The trickling stream nearby did little to calm Lucina's nerves, her thoughts riding upon the rippling waters like fish. They had already walked for hours since they'd stumbled upon the village, but she could still hear the flames crackling, still feel the smoke clinging to her skin.

In all likelihood, she would forget by tomorrow; it was just another village among dozens, another few hundred lives among thousands. But the feeling of dread, of the tip of a sword hanging over her head, would remain.

She had forgotten how it had felt, to know danger could be hiding behind the trees or within the soft breeze that rustled the leaves. Her muscles tensed at every movement she heard, like it could be a threat jumping out of the woods to kill her.

Frankly, she did not miss it.

"So... tough luck, huh?"

Lucina's arm tensed, reaching for her sword before she pried her fingers away and sighed. Geralt made so little noise as he walked, it was easy to forget he was there, even as he walked in front of her. One of the benefits of being a thief, she supposed.

As soon as they had left the village, she had elected to keep him with her and take him to the next town over instead. Better that than cutting him loose and hoping he did not return with the other bandits.

Though, now that they had been walking for some time, she was beginning to regret the choice because, as he had made abundantly clear by now, he liked to talk.

"The next village is only... what, five days away?" he said, watching as a sparrow passed overhead.

Lucina frowned, and she kept her eyes on the road. "We'll make it in three."

"Three, huh? What, are you just going to keep walking for two days straight?" When she didn't reply, Geralt stopped to give her a look. "You're not just going to keep walking for two days straight, are you?"

"I've done it before. You haven't?"

"No! I may be a late sleeper, but even I've got to sleep sometime."

"Then you will learn how to. Now walk." Lucina nodded forward, and the bandit sighed and continued down the road.

As he did, he missed the way Lucina slumped as exhaustion took hold of her. Just because she had gone nights without sleep did not mean she had to look forward to it. Were it not for the danger, she would have liked to take the full three days to walk, eat, and rest and keep her energy at its peak.

But that all depended on her having someone else to watch while she slept. Just because Geralt was related to Gaius did not give him her trust; Gregor had taught her that. She would not have gotten much sleep anyway, so she might as well have abandoned trying to get any at all and make it to the next village faster.

In front of her, Geralt tripped on a root. His arms strained against his restrains as he tried to catch himself. Lucina did it for him and grabbed him by the collar, before she pulled up straight.

Geralt groaned. "Don't tell me this is the sort of training they put you through in Pegasus Knight training."

"I'm not a Pegasus Knight."

"You could have fooled me. Someone taught you how to fight." Geralt hummed, and he kicked aside a twig. "You're one of the Royal Guards, then?"

"No."

"Then how'd you learn how to fight? Don't tell me you ran away from home and joined a mercenary group."

"I–" Lucina paused. She couldn't say either Pegasus Knight or Royal Guard, because if anyone bothered to check, they would know she was lying. A mercenary group, though, was harder to check. Anna could likely contest that, but she wasn't here, and by the time word reached her, Lucina would have likely found mercenary work in other places to back up her words.

"Yes," she said. "I was a mercenary for some time. I learned how to fight there."

"Wow. Your father must not be happy. If you ran away from home, I'm guessing he didn't want you to fight, right? Who cares what he thinks, anyway."

When Lucina stopped, he caught on almost immediately, stopping a few feet in front of her. He glanced back, and when he met her narrowed gaze, he was also able to catch that he had said something wrong and wilted.

"Please don't kill me," he said.

She would have expected a wittier response. It was probably what Gaius would have done, but as Lucina caught a glance of herself in the river, covered in ash and with murder in her eyes... not even Inigo would have tried to crack a joke at her, not when she looked like she would stab him for opening his mouth.

"I'm not going to kill you," she said slowly, and she raised her hands.

"You're not? Oh, that's great." The bandit chuckled, and she did not miss how his eyes flicked about. "You don't have to kill me. You don't even have to think about killing me. I'll be useful to you."

Lucina punched the bridge of her nose. "No, you don't have to. I'm not going to kill you either way."

"You're not?" Geralt blinked, then blinked again, before he asked, "Why not?"

"Because I'm taking you to Ferox. You'll be served justice there." And, she did not add, you Gaius's older brother. "Just please, stop trying to please me. You don't have to worry about me killing you."

