Toussaint (Part 8)

Kids around became tense and the oldest one even hid inside the shack as fast as he could. It seems he is not on good terms with local authorities.

"Khm. I swear on the heron, I didn't mean to eyes-drop on you! I heard a witcher arrived to take care of the case and find it necessary to offer my help, as I was investigating the curse for a week already." - said the man and set the beaver up. It was in a shape of a beak and now stood like a horn of a unicorn. - "Let me introduce myself properly."

The knight cleared his throat, stood straight like a spear shaft and placed two legs together with a loud clang of the steel platings. His armor shone with iron color and was clearly a worn out battle equipment of Nilfgaard.

"Guy de Bois-Fresnes of Caravista from the mountain region of Mag Turga at your service." - he declared with raised head and clear voice.

"Alan Violergos and this is Ciri."

Ciri just nodded while kids hid behind her.

"Let's talk outside."

Alan led the man to the streets, while Ciri looked at his back and turned around. She wanted to bid farewell to Little Filo.

"Hey, Little Filo, I'm leaving with my friend."

The door was very hard to open. It creaked with denial and tried to refuse entrance, but failed.

"Okay. Come visit me." - the boy nodded with a pouting face.

"Don't pout, you look like a crybaby."

"I'm not a crybaby!"

"Of course! You only look like crybaby... you act like a crybaby... and you cry like a crybaby." - nodded Ciri seriously and stated clearly her thoughts.

"That means I'm a crybaby!" - protested the boy and Ciri laughed, while patting his head.

"You said that, not me." - she said.

"Wait for me, I will grow up and marry you!"

"Errm... well... first go defeat my friend then!" - found Ciri a perfect excuse.

"Then I will become a knight and defeat him and then marry you!" - said Little Filo with a burning eyes. His life plan set in stone.

"No! Don't become a knight!"

"Why? You don't want me to defeat him?" - asked the boy with teary eyes. Ciri smiled wryly again.

"Let's say... there are many morons in the world as it is. Don't add to the number."

"I'm going to be a knight, not a moron." - said Little Filo with an innocent look.

"Yeah... right..." - sighed Ciri awkwardly.

"Then that's the promise!"

"What promise?"

"Hehe... that promise!" - smiled the boy.

"Ciri, why don't you stay with us. We have a home and can earn money on the streets. Beauclair is a very prosperous city. Why are you leaving?" - asked a young man, the one in charge of the gang.

"I have to and I want to." - she stated without hesitation in a very simple and direct manner.

"But why? Stay with us, with me... why are you leaving? Is that young man your friend? Ciri, I don't know if I should tell you, but he is dangerous. He is a killer. I swear, I know what I'm talking about." - the young man stepped closer to Ciri and tried to take her hand, but failed. In a slight, yet precise move the girl avoided him.

"He is. He kills monsters for the living. He is a witcher." - said Ciri and turned around to walk out, yet froze the next moment.

"A witcher? Are you kidding? Ciri, you must stay here for your own sake. He is a mutant, a vagabond. What can a monster do for you? Stay..."

He wasn't able to say more. The young man didn't even understand how he was hit, only his side vision saw a blur and then a kick landed on his ear with tremendous force. His mind went blank, and he heard a low voice of a girl while trying to come to his senses.

"I dare you to say one more word like that about him and see what will happen to you. You know nothing about Alan and the witchers, so keep you dirty mouth shut." - she hissed with rage and loomed over him like a lioness ready to rip the man to shreds. - "Understood?"

"Ciri?"

"I'm almost done with my goodbyes. Be right there!" - she answered in a sweet tone to the young witcher who called her from the outside. Then her face turned from smiling to the dark scowl again as she looked at the young man on the ground. Ciri gave him another kick in the face. - "And that is for trying to order me around. Hmph. I'm a witcher too, by the way."

She walked out with cloudy mood.

"Everything's fine?" - naturally the guy was loud enough for even Guy de Bois-Fresnes to hear in his helmet, let alone Alan.

"Yep." - Ciri nodded. - "Hmph, they know nothing and talk. Is it so great to be a leader of a street gang? Hmph."

"Khm..."

"Uncle Fresnes, you need to see a doctor if you have a sour throat." - said Ciri glancing at him out of the corner of her mesmerising eyes.

"No, I'm not ill." - the knight said reassuringly. - "I merely wanted to ask about our next destination."

"Our?"

"But of course, my lady. I, as a knight, have an obligation to preserve peace and order in the lands of Toussaint, that is my current home. I must bring the light of our honorable duchess to dark places of the world! By the heron!"

"You all are so strange." - said Ciri while looking at him weirdly.

"In what way? We are very normal people who love their country and home. I swear on the heron, we are not weird!"

"Yep, that's weird." - nodded the girl. - "Alan, should we investigate the doctor?"

