Adventures with the Witcher(s): A Multi Witcher Story

Chapter 4 (Eskel): the Blue Stripes

"The...Blue Stripes?" You ask confused, "I don't recall reading about them in the books."
"I'll tell you about it later," Eskel assures.

The men put away their weapons as their commander approached you and the witcher.

"I thought I recognized you," Roche says, pointing at Eskel, "one of the witchers from Kaer Morhen. Eskel, right?" "That would be me," Eskel nods, "and nice to see you too. This is (y/n), and as you can see she recently suffered an injury."
"I saw what happened," Roche nods, "that griffin you slew has been giving my men a ploughing hard time the last couple of weeks. Today, we were aiming to lure to this spot in an ambush, but it appears you did us all favor."

"How much of the fight did you see exactly?" you ask, feeling curious. "Enough," Roche answers, "I don't believe anyone has ever thought to tame the beast like stallion the way you did. Quite an amusing site, or it would be if it weren't so life-threatening."

You felt your face heat up when some of the Blue Stripes snickered probably remembering that scene.
"I'm glad the family wasn't here to see this," you mutter.

Roche took notice of the injury on your leg, "we set up camp not far from here," he says, "We can escort you there, and have a medic to see your wound along with food and a place to stay the night." "Really?" Eskel says, "We don't know each other that well, it seems generous of you. "I insist," Roche says, "We may not have much, but we share a mutual acquaintance through Geralt of Rivia and we did fight on the same side against the Wild Hunt. It would be unbecoming if I did not help out a former comrade."

You and Eskel exchange looks before the witcher nodded in acceptance.

"By the way, I believe these belong to you," Roche says, gesturing for his men to bring Midnight and Scorpion, who had taken off during the fight with the griffin.

Once on horseback, the Blue Stripes escort you and Eskel to their camp sight.

The camp sight, to your surprise, wasn't really much of a camp sight; it was more like a hide out. Inside the cave, there men in blue uniforms doing various activities from sharpening swords to stoking the fire, to drawing maps.

Since you couldn't move too well with your injury leg, Eskel carried you on his back. Roche led the two of you to the infirmary area of the cave. Eskel set you down on one of the cots. Roche then left to find the medic and also to delegate tasks to his men.
"So how is it you two know each other?" you ask, trying to get your leg to straighten out, "I understand you fought together and have a mutual acquaintance with Geralt."

"More or less," Eskel nods, "it's a bit of a long story." "I got time," you shrug.
The witcher then proceeded to tell you about the battle of Kaer Morhen, or more the shorthand version of it where Geralt's ward Ciri was pursued by this army called the Wild Hunt. While Eskel, Lambert, and Vesemir were busy fortifying what they could of the keep to prepare for the fight, Geralt had gone out to Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige, and other parts of the Continent in hopes of gathering allies to fight the Hunt.

Among those allies was the commander of the Blue Stripes himself. While Eskel had a few brief conversations with Vernon Roche and his second in command, the witcher had opted to spend most of that time in mediation so as to have been mentally prepared for the fight that was ahead.

"I take it the battle was hard won," you said. "Hardly," Eskel scoffs, "True, we were able to hold down the fort, but we were vastly outnumbered. Some of us almost died and if it weren't for Ciri we probably would've all been dead."

"That really sounds like quite the story," you admit, "so, what exactly are the Blue Stripes?" "Temerian elite force basically," Eskel explains, "created to fight the Scoia'tel during the wars with Nilfgaard." "The who what?" you frown in confusion.
Eskel was about to explain but Roche had come back, "Apologies for interrupting the conversation," the commander says, "but I brought a medic to treat your injury."