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div style="text-align: center;" data-redactor="1"strongspan style="text-decoration: underline;"Nobody's Memories/span/strong/div
div style="text-align: center;" data-redactor="1"strongChapter 19 - On the road once more/strong/div
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div data-redactor="1"emMy Heart is beating. Frantic eyes surveying the land, ignited with fear, a message from elsewhere and perhaps elsewhen reverberating from antenna to tail blade, and deep into it's very being, to the heart swallowed in darkness and succumbed to the most intense of emotions, a base being of primordial hunger and little else./em/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"emAnd right now, it is panicking. It's panic is not a pretty panic, within the valley's walls; The river gnashes and churns, ruined and interrupted by the deep routes now carved into the ground by its body; claw marks adorn the walls as boulders fall and long standing geological formations crumble. The remains of a nice little hamlet built near the base of the river and in a wide clearing are destroyed and utterly wiped from the face of the earth as My Heart clutches its head and tries to climb its way upward, out of this valley, out of this world and to the comforting darkness; it does not care for the hamlet that had flourished, now forever wiped from the face of that world. It cares for its dly rooted anger, as it tries to howl in confusion, but only a silent hissing permeates the air for miles./em/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"emIt does not know what this message was, what it's contents were; it only cares that it is being attacked, touched in the deepest of ways, and it will not stop./em/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"emAfter a moment, it finally stops writhing and turning, having noticed me. It no longer resembles an eldritch horror of indescribable shape, bur rather a sleeping one. The valley no longer resembles what it once was moments before as it stares at. My Heart stares at my Body. My Heart lash-/em/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""-lstice!" Geralts voice calls from above me. It stirs me from my slumber, and I awake. My head hurts, my body feels like I had spent several hours running and being beaten to a pulp, and I had just had some weird dream. Something about Cthulu?/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"Except all of those things had actually happened. And… there had been a Leshen? That was secretly a Crow? I groan as I open my eyes, the sunlight hurting my eyes. Not the best of wake up calls./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""C'mon Geralt, can't I get my much needed beauty sleep? It's hard to look this average waking up y;know." I complain. I had spent a long few days learning Sarcasm was enough of a easily produce trait I could use it to replace the personality I didn't have. When in doubt, complain and make stupid jokes./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""…Solstice, what do you remember?" Geralt asks, and I squint, able to finally make out blurry shapes. I look in the direction I think Geralt is, his size indicating that he's crouched onto his knees to look at me, and think for a moment./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Let's see. You used me as bait, I got beaten up, you killed some Foglets, I got my ass saved by a Leshen, we both decided we needed some sleep…." I say, omitting a few choice details involving what I was. "…Why do I feel wet?" I ask. Looking down I discover that I had apparently been sitting in a puddle of mud for who knows how long, asleep./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Is that it?" Geralt asks. All things considered, yes, yes it was./div
div data-redactor="1""Yep." I say, finally looking around. Sure, my neck hurt, but what was a little pain when I could figure out where I was? "Care to fill the gaps?"/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Sure, why not." He says. "Let's see. After you were hit hard and far enough that I lost sight of you, I was left to fight off the two Foglets."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""I saw three."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""There were two after I entered the fight. So, after two became one, and one became none, I went looking for you. Must've spent the whole night tracking your scent and following your trail of destruction. In the end, I never found you. Forest kept rearranging itself, trying to dilute your scent, repairing any signs of where you might've gone. Sun was rising by the time I came back to the town." Geralt explains./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""So, how did you find me, and then take me back here, to the hills?" I ask, realizing where we are. The landscape truly looked different without Fog covering its every inch, and dark clouds in the sky above./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Getting to that. When I got to the town, everything was back to normal, for what passes as normal around here. No more dead eyes, no watchers in the trees,and the Innkeeper was as right as rain. He remembered me paying for the room and to stable Roach, but not much else. I went around the town, talking to people, and none of them had a very sharp recollection of what had happened for the past few months. When I went to the center of town, there was no shrine. It had vanished into thin air."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Disturbing. But it makes sense." I said. And considering the Leshen's age and motives? Setting up shop to get rid of the Foglets and then packing up when they were gone did make sense, but implied many things. Such as this analogy not fitting at all./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""For a given definition of sense. I eventually retired to the room, and slept. When I came to, I figured you were long gone - either having run from me, or because you were dead. So I packed up, and road out of town on Roach, ready to my prior quest in full. And then, as I saw you horse, I slowed down... and found you sitting where you are now, asleep." Geralt finished/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""...Huh." I say./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Yep." He replies, hopping onto Roach. I look and see my horse is still standing there, eating grass and ignoring me./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""So either way, business as normal?" I ask, hopping onto the Horse. Oddly enough, despite my body aching, I feel better than I have since I went to Oxenfurt. The Horse even goes along with me for once./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Seems like it." Geralt answers. So the plan was still to ask the Bloody Baron about Ciri and find Yennifer in Skellige to talk about Ciri and my "Issues". Good enough for me. "Not so sure about leaving now that we know about the Leshen, but we're off schedule as is..." He adds./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"We're already riding, turning right and with the intent of going around the forest instead of through this time, when I shrug. "We wouldn't find it anyway."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""I know."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"And so, we ride./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"-/div
div data-redactor="1"strongSomething shorter to cool down. We aren't going back to just comedy just yet folks, so buckle down./strong/div
