He then proceeded to tell the two whelps and the one companion about how he, Quinchal and Inigo were attacked by bandits
wielding silver weapons, he explained how the moon came up and he changed before the conclusion of the fight, he also told them
about Quinchal's gruesome demise. He left out the bit about his two emotional states, his wolves becoming one. He decided that was
best left for another time, he would also have to hear Inigo out about why he feared the undead.
He was about to speak when Rakel raised a hand to silence him, He cast her a scathing look.
"Hold on, how is that your leg is all healed? A few weeks ago, you couldn't stand on your left leg, did you get a miracle cure or were
you 'faking' the injury?
He stared at her in shock; scratching his chin.
"Forgive me, but isn't Aela supposed to be the hot tempered one?"
Rakel did not speak. Instead, she yanked on Hasir's furry collar. Hasir's eyes went wide as his claws tried to dig onto the log to
prevent him from toppling head over heels but he had no such luck. Minutes later, Rakel was on top of him. She pinned Hasir down
on the dirt floor. He tried to wriggle free, but Rakel held fast; thinking that he was playing some sort of game.
He screamed as his eyes bulged out of his head. Rakel removed her head and gave him a look as if she was toying with him and
increased the pressure on Hasir's arms, this time, however, she also put her feet on Hasir's legs. She started taking her armor off
but stopped. armor half over her head. She heard the argonian scream again. She looked down at him, half lovingly and half
confused.
Inigo came over and seeing the female nord having her cuirass halfway removed, he covered his eyes with his hands. Hasir looked
over to see the khajiit's eyes covered.
"Come on, Inigo, be a full grown khajiit and not a kitten will you?"
Inigo peered through his hands at the argonian.
"I am sorry my friend, were you wrestling? I am afraid that I did not see who won."
Hasir shook his head in disgust.
"Inigo, knock it off will you? We were...erm...banging bodies." He paused, "Well she was. I don't know what possessed her to act
like this., I...was trying to escape because I had flashbacks of traumatic event that blossomed in my mind when she pinned me to
the floor.
Inigo helped Hasir up to his feet and led him over to a log by the fire.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked
Again, the argonian shook his head.
"Inigo, I'm fine, back the fuck off, will you?"
Inigo raised his hands up in defeat.
"Fine, but remember, I am always here if you want to talk."
At this point, Rakel had resumed her position on one of the logs and stared at Hasir the same time Inigo did. Hasir noticed this and
walked to one of the tents, went inside and laid down on the fur that lay on a pile of hay. Inigo looked over at the tent, frowning.
He got up, walked up to the brown tent and walked inside.
He laid down next to the argonianhis tail flicking about wildly.
"Care to tell me why you are all bent out of shape?"
Hasir rolled over onto his back and stared at the cieling of the tent.
"Inigo, promise you will not tell anyone what I am about to tell you."
The blue khajiit nodded. Slowly, deliberately, Hasir told the khajiit about the reason why he screamed a few minutes ago. The khajiit
had a thoughtful expression on his face. When Hasir was done telling the khajiit what he had to say, they both got up. Inigo said
that it was a good talk and they both exited the tent and saw Rakel and Aela sitting together, talking in muffled tones. Inigo walked
to his log and sat down.
Hasir walked towards them, smiling.
"Sorry to interrupt, What were you guys talking about?" He asked.
Aela smiled at him and patted the log next to her, he sat down.
"We were talking about what our next move is in regards with these bandits and moreover, why they were in league with the silver
hand.
Hasir leaned sideways in Rakel's lap and she stroked his hair, causing him to feel sleepy. His gaze fixed on the slowly dying fire.
"When I was laying unconscious after that scene in the temple of Kynareth, my mind was pulled into Aetherius. While there, I found
Molag Bal had the hots for our wolflord's sister, Kynareth. I then got pulled into Coldharbor where I learned Molag Bal's revenge
scheme.
Hasir sat up, forcing Rakel to release him. He raised one sharp claw.
"I learned that the lord of domination sought revenge by robbing Hircine of the children he cherishes. Forcing us to live forever in
the bodies of normal wolves. I must find a cure so we can run free in our bipedal wolf forms once more."
Aela's eyes went wide with shock.
"Oh my Hircine, that's horrible, we must commune with Hircine, see what he has to say about this." She spang up, "I will go to
Whiterun and get horses for us.
She turned on her heels and made for Whiterun stables. As she ran, tress, rocks and streams moved by so fast, they might as well
be a blur. She passed by the farms and came to a halt outside the Whiterun stables. She saw the stablehand's son, Jarvar, tending to
the stable's horses, lining their stalls with fresh hay and filling their troughs with fresh water.
The female nord walked up to the boy and tapped him on the shoulder, the boy turned.
