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The Road to Kynesgrove

IX: Northwest

"Oh, there once was a hero named Ragnar the Red

Who came riding to Whiterun from ol' Rorikstead

And the braggart did swaggart and brandish his blade

As he told of bold battles and gold he had – ouch!"

The screeching song was abruptly cut off as a very angry, very determined old woman marched backwards from her place at the head of a small group of travelers and struck the singer on the nose with her fist. The singer just happened to be the Dragonborn Acajou, who tossed her head like a surprised horse and blinked at Delphine.

"What?"

The snow coming off of the western mountains swirled around them in cheerful eddies, silver-lit by the huge face of the moon hanging in the cloudless indigo sky. Acajou was iced like a sweetroll; the snow was so deep in places that she sank all the way up to her haunches in powdery white. Delphine's toes were numb inside her fur-insulated leather shoes and her leggings were stiff with frozen sweat. They had been walking nearly the entire night, looking and listening keenly in all directions for any signs of life other than themselves, and were taking the most surreptitious route to Lost Soul's Shrine that they possibly could to avoid detection by anyone or anything. Fortunately, they had found a low hollow between the craggy peaks all around them, and despite their single-file line being drowned in a vortex of snow and fog whipped by the wind caught between the mountains, their progress, so far, had not been tracked or seen.

Delphine, hunching her shoulders and stuffing her arms in her armpits, squinted sullenly back at her ragtag group. Acajou walked behind her, and she had to trust that the Companions were behind Acajou, because she could barely even see Acajou standing three feet in front of her.

"First off, it's 'swagger', not 'swaggart', whatever that's supposed to mean. Secondly, why don't you leave the singing to tavern bards and try to keep your great gaping mouth-hole shut for a second so we're not set upon by bandits in the middle of the night? Does that sound like a good plan to you?"

Acajou dipped her chin in a nod. Turning her head over her shoulder, she addressed the three snickering Companions grouped behind her. Surprisingly, after her rocky introduction to Delphine, Aela had kept calm and quiet, patiently treading the snow and following Acajou's swaying gait, although anyone who know how to read her face could tell that she was stewing like a boiling pot on the inside.

"Guess we can't sing, either."

"Can't sing, can't hunt, can't ride horses, and can't travel by lamplight," Farkas moaned dramatically, raising balled fists to the heavens. "Whatever shall we do?"

"We can baselessly insult each other," Aela said pleasantly, although her teeth were chattering. "Delphine seems like she is rather good at it."

"How about we all just focus on the task at hand and step it up?" Vilkas sounded about as irritated as someone could get. "All of this bickering isn't going to get us to Lost Soul's Shrine any faster. I am cold enough to die right now."

"We could get out of this hollow to warm up a few degrees," Farkas suggested, looking longingly at the actual path winding up the mountainside. "Just think. Cobblestones to walk on instead of swimming through snowbanks."

"And get shot to Oblivion by the first person who sees this giant lumbering after us?" Delphine said incredulously, gesturing to Acajou. "Are you stupid?"

"You can go up the hill if you want," Aela countered. "See if you can't find a rabbit or something to cook when we stop. If we stop," she added pointedly.

"I know you fierce, brave warriors are tired of walking, but I don't want to be out here any more than you do," Delphine said. "Once we find what we need at the Shrine, you can go. Preferably far away."

"What are we supposed to be looking for?" Vilkas asked as Farkas started his climb out of the hollow, leaving the group of them huddled in the mist.

"Some old guy who's going to tell us how to get me back in my body." The heat from Acajou's breath melted the snow beneath her head, washing over the humans and giving them the briefest relief of the driving, bitter wind.

"And every second we waste flapping our gums is another second that your real body weakens," Delphine snapped. "So let's get a move on, already!"

"I wonder whose fault that is." Aela glared right at Delphine. The Blade looked away, scowling. This woman knows more than she thinks she knows.

"Hey!" Farkas's voice, raw from the cold, called down to them. "You guys aren't going to believe this, but I think we've been spotted."

