Author's note: Now I know, that you want to know if the witcher, being the ladiesman he is will have "casual" encounters with the ladies of WoW, the answer is yes of course he will, I had been planning that since I started to write this fic, with known figures and also some OC's I have in mind, he may even have a serious relationship; but before anybody starts to cheers, I will have to disappoint all of ya, but this story will not contain lemons, first because I don't know how to write "that", and second because it breaks the narrative telling that I try to give to this fic,
of course I will write of how the witcher will seduce the ladies with his smooth talking, sometimes it will be plain blunt and direct, anyway it will be like the sex scenes that appeared in the game or any B-rated movie, there will be sex but it will be implied not directly described; ok.
Anyway, this chapter will be just to add more background and depth to the witcher character; it's him relating his story to the main warcraft characters, that it's unavoidable and it may contain things that you already know, but it also has some interesting things.
Anyway most of the information I took it from the in-game journal of the witcher game and from the wikia, and a fan video that I saw in youtube from a user named splinterro, where it relates the history of the witcher, I included their descriptions in this story, I hope no one gets angry at me, for doing that.
Disclaimer: I don't own warcraft or the witcher and some of the descriptions.
Chapter 3: self-introduction.
His name was Geralt of Rivia; he was a witcher, a professional monster slayer for hire.
He had finally managed to kill his quarry, after a long and brutal battle, currently he found himself surrounded by a collective of species in a place strange to him.
"A Witcher?... yes that demonic woman referred to him as such; although we don't know what a witcher is suppose to be or do" said Lady Proudmoore towards Kyng Varian.
"Yes… yes, what exactly is a witcher? It has something to do with witches, I assume" asked lord fordring
"Di ya' sit in front ova pot and bru poisons, Mon!?" Asked Vol'jin.
"Do you fly in a broom?" Asked king Magni.
"….. Do you consort with demons?" asked finally king Varian with a serious expression.
The witcher simply stared at them with an emotionless face for a few seconds, and then he replied without changing his expression. "No, I visit children while they sleep and collect their baby teeth, which they must leave under their pillows, and in exchange I leave them money in the same place, and then I use the baby teeth as construction material so I can build myself a castle in the clouds"
At this statement, he received incredulous looks from his spectators, who couldn't tell if he was lying or not.
"…………..Are you serious?" asked lady Tyrande with a very startled expression.
Again the witcher simply stared at them with an emotionless face, but then, a slight smile formed in his lips. "No, I'm just messing with all of ya'" he responded.
The faces of everybody deadpanned, they couldn't believe how easily, he fool them, but they quickly recovered and tried to maintain a dignify look once more, albeit a very awkward one.
"Don't know who you are, but I hate you already, wolf" replied King Varian with shame in his features.
"Well, I must say it was pretty good" said the younger Saurfang.
The witcher took notice of the brown-skinned orc warrior, and approaches him casually until he was face to face from him; he then put his hand under his chin and started to analyze every feature of the orc warrior.
Dranosh knew he was being measured, but he didn't react badly at this, he could see that the witcher had no ill intentions for doing so; rather he was acting with a curious expression in his face, as if he had never seen an orc in his entire life.
"What kind of creature are you? I have never seen a being like you in all my travels" stated the witcher towards him.
"mmmph…. You never seen an orc do you? we are a proud and brave race of warriors, we never run from a good fight, and never shiver at the face of imminent death". Retorted Dranosh proudly.
"More like warmonger beasts, which cannot seem to satisfy their own bloodlust" Barked Varian with venom in his words.
"What????? It is much better to die in the face of battle, than whimper and cry just because you cannot stop the advance of your enemies" spited Garrosh in a rage towards Varian, which ensued another confrontation between the leaders.
The witcher simply stood there with his gaze upon the leaders, analyzing every detail of their exchange, he neither move nor flinch at their outburst; always observing with a watchful eye their "interactions", their hate, their despise for each other, and suddenly the witcher felt, he was at home.
………………….
Jaina felt a headache forming in the back of her head, once again the faction leaders were engage in dispute, with her trying to calm them down, how quickly they were to return to normality, after the most recent and disturbing events, which remind her about the stranger, and the poor impression they were giving to him, but she had no time to think of him right now, she had to quelled the heated humors before something serious might happen.
Finally, after much effort the leaders were able to calm down, Jaina sighed with relief when suddenly she heard a voice behind her, "this remind me too much like home" she turned around to see the witcher sitting on top of a rock with his legs crossed and his arms on top of them, he looked calm, undisturbed and even… amused? By the recent discussion.
The rest of the Alliance and Horde leaders acknowledge him, and suddenly they felt a little bit embarrassed, which resulted in a very awkward silence, and the leaders casually avoiding to look at him.
Finally lady Aegwynn, who just like the witcher kept to herself quietly during the whole ordeal, broke the silence. "Well it appears that the rulers have settled their tempers, that's one thing less to worry, but it appears that you have not yet explain us exactly what is a witcher, mister Geralt, was it?
