Her Sweet Kiss | Geralt of Rivia X OC | The Witcher FF

Chapter 17 - Nightmares -

Geralt's pov

I arrived at the battlefield of Sodden. By foot. I let Ciri sit on her. The hill was covered in dead bodies and burnt ground. Smoke was emitting from the last few fires that were still burning around the battlefield. In the distance, sorcerers were identifying the bodies. 

"I've seen this." Ciri said and watched the scenery in front of her, which was really no sight for a child. I looked at her. "Stay on the horse." I said and looked around the entrance of the forest. I sniffed. I could smell her scent not far from here. She wasn't here, on Sodden hill but she certainly was in this forest. I could smell something else there, too. It wasn't really her. I tilted my head, trying to figure out what the scent was. 

She wasn't conscious while travelling these roads. I bit my lower lip and clenched a fist. Has Nilfgaard gotten to her? No, Nilfgaardians smell much more of piss and blood. I walked back to Roach with a grunt and we made our way around the forest to maybe find another clue of Eve. 

"Evelyn." Ciri started to speak. "Can you please tell me who she is?" she almost pleaded. I clenched my jaw. What if something happened to her? It would be because of me. I know she can handle everything on her own, she's strong. However, I'm starting to blame myself to have left her in Cintra. Did she get captured? If yes, by whom? 

"She's-" I started, thinking whether I should tell her or not. I gulped. Around the forest, I smelt the rotting corpses of birds, crows. There was more. Wolves. Signs of a Leshy. A dead one if the crows and wolves are dead. And the smell of Eve. My eyes went wide as her smell faded then. "gone." I finished my sentence. 

The further we went north, the colder it got. The first snow was falling and the trees, bushes and the grass were now covered in a small blanket of the flakes. For the night we made camp in the forest. For Ciri, I put together a few thick branches and covered them with moss and leaves between two trees so she would be protected, at least a little, from the wind. 

She spoke in her sleep. She shivered in her sleep. She had nightmares. 'Let me go!', 'Let me go!' was all she ever said in her sleep before she'd wake. "I sleep like shit too." I tried to comfort her. I fumbled around with a small piece of firewood. "You don't sleep at all." she noticed. I nodded and looked over at her. "Makes for fewer nightmares." I said. "Except for the one about the rock troll. Overly friendly. Tough image to shake." I said. I wasn't really dreaming about that. I saw her. Evelyn. Screaming while slaughtering her way out of Cintra. Yelling for me to come back. It was my fault that something happened to her... if something happened to her. And if that's the case, something bad must've crossed her path to get her captured.

"What about yours?" I asked and she hugged her legs. I gave her my cloak as a blanket so she wouldn't freeze in the night. She wasn't used to the cold of the blue mountains. "The Black Knight has me on his horse... Cintra is burning. I'm too helpless to stop any of it." she explained and I nodded. "You escaped." I said. "I was lucky." she said before it was silent for a few seconds. Only the cracking of the branches and the light breeze of the wind. 

"I- need to understand some things. You claimed the Law of Surprise and got me. Why?" she asked and I frowned a little. "It was payment for a debt. I saved your father's life." I explained and now she was the one frowning. "From what?" she asked. "Your grandmother. She didn't want your mother marrying a... an outside." I said. That reminded me quite a lot of Evelyn's mother. She sighed and turned her gaze away. "Your father didn't know what he was giving up."

"So, I'm your destiny." she somewhat stated, rather unsure if she should use these words. "Whatever that means." she added. "You're much more than that, Cirilla." She hugged her legs even closer after that. "I miss my home." She mumbled. "Cintra isn't safe for you anymore." ... Nor is or was it for Evelyn. "Then what about Skellige? I have people there too. I'd be safe there." she said and a small smirk crept up my face, it was nearly invisible. It reminded me of how Eve and I wanted to sail there to get the Black Pearls she wanted so badly but then ended up marrying me directly on that ship.

"If you want. But you'd be married off to the nearest Lord of Bad Breath. He'd be seeking to claim your throne too." Her expression fell and she leaned back on the tree stump. "The food is good there, though." I added, hoping to cheer her up with that. I never was one to cheer somebody up. 

The next morning, with the first sunrays, we continued our way to Kaer Morhen. "So, what exactly is Kaer Morhen?" Ciri asked. "It's where Witchers go during the winter. There, we can rest up and heal. Replace armour and elixirs. It's my home." I explained to her. Maybe, I'm lucky and Evelyn, if she got out of the trouble she was in, is in Kaer Morhen already. By the tracks in the forest, she must have been ahead of a day or two. 

"How come I've never heard of it?" she asked. "Because we like it that way." I said. She asked why we do that. I licked my lips. "There was an attack. A long time ago, when I was a boy. Almost wiped us all out. So now, we like to keep a low profile." I explained with a small smile. Ciri chuckled a little. "In Cintra, I used to dress up as a boy just so I could play knucklebones." she told me at what I laughed a little. "We both need to keep a low profile, it seems." 

"Were you attacked because you're different?" she changed the topic. "Sure. We can't see the future like you can. Back on the battlefield, when you saw me and that woman before it happened." She frowned. "Yes, well, it was... it was more like a dream. Hazy, it was- it was weird."