Little Witch | The Witcher, Jaskier ✅

Eleventh

I was still in a puzzled state when reaching the well-equipped lab, my head spinning like a wild stallion defending his stud.

Cough medicine, cough medicine. It was called on its Latin name, Tussis Medicamentum. Darkbrown colored, usually in an elongated glass. Somewhere around the end of the endless row of medicines and cures.

Come on, stupid cough medicine, where the heck are you?!

I could cry from not finding it. And we were running out of time with every second passing by – but I knew, I had to calm down. I can't find medicines in a hysterical state, or anything at all.

I had to calm down and focus.

Stopping in the middle of the room, I took a deep breath, slowly letting every piece of me turning sorrow to tactical thinking. End of the medicines' row. It start at the door with letter 'A', so I gotta find it at the end of the room.

Gotcha.

I dashed to the end, my eyes scanning for letter 'T'. Now, in a much calmer state, I spotted the potion right away. I took it down, carefully keeping close to my chest and started off, out of the laboratory, up to the scene.

I hoped, I truly hoped I was still in time.

And at the same time, I was curious of what could have started this rough cough. It wasn't any misgulped saliva, food or drink, Dandelion wasn't consuming anything at that moment. Also, he should have spit it out long ago – plus, I just knew it wasn't as „simple" as that. I felt it. Some strange energy, something devilish.

Not to mention the light going from the not fully healed cut.

Was something left from the beast in his chest? Was the cut still infected?

I wasn't sure. But what I know was that I had to check that wound again.

As soon as the scene come to sight, mixed feelings formed in my heart. In one hand, I was relieved that Dandelion was still alive – however, in the other hand, he was still fighting.

Thanfully, only with the cough. I was afraid he will have other symptons by the time I arrived back. Even if he was exhausted from the endless cough, he was still alive, still fighting, still able to consume the potion which can help him stop.

"Quick, let me give him the stuff" I said to the others, who immediately divided apart, giving me place.

"I was trying to easen his pain while you were away" informed me Yennefer.

I nodded at him, a graceful smile on my lips. "Thank you, Yennefer"

And with that, I popped the bottle open, grabbed it in a way that the secret magic, some healing magic from magical attacks – including nasty monsters – can flow into the mixture and can get into Dandelion's chest, hopefully starting a double healing effect on him.

Of course, I knew it won't solve that so easily. But I'll take care of that hidden infection later on, when he isn't near suffocating from loosing too much oxygen.

"Listen, Dandy" I was trying to speak to him on a soft voice to get his attention. He seemed to get my call, eyeing me with his red, exhausted gaze. "You have to gulp down this potion. Try to hold back coughing when I say 'Now', okay?"

The bard nodded.

I took a deep breath.

Okay.

Let's do this.

"Now!" I gave out the command, holding the glass close to his lower lip.

With that, the man forced his every drop of remaining power to hold back an upcoming cough, gulping down the brownish liquid with hungry gulps.

The potion went down rapidly, still causing a shorter cough after. However, as the enchanted liquid slowly took over his chest, his cough slowly easened, then faded away completely – with Dandelion almost falling off of the wooden bench, right onto the hard floor.

Thankfully, Geralt grabbed him just in time, holding him still.

I carefully held up his chin, my gaze sinking into his tired, bloodred eyes. I could cry from happiness as a faint smile formed on his lips.

I couldn't resist a hug. I just couldn't hold back myself from closing the gap between us, I had to feel him, his beating heart, his warmness.

Him being alive and well – for now, at least.

"Don't ever try to die, do you understand?!" I sniffled, my entire face covered in tears and snot.

Dandelion hugged me back, his weak arms folding me around. He sniffed into my hair, giving a long, reassuring kiss onto my neck. "I wasn't planning to die this time, either"

A loose, joyful chuckle bursted out of me. I hugged him even tighter, as if he could disappear any time.

~•~

"But what could cause this damage?"

We were sitting in a round on my bed, me, Yennefer and Geralt, discussing the past couple of hours. We had already cleaned everything, put Ciri and Dandelion to bed, said goodnight to Vesemir and the others, leaving us peace to think through what could cause the bard's behaviour.

"It was infection" Yennefer stated, her voice as sure about her opinion. Altough her expression was rather exhausted, but still kept herself together with her remaining power. "I have seen this kind of behaviour before"

"Then why didn't you act sooner?" I questioned her with half an eye. I trusted her, or, I wanted to give her full trust.

However, I barely knew her being. And this gave me right to have my opinion about her, either if it's positive or not.

Yennefer knew that. She turned her purple gaze at me, sorrow glowing on them. "I wpuld have done it, Neria. But I wasn't sure whether it was misgulped saliva, food or infection... it takes time to discover such thing"

Geralt nodded, gently placing his hand on the woman's left shoulder. "She's right, Sister. She would give her heart to Dandelion to keep him alive"

I inhaled deeply. He was telling the truth, I knew. Also, he knew her for long, I had to trust my own brother.

I laid my face into my palms. The darkness was as calming as the night itself on a busy, tiring day, with a comfortable, soft bed. "I just hope we can save him somehow. I'm out of ideas of what kind of infection can be in him. I don't even know what attacked you... can you describe the beast, Geralt?"

The witcher nodded, leaning on his gigantic sword. He wetted his throat, his yellow gaze clouded from the memories. "It was... like a white, huge, disgusting bug. Could hit it three times in a row, then it curled up and attacked back. It didn't look that powerful, but was hard to fight because of the armor. It also spit some sort of acid, that's what hit Dandelion's chest. That's why we tore down his shirt – it was full of holes, burned through by the acid, straight into Dandelion's chest"

At first, I was just as confused as Yennefer. We were both sitting and thinking hard, trying to look through the monsters we had already hard of.

Then, the idea of why having a library here hit me like a well-aimed arrow. I jumped to my legs, making the others look at me with question in their eyes.

"I have to see your library, Geralt!" I stated. "You must have books about monsters. We could identify the beast with your detailed description. It's hard to find out what it was just by thoughts, especially if it's something rare or a creature that should live elsewhere"

Yennefer nodded. "She's right. We aren't books to know everything"

"Right" the witcher said with a determined, deep voice. "I'll show you the way. Let's go"