U.O.T.W. Chapter 109 First Impressions

• Posted by Sotek March 7, 2016 - Filed in TSC: CB Story - 1,072 views

   

  It was late evening by the time Sotek and Aela finally reached the camp. Vilkas, Farkas and the Harbinger were warming themselves by the campfire waiting for their return in an attempt to surprise them but Aela lived up to her reputation within the Inner Circle as a she-wolf and had picked up their scent at least an hour before she actually saw them. Upon seeing Kodlak, she ran towards him and wrapped her arms around the Harbinger excitedly.

  “Yes, you’ve forgiven me. I’m going home”.

   

  Farkas looked across the fire at her and smiled as he shook his head.

  “Actually, he’s forgiven Sotek. We’ve come to get him. Tomorrow you might be allowed back though. The Harbinger’s going to talk to Sotek about your behaviour. As long as Sotek’s happy with you, we’ll pick you up here around midday”.

   

  Sotek grinned at them and chuckled.

  “You all know she stabbed me in the leg with an arrow”. He pointed to his ‘wound’ and exaggerated the injury by limping about.

   

  The Harbinger tutted disapprovingly at Aela who momentarily paused while she tried to work out if the others were leg pulling or even being serious.

  “Now that’s a nasty wound he’s got there. We’ll see about you coming back home tomorrow but I don’t like this one bit. I told you to play nicely”.

   

  As one, the four of them started to walk away leaving Aela standing there by herself feeling very much alone.

  “Get back here you bastards!!” She yelled. As an afterthought, she called out to Kodlak and added him on as an ‘extra’. “Ermm, and you Harbinger”.

   

  The four of them turned around and watched her yell at them all; she had an intense glare strewn across her face but her desperation was still clearly evident. As one, the group all laughed then headed back to camp, much to Aela’s relief.

   

  Her better side would have sat quietly or at least would have tried to show restraint. Aela never had a better side, she was all temper and attitude or she was in her werewolf form. She dealt with the situation by giving both Vilkas and Farkas a hard thump in their arms but she left Sotek and the Harbinger out of her equation of revenge. Farkas thought that wasn’t fair and was quick to complain about it.

  “Hey, what about them?”

   

  Aela huffed and shrugged her shoulders dismissively, ignoring his complaint with her usual demeanour.

  “What about them? I’m not thumping the Harbinger, and Sotek's keeping me warm tonight. Why would I thump him?”

   

  Sotek couldn’t help but chuckle as he replied.

  “Stabbing me is more her style”.

   

  He was shoved in the back then pushed towards the tent. Vilkas couldn’t or simply wouldn’t refrain himself and called out to them both as they disappeared inside.

  “Aela, now’s not the time for that. Damn it girl, we’ve only just arrived. Can’t you leave him alone for one bloody hour?”

   

  A loud feminine growl of disproval broke the laughter while the two Companions ditched all the loot and gear which they had collected in a pile in the corner of the tent. Upon hearing the crash and clash of metal, the Harbinger couldn’t help but comment at the amount of gear they had gathered up.

  “That’s quite a haul you got there”.

   

  Sotek rejoined the other Companions and sat near Kodlak by the fire and was quickly joined by Aela.

  “Yes, we got lucky. The guards pointed out a bandit lair, so today we took them out. What brings you all out here tonight?”

   

  Kodlak gathered everyone around the fire in a closely knitted circle. Aela sat between Soteks legs using him as a support while she warmed up by the fireside. Once everyone was settled, the Harbinger briefed the group on their task.

  “The General who visited Whiterun asked if we, the Companions, could take out a base of Forsworn. Now, as most of you know, this calls for two of you. Farkas and Vilkas usually deal with such matters, however the intelligence supplied to me indicates it’s a major settlement. This being the case, I’ve decided to send all of you”.

