A/N: Thank you for the reviews and encouragement. Here it is. Jaime's baptism of fire, and many more to come I am afraid. Please, enjoy. Also, strong language involved.
After the spar with Vilkas, Jaime felt rejuvenated, as if he had drank after a long thirst. Aela kept smirking in his direction while the majority of the companions continued drinking in his name, toasting and even recounting how he put the deadly companion down once. He was excited as Kodlak had requested his presence but right now he would be told when to go. One of the others, however, did not seem to agree with the merry celebrations.
"As if I am impressed with a milk drinker crossing his sword a few times with Vilkas." Njada Stone-arm sneered out loud.
Jaime could not help but respond, "Is that jealousy I hear? Maybe it is just the fact that you cannot even last a minute against someone like Vilkas." The blonde smirked. 'And the lion still has claws…'
Athis roared in laughter and then sneered at her. "I agree, you are indeed useless!"
The woman in question huffed and left abruptly, much to the amusement of everyone at the table. Aela just shook her head at the departing companion. 'She is jealous alright..'
"Come now, outlander." Torvar laughed. "Let us have a drink together!"
Jaime wanted to reply that he did not want to drink more but was saved by none other than Aela. "Jaime, come with me."
"Oh! She wants you to come with her alright." Torvar made moaning sounds and began laughing to himself.
"Piss off, Torvar." Farkas growled, then turned and smiled at the duo. "You two go on ahead, Kodlak is waiting for ya."
This was it. Jaime had read so much on the Companions and their origins. He was utterly fascinated with Ysgramor and his tale of adventure, sadness, revenge and then conquest. It almost rang an echo to the Conquest by the Targaryens though less dragons. Ironic, though, that dragons would play a role later. Jaime still felt revulsion at the thought of a dragon cult within Skyrim. No matter where he went, those gods damned lizards seemed to follow him.
At least they were extinct here, just as they should always be. As good weapons as they were against white walkers, here in Skyrim… or anywhere else really, they were more harm than good.
Aela turned to him with a smile and said. "Our harbinger is a good man, Jaime, just be honest, that's all he cares about."
"He sounds like a good man."
Aela smiled. "He is, the man is a legend, full of wisdom." She then gestured around. "The quarters around you see, just claim one bed if you want and you can sleep here. If you want to continue at the temple, it is fine."
Jaime nodded. "I think I will continue helping Danica in the meantime, I still owe her for allowing me to stay." The former knight said with finality.
He did not lie in that. Danica had been very helpful. She could have tossed him out after healing him but instead she allowed him to stay and earn it by doing basically what he did as a kingsguard, though with less drama to be sure, much less. He only had to punch some drunken idiot who thought he could grab Danica's breasts. He was extremely enraged while Danica laughed out loud, probably used to this by now.
"Honorable." Aela smirked. "As expected of you, Kodlak will like you."
Jaime wanted to laugh in her face about the honorable part but decided to keep a blank look.
Of course she would call him honorable. He used to be an arsehole, and of the worst kind. He remembered little Bran Stark, his fall and fucking his sister after. 'The things I do for love.' He shuddered in horror at the thought.
Those were such dark days. It was as if he was on a drunken haze as he thought about it now, he remembered much but not all. Jaime still felt horrible, and wanted now to do good, he had his right hand after all. 'As impossible as that sounds.' He thought.
"I sure hope so." Jaime replied as they stood by two main doors. "The Companions are honorable, and I hope to be the same."
Aela just shook her head softly and opened the doors.
Glancing around, the knight saw Vilkas and an old man sitting by a table, with Skjor at the side standing. They had been talking but now only paid them attention. Jaime could not help but look at Kodlak Whitemane. He looked old, of course as expected, but his eyes were soft, even if he looked fearsome with the war paint. He smiled at Jaime.
"Jaime Lannister, your name has been going around these halls lately." Kodlak smiled. "That was an impressive showing with Vilkas here." The old man gestured at Vilkas at his right side.
"Vilkas is one of the most skilled opponents I have ever encountered." Jaime replied with a smile. "As I told him, he could have beaten most if not all from my homeland." 'Except Ser Barristan Selmy and Ser Arthur Dayne.'