/div
div style="text-align: center;" data-redactor="1"strongspan style="text-decoration: underline;"Nobody's Memories/span/strong/div
div style="text-align: center;" data-redactor="1"strongChapter 19 - On the road once more/strong/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"emMy Heart is beating. Frantic eyes surveying the land, ignited with fear, a message from elsewhere and perhaps elsewhen reverberating from antenna to tail blade, and deep into it's very being, to the heart swallowed in darkness and succumbed to the most intense of emotions, a base being of primordial hunger and little else./em/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"emAnd right now, it is panicking. It's panic is not a pretty panic, within the valley's walls; The river gnashes and churns, ruined and interrupted by the deep routes now carved into the ground by its body; claw marks adorn the walls as boulders fall and long standing geological formations crumble. The remains of a nice little hamlet built near the base of the river and in a wide clearing are destroyed and utterly wiped from the face of the earth as My Heart clutches its head and tries to climb its way upward, out of this valley, out of this world and to the comforting darkness; it does not care for the hamlet that had flourished, now forever wiped from the face of that world. It cares for its dly rooted anger, as it tries to howl in confusion, but only a silent hissing permeates the air for miles./em/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"emIt does not know what this message was, what it's contents were; it only cares that it is being attacked, touched in the deepest of ways, and it will not stop./em/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"emAfter a moment, it finally stops writhing and turning, having noticed me. It no longer resembles an eldritch horror of indescribable shape, bur rather a sleeping one. The valley no longer resembles what it once was moments before as it stares at. My Heart stares at my Body. My Heart lash-/em/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""-lstice!" Geralts voice calls from above me. It stirs me from my slumber, and I awake. My head hurts, my body feels like I had spent several hours running and being beaten to a pulp, and I had just had some weird dream. Something about Cthulu?/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"Except all of those things had actually happened. And… there had been a Leshen? That was secretly a Crow? I groan as I open my eyes, the sunlight hurting my eyes. Not the best of wake up calls./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""C'mon Geralt, can't I get my much needed beauty sleep? It's hard to look this average waking up y;know." I complain. I had spent a long few days learning Sarcasm was enough of a easily produce trait I could use it to replace the personality I didn't have. When in doubt, complain and make stupid jokes./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""…Solstice, what do you remember?" Geralt asks, and I squint, able to finally make out blurry shapes. I look in the direction I think Geralt is, his size indicating that he's crouched onto his knees to look at me, and think for a moment./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Let's see. You used me as bait, I got beaten up, you killed some Foglets, I got my ass saved by a Leshen, we both decided we needed some sleep…." I say, omitting a few choice details involving what I was. "…Why do I feel wet?" I ask. Looking down I discover that I had apparently been sitting in a puddle of mud for who knows how long, asleep./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Is that it?" Geralt asks. All things considered, yes, yes it was./div
div data-redactor="1""Yep." I say, finally looking around. Sure, my neck hurt, but what was a little pain when I could figure out where I was? "Care to fill the gaps?"/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Sure, why not." He says. "Let's see. After you were hit hard and far enough that I lost sight of you, I was left to fight off the two Foglets."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""I saw three."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""There were two after I entered the fight. So, after two became one, and one became none, I went looking for you. Must've spent the whole night tracking your scent and following your trail of destruction. In the end, I never found you. Forest kept rearranging itself, trying to dilute your scent, repairing any signs of where you might've gone. Sun was rising by the time I came back to the town." Geralt explains./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""So, how did you find me, and then take me back here, to the hills?" I ask, realizing where we are. The landscape truly looked different without Fog covering its every inch, and dark clouds in the sky above./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Getting to that. When I got to the town, everything was back to normal, for what passes as normal around here. No more dead eyes, no watchers in the trees,and the Innkeeper was as right as rain. He remembered me paying for the room and to stable Roach, but not much else. I went around the town, talking to people, and none of them had a very sharp recollection of what had happened for the past few months. When I went to the center of town, there was no shrine. It had vanished into thin air."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Disturbing. But it makes sense." I said. And considering the Leshen's age and motives? Setting up shop to get rid of the Foglets and then packing up when they were gone did make sense, but implied many things. Such as this analogy not fitting at all./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""For a given definition of sense. I eventually retired to the room, and slept. When I came to, I figured you were long gone - either having run from me, or because you were dead. So I packed up, and road out of town on Roach, ready to my prior quest in full. And then, as I saw you horse, I slowed down... and found you sitting where you are now, asleep." Geralt finished/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""...Huh." I say./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Yep." He replies, hopping onto Roach. I look and see my horse is still standing there, eating grass and ignoring me./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""So either way, business as normal?" I ask, hopping onto the Horse. Oddly enough, despite my body aching, I feel better than I have since I went to Oxenfurt. The Horse even goes along with me for once./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""Seems like it." Geralt answers. So the plan was still to ask the Bloody Baron about Ciri and find Yennifer in Skellige to talk about Ciri and my "Issues". Good enough for me. "Not so sure about leaving now that we know about the Leshen, but we're off schedule as is..." He adds./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"We're already riding, turning right and with the intent of going around the forest instead of through this time, when I shrug. "We wouldn't find it anyway."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1""I know."/div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"And so, we ride./div
div data-redactor="1" /div
div data-redactor="1"-/div
div data-redactor="1"strongSomething shorter to cool down. We aren't going back to just comedy just yet folks, so buckle down./strong/div
/div