Chapter Text
Unfolding the crinkled old map of Temeria, Aiden stared at the years of careful yet spotty charting. The path so often meandered that it made it quite difficult to produce fastidious, scaled records of his travels relative to the continent, but he had always endeavored despite the challenges, drawing and redrawing as he corrected past errors and distortions. There were at least four other towns circling the range where the mated pair of griffins most likely traveled, and it was likely that there were some other small villages he had never passed through amidst them as well.
He had hoped that the wolf had picked up the contract from the same town as him, but unfortunately Lambert had collected his orders from elsewhere, meaning his mount was also boarded in some other unknown town. They were slow on foot, and he could feel Lambert’s impatience. His grumbling was rather entertaining. It seemed the memory loss had not deprived him of his vast vocabulary for insults and curses.
Lambert was hunting for their dinner. Aiden had suggested they simply set snares, and, when the wolf had insisted on hunting for larger game, offered to come with him. Lambert turned him down, insisting he needed to sharpen his tracking and ranged weaponry skills on a task with lower stakes before he was forced to rely on them for a hunt. It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, but Aiden thought it just as likely that Lambert simply wanted some time alone.
The wolf was an ornery fellow, but under all the bluster, Aiden was discovering a man he quite liked. Anger and judgement had overshadowed his determination, intelligence, and sense of humor during their previous encounters, but now that he had no preconceived notions about Aiden’s school, the wolf was rather enjoyable company. Even so, it was evident to Aiden that Lambert was used to traveling alone and still needed that same space now.
While the wolf was hunting, Aiden was evaluating their progress toward the next village where Lambert could have obtained the contract. If they were going to travel together until Lambert had regained his memories or at least enough skill to confidently take contracts on his own, they needed to find a horse for the wolf to speed up their travel. Aiden reasoned even if they didn’t find Lambert’s mount in one of the nearby towns, they could look for small contracts along the way and slowly accumulate the coin needed to buy a new horse.
The thought of taking a contract with the amnesic wolf made Aiden nervous. Lambert was a talented witcher, that much was certain. They hadn’t worked together much in the past, but Aiden had seen enough. He was damn good with a sword, carried bombs like nothing Aiden had ever seen, and brewed potions better than Aiden’s instructor had. But that version of Lambert had his memories and confidence in his skills.
It was difficult to truly ascertain the extent of Lambert’s memory loss, especially how it might impact the more physical element of hunts like swordsmanship or the split-second decision to use a particular potion or bomb. There was one way to test Lambert’s skills before they were face to face with a beast, but Aiden was nervous to broach the subject. Logically, this Lambert should not be bothered by his suggestion, but it would have infuriated the Lambert he had known for the last several months.
Shaking his head, Aiden pushed aside his concerns for the moment and refocused on the map. He estimated they could make it to the outskirts of the next village with one more day of travel at their current pace, which, while not quite breakneck, was somewhat more hurried than he preferred to travel on foot. While they certainly needed less rest than a human, exhaustion was just still a miserable companion wrecking the focus and decision making that kept a man alive in a fight where every second mattered.
Carefully refolding the map, Aiden tucked it away with the rest of his supplies and pulled out the worn book he had picked up from a merchant when he last visited Ellander. It was just before he met Lambert, he realized as he found the page he had last read and smoothed out the folded corner. It was a compendium of old Kaedweni tales written some fifty years prior. While this was not the first circuit that had brought him north, he had never traveled through Kaedwen, so he had been excited to happen upon this particular tome even before he found himself traveling with Lambert and wondering more about what Kaedwen was like.
The path was quiet and quite often boring. Literature was one of the few things that made Aiden feel sane when he was forced to spend seemingly endless days traveling alone in search of sparse work. Many years ago, he had developed a habit of collecting books of folk tales. The common threads woven through stories from all across the continent never ceased to fascinate him.
When Lambert trudged into camp, Aiden was still engrossed in a rather tragic story about a lady who, cursed by a scorned suitor, forgot each day at the stroke of midnight. Her parents sought solutions from far and wide across the land, begging help from formally trained mages and snake oil salesmen alike, neither finding success.
