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"Geralt?" Jaskier asked, picking unconsciously at his lute in his hands. It was a lovely fall day, with the sun high in the sky and a nice cool breeze keeping the temperatures bearable. The path was just starting to get covered by fallen leaves, and the nights were cool enough that Jaskier had to sleep underneath his blanket and cloak. Soon enough, it would be time for him to return to Oxenfurt.
"Hm." Geralt grunted from atop Roach, letting the bard know he was paying attention. He'd been more grumbly the last several days.
"Are we really not going to do anything?" Jaskier asked.
"What am I to do? Noises in the night mean nothing to superstitious villagers." Geralt practically growled out, jaw clenched tight and eyes set on the road ahead.
"But it could be a monster!" Jaskier exclaimed, pouting.
"No deaths, no disappearances." Geralt argued back. "There isn't even a contract."
"Doesn't that seem a little strange?" Jaskier asked, trying for a different angle.
"Strange doesn't justify paying a witcher." Geralt said with a tone meant to end arguments. Jaskier was well familiar with it. He usually ignored it. "In case you haven't noticed by the lack of contracts in the last four towns." Jaskier harrumphed and hit a minor chord on his lute to convey his dismay.
"Perhaps you're right, witcher." Jaskier admitted, though it was a bit reluctant. "Strange things happen all the time on this Continent after all. Maybe a mage has decided to test a new spell in the woods around here. We're certainly far enough out he'd think there was no one living near enough to hear."
"Hm." Geralt hummed an agreement, relief evident to the bard in his voice that he had seemingly dropped it. Until some new evidence appeared, or someone posted a contract, the witcher would not investigate the strange sounds coming from the woods, no matter how much Jaskier kept poking and prodding.
Jaskier fell... not silent (never that) but... quiet at his witcher's side for the rest of the afternoon as they continued on towards the next village. There was a small little cluster of them, spread out along this road through Temeria. It wasn't one of the main roads by any stretch of the word. Forgotten backroad was a much more accurate description, in Jaskier's humble opinion.
It was in the deep reaches of twilight by the time they made it to the village that night. It was a relief to have made it to Jaskier. The noises that the villagers had been complaining about did not happen every night, but they were described as awful enough that Jaskier wasn't looking forward to camping in the area. Geralt dismounted Roach at the edge of town and led her and Jaskier toward the tavern. There wasn't an inn here, rarely seeing travelers in this area, but the previous village said the tavern owner had a spare barn that they might could stay the night in. The plan was to stay the night, let Jaskier ply his trade in the village square the next day, and set off the day after with a hopefully much fuller coin purse.
"Ah say we storm th' place!" One of the villagers was shouting as Jaskier and Geralt walked into the tavern. The place was filled to the brim with people, probably every local was crammed inside the small place.
"That'd be suicide!" One of the others called back, and the crowd devolved into smaller shouting matches. Jaskier shot a look at Geralt, who was grimacing from all the overlapping sounds. Putting on his very best performer's smile, Jaskier jumped on top of one of the tables, stomping the heel of his boot loudly to catch everyone's attention as he slung his lute into his hands.
"My good people! If I may garner your attention please!" He called out as everyone turned to stare. "It seems you have some sort of problem. I am Jaskier the bard, and I am traveling with the White Wolf himself." He threw a hand out to indicate Geralt, who had crossed his arms and was now glaring at everyone in the room. "We've heard tales of disturbances from your neighboring villages."
The room erupted into chaos after that. Several people cheered while others cried out for the alderman to come forward. A group of women huddled in the corner started praying to Melitele and weeping. Oh dear. Something terrible must have happened here.
"Alright you lot!" A woman yelled out from behind what was probably the bar. "Clear out now! Let th' alderman and the witcher talk in peace!" She called out, and though there was some grumbling from the people, they mostly obliged. The women stayed in their corner praying, and the barmaid just gave them a look of pity. Probably for the best they stayed then, if they were victims or knew the victims. Otherwise, Geralt and Jaskier would just have to track them down later.
A middle-aged man approached the duo as Jaskier climbed back off the table. He was clearly the alderman, dressed in a somewhat fancier doublet that was only a few years out of style but in a color that complimented his complexion well.
"Witcher!" He said with a small nod of his head. "You've arrived just in time, praise the goddess."
"What's happened, good sir?" Jaskier asked, taking over the conversation. Admittedly, it had taken Jaskier the better part of the last decade to be able to step into a contract negotiation for Geralt while also getting all the information for the hunt that he needed. But it was well worth it when the alderman agreed to the first price Jaskier asked for instead of trying to whittle the number down.
