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

Chapter 25 - Monster studying -

I placed the wooden hand of the Leshy on the table in the cellar of the fortress. "It hides in forests?" Ciri asked as she stood by the table while I started to cut the hand open. "There are others like it?" she asked another question. "A few. Dying out, though, because they can't reproduce." I said and ripped a piece of a sprout out. "Any you come across will have been around since the Conjunction." I explained what didn't seem to interest her much. Quite the opposite of Evelyn, who was always interested in monsters and their stories.

"So, is that what we'll be doing here, then?" she asked and turned towards a bigger table with the examination tools on it. "Studying monsters." she mumbled. I managed to cut out a piece without damaging the inside of the arm. "Yeah." I confirmed. "Collecting supplies for those potions you take?" another question. "Sure." I confirmed again. "Training?" now she seemed more interested. There was the line that connected her to Evelyn. "Training is dangerous." I said.

I trained Evelyn. She was grown up, she could already handle a lot. This girl is fixed on to less to be trained. "So's the man with the black-winged helmet." she tried to get to me. She wanted to protect herself, which is reasonable but she doesn't have to do that. Ciri has me, and when she finally arrives Evelyn will be there to protect her as well. "And you want to kill him?" I asked her with my back turned to her as I went to grab a jar. "Yes." 

"Why?" I could hear her frown. It was thick in the air. "I hate him." I put the jar away and leaned with my hands on the table to look at her. "This is important." I sighed. "We don't kill out of fear. We kill to save lives. Do you understand?" Reluctantly she accepted my words. "Well, how did you spend your days when you first came here?" she asked. "I was beaten and starved." I said with a grin. "How's your room?" I changed the topic. "It has rats." she said, still not sounding very happy. "That's a good sign." I said as I ripped a finger off of the wooden hand. "Means it's one of the warm ones." She only huffed a laugh. "Does yours have them, too?" she asked and I shook my head. "It's upstairs and it would be too cold for you."

I examined my fingers that were smeared in black from the jar contents, which I poured a little of the wooden hand. Ciri looked at them too and her eyes flickered. "Are you married?" she asked with confusion dripping in her voice. "Why?" I asked and brushed my hands off. "The ring." she pointed at it. I looked between it and Ciri. After giving it a thought, I nodded. She smirked. "Really?" she started teasing a little. "Is this the Evelyn I and the others asked about?" she asked and crossed her arms. 

Before I could answer, above us in the room a door opened and the Witchers there started cheering. "What's that?" Ciri asked, changing the topic herself, which is good. I miss Evelyn dearly and I don't want Ciri to know about her just yet. This was more to protect me than her. Evelyn was my weakness and not knowing where she is and if she survived ate me up alive. "Stay here." I said and walked upstairs. "You know, in Cintra, I went to parties-" she tried to walk after me. "Cirilla." I said to stop her, which she did. 

When I reached the grand hall, music was playing and women were dancing on the tables, very much naked, and some were flirting and talking with the others. I walked through the room and got stopped by a woman putting a hand on my chest. I looked down on it then at her. "So this is where Witchers are hatched." she smiled and slipped off the thin robe she wore to cover her shoulders. "I hope there's a plaque to commemorate your greatness." she kept smiling and soon realized that she wouldn't get me by that.

She huffed. "Tavern outside Dorian, handful of years ago. I bathed basilisk blood from your hair." she said and I gave it a thought. "It was wyvern blood." I corrected her. "You shouldn't be here." I said and walked past her. "I hear that you have a daughter now." she chuckled and grabbed my hand. My eyes went wide. Daughter? "And I thought the softest thing about you was that you paid." she laughed and caressed my arm which I was about to pull away. "She's not my daughter."

"Oh. Well, in that case, I could take her in. She'd have the boys eating out of her hand-" she offered. I freed my arm out of her grip and stepped a little towards her. "Ooh!" she giggled and raised her hands, then crossed her arms. "And he says he's not a father." she smirked and walked away. 

I approached Vesemir who just stood by the side of the room, drinking from his mug and watching the whole event taking place. "What is this?" I asked him, not very pleased to see what was going on. "Eskel found some friends down the mountain." he explained. "They shouldn't be here. You were the very one that told me that for bringing two people here." I complained. "He drank too much stramonium for that sting, I reckon. They all did. They won't remember anything by tomorrow. Certainly not how they got here." he stated and I shrugged. "If you say so." I mumbled.

I spotted Eskel, sitting at a table while one of the whores was whispering something into his ear. As I walked towards him he quickly stood up as she touched his shoulder. I grabbed his shoulder and separated him from the kiss he had roughly planted on her. "Eskel, what are you doing?" I asked him and he pushed the woman away by her neck as he gave me a smirk. "Are you taking a break from tucking in your girl?" he mocked and turned back to the whore he was occupied with.

"I understand that you're in pain, and you can drown that pain with whomever you want. Just not here." I spoke at the end with gritted teeth. He sniffed and turned around with an angry frown. "Aah, it's funny, you know. Me and the boys, we come back here, all banged up. Rock troll bust Lambert's eye. A werewolf took a chunk out of Coen's arse. Eh? And what do you come back with? All I say is, when I find a princess-" he chuckled. "the last thing I'm gonna do is... play knight." he mocked again along with a hand gesture.

He turned around, seemingly as if he'd leave but he turned back and tried to punch me. I grabbed him by the shoulders and grabbed him by the neck. "Eskel. Go to bed. Hm?" I asked, but not implying it was a suggestion. I pushed him away and right into the arms of the whore.