"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."

― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

The weathervane turned rapidly in the wind, its rusted iron joint creaking with ever fading protests.

"North, south, north…eas-pfft!" Thaylen delicately pulled her hair from her mouth, sticking her tongue out in irritation; it had not been the first time this had happened today.

She blearily focused on the patchy yellow paint of the chicken that graced the centre of the compass points. A chicken…of course it's a chicken. With a snort she let her eyes sweep out over Whiterun, chin resting on her crossed arms as she leant on the shabby fence that bordered Jorrvaskr off from the rest of the city.

Carpenters these people ain't. She picked at the hodgepodge thatching absentmindedly, she'd have to ask Eorlund for some help in repairing it. Gods knew she'd patched up her fair share of fences back at home. Abruptly her fingers paused in their unravelling of the strands and her eyes widened in shock.

Home, where was home? Thaylen hadn't been on her farm for, what was it, a month? A month and a half? She couldn't even remember, how sad was that? The healthy wind played with her hair, tugging the black strands from her lazy ponytail. Her turnips would be well past rotting point by now, who knows; maybe a family had taken her land.

Ah, family, at least she didn't have to worry about that. Being an only child did have its perks but also a bitter downside. Once her parents had departed this world the unmarried Thaylen had found herself alone, with a bustling farm to take care of.

Not that it mattered; she'd hired a few farmhands and got straight to work. That was how it had gone, day in day out, tend the crops, chase the chickens, harvest the crops, chase the chickens, sell the crops, kill the chi-

"Hey grumpyguts! You ready?" She smiled before turning around with an outraged glare.

"I was waiting for your lazy arse you know!" Farkas grinned at her response.

"Well then, I'll promise not to go too hard on you today," he laughed, then coughed, "Talos knows you'll need it."

Thaylen punched him in the arm and had to hop around for a minute until the pain went away.

"Argh, whatever, let's get this over with." She stormed off to the training ground, Farkas dawdling after her.

The weathervane settled at the east.

FLASHBACK

It was howling again.

Her stomach coiled in on itself as she realised that she was back in that bloody forest. Noticing she was lying on the ground, Thaylen hastily got to her feet. Her eyes flitted around the area but found no trace of her deranged dance partner. The clearing was empty and the howl was fading into the distance.

It was deathly cold and as Thaylen rubbed at her arms she felt a warm wetness. Peeling her left hand back she was shocked to discover thick blood coating her fingers. She checked her arm but there was no wound to be seen. Her head was pounding from pain but caused by what, she didn't know.

The trees seemed to sigh as a light breeze rustled their branches; the ghostly touch of light fingertips ran down the back of her neck. Thaylen froze, whirling around to see a silvery aura slowly skulking from the forest.

Vilkas tried to put Thaylen down as gently as possible but couldn't stop her head from thudding ungracefully against the ground.

"Shit." He muttered, guiltily checking to see if she'd stirred but the woman was silent.

He figured that they had only been in the cave for a few hours at the most; the sky was just beginning to darken. He checked Thaylen again, ensuring that the makeshift bandage he'd made for her right arm was still in place. To think she was practically unmarked when she came to us, he gave a derisive snort before turning back to the entrance of the cave. He had a promise to keep.

The elopers where still where they'd left them. Cruelly displayed for all eyes to see, it was a wonder someone hadn't eradicated those vampires already. Nose wrinkling at the all too powerful stench of blood, Vilkas managed to pull the man from the spike he'd been impaled on. He set him on the ground, not minding the gore that covered his hands.

Next came the woman, he plucked what arrows he could from her before laying her next to the man. He stood back and observed them, the bodies looked pitifully small in the lengthening shadows and Vilkas noticed that their eyes where still wide open. Disturbed, he knelt to close them and almost laughed at the irony.

It was strange, he thought, to be killed by one kind of monster and buried by another.

The silver aura's entrance was somewhat ruined by Thaylen flinching wildly and grasping her head in one hand.

"Ow, shit!" she hissed, for a second she'd been certain that somewhere her head had hit something.

