The fiend

Day 3,347, 14:02 • Published in Romania Romania • by Bogdan Armand Sibrand

The events in this article happen subsequent to winning the game. Twice.
suggested theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FywSzjRq0e4



8 years had passed since he left the throne.

He wasn't overthrown, his office term had just ended, since the old Kingdom now became a Republic. Since then he retreated in his old home town in Trivia, somewhere in a countryside near the Citadel, where his ancestors had a manor.

Ever since his arrival, he, who became Lord of the realm, a tiny realm, but still, managed to continue the set up of the old place, to maintain it. It was then when the fiend started to create havoc. Some said that the fiend had been seen decades ago too, killing and spreading fear, but some fierce chevaliers or mercenaries put her gone. However, the killing seemed to have started again.

Firstly, some peasants were gone missing. After that, a homeboy found the bodies of three servants in the barn in the back of the yard. It was strange the dogs didn't bark. The bodies had wounds of bites from what appeared to be from a big strong jaw. Claws and everything.
It was the fiend who presumably killed the realm's old governor too, but the physicians never truly told him how it happened. They told him it was malarea who struck the old governor down, his father.

Quickly, the new landlord, by the name of Geralt, began a hunt to put an end to all this menacing threat. He put his knights to find the fiend in the nearby woods, but with no avail. They started searching the lakeside, the fields and the villages nearby, with the same result.

As he became more and more concerned about the situation, he thought to ask the hermit about it, an old bookkeeper who retired in the manor's high tower, only the books and God to keep him company. Strangely how a hermit can find his retirement place right in the tower of a castle, isn't it? 🙂 So near yet so far from civilization and society.

Geralt took one of his faithful henchmen with him and started climbing the tower's steps. As they rose, they saw a crack in the wall. It appeared to be small at first but as they came closer, they were slightly surprised to see that beside the crack it was a tunnel. They entered it, first only dirt and stones but the longer they followed, the tunnel became dressed in tiles, first marble with glittering stones afterwards.



It was so they reached the end of the cave, finding there a creature in a golden cage. It was the fiend. That was the place where she was hidden. Right beneath the castle walls, no wonder the dogs didn't bark, as nobody was coming from outside the gates.

The two men approached the cage slowly when the hermit came in with a lit torch in hand, while the scarred fiend was mourning and growling.
- Good evening, gents.
- Hello. You're the hermit, right? asked the henchman, while Geralt was too greeting the old man with a head lean. He sai😛
- Hello, old man, tho' it is plain day outside.
- Here in the catacombs it is always evening or night, lord.
- Anyway, tell me how to stop the deaths of my people. Does the slay of this thing stop the murders?
- Don't rush into such things, young one. Although you are a lord, you are still a young one.
- Don't tell me you knew all this and didn't warn anyone. Explain!
- The fiend belongs to this place. There were times it WAS the place.
It's not good and it's not bad. Its actions resembles the mind of the people.
By killing it you don't end the troubles in your land, but jeopardize you and your whole possession with it.
- But how it escapes the cage if it's locked? asked the henchman.
- It just does. None knows how but she just keeps coming back here. Centuries ago, they found her den in the woods, so they came there and killed her. But she kept coming back alive, strangely. Seeing this, the landlord of those times, when Trivia didn't even exist as a whole kingdom, moved her belongings here, along with all she needed, inside the castle walls. She seemed to like it and remained here, allowing the others to feed and study her.

My records stop here, the old hermit continued, but all I know more is that by improving your ways of ruling, your people's lives and mentality, history says, only then you will stop the beast.
You may either kill it or tame it. The choice is yours, my lord.

After hearing the old man, Geralt moved towards the cage and looked at the fiend. He looked right into her eyes, she wasn't threatening anymore, and he noticed her eyes were the same as his.
He realized it was not the internal wars in Trivia the greatest of his battles, nor the fights with the roaming hordes of barbarians he faced when exiled in the Eastern desert, but the fight with himself. This would be his last great battle.

To best the beast is to break away. From yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4VCpTZye10



Once more into the Fray...
Into the last good fight I'll ever know.
Live and die on this day...
Live and die on this day...


8 years have passed since I joined the game.