Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of the witcher. Those are property of Mr Sapkowski and I using Netflix series canon mixed with the books and my twisted version of the lore.

Warnings : A bit of angst. Sexual glimpses and evocation. Nothing graphic.

Notes : I am following the version of the series there, with a little custom twist lol. Bare with me and with the threads I put in the first part of the story about Geralt. There is more to see that what I am apparently saying.

Beauty and the beast - part 2

Beast

###

They went up to the hills, crossing a large portion of forest, while the light was dying. Ciri probably couldn't already see anything but for him everything was fine, and he was find his way easily. They were was clearly on a private property with a path cut in the woods by the hands of men, but no-one came here for a long time. Grass had grown to an extend and was still pretty green under the layer of snow that was progressively covering the ground.

They found the house after several minutes at the end of the road. The gates to the garden were opened and the sinister building was detaching itself out of the night like an ink patch in the dark sky barely lightened by a cloudy rising moon. The whole garden was covered in snow, like the path they took to came here but there was one hint that somebody still live there. The stairs leader to the front door of the building were almost clean. Only the newest snow had fell on it. Geralt began to doubt it was a good idea to come here. But he looked at Ciri on Roach's back. The girl was freezing and even if she didn't complain, she was very tired.

He led the horse to the stables that were, of course, empty and asked Ciri to stay near her. He didn't tie the mare to a pole though. His instincts were screaming danger and he wanted to be able to run away fast if needed. He form the Axii sign and put the idea of protecting the girl in the horse mind, projecting the path they took. Roach neighed and tensed. This was not perfect but this could work on the short time.

- "I am gonna take a look. But if I tell you to run, take the horse and you just go. Let the horse find the way out of the forest and if you can, just return to the city and hide. I will find you no matter what." He whispered. The girl nodded nervously.

He pulled out his sword and moved toward the entry. No light seemed to come out of the building but he felt observed. He took the front stairs carefully.

He was in the middle of it when his medallion vibrated on his chest. Magic. There was something magic nearby. He didn't have the time to search for the source, it came right at him as the doors blasted open and a beast in a suit jumped on him. Geralt couldn't put up with the frontal collision and went on flying backwards. He fell hard in the snow, his airways cut by the shock. His witcher reflexes kicked in and his sword found its way in between the creature fangs just before they could reach his throat.

His brain was turning full regime to analyse his options. The beast was not a werewolf but this was an animal transformation : a mix of a bear and a boar with a heavy ginger fur - perhaps a curse of some sort. The creature was quite powerful and heavy, but it was not using these advantages correctly. Geralt signed Aard and casted it full force in its head. It was pushed away enough to be destabilised and with a vicious kick Geralt made it roll on the side. He rolled with it to find himself on the top of it, his sword still in the beast's jaws. But he caught its eyes and he stopped pressing his blade down. This was a sentient creature.

- "I won't kill you if you don't menace me. If this is your territory we won't trespass. Just let us leave. Do you understand me ?" He said.

- "Geralt ? Is that you ?" Came in return the muffled questions from the animal's throat. The witcher freed him and stepped away.

- "Do I know you ?"

- "It's me Nivellen."

The face of the creature was not aggressive any more and even almost childlike innocent. Its green eyes seemed even familiar to him and it clicked back with the name. It was the person he was looking for in this place, but...

- "Nivellen ? How ? What ?"

- "By the gods ! I am happy to see you, my friend !"

The beast man came for a hug. Geralt stepped back and raised his sword in defence. This could be a trap.

- "Geralt, it's me, I swear."

- "Prove it."

- "The wyvern nest. You saved me in the wyvern nest and we fooled my father." Came the answer, without hesitation.

Geralt lowered his weapon. Only the real Nivellen would have known that. This was their secret and what connected them as friends - if he could call their relationship that way. He accepted the hug this time. There was something weirdly familiar in this strong embrace but he couldn't remember what.

- "Ciri !" He shouted when they separated. "Everything is fine, I come in a minute !"

The girl's head appeared just above the stables mid-wall. She was looking at them confused and a bit scared, but she nodded.

- "Who is that girl you are traveling with ? Ciri ? As in Cirilla of Cintra ?" Nivellen whispered.

- "Yes. We need a shelter for a moment. We won't stay long. I promise. I don't want the fire of Nilfgaard falling on you too because you helped us."

- "You'll always be welcome here, my friend, whatever the odds, even after all this years." The man said with a smile that was more of a grin with his animalistic attributes deforming his face.

