Chapter Text
Where did your bed go? You could have sworn you had just felt it, its soft and warm quilted touch now replaced with the feeling of cold and dusty below you. The cold could have been explained by someone pouring water on you, but if water had been dumped on you, then the dust factor wouldn’t have been possible. Had you slept walked outside and laid down in a pile of snow like you had that one time long ago? Snow and dusty were very distinctly different, however, and the feeling of snow wasn’t crumbly and made you want to hop in the nearest shower to immediately remove it from yourself.
Opening your eyes, a pleasant view of the sky greeted you, the stars above glistening brightly and the distinctions of the galaxy perfectly clear to you like you had never seen before. Or it would have been a pleasant view had you remembered falling asleep outside and not in your bed. Seeing the sky confirmed your suspicions of what you were feeling as you had awoken: dirt. Dusty, loose dirt to be exact, and dragging your fingers through it as you sat up only made you feel more disgusting. Where was your bed? Where had your room gone? Where did you go?
The surrounding area wasn’t familiar at all, and you dazedly turned your head around to take in all the trees that were growing around the path you were sitting on. The area wasn’t one you were familiar with, and if you had been more awake in the moment, you would have been more concerned about this fact. Your mind was more focused on finding your bed however, and as you continued to turn about the area, slowly sliding yourself up onto your knees as you looked to the area behind you, you wondered what could have happened to you in order for you to have been moved off of your bed without noticing.
The leaves of the trees around you brushed against each other and their branches gently, the scratching of the soft fibers filling the air around you as you finally pushed yourself to your feet having accepted that there was nothing around you that looked even relatively familiar. Besides the moon anyway. Glancing up at it, the moon looked no different than it had the last time you had looked at it, and it’s bright, reflected light gently illuminated the tops of the trees and the dirt road you stood on. It was still near impossible to see anything, and details of the trees and rocks on the road were invisible to your eyes, but the shine of the moon accompanying the galaxies that wove together behind it made for a scene that you couldn’t help but admire for a second.
Turning your gaze back down, a flicker of light caught your attention, and drew your gaze in immediately amongst the trees. Noticing not 1 but 2 of the lights, both sitting just behind the line of trees and just about halfway up them, you felt yourself tense. The lights sat still, unmoving as they fixated on you. You didn’t want to remove yourself from them, your body tense and your breath caught in your throat as the orbs continued to stare you down.
‘An owl?’ you thought to yourself. It was the only thing that made sense. The eyes weren’t blinking, they weren’t moving, and they were sitting amongst the leaves. You weren’t an ornithologist by any stretch of the imagination, but you knew that owls preferred rodents and other birds, both of which were something you were not. Even still, the unblinking eyes that also refused to move unsettled you, and you finally slowly released your held breath as you momentarily glanced to each of your sides, hoping to see any changes in the world. Nothing had changed, however, and you sighed lightly as you returned to look at the eyes again.
They hadn’t moved, and you doubt they had blinked in the few seconds you had looked away, a thought that only made you feel more unsettled. It was only a moment after you had turned back to them that they moved closer a hop. And then another. And then another.
You couldn’t stop yourself from taking a step back, and as the eyes finally reached the barrier of the trees, you couldn’t stop yourself from sucking in a sharp breath as the outline of fur around the eyes was illuminated by the moon’s light. And attached to that fur was a pointed snout.
The creature’s paw came out from the darkness of the tree’s shadows and placed it fingers around the front-most one, its nails growing sharp and slicing through the bark as it grabbed the whole base. Watching the pieces of the bark fall down to the ground, you couldn’t stop yourself from putting your hands up as you stepped back again, this time finding it hard to place your foot down firmly as your entire body was shaking. You weren’t sure when you had started to shake, but your entire body rattled in fear, your fingertips and toes completely numb and your legs and arms threatening to join them as you tried again to step back.
The creature before you finally emerged fully from the trees, its height both impressive and absolutely terrifying to you as the top of its ears brushed against the leaf line. As it stepped toward you once more, your legs finally gave out, the feeling of fear finally pushing them to go completely numb and you fell backwards onto the dusty ground.
