U.O.T.W. Chapter 80 Fellowship Of The Wolf

• Posted by Sotek September 18, 2015 - Filed in TSC: CB Story - 995 views

  

   

  An hour or so before the merc and Florentius rescued Sotek from the river, or to be precise, the very moment Aela released the arrow which was the cause for Sotek to fall in the river in the first place, Aela yelled out excitedly.

  “I hit him! Oh yea, I got him! Come to me you furry little bastard!” She ran out of cover to the area where he was struck but she couldn’t find him. In her haste to climb down the slope she had failed to see him or even hear him hit the water. “Where is he? He fell here! I’m sure of it”.

   

  Farkas however was far more calm and had happened to see everything. He huffed as he watched the wolf get carried downstream and over the waterfall out of sight.

  “Damn it... She’ll want to follow it to make sure it’s dead. We’re so close to home...”

   

  Vilkas slapped him on the back as he shook his head at the thought.

  “Naa she’s got him. He’s a gonna and we’re gonna home”. He soon changed his opinion though when he saw Aela head downriver. “Wait... Where are you going?”

   

  Aela glanced over her shoulder but that was all it took. Both Farkas and Vilkas knew by the look on her face that the hunt was far from over.

  “To find it... I hit it in the leg... I’ll not leave it to suffer, that’s not the way of things. We find it and kill it. Move yourselves”.

   

  Within ten minutes they were at the bottom of the waterfall. Aela called out her instructions as she started searching in bushes and the undergrowth nearby.

  “Start searching, I want him found”.

   

  Aela was a seasoned huntress, she knew how to track prey through woods, plains and rivers. Once her temper calmed down her experience took over. She returned to the river and glanced along the banks looking for any signs of the wolf. The lack of wolf prints told her all she needed to know.

  “He never left the river... He’s downstream, come on you lazy bastards!”

   

  Vilkas had spent the last two days tracking the same wolf as Aela, but unlike her, he had been called names throughout the whole time and now he had enough. He turned towards his shield sibling angrily and shouted back at her, catching her in surprise.

  “That’s enough! I’ve been shouted at, hollered at, screamed at and screeched at. No bloody more! You’ve hit it, it’s gone... We’re going home”. He nodded to Farkas then started walking up the pathway which would take them back past Valtheim Towers without even waiting for a response from his shield sister.

   

  Once he and Farkas took several steps Farkas turned around expecting to see Aela begrudgingly follow them from behind but instead he groaned as all he could see was Aela’s backside disappearing from view as she ignored them both and continued along her route following the riverbank away from Whiterun.

  “Damn it, she’s as stubborn as Sotek... What’ll we do?”

   

  Vilkas cursed as he turned around. His eyes bore into Aela’s back as he admitted defeat and started following her.

  “We crack her over the head with a big bloody stick and carry her back tied to a pole... Come on, the Harbinger told us to stay together. It’s going to be a long bloody day”. He then shouted out as loud as he could.

  “Hey! Aela! Wait up!”

   

  Aela spent the next few hours scouring along one side of the riverbank for any signs of the wolf while Farkas and Vilkas grumbled as they wearily trod along the opposite bank to Aela. This was clearly one of those times when two eyes were actually better than six because when Aela reached the end of her patience, she hollered at the two brothers, switched sides then made her way upstream along their side of the river.

   

  Within half an hour of backtracking along the bank where her two Shield Siblings had supposedly searched, Aela saw the tracks of the merc. Her mouth fell open as she gawped at the boot prints heading along the bank to disappear in the heavily forested mountain side.

  “You morons... You pair of dithering imbeciles. Why do I bloody bother? Huh? Why?” Blazing with anger at her own frustrations over the wolf and her nerves in tatters due to her situation with Sotek, Aela’s temper got the better of her. A fist was shoved in Farkas’s face as she screamed at the two brothers. “Look at that! Look at it damn you both... A mammoth couldn’t leave clearer signs than that. You’re not even trying damn you... Damn you both!”