This was nice but there was something off. Nivellen was there but Geralt still felt observed. They walked back to the stables. He discreetly Axii Roach again so the horse could relax and rest this time. He attached her to the pole but took care of not making a strong knot. He was still feeling the urge to leave quick if need be.

- "Hello, young princess. I am really sorry for the way I look and that scary introduction. Those days I needed to protect my house from adventurous thiefs." Said the beast man in his back. "I am Nivellen, land lord of this domain. I used to be a human but I am stuck in this atrocious form. Geralt helped me in the past and you are both welcome in my walls." He bowed slightly but quite elegantly, considering the shape of his body.

Geralt was impressed by the way the beast man changed the atmosphere with just a few words. Ciri seemed to relax quickly. She smiled and bowed elegantly in return.

- "I will provide, food, and heat." He made an strange hand movement and Geralt's medallion vibrated again. Suddenly the air was warmer around and a large heap of fresh hay appeared in front of Roach. "Please follow me."

Nivellen invited them to get inside and Geralt was suspicious. No magic he knew could generate matter from thin air. There was chaos but the source was unknown. On the contrary, Ciri was delighted. He decided to keep his worries for himself for now, but he will have many questions to ask later, and he hoped there would be answers.

###

There was an illusion preventing to see that there was someone living inside the building. Nivellen explained that it was for his own tranquility. As soon as they passed the front door everything seemed to come back to life. There was light and warms coming from torches on the wall, and there was a bit of a music playing somewhere. The mansion was almost as Geralt remembered. Long corridors, heavily decorated with portraits of the noble lineage and old furniture could be since in the rooms. Nivellen guided them to the dinning room. He clapped his hands and fire lit itself up in the hearth and on candles on the long table that was occupying the most of the space. He invited them to sit and clapped again. Food and drinks just appeared from nowhere.

Ciri had her eyes wide opened. During their journey, Geralt had provided food and on that matter they weren't famished, but this was witcher dishes, fire cooked roots, leaves and meat. What Nivellen was providing here was some very appetising gourmet menu.

- "Wait." He said to Ciri that was about to take some of it. "How are you making all that ? Is that an illusion ?"

- "Oh no no no. This is very real.

- "How ?"

- "Well, I wanted to talk about that later. Let's not dwell into sad and bad stuff, especially in front of a young lady. I am happy to have some proper visit at least, let's have a good time."

- "She is stronger that you think." Ciri eyed him and seemed to appreciate the comment. "Nivellen, what happened ?"

The man sighed. But after a moment he complied.

- "I followed some bad persons and ended up sagging the Lionhead Spider's temple. The others were more experienced than me and left me behind when things heated up. I was caught and had to pay the price for my actions. The high priestess of the temple cursed me as a punishment. Here I am as I present myself to you. A big ugly beast, with a lot of fur. But my curse is having a good counterpart, hasn't it ? I can use some funny magic that basically provides me all I wish for for comfort on my land. So I have good food and a nice house." Nivellen giggled and Ciri smiled.

- "Well, useful, I agreed, but good counterpart, let me doubt that. Still I thank you for the hospitality. We really need some rest."

Geralt made a sign to let Ciri eat the food. This kind of curse was a very cruel punishment, and he already knew that Nivellen was just saying half of the truth, but if he was given these powers, it was to survive, therefore the food was real and not poisoned.

###

The first part of the evening was mostly Nivellen entertaining them with old stories concerning both of them. Geralt was participating when needed but he was mostly letting their host talk. The strange thing was that he remembered only fraction of it. Their connection was quite old now. Back from after the banquets events that let to Ciri. A period of troubles for him on a personal level. And he buried a lot of things from this years. Apparently, he did the same with Nivellen. This felt weird but this was almost expected.

Being a bit retreated from the narration had a good side. He could observe more.

The first thing he noticed was the way Ciri looked at Nivellen. Like for him, there was no fear coming from his apparence. The witcher didn't feel he was a scary person per se but he was not very affable and witchers still had bad reputation in the collective mind. The white wolf was made a hero by Jaskier but the discrimination always followed him anyway. It never totally dissappeared. So he could have thought that Ciri could have had that a priori judgment about him. Especially because she still didn't know or didn't make the connection that he was that legend from the songs. Maybe she never listened to those, as Calanthe was not very inclined to let this part of the story known. But she had the same attitude toward the half bear half boar man than him. She was really not afraid of monsters. What scared her was something else.

