Daughter of the Witcher Ch. 07

***This was written during a time when the autumn is fading and the first tentative blasts of winter lie just out of sight around the corner.

It's still October and the first freak three-inch snowstorm has made its entrance and slunk out like a person who has blundered into the wrong high-school class and only realized it after sitting down.

This chapter has some three-way in it, though I didn't try to write it like the more usual fuck-fests. The youngest character in this chapter is 18, just saying.

I wrote it out of what I thought one of the characters might be hoping for in her heart under very strange and trying circumstances.

Her name is Red Nadya and she wants a better life. Well who doesn't? But there's a destiny to her heritage. Much of this chapter - which sort of revolves around her - details her climb out of the pit with a little help from witchers.

If you're in the mood and it's cold and rainy (if you're lucky and it hasn't snowed yet wherever you are, or if you're in the southern hemisphere and it's warming up and you wonder what the hell I'm on about), read this in a quiet place the way that it was written if you can, listening to the wind blow the leaves around on a dark and cold night.

If that means that you're in a coffee shop with a pocketful of change to buy another cup - I envy you.

The ones around here have Literotica blocked.

0_o

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She felt pleasantly warm.

A thought ran through her head of hearing about a place where humans go after they die where everything is pleasant and nice. Heaven, she remembered as the name of it.

She knew that animals were not supposed to go there, from what had been said to her, and that someone made a judgement in every case regarding admission.

She smelled dry heat from a warm fire and she could pick up a hint of woodsmoke as well as hear the quiet crackle of the logs.

Maybe she'd been close enough to be allowed inside.

She opened her eyes then and found herself lying on her side on top of the covers on a soft bed with a warm blanket over her and it felt so good.

Her nose switched itself on and she sniffed a little very quietly. What was returned to her was a vague and oddly comforting male scent, though it was just a hint and not much more.

She picked up the other scent then and her memory sought for what that was, since a feeling of alarm seemed to be attached to that smell.

When she focused farther out, she knew that if this was that heaven place, then it must be someone else's and not hers.

The gray beast who had taken her legs out from under her sat in a chair before the fire.

She didn't know where she was or which way to run if it came to another chase, but she tensed her muscles in preparation for it anyway.

The beast looked over then and he smiled, "Ah, you are awake, sister. Can you sit up? I have a bowl of hot soup from the kitchen waiting for you."

She raised her head very cautiously and looked around. There didn't seem to be anywhere that she could run even if he gave her a head start.

"Where is this place?" she asked in the same speech that he'd used as she rose up nervously on her knees, "Why am I here? Am I a prisoner?"

She was something a little odd for most Kurtadam, he noticed then, wondering why it had escaped his notice earlier. He supposed that it was because then, she'd been little more than a limp form, and given the way that one could see her ribs easily and the way that she'd looked so -- well, disheveled and emaciated, he guessed that it had passed him by, being more concerned that she lived and was not as close to death's door as Koten had plainly feared.

The tone of her fur was a little closer to red than it was to the brown of the Kurtadam who showed that color. Her ears looked a little larger than the usual proportion allowed as well.

Another odd thing was her tail, since it was rather bushy and long for one of her overall size and it ended in a patch of white. The ruff of fur at her throat was white as well, though it eased itself into an almost black 'V' a little lower down and above her breasts, and those breasts were covered in the same color of fur as most of the rest of her. In some ways, she reminded him of a sort of fox. It was just what his impression of her evoked in him and he didn't know where the idea came from.

She leaned on one paw to steady herself a little and he saw that the brown ended near about her elbow. From there on down -- both forearms -- the fur was almost back as were her hands, her long legs, and her feet.

Her eyes were the quickest parts of her, given the present state of her health and her nervousness. They were questioning and thoughtful and he remembered what she'd asked.

He shook his head, "No, you are not a prisoner. Why would you ask such a thing? You are in a part of the Kurtadam fortress; as safe as you could ever be. We only need to find out how you came to be so far outside there starving and once we learn of who your family is, you can return to them.