   

  The three long term members of the Inner Circle fell silent leaving Sotek looking at everyone. They each had their gaze fixed in the fire and neither of the three dared to move. Sotek could feel Aela’s breathing change; it was far more controlled than what it should have been. Something wasn’t right. Taking it upon himself, he decided to probe a bit by asking a few questions.

  “How many should we expect?”

   

  The Harbinger slowly turned towards him and raised an eye brow. He knew what he was asking of them and he didn’t like it.

  “Thirty plus!! You go in quiet, stay together. Everyone comes back, no heroics”.

   

  He singled out Aela and repeated his words as if they had greater meaning for her. Sotek wondered if she had committed some act of indiscretion which he was as of yet unaware of.

  “You all stay together, do you understand?”

   

  Aela gulped. She seemed nervous. The self assured confident she-wolf was long gone, leaving a timid frightened deer in its quake.

  “Yes Harbinger. Thirty is a lot. Will the general be giving us any support?”

   

  Kodlak raised his eye brow a second time, although this was now down to surprise.

  “Now that’s odd coming from you. I thought you both wouldn’t want external help, what with Red and Omega”.

   

  Aela discreetly pinched Sotek’s leg as a means to keep him quiet while the spider spun her web.

  “Why do you say that? We don’t change to werewolves outside. Sotek’s been told that!! We only change out of sight”.

   

  Sotek’s eyes snapped wide open and he stared unblinkingly in space while his tail coiled around in a circle behind him as it couldn’t move anywhere else. Instinct diverted his gaze away from the Harbinger, leaving him with the only option of pretending to glance over at the horses which the others had ridden to the camp.

   

  The Harbinger sighed and pitifully looked down at Aela. His words were heavy with the wisdom of an elder, one who knew her for what she really was. Not a werewolf as such, more like a child playing games with her father.

  “You don’t lie to me Aela, I would hate for you to start now”.

   

  Sotek glanced down at her; he could see she was struggling. She couldn’t even look the Harbinger in the face. Unprepared to leave her to such a fate of incurring the Harbingers disfavour, he directed Kodlak’s and the groups attention upon himself.

   

  “It’s my fault not Aela’s. You see, my transformations have been difficult. Usually when you all change it only takes a few seconds, my transformations however take ages. Harbinger, its agony... We have been hunting wolves and the like to try to get used to the pain and timescale. I’ve been hoping... that is we’ve been hoping the pain would lessen. It hasn’t. Farkas, Vilkas, they will tell you the same. They both have seen my transformations”.

   

  Kodlak slowly nodded as if he really understood. However if Sotek or Aela were expecting a free pass then they were both mistaken. His voice became raised and stern, showing no willingness to back down or be forgiving.

  “Changing outside is forbidden! She knows that!!”

   

  Sotek met him head on which was usual of him. Yet his defiance was always laced with cunning, as if he knew what the Harbinger wanted to hear. In his own style, Sotek set out to tell the Harbinger just that.

  “Yes, and now so do I. Let her be, she’s had it rough lately; it won’t happen again you have my word on that”.

   

  The Harbinger looked at them both then he reluctantly nodded. Aela gave him a weak smile; he glanced at her but didn’t return it.

   

  Everyone sat there watching the fire. The crackling flames seemed to drown everything out, except for the heavy restrained breathing of both Aela and her Harbinger. Sotek felt he could cut the atmosphere with a knife. This wasn’t what he wanted or expected and it wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Not unless he made it change.

  He gently slapped Aela on the hip, and shoved her out of his way.

  “Shift, I’m hungry. Anyone else?” Defiantly, he ignored the mood around the camp and overly exaggerated his actions, forcing the others to take note of what he was doing.

   

  Without even waiting for a reply he literally grabbed a few pieces of venison then slammed them on the hotplate and set it over fire while he cheerfully grinned.

   

  Within a few minutes, everyone else joined in with the mood he was trying to set, aided by the smell of the cooking meat fed on their hunger.

