The walk up the stairs to the Skyforge was the worst one Aurora ever experienced. The thought of that her Harbinger would lay there lifelessly on a pile of wood, waiting for the flames to consume him was a difficult thing to imagine. She hated funerals – there was nothing positive about them at all, no matter what people said about the joyful afterlife. Kodlak was gone forever from this world. When realising that he was condemned to an eternal hunt with Hircine against his expressed will, Aurora became even more depressed. He had not deserved to die. He was too good, too wise

By the looks of Vilkas, he had a hard time too. Probably even a tougher one since he had been raised by Kodlak. Besides, Kodlak was the only one except his brother that liked to listen to what Vilkas had to say. Oh, and Ria of course, but Aurora could not possibly imagine Vilkas being interested with her stupid "I killed a bear yesterday, look at me!"

The evening setting was calm. No wind in the air and no clouds in the blue. It very much reflected Kodlak's personality, Aurora thought before pinching herself for being too sentimental and tacky. Why would she not just get over it? She was a loner and would always remain one. It was better not to get too attached to people in the earthy life, she would lose them all anyway.

Ignoring the man next to her, she placed herself as far away the stairs as possible. The others were standing around the forge in a half circle, led by Aela. Whoever decorated it had done a marvellous job. Red drapes covered the stones, and candles were lit around Kodlak's body.

Eorlund's stepped forward and asked with a serious voice:

"Who will start?"

"I'll do it." Aela stayed put and cleared her throat. She closed her eyes and wrinkled her forehead, obviously this was difficult even for her. She took a torch and walked up to the forge. With a sigh, she placed it between the beams.

Aurora wondered what was happening. In Cyrodiil, they just dug down their dead in coffins into the ground. She was not familiar with the Nord custom of, what she guessed, burning. In a way, she preferred that method. She had always disliked the cemetery outside of the Imperial City due to its depressing atmosphere. Death was an integral part of her every day life – she had known many a soldier who had died out in the battlefields, but the way it was portrayed... It seemed rather awful to just... disappear.

"Before the ancient flame..." Aela said with a powerful voice.

"We grieve," said Vilkas, followed by all the others. It was like a choir of voices.

"At this loss," Eorlund continued.

Aurora stood there quiet, not knowing the right words to say. Her gaze went from Aela to Ria. The young woman looked very melancholic with her frozen facial expression and slightly bent posture. It was as if she was numb, they all looked the same.

"We weep."

"For the fallen..." Vilkas began.

Her heart could have broken. The man was holding back burning tears of regret. Aurora could probably never understand the self-hatred he must have felt for not being able to defend Kodlak when he needed to. She had a weak spot for cold, masculine men who showed emotion once in a while, not any time, but this was an appropriate one. The woman wanted to press Vilkas' head against her chest and comfort him. Not as a child, but as a worrier who was reassured by his companion. What a proud man he was, Vilkas. He stood with his chin high and shoulders straight, facing the death of his forebear. With sorrow, but relentless honour.

"We shout."

"And for ourselves..." She heard Farkas' tone.

Farkas, she had almost forgotten about him. He did not look at her, but she was sure it was more about the thought of Kodlak than condemnation of her. He probably felt the same as his brother, but it was much more evident in him. Farkas could be read like a book, not at all like his enigma-like twin.

"We take our leave."

"His spirit is departed. Companions, let us withdraw to the Hall, to grieve our last together. Members of the Circle, I request a meeting in the Underforge tomorrow evening."

Aurora's look turned to her shield-sister. The Imperial could do nothing but admire the huntress too. She was gathered, even more so than the brothers. Aela showed no sign of weakness whatsoever.

Just as Aurora was about to leave, the forge master stopped her.

"Do you have the fragments of Wuuthrad, still?" Eorlund asked. "I need to prepare them for mounting again."

She handled them over to him rather restlessly and turned around to follow the rest of her companions, but Eorlund stopped her once more, requesting she would go to Kodlak's chamber and bring him the last part of Wuuthrad. Aurora nodded and quickly followed her shield-siblings to Jorrvaskr.

Njada was lagging behind too, and waited for Aurora to finish her conversation with Eorlund. When her companion caught up, the woman put an arm around Aurora's shoulder. It had never occurred to the Dragonborn that she could receive comfort from Njada of all people. She was even colder than Vilkas most days – straight forward and avoiding conversations with other people, focusing on the art of war. However, even she softened up on a day like that.

"He will be missed," Njada said.

"Indeed, shield-sister. He was the best of us."

A part of her felt very uneasy about walking into Kodlak's private chamber. It was just too... private. Aurora had never even seen the inside of it as the old man had preferred to sit by the table just outside of the room. She was left standing there for minutes without moving an inch.

When she finally decided to, the woman carefully opened the door. The atmosphere of his chamber hit her hard. It was death. Emptiness. A haunting, quiet calmness hung in the air, but it was as if filled with a dragon's fiery breath. Two contradicting premises were coexisting, building an uncanny setting.

