Geralt's lungs burned and body ached all over, but he pushed himself and kept moving up the hill to kill avalac'h, his mind was swimming with all his fears and desperation. Ciri was his world and yennifer was as well, so it stands to reason that he should stop his daughter from going in.
The problem was clear as day, she wasn't there and avallac'h was. Standing in the center of the tower with his arm up outstretched to the skies, white orb connected to a string like tether.
Geralt crept behind, keeping his steps silent, but avallac'h called out to him. "Geralt, so unfortunate. I hoped you didn't witness this" he seemed almost mournful, if not downright dejected.
"Where's ciri"
"nearby, but there's no time to"
"shut up, draw your sword and let's get this over with"
Geralt was quick to glare and bore his teeth at the sight of the man who stood in front of him.
"No need for this to-"
Geralt charged him and brought his fist up and threw a punch hoping to punch through his stomach, but ciri stepped up from behind a wall and used her magic to hold the Witcher and mage apart hoping to stop the fight. Tears and sweat alike froze to her face.
"You can't keep fighting in my name, geralt, and this isn't something you can stop"
She let them go and stepped forward, her hand through her hair and looked up into his cat gold eyes and searched for anything that would or could be said to convince him to let her leave.
"ciri you can't do this, please-" geralt stepped up to her to grab her hand but was pushed away.
"Geralt- no, you may not be my father by blood, but you've treated me to what one should have been like, which is why I need to do this; my life for the world's across worlds" ciri said tears streaming down her face walking towards the gate. "Tell yen I love her"
He couldn't believe this. A woman that he'd treated like she'd been his pseudo daughter, she was willing to throw her life away for everyone where he couldn't…no, he wouldn't allow it….hell he downright refused to, so he reacted.
Geralt charged forward running after her as fast as possible, unfortunately avallac'h had been far too slow to react and watched as geralt knocked him over, went in with her to his death In that instant his body passed the portal's threshold the icy breath of the dimension spewed forth and like a torrent of angry wasps and spread through the world quickly freezing it all over killing everyone in moments. Voices of people screaming and panicking vanished like a fading echo as fast as the cold washed over the world.
Thunder boomed and lightning flashed all around him, waking him to the sight of a river coming into sight along with ciri trying to save him but failed.
The last thing geralt remembered was his silver sword Aerondight falling through the tree line and disappeared with a flash of lightning of all colors, followed by a child screaming.
"….ralt, ge"
"….eralt!"
"DAD, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GODS, PLEASE GET UP"
Ciri screamed to rouse him from his sleep, shaking hard and failing to hold back a creature of black flesh and red eyes.
"CIRI!" geralt leapt up grabbing the monster with his armored hands in its mouth and twisted separate directions breaking its jaw, ciri saw the opening -as dumb it was nonetheless- and stabbed it through the mouth piercing its skull.
Black smoke came from its body as soon as it died with a hissing sound, almost as if the hissing was a giant oil vat, but geralt was quick to act when it happened.
"Ciri cover your mouth and nose" he exclaimed putting a cloth over her face.
A moment later ciri moved away from the skeleton of her attacker and removed the cloth from her face and turned to hit him, but instincts kicked in and hugged him "your finally awake"
He hugged her back letting out a breath of relief "I'm sorry, I couldn't lose you again"
She flinched and pushed him back making him trip on the skeleton, tears threatening to fall, "me, you couldn't lose…me?!" she glared at him and growled angrily and straddled him punching his arms as he reached up and shielded himself from her.
"You were…unconscious for almost week, you old fool!"
"Ciri wait"
"no you idiot of a Witcher, you almost died in the continent, followed me through a portal, cause a lightning storm destroying a village-"
Geralt caught her wrists and rolled her off him to her back "ciri I'm sorry but all I thought of when I followed was how desperate I was to never lose you again" she burst into tears after failing to break free of his iron grip, "you weren't supposed to be in there with me geralt of rivia, you were supposed to-" she surrendered to his strength and stayed there crying for how many people possibly died or worse, how angry she was that he was here, happy she wasn't alone in this dimension hop and when she finished she looked up noticing she was moving and was in geralt's arms being carried into a cave "I made a promise to yen I'd protect you as best I could, you suffered alone for years" he paused to set her down and used ignis to start a fire in the middle of the room using anything dry he could find and continued "I'm not going to defend how I reacted…any father in my shoes would've thought the same I did and give chase"
"Ge- father, I must admit I was happy to see you but when I had to spend a week making sure you weren't eaten by the monsters here…it was hell to have to deal with" she looked up at him watching for a reaction to play off in case he didn't react well, but instead he pulled out a chunk of meat and a bottle of alcohol, "sometimes I forget just how much you've changed and grew as a Witcher and as a woman"
She cracked a smile and scoffed, "like how?"
