The Path: A witcher's tale

Chapter 22

     Soon after the festivities in Kovir ended, Karadine and I start making our way south towards Kaer Morhen with Karadine incessantly pestering me about what the Koviri court Sorceress kept whispering in my ear in Elder Speech, I told her that she would know when she learned the Elder Speech, and that seemed to put the matter to rest. Along the way we would occasionally stop at villages and look at the notice boards, the normal routine: We enter the village, children and cats are the first things that notice us, we're told about the monster, we collect the reward and head off. We heard that bandits were taking up residency in the roads heading into the mountains and sure enough, as Karadine and I started heading into the mountains, arrows started whizzing by our heads.
     I guess they ran out of arrows as four men and a child jumped out the bushes with blades in their hands. Karadine was the first to react and went for the child to keep him out of the fray and prevent him from getting chopped in two. I made my hair go white and my eyes go red as I jumped off my horse into the fight. I became a flurry of steel and blood as I cut down each bandit that stood in my way. When I relaxed, I looked back to see the ground behind me littered with blood and bodies, with Karadine and the child staring at me with a strange mix of both both fear and astonishment. I then felt warm blood trickling down my leg and I looked to see that I was struck in the hip and I dropped to my knees while holding the wound as I blacked out.
     When I regained consciousness I saw that my armor was lying next me and I was lying down near a campfire with bandages around my hip. The child was sitting away from me and Karadine on the other side of the fire, remaining silent as he poked a stick into the flames. I sat up and looked at the lad, he was young, could be no older than 7 winters, his hair was as black as pitch and his eyes were mismatched, one was emerald green, the other was frost blue. I looked at him and asked his name as he looked back with a silent, cold, angry stare deep into my eyes.
     He then finally spoke and said, "I've heard of things like you, witchmen they call you. They say you steal other people's kids and take them with you to turn them into freaks. Is that what you're going to do to me?" I replied with, "No, we have no intention of hurting you or turning you into one of us, but aye, we used to do that, I'm not going to lie to you. That's how we were made. Anyway onto lighter matters, my name's Andrezej, and that's Karadine. All we want to know is your name, where your parents are, and what were you doing with those bandits." He looked up and said, "Well, my name's Pawel, I ain't got parents and those bandits took me in as one of their own. Nobody wanted me, I think it's my eyes, they're not normal, and people don't like what's not normal." "You know what, look at my eyes, look at her eyes," I said as I motioned to Karadine, "We get it, people don't like us either, we're freaks too. If you want, we can take you with us to our home and we will teach you how to take care of yourself, but if you want to keep living like this, that's fine too." I got up, donned my armor, whistled for wasp and got my horse, with Karadine getting on hers, as Pawel then looked at us and agreed to come with us.
     We followed the witcher's trail towards the keep and told Pawel to take a good look, for he was going to be running along the length of this trail, also known as "The Killer" for a good few years. The three of us then entered the keep and greeted Ajax and Marçin, Eskel didn't come this winter. Pawel was hiding behind Karadine when Marçin asked who this rascal was. We introduced him to the other witchers and showed him to his quarters, where we established a training schedule for him. Obviously, we had no intention of putting him through the trials, just the training and some dietary changes so his body can cope with measured doses of witcher potions which are extremely toxic to normal men. In the morning, Ajax would teach him alchemy and how to brew potions and harvest ingredients from monsters and plants. In the afternoon, Karadine would help him build endurance and agility by putting him with the pendulums. Then, I would teach him swordsmanship and how to wield his sword properly. Finally at night, he would learn about monsters, their weaknesses, specifications, distinctions, and tactics with Marçin.
     From then on, I took up residence at Kaer Morhen Karadine at my side through it all for the next decade. There we would spend the years, training Pawel during the day and telling stories during the night (and occasionally Karadine and I would sneak away and make love). Occasionally, Anna would stop by and teach Pawel the elder speech, as she turned into almost a big sister to Pawel as he became like a son to me and Karadine. By the time his training was done, we gave him his twin blades, one silver and one steel along with his medallion. When we left the keep, it would be the last time, anyone would be in that fortress, I told Marçin and Ajax to come and winter in Toussaint with me and Karadine. Pawel would also come with us. I glanced back at Pawl to see that he was no longer the scared little child running around Kaer Morhen in a studded doublet that barely fit him. He had grown into a man who was as close to being a witcher without actually being one. We said farewell to each other as we set off to wander the world in search beasts to slay.