourself in your head right now." Jaskier said and Geralt kept ignoring him. "Well, I'll tell you - I've made you famous, Witcher. By rights, I should be claiming ten percent of all your coin but instead, what I'm asking for is a teeny, teeny-weeny little favour." Jaskier took a sip from his cup. "Fuck off, bard." Geralt, friendly as always.

"For one measly night of service, you will gain a cornucopia of earthly delights." he stared and I could tell Geralt wouldn't care. "The greatest masters of culinary arts crafting morsels worthy of the gods. Maidens that would make the sun itself blush with a single comely smile. And rivers of the sweetest of drinks from the rarest of-" Geralt walked off over to me and Jaskier stopped himself as soon as he realized that. 

"Fuck." he ran after him. "Food, women and wine, Geralt!" Jaskier said and Geralt looked at me and I made a gesture that meant: 'Why not?'. 


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