Luisa and the Witcher

The animal snarled at Luisa, blood dripping from its eye. It rushed towards her again.

"Wait!" Luisa yelled and the animal halted right in front of her. Her lips parted in awe;

"You understand me as well?" she asked the animal. This is crazy! It just continued to snarl and growl at her.

She raised her hands, the animal gnashed its teeth at her, making her to withdraw her hands a little.

"I'm not going to hurt you again," she promised and slowly stretch her hands again towards the wolf. She removed the stick from its eyes slowly, the wolf turned its head towards the forest and began to run off away from them.

"Are you okay?" Zeke asked her, he had climbed down from the tree since to help her as she seemed too astonish to continue to attack the animal. But he was surprised at the show that unfolded before him.

He stretch his hand for her to take, she took it and got up dusting off the dusts and fallen leaves on her body.

"What was all that about?" Zeke asked.

"For a moment there I could swear I understood the animal and it understood me as well," she replied.

"Could it be...somehow my special abilities as a wood elf have finally started to activate?" she asked no one in particular. They walked to the tree Zeke had climbed.

"Climb up," he uttered holding her hand. She placed her foot on a good spot to start and he let go of her hand so that she could climb properly and he held her waist to support her.

When both of them were finally up in the tree, they sat on the thick branch. Silence reigned between them until a mockingbird flew and perch on the tree opposite them. It started to sing in it's natural tone not mimicking any bird this time, not like another bird was in sight.

"Can you understand it?" he asked her. She focused her attention on the bird.

"No..." she replied disappointed, after a while.

"I don't understand, I thought I had it there" she added.

"Think hard, have you experience this before?" he continued.

"I don't think so," she replied.

"Your special abilities as a wood elf has started to surface slowly, when does an elf special abilities start to activate?" he asked recalling their previous conversation about this, when they visited the fortune teller.

"About my age, but some could happen earlier," she answered.

"What activates it?" he asked again.

"Nature, I guess," she replied.

"Hmm, tomorrow when you go to Maximilian, tell him about what happened today. He will be of better help than I to decipher this," Zeke said. Luisa smiled at him and she hugged him. He hugged her back.

"Thank you, really" she told.

""You've told me that like a million times already," he replied and she chuckled.

"Let's go," he said letting her go.

They have spent a long time in this place, it was almost nightfall. They got down from the tree and were about to leave when they heard a low growl in the forest. They halted;

"Is it another wolf?" Luisa asked. But then their medallions began to glow. She turned to Zeke.

"I don't think so," he responded. Their medallions wouldn't have glowed if it was an ordinary animal, a monster was close. She started to walk away from Zeke in search of what made that growl.

"Luisa?" Zeke called and Luisa turned to him. "Be careful," he said.

She smiled at him, "I will," they were witchers. Witchers never back down from a fight, that was what they were taught.

She saw as the look on his face changed drastically, his eyes focused behind her. She turned to see what caught his attention. A griffin was just few meters away from her and it didn't waste time in launching its first attack, it was about to pounce on her but Zeke pushed her out of the way, they landed on the ground but he got the attack.

Zeke fell on top of her, his palm protecting her head from the impact of the fall. For the first time Luisa saw blood flow out from his mouth and nostril. Was it the fall? It couldn't be.

"Zeke?" she called, his eyes were focused on hers. She raised her head to see the four deep and angry cuts on his back that bled vigorously.

She also saw the griffin walk so triumphantly towards them, as it's first attack was successful.

"Zeke...It's getting closer, you've to try to get up," she urged him. He placed his hands on the ground and raised his body trying to get up but the griffin pounced on him and he fell back, Luisa felt their weights on her body.

The monster began to stab Zeke's back with its claws. He groaned in pain and worry clouded her mind, she has to do something or they were dead.

Her lips began to move as she uttered a spell, the wind carried it delicately and her hands glowed with blue energy. She pointed it at the griffin and a supernatural force sent the monster flying off from them hitting a tree that broke along with it.

