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"Damn, why does it have to be so cold? Icy! Unbearable! ”The Bard Jaskier jumps from one leg to the other, trampling the snow around him. He rubs his cold fingers.
"Geralt, I can no longer feel my hands!"
"Then stop waving them in the air and put`em under your coat," the Witcher sighs.
"We need a fire. Look, Ciri is freezing the tip of her nose. It is already completely blue. "
„No...not…not true at all!” Ciri stammers through clattering teeth, while burying herself deeper in her coat to suppress her trembling.
"You found yourself a brave girl there, Geralt."
Geralt pushes Ciri closer to Roach and throws the horse blanket over child and animal. The mare has started to shove the snow aside with hooves and nostrils to look for something to eat under the blanket of snow and does not pay any attention to the little girl.
Geralt groans. "Braver than some bard, truly."
"Can't you just start a fire for us? What is the Witcher's sign for that? ”
"Igni, and no, I can't, at least not as long as I don't have anything to ignite."
"So you expect me to go and find flammable branches between all the meter-high snow?"
The Witcher nods. "Unless you want us to use your silly hat as fuel." Ciri giggles and Jaskier stomps off, plows a path through knee-deep snow and swears inelegantly
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The sudden onset of winter surprised the three of them.
Geralt had intended to spend the winter in Kaer Morhen while leaving Ciri under the care of Triss Merigold in Oxenfurt so that she could learn from the sorceress during the winter season. However, Triss had sent him a message shortly after leaving Oxenfurt that Ciri was unhappy and was constantly begging to be allowed to accompany the witcher. Her pleading that he should not leave her behind led the Witcher to turn around and pick up Ciri.
They had met Jaskier when they were just leaving the city gate of Oxenfurt. The bard immediately rejected his plans to spend the winter months at the university and decided to join them. Maybe he owed it to Ciri's good intercession; maybe the Witcher had softened over the years, at least after a short discussion Geralt allowed him to accompany them at least part of the way.
After they had left with a bit of a delay, they had made good progress on their way to the mountains at first. But of all things, when they had just left the last foothills of the villages behind them, Jaskier's horse had slipped on the frozen ground on a steep slope and was terribly paralyzed after the fall. They had to leave the poor animal behind, under loud protests from Ciri.
From then on, the two men had gone on foot. The Witcher led his mare by the reins, while Ciri was sitting in the saddle.
This made their journey tedious and arduous. The temperature continued to drop with each day they were out. The three of them spent the past night in the shelter of a cave beneath some overhanging rocks. But when they woke up in the morning, they found that the heavy snowfall had started overnight and the landscape around them had turned white.
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It has been snowing continuously since this morning. After an hour-long hike through an impassable forest and knee-deep snow, the three are now resting in a small clearing.
The Witcher watches the bard, stomping awkwardly through the snow and randomly breaking low-hanging branches from the trees around him. Geralt shakes his head
He begins to roughly push the snow aside around their storage area and to step on it, clearing the space. Ciri tries to lift the saddlebags still hanging over Roach´s back and Geralt smiles as she begins to sway under the weight.
He takes a small ax from his pocket and uses it to cut a piece of bark from the nearest tree. "Here," he says, holding out the bark and a small knife to Ciri. "Do you want to try and carve out a bit of tinder from the dry inside?" Ciri nods, crouches down and eagerly begins to carve. Geralt forms a makeshift seat from a pile of snow, throws Roach's saddle on top and sinks onto it. "Come out of the snow," he says, and Ciri gratefully climbs on his knees, where she continues to work on the piece of bark. He wraps his coat around them both, Ciri's head is directly under his chin. She giggles. "Your beard tickles." The witcher closes his eyes, feeling the warmth of her body, taking in the scent of her hair. His little destiny. His little girl. If only he never had to let go of her again!
Suddenly, the Witcher starts. "Did you hear that?" Ciri jumps up in surprise and looks around. No, she didn't hear anything. But then, she doesn´t have the hearing of a Witcher.
"Where's Jaskier?"
