"Is she going to be okay?" Asked Vilkas as he sat back in a chair and watched the healers from the Temple of Kynareth work on Hope. "Yes." The priestess told him. "I can tell from the bruises that she has a few broken ribs. The burns on her legs are severe and had started to get infected, but they are treatable. Though they will most likely scar." She explained.
"All in all." She sighed. "She'll just need some good rest after this. She also shouldn't be allowed to leave the bed unless its for minor reasons." The priestess told them. "If she were to do anything drastic like she did making her way back to Whiterun, her wounds will not heal right and the severe burns on her legs will crack and get infected again."
"Understood." Replied Kodlak, who was leaning against the wall by the door. Only he and the circle members were present in the room. The priestess lets out a tired sigh as she stands up straight from the bed. "Now, I would ask you all to leave the room so that we may change this young woman into fresh clothing. I'd imagine she would appreciate getting out of her burned armor." She said with a soft smile as she looked at each of them.
They all nodded in response and left the room. Vilkas stopped in the doorway, looking at Hope once more before leaving with the door shutting behind him. He stared at the shut door with a heavy sigh escaping from him. "Vilkas." Aela said, making him turn to look at her.
"Hm?" He questioned with an eyebrow raised.
Aela stared at him for a moment before moving her eyes down to his armor. "I'd advice you get changed also." She told him.
Vilkas furrowed his eyebrows down at her before looking down at his armor to see what she was talking about. One of his gauntlets were covered in blood as well as the bottom half of his armor and it wasn't just any blood. It was Hope's blood, it was Liah's. "Gods." He breathed as he quickly rushed past her to reach his room.
He rushed across the hallway and into his room. The moment the door shut behind him, he yanked his gauntlets off and threw them across his room. He then rushed to take off his cuirass and he was in such a hurry that he struggled. Gods, he just couldn't get his armor off fast enough.
After struggling for a while, Vilkas finally had his armor off and some normal cloths on. He slipped on a pair of regular boots before heading back into the hallway and making his way over to where everybody else was standing.
"So...do you think there was any truth to what Hope was saying?" Asked Farkas as he had his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes facing the floor.
"Which part? Because it all sounded like madness to me." Aela said with her own eyes looking away from everybody.
"I don't know if what she said was true, but I do know that you can't just act like that without going through something horrible." Skjor cut in, taking everyone by surprise. It wasn't very often when he showed remorse or sympathy, it wasn't often when he showed any type of emotion really.
"True..." Aela trailed off with a frown spreading across her lips. "Did you see the look in her eyes? It was complete terror, almost like she was still living through...whatever happened to her."
Vilkas sighed when he stopped next to his brother and looked at the closed door. "Her wounds..." Farkas said with grimace on his face. "I don't think they were from the trolls..." He pointed out.
"No kidding ice brain." Aela retorted with her eyebrows furrowed.
"We won't know what did that to her or what happened to her until she wakes up." Kodlak said, finally speaking up after being lost in his own thoughts.
Everyone turned and looked at him as he continued. "Let us get back to business for now, we'll get some answers when Hope is awake and well. Until then, lets just let her rest."
Everyone nodded and began to walk away until Vilkas stopped them. "But I think..." He trails off, trying to remember the things that she said when they were running back to Whiterun. "I think she wanted us to tell the Jarl something..." He told them.
"That's right." Farkas nodded. "I heard her say something about Helgen too."
"Do you think...she wanted us to tell him what happened to Helgen? What created that fire?" Vilkas wondered out-loud.
"Tell him what?" Aela retorted again. "Tell him that a dragon flew in and burned the whole city down? He'd first have us exiled from Whiterun for being mad before ever believing such a tale."
"I don't know, Hope sounded pretty sure that it was a dragon." Farkas said.
"As I said before." Kodlak cut in, making them all shut their mouths. "We don't know what happened and we won't until she wakes up. So we do nothing for the time being. Understand?" He told them with his eyes landing specifically on Vilkas.