The witcher raised an eyebrow at her "No I haven't, well I suppose I still have to make a proper introduction". The witcher raised himself with a gracious jump out off the rock and on his feet, carrying himself as if everything was normal.
"You don't seem even fazed with the recent…. Discussion, do you? "Asked Jaina.
"I'm pretty accustomed to such things, actually from where I come from, your ways of interaction will be considered pretty civilized" retorted the witcher, with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Please do tell us about yourself" said lady Aegwynn, getting back on the subject.
"Very well, as I said before, my name is Geralt of Rivia, and I am a witcher, a professional monster slayer for hire, I hunt, kill and slay beasts and monsters that terrorize the land for a living, like the charming girls that you saw me dealt with, a little while ago"
"Really? You face fiends like those women in a daily basis, are those women the only type of monsters you face? Said Jaina impressed.
"No, practically any beast or paranormal or superhuman creature are the ones I dealt with, is a wide range, Vampires, ghosts, ghouls, Wraiths, wild beasts, man-eater beasts, undead, lycanthropes, shape-shifters, demons, fiends, elementals, cultists, possessions, curses, etc, you name it, I probably killed or dealt with, I don't have the tendency to speak about specific assignments, that's why I carry a journal"
"That's…that's really impressive, you must have great skills indeed, …mmm… what exactly you can do? What are your abilities" exclaimed Lord Fordring with a new found respect towards the witcher.
"well… there is this" the witcher taked out the glove of his left hand, he opened his palm and extended his arm toward the leaders so they may see his hand, he pulled out a knife from one of his straps with the other hand and stabbed the knife in his open palm, the knife had gone through his palm, half the knife had exited through the back of his palm, then the witcher using his strength manage to pull the knife downwards toward his fore arm, cutting and making his way through the witcher flesh.
The witcher didn't even flinch from the pain he was self-inflicting, he always kept his face in a blank state, without making any sort of expression, this disturbed the majority of the people that was watching him, who only manage to stare at him some with his eyes widen, others with scared or dumbfounded expressions, when the knife reached the middle of his forearm, the witcher pulled it out.
Then the wound started to mend, the faint blood that he had bleed (surprisingly few for a injury of that magnitude) twitched and was sucked back into the body, the open skin closing itself back, leaving no trace that a wound was there a few seconds ago.
"As you can see my body can cure by itself any wound that I may get, I also got a high resistance to pain, which allow me to not stop my attacks when I receive an injury, pretty useful during fights, my skin also is really thick like natural leather, also my body doesn't bleed much if I am injured, that's I why I didn't bleed much despite the wound that I self-inflicted myself, also I am virtually immune to any kind of poison or disease, which means I never got sick, and if someone tries to poison me it just go through my body without harming me, my speed and reflexes are above any mortal men, you already saw them yourselves, also my strength too is above the norm".
"How strong are we talking about?" asked king Varian with an incredulous expression.
The witcher smirked " allow me to show you" he walked towards Varian and put a hand in his left shoulder, without notice he made a feral yell, the muscles in his arm tensed and he lifted Varian completely off ground with just one hand, managing to stretch his arm at full length upwards.
This action seriously startled Varyan and many of the alliance soldiers while at the same time, giving devious grins to many of the horde's troops, especially Garrosh, who find Varian's current predicament quite amusing.
"AHHH, WHAT THE FEL ARE YOU DOING? PUT ME DOWN!!!!" yelled Varian, he was so startled that he ended up kicking Geralt in the face, which cause him to realease his grip on Varian, who fell unceremoniously with his face first into the ground, grunting unintelligible things.
"whoooops, sorry, that kick of yours unfocused me, you should not do that while someone is holding you over his head, but don't worry lucky for you, I'm alright" said the witcher with such vanity.
"You alright!!!!? I'm the one who ended eating dirt, you stupid wolf" retorted Varian, highly upset towards the witcher.
"Well, you're the one who wanted to know the measure of my strength, you should not react like that just because things didn't go well for you" commented casually the witcher whit a shrug of his shoulders.
King Varian gave a fuming look toward Geralt, seriously considering ordering his troops to shoot another volley of projectiles towards the witcher.
But before any more complications could arise the younger Saurfang offered his opinion "Wow, You certainly are a very talented individual mister Geralt, being a monster hunter I bet you should have lived quite wonderful adventures, and performed great heroic deeds".
The witcher shrugged his shoulders and shook his head to both sides before replying with an expressionless face "not at all, I just do what I was raised to do, nothing remarkable in that"
"Nothing remarkable!!!! We saw how you split that demonic woman in two halves with just one attack, I say that was damn impressive if you ask me" replied Dranosh Saurfang.
The witcher scowled a little at this "again there is nothing remarkable in doing, what you supposedly must be doing, as if dealing with monstrous things and being at the brink of death in a daily basis will be something for the people to envy".
Jaina was impressed, this man who obviously can perform amazing physical feats, faces horrorific beasts and monster as a living and yet he does not boast or tell about his accomplishments like many of the adventures she had met over the years, he rather shows displeasure when speaking about his accomplishments "Why do you say that? What makes you think that?" asked Jaina in rapid succession.
