[Chapter Size: 2100 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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...
Madara left the capital shortly after, just as Cirilla had seen in her dream, burning with people dying every moment.
He kept moving forward while Cirilla continued crying; Madara knew this was the end of Cintra and he needed to find a safe place, but few could be found. After all, wizards of all kinds from different realms were there to kidnap Cirilla. Besides Geralt, Madara should trust no one.
It was only as the capital disappeared from the horizon that Madara entered the forest, continuing north for the next few hours, but he couldn't go too far, after all, Cirilla was not like him and he should give the girl some rest as she was so sad she didn't even have the energy to complain.
They arrived at a waterfall near dusk, while Madara lifted Cirilla off his back as he pulled out some tents from his storage scroll and created some clones to patrol the area.
"Here, if you want to bathe in the water, I'll leave your things here," Madara said as Cirilla lifted her gaze to him.
"How can you speak in a tone as if nothing happened?!" She exclaimed at him.
"..." Madara just looked at her calmly. "Crying won't solve anything; it doesn't change the past," he spoke in a harsh tone, making the girl shrink.
"Did my grandmother and Uncle Mousesack die?" She asked, looking at him with red eyes.
"Mousesack is alive, he managed to teleport just in time, but he couldn't do that with another person or he would die. As for your grandmother... she refused my help... so you know what happened," Madara said.
"You knew all this would happen, didn't you?" She accused him as her eyes teared up again.
"Many years ago..." Madara confessed.
"Yet you did nothing! You changed nothing!" She shouted at him, seeming angry and in pain, as if trying to find someone to blame.
"..." Madara just looked at her silently. He simply turned around, "I'll be putting you in a safe place, blame me if you want, after that, I will leave and we will go our separate ways, Cirilla," Madara said, walking away. The girl's eyes widened at these words, making her tremble, but Madara didn't care, there were things he wouldn't accept, even if he had to end his relationship with Ciri once and for all.
He continued preparing something to eat after hunting while his clones dealt with any threat, and the day soon changed, as he prepared a fire while the night covered the sky.
Cirilla remained silent in her corner until she finally approached Madara by the fire while she looked at him, but he completely ignored her, eating silently. He could even see her tears falling to the ground, but he didn't care.
Madara simply stood up to prepare for sleep when he felt a figure grabbing him, preventing him from continuing as he was embraced.
"I'm sorry!" He heard Ciri embracing him from behind. "Please... forgive me... don't leave me..." She began to plead with him as he remained silent.
"I shouldn't blame you for what happened... I don't want you to go away and leave me, not you..." She exclaimed with tears and sobs.
Madara, still motionless, just sighed, "Eat something and go rest, we'll talk tomorrow," he said, leaving Cirilla behind with a sad and broken heart.
He didn't sleep in the camp as he went to a tree, while Cirilla cried all night. The next day, he found Cirilla trying to catch a fish in the river with a stick with a pointed end.
"What are you doing?" He asked as the girl looked at him with tearful, tired eyes.
"I'm trying to catch our breakfast..." She murmured in a sad tone.
"You don't need to, I have food stored," he said.
"But if I help you won't leave and abandon me, right?" She asked in a tearful tone, it was obvious she was broken and regretful about what she had said the day before.
"Listen, Cirilla... if you want to find someone to blame for all this disaster, don't start with me because I did what I could to keep Cintra alive, saying something like that is like I'm being betrayed and that I do not forgive," Madara said.
"Please! I didn't mean to say that... I'm so sorry... I swear I'll never betray you... you are my most precious friend and I don't want you to leave me... I'll do anything... I swear!" She pleaded amidst tears, the girl was truly regretful and if Madara left, she would be completely broken and would blame herself for the rest of her life.
Madara just closed his eyes before sighing. "Alright... I forgive you, now come eat, after all, we'd starve if it depended on you catching fish..." he spoke while the girl looked at him this time, surprised.
Cirilla seemed to gain a new expression as she heard those words, before breaking into a smile and throwing herself at Madara. "Thank you... I promise never to talk to you like that again... I don't want to lose you!" She exclaimed, clinging to his chest with some tears falling.
Madara nodded and led her to eat while the girl seemed like she might lose him at any moment as she sat down next to him, leaning against him.
"This is good..." She murmured timidly, despite the destruction of her home, showing the happiness of having Madara by her side again.
"..." Madara said nothing as he ate in silence.
"Where do we go now?" She asked, a bit better than yesterday, but still sad.
"We'll try to head for Skellige or the north... we'll have to see once we reach the port, but it's likely that no one will make a journey to Skellige..." Madara replied calmly.
"Mousesack went there, didn't he?" Ciri asked. Madara just nodded silently.
