Temeria

Temeria, Road To Vizima

[IC]May, 1272

Geralt awoke suddenly, jolting from his sleep and sitting up, a flock of birds beside him screeching and flying away at the sudden movement. He panted, letting out a few breaths before sitting up. He rubbed his forehead, a hand clasped over his face as he pushed himself to sit with his free arm. He stood up, Vesemir watching him from beside him as he say on the large rock in front of the cackling fire. He reached down beside him and threw a stick into the fire. "You all right?" Vesemir asked watching him, elbows resting on his knees. Geralt sighed "Mhm. Had a nightmare..." He responded. "About?" Vesemir questioned. Geralt stayed silent and shook his head. "take forever to explain" he said. "Dawn's some way off. We've got time." Geralt heard from behind him.

Geralt gazed into the fire. "Started in the guest room at Kaer Morhen. I was relaxing in the tub, and next to me..." He stopped. "Triss?" Vesemir asked. "Yennefer, Funny, isn't it? She's never been there. Seemed so real in my dream, though." He turned to Vesemir slightly, only slightly amused. "was she nagging you about something?" Vesemir asked slowly. "Hm. Mhm." Geralt grunted. "True to life, indeed. We'll find her" Vesemir said.

"I know we will. That's not what worries me" Geralt said, his eyes fixed onto the fire, oblivious to the dawn rising around him, the sky lit with an orange tint, almost as dangerous as the fire beside him, the trees and their leaves glowing from the golden sun, Roach standing in a patch of grass mere feet away from the campfire. "you've seen her tracks. She's at full gallop all the time, breakneck speed through wild lands, devastated battlefields...she's in a hurry to get somewhere, or fleeing something. Either way, it means trouble of some sort." Geralt and Vesemir exchanged a glance as Geralt spoke, arms resting on his knees, slightly hunched over. "Be surprised if she wasn't in trouble. She's always poked her nose in beehives. Courtly intrigues here, mages' conspiracies there. What do you expect?" He could tell Vesemir was amused, his last sentence coming along with a graceful chuckle. Geralt frowned into the fire, brows furrowed, yellow eyes shining with the flames of the fire and the scar crossing down his forehead, over his eye and to his left cheek, looking an angry red from the flames before it. He let out a sigh, dropping his head. "Don't know...guess I thought, once we were finally reunited, things would be calm. At least for a while." He said much to Vesemirs disbelief. "Calm? With Yennefer? Hmph. Good luck" he rolled his eyes, looking to the side.

"In the dream, I went and found Ciri. Then we trained" he continued on. "Those were the days...Hm, little she-devil." Vesemir chuckled, he missed her too. "I've trained kids who were faster, stronger - but none had her character." He turned to look at Geralt, who didn't utter a sound. "Didn't end well, did it? Your dream?" The concerned Witcher asked Geralt. "No. The Wild Hunt appeared, attacked Ciri...I couldn't move. Stood there like a stump." He blamed himself, hated it, he swallowed a lump in his throat. "It was just a dream." Vesemir reminded him.

"That's the problem - it was more." Geralt said. "In the past, when Ciri'd appear in my dreams, something was wrong. She was in danger." Geralt furrowed his brows, looking off to the side. "We taught her how to defend herself from anything, wraiths included." Vesemir comforted.

Geralt lifted his head, the soft wind blowing his tied up white hair upon his shoulders, his slit like pupils widening at the new found light to them. "Be dawning soon. Time to go." He said briskly standing up from his place on the rock. Vesemir too stood, hands on his knees. It took him much longer. "Wait. Show me the letter from Yennefer. Might've overlooked some hint in there." Vesemir said once he'd fully stood, ignoring the poster stuck to the tree behind him. Geralt had walked over to Roach, stopping at the mounts side when Yennefers name was mentioned, freezing slightly. "Didn't overlook anything. We were meant to meet in Willoughby - that's what she wrote. Meanwhile one army or another burned the village to the ground. All we can do is follow her trail, so..." He was cut off, for the first time. "Stop talking for a minute and give me the letter.well, how about that! It does smell of lilac and gooseberries." Vesemir walked up to Geralt who turned to look at him, he reached into his back pocket and pulled the letter out for the older mutant. "You were gonna read it, not sniff it" Geralt replied, so he read it. "We must meet. Soon"... "Willoughby, near Vizima"...Hm, nothing else to guide us there." He continued to scan the letter under the watchful gaze of Geralt. "What's this postscript? "I still have the unicorn?" He looked up, lowering his hand with the letter and looked up at Geralt.

"Stuffed unicorn. Used it once or twice. In certain... situations." Geralt replied, he didn't really feel the need to keep anything from Vesemir. His eyes darted from side to side, looking down. "Hm! The things young folk get up to these days..." Vesemir responded simply. "Back on topic. How's it look - how far we hind Yennefer are we?"Geralt asked with a shrug of his shoulder, he had to find her. "Two, three days... Trail's fresh. But it looks like it leads towards the main road. Could be muddled there." Vesemir replied as he walked away from Geralt, walking to the opening in where they rest, Geralt joining his side not long after. They stood there for a moment, enjoying their peace, but even that was soon interrupted, a growl like sound came from nearby and Geralt could sense Roach's fear as she tossed her mane.

"Wait - hear that?" Vesemir asked as both men spun on their heels, alerted by the sound. Simultaneously they reached behind them to the swords on their backs and pulled out their silver swords, the sound of scraping metal of their swords being drawn cutting through the air. "I hear it, I smell it. Ghouls." Geralt said as he spun his sword around with his agile and well trained wrist.