The man mentioned smiled at Jaime. "You were very good, one of the best I've faced in a while, aye." There was pride and happiness in his voice.
Skjor smirked. "Aela almost tired herself of singing your praises."
Kodlak smiled softly, as if he was Jaime's grandfather. "Come closer, Jaime, let me look at you."
The mentioned man approached and gave a bow. "My lord."
"Oh gods no." The old man groaned. "Do not call me lord, or Harbinger for that matter."
"But Harbinger…" Vilkas tried to interrupt.
"I am just advising this organization, I am not the leader of anything!" He said in an iron like voice. Even Jaime stood at attention. "Now, there are beds here to be used, and we need new blood, with good hearts. We need new souls with an ardent desire for adventure and glory!" He turned to Jaime. "Why do you want to join us, young Jaime?"
The knight looked at the much older man in the eyes and replied. "Because I want to find my soul back, and I want to belong." It was the truth that much was certain. He could feel the stare of Aela but kept looking at Kodlak. He feared if he took his gaze off the man it would lose him respect. And besides, he certainly felt he already belonged here.
Kodlak looked at Jaime, scrutinizing him. He frowned at first, then slowly began to smile. "Your eyes, young one, they are an open door. You have so much spirit inside of you, which is exactly what we need."
"Is he in?" Skjor asked as Vilkas silently watched the proceedings.
"Jaime, would you be willing to fulfill your contracts thoroughly while acting honorably? Will you act as a shield brother to your fellow warriors? Will you help them in their hour of need? Will you put your life at risk for them?" Kodlak asked, ignoring the others beside him.
The former knight nodded. "Yes, my… yes, I will help my fellow shield brothers and sisters in their hour of need and fulfill my contracts with honor." Jaime then looked at Aela, who smiled at him. "I will do anything for them. This will be my family now."
Kodlak chuckled while Vilkas smirked and Skjor laughed. "Good man."
"There will be a feast on you, Jaime." Kodlak smirked slightly at the happy look of Jaime, and approved of it. 'He will be good, if not great.'
Jaime felt drunk before he even sat down in the hall. Farkas and Torvar were arguing, as usual while Skjor and Athis were discussing about bandits north of Whiterun. Maybe that was going to be his first contract? Jaime just felt satisfied and very eager to begin working for the Companions.
"Ah, outlander, fancy seeing you here.." Aela smirked, sitting down beside him to the right.
The former knight smiled. "Did you ever imagine me here, as a full companion?"
"After that showing against Vilkas? Not a doubt!" A bubbly kind of voice sounded.
Jaime turned and saw a tall sun kissed woman, a smile on her face. Realization hit him, she had seen her before. "Oh, I saw you when I sparred with Vilkas, my lady."
"It is just Ria, no lady business." She laughed at Jaime, making Aela chuckle. "That was very impressive, I can dual wield but cannot last even a few minutes with Vilkas."
"That is because you are a loser." A voice sneered.
Aela sneered back at Njada. "As Jaime said before, jealousy will take you nowhere."
The latter huffed and walked away.
Ria laughed. "She's always been a little hard but she has a good heart."
"I wonder if it froze when she crossed the border to Skyrim." Jaime quipped.
The imperial laughed, then looked at the new member. "I'd like to spar with you tomorrow, if you can Jaime."
"It'd be my honor, Ria."
"Splendid!" She jumped with eagerness, smiling all the while. "Thank you, Jaime. I will not disappoint."
With that, the laughing imperial left, merrily bumping into an incoming Vilkas, who sighed at her antics.
"She is good, you know." Aela smirked. "She can wield two swords, very strong and quite fast."
Jaime nodded in approval, almost like his father would. "If I can help her improve, even better."
Vilkas chuckled quietly as he sat down next to Jaime on the left. "You will, she is a little demon, that one."
"I will trust your judgment ser, you are a dangerous swordsman." Jaime replied.
Aela saw Vilkas smile slightly. "Be that as it may, tomorrow you will get your first assignment… new blood."
The former knight raised an eyebrow. "Oh, new blood? Well, that is a new one. What will it be?"