Walking her meal to her, he sat next to her and replied, "when yen showed me a picture of you as others depicted you, I saw taken back with how much you grew, and she sounded genuine when admitting you were more beautiful than her"
She giggled at that and took a drink after eating the meat, her smile vanished at the sound of roaring in the distance. Geralt put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, "I'll take care of it if it gets too close; monsters this far off from our position are too far a ways from us to be a threat right now"
She sighed as she sat back and used her eyes. "I'll keep watch while you sleep" he said, watching her doze off the second he finished his sentence. He smiled as he removed his trench coat, letting it be her blanket, seeing her smile and childishly snuggle in its cover and warmth brought a smile to his face.
Days after he awoke, geralt found out he'd lost his silver sword in the fall to the river and said silver sword was presumably vaporized and acting as a lightning rod destroyed a village and everything as well as everyone in it.
Geralt learned the creatures were called Grimm, and apparently they all looked different in body, but all had the same color scheme as well as their intent and hunting patterns.
The newborn or fledgling Grimm had no bone armor and just acted on pure instincts and hunger.
The longer they lived, the smarter and tougher they were to kill.
They discovered devices called technology and neither felt inclined to touch that with a crones claw anytime soon, so instead they just ignored its uses altogether.
Months after their arrival, both witchers realized they needed money to buy certain amenities so ciri had the idea to exchange their crowns for cards called lien, lien was how people in the world called remnant -sick joke behind the world's name to be honest- and it was easy to get paid thousands for doing what they did best but without his potions, so he had to improvise with the bone marrow of Grimm, toxic plants he'd found and whatever kind of alcohol he'd found best used for the types he'd need but none of them worked.
"Another failed attempt, white wolf?" ciri teased, dropping an elk at the porch of a small house they'd rented for lodging in a village located in the middle of a country -kingdom technically- named vale after leaving the other place named mistral.
"These monsters leave nothing but bones behind after they die so all I have to go off of is the bone marrow" he said frustrated because he couldn't use the concoctions he brewed up,
"well, at least we still have our magic" she countered handling him a knife from her side "c'mon old man, I need help dressing this elk"
He chuckled at her jab and followed her out of the house to find guardsmen trying to drag the 200 pound elk off only for ciri's steel to be felt under the bigger one's chin, "what do you think you idiots are doing?"
"ciri relax, I'll take it from here" geralt said grabbing the elk by its back legs and pulled it effortlessly toward the house porch and cut off both back legs "take these, and I'll let you live; refuse, and I'll let her deal with you"
"we don't care for just the legs, we've families to feed-"
"and you think taking our food is justified!" ciri said, it was more a statement than a question and the men immediately tensed as they reached for their weapons but geralt was swifter as he tossed the legs to the men and said "take the food I'm giving you, and you can keep your lives"
That threat did the trick and the men ran off cursing them both.
Ciri turned to geralt watching him already getting started in field dressing the rest of the elk and instead of saying anything to him, she simply got to work in skinning the neck while geralt finished the rear and worked his way up the back and met her in the middle stripping the rest of the skin off the bones and tossed it to a tub for making a pelt to stay warm until they found better fur and sell it.
When they were done making the elk turn into multiple cuts and all the fat they could find stored in bags made of stretchy material called plastic and put it all in an odd box called the deep freezer "what kind of sorcery did the denizens of this world of 'remnant' pull off to create this box?" geralt says aloud as he closed the freezer.
"it's something called technology geralt, the people here in the remnant world use it all the time; cars, phone, microwave, and….okay it's weird, but I know we're getting a hang of the adjustment period.
Months passed them by as the situation grew more poignant that ciri couldn't go back to where they came from and instead of a portal opening a gate to a cliff opened overseeing a city Square called valeian city central, and it looked as normal as the streets of Novigrad and just as lively.
"at least we can make a home here….just hate the reality that everyone we knew is gone" she turned to geralt and cried in front of him "I miss them all so terribly geralt, I can never go back; why would you throw them away for me?"
She fell to her knees hugging herself tightly when geralt didn't give an answer, and he normally would have, but he was right there with her crying…wait, he was actually crying; shedding tears, for the first time in her life too.
Geralt walked over to the cliff's edge and let his tears fall to the ground below hoping that the tears would cease, but more tears spilt the wearer's legs were getting till he dropped to his knees and wailed in despair punching the grass creating a sizeable hole in the earth.
With one last punch, geralt gave the mud and grass an explosion so loud it sounded like thousands of bombs went off all at once sending a Shockwave outward and shook the ground.
Ciri pulled geralt to his feet when she saw the city cloaked in smoke and heard a cacophony of screaming, glass shattering, stone splintering apart and monsters howling out to attract more to the feast. Without a word, geralt caught ciri by the arm and rushed her off to the house while she fought and screamed her best to go help.
"Geralt unhand me, we have to help them!"
"No" is all he gave as he pulled her to the house and locked the door. He turned to her and said, "Ciri I'm sorry but for once, I'm not letting you fight in a massive battle we won't survive; ves- no, all of our friends and family are gone, but we are still alive and as long as you live I'll keep going on living." He paused to drop his sword and kicked an empty bucket, "and I'll be damned if you died for people we knowingly can't save! I lost you; you, a woman I love like a daughter, will not die before me…. I can't lose my only tether to the living world."