Pine needles and small sticks were caught in the wolf’s rumpled red hair. A plump deer was slung over his shoulder in a way that Aiden thought looked rather uncomfortable. “I see you did more than set some snares.” Aiden commented mildly as Lambert dropped the deer on the ground. Lambert grunted a barely there acknowledgement and set about tying a rope around a thick tree branch and stringing up the deer’s carcass.
“Need help?” Aiden offered as Lambert began to skin the hide.
Lambert shook his head, “You can just make sure the fire is going and we’ve got something sturdy enough to roast over.”
Aiden hadn’t bothered to build a fire given the warmth of the evening, but he had gathered logs and tinder in anticipation of possibly cooking a meal should Lambert’s hunt be successful. Building a circle of stones at the center of their little camp, Aiden propped the logs against one another and lit the tinder with a burst of igni. He prodded at the wood, stoking the fire into a strong flame before building a makeshift spit.
Soon Lambert joined him, hanging the raw meat over the fire. Aiden pulled out one of the small tins of seasoning from his pack and sprinkled just enough over the venison to add some flavor. Spices were an expensive commodity, a guilty pleasure that he refused to use wastefully. “How was hunting?” Aiden asked, sitting on his bedroll across from where Lambert was still standing and watching the fire.
The wolf crossed his arms over his chest. “Went fine. How was your lazing around?” Lambert sneered defensively.
“Delightful.” Aiden replied with a smirk. He tilted his head at Lambert, waiting for him to snark back.
Instead, Lambert pressed his lips tightly together and stared at the fire, his eyes flicking toward Aiden every few seconds. It seemed best not to press, so Aiden didn’t. After a few minutes of silence, the wolf grumbled and dropped to the ground across from Aiden, the fire blocking most of their view of each other. “I don’t trust my instincts, which is a problem, since they’re all I really have at this point.” Lambert admitted.
Aiden hummed an acknowledgement. Over the fire, he watched Lambert raise a hand, raking it through his hair in frustration before growling, “It’s not the end of the world when hunting a deer, but it’s going to get me killed when a monster is lunging and I hesitate. Fuck, I don’t even know what I’m capable of.”
“I think we might be able to work together to figure out what you’re capable of.” Aiden suggest cautiously. “In the meanwhile, we can take contracts together. We’ve worked well together in the past, and it’s nice for me to know there’s someone watching my back too.”
Lambert grunted an unintelligible response, avoiding Aiden’s eyes. He turned the spit and let the camp fall back into silence. When the deer was fully cooked, Lambert cut strips of fresh venison, layering them high on two tin plates. Then reaching into his pack, he pulled out a jar of fresh blackberries. He set half a handful on each plate before passing one of the dishes to Aiden.
“Spar with me.” Aiden decided it was best to broach the subject directly. Anything else would sound like pity or a lack of faith in the wolf.
“What?” Lambert demanded, hand freezing over the remaining berries on his plate.
“If we’re going to work together, we need to learn how. It will help us both.” Aiden reasoned, dancing around Lambert’s insecurities as best he could.
“Fine.” Lambert accepted the suggestion with surprisingly little argument. “Unarmed only. Don’t trust you enough to let you hold a dagger to my throat.” It was a reasonable request, though it left Aiden wondering whether it was truly Aiden that Lambert didn’t trust or if it was himself. Perhaps both.
“An hour after we’ve finished eating.” Aiden suggested, and Lambert nodded. They finished their meals in silence. The following hour ticked by slowly. Aiden busied himself with cleaning up the camp and disposing of the makeshift spit. They hadn’t planned to stay at the camp for more than one night, and the remaining meat and grease were likely to attract animals if not disposed of away from their sleeping area.
Finished with his cleaning, Aiden collapsed onto his bedroll, ostensibly resting but he continued to watch Lambert out of the corner of his eye. Waves of tension rolled off the wolf, settling heavy over their campsite. Guilt churned in Aiden’s stomach. He wished he knew enough about the wolf’s life to share something meaningful with Lambert, help him learn about who he was before.
As their planned spar drew near, Lambert began pacing. Engaged in his usual series of mindless stretches to loosen his muscles before any strenuous activity, Aiden’s eyes followed Lambert’s impatient strides. Lambert stopped abruptly, his demanding gaze meeting Aiden’s. “Did we ever do this before?”