The witcher again acquired his blank expression "why?.... because that's what I do, I offer a service for which I get paid, regardless of what kind of creatures I kill, that's all, I have ties to no one, nor loyalty to any particular banner, kingdom or race, then after my assignment is complete, I go to find the next one, and so on, and on and on, and I will continue to do so, until I die.
"Until you die?" asked Jaina timidly.
The witcher smirked at this "yes, I know how my life is supposedly to end, every witcher dies in a crude, brutal or violent death, either be by the monsters we hunt or by people who fear us because of the power we wield, or covet it for themselves while at the same time needing our services; that's how things are suppose to be, I have no delusions of glory or grandeur, I just do what I must to survive and to carry on with my trade".
So your work is your life; that is all? that's is all you care?" retorted Jaina with worry in her voice.
"Yes" answer the witcher bluntly.
"But what about the people you saved?, don't they feel grateful for what you do?, don't you care for someone at least?, don't you have friends?, don't you love someone? Don't you think of having a family of your own? Or to change your profession?"
The witcher hesitated a little, sadness crept into his face, this was a touchy subject, one that he didn't feel the desire of explain, he looked Jaina into her eyes, he saw innocence, compassion and naivety in them, and suddenly, he realize that she was more beautiful than he had originally thought, he felt something creeping in the back of his throat, he knew he could not deny her an answer.
The witcher sighed and said "yes….. There were, or are people of whom once I cared, many are dead now, found an abrupt end for their lives, others…. I lost track of them, sometimes I encounter them during my travels and we catch up, good to know they are still alive"
Then the witcher took a pause before continuing "And yes, there is or was someone that I once loved, it didn't end well, it was nice thought while it lasted" The witcher then stopped talking, and touch his nose bridge with his fingers as if the memory was painful to him "… It really ended badly" he finally declared.
"What happened?" Asked Jaina shyly.
The witcher kept silent for a moment before answering.
"She died…. She tried to save my life, I was mortal wounded and barely alive, and she sacrifice herself so I could live" the witcher lowered his gaze with sadness in her face.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know" Replied Jaina, feeling ashamed for having make Geralt to remember a painful memory.
"no it's alright, truth is we could never had a normal live, because I could never give her what she desired the most; we could never be a family…..and I… we could never have children of our own"
"What? Why not?"
"it's a part of the price we pay for the power we wield, you see in order to be effectives monster slayers, the witcher's conscripts, most of them children must undertake a series of dangerous magical rituals; the trials of herbs"
"The trials of herbs" asked Rhonin intrigued.
The witcher nodded " yes, the trials of herbs is one of the most guarded secrets of us the witchers, I cannot give you all the details, but I will give you a short version, we are…… we ingest mutagenic plants, that force changes into our bodies and we are exposed to a great deal of magical experiments, with this we gained the strength, speed, reflexes and abilities necessary to face the terrible monsters that our profession conveys, and arise victorious, many of our children do not survive the experiments, they are really dangerous with a high mortality rate around the conscripts….. And those that survive develop… side effects."
"Side effects?" said Jaina a little nervous gulping some saliva
The witcher smiled and pointed his hair, the skin of his and his eyes "yes, side effects…. as you can see"
"That explains why you have the looks of a wolf… and why you are so unnaturally pale" exclaimed King Varian a little uncomfortable.
"Ah yes, my wolf looks, funny you mention that, the people used to call me the White Wolf"
"The white wolf… that seems fitting" mentioned Varian.
"Yes indeed, anyway some of the side effects are quite visible, others not so much….. Another side effect is my inability to procreate any offspring of my own".
"WHAT?!!!!!!" yelled Jaina with widen eyes.
"Yes" said the witcher while rubbing his neck "because of the experiments I was left sterile, that is why I cannot have children of my own even if a wanted too, all of the witchers either be man or woman are left sterile after the experiments"
Many of the leaders and even the soldiers behind them were horrified by this, to expose mere children to such gruesome inaccurate experiments that cause so terrible side-effects in exchange for power.
"How is that you increase your numbers then? Didn't you say that most of your conscripts are children? And you witchers cannot procreate, I doubt that many people are willing to depart from their sons" asked Rhonin.
The witcher smiled lightly "you will be surprised, from where I come a great war was fought one that plunged many kingdoms into misery, the people was desperate and many were willing to sell their own children for a few coins, but of course that did not always leave us with enough conscripts, but that's was solved with the Law of Surprise"
"The Law of Surprise?" asked Rhonin suspicious.
"Indeed, is the price a man who saves another can demand. It is a request for something which neither the savior nor the saved knows the nature of, until the saved man safely returns home. Typically this ends up being the life of a child, born while the father was away"
"What?" asked Rhonin clearly having not understood what the witcher had just said.