"Understood." Aela and Farkas both said at the same time. Kodlak didn't look away until Vilkas gave him a small nod. Kodlak then gave him a soft smile before turning and walking away with the others.
Vilkas watched them for a moment before turning towards the closed door, staring at it for a bit and then turning away to follow after the others in the hallway.
The priestesses didn't take much longer on tending to Hope, before they left they let the others know that one of them would return in a day to check on her wounds. After they left, Kodlak had Tilma checking on Hope every hour and each time she did, Vilkas would wait for her to come tell them that Hope was awake, but so far he's been very disappointed.
Bodies burning to a crisp, buildings crashing and catching on fire, screams filling the air, the little boy crying for his father echos in her head. Sweat forms on her brow as she feels her heart beating against her chest. Gods, she's back. She's back in Helgen. But why is she back? She shouldn't be back, she doesn't want to be back.
Suddenly a thunderous roar appears above her, making her breath catch and her heart stop. Then the sky goes black and all she can see is fiery red eyes, burning into her soul.
Hope awakens with a sharp gasp, her body immediately sitting up and then immediately regretting it. Like the last time she woke up, sharp pain spiraled through her ribs and into her back, then down her spine. Her legs also throbbed with pain as well, she felt like they were going to fall off any moment.
She groaned as she rubbed her legs from the outside of the blanket for a moment. But then stopped, realizing that she had a blanket on. She quickly looked up and around, recognizing the room she was in. She was in Aela's room. She was in Jorrvaskr. She was home.
'Thank the gods.' She sighed in relief as she slowly closed her eyes, enjoying the stillness of the room. With everything that's happened, she felt like it's been ages since she's been able to just sit in the quiet, to just rest.
Despite the pain in her ribs, she took in deep breaths. Enjoying the familiar scent of Jorrvaskr, one she missed and thought she was never going to be able to enjoy again. 'Gods, I'm really back...'
The moment of peace and stillness that she was enjoying only lasted her a moment. Her eyes fly open as she remembers what she had originally intended to do when she left Riverwood. It was obvious that no dragon had come to Whiterun, but what of Rorikstead? And even if it hadn't destroyed Rorikstead either, it could still be out there. Claiming hundreds of more lives just like it did in Helgen and whats more is that she has no idea if she ever did tell anyone about what happened. She remembers nothing past when Vilkas and the others reached her on the road.
So she needed to get up, no matter how much her body begged her to stay down, she needed to get up and tell somebody as soon as possible.
The moment she made the motion to do so, the wooden door to her room creaks and then is pushed open. Hope slightly jumps at the sudden noise and watches it open, waiting to see who it was that was entering the room.
It was Tilma and she was walking into the room with a large bowl of warm water and a dry rag hanging over the edge of it. "Oh!" She exclaimed when she saw Hope sitting up in bed. She then gave Hope a glad smile while quickly entering the room to set the bowl down on the end table next to the bed. "I see you're finally awake. The others were beginning to really worry about you." She told Hope.
Hope blinks and stares at her for a moment before asking. "How long was I out?"
"A few hours." Tilma answered as she dipped the rag in the warm water before handing it to Hope.
Hope stared at it before pressing it to her forehead. The heat from the moist rag had Hope's eyes falling shut and her body laying back down. Gods was she exhausted.
"Is Kodlak around?" Hope asked in a tired voice as she allowed her eyes to stay shut.
"He is, I believe he's upstairs eating dinner with the others." Tilma answered.
Hope slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to look at her. "I need to speak to him, but I don't think I can make it up the stairs. Could you please go tell him that I'm awake and need to talk to him? It's important." She told her.
"Of course dear, I was just about to go do that anyways." Tilma replied with her usual kind smile.
She gave Hope one more smile before leaving the room with the door shutting behind her. Hope lets out a deep sigh as she closes her eyes again and focuses on the soothing heat coming off the rag laying on her forehead. She knew it was wrong to be so relaxed at a time like this, but she couldn't help it and even if she could, her body probably wouldn't allow her to reject it. 'I'll just rest my eyes until Kodlak gets here...'
