Chapter Text
Lora was running for her life in her slippers through the icy snow, a demented werewolf fast gaining on her. Her lungs were burning, the air icy to breathe in with each ragged breath she drew. Her only option was to keep running forwards under the night sky in this endless forest. She had no idea how to ward off a werewolf. She had been travelling for two days, fleeing from her so-called husband, and now, after navigating through woods and sleeping under trees in lands that she did not know, weathering the harsh winter elements. Winter had come in fast this year and it made her escape that much harder. And to top it all off, she was now being chased by a damned werewolf. The cherry on top of the proverbial cake.
She was slowing down, she could no longer push on. The warm breath of the werewolf was hot on her neck, galloping on its four legs through the snow. It let out a howl. It was enjoying the chase. How sick, thought Lora. Through the dark of night, it was very difficult for Lora to make her way around the maze of the forest floor, that is, until she could no longer feel any floor beneath her feet. That’s strange, she thought, as she looked down and realised that she had run off the edge of a ravine. She grasped on to some rotting root trees that were dangling over the cliff. Great, death by werewolf on one side, death by falling 300 feet on the other. Checkmate.
“This could not get any worse.” Lora muttered to herself. Then, she looked up and yelped as she saw the werewolf peering down at her. It bared its fangs, snarling at her. Drops of its saliva splattered across her face as it roared. It swiped at the roots that Lora was holding onto with her dear life.
“Oh, gods this could not be worse, this could not be worse!” Lora sang to herself. She heard another animalistic cry coming from behind the werewolf. It retreated back over the edge and the snarls of two beasts could be heard as they battled it out. Now there were two beasts to deal with?!
Lora slowly but steadily climbed her way up the roots until she could peek over the cliff edge. What she thought would be an epic battle between two huge monsters was instead an epic battle between a monster and a… man? And a very handsome man at that, Lora thought.
This man was flitting about the werewolf with inhuman-like speed. He wielded his sword in a way that told Lora he just knew he was going to win this fight. The man stood several feet in front of the beast which seemed to be getting more and more enraged as he was dancing circles around him.
The man raised his sword high above his head, his free hand beckoning the monster forward.
“Come and get me if you think you’re hard enough,” he taunted.
The werewolf howled and charged head on. The man sprung over the werewolf’s head and tugged on his tail, mocking the monster. “Oops, cat’s got your tongue... and your tail!” he chuckled, “C’mon, show me what you’re really made of, stand up for yourself!” The werewolf raised its claw in the air and bounded over. The man stood his ground, when the beast was inches away from his face, he stabbed his sword right through its chest. The werewolf whimpered and the man threw the beast down to the ground with a grunt.
“Oh, you are an ugly fucking thing, aren’t you?” the man was wiping his sword clean of werewolf blood, gazing down at the creature, fresh steam rising from its body in the cold night, blood staining the white snow.
“I hope you’re not talking about me,” the man whipped around and saw Lora, desperately clinging on to roots and vines and piles of icy snow.
“Sorry, didn’t see you there,” he smirked and hauled her up in one single movement. He did a once over of Lora, “That’s not exactly winter attire, is it now?” he arched an eyebrow, glancing at her white cotton voile night gown. Lora didn’t make a move to explain herself, she took her chance to escape her husband when she could, and that was all she had on at that time. He sighed and placed his thick cloak around her shoulders. Lora pulled the cloak around her tightly herself, revelling in the warmth it gave her.
“How did you get up here anyway, this path isn’t exactly for human civilians,” he eyed her quizzically. The path leading up to Kaer Morhen was indeed a particularly difficult path to find, unless you knew the way, and it was only witchers that knew the way. How could a girl accidentally end up halfway up the path?
“I’m sorry, but I wasn’t looking at signposts when I was trying to run away from all kinds of creatures of the night,” Lora paused to look around, “Where exactly am I anyway?”
