Archive of Our Own ^beta

Geralt rode through the forest in quiet suspicious feeling, caused by last events. First, the last few hunts went smoothly enough, even too smoothly, then some little lordling that was reeling from fear from afar, paid him an additional few coins for his contract. Yet witcher couldn’t brush off the feeling of being watched for a little while now, for sure since the good thing started to arrive too. The feeling of someone's eyes on his back and quite a luck during hunts or mendling with principals and luck on hunts was suspicious, albeit his neither his nose nor medallion didn’t catch any hint of strange presence. The feeling on his back was just the same as one he always felt while walking through busy roads, with many eyes that watched monster hunter, expecting the worst from him, just like he’s of the same type as the creatures he hunts.

As he slowly traveled through the forest path, the sun began to hide behind the horizon, which made him decide to step out of the road and went further into the forest to find a spot for this night camp. While he walked he noticed small lights, like those of fireflies, looking like they were marking some path before him.
Geralt grunted under his nose and went in the direction, they clearly wanted him to choose, already preparing himself mentally to another fight, trying to catch every detail around him, that could tell him what monster could it be, to try luring him or rather making him feel somehow more accepted by people around, probably to make him feel some fake impression of safety.
The more he walked, the nicer forest seemed to look like. It frustrated him. After a while, witcher reached quite a nice clearing, with fallen old log of a tree, looking just like it was made for camping place, but what bring witcher's notice was that in the way to wooden log were flower circle, after another scan of environment around him, witcher spotted another one, and another, some circles were overlapped each other.

“Fae”, he whispered and turned Roach around to get back to the road.
There were many things and creatures that witcher was ready to fight with, but dealing with Fae wasn’t one of them. Those creatures are most known to his brathen as: “Avoid at every cost, and if approached, make sure to not get enough attention nor insult them”. Yet as he walked that same way he came to clearing, he didn’t reached the road, but got back to said place. Geralt again turned around with Roach and hurried her to run faster, away from the glade. Then again his ride ended up in the same place, irritated witcher turned his horse again to try his escape, and again and once again after that, yet every time he ended up in a perfectly prepared place. The last time he gave a shot of departure, when he once more ended up in that very same spot as before, although this time he noticed that flower circles disappeared, leaving perfectly normal looking grass with flowers here and there.
Irritated witcher finally sighed and got off his horse, leading poor Roach by rains to the center of clearing. As he got there, he looked around and tried to stay as calm as possible.

“I’m not going to hurt you” Started witcher, but knew that he would be more injured if not dead if Fae decided to attack.
“Show yourself and tell me what you want.” He looked around to see if a creature would emerge to meet with him, but the only things he got in exchange were silent and winds howling. Man decided then to play along with the creature and see where it would bring him. He made himself a fire and ate dried meat straps he bought at the last village. The rest of the night went smoothly to the point that even during his meditation, nothing has pulled his attention.

As the morning’s sun rays touched his pale skin, Geralt understood that he fell asleep during meditation, which never happened to him before, if he wasn’t severely injured at least.
Quickly witcher jumped to his feet checking his swords, elixirs and horse, everything was in its place. Well, maybe beside Roach, that was lazily eating grass a little further away from him then she was in the evening. Geralt grunted and began to pack his little camp, thinking if he could find a way out of the clearing without confrontation with the creature. He grabbed Roach by her reins and headed towards clearing’s border, albeit before he took his, hopefully, leave, he stand for a while looking back at the shrouded in light glade, letting a small humm as he observed, that something was sneaking through the bushes, yet still keeping fair distance from him.

“Thank you for your hospitality, but I’ll take my leave now.” Witcher didn’t really ask, he stated the fact and if it will bring him fight, Geralt was long ago reconciled with the fact of dying on path. Nothing answered nor happened, so witcher got in Roach’s back, heading toward the road, just like he did yesterday trying to escape from this place several times, however now the road showed itself after a while.
Man twisted his head a little to have a better look at what’s behind him and he noticed the same little sparkles, slightly glowing in blue between the trees.
Geralt came to the conclusion that fae must have been pretty peaceful for now.

