Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had a huge smile on my face all morning when I noticed that people had actually made the effort to put alerts on my story and add it to their favorites. You made my day!

4

"Hehehe, how you doin' in there?"

Keilah was so mad at herself, why, oh why does she feel the need to pull and touch everything? This wasn't the first time that habit had gotten her into trouble.

"I'm sorry! Rlease see if you can find something in the other room to open it. I think the bars are two heavy for you to pull up manually."

Suddenly she saw several men and women coming up behind Farkas. She couldn't make sense of the conversation, what they meant, but it was very clear that they were going to kill Farkas. But is seemed like they were waiting for him, or anyone of the Companions for that matter.

Then something strange happened, she couldn't believe her eyes. Farkas changed in front of her, into a werewolf!

When her initial shock vanished she did what she could from behind the bars. She healed him and threw flames around, what she assumed still was, Farkas, the best she could. The fact that she had been fighting alone for the last two years had been embarrassingly clear while they had fought their way here.

She had hit him a couple of times both with magic and her sword. Farkas, being the kindhearted man that he was, didn't scold her about hit. 'No worries lass, you're healing takes care of it, besides, if you use ice that doesn't hurt me much, being a Nord and all'. She still felt ashamed.

And now, she couldn't just stand her looking at the people trying to kill him, so she did her best from the position she was in. When they came towards her she just backed up and kept going. One man was backed up against the bars trying to back away from Farkas and to spare the magicka she simply broke his neck with a twist.

When they all lay dead on the ground Farkas ran away. 'Did he just leave me here?' But just as she thought that the bars started to move up, as she walked out and met Farkas. He looked a bit embarrassed.

"I hope I didn't scare you." She couldn't help smiling at the big man.

"No". He raised his eyebrows at her and she smiled even bigger, "Ok, at little at first, are you ok?"

"Sure, you're healing is amazing, and the way you broke that guys neck, where did you learn that? Didn't think anyone as small as you could do that."

"It's more technique than pure strength to that actually, you just need to know where to pull and where to push" Farkas just laughed and gave her a hug. "Eww, you smell"

"Oh sorry, I had to take the clothes form a drawer in the other room, my own are torn. These have probably been laying here for a while." He picked up the armor that was still ok and put it on while Keihla looted the bodies.

"These are silver swords!"

"Ah, yeah it's the silver hands, there after us in the Companions" Keilahs eyes widened.

"I thing you need to explain about werewolfs and companions now" And he did…

When he had finished, Keilah was amazed and also a bit worried.

"So, would I have to be a werewolf as well?"

"Oh no, some of us are actually working on a cure, or... rather Kodlak is. Vilkas is helping him as well. I'm just following them to be honest, the finer arts of thinking and reading is just not, well, my thing."

"Good, I really like to sleep so I wouldn't want to be one. Don't worry Farkas, I would never tell anyone, you know that."

"Aye, I know, it's just, I promised not to turn anymore, I hadn't in a really long time. I hope they don't get mad at me."

"You had no choice, I'm sure they will understand that Farkas, you did what you had to do to survive, no-one can blame you for that."

"Not sure Vilkas will see it that way though, he probably don't want you to know that we are werewolves."

"Why would he care what I know and think about that?"

"Just... You know, people aren't supposed to know, it's a secret to everybody."

"I won't tell anyone Farkas, you can trust me. If you want, I won't even tell anyone that you turned today. I'm sure we can come up with a reason to why you are wearing those stinking clothes."

He looked at her with warm eyes. "Thank you, but it won't do any good, they will be able to smell it on me, and see it. They'll know. Appreciate you're offer though, means a lot to me. But I will never be able to lie to Vilkas, he would never lie to me either."

"Ok, I'm sorry if I offended you, telling you to lie to you brother."

"No worries, you were just trying to help. It's nice to have someone being prepared to stand by your side even if you did something that's not completely right, apart from Vilkas." She gave him another quick hug. She was glad he was on her side, that she had him with him for this. She couldn't think of anyone else that she would have preferred at her side right now.

"Let's get out of here, It shouldn't be far now"

Vilkas was sitting in the main hall when Farkas walked through the door. He's first thought was about the woman, she wasn't with him, she wasn't hurt was she? Then the smell hit him, Farkas had turned, that's when he almost started to hope that she had died, that she hadn't seen him turn. If she had, she would know what they were. He didn't even have time to say anything before Kodlak got up from his chair and Vilkas knew that he could smell the exact same thing as he did.

"Let's get down to my chambers Farkas. Vilkas, you too."

