The Girl in the Woods

Chapter 14

A/N: Sorry to the few people that actually read this for leaving you hanging for so long. I have been typing away at this story for the past couple days before my college semester begins but my internet has been shit and wouldn't take the upload. Hopefully these next few chapters will make up for it. As well as the whole almost killing Elizabeth thing. :P

            Jaskier had only managed to get Elizabeth about 200 yards away from the bandits before she went limp in his arms. He set her down on the grass, removed her cloak and raced through the pros and cons of removing the arrow. She had already lost too much blood for him to be calm; when Geralt was injured on hunts he managed to walk away almost all of the time. Seeing as she had already passed out from shock and there was a scary amount of blood on each of them was sending the bard into a well deserved panic. He squeezed his eyes shut, took a deep breath and pulled the projectile out. As soon as it was out he bunched up the fabric of her cloak and put as much pressure on the wound as possible.

Elizabeth was still breathing, her chest rising and falling shallowly, he tried to listen for her heartbeat and while it was there it was almost as slow as Geralt's.

"Shit, no, you are not dying on me Lizzy, I just met you and you actually seem to enjoy talking to me. Geralt should get his ass over here soon and he'll fix this I'm sure." Jaskier was rambling, a part of him wondered if he kept talking to her she wouldn't fade away.

             The bard tried to listen to how the battle was going between the enraged Witcher and the thugs. He heard a lot of metal clanking, ripping of flesh and yelling, both of pain and exertion of strength. Then it went quiet, even the birds and insects stopped making any noise. There was an unnatural weather shift and Jaskier's skin tingled uncomfortably from something in the air, then that too stopped almost as suddenly as it started.

              Jaskier turned his attention back to the dying blonde, only she looked much different than when he had set her down. When they arrived at their resting spot her skin had lost so much color it was almost transparent. Now looking down at her the color had returned and she even sported a light pink blush to her cheeks as if all the blood had come rushing back at once. The pained grimace of her eyebrows and mouth had softened and she was almost peaceful, like she was just sleeping.

              The bard was caught between being elated that she was looking better and confused beyond measure at the same instance. He moved the bloodied cloak slowly and could see she was no longer bleeding. More impossibly Elizabeth's wound was gone, save for an extremely smooth white starburst of a scar near her hip he could make out underneath the mess of sticky red.

"Geralt!"

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              Geralt had not even bothered to mount Roach after hearing Jaskier's call, he simply began to run. He had reached them incredibly fast despite the Witcher's breathing remaining even. As he neared the two he was worried to see that Beth was still sprawled out on the grass, Jaskier's slender frame bent over her. He had to stop himself from forcefully shoving the bard to the ground in order to kneel down beside the woman he wanted to protect. His focus was interrupted as well by the low humming of his wolf medallion.

           His fingers found her pulse at the curve of her neck and while it was slow, it was consistent and mimicked that of a deep sleep instead of the one he felt earlier. He pushed her hair away from her face and forced himself to examine further down. He ghosted his fingertips down the curve of her side, barely touching in case he would hurt her. Relief could not describe the warmth flooding his chest at the sight of that pale starburst instead of a gaping hole.