Most of the companions and whelps were seated around the table. Echo sat next to Ria. Ria passed her a bowl of stew.
"Try it. It's horker stew." Ria said. Echo eyed the stew suspiciously before having a mouthful. She swallowed and gagged.
"Yuck! It's... What's the word for it? I've never tasted anything like it." Echo said and made a face.
"It's rich. You've never had it before?" Ria said in disbelief.
"No! I'm a street rat! That's why I played the skeever trick on you this morning! Street rats hate skeevers and we use them to trick each other all the time. We eat whatever we can get our hands on and that's not rich things! Only rich people can afford rich food and they generally eat it all! Pigs..." Echo said as if it was all perfectly logical. She looked around the table for any familiar foods and spied a plate of cooked chicken.
"Hey, Torvar! Pass the chicken!" Echo called. Torvar glanced at her. Echo could tell he'd already been at the mead.
"How about I throw it at you!" He yelled back. A piece of chicken went sailing across the room. Echo caught it and began tearing the meat from the bone. Torvar swore at her. Echo swore back through a mouthful of chicken.
"No throwing food or swearing." Kodlak scolded. Someone tapped Echo on the shoulder. Echo growled and looked over. Shadow-Killer was sitting next to her.
"Why didn't you go back to Faendal?" He asked.
"Because I always planned to run off and the gate seemed like the perfect opportunity to gain your confidence. Simple plan really. Go to Draonsreach, find an excuse to get sent away and run off. Why are you here?" Echo said through a mouthful of chicken.
"I've always wanted to be a Companion." Shadow-Killer said dreamily. Echo rolled her eyes and muttered something rude. She snatched some boiled leaks and ate them. Echo burped and leaned back. True street rat manners. Or as non-street folk called them; Plain rude. The whelps drifted off to their room one by one. Echo followed them. She took her armour, bow, sword and book and went back out into the mead hall. The circle, minus Kodlak, Torvar and Brill were having some kind of drinking game. Echo moved closer to watch.
"Grab a tankard and pull up a chair!" Torvar yelled to Echo.
"Torvar! Echo's only a child! She can't drink mead!" Kodlak scolded.
"How about fruit juice then?" Torvar said to Echo.
"If you want me driving you mad them count me in. What are we playing?" She asked.
"What do you mean driving us mad?" Farkas asked.
"Fruit juice sends makes me go kinda loopy." Echo replied.
"It's called sugar, Echo, sugar." A drunken Torvar told her. Echo ignored him. Torvar continued.
"We're playing something we like to call drink or dare. Simple as the name. You either pass and drink or take the dare. If you take the dare you have more options. You can pull a piece of paper from the tankard and tell a story about whatever's on it but it has to be a true story. You can have a dare which means we spin a bottle and whoever it points to gets to dare you. If the bottle points to you then you get a free pass. You can tell us how you got a scar. Or you can spin the bottle and whoever it lands on has to ask you a question and gotta answer truthfully. It's Vilkas' turn now." Torvar pointed to Vilkas as if Echo had no idea who he was.
"Tankard." Vilkas pulled a strip of paper from the tankard. He read it and scowled at Aela.
"Scariest moment of your childhood. I'm guessing you wrote this?" Vilkas said to Aela. Aela just shook her head innocently.
"The scariest moment I care to talk about is when I dared Farkas to climb the porch roof." He said with a look at Echo. Echo sank lower in her seat.
"Farkas got up fine. As he was coming down a strong gust of wind knocked him of balance. He slipped and fell. I thought he was dead for a minute until he moaned. That's why I didn't like you climbing the roof." He said to Echo. Echo smiled apologetically.
"Sorry. If I'd known I wouldn't have done it." Echo told him.
"It's fine. Your a child. Children do things without thinking. Farkas?" Vilkas turned to his brother.
"Tankard." He pulled a bit of paper out.
"Worst childhood fear and why. Vilkas, the sooner that bottle lands on me the better." Farkas warned.
"So what was your fear?" Echo asked curiously. She wanted to know why Vilkas thought this was funny.