"What can I do for you, miss?"
Aela cleared her throat.
"I was wondering if I could purchase two horses?"
Jarver said two horses were twenty gold. Aela nodded her agreement and plucked a rope bound tan leather coin purse from her belt,
tipped out twenty septims and handed the gold to the boy, who pocketed it and smiled. He got the horses and lead them over to
nord.
Aela pointed to the white maned black stallion.
"What's his name?"
The boy followed her finger.
"His name is Midnight."
Aela whalked over to a horse with a luxurious mane of blonde hair.
"What about this one?"
Jarver walked over to the horse.
"Ebony." He said, patting her flank.
He handed them to Aela who thanked the boy. She took them both by the reins and lead them back to the campsite. When she got
there they setting around the now burnt out fire. Aela stopped by the log that her, Hasir and Rakel had occupied minutes before her
departure. Inigo approached the horses.
Inigo smiled as he brushed his hand through the nearest horse's mane.
"So, Aela, if you are done with these horses, what say you and I do some riding of our own?" He smiled and winked at her.
Aela was appaled as to Inigo's advances, she screwed her face up in disgust.
"No way! I'd rather see you turned into a rug than go out with a disgusting fleabag like you." She snarled at him.
Inigo looked extremely disheartened by this.
"Oh, ok, so you do not like smelly housecats? Fine, fine, I understand, really I do." He walked to his log, head down and tail limp
and plopped himself down, head in his hands.
Rakel saw this and went over to Inigo and embraced him in a bear hug while giving Aela a look that could spoil mead.
"It's okay Inigo, perhaps one day you will find a nice khajiit female."
What she had failed to realize was h'd had his heart set on a khajiit female yet she had forgotten that Ma'akara was killed by
Adrian's shadow wolf form. His orange eyes filled with tears and he began to sob heavily. Rakel tried apologizing but this only made
matters worse. Rakel walked over to Hasir and asked if he could do something to cheer Inigo up.
Hasir turned and looked at her, eyes narrowed.
"Rakel, what did you do?" He asked, with the tone of a parent whose child did something wrong.
Rakel told him she may have mentioned Ma'kara when trying to warm him up after being given the cold shoulder by Aela. She told
Hasir that he liked Aela more than a friend but she was not on the same level emotionally. Hasir sighed and said he'll see what he
can do. Rakel kissed him on the forehead calling him a lifesaver. He shrugged and walked past her to the suffering khajiit.
Hasir walked past Ceralyne, Rakel and Aela who sat on the log to the north of the fire, ripped the journal from the fiery haired nord's
hand, put in in his bag and spotted the depressed blue khajiit and sat down next to him.
Hasir turned to face Inigo, who looked up slowly,
"Inigo, I feel your pain," He said pllacing his palm on the khajiit's paw that resided on the log. "I..." He sighed, "I know this is hard
for you, you loved her and that is a pain I cannot begin to understand."
Inigo wiped the tears from his eyes, noticed Hasir's clawed hand on his paw and smiled.
"I understand, losing a loved one is..." He trailed off, his head turned back to the fire; the flames refecting off of his pumpkin-like
eyes.
Hasir could hear Hircine's voice explode in his head.
"By the hunting grounds don't just sit there like a lost pup, help him you idiot!"
Hasir looked at the khajiit, smiling assuredly.
"Inigo, I knew Ma'kara, not very long mind you, but, I did know her longer than you." He gulped air to facilitate his next thought.
"So, naturally her and I naturally hit it off and," He sighed whie his feet banged the front end of the log, "Her and I became close
friends so losing her hit me pretty had as well.
Aela called over to him. the argonian got up from the log and walked over to see what she wanted. Aela hit him full in the face with
her bag causing him to topple head over heels into the nearby log. There was a sickening 'THUD' as one of his bone spikes raked
painfully against the grainy wood of the log. She walked over, grabbed a few of his hairs and yanked his head back so that he
looked at her. Tears began to stream into the argonian's eyes due to the pain.
Hasir tried to shrink away from Aela's mad stare, but failed.
"Where is the book?"
Hasir tried to play dumb.
"Erm, book, what book?"
Aela scoffed at him,
"Oh, don't be coy with me, I know you took it. I can smell it on you."
Inigo had curled up on the log to try and get some sleep. He only stole twwo hours of sleep then he was rudely awakened by the
quarrelsome behavior between Aela and Hasir. He bounded towards them, walking diberately so as to not draw any attention to
himself. His ears went flat against his head followed by a frightened expression as he saw Aela draw back her hand which was balled
into a fist ready to strike Hasir. Inigo's face turned to pure rage and he ran towards the two, effectively breaking the fight up even
before it began.