The second thing he noticed was more a reflection about himself : Ciri was at ease with him but she wasn't serene. Except on the Sodden battlefield, Nivellen was the first contact any human they had in days, and she was totally different with him, even on that short exchange. She seemed almost pleasantly charmed by his humours traits and demeanours. Maybe that was because of lord manners. The witcher never really complied to all the etiquette stuff before, and Ciri was maybe a princess but, in his eyes, she was just a young girl that went through too many thing and that he had to protect. This moment was the first time he saw something attached to her royal status coming through. The way Nivellen was helping her to come out more as herself was something he could learn from him.

Then came, the story of how they met.

- "I was in my forties and doing nothing of my life really. Like I needed to do things... But my father wanted me to be this old vision of noble figure to succeed him and he was a real pain in the ass. Pardon me my lady for such vulgarity." Nivellen pointed the big family portrait sitting above the hearth. "That's us on the portrait here. I looked pretty decent back then." He winked. Ciri giggled. "We had a wyvern in the woods and we asked for Geralt's help. At this time, I was desperate to get my father approval and attention, and I would have done anything for that. And I did. I did something terribly stupid. I came ahead and tried to kill the monster by myself. Of course, this turned as bad as this idea sounded and Geralt had to save me. There was more than one draconides. This was a whole nest. I remember all of it like yesterday. He cut the head of the wyvern that was about to kill me, in one swift movement, and gave it to me, asking me to wait outside the nest while he was taking care of the rest. We came back here together, with only my monster's head as proof of his job - he had burned the rest - and he used it to tell my father that I was the one who killed the wyvern. He never mentioned that there was a lot more than one. This was the first time and the last time I saw my father being proud of me."

Nivellen smiled a bit sadly and Geralt began to remember why he buried all suddenly. Things of the past came back in his mind, like vague memories. He remembered that he had pitied the young Nivellen because it reminded him of Jaskier and his father and he suddenly remembered what he had erased the most : the souvenir of the red head land lord kisses after that hunt, and all the things they did in secret during the next few years later.

He might had blushed a bit because Ciri and Nivellen giggled. When he turned toward the beast, he saw in his eyes the recognition but he saved it for him.

- "Geralt is a though man, but he has a heart of gold. Don't let him fool you."

The young girl looked at him with admiration.

###

The conversation went on and on for a while. Nivellen was a good narrator and entertainer. Ciri was happy but she grew rapidly tired. Their host guided her to the upper level of the mansion and gave her what could be called a suite. He made a fire appear in the fire place here and literally conjured a bath from nowhere so she could wash and get warn before the night.

Then Geralt followed him back in the living room for a more private moment. They sat near the fire in big chairs and kept it quiet for a while.

- "How long has it been since the last time we saw ? Ten years."

- "When did you get cursed ?"

- "Ten years ago... Well I am guessing. I lost the count."

- "Are you gonna tell me it my fault in some ways ?"

- "Oh no. Only mine. But I felt double cursed that my only friend never came back." Geralt's heart twisted painfully. This was too similar to something he wanted to erase from his memory in vain. "Ten years is a long time... to spend alone."

Nivellen put his big hand gently on his leg as he leaned forward. Geralt tensed and the signal was understood clearly. The beast returned in the back of his seat. Something flashed back in the witcher's mind though.

The red head man and he were naked in his bedroom and kissing passionately. There was more. More touches, more caresses, more grips. There were heavy breaths and growls. And there was pleasure.

- "The curse isn't just about your physical feature, right ?"

He tried to continue the conversation as if he wasn't plagued by those unwanted memories, realising that his mind block had worked so well he was even confused when he discovered that he liked men too just before Bremervoord.

- "Indeed. I am trapped in this form forever. I can't die and I can tell you I did try. Bleeding out. Crushed. Asphyxiated. Drugged. Nothing worked. My body always recovered and I always wake up. After a while I accepted my condition. But this is hard sometimes. And you my friend, why did you never come back ? I had hope for a time..."

- "This is the first time I take this road in ten years."

- "What happened ? You have changed, my friend."

- "Too many things to be told and..." Heavy breaths. Moans. Red hair and green eyes. Brown hair and grey eyes. Black hair and violet eyes. Geralt gulped. "A woman."

- "Oh !" Nivellen's face lightened. "Tell me more."

- "She is dead now. This is all there is to know."