Witcher moved through the road, hoping that such a weird experience would be only one time thing, after all no matter how calm that night was, next approach of fae could end more lethal. Fighting them is like wishing for death, and even if by some incredible miracle he would survive that, living stuck in one of fae’s realms wouldn’t be something witcher looked forward too.

Geralt reached a small settlement at the end of the day, hoping to get his hands on some contract, he headed to the inn, their owners always knew all problems around. Inside was a lot of noise, people were celebrating over something and laughing broadly when gulping beer after beer.
Witcher headed toward the barkeeper to make his order.

“Beer and anything warm you have”, said Geralt, not making eye contact from under his hood, knowing well that many people get scared easily by the view of his eyes.

“Ay, you are lucky my boys caught those big boars’ my lad” Women pointed with her thumb at the feasting group of men. “For you it will be 17 crowns'', she said with a smile on her face, which was weird, obvious was that his swords were revealing his occupation, but he decided to worry about that later, grabbing his pouch from under cloak, witcher counted coins and handed them to women.

“Do you have any monster problems nearby?” He asked, glancing at women with his catlike eyes and noticed that her face made a grimace as she looked at the ceiling, likely trying to recall if something indeed needed a witcher intervention.
Women’s face suddenly lighted,

“There is something in our old granary, but since last accident we just stopped going there,” She waved her hand almost dismissively, “but you can ask old Sławomir, he is our village mayor, house with blue shutters on left form inn, if he would pay ya for getting rid of that.”

Geralt thanked her for information and went to the table furthest the back to wait there for his food. He thought that the best option would be to investigate the case further from tomorrow morning, so when his order came to his table, witcher asked the barmaid for room to rent for the night. Luckily for him, there was one still available, with two beds but since there was nothing else free, witcher agreed to take that one. Truly that evening went nicely, the meal was warm and beer not diluted.

Geralt departed to his room and took off his armor, glad that even the barmaid was weirdly nice to him. He lay down on bed, holding his swords close to his bed just in case of an emergency. When Geralt’s eyes closed, to his ears came sound of gently playing music that almost instantly lulled him to sleep, cutting out sounds of background celebration of other residents and the last thing witcher remembered was instant kick of adrenaline that disappeared as quickly as it showed, muffled by forced upon him slumber. At least the music was nice and gentle.

As the sun rose, witcher violently jumped out of the bed. The creature from clearing must have been behind this, he thought. Geralt quickly put on his armor and went out of the inn, heading straight to the village mayor’s house. He got there rather quickly and questioned old men for as much information about the old granary as he could get out from him. Fortunately the mayor agreed to pay him if he’ll deal with the thing inside the shack, and from stories of the elderman, Geralt came to the conclusion that this contract will be involving specter, presumably nightwraith.
Witcher went to closeby forest to prepare potions and oil for his sword.

When all his preparations were done, white haired man went to the building and at first sight he noticed that everything inside looked like people that were working there, and definitely it was some time ago, they for sure left the place in a rush, either due to the dangerous specter or who it was before. Yet the place didn’t looked like it would store any body in there, not even bone on the ground, which made it even more concerning for witcher since phantom hadn’t showed up yet.
Geralt once again scanned his surroundings and when he could confirm that creature is out of sight for now,with a sight wither kneeled to prepare himself for meditation, previously putting his sword on his lap so he would be ready right away when wraith will show itself up.
When he closed his eyes the sound of light music came to his ears, making him instantly snap his eyes open.

“Don’t”, was the only thing that he growled through his teeth. The fae was getting on his nerves again and the last thing he needed was its presence along with falling asleep.
After a while all he could hear was silence and Geralt at that moment wasn’t sure if the creature listened to him or if he simply was losing his mind and this time music was just in his head. Again witcher closed his eyes and tried to focus his senses on noises around him and outside the building, he could hear steps of villagers going back from fields, noticed how birds stopped their songs and were replaced by crickets’ own melody, clearly symbolizing that night time has come.