If anything, Lucina thought as Geralt huffed and continued down the road, she was going to have to worry about being killed by him.

The orange light of the evening sun cast the trees in a rusty shade of red. Lucina was sure Inigo or Cynthia would have something dramatic to say about it. As it was, Lucina wished she'd decided to stop to pick for berries sooner, because the red light made it difficult to tell which ones were which.

For a moment, Lucina paused to check her surroundings and make sure she wasn't about to be ambushed. A breeze passed through the trees, shaking the branches and rustling the leaves, but Lucina kept her eyes on the forest even after the wind died down to make sure it was only that. Nearby, the stream they had been walking by had widened into a river. If she'd wanted to, she was sure she could have fished from there too, but she had no means to light a fire, and she wasn't sure she could avoid cutting herself if she made the attempt, so she returned to picking berries.

"You do know which ones are poisonous, right?" Geralt said from his place tied to a nearby tree.

Lucina looked back at him flatly. Geralt raised an eyebrow. "Hey, you're not the one who has to hope you're not going to be fed mistletoe berries."

"I know what I'm doing," she replied, and plucked another handful from a bush. "Do you think I've survived on my own for this long by chance?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you were."

Lucina stopped to give him a look. Geralt smiled back, but it was strained. She could see the bags under his eyes. She narrowed hers.

"How so?" she asked.

Geralt nodded to the side. "Going two days without sleep isn't exactly the smartest idea."

"It's only for two days. By the time it will have taken its toll on me, we'll be safely within village walls."

"Maybe for you, but what about me?"

Lucina paused. "I'm not going to let you slip from my watch."

"Come on. This is inhumane."

"But it won't kill you. When we get to Ferox, you may sleep as much as you wish. Until then, we march."

"If we're attacked like this, you'll be too tired to defend yourself."

"At least I'll have the chance to escape. I'd rather die on my feet than fast asleep."

"I could keep watch for you." When Lucina gave him a look, the bandit shrugged. "You already know I'm not working with them. They don't seem particularly merciful, so my life is tied to yours."

With a sigh, Lucina sat down beside him. "Believe me, I would love nothing more than to trust you on that. But taking such risks have gotten better men killed."

It was how Gaius had gotten killed, anyway.

But Geralt just frowned. "Are you always this tense?"

"Please be quiet and eat," Lucina replied, and she shoved a handful of berries into his mouth. "We have another day of walking ahead of us."

Lucina let out a long breath through her nose, watching as it misted in front of her and vanished into the air as the frozen dewdrops covered everything around her in gleaming white. Despite the cold, the river beside her still went rushing by, though she could no longer see it over the cliffside that had risen out of the ground the closer they had gotten to Ferox.

Though there were clouds above them, they had not seen any snow yet, and Lucina thanked the Goddess for that. Snow would have been much harder to walk through, and would have slowed their progress significantly. Still, she couldn't help but worry that the sound of the frozen grass crunching beneath her boots would still give them away.

"It sure is cold here," Geralt mumbled from in front of her.

Lucina hummed. "Not as cold as it is in Ferox proper."

"Well, I didn't wake up yesterday thinking I'd have to make the walk all the way to Ferox. I'm not dressed for this kind of weather." Geralt let out a long breath, and the mist curled around his face. "And neither are you, aren't you?"

"Please stop complaining. This isn't going to last forever."

"It sure feels like it."

It really didn't. Ten years of living under the Fell Dragon was not forever. Two days in the cold was not forever. They would make it out of here, and then Lucina could finally get back to fixing the future.

Chuckling, Geralt said, "At this point, we might as well huddle close for body warmth, eh?"

That got Lucina to pause and process. Her brows fell, and she shot Geralt a look. "Unless you're on the verge of death, I'm not going anywhere near you."

"You really don't want to kill me that much, don't you?"

"I have my reasons."

"They must be pretty good reasons."

Lucina wasn't quite sure they were. Still, she didn't fancy risking going against them, so she said, "Just keep walking."

Geralt chuckled again. "About that... I hope you plan on making good on your promise, because I think I'm blacking out."

And with that, he collapsed into the grass. At first, Lucina was sure that it was a trick. She waited a moment for him to get up, and when he didn't, she prodded him with her sword. Still nothing.