   

  Sotek resumed his position with Aela then he looked around the camp fire and spoke far louder than what was necessary.

  “You all generally know my story but I don’t know a great deal about any of you. Here’s a question for you all..... What’s the first thing you all remember or said about each other when you joined the Companions?”

   

  Kodlak turned to Sotek with a genuine feeling of surprise. The mood around the camp changed instantly as everyone else glanced at the Harbinger putting him on the spot. Even Aela had an intent expression of interest. Kodlak looked around at all the expectant faces while he fought off the weird feeling of being scrutinised.

  “Oh... well ermm, I remember Vilkas and Farkas. They came to Jorrvaskr together. They were brought here by a man called Jergen. He rescued them from a group of necromancers. Soon afterwards he was called up for the Great War so he left them in my care, or rather the care of the Companions. They were around seven if I recall”.

   

  He started to chuckle as a memory came back and flooded his mind, as well as flooding the bathing room in Jorrvaskr.

  “The one incident I remember with their childhood was the day they had to have a bath. Neither wanted to go first... Vilkas tricked Farkas saying that there was a magical potion in the bath that would make them stronger”.

   

  Vilkas started chuckling, having suddenly remembered the event.

  The Harbinger paused, thinking back. Taking this opportunity, Aela got up and grabbed her pack then handed out some bottles of mead to everyone. The Harbinger gratefully took one. He gave her a slight smile, then after taking a sip he continued with his tale.

   

  “Now, Farkas went to the tub and looked in it so try to see the potion I suppose. Vilkas, being the young whippersnapper, came up behind and pushed him in. Or rather he tried to. The result was a giant slash of water soaking the floor, while the pair of them fought each other. You see Vilkas slipped and as a result they both fell in together”.

   

  Both Sotek and Aela laughed at the two brothers as they started bickering with each other about the bath time they had from years ago.

   

  The Harbinger shook his head at them but let them carry on. Instead, he turned his attention towards Aela.

  “Now Aela...... The earliest time I remember... oh, I will never forget. She was around two. One day she and her father, Skjor, came to Jorrvaskr to visit her mother. While her parents went off on a hunting trip for the day I looked after her, with Tilma’s help”.

   

  Vilkas stopped his fight and turned to the Harbinger with a question. Had his mind been more focused, he would have refrained from asking it but his wits were elsewhere, lost in the past.

  “What happened to Katria? Aela’s mother?”

   

  The Harbinger looked at Aela she turned away and coldly stared at the fire.

  Sotek immediately felt Aela tense up. Obviously it caused her a great deal of pain. He also saw the Harbinger watching Aela, so he decided to switch the conversation slightly in an attempt to lessen her suffering.

  “Harbinger, you said you would never forget that incident..... What happened for you to remember it so well?” Then Sotek rested his hand on Aela’s shoulder giving her some support. Her hand clasped his fingers almost desperately.

   

  The Harbinger pulled off a gauntlet then proceeded to lean forwards so he could show both Sotek and Aela his own hand.

  “You see the scar across my fingers”.

   

  Both of them looked, they saw he had a scar going along three of his fingers just above the knuckle. The two Companions looked expectantly at one another but were utterly clueless and shook their heads, having no idea what the scar had to do with the incident.

   

  Kodlak rolled his eyes jestingly and added a false tutt, before he carried on with the story.

  “Well, I was eating some bread while she sat happily on my knee. There were these two tiny hands which tried so desperately to get my bread so I let her take a small bite, which she did quite happily. The trouble was, these two oafs started fighting as usual. I became distracted and failed to notice my hands lower towards her. As the bread neared Aela’s mouth, she grabbed my hand and took a big bite of the bread. Well, she missed the bread and I screamed!! I hollered out from the pain, which made her jump. That set off a chain of events. The thing was she wouldn’t let go, her mouth was clamped around my fingers due to her jumping with fright. We managed to get her to release me but by that time my fingers were cut. She had calmed down then, happily sucking on my hand drinking the blood. Since then all she wanted was meat. Most kids wanted sweets, she was happy sucking on a piece of cooked venison”.

