"Farkas..." Hope's eyes were wide with fear as she said his name with panic rising in the back of her throat. He didn't reply, he only watched the massive horde of draugr surround them while he got out his great-sword. "Farkas!" Hope said his name again, this time in more of a shout. "Just stay behind me!" He finally replied.
What?! How was she supposed to "stay behind him"? They were both completely surrounded, even she knew that if they stayed close together like this that the draugr would eventually corner them and then take them out. No, they needed to separate, they both needed to go on both far sides of the room to split the draugr in half. In order to have any chance to survive this, that was exactly what they needed to do.
So, after taking in a deep breath to calm herself, Hope took out her bow as well as an arrow. "I don't think it's going to work." She said in the calmest voice she could muster.
Farkas furrowed his eyebrows down and turned to look at her with confusion showing in his eyes. "What?" He questioned.
"We're not going to be able to deal with all of these draugr like this if we stick to each others side. We need to split up so that the draugr split up." She hurriedly explained. The draugr were quickly closing in on them, if they wasted any more time standing around like they were, they were both soon to be completely surrounded by the army of draugr and any attempt at doing her plan would only be in vain. Because though the draugr were brittle and weak; they were also many and their weapons would fall upon them like a storm of sharp steel.
Farkas stared at her for a moment, with his eyes wide. He thought her plan through and knew immediately that she was right, but he didn't like it. He didn't like the thought of separating from her and the chances of her being killed right in front of him increasing. But despite his feelings, had no choice but to go through with her plan. She was a warrior, soon to be fully acknowledged as a Companion. He needed to trust her, he needed to give her a chance and that couldn't happen if he hovered over her and told her what to do every step of the way.
"Okay." He breathed. Hope turned and looked at him, slightly surprised by how easy he gave in. When her eyes fell on him, he gave her a smile and then a confident nod. He wanted her to see that he believed in her, that he trusted her. She gave him a smile and nod in return.
With nothing else needing to be said, they both turn and watch the draugr approach them for a moment, and then without warning; they both quickly bolt to the side and immediately run to far sides of the room. Both being exactly across from each other.
The army of draugr looked puzzled at first but then quickly split in odd numbers to chase after them both (just like Hope thought they would). She smiled at the small victory but that smile soon disappeared after she saw half of the horde running straight towards her. 'Okay, you can do this.'
She breathed in and then slowly breathed out. She lifted her bow and slowly knocked back her arrow. She watched half of the horde run towards her and for a moment, it looked and felt like everything had slowed down. The horde running for her were moving in slow motion and every time she took a breath she felt like time itself would pause for just that moment.
She slowly moved her eyes down and watched the legs of the draugr's in front move, she watched every step land flat on the ground. But one leg that belonged to the draugr in the very front, seemed off. She moved her eyes up to its knees and watched part of its right leg bone stick out of its thin rotting skin every time it planted its foot down on the floor. 'There.'
She released her arrow and watched it fly low in the air. The arrow landed in the gap between the draugr's knee and leg bone. The moment the arrow landed, the draugr fell, causing many other draugr behind it to trip and fall right along with it.
A small smile curved across Hope's lips as she pulled back another arrow and aimed it for the closest draugr that was still able to run towards her. She released her arrow and hit that draugr on its upper leg. There she saw a gash that showed its decaying muscles. The moment that arrow landed in that draugr, it fell to the ground; tripping others behind it. If she could just bring enough of them down with her arrows, she just might be able to take the rest of them out with her blade because she knew that it usually took more than one arrow to fully put a draugr down.
So she continues to knock back arrows and release them with speed. She watches some miss her targets and some hit them. Either way, she didn't stop and she wasn't going to stop until she was pleased with the amount of corpses she took down to the ground. One arrow even landed in the eye socket of one of the draugrs and killed it instantly. 'There goes one.' She thought to herself as she continued to release arrows at the hord of corpses.