Then in that whole peacefulness witcher felt soft vibrations from his medallion which in no time made him go up on straight legs, with sword steady in one hand and second ready to cast Yrden at appearing specter, yet he noticed in the corner of his eye another one appearing. Blade of his sword swung with him in spin, to block attack from being that was behind him, casting in the same time with his free hand a sing to slower specter that few seconds ago was standing before him, making ghost’s movements slower, still being at fair distance from witcher.
Fighting two wraiths from two opposite sites was for sure a little challenging, but it was nothing he hadn’t done before. He swung his sword at creature just like he was thought years ago during his trainings, for some, inexperienced in battle, that whole scene could looked like it was easy to keep up after ghosts attacks’ with how gracefully Geralt moved, like they were dancing absorbed in their own world, it surely looked like that for creature that was lurking in witcher’s shadow for quite a while. White haired men skillfully mixed fighting with his sword and his signs’ in a way that could only bring loose for specters.

Just when witcher thought that the fight was over, shaking off ectoplasm from his sword’s blade, the soft vibration of a snarled wolf on his chest brought him back to the present and proved him wrong. Before Geralt even attempted to turn around, to face new anime, he was sent flying across the room, but before his body hit what was behind him, another force swung his body to the right making him smash into the wall. He quickly composed himself, checking surroundings and correcting his posture, ready for another attack form where he was pushed. Yet when witcher looked around, all he could see was that same one specter, already charging at him. His body automatically moved to push back attack, yet he didn’t fully avoided the hit. Sharp hiss escaped his lips, yet witcher still stood in perfect position to fight, stubbornly ignoring the pain in his torso. Geralt had to admit that this wraith was much stronger opponent then the other two were.
When he again lost himself in fight, not staying clear of new injuries, especially when he also tried to avoid attacks’ from another creature that for sure this time had planned to kill him, cooperating with specter. After another swift scratch of phantom, Geralt felt that the same force that he was trying to avoid, pushed him lightly to the side and in that action, spare him another wound from wraith, causing it to miss witcher’s neck and instead launching it’s attack on the armor, which left the opening for Geralt’s own attack.
This time witcher tried to allow invisible creature to help him and lead through the fight, it wasn’t disturbing his fight that way, surly witcher could end this battle on his own, but it looked like supposedly fae really wanted to put it’s weight to men’s fight and it was certainly easier to allow it to do that, than trying to fight it at the same time with the specter. As the phantom fall in defeat, disappearing and leaving only stains of ectoplasm on its place, witcher huffed and straightened himself up, hiding his sword to the sheath on his back.

While he was standing there for a little longer, trying to compose himself and taking one of his swallow potions from his little bag on his chest, witcher also noticed that fae presence didn’t disappeared, lightly blue sparkles headed towards the exit of the building. Geralt hummed and gave one last one look at the surroundings, noticing the sharp wooden pole in place where he would surely smash into if not the fae’s first help of that night, when he stepped out of the building he noticed that the sparkles were already gone.

“Thank you spirit.” Said witcher looking at inside of granary, and even though he couldn't see the sparkles anymore, something was telling him that the creature was still there, still present and watching.

Witcher headed to the elder man for his payment, when Sławomir was taking out coins from his sack, Geralt noticed few, already known to him, little blue sparkles floating around the man's head while he handed to witcher more coins than they agreed upon prior. Geralt’s face turned into small snarl and low growl emerged from his throat, which made the older men that stand before him to drop everything he had in his hands. Witcher quickly catched money before they got the chance to fall to the ground, counted the previously agreed amount and dropped the rest of coins into the older men’s sack, handing it to him.

