Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Geralt had been gone for way too long. It was supposed to be an easy contract, and Geralt had said he’d be back before sunset. It was just past sunrise, and there was still no sign of the Witcher. Jaskier had already eaten breakfast and was pacing across the clearing they had made camp in. Roach is munching on the grass, looking unbothered, but that did little to soothe Jaskier’s nerves.

After another three laps around camp, Jaskier hears something. He pauses and notices Roach raise her head from where she had moved to the other side of camp. Now that he was listening, Jaskier could almost hear multiple voices coming from the direction of the closest town. Jaskier grabs his dagger and steps into the tree line. He finds a wide tree to stand behind and watches as Roach turns to face the voices.

Out of the trees come a group of six or seven? men all dressed like bandits. Jaskier mentally curses as they rifle through his and Geralt’s bags. One of the bandits picks up Geralt’s potion bag. “This must be a Witcher’s camp. Look at these potions.” Another grabs Jaskier’s lute as the bard winces. “This looks expensive!”

One of the bandits tries to grab Roach’s halter but is quickly kicked to the ground as Roach turns and runs off through the trees. Just as Jaskier begins to think up a plan of attack, another three bandits step out of the trees and begin to help search the camp. Deciding to follow Roach’s lead. Jaskier turns and sneaks away from camp to begin moving in the direction Geralt left in. He won’t be happy, but hopefully, he’ll understand why Jaskier didn’t stick around.

As Jaskier makes his way through the woods, he searches for any sign of Geralt or Roach. They all can take care of themselves, but Jaskier would feel better having someone with him. Apparently, he speaks too soon because just then, a small group of bandits steps into his path. They quickly circle the bard and begin to close in on him. “Look what we have here. Was that your camp we just left? Are you the one traveling with that Witcher scum?” Jaskier spits in the speaker’s direction as he pulls out his dagger. “Ooh, are you just as feisty as the Witcher? How about we-“. The bandit is cut off by what sounds like a fight breaking out behind Jaskier.

He turns, only to duck as a bandit comes flying towards him. It hits the bandit behind him as Jaskier scrambles for cover. Once behind a tree, he watches as a horse? looking thing kills the bandits quickly. It has a horse body and 4 legs, but the similarity stops there. Jaskier tries to count the number of hands but fails when the creature turns, and Jaskier notices the sheer amount of eyes covering the creature’s horse-like head. It’s easily got a dozen eyes and is similar in shape to a horse’s head but not quite right. Jaskier decides to stop counting the strange features.

As quickly as the fighting started, it is over, and suddenly the creature is much more horse-like as it turns to where Jaskier is leaning around a tree. Now it has zero arms, and only two eyes, and Jaskier thinks it looks much more horse-like and less demon-like than it did a second ago. When the creature doesn’t move, Jaskier stands and steps out from behind the tree. “Well, thank you for saving me from those bandits. They had already stolen my lute, which I had been gifted many years ago, and was my prize possession. Now I must be on my way to find my friend, but I have no idea which way he went. Did you happen to see a Witcher with white hair, black clothes, and some very big swords?”

The creature seems to roll its eyes as it turns and begins to walk in the direction Jaskier had been going before he’d been so rudely interrupted. Unsure of what to do, Jaskier just watches as the creature takes a few steps before looking at Jaskier as if to say, ‘you’re supposed to follow me’. “Lead the way, I guess,” Jaskier says as he walks toward the horse-like creature. Only now does he notice the almost unnaturally red hue of the creature’s coat, which is a drastic contrast to the pitch-black color of the mane and tail. Both of which are clearly knotted and dirty.

As Jaskier catches up to the horse, he has a thought. “I think you would look good with a hat. I don’t have one, but I could buy you one, and in the meantime, I could brush your coat and comb out your mane and tail. I could also braid flowers into your mane, which Geralt’s horse, Roach, likes. She’s a chestnut too, but you are more red than she is and her mane and tail are red unlike yours. It’s quite a unique color combination if I do say so myself.” Surprisingly, the horse nickers in what sounds like agreement when Jaskier pauses to take a breath.

They continue walking with Jaskier trailing slightly behind as he realizes he doesn’t have a name for the horse. He spends the next few minutes thinking up the perfect name until it hits him. “I‘ve got it!” The horse looks back at him almost curiously. “I’m going to call you Greg. You may already have a name, but since you have no way of telling me, I am going to call you Greg from now on.” The horse nickers quietly before he moves his head in a way that makes Jaskier think he rolled his eyes. The bard thinks the reaction was suspiciously intelligent but thinks he must be reading too much into it after spending so much time with a mono-syllable responding Witcher.