“Spar with one another?” Aiden asked, and Lambert gave a curt nod of affirmation. “No. We only fought side by side on a few contracts.” Aiden kept his answer vague, unable to shake the thought that if Lambert learned too much about their previous encounters he would flee. If Lambert set off on his own without his memories, or at least rebuilding the skills his injury compromised, Aiden feared he would be dead in a matter of weeks. The cocksure wolf would accept a contract for which he wasn’t prepared in order to prove that he didn’t need to rely on anyone, effectively signing his own death warrant.
“Guess we should set some ground rules then.” Lambert proposed. He sat opposite of Aiden and began mimicking that cat’s forms. It was clear that Lambert was nowhere near as flexible as Aiden, not surprising given his school’s focus on strength and endurance, but he was still far more flexible than the average man.
“How about we aim to pin each other for five seconds, you can tap out at any time, if one of us says ‘stop’ the other backs off immediately, and we avoid anything aimed at the head.” Aiden listed off as he folded himself in half, wrapping his hands around the soles of his feet.
Lambert gave a displeased grumble, but a quick glance revealed it to be the exertion of copying Aiden’s stretch rather than any indication of disagreement. “Why avoid the head?” Lambert asked, voice strained.
“Not worth the risk to my looks. I’ve made it this long without a crooked nose, and I’d rather like to keep it that way.” Aiden joked, shoving himself up to perform a few standing stretches. It wasn’t untrue. He was rather proud of the fact that his face didn’t bear many marks of the hard life they lived, though he thought the slight bend to Lambert’s nose gave the witcher’s face character rather than taking away from his appearance.
Lambert shot him an irritated look as he stood up and brushed off his trousers. Aiden rolled his eyes. “You just took a head injury a week and a half ago that cost you years of memory. Do you really want to risk fucking it up more?”
Lambert grumbled something unintelligible but didn’t put up further argument. “Let’s clear some space before we break half our shit.” Lambert declared and began dumping his packs and other belonging on his bedroll and carrying them toward the edge of camp where Aiden’s horse, Poppy, was tied to a tree.
“You ready then?” Aiden prompted once they had cleared an adequate space.
“Course I am.” Lambert declared with forced bravado. Aiden raised a brow, and Lambert only glared in response. “Come on then, cat. Let me see what you’ve got.”
Aiden waited for Lambert to make the first move as they circled one another. Eventually the wolf lunged forward, throwing a heavy punch that Aiden easily avoided. After that the strikes came faster. Aiden alternated between dodging and blocking when he couldn’t slip out of the way fast enough. Lambert seemed to be getting more confident with each fist he threw.
“You’re not trying.” Lambert growled as Aiden continued to dance out of the way of almost every attempt he made, those that connected only grazing. It was true. Despite Lambert being the one who claimed to lack faith in himself, Aiden still found himself nervous, but if he continued to hold back, he was certain the wolf would only become more pissed off and deem it a lost cause.
“Just letting you get your bearings.” Aiden replied, immediately following it with a well-aimed strike to Lambert’s side. To Aiden’s surprise, the wolf grinned, seemingly spurred on by Aiden’s efforts. Their strategies quickly adapted to one another’s fighting style. Aiden was faster and more nimble while Lambert was stronger and larger. They were fairly evenly matched, and Lambert showed none of the hesitation he had mentioned previously.
Beginning to tire after the long day, Aiden took Lambert by surprise, throwing his shoulder into the wolf’s chest to knock him off balance, and using his leg to sweep Lambert’s from underneath him. From there, he quickly had the wolf pinned. They were chest to chest, both breathing heavily. Briefly, Aiden’s mind flashed back to the way they had been pressed together in that inn just outside Ellander all those months ago. Before the memory could sour at the way Lambert had kicked him out, the wolf grinned up at him. “You put up a good fight, cat.”
It pulled him back to the present, dousing Aiden’s arousal with embarrassment. The man would have been offended they were even sharing a camp if he had his memories, and Aiden was hot and bothered over a friendly sparring match—that unfortunately reminded Aiden exactly how much Lambert fit his type with every flex of his muscles.
“You too.” Aiden managed before climbing off the wolf and hopping to his feet. He offered a hand toward Lambert, feeling oddly pleased when he took it and let Aiden help pull him up.
“We keep that up, and I’ll be fighting fit in no time.” Lambert declared. It was the most satisfied Aiden had seen him since he woke up in that cave without his memories.