Seb and Ciri made their way out of the cavern and what remained behind was the scent of burned flesh mixing with the older rot that had settled into the bones scattered across the ground. Smoke curled lazily along the cavern ceiling, refusing to disperse.
Geralt of Rivia stepped out from the darkness only after he was certain they were far enough ahead.
He moved slowly, though his eyes had already taken in everything that mattered. The scorched ground. The gouges carved into stone. And his gaze settled on the corpse.
Old Speartip lay where he had fallen, though "fallen" hardly did it justice. The creature looked less like it had been slain and more like it had been broken down piece by piece, forced into death rather than granted it. One leg was blackened and ruined, the flesh burned deep enough to expose charred bones beneath. Both hands, what remained of them were little more than cracked, blackened stumps. And the head…
Geralt approached slowly, boots scraping lightly against stone as he stopped beside the massive body, then crouched, one gloved hand pressing against the creature's arm as if confirming it was truly dead.
It was was more than dead. his fingers shifted, brushing along the burn marks. The edges were uneven, layered, fire applied more than once, not in a single killing strike but in controlled bursts.
He moved to the leg next, examining the wound where a blade had been driven in and left. Clean entry.
Then his eyes lifted to the head.
The killing blow had gone straight through the skull.
Geralt exhaled quietly through his nose,
"Damn," he muttered, voice low, "They really made a ss of him."
A voice answered him, not aloud, but clear as if spoken beside his ear.
"Geralt."
Yennefer.
Her presence slipped into his mind with that familiar sharpness of hers, unmistakable. "You're muttering again. Speak clearly. Did they run into it?"
Geralt's eyes lingered on the corpse a mont longer before he straightened slightly, resting his forearms on his knees.
"They didn't just run into it," he said. "They woke it."
A brief pause followed, the kind that carried weight even across distance.
"…What?" She was worried.
Geralt's gaze drifted toward the dark tunnel ahead, the path Ciri and Sebastian had taken.
"Old Speartip's a deep sleeper," he went on, "Wake him up, and you'll sleep deeper."
Yennefer got silent for a mont.
Then "Geralt…" Her tone sharpened. "What in the world are you talking about now?!"
He huffed quietly, a smirk tugging at his mouth.
"Nothing. It's an old rhy, doesn't matter." His expression faded as he looked back at the body. "Point is, they could've gone around him. Easily.The path was clear enough."
His fingers tapped once against the stone.
"They didn't."
Yennefer didn't respond imdiately this ti.
"Reckless," she said. "But as long as they dealt with it.."
"They did more than deal with it."
Geralt cut in quietly, "At first, I thought it was Ciri's call. Charging in, taking the risk… wouldn't be the first ti." His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked over the burns again. "But this," he gestured faintly to the corpse, "...this wasn't just about killing a monster."
He paused.
"Seb took his ti with it, broke it down. Burned it and forced it to feel every bit of pain before the end."
A faint shift brushed against his mind, Geralt could feel it.
Yennefer was smiling.
"How rciful," she murmured, the amusent was clear even without seeing her. "A bleeding heart, avenging all the poor souls that ended up in that cursed cave."
Geralt's gaze drifted to the bones scattered across the cavern floor. So half-buried. So broken.
"Maybe," he said.
He pushed himself up to stand, his joints moving with quiet ease as he gave the cavern one last look.
"It wasn't an easy thing, avoiding this bastard," he added after a mont. "Back then."
His voice softened slightly,
"Wanted to kill it myself. Thought I'd co back one day, finish the job properly."
He didn't need to say the rest.
Because he never had.
Yennefer did it for him.
"But you didn't," she said. "Too busy saving the helpless masses of the Continent, I imagine."
Geralt snorted under his breath, already turning toward the tunnel.
"It wasn't the masses that distracted ," he said. "It was you."
There was a short pause, then her voice returned, lighter now.
"Of course it was... Now try not to lose them, will you?"
Geralt stepped into the darkness they had taken as a path,
"Not planning to."
He crouched briefly near the cavern exit, fingers brushing against the ground, eyes scanning for signs, tracks, disturbances, anything left behind by them.
There was almost nothing.
A faint scuff here. A displaced pebble there. Subtle and intentional.
Geralt's brow lifted slightly.
"They're surprisingly careful," he said, rising again. "More than I expected."
"Careful?" Yennefer echoed, her curiosity piqued.
"If we didn't already know the path to the Circle of Elents," Geralt continued, glancing ahead into the tunnel, "tracking them would've been a chore. Even for ."
Geralt continued walking, his senses stretching outward, catching the faintest traces of their passage.
"They're doing a good job."
There was a brief silence before Yennefer spoke again,
"Are you impressed?"
Geralt didn't hesitate.
"Of course, why wouldn't I be." he said simply.
****
They pushed deeper into the mountain, the air growing cooler, cleaner, less choked with the stench of rot and death that they left behind in that cavern.
It should have been straightforward.
Instead, it ended abruptly, Sebastian stopped first and Ciri nearly walked into him.
"What the..." she started, then leaned slightly to the side, her eyes settling on what stood ahead.
Two massive, broad rock trolls blocked their path.
Both of them stood squarely in the middle of the path, arms hanging low, bodies blocking the only clear route forward.
For a mont, no one spoke.
Then one of the trolls lifted an arm and pointed directly at them.
"Huumaansss," it rumbled, its voice thick "Noo go. Dis waay… noo go."
The second one nodded vigorously, bits of gravel falling from its shoulders.
"Noo go!" it repeated, more enthusiastically. "Trololos saay noo goo, soo nooo go!"
Ciri blinked then glanced at Sebastian.
Then back at the trolls.
Then back at Sebastian again.
"…Right," she said slowly. "So… what are we doing now?"
Her brows knit together as she gestured vaguely toward them.
"Because I don't think we can have a normal conversation with them."
Sebastian stared at the trolls for a long second, then he dragged a hand through his hair, scratching the back of his head as if hoping it might sohow help make sense of the situation.
"Yeah..." he muttered.
/-\\
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