I do not own Witcher or any of the characters.

Companion

Eldin walked into the cave with the elf, only to stop, staring at the carnage. A group of humans lay scattered around the cave, mangled and burned, and the elderly elf lay against the back wall with a gash stretching from his abdomen to his shoulder. The elf girl shrieked in fear, sprinting to her father and kneeling. He smiled up at her tiredly, then at Eldin.

"You saved her," he croaked. "Thank you."

"They tracked me back here," Eldin said. "I'm sorry."

The elf shook his head. "I was on borrowed time anyway." He shifted his gaze to his daughter. "Aralyn, listen to me. I want you to travel with this Witcher."

"But he's human!" Aralyn argued.

"But he will take care of you," the elf said. "And your safety aside, there's a reason that I chose him to save you."

"Because he was convenient and you could force him into a life debt," Aralyn accused.

The elf shook his head slowly. "Please listen to me. You need to travel with him. He will need you, and you will need him. Please."

Aralyn sighed. "Fine. But I-"

"You need to trust him, Aralyn," the elf said. "For me."

Aralyn hesitated. "I'll try."

The elf nodded, sighing tiredly, and set his head back against the wall. "I'm entrusting you with my entire world, Witcher. Don't fail me."

"I won't," Eldin said. "Rest."

The elf nodded, letting out a long, rattling breath, and allowed his eyes to slide closed before falling still. Aralyn began to sob, and Eldin walked outside to allow her privacy.

Aralyn adjusted the daggers on her hips, glancing over at Eldin as he pulled his cloak on over his faded black shirt with draw strings for the collar slit and his faded, dark grey pants. He glanced at Aralyn, taking note of the clothes she'd retrieved from among her and her father's possessions, along with her blades. She now wore a pair of tight, thin, pale green pants, brown leather grieves, brown shoes, a dark green shirt open down the front to just above her navel, exposing her cleavage, a forest green pauldron on the right side attached to the shirt somehow so that it didn't need a strap, and brown leather vambraces secured with a strap around her middle fingers and thumbs. Her daggers both had lightly-curved black hilts with gold highlights forming small swirls and vines, then curved, beautiful blades. The one on her right hip was silver, and the other was steel, but both were beautiful weapons. On her back was a similarly-designed sword with a silver blade and runes along the sides that glowed in the presence of monsters, as he'd found out when they'd been attacked by a group of rotfiends as they were passing the kingdom where Eldin had saved Aralyn.

In the last couple of days, Aralyn's injuries had nearly faded completely, leaving her admittedly remarkably beautiful face almost fully restored, and her bright red hair was still damp from her bath and swept over her left shoulder. The only thing marring her beauty was the scowl constantly affixed to her face and the hatred she constantly projected at Eldin due to his humanity.

"What?" Aralyn asked coldly as she caught Eldin's glance.

"How do you feel?" Eldin asked.

"Why don't you come over here and I'll show you," Aralyn growled.

Eldin rolled his eyes. "Look, I can appreciate your feelings toward humans, but I no longer qualify as a human. Also, I saved your life, so I would appreciate it if you could stop threatening to kill me every chance you get. If I'm going to be stuck with you, I'd like to avoid an eternal headache."

Aralyn spat at him, and Eldin rolled his eyes. He climbed onto his horse and flicked the reins, and Aralyn followed suit, keeping a distance between them. They rode in silence most of the way to the next town, stopping only once around noon to eat, then finally arrived. However, as soon as they rode into the town, Eldin recognized the problem. Aralyn was attracting too much attention. Nearly every male they passed eyed her predatorially.

"Aralyn," Eldin said, motioning for her to catch up.

She hesitated before spurring her horse up to his side. "Why are we here?"

"Witchers hunt for money," Eldin said. "We need to work in order to survive." They passed a particularly large group of men whose eyes didn't leave Aralyn once. "Stay close to me. I won't let them touch you."

Aralyn nodded and managed a soft, "Thank you," in a slightly shaky voice.

They road to the town's pub and tied their horses outside before heading into the building. The pub was packed, but they made it to the bar without incident, excluding stares, and the barkeep merely grunted to acknowledge their presence.

"Any work for a Witcher?" Eldin asked.