Upon deciding that she would not be there a second longer than necessary, she quickly began to look for the fragment. Being Kodlak, he had probably hidden it in an unexpected place. After searching through the goblets, behind weapons and under the bed and wardrobes, she was about to give up. She even crawled on the floor, knocking on it and listening after cracks that could expose a secret space, but to no avail. It was only after noticing a journal on side table, the woman guessed to look inside of it, finding the missing piece instantly.

It was not the object of her attention, though. The journal. His journal. She thought for a second, but decided that she dared not open it. She would let the old man have some privacy. Placing it back where it belonged, Aurora quickly got out of the room and immediately felt relieved. She would not set her foot inside of that place again. It reeked of death and misery.

The Dragonborn hurried upstairs and saw the others celebrating with mead and food. That was a custom in Cyrodiil too, she remembered. They celebrated the life of the deceased rather than grieving his death. She noticed that elves probably did not, based on how the elven Companion behaved.

Eorlund was not at the Skyforge, so Aurora had to walk through the town to his house in order to deliver the fragment. Somewhat annoyed and tired, she knocked on the forge master's door and entered.

"I have Kodlak's fragment," she said whilst placing it on a table near the door and quickly leaving before he could send her out on another mission.

The walk back to Jorrvaskr was not exactly pleasurable. Aurora caught herself cursing the weather for being too perfect on a day like that. Kodlak should be burned in a strong wind, and preferably even heavy rain. The sun was merely teasing her from above with its soft, pink shine and fluffy clouds.

She was so tired. The walk to Whiterun had been awful. Vilkas' was stressed that they would not have time to get back, forcing her to run for most of the way. He was better trained than she was, casting complaining gazes when she was lagging behind.

The mead was flooding when she entered the hall for the third time that night. Even Athis had joined the feast. Aurora felt sick by the thought of celebrating that night, she just wanted to get some rest from the challenges of the day, but was spotted by Aela when she walked through the door. The huntress stood up and waves enthusiastically at Aurora to join them. The Imperial shook her head, but her shield-sister ran up to her, dragging her with to the table where she presented her with a bottle of mead.

Almost forcing it down Aurora's throat, Aela laughed loudly. Even more so when the pressure in the bottle caused the fluid to fly up and out of it, up Aurora's nose. Farkas, who sat next to Aela laughed too, but the Dragonborn was not amused. With mead dripping from her hair, she called it a day.

To her surprise, Farkas caught her by the waist and prohibited her from leaving the hall before accepting his drinking challenge. He made her smile. Things were alright between them, after all.

"Well, I can't say no to a challenge and still call myself a Companion, can I?"

They got down on one knee in front of each other, with their hands behind their backs. Torvar placed two bottles before them and counted to three, before Aurora and Farkas both stretched for the mead and brought it to their mouths.

Aurora held two fingers around the muzzle and pressed it as far down her throat as possible. The gag reflex did not kick in as she was a used drinker, knowing how to empty the bottle in just four or five seconds. She was first to smash the empty flask to the floor, making her grin scornfully at Farkas.

"I can't believe it! Where did you learn to drink like a man?" he sounded genuinely impressed.

"I worked at a moon sugar plantation in Elsweyr. The workers were usually young men from abroad, some of them Nords. During some evening, we had nothing to do, so we used to steal beer from the owner of the plantation."

"Well, you may drink faster, but I can still drink more than you," Farkas smiled whilst raising an eyebrow.

"A new challenge?" she laughed. "Bring it on!"

"Only empty bottles count. By the end of the night we'll see who is the better one of us," the man said and got up.

Aurora did the same and found a place by the table, next to Njada and Aela. She did not care that it was late or that she was tired, she wanted to win and prove herself. Perhaps that was not such a great idea, since drunkenness enhanced some of her more social sides.

She had watched Vilkas carefully. He was drinking a lot too, and engaging in conversation with Athis. Never during the whole night did he look at her, and it bothered her.

"Vilkas! You stupid wolf!" she laughed whilst falling into his lap.

He caught her from falling over on her head just as she threw herself on him. Cursing, she told Athis to bugger off. Vilkas' look went from shocked to showing pleasure and back when she opened her mouth again.

"You are a bad, bad" she threw her hand up close to his face, but was immediately confused and silenced by the peculiar thing with five fingers.

"I'm a bad what?" asked Vilkas' with a deep voice and a cheeky smile on his face.

"Oh, I can't remember..." she sighed. "But I do remember... that!" she let her hand touch Vilkas' crouch, causing him to jump slightly.

"I see you've been spending most of the night with my brother, perhaps you can go back to him... again." He hiccupped.

"I... never slept with Farkas," Aurora mumbled.

"Why?"

"You" she pointed at his chest. "are not going to believe it! I got my period when we were about to... you know". She waved around with her finger.

Vilkas bent forward, laughing hysterically. It caused him to lose grip of Aurora, making her roll under the table. Minutes later, when Vilkas already had left, her distant laughter could still be heard.