Lucina let out a long, irritated sigh. Her father had raised her to be a girl of her word, however. so with great reluctance, she grabbed him, hoisted him over her shoulder, and continued her march through the forest.

She had only walked for five minutes more when she saw something peek out through the trees. Lucina walked a little faster, careful to keep her grip around Geralt as she did. A snowflake landed on the tip of her nose. With her arms full, however, she could not afford to reach up and brush it away, so she ignored it. She didn't need to worry, not when she was so close. The forest around her began to thin, the trees growing spare as she pressed on until, at last, she could make out the shape of a town just beyond the last few trees.

A small stone wall surrounded a cluster of buildings shimmering under a layer of frost. Though she was far, she could make out the signs of life inside, the small shapes of people moving through the streets. Above the walls, she could make out the flags of Ferox flying in the cold winter breeze. She had reached Ferox at last.

And the only thing that stood in her way were three bandits, grinning from ear to ear as they approached her with their swords drawn.

"Now what's we got here, boys?" the first bandit said, stepping to her left.

"Looks like the lady boss wants to kill, isn't it?" the second one said as he stepped towards her.

The third one slunk to her left, flashing his sword at her. "Now ain't that lucky? We was just supposed to scout out the town, and here she is right in our lap. The boss'll be happy if we give him her head for dinner tonight."

Lucina had to stop herself from clenching her fist in annoyance for the fear that she may break Geralt's wrist, but she couldn't hide all of her frustration. Of course, nothing is ever that easy, she thought.

Geralt's unconscious body thudded softly against the frozen grass behind her. Lucina reached to her side and drew her sword.

She had told Geralt she could escape should they encounter bandits. That had been dependant on two things: that Geralt had been awake enough to run with her, and that there were not enough bandits to surround her. With Falchion, she could have ended the fight in an instant. Without it, she fancied her chances a lot less.

Still, what choice did she have but to stand and fight? The bandits began to move around her. Lucina's eyes flicked to each of them, shifting her sword every time one of them seemed like they would move in for the attack. Briefly, her eyes flicked to the town ahead.

Lucina was not a tactician. She left most of that to Morgan. But it didn't take a genius like Morgan to figure out that, if she wanted to get out of this, she would have to be slippery, like she had with everything else.

Lucina shifted her sword into her right hand, and with her left, she reached into her coat and pulled out her ripped Thunder tome. It still had the massive hole in it from where Geralt had punched through it. Most mages would have discarded such an unreliable tome, but Lucina knew the tome still had a few uses left in it before all its magic would be drained, and with almost no money on her, she would have to take what she could get. The hole would make channeling it a challenge, yes, but now that she was faced with such odds, she would have to bet her life on being able to use it.

Electricity crackled around her fingers. One of the bandits noticed this. His lips peeled back, and he lunged for her. Lucina's sword came around and brushed it to the side. Lucina thrust the tome out, but it just sparked and bit into her hand. Lucina hissed, and it took all she had not to drop it there.

A second bandit rushed after her. Lucina twisted her sword around his, deflecting his clumsy thrust to her left while hurling her own forward. Her blade nicked against his cheek. The bandit howled and pulled away. A thunder spell splashed against his chest, and he howled again. Lucina cursed.

The snow had begun to fall faster now. Flakes began to build up on her eyelashes and cluttered her vision with specks of white. Lucina reached up to wipe them away. When her arm moved away, she saw the third bandit's sword sailing overhead for a strike. Lucina ducked away, and before he could pull his sword out, she slammed her boot into it.

She could have stabbed him then and there. It would have made her odds a lot better, certainly, but Lucina elected not to because it would have taken too long to draw it out from his body and block the first bandit coming back in for the kill.

Lucina's foot lashed out and struck against the third bandit's side, knocking him into the first. She raised her hand to fire off another spell. The tome surged with energy and stabbed her arm with electricity. She hissed and slipped back just in time to avoid a strike from the second bandit. She reached up to wipe the snow from her face again, and when her vision cleared, she saw the blade already racing up for her head.

Lucina kicked it aside. The second bandit growled and charged at her with his shoulder. Lucina jumped away, letting him crash into the first bandit. She thrust her arm out and fired a Thunder spell. This time, the third bandit jumped out from the story and the spell fizzled against his chest. He hissed and clutched his chest. When his gaze snapped back to Lucina, though, he looked more irritated than hurt.

