I don't own anything except the OC and the plot.
4
The camp wasn't far away, further towards the mountains and hidden in a circle of stones. The Nords bound her hands and feet with leather strings and tossed her towards one of the small tents. Then they started a fire and got busy around the camp. On a small improvised table were several bloody pelts, some smaller antlers and a lot of meat. The blonde man was dressing the rabbits and prepared them to be roasted over the fire.
Aoife felt anger rising in her chest. Apparently they were hunting on her land for quite a while. She swore, if the old gods let her get out of here, she would come back with her people and gut all of these poachers. The Reach should be soaked in their blood.
But the men payed her no attention and therefore didn't see the anger in her eyes. Soon they settled around the fire as night fell over them. They ate and drank and talked a lot, but Aoife didn't follow the conversation. She was busy trying to get the leather strips loose, but the knots held tight.
The talking and the laughter got louder, the more mead the hunters drank. One of them, Andnar, finally got up and disappeared behind a bush. When he got back, he stopped by the spot where she lay.
"I always thought those Forsworn savages were nothing but ugly hags", he called over to the fire. "This one isn't too bad to look at."
His eyes wandered approvingly over her legs and Aoife nearly got sick.
"Yes, but I assume she has teeth between her legs as well", one of the others laughed. "Do you want to risk that?"
Angnar ignored him and instead lowered himself on one knee to take a closer look at her. Aoife herself stared back at him warily and pressed her head against the ground like an attempt to get more distance between them. Every muscle in her body tensed.
"Don't you dare touching me, you filthy son of a troll!", she snarled and earned more laughter from the fireplace.
Either the Nord hadn't heard her or he was more drunk than she had thought, but his hand reached for her knee. His touch was rough and with force he tried to spread her legs. Without hesitation Aoife tried to kick him with her bound feet and smiled grimly when she successfully hit his stomach.
"You stupid bitch", he grunted and bashed her head against to ground with his right while pinning her down with the other hand. Aoife gasped and tried to blink away the sparks igniting behind her eyes. She was still fighting for her conciousness when she felt a knee between hers, pushing between them and making it nearly impossible to move.
Rough lips pressed against her neck, a tongue licking down to her collarbone and with a scream she started struggling. It was pointless, the man on top of her was way too heavy to be pushed off while she was tied up. She tried to turn her body away but couldn't move anything except her head and with a last desperate attempt she sank her teeth into his ear.
"ARGH! You... bitch!" A hand slammed across her face. Her head was thrown to the side and this time the sparks lit up like a spell behind her eyes. Aoife cried out in pain.
"I will crush your heart for this!", she hissed when her eyesight came back.
"Shut up!" Angnar put his huge hand over her mouth, covering her nose as well – maybe unintentionally, but it didn't matter. Aoife felt the panic when her body realised that she couldn't breathe anymore and the weight of the body on top of her was slowly squeezing the air from her lungs.
Something huge crashed into them and launched the weight off of her. The Nord was thrown into one of the rocks surrounding the camp where his limp body came to rest. Aoife gasped for air. The camp around her had erupted into screams but she couldn't concentrate. Her lungs didn't seem to take enough of the night air in. There were shadows dancing in front of her eyes, were they real or just her imagination?
She managed to sit up and one look to the fire confirmed the shades to be very real. There were figures fighting, one on the ground with forcefully twisted limbs and horrible screams filled the night. Aoife blinked to clear her vision and finally recognized one of the figures as the hunter with the rabbits. His blonde hair was nearly completely gone as his face was pressed inside the embers, the heat slowly consuming his skin and small flames licking over his head. It looked like his face was melting off his skull until the screaming stopped, his body stopped twitching and the night went silent again.
The huge figure that had pressed him down got up and turned towards her. It took a few steps in Aoife's direction and a few moments for her to recognize the Orc. Looking at Borkul with wide eyes, she nearly flinched when he got down on one knee in front of her. Blood was smeared across his face, apparently originating from his teeth that looked like there were still shreds of tissue hanging on them. It gave a rough idea of what fate had befallen the third hunter.
He grabbed her bound wrists and started unknotting the leather strips. The mocking look in his eyes told her that he had noticed her wince.