Strange that I did not hear of any who were lost, I usually do most times."

"I am a prisoner then," she said with a sigh, "I do not belong here. I am only half-Kurtadam."

Natan's eyes widened at that. "Such a thing is said to have happened only once. So then you must be the one. I have heard of it, but I thought it was only a legend or a rumor."

She almost sneered at that.

"I am weak and have not eaten in so long that I cannot remember it clearly. I live in a burrow in the ground because a human who once whored me out and sought to force me to work for him again found the poor little home where I grew up and burned it down. I smell of the bare earth that I sleep on every night and I spend my days hoping to find something to eat at least once more before I die."

She tilted her head, "Does that sound like the life of a legend to you?

What has happened to me? I remember that you overtook me and I fell."

Natan shifted so that he sat near the edge of the chair and she prepared to run.

"Please," he said, holding up his hand, "Rest easy. I have been waiting so long for you to wake up that my bottom has gone numb, that is all.

I have no wish to see you harmed. I did not before. We found you a long way off outside the walls. You are starved, as anyone could see. You were actually about to try to attack my friend Koten, but you lost the will to make the jump somehow.

I only ran to protect my friend and you from each other. Once I saw you turn away, I also saw that you had almost nothing left and I came for you then, but not to harm you. You were clearly not in a level state of mind. Anyone could see how desperate you were.

I did, and I am a spoiled one who has never gone without a meal in my life. I saw you turn and I thought that you had run out of your strength. The way that you looked then gave me the thought. Koten said that you lost your will for it."

She nodded, "It was so. I needed everything to make the spring, but I saw his eyes then. Many humans I have seen and even some with blue eyes, but never one like him. What sort is he? I have never seen eyes such as his. They seemed to be able to see right into me."

Natan looked into the fire for a moment and his voice became very quiet. "He said the same thing about your eyes to me.

He comes from far away. His people are called Suomalaiset, but that is not the thing about him. He is a rare kind of them called a witcher and I have seen him do things which humans cannot do, Kurtadams either.

As you lay there frightened and panting, he laid his hands on you and with a word from him, you passed into sleep. He told me that he feared for you because you were so weak. He saw it in you as you ran at him. When you slept, he said to me that now your heart would not have to strain against its fear, and in moments, your breathing was calm and slow because you'd had a chance to catch your breath without the terror.

It was clear to us that you needed our help and I prepared to set you over the back of his horse. But Koten told me that he did not want to have you bounced and jostled all the way back with even your own slight weight on your ribs."

Natan picked up the poker and he moved a log into the middle of the fire. Satisfied, he hung the poker up again, "He wrapped you in his coat and he carried you in his arms all the way."

She stared at that, knowing how far they'd been from the fortress.

"It is a strange thing to me," Natan said, "I have seen him go from one place to another in less time than it takes to have the thought of it, but I think that it can only be done by him for himself. That must be it, or he could have held you the way that he did and been here and warm in an instant, for that is the way that he can move if he has the want to. You do not even see him move -- he just leaves where he was and appears where he wants to be.

Instead, he carried you for more than half a league in his arms.

I know him to be a very strong human, but at the end, the cold had gotten to him and after a mildy warm bath, because it was all the heat that he could stand then, I put him to bed. He lies there behind you and it worries me."

She raised her head at that, her eyes wide and she looked back. The man was lying there asleep on his back within a foot of where she sat. She hadn't noticed him at all.

"He is cold to the touch everywhere. It is not the way that I know him to be," Natan said.

"I can see that you wish to run, or have the want to be away from here, but I ask you to stay for your own sake. You are safe here. No one will harm you. You have my word."

"I mean no insult," she said carefully, "and in truth, I could not run now to save my life, I am so weak and tired, but inside the Kurtadam fortress is the last place where I wish to be. Who are you to offer me sanctuary if you have no authority to do so?"

"Oh," he smiled, "I have my ways. But how did you come to be? You did not just jump up from the ground."