Roach neighed behind Geralt and Vesemir, the two tracking the Ghouls movements. Geralt quickly cast Quen, placing a protective shield around himself. He couldn't take any chances, not when desperately trying to find yennefer, god forbid Roach kicked out and hit him. A Ghoul ran quickly at Geralt, the horrible creature on all fours allowing it to pounce and lunge at its prey as though it were a cat, Geralt side stepped the monster. Spinning around and slashed it's side with his silver sword, it caught the back end of the monster, the Ghouls leap allowed it to reach Vesemir in no time, Geralt jumped forward quickly just as the Ghoul spun around, Geralt fast attacking the monster, catching the Ghouls shoulder as it turned towards him. After that the Ghoul was weary of the silver blade, it lurched back, Geralt spinning his sword twice as he spun and jumped, missing the monster by miles as the Ghoul let out horrific shrieks.

He stepped forward on one leg, swinging his silver sword horizontally across the Ghouls face, it getting dangerously close to Vesemirs horse, it fell to the floor dead, and Geralt turned just in time to see Vesemir posed for defence. Feet spread apart, body sideways and his right elbow extended all the way up to his ear as he held his sword out horizontally before him, waiting for the Ghoul to attack. It was loud, nothing the witchers weren't used to, Geralt ran quickly over to Vesemir who was striking quickly with his blade at the Ghoul who almost deflected every swing as it stepped back, Geralt who was a bit younger. And a little more agile than the old man was faster, rolled forward and lunged his silver blade straight for the monster, who was shrieking horribly, which didn't mix well with Roach persistent neighs. He stepped back as Vesemir cast a sign, flames lighting up from the floor as the fire attacked the Ghoul, Geralt wasting no time in stepping in to the dazzled Ghoul to swing his blade over his head. Ready for a heavy attack to take most of the damage to the Ghoul while the monster was dazed, that wasn't enough though, and even Geralt knew that, so with a huff he quickly attacked again, leaving no time between each of them. Two down. And as far as Geralt could see, hear, and smell. Two left to go. One was in front of him, beside the newly fallen Ghoul and one behind him, he may he fast. But monsters like these were fast too. He rolled immediately out of the way, getting himself out of what could have been a disastrous situation, at least Vesemir was with him too. He struck once, and swung his sword in another act, grunting, the two ghouls side by side, and with the arc of his silver blade, was enough to nastily cut both of them across the face one after the other. Geralt swung his blade, jumping out of the way just in time for the long arms and claws to miss him from slashing him, bad enough being slashed by one Ghoul, though two at the same time, he'd rather not have to deal with those injuries. He struck a Ghoul down, rolling behind the second one, to it's back, the fourth that still hadn't turned around and attacked from behind, only half being able to turn around before Geralt impaled and killed it with his blood soaked sword. One more. One he hadn't seen before, he wondered if Vesemir had actually killed any of the Ghouls or if he was just letting him do all the work. "Eeh!" Geralt groaned and swung, he attacked consistently at the monster, harder, with more vicious attacks than the other Ghouls, not that they deserved any less.

The last Ghoul fell, and Geralt stood, panting breifly, he sheathed his silver sword as he heard Vesemir speaking calmly. "Of course. When armies pass, necrophages follow. Let's go before any more show up." Geralt nodded, Vesemir was right, but first, he wasn't leaving this fight without something to show for it. He walked over to the nearest fallen Ghoul, even dead it still smelled atrocious. He bent down, gathering Venom extract from the Ghoul and some Ghouls blood, he gained that again from the other two ghouls before deciding that was enough for now, he quickly ran over to roach. "Ever tell you about this sorcerer I knew? Couldn't stop talking about how useful they are as creatures." Geralt said as he placed his foot in the stirrup and pulled himself up into the saddle. Vesemir mounted his horse and went onto the patch, thankfully Roach had stopped whining and Geralt kicked her with the heels of his feet sending her into a trot. "Because you can brew potions from their blood?" Vesemir asked, Geralt kicked Roach a few more times, urging her to move faster, into a gallop, to get closer to Vesemir, he hated being two or three days from Yennefer enough as it was, he didn't feel like adding more time to that. "Heh, no because by eating rotting corpses they prevent epidemics." Geralt chuckled as he galloped behind vesemirs white hors. There wasn't much to the view, a fork in the path, grassy sides and bushes and trees for as far as Geralt could see, not to mention some sort of old stone ruin he could see in the distance between a clearing in the trees. "Hmph. Did he know they eat the living as well?" Vesemir asked seemingly amused. "No. Really upset him, too...His theory collapsed." Geralt responded. "War's not exactly going our way" Vesemir said as they rode together. "We have a side?" Geralt questioned. The rounded the corner, past the blue water that seemed to almost fill up all of Geralts vision. "The Northern Realms." Vesemir said calmly. "Radovid's Realms, don't you mean? Temeria and Aedirn are no more." He grunted.

Vesemir continued on the conversation. "Radovid's pledged to restore the old borders - soon as he wins the war." He said. "Believe that?" Geralt asked as he continued to follow the path. "Hmph. Gotta believe something. It's what keeps us going." Vesemir let out a split second throaty chuckle. They rode on, Geralt remaining silent, just the sound of the horses hooves against the oath, a good fifteen seconds later they were passing over a bridge, a wooden bridge with a few broken planks along the railing, the brick on either side broken to bits or drained of colour due to the sun.