Chapter one : Whelp
"Well, the old man said to have a look at you. Just take a few swings at me so I can test your arm"
Ha, easy for him to say, he's nothing but muscle how could I even scratch him? Oh well it's either join the Companions and make a name for myself or I move to another city...again. And to be honest there's something I enjoy about this city. It could be that giant flowering tree whose petals seem to fly all throughout the city or the hum of people going about their own business. I was going to be here for a while, I knew it.
The *clink* signified that I, Tess Ebonheart had actually made contact with his shield, but now he looks pissed. If he was holding back before then he certainly wasn't going to now. I quickly glance back at the three arrows nestled in my quiver and pray to the gods that I make at least one good hit. I aim again only to have not held the arrow back long enough and for the shot to completely fail and land in the ground with a cloud of dust encompassing it. Two arrows left.
I realised a second too late that Vilkas was now out of my vision but thankfully a small stone rolled around to my right which gave away his position. I whipped my head around just quickly enough to avoid the brunt of the attack but my cheek was split with the needle sharp end of his blade. Blood trickled down my chin and dripped onto my bow staining the wood a dark red. I needed to pick up my game or something more important than my cheek was going to get split in half.
I wiped the sweat off my brow and as Vilkas went for a side sweep I dodged, bringing myself around to his rear and before he even knows what's happened I let another arrow fly. It buries itself between the shoulder blades of his armour. He sheaths his sword and shield and laughs a long rigid laugh that tells me he's actually in pain. "Pull the arrow out, will you?"
"I'm not an expert at these things but I think you'll need to go see the priestesses of Kynareth" I sounding more concerned than I intended.
He stood up straight and massaged his shoulder. "Ha, not bad, next time it won't be so easy"
I gulped...next time?
"You might just make it but for now but you're still a whelp to us newblood. Here's my sword. Go take it up to Eorlund to have it sharpened. And be careful, it's probably worth more than you are" he said with a smirk. And with that he walked off to drink his mead and tell the rest of the great warriors inside that he let me off easy.
"Whelp? Wow, what a jackass" I mimicked in a harsh pitch after I was out of earshot. With Vilkas' sword dangling from my hand I walked up the spaced apart steps heading around to the front of Jorrvaskr, the Companions giant fortress.
"Who's a jackass?" a cool male voice questioned from around the corner of the great mead hall. This man had, at first glance the face of a puppy. With dirt darkening his nose, dark brown, shaggy hair that went down to his shoulders and big, bright blue eyes that if his face didn't show such kindness, could look as icy as a wraith.
I thought I may as well tell this stranger my problems since I had no one else to share them with. "Vilkas. He was sent to 'test my arm'."
"Haha yeah I guess he is kind of a jackass sometimes but he means well." Which sounded like he knew more than he was letting on.
"Wait, how could you know that? Unless...He's your brother, and I'm an idiot" and with that my head fell in my hands with defeat. Could this day get any worse?
"Woah no harm done, don't worry about it. He's not as bad as he seems but sometimes I have been known to punch him a little harder than brotherly love. So if he called you a whelp that must mean your arm mustn't be as bad as he lets on. Well, let me be the first to congratulate you on your new position as errendgirl of the companions."
"Haha thanks. So I guess I'll be seeing you around then?" Praying to have a friendly face there when I came back in the morning.
"Guess you will errendgirl." He smiled sincerely and waltzed through the giant doors of Jorrvaskr, swallowed up by the warmth and cheery voices inside.
As I saunter down the steps that connect the wind district to the lower plains district the sunset casts shadows on some children playing with the water in the well in the town square. Their screams turn to laughter and I can only imagine them going home to their parents and getting scolded for dirtying their clothes and I guess they knew that it would happen but they didn't seem to care. I remember those days. I miss those days.
Now I'm on my way to drown my past with mead in The Bannered Mare, the most famous bar and inn, in all of Whiterun hold.
"Come on in, I just stoked the fire." a cheerful voice greeted me at the door.
"Thanks Hulda, how much do I owe you for the week?" I asked as I searched my backpack for my coinpurse.
"40 septims for the rent and 30 for the mead"
"30 for mead? I haven't drunken that much in a week." I pleaded.
"Well 16 for actual drinks but 14 for the table you broke in the bar brawl against that big girl. You know, the one who gave you a black eye and kicked your hide so hard you couldn't sit properly for two days" she recalled as if she won money off my humiliation.
"Alright, here 70 septims. Now I'm off to sleep, I'm not rich enough for mead and bar brawls tonight."
I quickly hopped up the stairs, taking my boots off as I went, to the room on the second floor that had been mine for the past week and a half. I look around and recall all of the items in my possession. A lantern, my dozen books on a pile next to my bed, one black soul gem, a jar of ingredients I'd picked up in my travels and a pickaxe. I sat on my bed and my mind wandered elsewhere, back to the brothers who were so different yet both captured my dreams that night.
