"Geldis!" Vanya knocked on his door and walked in, not bothering to wait for an answer since his door was cracked open.
He was reclining on his bed with his eyes closed, smoking his long pipe. He peeked one eye open, speaking with the tip of the pipe in his mouth. "What is it?"
"I need your help with something." She pulled the dagger from her hip. She had been wearing it on her belt to get used to the feeling. "Would you cut my hair?"
He coughed a little as he laughed, "Why don't you have Niyya do it?"
"She's not here." Vanya raised an eyebrow at him as if that were obvious. "Come on, it will be easy. I already have my hair tied back in the right place. All you have to do is cut." She pulled his chair from the desk and sat down, holding the dagger over her shoulder for him to take.
He sighed as he got up, setting his pipe on the side table. "Fine, but if this goes poorly I don't want to hear about it," he said as he took the dagger.
"Just cut right underneath where I've got it tied, you can't mess it up."
She was practically giddy. She'd been sleeping better since her nightmares had finally abated and though she was nearly bored to tears staying inside the past couple weeks, it was a fair trade in her opinion. A haircut always made her feel renewed and she was more than ready for a change.
She held her breath as she felt him pull the dagger against the bundle of her hair, then the release as the blade cut through.
"This little blade is quite sharp," Geldis remarked as Vanya pulled her hair from the tie and tousled it. She smiled as it skimmed her shoulders perfectly. Now it just needed the layers.
She stood up and flipped her hair over, gathering it into another bundle. "Hold on, one more time. I saw this on...uh, I saw someone do this once." She snickered at the fact she had nearly told him she saw this on TV. It had been an infomercial and they'd used some special tool and not just a hair tie but she figured this would work well enough.
"There, do the same thing as before," she ordered, standing bent over with the ends of her hair loosely tied.
"Are you certain?"
"Yes, it will be fine. I promise I won't be mad at you if it's not."
He said nothing more but she was sure he was shaking his head as he grabbed the ponytail and repeated the process. When it was done he stepped back and put a hand on his hip. "Alright, let's see my handiwork then."
She loosed her hair and flipped it back over, running her fingers through to smooth it out. "Well? It feels good, but how does it look?"
He smiled. "Quite fetching, actually. I'm a natural," he joked as he held the handle of the dagger out to her. She laughed and took it, returning it carefully to her belt.
"See? I told you it would be easy. Thank you." She reached out and hugged him tightly and after a moment he gently returned the hug.
"My pleasure."
Vanya spent the rest of the hour before supper sitting on the floor in front of her nightstand playing with her hair in a small mirror that she propped up between the drawer handles. She really liked the way it looked all down but she would have to tie the front back for work so she tested a few different braids, desperately wishing for bobby pins. She did use the dagger to shear off a few straggling bits here and there, but overall it had been a success. Of course, the first use of the dagger would be for something like this.
She had read the technique book through, but she had not yet had the chance to test anything out. The book was actually what had sparked the idea for the haircut. The author advised not having too long of hair since assailants can grab onto it and hinder movement. It was simply a practical- yet fun- first step in her combat training.
She was fluffing her hair and making faces in the mirror when Niyya walked in.
"Vanya! Your hair!"
They could hear it grunting on the other side of the sliding rock door. They'd tried every chain in this bloody maze of a tomb and still the wall would not move.
Roggir stood in front of the door- no doubt contemplating the best way to demolish it without bringing the entire tunnel down- while Erik leaned against the wall behind him. Teldryn paced the hallway they had come through, looking at every detail to see what they were missing. They were all tense seeing as they had just roamed nearly an entire tomb littered with dead draugr and miners, some of the more unfortunate looking to have been used for ritual sacrifice. The combination of confusion and disconcerting lack of conflict was now culminating on a single draugr who was taunting them from the other side of a very simple puzzle that none of them could seem to solve. Erik shifted against the wall, sighing, "Perhaps we should just take a pickaxe to it. There are certainly plenty of them lying around."
"I'll leave that to y- hold on..." Teldryn marched over to Erik, certain that he had heard the sound of metal against metal when the man had moved. "Get out of the way."
Erik pushed away from the wall and they both looked in shock at a chain. "Oh, I bet this is it," he remarked as he reached for it and pulled. The doorway Teldryn had just walked through slammed shut, the other swinging upward to reveal a Draugr Deathlord in the midst of taking a very deep breath.
"FUS RO DAH!"
"S'wit!" Teldryn hissed as they were thrown against the wall behind them.
"YOL TOOR!"
Roggir's fire breath immolated the Deathlord, but he still cut it down for good measure. He had avoided the draugr's shout by dodging to the side, his reflexes apparently honed razor sharp by his bumbling companion.
Teldryn and Erik got to their feet as Roggir stood in front of the burning pile that remained of the draugr, rubbing his eyes with his fingertips. Erik grunted as Teldryn punched him in the shoulder, yelling, "Foolish child! Perhaps you should use your brain every now and then!"
