The Witcher: Lord of the Empire

Two days ago.

 

Ciri hurriedly ran away in the forest. She was wearing a red hooded jacket, which was already dirty. Her beautiful boots were also dirty, and there were weeds and leaves of different lengths stuck to her body, but she kept walking.

 

She didn't know where to go, she was just sure she didn't want to go to Verden, anywhere else would be better. Anything rather than a marriage to someone from Verden.

 

The little girl has always been curious about the wild and exciting adventures. She learned a lot about the forest from Mousesack, and the druid was also willing to help Ciri understand nature.

 

This allowed Ciri to master complex knowledge such as wild life far beyond the palace etiquette, noble heraldry and so on that she should have learned.

 

But no one had ever taught her that no matter how much she knew about the forest, she should not go deep into a forest she didn't understand alone, especially when the forest was called Brokilon.

 

Five steps away from Ciri, something was slowly crawling forward, overturning the weeds. The thing was dark brown in color and almost as long as Ciri's height.

 

Luck caused him to trip over something, narrowly avoiding the beast's attack.

 

The princess who fell to the ground only felt a gust of wind passing over her head. She had been frightened for a long time and looked over in panic, only to see a long-shaped thing standing there.

 

At first, she thought it was a snake, but then she noticed its yellow, barbed legs and its long, knobby body. It wasn't a snake, but it was much more dangerous.

 

Ciri screamed loudly, turned around and ran away. The giant centipede shook its long antennae, feeling the smell and temperature, and raised its body in the grass.

 

At the critical moment of the situation, Ciri suddenly heard a calm and magnetic voice shouting loudly.

 

"Do not move!"

 

Before he finished speaking, a tall man rushed out of the bushes. He stomped on the ground hard, as if he wanted to use his voice to attract the giant centipede's attention.

 

But the giant centipede didn't react at all. Its tentacles were busy looking for smaller prey, which would make hunting easier.

 

The insect monster began to move forward, forming an S shape with its body. Their yellow paws shone in the grass, swaying rhythmically like rows of oars.

 

Ciri ran faster. But in the forest, even adults can't outrun these hunters, let alone a little girl like her.

 

Upon seeing this, the strange man quickly stepped forward and took out his sword from its sheath, the silver blade shining brightly.

 

Before confronting the enemy, it was more important to him to save the child. Taking advantage of the forward momentum, the man knocked Ciri, who was about to be overtaken by the centipede, into a blackberry bush.

 

Ciri was temporarily safe, but the man became the target of giant centipedes.

 

The centipede writhed on the ground, then leaned towards the man, showing its sharp jaws dripping with poison.

 

The man nimbly dodged around the creature's segmented body, trying to stab the vulnerable joints of its shell with his sword. But the creature was fast, and his sword barely left small scratches on the chitinous shell, as if a thick layer of moss had absorbed the force of the attack.

 

The blow missed, and the man tried to pull away, but he wasn't fast enough. The giant insect wrapped its abdomen around his legs with astonishing force, causing him to lose his balance.

 

The giant centipede curled up and tried to grab him with its claws. In the process, it scraped hard against a tree and wrapped its body around it. At this moment, an arrow whizzed past the man's head, piercing the giant insect's carapace with a loud noise and nailing it to the tree trunk.

 

The giant centipede twisted its body and broke the arrow shaft but was hit by two arrows one after another.

 

The man broke free from its grasp and rolled aside.

 

At the place where the man had just jumped out, a green-skinned woman with honey-colored hair knelt on one knee and fired arrows one after another at an astonishing speed, each one hitting the target. Every time the giant centipede breaks an arrow shaft, the next arrow will pin it to the tree.

 

The centipede's flattened mouth glowed a dark brown hue, opening and closing, trying to reach its enemy through the arrows.

 

The man jumped aside and made a weird gesture with his left hand. There was a flash of light, and the centipede, which had been struggling violently, suddenly became confused and quiet.

 

Then he swung the sword in his hand vigorously, using the tree trunk as the monster's guillotine, ending the hasty battle.

 

The green-skinned woman stepped forward and revealed herself. His outfit was very forest, with her honey-colored hair tied up with a rush, and the clothes she wore were only made of bark and leaves. The clothes were close to the skin and outlined beautiful and powerful lines.

 

"This is the giant centipede also known as 'yghern' in Elder Speech." She stepped lightly on the still squirming corpse. "It broke my arrows."

 

“Thank you, Braenn.” The man thanked him. "You saved my life and that halfling's life."

 

"Don't be so pretentious, Geralt. You can manage it easily without me. People like you are best at this kind of thing."

 

Braenn did not accept the man's thanks. She carefully parted the blackberry bushes without looking back and thrust her arms deep between the thorny branches.

 

“It’s just as I thought.” She exclaimed, picking up a dizzy Ciri from the bushes. “Look, Geralt, she is not a halfling!”

 

The man looked at the little girl in Braenn's arms. She had beautiful mouse-gray hair and a pair of big clear green eyes. She looked no older than ten years old.

 

The problem was that it was not a dryad, an elf, a goblin, a pixie, or a halfling. It was just an ordinary little human girl. And this is Brokilon, the place that is most intolerant of humans...

 

“Don’t be afraid, girl.” The man knelt down and asked softly: “What’s your name?”

 

"I'm not scared, I'm very cold." Ciri shivered. "My name is Cirilla."

 

The man turned around. Braenn was inspecting her bow when she met his gaze.

 

“Listen to me, Braenn…”

 

"What?"

 

"Is it possible that she... has escaped... from... from you... from Duén Canell?"

 

"What?"

 

"Don't take me for a fool." The man said angrily. "I know you will capture young humans. Did you yourself fall from the sky to Brokilon? I'm asking you, is it possible..."

 

"Impossible." The dryad interrupted. "I have never seen her."

 

"So, she's just a girl lost in the woods?" The man murmured in a low voice.

 

The dryad slowly approached Ciri. "But now, she needs to follow me to Duén Canell. We cannot tolerate humans entering this forest. We found her in Brokilon, she is ours, and she will become one of us too.”

 

The man did not seem willing to accept that situation.

 

He protected Ciri behind him and warned in a low voice: "Be careful, Braenn. Yesterday, from the darkness, you shot an arrow that pierced a child's eyes. But I am not him, and I know how to protect myself. I wasn't there when you hurt that child, but I won't let you take another one."

 

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