Inigo's narrowed eyes flicked between Hasir and Aela.
"Aela, Hasir, what is going on here?" He asked, utterly furious.
Aela let go of Hasir's hair and stood six feet away from him, eyes narrowed in distrust.
Aela tried to tell Inigo that Hasir was a thief. Hasir shook his head and said the book belonged to him, that Kodlak meant for him to
have it because he and Terrfyg are related. Aela growled back at him. Inigo tried his best to keep the argonian and the nord
seperated using his raw strength.
Inigo rounded on Aela and snarled at her.
"Aela will you stuff your opinion? We have more pressing matters." He paused and took in air, "We have to find out how and why the
lord of domination wants werewolves dead and how to cure you two and wolves like you from the curse he placed upon you." Aela
stopped her fight and nodded in resigned obedience.
Aela walked over to a grassy clearing where the horses stood grazing. She led the two horses over to Hasir and Inigo. She told
Hasir he would be rding the male horse whose name she told him was Midnight. She already had one foot in the stirrup of the
female horse, Ebony. She already mounted her horse, Hasir struggled to get onto his. For several minutes, he tried to mount the
horse and then hesitated, fearful that the horse would throw him off. Aela rolled her eyes as she beheld this pitiful display.
She turned and called over to Hasir.
"Do you need a stepstool?" She asked, sniggering
Hasir uttered a fake laugh and glared over at her.
"No thanks, I don't need a "hot-head" to go about scaring my steed away."
Aela growled at him.
"Shut up, you shiftless lizard."
He finally got his bearings and hoisted himself into the saddle. Hasir snapped his head around and saw that Aela had started back to
Whiterun without so much as a congratulatory 'good job.' His horse trotted after her, trying to keep up. Midnight trotted down the
cobblestone road and then broke out into a gallop forcing Hasir to whip the horse with its reins to try to keep pace.
Hasir's eyes narrowed and nostrils flared.
"Aela, what in Oblivion are you playing at?" He asked as he saw her horse veer of the path and gallop into the woods.
He had to duck as his horse rode past trees with low hanging branches so as to not get skewered by one. He started to sweat; he
was not sure if the sweat was from exhileration or fear. Sunlight poked through the canopy of trees like long fingers.
Hasir looked up as the light filtered through the trees and completely forgot to watch where Aela was going. She turned back onto a
cobblestone road when she had seen the familiar great hall of Whiterun rise up behind the city walls. Hasir, however, was not so
lucky. he failed to see where he was going and his horse bucked him off and he fell face first into a mud puddle.
Aela heard the argonian make contact with the mud and stopped, turned her horse in Hasir's direction and spurred her horse to life.
Midnight galloped as fast as he could and stopped when he was five feet from the muddy patch amidst the grass plain. Aela
dismounted and bounded over to the poor argonian. She bent down to help him up, the argonian pulled himself out of the mud, his
armor full of it, and thanked Aela. They got back on their respective horses and rode the rest of the way to Whiterun.
The hooves galloped over the stones and this time, Hasir had no trouble in keeping up He could feel the horse's hot, moist breath on
the back of his neck as he rode past her.
He looked over his shoulder and called back to her.
"Aela, how about a race? First one to the stable in the winner." He snapped his head back in the city's direction and peered from the
hill where their horses stood over the vast plains to the city walls, "I'd say we have five strides to go before we reach the city, well
as fast as the horse gallops anyway." He said, sensing the Nord did not understand. "In more common language, we have about sixty
feet to pit our horses against each other. He turned back and grinned wildly at her, "So how about it? Are you in?"
Without uttering a word, she spurred her horse to life and it galloped past him; she was determined to get there first. He slowly
shook his head, grabbed the reins and galloped after her. His heart seemed to beat in time witth the horse's hooves as he focused on
his goal. His breathing also became slower as he tried pacing himself so as to not get too tired. He smirked to himself as he saw
Aela's horse losing steam and slowing down. He chuckled as his horse passed hers.
Aela saw no way of beating him now as she watched him get closer and closer to the stables. She kicked the horse in the sides with
her feet to try to get her moving, but the horse only snorted impatiently at her and shook its head wildly. Her heart sank as she
watched the argonian getting further and further away from her
Aela had no idea that someone who had never ridden as horse before could be such a fast learner. She finally got her sluggish beast
to move and she galloped hoping to reach, even pass, Hasir, but that was not the case. He was too far ahead of her. He turned a
corner and headed over the bridge that lead to the city.
She crossed the stream before the bride when he crossed the bridge and rounded another corner; disappearing from sight, She
croosed the bridge that lay ten feet from Whiterun, took the corner and galloped along the straightaway. She felt a growl escape her
throat as he splashed through the final two streams eminating for the town's pipe system and entered the first stall of the stable.