After being content with how many draugrs she took down or slowed down, Hope dropped her bow to the ground and quickly took out her sword. She charged for the one closest to her, the moment she was in arms reach of it, she had to duck to avoid the draugr's swinging axe. Right after she ducked, she hit the draugr's brittle knee with her sword. That sent it stumbling forward and while it did so, she quickly got back up and charged for the next one.
This time blades met, she held hers up fast so that it would meet the second draugr's blade. CLANG, CLING! The sound from their blades hitting echoed through out the large chamber and for a moment she couldn't tell if it was coming from her or Farkas, because he too was meeting blades with a couple of draugr.
Farkas had already taken out three draugr with his great-sword. Now he was backed up to a corner with two draugr hitting his sword as hard as they could. Farkas gritted his teeth together as he held against the draugr's blows and stayed his ground. No way would he be taken out by a few rotting corpses.
Occasionally he would look up over the horde before him and try to get a look at Hope. He was surprised every time his eyes fell on her because each time she was facing a different dragur. She may have not been killing them off completely, but she was slowing them down and even taking some of them to the ground.
It was impressive, especially when he saw her duck forward to dodge an attack from a draugr behind her. When he saw that draugr's blade meet the chest of the one that was attacking the front of her, rallied up butterflies in the pit of his stomach.
The draugr that took the blow from the one that was behind her quickly fell limp to the ground. One more that she no longer has to deal with. As soon as the draugr pulled it's blade out of its fellow corpse, she quickly sprung up and stabbed her own blade into the chest of that draugr. It let out a dying gurgle before falling back off of her blade and onto the ground.
She let out a puff of air before turning back around to most likely meet more blades that belonged to the dead. She was surprised to see that only one was left standing and it looked less than pleased about that. It stood behind all of its fallen comrades and glared at her as it tightened its grip on its two-handed battle axe.
The ones stuck on the ground, growled and hissed at her. Almost as if they were trying to rally up the last one standing. Hope took a few steps back and pointed the tip of her blade right at the last draugr. It noticed her movement and let out its own growl and hiss. "Come on then..." She whispered as she readied herself. She expected it to charge soon, and it did.
She watched it jump over the fallen draugr and when it reached the last one she had killed, it lept high in the air and while in mid air, swung its battle axe down hard on Hope's sword.
The impact from its giant weapon against her small sword caused her arms to ricochet back towards her. She stumbled back from the massive blow and nearly dropped her sword in the process. Her arms immediately ached and she groaned when she had to hold her sword up once again to defend herself from another coming blow.
"Ah!" He heard Hope cry. He immediately reacted by quickly looking up, nearly forgetting the few draugr that were left in front of him. His eyes widened when he saw Hope backed up to the now shut door they had entered through. She was holding up her sword, blocking attacks that were coming from a brute of a draugr.
The draugr was relentless and every time its battle axe came into contact with Hope's sword, Farkas winced. He could see the pain and weariness in her eyes, she wasn't going to be able to hold up against it any longer. He needed to hurry and get over there to help her.
He quickly looked to the draugr in front of him and saw an opportunity. One that was rare and seemed like a gift from the gods at the moment.
There were only three draugr left for Farkas to kill and two of them were coming at him in a straight line, while the third stayed back and shot arrows. A half smile formed on his face as he tightened his grip and waited for the two charging draugr to get closer.
As soon as they were finished running over the slain draugr, Farkas charged with is great-sword pointed forward and plunged it into the two draugr easily. It went through the first one quickly, stopping it short and causing the second one to fall onto the part of his blade that was sticking out of the back of the first one.
He pulled his blade out and watched them both hit the hard floor with a loud THUD. Then afterwords, he quickly looked up at the last draugr, and it looked shocked. Its hand had paused in the middle of grabbing an arrow while the other hand that held its bow was just about to drop it. He couldn't help but chuckle as he neared the draugr to end it.
