The Witcher Headcanon - Assumptions
(Eskel finds out about Feral!Jaskier)
Eskel always enjoyed the winters when Jaskier stayed with them at Kaer Morhen. It was never dull when he was around. The more Eskel got to know him, the more he liked him. The man was talented, highly educated, entertaning, and a genious when it came to music. He was loyal, and cared deeply for the people he held close to his heart.
And while he was highly educated, and intelligent, he was also, well, to put it bluntly, dumb of a**. The man couldn't fight worth a d*mn. His strategy for avoiding trouble was to talk/joke his way out of it, seduce his way out, or scream and run like h*ll.
Even though Jaskier couldn't really fight, that didn't stop him from causing trouble. Eskel figured it was because not too many people were willing to mess with a man who was under the protecton of a scary Witcher, and an equally scary sorceress.
Still, the Wolves were concerned that Jaskier couldn't defend himself. They had tried several times over the winters to train him at least a little, but the bard just didn't seem interested. No one appeared to be concerned about Jaskier's lack of survival skills, so Coen had taken it upon himself to try to train the bard. He had, after only a few weeks, completely given up and told his brothers not to even bother.
Eskel had been shocked. When he questioned him on the decision, Coen had replied simply that Jaskier was absolute dogsh*t at it, and it would be more dangerous to train him. Eskel suspected that his sour mood had something to do with the hip pointer he'd aquired while trying to train Jaskier.
According to Lambert, it had been a complete sh*t show, and Coen had ended up falling hard on some tumbledown masonry when Jaskier had slipped and collided with him. Eskel decide that if Jaskier couldn't fight, he was just going to have to help Geralt look after him on the Path as much as he could.
That was how he found himself meeting up with Geralt and Jaskier one summer. They had crossed paths by chance and Eskel decided to travel with them for a while. Past experience had taught him just how hard a time Geralt had keeping the bard alive on the Path. Jaskier seemed determined to unintentionally yeet himself off this mortal coil at every opportuniy. Jaskier was happy to see Eskel. He rarely saw his friends outside of Kaer Morhen, so any chance meeting was welcome.
They stopped in Aldersberg to rest and let Jaskier earn some coin. The people had been genrous, and he had earned enough for supplies and a little extra to squirrel away. Geralt and Eskel were packing their things while Jaskier went down to get the horses. He was gone just a little too long.
F**k. He was probably getting into touble.
Sure enough, when the Witchers found him, he was being confronted by three angry men. Things were not looking good. Jaskier was already scuffed and had a bloody nose. He was definitely in trouble. Eskel was mentally thrown off balance when, instead of rushing to help, Geralt was just hanging back, watching.
"What do you mean, 'wait'?"
"Geralt, he's in trouble-!" one of the men dragged Jaskier up by the collar, punched him in the jaw, then drew his sword.
F**k you, Geralt! Eskel thought, and rushed in.
He slammed into the man with the sword, sending him tumbling across the stable yard to crash into the stone wall. He turned and saw the second man was down, and Jaskier was struggling with the last one. They both fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs and curses. The man snarled in pain and his wicked looking bloodstained push knife went flying into the dirt. The scent of blood was in the air, and blood was beginning to pool on the ground.
Eskel reached for Jaskier, grabbing the back of his jacket, intending to pull him off the man.
Geralt's warning shout of "No, Eskel! Get away from him-!" came too late.
Eskel was knocked over backwards as Jaskier threw his bodyweight into him. His head was spinning as Jaskier attacked him. Pain exploded on the left side of his throat, just below his jaw. He felt something hot run down his neck, and his survival instincts kicked in. Eskel shoved his thumb into the jugular notch at the base of Jaskier's throat.
The bard made a choking sound and jerked, sitting back on Eskel's torso. Eskel saw him pull two knives from inside his jacket.
Holy f**k those knives were his!
Jaskier turned, his attention going to Geralt, who was apporaching slowly, his hands up and empty. Eskel covered the bleeding wound on his throat, trying to stauch the flow of blood.
Jaskier turned at the movement and Eskel recoiled at the cold, intense look in his eyes. He'd never seen him look that way. He had definitely never seen him pointing a knife at Geralt either, or with blood smeared around his mouth... This was not his Jaskier...
"Jaskier, it's us! It's Geralt and Eskel. Calm down." Geralt said, mentally cursing. He wished Yen was here. She was always able to bring Jaskier back to himself when his feral side came out.
Jaskier's fingers moved restlessly on the grip of the push knife he had pointed at Geralt. His hand twitched. A warning.
Geralt stopped walking, immediately going compeletly still. Geralt knew that if he moved any closer, Jaskier was going to drop the push knife, and go for the throwing knives.
He knew Jaskier wasn't seeing faces right now. He was too far into his feral state for that. He was only registering shapes, movement and sound.
