U.O.T.W. Chapter 119 To Look Death In The Eye

• Posted by Sotek April 13, 2016 - Filed in TSC: CB Story - 1,299 views

  

  The three Companions ran through the doorway in pursuit of the Skinner and the remaining Silverhands who had left with her. Vilkas, who already had a taste of the Skinner’s traps, called the group to a halt.

  “Wait, let’s take it slow”.

  Aela was too fired up to care. She cursed out as she ‘barged’ Farkas out of her way resulting in her being bounced into the wall which aggravated her even more.

  “Farkas! Move damn you! She’s getting away…”

  Ignoring Vilkas’s pleas of caution, Aela ran along the tunnel with her bow in hand. Heavy boots behind her kindly informed her that despite Vilkas’s intentions, her two brothers were closely following her footsteps.

  The passageway opened up to a small cave. Aela stopped just short of it and poked her head around the corner while at the same time she notched an arrow. She half expected to see the Silverhands waiting as they prepared to fight their final stand but there was no one about. In fact, the place was empty except for the three tunnels in the opposite wall.

  Farkas was the first of the two brothers to catch up. He strolled into the cave and examined the different passages.

  “I didn’t expect to find this… Which way did they go?”

  Aela huffed as she walked to the far left tunnel.

  “Your wolf senses are as keen as the Whelps on a camping trip. Out of my way!”

  She crouched down at the entrance of the closest tunnel and started sniffing the ground. Like a true huntress tracking a beast in some woods, she traced different sets of footprints along with the diverse array of smells. Nodding to herself, she stood up and pointed to the centre tunnel.

  “The Skinner went this way with two of her lackeys. The others split up and scuttled down those tunnels. Time to go rat hunting, the Skinner’s mine!”

  Leaving Vilkas and Farkas to argue over the two remaining tunnels, Aela once again ran through the middle passage, and rapidly disappeared as the darkness cloaked her from view.  

  Despite the fact that they knew they had to split up, the two brothers acted like a perfect pair. Two shoulders lowered and two sets of eyes rolled. Two sighs of equal intensity huffed, all due to the third member who was just as impulsive as she was reckless. Farkas pulled out the gold coin which Aela had found and he threw it up in the air.

  Vilkas, feeling somewhat confused with Farkas’s actions, watched the coin spin around and around as it glinted a vibrant gold in the torch light. Farkas caught it then slammed it against his wrist.

  “Heads or tails?”

  Tutting at the immaturity, Vilkas shook his head but he still called out to his brother.

  “Tails”.

  Farkas triumphantly cried back.

  “Wrong, it’s heads”. To prove it, he showed Vilkas the coin.

  Vilkas muttered to himself and headed towards the tunnel on the right.

  “Whatever”.

  As he started walking off, Farkas called him back, at least he tried to.

  “Hey, I pick!!”

  With a grin and a bit of Sotek rubbing off him, Vilkas pointed to the left tunnel.

  "You did. You picked that one!”

  Farkas openly cursed but having no other choice, he proceeded along the last tunnel while Vilkas disappeared out of sight.

  The passageway twisted and turned for a few hundred yards but then it rose upwards gradually. The incline became steeper with every few paces as if the miners who carved out the tunnel realised they were heading too low a direction. This raised a question for Farkas as to how miners knew where tunnels and passages were and how did they always manage to connect the tunnels together. After all he thought to himself, if they were just a few feet off then they could miss completely.

  Burning torchlight shone ahead so he left such questions unanswered for the philosophers in the Mages College and other such places where they would discuss the shape of bananas and other complex matters to decide upon. He drew his sword and tightened the grip on his shield then as stealthily as he could, he proceeded onwards.

  The tunnel opened out to what seemed to be a large cavern yet in all of Farkas’s life he had yet to see one of such size or grandeur. The roof stretched way above him and seemed to go on forever. The pathway he was on became a ledge and carried on for around a hundred feet before it stopped at the rock face.

  Feeling somewhat curious as to how far down the bottom of the drop was, he peered over the edge to see Aela who was about forty feet below staring back at him. Having no other choice, he prepared to turn around and head back to where he had come from.

  “Farkas! What can you see up there?” Aela shouted as she waved her arm at him.

  He leaned over the edge once more and called down at her although he never gave much thought as to Aela’s mental state nor the words he chose.

  “Nothing important”.

