After that night, Vilkas kept his word and took Hope out to hunt the next night. He first wanted to go hunt in the plains near Rorikstead, but Hope refused to. "Why?" Vilkas questioned with a lifted eyebrow. "Because..." Hope trailed off trying to think of an excuse. Vilkas shifted his weight to the side and crossed his arms over his chest. He kept an eyebrow raised at her.
"I just don't think it's a good area for hunting, that's why." Hope said while crossing her arms and turning her head away from him. Vilkas scoffs. "Of course it is! It has foxes, elks, and rabbits! When you have those three populating an area, there's bound to be wolves. Not to mention the town and its tavern will be close by, so if we stay out too late we can always just stay at the inn." Vilkas makes a good point, he knows he does, but for some reason she doesn't.
Hope stubbornly shakes her head. "It's not a good spot." She sid again, sticking to her excuse. Vilkas lets out an aggravated sigh as he pinches bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. He wants to try and reason with her about it, but she's stubborn and he knows they'll just spend all night arguing. "Okay, fine." He sighs in defeat, which makes her smile.
Vilkas places his hands on his sides as he starts to look around them. He and Hope were standing outside of the stables, in the middle of the road. Unlike the night before, the skies were clear and the moon was bright, giving them good light to hunt. It was a perfect night for it actually. "Hmm." Vilkas thinks out loud while eyeing the area that lay behind Whiterun.
That area had some good game along with some wolf packs. "Alright, let's go this way." Vilkas pointed in that direction as he started to walk around a small cabbage patch that one of the farmers were growing near Whiterun. Hope quickly follows after Vilkas and watches him start to walk into the open area. Hope stops, standing on the road and not daring to cross over. Vilkas can sense her fear and unease. He stops and turns to her. "What's wrong?" He asks.
She looks at the area behind him and then looks back at him, meeting his eyes. Vilkas watches her rub the back of her leg where her scars were with her other leg. "Back there." She eyes the area behind him again. "That's..." She stops to clear her throat and look down. "That's where I was attacked." She said quietly while keeping her eyes down to the ground.
'Oh.' Vilkas's face sinks into a regretful frown. He too starts to remember like Hope and like her, will never forget. He won't let himself forget, he deserved the dreadful feeling of guilt till the day he died. There's nothing but silence between them in that small moment when they both remember. Vilkas breaks it with clearing his throat and then a sigh.
"We're going passed that." Vilkas finally speaks. "We're not going to be hunting in that area and besides." He stops to watch her look back up at him. "Skjor took care of that wolf, there's no more like it around." When he says the word wolf, Hope makes a face. She furrows her eyebrows and presses her lips together to form a tight line. She still didn't believe it was a wolf and he knew it, because he knew she wasn't stupid. But he couldn't tell her the truth, so he had to call it...him a wolf.
"Listen." He changes the subject and takes a step towards her. "There's no need to be afraid. I'll protect you." He said with crossed arms and a smirk forming on his face. Hope's expression relaxes as she lifts an eyebrow up at him. "I'll even hold your hand if you want." Now he's talking to her like a child with a bigger smirk on his face. She scoffs at him and quickly pushes past him. "I'm not afraid." He hears her mumble as she walks away. He can't help but chuckle as he follows.
They walk through the open area in silence. It wasn't uncomfortable silence, it was just silent because they were hunting. If they were talking the whole time, then they would never catch anything. Vilkas enjoyed it, Hope matched his careful footing and followed his lead, which meant she trusted him. She trusted him to lead them through the open terrain and trusted him to help, as well as protect her in case they came across anything that was too much to handle. Like the troll from last night.
For awhile they only spot elk and foxes in the distance. Vilkas would always let Hope shoot first and every time she did, she would either miss or hit the ground next to her targets, which would always make them run.
Hope lets out a sigh as she pulls an arrow out of the ground. "I just don't get it." Vilkas said while standing behind her with his arms crossed. Hope slightly turns to look at him while putting the arrow back in the bag. "I've watched you hit the target at Jorrvaskr, I watched you hit Aela's shield today with your arrows and hell, I even watched you hit that giant troll's head last night." Hope quickly looks away from him with her eyebrows furrowed. "So I just don't get why you can't hit a simple animal." He said with his hand gestured out towards the spot an elk once stood just a moment ago.
"It's different." Hope mumbles while keeping her eyes away from him. "Hah. How?" Vilkas questioned with hand held out to the side and his head tilted. Hope lets out a sigh as she finally looks back up at Vilkas. "The target I shoot at Jorrvaskr is large and doesn't move. The shield Aela ran with around me today was large and I knew if I didn't hit it a certain number of times, she would run me down or hit me with her shield. The troll, like you said was giant, which means it has a giant head." She puts her index finger to the side of her head.
