Watchers of the Multiverse

X: Tournament Preparation

The clop of hooves echoed across the dirt part leading forward, creating an almost soothing melody in the beautiful surroundings of Touissant. The sun remained visible on the horizon, leaving the fields of grapes visible whenever the cart passed them. X sat silently on her horse, keeping her gloved hands close to the neck of her horse Sven because her horse liked it when she kept her hands around this part of his body while they were out on a ride. She looked around herself, scanning her surroundings for any dangers.

She wasn't alone right now, though as she was accompanied by her friend Eskel. The witcher from the school of Wolf rode next to her on his own horse as he just like X scanned the treeline around them for any danger. Even in the calm, his predator instincts never rested and he doubted they ever will. He shifted his attention to X a second later, seeing the woman looking ahead of them while humming to herself.

"You know you didn't have to accompany me for this, right?" The Witcher asked her, trying to start a conversation in order to kill the time before they will reach their destination.

X glanced at him and shrugged her shoulders, "I know. But from what I've read, this job can serve as the good preparation for the upcoming tournament and I couldn't let this chance pass."

Eskel raised his brow, "How is fighting a monster going to prepare you to fight humans?"

Xshrugged again, leaning closer to Sven, letting him feel the comfort of her hands, "You know human can be just as unpredictable as monsters. If I can handle a creature that doesn't think the way we do, then I can handle someone who does."

"Alright. That's a fair point." Eskel replied with a look of understanding on his face. He nudged his horse forward a second later as X followed his example, wanting to keep up her pace with him, "Preparation, huh? You always find a way to turn a job into a stepping stone. Just don't get yourself in trouble. You know how these 'simple' jobs can go sideways faster than you expect."

X smiled at him, "Trouble has a way of finding me even if Katharina is not with me anyway. Might as well get used to it before the tournament. Geralt told you how he first met and Katharina, right?"

"Yeah. He told us a few glimpses of it." Eskel nodded in confirmation. The story of how Geralt first met the two watchers of the multiverse was quite an extraodinary one as he had met them shortly after making a deal with Gaunter O'Dimm following his job of killing a prince who was turned into a frog. If it wasn't for both her and Z, then who knew how his future encounters with Gaunter O'Dimm would have played out. 

X smiled at him, keeping herself close to him as she looked ahead of herself to return her gaze to the road ahead of her and Eskel. Eskel followed his example a second later, looking ahead of them as the two found themselves in a comfortable silence between each other. The two remained like this for a while as the rode into the more forested part of the road, having nothing to say each other for now as they hoped the rest of the road to their destination.

Their hopes were slashed a few moments later, though as a whistle rang through their ears, followed by an arrow embedding itself into the dirt road just ahead of the horses. The starled animals whined loudly, rearing slightly and making both X and Eskel tighten their grip on them a bit to prevent themselves from falling off their horses. X quickly looked around herself, acting like an alarmed cat as she instinctively gripped her sword's holster.

Eskel didn't flinch when he was faced with all of this commotion as he set his eyes on the trees around them and saw shadows moving around him and X, acting professional as if they had done this before which he knew they already did when he saw the figures moving out of his view with a precise stealth. He counted at least seven of them and noted all of them wore armors adorned with leaves and animal hides.