The aura seemed to hesitate, as if it wasn't quite sure how to react to the random outburst, before it drew itself together and formed a solid figure. Thaylen squinted at it in confusion, not sure whether she should either run away from it or towards it. The light grew brighter, causing her to cover her eyes in an attempt to protect them from the harsh glow. After a moments silence she hesitantly opened them.

She stiffened in shock when her eyes adjusted enough to notice the man standing opposite her. Flat silver eyes stuck to hers, they seemed to pierce through them to her brain, sifting through her private thoughts. Thaylen didn't like it. It was practically one step away from rape in her opinion. She could feel it there, unwelcome, in her head, probing her mind.

"Stop that." The words cracked like a whip and she stood stock still, mortified at what had escaped her lips.

"Hmph." Was all the reply she got.

Hmph, hmph?! Hmph was not what you expected from your everyday mystical being, hmph was the reply you got from an irritated jackass (see appendix A: Vilkas). Thaylen narrowed her eyes at the man, still cautious enough not to completely drop her guard but just wondering exactly how she managed to attract all of the uptight, surly know-it-all's in this shitty country. The air around the man distorted for a second and before Thaylen could blink, he was barely a pace away from her. The Nord automatically tried to back away but found that she could not move an inch.

"I'd introduce myself but I'd daresay we've already…met." The silver man tilted his head to the side, regarding her like a dog does a particularly tasty treat.

A small yip made Vilkas's head shoot up from where he was currently thigh deep in freshly turned soil. He glanced around in confusion before spotting the source of the noise. Thaylen appeared to be halfway through some sort of nightmare and was currently tossing and turning on the spot where he'd laid her down. Bloody crazy woman, the idiot dreams like a dog for Talos's sake. As he watched, she writhed violently to one side, hitting her forehead once again on the ground.

He could have laughed.

"What?" Though her brain had been screaming at her to 'act intellectual' the unintelligent exclamation had still slipped her lips. The man leered.

"Before, in the cave? Sorry if I handled you a bit…roughly, it was all in your best interests," the grin was reaching 'skooma overdose' proportions, "trust me."

Thaylen decided that she wasn't going to trust him.

The cave, the bandits, the vampires….THE VAMPIRES. She shuddered, remembering those terrifying red eyes and those teeth. Thaylen had been especially alarmed by the teeth. Her hand slew the monster but it wasn't her controlling it.

"You. You did that? Why? Why save me?" she sputtered.

"You've been providing a certain sense of entertainment to an otherwise dull life dear," his voice was distorted, deep one word, high the next and sometimes in languages that she knew she shouldn't understand but somehow could, "See, they were trying to take you away….you're mine."

As the last word fell from his lips the howling was back full force. It pushed its way through her ears and into her brain, so forceful that she could taste it. Adrenaline pumped through her veins with no place to go, wind blew through her fur and she was running, running with her packmates beside her. The scent of blood was on the air and in their minds, until it consumed them. Somewhere a woman screamed and kept screaming, her voice weaving through the howl. And through it all the moon was shining, shining until-

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" her shriek was so loud that the man actually stepped back. Thaylen clutched at her ears, feeling the blood that coated them. She glared at him with all the fury she could muster, green eyes hot and angry. For once not afraid.

"I don't know who you think you are but if you screw with my mind again, I'll- I'll…" in a rush the adrenaline left her, leaving her shivering and sweaty. The silver man placed his hand on her forehead forming a hot pressure until she was afraid he'd burn through her very skin.

"Save your fury child, you will need it to survive in this life," soft, so soft was his voice now, it was fading too, Thaylen's eyesight wavered and grew fuzzy around the edges, "you will come to me soon but for now, sleep and rise again,"

He said something else but the blackness pulled her down.

Thaylen jerked upright with a gasp. In her dazed state she managed to focus on three things. One, that it was no longer daytime. Two, that her whole body felt like it had been run over by a carriage which had then reversed over her again. And finally, that possibly the last person she wanted to see right now was waving his hand in front of her face.

