The Long Road to Novigrad (Finale) (Page 30)

I carry Ciri along the path as she takes comfort in me carrying holding her. We're about to enter the deep forest, and I can already smell the typical decomposing corpses. "No more time to relax, Ciri... We have a job to do..." I whisper, and I gently release her from my grasp and wait for a response.

I look at her and see she's happy. "Thanks for that... My feet would already be hurting if you didn't carry me..." I enjoy doing these things for her, it helps since she's light too. We walk side by side, and the smell is getting worse and worse. We keep a low profile. As long as there's no wind to carry our scent, they won't smell us coming. Griffin's have an incredible sense of smell.

We skulk around getting closer to the putrid smell. We're hiding behind a tree and see our pray. One is on top of the other. They're mating right now. "We have an incredible element of surprise... We can do this quickly, but the bet would be off. Are you okay with that?" Despite the fact that we can use this as an easy win. We already placed the bet.

She looks at me with cunning eye's. "Only if you promise to give me a massage next chance we get..." I can hold to that agreement.

I smile at her and nod my head. "That's fine with me... I'll go for the back of the skull on the male since they aren't moving. Dealing with one instantly will make this easier." I silently draw my blade and prepare to teleport. "When I kill the male, you do whatever you deem necessary for a swift kill to the female. You'll have a short window in the panic." She nods to me in understanding.

I teleport right on the beasts head and go straight for the brain stem. I pierce it perfectly leading to an instant death. Didn't even make a sound, still on top of its partner. Before the female knows what's happening Ciri teleports right beside it and drives her blade through its eye and into the brain. It strained on instinct not knowing it was already dead. This mission was way easier than anticipated. I hop off the male and clean the blood off my blade.

Ciri rushes over to me with a smile on her face. "Now we have plenty for our rings in Novigrad!!!" I like her excitement. Hopefully, the guard captain lives up to his end of the bargain. I cut off the head of mine and Ciri quickly does hers. I hold mine up and look at the disgusting face of this abomination. "How these creature came to be is beyond me. Looks like something you draw from a hat in your dreams." The origin of beasts is not specific, but all of them originate from magic and the conjunction of the spheres.

Ciri holds the females up to mine. "Mines bigger." Even now, she's looking to compete. I love that about her, she keeps things on edge. We take our bounty back to our horses, and we load up and make a quick detour to the guard captain. The border is just as full as the day before, I hop off my horse as does Ciri.

We approach the guard at the tent. "Hold there, state your business with the Captain." This man wasn't here yesterday. I approach him with one of the heads.

I lay it at his feet and he recoils slightly. "Here to collect the bounty for these griffins. Tell your captain to come out." He gives a nod and goes into the tent. We hear them talking about it. Mostly surprised that we got it done so fast. The captain walks out with two big bags of coin.

He looks at the creatures and give a satisfied smile. "These are the bastards alright. Killed a lot of good men. I suppose you didn't have any trouble killing them?" I'm not in the mood for small talk. We can get really close to Novigrad if we leave now.

I hold out my hand as I give my answer. "We had the element of surprise. Hope you don't resent the price." He hands the bags to me as he laughs.

It feels like the correct amount. Doesn't seem like the one to cheat me out of money. "With the tax to pass we make plenty. This is quite small in comparison of what we make a week." That makes sense why he didn't negotiate the price. The man is smarter than he lets on. I should've asked for more.

I hand the bags to Ciri and she puts them on her horse. "Good luck with the war. Nobody want's Nilfgaard to win." I shake his hand as he nods in agreement. Ciri and I hop back on our horses as we still have a lot of daylight left. The days have been getting longer and longer which promotes travel.

After traveling for the rest of the day, we come across an empty inn on our journey. We'll make it to Novigrad tomorrow. For now, we rest, and so do the horses. We pay for the room, it isn't as good as the last one. Better than sleeping outside though. I take off my clothes, and I'm in my underwear. Ciri does the same, she looks much better than I do. She lays next to me, and we lay side by side looking up at the wall. I feel her reach over and trace my scars again.

I look over, and she's giving a pained look. "They don't hurt anymore, you know... I may have to start wearing a shirt around you so you don't worry..." She twists my skin. It hurts and burns pretty bad. I guess I said something stupid again.

She stops twisting. "They're burned in my memory now, Cera... I won't forget them even if you hide them..." She doesn't sound amused at my joke. I love that she cares for me, but she needs to understand nothing could change what happened. I know just the thing to bring up her mood.

I smile at her frowning one. She gives me a huff of disapproval. "Would a massage cheer you up? We have the time now..." She gives me a small smirk and turns on her belly. Guess that's a yes. I get on top of her, staying right below her butt. I have access to everything that needs immediate attention. I also plan to do her feet, poor thing limps after a long day.

I start at her shoulders and use my thumbs and finger tips to loosen the muscle and get the fluid out. I roll them again and again in my fingers and hands. After about 8 minute's I start to make my way down her neck and spine. I gently roll her neck in my hands as she's lying down. "*POP* *POP* *POP* *SIGH*" That was loud, but since she isn't stopping me, that means it didn't hurt.

I make my way down her spine. Her back starts to pop around the middle on every vertebrae. "*POP* *POP*" I go down another. "*POP* *POP*" This continues all the way down to her lumbar. The poor girl was in silent suffering. My back has never popped or cracked like this. I finish her back and she gives a content sigh. She's about to get up, but I stop her.

I whisper into her ear. "Just relax... I'll let you know when I'm done..." She just stays silent and closes her eye's in relaxation. I do the muscles of her back now, instead of the joints, which I just did. I'm pushing the fluid out of her back muscles so they can rest and heal. She gives sighs and moans here and there. I make my way down her legs and massage her thighs and do the same fluid removal treatment.

I do her calves next. I spend extra time here, these muscles are used a lot. I bend her leg up at the knee and do the front as well. Then I get to her worst part, I gently grab her left foot and start to push fluid out and loosen it up. I decide to be a little rougher. They're pretty stiff right now. I push and dig harder and get results. "*POP* *POP* *POP* *DEEP SIGH*" I continue going back and forth between the feet. After a while, I no longer hear pops coming from her feet and I notice she's asleep.

I have completed my mission in making her relax and keeping my promise. I love doing these things for her. Relieving her pain gives me joy. I'm quite tired and snuggle up next to her. She turns her body while she's asleep. I have her in my grasp and let dreams take me. I don't have nightmares when I'm with Ciri. I haven't had one since we met again in Velen. A nice bonus to the reunion it seems.

"When you truly love her, everything you do with her brings joy. Don't wait to get married if you meet the one. She'll know before you do and test you. If you fail, you'll regret it for the rest of your life, but if you succeed, you'll never know loneliness or distrustfulness again. Only love and trust will come of it." - Unknown.