The White Werewolf || Season One: Ties That Bind

Chapter Fourteen

Posada, 1240

Several days of riding brought them into a new year as they arrived at the small border town of Posada. When they dismounted and made their way to the front door of the inn, they heard a bard singing loudly about abortion inside.

"Charming," Geralt murmured, smirking as Robin laughed beside him.

"What, you don't enjoy a good bawdy song every once in a while?" she teased.

Geralt shrugged and Robin continued to listen. There was something vaguely familiar about the bard's voice, but she couldn't imagine why. If she'd ever met a bard, and she didn't think she had, it would have been before she went to Melcedem's tower, and that had been long ago.

Geralt opened the door, letting her step inside first. The bard was being pelted by bread, and Geralt took her hand, sliding smoothly past the commotion to a corner table.

"Stop! Fuck off!" the bard yelled. "I'm so glad that I could bring you all together like this. Unbelievable."

He knelt and began to shove all of the thrown bread into his pants. The action made Robin laugh again. She supposed beggars couldn't be choosers.

When the bard stood, he glanced in Geralt and Robin's direction. His head tilted curiously and he slowly walked toward them, staring.

Once she got a good look at him, she stared right back, stunned.

For a moment, she thought she was dreaming. What she was seeing was impossible. It just couldn't be.

Yet here he was.

Geralt's hand moved to his iron sword and he looked at the bard warily. "Robin, what is it?" he asked, his voice low so no one else could hear.

She didn't answer him. She was too busy trying to keep her hands from trembling as the bard stopped in front of her.

"Is it really you, Robin?" he wondered.

She nodded and swallowed as tears came to her eyes. "Yes, it's me." She brought her hands up to touch his face and he smiled gently. "I thought I was never going to see you again."

"Well, same here," he replied, sniffling as he pulled her into a tight hug.

Geralt shot up out of his seat, his chair making a scraping sound against the floor. His chest heaved angrily as he growled, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your... friend, Robin?"

She didn't let go of the man as she answered. "Geralt, this is my brother, Jaskier," she whispered.

Geralt huffed and relaxed, stepping back slightly. "Your... brother?"

Jaskier giggled and immediately became jovial. "I think your man assumed he had competition," he joked, playfully nudging her.

"Competition?" Robin turned and studied Geralt's face, which still held the vestiges of worry and rage he'd been experiencing only moments before. "You thought he was...?" She laughed unexpectedly. "Oh. Oh, no. Oh, that is gross."

She giggled hysterically and Jaskier smirked, holding her against his chest affectionately. "Brother and sister, big man. Not lovers. Our family's vaguely scandalous, but not quite that scandalous."

Geralt made a noise deep in his chest and abruptly sat back down, crossing his arms and glaring straight ahead.

"I love the way he just sits in the corner and broods," Jaskier observed blithely. "An interesting choice of companion, dear sister."

He sat down across from Geralt. Robin followed, keeping her hands firmly on his arm, like he might disappear if she let go. "Well, are you going to tell me how you got away from that infernal mage and his tower? Come on. You don't want to keep a man with... bread in his pants waiting, do you?"