.IV. The Great Sun.

The deserts of Korath are a mischievous place to be...Just from afar you'll see the living, moving dunes of sand, that between all the heat haze create small islands like, floating in mid air. Floating, or if you allow it to slip into your mind, surrounded by water, but, it would do you more harm then good, for that is and illusion, a nasty one and of the deadly kind. If that doesn't kill you, the beasts beneath the sand will, its only a matter of time, either the monsters get you, or the thirst, neither one of them is pleasant. Further away through the haze you could spot rocky shapes, pointing south, those were the Sandstone Hills, or as other's call it Devil's Pit, filled with quicksands, deep underground galleries and abrupt valleys. Those who ventured that far into the desert, found nothing but death, sand, rock and sandstone, then, even more sand...

- Vigil of Valkar, 'Naturalis Alucinatio et Miraculorum Naturalium Scriptor', chapter III.

The witcher, followed the two sets of tracks of the mercenary and his companion. Gerd presumed, due he found a set of foot prints, that were too small for a male and too big for a child, also by the distance between each step. Found near a tree. Where it seemed the two stopped for a while, that the other rider, was a woman.

Gerd was close, they were now half an hour ahead of the witcher, it was midday, and as it seemed the two had no idea that they were followed. Confident that the witcher lost their track or that he was slew in Jorg, by Jakko's men.

The road they were now on was a narrow pass through the mountain, as Gerd predicted they were in no hurry. Slowly walking, toward the exit from the pass, which was close and in sight. At that moment the witcher kept following, he also thought to attack but he would hurt Galodo's female companion, using the sign Aard was a bad idea. It could result in a landslide, so he found following them, the most appealing idea in the current scenario. So he kept following, even after they got out of the pass.

It is afoot,

It really is...

A great deal of trouble is afoot...

...between, elves, dwarfs, humans, halflings and mutants.

We are all the same inside

We only differ on the outside,

Some hate,

Some love,

Some don't even bother,

To call a being like...

...an elf,

a dwarf,

a witcher,

a doppler !

Their brother...

Why the hate ?

Why the trouble ?

Aren't we all made from the same type of rubble ?!

The pain that we cause...

Only,

Because, of our looks !?

This is time to wake up folks !

'Cause...

a great deal of trouble,

Is afoot.

- Konstantin Wolwyen, 'Sumus !', Volume .I. Thirteen Century Poetry.

The last time Gerd was this south was at least five or six months ago, when he got together with an old friend in Nazair:

It was early in the morning, the sun wasn't even on the sky, but his beloved, the moon, was still shining through the blue draperies.

'Anyway...', she said with a calm voice. 'Will you winter here, with me ?'.

'Hmm, tempting...', he said, while she placed her right palm on his left cheek. Massaging it with her thumb, and her right leg around his hip, then slowly touching his chest with her lips.

'But...I cannot.', he continued.

'And why is that ?', she asked, while resting her head on his chest, and slowly turning it, pivoting her chin against his pectoralis major, staring her bed companion in the eyes.

'I won't stay this year.', he said, 'I can't.', he continued, while slowly retracting his hand from her waist, and got up, standing on the bed side. She went after him, placing both her arms around his neck, slowly kissing him on the left cheek, then, he put his right hand above hers. 'I know you'd prefer I stay. But, there is a lot of witcher work north, in the eastern lands of Redania and Kaedwen.'.

'And travel through the snow blizzards ?', she whispered, while biting his ear lobe.

He chuckled, probably because of what she just did. 'It's even colder on Ard Skellig.'.

'That is why you don't go there anymore ?', she said with an amused tone.

'Maybe.', he answered, slightly turning his head her way. 'And because of you-'. She grabbed him by the back of the head, kissing him, dragging him back in bed. He was now laying on top of her. As she placed her arms around his neck, while they kept on kissing. He grabbed her left leg while she spread the right one, as she moaned with pleasure. For she was very pleased, sexually, and in many other ways with Gerd. They were making love, as they did all night, and as they did the nights before...