Speaking of the Witcher… “By the way, Greg. Geralt, the Witcher you’re helping me look for, can be a bit stabby-happy with anything non-human or even potentially threatening humans, so when we find him let me do the talking. I’ll be able to convince him that you’re friendly. So far, you’ve been at least as good a traveling companion as he is since you seem to at least pay attention to what I say. He only listens to like 10% of what I say, which can be quite annoying when I’m trying to ask him a question. Normally it’s about my music. I would be playing my lute by now, but those rude bandits stole it from camp, and there were too many of them to take on by myself. That’s part of why I’d like to find Geralt sooner rather than later. Thanks for your help, by the way. I only have a general idea of which way he went, and I’d probably be lost if not for you. Definitely bandit food at the least.” The horse snorts at that and seems to listen as Jaskier continues to ramble.

Chapter Text

After another hour of walking, Jaskier and Greg come upon a makeshift camp. “Based on the setup, I can tell that this is Geralt’s camp. There are only a few hours left until sundown, so let’s wait here until Geralt gets back.” Greg walks to the side of the camp and starts munching on some grass. Jaskier stokes the fire and gathers some extra wood before sitting on a log facing the fire. His fingers itch to play his lute, but he settles for singing one of his songs instead. Greg doesn’t do anything to make Jaskier think he doesn’t like his singing, so Jaskier goes on to the next song. If anything, Greg has one ear pointed back to Jaskier and the other moving around, which makes Jaskier think that the horse is listening.

As the sun begins to hide behind the trees, Greg stops grazing and looks towards the South. Jaskier stops singing and listens but can’t hear anything. Soon he can hear the tell-tale signs of someone walking through the trees and hopes it’s Geralt and not the bandits from earlier. Jaskier stands up and moves closer to Greg just in case. Both pause as Jaskier can begin to see an outline through the trees. The figure comes closer, and Jaskier breathes a sigh of relief as he identifies Geralt.

Turning to Greg, “That’s Geralt, who I’ve been looking for. Remember to let me do the talking since he probably won’t like you at first.” He turns back to see Geralt at the edge of the trees staring at Jaskier and Greg with his sword out. “Jaskier, move away from the monster.” Jaskier rolls his eyes. “Typical Geralt. Stab first, ask questions never. Geralt, this is Greg. He helped me after I got attacked by bandits, I’m fine, by the way, and he helped me find you. He’s been nice, so you need to be nice and take a break from being a big, scary Witcher.” Geralt takes a step closer and huffs, sword still pointed at Greg. “Jaskier, that is not a horse!” “I know, dear heart. As I said, he saved me from bandits, and I saw that he’s not just a horse, but he saved my life and helped me find you, so please put your sword down.”

Geralt is clearly still distrustful but lowers his sword, so Jaskier takes that as a cue to sit back down. As he does so, he hears Greg start to munch on grass again, which he assumes is a good sign. Geralt sits down on the other log, which Jaskier had placed next to his, and continues to watch Greg.

Without taking his eyes off the horse, Geralt asks, “You said you ran into bandits?” Though it was more of a couple of grunts than words, Jaskier is well-versed enough in Geralt-speak to decipher the question. “Yes. A group of them found the camp. I hid before they came upon the camp, but there were like 10 of them, so I couldn’t stop them from looking through our stuff. They even took my lute, Geralt! They said they were going to sell it!” Geralt rolls his eyes in response. “What about Roach?” “Oh, someone tried to grab her, but she kicked him and ran off. I didn’t see any sign of her on the way here. I did run into a couple of the bandits on the way, and I would have been done for if not for Greg jumping in to help. I told him I was looking for you, and he led me here.”

Geralt finally took his eyes off Greg to look between Jaskier and the horse in disbelief. “What, he just appeared out of nowhere and took down the bandits?” “Yeah, pretty much. He came from somewhere behind me, so I didn’t see him until I was hiding behind a tree.” “At least you had the good sense to get out of the way,” Geralt mumbles. Greg snorts in what Jaskier takes as agreement with the Witcher. Jaskier spins to face the horse. “Hey! I thought you were on my side, Greg!” The horse just looks on in amusement as he continues to chew. Unhelpfully, Geralt pipes up from behind the bard, “Maybe you were right, Jaskier. I’m starting to like Greg.”

Jaskier spins back around in outrage. His retort dies on his tongue when he sees the amusement on Geralt’s face. He realizes that the Witcher has let go of the sword and is looking more relaxed in the horse’s presence (at least as relaxed as Geralt is going to get around an unfamiliar animal). Jaskier just grumbles in fake outrage, secretly glad that the Witcher has relaxed. He thought it would take longer for Geralt to put his sword down.

