4/14/14.


He couldn't sleep. He rarely could.

When he was little, his restlessness stemmed from nightmares where he couldn't move, couldn't find Farkas. Now, it came from nightmares where he couldn't stop moving, lest Hircine take his mortal soul. If he tried to sleep, he would awake drenched in sweat, and it had only gotten worse since he'd stopped succumbing to that wretched curse. On nights when he was extremely lucky, he didn't dream at all.

Tonight he found himself stumbling down the hallway after a particularly vivid nightmare, bumping into a table and knocking over some goblets in his sleep-deprived state. He cursed quietly to himself as the metal fell to the floor with a clang before cleaning up his mess and heading up towards the mead hall and the fire pit, and, most importantly, the mead.

No sooner had he uncorked a bottle and raised it to his lips than had a quiet voice come from behind him, making him nearly choke on his mead in surprise. "Vilkas?" Ria's voice cut clear through the near silence of the hall. "Is that you?"

He sputtered out the rest of his sip as he nodded. "Aye. What are you doing up?"

"I'm sorry, I just... I'm a light sleeper, is all, and I heard a lot noise. I wanted to see if you were okay. Are you?"

Nobody had asked him that question in a long time. When he was little, he could go to Jergen, but Jergen left early, which left Vilkas with four other members of the Circle (gods forbid he ever wake Arnbjorn), Tilma, and his brother. As he grew, the Circle changed as people left, or died, or simply stopped checking on him as often. Eventually, he stopped bothering Tilma unless he was extremely upset, and he would let Farkas sleep. In fact, the last person who asked how he was faring was Kodlak, and that was a few weeks ago and in reference only to the beast blood.

That someone else might care was a surprise indeed.

"I'm fine, Ria," he told his shield-sister. "Go back to sleep."

"Alright." The Imperial made it halfway to the stairs before she turned around again. "Vilkas?"

"Hmm?"

"I hope that whatever's troubling you comes to an end."

He sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Thank you, Ria."

"Good night, Vilkas."

"Good night."