I do not own Witcher or any of the characters.
Passage
Eldin carried the young girl into the building, setting her on the table gently. "She was attacked by a Krallach. It's not poisoned, just deep."
Renfri and the doctor teaching her both bent down to inspect the deep gash in the girl's side. After a moment, the doctor nodded.
"I'll clean it, and then you'll stitch it closed, Renfri," the doctor decided.
Renfri nodded, fetching a needle and thread, and the doctor cleaned the wound as best he could, holding bandages against it in order to slow the bleeding until she'd stitched it. Then, he nodded to her, and Renfri went to work. After several minutes of working in silence, she stepped back so that the doctor could inspect her work, and he nodded to himself before wrapping bandages over the wound.
"Well done," the doctor smiled. "That was fine work." He looked to the girl's mother. "Your daughter should make a full recovery. Keep the wound cleaned and bring her back in three days so I can inspect it, and in about a week, maybe two, she should be healed enough to take the stitches out."
The mother nodded, mopping at her eyes. "Thank you!" she took Renfri's hands in her own. "Bless you!"
"It was nothing," Renfri smiled.
The woman gently took her daughter into her arms and left the building, and the doctor smiled.
"It wasn't nothing," he said. "You saved that girl's life."
"You would have done it if I didn't," Renfri said.
"That may be, but it wasn't me that saved her, it was you," the doctor said. "You could have done it even if I wasn't here. You saved her."
Renfri smiled and nodded. "Thank you."
The doctor shared her smile, nodding, and picked up a book of antidotes and medicine, resuming the lesson that had been interrupted. While he did, Eldin took his leave.
Aralyn mashed her lips to Eldin's as he shoved himself inside her to the root, pressing against the back of her tunnel and erupting, filling her. She clung to him, her ribbed tunnel convulsing and trembling around him, milking him for every drop before she finally began to settle from her own climax, beginning to gasp and pant as she struggled to catch her breath, smiling.
"I love it when we get a separate room from Renfri," Aralyn smiled as Eldin rolled to the side to lay beside her, still hilted in her.
"So do I," Eldin smiled, then grinned. "Though, I'm pretty sure by the way I've caught her looking at you that she'd probably be fine with us doing this in the same room."
Aralyn blinked in surprise, then shrieked in mock outrage, shoving him, only to roll with him as he rolled onto his back, keeping him firmly rooted inside of her. "You horny bastard!" Her tone betrayed her words as being playful. "You just want to see me naked and wrapped around another slut for you to stick your cock in!"
"Another, in this case, making you one first?" Eldin questioned, raising an eyebrow as Aralyn began to raise her hips, only to drop, moaning as he filled her again.
"Oh, as much as I enjoy this feeling," Aralyn paused to moan as she began to ride him more deliberately, "I definitely qualify as your own personal slut."
"Good," Eldin smiled, sitting up to kiss her. "And that had better not change anytime soon."
Aralyn moaned as she began to bounce on his cock in earnest, kissing him hungrily, neither caring, as they never did, whether anyone outside of their room objected to them having sex loudly in the middle of the day.
Eldin stared at the man before him. He was aged, balding, and stooped from decades of hard labor, and in his hand was a pouch of coins.
"I slay monsters, not bandits," Eldin said.
"Please!" the man pleaded. "They'll be here within the hour! They'll rape every woman, butcher every child, torture every man! Please, help us!"
Eldin stared at him a long while before finally sighing. "Five hundred. That's my price."
The man hesitated, then nodded, passing Eldin the pouch as a younger man with a sword ran over with a second.
"Where do you want our men positioned?" the mayor asked.
"Do you have a building with enough space for everyone to take shelter?" Eldin asked. "The entire village?"
The man nodded.
"Then get everyone inside, including your men," Eldin instructed.
"But...all of them?" the man asked.
"Make it quick," Eldin urged. "Before the bandits arrive."
The man hesitated, then nodded, the younger man running to quickly gather everyone in the village, along with their pets, into one building.
"Where will we wait?" Renfri asked. "On a roof?"
"Inside with the others," Eldin said.
"What?" Renfri gasped. "But there are a hundred bandits coming! You're really going to fight alone!?"
"Aralyn," Eldin said, spotting the first bandit cresting the hill west of the village.
"Come on, Renfri," Aralyn said, guiding her inside. "Trust me, Eldin will be fine."
Once inside, Aralyn barred the door. Eldin sighed, pulling his mask from his satchel and casting the satchel aside. Then, as the bandits entered the village square, he pulled on the mask, raising the hook of his cloak. The fight began instantly and brutally. Even through the building's thick walls, they could hear the screams. First of anger, then of pain, then of terror, and finally of desperation. The clashes of metal and the sound of blade meeting flesh rang out near-constantly, and Aralyn and Renfri stood in a window, Renfri watching in amazement and Aralyn in sympathy as Eldin passed unchecked through the ranks of the bandits. Arrows shattered against his armor. Blades and spears stopped cold against him. Blasts of Aard shattered bone and ruptured internal organs. Igni lit entire groups of bandits like the heads of matches. As Eldin swept past one such bonfire, a boy on the building's upper landing yelped.