   

  Vilkas sighed as he mentally thought through his options. With a shrug of his shoulders he grabbed Aela’s arm and swung her around to face him. The next moment two palms slammed into her chest shoving her backwards to land in the river with a titanic splash. She sat there speechless as Vilkas leaned over her.

  “That ought to help cool you off. Don’t get up!” He then tapped Farkas on the side of his arm as he pointed to the nearby forest. “We’ll set a camp up there. Aela cooling down is one thing but I don’t want her freezing her ass off. And before anyone suggests it, we’re not going to that stinking cave”. His boot tapped against Aela’s leg before he led them towards a small clearing. “Get up... And for the love of everything, shut up”.

   

  Farkas quickly set the camp fire despite it being the afternoon while Aela sat quietly with a fur draped around her. She never looked at the others at all, instead she just stared at the flames. Inside she was seething although most of her anger was directed at herself. Whilst Vilkas’s actions seemed heavy handed, she knew she had crossed the line. Her chain of thought was broken as Vilkas threw down a second fur by her side.

  “Get that gear off, we’ll dry it by the fire”.

   

  Farkas skewered a few pieces of wolf meat and set them near the fire before both he and Vilkas turned around with their backs to Aela so she could strip off. Once she wrapped herself up in a fur she called out to Vilkas. Farkas she blanked although she didn’t do it with any animosity. At that moment Vilkas was the Alpha while she was a Beta, and she knew it just as much as he did.

  “You... You can turn around now...”

   

  “Good, I’m starving”. Vilkas hacked down a branch which had two smaller branches coming off it. He stuck it in the ground by the fire then cut off the smaller branches to form a ‘v’ then he rested Aela’s armor on it so it would dry out.

   

  By that time the meat was cooked which was a blessing as it gave everyone something to concentrate on rather than the silence which hug over the camp. Farkas divided the chunks of meat up between the three of them. Aela quietly thanked him then sat by herself once more as she ate her meal.

   

  Vilkas guzzled on the water in his flask then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. As he weighed the container in his hand he grumbled out loud.

  “I could really do with a bottle of mead right now. Hey, Aela, what say we send Farkas off to get some?”

   

  Aela looked up at him in surprise at the fact that he was talking to her. She faintly smiled as she glanced over at Farkas and falsely smirked at him.

  “Don’t, the oaf would get lost and we’ll have to find him and that blasted wolf”.

   

  Vilkas gazed at the fire which reminded him of the fire pit in Jorrvaskr in silence until he promptly bellowed out with laughter. “Your plan... Get him! That was your plan...”

   

  Aela started chuckling as well which quickly infected Farkas until the three of them were laughing madly. Aela’s hands held her sides as her eyes started watering which just caused the others to roar out even louder than before.

   

  Once they quietened down to the odd snigger, Farkas checked Aela’s armor. As it had been hanging there for a good few hours it was dry to the touch so he passed it to her before returning to a stump which he used to sit on. Aela brazenly stood up then turned her backs to them and dropped the fur to the ground. She stood there naked except for her loincloth and started to equip her armor once more while Farkas and Vilkas just sat there and waited for her to finish getting dressed.

   

  To outsiders the scene would seem odd to say the least that Aela and indeed both the two brothers didn’t seem to care about the others presence while Aela got dressed but the truth was far deeper than that.

   

  The three of them shared the inner circle secret that they were werewolves for years. During that time the three of them had fought countless battles alongside each other, spilled blood and have had blood spilt. Such a degrading act of nakedness between them was lost amongst the secret and the lost blood. Although there were times they would bicker and squabble each trusted one another with their lives in a fellowship beyond what most would understand. Even when they were younger, Farkas’s and Vilkas’s werewolf forms took Aela’s wolf form, Red to be their sister and defended her from other werewolves who would take an interest in her. Even when Sotek came along.

   

  To this day they hadn’t changed and there was no sign of it changing even now that Aela had found a mate. The three of them had a bond and such bonds were hard to fracture, let alone break. In fact the only difference Sotek had made was that there were now four of them. Wolf brothers and sister. Each would give their life for the others with no hesitation or doubt.

