#iocaste

Count di Salvaress restrained his horse and pushed out a sigh of relief. "Ah, it's just you!" He looked down at Geralt and frowned. "What are you doing? Is that a shovel?"

"Digging a hole to make a nest," Geralt answered comprehensively.

"A nest? For Iocaste? She has her nest up there." Di Salvaress tipped his head into the direction of the hill top.

"Shriek!" Iocaste said from somewhere further away.

"Not for her. For those." Geralt emptied a sack full of eggs the size of small melons into the hole and started shovelling soil back to cover them.

"And those are...?" Di Salvaress' horse got nervous and Geralt gave it some axii and a carrot.

"Giant centipede eggs," Geralt provided helpfully.

"Of course." Di Salvaress nodded and then kind of exploded. "Why are you putting those things on my lands? Is that a joke? Don't you usually exterminate that vermin?"

Geralt leant on his shovel and made a gesture encompassing the surrounding territory. "Your lands are shit."

The count drew a shocked breath but had no time to start a tirade.

"Basilisks usually live off larger game and smaller predators, like wolves. You have nothing like that around anymore, only too many rabbits. Iocaste doesn't hunt those. Too small. They are bad for the soil. In a few years it will look very barren around here. Those centipedes eat rabbits and they're large enough Iocaste might get an occasional snack. What you really need is deer, though. I'm working on it. Then you won't have to provide her with cattle and travelling merchants anymore."

Di Salvaress stared.

"We'll call it 'park for endangered species'." Geralt was finished with his nest and stuffed the shovel into Roach's saddle bags in a way it almost resembled his swords on his back.

Di Salvaress shrugged helplessly. "For Iocaste."

"For Iocaste," Geralt aggreed, mounted Roach and clicked his tongue.