The Long Road to Novigrad (Part 7) (Page 29)

I fell asleep fast after I brought Ciri back to bed. Today we're taking care of the Griffins in the Ursten forest. We'll have plenty of coin for high-quality rings. I'm not getting us up early today, we have crossed the border, and now we can take a better pace. I've been stern with our schedule. I picked up that trait from Yen. She hated being late or when others were late.

I feel movement, and I unwrap from Ciri and sprawl my body out. Letting her out in case she needs to go to the bathroom or something. Ciri gets up. She must be half asleep as I hear her bump into things. "*BUMP!* *CRASH!* Son of a..." She sounds groggy. I hear the sound of things rolling all over the ground. After some shuffling, I hear a stream of water hitting a surface.

After the noise stops, I hear her come back just as slow and as loud as before. This time she falls on what she knocked over. "Woah!! *THUD!*." That didn't sound so good. "Who puts acorn's in a bowl for decoration..." I feel bad for her now. She finally makes it back to the bed and crawls back in. She immediately finds her way to me and wraps her naked, soft body around me. The thought and feeling of being a body pillow are now ingrained in me. I wrap my left arm around her gently since she's hugging my left side.

It's not even close to the time I want us to get up. "We aren't going anywhere any time soon... You can go back to sleep..." I don't know how easy it'll be to find a bed again on our way to Novigrad, so we might as well enjoy it. Yen drilled that when women don't have to get up, they won't. I feel myself fall back into a slumber as I know Ciri is not so far behind me.

As I'm dreaming sweet nothings, a big room begins to form. One I've never seen before, decorations line the walls, and portraits of people I've never met before are visible. It's quite rare for me to have vivid non-nightmare dreams. I walk through the room, and I notice a very tall elven woman. She's extremely beautiful and familiar. I could've sworn I met this woman somewhere before... I'm embarrassed I don't remember someone so beautiful. I try to speak, but nothing comes out of my mouth.

After a couple of seconds of trying to speak, she turns, and I hear her talk to me. "I need you to listen right now, Cera..." She sounds so much like my mother. I've heard this voice before, but the memories are hard to place. "You'll come to know the power and birthright you truly carry... When that time comes... You will be given a choice..." Her sweet voice is almost lulling me to sleep.

I don't know what she's getting at, though. I have no birthright, except to maybe the land my mom and dad owned. "Whatever you choose, just remember these words..." I know something important is coming. "The sins of your ancestors shall fall unto you... I am sorry, Cera...." I'm very confused right now.

I think she's finally done talking, but she walks up to me and leans down to kiss my cheek. "I love you very much, Cera... I'll always be with you..." After she said that, everything turns dark, and I go back to dreaming nothing. I don't know what that was. That woman looked so much like mom... I know it wasn't her though, she was too tall. Her pointy ears also told me she was elven. Mom never had pointy ears.

I exit my sleep and feel the light coming through into our room. After a few minutes, I unwrap my arms from Ciri. She won't let go... I need to get our clothes from the bathroom. I still can't get Ciri off me, though. I get up with her still attached to my body. "Hmmm... Don't leave, Cera... You're so warm..." Still asleep, it seems. I make my way towards the bathroom with her nude body squeezing mine. I enter the bathroom and make our way to our clothes.

I grab them and come back to the bed, and lay them down. I won't get dressed with her still on me, so I unpeel her from me as she visibly shivers. I lay her back in the bed and cover her with the blanket. I quickly get dressed and strap my sword on my back. I turn and lean down to her. "*Kiss* I'm going to ask the locals about the forest. I'll be expecting you." I get back up and see her slowly waking up. She got my message.

I walk out of our room and make it to the innkeeper. "Can I have the information you have about the forest?" The man looks at me and sighs.

He puts down the mug he was washing. "I don't know much. However, the Armorer would know something. He lost his brother to those god-forsaken woods." I guess that helps. I walk to the door, and I hear low heels running after me.

I slow down at the door as I hear her fast approach. "Wait up, Cera!! You aren't doing this without me!!" I never planned to do this without her. She wants to make sure I don't disappear again. She stops right beside me and grasps my hand.

I look at her with an amused smile. "Is monster hunting a date between us?" She only grabs my hand when it's supposed to be bonding time between us. I do love the affection she shows me, though. I shouldn't complain, should I?

She cocks a smile at me and grips my hand tighter. "Do I make you nervous? It's okay to be embarrassed." I'm not embarrassed. I'll prove it too.

I quickly lean in before she can respond. "*SMMMOOOOCCHHHH*" I give a long and physical kiss as I move our lips together. "MMMM~..." I proved my point, it seems. I pull away and give her a look of victory.

She gains herself fast and sees my cocky face. "Guess you aren't embarrassed... You get better and better every time we kiss..." I know how to kiss you, Ciri. You're the only one I've ever done that with.

I push open the door and walk out hand in hand with her. "We need to go speak to the Armorer. He has the information we need." I'm sure we can handle the griffins. We're both fantastic fighters. I need to know the terrain, though. If we aren't careful, they could have an advantage that we could've taken.

We slowly walk to the hut on the edge of town where he's located. I knock on the door and hear a man welcome us in. I push the door open and see that he has a decent range of weapons and armor. I don't wear armor. I wear combat clothes. I walk up to the man and shake his hand. After about 15 minutes of asking questions and getting the information we needed. I now know that we can do this 100 percent successfully.

I walk out with Ciri, and we make our way into the forest. We have plenty of daylight left. So we may be able to kill, collect the reward, and leave for Novigrad. "Do we want to single a griffin out and neutralize it, or do you want to take them on by ourselves separately?" I know Ciri can handle a griffin by herself since she can use the basics of her power. If things get sticky, I'll use some magic.

She gives a thinking look and gives a confident grin. "We should see who can kill theirs first. The loser buys dinner next time. Also gives the other a massage." Sounds like fun. But that's if she wins. Typical overconfident Ciri. It's not like she shouldn't be. I also love that about her.

I lean closer to her, and we rub shoulders. "Sounds fun to me. I hope you're ready to lose. I'm not planning to fail again." Most people would call us crazy for doing this. Then again, we aren't most people.

She gives me a joy-filled laugh that melts my heart. "I'll be winning that massage, Cera. You can count on that!" She wants the massage more than the dinner. She must've liked what I did last night.

I lean in and kiss her cheek. "I'll give you a massage every night Ciri, all you have to do is ask... You're my future wife..." I can see that has an effect on her.

~~~(POV Ciri)~~~

I always lose to him with words... He also makes me embarrassed when he should be the one embarrassed. "I love you, Cera... I don't know what I'd do if I lost you again..." He captured my heart when we were young. Now he's captured my future too. I want to spend the rest of my life with him.

Plus, keeping him close will make it easier to keep another woman away from him. I refuse to let a single woman or man near him. It may be a little obsessive and possessive, but I'm crazy about him. The best part is, he's crazy about me too. I thought I would never love again.

I stop him and wrap my arms around his neck as I go on my tippy toes and bring him down. His height is a problem sometimes. "*SMMOOOCCHHH*." I give him the same treatment he gave me earlier. He gives me a big grin, and all of a sudden, he picks me up in his arms as I still have my arms around his neck.

He gives me a loving smile that lowers all my guards. "I love you, Ciri. You're the most important person to me." I lean into his neck and lay my head there. He carries me as I start to drift off to sleep.