"Zeke..." she voiced holding his cheek. Black veins began to appear on his temples and soon his eyes changed completely to a black hue. Staring into it felt like it was a black hole or vortex sucking her in.

"Zeke...Are you okay?" she asked him but he still did not respond, he looked like he wasn't himself anymore and the aura around him was filled with bloodlust, it was spine chilling and suffocating.

The griffin had recovered from the hit, it rushed towards them again. Zeke got up so easily and when the griffin was about to reach them, it launched at him.

His hands lilt with golden fire and inches before the griffin pounced on him, his palm landed on its head, the griffin paused in the air and slowly started to dissipate into aches until it dissipated entirely.

Luisa stood up from the floor.

"Zeke?" she began again, because he still stood, his back facing her. He didn't respond but he began to turn slowly towards her.

His eyes were still black, she walked towards him and her hands wrapped around him as she hugged him not afraid if he might hurt her. He didn't hug her back;

"Are you still in there?" she asked and she felt his chest rise and fall as if he just laughed.

She looked up at him, his eyes were still black but he had that smug look of his on.

"I'm still in there, shortie. This is a special skill of the witchers," he assured and she snickered.

"I thought I lost you there," she replied, hugging him again and he hugged her back this time.

"How come we weren't taught this special skill?" she asked.

"There are a lot of things you don't know now until you get to that stage," he informed and she looked up at him again, his eyes had returned to its original golden color, she smiled.

"Even after finishing the trainings, there are still stages," she humored.

"Can you teach me this special skill, mentor Zeke?" she added.

"If you are a good protege," he replied.

"I will be," she vowed.

"You did great there, protege. You saved us," he appreciated her.

"Thank you but you saved me first and saved us at the end. I wonder where that griffin came from?" she responded.

"It's nightfall, demons and monsters lurks in these woods at this time," Zeke stated. He placed his hand on a tree, his head fell on the nook of her neck as he leaned on the tree and a little on her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, she could hear him trying to maintain his previous rhythm of breathing before they were attacked by the griffin.

"Yes. Let's go home," he replied.

...

"Master Zeke?" The butler rushed towards them. Zeke was covered in blood and it alerted the butler and other servants. They had finally arrived at Zeke's house.

"It's alright, Stephen," Zeke said to the butler.

"Should I get you anything, master Zeke?" Stephen asked.

"No" Zeke replied. Zeke held Luisa's hand and they went upstairs to his room.

"Isn't that the elf girl from last time?" one of the maids gossiped with some two other maids.

"I think so, but she looks different. Is she-"

"Shut up you gossipmongers. You don't gossip the master's affairs so openly like that. Get back into the kitchen," the butler scolded and dismissed them.

Zeke opened the door to his room, he walked inside and Luisa followed shutting the door. "Are you sure you are fine?" she asked.

"I'm fine. Don't you need a bath?" he inquired.

"Yeah, I do need one," she replied.

Then he started taking off his shirt in front of her. Luisa instinctively turned around, blood rushed to her cheeks.

"Do you want me to go outside till you're done?" she asked. Zeke grinned at her, this little shortie of his could be very shy.

"Turn around Luisa," he told and she reluctantly did as he said. He was shirtless, this was the first time she ever saw him shirtless, even that last time she had woken up shirtless in his room, she looked away when he was getting dressed.

His upper body was even more drool worthy without clothing, she couldn't even imagine how his lower body would look like.

'Luisa!' she scolded herself. How could she think of something like that?

"Didn't you say you wanted a bath? I want one as well. Then I'll apply an ointment on this to quicken the healing," he continued showing her the cuts on his back. It has stopped bleeding and was now healing slowly. He was fast, it wasn't really easy to recover from a griffin's bite or cut even for a vampire.

"O-Okay, you go first," she stammered.

"Why don't we take it together?" he suggested.

"..."