Just then, Jaskier’s stomach takes the opportunity to make itself known. Geralt stands up. “I’ll hunt for dinner.” Suddenly, Jaskier remembers why they are here in the first place. “Wait! What about the monster?” “I couldn’t find it. Was going to try again tom…” Geralt trails off as Greg moves to stand in front of Geralt. He motions toward the log and Jaskier with his head before turning away. At the edge of the treeline, he looks back. When he sees that neither man has moved, he continues on into the woods. Both men look at either other in confusion.

“Did he just tell me to stay?” Geralt askes. “I think so,” Jaskier responds dumbly as they stare at the horse’s retreating form. “Hopefully he finds something edible.” That seems to break Geralt out of his stupor. He sits down and begins to clean his swords while occasionally glancing in the direction Greg went.

Both Geralt and Jaskier do what they can to keep busy while Greg is gone, but Geralt clearly wants to be doing something more than waiting around. He has never been good at that.

“Geralt, I’m bored. I want to braid your hair,” Jaskier whines. It was easier for Geralt to accept help if he felt like he is doing it for Jaskier and not himself. Geralt mutters something under his breath as he puts his swords away and resituates himself to make room for Jaskier. Mentally cheering, Jaskier gets the brush and hair tie from Geralt’s bag and sits behind the Witcher. He slowly begins to detangle the white hair, starting at the bottom and working his way up.

As Geralt slowly relaxes, Jaskier thinks it safe to start humming under his breath, growing louder as the Witcher continues to relax. He’s humming a lullaby from his childhood as he finishes detangling Geralt’s hair. Jaskier shifts onto his knees to get a better angle and starts sectioning Geralt’s hair. As he leans slightly against Geralt’s back, Jaskier can feel the rumbling in Geralt’s chest. Jaskier mentally cheers again as he starts to weave the hair. Jaskier had hoped Geralt would meditate during the braiding. This braid is not the most intricate he’s ever done, but it is more time consuming than most, which is the reason he picked this style. By the time he is finishing off the braid, the rumbling in Geralt’s chest stops, which Jaskier takes to mean that the Witcher hears something coming.

Pausing in his humming, Jaskier asks, “Is it Greg?” “Sounds like it.” “Okay. I’m almost done.” Jaskier continues humming, although quieter as he finishes and ties off the braid. He squeezes the Witcher’s shoulder as he stands. Jaskier pokes the fire as Geralt grabs his sword and the two stand side by side just in case it’s not Greg.

Luckily it is, and Geralt sets down his sword once he catches the horse’s scent. Both men sit as they wait. As Greg breaks the trees, both men stare in shock. Greg is holding a large deer in his mouth, while he carries what looks like the monster from the contract in his arms. He drops the monster once he fully clears the trees and walks closer to drop the deer in front of Geralt and Jaskier.

There is a prolonged minute of silence before Jaskier managed to find his voice. “Is that the monster you’ve been hunting?” Geralt just nods as he looks between the two dead animals and the horse, who by this point has lost his arms and is looking much too smug for a normal horse. Turning to Greg, Jaskier has to think about what he wants to ask since he has about a thousand questions running through his head. Finally, he settles on, “Did you kill both of those?” Greg looks at Jaskier as if he asked if the sky is blue.

“Okay fine, that was kinda dumb, but I was not expecting you to show up with two large kills. Did you mean to kill that,” Jaskier points at the dead monster, “or did you just run into it?” “I think he just ran into it Jaskier.” Jskier is opening his mouth to agree when Greg snorts and shakes his head. Jaskier turns to the resident horse expert to ask, “Was that a no?” Distantly, Jaskier is surprised how high his voice got as he asked, but it’s not everyday that a demon-horse goes out of his way to kill a monster for you. “I think so,” Geralt replys as he stares at Greg. The horse nickers in probably agreement, before beginning to graze.

Jaskier and Geralt look at each other in shock. Jaskier shrugs at Geralt and stands up. They’ve probably seen weirder things. Probably. Either way, Jaskier is hungry and a little weirdness isn’t going to keep him way from perfectly good food. While Jaskier gets to work on the deer, Geralt takes care of the monster. Together they make quick work and soon have deer meat cooking over the fire.

The rest of the evening passes quickly with Jaskier and Geralt doing what they usually do, and Greg grazing around them. He never comes too close to either man, but he doesn’t shy away if one of them happens to walk near the horse. The most he does is look at them, which Jaskier counts as a win. He still wants to braid the horse’s hair and he is going to do it one of these days. He’s gotten through to Geralt, so he is confident in his ability to get through to the horse.

With only one bedroll, Jaskier and Geralt cuddle up together for the night. Before Jaskier drifts off, he sees Greg grazing on the other side of the fire and has the thought that Greg will protect them while they sleep. He smiles slightly as he finally drifts off in Geralt’s arms.