"That's good. I'm sure the people there will help him and also help us..." She spoke and continued. "My grandmother ultimately sacrificed herself for Cintra..." She said with a sad tone, recalling that it was an event from yesterday... "But I don't think I can ever reclaim Cintra... You know... I've always wanted to live a life like a peasant... Sometimes, I think about that, Madara." She murmured, looking at him with interest.
"Have you ever thought about living on a farm, like common people, without all those noble rules, without the etiquettes and having to please someone...? You just have a simple life, while you just live and take care of your family..." She murmured, asking him, wanting to know what he thought about it... and she looked at Madara with a glint in her face.
"It's not a bad life," Madara admitted. "However, I don't believe we are destined for that, besides, it's good in times of peace, but with the war from the south against the north, it's the commoners who suffer the most and always end up with brutal and horrific outcomes..." He warned.
"But we could try," she suddenly insisted, while the intensity of her face grew increasingly red. "We could go to a place without war, stay isolated while I take care of the home and you bring in the food... I'm sure we could live like that and no one would ever find us..." Cirilla didn't care about living without the luxury she was used to, as long as she lived in peace and with someone important to her. "I could even..." She couldn't finish the sentence thinking about the day she would become a mother in the future.
Madara remained silent as Cirilla hesitated, but she approached it differently, directly addressing something she had started feeling just a few hours ago. "I don't want you to leave me, because I don't want you to ever go away," she murmured. The girl was now 12 years old, so hormones and feelings were beginning to emerge at this age. She was not naive about women's matters, after all, in the castle she had been given a noble education just for that with other women, whether servants or ladies-in-waiting, that one day she would have to marry someone, honor her husband, and give him strong children.
But when Cirilla thought about this, she tried to run away from it, as she wasn't very open to these things, but as soon as her heart broke with Madara's words, that he was going to leave her, she realized, at that moment, that she couldn't let him go, ever. After all, she loved him.
Madara looked at her surprised as she approached him and kissed him, sealing their lips. He hadn't seen this coming, but he let it happen.
"We could try to live a life together, Madara... I don't think I'm strong enough to fight an entire army, but if I could have a quiet life, I would be fulfilled to do it with you..." she admitted, while putting away her pencils and looking a bit embarrassed about their first kiss.
Madara just looked at her for a few seconds before speaking. "Let's consider that later, Ciri, now is not the time, let's just focus on escaping alive from this country full of black soldiers," Madara spoke while Cirilla nodded.
"Alright... we'll see about that later..." She said, trying to wipe away her dried tears from crying all night over losing her grandmother and almost losing Madara.
She simply continued by his side, placing the side of her face on his shoulder, while looking ahead, noticing the waterfall in front of her for the first time, after all, she had been in a whirlwind of emotions since they arrived. But as soon as she saw it now for the first time, she opened her eyes wide.
"This is the place I asked you to bring me to many years ago!" she exclaimed. After all, she had spoken of this location when Madara fought that Witcher and defeated him, he asked her to use her powers to find out where he hid the gold he received from Lord Rushford. The noble who tried to kill him, but Madara took his revenge a year later, by shooting an arrow at him in the middle of the battle against Angren.
"Yes..." Madara admitted, after all, he came here precisely to pick up that money.
But Cirilla was happy that he had kept his word that he would bring her here one day, making her smile amid all that misery.
The day went by while Cirilla ended up dipping her feet in the water, still thoughtful about everything that was happening, but no longer just crying, after all, Madara's words still echoed in her mind. 'Crying won't change anything that happened.' He had told her, and she tried to be strong, despite still being very sad.
Meanwhile, Madara went to the Cintra vision tree beside them and began to dig after finding what he was looking for by analyzing the ground with his sharingan. He couldn't see behind things, but he certainly knew how to identify a dug and disturbed terrain, even if it was years ago, with the soil at a different level from the rest while the vegetation itself announced having grown in a newer time than the others around.
He retrieved a box with more than 2500 gold coins to put in his money scroll; he couldn't complain about having too much of it at this moment. After all, he had his savings from his lands and even more gold he had stolen from the treasury of the Cintra castle, since it was either for him or for the Nilfgaardians. He also left a big surprise when the black soldiers would check the place.
He took down the camp they had made, and as soon as everything was ready in the middle of the morning, Madara picked up Ciri again, while the little girl hugged him more tightly as if he might still leave.
They then headed north to find a port that would take them to the islands to the west. He knew Geralt was also in Cintra and should be leaving the city at this moment, but he couldn't simply wait for him. Therefore, he informed the Witcher that he would be heading to Kaer Morhen if he didn't find a place to take Ciri to safety.
*Raccoon Here:*
I added a little drama, trying to add a bit more realism while Ciri blamed Madara, looking for someone to blame, which I think would be normal for a girl of 12 or 13 years old in a scenario like this. But this also brought her regret soon after and Madara's pride ready to destroy his relationship with her.