"Vilkas, what…." She felt incredibly groggy; his image kept slipping from her vision, so she scrunched her eyes up and focused on the blackness. Soon she found herself drifting off, sinking into the comforting silence. A hand on her shoulder shook her roughly, making her head lance with pain. She growled in discomfort but the shaking continued.

'ARGH, WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" Her eyes flew open and focused irritably on his face. He sat back on his haunches, staring at her with a pensive gaze. He was a bit scruffy looking, she realised, like he'd just been in a fight.

Oh, right.

Duh.

She saw his expression change as the understanding must have shown on her face. He looked…relieved, uncertain? Strange, she thought, rubbing her right arm absentmindedly. Slowly, she removed her hand and stared at her fingers, unable to shake off the nagging feeling that something was amiss. The quick intake of breath from Vilkas made her jump.

"What?" she asked. He was beginning to worry her; for once he hadn't even opened his mouth to drop some disparaging comment or another. He didn't seem to hear her question though, blue eyes staying focused on her arm. Thaylen lifted it up and gave it a cursory examination which yielded no results. As always, her right arm was pure flesh and bone; apart from a few bruises here and there it remained unblemished.

"Vilkas? You're kinda giving me the creeps here…" an uneasy laugh bubbled to her lips. His shoulders jolted at her words

"Never mind," he muttered, abruptly standing up and moving away, leaving a disgruntled Thaylen on the ground.

"Such a gentleman you are," she grumbled to herself, "why yes Thaylen how about I help you to your feet, oh, you're tired? Here I'll piggy back you all the way back to Whiterun considering it's MY fault we got lost in the first place," she pulled herself up, dusting off her clothes as she did so and went to follow Vilkas, still continuing her one sided tirade. "Wow, you look like shit! Why don't you lay and rest awhile, after all it's not like I've been doing anything usefu-!"

WHUMP.

The Nord managed to pull off a five star trip. Arms flailing she crunched into the ground face first.

"Ack, what….oh." she turned over angrily to see what had tripped her but quickly shut her mouth at the sight of two freshly packed mounds of earth.

"Here, carry this." Her wide eyed stare was interrupted by Vilkas chucking her pack in her face. She rose to her feet once more, giving him a guilty look from the corner of her eye but he was busy scouting out the track.

"Uh, how about we take the main path this time?" she hesitantly pointed out the cobblestones that peered out around the corner. He gave her a nod, shouldering his pack he moved off with long enough strides that she had to jog to catch up. The jingle of coins gave her a moment's pause. With a frown she fished around in her pockets, coming up with a small orange coin purse. She stared at it for a while, before catching up with Vilkas.

"That was some vampire eh?" she said absentmindedly, running the coarse cloth through her fingers. She sensed rather than saw Vilkas study her carefully.

"Yes." His voice was hesitant.

"I mean sure, it was freaky but not as scary as I'd thought one would be," she threw the purse up in the air and caught it, the noise of gold was satisfying to say the least, "I mean all I had to do was distract it with the apple while you turned it into a Nosferatu kebab."

"Hm, that was some quick thinking," he gave her a small smile, "good job." Thaylen couldn't stop the grin from stealing across her face.

"Hah! So you admit it, I'm actually useful for something!" she paused, unsure whether she'd just ridiculed herself or not.

"Taking pot-shots at creatures of the night with apples? I suppose you do make for good bait." This time he gave a full-fledged grin at the look on her face and dodged her incoming elbow to the ribs.

"Hmph," she growled, "it's a real pity we couldn't find any way deeper into the cavern though," she tossed the purse once more but this time missing it as it came back down. She crouched to pick it up, muttering as she did so, "ah well, at least I've finally got some mone- VILKAS LOOK OUT!"

He'd been staring at her with a shocked expression and didn't have enough time to doge as a ball of black fur and slavering teeth barrelled into his side.

"Son of a bitch!" he screeched, foregoing his broadsword and instead reaching for his dagger as the wolf pushed him to the ground.

"Sneaky buggers didn't even bother howling!" from the sounds of it, Thaylen was busy with her own attacker.