"ERRGH!" Hope cried as she was now on the ground with her blade held up above her head to keep the draugr's battle-axe from taking it off. The draugr was getting frustrated, but it saw cracks begin to form on the flat of Hope's blade. So it took a good step back and then raised its battle-axe high in the air. Just one more good swing and her sword will break, she will no longer have anything to protect her.
Hope tightly shuts her eyes and clenches her teeth down together, she prepares herself for the next blow and just possibly, the end of her life.
"Hey!" Farkas's loud voice made her jump and open her eyes to look at him, his voice also caused the draugr to lower its battle-axe and turn part-ways towards him. When the draugr's eyes met his, he was surprised but only by how large it was.
It was much larger than the rest of them and it wore different armor. He hadn't noticed earlier and Hope was too busy taking blows to notice.
He squints his eyes at the large draugr as it aims a low growl right at him. He's never seen one like that draugr before and that bothered him. Another low growl came from the draugr, forcing Farkas to focus on it and to put away any thoughts he was having. It didn't matter if this one looked a bit different, what mattered was taking it down and making it out of there alive with Hope right by him.
Hope slowly got up off the ground with her arms shaking at her sides. They were so wore out from blocking the massive draugr's attacks that she felt like they could fall off any moment. She looked down at her blade and saw cracks spider-webbing through out it, she knew it wasn't going to last another blow, so she needed to try and make it to her bow and shoot what remainder of arrows she had at the draugr.
Farkas felt eyes on him, when he shifted his eyes to look beyond the draugr, it was Hope's whose eyes were on him. She stared at him deeply and then pointed her eyes down to the ground. Farkas followed them and saw just a few feet away from her and practically right beside the draugr, was her bow. She wanted him to lure the draugr away so that she could grab it.
"You should fight someone your own size." He said with his great-sword pointing at the draugr. The draugr glared at him, but didn't move. 'Well that doesn't make any sense...' He thought to himself. The draugr was keen on getting to Hope but when it came to Farkas, it wouldn't budge.
Hope had started to become impatient as she watched Farkas and the draugr have a major glaring contest. 'Okay, I'm done waiting.' She decided as she tightened her grip on her sword.
She waited a bit longer before suddenly charging at the draugr, if she could just stab it in the right spot she could take it out before her sword breaks. Farkas's eyes widen when he sees Hope take off running straight towards the massive draugr.
The draugr had no idea what was happening until Hope plunged her blade through its back. Hope kept a hold on her blade as she watched the back of the draugr's head with wide eyes. She expected it to fall limp at any moment, but it didn't.
Only a low growl was heard from it as it slowly turned its head to peer at her from over its shoulder. Her heart sped up in her chest as she tried to pull her sword out but it was stuck tight. The draugr moved to turn and face her. When it did, she lost grip on her sword and could only hopelessly stare up at it when it was fully looking down at her.
She felt very small at that moment and very vulnerable. She took a step back away from it and while doing so, the draugr's chest rose up as it inhaled a big breath of air.
Farkas's eyes widened as he immediately charged for the draugr. "Get down!" He shouted. "W-what?" Hope quickly turned her head to look at him and that's when. "FUS-"
"GET DOWN NOW!"
Everything began to slow down in that moment. Hope first watched the draugr's chest rise and then watched Farkas run to her with panic spilling from his eyes. Before she could do anything, something hit her.
A wall, made of nothing but force and wind hit so hard it sent her flying back and then slamming against the giant steel set of doors that were behind her.
She cried out in pain when her body came into contact with the hard steel doors and then once she landed on the ground she could do nothing but gasp for air that was stolen from her. "Hope!" She heard Farkas call to her, but his voice was nothing but a muffle. A lound ring was all she could really hear and for a moment, she thought she just might've gone deaf.
"Mindok Kruziik Al Alok!" The draugr shouted as it raised its battle-axe high in the air, right above Hope. She stayed down on the ground with both hands covering her ears, she didn't know why but for some reason she thought it would make the loud ringing go away. It didn't.
