Chapter Text
Geralt had been gone for way too long. It was supposed to be an easy contract, and Geralt had said he’d be back before sunset. It was just past sunrise, and there was still no sign of the Witcher. Jaskier had already eaten breakfast and was pacing across the clearing they had made camp in. Roach is munching on the grass, looking unbothered, but that did little to soothe Jaskier’s nerves.
After another three laps around camp, Jaskier hears something. He pauses and notices Roach raise her head from where she had moved to the other side of camp. Now that he was listening, Jaskier could almost hear multiple voices coming from the direction of the closest town. Jaskier grabs his dagger and steps into the tree line. He finds a wide tree to stand behind and watches as Roach turns to face the voices.
Out of the trees come a group of six or seven? men all dressed like bandits. Jaskier mentally curses as they rifle through his and Geralt’s bags. One of the bandits picks up Geralt’s potion bag. “This must be a Witcher’s camp. Look at these potions.” Another grabs Jaskier’s lute as the bard winces. “This looks expensive!”
One of the bandits tries to grab Roach’s halter but is quickly kicked to the ground as Roach turns and runs off through the trees. Just as Jaskier begins to think up a plan of attack, another three bandits step out of the trees and begin to help search the camp. Deciding to follow Roach’s lead. Jaskier turns and sneaks away from camp to begin moving in the direction Geralt left in. He won’t be happy, but hopefully, he’ll understand why Jaskier didn’t stick around.
As Jaskier makes his way through the woods, he searches for any sign of Geralt or Roach. They all can take care of themselves, but Jaskier would feel better having someone with him. Apparently, he speaks too soon because just then, a small group of bandits steps into his path. They quickly circle the bard and begin to close in on him. “Look what we have here. Was that your camp we just left? Are you the one traveling with that Witcher scum?” Jaskier spits in the speaker’s direction as he pulls out his dagger. “Ooh, are you just as feisty as the Witcher? How about we-“. The bandit is cut off by what sounds like a fight breaking out behind Jaskier.
He turns, only to duck as a bandit comes flying towards him. It hits the bandit behind him as Jaskier scrambles for cover. Once behind a tree, he watches as a horse? looking thing kills the bandits quickly. It has a horse body and 4 legs, but the similarity stops there. Jaskier tries to count the number of hands but fails when the creature turns, and Jaskier notices the sheer amount of eyes covering the creature’s horse-like head. It’s easily got a dozen eyes and is similar in shape to a horse’s head but not quite right. Jaskier decides to stop counting the strange features.
As quickly as the fighting started, it is over, and suddenly the creature is much more horse-like as it turns to where Jaskier is leaning around a tree. Now it has zero arms, and only two eyes, and Jaskier thinks it looks much more horse-like and less demon-like than it did a second ago. When the creature doesn’t move, Jaskier stands and steps out from behind the tree. “Well, thank you for saving me from those bandits. They had already stolen my lute, which I had been gifted many years ago, and was my prize possession. Now I must be on my way to find my friend, but I have no idea which way he went. Did you happen to see a Witcher with white hair, black clothes, and some very big swords?”
The creature seems to roll its eyes as it turns and begins to walk in the direction Jaskier had been going before he’d been so rudely interrupted. Unsure of what to do, Jaskier just watches as the creature takes a few steps before looking at Jaskier as if to say, ‘you’re supposed to follow me’. “Lead the way, I guess,” Jaskier says as he walks toward the horse-like creature. Only now does he notice the almost unnaturally red hue of the creature’s coat, which is a drastic contrast to the pitch-black color of the mane and tail. Both of which are clearly knotted and dirty.
As Jaskier catches up to the horse, he has a thought. “I think you would look good with a hat. I don’t have one, but I could buy you one, and in the meantime, I could brush your coat and comb out your mane and tail. I could also braid flowers into your mane, which Geralt’s horse, Roach, likes. She’s a chestnut too, but you are more red than she is and her mane and tail are red unlike yours. It’s quite a unique color combination if I do say so myself.” Surprisingly, the horse nickers in what sounds like agreement when Jaskier pauses to take a breath.
They continue walking with Jaskier trailing slightly behind as he realizes he doesn’t have a name for the horse. He spends the next few minutes thinking up the perfect name until it hits him. “I‘ve got it!” The horse looks back at him almost curiously. “I’m going to call you Greg. You may already have a name, but since you have no way of telling me, I am going to call you Greg from now on.” The horse nickers quietly before he moves his head in a way that makes Jaskier think he rolled his eyes. The bard thinks the reaction was suspiciously intelligent but thinks he must be reading too much into it after spending so much time with a mono-syllable responding Witcher.
Speaking of the Witcher… “By the way, Greg. Geralt, the Witcher you’re helping me look for, can be a bit stabby-happy with anything non-human or even potentially threatening humans, so when we find him let me do the talking. I’ll be able to convince him that you’re friendly. So far, you’ve been at least as good a traveling companion as he is since you seem to at least pay attention to what I say. He only listens to like 10% of what I say, which can be quite annoying when I’m trying to ask him a question. Normally it’s about my music. I would be playing my lute by now, but those rude bandits stole it from camp, and there were too many of them to take on by myself. That’s part of why I’d like to find Geralt sooner rather than later. Thanks for your help, by the way. I only have a general idea of which way he went, and I’d probably be lost if not for you. Definitely bandit food at the least.” The horse snorts at that and seems to listen as Jaskier continues to ramble.