His Little Bird: Jaskier

Chapter 14

"Go to Kagen. Wait there for me. I'll only be a few days."

That's what Geralt had said when he and Y/n split ways for the first time since Temeria years before. He left her in a tavern, riding away on Roach, promising that he would be returning to her without even telling her where he was going. She did what he asked, staying there in the tavern, taking small jobs she found on a news board in the middle of the town. Every now and again, it would be more difficult to manage without Geralt by her side, but she would finish it quickly enough.

She made her own coin without Geralt's help for a few days, waiting patiently for his return. Without the watching gaze of the witcher, Y/n drowned her sorrows in ale and men. It had been a few months since the incident on top of the mountain, and her mind often lingered to the bard they left up there. Sometimes, she would accidently say the wrong name while drowning her sorrows in the pleasures of men. They never cared, though. They were too drunk to notice her golden hair. Why would they notice her whispering the name of another man?

Those couple of days turned into a week of waiting. She knew that the travels were long, and that whatever Geralt had to do was important, but her mind lingered on the fact that he had been gone a week after promising a few days. Sure, to Geralt that could be a few days, but to normally everyone else, a few meant three, maybe four days. Y/n brushed off these thoughts, knowing that Geralt would return to her, as he always did. She couldn't go off to find him, given that she knew not where he was, but it didn't matter. He would return.

Y/n knew the innkeeper was getting tired of her. She was already there longer than she told them she would be, and he wanted to bring in other customers instead of giving the room to a woman. She relented, however, and continued to remain in her room for as long as she could. It turned out to be longer than she anticipated.

That one week turned into three, and before she knew it, a month had passed that she stayed in Kagen. It was draining her of her coin, and she had to move taverns when the innkeeper of the first tavern she stayed in kicked her out. She moved at least three times, she had lost count of the taverns she found to stay in.

She was getting angry. Geralt was gone for far too long. Whenever he said he would return, he always returned. She doubted the possibility of him dying, for he survived near everything the Continent had to throw at him. Sitting in a tavern, waiting for him to return was something she hated doing. And now, Geralt was pushing his luck. She refused to parade around Kagen any longer, taking pathetic jobs to earn her the smallest bit of coin she could to pay for her rooms. One day, after she had taken to finding a poor farmer's sheep for the lowest coin in her life, she gathered up her belongings in her room, hitched Windchaser up with her saddle and bags, and rode out of Kagen, hoping to never return to the pathetic little town.

The closest place she could begin searching for her partner was Temeria, unfortunately. Horrid memories came rushing back to her head as she found herself at the border of the country. She heard good things about Temeria recently, that the king had turned his ways upside down to care for his newly saved daughter, thanks to Geralt. And it appears the rumors were true, for when she rode through the different towns, they seemed more lively and rich and full of joy than when she was a girl in the hands of a witch. She pulled her hood up further on her head, avoiding the eyes of the people who watched her ride in on her white mare.

It didn't take long before she passed through Temeria, avoiding Vizima to not revisit the place of her abandonment, and made her way into Redania. She sighed as she reached the border, turning west with intentions of making her way into Novigrad.

She heard many different rumors through her travels, of Nilfgaard and their takeover of Cintra. Most of all, the death of Queen Calanthe and the disappearance of her granddaughter, Princess Cirilla. Nilfgaard was plundering through the Continent, taking over every bit of land that they could, with the mage Fringilla leading their attacks and their religious takeover. Y/n had no intentions of finding herself in the clutches of a kingdom hell-bent on complete dominion and takeover. She very much liked her freedom, and the ability to make her own money.