The sound of approaching footsteps forces Hope to wake up, she was asleep only for a minute but that minute of sleep was the deepest she's had in what feels like a long time.
She slowly turned her head and watched the wooden door open with Kodlak and the other circle members behind him. Kodlak sighs in relief when he sees that Tilma spoke the truth. "Gods, is it good to see you awake girl." He told her with a warm smile as he entered the room with the others quickly trailing behind him.
She watched him approach her bed and then watched as the others scattered through out the room, all wanting to be able to see her. "How are you feeling?" Aela asked as she stood at the foot of the bed. "I'm..." Hope trails off from her response, because she couldn't really answer that. She hurt all over, so should she say she's in pain? She's completely drained, so should she say she's exhausted? Her chest aches with a heavy pain and her mind hurts from the recurring images flashing in her brain, so...should she say she's broken?
Without having an answer for Aela, she slowly sits up, quickly turning her attention back to Kodlak and hesitantly asking. "Did I...say anything to any of you...before?"
"You did." Farkas answered, turning her attention towards him. "But...it was hard to...hear." He cleared his throat.
Hope blinked at him and then slowly looked down towards the blanket covering her. "Tell us girl, what happened to you?" Kodlak asked with concern showing in his voice.
The images of burning buildings and the sounds of screams flash in her head, making her quickly bring her hands up to her face and covering her eyes with them. She tried to rid the horrid images from her mind, but she couldn't. She knew she needed to tell them, they needed to know. But she couldn't bring herself to speak, the only thing she could get out was a small whimper as the bottom of her lip began to tremble.
She pressed her fingers onto her eyes until she started to see small stars behind her lids. They covered up the images, but they didn't get rid of the screams echoing in her ears. Gods, she must look like a weeping coward to the others.
The room stayed quiet for a good awhile until Hope inhaled and then exhaled a shaky breath. She slowly lowered her hands from her eyes and opened them, once again staring down at the blanket covering her. "Where do I even begin..." She whispered.
"Just start from the beginning." Kodlak said, making her slowly look up at him. "Take your time if you must, but we need to know what happened."
Hope stared at him for a moment longer before giving him a slow nod. Just like he said, she started at the beginning.
She told them when the Imperials surrounded her in the forest and then explained how they over powered her and then threw her in the back of the carriage with the Stormcloaks. When she did, she saw anger stir in the backs of their eyes, especially Vilkas's. She even heard Aela scoff and Skjor have a look of disgust on his face, actually showing that he might care a little.
After that, she told them about Helgen and then about the headsmen. She couldn't help but explain how when her head laid down on the stone, she could feel the soldiers blood beneath her. She even held a hand up to her neck where the dried blood used to be. In the corner of her eyes, she saw Vilkas shifting around in the chair he had sat in. Obviously not feeling too thrilled about the story so far.
She paused for a moment after the headsman's block, not sure on how to proceed or on how to tell them. She bit her lower lip as she moved her eyes back down, vividly remembering it's thunderous roars and how it landed on the tower directly above her...staring down at her with it's red eyes. She quickly shuts her eyes, getting rid of the image.
She takes in a slow breath as she opens her eyes back up, continuing to stare down at the blanket on her. "At first..." She trails off, hearing its roar echo in her ears again. "At first...I thought it was just thunder, but then I realized there were no clouds in the sky..."
"Then it came, first as a shadow that nearly covered the whole village..." Hope's voice strains as she tightly shuts her eyes again, trying to keep the images away as well as a rise of panic. But she couldn't, it was all still too fresh in her mind.
"Then it was above me, perched on the stone tower, it's weight making cracks form in its foundation." Her voice shook. "A dragon."
The room fell into an uncomfortable, intense silence. One that had everyone shifting around uncomfortably. Hope kept her eyes shut as she took in a deep breath and continued. "It...burned the town...burned the people." Flashes of corpses littering the ground appeared in her mind as well as the awful smell and smoke that rose up off them.
