THE WITCHER IMAGINES

g ; poisoned

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[ REQUESTED by curiousitycalls ]
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- I'd love it if maybe you could do something where Geralt is hired to kill a so-called mermaid, but he finds out that the siren isn't doing any harm and the villagers are the ones polluting her water etc and just like really cutesy and flirty -
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"A mermaid? You have to be joking me right?" Geralt said, looking at the fisherman with disbelief. Mermaids were a thing of myth. The chances of finding a mermaid were slim to none for one simple reason. They didn't exist. You'd have higher chances of finding 100 dragons in one cave than a mermaid.

Mermaids were told to young children to help encourage them to go swimming in lakes and ponds without fear. The thought of swimming with creatures that sung and swam with ocean animals made children feel more comfortable as they believed the mermaids would keep dangerous fish away and protect the children.

Then parents would get angry for their children sneaking away to swim instead of attending school or church so they made up the tale of sirens. Creatures like mermaids but they'd drown children if they were naughty. They'd lure children into the deep end of the lake and would drown them. Kidnap their soul, stop them from being with god and leave them trapped at the bottom of the lake for all time. Their souls would never join their families and they'd be alone. Then the sirens were turned into kidnappers and were rumoured to be kidnapping children who swam in the lake and their bodies stuck to the bottom, never to be seen.

Mermaids and sirens were mythical creatures used to scare and encourage children. They contradicted each other hugely but some parents encouraged their children to swim using mermaids and then some parents used sirens to discourage their children from bad choices and decisions.

"This is going to be an extra 200 crowns on top because this is going to take extra time tracking to track down a mermaid," Geralt said, sarcasm dropping off the word mermaid. He knew his chances of finding a creature as such was impossible.

"I'll pay you anything to get it out of there. She's evil. I thought mermaids were meant to be good but instead, she's scaring the children away and eating out food. Our fishermen haven't caught anything in months and she's making the townspeople sick. She's poisoning the water which is killing our crops and is making it impossible for anything to grow!" the mayor said, throwing his arms up in the air. Geralt could tell that this annoyed the mayor and it was probably even more annoying for the townspeople. Mermaids aren't real so what's poisoning the water supply?

After a couple of days, Geralt found the place he thought the supposed mermaid was. Out of all the lakes around the town, only one was black. As he approached the lake, he could smell one scent that made his nose burn. This poison was magical. It wasn't natural or plant-based. It had been created with the pure intent to kill and harm whatever was living in that lake. He approached the lake, looking around for any sign of life.

Just as he was about to give up looking for anything, he saw a flash of gold. As he approached he saw a siren. Her scales black but when the light hit them just right, they turned to gold. Mesmerising. He was taken away for a second and then realised what was happening. Half her body was hanging out of the lake and her skin looked very pale. He scooped her up and quickly ran towards another nearby lake. He couldn't understand how a siren was being poisoned by magic when they can't use magic. So someone else was poisoning the siren.

He placed her into the clean lake and submerged her body. He gently dipped her head under the water and kept her head above water. He sat there for a couple of hours, watching her and making sure she was safe.

After a couple of hours, she began to stir. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around. Her brown eyes went wide with panic and she swam away from Geralt.

"I'm not going to hurt you! I'm here to save you! How did you end up in the black lake?" Geralt asked and she looked at him.

"They poisoned me. I accidentally got washed up when there was a storm and got stuck. They hired a mage to poison the water so that I would die in exchange for my body for her magic. She needs my fins for some spell" the siren said, gesturing at the fins by her ears. Only sirens had fins there.

Her body was covered in her black-gold scales. She had fins behind her ears and a small scattering of scales across her nose and cheeks like freckles. She had big brown eyes that also turned gold in the sun and her hair cascaded down her back. Black roots that faded into a beautiful grey-silver. She was purely beautiful. Geralt couldn't believe that people would want to poison someone as beautiful as her.

"I'm Geralt," he said, moving towards her. He stuck his hand out for her to take. She looked at him gently and then she slowly took hold of his hand. They looked at each other for a while and smiled. Geralt made her feel safe and she felt like she couldn't be harmed by the townspeople with him nearby.

"So they hired a mage to poison the water?" Geralt asked and she nodded. He couldn't believe that the townspeople were poisoning her and told him that she was hurting them. If there was a storm, the poisoned water would have gotten into the water stream that passes right next to the black lake. It would have been easy for water to end up in there.

"And do you know who hired the witch?"

"The mayor"

"The mayor? He's the one that hired me saying you were hurting the townspeople" Geralt said with disbelief. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. The major made it sound like she was hurting everyone when in reality he was hurting everyone.

"Let's get you back in the ocean," Geralt said, he picked her up and began to carry her towards the ocean.

"I like you. Your strong and very handsome Geralt" she said and he chuckled

"Are you flirting with me" he dragged his sentence off to hint for her name. She chuckled at him and placed her hand on his chest.

"Svetlana is my name"

"That's a beautiful name Svetlana. Very unique, never heard of a name like yours" Geralt said as he looked down at her. They made eye contact and he smiled bigger. She was cute but he'd never tell her.

"I wish I had legs you know. I'd love to spend all my time with someone as handsome and as muscular you are" Svetlana said, touching Geralts muscles. He laughed and shook his head.

"You don't want legs darling. This world up here isn't the nicest. You stay down in your world, it's safer for you. But you can always come and visit me but next time, not in a poisoned black lake okay?" Geralt asked and she nodded with a smile on her face.

Geralt approached the ocean and gently placed Svetlana down. She swam around a little bit and came back over to Geralt.

"Thank you, Geralt. I hope to see you soon" Svetlana said. She reached up and kissed Geralt. She winked at Geralt and swam away and out of his sight.

He shook his head in disbelief. How he wished she also had legs. What a fascinating woman Svetlana really was.