I felt tugging on my armor and small hands pushing at me.

"Not yet mom, five more minutes." I said groggily, rolling over.

"What?" a female voice that didn't sound like my mom asked.

I opened my eyes. Through a sleepy haze, I looked at my surroundings. Fur beds, cobblestone walls. Dammit, still not my bed.

I closed my eyes. Clearly, I was still dreaming.

I felt the same hands grip my shoulder and shake me, now from the side of the bed I rolled to. "Guy wake up!" the same voice whispered.

My eyes shot open, and I saw Ria's face above mine. After a pause for processing, I shot out of bed.

"Shit, sorry, Ria," I hurried my boots on, embarrassed.

"Hurry, Aela is waiting!" Ria tossed me a bottle of ale as I got up, and she led me out of the snoring barracks.

I followed her up the stairs as I took a long sip from the bottle. The windows showed only minor signs of sunlight outside. It's not even fully daylight, and I'm drinking. I chuckled to myself. Skyrim goes hard.

"So…do you…miss your mother?" Ria cautiously asked. I choked on my ale.

Seeing my reaction, she quickened her pace, "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, no, it's alright," I responded. Ria slowed her pace, allowing me to catch up. "It's just…I guess I do. I just haven't had much time to think about it lately."

"You guess?" Ria stopped in front of the door.

"Well, again I haven't really had all that much time to think about it, life lately has been one thing to the next." I replied.

"Did…she used to wake you like that?" Ria awkwardly asked.

I took another sip of my ale. So she heard that. Great.

"Yeah, something like that," I answered. "Isn't Aela waiting?"

"Yeah, sorry, I was just curious," Ria smiled and opened the door. I followed her into the crisp morning air.

I saw Aela in the yard practicing her archery, and I immediately stopped in place. Her body was facing away from the mead hall and didn't turn her head or make any acknowledgment of us. Her bow was in front of her with the practice arrow nocked in the string. She moved both of her arms to bring up the bow and draw the string to her cheek in a fluid motion. She paused for a millisecond and let the arrow fly and let the bow fall to her side as it passed. She gracefully moved to the target and removed her arrows from the target - all grouped on and around the bullseye.

I chugged the rest of my ale as I approached. I'm gonna need every ounce of this alcohol to make it through this.

"Ready RIa?" Aela finally turned. "Oh, you brought a friend. Fun!" She tilted her head and smiled as she slipped the quiver off her back, causing her red hair to flow, catching the rising sun's rays.

Never mind, I'm not surviving this.

"Good morning Aela!" Ria responded, picking up a bow and quiver from the gear selection. "This is Guy. Have you two met yet?"

"Yes, yes we have," I said quickly as I approached the gear.

Ria headed down to the yard with a smile, and I turned away to get a breather. As I stood there, I heard light steps approaching from behind me.

"No need for that, new-blood, you can use my bow and quiver," The voice stopped behind me.

I swallowed and slowly turned around, looking at the floor. Aela's boots met my vision, and my eyes began their journey up her legs, to her outstretched hands presenting the bow and quiver, her torso, her red hair draped along her collarbones flowing to her chest. After a pause there, I looked up at her face, which hosted a knowing smirk and eyes that pierced into my soul looking down at me. I was paralyzed.

"If you wish to hunt with me, Guy, your feet need to be quick…and your eyes quicker," Aela smoothly said.

I swallowed, and my eyes shot back down to the floor.

"Here?" she gave a chortle and gave the bow and quiver a shake in front of me.

"Oh, right!" I sheepishly grabbed the equipment and hurried down to the yard.

"So, Ria, show me what you have learned!" Aela's voice called from behind me.

"Okay!" Ria held her bow similar to Aela and took a deep breath. She slowly and shakily drew the bow one arm at a time, interestingly with three of her fingers below the arrow, only supporting it with the fingers below it, bringing it to rest on her cheek below her eye. After holding it for significantly longer than Aela, she let go of the string, and the arrow flew, landing close to the bullseye.

"Good!" Aela gave a short clap. "A little shaky but good. You will build up your strength in no time, as well as your confidence." Aela started to descend from the steps toward me. "Now Guy, I would like to see what you can do."