What it all boiled down to was that every night the villagers heard the mysterious noise, someone or something was dead come the morning. It had started off once every other week or so, and a sheep or a dog being found killed. Then, it was a child, or an elder. A mother down with a fever. The blacksmith's apprentice, in perfect health.
The village was terrified, and no one knew when the noise, and the killer, would strike next.
"Stay here." Geralt tried to leave the bard at the tavern.
"No." Jaskier argued. "These people have been taken from inside their homes, with the doors locked. I am staying nearest you, where I will have the best chance." The bard had learned long ago that his safety was Geralt's top priority and unashamedly used that to his advantage.
"Hrm..." Geralt grunted a very reluctant agreement. They slept in the stables with Roach that night, and set out around the village the next day for Geralt to investigate the scenes of the attacks.
"It's a bruxa." Geralt finally concluded, finding several long black hairs at each attack site.
"We've seen bruxa attacks before." Jaskier said softly, thinking out loud. "But none make a 'whooshing' noise like these villagers are describing."
"Hrm..." Geralt thought about it for a moment longer. "Unless the noise is completely unrelated. Could be driving the bruxa from her den, causing her to kill randomly."
Mid-afternoon saw Geralt and Jaskier stalking through the forests, hoping to find the vampire's den while the sun was still out. Unfortunately, the forest was much thicker than Geralt had been expecting, slowing their progress significantly. It was dark underneath the trees, though Jaskier knew it was too early for sunset when they heard the noise.
It was a horrible, grating noise that caused Geralt to stumble and cover his ears with his hands. Jaskier winced, once again thankful he was just a normal human. It was awful, like someone was scraping a bow made of metal against time itself. There was one whoosh... two whooshes... A third started and cut off abruptly. Then a shriek came from the woods to their left.
"Jask..." Geralt started, but the bard was already moving away, the small silver dagger Geralt had given him years ago already in his hands. "There's a cave, stay there." He pointed briefly with the order, and then he was gone, into the woods after the scream.
"Right." Jaskier muttered softly, relaxing slightly. He still kept the dagger out, on edge by the noises. "Cave this way. Hopefully, nothing worse is using it right now." He picked his way carefully through the underbrush in the direction Geralt had pointed, coming to the mouth of a cave after just a few minutes walking. It had a fairly large opening, and Jaskier squinted into the gloom for a few more minutes, trying to make sure there weren't any recent tracks.
Once he was sufficiently sure nothing had recently entered or left, he strode as silently as possible inside. It was a cave, plain and generic enough that Jaskier felt much safer. He and Geralt had stayed in plenty of caves over the years, some nicer than others. This one was on the nicer side, in Jaskier's opinion.
It wasn't terribly damp or moldy, and there was a nice little area to set up a fire and some reasonably dry wood already piled up. This was probably used by the local hunters, if he had to guess, as he wandered around, checking for animals or monsters. There was even a small table and chair set up nearby, again for a local to work on.
Only... Jaskier stared at the table as he approached. It was much darker back here than at the front, and he had to get right up at the table to see what was on it. The top was covered with some of the strangest things he'd ever laid eyes on. Little squares with different strands of thick floss attached to them strangely; a device a little like a xenovox, only nothing like one at all; tiny bits of metal, smoother and cleaner than anything Jaskier had seen made before.
He only had a few moments to take in this confusing mess before the noise started again. Only this time it was much louder. A light blinked to his right, and Jaskier whipped around, dagger up in front of him at the ready. The light blinked in time with the noise, a small lantern attached to the top of a bright blue... box?
Again, the noise grated in the confines of the cave, echoing louder around Jaskier, and it again cut off during the third whoosh.
"Bloody brilliant!" A man's voice yelled angrily as he stepped out of the box, slamming the door behind him. He threw up his hands in disbelief, a frown across his face. "And why can't we leave yet?" He asked the box, twirling around hard enough to send his black leather coat flapping in the quiet.
"Um... Hello there?" Jaskier called, making the man look at him over his shoulder. He gave a small smile and wave, lowering the dagger to his side.
"Hello there! Lovely evening, innit?" The man asked with a smile. Jaskier thought he was quite dashing, even with his strangely cut trousers and clothing. The bard couldn't immediately place his accent either, though it reminded him of a Koviri man he'd met when he was little.
"Yes but..." The rest of the bard's small talk was cut off by another shriek, this time from the mouth of the cave.
"Jask! Get down!" Geralt's gruff voice called out, and Jaskier dropped to his knees, curling into a small ball. He heard the familiar blast of an aard and the solid thump of a body hitting stone before a snarl echoed roughly. Geralt must have landed a solid hit then, Jaskier knew, and took the chance to get out of the middle of the cavern. He crawled forward a little, seeing the area light up purple as Geralt must have caught the monster in a trap. The man was still in front of his box, staring wide-eyed at the monster as she struggled against the invisible force of yrden.