The wolf snapped at him but Vilkas grabbed it by the throat before it could munch on his face. Not wasting any time he sank his dagger to the hilt in its neck. Yellow eyes stared into his own until the life faded from them. He grimaced in sympathy as its blood coated his fingers.

Sorry brother.

He pushed the body off of him, yanked his blade from its neck and quickly looked to see what Thaylen was up to. Talos grant me patience. His brows furrowed at the sight of his apprentice frantically dodging the wolves increasingly close lunges at her legs.

"Oh bloody hell, would you stop being such a wuss and hit it!" She gave him an incredulous look before dancing backwards, out of the wolves range once more. At least she's gotten faster, he observed.

"WHAT?!" she shrieked and he gave her a silencing glare before sitting down on a nearby boulder to watch.

"We don't have all day you know." He called with a smirk. He could practically hear her teeth grinding together.

She evaded one last lunge from the mutt and drew her sword. Her right side was turned to Vilkas and he gave a small exclamation of surprise. Re-branded into her skin of her arm was the tattoo, deer, wolf and all. Eyes pinned to her movements he observed that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, nothing different from her actions in the cave.

Snarling, the wolf prepared a final leap but Thaylen brought her sword down. Point first it crunched into the beasts skull, abruptly halting its ascent. Lucky swing, Vilkas grumbled to himself, eyes still fixed on the tattoo. He blinked as the ink began to fade, almost retreating into the woman's skin. He blinked again, he'd have to go through some of the old tomes Kodlak had stored away when they got back and find out what this really meant.

"I could have died while you sat on your arse!" he looked up to see Thaylen struggling to yank her sword from the wolf; finally succeeding she turned to him, pulling a face at the gore dripping from its surface.

"Big deal." Vilkas muttered, not bothering with the glare she gave him.

So she doesn't remember the other vampires and obviously has no idea about the tattoo. He watched her as she did a less than perfect attempt to clean her sword on the wolfs fur. Apparently satisfied, the black haired woman tried to sheathe it, missed completely and had to hold onto the scabbard to ensure it worked the second time. He covered his face with his hand.

I need a drink…

FLASHBACK END

Thaylen parried Farkas's sword as it came across in a sideswipe. The shock travelled up her arm as always but she found herself pleased that she didn't drop her sword.

"Good!" he bellowed before hacking at her twice as fast so she had to hop back to avoid his blow.

Setting her jaw and stepping forward Thaylen threw out a few jabs, managing to catch her opponent on the thigh before his sword came back to attempt bashing the crap out of her. The two moved around the training yard, surefooted on the sandy ground. Their blades met and parted, sometimes barely touching one another other times pushing back and forth, locked together for a while.

With a lightning fast twist Farkas parried her uppercut and launched a blow at her chest. Eyes widening Thaylen desperately brought her blade around to meet his…and caught it under the cross guard. Grinning in joy she twisted her blade and sent his spinning from his hand. Farkas completely stopped, teeth flashing in a wolfish smile. Thaylen acted likewise, having finally managed to disarm someone.

"Oh hell yes!" she screeched, causing Farkas to cover his ears. She quietened down quickly; her friend seemed to have very sensitive ears. He trundled over to his sword and picked it up before resuming his stance.

"This means I can go all out on you now right?" his eyes flashed.

"Hell y-WHAT. NO." she backed up quickly, she'd barely touched him as he was holding back. If he went all out she'd be a pile of mush on the pavement, and he wasn't even fighting with his broadsword!

"Looking good Giant Slayer!" Thaylen turned to see Aela and Vilkas approaching from the Skyforge. Vilkas shouldered his newly sharpened broadsword, while Aela was carting a new quiver of arrows. She also held something smaller in her hand, which she tossed to Thaylen.

"Here, catch," Thaylen fumbled for it having to drop her training sword to do so, she saw Vilkas raise an eyebrow but he made no comment, "Eorlund said to give it to you."

"Hey, my knife-dagger-thing!" she turned it over in her hands, the cold steel pressing into her flesh.

