Toussaint (Part 18)

Silence.

It was like death itself awoke from its eternal slumber and manifested its presence here, in these woods. The only sounds reaching sharp senses of the witcher were creaking of the trees and howling of the wind.

Alan stepped on the gray ground. Dry grass and dead wigs turned to dust under his foot silently, like an illusion from smoke and mist.

"So cold..." - whispered Ciri by his side, shivering from something different, but not low temperature. - "Do we have to come here in the evening?"

"Sun is only a distraction. For both you and me."

After all the training and enhancement from meditations, their senses were not that different from regular witchers that undergone mutations.

"I didn't mean vision, Alan." - she stepped closer to him and looked around. - "No matter how you look, this is surely the place."

"Yes. I believe revenant was born here. I can't find even a single living creature around to scout the area for us. Animals are afraid of it. Too afraid if you ask me." - said Alan and frowned, then sighed and slightly after his face contorted in irritation. - "You know, I underestimated the attraction of your beauty, Ciri."

"Oh!" - she smiled. - "So you say I'm beautiful?"

"I said an entire sentence, and you heard only one word."

"But the most vital one!" - protested Ciri with sparkling eyes. But soon her brows furrowed and a sigh of exasperation escaped the lips. - "Oh... now I got it. The hell is he doing here?"

"Language, Ciri. Or so will say Yennefer before cursing herself. But I agree, the hell are you doing here, Guillaume?"

"By the heron, I vowed to protect the dame of my heart! This is not a place for the lady of such beauty and nobility! Lady Zirael, follow me, I will protect you and lead you out! You can't stay near him."

Alan rubbed his eyes with a hand.

"Who asked you to come? Go away." - protested Ciri. - "How did you even find us?"

"I was worried about you, my lady. And who is this man with you? I believe a lady of your status shouldn't meddle with a people of doubtful origins."

"You are of doubtful origins, your entire family of doubtful origins!" - hissed Ciri at the young man. His face was innocent and rather good looking, but now the girl wanted nothing but to kick him flying.

"My lady, you might not know as you are new to Toussaint, but my family is a famous and noble house of hereditary knights! In comparison, he is a vagrant witcher. By all means I have no contempt to the work their kind does, but he must be a person whose parents abandoned him because of poverty or from lack of understanding of parental duty."

For the first time Alan turned around and looked at the knight standing there with straight back. He was talking with confidence. He believed that everything he said was not only truth, but a fact.

And for the first time in a while, Eternal Mind didn't react. Blood in his veins boiled with rage, reached his head and heart, engulfed his all being, and Alan disappeared in a flash of turquoise light.

"What did you say about my parents?" - he said in a low voice, lifting the knight by the neck. Even the chainmail couldn't stop the tremendous force of his grip, strangling Guillaume.

Ciri didn't react. Neither when Alan teleported, nor when he pressured the guy. She only gazed with coldness at the knight and surveyed the surroundings to avoid any ambush from monsters and people.

"P-Put me... down... I'm a knight at service of Her Highness. Y-you..."

Alan put him down.

But not the way naive fool wanted.

He used all his physical power and slammed the guy on the ground. Loud crash, metal scraping and a scream of pain escaped the epicenter of the strike. Unstable trees and bushes around turned to dust under the rumbling of the ground and a shock wave.

"What did you say about my parents?"

"I... I wasn't wrong... you reaction shows it... I knew it!"

Alan lifted him again and threw through the air. Knight crushed into the stone and slid down, coughing blood. A broken rib misplaced and penetrated his lungs. This wound is fatal unless they will involve magic in healing.

Witcher teleported again and hit his head with a fist. Helmet deformed under his powerful strike. Blood went down on the knight's face. Now the fool couldn't talk properly, but fear gripped his young heart. Never in his life Guillaume saw such tremendous power from a human.

The young man in front of him was as strong as a cyclops and as fast as a ghost.

A leg pressed on his chest plate, implanting him into the crumbling colossal stone with a loud creaking sound.

Alan gazed at him with brutality and chilling lingering in his purple eyes that shone with a cyclone of powers. His Vibe went offensive, wrecking havoc inside the knight's head. And then he did it. He implanted a memory of soul extinguisher inside the head of the young knight for several seconds and made him live through it.

"Alan... he is dying... Alan, stop!" - he felt soft hands embracing him from behind. - "Please, don't be like that... it hurts to see you like that..."

She used one hand to close his eyes gently, while another caressed his face, bringing some warmth. Battle state of Eternal Mind went away, and he looked under his foot at the young knight who was trembling in terror and pain, while choking on his own blood.

Life was gradually escaping his eyes.

Alan took out a healing potion they both brewed recently and poured it into the mouth of the knight. But the dosage was enough to only heal grave wounds. He wasn't in a mood to fix the guy completely.

He then took Guillaume by the neck and teleported with him a dozen times, throwing him like a rag outside of the gray forest on the road under the passing cart.

"Deliver him to his uncle, Palmerin de Launfal. He will reward you."

Alan didn't even register on whose head he dropped that unfortunate cargo and got back to Ciri's place. She stood there silently, awaiting him.

"Sorry." - he mumbled.

Ciri came closer, wrapped her hands around his neck and stood on toes.

"What are you sorry for? He is alive. It will be a lesson not to speak irresponsibly. And if you haven't moved back then, I think I would have used some of the spells Yen taught me to use for interrogations..." - she whispered in his ear.

"I thought he is your friend..." - he said, while Ciri shifted in his embrace and looked straight in the eyes.

"He is not bad at heart..." - she said in a low voice and her forest green eyes lingered on his lips with a misty look.

"He is an idiot."

"Yep, he is." - she whispered and kissed Alan.

"This is... hah... not the best... ah... place." - tried to say something logical a witcher, but time after time her forceful kiss stopped him.

Ciri peeked at him and jumped on his waist, grasping it with her legs.

"Yep, not the best." - she kissed him again with searing desire in her eyes.

"No... really..." - his mind grew hazy under her hot breath, intoxicating fragrance of her lips and slender body. Ciri learned how to use feminine qualities of her beauty very well, but didn't lack boldness and wildness of the lioness she grew up to be.

"Yeah..." - she wasn't in any mood to stop.

With tremendous effort, Alan forced Eternal Mind to clear his head and finally escaped from her hands. They already went for the most private parts of his body.

"Not here. Look around... seriously..."

"Oh... so not here... then... not here, but somewhere else, right?" - she blinked and looked at his with a half smile. Her small seductive tongue ran over her lips. She looked like a lioness on the hunt.

'Damn... this girl... I thought men should be that way.'

"Just... let's first find what we came here for. This place can be very dangerous, but I doubt it is a lair of the revenant."

"Fine, fine... revenant, yes." - grumbled Ciri, though unsatisfied by the result of her sneak attack. Still, she did it to help uplift his mood, aside from other reasons. She felt his pain and rage. Perhaps, because of the necklace, or maybe her enhanced senses and Elder Blood were the reason. - "Next time I will ride you terribly. Mind my words, Alan."

Alan nearly tripped on even ground. Because today she spoke her usual phrase differently, with an obvious undertone. It was a naive wish of an ignorant little girl to have a fun ride on the wolf back then. Now the meaning shifted into something completely different.

Ciri really grew up.