The first time I laid my eyes on Elsie, I was sure she was dead.
Farkas and I were returning from a rescue mission out of Solitude and we were almost to the gates of Whiterun when Farkas decided to test his strength. In the meadow before Whiterun stables, a small group of mammoths were being slowly herded back to a lone fire in the middle of a makeshift camp. The sight of four mammoths clouded my brother's judgment, knowing that their tusks alone would fetch more than what we had made on our mission. I watched as he brought forth his bow, silently releasing an arrow while crouching down out of the two lumbering giant's vision. The arrow, taken off of a Forsworn I had killed on our way home, struck the lead mammoth in between the eyes. In the confusion the wounded animal caused, two mammoths escaped the giant's herd and headed toward Whiterun while the remaining mammoth stood still as one giant tethered it to a dying tree. The giant then turned to a horse drawn wagon behind him, soothing the horse while looking into the cart. I turned to Whiterun and discovered Farkas had slain the two mammoths in a show of strength.
"Farkas," I growled lowly, "Let us return to Aela." I motioned to the tusks and meat he had begun to remove from the mammoths.
"Brother, there are two more. Think of the gold we could bring in." Farkas finished cutting the meat from the bones and piled it next to the tusks. "We could buy drinks and armor."
Our folly had been that neither of us had been paying attention to the giants behind us. Farkas' facial expression gave me fair warning to the giant behind me and I turned to avoid its club. Farkas quickly began to attack the giant with poison arrows while I regained my footing in the blood soaked grass. There was still a giant near the cart, which gave us enough leverage to bring the other down. Farkas added the giant's contents to the pile and rushed off to kill the remaining mammoths against my wishes. We already had enough to bring in decent coin. Drawing my bow, I watched over Farkas as he drew his sword, attacking the giant's leg while I mustered three arrows to my bow at a time, aiding him in his thickheaded endeavor. Once the two mammoths were slain, I followed the cart's tracks across the field and stopped behind the fallen horse that had perished out of fear.
"Useless emotion." I muttered as I passed, stopping short at the back of the cart. Her body had contorted into a fetal position and her eye sockets had sunken in along with the skin under her mud and blood soiled parka. "She must be from Solitude or Riften." I frowned as I stepped into the back for a closer look.
She woke up then, stirring enough to startle me. I half believed that a novice necromancer had her under their spell. She looked like an undead corpse with skin, shrinking back in fear of me. I tilted my head curiously to the side and moved closer, holding out my hand in an attempt not to startle her further. She looked at my blood soaked sleeve and shivered before slowly making her way to me. She remained hunched over, which I mistook for fear, and slowly touched her hand to mine. A weak smile managed to surface to my face and she smiled back, torn gums and bloody teeth greeted me and she gently grasped her bony claw hands on the steel plating of my wolf armor. Her green eyes had hazed over with blood and her long brown hair had the remnants of what the giants had fed her, berries.
"You are safe little one." I whispered although she was hardly little. She was a young woman, around fifteen years of age. Her mouth moved but only a low groan escaped as she tried to speak. "Shh.. you'll hurt your throat. Lie back down and my brother and I will keep you safe." She nodded and used my arm to slowly rest on the pelts placed on the floor of the cart for her to rest on. Shivering as if she was in the middle of a snowstorm, Elsie grabbed a bear pelt and pulled it over her deformed body.
"Where did you go brother?" Farkas greeted me as I pulled the cart behind me.
"To fetch the cart." I grunted as I helped him load his spoils onto the cart. He froze at the sight of Elsie curled up and muttered, "What's with the corpse?" I heard Elsie's sniffle and slapped the back of his head. "She is still alive you idiot."
Inside of Whiterun, Aela ungracefully waited for our return, only stopping her pacing when her gaze latched onto Elise in my arms. She called forth one of the many devout servants and requested a bath and bedding o be drawn for her. Once the bath was drawn I was no longer welcome and waited outside for my self-assigned task to take care of her.
-
I always wondered why Vilkas had bothered saving me. I was almost blind and near death when he and Farkas happened upon me. I also wondered why he remained my guardian after my slow recovery into a semi normal looking human being. I could remember little other than living with the giants (which had only been for a few months) and my name. Many of the Jorrvaskr servants made it their personal mission for me to speak, walk and talk again, taking time out to reteach me. Vilkas would check in on me when he would return from Companion related duties and would often be surprised by my accomplishments. Part of me knew he thought that I was going to die the day he brought me in.
After returning from one of many personally assigned missions from Kodlak, I slowly walked to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. He tensed before relaxing into my touch, unaccustomed to my new greeting. Up until that point, I would crawl to the entry of Jorrvaskr and wait until he opened the door and picked me up to greet him.
"You are doing well, little one." He smiled softly and his eyes scanned over my armor clad body. "Why are you wearing armor, Elsie?"
I frowned and looked down at my bare feet, wiggling my toes against the top of his iron boots. "I need to become useful." I swallowed and Vilkas glanced down at me, "I heard what Aela said about me."
"Don't listen to her." He pulled away and gently wrapped his arm around my waist to keep me standing. "You are not useless, Elise."
It was this short conversation that got me on Aela's bad side for years to come. Right up until my acceptance into the Circle. Vilkas had waited until he believed I was asleep in my bed next to his and confronted Aela. I could hear them shouting in the common area before the clanging of metal and Aela's sharp hiss as Vilkas's blade nicked her arm, leaving a permanent scar.
"Your whore is of no use to us." Vilkas's wolf like growl sent shivers of fear down my spine. Only Aela's groan of pain as he dug his nails into her shoulder and his semi fast footsteps soothed my fear. Just as I relaxed, he entered and stripped out of his armor and tunic, tracing the small deep gash on his shoulder with his dirt covered fingers.
"It'll get infected if you do that." I whisper and he smiled slightly before reaching for a needle and thread to sew the wound closed. I stood and took the needle from him, plopping down on the edge of his bed at the effort I put into walking over. He said nothing and allowed me to stitch the wound, watching me until I bit the string off once I was finished.
"Where did you learn to do this?" I kept my eyes on the wound as he said this. Only able to look at him when he placed a warm hand on my cheek.
"I've watched you do it for well over a year now Vilkas." I bit my lip and he sat next to me on his bed, draping his arm around me. This was his sign to me that I could wrap my arms around his neck. "Thank you." I whispered into the repaired skin.
"There is no need to thank me, Elsie." Vilkas nuzzled his face into my hair, the only gesture besides an embrace that he would allow himself to go through with. "Alea needed to be put in her place."