He wasn t sure how much time he had wasted on top of that godforsaken mountain. There had been a night and a dawn, but it had been insignificant, trivial even with the words still tolling in his head.
He had been following that man like a sailor followed the north star, with just as much faith. Everything had made sense as long as this light point was in sight. He could sort the whole world and all its gory madness as long as he had his ledger.
What would a sailor do with the stars falling?
Drown perhaps.
Jaskier wasn't sure he had lungs to drown with anymore. It didn't feel like he drew breath. His heart, his hands, his eyes, nothing was his own anymore. Perhaps he was dead. His soul only remaining inside his body out of sheer habit, but not connected to it anymore.
Getting up was digging valleys and filling the sea. Monumental in its strain. Never ending and painful down to his bones.
The legs, not his, but they were somehow what got him on wards, seemed to know what to do. Stumbling without him.
The world was strangely not there. It looked familiar. There were trees and a sky. Blue and friendly. But the were mere staffage. If he could find his hand he would be able to reach through it. If he would have had a skin, this thought would have been chilling.
But what was substance to a ghost?
The legs found a path and followed it. Perhaps it was easier than struggle through the scrub.
He lost time while the legs moved. Only came back to himself when they collapsed beneath him.
Why he stayed so stubbornly in this body was a mystery. He didn't want to be here. Why stay?
This time there was real forest around him. Not the miserable sticks the mountain top had produced.
The back gave out too and the head fell into something soft. Moss. The tree crowns above him swirled. He didn't care for it. The eyes closed. The darkness was nothing new.

A growl. Directly next to the ear. An eye opened lazily.
A snout. Long, with teeth and a rank odor.
Wolf.
A howl. This time from the legs. Something pulled at his boots.
Hopefully they would be quick with this body. The eye closed again.
A roar. Loud enough to make the whole-body flinch, to rip open the eyes and get the legs under him.
The wolfs, three that he could see, had formed a half circle before him. Undecided if this quarry would be worth the fight.
Another rumble, deep and strong enough to feel it in the rips he clung to.
That was the biggest bear he had seen in all of his travels. The fur nearly black in the dusk. The beast got on his hind legs and more than ten feet of terror loomed into the night.
The wolfs tuned tails. Japing and wailing.
Leaving Jaskier and his end alone.
The legs stumbled backwards, but not far. The back bumped into a tree and the hands, these funny little optimists, shot up. The palms out, as if it was important to show that he was unarmed.
The bear fell back on his four legs. Sniffing and huffing.
Still staring into the trunks as if to make sure the other predators were truly gone.
It was a strange moment Jaskier shared with the beast. Both of them harking into the darkness.
All of a sudden, the bear shifted. It strode forwards directly to Jaskier.
While it moved, it seemed to shake, pelt shedding, the head deforming. Like coming in to a room through a curtain, a man stepped out of the fur. Not missing a beat, but all of his cloth. He stopped only inches from Jaskier.
"Are you out of your friggin mind?", scolded the man and the body decided it had enough. Through his fall Jaskier heard a:" Oh shit!" before the night returned.

Jaskier´s senses came back slowly. The first thing he noted was how warm he was. He was wrapped into something fleecy and cosy. A quaintly hum running through him. He had no idea how he had ended up in this situation. But he sure as hell wasn't complaining.
He borrowed deeper into the warmth, sighing happily. The hum got louder. It reminded him a little of a purr. But deeper. It would need to be a huge cat to produce such a noise.
The warmth moved.
Jaskier´s eyes flew open. The light of an early morning reached him together with the memories of the previous day.
Jaskier froze under the sheer amount of impressions raining down on him, his heart rabbiting in his chest. The warmth made a huffing sound, and a big, damp nose was squeezed into his neck, panting self-indulgently.
The next thing Jaskier knew was the hard ground while all the fur around him suddenly dissolved into nothing.
What remained in his field of sight was a young man, bare, his pale butt cheeks gleaming in the forest twilight, diving for a pack.