Acajou made as if to follow Farkas up the hill, but Delphine struck her on the shoulder. "Stay here," she said brusquely as the followed the other Companions into the open. The Dragonborn craned her neck to see, and then settled for poutily flapping her wings and blowing away the piles of snow she was standing in.

"What is it?" Aela asked as she reached her shield-brother.

Farkas squinted. "I have no idea what it is, but it is something."

It didn't take Delphine long to see what Farkas was talking about. A formless shape was barreling towards them, ebony black and silent as the grave. It rushed down the snow-bright slope towards them in huge bounding leaps, leaving footprints barely deep enough to sink in. Billowing and shrinking as it moved, like a sheet hung out to dry, its shape was impossible to discern, but it looked vaguely like a human wearing a cloak that was much too big for his form. Its path followed no straight line, and it seemed to take great pains to move as jaggedly as possible.

One thing was for certain, however, and that was that it was not going to stop before it reached them. The way it moved reminded Delphine of a snake.

Vilkas clenched the hilt of his sword and squinted into the rushing wind, sticking close against his brother so all sides would be covered in case it got around them. "I can't track it," he growled in frustration.

Farkas's keen eyes never wavered from the approaching figure. "It looks like it's dragging shadows," he answered.

But there was no more time to look or wait or even act; it was upon them, and the air shrieked as it was parted by the strange shadow's passing. In one fluid leap it cleared the length of ten horses away from the group and landed like a feather in front of the Twins, and before either of them could twitch a muscle to swing their swords, it was in the air again, passing through the thick pine branches like it was no more solid than a cloud. Acajou's swung around to follow it, but Delphine read the look in her eyes and interrupted with a sharp, "No!"

Swallowing whatever Dovah words that had been forming in her throat, the dragon dropped her head and stared down her nose at the Blade. "Why not?"

Delphine could see her vision blur with the beat of her pulse as she gazed at the last place in the trees where she had seen the shadow. Unable to figure out what about it had frightened her so badly, she turned her fear into anger and bit her words out at Acajou. "It obviously didn't want to attack us. Why waste energy pursuing it?"

"It was running from something, then," Farkas said. He looked at the space in the snow where the figure had landed, narrowing his eyes as the wind blew away the last traces of a single bare human footprint. A sudden chill that had nothing to do with the weather gripped his stomach.

"That was a hell of a way to say hello, if it didn't want to fight," Vilkas said, settling his sword between his shoulders again. "What was that thing?"

"I've never seen anything like it." Aela's voice was more irritated than troubled. Her fierce glare caught Delphine by surprise. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

Delphine shook her head to clear her thoughts, combing her golden hair back with her fingers. "You know about as much as I do."

"The look on your face says otherwise," accused the painted warrior. "Why are you, who walks fearlessly in the company of dragons, so afraid of that creature?"

Delphine put her hands on her bony hips as they made their way back to the hollow. "Acajou isn't a dragon, she's Dragonborn. And if you accuse me of lacking a stout heart again I shall have to forcibly remove you from this group. I did not ask you to come and I do not desire you to be here."

Listening miserably to the argument, Acajou was suddenly alerted to the sound of footsteps. Several sets of footsteps—three, three joor targets for you to play with, the little voice inside her head told her—hurrying up the north side of the snowy slope. They smelled like—oh, no.

"Delphine."

"I missed the part where I was supposed to give a skeever's ass about what you think about me being here," Aela hissed, getting right up in Delphine's face, armor to armor.

The older woman didn't even budge. "If you are going to do nothing but cause trouble on this expedition than you can haul your ass right back to your dinghy in Whiterun where you belong, mutt."

Vilkas stepped up next to his shield-sister, arms crossed over his armored chest. "Not that I want to stick my nose in your lady business here, but I would watch your tone when you address any one of us in that manner," he growled at Delphine. She scoffed at him, and then stumbled forwards when Acajou butted her from behind with her muzzle.

"Delphine, listen!"

Absently, Delphine braced her arm against the crest on Acajou's brow to stave off another nudge. "Believe me, nothing would please me more than to not have to address any of you three at all on this trip! I sorely misjudged Kodlak's Companions if you three are their best representatives. I'm embarrassed to be seen with you. What do you want, Acajou?"

