This is a shorter one again, but I hope you like it.
As i write I'm beginning to like Vilkas more and more. And so I enjoy writing any and all dialogue involving him, no matter how insignificant it might seem.
I'm also almost done with the next chapter which will introduce a new nongame character. It's been a while since I wrote any comedy, so I'm giving that a try again. I'm looking forward to releasing that one. I will try to get it done during the weekend, or possible next week. (I have a lot on my plate so.)
Full Moon Rising
¨See you in the Underforge tonight?¨ Vilkas asked as I passed him in the empty hallway beneath Jorrvaskr.
It was before noon, meaning training and practice were on the agenda. But I had fallen behind with the paperwork that grew on my table as quickly as my loathsomeness for it grew. So while the others spared one another and trained their sword-arms. I had been grinding teeth and scratching my eyebrows over my work desk, answered any and all letters I had gotten from Riften. It wasn't hard work really, it just turns out I hate writing. When I had first arrived at Jorrvaskr I had barely been able to read, even less write. So Kodlak himself had quickly decided to correct my lack of skill when I first joined. And even though reading was something I no longer found difficult in, writing was. I suppose the thing I hated the most was being bad at something most found easy.
"Sure…" I answered as I stopped in front of him. "Same time as last?"
"Before the sun fully sets at least. You know the drill by now." Vilkas answered, gripping his wolf-head shaped belt buckle with both hands in a relaxed stance.
I nodded in thought for a brief moment before returning eye contact with Vilkas. "So… you came down here just to ask me that?" I asked. After all, Vilkas wasn't the type to skip out on training.
"No…" He answered. "Tilma is going to the market, said she needs some coin." Vilkas grimaced slightly at the thought, for a moment his sleep-deprived eyes seemed to turn even heavier. I knew we had gone over budget this month, something which surely troubled Vilkas far more than he dared to show. After all, he was the only one fully aware of our treasury.
"Well I'll, let you be then." I said as I made a move to head for the stairs.
"Aye…" He answered heavily as he headed for his room.
"Hey, wait." I stopped myself and turned my head back towards Vilkas. "While you're down here…"
"I'll check your grammar," Vilkas answered slightly annoyed, but with a hint of humor, as he gave a wave over his shoulder and disappeared around the corner at the end of the hall.
The torchlight flickered against the stone walls as well as in the eyes of everyone present. It always surprised me how warm the Underforge was, with its water dripping stone walls and typical cave floor. But considering the Skyforge, with its eternal fire, was burning day and night just above our heads I really shouldn't be surprised. The cave simply gave off the same atmosphere as most other damp caves and potato cellars, so one always expected it to be cold. But in truth it had more in common with a sauna, warm and damp, smelling heavily of sweaty skin and dirt.
"Kodlak won't join us today either?" I asked as I looked over the others.
"Kodlak never joins us for this," Skjor answered quickly. "Whenever the full moon closes in he travels to Winterhold. Finds a cold cave and waits I out. His wolf won't leave the cave to hunt due to the cold there." Skjor made a slight look of contention before continuing. "He also says he's searching the College's library for a cure."
"There is a cure?" I asked raising an eyebrow. No one had mentioned anything of a cure before. Not that I knew if I was interested in one.
"Cure? Hah. You're sounding like the old man." Aela burst before regaining herself. "I… shouldn't say that. I love Kodlak. I respect and follow him. But he's wrong on this. It's no curse. We're made into the greatest hunters in the land. If he's worried about some mead-swilling afterlife in Sovngarde, he's free to pursue it." Aela sighted before continuing with confidence. "I'll take the glories of the hunt right here."
I saw Vilkas give Aela a judging look before he interrupted her with the sound of rattling chains that he had begun to attach to himself. Chains forged by Eorlund himself in the Skyforge. The chainrings were far too large to fit around his neck, waist, wrists, and ankles. But once the transformation started expanded his body they would fit just right.
"Being moon-born is not so much of a curse as you might think, Vilkas," Aela said in response to the judging look she had been given.
"That's fine by you," Vilkas answered as he clipped chains around his wrists. "But he wants to be clean. He wants to meet Ysgramor and know the glories of Sovngarde. But all that was taken from him." Vikas said, referring to Hircin's claim on our souls.
"Farkas, you're staying behind too?" Skjor asked suddenly, surely to interrupt the possible arguing he felt was growing between Aela and Vilkas.
"I go where my brother goes." Farkas answered in his usual grumpy manner.
"What about you then?" Skjor asked as he turned his look towards me. "Chains again? Or are you joining us for a change?"
In the previous months, I had used the chains with Vilkas and Farkas. So I hadn't gone out to ¨hunt¨ in the wild even once since my turning.
"What would we do?" I asked, not sure yet if I would take Skjors offer.
"We plan to use it to our advantage." Aela pitted in. "We have a contract for a bandit camp not so far to the north. It's still an hour till we turn. If we hurry, we can make it there. Turn close enough that our wolves will smell them, and hunt." Aela smiled as she spoke. "We'll please Hircine as we hunt, and complete a contract in the progress. Win-win."
I could tell Vilkas gave me a look as I was considering their offer. ¨You don't like this, do you?¨ I had asked him before our first full moon together.
¨What's there to like?¨ He had answered in almost anger full annoyance. ¨Excruciating pain till you pass out, waking up Shor knows where having done Hircine knows what?… The ¨wolf¨ can't be trusted. He does what he wants no matter your own thoughts.¨ He had said.
"Make up your mind." Skjor said, interrupting my short flashback of memory. "We don't have time to spare."
He and Aela turned to walk for the cave opening leading out to the Whiterun fields.
I looked at Vilkas and Farkas, finishing their chains. Then back at Skjor and Aela, walking away…
Curiosity wanted me to leave with them, as much as fear begged me to stay.