"allow me to explain it better; when a witcher saves a man's life and the man says, "In gratitude, I will give whatever you desire," the witcher then answers, "You will grant me whatever unexpected thing you encounter when you return home." In rare instances, the surprise proves to be an infant, born during its father's absence. Based on the Law of Surprise, the child belongs to the witcher, becoming the Unexpected Child to whom the witcher is bound by Destiny. Many Unexpected Children are brought to Kaer Morhen, where they are then raised and trained to be witchers".
"What?!!!! You take children from their parents as payment, that's terrible" yelled jaina.
The witcher merely shrugged "that's what we have to do in order to survive, you may not like it, but we do not do this because of malice or wickedness, we do it because of necessity, if we do not have enough children then the odds that any of them survive are low, which means there will be no one to carry on our trade, and thus, us the witchers will be doomed to extinction" the witcher smirked "in fact we are already at the verges of extinction".
Jaina was incredulous yet she was in no position to admonish him, he was from a different land after all, so she timidly asked "have you… have you done that? Taken children from their parents?"
The witcher closed his eyes and sighed, but then a slight smile formed in his lips, his face was warmed for the memories flowing through his brain "Once, just once have I had to do that, but it was for the best, she survived and became a very successful witcher, sometimes I heard rumors about her past exploits, and I cannot prevent too feel proud"
"Proud? Why so?" Asked Jaina with genuine curiosity in her voice.
"As I said, we witchers can bear no children, we have to take the children of other people to boost our numbers, but almost always we take really young children even babies into our care, we are the ones who raised them, we are the ones who feed them, protect them and train them until they are ready to undertake the trials and if their survive, we are the ones who prepare them to go out into the world."
The witcher sighed before continuing "because of that is not a surprise that we form a bond with them, more so because of our sterility, many witchers care and see the children as if they were their own, and the children, being as young as they are see us as their parental figures, that also comes with disadvantages, if the children die during the rituals then some of us fell as if a part of ourselves died with them, for this reason some witchers, normally the veteran ones just simply leave the children in the care of the headmasters of our order, in our fortress-base of Kaer Morhen, so they can avoid themselves the pain of losing them"
There was a long silence afterwards; the witcher was too busy with his memories, reliving that particular chapter of his life. "I… I'm glad she survived, and yes I see her as if she is my own daughter, I don't know what I would have done, if she had died….I… I wasn't what you could call the best Role model for her, in fact I tried to get rid of her in several occasions, leaving her at the care of others, but eventually we became inseparable… but, she and I were not meant to be a happy family, the war broke out and envious eyes took notice of her, you see she was very special, she had a natural affinity for magic and for that she was hunted and persecuted by others who wanted her power".
The witcher grimaced for just a moment and then he continued with his telling "they made her suffer in ways that I dare not to remember, and turn her life into misery, but she managed to best them at every turn and in the end she brought down swift and bloody revenge upon them"
"What is her name?" Asked Jaina curious about this unexpected burst of emotion from the witcher, who she thought to be a pretty cold man and also because she had became enthralled in the sad history of his foster daughter.
The witcher smiled greatly at the memory of his foster daughter "My sweet Ciri; well that's how I call her, she had forged quite a name for herself among the people, whom call her; Cirillia: The Lion Cub of Cintra"
He then spoke seriously "don't bother in trying of pry any more information about her, I don't feel the desire to tell you"
Jaina decided to drop the subject seeing it was really touchy for the witcher and cleared her throat "okeeeeey, wait if you have raised a child to adulthood then that means that you must be old, yet you look really young; exactly how old are you?".
The witcher shrugged "dunno I stop counting years a long time ago, from where I come, beings that had deals with magic like us the witchers or the sorcerers tend to age at a very slow pace, we can have several centuries of age and still look young, some of us can live for several millennia before expiring, but that's pretty rare, especially in our profession, I can't remember my age, but if I had to guess, I say that I am several decades older than him" ended the witcher while pointing towards Lord Fordring with his finger.
"…mmm… well that makes sense to me, you wouldn't know at first glance but I have quite the millennia of existence myself" said Lady Aegwynn flushing a little.
"…mmm… then you must be quite a powerful sorceress yourself" said the witcher raising his eyebrows.
Aegwynn laughed briefly at this "well even though I do, have a level of magical understanding greater than the average mage, my days of glory have long passed; I can no longer do some of the things that I could accomplish during my youth"
The witcher flinched briefly "but I'm sure you have earned a great deal of experience, that is more important than any impressive feat that you could perform, for it will be the only thing that will save you in the most critical moments, I have survived very dire situations thanks to the knowledge I've gained in past experiences, when everything else fails, this is the only thing that allows me to stay alive no matter the odds; tell me wouldn't you have wondered, or desired that you could change some of the things you did in your youth?, now that you have the experience of the passing of ages, don't you dream with the opportunity to correct past mistakes?"
Aegwynn was taken aback by his response; she didn't expect that Geralt where a man of wisdom; but he was right, few things surprised her anymore, and this man had managed to do that thought, she sadly smiled and responded "Yes… yes I do".
Aegwynn faintly smiled "…mmm… I didn't expect you to be quite the wise person".
