1 Prologue

"Oh that fucking stinks!" were my first words upon waking up - because in my defense, it really did.

It smelt like super strong alcohol, rotting meat, rotten eggs, manure, and all kinds of terrible smells I likely had no idea the source of since I tended to avoid anything that smells really bad in general. It was not helped that sunlight was beating down heavily on my closed eyes no matter how hard I tried to turn away and it felt like there was a goddamn block party happening right next to me.

Not to mention the splitting headache! Why was there nothing but pain waking up today?!

"Well sorry my hut is not a bathhouse, young man." an old female voice sneered at me.

Who the fuck was that?!

In response to someone's voice I had never heard before being in my room, combined with my other annoyances, I shot up awake and quickly looked around for the source of the voice. I found it in the form of an old woman who seemed to follow all the stereotypes of old hag you can think of: rotten and missing teeth, hunched over, boney fingers, sagging face, a glare that can make grown men wet themselves, and she even had a hairy mole on her nose!

"I'll have you know if it wasn't for was in here you would most likely be dead. Honestly, after over a week of you doing not much more than breathing and eating whatever mashed up food or water I could get down your throat I was ready to declare you dead in truth, being brain dead practically is a death anyhow. Also you are lucky the ealdorman paid me to care for you and is paying for replacement sheets you shit and pissed all over as well." the old woman stated plainly.

As I tried to process what she was saying I finally looked around my immediate environment. I saw that this was not my room, this was not even my apartment!

I looked to be in some really old-school one-room house. All around me were various plants and even dead animals hanging from the ceiling and the walls. The old woman was seated in what could be generously called a kitchen area working at a grinding stone of all things! I turned towards the open window what was letting all this terrible sunlight in and found before me seemed to be a freaking medieval village!

I'm talking animals walking in the dirt and mud streets, people wearing basically potato sacks as clothing, and everyone not looking like they bathed in months!

Where the fuck was I?!

"Seeing as you are awake, my job is done, and if nothing else you walking around will remind everyone else that old Helga still knows her stuff when it comes to healing. Granted, you being a Witcher and all, you healed up better than most that come through my door. That scar on the side of your head is still new though so don't go scratching at it or risk opening it up, you hear? One thing I hate most is fools injuring themselves the same damned way just cause they didn't give themselves time to heal proper like." Helga stated before getting back to work.

"What scar-achhhack!" I tried to say but all these terrible smells in the air were now getting in my throat and causing all sorts of hell. And I still felt like my ears were bleeding and everything was too bright! Under all that though I did feel a slight sore pain at the side of my head.

I reached up to my left side where I felt it and quickly found a large mass of healed skin that started at my forehead and stretched to the back of my head. I'm sure if I had a mirror it would look like there was a half circle going around my head.

What happened to cause that?!

Okay, try to go through what happened before all this. Yesterday I took my mother to the dentist, tried to help my dad set up computer since I was the IT guy in the family despite only knowing basics, I spent the rest of the day on the internet reading and watching video game replays, and I also remember talking with a friend about possibly writing a…. No fucking way.

"I'm-hack-ugh what did you call me a second ago?" I asked as I processed what she said with what I just recalled.

"Oh Gods, that hit to the head must have really did a number on you. I called you a Witcher, young man, a monster hunter. Ring any bells?" Helga stated.

At her words I slowly looked down to examine myself for the first time. I was covered in bandages but I could easily make out the muscular body I knew for a fact I did not have before going to bed. There was no mirror in sight, but I did notice a bucket of water in the corner of the room which I quickly got up, walked over, and picked it up to chest level. As the water slowly stilled I saw a face I did not recognize stared back at me. Looking like a man in their late twenties to early thirties, wearing a scruffy beard, blonde and a few tiny scars on various points of face beyond the newest one wrapping around his head. However the thing that stood out the most were the eyes.

The yellow cat eyes… that blinked when I blinked.

I slowly looked back up to the old woman who claimed to save my life and care for me for over a week, swallowed heavily, and tried to speak as calmly as I possibly could.

"I-I seem to have a few holes in my memory. Where am I, what year is it and… what is my name?" I weakly asked.

"Well damn, sorry son. Can't imagine what it must feel like to wake up not knowing what is happening at all." Helga's scowl actually softened at that and continued. "Well you're in village of Gramsby in the Kingdom of Kovir and Poviss, it's 1268, and I believe you called yourself Marvus of Kovir, though everyone knows you more commonly as the 'Golden Griffin.'"

"I see…" I trailed off. I then dropped the bucket, allowing it's contents to spread across the hut's floor and felt my legs go dead.

I'd never passed out before, but I like to think everything going dark and my brain shutting down was like that.