Disclaimer: The Witcher and every character aswell as location, that is not created by myself belongs to CD Projekt Red aswell as Andrzej Sapkowski, the original author of the books.

Reviews and ConCrits are always welcome!

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Chapter 8: The Stench Of Iron

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Aliona, accompanied by her silent friend Wyatt, decided to show Kaleb the battlefield, of course from a safe distance. The three stood on top of a hill, as the last bits of the morning sun rose in the sky, while down on the battlefield the soldiers slaughtered each other. The sight was horrible, but the stench was almost worse. Iron. There was a lot of blood on the floor and the ferrous fluid was giving of a horrible stench, mixed with feces, sweat and decay. Between the dead horses and soldiers were tired men fighting to their last bits, with ever five seconds another one falling.

"At least it looks like it's almost over." Kaleb mumbled in disgust.

"And the black sun will rise once more." Aliona added in a beaten tone. She didn't really care about the outcome of this war, no matter who'd win, the losses are still there, "Do you see, what we have been dealing with over the last weeks? Battles have been going on around this area for so long and so many injured or deserted soldiers have come to our town."

The witcher didn't respond as he looked sternly at the battlefield. He knew that the war had taken it's tolls on the land, yet he's never seen it happening. Seeing all those men throwing their lives away on the field, only because of power hungry lunatics, calling it 'serving their nation'... Kaleb was digusted by this thought.

"A woman like yourself shouldn't be anywhere near this atrocity," he finally said, "Just tell me what you need and I'll go get it."

"That's very generous of you, witcher," Aliona replied, "But I don't want you to get in danger because of me."

"Please," he grinned, turning towards her, "Getting in danger for someone else is my job. Also, this way my armour will get finished quicker, everyone benefits."

Aliona was suprised at how likely Kaleb was taking this, but agreed nonetheless, "Very well, I shall write you a list with the items I require. Just... just be careful, okay?"

The black haired witcher looked at her for a short moment with a warm smile, "I will."

After the witcher told Wyatt to escort Aliona safely back to the town of Ban Gleann, he wandered off, down the rocky path right towards the scene of bloodshed. He saw twenty men still fighting, definitely not more than that. There were soldiers on both sides retreating, either into the woods or back to their camps. Kaleb only then noticed that the area was actually larger than he thought.

"White myrtle..." he read, "What does she need that for?" without thinking any further, believing that she would know what she was doing, Kaleb went looking for the herb in question. He'd assume it somewhere on a field, rather than in the forrest and thus walked towards the battle.

And just as he assumed!

It didn't took him long to find the white myrtle, as it wasn't really an uncommon plant.

He stored everything he gathered in his small herb bag and went looking for the next item, which eventually lead him into the woods.

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After some time of search, he came across a small hut, which looked rather abandoned and dilapidated, it seemed as though no one has been living inside of it for years. Yet the witcher heard hard breathing from the inside aswell as painful grunting. Two people. A trail of blood confirmed his hearing.

Slowly and silently he opened the door, when he was sure that there were no more noises coming from there.

"Who's there...?" he heard a weak voice ask. Kaleb looked around the hut. There was nothing special, rusting cooking ware, broken furniture, yet the stench was still there and worse than before. There were two people, one didn't move, the other one looked at him with horror, yet he couldn't move. Kaleb recognised their armours, temerian and nilfgaardian, "Who are you?!" the man in the temerain armour shouted painful. He was younger, maybe twenty, definitely not older. He had a large wound in his left side, which he was holding, desperately trying to stop the blood from flowing out of it.

"Stay calm, I'll help you." the witcher offered, slowly approaching the young man, "We need to get you out of here."

"I'm not going without of him!" the young man protested, pointing towards the passed out nilfgaardian.

"Why? He's a nilfgaardian." Kaleb wondered.

"What does that matter?" the temerian soldier replied, "He saved me from the battlefield, deserted by doing so. I owe my life to this man, even if I'm barely holding on myself." The witcher's attempt to lift the soldier up was hopeless, his wounds were too severe. Kaleb knew what was going to happen, but did the soldier?