   

  Once darkness had set in Vilkas shifted against a tree where he sat alone for a few hours watching the moons slowly drift across the sky while Aela and Farkas slept. Aela took over watch just after midnight and due to restlessness she spent hours cutting small pieces of wood from a large stick just to throw them on the fire one at a time and watch each piece glow before it would burst into flames.

   

  By the time dawn had come around it was actually Farkas who was on watch. He fed a few pieces of wood on the fire which was now burning low to build it up a bit so the flames would keep the icy mornings chill away from the camp. As he was humming softly to himself Aela stirred. She sat up on the bedroll and pulled the fur around her shoulders so it would cover her back while her body absorbed some of the fires heat.

  “Don’t sit there, you daft cow. Move closer”. Farkas stated as he held his fur open in a gesture to willingly share it with her.

   

  Aela shot to her feet and literally ran to his side where she tapped into his body heat whilst she felt the warmth of the fire.

  “Don’t call me a cow”.

   

  Farkas chuckled as he held a piece of cooked meat above her. She stretched up to reach it but he held it too high.

  “Give it to me you bastard. I’m hungry!”

   

  Farkas carried on laughing as he shook his head whilst he dangled it down slightly. Aela lowered her arm then shot her hand up hoping to catch Farkas off guard but he saw through her ploy. The instant she moved, he raised his hand so she couldn’t snatch the meat.

  “No. Moo and you can have it. Go on, moo like a cow”.

   

  Aela’s face screwed up tightly as she growled thretengly.

  “How about I bite you like a She-Wolf instead?” The next moment Farkas yelled as Aela dug her teeth into his chest. He started bashing her over the head with the piece of meat as he screamed out at her while he tried to push her away with his other hand.

   

  Aela released her teeth from their grip as she snatched the meat from his hand.

  “Mine thank you, hair and dirt and all. Like I care”. Then without even bothering to check on Farkas, she proceeded to devour her prize.

   

  Farkas lifted his shirt to show a clear bite mark in his chest. By now Vilkas had awoke and was sitting up watching the other two fight over the piece of meat. Farkas pointed at the wound whilst he grumbled on about Aela.

  “Look what that bitch did... It bloody hurt damn it. She’s a bitch I tell you, crap it hurts”.

   

  Aela started laughing as she gloated over the bite mark.

  “Aww shut up you big baby, besides it’s not bloody at all. I prefer biting Sotek. He bleeds from my bites...”

   

  The moment the words escaped her lips she fell silent and her emotions plummeted like a bar of steel would do if it was dropped in a lake. What remained of the piece of meat was promptly thrown on the fire as Aela headed out to the fringe of the camp where she leant against a tree as her eyes stared out into the woodland.

   

  She heard Vilkas move towards her so she half glanced over her shoulder in his general direction whilst she wiped a single tear from her cheek.

  “Stay there. I’m ok. I’m not crying... I ain’t no pathetic girly bitch like that black haired Whelp who keeps trying to be everyone’s friend. I’m tougher than that! I aint no pissy girl who cries... I’m not crying...”

   

  Before Vilkas could reply Aela suddenly stood up straight. Her head snapped around in his direction as she growled out loudly like the She-Wolf she in fact was.

  “Grrrrrrrr...” She suddenly bolted towards her bow which laid against the old log that she was sitting on earlier just as the black wolf launched itself into the centre of the camp. Aela dived for the bow as the wolf’s maw snatched her pack and sprinted off through the undergrowth. The Huntress landed on the ground in a roll and within seconds she was back on her feet. Moments later trees burst into flames as she fired off several arrows indiscriminately in the general direction of the wolf.

   

  He had already sought out cover and was now running along the edge of the river using the riverbank to mask himself. Although Aela could hear him, she had no target to shoot at. All she could do was curse while Farkas and Vilkas prepared for another day of playing wolf and deer.