"I...barely escaped." She felt fresh tears slide down her cheeks, no matter how hard she tried to keep them in, they escaped anyway. "I had to rely on someone else to survive..." Now a great shame overwhelms her, making more tears form in the corner of her eyes. Gods, she must of looked like a pathetic mess.
She moved her hands back up to her face, recovering her eyes with them. After a long pause and a few deep breaths. She wiped the tears away and looked back up at Kodlak, seeing the disbelief but also fear in his eyes.
"After we escaped Helgen, the dragon flew off but I don't know what direction. That's why despite of my condition, I came to Whiterun because I feared..." She stared at Kodlak for a moment longer before turning her eyes to everybody else in the room. They all had their lips in tight lines and their eyes facing the ground. "Have..have non of you really seen it? Has no one received word?" Hope questioned in disbelief.
"We saw the smoke." Vilkas spoke this time, making Hope look at him. She watched him close his eyes and rub his forehead, obviously trying to make sense of everything she just told them. "But we..no one knew it was Helgen and..no one knew that it was a..." He couldn't even say the word, because he wasn't even sure if he believed it.
"All we know is that the Jarl sent soldiers in the direction of the smoke the other day, other than that, nothing." Aela told her.
Gods...they had no clue, no one's seen anything or heard anything..did any of them even believe her?
"I'm...I'm telling the truth." She told them with a bit of panic showing her voice. "It was a dragon, I watched it-" Her voice breaks when the boys father's corpse comes back to her. She swallows a hard lump rising in her throat, one that made her whole chest ache before finishing her sentence. "I watched it kill people..." She said softly.
"You sure it was a dragon? You weren't hallucinating?" Skjor abruptly asked, making Hope look at him with furrowed eyebrows.
"Hallucinating?" She questioned. "You think..."
"Just have to be sure..." Skjor sighed as he looked down. "You have to understand it's uh...a little hard to believe." He told her.
She knew that, she knew it would be and knew that the chance of them believing her was slim. So why did it hurt when Skjor questioned her?
Hope took in a slow, deep breath before throwing the blankets off her legs. "Fine, if don't want to believe me, than don't. But that doesn't mean that it's not out there killing more people and destroying villages as we speak." Ignoring the pain in her legs, she throws them over the side of the bed and starts to stand, which makes everyone in the room quickly jump and rush to her.
"No! Don't stand!" Vilkas told her as he and Kodlak both tried to sit her back down, but she refused. "I have to, I have to go tell the Jarl. I promised!" She said as she quickly pushed their hands off her. "If you could barely make it to Whiterun, what makes you think you can walk all the way up to Dragonsreach?" Aela said as she quickly walked over and stood between Kodlak and Vilkas.
"Well I have to try." Hope said through clenched teeth, the pain from her legs obviously getting to her. "Let us do that." Kodlak said with a gentle voice. Hope looked at him with her eyebrows pinched together, not sure if she believed him or not.
"Why would you? Non of you seem to believe me." With out realizing it, her voice shook and her bottom lip trembled.
"Please understand our hesitation lass, everything that has happened to you...it's a lot to take in." He explained, making Hope look down with guilt in her eyes.
"Now please, you really must lay back down. Let us give your message to the Jarl and we shall see what he has to say about it." Kodlak said with both of his hands gently laying on her shoulders.
Hope stared at him for a moment before nodding and then slowly sitting back down on the bed. "Now, get some more rest. You need it." He told her with a warm smile. Hope slowly nodded again, suddenly feeling a wave of exhaustion coming over her.
After one last look at Hope, the others turn and leave the room, all except Vilkas. He had started to leave, but hearing a sharp hiss from Hope had him stop and turn around to face her. He watched her struggle to get her legs back up on the bed. "Here." He said as he walked over to her. "Let me help."
He carefully picked both of her legs up with is hands and then lifted them up to the bed. Hope winced in pain but once they were settled, they felt better. "Thanks..." She sighed as she watched Vilkas pick up the blanket and cover her legs with it.