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Jaskier wanders through the forest, arms loaded with firewood. He has a melody in his head, buzzes to himself, but he can't think of a suitable text. "Hmmm ... hmmm ... my heart. No, your heart… listen to your heart, no…. ”He stops at the edge of a wide clearing. The snow has stopped and the sun is breaking through the clouds. Sunbeams let the untouched snow sparkle and shine. Jaskier drops off the wood, puts his hands in his sides, admires the sight. "Beautiful." He is just taking the first steps on the open space when he hears branches cracking and leaves rustling behind him. "Look at this, Geralt, I ..." The bard turns. It is not the Witcher, who stands behind him.
A huge, shaggy figure moves between the trees and stares at him with tiny, bloodshot eyes. A bear! A bear looking for food to hibernate reserves.
„Oh, no, no, no…“ Jaskier slowly backs off. The bear falls back on all fours, sniffs, approaches him slowly.
"Geralt! GERALT! ”The shouting of the bard makes the bear restless, he is getting closer and moving faster now. Delphinium stumbles backwards, keeping an eye on the animal.
"Geralt, if you can hear me, please hurry."
On the other side of the clearing, a figure breaks out of the undergrowth. With his drawn sword in hand, the Witcher sprints towards Jaskier and the bear. He grabs the bard by the collar, pulls him back and jumps between him and the animal.
"Geralt, I ..."
"Get off the ice!" The Witcher barks and only now Jaskier realizes: he is not in a clearing, he is on a frozen lake, the snow completely covering the ice layer.
The bard tries to leave the ice as quickly as possible without treading too heavily. He stalks like a heron. Behind him the bear starts to roar furiously. Once at the bank, the bard dares to turn around.
The bear is bleeding from a long cut on the snout. It reaches for the Witcher with a paw, but Geralt gets out of reach with a role. The animal pursues him with a huge jump. Snow and ice fragments fly up as it crashes into the spot where the Witcher stood only seconds before. The giant animal whirls around, the Witcher ducks, but slips in the snow. Another blow from the bear hits the Witcher on the temple and sends him to the ground. The sword is thrown out of his hand. The bear pounces on his opponent again.
"I really have enough of this!", curses the Witcher. He makes a quick sign with his fingers and fire emerges from his hands burning bright like a torch- Igni. The animal's shaggy fur begins to smoke. The bear makes a terrible sound, something between moaning and howling, then turns and escapes across the lake back into the forest.
"Crap, damn it," growls the Witcher. He gets up, dazed. The red of the blood on his forehead contrasts sharply with the white of his hair.
The Witcher digs for his sword in the snow. "Jaskier, I .." KRACK! A bang echoes across the clearing, deafening. Then a wet splash and the Witcher is gone. Gone!
Unable to move, Jaskier stares at the empty space where Geralt stood seconds ago.
A high, shrill scream pulls him out of shock. Ciri! She stands on the other side of the lake, her face contorted with horror. She wants to run to the hole where Geralt has disappeared. "Don´t step on the ice, Ciri!" cries Jaskier. "I'll do it." He drops to his hands and knees and crawls across the ice. He hears the ice under him groaning and crackling. He doesn't dare stand up, crawls forward. Splashes of blood and paw prints cover the floor around the hole the Witcher broke into. "Geralt, for heaven's sake, show up again!" Jaskier leans over the hole in the ice, the water of the lake beneath it black as night. Nothing! No Witcher shows up cursing and cursing. The bard reaches into the icy water with both arms, blindly fishing for his friend. The cold is like pinpricks, the fingers become numb immediately. He doesn't find the Witcher.
Now he dips his upper body in the lake, blind, plows through the water with his arms. Deaf fingers collide with something solid. He grabs, pulls, pulls and tears his head out of the water. The first breath burns in his lungs, his arms become heavy, but he does not let go. With the last of his strength, he pulls the Witcher to the surface of the water, then his upper body out of the hole. Geralt doesn't help, doesn't move.
