Chapter 1: The Dream Between Worlds

[Trollshaws, Rhudaur]

Late sunset in the upland woods located west of Rivendell between the Hoarwell and Loudwater rivers in eastern Eriador. Trolls roamed these lands and terrorized invaders.

In one of its clearings, an unnatural phenomenon occurs. A large portal appears and ejects a man toward the ground. "Agh. Ciri! Shit!" The man rolls across the ground to ease the fall and tries to recover from the turbulent trip and stops. The man pulls himself together, gets up, and analyzes the place where he was left, with some trees around and a cave a few hundred meters away.

The man is well built, with large black hair, broad arms, a height of 1.91, a beautiful young and thin face, with unusual gray cat eyes, in which wisdom and power can be seen. In addition to his appearance, his clothes also stand out, leather and mesh armor, and leather belts hold his small accessory pouches, hanging around his neck a medallion with the appearance of a wolf can be seen and a pair of swords can be seen on his waist. Sven is his name.

"Hm. I feel some interference with the sources of magic, or rather I don't feel the sources nearby, it seems that magic is everywhere but at the same time nowhere." After looking around Sven is confused, he tries to feel the magic sources around him, but he feels something totally different. After getting no answers he removes the gauntlet from his left palm and looks at a scar on his hand. "Master, Cirilla has had a fit with her chaotic magic, I tried to help her, luckily she didn't tear me apart, but sent me to an unknown area." A brand appears glowing like a rune marking. Sven channels his magic into the mark and tries to communicate with the listener with another mark. For the first time when leaving the portal, Sven takes his situation seriously and frowns looking at the mark

'I no longer feel the magical connection with Master Yennefer.' Sven clasps his left hand and continues his thoughts. 'Apparently, the place where I am is not Earth, or at least in a known region.' After his analysis of the facts, Sven realizes that the sun has gone and hears some loud footsteps that make the trees shake and small stones skip.

Looking into the cave on his right a large ogroid wielding a club stick comes out of the entrance and starts looking where he's going to hunt that night, but upon seeing a human in the clearing he smiles through his rotten teeth. "HAHAHA! I luck today!" He runs towards Sven.

Holding the sword in his right hand, the witcher runs towards the monster. The Troll is confused, but as he approaches the human he holds the large branch with both hands and swings to throw his dinner into one of the trees. Just before the club hits Sven he jumps over the club, the Troll loses balance with the weight and strength he used, as soon as the Troll has his head free, Sven sticks his sword in the Troll's chin that crosses until the top of his head protruding a few inches from the sword soaked in dark blood, as seen in his half-open mouth.

Before the dead body lands on Sven he slashes the Troll's face and backs away seeing the greasy Troll fall with his mangled face oozing black blood that reeks of dung. "He's big but much more fragile than an Ice Ginger, but he stinks a lot more. And that blood..." Sven comments to the wind and frowns as he looks at the reeking dark blood on the sword. "I'll clean it up after exploring this cave. The Troll had fabrics that, despite being dirty, are very exquisite for a creature. There must be something that helps me in some way with the belongings of the last meals." Sven walks into the dark cave and uses a Cat Potion despite having good dark vision due to the warlock mutations, the potion helps to not decrease the range and detail of the vision.

The cave is small enough for only one Troll and its droppings. Despite the stench Sven didn't frown, he just looked, there was something useful in the cave when he saw some swords, armor plates, and objects in general in the less dirty corner of the cave, Sven went to search, finding some items with ancient elven writings and others with the common language of the Continent but with some unknown words.

"Kallif, Protector of the Dunedain." He read Sven as he picked up the only sword with common writing. 'It's not an exquisite sword, the writing seems to be done by an amateur, and it damaged the sword that was no longer good. Seems someone had a fantasy of being the protector of his people, I suppose he didn't expect to become Troll droppings.' Sven was amused and threw his sword into the droppings.

After looking at the items for a few minutes, Sven emerged from the cave with a large quiver that carried some more valuable weapons and tools. His coin purse was filled with new coins with several unknown records and some gems.

"Now, with that, I shouldn't have a problem bargaining with any nearby civilizations." Commented Sven as he crossed the clearing and headed towards the mountains, he could hear a nearby waterfall with his enhanced senses.

Upon arriving at a river with a beautiful waterfall coming from the top of the mountain, Sven puts the quiver on a nearby rock and goes to the river's edge to clean the sword and his boots that passed through the waste in the cave. 'Despite such a putrid being here, these lands have an undeniable beauty.' Cleaning the sword with river water and a clean cloth, Sven marvels at the beauty of the water's shine in the light of the full moon.

His witcher senses flare and Sven rises to his feet in a fighting stance looking out over the trees and bushes around the river. A human would hardly notice anyone, but the witch perceives several non-hostile but dangerous presences.

A group of elves ride through the trees and arrive in front of Sven. Among them, an elf with armor and an exquisite crown stands in front of Sven looking directly into his eyes.

"Hello, traveler. You must be the 'Wolf' of which she said '...a wolf with a long black mane and his cat's eyes as gray as precious pearls.'" Said the Elf with the crown. "My name is Elrond. My Lady asked me to receive you, we have no bad intentions for you. I ask you to accompany us so that we can help you." Elrond spoke to the unusual youth.

Another elf stood out, with long blond hair, without a helmet, he looked as strong, if not stronger than the elf named Elrond. But he remains silent

'That was a bit unexpected, I think this 'Lady' he talks about has some artifact or magical power to detect my arrival in these lands. They show no hostility. I don't know where I am, my magic is confused, my medallion doesn't work, and there are beings I've never seen around here. I need answers and without them, my time here will be much more difficult.' Sven thought as he heard the elf called Elrond.

"My name is Sven, I will follow you for now." Answered the witcher with caution and resignation as he sheathed his already clean sword.

One of the elven knights brought a horse in tow and handed it to Sven who took his quiver and climbed onto his horse. As soon as the witcher climbed onto his horse, Elrond nodded to Sven and began to ride naturally to Rivendell.

[Rivendell, West of the Misty Mountains]

A peaceful and protected city located on the edge of a narrow gorge of the river Bruinen, very well hidden in the swamps and foothills of the Misty Mountains. Its soft waterfalls are like clouds and living trees an eternal spring. "Hi na- Imladris. This is Rivendell, welcome." Said Elrond as the entourage approached with Sven at his side.

As they galloped, Sven looked at Rivendell. 'The architecture is beautiful, despite being a small town, an architecture that seems to value the environment around it. There are no walls, artillery, or sorcerer's towers. They certainly rely on some guardian or artifact to protect them beyond their own geographic protection.' Estimated Sven with the information of how the city was presented.

Elrond arrives at a city entrance hall that gives access to a staircase. "Leave the horse, a handler will take it. In the meantime, stay with me." He says as he gets off the horse, as does the blond elf. Sven does the same and continues to follow Elrond down the stairs, then through the corridors and gardens, until they reach an open-air dome. They go to the dome and right at the entrance, Sven notices someone waiting for them.

Opposite the way they entered could be seen an elf as tall as Sven. She is looking at the moonlight that illuminates the waterfalls in the valley. She turns and looks directly into Sven's eyes.

"Seven days ago I had a dream. In the dream, I saw wolves that lived in a distant world, wolves that protected a Swallow from the specters that galloped the skies, one of the wolves were killed, and the Swallow disturbed by the loss, created an uncontrolled storm that drove the specters away. The younger wolf ran and yelled to calm her down, but she couldn't hear. In the end, the wolf was thrown as far away from the Swallow as possible, a place where he would be far from the responsibility of protecting her."