Celeste || The Witcher ||

Chapter 20 - The End

Author's note: I know this is a very small chapter and wasn't what was expected at all, but I haven't written in so long I forgot I was even capable of it. This is a story I love and as much as I love it, I feel that it needs to come to an end. Unfortunately I haven't been in a Witcher mood for a long time, making it so hard to write about it. However, It didn't feel right to never end it, so here it is, a short, but sweet ending to a dear story of mine.

***

"FASTER" Celeste screamed to herself "FASTER" she yelled louder, hoping that the words would finally reach the girl's ear. Yes, Celeste was a harsh teacher, but she always got results "If that was an enemy you'd be dead" she said, throwing a wooden training sword towards the girl with white hair in a short messy braid "watch your footing, yes, there you go" she held in a little smile, not wanting to show that she was, indeed, proud of the girl.

Celeste had been out in the cold for easily five hours when she realized the sun was about to set and she didnt think that Ciri was ready for practice at night. She sighed, loud, feeling her ribs a little sore from practicing earlier and after cracking her knuckles, signaled that it was time for Ciri to approach. She hugged the child, giving her a kiss on the top of the head and cleaning some of the soft snow that had accumulated on the top of the Ciri's head.

"I'm sorry, I thought I was ready, I know I'm ready Celeste" the girl said rubbing her hands against her face, trying to regulate her breathing while snow fell over the two of them "I want to make you proud, but I have no idea how you can be so fast, it's either my feet tricking me or my hands missing, I'm starting to think I have terrible aim" she sighed deeply, and hugged herself due to the harsh cold.

"Dont tell this to Geralt, but" Celeste kneeled in front of the girl, standing at the same height, eye to eye "I had a hard time figuring out how to get my hands and feet to sync, is like a dance, it takes time, but you'll get there" she smiled softly "If i hear you told him that, you're dead, just letting you know" she lifted her hands up, as if playing innocent, making Ciri giggle.

"Promise I won't".

When Geralt disappeared for months and showed up to the doors of Kaer Morhen with a kid, Celeste never thought she'd be able to forgive him. There was a burning anger that consumed her whenever she looked at him, but when she saw the little girl...it was as if she was looking at herself, that was enough to soften her heart, even if just a little. Anger was a feeling that consumed her for the first few months of training and taking care of Ciri, not because of the girl, oh no, that was the easiest part, it was the constant lurking and stares from Geralt, watching her every step, since she made sure to ignore him as much as she could. He tried to apologize, to make her understand his reasoning, but her hearing seemed to dissipate, well, only when he was talking.

"Destiny" she could hear the word repeating nonstop in her brain, almost as a mantra, or a curse "destiny, destiny, destiny, you can't escape fate, what's decide by destiny, is impossible to escape". Tha much she knew and once she understood that's what happened, that Geralt's dreams and vision led him to need to find this girl, things became a little easier to accept.

She wasn't the problem, she wasn't the reason he left, it was something much greater, something of the gods and destiny, and with those you can't escape, you can't fool or play around. What is meant to be, will be, what is meant to happen, will happen.

With time, she softened, accepting his apology, but regaining her trust took several weeks, that turned into months. Geralt did everything under the sun and the moon to prove himself worthy and one day, he did. She saw in him the brave boy he once was, but now as a man, taking care of a girl that wasn't even his. The way he'd give his life so Ciri could have hers, was something only a real man could do. To protect and serve. To love and fight. Geralt was a fighter in every single way, since he was just a pup.

"To love you is to know being alive has a meaning, Celeste" Geralt said over and over again "to be with you, is to be at peace" he repeated so many times she started to believe.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

And in the middle of what seemed to be either break it or make it, Celeste accepted her destiny, that was to raise that child alongside Geralt, to pass on her legacy, the witcher legacy, to the only other witcher girl on the face of this planet.

Oh Ciri, if you knew how much you were loved, how both Celeste and Geralt knew you were destined to greater things, nothing and no one in this world could ever stop it.

And so one, became two, that turned into three, Celeste, Geralt and Ciri, the family that seemed to never be meant to be, but was still, in the end, formed by destiny, and destiny only.

"Well, we're afeared. And what of it? Do we sit down and weep and tremble? Life must go on. And what will be, will be. What is destined can't be avoided, in any case." - Andrzej Sapkowski 

THE END