The witcher look at her with his expressionless face "no, not wise but experienced, I seen quite a lot, during my travels"
A full smile was now adorning Aegwynn face "yes it will seem like it" a brief silence ensued before Aegwynn continued speaking "Tell us about the world you came from".
The witcher frowned and made a loud sigh before answer back "That is a story that I am not fond to speak of, but if I must…" the witcher opened the purse in the left side of his body and pulled out an enrolled scroll, he then addressed back to Aegwynn "Here, take it".
Aegwynn took the scroll, and unfolded it, curious about what it might be; she was surprised when she saw, that it was a wide map that depicted and described with great accuracy, lands and countries totally foreign to her.
The map was big enough that she had to extend her arms to totally display it, the rest of the faction leaders quickly stood behind Aegwynn to take a glimpse of the map, well…. all but Garrosh, who was fuming something about, what interest could it be in a oversized piece of paper.
When a reasonable amount of time passed, allowing the leaders to analyze the map, the witcher spoke again, the witcher spoke again "that is the land where I came from".
"The Great Continent, divided mostly between the Northern Kingdoms and the Nilfgaardian Empire in the south, other places are the lands of Zerrikania far southeast, Haakland to the east of the Northern kingdoms beyond the Blue Mountains, and the great Korath desert in the middle."
"…mmm… this a very well depicted map you have here, mister Geralt… what can you tell us about this Northern kingdoms?" said Aegwynn without takeing her gaze from the map.
"The northern kingdoms are the major human nations north of the Amell Mountains, they are called Nordglings by the Nilfgaardians, they are also inhabited by a number of dwarves, elves, gnomes and Halflings, who live as second class citizens".
"Second Class?" asked Jaina surprised by that statement.
"Yes, there are a lot of racial tensions between humans and non-humans, humans being predominant tend to persecute and discriminate the rest of the races" Declared the witcher with a slightly grim look.
This statement made most of the non-human leaders to scowl profusely; they did not like the idea of having fellow kinsmen being discriminated by humans.
"There was always bad blood among them but it became even drearier when the war with the Nilfgaard Empire ensued, so bad it turned, that regular pogroms where carried forth"
"Pogroms?" Asked king Magni a little terrified about what a pogrom might be.
"Pogroms are, a form of riot directed specifically against a minority group, such as dwarves or elves, it's an organized and sometimes officially government encouraged massacre and persecution of non-humans; mobs of angry citizens swept away through cities, terrorizing the non-humans, violently dragging them out of their own homes, to be lynched and killed in the streets, burning their homes, businesses and reunion centers; it is a massive public execution of men, women and children, of any non-human species at the hands of prejudice crowds of humans"
All of the leaders and faction troops, that were listening to the witcher tale, where left speechless with their mouths wide opened at the hearing of such explanation, their minds unable to comprehend how such hate and injustice could exist.
"HH..How such a thing could be allowed in your world?" asked King Varyan very disturbed after hearing the witcher explanation.
"Allow me to relate, how this came to be" the witcher then started to relate the major actual events of his world.
"All this began with Nilfgaard; Nilfgaard is the mightiest empire in the history of the known world, is loathed in the southern part of the continent and boasts both a thriving economy and powerful military forces; it has expanded mostly through the conquest of foreign countries, which then are turned into provinces of the empire.
The provinces are then ruled by a steward or a king; if a king willingly gave up his country to the empire he retained his throne, but was subject to the ruling emperor. The empire expanded through the years, conquering new lands and always expanding further to the north; until one day it decided to invade the northern kingdoms"
The witcher took a few moments to gather his thoughts and continued with his tale.
"More than 10 years have passed since the Nilfgaard Empire invaded the Northern kingdoms; at first, one after another fell, swept away by the military might of the empire, its power seemed beyond any opposition.
Yet in the face of inevitable doom, the divided kings of the north united under a single banner; in the battle of Brenna, their convened efforts resulted in a resounding military triumph; the price of victory however, was tremendous.
Scorched lands, burned houses, refugees, disease and hunger became a usual sight; the monarchs bickered over the spoils, ignoring the misfortune of the common folk; war-time heroes turned to pillage to survive, rather to die in poverty; peace gave way to times of violence and decay.
Disillusioned humans turned to naming those responsible for their afflictions; their resentment was thus first aimed towards the elves, as many of them had stood by the empire side during the war; whole bands of elves survivors take over the woods, terrorizing adjacent lands.
Such prejudice had soon spread to encompass the dwarves, the gnomes, the Halflings and the mages.
The increasing disquietude was accompany by multiple divinations of a nearing doom's day, however not all was lost; among those that aided the kings to reinstate peace, was the order of the burning rose, an order of knights well versed in the art of warfare; they tried to give hope to those who had none.
Yet even they were not enough to confront all the plagues left by thee nilfgaard war, diverse beast and monsters emerge from the shadows; terrorizing roads and plunging entire cities into despair.
They recalled the unremitted need of us the witchers, the professional beasts slayers, however those of us who know the trade, are few and our numbers keep diminish more and more over the years".