"You followed me", Aoife said baffled. Her heart was still pumping loudly in her chest, trying to compensate for the lack of air she had to experience a few moments ago.
"Of course", he simply said and loosened the knot. Aoife rubbed her wrists where the leather had cut into the soft skin.
"Thank you. I don't know if they'd killed me or... or worse. I owe you.."
Borkul got up and looked down on her with a strange look. The flames behind his back made him look both fierce and intimidating, but she didn't feel threatened. "No, you don't. We're one tribe now, aren't we? We look after each other."
Aoife looked slightly embarrassed and opened her mouth to answer, but a movement in the corner of her eye stopped her. The Orc had seen it too and quicker than she had thought possible, he was on top of Angnar. The Nord's scream was turned into a breathless cough when Borkul's hand grabbed his throat.
Aoife quickly freed her legs and got up. Her knees were shacking, but her anger made her stronger and she stepped towards the two men.
Borkul looked up to her and got off the man on the ground. Angnar had a severe wound on his head where he had collided with the rock. He tried to push himself up but was stopped by the Orc's foot on his back.
Aoife took the dagger Borkul offered her wordlessly without taking her eyes off the man on the ground. Her hand was a tight fist and her eyes were grim.
"What you're gonna do, bitch, eh? Slitting my throat now that you have some muscle to back you up?" It was pure despair the Nord coughed up, the blood that came over his lips with his words told her, that his wounds must be deeper – several broken ribs at least. Aoife knew that she would find out soon.
"Your heart will please the old gods, Nord", she said soberly and the cold tone in her voice made him twist his neck to look up to her.
"W-what, no.. wait!", he said but his voice changed into a scream when she tore his back with the blade, cutting through the skin and flesh right below his ribs. The hunter tried to get away from his fate, but Borkul's foot pushed him mercilessly into the ground. Aoife threw the dagger to the side and without hesitation, pushed her hand into the wound. Digging through muscle and string, her fingers tore through his vessels, ripping them on her way up and covering her arm with thick blood up to the elbow. The agonized screams of the man died when her hand wriggled through his organs until it found his trembling heart and he passed out when her fist clenched around it. With one confident tug, Aoife separated the beating muscle and pulled her hand back out of the wound. The Nord's body had gone limb the moment she had taken hold of his heart, but now even his breathing was gone. He was dead.
With disgust Aoife looked at the piece of meat in her hand and watched it slowly tear apart as her fist clenched around it until it was nearly unrecognizable. She threw the pieces to the ground and sighed with relieve. She took the hand the Orc offered her to get up and didn't waste another look at the corpse at her feet.
"Let's go home", she said quietly as she looked over the destroyed camp around her. Now that her mind was working again, she was able to take in the details. She found the other hunter right where he had sat by the fire, his face turned into a bloody mess. One of the tents was knocked over and the fire had got to its sheets, slowly turning it into a pile of ash.
"We should take some of their meat", Borkul suggested and Aoife looked over to the table where the hunters had been dressing their game. He was right, they shouldn't let it go to waste. At least this way, the Reach would still feed them and since her hunting had been disrupted, she could still provide her people with food.
They left the camp with their bags heavy with fresh meat, several pelts and more useful things they found around the tents. Leaving the flames and the corpses as a warning, they made their way back home.
It was nearly dawn when they returned to Druadach Redoubt. The guards hurried towards them when they came into sight, taking the heavy load off their backs and even though Aoife would have loved to crawl into a bed roll right away, she wanted to wash the signs of the incident off her skin first.
Borkul followed her to the river and unceremoniously dunked his head into the freezing water. He did this several times while Aoife scrubbed sand over her arm to get the dried blood off. In the end, her skin was screaming red and her fingers numb from the cold, but she felt clean again. She scrubbed her neck for good measure, right where the man's mouth had touched her.
The Orc watched her with water dripping from his thick hair, the warpaint nearly gone. Even without the white skull covering most of his face, he didn't look any less intimidating.
"I'm okay", Aoife said, seeing the question in his eyes, even though she knew he wouldn't ask her. He simply nodded and left towards the cave.
Aoife sighed. When she rose, she had already decided to leave the incident behind. They had killed the hunters and therefore punished them both for their trespassing and her captivity and that was it. No need to waste another thought on the matter.