The hilt had been rebound with black leather and the blade fully replaced with a material far brighter than ordinary steel. She gave a grin, moving to sheathe it but realising at the last minute that she didn't exactly have a scabbard on. Her mouth twitched at the sound of Farkas's badly supressed laughter and Vilkas gave a tired sigh.

"Uh…I better go… say thanks." She dashed off, leaving Aela watching her with raised eyebrows.

"Seems she's finally coming into her own," She observed, "she managed to disarm you Farkas." That made the nord stop chuckling.

"Hey, I was making it easier for her you know." He gave the huntress a wounded look.

"Yeah but you've been swinging a sword around since you could hold one." She pointed out.

"True…what do you think Vilkas? You reckon she's ready?" he nudged his twin, who'd been testing the edge of his sword with a finger. He looked up at the question.

"I'd give her a week or so." he said curtly before moving off to Jorrvaskr.

"Stingy bugger." Farkas muttered, not without affection. Aela laughed before throwing an arm around his shoulders as they followed Vilkas, making more joking comments about the surly twin's demeanour.

"Are you two belittling Vilkas without me?" Thaylen grinned as she joined her arm through Aela's, "You know it's my favourite pastime." The three laughed as one as they reached the oaken doors that led to a warm fire and food…only to see it held open by Vilkas. He looked at them with a stony expression.

"You lot are far too loud."

"Oh shut up, you enjoy the attention." Aela poked her tongue at the Nord. His eyes widened at the huntresses uncharacteristic behaviour before he pointed an accusing finger at Thaylen.

"You. Are a bad influence." He said gravely but his eyes were light.

Thaylen made a rude gesture as the doors closed, muting the laughter that came from within.

A.N: ASDFGHJKL ARGHH I'm so sorry, really this took way too long to write! It's been what, two months since I last updated? Dear god I suck at this :P Well, anyway school kinda ran me over in a semi-trailer with a shit tonne of assignments and then the dreaded BLOCK EXAMS all this week and the next. But seeing as I only spend about two hours each day at school for that I told myself I was updating this week.

So I did!

This chapter was hell for me, it's all over the place but I no longer care, just glad that it's out of the way.

Also, yes Nosferatu. How the hell would Thaylen know about that? Well….the Companions totally have a flat screen TV hidden somewhere in their big upside down boat thing…yeah.

So, anyway I apologise beforehand for any crappy dialogue and/ or punctuation and spelling.

Replies to reviews

KrystylSky: Ahh, thank you^^ As you can see I totally took the cheap way out from that one… ehehehehehe don't hate me ;)

Lalala: Thank you! I've been trying really hard to keep Thaylen out of Mary Sue territory so if she starys be sure to whack me over the head :L As for the amount of reviews, I don't really mind that much, it's just nice to have people reading my story :)

Tinkies: Much appreciated! Great to know you like my description :) Hope you keep enjoying it ^^

Twiranux: Wow, gee thanks ^^ I never thought people would like this so much ^^ Thanks again :)

Spica Celeste: ASDFGHJKL I love, massive reviews! This is great, you're great, it's all great :D I already sent you a reply (which I promise to start doing with everyone now) but thanks again ^^

Lyfed: ahahaha yes, the chickens. I'm trying to mention them in every chapter from now on. Just so as they're always there, annoying the crap out of Thaylen :)

Well that was a garbled mess :P

Enjoy and comment :)

Oh wait before I forget

IMPORTANT NOTE ON WEREWOLVES:

When a werewolf is put under considerable negative stress (grief, anger) its emotions can take over its body and put it under another change. The longer a person has been infected, the easier and quicker the changes become, but negative changes are always considerably more painful than normal ones. The first change for a werewolf is always the hardest, bones snapping and reforming everywhere but they get progressively less painful until one can do so without even flinching.

I'm stressing in this fic that the werewolfism is a disease that's linked very closely to feelings and emotions. So while Farkas is the bigger of the twins, he has a very laid back personality (in my fic anyway) so Vilkas is the more dangerous of the two because of his mental state of health.

Cover page © The-Lazy-artist on deviantart