You tried to keep your hands up as you fell but found yourself needing them to hold yourself up right on the ground to keep your eyes on the canine-looking monster before you. You didn’t want to look away from the creature, knew you shouldn’t look away from it, but as the creature drew nearer to you, you slammed your eyes shut, completely accepting that you absolutely didn’t want to know what was coming.
Hearing the steps draw closer, you tried to focus on your breathing, your breaths erratic as they left you. Despite your best efforts, you breaths remained rapid and loud, making it hard to hear the steps of the monster as it neared you. Sucking in a sharp breath immediately after you heard the loudest step by far, you waited, wondering if the creature was getting ready to attack.
You wait. And waited.
Feeling your body scream to release your breath, you shakily let it out, confused as to what the giant beast was doing that was taking so long. Reaching one of your hands up, you placed it over your mouth lightly, hoping to help slow your breaths as you very slightly opened your eyes to see what was happening.
Before you stood the creature, it’s body still tall and threatening just before you, and its claws sharp and out, ready to strike at you, but a top of the body was no head. Blinking at the sight, your hand moved down from your mouth as you stared at the headless creature, your eyes unable to remove themselves from the bleeding stump of the creature’s now headless neck.
“Even after the village mob agreed to stay away, there’s still one,” The sudden voice caused you to jump, your hand flying down to the ground as you tried to move away from the beast before you. Your arms and legs wouldn’t cooperate, however, and you just slid them against the ground rapidly, causing bits of dirt and grass to dust the air around you as you did so.
From behind the monster a man appeared, his eyes as bright as the monsters and his hair just as strikingly light, and you slowly stopped trying to move yourself on the ground as he stepped around the beast. As he got closer, you could see the line of blood that was strewn up his body, its source leading from the blade he was wielding in his hand. You tried to say something to the man, at the very least make a noise at him, but found your throat unable to do much past let you breathe, which it was doing too quickly and too harshly for your liking.
The man just stared at you, a couple of drops of blood falling to the ground from his sword as no words were said between you and he. After a few moments of silence, you moved yourself a bit to the side and looked beyond the monster body, to where the man had appeared from. Upon the ground, its eyes still staring at you, was the head of the beast, a site that instantly made your stomach churn. Your hand quickly returned to your mouth, as if to try to stop your stomach from inverting itself in the moment.
The next moment of clarity for you was a complete absence of site, and as you stared at the black covering your world, you wondered how and when you had lost consciousness. The black around you persisted for a few moments, and as it finally began to fade away, the rest of your body began to sense things around you. Your ears picked up the sound of fire crackling, something that alarmed you, and as you smelled the burning of wood, you felt your fear grow more.
You tried to quickly open your eyes, something that proved hard to do as they were heavy and uncooperative. Persisting, you finally opened them slightly, just enough to see that you were in a room that was almost as dark as behind your eyes. You felt your throat pull tight for a moment from anxiety and you gulped as you tried to relax it. The taste of your stomach contents finally hit you, however, and you let out a loud noise of displeasure as you threw yourself up to sitting, your hand once again uselessly attempting to stop your body by covering your mouth.
“If you’re going to throw up again, lean this way,” jumping at the voice, you recognized it immediately and threw your head over to see the man who had emerged from behind the beast you could only faintly remember in the moment. He was no longer covered in blood, and he was sitting in a chair just to your right looking very casual for someone whom you presumed had just killed a beast that towered at over 8 feet easily. “The floor or the bucket is a better place than the blanket on you,” he spoke again. Slowly lowering your hand from your mouth as you felt your stomach settle for a second, you tried to gather words. Failing to do so, you just stared at the man, your mouth agape and your hand hovering near your face. The man returned the stare for a moment before he reached over to the table nearby and grabbed a tankard off of it. “Here, to rinse the taste out of your mouth.”