She should get a few hours of sleep before noon and then it would only be another normal day.
Borkul didn't go to sleep. He wasn't tired despite staying awake all night, his body wasn't used to the rythmn of day and night anyway. It had never mattered inside the mine and he wasn't sure if he would ever get used to it again.
Instead of sleeping, he had given report to Madanach about what had happened in the wilderness. The king, not in rags anymore, looked slightly concerned. If Borkul had to guess, it wasn't mainly because of the fact that Nords hunted in his lands. Both of them looked over to the tent where Madanach's daughter had settled down.
"Three, you said?"
"Yes", the Orc answered, not sure what the other man thought about.
"Three were enough to capture her."
"She fought bravely."
"But not very successfully, am I right?" Madanach crossed his arms and a deep crease appeared between his eyebrows.
"She's not a warrior", Borkul reminded him. The young woman might had practiced with a sword before, maybe had even been in fights and raids, but it was clear that she never before had to defend herself when outnumbered.
"I want you to make her one", the king said firmly. "I just got her back and I already missed twenty years of her life, I will make sure nothing can harm her."
The Orc nodded slowly. "I have a feeling that she won't like this..."
"You're right, she won't. She's proud, just like her mother was... maybe just as stubborn. Even if I want to, I can't order her, it has to be her own idea... I will talk to her and make sure, she comes to you."
Madanach left him alone at the campfire. Borkul was glad that the fact that he had left the woman alone in the first place, hadn't been mentioned again after his report. Madanach seemed to know his daughter and her temper even if they had been separated for a long time. And after all, he had managed to free her, maybe that was all that mattered to the old man.
If he could actually improve her fighting skill, she would be a fearsome enemy. He had seen the anger in her eyes when she had killed the Nord and the mercilessness with which she had done it. No woman he had met, had ever willingly dug through someones ribcage to tear their heart out. He had to admit that he admired the act. To join the Forsworn had been one of the best decisions he had ever made, the way they handled things was completely different to the rest of Skyrim and he liked it. They lived their lifes with more passion than he had ever seen, towards their friends and family as well as towards their enemies. They just lived.
It still took three days after his conversation with Madanach until Aoife approached him. And even then she hesitated. Borkul didn't know how her father had managed it or what he had said to her, but when she spoke to him, she actually asked for his help. For a few moments he let her suffer – and enjoyed it way more than he would admit. She didn't apologise for the way she had treated him before, but something told him that she would accept his place here more willingly from now on. They agreed to meet outside of Druadach Redoubt the next morning. The cave was far to narrow to practice properly and he didn't like the idea of having an audience all the time.
"If you're fighting someone who's stronger than you, you have to be faster. If you're fighting someone who's faster, you have to be fiercer. If you're outnumbered, you have to be both."
They stood on top of the old bridge carved into the stone. The water rushed under them into the valley and in the distance she saw the outlines of Druadach Redoubt.
Aoife had decided to lead the Orc to one of her favourite spots close to the camp. Nobody would disturb them here and she could concentrate fully on the training. The Reach was littered with ancient ruins. Sometimes there were just pieces of a wall, but Deep Folk Crossing was still intact and an impressive sight.
"Sounds logical", she said. She wasn't completely unexperienced in fighting – Cathal had taught her since she was able to hold a weapon – and had always considered herself to be more than able to defend herself but the incident with the Nord hunters had sobered her. When her father had suggested she should work on her skills, she had immediately agreed. She could have asked Kaie, of course, but her sisterly friend was more practiced in sneak and the bow and she remembered the cruel efficiency with which Borkul had fought the hunters. She had to become efficient as well.
"Let's see what you can do. Attack", he ordered and slowly took his sword from his belt.
Aoife's grib around her blade tightened as she seized him up. She already knew that he was stronger than her and pretty fast for someone his size. How should she start?
"Don't overthink, princess", he teased and started to move from one side of the bridge to the other, his eyes never leaving her. She charged at him, raising her sword and letting it swing down aiming for his leg. Borkul simply dodged, he didn't even bothered with blocking her attack. The momentum of her charge nearly made her trip as she shot past him and when she turned she saw that he didn't try to hide his amusement.