Vilkas realized that if Farkas had turn in front of the girl, and if she was still alive, she was probably miles away by now. Farkas just gave them a look full of regret and walked by them towards the stairs. Vilkas put his hand on his shoulder and the look he got from Farkas, so full of shame, made him feel bad for his initial reaction of anger.

He knew his brother, and if he had turned, it was for a reason. He would never break a promise to Kodlak if it wasn't to save his life.

Kodak closed the door behind him, turned around and smiled at Farkas,

"I'm not angry Farkas, just tell me what happened"

"Keilah accidently locked herself in, behind some bars and she couldn't open them again. While we were standing there, a bunch of Silver Hands turned up. There were so many of them, I didn't have a choice" He studdered "I... I... turned, in front of her. They would have killed her too, just for being there with me."

Kodlak sighed. "Did you get her out of there?"

Farkas looked confused, "Of course! I found a release for the trap in the next room. What did you think? That I left her there?"

Vilkas suddenly realized that he might have missunderstood everything, and looked at Kodlak who obviously was starting to realize the same thing.

"So.. she's ok then, she didn't get scared and left or.. I don't know, tried to kill you or something."

"I think she got a bit shocked at first, but the she helped me from behind the bars, you know, throwing flames, healing me." Suddenly Farkas laughed out loud, "She even broke the neck on a guy who backed away from me and got a bit too close to her, didn't think anyone that small could do that. Said it was just about pushing and pulling in the right way."

Vilkas was truly confused. She didn't care! "So, she's ok with it? I mean werewolfs"

Farkas shrugged, "She seemed ok, had some questions, she probably want to speak to Kodlak, At least she seemed ok, once I told her that she didn't need to become one."

"So where is she?" Kodlak asked "If she is so fine with it, why isn't she with you?"

"Oh, she was going to sell some stuff to Adrienne, and then she needed to use the Alchemy table up at Dragonsreach, she picked lots of stuff along the way, ran around like crazy, picking up herbs and bugs, even swam out in a lake to catch some fishes. She's like a little rabbit, told her; you probably walked three times as far as I did." suddenly he looked a bit embarrassed, "She even had me helping her catch Luna Moths and Torchbugs, said they were worth a fortune in some places."

Vilkas tried to imagine his brother chasing small bugs in the middle of the night and with a look at Kodlak, who seemed to have the same thought, they couldn't help themselves. And once they had started laughing, they couldn't stop, finally tears started to roll down their cheeks.

"What?" Farkas was upset "She asked for my help! That's just not nice of you, she's a sweet girl!"

Vilkas laugh suddenly got stuck in his throat.

"Im sorry" Kodlak did his very best to regain his composure "It's just that I would have paid gold to see you chasing glowing bugs in the middle of the night."

Vilkas wasn't sure why his insides all of a sudden felt twisted. She managed to get his brother to chase bugs, he said she was a 'sweet' girl. He seemed very impressed with her in general. He couldn't be attracted to her, could he? She wasn't his type at all. He liked his women with curves, blond with blue eyes and big breasts. On the other hand, so did Vilkas. Usually.

"She did well then?" Kodlak still had a huge smile on his face.

"She's amazing, very capable, not really used to fight alongside with someone so she, well, missed a couple of times. Healed it up, and it wasn't too bad to begin with. Her fighting style is... not sure, never seen anything like it. But she is very good, got about as many as I did. Never left my side and did her part."

"She would be unused to it, she's been alone for two years."

Vilkas had heard that story as well, Kodlak told him about Keilahs dad, how they had walked around, and she had probably told Farkas as well by now.

"So, initiation tonight then, we agree?" Kodlak was looking at Vilkas.

"Yes, agree"

"I'll have word with Aela and Skjor as well. Aela has been eager to get her into our ranks all along and I'm sure Skjor is with us as well, she has impressed him greatly, he is very happy that she knows so much about potions. He has even mentioned that he would like to give her an alchemy table."

"She would like that, it would be good for all of us, she knows what she's doing with that stuff."

"You must thing so if she had you chasing glowworms in the middle of the night" Vilkas smiled at his brother.

"You're not going to let that go are you?" Farkas looked at him with a pleading face.

"No, never!" Vilkas smiled at him and put his arm around him. He loved his brother, he would never do anything to truly hurt his feelings, but he wasn't sure how I would react if Farkas was really in love with the girl.

They were walking towards the stairs up to the main hall when Keilah came down the stairs, Aela har her arms around her shoulders and they were talking to each other in hushed voices. Keilah handed Aela bottle with an orange potion inside. To his surprise Vilkas noticed that Keliahs cheeks were blushing when she gave her the bottle and he couldn't help wondering what was in it. He had never seen her blush before. Aela just looked at him and winked, then she came up to the three of them and gave Farkas a hug.