"So it wasn't hard to miss and I knew if I didn't hit it, it would kill us. Which it almost did anyway, but that doesn't matter now because it still worked out." She sighed as she crossed her arms and looked down at the ground. "Hmm, I see." Vilkas said while scratching at the stubble on his face. "That's why I wanted to go for wolves last night. They would attack and when I'm in danger like that, I always seem to hit my target, whether it be with my sword or my arrow." She said with a shrug.
"Makes sense." Vilkas agrees, but he's not finished. "But it's not right." Hope looks back up at him with her eyebrows furrowed. "The only reason you're able to hit your targets when in a fight is because of adrenaline. It's a reflex that your mind forces you to have when your in danger." He explains. "And so far it's worked, but it won't work every time. You can't always rely on danger, especially if you're aiming to be an archer."
"You're actually supposed to rely on stealth and being focused which is the opposite of what you're doing." Now he's just saying his thoughts on the matter out loud and that was beginning to annoy Hope. "Oh blah blah blah! Get to the point!" She yells to cut him off. "Hmph." Vilkas exclaims, rather offended by her interruption. "My point is, you're focusing on the wrong thing for your skills. That's why I've been having you hunt elk instead of wolves. I want you to focus on your stealth, which means how loud you are moving and where you are moving to."
Hope tilts her head, not sure she understands what he means. "Here." Vilkas grabs her shoulders and moves her forward a couple inches so she is standing where the elk once stood. "Stay here and pretend to not know I'm here. Pretend to be an oblivous elk or bandit, or something." Vilkas instructs as he starts to walk away. "How can I pretend you're not here when I know where you are?" Hope asks as she watches him with a lifted eyebrow. "You won't for long!" Vilkas replies as he continues to walk away.
She lets out a sigh as she turns back around and looks out at the open area in front of her. About a mile away she can see a small stream that crossed the land and near that stream she could see a fox taking a drink out of it. 'We should be hunting, not doing this non sense.' She thinks to herself as she continues to watch the red fox. 'How loud you are moving and where you are moving to.' Vilkas's words ring in her head. 'Being an archer seems to get more difficult the more I get into it.' She thinks to herself with a sigh.
How long has she been standing there? Thirty minutes? More like five minutes but it felt like half an hour to Hope. She lets out an impatient sigh. "Hey, Vilkas!" She quickly turns around to where he was walking away and is surprised to see that he is no where in sight. She shouldn't be surprised though, because he did tell her to pretend she didn't know that he was there. 'What is he hoping to prove by doing this? What point is he trying to make?' She wonders as she starts to look around.
The longer she's alone the more she's at unease. She starts to clench and unclench her fists as she continues to look around for any sign of Vilkas. But there were none and that made her fear start to kick in. "Hey, Vilkas!" She calls but there is no answer. It was silly to be frightened and worried, she knew that, but she couldn't help it. 'If something had attacked Vilkas I would of heard it, right?' She wraps her arms around herself and gives off a small shiver. She's been standing in one spot for too long and Skyrim's chilly air was starting to get to her.
A couple more minutes start to pass by and she can feel panic begin to rise in her. She tries to keep her cool and to put her worrisome thoughts away, but it was difficult. "Okay Vilkas! I get it!" She yells loudly while darting her eyes around. "You can come back now!" She yells louder as she starts to shiver more and she can't tell if it was from the cold or the fear inside her.
"Vilkas!" She yells louder as she completely turns around to face the open area behind her. She looks down towards the direction that Vilkas walked and was looking for any place he could possibly be hiding in. She sees none, all she can see is land. 'Okay, this has gone on far too long.'
Suddenly, a large hand grips Hope's shoulder and then soon she's gasping for air as she just got the air knocked out of her from being slammed down to the ground. Her reflexes kick in and she immediately starts to fight, but something cold and sharp being pressed down on her neck forces her to stop. Now her hands are being held above her head with another strong grip, strong and large enough to hold both of her hands down together.
Her eyes are shut, they've been shut since she's been taken down to the ground. Her body reacted so fast that she didn't even think to open her eyes and now she's too afraid to. But when she hears a familiar chuckle come from above her, she furrows her eyebrows and quickly opens her eyes. It was Vilkas, he was hovering over her with one hand holding her hands still and the other holding a dagger to her throat, and had one big smirk on his face.