“…Thank…you,” you replied hesitantly. Reaching over, the man handed you the tankard, and you peeked inside it for a moment. Seeing just water, you took a swig and spat it out into the bucket that sat just off of the side of where you were sitting. Handing the cup back to the man, he set it down on the table before turning back to you again. “Where…who…” you tried to say as you looked around the room. Bringing your hand down finally, you shook your head out for a moment before you tried again. “Where am I? Who are you? What… happened?”
“Kagen. Geralt of Rivia. What do you remember?” came the man’s curt response. Given any other situation, you would have found the man’s short responses off-putting, but as you still felt panic inside of you, the short responses were actually welcome.
“Where the hell is Kagen? And all I remember is…” pausing for a moment, you tried you hardest to remember everything that had happened. You found it hard to remember everything after you had woken up on the ground, and your memory was spotty from when you were still in front of the beast. You explained to the man all that you remembered, and as you finished, he hummed a noise of confirmation before looking away from you and toward the fire that was burning nearby. Following his eyes, you also turned and watched the fire, the wood within it keeping it high and the heat from it a welcome feeling on your face. Taking a second, you took a breath in and finally introduced yourself to the man.
“Kagen is due East of Cintra,” the man said as he continued to look at the fire. For a few moments he said nothing before he turned to face you. “I gather you aren’t from here. I was hired to take care of that werewolf by the people here. Where do you hail?”
“We-Werewolf? Cintra? Where… Wait, hold on a second,” Bringing your hands up, you rested you head in them for a second as you thought. Having no idea where any place called Cintra was near your home, you lifted your head and looked at the man again. “You…you said a werewolf? Like, ‘a man turned into a wolf on the full moon’ werewolf? Those aren’t real!” Turning away from the man, you looked down again, finally realizing you were lacking the clothes you had been wearing before. “And where are my clothes?”
“You threw up on them, and so they are being cleaned,” the man said as he stood up. Letting your gaze follow the man as he walked over to the fire, you watched as he tossed in another piece of firewood, causing a bit of smoke to puff up from the fire. Glancing down a moment, you hesitantly pulled the blanket over you more, not sure what to do in the moment. “You must be from far away, to have not heard of Cintra.”
“I…I guess so,” was all you said. You glanced around the room, finally taking notice of the wooden interior. The room looked old, its walls completely wooden and the flooring as well. As you let your eyes run along the walls, each lacking any decorations at all, you finally noticed the lack of electrical outlets, and electricity powered items.
Geralt, so the man was called, returned from the fire and sat himself back down in the chair, his eyes turning back to you once again. You met his gaze for a moment, before you moved your eyes past him to look outside. You hesitated for a second, a thousand questions still running through your mind before you told him the name of your hometown. Geralt made a small noise of confirmation again, and he slowly reached behind him and into his bag you hadn’t noticed before. From his bag he pulled a paper, and as he unfolded it, you realized it was a map.
“I don’t know where that town is,” he said as he completely unfolded the worn paper. “Show me where it’s at.” Glancing down at the map, you let your eyes wander it for a moment. You felt like you weren’t able to read for a second, as the map was unlike one you had ever seen before. Feeling a tight knot in your chest, you huffed out a breath and tried to look over the map again.
It was well worn, and it was hand drawn, something you found impressive for how detailed it was. You wondered if Geralt was the person who had drawn the whole thing, but you quickly shook the thought from your head as you spotted a name that was familiar to you. Reaching your hand up, you placed your finger on the one city you knew: Cintra.
“…You said you hadn’t heard of Cintra,” Geralt stated simply, his tone unamused.
“I hadn’t…It’s the only name I recognize now because you told me it, though…” Pulling your hand away from the map, you looked up to Geralt. He was giving you a look that you weren’t sure what it meant, and after a moment he began to fold his map away.
“Hm.”
“Hm?” Geralt slowly placed his map back in his bag, and as he turned back to look at you, he sighed lightly.
“You aren’t from the continent then, it seems,” he said. Nodding at the statement, you waited for him to continue. “Which is why you were out on the night of the full moon, because you hadn’t heard of werewolves.”