She sniffled once and then she drew a breath. "My father was a fighter here once. He came from Rusland with a few others, so he never felt as though he fit into what was done to hold the Kurtadams as captives. He told me once that he really wished to see them all free because it was clear to him that they languished in cages.

He kept the thought in mind and he asked to be one of the ones who looked after them, giving them food and fresh bedding. That is how he met and fell in love with my mother. He saw the end coming and he stole her away so that they could live together. There was far too much hatred between their kinds for that sort of love to be allowed by either side.

Now, my mother is long dead and my father too. The Kurtadam run and hunt where they will and the night belongs to the wampyrs.

But there is no place in it for me.

They know of me, the wampyrs. They know that I am only a half-breed and so they hope to be able to gain by drinking my blood. They hope to make me one of them."

She looked down with a quiet groan, "I have nowhere to turn anymore. How can I stay here, in the midst of the ones who hated my parents?"

There was a moment where the only sounds were the quiet crackling of the wood in the fire and the slow breathing of the man in the bed. Natan shook his head.

"I do not know of this hatred or if it lives still. The soldiers are all gone, the monks too. Only the Kurtadam live here and three humans. That is one of them there. We have ruled them to be lords among us for they teach us many things. Another is Koten's mother and she knows horses better than anyone living, we think.

Koten is a witcher and his father is an even stronger one. It was seen that the father can kill wampyrshi. I do not know if Koten can. But I do know that if you want for a better way to hunt, then you should get to know him. I have seen him call a deer right to him.

As far as authority, do you know who rules here now?"

She shrugged a little, "I have heard that rule has passed to three younger ones, two princesses and a prince,"

She looked at him a little searchingly, "Do you know of a way that I might be given an audience so that I can ask to stay until I am well again?"

Natan chuckled softly and he began to wave his finger in the air, "By the power vested in me, I do command that you be allowed to stay until such time as you no longer wish to. But you must spend a night here first so that I can see you eat a few good meals before I allow you to go."

She scowled at him, "It is not very funny for one in my place to be mocked that way."

"I am not mocking you," he smiled, "If you have the need to hear titles, then you were carried here this day by lord Koten Fornjot and that was after you were knocked to the ground -- as gently as I could do it, mind you, by Prince Natan.

I am one of the rulers here. The youngest and by far the most foolish, of course, but it is so."

She smirked at him and shook her head to show her doubt of his claim, but at least it turned into a small smile at what she thought was his joke.

"Laugh if you like," he chuckled, "but I still have the cause to worry about your health, so come and sit down here by the fire and have the soup. I doubt that it is still steaming hot by this point, so at least you will not burn your tongue."

She only blinked at him.

He looked a little crestfallen then, "Alright, then how far away must I be from you so that you feel safe enough to eat it? Tell me and I will go there."

She tried to get to her feet, and she found that she was too shaky.

But her nose had been singing to her that there was soup in the room for all of this time, so she eased herself onto the floor and went weakly on all fours.

Natan was shocked to see it.

"Please, come here. I'll swear to your safety on anything that you demand of me. Just come and eat. I -- I'll feed you."

"You'll do no such thing," she said, "I can surely eat a bowl of soup by myself."

But she couldn't.

The tremors in her arms and hands almost prevented her from holding on to an empty spoon. She looked like she was going to cry. "I am this close, and I cannot even, ... must I lap it up like a dog now?"

"No," he said, shaking his head, "this foolishness ends now. I hope that you can see by this that it is serious. Look, only sit there like that. Just sit and I will do the rest. There is no shame in it to my eyes. Please, there is no one here but Koten and he is another worry of mine, but he sleeps, so for now, just accept this from me."

"Carefully," he said in a gentle way as he held up a spoonful for her, "and most of all, slowly. This is nothing more than a little hearty soup, but if you've had nothing for days, it might -- "

"It might be poisoned," she said, "but I am so hungry, now that my eyes see something to eat."

"Do you fear us that much?" Natan asked. "Wait a moment then."

He got to his feet and walked to the door, opening it and calling out.