"Could be anything, really." Aela shrugged, a cat like grin on her features. "Killing wolves… wipe out some bandits, maybe cleaning a mine out of daugr."
"Out of what?" Jaime asked as he took another drink of his ale.
Vilkas caught on right away, smirking. "Daugr, undead basically."
Jaime's eyes widened. "Undead?!"
"Indeed." The huntress replied seriously.
The former knight stared at her then at Vilkas at his other side before he laughed out loud, thinking the two were pranking him. "Yeah, right! And are there any dwemer I have to debate with? Perhaps the ayulid elves need a hand with their empire?" Jaime recited the names of already either extinct or lost races, mocking both Aela and Vilkas.
"Ayleids, Jaime." Vilkas corrected with a smirk.
"Same shit." Jaime snorted. "I will do my best with my assignments, trust me."
"I know." The dangerous swordsman replied with an even bigger smirk. "Aela will be going with you."
It turned out that Jaime's first assignment as a Companion was to clear a cave of vermin for an affluent merchant north of Whiterun.
"I hate caves." Jaime sighed as he sat on a tree stump, sharpening his sword, the said cave being just steps from them. "Dark and depressing." It brought him memories of the Kingswood Brotherhood, and their idiotic shenanigans. The smiling knight, deadly smirk and his epic showdown with Ser Arthur Dayne.
"You would not have liked the dwemer, then." Aela quipped as she rummaged through her potions beside him. "They liked the underground quite a bit."
"My brother would have been disappointed then." Jaime chuckled. "All of their supposed knowledge and power, and yet they chose to live in depressing caves? How idiotic."
As Aela was about to retort her face went from amused to serious. She began to sniff in the air. "We got company."
Jaime raised an eyebrow. "I assume they are wearing good perfume for you to smell it." He replied sarcastically.
The huntress looked at him, her face still serious. "Bandits." She whispered, eyes narrowed now. "To the east." Her face then pointed at the trees.
Jaime noticed her serious expression and began to stand up slowly, looking at the forest. He grabbed his sword and put it up slowly in a defensive stance and nodded at her.
A roar of rage and all of a sudden five warriors burst through the trees. They wore cheap leather or iron armor, and looked quite worn.
The biggest one, a man almost as tall as Sandor, glared at them both, but his eyes turned lustful at the sight of Aela. "Kill that blonde one, bring me the woman."
Aela sneered at him. "You are welcome to try, scum."
The bandit chief laughed. "I like them feisty!"
As his two men charged, he noticed one of them falling with his throat cut, bleeding out. The other one tried to trade blows with the blonde one but was then headless in less than a few seconds.
Jaime smirked as he looked at the bodies. "They did not lack bravery at least… or should I say foolishness?" The westerlander knew Aela was taking care of the archer and the other idiot with them. He was solely focused on the big moron now.
The bandit chief roared, enraged and charged at Jaime, who sidestepped and began clashing with him. Jaime laughed as he evaded a blow to his head, and replied with a quick slash to one of the kneecaps of the chief, who roared in pain. He was in his element now.
Aela, on the other hand, had just killed an archer from a distance and then charged at another who was trying to get his shield up. It was in vain, however. Aela was known for her fast, cunning and aggressive use of daggers. The man's throat was cut within seconds and after a gurgle, he fell on the floor, his eyes staring at the huntress in disbelief and fear before finally ceding to mortality.
Hearing a roar of pain, Aela turned and saw the bandit chief on his knees, sword kicked away by Jaime. The new blood had a slight smirk on his face, though his eyes were hard and cold, focused. Aela liked that, he was not as boastful or arrogant despite his great talent at fighting, most of the time.
"Please, mercy." The chief pleaded in a wobbly voice.
Jaime looked at Aela, who nodded her head. He nodded back and with a swift slash, a headless bandit chief lay at their feet, executed. 'I wonder what the great Ned would say… the Kingslayer being northern in customs now…' The kingslayer felt hopeful satisfaction that somewhere, Eddard Stark was annoyed.
"Check the bodies for valuables." Aela said, looking at the bodies. "They might have enough coin between them to buy supplies later."