"Quick." The man snapped out of his shock and motioned Jaskier to him, opening the door to his box. Seeing no better place to hide, Jaskier threw caution to the wind and scrambled to follow after the man. The door snapped shut behind him and Jaskier felt as if he'd been the one hit with the aard and not the vampire.
The box was much bigger on the inside, almost as big as the cave they were still in. Right in the middle was some kind of pillar of light and metal. They were in almost a cage of metal, the walls set with hundreds of small round lanterns. The architecture was nothing like Jaskier had ever seen on the Continent before, and Jaskier had seen quite a lot of the world with his own two eyes, and studied much more while at Oxenfurt.
"That was a vampire." The man said, pointing to the door, before carefully looking Jaskier over.
"Yes. And you must be a mage." Jaskier said, snapping out of his awed inspection of the room. "I am a bit surprised to find you in the middle of nowhere like this." The man tilted his head to the side, confused for a moment.
"I'm more of a Doctor."
"Jaskier the bard, at your service, my good doctor." Jaskier said with a bow. If the mage wanted to be called a doctor, by Melitele's sweet tears, Jaskier knew better than to disagree. "And that's the White Wolf out there fighting her." A shriek caused Jaskier to flinch slightly, mostly because it was unexpected. It was quite muffled otherwise.
Several tense moments went by, then there was a rough knocking on the door. The Doctor opened it to reveal Geralt in all his witchery glory. The bruxa's head was in his off-hand, sword still unsheathed in the other, eyes solid black from potions though the veins were starting to recede as they were wearing off.
"Geralt!" Jaskier smiled, grateful to see him. Mages were an unknown factor to the bard and he would always choose Geralt over one any day.
"Jaskier. You alright?" He asked, voice even rougher than normal.
"Yes. This lovely doctor gave me shelter for a few moments as you dealt with our nasty problem."
"Hrm." Geralt shot a glare at the man, suspicious.
"Yes. That vampire has been interfering with my experiments." The Doctor said, stepping around Geralt back into the cave. Jaskier followed, standing within arm's reach of his witcher, unsure about the man now that the danger had passed. He was throwing the bits from the table into a bag now.
"Your 'experiments' drove her into a frenzy and killed several locals." Geralt growled and the man paused, head ducking down in shame.
"I'm truly sorry for that." He said as he resumed packing.
"Hrm."
"Next time try checking for nearby villages before you start experiments, especially ones that the monsters react poorly too." Jaskier admonished. The fact that the mage apologized at all said so much about his character. He gave a curt nod to the witcher and bard after he finished clearing the table, stepping back into the box. Jaskier noticed there was writing along the top, though he had no idea what a 'police' box was.
"Would either of you be interested in some adventuring?" He asked after a moment, leaning against the frame of the door. Jaskier looked at Geralt for a long moment before shaking his head no.
"I'm afraid we get into far too many adventures on our own to want another's." The Doctor laughed at that, a small smile returning to his face.
"Fair enough." He waved at them cheekily. "See you around, gents." He closed the door to the box and it started making that noise again, though this time the box faded away by the third whoosh, like it had never even been there.
"Whoo!" Jaskier said after a moment, breathing a great big sigh of relief. "Mages never get any easier to deal with, you know?"
"Hm." Geralt grunted in agreement.
"Want to rest here a bit and return to town in the morning?" Jaskier asked as he shook out his limbs, getting rid of the tension in them.
"Hm." Geralt agreed, and they set up a very small fire in the pit, Geralt lighting it with a quick igni.
They settled around the fire after a little while, Jaskier with his notebook out already set on composing a song out of the whole affair. Geralt was surprisingly broody, even after his potions wore off. Jaskier chalked it up to the way the whole hunt shook out, until Geralt started talking.
"In the library at Kaer Morhen, there was an old witcher's journal." Geralt started, and Jaskier immediately put down his quill to listen completely. Geralt did not talk about himself, or Kaer Morhen, or witchery-things in general very often. "It mentioned a Doctor traveling in a blue box. Said he was on a quest across the Continent for knowledge of monsters."
"Sounds like our new mage friend, doesn't it?"
"But that would have been over four hundred years ago. Mages are long-lived, but ones who hunt monsters usually aren't."
"Who knows, then?" Jaskier said with a small shrug before smiling. "Maybe he can travel through time!" Geralt just scoffed at him and rolled his eyes.
"And maybe he can travel to other spheres." Jaskier snorted a laugh at Geralt's deadpan delivery of that joke.
"Maybe." Jaskier sighed before packing away his notebook and quill. "Come on, let's get some sleep. I'll need my beauty rest if I'm to perform for those lovely townsfolk tomorrow!"