"My biggest fear was spiders. I woke up one night to find a big one the size of s septim crawling on my hand. I still hate the things." Farkas shiver. A giant that was scared of spiders. That was something Echo hadn't heard before.
"Skjor? Drink or dare?" Farkas asked.
"Scar. Ever wander how I got this scar and went blind in one eye?" He said and pointed to a scar running down his cheek bone and onto his cheek. The eye above the scar was a milky white.
"I worked as a sword for hire for a number of years after coming back from the great war. I was damn good at it too. Someone hired me to accompany them while they went after some powerful old sword. The place was filled with hagravens. One did this to me with it's claws. We didn't even find the sword." Skjor said with a sigh. Echo had heard horror stories about hagravens.
"Did you get brain rot? They say hagravens give you brain rot!" Echo piped up eagerly. Skjor laughed and shook his head.
"No, I didn't. Or at least I don't think so. I drank one of those fancy old cure disease potions after I escaped." He told her. Echo nodded. Skjor was sitting at the end of the line of companions. Brill was at the other end making it his turn.
"Drink or dare?" Skjor asked.
"Drink." Brill said a drained his tankard. Brill turned to Torvar.
"Drink or dare?" he asked a sufficiently drunk Torvar.
"Story. Pass the tankard. I need a refill!" Torvar said and emptied a bottle of ale into the tankard with the scraps of paper.
"You are too drunk. Bed!" Kodlak ordered. When he didn't move Skjor half dragged a drunken Torvar to the sleeping Quarters. Kodlak followed them. Aela, Farkas and Vilkas began rewrite the scraps of paper. Brill announced he was going to bed. Skjor returned to the others just as they finished writing the story dares out. Echo was deep in thought.
"Echo? It's your turn. Drink or dare?" Echo took one sniff of her juice and took the dare. It smelled much too sweet.
"Story." Echo said and pulled a piece of paper out. She showed it to the others.
"The scrap says it so you have to tell us." Vilkas said with a shake of his head.
"No, I can't read." Echo explained.
"It says 'what are you thinking about'" Aela read. Echo nodded.
"Two things. The fact that I can't read and why I think I've heard the name Kijora before and not just mentioned." Echo thought about it. She clicked her fingers as the answer came to her.
"That's it! When I served the soldiers in Windhelm. There was a girl named Kijora. She was nasty." Echo said. She turned to Aela.
"Drink or dare?" The girl asked.
"Truth. Pass the bottle. The empty one. Torvar really needs to go easy on the mead." Aela sighed. She spun the bottle and it landed on Echo.
"Make it embarrassing." Farkas advised. Echo said the first thing that sprang to her mind.
"Who would you marry in this room and why?" Echo asked with a smirk. Farkas cuffed her over the head.
"Call that embarrassing?" He said with a shake of his head.
"None of you because you're all slow." Aela said.
"I am not slow! I proved that today in Skjor's run!" She said indigently. Farkas sighed.
"She means in wit! Even I know that and people call me slow." He said. Echo said something rude. Skjor looked at her.
"You're lucky Kodlak isn't around to hear that one." Skjor warned.
"Drink or dare?" Aela asked Vilkas. They went on like this for a while, with Echo eventually falling asleep after a few rounds.
"Where should we put the bedroll?" Farkas asked.
"Knowing rats, somewhere with an easy exit where she won't be easily surprised. How about by the rails next to the steps down to the fireplace?" Skjor suggested. He glanced over at the sleeping Echo. She occasionally made faint noises and twitched in her sleep. He assumed this was what she had meant by her usual mutterings. Aela made sure Echo wasn't wearing anything that could hurt her if she began to thrash. Echo grunted as Farkas picked her up. When he put her done she grunted again and rolled over. Farkas draped a blanket over her to keep her warm. He looked at her thoughtfully. When Echo was awake and alert she seemed much older than she really was.
"When she's asleep like this it really hits home just how young she is. Maybe she's even younger than she thinks. The four resumed their game of drink or dare, quieter this time so as not to wake Echo.