“Somewhere that you should not be. Look, you go down that path, and I’ll continue up here and we shall be on our merry ways. Normally, I charge a lot of coin for killing monsters, but I feel generous tonight. Oh, and you can keep the cloak too,” The man winked at her and mounted his horse.
“Wait, you can’t just leave me here! I can’t go back, I have nowhere to go. I have to continue on this path,” Lora pulled on the reins of the horse, stopping it in its tracks, “Look, once I get back on my feet, I can give you all the coin you want. I just can’t go back down that way. I’m Lora, by the way.”
“Vesemir.”
“Lovely to meet you, now please, let’s follow the path up this way.”
“You do know where this path leads don’t you? You can’t just waltz up there. It’s a path designed to keep people out. Only witchers can do it.”
Lora couldn’t go back the way she came. She needed to convince this man to take her, but she had to be careful with her words. She couldn’t risk anyone finding out about who she was.
“I can’t see why I can’t do it. I’ll be able to take care of myself once I get to the top, I just need to get my bearings that’s all.” Lora looked up at him with big doe eyes, beating her lashes, but Vesemir did not budge an inch. Lora sighed and dropped the act, “Look, I’m running from my husband. I was forced to marry him and moved to Aedd Gynvael to be with him. I was torn away from my family and my former life, and he is a cruel man. You have no idea how cruel of a man he could be. I almost think suffering at the hands of a werewolf would be better than suffering at the hands of my husband…” Lora chuckled and cleared her throat, “OK, that was a bit dark, but point is, I absolutely cannot go back now. He’s a powerful man and he’ll have people out looking for me in all the nearby towns. You saved me from this werewolf, but if you send me back now, all that work killing the werewolf would be wasted.”
“Sounds like a hell of a husband. Who is he?”
“Reymus Linden.”
Vesemir winced, “Oh, I’ve heard of him. Definitely not a man you want to get married to.”
“So, you’ll help me?” Lora looked hopeful.
“You do realise that I’m a witcher, right? And that up there,” Vesemir pointed to the top, “there are a whole lot more that probably won’t be that happy to see you.”
“They don’t have to be happy to see me, I just need to live,” Lora shrugged.
Vesemir looked a bit taken aback, “I said, we’re witchers, y’know, the witchers that terrify townsfolk with our awfully wicked tales? You surely do not want to be surrounded by a bunch of angry witchers.”
“Oh, believe me, I’ve heard the fearsome tales of you and your folk lobbing off vampire heads and literally going into the belly of the beast to burn them from the inside out.” Vesemir chuckled at the sight of Lora swinging an imaginary sword around as she started attacking an imaginary enemy, “I’ve heard about your encounters with gangs of sea hags and dragons,” Lora stopped miming her imaginary battle and came to a standstill, looking Vesemir dead in the eyes, “But I’ve also heard tales of witchers helping people. And I could use some help right now.”
Lora was vulnerable, she knew that. She needed help, she was out, alone in the woods with nothing else except for her nightie on. A few more days out in the woods and maybe Reymus’ men would catch her, or maybe she would die of hypothermia. Vesemir gazed into her eyes. He couldn’t make up their mind whether they were green or if they were blue, they really were rather entrancing. His necklace started to jingle lightly against his chest and that knocked him out of his little reverie. That was strange, he couldn’t sense any other monsters nearby.
He groaned, “Ugh, come on, let’s go before we both get eaten by monsters. Up you come.” He hoisted her up so that she was sitting in front of him in the saddle and Vesemir started leading the way up the trail to Kaer Morhen. What was he going to do with a girl at Kaer Morhen? He dreaded to think how his fellow witchers would react. How would the mages react? That was a problem for future Vesemir to deal with.
Lora was filled with a similar feeling of foreboding. She was leaping from one wolf’s mouth into the wide open jaws of another. Did she have any other choice? That was a problem for future Lora to deal with. For now, she leant back into the all-consuming warmth that was Vesemir, the rise and fall of his chest lulling her to sleep.