   

  Aela’s face cringed from the image of sitting on Kodlak’s knee when she was little and sucking on a finger, greedily swallowing the blood.

  “Eeeewww!!! No I didn’t, there’s no way I bit your fingers and sucked on the wound. You are sooo making this up”.

   

  She turned to Vilkas to back her up, but both Vilkas and Farkas sat there nodding at her. Aela’s jaw dropped for a moment as realism cascaded upon her. A second later she burst out laughing.

  “Sorry about your fingers, I didn’t know”.

   

  Sotek roared with laughter and pointed to Kodlak as if he was blaming the Harbinger.

  “You don’t hand feed food to a wolf then complain because she bit you. She’s a wolf, what the hell did you expect?”

   

  Farkas added to the tale.

  “How about the time she chased us all around Jorrvaskr?” He turned to Sotek and carried on with his own story. “She was seven. She burst into Jorrvaskr and started to chase both of us while she shouted out ‘I’m a werewolf, I’m going to bite you and eat your flesh’. The bitch grabbed me by the arm and tried to bite me”.

   

  Vilkas immediately burst out laughing.

  “He was screaming ‘Harbinger, Harbinger, get her off, help’”.

   

  Aela was so hysterical, her sides started to hurt.

  “I remember that! Bloody hell didn’t I get told off!!”

   

  Sotek sniggered at the thought of a little girl trying to bite Farkas.

  “So that’s why you didn’t get on with other children. You kept trying to eat them”.

   

  She gave him a hard slap, making him holler out in pain. His cry however was lost as Aela cried out too.

  “Damn you!!! That hurt my hand”.

   

  “Your hand? What about my leg”.

   

  Aela poked Sotek in the chest and spoke of his first visit to Jorrvaskr.

  “When you entered Jorrvaskr for the first time, a whelp asked us who you were. I said you were trouble. I wasn’t bloody wrong was I!!!”

   

  Farkas added to it as he chuckled.

  “Yea, the whelp asked if we thought you would stay. Vilkas gave one look at you walking to the stairway. What was it he said?”

   

  Vilkas smirked as a grin filled his face. He glanced at Sotek and repeated his words spoken months ago.

  “I doubt it. He’s wearing his sword wrong”.

   

  Sotek laughed at the thought of the scabbard dangling by his side.

  “I tried six times to attach that bloody thing properly. In the end the Harbinger sorted it out for me. But I’ll tell you all a secret. Once he attached it to my armour, I never took it off again. It stayed permanently attached to my greaves”.

   

  Aela half turned around to face him and saw he was serious. She fell to her side and held her waist while she laughed uncontrollably even after cramp set in.

  “Ahhrgg... my sides. It hurts... bastard!!”

   

  The Harbinger wiped a few tears of joy from his eyes. After he took a few deep breaths, his voice had a more controlled wise tone to it.

  “I warned them all at the end of the first day to be careful of you, Sotek. Despite my warning, Aela said all you could do was fall on your backside”.

   

  Aela pulled herself upright using Sotek as an anchor. She held up her hand and joined in with the Harbinger.

  “Actually, I said ‘you couldn’t bloody fight at all. You can’t shoot. Yes you got a flame’ and something about ‘If the next seasons crops attack we’ll be ok wont we. All you could do is fall on your bloody arse’”

   

  Sotek looked at her with a serious face then replied with a seriousness belying his actual mood.

  “So basically you all were overly impressed with my fantastic combat skills then”.

   

  Aela chuckled at him.

  “Well like I, said if Whiterun ever gets attacked by giant wheat bails you will be the first one we call”.

   

  He started laughing too and shook his head.

  “Well that won’t ever happen because I scared off all the giant wheat bales”. Everyone joined in laughing at the singular thought of the crops burning.