"That was a little too easy, I don't think Aela's training you right." He said with a chuckle at the end. He couldn't help but laugh at the look on her face. "Vilkas!" She yells angrily as she starts to squirm underneath him. "Get off me!" She yells again. "Huh, never had a woman say that to me before while being on top." He said with an even bigger smirk.
Hope's eyes widen as a visible blush forms on her face. "Huh?!" She exclaimed in embarrassment and in shock. "That's so dirty! Get off!" Her voice squeaks loudly and Vilkas laughs. He really laughs and that's something he hasn't done in a long time. He lets go of her arms and releases the blade from her neck, but he's laughing so hard all he can do to get off her is roll to his back on the ground next to her.
Hope quickly sits up and turns her head to glare at him while rubbing her wrist. He has an arm laying over his eyes and a hand gripping his stomach as he continues to laugh. She lets out a loud, irritated puff of air as she gets to her feet. "That wasn't funny Vilkas!" She said with a stomp from her foot.
Now Vilkas just lays there, catching his breath from laughing so much and so hard. "I don't know." He said with another laugh. "It was pretty funny to me." He chuckled as he sits up from the ground. Hope watches leaves and grass fall from the back of his hair as he looks at her with an amused smile on his face. "Hmph." She exclaims annoyed while looking away from him with her arms crossed.
Vilkas lets out a satisfied sigh as he gets back up to his feet. He dusts himself off and then picks up Hope's bow and arrows. "Here." He held them out to her. Hope turns and looks at them with wide, unbelieving eyes. "How? When?" She furrows her eyebrows as she takes them from him. "I disarmed you before I took you down." He said rather proudly. Hope looks back up at him, keeping her eyebrows furrowed.
"That's one of the advantages of stealth. Being able to disarm your enemy before they know what hits them." Vilkas said with grin. "It's a very important skill to have, especially if you're wanting to be an archer." Vilkas explained while crossing his arms. "If it's an important skill for archers then why can you do it so well? You wear heavy armor and use a two handed blade." Hope points out.
"Every type of warrior should know several types of skills, skills other than weapons." He starts to explain. "Just because I use a two handed blade doesn't mean I like to just charge in and swing in every direction. That's more of Torvrar's style."
"I like to try and sneak around the enemy so I can get a good count of how many there are in a room or area. That's something you should like to do as well. It's smart and it lets you pick the best targets to take out first or attack first." He explains. 'One target at a time.' Aela's words echoe in her mind when Vilkas said that. Hope stares at him for a moment and then looks down at the ground thinking. 'He's right, he's been right about everything.'
Vilkas snaps her out of it with a hard pat to the back. She quickly looks up at him. "Come on, let's go find some more elk and I'll show you how it's done." He said with a nudge of his head. Hope nods as she starts to follow him while placing her bow and arrows back in their place on her back.
It takes Vilkas and Hope a little while to find anything, they didn't even see a fox run by. For a while Vilkas was worried that they had scared off all of the animals in the area but soon after that worry, they came a cross two grazing elks. Vilkas quickly gets low to the ground and instructs Hope to do the same.
"I want you to look around the area carefully and tell me what you see." Vilkas whispered. Hope slowly looked around, eyeing the area around them as much as she could. "I see flat land and a few trees." She whispered back. Vilkas lets out a sigh as he shakes his head. "What?" Hope questioned with furrowed eyebrows. "You're not really looking, you're not really seeing." Vilkas motioned two fingers towards his eyes. "Let me tell you what I see." He slowly scoots closer to Hope and places a hand on her back
"I see shadows, I see rocks, and I see a pond." He points at all of those things with his finger. Hope furrows her eyebrows as she tries to seem them to. She can see the shadows, and she can see the pond but she can't see any rocks. "Where are seeing rocks?" She asks. "You're looking for the wrong kind." Vilkas tells her. "What kind of rock is the wrong kind?" She asks more confused than she was before.
"You're looking for large rocks to hide behind, right" He asks. She nods. "I'm not looking at those because I know there are none. I'm looking at the ones laying beside the pond, the small ones." Vilkas points again at the pond that lay just a few feet away from the elk. Hope looks over and can see a small shimmer of light reflect off the small rocks that came from the bright moon. She then slowly moves her eyes across the pond on the far side of it and can see tall grass along with some shadows behind it. Without another word, Hope starts to slowly and quietly make her way over to the tall grass. Vilkas lets her and watches closely.
It takes a good couple of minutes for Hope to reach the pond and the tall grass, but it was worth it because the elk had no idea she was there and she was close. So close that she could make out the markings on their coats. Hope slowly sits up and examines her targets. One had its bottom facing her and the other had its whole side to her with its head down to chew on the grass.
