It did not take long before Aurora was sent out on a mission. This would be the one determining if she was good enough for a full membership within the Companions. The task was to retrieve a fragment of Wuuthrad from Dustman's Cairn. She had gotten the quest from Skjor, but Farkas would come with her as a supervisor. She was annoyed with the fact that they did not trust her capability of retrieving the fragment herself, yet she was happy that they chose Farkas to go with her. At least he was not Vilkas.

Aurora and Farkas set off early in the morning. The journey was not long – Farkas said that they would probably be there by midday. After passing the wall, Aurora turned to Farkas. He was wearing his steel armour and looked good in it. Aurora admired his looks. His body language was extremely pleasing. Even though he was at least two and a half heads taller and three times wider than she, he still managed to move neatly. He reminded her of those lions that populated the deserts of Hammerfell – strong, beautiful and athletic. Farkas was the embodiment of a true Nord hero. Even though Aurora knew how to take care of herself and was able to defeat any man or animal that attacked her, she still had some sort of primitive wish for protection. He did not actually have to save her, just be there, psychologically. To know that she always had a strong man by her side. A lioness was a warrior, but she still had a man twice her size at home. She could let him be her lion...

"Aurora?" Farkas laughed. She had been so deep in her own thoughts that she had not noticed that he had told her something.

"Oh, sorry... I was..." She pointed with a finger to her head.

"Aye, you were in your own world." He smiled at her. "I wanted to ask you how you got that scar beneath your eye."

"Oh, this?" Aurora reflexively put her hand on it. "A spider in a cave, long ago. I was not as trained then as I am now." "I thought that I had killed it, but it surprised me when I got closer. Luckily, it merely touched me. That's why the scar is so small."

Farkas had made a disgusted expression when he heard the word "spider", which Aurora noticed.

"Oh, afraid of spiders, are we, eh? But they are much smaller than humans..."

Farkas laughed uneasily and looked another way. Aurora realised that it was an uncomfortable subject. She did not wish to make him in a bad mood so soon.

"On the other hand, so is a firebolt." She searched for his eyes, but he was still looking away. She was not sure whether if he did not find her comment funny or if he simply had not understood her. She let the subject drop.

"You have a large scar on your hand, where does that come from?" she asked him instead.

"I was attacked by a bear, also a long while ago. It almost took my hand." Aurora immediately saw her chance.

"As in marriage?" she joked. Farkas laughed and lightly pushed her on the shoulder.

"You don't have to be ashamed of your scars, not with the Companions at least. They show the world that you have lived a warrior's life." A nuance of pride was distinguable in his voice.

"Yes, but they also show the world that I've messed up at times."

"No true warrior gets away safe and sound every time."

"True, but I would like to minimalize traces of the times when I don't get back in one piece."

"It shouldn't be far" Farkas said when they got close to the foot of the mountain. They continued for a few more minutes before a hole in the ground became visible. There was a stair leading down to the bottom where a decorated iron door was hidden behind some sort of ivy.

Upon reaching the entrance, Farkas turned to Aurora. The fun was over, now they had to get to work. He touched her shoulder with his arm.

"Hey, be careful inside there."

Over the past hours, Aurora had started to genuinely care for Farkas. He seemed to be a decent man. He was friendly towards her, but she was under the impression that it was the way he was towards everybody. Kind. Brave. Strong.

Aurora nodded and opened the door.

The inside of Dustman's Cairn was made of stone that was cut out from the cave. At first, there was a set of stairs leading down to a room. Some skeletons had fallen out of their iron tombs together with the boulder. In the middle, there stood a table with a chest on its left side. It was locked, but being the good thief Aurora was, she opened it easily.

"Hey, you look almost professional, opening that." Aurora could not tell if he was impressed or suspicious, but decided not to answer it.

She found some gold, a scroll and a pair of gauntlets. Taking the money and the scroll, she looked at Farkas.

He stood with his arms crossed. The handle to his sword was visible from behind his head. Apparently, he felt no need to have it in his hands that moment. Aurora, on the other hand, was still holding hers.