The draugr tightened its grip on its weapon and then began to swing it down hard, but before it could get far, a large great-sword had been plunged into its chest. It's battle-axe stops mid-air as it slowly looks down at the point of Farkas's blade. Then with nothing but a dying growl escaping it, it goes limp and drops dead to the ground.
Farkas pulled his sword out of the now fallen corpse and then ran straight to Hope. He wrapped an arm behind her and sat her up to get a good look at her. A trail of blood left her nose and her mouth while her eyes looked like they were in a daze. "Hope?"
She didn't reply. She only continued to stare out at the distance with her eyes blinking a few at a time. The loud ringing in her ears started to slowly fade. Finally after a good while, she turns to look at Farkas and blinks up at him with panic and confusion filling her eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asked as he kept a hold on her. She blinked again before replying. "No." She said plainly. "I..I don't think I am..."
Farkas furrowed his eyebrows down at her as he watched her move away from him and then stand up on wobbly feet. He quickly got to his feet and held out a hand in case she needed something to lean on.
Hope slowly bent over with her hands resting on her stomach. She slowly closed her eyes while the skin on her face lost its color. She didn't know why, but whatever had just hit her left her feeling sick. The ringing in her ears was gone and she could breath again, but now she felt like the beginning of it wasn't the worst of it.
"Hope?" She heard Farkas take a few steps towards her. "What..." She started but couldn't finish her sentence. She feared that she would be sick at the end of it. "I don't know what that was." He answered her, already knowing what she was going to ask.
"I've only come across that type of draugr a couple of times." He told her. He watched her inhale slowly and then exhale deeply. "Did it ever make you feel like this?" She asked in a low voice. "No. It never made me sick like that." He replied. "Wonderful..." She muttered.
After giving Hope a moment to re-cooperate the best she could, they both first tried to leave through the door they came in from. But it was locked tight, so they had to look around for another way out. "There's always some sort of secret passage out of these old ruins." Is what Farkas had told her, but she found that hard to believe due to the fact that the chamber they were in, was the last one.
They searched around for secret levers, floor panels and even chains on the wall. But they found nothing. Farkas walked up a wooden ramp that led to a second floor of the chamber. "Aha!" Hope heard him cheer. "What?" She asked while rushing up the wooden ramp.
When she reached the top she saw him looking through a coffin that was attached to the wall. Behind it lay a large open passage way that seemed to lead upwards. "Well I'll be damned..." Hope muttered as she stared into the large passage with wide eyes. "Told ya." Farkas gloated with a smirk on his face while stepping through the tight coffin. Hope only rolled her eyes in response and then stepped through after him.
"Vilkas!" Aela shouted, for the third time. "Huh?" Vilkas blinked as he sat up in his chair and looked at her. He furrowed his eyebrows down at her, confused to why she had suddenly yelled at him. He hadn't known it, but she had been saying his name for a few minutes now. "Pay attention ice brain! I've been trying to get your attention for an eternity now!" She told him.
"Oh..." He replied with his eyes going down towards the table. "Maybe you should speak up next time then." He said. Aela quickly scoffed as she stood up straight and placed her hands on her hips. She examined him for a moment before a small smile curved up on her face. "Something on your mind?" She asked with her smile turning mischievous.
"No." Vilkas quickly answered with his eyes going back up at her. "I guess I should've asked if someone was on your mind." She snickered. Vilkas quickly furrowed his eyebrows down at her and then looked back away. "I don't know what you're talking about. Go bother someone else." He told her with a scowl.
"Hmph." Aela exclaimed, although she still had a smirk on her face. "Worried about our young Hope?" Now it was Kodlak asking. He was sitting right next to Vilkas, enjoying a plate full of food. Vilkas turned and looked at him, not knowing when he had sat down there.
He then turned his head away with his eyes going back down towards the table. "No, why would I be worried?" He questioned with another annoyed scowl. Kodlak couldn't help but chuckle as he took a drink out of his mug that was filled with fresh mead.