Vilkas nodded and then stood back up straight, he looked over Hope once more before turning to leave. But she quickly stops him by grabbing his arm. "Wait!"
Vilkas turns his head towards her and looks at her with his eyebrows knit together. "What's wrong?" He asked as he fully turned to face her.
"I..I need you to do something for me..." She said with her eyes slowly moving away from him.
"What?" Vilkas asked again with concern showing in his voice.
"I..need you to check on Rorikstead for me..." She told him.
"Roristead?" He questioned with pinched eyebrows.
Hope quickly nodded while looking back up at him. "You know..you know I have family there and I fear..." She choked at the end of the sentence, not being able to bare the images coming to her mind.
"You fear that...the...uh..." Vilkas trails off, bringing a hand up to his forehead to rub it. "You fear the..dragon..." He sighed, showing the irritation he was feeling from hardly being able to get the word out.
"You don't believe me either, do you?" Hope asked with a frown.
Vilkas looked back up at her and felt his heart sink in his chest when he saw the hurt look in her eyes. He knew she had the right to be upset at everyone's hesitation, especially after surviving such a thing. It was just...hard to...grasp.
But with out thinking, Vilkas gently lays a hand on the side of her cheek, taking Hope aback for a minute before allowing herself to relax against it. "I believe you." He told her, making a spark of relief light in her eyes. He wasn't sure if he meant it or not, but he knew she needed to hear it and she needed him to check on her family for her.
"I'll go to Rorikstead." He said. "I'll make sure they're okay."
A deep, relieved sigh leaves Hope as her shoulders relax and she closes her eyes. "Thank you..." She said in another sigh.
Vilkas caressed her cheek with his thumb and she leaned into it, enjoying his gentle touch. Vilkas then slowly took his hand away and stepped back from her bed. Hope opened her eyes and looked up at him with exhaustion spilling from them.
"Get some rest." Vilkas told her softly. "I'll be back."
Hope gave him a small nod before slowly laying back against the soft pillow that had been calling her name since she awoke. Vilkas watched her for a moment, seeing her already beginning to drift off into sleep. His reaction to that was wanting to place a soft kiss on her forehead, but he didn't. He just left the room and let her be.
'Gods...' He sighed as he quickly walked down the hallway, thinking back on the things that Hope had told them. 'It was a dragon.' Her words ring in his head, making him come to a quick stop in the middle of the hallway.
He brings a hand to his forehead and rubs it again, feeling another tension head ache coming on. Could it of really been a dragon? If not, then what else could give Hope wounds like that? What else could create a fire large enough to consume a whole village? What else could-
The look of terror in Hope's eyes when she first spoke of the dragon flashes in Vilkas's head. Making him feel a pit form in his stomach, if it wasn't a dragon, what else could make Hope break like that?
And to think, she went through all of that alone. She was wrongly captured and hauled off to a village that was far out of her way. Just what was going through her head? He wondered. What was she thinking the whole time she was riding from Darkwater crossing to Helgen? Was she scared? Did she fear for her life? Did she feel alone?
The image of Hope going through all of that made Vilkas's chest have a strange kind of ache to it. 'I watched it kill people.' Her voice echoed in his head again, reminding him of how it broke towards the end. When it broke, his heart broke. Innocent people died right in front of her and he wasn't there to protect her.
"Gods." He sighed out loud as he removed his hand from his face and continued to walk down the hall. If it wasn't a dragon that killed innocent people right in front of Hope, then what could it of been? Several times he tried to come up with his own explanation like Skjor poorly tried to do earlier, but he couldn't. He couldn't think of one, because why would Hope lie about something like this?
She wouldn't lie about something like this and he knew that, he just didn't want to accept it, because if he did than he would have to accept that dragons existed. If he were to accept that dragons existed than he would have to accept a change coming and he just couldn't. He couldn't take any more changes. But whether he wanted them to come or not, it wasn't up to him and deep down in his heart, he knew they were coming.