"I've been to places like this before," she said with a shiver. Last time was outside of Riverwood, and it had not been a pleasant mission. The damp air bore scents of mould and decomposition, and there was a constant fear of getting stuck due to falling stones.

Something that looked as if it had been a vault led them further in. They encountered some burial stones and a Draugr skeleton. Aurora started to examine it when she heard a sound.

"To your right!" she yelled, but Farkas was prepared. Aurora stood up and stabbed another Restless Draugr, killing it instantly. A third one attacked from the left, casting some sort of magic on her. She felt how her body became stiff and cold, but she managed to raise her shield and take cover until she was close enough to penetrate his chest with her sword.

It took a while for her to recover from the shock of having magic thrown at her. It was cheating. Only those without a strong arm and a bit of decency used magic, in her opinion.

Quietness fell on the room once more. Only the sound of Farkas heavy breathing indicated some sort of life in the crypt. She looked at him. His chest was moving more than usual. It was probably due to the air. Aurora felt that she had to gasp for breath, but her lungs were not as large as Farkas', and they did not have to provide for as much oxygen to her body.

Farkas looked at the woman before him. She had some dirt on her face and legs that made her look even more like a warrior. Her legs... He could see parts of her thigh that were not covered by the skirt from the armour. They were unusually muscular and sleek for a woman. She obviously was well trained and athletic. With those legs, she must be stronger than even Aela!

"These must be ancient!" Aurora was astonished. She had never seen weapons as old as the ones carried by the Draugrs. Well, she had been to some ruins before... No, she had seen weapons as old as these, but not in that good shape.

She looked on Farkas. His look was somewhat absent, but it was directed at her. Her heart jumped. Was he thinking about her? The thought of that made her blush, but the man next to her did not notice before it was too late. She had turned around and was walking further in.

Spider webs. Bloody everywhere. Why were places like this always full of spider webs? He hated them, those disgusting creatures with more eyes than legs. No matter, he needed to keep a straight face in front of her. He had come to supervise her, and he would not embarrass himself by letting his fear control him.

As they moved forwards, Aurora noticed that there were parts that were carved into the walls. Usually there was an urn placed there. But at some parts there were not. In others there was a...

"Draugr!" she yelled, and smashed it with her sword.

Farkas noticed that she was shocked. She had hit the creature so hard that its head was split in two all the way down to the... He decided not to look. Did not want to get nauseated. The sight of a body drenched in blood with brain substance on the walls, together with the bad smell in the room was overwhelming.

They had ended up before a wooden door. Aurora opened it carefully and saw that parts of the walls had collapsed in the corridor. Spider webs were so thick that they had to cut through it.

Straight ahead there was a table of stone with some embalming tools on it. Aurora examined the linen and salts placed on the table and grinned in disgust. Farkas was not far behind, and made a wink with his head to encourage her to move on.

"Let's go. We have a long way left."

"Farkas..." She turned to him, looking at his chest. "Are you ever afraid when in situations like this?" She raised her gaze, looking him in the eyes.

Her face had lost some of the joy she came with to Dustman's Cairn. She was more serious now than she had been before. Less eager to fight. "Aye. I am now," he said and took a step closer to her, reaching for her arm.

She smiled as his fingers gently grabbed her arm. "Hey, eyes on the prey, not the horizon," he said, searching for her look. He gave her a short smile before he pushed her forwards.

They turned right and went through an open door, into a larger hall and ended up on what could be regarded as the second floor. Aurora could hear movement below her, so she quietly took her bow and sneaked to a pillar where she got down on one knee. She aimed at the Draugr and killed it with one shot, hitting it in the back of its head.

She looked at Farkas, who stood by the door and made thumbs up for her.

Not having to worry about being stabbed with an axe, Aurora had the time to look around and investigate the room. There was a lot of space there. The ceiling was high and made of stone, like the rest of the room. On the right side, she could see an embalmed Draugr on a table. It was wrapped in linen and made a ghostly sight.

Three vaults were located around the hall, one of which had iron bars prohibiting them from continuing in that direction.

"Let's look if there is a leaver somewhere," Farkas said.