I swallowed and tried to imitate their stances. I held the arrow between my pointer and middle finger and nocked it into the string after a few tries, and pulled it to my cheek. My arms started shaking wildly, and I had no actual knowledge of how to aim, so I tried to guess a distance after a few seconds, and I let it fly. My arrow flew past the target into the rocks behind.

"Hm." Aela began her approach. "Here, allow me." I gave her the bow and an arrow.

She took the bow and placed one end on the ground like a staff. Twirling the arrow in her hand, she began, "When you are new to archery, aiming is difficult. Luckily, there are ways to make up for this until you are more comfortable and aiming becomes your second nature." Aela tossed the bow up into her hand, then placed it in front of her in a firing position. "When shooting, if not using your feelings, your reference is your arrow. The first step is moving the seat of the arrow to follow your vision. Holding the arrow normally -", Aela took a pause to seamlessly nock her arrow and pull back the string with her slender pointer and middle finger holding it in place, "like this, causes a gap between the point and the location your arrow will land. The way you can close this gap is by a change in the grip", Aela let the tension on the string go slowly, allowing her to reposition her hand, placing three of her fingers below the arrow. She then brought back the string and arrow to her cheek, "As you can see, now that my arrow is on top of my fingers, even though my hand positioning hasn't moved much, the angle of the arrow is now much closer to my vision - about as close as possible."

She turned her eyes to the target, moved the bow precisely, and fired, hitting the bullseye. She smiled and handed me the bow, "Now you try."

After a second to recover from that stunning lecture, I took the bow and arrow, trying my best to replicate it, taking it slowly. It was challenging to hold the arrow in place with just one finger, but I eventually got it. I tried my best to place the arrow point on the bullseye with my arm shaking. I let go of the string, and my arrow flew, Hitting the target, in the upper left portion. I grinned from ear to ear, and looked at Ria, who gave a thumbs up, then turned to Aela and found her standing very close behind me.

"Ah…when did you…uh…I did it!" I gave a thumbs up with my free hand.

"Here," Aela said, stepping closer and running her hand down my bow arm. "Let me show another method to help with aiming."

My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. "Uh…how would that…be like?"

"It's rather simple," Aela lifted my arm like a ragdoll and put another arrow in my free hand. "Go ahead and nock that will you?"

My hand was shaking even worse with her touching me. It felt like I was beyond a barrier I shouldn't have been. After what felt like an hour but was probably just a few seconds, I nocked the arrow and started bringing it back shakily.

Aela ran her hand along my shooting arm and stopped at my wrist. "Don't worry, you will build up the strength the more you practice." She said as she pressed against my back.

As she pressed against my back, I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. My mouth wouldn't open any more than enough to breathe through, and no sound was coming from my throat. She began to move my bow arm, paused, then placed her hand on the lower part of my sternum and pulled me standing straight. Doing so caused me to breathe in through my nose for probably the first time throughout this interaction. I got a whiff of something that started to wear off the spell when I did. I couldn't place it, but it was disgusting, and I could feel the feeling in my body and my heart rate slowly returning to normal.

"Now, when you aim, try to bring it in along the horizon," Aela said as she moved my arm for me. "This makes it so there is only one level to worry about."

The smell made me uncomfortable, and I couldn't help but keep sniffing. It seemed like it was coming from Aela.

"Be mindful of the gap between the arrowhead and impact you see and as you practice, try and become more and more accustomed to it." Aela continued.

"Something…" I started to say I began to feel like I might heave.

"You can fire whenever you're ready, Guy, just remember to bring it in…", Aela began to move my arm, but I stiffened.

"Smells…like a wet…dog," I stammered out.

Aela stopped trying to move my arm. After a pause, she moved away from me unnaturally fast. After a few seconds, the smell was gone. I looked over my shoulder at her to find her eyes, viscous and filled with shock.

It took me a few seconds, and then it clicked. Not only did I say Aela smelled (which, pretty and smelly, weird combo), but related it to her identity that she and the rest of The Circle were hiding from the world and the rest of the companions.

I just told a terrifying werewolf woman that she smelled like a wet dog.