"So what happened?" asked Tyrande intrigued by the witcher tale.
The gaze of the witcher became more serious.
"We succeeded, we clear the roads, secured the cites and exterminated every beast and monster we could find, but alas it prove to be our doom". The witcher lowered his gaze with a grim face.
"How so?" replied Jaina.
"We were too good; we drove the beasts and monsters to the edge of extinction, until they became a rare sight thus diminishing the need of us services, we were never well receive by the common folk, remember that I told all of you, that they have strong prejudices?"
Everybody nodded
"we; the witchers are individuals who can wield magic, thus we were feared and hated by the common folk, but at the same time we were the only ones who could save them from the terrors that preyed upon them, so we were needed, by taking out every single monster, such need was quickly overcome, and so the very people that we had saved, turned against us".
Jaina felt a little apprehensive, to have fought so hard only to be betrayed by those that you swear to protect, she could not fathom how someone could endure that.
"Eventually our fortress-keep of Kaer Morhen was assaulted and destroyed by groups of angry mobs, and our secrets stolen, since then no new witcher has been trained.
But I made sure to correct the situation; I hunted the responsible people for the assault, thwarted their ploys to using the secrets of our strength for their own gain, collected retribution from their heads, and recovered back that which was stolen" the witcher heavily sighed.
"But alas, nothing has changed, still no new witchers had been trained and our numbers keep dwindling; and now I find myself in an unusual situation, away from my home in strange lands and unable to return… oh well, it could have been worse". Finished the witcher diminishing his situation.
"WHAT?!!! Are you not preoccupied that you will never be able to return to your home or see your friends again?" asked Jaina incredulous by what the witcher had just said.
The witcher grinned "Nah, I should have died a long time ago and in several occasions, yet I kept surviving somehow, I don't have hopes for the future, my kind is dying, a low painful death that will eventually erase any trace that we, the witchers once existed.
And finally, the moment in which I leave the world has arrived; well at least I can still retain my life, a much better conclusion compared with other ones of fellow witchers and as for my friends, the farthest I stay away from them the better they are of being safe ".
"We could try to return you home" offered Jaina.
The witcher laughed "doubtful, you don't know the location of where I come, as much as I don't know where am I, that crystal was the only connection with my world and now is utterly destroyed, there is no turning back for me now".
Jaina made a profound sigh, she knew the witcher was right, without the exact location of the witcher world, they will not be able to send him back, it was too dangerous to try to open portals at random worlds, she couldn't help to feel helpless, she was really desperate to help him in some way.
"So what would you do now?" Asked Aegwynn.
"What else but, continuing with my trade"
"So you would offer you services to us?, I think someone like you could be really useful in our war against the scourge" declared Bolvar Fordragon
"no, I will offer my services to no one yet, first I must get myself familiar with this world before venturing to do anything" replied the witcher.
"A sound and callous decision" interjected Aegwynn.
"thank you, besides I don't think it will be wise to offer my services to complete strangers, who I just met, and that had not yet introduce themselves, well… cept' for king Varyan over here, although that was not the most proper introduction that I had ever seen" retorted the witcher with a smug smile while pointing Varian with his finger.
Jaina blushed fiercely of embarrassment; she just remembered that neither she nor the rest of the leaders had yet introduced themselves, they had heard the whole story of this man, and they haven't even tell him their names, she was must distresses for this lack of touch from her part; the rest of the leaders were also ashamed enough that they not dare to look the witcher into the eyes, the best they could muster was being playing dumb.
Jaina scoffed a little, trying to regain some composure.
"Yes; your right, sorry for that lack of acknowledge form our part, it just… well your story was so interesting and intriguing that we just forgot introductions, again we are very sorry; let us make a proper introduction then".
Jaina straight her posture and offer her hand to the witcher.
"My name is Jaina Proudmoore, I'm a powerful mage and also the ruler of the port city of Theramore; it's a pleasure to meet you mister Geralt".
The witcher look at her, amused for just a moment before taking her hand with his, and kissing it with a reverence.
"The pleasure is all mine Miss Proudmoore" replied the witcher with smug smile.
Jaina was even more embarrassed by the witcher actions towards; nevertheless she managed to retain her composture.
She introduced the witcher towards the rest of the faction leaders and captains, giving a brief description of their respective factions, the witcher acted with respect towards them, addressing them with respectful nods.
After finishing with the introductions, Jaina addressed herself again towards the witcher.
"Well that does it with the introductions; I wish we could continue with the explanations but it's already too late, we should return to our respective encampments"
Most of the leaders nodded at that, and gave orders to their followers to retreat, the big tent that serve as a neutral grounds for their meeting was quickly brought down, and the armies began to march along each side of the road in the middle of the cliffs bases.
Jaina spoke with the witcher again.
"You could come with us if you want, we could give you some accommodations".
