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~ Baby Roach vs Ciri: Sibling Rivals ~
The first winter that Ciri spent at Kaer Morhen was also the first year that a Griffin witcher joined the wolves there for the winter.
Coën grabbed the hilt of his silver sword, but before he had a chance to draw it, the kelpie hopped out of the river and changed to the form of a toddler.
Coën started to slide the sword from its scabbard.
The creature looked up at him with teary eyes and said, "You wouldn't chop a little baby, would you?"
Lambert, who had just been dunked in the river by the creature, scrambled up onto the bank with much less grace than the kelpie. He made a 'no-killing' hand gesture at Coën, who by this point had realized that this must be the Baby Roach that he'd been told about.
"What if I would chop a little baby?" Coën asked, drawing his steel sword instead.
Baby Roach scowled up at him.
"That's the people sword. I am a kelpie."
Since she wasn't turning into a horse and attempting to throw him in the river, Coën assumed that it must be too soon for her to consider adopting him as an uncle yet.
Coën faked a lunge toward the kelpie, just to see what she would do.
Baby Roach shrieked, changed forms several times in rapid succession only to end up back in the one she'd started in, then hid behind Lambert.
Before Lambert or Coën had a chance to react to the situation, Ciri came crashing through the woods with Geralt not far behind her.
"Papa!" Baby Roach cried out happily, but still stayed tucked safely behind Lambert's knees instead of running to throw herself into Geralt's arms. "And Ciri," she added after a few seconds. Then she pointed at Coën. "That's a mean witcher who chops little babies!"
"You chop little babies?" Ciri repeated, her voice dripping with disdain in a way that reminded Geralt unpleasantly of Calanthe.
"No," Coën protested weakly. "I was just joking."
"That's not funny," Ciri said.
"Ciri," Baby Roach cooed, and darted out from behind Lambert to hug her adopted sister for defending her.
"Don't touch me! You're all wet!" Ciri said, and bolted in the opposite direction.
Lambert, who was already soaked from his trip to the river, caught Baby Roach and swept her up into his arms.
"Well," he said to Geralt. "It looks like things with our new house guests are going along swimmingly already."
Geralt sighed. It was going to be a long winter.
Geralt couldn't really understand the sibling rivalry between Ciri and Baby Roach. Sure, he fought with his brothers sometimes, and they all poked fun at each other at every opportunity, but it was nearly the exact opposite with his girls. They were constantly either at each others' throats or else pointedly ignoring each other, and rarely got along.
Baby Roach had been trying out a new form recently where she appeared to be the same age as Ciri, but as soon as the other girl upset her, Baby Roach would turn back into her toddler form and whine and cling to Geralt. And then while Geralt was trying to comfort her, Ciri would make the situation worse by calling her a baby.
To which Baby Roach would respond, "I'm older than you."
"That's worse! Stop being a brat!" Ciri would yell.
And Geralt would have to separate them until they both calmed down.
Ciri's magic lessons with Yennefer didn't go as planned, since Baby Roach insisted on staying with 'Aunt Yenna' too, and proceeded to provoke Ciri at every turn.
"Magic is easy!" Baby Roach said. "Just take Chaos into your body and POOF!"
She changed into her horse form.
Yennefer patted Baby Roach's big horsey face affectionately.
"It's a bit more complicated than that."
Baby Roach changed back into a little girl just to argue with her.
"Isn't."
Yennefer sighed, and leaned down scoop Baby Roach up into her arms.
"It's difficult for humans to learn how to draw Chaos into their bodies and shape it to their will. We aren't born innately connected to Chaos the way that your kind are."
And, of course, Ciri was upset at how much more kind and patient Yennefer seemed to be with the kelpie than she was with her, and became all the more defiant, which only made her magic lessons go worse... until Yennefer finally figured out what was causing Ciri to act out, and sent Baby Roach back to Geralt.
The first time that Baby Roach heard Ciri call Yennefer "Mama", she immediately repeated it. Baby Roach had never had a mother. (Besides kelpie mama who had died right after giving birth to her, but Baby Roach didn't even remember kelpie mama even though Geralt had told her the story of how she became his baby plenty of times.)
"No, she's my mother, not yours," Ciri argued immediately. "You already have two parents!"
"Mean Ciri," Baby Roach replied, her eyes filling with tears. "You need to learn how to share." After a moment she added, "And Papa Jaskier can also be your papa, too."
Ciri made a face and said, "No thanks."
And, of course, Baby Roach took immediate offense to that.
Yennefer quickly grabbed the kelpie to keep her from shifting form and dragging Ciri to the nearest body of water to try to drown her.
"I think two parents are enough for everyone," Yennefer said. Although she was unsure if her attempt to mediate would go over well, she continued ahead anyway. "Geralt and Jaskier can be your parents, and Geralt and I can be Ciri's parents, and we're all still family, and that's perfectly fine."
"Hmmm," Baby Roach hummed out a long, skeptical note. But she stopped fighting to get loose so that she could drown Ciri, which was... progress of some sort, Yennefer was sure.
~end~