“Okay, werewolves aren’t…they’re not supposed to be real!” you replied, a bit of frustration in your voice. “At least, in my world they aren’t…” Geralt raised his eyebrow as your voice trailed off, and you felt yourself slouch down a bit into the bed you were on. You sighed lightly, and your fingers began to play with the ends of the blanket as you kept quiet and tried to think.
Your brain was rattling with questions, each one bouncing in your mind with no answer in sight, and each one allowing a bit of fear to run through you. Where were you? Kagen, Geralt had said, but where the hell is Kagen? It’s east of Cintra, Geralt had told you, but where in the world was Cintra? It was on the continent, Geralt had mentioned passively, but which one? There were 7 last time you checked (there could have been as little as 4 depending on who you asked too), and you didn’t have any plans to leave the one you fell asleep on.
“…Tomorrow then,” hearing the quiet voice, you were pulled from your thoughts abruptly, and you had to stop yourself from making a rude noise at Geralt. “We will find you a place to go until you can return to where you came from.”
“I…” Pausing for a moment, you looked over Geralt, completely confused at what was happening. The man didn’t say anything more, and you turned away from his to look at the blanket over you once again. Feeling your eyes move down, you realized you were still tired, your eyelids heavy and wanting to close completely. “…Tomorrow then,” you muttered quietly as you slowly sank down onto the bed.
You pulled the blanket over your head completely, something that Geralt had to keep himself from snorting at, but you turned on your side under the warmth. You hesitated as you lay in the bed, unsure of if you wanted to trust Geralt, but as you were completely overtaken by sleep, you let your body decide for you.
“There are…so many horses.”
“Yes, they are how people travel.”
You had decided that not only was the world you were in not your own, but it was also a world that was far behind yours in time. The streets of Kagen, the rather tiny town you were walking through, was littered with people in old style clothing; no one was wearing any clothing that had very many bright colours on them, most, if not all, the women were wearing dresses and long skirts, and many of the people who were walking about were covered in dirt and mud and other possible brown substances, something you couldn’t help but make a face at.
Geralt had made you abandon your own clothing in favor of some that matched the people’s around you, something you had protested originally as you rather liked your clothes. But as you followed behind the man toward where he had had said his horse was tied at, you knew that he was right in making you dawn a new set of clothing as you would have stuck out to every person should you have chosen to walk the streets in your more modern attire.
You weren’t upset with the clothes you were given; you were just unsure of the feel of them. They were far different than what you were used to, the fit and fabric of them more rough and rigid than you liked typically. Maybe it was because they were new, or maybe it was because the fabric they were made of was a fabric that didn’t exist in your world and you were too unfamiliar with it. It was a silly thought, but you knew anything was possible as apparently werewolves were real in this world.
Despite being in rather typical looking clothes of the time, you noticed that people were still keeping their eyes on you, something that made the pit in your chest grow each time you noticed another person doing it. It was as you and Geralt were passing by a pub, the second one you had seen in such a tiny town, that you met eyes with someone directly. As they looked at you directly, their face changed to one full of concern, and you were thoroughly confused. Looking up at Geralt, and then back to the person, the person merely shook their head at you and turned themselves around to face away from you.
“’Ey! Witch’r!” Hearing the voice, your eyes went to the source of it, and as you looked the very drunk man up and down, he held his tankard out to you. “Why’st your company so far behind ya!? They the pup o’ the werewolf you butchered yeste’day?”
“Witcher…?” Walking closer to Geralt’s side, you gave him a very confused look. The man merely shook his head and continued walking past the pub. “What’s a Witcher?” you asked quietly.
“I’m a Witcher,” Geralt said as if the answer to your question was so obvious.
“O…kay?” You wanted to ask more, wanted to ask what exactly a witcher was, but as you looked around the town and saw more eyes on Geralt after the man had called out to him, you decided that the subject was best dropped for the moment. Sighing lightly, you turned back to Geralt before asking, “Where are we going, Geralt?”
