Nobody's Memories
Chapter 15 - A Boring yet Exciting Timeskip [Kind Of]
Geralt apparently wasn't willing to risk the city's safety longer than he needed to after I had agreed to come with him. Unfortunately for him, I still couldn't move my spine or use my powers, and I was unwilling to touch anything in my head until I wasn't struck down with miscellaneous ills and confined to a bed. At the end of the first day, I had finally regained the ability to move my fingers. We talked once more, and decided that we would give me a week to recover, and then ride out. I did not look forward to encountering more horses.
He watched me closely for that week, of course. Except for when he didn't, and went off with some contract to fulfill, and new wounds and scratches on his body that would heal within the day. Irregardless, as my body recovered from the apparent flagrant overuse of my powers, he questioned me. He was curious, of course, about why I had collapsed; the best explanation I could offer was an attempt on my life. He asked much more obvious questions as well, the kind I expected him to have asked during our first conversation - Where had I gotten my 'merchandise', what could I do, could I fight, did I have any enemies, why did monsters follow me - anything he needed to better evaluate me as a threat or as a person. I was mostly honest, even when he brought up my interests and I had to try to explain as best I could my hobbies in context. And, of course, the question of exactly what I was. Whatever it was Geralt could see me as, or see around me, or however his Witcher Sense worked, he was totally convinced that I wasn't entirely human. He had his theories, but wanted me to tell him.
My answer never changed. "Just another nobody." I would say.
I asked my own questions too, of course. Not many, but just enough about him that I could be justified in the use of my meta knowledge on his life and to seem as though I was validating wild stories and rumors, or flagrant exaggerations from whichever history book he had made his way into that definitely existed. I also asked enough to figure out what had happened to my stuff. My wagon, cart, whatever – I didn't even pretend to care about its actual name – had been taken by the city, and aside from a "small" tax fee taken from my stock due to keeping it somewhere out of the way and where it wouldn't be stolen, and also due to my stay here, even if I hadn't actually taken up any resources other than a bed. My horse was being kept in an Inns stable, which was… joy. Yay. At least this one was cooperative, and hopefully wouldn't cause another local mass extinction of horses by refusing to cooperate when the week was up.
Sometime near the end of the week, when I could move around but not so much as stop a cat from beating me in a contest of strength – something which happened far too frequently for my tastes – I asked him what he had done to my journal. He tossed it to me, which then knocked me over and onto my ass because yes, I was that much of a pushover right now. He couldn't read it, something I was glad for but yet oddly confused by. After all, they wrote in English, and I wrote in large, blocky text to avoid the issue I usually provoked when writing of no one being able to read whatever it was I had wrote, including me. When I tentatively preached the subject, Geralt looked at my for a moment before pulling a book from the shelf, showing it to me.
I then realized it was another language. Same alphabet, different language being perceived as English. I hoped there wasn't a limitation there.
This, of course, prompted more questions from Geralt concerning my native tongue, and alphabet. I couldn't give him a reasonable explanation, because as one might expect, I wasn't willing to open the can of worms that the cosmic truths I could dish out about the world would bring. We did, however, finally address the issue of the monsters which followed me and apparently would repeatedly raze villages to the ground. To be fair, I was surprised by this fact. I had never revisited the villages or towns I had gone to after leaving behind offerings and the day I would return, and what with the lack of constant monster attacks after the first day, I had assumed it wouldn't be so large a problem as it had apparently become. I had even slowed time down and gone hunting for anything that might be stalking me at a distance several times, only finding your usually monster population doing fuck all besides providing free body horror shows.
Speaking of, Horror. An emotion I was glad I couldn't feel on this world, and should probably be concerned by how I can barrel muster any fake empathy for those who evoke it.
On the final day, I could finally move every limb without issue, and pick up t he cat by the scruff of its neck rather than have it shove me off the bed despite my feeble protests yet again. I swear it stood on its hind legs and crossed its arms for a moment after I dropped it though… ah well. I wasn't at the peak of my strength, but it was enough. My Time Dilation hadn't returned either, though I did swear that on occasion things seemed to slow down around me. I still hadn't touched any of the other building or stable pools of energy. I could also still make Gateways to the Corridors of Darkness, so I had an escape if need be. I didn't plan on it.
It was right after I had gotten dressed, finally pulling on my cloak once more, that Geralt walked into the room, boots bloodied and sporting fresh wounds. I decided to cover up the fact I had basically just been acting like a moron because the robes felt like a part of me by asking him exactly how many contracts and job offers he had been getting to be going out almost every day and coming back twelve hours later.
He said none, and that he had been dealing with larger monsters that were apparently drawn to me and brave or uncaring enough to come closer to the city's gates.
I said oh.
He said we were moving out today, and I nodded before thinking back in retrospect to the past week. Geralt just asked me when I was going to stop standing here, and I think I'm just going to keep doing this for the moment.
-0-0-0-
" ...And you rode here on that?" Geralt asked, watching me attempt to get my horse too cooperate. It was refusing, apparently feeling a bit vengeful over the whole many beatings thing, which I didn't feel like repeating in Geralts presence. He was currently gently stroking Roach, his truly intimidating Horse's snout. Roach was looking at me rudely. I was convinced this would ultimately only end well.
"...Yep." I say, finally succeeding in getting the saddle on the horse. I suspected Geralt would step in if I took too long.
"...Does she have a name? He asked, having just fed Roach an apple.
"He's a She?" I look at him, 'surprised'. I didn't know, so that makes it easier. I do wonder if my view on life is negatively affecting my progress to becoming a person, what with how I've recently been viewing emotion. "Nah, no name, I stopped after horse 50 or so, and by then they were getting pretty forgettable anyway."
Geralt stares. He had apparently forgotten to ask about my past horses.
"Not long till I'm ready to go." I say. "Shouldn't take that much longer."
-0-0-0-
It then took 7 hours.
-0-0-0-
Three days later, we rode over the top of the hill, I resisting my horses efforts to kick me off of it and Geralt riding a bit further ahead before stopping. It was a pleasant, very tense three days in which I had nearly figured out his exact plan, and I had decided to blame the Crones for all my monster issues. Because Fuck the crones, and we were quickly growing close to them anyway. But I digress.
"You know the drill." Geralt murmured. I looked up from where I was fiddling with my saddle to see a village in the distance, obscured by woods and mist. I nod and reluctantly pull my hood off. It felt right when it was up and unnatural when it was off, but we had - in a startling burst of common sense - went and said no, it was not smart to ride into civilized places with my magical and unsettling face obscuring hood up.
"You ride ahead and see if it is safe for me to follow, or if we even need to visit, yes." I say. He nods, and like that, rides off towards the village on Roach.
Now... how to settle my bor-
This is when my horse bucked me off. Yes, my dignity was very dead, my time dilation was expressing itself in the bare minimum, but I was still forevermore going to be bored.