The one with its side to her was the easiest target and it was closer to her, so she knew she'd be able to hit it. Hope readies an arrow and slowly pulls it back and aims it for that elk, but she starts to think. 'The moment I hit it with my arrow, the other one will take off running.' She slowly lowers her bow back down and takes the arrow off the string. 'Does that matter though? I only need to hit one..' She starts to think again but she knows that's wrong. If these elk were bandits or wolves, she would need to hit both of them.
She knows that they are neither one of those things, but she needs to treat them like they are. 'You need to take your training seriously. You need to act like your life is on the line.' Aela's words come to her again. She lets out a quiet sigh as she pinches the bridge of her nose. 'I hate it when they're right.' But she shouldn't hate it. Because they are trained warriors, they are Companions who have seen more blood shed and fights than anyone she's ever known. Even Vilkas. He was annoying, but he always knew what he was talking about and she needed to listen.
"Okay.." She quietly sighs to herself as she looks back up over the grass at the elk on the other side of the small pond. She eyes the small rocks on the other side of the pond and starts to see why Vilkas pointed them out. She could throw one to distract one of the elk, but they were too far and too close to her targets. If she tried to go over there they would see her and run, but she knows what she needs to do now, or try to do anyways.
This was a pond, it had to have more rocks around. Hope starts to look around carefully through the grass and smiles when she finds one, but only one. She can't seem to find anymore near her, so she needed to make this one count. She grabs the rock and holds it tightly in her fist as she looks back up at her targets. Neither one of them has moved.
She moves her eyes to the one that was facing her more than the other. She decides that one would be the one to distract and the other one would be the one to take out first. 'Okay, I can do this.' She tells herself, trying to boost her confidence and make her nerves calm down. They were just elk but it was still exciting.
Hope slowly moves to the left of the grass while keeping her eyes on the nearest elk. She then quickly throws the rock across the small pond and over the elk. It lands just a few inches away from it and it makes the elk jump and quickly lift its head. The other one lifts its head as well but it doesn't move, it just watches with its ears twitching in all kinds of directions.
'Of course that one would hear it to.' Hope clenches her jaw as starts to feel regret her decision, but it's too late now and she needs to make it work. The elk closest to the rock starts to slowly and carefully walk in the direction it landed. It took small steps and had its head stretched forward trying to catch the scent of whatever it was. The other one watched and waited for a signal to run.
'Now, I have to do it now!' Hope quietly but quickly makes her way around the pond with an arrow being pulled back. She keeps her distance from the pond so not to alert the elk and when she's close enough to the one standing still, she shoots. The arrow flies and lands right in the elks skull. She readies another arrow and has it pulled back before the first elk hits the ground. The second one quickly turns its head to her but before it can even attempt to escape, an arrow lands right between its eyes.
She stands there with wide eyes as the second elk hits the ground hard. She slowly lowers her bow down and shifts her eyes between the two dead elk in front of her, still not believing that she just did that. A small smile crept across her face as her heart thumps hard against her chest from the excitement.
She can hear Vilkas run over to her. "I did it!" She yells with her arms shooting up in the air, full of excitement. Vilkas smiles at her and then looks down at the two dead elk. "Good job, I'm surprised you actually pulled that off." He admitted while rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, I'm just good." Hope said with a shrug and a smirk. "Alright, now you're just getting a big head." Vilkas chuckled as he started to pull the arrows out of the elk's head.
"I meant it though." He looks back up at her and holds the arrows out to her. "Good job." He said with a smile. Hope takes the arrows out of his hand and looks at the blood covered tips, she then looks back up at him with her own smile. A smile that made Vilkas's heart skip a beat. He stares at her with widened eyes and warmth spreading through out his body.
Vilkas quickly looks away and clears his throat. "Come on, let's get these back to Jorrvaskr. I'm sure Tilma will be able to make something good out of them." Vilkas said as he started to tie their hooves together with rope he always carried. "Huh? But I want to keep hunting." Hope protested like Vilkas knew she would.
"I think we've done enough for one night." Vilkas said while looking back up at her. She had a small pout on her face. He wanted to give in when he saw it, but he knew it was getting late and the smell of fresh blood always made the wolf inside him restless. He couldn't take any chances. "It's getting late and I'm sure Aela has more training for you to do tomorrow." Vilkas said while making his way over to the other elk.