"Sorry, this place has got me all out of sorts," Erik replied as he rolled his shoulder.
"I advise you to sort yourself out quickly, before you get us killed," Teldryn bit out.
"Teldryn, that's enough," Roggir warned. Teldryn growled and stepped back, casting a calming spell on himself as the Dragonborn turned to his young follower. "Erik, this place has each of us out of sorts. There is some form of spirit at work here, troubling our minds." He put a hand on the shoulder of the younger man. "We must keep our wits about us and please," he used his free hand to emphasize his point, "pause for a moment before pulling any chains."
Teldryn and Erik sat on bedrolls in the abandoned mining camp outside Kolbjorn Barrow, both with eyes fixed on the Dragonborn, the Black Book in hand as his mind roamed Apocrypha, his ethereal form a stark blue glow against the night sky. Usually, Roggir would waste no time and read the book wherever he found it, but the depths of this particular tomb housed the rather malevolent spirit of a Dragon Priest none of them were keen on being near for too long. There was also the massive vault of coffins in the main burial chamber that spiraled upward beyond what the eye could see. It would not do to wait for the Dragonborn to return from Hermaeus Mora's realm with the threat of draugr falling on their heads.
Teldryn took a draw on his long pipe.
Not to mention the place stank of death thanks to the mad dunmer who had slaughtered the miners in a failed attempt to summon the Dragon Priest back from the dead.
He exhaled a plume of smoke.
Seeing as they found his body- indicated by a journal he kept on him- not all the miners were so willing to be sacrificed. He was glad that Roggir had seen fit to use a Shout to collapse the tunnel just inside the doors of the tomb, hoping to dissuade any further attempts to explore it.
"Strange that this is nearly over," Erik said as he cut into an apple with his dagger, eating the slice off the edge.
"I pray that when it is, he stands victor." Much was at stake if he did not prevail and not for the first time did Teldryn wonder how the weight of such a mantle would bear.
"He will," Erik said, looking at his idol with nothing less than worship. "He defeated the World-Eater, he can defeat some dusty old Dragonborn who got himself trapped by a Daedra. That would not happen to Roggir. And let me tell you," he tipped his dagger in Teldryn's direction to make a point, "they've been trying to ensnare him left and right."
Teldryn chuckled, "I can imagine." They sat quietly for a few moments in comfortable silence, him taking a few more pulls on his pipe as Erik chewed his apple. He had to admit to himself- and only himself- that he might miss Erik, as much as the boy aggravated him at times. They had whiled away many hours talking while Roggir explored the Black Books, becoming something akin to friends. The thought caused a squirming mote of guilt to make itself known for his behavior toward the young man in the barrow.
"Do you need me to heal your shoulder?" he asked with a teasing lilt to his voice, hoping the nord would hear the apology.
"Hah, you insult me." Erik smiled as he tossed the apple core into the darkness. "I've endured harder hits from a reikling."
Teldryn smiled in return, relieved he harbored no hard feelings about the matter. His tobacco was used up so he dumped out the ash and stashed the pipe. "Where will you go next? If Roggir succeeds?"
"I don't know. I think I'll just be glad to go anywhere where I can breathe without choking on ash, no offense."
"Why do you think I wear a cowl?"
"Because you're ugly," Erik deadpanned.
"N'wah!" Teldryn hissed as he sniped a pile of ash near the man's feet with a bolt of lightning. Erik jumped up to avoid it but the cloud had already engulfed him causing him to sputter and cough as Teldryn laughed merrily. He swished his mouth with water and spit, then decided to empty his waterskin over his head to clear the ash off his face, all the while trying to suppress a smile.
"Fucker," he said before shaking water from his hair like a dog.
Just then, Roggir's form coalesced and he closed the book. Teldryn stood up as he watched the Dragonborn take a deep breath through his nose, then exhale through his mouth, shaking his head lightly as if to cast off disorientation. He focused his eyes on Erik and blinked a few times at the man's dripping hair and armor that was dulled with a fine coating of ash, then cast a sidelong look at Teldryn who tried, and failed, to not look smug. Roggir closed his eyes like a long-suffering parent, then walked to his pack to retrieve a stamina potion. He downed the contents and the fatigue on his features seemed to lessen.
"So...?" Erik asked, not able to hold back any longer.
"I am close. This is nearly finished. We will rest here for the night and tomorrow..." Roggir set his mouth in a grim line. "We return to the Skaal."
Teldryn felt a sense of foreboding in his words. He glanced at Erik, whose expression revealed he had also picked up on it. The moment passed as Roggir laid down on a bedroll and said, "Teldryn, you get first watch."
Now it was Erik's turn to look smug as Teldryn rolled his eyes and murmured, "By Azura."
A/N: I have been having too much fun writing Vanya and Teldryn(just uploaded ch 36). I hope you will enjoy them half as much as I do.