"Julek, " Geralt said gently, "Julek, it's alright, they're gone." He hoped the use of the diminutive of his name would snap him out of it. It always seemed to work when Yennefer did it.
It apparently was a Yennefer Thing because it had no effect when Geralt did it.
Geralt was more that slightly purturbed, and maybe just a little bit jealous at how Yennefer could just walk up to Jaskier when he was in this state, call him 'Julek', touch him, and he would just come back to himself. It was like watching a little girl walk up to the meanest f***ing bull in the village, and tame it with pat on the nose.
Geralt wasn't Yennefer, so he had to come up with a different way to fix this sh*t show.
He started Distress purring, not knowing what else to do. The sound thrummed, deep and rolling. He saw the way the knives wavered slightly as the sound vibrated through the air.
He kept it up, and Jaskier's arms started to untense, the push knives slowly lowering. Geralt saw his eyes unfocus for a minute.
Geralt knew he was starting to feel the soothing rocking sensation the purring was causing in his head. He purred louder.
Eskel started quietly talking to him while Geralt purred. "It's me, Jaskier, " he said softly, his hand moving up to slowly rub up and down Jaskier's thigh. "It's your 'Esol'. Come on, you remember," Eskel could feel the blood soaking into the collar of his gambeson.
Jaskier turned those hard eyes on him when he felt him touch him. It was getting hard to concentrate, to watch both men at the same time. The feeling of his own blood pounding in his head was starting to fade, and his mind was starting to feel quieter. Rational thoughts were starting to bob to the surface.
Eskel kept rubbing his leg and talking softly, ignoring the knife, "It's Eskel. You didn't forget me, did you, Baby Bird?"
Jaskier blinked. Baby Bird.
That name was familiar... That was what his friend Eskel called him...
"Baby Bird, put them down."
The cold, hard edge in Jaskier's eyes faded.
He took in the scene, saw Eskel bleeding heavily from his neck, saw the push knives in his hands. Tasted the blood in his mouth. He'd hurt Eskel! Oh gods, he'd hurt Eskel!
His face went pale and he dropped the knives, throwing himself off the injured Witcher to retch in the dirt.
Geralt was right there, hand rubbing up and down his back, still purring.
"I-I...," Jaskier stammered, looking at the blood on his hands, and on his shirt. "Shhhh," Geralt shushed him, "We'll talk about it later. We need to get Eskel patched up."
They got Eskel back into their room, got Jaskier calmed down, and Yennefer was summoned. Geralt filled Eskel in on the whole backstory while they cleaned themselves up and waited for Yennefer.
"F**k me," Eskel said, impressed, "You'd never know from just looking at him!" He reached over to Jaskier, who was kneeling beside the bed, and ruffled his hair, "Trained with an elven assasin. D*mn, Songbird, you're amazing! And you, Geralt, you're an ar*ehole for not telling me."
"Those other ar*eholes know too??? Why the h*ll didn't any of you tell me?"
"'F**k around and find out'? F**k you! F**k all of you b**tards!"
Yennefer had been unsettled by the injury. It was on the left side of Eskel's throat, right under his jaw. She recognized the pattern of the marks.
Jaskier had almost severed Eskel's cartoid artery. With his teeth.
Yennefer used her magic, sealing up the ugly wound, and leaving him another set of scars. When she was done, she went to make sure Jaskier was okay. She sat with him on the bed while Eskel changed out of his bloodly clothes.
She let him lean his head on her shoulder, holding his hand, fingers laced through his. Yennefer tucked a few strands of hair behind his ear, stroked his cheek, and fussed with the lace on his collar while carrying on a private mental conversation with him. He smiled at something she thought to him, then took her hand and raised it to his lips to kiss her fingers.
"I'm so sorry, Eskel..." Jaskier mumbled miserably as he watched Eskel inspect the new scars on his throat. Eskel snorted with a cheeky smile. "It's not the first Love Bite you've given me, Baby Bird," he said, holding up his wrist to show him the bite scar there. "Now I've got another Love Bite! The others are going to be so jealsous, especially Lambert!"
"That's not a Love Bite," Geralt said with a smirk, "It's on your throat. That's a Mating Bite. You two are married now."
"But that's a werewolf thing! And anyway, it's just a myth made up by writers of erotic literature!" Eskel protested.
"Read a lot of erotic literature about werewolves, do you?" Geralt inquired, raising an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you even know what erotic literature is."
It became The Joke and Eskel and Jaskier ran with it all winter long. Yennefer spent that winter in Kaer Morhen so she wouldn't miss a moment of watching the mayhem.
Eskel got to hear his bothers tell their stories about how they found out about Feral!Jaskier, and show off their scars. Except for Lambert, whose scars were in a place he couldn't show in the presence of mixed company.
And Eskel was reminded to never make assumptions. And never f**k with the bard.