"Drink or dare, Skjor?" Vilkas asked.
"Dare." Skjor spun the bottle. It landed on Aela.
"Got any good dares or do we need to use the dare tankard?" Farkas asked with a glint in his eye. The dare tankard had been invented when no one could come up with any more dares. It was fully of silly dares written by companions who were drunk, sober or anywhere in between.
"Tankard." Aela said and put a hand into the tankard Farkas held out. The giant held a special love for the dare tankard for some odd reason. Aela unfolded the paper and her face fell.
"Kiss the person on your left. Make it quick!" She growled. Skjor kissed Aela on the cheek. Aela glared at him. She was the youngest of the circle members and Skjor was the oldest. Too old for her. Aela didn't want a partner just yet anyway. She was happy with her life now, hunting, training the whelps and bringing honour to the companions. She had a family. The Companions were her family. Vilkas and Farkas were her brothers, Skjor was her grouchy uncle, Kodlak their grandfather and the whelps her cousins. Eorlund, Brill and Vignar were old family friends. The only person who didn't fit somewhere in that family yet was Echo. Aela was determined to find a place for the girl.
"Vilkas?" Skjor said.
"Scar. Do you know how I got this one?" He asked pointing to a scar above his left eyebrow. Farkas and Skjor nodded but Aela looked curious.
"Farkas and I were out hunting one day when we ran into some wolves. Took them down fine. I was skinning one of the animals when Farkas walks up behind me and scares the living day lights out of me! I jumped and scratched my self with the wolf's claws I had been holding." Everyone laughed. No matter how many times Vilkas told that one it never got old.
"Drink or dare, Farkas?" Vilkas asked his twin.
"Pass the Tankard. I'll take story-" He was cut off by an agonised scream. Echo was thrashing again. They rushed to her. Aela tried to wake the writhing girl as Farkas restrained her. The screaming stopped as she tried to curl into a tight ball.
"No... No... No... G-g-get... From... M-me..." Echo muttered. She convulsed and screamed again. Farkas clapped a hand over her mouth. He felt small, sharp teeth against his hand but they couldn't break the callused skin. Echo's eyes flew open. They were clouded and unfocussed. She tried to shake Farkas off. The nord took his other hand away from her mouth to hold her arms down.
"Get away from me demon!" She yelled. Echo screamed again. There was noise coming from downstairs. Vilkas and Skjor went to deal with the whelps. Aela grabbed Echo's hand and pressed something into it. The girl began to stop struggling as her eyes cleared. Farkas slowly removed his hand from Echo's mouth.
"What happened?" She whispered weakly. Aela looked into Echo's eyes.
"I don't know. You're safe here. Sleep." Aela said quietly. Echo fell into an uneasy slumber. Farkas watched her.
"Will she be alright?" Farkas asked. Aela nodded.
"She'll be alright for now." Aela sat crossed legged on the bedroll with Echo's head and shoulders in her lap.
"I'm going to bed if you don't need any help." Farkas said. Aela shook her head.
"I'll be fine." She told him. Farkas went downstairs to the living quarters. Echo's hand was tightly clenched around the object Aela had given her. Aela gently uncurled the girl's fingers. A piece of clear crystal attached to a silver chain sat in her palm. A small, pointed tooth was suspended in the crystal. Aela's father had given it to her as a gift when she'd left to become a companion. The tooth was from a wolf. The first one she'd ever killed. Echo begun to shiver again and Aela curled the girl's fingers over the crystal. Why was this happening to her? What was wrong with Echo? It had to be more than an infection from the dragon bite. It only happened when Echo slept for starters. The priest had said to fetch him if anything else happened. Something told Aela that no priest would be able to help Echo. No, if Aela was going to help she'd need to know more about Echo and her past.
I got the idea for drink or dare from MadamHyde's fanfiction: Honour among thieves: The unwilling nightingale. It's a great story and any of you that haven't read it need to do so now!
Onto the quiz question. What place in Aela's little family will Echo hold?
Arrow out