"I'd guess because it's been a day since they left." Aela stated with a shrug. She saw a muscle under Vilkas's eye twitch before he grabbed at his own mug and took a big swig out of it. "Don't fret lad." Kodlak told him while giving him a hard pat to the back, which made him nearly choke on his mead.
Vilkas quickly covered his mouth and coughed into it. The feeling of mead going down the wrong pipe was almost as bad as swallowing water down the wrong way. Though it sounded like Vilkas was choking on a frog, Kodlak continued to speak. "You know as well as I do that those old ruins can go on for days."
A couple more coughs left Vilkas before he settled back in his chair and cleared his throat. 'That's what I'm worried about.' He thought to himself with a sigh leaving him. 'The bigger the ruin is the more enemies you'll most likely encounter.'
"I don't think that ruin will go on past a day though." Aela said, causing Vilkas's eyes to shift to the side to look at her. "I've never been inside of it, but I have scouted the outside of it. It looked like it ran deep in the earth, but not by very much from the way the area looked around it."
"So that means they could be heading back now." Kodlak said with a nod. Relief fills Vilkas, he doesn't know if they really were on their way back but the thought of them...the thought of Hope walking down the stone road with Farkas made him feel better.
"Best have someone sit outside then." Skjor cuts in. He was sitting at the table to the left and was ignoring what they were saying until now. They all turn to look at him. "Send Torvrar, he can come tell us when he sees them enter the city. Then we'll have Vilkas await them outside of Jorrvaskr." He said.
Vilkas furrowed his eyebrows down and questioned him. "Why? What's the point of all that?"
"So that we have time to get ready before they reach Jorrvaskr." Skjor replied. "Ready for what?" Vilkas questioned.
"Our ceremony." Kodlak answered with a smile.
Vilkas moved his eyes to him and stared at him for a moment before finally realizing what they were talking about. "You mean when we fully accept someone into the Companions?" He asked a little too eagerly.
"Don't get too excited yet." Skjor said with his usual grumpy frown. "Just because we're having it doesn't mean she's automatically going to be apart of us."
"That's right." Nodded Aela. "Whether she fully becomes one of us or not, will be determined by Farkas."
'Right...' Vilkas shifted around in his seat to try and get a little more comfortable. He had no idea how long he had been sitting down at the table, but by how sore his bottom was becoming he guessed it'd been a while.
He could feel their eyes on him, so to hide his face he grabs his mug and takes another big drink out of it. Skjor told him not to get excited and he showed no excitement on his face or with his body. He was feeling something though, on the inside. He didn't know if it was excitement or not, but he did know that by this night, he'll be accepting Hope as one of them. He just had a good feeling about it.
The sun had began to set and it was now well past Dragons Reach's high roof. Farkas and Hope both could now see it in the distance. "Finally..." Sighed Hope as she relished the sight of the now familiar city. "You said it." Farkas also sighed.
He and Hope were both sore all over and everything on them ached. Since they had started walking down the stone road from the ruin, Farkas would occasionally look over and every time he did he felt like a new bruise would start to appear on Hope's arms. He could only imagine how they felt, especially after the beating she took from that last draugr.
"How are you feeling?" He asked all of a sudden. Hope quickly looked at him with a couple of blinks following after. It looked like he had just interrupted her from some deep thinking. "Oh, I'm okay." She said with a small smile.
"You sure?" He asked again with his eyebrows knitting together. "You still look a little ashy."
"I guess I still feel a little nauseous..." She admitted with her eyes slowly moving down towards the ground.
"Do we need to stop and take a break?" Farkas asked.
"No! Definitely not." She chuckled. "I'm just ready to get back." She sighed.
Farkas nodded in response, understanding how she felt. "I am too. We'll be home before it gets completely dark."
"Hope so..." She muttered softly.
"Don't know why they gave me this shit job..." Mumbled Torvrar as he stood at the entrance to Whiterun's marketplace. The day had started cold and never did get much better, so Torvrar felt like he had a damn good reason not to particularly like the small part he was given.