Aela's horse was fast approaching the stables where she could see Hasir sitting in the saddle grinning stupidly as he celebrated his
victory,. He saw Aela glaring and growling at him atop the the crest of a nearby hill. He feined fright and immediately burst into fits
of laughter. Aela kicked the horse with her feet and galloped down the hills towards Hasir. She lept off the horse, transformed mid
leap and landrf on the ground and began to change.
Red ran full pelt towards the stable. Hasir turned at the last minute to see an angry female werewolf lunge at him, her fangs bared.
In his haste to get out of her way, his left leg caught in the stirrup while his right foot was an inch off the ground, he struggled to
keep his balance; flaling his arms wildly, but, all that failed when he fell face first onto the ground. His tail thudded heavily on the
ground as he cursed silently to himself.
Red stopped coming at him, stopped baring her teeth and instead padded next to him. She looked down and her tail remained stiffly
up in the air as iif she was trying not to act against her wolfish instincts; she dared not betray them. Red concentrated on something
Hasir could not see, something inside her mind. Her nord half was trying to escape the cage that had been placed in her mind for
her wolf. Hasir lifted his head up from its face down position and gasped as he witnessed the wolf turning to beautiful nord woman
with fiery red hair.
Aela looked at him, trying not to laugh. If he saw his stupified face, he would've laughed too. Hasir finally pulled himself up to his
feet. She remembered something and walked back to the hill where she had abandoned her steed. She led the horse back to the
stables and tied her to a horizontal bar that lay at the end of the second stall. Aela finished tying her off when she smelled a faint
scent on the hay inside the stall. She guessed Hasir had sat on a bay on hay and waited while she went to get her horse.
Aela heard, and smelled, him before she could see him.
"So, Aela...what was that about?" The sound was moving, she knew that. He was circling her.
She turned around and saw the argonian sitting on a hay bale near the entrance of the stall, his tail hung over the edge flicking up
and down in annoyance.
"Again, what was that about? You were wolf one second and the next second you weren't and you didn't need the moon to
transform."
He got up, strode over to her, fixed her with a stare that would've soiled mead and scraped a long, clawed finger along her nose,
drawing a small amount of blood,
"Aela, you think I am a dumb reptiile who knows nothing, but, I know more than you think."
Hasir retracted his claw from her nose and wagged it in front of her eyes.
"Naughty little girl, you have to broaden your mind and cease living in your 'perfect world' where you think everything and everyone
is a dumb ass and you are this 'perfect little lady.' He stared into her eyes, forcing Aela to step back, but she didn't even flinch, not
once. "Well, guess what? you are not, your are a fucking asshole!" He screamed in rage and punched a pillar that seperated the stall
and the main stable.
The punch caused the pillar to snap because of the strain, the stable sagged a bit but did not fall inward. Fearing it would, Aela
covered her head, screaming. She looked up and sighed with relief as she realized that the worst had not happened. Hasir turned to
her and walked in her direction, he asked again what was going on.
Aela sighed as if this would be the hardest thing she had to confess.
"I...erm...well, high ranking members of the pack can shift by the sheer force of will alone. All we have to do is visualize a cage
where our wollf or human selves are locked during the transformation and visualize the opposite turning the key to the cage."
Hasir thought on this for a bit and asked her if the change applies to him as well.
"So, could this 'change at will' thing happen to me?"
Aela quickly shook her head.
"Not yet, first you have to prove yourself to lord Hircine and besides," She closed her eyes and sighed, "You are still a low ranking
member."
Hasir slowly nodded his head in defeat.
"So you mean I have to undergo agonizing transformations until I prove myself worthy?" He sighed and threw his arms up in the air.
"Great." He felt utterly useless at that moment.
Aela walked over to him and placed her finger under his scaly chin.
"Hey, it's okay. Hircine will give you full memership sooner or later." She hugged him to try to calm him down.
Hasir's mind raced; wondering what Rakel would do if she found this out. Aela's embrace, however, made this all alright. She was
just a friend to him and surely had Rakel seen this, she would understand. Aela released the argonian; smelling a happier scent on
him instead of a sad, depressive one. Hasir reminded Aela of their mission and he started to head into Whiterun proper.
She stuck a hand out to stop him. Hasir stared in shock at her.
"Wait, where are you going? You can't go anywhere looking like a fucking swamp monster."
Aela held Hasir's gaze until he admitted he did look like shit. Instead of going to Whiterun he went in a southeastern direction. Aela
called after him, wondering where he was going and Hasir replied by saying he was going home to change.
The female nord raised an eeyebrow. She didn't know Hasir had a home. Did he mean to go all the way to Blackmarsh?