"There's something else coming."

Instinctively, the Companions came together, drawing their weapons and standing in a small triangle, backs together. Removing her sword from its place at her hip, the Blade assumed a battle stance, crouching low, offering the smallest possible target to whatever was coming. Acajou shifted from one foot to the other, her eyes glued to where she had last heard the sound. Fire breath, she thought. As soon as I see them.

For a moment, nothing moved. Even the wind seemed to die down, and the Dragonborn's group stayed statue-still, barely breathing. Waiting.

"We should get behind something," Delphine said, so low that she wasn't sure if anyone heard it.

Aela heard the sharp snap of a linen bowstring before anyone else registered what it was, and only had enough time to shout, "Scatter!". The arrow hissed through the trees, masked by the sound of rain, and sank into Delphine's left bicep so deeply that the arrowhead broke through the thin skin on the other side of her arm. The Blade's face blanched with pain, but she viciously clamped down on the scream that threatened to form in her throat even as she dove for cover behind a jut of rocks at the bottom of the hollow where she hoped the Thalmor couldn't hit. Stars filled her vision as she fumbled with her own bow, feeling the blood squish in her bracer as she closed her numb fingers on an arrow. "Son of a bitch," she choked out. "At a time like this …!"

Farkas crashed to the ground next to her, spraying her with dirt and leaves, and the other two Companions hustled behind a rotted out log as more arrows peppered the ground where they had been standing. Only Acajou was left standing in the open, frozen to the spot, her saving graces being the driving snow and the swirling mist pooling in the hollow. Not even Delphine could clearly make out her jagged outline any more, but she could hear the swelling breath the dragon was inhaling, reminding her of the sound of Sahloknir about to snuff her life out.

"Acajou," she said hoarsely, "you've either got to stay put or go deeper into the woods. Don't fight. Whatever you do, don't fight."

"It's the Thalmor."

The word sent angry fear quaking through the Blade. As if the journey couldn't get any more threatening. Now they were facing Thalmor—a Justicar, most likely—out in the open, while they were all snow blind and exhausted after a full night's travel. "All the more reason for you to listen to me."

"I want to help." The dragon's voice was pleading.

"You can help by not letting them know you're here."

"Judging from the angle of all the arrows not in Delphine's arm, they're at the top of the hill behind us," Vilkas said, baring his teeth at Delphine in a grim smile.

"Look at grandma," Aela laughed lightly. "All of the blood has drained from her face. Are you honestly scared of these high-born bastards?

If these elves had hunted you for nearly all of your life, you would not think this was a laughing matter. Biting her tongue and praying for courage, Delphine nocked an arrow, holding the bow unsteadily in front of her with her wounded arm. The bolt in her arm sent fire through her shoulder and she flinched and hissed through her teeth. Farkas looked at her arm sympathetically.

"It was a bad idea to stay in the open, no matter how poor the visibility was," he said, reaching into some inner pocket in his tunic and pulling out a small dagger. "Let me get that out for you."

"You'd better hurry up, then," Delphine snapped. "As soon as I get a good shot I'm letting fly."

Farkas, not knowing quite what to make of this old woman—she just wasn't any ordinary warrior; he knew that much at least—, put his big hands on either side of the arrow shaft and inspected it. "I have to push the arrowhead the rest of the way through," he told her solemnly. "It's going to hurt."

With an impatient roll of her eyes, Delphine said, "Then do it already, will you?"

"They're coming," hissed Aela. Her auburn hair was wild around her fierce eyes. "If we wait much longer for the old lady to get her shit in order, they'll be on us."

"We're all a team," Vilkas reminded her. "We can't leave a wounded warrior behind, even if they are not of our blood."

Delphine focused her mind away from the pain in her arm so she could listen. She could hear the snow crunching under their Elven boots as the Thalmor picked their way down the slope towards her position. Suddenly, a bolt of silver lightning blasted into the log Aela and Vilkas were hiding behind, blowing half of it to pieces and momentarily blinding them. Aela flipped over onto all fours and hunched in the snow like a cornered rabbit. Delphine set her teeth.