A human woman came rushing over then, "Prince Natan," she began, "How is my son? Has the girl that you found awoken yet? She looked so thin, the poor thing, and I worry about them both."

She looked past Natan and she smiled, taking a few steps into the chamber, "There you are, and awake too. Have you eaten any of the soup that I made? I worried that it might be too hot for your stomach, if you have not eaten in as long as it looked to me."

She took another step and the female on the hearth cringed and prepared to run. Margit held up her hand, "It's alright, dear. No one will hurt you, least of all me."

She turned to Natan, "Is she alright? Can she not understand me?"

He held up his palms, "I think that she has had a very bad time of things lately. Have you any more soup? I find that I have gotten a little hungry for it myself."

Margit turned away, nodding and she returned with the whole pot, "Here you are, Prince. I made it for you three. You may take this and have all that you like. But please tell me when Koten wakes. I worry and if Gunnar asks, he will come himself to see what may be done."

Natan nodded and took the pot of soup by the handle. Margit closed the door.

As he returned, he found her looking at him a little differently.

"She called you prince."

Natan smiled, "I keep asking her not to do that, but I cannot get her to stop. I think that she does it because she has the chance to say it that way."

He set the pot down on the stones of the hearth and he poured the contents of the bowl back in. "If you like, I will eat first so that you see that it is not poisoned. But I have no wish to have to explain and beg you to eat. What was in the bowl has long gone cold waiting for at least one of you to wake up."

She looked at the refilled bowl and the way that it steamed now, "I am sorry to show my fear. I will eat with you if you have hunger too. How to do this with only one spoon?"

Natan chuckled a little, "Stop it, or you will cause the whole pot to grow cold while we talk. I do not care which of us eats first -- just try to trust a little and get something inside of you."

He sat on the floor with her and he held the bowl. It didn't work out as he'd planned, so he put the spoon back to set the bowl down and he carefully lifted her so that she sat on his leg. They found that it went much better after that.

She pushed his hand with the second spoonful of soup away and she held onto herself as she sat a little bent over.

"It hurts," she groaned and he felt her tremble in his gentle grasp. "My mouth was greedy that time and my stomach will not have it that quickly.

But it is good, so very good."

She motioned for another spoonful and he eased it to her lips. She sipped it like a bird and then one at a time, she nibbled at the vegetable chunks, closing her eyes with a mixture of pain and bliss when she did it.

"Only ask," he almost whispered, "and I'll fish some of the bits of meat from the bottom for you."

"This is the best soup that I have ever tasted," she said, "This is Kurtadam fare? My mother never made soup such as this."

He shook his head, "I wish that this was Kurtadam fare. It was made by lady Margit, Koten's fine mother; the one you saw and feared as well."

"Then I must find my courage and thank her."

She went back to it and before long, she found that she could get whole spoonfuls down more easily. Then she remembered and she stopped to look at Natan.

He reached for the spoon which she offered and he sat eating as well. He really wasn't hungry at all, but he would have done most anything to get the girl to eat something of it.

At last, she said that she'd had enough after a bowl and a little of it by herself. "If I eat any more, I am afraid that my stomach will push it back. Only this much and my belly feels swollen and full for the first time in so long. Thank you Prince. Thank you for this and your kind help."

He waved it off, "If you feel thankful, then you can repay me by not calling me that. Call me Natan and I am pleased. As well, I would know your name, if you have no reason to hide it."

She smiled at that, though she looked down, "It has been long since I knew anyone who wished to know anything of me. I think that I almost sought my own death today."

She looked up then, "But you have been kind to me to give me food and this human seems to have given much to help me also. I hope that he is not sick from what he did for me. My name is Nadezhda as I was named, but it is simpler to call me by Nadya. I am named after the mother of my father."

"Then welcome, Nadya," Natan smiled, "I must go to ask one of the council about what is known about a Kurtadam who mated with a human man and begat a child. Do not fear at all. I will tell no one about you. I only wish to learn of what might be known.