Ciri stood there stunned at his admittance of her being his daughter, and it made her happy to hear but also pissed her off that he was right about charging in blind.
"Fine, we'll stay put and safe while things out there burn and fall" she replied glaring at him going to the bathroom and slammed the door.
Geralt fell on the couch with a heavy sigh contemplating what and why he was acting this way for; his world was probably gone, but that shouldn't have stopped her and him from helping like this, "what's wrong with me" he breathed out an hour after he slipped into his thoughts.
"Probably the part where you admitted your emotions for my death harming you so deeply" ciri said, putting a bowl of bear stew and a bottle of whiskey in front of him to enjoy. He looked up into her green eyes and gave a weak smile, "can't blame a man who lost all but one of his loved ones"
She smiled and kissed his forehead with an apologetic smile as she sat beside him with the same, but she had vodka. Geralt thought back to the many memories of how he leapt through the portal and a bolt of lightning clashed with him and lost his sword and then lost their way home; ciri's portals were malfunctioning and since the hunt were assumed eradicated they didn't need to worry about getting attacked. If that was factual, then why didn't they work?
"We haven't sat together like this since you found me in that pseudo cabin on that island" ciri commented looking idly at the door and sighed "feels like just yesterday you were holding me in your arms hoping I'd not be dead"
Thinking it over for five good minutes geralt grabbed the bottle in front of him and took a huge gulp of whiskey before responding somewhat drunkenly "heh, yeah that was the day me and yen split up to prepare for the battle of our lives….well, I guess getting drunk and wearing those clothes covered in mats of dust was a bad idea"
He stood up and locked the front door just in case a break in happened and sat down to ciri talking but he'd not listened since he was just happy knowing she was distracted for tonight. 'She'll still be pissed with me after tonight at the aftermath.'
The two of them shared a chuckle at the memory and spent the rest of the day laughing out loud and drinking until they passed out in the living room and bathroom, with geralt waking up in the tub of said bathroom, so he stripped out of his clothes and took a shower.
When he got out he found ciri at the front door holding her side panting raspingly and bruised as we as mild bleeding in other places.
"geralt, we need to go as soon as the crows fly" she said pushing past him into the bathroom.
"Three hours and we'll be gone" he replied as he got to work packing the essentials and set out her new armor as well as his own armor, but he put his on after the packing was done.
Two hours into packing ciri came out and dried off her body as best she could before putting the towel on the couch but sat down noticing geralt was nearly done and nodded at her seeing as she needed the rest, "not going to ask what happened?" she prodded playfulness showing without a care for her tone.
"I trust you went to blow off steam for how I've treated you and as much as I'd like to be angry with you, I also forgot you're an adult and like it or not I have to admit I overreacted at how much I love you and that fogged my judgment…." He looked up from his work on the bags of meat and wiped a tear off his cheek, "I'm sorry ciri, but I'd rather not bury more family members"
Ciri smiled sadly and stood up, walked over to him and hugged him with all her strength, taking in his warmth and smell of citrus and flowers.
"Let's get out of here, they've probably traced me back to-"
"CIRI WATCH OUT" geralt roared pulling her behind him and took an ice bolt to the chest knocking the wind out of him thanks to the chest plate under his cloak.
Ciri stood there in horror, but it quickly vanished watching him get up and glared balefully at the men in his way from allowing them to leave.
"So dis is where da bitch lives…with her owner no doubt." the man looked around at his men and arrogantly smiled at the woman in front of him.
"Hey bitch you know you owe me some flesh after killing dat bear and taking it from us was very rude of you" a strange man with wolf ears.
Geralt stood up and grabbed his steel sword and said, "I'm glad you're all dumber than an asghoul, and this bitch you insulted?" he pointed sarcastically to ciri with his thumb "is my daughter"
"HAHAHAHA, probably got her ugly fro- ACK" the man tried to comprehend what happened in that second but all he saw was a black sword sweep left, and his world flipped upside down and stared worried at his men who all ran in fright of geralt's actions.
"Let's go ciri" he said walking toward a car at the side of their empty shed and went for the horses since neither could drive yet and both rode out the day in relief from the attack he no doubt couldn't help but notice he could have talked out but ciri didn't deserve that kind of disrespect.
"Thank you geralt- I mean dad" she corrected herself behind him with a note of amusement at how stiff he went.
"Your welcome daughter" he teased with a smile looking to see her smiling warmly at him, to which he frowned and said "you alright calling me-"
"Yes geralt, you're more of a father than emyhr was, and you only wanted me to be happy " she interrupted before noticing a stable up ahead.
They dismounted and sold the horses upon entry before they walked over to a cable car and rode it into the city of vale.
"Ride'll take a good part of two hours so get comfortable while ya wait" an old woman said, disappearing from view at the bottom of the control box.
Both nodded to one another and went to sleep beside each other.
"I forgive you" she whispered as she went to sleep for once, hoping he didn't punish his actions that had them in this strange world.
"Silly little Witcher" she heard him say, pulling his bear pelt over her cold form.
Comment anything you think could be worked on at:
H6pp1n355_in_misery.
Criticism is appreciated
