« Don't need to tell you but your arrow's made of stars,
and the shot that you've made punched it straight into my heart.
It's a little ignorant but everybody's saying that forever is the place
where you and I were made. »
Started: November, 2020
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Darrene walked into the old tavern, the old wooden door creaked as it opened and as it closed behind her. Only she heard the sound that it made, the lively conversation inside of the place didn't stop and it had no intention of doing so seeing as most of the people there were already drunk.
She saw the same old faces she had been seeing almost her whole life, the ones that despised her and the ones she despised.
"Same as always?" Winton, the old tavern owner asked to which the girl only nodded without barely looking up to him.
The girl waited patiently for her ale as her bright green eyes roamed the place. For how late it was, the place was unusually crowded. The only logical conclusion that she could think of was the music, normally there wasn't any, but this time she could hear what she could only perceive as the voice of a bard but she couldn't see him from where she was seated.
She didn't remember when was the last time a bard came around the village, probably years had gone by. She had to admit, she quite enjoyed the lively music, normally at this hour a fight or two had already started with all the drunks but today they seemed more occupied singing along.
Darrene looked at the metal mug that was placed in front of her with a little too much force, spilling some ale onto the old wood the bar was made of, she grabbed it by its handle and pulled it towards herself, looking at the liquid inside.
The girl felt a piercing gaze almost burning through the cloak she was wearing to cover her face and body. Looking at her drink for a bit more, she waited for the sensation?¿ to vanish, but it never did. She was sure whoever had started looking at her moments ago, still was. So she lifted her gaze too.
And then she looked at him. Sitting alone on one of the tables, at the back of the tavern, only dim candlelight lighting up his face. He was inexpressive, long gray hair framing his chiseled face. And then she looked at his eyes. They were yellow. Bright yellow eyes looking right back at her.
As soon as she caught him staring, he broke the eye contact, looking away. The music stopped, not the singing, the drunks were still making horrible sounds out of tune, but the bard stopped playing his lute and several patrons kindly gave him a coin or two.
Her focus shifted from the man with the yellow eyes to the bard. It was difficult to miss him. He was wearing nice clothes in an eccentric shade of blue and he sure looked like he enjoyed all the attention he was receiving. After he collected all the money the townfolk gave him, Darrene followed him with her eyes as he went to sit down, unexpectedly, at the same table as the white-haired man who was staring at her a few moments before, and who looked at her as the bard sat down in front of him.
This time, they held eye contact for a few seconds more than the last time but both broke it as the man stared at the bard and the girl stared at her drink again, giving it a long sip and putting the mug down.
•☉•☉•☉•☉•☉•
Geralt could sense her smell from where he was sitting, it was far away from her but it was so distinguishable from the rancid and rotten smell of the tavern.
She smelt like a mixture of herbs, some he could pinpoint, others not so much. She also smelt like firewood and something like old books. He couldn't see her clearly, the lighting in the tavern and the cloak she was wearing made it impossible for him to catch more than a small glimpse of the side of her face when she turned slightly, but it was still covered by the cloak.
"Hey, I've got some coins..." Jaskier started talking as he sat down in front of him and put on the table a small bag with the money. He already noticed that the witcher wasn't paying attention to him, as always, but he seemed pretty interested by something behind the bard, so the last took his turn to turn his head towards where Geralt was looking.
Jaskier chose to be quiet and just give Geralt who was now looking straight at him, a smug grin.
•☉•☉•☉•☉•☉•
Darrene sipped a bit more of her ale, not finishing it, she fished out a coin from one of the pockets of her cloak and put it on the bar while standing up. She walked to the door without a word, trying not to hit any of the drunks that were scattered around the place and failing miserably. The girl apologized when a man unconsciously pushed her shoulder a little bit too hard and her cloak fell from her head, her face and hair now visible to everyone but only for the few seconds it took for her to put the hood on again and walk out the door.
But he had seen her and he had looked at her eyes. They were green. Bright green eyes that didn't look back at him.