"No its fine, as I said earlier I will not take any sort of decision before knowing more of the place where I am, besides I don't think is wise for me to choose between the horde or the alliance, who as you told me are rival factions, we witchers are neutral towards politics and rulers, we never pick sides and we always tried to stay at bay from conflicts"
Jaina kept looking at him, thinking that maybe it could be a good thing that he arrived in their world; she suspected that the witcher could be a decisive factor in avoiding an open conflict between the horde and alliance; her thoughts however were interrupted by the intrusion of High tinkerer Mekkatorque.
"Excuse me lad, but I couldn't avoid to see that you carried two sword with you, I can see that they are of fine quality may I ask about why you carried them".
"Ah yes my swords, we witchers carry two distinctive swords one is made of steel, of a very special kind forged by the witchers in our fortress of Kaer Morhen, its purpose is to be used against humans or humanoids beings in cases when we required to protect ourselves from attacks made by them, whether be bandits, highwaymen or else, it's also useful against wild beasts"
"May I see it?" inquired Mekkatorque
The witcher unsheathed his sword and handed it over to Gelbin, who examined rigorously.
"This is a fine blade, its craftsmanship is very remarkable, simple yet elegant, durable yet lighter and this steel is from a kind I have never seen before" remarked the high tinkerer clearly impressed by the witcher's blade, handling it back to the witcher.
"Yes it is a good sword, witchers steel it is unique in our world, sorry but the specifics behind its forging are one of our most guarded secrets" told the witcher taking his sword back and sheathing it again.
"And the other one?" asked king Magni a few paces behind Gelbin along with the rest of the leaders.
The witcher unsheathed his silver sword and held it in a way that the leaders could see it.
"This is my silver sword every witcher has one, this sword it's only used when we are about to strike down a monster, the monsters from my world are more susceptible to silver, so it's not a surprise that we used silver swords to kill monsters rather than steel.
This sword should never be used to strike down any human or non-human people; doing so it's strictly prohibited, unless we truly believe that the person we are killing is a monster; because of the great prejudice among the races in my world, humans tend to address any non-human race as a monster, and demand our services to kill them, but we the witchers decide who is a monster and who is not, we could still take the job to kill the non-humans, if they were bandits or pillagers, we offer those services too, but we would not use our silver sword to strike them down, to do so will be an statement that we believe that this race in particular is one of monsters, it's a very delicate situation."
King Magni nodded grimly at him along with Varian; no one uttered another word for the rest of the journey back to the factions bases. The witcher had decided to follow them thinking it was the best course of action if he wanted to know more about this new world where he was at.
Finally after some minutes of walking the entourage arrive at the base of the two factions fortresses, each one among the cliffs in both sides of the roads, and in the middle one could see the immense wrathgate in the background.
"here we are; the bastions of Fordragon Hold and Kor' kron Vanguard, each one belonging to the alliance and the horde respectively" addressed Jaina.
But the witcher was not paying her any attention; he was busier examining the massive gates of the wrathgate from the distance where they were currently at; he separated from the group to better analyze the gate, Jaina saw this, but said nothing; the rest of the leaders ended up looking towards him too.
"What a lovely place that is, I like the design is all warm and cozy, clearly its intention is to give a cheerfully greeting at any bystander and invite them to go inside" stated the witcher in his usual neutral stare and voice.
Everybody were watching the witcher with their eyes narrowed, clearly not amused by his statement; the witcher continued speaking.
"Let me guess; some crazy megalomaniac with world threatening plans, lives over there and probably kills anybody who even dares to look wrongly at him, and has serious issues about being unable to relate with others" state the witcher with a bothersome tone.
"You clearly know of what you are talking about" stated Sylvanas with a wry smile; the witcher merely raised an eyebrow at her.
"That's the wrathgate, the only road to reach Icecrown citadel, Arthas Menethil, the lich king, the ruler of the undead scourge that threats to cover the whole world with dead and decay lives there; we have established our strongholds in the base of the gate so we may lay siege to them, in our attempt to stop him from fulfilling his murderous goals" said Lord Tirion Fordring, with a righteous fury.
"...mmm… I guess there is a story behind it, sadly it seems I will have to wait until tomorrow to hear it" the witcher turned towards Jaina "clearly all of you need to rest, I can feel it is already very late".
Jaina look at him into the eyes and said "What about you, don't you desire a place to rest overnight?, we could provided you some accommodations and a bed"
The witcher merely stared at her "I don't sleep".
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?" everybody yelled.
"Yes, I don't require the need of sleep to recover my strength; but I do need to rest"
"Then what do you do?" asked Jaina asked bewildered.
The witcher sat himself down in the ground; he crossed his legs and put his hands on his lap before answering. "I meditate… a lot; I usually do so to ponder in the events transpired during the day, and to plan my next actions, which by the way I should do so now, considering what has occurred… this place is as good as any".
"Are you serious? You cannot simple stay sitting in the middle of the damn road, this is the lich king domain, his undead minions hold and travel trough this grounds" exclaimed Varian dumbfounded.
