Bound By Destiny (book 1)

Chapter 36

While they made their way through the swamps and towards the direction of Selene's job did she glance over at Geralt. "Geralt." "Hmm?" "After this, do you mind if we head To Novigrad?" He smiled at this, he was wondering when she would wanna head back there. "Any reason?" She frowned a bit. "If you don't want to go with me, I can just go alone."

Geralt glanced over and caught the frown, he didn't like when she frowned, and he hated when he was the reason that she had one. "I didn't mean it like that Sel, it's just last time you weren't all that thrilled about being there." She shrugged. "Thats because we ran into a certain someone." Geralt winced as he knew who she meant.

"Sel, how was I to know Yennifer was gonna be there?" She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "You didn't, I just...I know your history with her." He stopped walking and made her face him, both had finally forgotten that they had a job and that Jaskir was with them. "What I had with her is the past, it's only you now Selene, that I swear." She weakly smiled at this "anyway-" they were cut off by a very loud cough.

Looking over they saw dandelion with his arms crossed. "You two are aware we're in a swamp on a job right?" Selene blinked before she sighed. "Right, I'll just tell you why I need to go there later, for now let's just split up." Geralt sighed. He wanted to know what was going on and why she needed to go To Novigrad but because they were on a job, he now had to wait. He watched as Selene turned down the one path and raised an eyebrow as Dandelion followed her before he went down the other path making sure no nests were here.

Selene continued to walk before she realized that dandelion followed her instead. "Wouldn't it have been safer had you gone with Geralt?" "Are you saying you can't keep me safe?" Selene turned to look at dandelion only for him to move so he was next to her. "No, I'm not saying that, but if something goes wrong, or there are more then I think, you could get hurt..."

Dandelion nodded "i understand, I really do. But I'll do my best to stay out of the way okay?" She nodded and they continued only to stop a few moments later as Selene held up her hand. "Selene?" Her eyes widened and she shoved him backwards as a drowner lunged at them. "Son Of a bitch!" Dandelion looked up and shook his head to clear the water and mud from his face.

"Selene?!" His eyes widened at the sight of blood, and that's when he realized Selene was hurt. "Selene!" She shoved the monster off and looked at him. "Run! Run to geralt now!" "I thought these were Nekkers you needed to fight not drowners!" She slashed one in half and winced, her arm was torn open. "It was suppose to be, but-" she jumped back again. "It would seem that, we ended up on the path with these fuckers." Brown eyes widened and he went to run but realized that if he left her Geralt would be furious.

Selene at this point felt blood run down her arm, and knew it was mixing in with the water below, she slashed down another one, this time moving much faster. However due to the slippery terrain she lost her footing just as a drowner lunged at her knocking her sword from her hand and reach. "Ugh!" She pushed at its chest with her good arm as she tried and failed to draw aard or reach her sword. "Selene!" Dandelion yelled suddenly filled with horror at the sight of Selene struggling to keep the monster off. He looked over and saw a glint of silver and it clicked that it was Selene's Sword. Running over he picked it up and froze.

He didn't know what to do and Selene's scream of pain only got louder. Coming out of his shock he ran over, the feeling of the sword unfamiliar in his hands, but he at least knew how to stab someone. So with a quick swing down he slashed the drowners one arm, but curse when he realized it wasn't deep enough. However it gave Selene the opening she needed to pushed up and used aard at the same time. Dandelion was trembling slightly, selene was covered in blood, and he didn't know how much of it was hers. Taking the sword she spoke gently. "It's okay, you did great, let go and I'll end this."

He slowly let the sword go and watched as Selene slashed off the head of the final drowner before she flicked her sword and put it away. "Are you okay Dandelion?" He blinked confused. Why was she asking him if he was okay, when she was the one who was clearly injured. "I'm fine, I'm more worried about you." She shrugged slightly and walked towards him. "Trust me, I've had worse, I'll just take an elixir or a potion, and get some rest then I'll be good as new."

Dandelion frowned and without thinking he hugged the blood covered woman. Selene's eyes widened before she hugged him back with her good arm. "Come on Dandelion, don't....don't cry." She could feel the tears hitting her neck and she rubbed his back. "I'm okay. I promise." However he continued to cry and she just held him. It was weird, she wasn't use to comforting people but, she knew he needed it. After he had finally calmed down and pulled back did he wipe his eyes.

"Right, Sorry about that Selene." She blinked and sighed. "Don't apologize. It's okay to cry." He nodded and walked with Selene who was pulling a vial out of her pockets and since her one arm was currently out of commission she went to bite off the top. Only to have Dandelion stop her. "Here I got it for you, it slashed the side of your head too." "No I probably hit it on the way down." He nodded and pulled out the stopper before handing the vial back to Selene.

Just as she finished taking it did Geralt show up, also covered in blood and mud, but the way his eyes widened in horror at the sight of both Selene and Dandelion being bloody and mud covered did he run over. "Are you both alright?" His voice was thick with worry. "Yeah I'm fine, but Selene got hurt the most." He looked at Selene and then saw the gash in her arm. "Fuck Sel." "It's fine, already healing." She turned to dandelion and actually smiled at him. "That was an impressive slash to the shoulder by the way."

Both men blinked and dandelion looked embarrassed. "Well it was help you or run and running wasn't an option." She nodded as she made up her mind. "Alright." "Huh?" "I'll teach you self defense." Two sets of eyes widened. "alright....I'm sorry but..." she never finished her sentence as she finally fainted giving into the darkness that was clouding her vision. Dandelion caught her and looked at Geralt shocked. "Uhh..." Geralt took her and nodded "well let's go and I'm sure she'll explain what that means when she wakes up." And with that they started heading back to town as Geralt explained that he had dealt with the Nekkers and the small nest.