I think I mentioned in the last AN of the previous chapter that I kept hitting my companions, as in plural, which is something I wanted to explain in this chapter.
I won't give away any spoilers because damn do I love my second companion. Well, technically third, if you count my horse - and going by that logic, Kharjo was my second companion, my horse the first, and this new character I'm introducing is the third and final member of our merry band of weirdness.
Actually, you can probably tell who or what the third companion is just by looking at the name of this fic.
Oh, and in case anyone's wondering - unless specifically stated otherwise, Zaliki by default is wearing her Stalhrim light armour. The tavern clothes thing from the first chapter was basically just me writing in my favourite set of clothes, but normally I (and my character, by extension) wear the Stalhrim light armour.
I don't own The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, on with the show!
OOOOOO
"Hah!" Kharjo shouted, throwing out his arms. "Take that, land of Skyrim! You afflict me with your despicable coldness no longer!"
Zaliki gave him a look that was half amusement and half exasperation.
"This one seems pleased," she commented.
"Of course," Kharjo agreed cheerfully, jumping down from the rock he had climbed onto to shout his happiness to the world. "This new armour you have gifted me with - it keeps out the cold marvellously!"
"That is Stalhrim ice," Zaliki said, looking him up and down. "It is also heavy armour. Zaliki will never understand how Kharjo moves with such ease."
"Because I, unlike you, have been trained in heavy armour," Kharjo replied with a shrug. "You were trained in light armour."
"Self-trained, mostly," Zaliki corrected him.
"Yes, self-trained. And very well-trained, may I add-"
Zaliki's ears suddenly pricked up and she fixed her gaze over Kharjo's shoulder. He unholstered his enchanted Steel mace and brought up his new Stalhrim shield, courtesy of the Skaal (his new armour was also from them, by request of Zaliki, a gift which he appreciated greatly), and spun around to face whatever it was that Zaliki had sensed.
"Dragon?" he asked, quickly scanning the skies, expecting a fire- or frost-breathing dragon to swoop down at any moment.
"No," Zaliki replied. "Dragon is not here. Something else is."
"What did you hear?" Kharjo asked her.
Zaliki, who for some reason had not yet pulled out her bow, came forward to stand at his shoulder.
"Laas," she whispered, and her eyes began to glow a faint and unsettling red.
Kharjo was used to this - it was one of her Dragonborn Shouts, or Whisper in this case, which she called the Aura Whisper. He stepped out of her line of sight so he would not impede her aura search.
After several moments, her eyes settled on something through the trees that Kharjo could not see.
"It is not hostile, maybe," she said. "Zaliki heard barking."
" . . . Barking," Kharjo said in disbelief. "I did not hear this."
"You were busy shouting about no more cold," his friend dismissed. Her eyes were no longer glowing, so her Aura Whisper had worn off already, and she started off in the direction she was looking.
Kharjo followed. He kept out his mace and shield, just in case - Zaliki had said there was no hostility, yes, but it was not that he didn't trust her. She had been wrong before and he needed to be certain.
They walked through the trees until they came to a dirt-coated clearing. Kharjo was surprised to see a large, ragged-looking dog wandering in circles, and as soon as it caught sight of them, it barked loudly and ran off in the opposite direction.
Zaliki took off after it, and Kharjo, though puzzled, raced after her.
The dog led them through the forest until they came to a shack that looked as though it needed desperate repairs. It had no door, so the dog bounded through and barked from inside, and Zaliki followed it again.
"Kharjo!" she called when she got inside. "Look!"
Kharjo decided that there wasn't any danger - mainly because it was a dog, of all things, and he had yet to meet a dog that had actually attacked him or Zaliki - and put away his mace and shield before going in after them.
The shack was just a single room, and there was a bed in the corner, with the dead body of a Nord lying on it. Kharjo's ears pricked up in interest. The dog had led them to a body? What was it trying to tell them? Perhaps the Nord had been murdered and the dog wanted them to get the killer. But maybe it was simpler than that.
Zaliki, while he had been studying the body, had decided to look around the small room that was the shack. She found food, still somewhat fresh - of course, the body had not decayed too much, so this Nord could not have been dead for long - and a ratty old book.
"Zaliki has found a book," Zaliki announced, holding it up to Kharjo. "Can this one read?"
Kharjo took the offered book and opened it. It turned out to be a journal of sorts, but only one page had been written on, and the rest were completely blank.
"Hm," Kharjo said thoughtfully. "It seems as though this Nord died of Rockjoint."
"Terrible way to die," Zaliki muttered, glancing at the Nord. The dog barked, as if agreeing with her.
"He writes of having no friends or family to mourn him, but also that he hopes Meeko will be well," Kharjo went on, continuing to read the journal. He glanced up as the dog stood up and barked a couple of times. "Meeko? Is that you, then?"
The dog - Meeko - barked again.
"Well, no murder investigation then," Kharjo said, closing the journal and handing it back to Zaliki, who peered at it for a moment and then pocketed it carefully.
"You thought he had been murdered?" Zaliki asked, looking at him curiously.
"Very often we have these type of quests," Kharjo replied. "Investigate something, solve a murder, whatever."
"True," his friend agreed. "Zaliki supposes Meeko wished someone to know of its master's demise."
"Meeko is male, according to the journal."
"Then Meeko wished someone to know of his master's demise."
Meeko barked, and his tail started wagging. Presumably Zaliki's theory was correct, although Kharjo could not be certain how much a dog could understand. Oh, he knew these animals were far more intelligent than humans gave them credit for, but it was still mildly absurd to think that a dog could fully understand their language.
Zaliki reached out and patted Meeko's head, and then left the shack. Kharjo inclined his head in farewell and followed, but they had only gone several paces when they heard a bark behind them, and they turned around to see Meeko bounding after them.
He stopped before he crashed into Zaliki, and looked up at her, panting and wagging his tail happily.
Zaliki looked at him, and then at Kharjo.
"Does this one object to a pet?" she asked him.
"I do not," Kharjo answered, smiling.
Zaliki smiled back, briefly, and then crouched down to eye-level with Meeko.
"Does Meeko wish to come with us, then?" she asked the dog. Meeko barked twice, and Zaliki scratched his ear and stood up. "Then come, Meeko. We are a party of three, us adventurers."
"I feel that should be a song," Kharjo observed as they took off again, with Meeko now bouncing around them. "A Party of Three, it could be called."
"Or a story," Zaliki said. "Two Khajiit and a Dog. An interesting tale, Zaliki thinks."
"That would be a very interesting tale indeed."
OOOOOO
Yep, the second/third companion is Meeko the dog! While I was writing the first chapter, I still hadn't actually found him, but I did manage to find him and have him follow me about halfway through. I love both Meeko and Kharjo, it's really fun to have them around.
Little fact about how I actually found Meeko - I'd heard about him online a few days ago, and so I decided to try and find him. I looked around the area of the shack for a while, since it was easier to find that instead of Meeko, and I couldn't figure out where he was. I ended up wandering onto some marshland by accident, so I went back into the forest, and then I decided to use the Aura Whisper Shout to find him.
I did briefly mistake a fox for Meeko - you know, four-legged and dog-shaped aura - but eventually I did find the dog, and now I have a new companion!
Oh, and you guys remember that bow thing I was talking about last time? Turned out it was just a little glitch, cus now I can shoot perfectly fine again. Guess I was sort of panicking for no reason, which is actually a good thing since it means I won't have to uninstall Skyrim and lose Zaliki, Kharjo and Meeko. Man, I love these guys.
Anyway.
Read and review!