“As we agreed”, he grunted and with a nod toward men, headed to the tavern to gather all his things and made his way to the stables, where Roach was already waiting for him. When making his leave from the village Geralt tried to do his best to ignore the pain of his wounds. Before today’s contract, witcher planned to stay in the settlement for another day, but after fae’s mandling with elder man’s head, it would be risky to stay. After all someone could have seen the whole thing and most probably blame witcher for using tricks on their mayor.

Slowly he rode the path, hoping to reach another village soon enough and to make it worse, wounds on his body started to irritate him more and more with every passing minute and mainly the one on his side. Yet witcher refused to stop to make a camp, it was still to close to last village and injury wasn’t even fatal, all of it will heal soon enough for him to still push forward.
But even though he knew that, some certain spirit that’s sparkles started to appear more frequently to the site of the road, surly wasn’t aware of the fact, clearly wanting Geralt to stray of the path and make a camp for a night.

“I’ll be alright” he sighed and tried to ignore the sparkles.
As he rode further into woods and noticed that sparkles finally gave up and vanish, meaning that fae finally left him to be as he please, yet this satisfaction didn’t last long. Horrible scream, of presumably a women, get to his ears taking his full attention, which make him instantly rush Roach toward the place it came from.

Did he mistook fae’s signs? Did he really thought that any living creature, outside of his little family of outcasters, would care of him? And all that stupid thoughts brought some poor soul to danger. In increasing stress he hurried Roach to dash through path between trees, noticing that fae’s sparkles came back and led him further into the labyrinth of trees. Geralt felt how all his body screamed, wounds bleed, yet he still rode in full speed, reaching for his sword and thinking about rescuing the person in need. The voice became louder and louder, which meant that he will have to prepare himself to fight whatever monster that will be awaiting there. He was close. Suddenly as he got through the bushes, he found himself in middle of the meadow with nothing alarming going on around.

To be completely honest, truly, NOTHING WAS HERE. Geralt noticed pattern of the clearing and that it painfully looked like the first one that he had displeasure to be trapped in, albeit this time he didn’t even tried to leave, he knew from earlier experience, that if he wanted to exit te place, he have to play as fae please, he knew that. He remembered Vesemir’s teachings to never anger a fae, yet it was getting absurd. Creature was acting like it wanted to baby him, enchanting people on his contracts just for some additional coin, although he felt that he should be a little grateful, Geralt couldn’t bring himself to that feeling, instead he was radiating with anger. He hopped off Roach, bringing her closer to the center, where once again was a long log of wood, but this time there was also a bonfire and pot with something cooking in it. Witcher wasn’t stupid, he knew not to eat whatever creature brought him. He took furr and blanket out of the bags attached to Roache’s saddle and laid them on the ground near fire, wincing with every movement because of his wounds. He grunted angrily as he sat himself on prepared bedding, preparing himself for meditation.

Soon after he closed his eyes, he felt that something tickled his nose and when his eyes flew open, there were again little blue sparkles, likely waiting for him to eat the food, since another group of them appeared around the pot. Geralt had enough of this, he was exhausted and all he needed right now was a piece of quiet for him to meditate and let his body begin to slowly patch itself.

“I’m not going to eat that.”, he stated firmly, watching for any sign of movement that could point to the placement of creature.
“And I don’t need your help, wherever you are,” At that point, witcher didn’t really cared what he was speaking to, the whole charade was going for too long for him and it had to end.
”- if I see, that you are meddling with people’s minds again, I’ll make sure you’ll regret it.” He angrily sighed through his throat, which ended up sounding like growling to which sparkles immediately disappeared from his view. A little satisfied with the outcome, witcher decided to close his eyes and focus his mind on meditation, but before that, he chose to add one last thing,

“And I’m leaving right at the morning, either with your permission or with burning everything around with Igni, myself included. Either way I’m gonna leave.” All what witcher got in return was silence, which satisfied him enough. After a while he heard rustles of leaves, flutter of bird’s wings, howling of wind and then slowly, the music. So soft and mesmerizing, that witcher couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes, even if in the back of his head he knew it was the fae’s work, no matter how much he wanted to wake up from that trance, his mind drifted through the endless surface of sleep.