Jaime just nodded and proceeded to check the chief. "Hey, this coin pouch is quite heavy." He smiled at Aela, who shook her head with a smirk and went to check the other bodies.
"Gods above, those rats are huge!" Jaime shouted as he killed one with a single strike of his sword.
Aela rolled her eyes. "The contract said vermin, Jaime."
"Yes, but it never mentioned rats big enough to eat us!"
"Let us just kill them to get this over with."
They set upon cornering the last four skeevers in the cave, and finally slaughtered them. It was eerily quiet in the cave, and Jaime began to feel unnerved.
"Alright, we got it done, let us…" He began to say but was interrupted.
A low growl echoed across the cave, and Jaime literally felt his insides freeze in fear, the hair on his arms standing. At the corner, rocks began falling, revealing another seemingly undiscovered part of it and there stood something. It was tall, with a sword in its hand. Jaime began to quiver in his boots when he saw the thing glaring at them with hateful blue eyes, possessing a body that looked like a cross between a wight and a white walker.
"White walker?!" Jaime shouted in utter fear, taking several steps back. Maybe realizing he was in another realm, he shouted. "What the fuck is that?!"
Aela looked at the thing with narrowed eyes, but a smirk was playing on her lips. "A draugr, how curious. I guess this cave is connected to an underground city or large burial."
The huntress looked at Jaime and frowned. He was pale, eyes wide in utter fear and alarm. His sword was shaking in front of him. "They are killable, outlander! Focus!"
"We don't have valyrian steel!" He replied in alarm, the draugr now charging. "What the fuck are we supposed to kill it with?" He felt like Winterfell all over, countless bodies around him, the Unsullied bravely but in vain resisting and Dothraki bloodriders charging to die at the hands of those freaks. Brienne, looking down at him, tears on her face before it all turned black. Then listening to her sobbing and the cries of many around.
Aela sighed and charged at the draugr, dueling it with her daggers. The undead soldier roared in a rage and slashed with its sword at her. She simply evaded the blow, then stabbed it in the neck.
Jaime saw the blue eyes of the thing slowly dimming, the light going away as it landed on the cold ground.
"See?" She smirked, crossing her arms, now looking at him. "Killable. Poor little new blood, for all his potential as a swordsman, he behaves like a little kitten in front of draugr."
Jaime went from shocked to enraged, his eyes turning hateful in a matter of seconds.
Aela was shocked, and at seeing him charge, she thought he was going to stab her. As she was set to evade the blow, she heard a growl behind her. Before she could turn, Jaime had stabbed the creature in its midsection, another daugr. The creature shrieked before losing the light in its blue eyes.
The huntress stared at Jaime, who kept looking at the creature. "No need for valyrian steel then." He mumbled. He then kicked the thing out of his sword, allowing it to fall before them. He staggered, probably still in shock, towards the cave-in, to check. However, he felt the huntresses' eyes on him and turned around.
At her questioning gaze, he said. "I need to get drunk to tell you. Come on, let us make sure there are no more of these bastards around." He then looked at the body of the creature.
He looked so pale and serious, yet saved her life without hesitation, despite his utter fear of the creatures. Indeed, she was going to get the information out of him somehow. Jaime looked so terrified it seemed almost pitiful, yet found the courage to charge.
"Jaime." She said suddenly, making the man turn to her. "Thank you for saving my life."
The man looked at her and finally smirked. "You saved mine by guiding me into the companions, no debt needs to be paid." He had enough of those. Aela had indeed saved him in more ways than one.
His honest response made her smile. His face then turned annoyed and frightful, an odd combination to be sure.
"I just want to get the fuck out of here."
She laughed. Who knew the brave and fearless outlander would be reduced to a mere kitten at the sight of some of the most common nuisances in Skyrim. Though the fact that he charged without hesitation to save her life made him a worthy companion.
Farkas and Torvar were going to have a great day listening about this.
Jaime is new to Skyrim, and there are many creatures around, enough to make someone like Jaime, an elite soldier and awesome swordsman, to pause in fear. As said, there wont be a focus on romance much, and there might be someone showing up later that will make Jaime groan in annoyance. Take your guesses. Thanks for reading, and please, stay safe out there. Adios!