Ok I've decided to start playing the Witch after letting it sit for 2 years.

Right now I'm still really early in the game at thew point where I decided to side with the witch Abigail against the villagers and now have to fight the hellhound beast but don;t have the sliver sword.

Am I not suppose to have a sliver sword at this point and I've just forgotten or should I have one and and somehow lost it and need to replace it?

No silver sword for now, in Chapter 2 you will get first one...

Just keep playing, you will be able to acquire one. It is a bit of a pain but you'll manage. :)

As written by the others above, just keep playing, following the story, and you'll get one eventually :)

Waitamminute... so THIS is why the Beast encounter was so damn hard? Because the best witcher in the world forgot his sword? Mataffkk...

he didn't have one.

He's a witcher, how could he not have a silver sword? It's like an ocean without water, a castle without a princess, Berlusconi without figa!

Play the game and you will have your answer.

Read the books even. He kind of stopped being a witcher to hunt for and protect Ciri. But before the beginning of the game he was "killed" by a villager in a riot in Rivia. He was saved and was fleeing to Kaer Morhen when Vessimir, Lambert and Eskel found him. He had amnesia, and still had no Witcher medallion. I won't say who he was fleeing or why, even though they're not important to the first game.

This shouldn't be considered spoilers as it's revealed pretty early in the game (in the opening cutscene, or in Kaer Morhen at least if memory serves).

What does lore have to do with this? I played the first two chapters of TW1 years ago, and I guess I forgot the part about obtaining the silver sword. I do remember, however, dying a lot at the Beast in chapter 1 (and being shoehorned into watching that long, boring, unskippable cutscene before each new attempt). Now I see why.
Amnesia or not, you start the game in a huge witcher school. Why couldn't Geralt be given some better equipment before venturing out? It was obvious he would need it, given what happened in the attack. Or am I to believe that in all Kaer Morhen there wasn't a single silver sword he could have taken?

Also, I never really understood the need of a two-swords system. I can buy the notion that mystical creatures take more damage from silver in that universe and yadda yadda, but why would a silver blade cause LESS damage to humans than one made from any other metal? It makes no sense. Just have the players use only silver swords and call it a day.

So many weird and clunky mechanics in that game...

Silver is a softer metal. using it against armored opponents would damage the blade, dulling it beyond usefulness. The silver sword isn't pure silver, but silver coating a steel core.

It's a world mechanic not a game mechanic. The Witchers in the books also use two swords, though they don't wander around with them both strapped on their backs. The two different combat systems gets me, and I'm glad they got away from in in the later games. I understand one was supposed to be 1 handed and the other was 2 handed, but it makes absolutely zero sense that there's not any cross over in skills learned.