Next day brought witcher to consciousness by soft laugh of man, whose voice was like little bells ringing through the air. Geralt slowly opened his eyes, moving only them, so he wouldn’t spook the person that supposedly was playing with Roach, judging by the fact that sounds of his horse neighs and men’s laughter were ringing together through the air.
Did fae leave him alone and he’d been found by some traveler? Or perhaps was it another poor soul trapped here with him? He really hoped to see another human, yet instead of that, the person playing with his horse was for sure the mentioned earlier creature. Truly beautiful one, he had to admit, man before him had nice brown hair that were falling on the sides of his face, reaching to his jawline.
He wore light material, all in shades if pinks and blues with some accents of purples embroideries, and his voice as he payed compliments to Roach, so smooth that Geralt wished he could have hear it for rest of his life. Long protruding ears with pointy ends paired with long dark antlers and delicate fangs snaking from his mouth, clearly meant that the beautiful men standing next to Roach was the same creature that was following him.
Geralt hummed under his breath at the view, he couldn’t stop himself anymore from admiring the creature, human or not, he was truly handsome, and when air curried the sound of witcher’s admire toward brunette, two beautifully blue eyes snapped at him, and just before their owner disappeared in fog mixed with sparkles, witcher could see his face fully, the fae was truly eye catching, but unfortunately already gone from his sight.

Although men was true beauty, Geralt had to remind himself that it was still the same fae that was messing with him, he shook his head to snapp himself out of the weird state he fell into at the sight of creature and began to gather his closest surroundings. The thing that was the weirdest was fact that he hadn’t his armor on, only his linen shirt and unwelcome tightness around his torso. Witcher slowly sat up and rose his chemise, suspiciously inspecting what was around his chest, he really didn’t know what he expected, but it certainly was soaked with some kind of salve bandages. Judging from the smell it contains dried yarrow.
The fae treated his wound.

Come to think of it, creature was trying to help witcher from the very start, as much as he would like to call it an interruption. Why? Geralt couldn’t find answer to that, but suddenly he felt bad for blue eyed creature. In its mind it probably looked like good intended actions. Witcher looked around for his armor chest piece and swords, finding them lying not so far away from him. He gathered his belongings and dressed himself carefully, paying attention to bandages and butting his swords back on his back. When he walked to Roach, he noticed that her mane had long braid going through all length of her neck, which made him smile. Grabbing reins he headed toward the exit of the clearing, but stopped immediately as he heard some rustle in the bushes. He hummed, trying to gather his thoughts as he looked in way of the sound. Finally he decided to at least thank the fae.

“Thank you for your help… Now and back there with specter. I appreciate it.” Then he got back to his walk. Geralt thought for a while that it was really a pity that he could see creature for such a short while, but at the same time, he was fully aware of that, the witchers should walk their paths on their own, him not being exception. He already once let someone get close, which left awful guilt on his mind, every time he heard a slur people were calling him. Besides, having someone near him would be too much to ask for, after all he’s not so different than monsters he hunts, as many portray him, and although a fae definitely isn’t a human either, it’s beauty didn’t deserved to waste in presence of hideous monster hunter that he is. Yet the thing that couldn’t escape Geralt’s mind, was question why the blue eyed spirit even started to take interest in him, even care for witcher, in his weird magically forcing way or it all could end up being just a trick to soften him before coming strike.

Witcher went back to the path, his next destination was any bigger city with good smith that he will find on his way. With additional money he got from fae’s ‘magical whisperings’, he decided to make a good use of them and order himself a new armor, especially now that his actual one had not only some years of repairing but also is in need of major fixing again. On his way to the city, Gerald got a few minor contracts, mainly problems with drowners or ghouls, but what surprised him was that the fae didn’t showed up anymore during his fights, nor were it mendling during talks with clients during taking his payment. Even if it was something he hardly wanted, the feeling that there was someone else, someone that was watching over him was tempting, but if it would be a fae, it was better to be alone.