She was as Gerd, a witcher. Though not from the School of the Bear, as she was among the few remaining witchers from the School of the Viper, named Ayanna of Liddertal. However, besides the two swords she wore on her back, and the silver medallion, Ayanna was far from being a true witcher. For as she told Gerd, she used to be a sickly girl when a witcher from the School of the Viper found her in the ruins of a keep. Which she used as shelter after being exiled from the village, for being suspected by the elders to be infected with a disease that plagued the village. The way she says it, only a certain kind of mutagens had been administered to her during the Trail of the Grasses. This unorthodox way of doing so cured her illness and made her immune to diseases, and allowed her body to accept certain witcher potions, such as Swallow, Thunderbolt, Tawny Owl and several others. While enhancing her senses and the ability to learn certain signs. Given why she's mostly known as an assassin. Usually working with Letho of Gulet, through which she met Gerd.

She had a long dark hair, which reached the middle of her back, usually she would gather it in a pony tail. She would always smile, only to Gerd, while biting her attractive, curved, full-bodied, rosy lips, as she would undress and show that wonderful, shaped body, with thick, muscular, thighs and calves, a supple waist and two beautiful breasts, each with a pale, wine-red areolae and a ripe cherry like nipple. Her body, just beautiful, like shaped by an elven master sculptor, who added a few scars, as her job description.

As even fewer witchers from the School of the Viper were present in Nilfgaard. Those that were not, like Ayanna, who stayed the winter at a house she owned in Nazair, where she and Gerd would often get together, in the northern cold winters and the southern hot summers.

When Gerd woke up, Ayanna was already awake for some time. She stood in front of the balcony's window, with only a transparent whiteish night dress on. Gerd got out of the bed slowly and walked towards her. The wind was moving the blue curtains, as Gerd got behind her. He placed his hands on her hips, kissing her left naked shoulder. Ayanna smiled and slowly moved her head next to Gerd's, as he was resting it on her shoulder, kissing it once more.

'Are you going to leave soon ?', she said with a calmly low voice, almost, a whisper.

'I'm not going to leave now, or tomorrow. But soon. I'd like to stay one more week here, with you. If that's alright.', responded Gerd.

'I'd love that', said Ayanna. While turning around and placing her palms around Gerd's face, he then placed his right hand on hers, gazing in his eyes and he into hers, he kissed her and she kissed him. She then placed her head on his chest and her arms around his back, while Gerd moved his left hand on the back of her head and the right between her scapulas. And as he was taller than Ayanna he slowly moved his face on the top of her head, kissing it. They stayed like that for a while, with their eyes closed, embracing each other, while Nazair's breeze was slightly moving the blue curtains.

Then Gerd blinked, snapping out of it, her memory, her face and her whole being, were alike a haunting dream. But, Gerd made his choice, to leave her at the manor in Nazair, and come north. As he got closer south he kept remembering her, as the southern climate became a memory trigger. Then, he clinched his eyes together, and open them again. For her memory, wasn't what he needed at the moment. What he needed was to get Galodo's head part with the rest of his body. He needed to finish the contract.

- It wasn't what he truly wanted.-

- 'Want' and 'Need' are two different things.-

As they got out of the pass, in the afternoon, the lands beyond the Blue Mountains began to open and show their extravagance. As the mountain gradually declined to green forest hills and next into small valleys, then arid plains of dirt and further, sand, only to become later dunes of sand.

It was close to dusk, and the witcher even closer to end his contract, or so he thought. As his target entered, what from outside seemed to be a cave, but in truth it was a hut, where Galodo and his men usually stopped on their way to Zerrikania. Though, it was still a cave, considered Gerd. The witcher saw no better chance to kill then now, so he got off his horse and went on foot ahead, looking if there was anyone watching the entrance.

He approached the hideout. And as he got near the door casted the sign of Aard, blowing the door inside the cave. While the dust began to settle Gerd noticed Galodo, who was near a wall, just several steps away from the door. Gerd launched himself at him, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him against the wall, then throwing him in the opposite direction.

Galodo followed with a cough, then quickly got up and stood his guard.

'Bring it.', said the mercenary while brushing his chin with his right fist.