"He's got horns!" the boy cried out. "The Witcher's got horns!"
"It's a mask," Aralyn explained. "An armored mask to protect his head."
And still the cries of the bloodbath continued until finally, all was still and silent. Aralyn waited, watching, holding Renfri by the shoulder, until at last, Eldin pulled the mask from his head, his tattered hood falling behind him. Aralyn released Renfri, and they unbarred the doors, opening them to the scene of the carnage. Bodies in all manner of dismemberment littered the village square, some of them still burning. Blood repainted the ground over the entirety of it and was splattered across the walls of the nearest buildings. Some of the corpses were clearly cut down in an attempt to flee, but none had escaped. As Eldin pulled his satchel on again, his mask carefully hidden away inside of it, the townspeople began to exit the building, only to gasp in shock and horror at the sight, mothers covering their children's eyes, a few vomiting.
"You...You're not human!" a woman accused. "No human could do this! No human would do this! This is..."
"We hired a Witcher to protect us!" a man snapped. "We didn't pay to have some...ragged demon line our streets with blood and bodies!"
"You paid me to stop the bandits from raping your women and killing your children," Eldin reasoned. "I did. If you don't like my methods, don't come crying to me for help next time. If you'd prefer that the bandits coming to cut your throats be reasoned with, or placated, maybe you should send your women to sell themselves to them instead of hiring a monster hunter to protect you. At least then the cleanup wouldn't be blood."
"Get out of here, demon!" a woman shouted, hurling a stone, which bounced off of Eldin's shoulder harmlessly. "Leave and never come back!"
"Gladly," Eldin said. "But when you dispose of the bodies, be sure to bury them deep, and spread them out. Leave too much food for the wolves to find, and they'll be back to find more. And wolves is thinking positively."
With that, Eldin walked to where their horses were tied, freeing them from the post and mounting his and Aralyn's. Aralyn climbed up behind him, and Renfri mounted her own, the three of them riding out of town together.
"That was...those people didn't deserve to be protected!" Renfri spat.
"That doesn't matter," Eldin said. "They paid to be protected and they were. Whether they were happy with my services or not after the fact isn't my problem."
"You're really okay with being thrown out of the town you just protected?" Renfri asked.
"I don't intend to ever come back here again anyway," Eldin said. "And I'm a Witcher. I've been treated worse for less."
Renfri was silent for a while before sighing. "So, why were me and Aralyn inside? Were you worried we'd get in your way? Afraid we'd be hurt?"
"Yes," Eldin said.
"Which?" Renfri asked.
"Both," Eldin said simply.
As Renfri opened her mouth to respond, Aralyn explained.
"It's not that he didn't trust us. It's that he put on his mask. It wasn't that the bandits would have hurt us, Eldin was worried what he might have done to us."
"What do you mean?" Renfri asked.
"The mask he carries is part of the armor my father crafted for him with magic, but my father made it for one specific reason," Aralyn explained. "He wanted Eldin to act as his demon and slaughter every soldier and every guard in the kingdom where I was imprisoned, along with the king. He made the mask so that it would amplify Eldin's negative emotions, his hate, his bloodlust, his anger, while also muting his positive ones like his kindness, his compassion, his mercy. And the only times Eldin's worn it since, are the times when whatever he's facing has absolutely needed to die, and anything that gets in his way, whether intentionally or accidentally, also becomes his enemy. That negative energy, all those negative feelings, they've amplified that magic until now, when he wears it, he becomes a dark, murderous version of himself. When he wears it, he is Death incarnate. There is no mercy, there is no friend or foe. There's only death, and anyone before him is a target. Even us. That's why we were inside. That's why he fought alone. Not because he didn't think we could help, or that he was worried we'd hold him back. To protect us from himself."
Renfri nodded, staring at the satchel. "I guess I know who I'm never pissing off, then."
Eldin smiled, shaking his head. "As long as I don't have the mask on, you're safe, unless you try to kill me or Aralyn. And I swear to you I'll never put on the mask while you'd be in harm's way."
Renfri nodded, smiling. "So, on a brighter topic, what's next?"
"I'm thinking a bigger city next," Eldin said. "Somewhere we can make some real money."
Renfri groaned. "Not another of your fighting tournaments."
Eldin laughed. "It's not my fault they keep letting me compete."
"I'm on Eldin's side," Aralyn grinned. "If they want to give us money for minimal effort, I say let them."
Renfri sighed, nodding. "Well, if we want somewhere there's bound to be a massive market for fighters, that'd be Cintra."
"Ah, yes," Eldin smiled. "The Lioness of Cintra. She does seem the type to have a city filled with fools willing to pay me to beat them bloody. I guess we have our destination, then."
"It'll take us a while to get there," Aralyn said. "Another week, at least."
"Probably more," Eldin guessed. "We have a nasty habit of getting sidetracked."
"True," Renfri nodded. "I blame Eldin."
"Agreed," Aralyn nodded, kissing him on the cheek. "He just can't help saving those in need."
Eldin rolled his eyes, turning and kissing Aralyn before turning back to the front.
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