As he got himself to his destination, he made his way to the smith and placed an order. Turned out that his request will took at least two months, so witcher choosed to find some work in villages in town’s radiance, maybe checking for contracts in town itself, but that will be plan for next day. At that moment witcher decided to get himself something to eat and drink in one of the local inn.
On his way, Geralt left his horse in the stables, leaving there additional coin, so Roach would have a meal too. As he got to the tavern he noticed that there were a lot of people, but if he wanted to eat inside the city he would have to endure their loudness and try to focus his senses on his own breathing.
Sighing, he went inside, ordered brooch and beer and went to the furthest placed corner table he could find and took his seat there. His keen eye noticed few elves among the crowd that clearly tried to hide their race from the other clients.
As usual in big cities he had to wait a little longer for his order, but when he got it, he would be a liar to say that it wasn’t a satisfying meal. Portion of the soup was big and full of meat, beer chilled and Geralt felt as if the fae were still watching over him. What a stupid thought‒ he noticed.

Soon after Geralt started eating, the sound of music came to his ears, it was a nice tune. Slowly the melody changed to more lively one, yet still not the kind that would hurt his sensitive senses. When to his ears came voice of the bard, witcher involuntarily raised his gaze in search of stage. Before he could look at the minstrel that was in place of stage that was covered by other client’s postures, he listened to the words he sang, of such an unrealistic creatures and love. Yet when poet moved on the stage to the place that was visible to Geralt, witcher immediately understood why the voice and music were so nice to hear, and the memory of his last encounter with a fae at the clearing made it even more clean. All that just because the same face that was haunting his mind was now swinging on the scene, in that very same inn Geralt choose to stay and even if man’s features seemed more human, blue of his eyes a little more natural, ears now short and perfectly rounded, fangs from mouth long gone too, yet not losing his charm in smile that not so long ago he was giving to Roach as he spoke to her. It didn’t took long of witcher’s staring at the performer, until the men noticed Geralt’s gaze on his person and as soon as that happened, fae disguised as human looked straight at the witcher and send him a wink of an eye, still not breaking his performance.

Some ladies in closer tables to the stage clearly thought that flirtatious act from bard was sent to one of them, which caused a sound of giggles from them. Geralt didn’t knew what to think of that, why fae was here? Or maybe it’s his mind playing with him and the man on the stage is just a little similar to the creature, making witcher’s mind excited over nothing. Why would he even be excited to see a fae here? Geralt just grunted with irritation at the thought and got back to staring at his mug of beer, shutting his senses out and thinking about what direction he should take next to spend his time while waiting for his order to be done.

“Why pray tell, such a fine gentleman like you is sitting here all alone in this gloomy corner?” Voice suddenly appeared next to him and even if witchere was deep in his thoughts, he made sure to pay attention to his surroundings, yet he couldn’t hear the men in question approach.

Witcher slowly lifted his gaze to see the men before him, grunting at him shortly.
“I’m a witcher not some gent.” Brunette only smiled at him and pulled a chair from a close table to his, sitting right across from him.

“One does not exclude the other”, blue eyes went straight to Geralt’s medallion. ”And I think, dear friend, you are indeed a one fine gentleman.” Geralt hummed at that comment and took a sip of ale from his mug.

“How so?” The brow on witcher’s forehead went high on which the creature before him smiled toothly.

“Well, at first, you didn’t pull out your sword yet”, fae pointed with his finger to two swords that were lying beside Geralt’s chair.

“It’s still in my reach”. Geralt said, ending the sentence with a soundless mouthing word “fae”, and looking directly into those blue eyes and, to witcher’s surprise, they immediately brightened up and a smile on creature’s face gained a little glimpse of a fangs.