Gerd smiled and did as Galodo requested. The mercenary threw the first punch towards Gerd's face, a punch that Gerd avoided by simply moving his head a bit, grabbed Galodo's arm near the elbow with his right hand, pulling it down. While, his left hand and fingers clenched to the back of his head and hit Galodo with his forehead right in the bridge of the nose, after which, he gave him a strong right hook in his rectus abdominus.

The mercenary started coughing, holding a hand around his middle section, as the witcher, grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him up. Galodo's feet barely could reach the floor, with both of his hands now, around Gerd's right hand. The witcher put him through a wooden table, on his left side, so hard that the table broke on an instant, and as Gerd slammed him on the floor, the mercenary groaned with pain. With Gerd's right hand still squeezing his neck, the mercenary managed to grab a table's foot, and tried to hit Gerd. But, the witcher saw it, and the table foot shattered on his steel gauntlet. After that failed attempt, Galodo tried to punch the witcher with his left fist, but Gerd moved back, leaving the hold he had on the mercenary's neck. Who got away from the witcher, being able to reach a sword, near one of the two beds, on the other side of the cave.

Gerd gave a slight smirk, while from behind, the woman that accompanied Galodo ran towards the witcher holding a knife. Gerd turned and grabbed the woman's hand.

That woman was the mercenary's wife, Lona, that as Gerd squeezed her hand she dropped the knife. Then, Galodo attacked. He tried a lunge, then, a vertical slash which the witcher avoided, followed by a horizontal one, that as the previous had no success. Gerd took some steps back, as Galodo pushed Lona behind him, with the sword in the left hand and the right on Lona's hip, pushing her behind him, looking at Gerd while moving towards the wall next to the door that the witcher got in.

As now Galodo and his wife, were literally with their back against the wall, Gerd made a couple of steps towards the door, if one of them thought to try their way to it. Lona tried, but was stopped by her husband right hand, while Gerd stirred his head slowly in disagreement, looking at her, as he moved even closer towards the door. While Galodo and Lona moved slowly to the wall on their left, with their back against an old cabinet, which had a candle holder and a few wooden tankards on it. Setting the candle holder to fall along with a mug. As Gerd was now in front of the door, Galodo swallowed his fear, and put his both hands on the sword, while Gerd reached for his then went back, signaling with his left hand the mercenary to come, putting a slight smile to the left side of his mouth.

Galodo, in his mind, should've been unsure of what the witcher may do, even unarmed he could kill a man. But he didn't, and just reached to him with a sword slash around his hips, that Gerd evaded, as he moved forward, towards Galodo, the mercenary kept swinging his sword one more time before Gerd caught his arm. He positioned his upper arm around Galodo's forearm, and the back of his hand around Galodo's elbow, putting pressure on it. While with his left forearm, around which sat his steel gauntlet, hit the mercenary in the temple of the head, blurring his eye sight for a while. As he dropped his sword he struck him again, with a left elbow to the ribs. Then grabbed his head, tossing it against the cabinet in front of him, then used his Aard sign that threw him against the wall next to the door.

Lona fled from her husband's back, when Gerd grabbed his arm. Then, when her husband was blown into the wall, she grabbed the sword and ran towards the witcher who was getting closer to her husband, ready to finish his contract. But, Gerd heard her stumpy steps, accompanied by her scream while she charged towards him with both of her hands on the sword, that she held above her head. Gerd stopped the blade by rising his right gauntlet in front of her strike, while slightly moving it to the right, looking at Lona, who was still screaming as she kept pushing the blade into Gerd's gauntlet. Gerd pushed down the blade grabbing it with his other hand, snatching it from Lona's grasp. She clinched her eyes closed as Gerd pushed her back, using his Aard sign. She lost her balance and fell near a bed on the opposite direction from the wall Galodo was still leaning onto.

The witcher walked toward Galodo, as he was barely able to stand straight, leaning by his shoulder against the wall, holding one hand on his head, shaking it from time to time, as his vision hasn't cleared yet.

'I'm glad I let you come like that at me.', said Gerd smiling, 'You see, I heard you were good with swords...Just exaggerated rumors it seems.', continued Gerd, as he reached for his sword.

'Time to end this.', said the witcher while stepping closer to Galodo, who was still disoriented, clinching his eyes and shaking his head.