The barkeep eyed them both in silence for a moment before returning to wiping out his glass. "No work here. We just had one come through a few nights ago. The White Wolf, I think he was called."

Eldin rolled his eyes. "Geralt. Of course. Come on, Aralyn. Let's move on. There's nothing good for us here."

Aralyn nodded, and they turned to leave, only for several large men to step into their way.

"Where you headed, love?" one of the men asked.

"Stay a while," another said.

"I ain't never had an elf before," the third said. "How much you charging?"

"You all have three seconds to get the fuck out of the way," Eldin warned.

"Piss off!" one of the men said, shoving Eldin away.

The situation snapped instantly. The other two lunged for Aralyn, grabbing her by the arms and hair. However, before they could do anything else, Eldin's fist slammed into the sternum of the man who'd shoved him, cracking it. then, Eldin shattered one of the other men's elbow before slamming him to the ground, holding his sword to the other's throat.

"Release her," Eldin snarled. "Right now."

The man quickly disentangled his hand from her hair, also freeing his friend's hand from it, and Aralyn stood instantly, stepping around to Eldin's other side from them. Eldin sheathed his sword and slammed a push kick into the last man, throwing him onto a table before he turned, wrapping an arm around Aralyn and leading her out of the pub. He helped her onto her horse, then climbed onto his own and both rode out of the town quickly. Once they were away from it, Aralyn began to sob.

"Are you alright?" Eldin asked.

Aralyn shook her head. "I couldn't move. I was so scared!"

"It's alright," Eldin said, riding up beside her and taking her hand. "I'm not going to let them hurt you."

"Why is this happening to me?" Aralyn asked. "It was...It was the entire town!"

"I don't know," Eldin said. "But it'll pass."

Aralyn shook her head. "I'm a trained fighter! They shouldn't have been able to touch me!"

"You're still injured and weak from weeks of torture," Eldin said. "It's going to take time for you to recover."

Aralyn didn't respond, but also didn't take her hand back, so Eldin rode in silence.

"There are some ruins nearby I'd like to study," the man said, tapping the book in his hand. "Unfortunately, there's a Nekker nest just outside of the cave the ruins are in, so I haven't been able to approach them."

"What's so special about the ruins?" Eldin asked.

"Truthfully, nothing," the man said. "But it's an ancient Elven ruin, and I quite like Elven statues and architecture."

"You're not taking a statue," Eldin said flatly.

"Oh, no, no, no!" the man said quickly, shaking his head before opening his book to a sketch of a statue depicting a pair of lovers. "I simply mean to sketch them! I would never mean to steal them! I'm an archeologist, not a thief."

Eldin looked to Aralyn, who nodded, and turned back to the archeologist. "Fifty orens up front. Plus extra if there are more than twenty Nekkers."

The archeologist nodded and handed over the coins. Eldin tucked it away and drained his mug before following the archeologist out of the village and into the woods. Within minutes, a massive bush to the side rustled, then was flattened to the ground as a massive, red, six-legged lizard scrambled out of it toward them. The archeologist shrieked in fear, but when it reached Eldin, he turned sharply, his sword emerging from its scabbard and returning to it in a flash as an arc of blood scattered from the Endrega just before it collapsed. Another charged from behind, but Aralyn spun, drawing her silver daggers before flipping over its jaws as it snapped at her, then shredded its back. As she landed on her feet, the Endrega collapsed and she drove a dagger into its head to finish it before returning to Eldin and the archeologist.

"Are you sure you're not secretly an elven Witcher?" Eldin asked.

"I'm sure," Aralyn said, smiling slightly. "I told you, I'm a trained killer."

"And I'm never going to piss you off," Eldin smirked. "Now, where were we?"

The archeologist stared at them in confusion as they continued walking as calmly as though they had been greeted by passersby, rather than attacked by deadly monsters. Their mood failed to fall any, either, after attacks by several more Endrega and two small groups of Nekkers, though Eldin assured the archeologist that they didn't count toward his fee. Finally, they reached the cave, and Eldin fell into the front, Aralyn in the back and the archeologist in between them.

"The Nekker count starts now," Eldin said.