“Oh please, is that how you should thank me for all the aid I’ve given you?”

“Help?” Geralt couldn’t stop himself from making a low growl at the creature.
After that he noticed that few patrons were giving them a look. So with clearing his throat to justify his previous growl in their eyes, he decided to continue a little bit quieter.
“You meant play with me or meddling in people’s minds?” Geralt was ready to fulfill his promise from the clearing and reach for his sword if the creature would have chosen any wrong move, the fight would be unfair, that for sure, probably it would end with his own failure, but witcher was ready to take up that challenge.
How could he even think of this creature as something good? It for sure was all a trick to maze witcher’s head, but really, deep down he was longing for contact with fae that charmed him with incomprehensible actions and well, his beauty and music.

Nevertheless, Geralt was now almost completely sure that fae was just playing with him and because of that he really tried to push away the deep buried hope of closeness with another person, that just by complete coincidence was linked with the creature sitting before him.
Fae on the other hand looked relaxed as ever, as if he were taking unspeakable pleasure and fun just from this sole conversation.

“Well you are truly ungrateful, dear witcher!” Man clicked his tongue at the last word. Gerald had enough, he decided that it’s time to leave the establishment to minimize the risk of hurting someone if a possible fight would appear, yet the fae still continued.
“I was just trying to help you, you know? Does witcher’s dictionary possess such a word in it?” Man decided to stand up along with a witcher and follow him, and as he walked Geralt noticed a lute hanging from his shoulder.
“Truly, if you'd only allow me, I would make your life so much better, easier even than I’ve tried to do until now”. Brunette swung his hands in the air, still following Geralt’s steps to the exit.
“And I did listen to what you said then dear witcher. I promise, just give me a small chance and everything will be much better! I”ll make your reputation fly high! Even all witcher’s will come to glory if you’d wish so! Just allow me.” Fae was speaking so loud and, yet none of people had turned to them. Geralt didn’t understood why man was still following him, so his irritation grew even more, not to mention the words fae’s said to him.

“Like I would need any of your tricks.” Was what slipped through his tongue. Geralt wanted to drive creature away from the people, so he needed to make himself more time, and it looked like fae liked to talk, so here he got him a reason to talk more of his nonsense.

“Tricks?!” Fae disguised as bard yelled, looking offended with all his overdone acting.
“I was just trying to do something nice to you!”.

Being nice to a witcher, what a stupid idea? Geralt really was surprised that fae expected him to believe that.

“And I’d like to inform you, fair men, that I take great deal with the words I’m giving!” Creature puffed irritably the air through his mouth.
“Well, more or less..”

More or less till he kills his victim or gets bored enough to move to another play thing?

“Truly it is a shame you are so stuck with your head in your arse, that you don’t even see an opportunity when it’s right before you.”

Opportunity for death? Yes, Geralt clearly saw that one.

“All I’m proposing to you, is just showing the world how much of a hero you can be, especially for those stubborn humans”. Fae snorted in irritation.

Witcher a hero? What nonsense was that?

“Really dear, I promise it will be all clear and no funny matters in that!”

No tricks with fae? Impossible.

“Just, I don’t know… Let me sing of you! Your adventures, bravery, glory!” Fae was waving his hands enthusiastically as he still walked after Geralt.
“Humbly I’ll tell you, that I’m very talented musically.”

Well that was getting ridiculous, witchers’ are not good material for songs and ballads.

“Oh please, witcher!”. Again that clicking noise on creature’s tongue on Geralt’s profession’s name, clearly he’s being mocked.
“Do you really want to be known for the rest of your live as ‘Butcher of Blaviken?’”

At that witcher immediately stopped his walk, which ended up with fae bumping into his back. Geralt slowly turned to the men, clenching his teeth in anger.