"I don't know about the doctor, but a month ago my friend, baron Morivaldi, lost his wife and a child. He is grieving even now and doesn't want to see anyone." - said the knight and thus earned silent gazes from the duo to continue. - "I tried to talk to him but, by the heron, he wasn't in the right state."

"Is his mind clouded? Perhaps violence tendencies or some magic markings on the body..." - said Alan.

"No, he was dead drunk." - shrugged Guy de Bois-Fresnes. - "Recently he can't stop drinking and most of the time he is mumbling something incoherent."

"Like what?"

"Ah, by the heron, it must be his broken heart, young man. Don't think too much."

"Let me decide the severity of what you heard. Tell me."

"How can I understand? I told you, it was a mess, a gibberish. Young man, I know that witchers are cold and unfeeling, but don't aggravate his heart more. My friend is suffering as it is."

"Knights with your narrow-sighted kindness..." - grumbled Alan in return. - "Then tell me, what about others? What about an entire graveyard of kids that were born dead? Yes, we are cold and unfeeling freaks of nature, monsters and mutants and what not. But we are also professionals, and we kill monsters for them not to kill more. I don't care about his sufferings. If he is connected to the case, his wailings and drinking might have killed dozens children already. Will he take responsibility?"

"How can you talk like that!" - said the knight angrily. - "He is not the one doing it! He is not responsible!"

"If his information is vital to the investigation, then he is." - Alan waved his hand. - "Also, you are responsible too with all your goodness aimed at baron Morivaldi. Sometimes one needs to act like a dick to do better, Guy de Bois-Fresnes."

The knight stood there rooted on the spot. He was deep in thought and after a moment his eyes shone with a light of passion.

"By the heron, am I a knight or is it you? Go! We go to the Morivaldi estate and I swear on my family crest, that I will not stop like last time. We will see it to the end." - the knight proclaimed aloud and slammed his chest with a metal glove in high spirits.

Alan gave him a sour look.

Anything was fine, but calling him a knight turned out to be over the top.

"At least you are eager to learn." - Alan sighed and felt a hand on his shoulder.

Ciri said nothing, just gazed at him calmly for some time.

Alan understood her eyes well.

"I won't call myself a monster again." - he said in a low voice. The girl nodded.

"You know I dislike it. Terribly dislike it. You... Geralt, Vesemir, Coen, Lambert, Eskell... you all are not monsters." - she said with certainty.

"In the eyes of the most we are. And it is better to be that way for many reasons." - sighed Alan.

"Why? I don't understand. Isn't it better for others to like you?"

"Ciri, the more people like us, the more our word will count in the masses. And that is the prerogative of kings, not wandering monster killers. Even if we wouldn't want any influence, kings and rulers will see a threat in us." - Alan walked slower and let the knight be the lead of the trio. They traversed through the narrow streets in the southern part of Beauclair.

He looked ahead for a bit and continued.

"Perhaps not the most influential kings. They won't take witchers seriously. However, any random local lord will do so for sure. Dislike of people protect us from becoming a political force. If we do one day, that will kill us all with a hidden dagger of political games. Witchers are lone travellers, we live to kill monsters and roam the world to find them. A lone witcher can be killed easily, it is just a question of assembled force. No one is invincible."

Ciri walked by his side with her vision fixed on the ground.

"But that doesn't mean you should bare it all. I just hate it... why can't people see? At least don't make such insults. Is it so hard?"

"Ciri, we all got used to it long ago. And it is the only way. Witchers have purpose, we live with a logical goal. Why should we waste time on something beyond our control and power? Anyway, the dislike of people is a shield and an ax at the same time. We can't change it, anyway. After all, they are right in some sense."

Ciri sighed and looked ahead with a distant gaze.

"I will never think about any of you as monsters. Never." - she said with conviction.

Alan nodded as they came inside the stables.

"My horse is there. I called it the same as my cousin. Bucephalus." - said Guy de Bois-Fresnes with a proud look on his face.

"You are a fan of Alexander, I see." - said Alan.

"What?"

"Don't mind me. Just saying. Good name, by the way. I'm talking about your horse."

"Oh. The name and the horse both. He is a true Nilfgaardian. Strong, masculine and resilient like any knight." - Guy de Bois-Fresnes nodded without understanding why and walked to mount his horse. Local horseman took great care of every horse in the stable. He gazed at the young witcher and leaned over the saddle forward. - "My lady, is he your good friend? It is quite rare to see a girl travelling with the witcher."

"Friend?" - she asked and lifted her clear forest green eyes at the knight. - "No, he is not."

"Oh, as I thought..."

"He is more. Someone much... much more." - Ciri cut his phrase short with a smile on her face, while gazing at Alan, who led his Sparky out of the stables.