With a growl she ran towards him again, but again she didn't even touch him. Her frustration grew when the next attempt was as fruitless as the others. Aiming towards the Orc's right side, she spun when he dodged to the left, letting her blade swing in a circle and attacked his left instead.
In the last moment Borkul yanked his sword up to block her attack and the teeth of their swords got caught into each other and trapped her.
The Orc laughed, but it wasn't mockingly this time, but wild and a little feral. Aoife tried pulling her blade loose, but when he pulled back, she was dragged for a few steps and nearly stumbled. Turning herself around her left, she tried to hold on to the hilt while twisting his arm towards his back. Her back was now against his and the tilt of her sword was above her shoulder as she finally felt the teeth coming loose.
She felt the rush of a small victory when she could tear the sword away, but it only lasted a second. Borkul smashed his elbow backwards, hitting her between the shoulder blades, driving the air out of her lungs. Aoife stumbled a few steps forward and coughed, the pain nearly clouding her mind.
The sword fell from her hand and behind her, she heard him sheathe his as well.
"That was...", she managed to get out.
"What? Unfair? Of course it was", he laughed. "Did it hurt? Good, because it was suppose to hurt."
Aoife grimaced as the pain in her ribcage finally ebbed. "Are you saying, I can only win by playing dirty?"
"Do you believe there are rules, princess? Kill your opponent before he kills you, simple as that. By what means doesn't matter. If someone tells you, that you should fight with honor or some other crap, he's a fool."
She remained silent. Cathal had never said a word about honor, but he hadn't directly encouraged her to fight without it either. Borkul at least seemed to take her silence for agreement.
"Now you will defend yourself. If you defeat me, you might get a reward. We'll see. Get your sword."
Aoife picked it up and turned the hilt in her hand a few times. Having learned from before, she had to block his attacks with the flat side if she didn't want their swords to get entangled again.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the Orc move and just managed to turn around in time to raise her sword to counter his attack. She swallowed a curse. He had just told her that there were no rules and that included not to wait until your opponent was ready to defend himself.
She didn't get time to talk anyway, for his next attack followed quickly after the first one. The clashing of the swords made the bones in her arms tremble. He was much stronger than her and he didn't seem to hold himself back. Aoife wasn't sure if he would be able to stop if she failed to block and she felt sweat break on her back. This was serious.
Another clash nearly made her cry out in pain as her fingers tried to keep the sword up.
"If you can't hold it, dodge it", Borkul said between two swings and instead of blocking his attack this time, she redirected it and got out of the way. He must have known what she was going to do, because suddenly his leg was in her way and she fell quite unceremoniously to her knees and dropped her sword again.
This time however, it didn't seem to count as the end of the fight and Aoife had to drop to her side to escape the blade that slammed into the stone. In the next moment, he was above her, holding her down with one knee and pressing the blade against the side of her neck. After a few seconds he released her and grabbed her arm to pull her back up.
Aoife leaned weakly against the wall of the bridge. This had been way more intense than she had expected it to be. She didn't feel like she had learned anything, it was more like he had wanted to show off his superior fighting skills.
"That's it?", she said tiredly and with a slightly annoyed undertone.
Borkul looked at her with renewed amusement. "For now."
"Was I suppose to learn something from this?"
He slowly shook his head. "No, I was suppose to learn something."
She snorted. "And did you?"
"Oh yes." His voice was low and his eyebrows furrowed, but he tried to remain calm. "First of all, I have learned that you are able to fight on instinct, but your body doesn't know how to move without thinking. We need to work on that first. The next thing I've learned is that you will need a smaller weapon. You're fast but you could be faster if the sword wasn't half your body length. And lastly I've learned that you act like a sulking brat if things don't go how you like them to."
Aoife looked at him baffled and cleared her voice after a moment. "You're lying, you thought I'm a brat before this..."
The Orc grinned at her and picked up both of their swords. "Yes, you caught me there."
"So... what are we going to do now..?"
"You will train. Every day. We will come up here and I will take a look at your progress. Every day."
"What will I train?"
"I will show you basic movements that you will repeat until you're so annoyed that you won't see the puppet with hay anymore but my face", he answered with a wink.
"That might not take very long."