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Published: 2021-10-02, Completed: 2021-10-08
Prompt: Grim Giants
Chapters: 3/3, Words: chapter 3: 2916, story: 8729 Fandom: Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences, Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach, Maria Barring | Milva, Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, The Hansa | Geralt's Company (The Witcher) - Character, Angoulême (The Witcher), Roach (The Witcher) Additional Tags: Friendship, on the way to Stygga, Sansmerci Pass, Mortblanc Pass, snowstorm, avalanche, Panic Attack, Implied/Referenced Torture, Claustrophobia, Regis saves the day, frozen Geralt, mostly book canon, written pre-season 2, Cahir Whump, caretaker Regis
Summary: After Cahir has started to tell the company some of his story, there are undesirable repercussions which do not make the already sufficiently difficult crossing of the Sansmerci any easier. Neither does the weather. Nor Roach. And then there is still the Mortblanc, the White Death, lying in wait for the friends ...
Excerpt from Chapter 3: The White Death
Around noon, the company had already made it more than halfway up the ravine. They allowed themselves a short break to have some bites of left-over rabbit and to water the horses, but looking up at the sky, Geralt soon urged them on. Another blizzard was gathering around the mountain tops. Hopefully, they would already be on the other side of the pass when it struck, safely put up inside a farm house or, at least, holed up in some abandoned sheep shed. If not, there was no telling what would happen. They definitely did not need any repetition of their night on the Sansmerci. So they better got a move on.
It did not take long until Milva and Cahir were somewhat falling behind the others. Milva's gelding was the sturdiest and most reliable of the company's horses, which was one of the reasons why Cahir was riding with her and not with Angoulême on her more spirited but smaller and lighter mare. Or with Regis or Geralt. Neither Draakul nor Roach were an option, the mule being too small and Roach too skittish. Plus the mare would have had to carry the combined weight of two grown men. However, Milva's horse was also the slowest, even with only one rider, and the extra weight of an additional horseman did not exactly help. Well, they would catch up eventually, at the latest when it was time to set up camp.
The three companions making up the vanguard had almost reached the plateau and the source of the stream, a beautiful little waterfall mostly frozen into a cascade of icicles which fell into a small rock basin, when Geralt, with his enhanced Witcher senses, heard the sound of falling stones higher up on the mountain side. Maybe a mouflon or a mountain goat? They had not seen any animals for quite a while, actually since they had left the forest, but some cold-adapted creatures were bound to live here, too. Perhaps even a rare capricorn? Geralt scanned the rock face. However, there was nothing to be seen, just snow-covered rocks and ledges. When he turned his gaze away from the cliff again, though, he suddenly caught a movement in the corner of his eye. A bluish shape high up on the mountain, its head almost reaching into the clouds. Huge. Monstrous. It let the enormous bolder it was holding in its shovel-like hands drop ...
Read the complete chapter on Ao3:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/34224823/chapters/85508626