The archeologist nodded as they headed into the cave, and within seconds, five Nekker Warriors burst out of the ground. The three in front charged at Eldin, shrieking loudly, only for Eldin's blade to remove all three heads with a single, smooth stroke. The two from behind were finished equally quickly by Aralyn's daggers cutting their throats to the bone. The archeologist, having gotten used to their swift battles, largely ignored the battle, heading deeper into the cave with his escorts. The tunnel wound and wove through the stone as it descended into the Earth. After a few minutes, it opened into a large chamber where Nekkers began to appear, and Eldin and Aralyn took off, their blades flashing and drawing sprays of blood rapidly as they slaughtered the Nekkers almost as fast as they were appearing. As the number climbed well past twenty, the Nekkers kept coming. Finally, well into the fifties, the last one collapsed to the ground, and Eldin and Aralyn looked around, both narrowing their eyes.

"There's a lot more than I was expecting," Aralyn said.

"Agreed," Eldin nodded, kneeling and using a throwing knife to begin removing eyes and claws.

"What are you doing?" Aralyn asked, already helping him collect.

"If we sell these to the right person, they might as well be gold," Eldin said.

"Why are there so many?" Aralyn asked. "I've never even heard of a group this big. This is only one section of the cave, too. There are definitely more."

"Yeah," Eldin nodded. "I've seen one bigger, though."

"Really?" the archeologist asked. "You know why it's so populated?"

"Yeah," Eldin nodded. "There's a queen here."

"A...A queen?" Aralyn asked. "There are Nekker Queens?"

"They're rare, but yeah," Eldin nodded. "And they're dangerous."

"Why?" Aralyn asked.

"They're highly venomous, they're faster and stronger than normal Nekkers, and they are never alone," Eldin said.

Aralyn nodded. "Should me and our client wait outside?"

"No," Eldin said. "Now that you're here, and your blades are stained with their blood, she'll send more after you."

Aralyn swallowed hard, and Eldin glanced at her.

"Don't worry," Eldin said calmly. "I'm not going to let you be hurt."

One of his hands rested on his mask's satchel, and Aralyn stared at it for a moment before nodding. After another minute, they'd collected a large amount of eyes and claws, storing them in a second pocket of his satchel. Then, they continued walking. More and more large groups of Nekkers swarmed them as they walked deeper into the cave before they finally stopped at the mouth of an enormous cavern with a ruin set into the far wall. Eldin pulled an elixir from his collection and drained it before a spherical barrier appeared around Aralyn and the archeologist.

"Stay here," Eldin said. "She's ahead."

As he walked away, the archeologist raised a hand to his mouth and whispered, "Did you see his skin darken? Witchers are such freaks."

Aralyn slammed the bottom edge of her hand into the side of his neck and he collapsed on the spot. Eldin's lips twitched into a smirk before he pulled his mask from his satchel and pulled it on, tugging his hood up into place. Not even thirty seconds later, a high, piercing shriek echoed from the ruin as the queen appeared from a doorway. She was slightly larger than a Nekker Warrior and had an entirely blood red body, longer claws, and horn-like ears sticking out from the sides from her head. And as soon as she appeared, Nekkers began to flood from the ruin and from out of the ground around Eldin. Eldin drew his sword, holding it beside himself as the Nekkers flooded toward him. Then, as they reached him, the bloodbath began, sprays of thick blood and severed limbs flying in every direction. A warrior's claws raked across his back, but didn't leave a mark on his conceiled armor. He spun, drawing a circle across the Nekkers around him with his sword, then shot forward, twisting and spinning as he went, his sword never stopping its movements and leaving no Nekkers alive. Then, the Queen was there. He ducked out of the way of her claws, and turned sharply, his blade drawing a line across both the Queen and the last handful of Nekkers present. As they all collapsed to the ground, the barrier around Aralyn and the archeologist faded. Eldin stored his mask again less than a second before the archeologist stirred, pushing himself up, and massaged his neck, taking a step away from Aralyn. Aralyn walked over to Eldin, the archeologist giving them a wide bitth as he headed for the ruin. Eldin and Aralyn followed, both keeping their blades out in case there were more Nekkers. However, after twelve hours of the archeologist sketching and studying the ruins, they headed back to the town they'd come from, not being attacked by anything the rest of the time. The Archeologist payed the extra fee, plus another extra for it being a Queen, and Eldin and Aralyn left the town again.

Leave a review.