- "I am sorry." There was an awkward silence then he continued. "From what I see, she did you good, though."

- "I am not sure. But I loved her. This was special. And this is no more... and there will be nothing more ever now."

- "That you don't know. Maybe the loss is too fresh for you to proceed but life is always a surprise. Even for the cursed ones."

Nivellen smiled and it made Geralt uneasy. This was not the animalistic face that was bothering him but more the suggestion laying under. The man clearly wanted to replay some things they had apparently done in the past, and he didn't want to get there. But his body responded to the silent invitation against his will. He could feel a tension and a warmth inside of him growing. The memories were painfully too pleasant. This wasn't unnoticed.

- "You remember now, Geralt."

- "Yeah. Kinda." He didn't want to lie, this was too late for that. But he wanted to be clear also. "If I blocked those memories before, there was a good reason. There is always a good reason."

- "Yeah and the reason is quite simple. You never loved me. But if it can reassure you, neither did I." That was pure lie. Geralt could almost hear the beast heart hitting his ribs in a frantic rythme all of a sudden. "But this was good. We both wanted to experiment things at this time of our lives, I guess. How old was I the last time we did it ? Forty five - fifthy, something like that ? As I said, I lost count of the years in there. But I just have one question about this though."

- "Yeah ?"

- "Was the geographical distance the only reason you came back here ? Because... our thing lasted maybe five of six years and you never came back after that. You never called me either."

- "My life isn't easy and it is lost in time. Maybe this is something you can relate now as an immortal creature. You said it yourself several times. You lost the count." He made a pause. "I didn't mean to be harsh on you. I just was in a pile of problems and years passed by. I moved on and buried what was not necessary to my survival, as always."

This was the truth, but not all of it. Before coming he was thinking about Nivellen just as person he knew and could help if he was still living here. Now, he clearly remembered that he considered him as a friend to him at some point in their relation, but he didn't remember why. Sex couldn't be the real answer. And the start of all this was was too close to the Child Surprise event to be a coincidence. He had to dig in those blocked memories but he wasn't sure it was worth it. Ciri and he were just stopping for a day or two maximum. But this wasn't the idea Nivellen had about it. He wanted to dig.

- "I don't know what you learned about yourself in the meantime but I can tell you that I never had any experience like it. I am a beast outside. You are a beast inside, Geralt."

Grip. Bites. Moans. Sweat.

- "You were a already a beast inside." Came the response, quicker than Geralt anticipated.

- "Maybe. We both love hard sex, don't we ?" Nivellen winked.

- "What happened to the city ?" He asked to change the uneasy subject, as new sexual souvenirs formed in his mind.

- "It has nothing to do with me. I mean I was cursed a few years ago and this is recent. I stay here most of the time now and my affliction is known so when I come people know who I am. They were scared at first but then things went well. I guess war is what made people flee. The battle of Sodden scared everyone recently, especially because the Wild Hunt had been seen a few days before. This is a bad omen."

Geralt knew there was something false in this explanation but he couldn't say what. Nivellen was begining to contradict himself. This game of truth and lie was tiring him. Maybe they won't stay more than for this night after all.

- "Do you have anything for making new bandages ? Real stuff. No magic please." He switched again. He didn't want to let misleadings trouble him more.

- "Sure."

Nivellen stood up and left the room. Geralt looked at the fire in the hearth and thought about what they had shared. He realised soon what was the link... Friend was a title the man never won to him. Purple eyes. Grey eyes. Green eyes. He suppressed a moan. Thinking about Yennefer this way was painful. They were more than those carnal pleasures. He had lost more than a sex affair. Grey eyes. Kisses. A Passiflora on a wall. Green eyes. Bites and growls. He shook his head. Now this was becoming more logical and he didn't like it. He probably had blocked all from his memory because this was a shady substitute for something that was plaguing him since the Passiflora. And it was putting new shadows in his mind about himself. The long struggle he had finding in his heart the difference all kinds of love and attractions had pushed him in a weird corner.

Now he was there and didn't feel good at all, and was somehow regretting the stop. He looked through the window. The night was ink but an heavy snow was falling. There was nowhere else to go and Ciri and him really needed that rest, so he let those thoughts float around, dreading the implications of his past emotional wanders.

I wanted to explore something new there. I hope this is ok.

Next chapter is the resolution of that psychological part for Geralt and the truth about everything concerning Nivellen.

See you soon.