His Little Bird: Jaskier

Chapter 2

Even when Geralt and Y/n had gotten on their respective horses, the bard had still insisted he walk alongside the both of them. Y/n had hoped the long walk from Posada to the valley of Dol Blathanna would wear out the bard to the point where he would wish to return to the civilization, but he had more gumption than she originally anticipated. The bard looked from Geralt to Y/n for a moment, before opening his mouth to once again speak to the woman, who had pulled her hood down due to lack of needing it now.

"My lady, I apologize, for I never truly introduced myself to you," he began, rushing up to walk next to her horse as she let out a sigh through her nose, biting her lip to keep from snapping. "Julian Alfred Pankratz, at your service. But, I am more commonly known as Jaskier. My stage name. Interesting fact, actually, it means dand-"

"I don't care," she responded shortly, and the bard, Jaskier, timidly nodded his head and muttered to himself at her interruption. A pit of guilt began to swarm in her stomach, realizing her annoyance had gone too far for him and snapping was not the way to handle his presence. Letting out a little sigh, she barely looked back at him and met his eyes, saying, "Y/n. Of Vizima."

Jaskier grinned brightly, saying, "To finally put a name to such a face, and a lovely one at that."

"Look, bard, I have no intentions of making any friends here," she told him with a shake of her head , keeping her eyes forward on the dusty dirt road.

"Does one ever truly intend to befriend someone?" he questioned her cheekily, and she gripped her reins tightly, causing Windchaser to whinny a little bit. "Most of the time, it just sort of happens. Like love."

"Not looking for that either," she grumbled to herself, regretting the guilt that she felt. He truly was a proper bard, trying to put everything into some poetic grace.

"Well, you know, reading between the lines and the gut punches, chum," Jaskier continued, this time reaching to catch up with Geralt once more, "I'd say you have a bit of a... an image problem. Were I to join you on this..." he gestured out towards the plains and rocky hills around them, "feat to defeat the devil of Posada, I could relieve you of that title. All the North would be too busy singing the tales of Geralt of Rivia and Y/n of Vizima, the-the White Wolf and Little Bird or-or something."

"Butcher is right", "Don't call me little bird," Geralt and Y/n responded, Y/n with a glare at the bard and Geralt without so much as a look towards the ground Jaskier walked on.

Jaskier, not taking the hints, was quiet for a moment before reaching out to Roach and asking, "D'you mind if I hop up there with you? It's just I'm not really wearing the right kind of footwear-"

"Don't touch Roach," Geralt growled, his voice louder than usual, cutting off the bard as he muttered out 'right, yeah, right' in response to the witcher's snapping.

Jaskier tapped his hands together lightly and looked up to Y/n to say, "Love, do you have any room on there for one more?"

"Breathe in the wrong direction near Windchaser, and you won't have to worry about your footwear," Y/n said with a snarl similar to what Jaskier had heard from Geralt. Deciding the two of them were insanely protective of their horses, he resorted to nodding and simply following along.

They didn't go much further before Geralt stopped his horse, hearing something in the brush nearby where the boy had mentioned spotting a 'devil'. Y/n followed him, tying their horses to a nearby tree as Jaskier continued to needlessly talk. "You know, the elves called this Dol Blathanna before bequeathing it to the humans and retreating into their golden palaces in the mountains." Y/n knew the story was false, making it appear as though humans were righteous enough to do something as allow the elves to leave, instead of driving them from their homeland. The naivety of the bard was beginning to get to her. "There I go again, just... delivering exposition."