Chapter 2 Renfri

The girl with the short, curly hair had a beautiful smile ; playful and like she hid something. Her movements gracefull, the short swords she carried sharp and neat. Her laugh contagious yet didn't sound sincere.

Eira had been following the girl named Renfri after Geralt followed a child to someone who would by his Kikimora. The Elemental had seen the witcher and Renfri talk in the Inn. When Geralt had left, the smile on Renfri's face had faded and she had asked for one more beer.

The Elemental entered the pub quitly, her cloak hid her hair and she remains in the darker corners. She never wanted to draw attention to herself.

From a distance, Eira saw how Renfri talked to well-armoured men. It seemed like she gave orders because one by one they left. All with a determined grin on their face. When one of them glanced into her direction, Eira swiftly casts her eyes down and started to inspect the table.

Renfri left a bit later, after her pint was empty and Eira stood up from her seat to follow her. It was already getting dark outside when Eira followed the girl through the alleys of Blaviken. Turn right, then left and after two blocks right again.

She stayed a safe distance, soundless on her toes but it wasn't until the last time Renfri turned a sharp left again, Eira lost her out of her sight. She glanced in the dimmed street and pinched her eyes a bit together. The alley was long and Eira straightened her posture as soon as she heard the faint footsteps from behind her.

"Why are you following me," the voice came from behind Eira, calm and steady.

When the Elemental turned around to face Renfri, the girl was leaning against a wall with her shoulder. Apperently, she didn't feel threatened by Eira because she didn't have any of her weapons drawn and seemed to be inspecting her fingers from her left hand.

"Speak up. I have plans in the woods tonight," Renfri sighed.

"I saw you with the Witcher," Eira started. "Do you know where he is?"

"The White Hair?"

"Yes," Eira answered while Renfri took a few steps into Eira's direction.

"In the woods," she let out a short, loud laugh as if she was the only one who understood the joke.

Eira raised a brow and nodded.

"He won't kill Stregobor, Renfri," Eira said softly. "Neither will he kill you for Stregobor."

"You little eavesdropper," Renfri grinned, baring her white teeth. "How long have you been following me? And...," she pointed at Eira, her finger moved up and down. "Why are you hiding yourself underneath a cloak. An ugly one for that matter."

Eira's hand wiped away the cloak from her head and kept her gaze locked on Renfri.

"I'm not hiding. I've been following you since the Inn this afternoon. I heard you talk with your men. They're your men, right? Renfri? You're the leader."

"You're good at eavesdropping," Renfri admitted with one corner of her lips tilted up in a half-grin. "I'll give you that."

They were silent for some time and Renfri her gaze seemed to lose focus.

"As for the White Hair, I asked him to kill Stregobor," she admitted, arms crossed and leaning against the stone wall of the alley. It was getting too dark for Eira to fully see the girl. "He refused. As you said. It seems you know him well."

"I don't."

"Well, then your stalky behaviour is just creepy now, isn't it?"

"Be careful, Renfri," Eira told her before turning on her heels to find a place to rest in Blaviken.

"Hey," Renfri called after her. "I can buy you a pint. You seem ... nice enough."

Eira glanced over her shoulder to Renfri who shrugged her shoulders. "I don't have the chance to talk to a lot of women. I'm always surrounded by unwashed brutes. I don't mind, but it's a nice chance."

The Elemental doubted and bit her bottom lip before nodding slowly.

"Okay," the confliction lingered in her throat. "Just one."

Renfri's laughter echoed in the alley when she took Eira by the arm. It was a sudden movement which startled Eira but when she noticed the girl had no meant no harm, she let Renfri guide her to the Pub.

"It never stays with one, sweetheart! Tell me your name, you know mine. It's only polite."

"Eira."

"Okay, Eira, we start with two pints each and then you tell me about you. And I'll tell you about me. Well, some of it, anyway."

She made Eira sit by a table in the busy Inn and came back with four pints, carrying two in each hand.

"We'll see how far we get," Renfri grinned while she drank the first pint in one go. "I have business in the woods. Can't be too drunk for that."

Again, she laughed and Eira didn't get the joke. She wasn't supposed to understand it, she thought.

Both women drank the pints. Eira did tell a bit about herself, but left out the Elemental part. Just that she had no family and travelled from town to town. Renfri told her she was a princess in a former life and decided it was enough talking for one night.

The girl suddenly stood up and Eira locked eyes with her. Renfri her features serious. "Don't come to the market tomorrow, sweetheart," she murmured. "Leave Blaviken. Do yourself a favour. You don't want to be here. Find yourself a nice little town, a guy who knocks you up with a cloud of a baby and die happily."

With that she left Eira alone.

Eira found a room with a farmer's daughter who rented out the room of her two-year old son to her not far out of Blaviken. Eira was exhausted and more then once her mind went to her meeting with Geralt that didn't quite go as she imagined.

But Geralt wasn't the one who kept her from sleep. It was that playful smile on the beautiful face of Renfri. Yet, Eira had the feeling there was sadness and a lot of anger hidden behind that smirk.

Eventually, sleep did come to take her and Eira had a dreamless rest. She never dreamt. That was something humans and some animals did. Not her. There wasn't any peace to be found in dreams, nor to be frightened from nightmares.

Though, Eira had empathy, it was shallow. She didn't understand most human emotions and after all these years of observing them, Eira found out why most humans made decisions. Most of them were based on emotions ; fighting was anger, kissing was love, crying was sadness and trembling was fear.

She hardly understood those things. The only thing she came close to understand was loniless and frustration. Eira felt uneasy when Geralt had taken her by the throat and shoved her against the wall. But there wasn't realy fear present. Why would there be? If she had chosen to do so, Eira would have been able to throw the Witcher against the wall and severily wounded him.

Frustration because he had chosen to walk away from her while Eira had hoped her loniliness would have come to an end. It didn't.

It wasn't the sounds of the market that woke her when the started the set. Nor the chickens or the cows present on the farm Eira was staying. It was the clash of iron against iron in the distance that made Eira jump out of bed as soon as her eyes opened.

One hand grabbed her cloak while the other fished out the coins she owned the farmer's daighter for the room, left them on the kitchen table and ran towards the sound of the fight and the cheers of a crowd.

And there was only one name that kept repeating in her head : Renfri.