Chapter 12

                                    

                                          
As the sun peeked over the mountains and shone through the few windows of the witcher's fortress, Iespeth sat up from her bed with a jerk, excited. The red-headed healer Maya, who Iespeth had found out the night before was a 'higher vampire', had promised to teach her reading and writing. She had seen the magnitude of books around Kaer Morhen and wondered what knowledge they held for her. Iespeth had to fight back the urge to wake Ciri, wanting to share her excitement. The thought of being swatted at and having 'Dammit, Iespeth' being screamed in her general direction one more time made the urge finally vanish. She slipped on her boots and tip-toed her way to the lab area.
                          
To kill time, she took a book off a shelf and opened it. She examined the fine way that the symbols curved and noticed that they seemed to be organized in lines. When she got no further making sense of the markings on the paper, she decided to see what was taking Maya so long. Surely she doesn't sleep as long as Ciri. Just in case, I should be quiet.
                          
The trek up the stairs to the top of the tower that Maya and Eskel slept in was long and made more strenuous by Iespeth's care to make little noise. Midway up the stairs she began to hear what seemed like quiet sobs becoming louder the closer Iespeth got to the top. She held the side of the wall to steady herself up the narrow, stone steps worried about what she might find up there. As she peaked her head up into the room and looked around, she saw a pale figure sitting upright on the bed jerking its body forward and backwards. She noticed a second figure who was underneath the pale shape sit up and put their arms around the first. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room she realized what was most likely be occurring.
                          
Ciri had explained mating to her after she witnessed a group of ducks involved in an 'altercation' in the middle of a pond. She pointed out that the female was the one screeching, being mounted, and pushed down into the water while the other 5 were the males fighting for the opportunity at reproduction. When the female finally surfaced many of the feathers on the back of her neck had been ripped out. The whole act seemed violent and unpleasant and held little appeal for the naive elf.
                          
But what Iespeth was watching seemed very different. Not only did neither seem distressed, they both seemed to be enjoying this act. As she watched Eskel grab Maya's left breast roughly, so too did she feel a strong hand on her shoulder. She whipped around and saw Lambert's glaring cat eyes. He put a finger to his lips insisting she be quiet, then motioned her to follow him down the stairs.
                          
"Sorry to interrupt your little voyeur session," he said sarcastically, "but it's time for you to start your training.
                          
Iespeth opened her mouth to try and defend herself.
                          
"Save it," he interrupted. "You're probably going to say that you didn't know better or it was an accident. Whether you are being earnest or not doesn't really interest me. But let me get one thing straight, those things are private, so don't go poking your nose around in places where those private things are done."
                          
Iespeth gave him a nod and followed him in silence to the kitchen. When they got there he grabbed an apple, a few hard rolls, a wedge of cheese, and 3 red sausages. He plopped the apple and a roll onto a wooden board and placed it in front of Iespeth keeping the rest of the treats for himself. He could tell by the look on her face that she found her meal to be unfair.
                          
"Considering how flighty your stomach is, I'd prefer to avoid an accident," he said, remembering the she-elf's stench after their boat ride a while back. Iespeth didn't understand, but there were other questions she wished to ask.
                          
"Why were those two copulating? Why would a witcher and a v...an elf do that if no offspring will result from the act?" she asked biting into her apple.
                          
"You wanna know why scarface and red were fucking? Maybe you'd like to know why Keira and I fuck too?" he said smiling condescendingly and taking a bite from his sausage. He put a particular intonation on the curse word for sex as if he enjoyed its use. "We fuck, because it feels good. Witchers certainly don't lose their urges in spite of being sterile. In fact that makes fucking all the more appealing."