"You did good brother, she's keeper, take care of her."

Vilkas glanced at Keilah an noticed that she just smiled. This was bad, apparently everyone thought of her as Farkas' girl.

That wasn't uncommon, the person who was with you when you did your initiation mission and who acted as your first shield brother or sister was a person you came close to.

Both he and Farkas had been with Kodlak, Aela had been with Vignar and she in her turn had been the shield sister to both Ria and Njada, and was now quite close to both of them. Well, as close as you could get to Njada.

Vilkas had been with Athis and the feeling of resect they now had towards each other made him understand what could happened of the other person was someone you were attracted in to begin with.

Keilah could feel that her cheeks were still glowing, Aela had asked her for help to get a certain potion that hindered the conception of a child, apparently she wasn't too keen on asking Arcadia for it since she didn't fully trust her discretion.

It wasn't that Keilah mind doing it, not at all, she just didn't like to think about it, not when... well… men, could see her.

Kodlak gave her a smile "could you maybe wait in my rooms for me? I'll be there in a second; I just need a quick word with Skjor."

"Sure" She would really prefer not to think about Skjor at the moment, since she was pretty sure why Aela needed the potion, and of course, thinking about not thinking of him, made her cheeks blush even more. Aela just looked at her and chuckled. Keilah hurried her steps, looking down at the floor avoiding eye contact with the others.

She just loved Kodlaks two rooms! They were full of books, old beautiful weapons and even some things usefull for potionmaking lying around.

Her eyes got caught on a book in the shelf named 'The Windhelm Letters'. Her father had once said that it was her mother's favorite book, that she cried every time she read it but still loved it and read it over and over again. Keilah had never seen it before and now she couldn't help herself, she took it out of the shelf and opened it. She completely lost herself in the book and didn't even hear Kodlak enter the room.

"What are you reading?" She jumped as she heard his voice.

"I'm so sorry, I just... I love books and I've never seen this one before, my dad said it was my mother's favorite, and, well.. I'm sorry, I should have asked you permission before I took one of your books"

"Don't be silly, you can read any book you like, which one is it?"

"The Windhelm Letters"

"Ah, your mother was a woman of taste. It is beautiful. Just put it back when you finish it. It is one of my favorites as well."

"Thank you!"

"Farkas said you did well, he was very impressed, especially that you managed to break a man's neck with you bare hands."

"It's a matter of technique."

"He did mention that. It is still impressive. You have of course passed the test, that much should be obvious. I imagine that you have some questions regarding the lychanthrope?"

"I'm honestly not sure what to ask, I don't want to be rude, and, well, I don't even know what to ask."

"Just ask the first thing that comes to your mind."

"Can you control it? Or does it just happened randomly, or at full moon."

"We can control it, when we become weres, we can't stay in that shape for long, and not too often. The beast inside us can make themselves noticed to us now and then, but that is something others would hardly notice. It's more of a small reminder."

"Are all the champions Werewolves?"

"No, just the ones in the circle. That would be me, Vilkas, Farkas, Sjord and Aela. Aela and Skjor like it, me and Vilkas don't and are trying to find a cure. Farkas isn't too comfortable with it either, but not as bothered as me. I had... a dream about it that was… unsettling. I will tell you more about it another time though."

Trusting his words about finding out more some other time she continued with the one answer that she had already gotten from Farkas but did want to get confirmed from this man. She realized that Kodlaks greatest strength was that you trusted him unconditionally and you would do anything for him, he had that air around him that would make you go through fire and ice to help him if he asked you.

"Farkas said that I wouldn't need to become a werewolf, that no-one would ask that of me if I didn't want it."

"No, absolutely not, and the simple fact that you ask that question means that you would have to bring it up yourself, We know now that you are not interested in it. Truly, I am grateful that you are not. And I trust you to not tell anyone about it, that we are werewolves."

"No, never, your secret is safe with me, always."

"Thank you Keilah" He gave her one of his heartwarming smiles "Aela was truly right about you, you are an uncommon one"

"She things very highly of me."

"You should be proud, she does not often do that. You should listen to the people who praise you as well as those who don't. People have a tendency to only listen to the negative remarks about them. I take it that you and Farkas has come close on this journey?"

"Yes, he is truly like a very protective brother" She smiled as she thought of him, running around in the dark trying to catch bugs without crushing them. "And very helpful."

"Ah, yes, he did mention the bughunt. I would have liked to see that"

"It was truly something to see."

"Meet us at the courtyard at dusk, we will welcome you into our ranks then."

"Thank you Kodlak, for everything, and for the book. It means a lot to me to be able to read it."

"You are most welcome little one, just treat the books with care and respect and you can borrow anything you like."