"mmmph, undead creatures are not foreign to me, I know how to deal with them, besides I'm not blind to my surroundings while I meditate, my senses are always in alert; and as I said before, I'm not entirely sure to accept the gifts of someone that I don't entirely know is a good idea, now leave me, we can speak about this in the morning" retorted the witcher, and started to making signs for everyone to leave him be.
"Are you sure you don't want anything? I really wish we could do something for you" pledged Jaina in a wishful tone.
The witcher sighed and responded "very well, as you wish; some logs of wood will be nice, so I can make myself a small bonfire".
"We can send someone to provide you with the logs, are you sure you will be alright here outside on your own?" addressed Thrall to the witcher.
"Yes, others just tend to get in the way, now if you don't mind, I shall begin with my meditations" and with that the witcher dismissed the leaders.
"We will send someone too, so no one may say that the alliance don't help strangers" exclaimed Varian before leaving.
…………
Several minutes after the witcher was left alone, two figures appeared walking towards his direction, they were carrying some wood in their arms, each figure had emerge from one of the factions encampments.
One was a little sturdy cloaked figure, wearing a light armor and carrying a rifle in his back; a dwarf; the other was long and tall, with tusks in his mouth and spiky orange hair in his head, clad in a bone armor, carrying two small battle axes in his hip, and a bow and several throwing axes in his back; A troll.
These two figures stared at each other before reaching the witcher.
"yo' dere lil' dwarf, I know Horde and Alliance, ar nut in di bezt rilazionship but am nut hir luking fur truble, I'm just guing to diliver biz wud, and guing back to my incampment, no nid fur tings to git ugly bitwin us"
"don't worry yourself much for that troll, I know most of your horde aren't that bad, my elder brother fought in the battle for the Hyjal alongside horde troops, so I am a little more tolerant towards you kind than the average alliance troop, that's why I was chosen to deliver the alliance present of wood, don't mind me and I don't mind you" replied the dwarf.
"feir inugh, com lit's end wit tes bifur we git fruzen".
"Very well let me speak with him first, it seems that the chap over there is more familiar with us dwarfs, that may avoid us some unpleasantly if he doesn't react well against a race that he doesn't know".
The troll nodded and the dwarf approached the witcher.
"Hello there lad, my name is Torbin Mightyanvil, and I came here to deliver this logs to ya' by orders of the king Varian" addressed the dwarf towards the witcher.
The witcher already having acknowledged their presence opened his eyes, to be greated by the sight of the smiling dwarf.
"mmph, tidings my name is Geralt of Rivia, the new and apparently only witcher if this world; tell your partner that it's safe to get closer, I will not harm him"
The dwarf turned, a little perplexed at this and turned to meet the troll eyes with his own, the dwarf shrugged his shoulders, and the troll shake his head, he then approached the witcher.
"hellow tir Mon, my name is Zungo I'm a Troll, and caym hir to dilivir biz wud too ya¡"
The witcher stared at the troll intrigued "mmmph, come here it will be interesting to know something about your race".
"thanks Mon!, glad yu' didn't tri to kil mi "
"Ahem, I don't want to interrupt but I think I had to make an apologize to you" interrupted Torbin.
The witcher raised an eyebrow "………..Why?"
"Well you see…. I was the one who, you know shoot you in the chest" said Torbin a liitle nervous.
"bah don't mind about that, I don't blame you for that, I blame King Varian and his heated temper, besides is not like you could do any real damage to me, now be nice and prepare those logs for a bonfire"
"ufff…. Thank you, I had thought you might get mad at me or something well I guess we can help you to make a little fire over here".
"lit me hilp wit ta Mon!"
Torbin and Zungo quickly piled up the logs in front of the witcher; he then created a fire by releasing a small charge of the sign Igni.
"Now, what can you two tell me about the horde and the alliance?" asked the witcher towards the two couriers.
And so the troll and dwarf for the rest of the night debriefed the witcher in the most recent events in the land. Familiarizing himself with this land lore, he would need to know everything he could, if he wanted to survive to the tasks to come.
But that's another story; for another time.
Note: well there you have it, about the witcher strength I dunno, I think geralt is strong enough to raise Varian with just one hand, in the intro video of the game he stops cold the strigga with just one punch, although I suppose it was the potion he took at the beginning of the intro, anyway I think he strength will be equal or slightly major than that of a Tauren or an orc during a rage.
I promise next chapter will have some action, geralt first encounter with the lich king minions.
Nevertheless I have an important announce, I just get myself a new job, that's great for me but bad for all you because now I have less time to write this fic. I will continue to do so, but it may take me a longer time to update the chapters; also I will temporarily halt my writing when red dead redemption is released, because I have all the intentions of the world to buy and play that game when it is released, which is next week.
So don't be surprised if it take at least a month to update this story, sorry but all of you know how important is to have a well paid job, and I wanna still be able to play my videogames.
Now, I don't know how the hell write in Haitian, which is the way a troll speak, I just write as badly as I can and hope am doing something right, I know it may sound insulting, but it just because I really don't have a clue how to properly write in that way, if someone could give me a hint, it will be appreciated.