"Come out, worms," a dagger of a voice cried. "The Thalmor blood on your hands cries out for your death."

What are they talking about? Delphine furrowed her brow. We haven't shed Thalmor blood. Yet.

The others didn't seem to notice the speaker's strange choice of wording, and she didn't have time to ponder it for very long anyway, because another volley of arrows pattered into the ground around them, sending up small puffs of snow with each hit. They were closing in. It wouldn't be long until, snowstorm or not, they saw Acajou.

Aela was practically dancing with eagerness, her teeth bared.

"Farkas, Vilkas, I'm going." Her voice was feral now, ending with a fearsome growl.

"Wait, Aela—!"

The Companion pushed away from the log on all fours and leapt nimbly into the whirling white cloud that swallowed their battlefield, leaving her bow propped up on the ruined log. A second later, Vilkas followed her into the fight, tearing off his leather armor like it irritated him to wear it.

"Have they gone mad?" Delphine gasped at Farkas, turning to look at him just as he decided to snap the fletched end of the arrow in her arm off and push the shaft the rest of the way through her arm. The explosion of new pain caught her by surprise and she swore the names of nearly half the Daedric lords before her arm all the way to her fingertips stopped stinging and throbbing. Over her own jagged breathing she could hear the sounds of a vicious battle taking place somewhere she could not see, and by the sound of panicked screams and reports of thunder from desperate shots of lighting flashing aimlessly amongst the trees, she could tell the Thalmor were getting slaughtered. But by whom? Surely not two unarmed Companions?

And there was another sound—growling, snarling, the clipping together of jagged teeth.

"Farkas," Delphine grit out, her mind drawing blanks as to what kind of battle the Companions were fighting, "tell me what is going on."

Instead of offering her an answer, Farkas looked up at Acajou. "Harbinger?" he asked uncertainly. "What should we say?"

"Harbinger? What?" Delphine demanded, furious that her voice would go no louder than a croak. She had to be delirious. There was no way in Nirn that Acajou was a leader of men. "Hey! I asked you a question!"

The dragon fidgeted, turning northwest after making a noncommittal humming noise. "We should keep going. They can catch up when they're done."

"Acajou if you do not tell me what just happened, by the gods I will rip every last tooth from your mouth while you sleep!"

The Dragonborn's voice had the hilarious quality of simultaneously being nervous and nonchalant. "Oh, you know. They're very good at improvising. Sticks and all. You know."

"Sticks against Thalmor? Acajou!"

"Okay so Aela's a werewolf."

This time, both Farkas and Delphine's jaws dropped together.

"A what?"

"Harbinger!" Farkas's face was drawn with betrayal.

Somewhere far down the slope a Thalmor shrieked his dying breath, barely audible over the animalistic roar that preceded it.

"And so's Vilkas."

Delphine's eyes met Farkas's.

"And so's Farkas."

That did it. Delphine somehow leapt up and ran fifteen paces into the snow in one movement and stood clutching her bleeding arm, bracing against a fir tree as she glared accusingly at the idiot whose life was inexorably tied to her destiny. Her fearless leader the Dovahkiin had her walking in the company of maneaters without even telling her.

"You," she told Acajou in a shaking voice. "You!"

Misreading the fury burning in Delphine's blue eyes, Acajou decided to be reassuring. "Me? Oh, you don't have to worry about me, Delphine. I don't have the beast blood. I'm all human."


Ten year anniversary on fanfiction! My, time does fly. Also, happy new year to everyone!

Thanks for waiting patiently for this chapter. I am very excited to write the next one, because soon there might be a bad guy I get to introduce! I love bad guys! The next chapter will be up next Wednesday the 23rd! Getting back to my original updating schedule? How shocking!

This chapter has not been beta'd because my beta is pretending to have food poisoning. Be strong, man! That means all mistakes are mine alone.

Thank you, as always, to my wonderful readers. I really want to make you happy with the story! Thanks again to Madame Hyde, nachosforever, yko, and Branwhin for reviewing.