Elana kept an inquisitive eye on Vilkas, but he never wavered from their course. He didn't try to restart the conversation or make quips. He just walked.

At least until the sun was nearly directly overhead.

"Alright. Sun rose all the way. Time to eat." He promptly pulled his packs off his shoulders and dropped to the ground. She stared, stock still, as he pulled out a few apples and a wrapped piece of meat. "Don't just stand there, Companion, eat."

"We can eat while walking."

"No. Because you'll eat less so you can walk faster. Sit, grab yourself an apple, and eat."

Grumbling, she sat. She fetched a larger apple from her own stores. Tossing it back and forth in her hands, she glared at Vilkas. "For your information, I wouldn't eat less while walking." He looked at her with disbelief. "What?"

He smirked, "Just eat."

"I am picking up a theme with him."

You'll find that same theme with all Nords.

"Even you, hatchling?"

Even me.

"Interesting." Mirmulnir seemed to resettle himself. "There could be worse trends that end in a full belly I suppose. But little one, do you really not trust him so? You are traveling alone with him in the wilderness after all."

So you want me to tell him about you?

"That is not what I said-"

"So Vilkas, I haven't heard from you or your brother how you two came to be Companions."

"Trying to butter me up so I forget about earlier?" At her look, he laughed. "Apologies, I've taken this how situation in a lighter sense than you. But my brother and I have always been around Jorrvaskr. It was natural for the two of us to become Companions. They had taught us so much about fighting and surviving, so we made it our life."

She took a bite of the apple. "So you've always had home."

"Luckier than most, I suppose. Now are we trading stories and I get to hear about you?"

Elana shrugged. "Farmer's daughter, didn't want to be, and lucky for me a merchant needed a boy to help him move goods. I could act convincingly enough, so I got the job. Until ended up on the wrong side of a skirmish between Stormcloaks and Imperials, I'd only spent my days in Falkreath and the Rift of Skyrim and the northern reaches of Cyrodill. Gonnstar was the one who taught me to fight."

"What's he doing now, without you?"

"I don't know. A courier would have found me if he was dead. We weren't in Riften long enough for me to ask questions, or even remember to do so."

"I don't suppose he was a father figure to you?"

She laughed as she finished her apple. "My own father did just fine. Neither one taught me that there was anything to gain by dwelling in the past. I move on; I become stronger. No matter what you say about any thirst for adventure, I will have that quiet cabin in the mountains. And now I'm strong enough to keep anyone from taking it away from me."

"So you buy Breezehome-"

"I'm supposed to keep my massive amounts of wealth in the basement of Jorrvaskr?" The two laughed. "I don't know; it seemed like a good idea. The next step of being Thane, I suppose. I sort of belong to Whiterun now. It's growing on me."

Vilkas smirked. "I know what you mean." He tossed his last apple core over his shoulder. "Well. Come on. Sun's not going to wait for us."

"Now you get pushy."

"Of course. Now I can annoy you."

Standing over the two dead wolves, Elana started to giggle. "That's one way to apologize, Vilkas."

He smiled. "Well, if Aela taught me anything it's that women like dead things. And Aela would of course be the expert on the average woman's sensibilities."

"Only if killed with the man's bare hands, as just demonstrated."

"I'm nothing if not thorough."

Elana looked back down at the beasts. "All the same, I do accept your apology and offer a less flashy one of my own. I shouldn't have insinuated you couldn't be trusted and that I don't trust you. Because, I do trust you, and had forgiven you for our fight long before I came back. I just can't tell you this."

Vilkas huffed. "As I said before we were rudely interrupted, I'm learning not to press. You're not prey; you're Elana."

Eyes fixed on the still fur, she continued, "I think that's enough painful stuff for today. Let's just keep walking."

"Ah yes, onward then. To Markarth, the safest city in Skyrim."

"For the Forsworn!"

Elana didn't think. She leapt forward, blood roaring, everything blurred out but the crazed man moving towards the woman. Racing forward, she slipped in-between him and his target, who had turned to stare him down like a scared deer. Elana's arms were up, around his neck and head, and twisting even as the attacker buried his knife somewhere in her. In the screaming of her body and the angry-worry of Mirmulnir, she couldn't exactly pinpoint where the blade was. As the blackness settled in, there was a deep, horrid crack, and the prey in her arms went slack.

Elana passed out with a smile on her face and the shouts of Vilkas in her ears.