"Son of a barrel."
The cold was seeping into her back, but there was a very strong man wrapped around her legs. She managed to keep still, to let him sleep. It helped that his inner furnace kept her lower half quite warm.
She quickly backed away from those thoughts and returned to counting icicles.
When the two had reached a balance of rested and stir-crazy, they packed up and moved along.
Elana almost immediately felt justified in her demanding rest. Bodies, violently deprived of life, lay about. She took the time to flip through their pockets, searching for clues to Blackreach. "Well, they don't know what killed them, but I can guess."
It was a few steps later when Vilkas drew his bow and put an arrow through the skull of a muttering Khajiit.
"Skooma madness," he said with a sigh when the two came closer. It did make a grisly scene with the two dead cats. "His friend-" "Brother" "-brother died of something. Maybe the same thing got him as the others, or maybe the madness. Either way, the second cat was never coming back. He'd been down here too long alone without his skooma."
"Do you think the howl you heard-"
"It must have been an animal outside the ruins. Let's keep going."
Three more members of this failed expedition were located before life was. Elana thought the last remaining members would be on each other's side. But one was brave to the point of suicidal so they fought.
Elana marched forward angrily. "Hey! If you're so determined to go deeper leave your friend and-"
Moving as one unit the two left off fighting each other and rushed the Dragonborn. She immediately dodged their blows, almost falling off the small ledge. She drew her greatsword and engaged one as Vilkas picked off the other with his bow. One swing staggered her opponent enough that Elana quickly applied a fatal wound and shoved him off the pathway to the ground below.
"Well that was unnecessary."
"And yet we do it anyway."
Elana huffed in agreement and the Companions continued deeper into Alftand, the entrance to Blackreach.
"By Ysgramor, did I just hear Elana of Whiterun scream?"
She growled at him as she stood panting over a Dwarven Sphere. "They caught me off guard."
"Relax, I am just teasing. You have to remember, this is your first time in Dwemer ruins. You just killed your first piece of Dwemer machinery." He kicked the one next to him. "We best keep going, however. These things have the habit of re-setting themselves, and on an inconsistent time schedule."
In response, Elana ripped the head off of hers. "Let's see it re-set from that."
Vilkas chuckled. "Come along. There will be more to destroy."
To her annoyance, there were more of the noisy, creaking machinations. Some were more like spiders and more easily dispatched with one overhead swing. She put all the force into those downward blows that she could.
They dodged the spinning blades easily enough with no bodily harm. But as Elana was leaping through, her pack caught on one of the blades, spilling her items out thankfully beyond the reach of the sharp instruments. She gathered up the items nearest the weapons, reaching for the small sewing kit. "Sorry, Vilkas. It shouldn't take that long to repair, especially since I can probably grab some sort of sack off a body farther in-"
Vilkas offered the sitting Elana the handle of Jarl Ulfric's ax. "Elana. What is this?"
"It's nothing. Just an extra weapon."
"You fight with two-handed greatswords." He ran his fingers over the edge of the blade. "This is hardly sharp at all. This is no extra weapon. Tell me the truth."
"It's the ax of Jarl Ulfric of Windhelm."
He nodded. "Why do you have it?"
"The Jarl asked me to deliver it to the Jarl of Whiterun." She threaded the needle and started furiously stitching the pack back together.
Vilkas stared silently and watched for a few minutes as she forced the leather to come back together. When the tension her shoulders had abated, he spoke again. "Why haven't you delivered it?"
"I'm Thane; I can't bring war to Whiterun."
"Start it and protect her with us Companions. It's the natural answer."
She looked up at him from the haphazard sewing. "Jarl Ulfric asked the Elan, Thane of Whiterun and Dragonborn, not knowing either of these titles, to deliver the ax because Elan is the newest recruit to the Stormcloak cause."
"There are consequences to every action. You have to deliver the ax."
"And we need to keep going." She stuffed everything back into her pack, including the offending ax. "I will fulfill my duties."
"What will you do when they come into conflict?"
Her lips curled. "I am Dovahkiin. I will think of something."