Hope sighs at the thought of that. She was tired of training. "Don't worry though, I'll take you out hunting again soon." He assured her with a smile but now something else was on Hope's mind. When she didn't respond Vilkas looked up at her and saw her look down with what looked like something on her mind. "Can I ask you something?" She finally speaks while looking back at him.
Vilkas nods. "Do you think I'm ready to take on small jobs?" She asks with hopeful eyes. Vilkas lets out a sigh and looks back down at the elk, he knows what she wants to hear but he doesn't know if his answer is going to satisfy her. He stands back up straight and rubs the back of his neck while looking away.
She was getting better and learning faster but he just didn't know. He lowers his hand down and looks back at her, she still had hopeful eyes staring at him. "Maybe." He finally answers. A big smile quickly spreads on Hope's face. "Really?!" She asks excitingly. "I said maybe." Vilkas pointed a finger at her but that didn't make her excitement go away. "Let me talk to Kodlak tomorrow and we'll see what he says." He said with a small smile. "Now grab one of the ropes on the elk and help me drag them back." Hope nods and quickly does so.
They found their way back to the road and were now walking down it with the elks dragging behind them. Vilkas was surprised how well Hope was able to drag the elk, she chose the smaller one of course, but it still had to be heavy. Vilkas eyed the flexing muscles in Hope's arms and was impressed. All of her hard work was starting to pay off. He looked back up at her face and saw beads of sweat running down from her forehead and into her shirt.
He followed one drop with his eyes. He watched it fall from top of her forehead and watched it slide down to the bottom her jaw. It stopped at the drop off from her jaw for a small moment before falling and landing on her chest. Vilkas watched it slowly slide down and then curve to the middle of her chest, soon disappearing and falling down to what he assumed was the middle of her breasts.
The image of it made Vilkas's jaw tighten, he forced himself to look away before something else came to his mind. Now he started to wonder about something. 'Never heard a woman say that to me before while being on top.' His own words come to his mind as does the look on Hope's face when he had said them. She was so embarrassed and shocked by those words, he can't help but wonder...
"Hey." Vilkas speaks, breaking the silence between them. Hope turns her head and looks at him. "You ever been with a man before?" He asks that rather too casually. Hope's eyes widen and a very visable blush appears on her cheeks. "Huh?!" She's so shocked by that question she drops the rope she was holding. She comes to a quick stop and completely turn towards Vilkas.
"What do you mean!?" She asks rather hysterically. Vilkas stops as well and holds a hand up in his defense. "Calm down." He tells her with a chuckle, he can't help but find her reaction funny. "I'm just wondering if you've ever been with someone, like relationship wise." He explains clearly. "Oh." Hope starts to relax a bit but then lifts an eyebrow at him. "Why? You interested?"
Vilkas quickly scoffs and looks away. "I already told you that you're not my type." He said while crossing his arms. "I'm just curious is all." He said with a small shrug. "Right." She rolled her eyes but then started to really think about it. She's not sure why, but Erik's face comes to her mind. She frowns at the image, but not in anger. More like guilt. She's been training so much, she hasn't really spent anytime thinking about him like she did her family.
It was strange that he was the first thing to come to her mind, they always stayed close friends but never went past that and now she's not sure what they are, especially after... She tightly shuts her eyes to make that painful memory go away, there was nothing there but the feeling of betrayal and she didn't want that feeling to show every time she thought of him.
"No." Hope finally answer as she opens her eyes. Vilkas looked back at her surprised. She was an attractive young woman, has there really been no man to try and court her? 'Good.' An inner voice speaks with in him but he quickly pushes it away. He pushes such thoughts like that away, he had to right to think like that.
He clears his throat while shifting his weight to the side and looks Hope up and down. She furrows her eyebrows at him. "So..." He clears his throat again while looking back up to her face. "Does that mean...You've never..." He waves his finger up and down, motioning out her whole body. Hope's eyes widened as the blush from before reappears on her face. "Huh!?" Her voice squeaked again. Vilkas laughs making Hope's embarrassed features turn into angry ones. "You're so dumb!" She yells at him in a high pitched voice and then storms off down the road.
"Hey!" Vilkas calls after her with another laugh. "You forgot the elk!" He motions a hand out to the elk she dropped. "Carry it yourself!" He hears her yell to him. She was a good distance away now and was practically running. Vilkas lets out satisfied sigh as he picks up the rope attached to the elks hooves and pulls it over his shoulder. "You sure do know how to chase em off Vilkas." He whispers to himself with another chuckle. Now he has to drag two large elk home by himself thanks to him, but it was worth it. The amusing, innocent, shocked look on Hope's face was definetly worth it.