Just then the soldier of the black sun returned back to the living. Apparenlty he was rather fluid in the common language and didn't have the typical nilfgaardian accent. After the situation was explained to him, he tried to raise to his feet and help his newfound friend. Apparently he was much less severe hurt, his chance to survive was higher, for the temerian, however...

"This won't work..!" he grunted in pain, "Just.. just leave me here.."

"Don't be ridiculous!" the nilfgaardian soldier protested, "We shall get you out of here!"

"No.." he sunk back against the wall, "Look at me, even if I'll make it back... what are the odds I'll survive?" he turned to the witcher, "Hey, get him to Ban Gleann, he'll explain the situation to everyone... Hopefully they'll understand."

Kaleb silently nodded, eventhough a part of him wanted to resist. He understood that there was no point, he'd just make him suffer. It seems the deserter understood aswell, though with mixed feelings and a heavy heart. Once they turned back to the temerian soldier, they saw that he wasn't moving anymore, the breathing had stopped and he looked into the air with an empty expression.

"Do you think they will believe me?"

Kaleb didn't look up from the body and shook his head, "No."

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He then helped the soldier of the black sun back to Ban Gleann, where everything went about as usual, until they saw their newest visitor. It wasn't long before a big crowd had gathered in front of the two. In the meantime, Aliona rushed towards the wounded nilfgaardian, despite the protests of the other people.

"Why are ye draggin' this filth into our town, witcher?!" a man in the crowd barked, "'e's a nilfgaardian, we don't want 'im 'ere!"

"He deserted." Kaleb protested, "He helped one of your own people out of the battle!"

"And where is that one?!"

They had a point. The soldier died in that hut, yet the witcher spoke the truth, but how was he going to show them?

Suddenly the nilfgaardian sunk to his knees, clutching his right side, panting heavily.

"Have you gathered the herbs?" Aliona asked as she too got on her knees to treat the soldiers wounds at the spot. Kaleb nodded and handed her his herb bag.

"What are ye treatin' that plowing piece o' shit for?!" the first protests began getting louder as the crowd got angrier, "'e don't deserve no treatin'! Aliona back off o' him!"

The first guards started to appear on the scene, "What's the meaing of this?!" they bellowed.

"Witcher's brought a nilfgaardian to us and now Aliona wants to treat 'im, despite the plower killin' one of us, maybe more!"

"Aliona Mervay!" the first guard barked, "Back off!"

"We won't tolerate a nilfgaardian amongst our mids. You know what they do! You mustn't treat him, if he dies, so be it!"

The crowd murmured agreeingly.

Yet the woman never back off. She ignored the angry folks and just continued her work. Then Wyatt stepped out of the crowd to stand aside his friend and the Witcher, "Let her do her work!" the massive man shouted.

"Wyatt.. get away from them! You should do the same, Aliona!" the guards continued to try to persuade her. It was obvious that Aliona had a high reputation in Ban Gleann, otherwise they wouldn't try to win her back that hard.

Kaleb stepped in front of her, aiding as cover next to Wyatt, "Let her do her job. He's a nilfgaardian, yes, but he's still a man and don't you think, we've had enough deaths already? We should save anyone we can, regardless of who they are!" he protested loudly.

"Stay out of this, witcher! We'll get to you soon enough for dragging this man into our town! Let alone defending him!"

"He's probably a nilfgaard supporter!" roared the first angry shout at the mutant, which would spark a flame of rage in the villagers' hearts. It wasn't soon before they were not only throwing insults at him, but also apples, stones, dirt, anything they could find. Kaleb just let it hit him, his biggest concern was kneeling behind him, assuring someone else's life.

Just then he heard a new sound. Heavy panting, clanking, irregular footsteps coming from behind, accompanied by occasional grunting. He saw blue and white colours behind him, stained with dark red blotches.

It was the young soldier!

He had survived!

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