Jaskier blinked a couple of times before he squinted over to the nudist. Well he wasn't that exposed anymore, hopping up and down to get into his breeches.
"I´m so sorry!", he called over to Jaskier. His voice was pleasant, clear and friendly:" I had to get you warm. And I am shit with a fire, and there are these guys here and they would have smelled the smoke and I thought: Bear!", he stopped to pull a battered shirt over his head.
Jaskier got in a more amendable position for his knees and waited for the moment something would start making sense.
A face with some stubble popped out of the collar, shortly followed by an untamed mop of chocolate coloured locks:" I had planned to be awake before you. Obviously. And not to scare the living daylights out of you. For what I am sorry. Really.", brownie-locks found a sock, and a shoe, and sat down on a trunk to pull them on:" I know it's an unnerving thing to wake up to. But you seemed really out of it, and I was worried."
Another sock. Another shoe.
The man came back over, wiggling into his vest while moving and crouched down in front of Jaskier:" How are you feeling?"
Jaskier looked in two concerned hazel eyes and answered truthfully:" Fuck if I know."
That earned him a grin from the man:" You certainly look better. Would you like something to eat? I have bread.", he was on his way back to the pack before Jaskier could answer:" I would go hunting, but it would take time, and I would have to cook it for you. Most shit I just scoff down, you know? Let the shape deal with it. Aha!", it sounded like triumph.
This time he brought the whole pack over.
"There has to be cheese, too.", he pressed a hunk of bread into Jaskier's hands and resumed his raking in the pack.
Jaskier looked at the bread, then at the man. Back at the bread.
"I´m sorry", his words stopped the man in his tracks. The man looked up, assessing Jaskier with these brown eyes:" Yes?"
"I don't want to be impolite but… have you been a bear?"
The young man sighed and with it seemed to deflate into himself. The face vanished behind a wall of curls and the shoulders hunched forward.
Jaskier felt something pierce trough him at the sight, unsure of what he had done to cause such a reaction he scrambled to redeem it:" Oh, I´m so sorry. Darling, truly, I didn't … you are a lovely bear. I just – Its early, and I – I beg your forgiveness. It wasn't my intention to upset you. Its just a little unusual", his hands, one still clutching the bread, hovered awkwardly over the man's shoulders.
"I´ll be gone.", came the flat answer.
"What?"
"Would you… Would you please don't set them on my trail? Keep the bread, and you can have my coat. There is not much more, but… the pack perhaps?"
That made Jaskier grab the bent shoulders and in turn made the young man jump. The brown eyes behind the curls were wide. Hounded, flashed through Jaskier's brain. He had seen this look in the rabbits Geralt caught in his snares – no, not thinking about that.
"What is your name?", asked Jaskier to dispel his own thoughts.
The brown eyes twitched. Searching. For a lie? For a way out?
Shit.
Jaskier let go of the shoulders and leaned back on his haunches.
"I´m Jaskier."
The brown eyes stilled. Narrowing in on his face. It took a long time. But Jaskier had learned to out wait a Witcher. And these bastards lived for century's.
"Marel."
"Marvelous.", said Jaskier.
Marel blinked at him:" Was that a joke?"
"Well clearly not a good one.", huffed Jaskier.
That earned him an uptick in the corners of Marel`s mouth. There was a pause, then:" So, you´re not selling me down the river?", Marel´s gaze remained on the forest floor.
Jaskier´s heart clenched and he hurried to say:" No, of course not.", he thought for a beat before he added:" To whom should I even sell you to?"
Marel shrugged:" Lot of people."
It finally – FINALLY – clicked in Jaskier's head:" You are a shifter!", he exclaimed it too loud, excited to find something so rare, and he realized his mistake the second after.
Marel´s cloth fell to the ground, a bundle of red fur leaped for the next tree.
Jaskier was to slow to follow the squirrel's movement up the trunk.
"Fuck, no, Marel, come back, I didn't – Oh hell. Marel?", Jaskier was left standing at the roots squinting up. An acorn bounced of his head. The sound it created was alarmingly dull.