"You idiot!" the first bandit hissed as he staggered back to his feet. "Watch where you're swinging!"

"How am I supposed to with all this snow around us?" the second bandit shot back.

"Shut up you idiots," the third said. "Can't you see this is what she wants? She thinks she's so smart, getting us to hit each other. We ain't gonna be made fools by her or the boss is gonna make examples outta us."

"She's got magic, how's we supposed to fight that?" the first said.

"It's a busted tome. She can't hit us forever. You," the third said, pointing to the first. "Stay by my left. You," he pointed to the second. "Stay by my right. If we know where we is and we don't change, we ain't gonna hit each other."

Not that it really mattered to Lucina where they were. She just needed a single good shot to end this, but as she pressed the hole closed with her finger and raised her hand, the bandits began to approach her, blocking her view. She stepped back slowly, but the bandits moved with her, leaving her at an impasse.

Her back rubbed against a tree. She had nowhere left to run. The bandit to her left seemed to pick up on this. He grinned, yelled, and charged at her.

Lucina's eye stared down the tip of the sword. She had to move. If she didn't, the wound could kill her. But as the bandit burst from his group, and a gap opened next to the third bandit, Lucina did not think she would get another chance like this. She raised her arm.

The bandit's sword plunged into flesh. Blood spilled over the snow and colored the forest red. Lucina looked down with wide eyes.

Geralt grinned back at her. The bandit's sword protruded from his shoulder.

"W–what are you doing?" she stammered out.

"If you'd trained in the Pegasus Knights, you'd have known you should have dodged that." Geralt winked at her. "You're an interesting lady, that's for sure. If we get out of this alive, you'd better tell me why you were so stubborn about not letting me die."

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"Why else do you think I'd want you to live so badly?"

Leave it to the bandit to make everything more complicated. Cursing, Lucina flung out her hand and cast Thunder. This time, electricity surged from her fingertips and tore across the clearing, past the third bandit and into a nearby sapling. The small tree cracked and fell against the ground.

"You missed," the third bandit said.

"I didn't," Lucina replied.

The ground beneath the sapling cracked. Its roots peeled out of the dirt and into the air, and the cracks spread across the earth. The bandits looked down, and it was then that they had realized Lucina had led them right next to the river.

And now, she was about to take them under.

Lucina grabbed Geralt and dashed away from the edge of the cliff. The bandits howled angrily and tried to run after her, but the ground crumbled from behind them and they tumbled into the river. Lucina could feel her feet slipping toward the rapidly crumbling cliffside. She tossed Geralt forward, behind a larger, more stable tree, before she jumped herself.

Someone's hand closed around her leg. Lucina looked down. One of the bandits dangled from her over the river below, snarling. He pulled her down. Lucina's fingers scrabbled against the icy ground, but the snow made the grass slip from her fingers. She saw Geralt reach out and grab her, but the blood seeping from his shoulder made it obvious that he wasn't pulling her up anytime soon.

"Naga dammit," she hissed, and she jammed the tip of her boot into the bandit's eye. The bandit howled in pain, and he dropped into the river below. The white freezing waters swallowed him whole, but he had already done enough.

She could feel Geralt's fingers, already slick with blood, lose their grip on her. Lucina reached up with her other hand to grab him. He grabbed a nearby root and tried to pull her up, but to no avail.

Suddenly, another pair of hands grabbed onto hers and heaved her onto the snow.

Lucina spat out the white from her mouth. Her heart racing, she let out a sigh of relief, and she looked up to see who had saved her.

Anna returned her stunned gaze with a red-eyed wink. "Been a while, hasn't it?" she said.

Almost a week late this time. Keep this up and I might get back to once a month uploads!

Anyway, hey. Sorry I'm late, but the week's been rather hectic. I wouldn't say there was a lot of homework as much as it just piled up after I spent one or two days not doing it and it just kinda drained me. Also, I didn't have a plan going into the chapter and had to wing it. Usually, being low energy isn't a problem if I have a plan I can try to grind out, but having to build the chapter brick by brick didn't help things get out any faster.

I'll try to make the next Tuesday. Or maybe I'll go back to uploading weekly on Saturday, who knows. Feel free to comment, it helps keep this story at the top of my list. Until then, remember to take care of yourselves out there, and stay safe!