"Damn it, no, come on!" Jaskier yells but doesn't get the Witcher pulled out of the ice. Two small hands grasp the Witcher's shoulders. Ciri's tear-wet face appears in the bard's field of vision. "Together." she groans and they pull. They succeed. Geralt lies between them, motionless and cold. His coat is gone, parts of his armor are missing, dropped and lost under the layer of ice. "Get off the ice, Ciri, I can do it. We need a fire now, very quickly." Ciri clings to Geralt until Jaskier pries her fingers from Geralt's arm and shakes her slightly. "Come on, little one, a fire!" Ciri comes to herself, stumbles back to the bank and takes as much of the wood that Jaskier has dropped there as she can carry.
The bard very carefully begins to pull the motionless Witcher off the ice. Until they finally make it to the bank, there is cold sweat on his forehead and he gasps.
Is he still breathing? Jaskier bends over his friend, holds a hand over his open mouth. What do you do when someone stops breathing? What do you do to help? Can you ventilate a sorcerer's mouth-to-mouth? The question is, can Jaskier even ventilate anyone mouth to mouth.
A small cloud forms in the icy air in front of the Witcher's nose and mouth. He is breathing. No resuscitation needed.
Ciri comes running through the forest towards the two, pulling Roach behind her by the rein. "The fire is on!" She gasps. "We have to take him to the campsite, quickly." Ciri strokes the witcher´s mare, talks to her, summons her until the animal lets herself plop to the ground. Together they throw Geralt's limp body over the animal's back. He hangs like a sack of potatoes as Roach slowly rises. Together they take care that the Witcher does not fall until they have reached the camp.
At the campfire, Jaskier pulls his friend off his horse. He cannot lift the weight of the witcher, falls to the ground with Geralt on top. Ciri helps him, together they roll the Witcher into blankets and coats and put him close to the fire. Ciri crouches next to Geralt, shakes his shoulder constantly, lets her tears run free. "Please wake up!" She sobs.
Jaskier reaches for his friend's cold hands, rubs them between his. "He breathes, Ciri. Try to keep him warm. ”A little surprised, the bard watches Ciri climb onto the pile of blankets and coats under which Geralt is buried and wrappes around him with her thin arms. "Why not, let's keep him warm like that.”
"If you too throw yourself at me now, bard, I will suffocate." the Witcher groans
Ciri squeals with happiness as the Witcher begins to stir beneath her. "You were so very cold, I thought you were dead!"
"Geralt, you really scared . When I pulled you out of the water, you felt like an icicle. Wasn't sure if you're still breathing. If not, I would have tried to revive you, I promise. I would have tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. "
"Don't you dare!" the Witcher groans.
Ciri wraps her arms around his neck. "I didn't want to lose you! But you didn't move anymore, I couldn't hear your heartbeat! "
"It beating." Geralt smiles. “A Witcher's heart beats four times slower than that of a human. You have to be patient if you want to hear our heartbeat. ”Ciri looks at him in doubt. "Can I hear it now? Just to be sure? ”Geralt slowly pushes himself up, pulls the covers and his shirt aside and Ciri presses her fingers first, then her cheek to the witcher's chest. Then she makes a very quiet sound, something between sniffing and laughing. "Yes, I hear it. Phew, Geralt, I'm relieved. "
The bard looks at the scene in front of him wistfully but with relief. What should he have done if the Witcher had stopped breathing, if his heart had stopped beating?
"What is it?" Geralt notices his friend's worried look. He looks at the bard with a raised eyebrow. "Don't tell me you want to hear it too." Jaskier beams at him expectantly. "All right," grumbles the Witcher. "This bear must have hit me on my head harder than I thought," he sighs as Jaskier lays his ear against his chest.
Poch… .poch…… poch.
"I hear it! Your heartbeat, ”Jaskier laughs. "Very clear! The heart of a witcher is amazing! "
And then, with his ear still pressed against the witcher's chest, the text for his melody comes to his mind and he begins to sing:
„I can hear your heartbeat
Yeah, I can hear your heartbeat
The sound of you is so sweet to me”