   

  The Harbinger fell deep in thought as he stared at the fire over sentimental words spoken months before.

  “I warned them all... Aela, Farkas and Vilkas. I warned them all. I told them... I said they could beat you, put you on the floor, easily I might add. Defeating you though, that’s a different matter entirely. To be honest I’m not sure the three of them ever could”.

   

  A slight frown made its way across Sotek’s lips. He reminisced over the first few days of joining the Companions. Aela’s ‘injury’ came back to haunt him like a phantom, a wraith from the grave. Sotek buried it quickly and forced a small chuckle. His stomach felt tight as he pushed the false laugh out of his throat into the open for all to hear.

  “Hahaha... Well, that is something we’re never likely to ever find out, nor do I ever want to”.

   

  Aela knew his mood had changed, his heartbeat slowed down, her proximity to his chest, his heart made it all too easy to detect. Instead of commenting on it or letting him know she was aware of his feelings, she ignored it and misdirected everyone, Sotek included.

  “I’d beat you easy... because you won’t fight me”. She stated with a large girly smirk. Smugly she moved on his lap then discretely grinded her haunches into him, waylaying his mind from his fears to her body instead.

   

  Farkas, being ignorant to Aela’s coy, seductive flirting, laughed as he thought back to when Sotek was a wolf. More specifically, the moment he was being pursued through the muddy pools, North of Ivarstead.

  “No, but he would push you in a big pile of mud though”.

   

  Everyone laughed except Aela who stopped her flirting and cast a hostile glare at Farkas. She then turned on Sotek and slapped him lightly on the cheek.

  “I will get you back for that. Bastard!”

   

  Soon afterwards, they all settled down for the night. Aela lay next to Sotek by the fire, leaving the others to share the tent. The two ‘mates’ had laid down a few overlapping bedrolls, giving them a somewhat larger ‘bed’ so they could cuddle up together. Three wolf furs were pulled over Aela’s back and legs, keeping the worst of the nights chill off her.

   

  As he lay there in Aela’s arms, Sotek laughed then whispered to her.

  “I can imagine you as a little girl going to the other kids ‘I’m a werewolf, I’m going to eat you’”

   

  She gave him a short sharp punch in his stomach in an attempt to wind him. The blow failed due to her hand being too close to him. She settled on a threat instead.

  “Shut up before I bite you”.

   

  He roared hysterically, far louder this time.

  “See, I bet you did threaten them”. They both could hear a few laughs coming from the tent, as the other Companions and even the Harbinger joined in.

   

  Soon everyone was asleep except for Aela. Being unable to sleep, she sat up and gazed at the dwindling fire. Sotek awoke as he sensed movement from his side. He slowly moved next to her and held her in his arm.

  “You thinking about your parents?”

   

  She just nodded; she couldn’t help but have a tear form in her eye. He hugged her even harder then pulled her down to the bedroll and wrapped his arms around her.

  “Don’t worry, everything will be ok. You’ll see them in the hunting grounds”.

   

  She turned to him but she never looked at him in the eyes. Instead she stared at his chest and traced her fingers through his own hands.

  “Why did you just say that? How did you know about my ma? My father? About them being werewolves?”

   

  He just held her tight and whispered.

  “If you’re anything like your mother, how could they be anything else?”

   

  “And what about Greymane?”

   

  Sotek held her tight then laid her head against his chest. She felt a fur slide across her like a shield. She felt safe, at peace.

  “There’s a shift in the moon shield sister. He’s on borrowed time, and for him it’s running out fast. He’s mine!! Now, get some sleep and don’t go biting anyone in the camp”.

   

  She gave him a thump in the arm which caused him to murmur in pain. A minute later she gently touched his tail sending the tip of it to flick up by a foot on reflex. It fell back down with a thump, waking Sotek up once more.

  “Oh no, not this again!!” Sotek murmured.