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The Witcher: Of Serpents and Blood

นักเขียน: RevenantSnake

บท 1: Prologue:

And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." - Genesis 3:13

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Current year: ????

As I awoke from what I imagined was the deepest sleep of my life, I realized I was in great pain. A pain that I can only describe as soul wrenching, my entire being feels like it was crushed, slammed and melted down into a fine soupy mess and then merged back together again. I realized that despite the pain I was in, my body felt extremely weird and unpleasant. Almost as if I had forgotten all of my physical sensations and was relearning them on the go. All of a sudden I felt an extreme suction force being drawn on me and I started to panic even more than I already am. More than that though, I started to hear voices.

"AaHhhh, sister please help! Get Gremist!" A voice cried out in pain

"He's on his way, Torsten went to grab him. Drink this. It's a potion to dull the pain, fetched from Gremist himself. You're almost there, just a bit more. I can see the start of the head!" An unknown, but feminine voice intoned.

Sister? Potion? Am I in the middle of some sort of sacrificial ritual!? God damn humans, this is why I limit my social interaction with others to an absolute minimum! Although, that's a moot point now considering I'm about to be killed, sacrificed or worse. However that name, Gremist, I swear I've heard that somewhere before…

I heard a door being slammed open across the room and an angry sounding man stomping his way through. He seems to be in a huff about something.

"Right, what's all this shite then?! Interrupting my afternoon for this rubbish, don't you know that we're in the middle of the Saovine?!" The particularly angry man said.

"Oi, Gremist, shut the fuck up! Can't you see that Revna has gone into labour! Help us before I smack ye back to yer alchemists hut with a recently detached set of stones for ye to experiment on!" The feminine voice replied, clearly furious at the man's callousness.

"Alright, alright, sheesh! No need to threaten me manhood, I'll help. Although for Revna to be going into labour, during the Saovine no less, well, that's just bad luck on yer part. Alright enough lollygagging. Frida go get some warm towels, Revna, push when I tell ye too."

From everything that's going on, I seem to have figured out the situation I'm in. I'm not a fool, from the extreme pain, to the voices talking about "Revna", presumably my mother, going into labour, it's safe to say that I'm in the middle of being reborn. To be honest, I never thought something like this would be possible. I had stopped believing in stuff like this awhile ago when there seemed to be no hope for a more interesting life. By the name of the angry man who entered the room, and the fact that he's some sort of potions master or alchemist has given me an idea of where I am. Although if I remember correctly, the Saovine was another word for halloween in a certain series of games and books.

"Push!" I heard intoned a final time before I was officially born again.

"Congratulations! He's a healthy….. Oh…..oh my…. Revna… I didn't realize you swung that way." Gremist said in shock, or maybe it was condescension, as he picked me up away from my mother. I wonder what he meant by that, I couldn't really see myself, but it didn't sound good from what Gremist said. Now that I've seen a younger Gremist though, I can safely say that I'm in the Witcher universe. Right now I should be on Ard Skellige. That fact didn't bother me as much as it should. On one hand I now have the opportunity to learn magic and fight monsters, however on the other hand, humans from this place are extremely prejudiced and racist. Well whatever, I generally dislike most humans anyway, this just makes me dislike them slightly more.

I couldn't finish my thoughts as my mother, Revna, moved like a panther and swiped me quickly from Gremist's hands just after he spoke. A resounding slap was heard across the small, dark room. Hurting my newly reborn ear drums. My baby eyes, that normally shouldn't be able to see anything after just being born somehow worked. I saw what could only be my mother, grab me and then slap Gremist like no one has ever slapped anything before.

"Speak ill of my child again, Gremist. You'll lose a lot more than yer stones when I'm done with ye." My mother expressed with an evil yet beautiful scowl. It seems my mother is quite a looker in this life. Raven black hair and eyes that could hold the ocean in their gaze. Go mom! Although I don't really know what's happening or why Gremist said the things he did. Still, it was quite amusing to watch.

"Revna you.. I didn't realize you had.." I heard the girl who could only be the woman Frida from earlier say before she was quickly cut off.

"Leave us. Both of you. Now. I can clean up on my own, I wish to spend time with my son." Revna quipped. Damn, my mother is kind of a bad ass. However, all these comments relating to something being wrong with me are starting to make me paranoid. What exactly is the problem?

The two other occupants soon left the room, leaving just me and my mother. However, I had just been reborn and I just dealt with a great amount of pain so I was feeling rather sleepy. As I was drifting into unconsciousness, I heard my mother speak.

"I'm sorry my son… Because of my decision you will face a hard life. Full of prejudice and evil. You will have to know hatred," She started to cry "Hatred beyond which I'll be able to help. Hatred for your appearance, but that's not all. One day the serpent will come to take you. The serpent with the evil eye. When he does… I don't know if we'll ever be able to see each other again..." Well that's not cryptic and utterly terrifying as all hell. I swear when I wake up, I'm gonna find out what the hell everyone is talking about with my appearance. I might not have been the most spectacular looking in my past life, but I was still moderately handsome damn it! Well whatever, it surely can't be that bad right?

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A few months later:

Current Year: 1249

After a few months, I was able to start crawling around and I've discovered a couple things. First off, I learned my name is Harkon. Harkon Helson. Quite a badass name if I do say so myself. Second off, the year is 1249 which means I'm three years older than Ciri who was born in 1252. That also means that it's been two years since Geralt and yennefer met. My mother seems to be a druid like Gremist and frequently has to leave for an hour or two each day to help with rituals and practicing druid magic, she can't really leave me with somebody because apparently I'm unilaterally disliked among her social group. That pissed me off a bit since I was really only a baby and they were making my mothers life harder than it has to be. I had grown fond of her and she spends a lot of her time when she's home playing or reading with me, so I've started to appreciate her as a mother figure. She only leaves when I'm "sleeping" or rather pretending to sleep. However, today I have a mission I need to undertake. Today is the day I finally find out what I look like. I already had a few theories rolling around in my head, but I need confirmation.

I was inside my crib load with furs in order to keep me warm and alive during the coming winter months. My mothers dresser is only six feet away and I'm sure there's a mirror on that desk because I've seen her use it. I enacted my plan and slowly climbed out of my crib and over to the dresser, it was proving to be a challenge thanks to my young age.

I slowly positioned myself near the dresser and used one of the furs I had brought with me like a fishing line. I threw one half of the fur on top of the dresser, after a few tries, and tried to get the small handheld mirror to fall. After a few attempts the mirror fell, but it did not break as it was a rather small dresser. Finally the moment of truth was here. I could finally see what I look like. I brought the mirror up to my face. As I did so, My lips clearly morphed into a bit of a frown.

….. God damn it. I was expecting something like this, I just hoped it wasn't the case. Physically, I was fine. I actually take after my mother quite a bit. I was handsome with black hair and piercing blue eyes. Although I no doubt had baby fat on my cheeks, my jawline looked like it was going to be quite strong. I could tell I was going to be quite a looker when I grew up, maybe even more handsome than Geralt. The only problem was my ears.

They were pointy.