The Path: A witcher's tale

Chapter 20

We reached Kovir after about two and a half weeks of travel. Kovir is quite a beautiful place, snowcapped mountains as far as the eye can see, wealthy cityscapes, and amazing craftsmen; but it's pretty damn cold, given how its location is very far north. We traveled to the main Koviri city of Lan Exeter to see the monarch, Tankred Thyssen. Karadine and I arrived at the palace along with many other bounty hunters that were looking for coin.
King Tankred gathered us all and addressed us as he said, "As you've no doubt figured out, I have gathered you all here because I need someone found and I need a monster slain. Earlier this month, a dragon had abducted a court official of mine and I need him found, no matter the cost. Any of you that return will be rewarded quite handsomely and will have a grand banquet in your honor. Now, off you go, and good hunting to you." As we all prepared by the outskirts of the city to set out into the mountains, I looked around and observed the company I would be traveling with. Karadine and I were the only witchers who bothered making the trip, there was about five other human bounty hunters and three Crinfrid reaver hunters. There was also an elf, but he wasn't like the other elves, he had an unusual shade of red hair, elves usually have black or brown hair. I told Karadine to stay in Lan Exeter to help Tankred prevent civil unrest while I went to hunt the dragon.
I approached the elf and spoke to him. "Quite a ways from home aren't you?" I said. He replied that he needed the coin and where he was living there were simply no opportunities. I went on and addressed his hair, he explained that he is actually a half-elf and his name was Íbegard. His father was from Flotsam and his mother was from Dol Blathanna. His mother was part of a Scoia'tael commando that was raiding nearby Flotsam and his father was a guard stationed there. They apparently fell in love as soon as they clashed blades. They eloped and he was raised in Dol Blathanna, despite the fact that he was a freak among the elves because of his unusual hair color. Apparently the elves discovered his parents and he was exiled, condemned to walk the world as a freak, just like me. He became a mercenary because no guild would let him practice a craft and he found this job. We chatted on as our hunting party went into the mountains toward a tower.
As we trekked through mountain pass after mountain pass, we met the dragon. It was a red dragon, very aggressive and very old, but it had some sort of a metal collar on its neck, not unlike that of a dog. It landed on the ground in front of us and started raining fire upon us, scorching the normal amateur hunters. Because the reavers are trained dragon hunters, they avoided the fire and the sweeps of the dragon's claws, but they couldn't land a blow. I quickly downed a dose of swallow and ran through the flames with my silver sword in hand. Past the fire I saw the gaping mouth of the beast. I slashed at a fleshy opening between the dragon's jaws. Causing it to recoil back as I thrusted my blade into the dragon.
Alas, this only drove off the monster and it flew to the tower in the distance. Once that encounter was over, only the reavers, Íbegard, and I were left. One reaver couldn't dodge the dragon's claws and was bleeding heavily. The other two reavers looked at me and said, "Dammit Witcher! Don't ye have some magic booze or somethin' that could help 'im?!" I said that I do have some White Raffard's decoction, but it would most likely end up killing him faster and even if he lived, he would be different, less expressive, less human. They told me to give it to him anyway, and I did. The poor man took the potion and started trembling something awful, then it suddenly stopped. "Couldn't take it, he went into shock; he's dead," I said. The reavers buried him and the others and we continued on our way.
We finally reached the tower and we were greeted by a sorceress who stood next to the dragon we encountered earlier. "I've been expecting you," she said, "I knew Tankred would send you here, did he tell you why?" Íbegard spoke and said "Yes, apparently you took a court official of his with your dragon." The sorceress laughed in his face and said that although she did take the official, who was alive, it was merely because the official was her husband and they wanted to live a secluded life. She explained that the dragon was her assistant in all of this as the metal band around its neck allowed her to control the dragon, as if it was a machine. She then left the room and left us to fight the dragon.
The beast, now back to full strength was ready to kill. With only one blow, it opened a gaping hole in the side of the tower and we ran through it and fought the dragon in the snow. The two remaining reavers tried to tie the dragon down and kill it with spears, but it just broke free and knocked them out into the freezing mountains. Íbegard used his bow to land arrows into chinks in the dragon's scale armor as I sent my silver blade across its neck and left a large mark. This did weaken it, but it did not kill it. I used my steel sword to have a handle on the dragon's back as it tried to fly off, it didn't get far until it collapsed from blood loss and sent me into the snow. I approached the dragon, now laying harmless in the snow and observed it. Its collar had powerful runes etched into it to suppress the dragon's true nature. Dragons are not like other monsters, for they are capable of thought and reason, but they cannot express it. I took a claw from the dragon and hooked it to my belt for proof, besides my scars, that it was "dead." I broke off the collar and the dragon bowed its head in thanks and flew off into the wild blue yonder.
I returned to Íbegard and told him that the dragon was gone and now we need to take care of the official. We returned to the tower and spoke to the sorceress. She said that because we slayed the dragon, she would willingly let her husband go if he wished to. The man quickly agreed and came with us. As soon as we were back at Lan Exeter he thanked us for saving him from that crazy wench. I then looked at Íbegard and said, "Alright, let's go, we got a damn king to go see," he replied with, "You did good Vatt'ghern, let's go."