  A stone whizzed upwards towards him and bashed into the wall. He jumped back a bit then glanced back down at Aela who he could see was glaring at him.

  “Are you trying to be funny? You whore poxed oaf”.

  “I didn’t mean you did I! There’s nothing important I can see from up here except a temperamental she wolf!! There, I said it!”

  Farkas quickly ducked as a second stone flew past, just missing his head. He chuckled as he flicked off a few small pebbles which bounced their way down the face of the drop to land near Aela’s boots.

  “Will you two pack it in!!” Aela turned around to see Vilkas on a similar ledge to Farkas except he was on the opposing side of the chasm.

  “What are you doing up there?” Aela asked in her usual contemptuous way. Her foot started tapping while she waited for an answer.

  Vilkas leaned over the edge of the drop and raised a simple question, turning everything back on Aela.

  “We’re the ones who are up here so the real question is what are you doing down there?”

  Snarling with contempt, Aela ignored the two Companions and showed them a clean pair of boots. She huffed as she spun around on the spot and walked along the canyon in the hope that she would find a pathway out. She wanted to thump someone and Vilkas was quickly becoming a good candidate.

  A deep rumbling from behind caused her to stop. She glanced over her shoulder to see a portcullis lower down and block the passage where she had entered from. She stomped towards the bars and kicked one, bruising her foot in the process.

  “Oww. Screw it! Vilkas!! What the hell is it with these bastards?” She cursed at the two brothers and headed off in the only direction she could go.

  Aela suddenly stopped and started bizarrely walking backwards. Her wolf senses worked overtime supplementing her hearing. Everything told her she was in trouble and she was far from being alone. Turning around, she broke into a run as Vilkas shouted down at her.

  “Aela, get the hell out of there!!”

  Vilkas watched on in horror as numerous Silverhands marched through the canyon in a ‘two man’ column towards Aela who was helpless to fight them off. Farkas counted their numbers which seemed excessive even if they were facing the three Companions together. He screamed down at his ‘sister’ as his eyes scanned a way for him to descend the face of the canyon but it was too steep.

  “Run!! Move your bloody arse”.

  Aela ferociously shook the bars in the vain hope that they would break loose but each one held firm, blocking her escape.

  “I bloody can’t!” Turning back around, she stared death in the face as the Silverhands moved into position, forming a double rank of silver blades and weapons all poised to strike. Each man and woman had one look strewn across their faces, the wanton need to kill Aela, to Kill Red.

  Aela’s heart which was hammering in her chest in an attempt to escape the ribs which protected it started slowing down. A calmness filled her, relaxing her heart and mind. Death was inevitable; she knew it would happen at some point. Her mother knew it and she prepared Aela for it.

  Aela looked up at Farkas and gave him an eerie smile.

  “See you later boys. Tell Sotek I wait in the Hunting Grounds for him… Tell him I lo…”

  Vilkas looked on helplessly. Even if he changed form, his werewolf couldn’t descend the rocky cliff face. If he leaped down the fall would all but kill him. All he could do was watch.

  “Aela!”

  Aela smiled softly to him and gave him what little reassurance she could.

  “It’s ok Vilkas… Red, she wants to play. Just tell Sotek... tell him…”

  She started to change form into Red as a Silverhand charged towards her. The others of the group cheered him on as his sword arced through the air at the red werewolf. Aela had accepted her fate. Red accepted it as well. She stepped forwards as the silver blade closed in.

  A soft growl was all the warning Red was prepared to give. Just because she accepted her fate didn’t mean she would make it easy, far from it. She wanted to fight; she wanted Hircine to be proud of her, for Sotek to know she died fighting.

  Red lunged forwards, slashing out at the arm which wielded the sword. Her claws cut into flesh, breaking the grip on the hilt. The sword, made to kill flew off like a toy sword thrown by a kid in a tantrum. It clanged against the rocky side and fell to the ground too far away for the Silverhand to reach for it. Red’s fangs bit into soft flesh as she tried to crush the man’s skull in her maw. Razor sharp canine teeth ripped and shredded the face which was trapped between her powerful jaws while her arms flailed at the chest piece stripping off skin, muscle and armor.

  Unable to make any headway with her bite, Red released the body and watched it slump on the floor as a large group of Silverhands came charging towards her.

  Red rose upon her hind legs, threw her head back and gave her all in the loudest howl of her life.

  Vilkas helplessly looked down at her and nodded his approval.

  “Go get them! Make the Harbinger proud!”