“We are going to find someone who knows where you’re from,” Geralt replied, his head turning a bit as he looked down at you. “Some mage around must have a clue where you’re from and how to return you.”
“Mage?! Like, a magic mage?! Is there magic in this world?” you asked louder than you intended to. Seeing a few people now staring at you, you felt your face heat up a bit and you quickly put one of your hands over your mouth. “I-I mean…Sounds like a plan!”
“Hm.”
“Can you use magic?” you asked suddenly.
“Some.”
“Oh, I so need to see this!” you grinned, a small hop in your step as you walked beside Geralt to where he was leading you. The man was giving you an odd look, one that clearly showed he was a bit amused at what you were doing, but he didn’t say anything. “We don’t have magic where I’m from,” you explained quietly so that only Geralt could hear. “Closest thing we’ve got would be chemistry stuff, but I never understood all that.”
You continued to talk as Geralt lead you out of town, the man hardly saying anything as you continued to talk about your excitement to see magic. It was only when Geralt stopped next to a horse just outside the walls of the town, one that proceeded to bump its head into his chest, that you finally stopped talking.
“This your horse?” you asked as you watched Geralt untie the horse’s reigns from the fence it was tied to. Geralt merely nodded at you as he looped the reigns around his hand. “What’s her name?”
“Roach.”
“That’s…a name alright,” you said as you made a slight face. Geralt merely hummed lightly before he began to walk again, and you quickly stepped forward to keep on pace with the man. “Hey, since we’re out of town now, can I ask you what a witcher is? I mean, what exactly a witcher is.”
“A mutant,” you furrowed your face at the response and wanted to ask him to elaborate on the answer, but you waited a second for Geralt to continue. “We’re mutants for hire. We take coin, we slay monsters, we leave.”
“Oh, like a mercenary almost? And you were hired to kill that werewolf, then right?” Hearing a hum of confirmation, you felt your lips purse a bit. “That drunk back in the town didn’t sound very thankful to you…”
“Thanks isn’t part of the job.”
“It should be!” Geralt couldn’t help but give you an odd look, and you couldn’t stop yourself from going on a tangent. “You took out a werewolf! A bloody werewolf! And one that didn’t look very nice, might I add! That thing was massive, and I bet its claws could have taken out anyone in one swipe! They should be showering you with praise, hell, make you their mayor probably! You saved countless people I bet! And their livestock too! But they’re gonna mock you as you’re leaving?” You paused a second to huff. “People are ungrateful no matter what world they’re in, huh?”
“Uh… yeah.” The look Geralt was giving you was still one that was unreadable, but you merely smiled a bit at him.
“Hey, if this world is so dangerous, can you teach me how to fight with a sword?” Still Geralt’s face read an unreadable expression, and still you grinned at him. “We don’t sword fight where I’m from, but I would love to learn. A-And I think it’d be smart to do in case something happens, and I need to defend you.”
“You won’t need to defend me,” Geralt said simply, his eyes finally leaving you and returning to the road in front of him.
“But, and listen to this, what if I do? What if a…I don’t know, a zombie raises up and you’re caught off guard?” Geralt sighed as you spoke, and you couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Hopefully zombies aren’t real here, that would make this world way more dangerous. What kinds of monsters have you fought before?”
“You don’t stop talking ever, do you?”
“Nope! Makes travelling way better if I keep going,” you paced forward a few steps, and turned on your heel to face Geralt. You put your arms behind your back as you proceeded to walk backwards in front of the man. “What’s the biggest monster you’ve ever fought, Geralt?”
You weren’t sure where Geralt was taking you, you weren’t even sure what direction you were travelling in, but as you kept walking, you could slowly feel the bit of fear that still lingered in you fade away. What was to happen was unknown to you, but that wasn’t very much different than before when you were in your world. Thinking about what could happen, of what dangers could appear before you, made the fear linger about again for a second, but you pushed it down, instead thinking forward to the experiences this world was going to show you that you would never be able to experience back in your world.