”Ah–ha! I knew I could reason with you! You have to know that I already have an excellent pla–!” Witcher punched fae right in his stomach, interrupting creature's monologue with a loud, yet short, yell of pain from his throat. Geralt watched as fae was writhing in pain for a while, preparing himself for the attack for that stupid move, expecting fae’s pain to be just an act for distracting witcher from approaching assault. But then, nothing came. Men before him was slowly getting composure over himself.

“Really witcher, that wasn’t nice at all!” Creature grimaced and as he noticed where Geralt’s hand was, which was right on his silver sword’s hilt, ready to pull the weapon, he just let out a small sigh.
“I’m not going to fight you, it’s not really my style.” Fae started quietly, yet Geralt still could hear his words and only raised a brow in answer.
“Truly. I promise that I don’t want to do anything fishy” Men, creature, put his hand in place where for human should be a heart. But for fae? Geralt wasn’t entirely sure about that.
“I would never harm anything on purpose! Please just let me travel with you for a while and I’ll make your life much better!” The fae was already repeating himself and looking a little… desperate? Geralt on the other hand was still suspicious, but knew that if the fae would like to, witcher would be long gone by now.

“Why?” Geralt decided to ask, “Why should I believe you and your motives?” At that question, fae’s eyes blinked lively, like in hope. With a delicate smile on it’s face, fae straightens himself and waves dramatically his hand.

“I just simply hate violence dear sir, unless in the last resort, of course”, at the last part brunette pointed with his hand at Geralt’s swords that were still on witcher’s back.
“Would you believe me that I want to experience a world outside of my folks realm? And by following you I already saw so much that I simply desire more of that, and perhaps with some more active companionship?” Fae started playing with his hands as he spoke, making whole overacting gone, and somehow that fidgeting made Geralt believe in fae’s words a little, but he still was wondering one thing.

“Why have you followed me in the first place? Why trapped me in clearings?” Fae looked abashed at that question, because what would he say to the witcher? That he think that the man is hella attractive? No, it doesn’t sound good, he should skip that part, albeit he decided to still stick to the overall truth.

“Well, I saw how nicely you treated that little godling, Janek, how you helped him clear his name from accusation for stealing from humans, and how you let the boy help you find the real thief, and…” Fae made himself look straight into witcher’s eyes and Geralt could see the sorrow in his big blue eyes.
“And then I saw how awfully they treated you in exchange for your help. As for clearings,” Fae’s eyes drifted to the ground and his hands started to play with the strip of his lute that was hanging on his shoulder.
”– I’ve never wanted to trap you, just thought you could use a good, nice break. You looked tired then and the second time, you were badly hurt. Just wanted to help.” Man was still playing with the material on his chest. Geralt was really satisfied with the answers, so he let out a long sigh and relaxed himself a little, placing his hand along his side instead of its previous position, next to his sword’s hilt.

“What’s your name then?” He decided to ask and fae looked a little dumbfounded at that.

"... I’ve already told you dear.” Geralt only gave him a questionable look, so blue eyed men decided to clarify,
“When I came to your table” He moved his hand and pointed with his thumb the direction behind him, where was the inn that they came from.
“But well if you insist to hear it again,” He straightened himself up and introduced with a bow worthy of a meeting with real royalty.
“Jaskier the bard, at your service, master witcher.” Fae winked at him at the word bard, amusement in the eyes and big smile on lips. Geralt just hummed at that information, trying to ignore theatrics of creature and just from courtesy, decided to introduce himself too.

“Geralt of Rivia” He nodded at fae.
“And never again call me butcher if you still want to keep that pretty face of yours, fae.” Geralt went back to his walk, making his way to the stable he left Roach in, also expecting creature to walk after him. It didn’t take long until fae, Jaskier, spoke again.

“So you think I’m pretty, huh witcher?” Geralt only hummed at that, looking from half open eyelids at the man walking next to him. He already started to regret letting fae so close to him, yet deep down he was happy to have this man so close, to walk his path with him.