BIRDS are chirping and the bright sunlight is hitting Amalia in the face, forcing her to wake up. She slowly opens her eyes to look around. Then she quickly jumps on her feet. Geralt is gone.

Roach and the horse of the princess are still standing where they have been when Amalia fell asleep. She isn't able to find Geralt nether his swords. Why should he run away? It's his job to stay at Amalias side until she arrives in the castle of Aedrin.

"This doesn't make any sense", the princess says to herself. She starts to get nervous. What if something happens to Geralt? No that won't happen, he's a witcher. Amalia tries to calm down and focus on her hearing. Then she hears something. A deep growling. Water. Metal sounds. Like a sword hitting the ground next to a river. Geralt must be fighting near a river.

Without hesitation Amalia starts to run in the direction of the sounds until she faces Geralt fighting a big black monster in a lake. It looks like an octopus just bigger.

"Go away", the witcher shouts as soon as he saw her standing there. She distracted him and because of that the octopus pushes Geralt under the water. Amalia furrows her eyebrows not knowing how to help him. Then the princess grabs a rock to throw it at the octopus. It worked and the creature loses grip on Geralt, letting him get some air.

"Geralt!", Amalia shouts to get his attention so he'll catch his silver sword which the princess threw towards him. He lost it while fighting. Now that he got it back, the witcher is finally able to kill the back monster with a sword stroke.

"Thanks", he says dragging the octopus out of the water,"But you have to listen. This thing could have killed you".

Amalia looks him in the eyes which have turned all black and giggles:"Are you like possessed or something?".

"Hm", he growls annoyed,"You really don't listen do you?".

"Nope", she lets out a laugh. They both go back to their camp and Amalia packs her things while Geralt loads the monster on Roach. When she turned back to him, his eyes were gold again, that put a smile on her face.

"That's an disgusting octopus", Amalia says after she mounted her horse looking down to the witcher. Geralt can't fit on Roach anymore because of the monster so he walks next to his horse leading it.

Geralt isn't able to restrain a laugher and answers:"That's not an octopus, Amalia. It's a kikimore".

"Yeah I knew that of course", she jokes rolling her eyes,"Just wanted to test you". Geralt quickly looks up to the princess riding her horse. There is a big smile on her face even though the witcher tried to look at her angry. But he failed and giggles when turning back.

•••

Amalia is the kind of person who can't stop talking when she's around the right people. That's why she talked for hours until it was already evening and her back started hurting from sitting in the sattle for ages.

"God when are you going to shut of for a minute?", Geralt asks about the hundreds time.

"When you're going to tell me, where we'll stop", the princess complains,"My butt hurts". The witcher lets out a laugh.

"Stop laughing!", she shouts trying to hit him but he is to far away,"We've been traveling for days".

"Look. There is the village I was waiting for". Geralt laughs seeing Amalia with a big smile on her face.

•••

„Do you really wanna go into the tavern?", Geralt asks caring while his hand is on her shoulder, keeping her from entering,"What if somebody recognizes you?"

Amalia turns to the witcher facing him and Geralt can see, how her eyes light up:"Nothing will happen".

But the witcher won't let go of her. He has a bad feeling about this. Since they got here, everybody was staring at them. Like literally staring and whispering about the two.

"Oh come on witcher", the princess giggles,"This is going to be fun". Amalia removes his hand of her shoulder taking it in her own then she drags Geralt into the tavern. At least she thinks she's dragging him, but actually the witcher follows her by choice, even though he still has a bad feeling. Her smile immediately convinced him and he can't stop stop the influence Amalia has on him.

"Two beer", Geralt orders while taking a seat at the bar next to the princess. He glares at her. Amalia looks around like she's never seen a tavern before.

"Never been in a tavern?", he asks restraining a laugher, which is why she gives him an annoyed look.

"Yes", the princess answers seriously then chuckles,"You can laugh, Geralt".

"Actually you told me to stop", the witcher answers taking a sip of his beer causing her to roll her eyes.

"Didn't mean that", Amalia smiles nervously after drinking some of her beer. But Geralt still looks at her, like he is expecting her to answer more, so she clears her throat:"I -um- actually quite like it when you're smiling".

The witcher almost chokes on his beer hearing her saying that. While Amalia is waiting for an answer Geralt takes some time to think, but then smiles while glaring in his cup. What does that mean now?

"Tomorrow we are going to ride up the hills. If you need anything from the village then we should get it in the morning", the witcher says after sometime. Now Amalia is regretting what she just said, but decides to not let this ruin her mood and pretend as if nothing happened, exactly like Geralt does.

"Hm", she mimics his usual answers whenever she talks too much, making the witcher stare at her not amused.

"Look at all these people dancing and having fun", Amalia says looking around, then staring him straight in the eyes as she wanted to continue speaking. But suddenly his golden eyes made her speechless and she just sat there with an open mouth like a fool. The princess hates herself for this. He shouldn't have this effect on her. God how much she hated those eyes.

Geralt watches her staring in his eyes and he can't stop himself from admiring Amalia ether. She really is beautiful, even though she is annoying sometimes because she isn't able to shut up.

After taking a deep breath the princess finally continues speaking:"And you just sit there with your grumpy face".

"Why does everybody think I look grumpy?", he mumbles under his breath then talking normally:"When I look around, I only see these people staring at us".

Amalia takes a look, while the maiden places a plate of food in front of her and realizes that Geralt is right. But the princess just brushes it off like it means nothing and answers smiking while eating a piece of bread:"I can't change the fact that I look gorgeous".

Geralt stares at her confused:"Do you ever take anything serious?".

"Um you know the answer", she chuckles, causing the witcher to roll with his eyes.

He watches her finish eating while he empties his second cup of beer. Somehow Geralt knows Amalia still wants to do more than just letting the day end. So immediately when she gets up saying 'I think I am going to...' he takes her hand and answers:"No you won't. We are going to bed now. We have a long day ahead of us".

"Dance", the princess finishes her sentence staring at Geralt annoyed. She just wanted to have some fun while she still can, but he is still staring at her, not wanting to attract more attention then they already have.

"God, I already understood", she hisses back,"Just let me pay the maiden". Geralt nods in agreement.

"Two bedrooms for one night", he adds looking at the maiden, who agrees, then staring at the three gold coins Amalia placed on the bar. His eyes wide while covering one coin with his hand so the maiden won't recognize it.

"Two are more than enough", he whispers in her ear with his deep voice, which makes Amalia shiver, while he is carefully pushing her into the corridor where the guest rooms are.

"What? Why?!", she asks not getting it,"The girl seemed nice so I wanted to be generous".

Geralt smiles while shaking his head:"That's really thoughtful but they don't get paid in gold usually. You just attracted more attention than you already did".

"And? They wouldn't hurt their princess", Amalia answers confidently. The witcher shakes his head again but this time he is giving up. The princess just won't understand him. She is too good natured.

"You shouldn't rely on that", he says while glaring into her eyes, hoping she will be alright without him, hoping that she is right and no one would hurt the princess.

"Good night Amalia", he caresses her cheek with his hand and then leaves, going into his room.

"Good night Geralt", the princess answers now insecure because she is alone.

•••

It took ages for Amalia to fall asleep. Since Geralt left she felt unsafe. Now she also has a bad feeling about sleeping in the tavern. The exact feeling the witcher had since they arrived, which the princess always doubted. Until now.

When she eventually managed to fall asleep, Amalia couldn't stop hearing footsteps and whispers in front of her room. She thought it was just a bad dream, until it turned reality and some man snuck into her room with the goal to hurt the princess.