He leaned against the side of the wall that belonged to Belethor's Shop. He had his arms crossed over each other, trying his best to keep them warm. They were always bare due to the type of armor he was wearing and at that moment he was cursing himself for picking such a poor piece of armor.
"Didn't know how much I've missed the smell of Whiterun until now." Torvrar's ears twitched when he heard a familiar voice speak and then a chuckle following after. He stood up straight and looked a head. By the gods (thank the gods) it was them. He let out a sigh that was part annoyed and part relieved when he saw Hope and Farkas walk past Whiterun's giant wooden gates.
"About damn, freakin time." Torvrar muttered as he turned and quickly headed through the marketplace to get back to Jorrvaskr.
Vilkas was sitting outside with Skjor and Aela. The three of them were enjoying a warm dinner outside. While Aela and Skjor ate their food happily, Vilkas only picked at his and ate it piece by piece.
The more the sun got lower, the more he felt anxious and restless. So restless that he was about to march over to where Torvrar was and wait with him, even though he could barely stand to sit next to him for no more than five minutes.
"Hey!" Called Torvrar. Aela and Skjor both looked up, but Vilkas got up. He got up so fast that he nearly knocked his chair over. Aela turned her head to him with an eyebrow cocked and a smirk growing on her face. Vilkas only ignored her and waited for Torvrar to stop at their table.
Vilkas gave him a moment to catch his breath and then cleared his throat before speaking. "What is it Torvrar?" He asked as casually as he could.
Torvrar quickly looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Wha...what is it?" He snapped. "It's what you and the others had me do for hours! They're back!" He slightly shouted with a grumpy frown taking form on his face.
Vilkas felt like his stomach had just did a back flip, but he didn't show it on his face. 'Calm down idiot.' He told himself. "Oh, I guess I should go wait for them at the top of the steps then." He said (again, as casually as he could...) before walking past Torvrar and making his way around the building. He could feel Aela's eyes on him and could feel the smirk growing on her face, but he ignored her or at least tried to.
Hope and Farkas made their way through the marketplace and then up the first set of stairs. "Can't wait for a cold drink and warm meal." Commented Farkas as they made their way up the stairs.
Vilkas watched them walk around the curve next to the Gildergreen tree at an antagonizing slow pace. When they finally reached the stairs, Vilkas stepped out and spoke before they could take their first step. "There you are!"
Farkas and Hope both stop and look up at him. Hope was surprised to see him there, but Farkas wasn't. He was expecting someone to be there waiting for them.
Vilkas gave Hope a warm smile as he walked down a couple of steps towards them. "We've been waiting for you." He said. Hope blinked a couple of times before knitting her eyebrows together. "You..." She stops to slightly look away from him. "You were?" She asked with a bit of shakiness to voice.
Vilkas's eyebrows quickly furrowed as he picked up on that. Her heart beat was going a mile a minute and he could hear it. Did they run back or something? "Yes?" Vilkas replied in more of a question than a response.
In the corner of his eyes he saw his brother Farkas shift around uncomfortably. Vilkas quickly looked to him and saw that he too was looking away, obviously Farkas knew something he didn't.
Vilkas slowly looked back at Hope and examined her eyes. Though they weren't on him, he could still see into them pretty well and she clearly had something on her mind. Maybe even something she wanted to say to him, but feared something might happen if she did. If that were the case...then what was it that was on her mind? What was it that she wanted to say?
"...Why were you waiting for me?" She finally asked, breaking the silence that had quickly grew heavy. Vilkas stared at her for a moment longer, wanting her to look at him, but she just wouldn't. 'Well this wasn't exactly what I was expecting...'
But what was he expecting? Did he expect her to run up to him with excitement about the job? Did he expect that the whole day and a half she had been gone was slow for her like it had been for him? Did he expect her to-
He didn't know what he expected, he didn't even know why he thought to expect anything...but this right now, was not one of the scenes he had pictured in his head just moments ago. The feeling he was feeling from her now? Was definitely not something he expected to feel when she returned.