Chapter 38: The bear and the cubs

[28th of Frostfall – 11th of Sun's Dusk 4E 201]

On the next few days I also went on a few smaller quests together with other Companions, and fortunately I was allowed to take my cubs with me for almost all of them. More than a week passed quickly, and I also continued to practice spells; however, conjuring a familiar still did not work for me. Apparently, just reading a spell time once or twice was not always enough to learn a spell, even a novice one. In addition, I continued to meditate on the 'KAAN' shout, and I felt that I was getting closer; I might be able to actually use it soon, or so I hoped at least. For now, though, my throat still refused to cooperate.

Meanwhile, I continued to do my daily chores, frequently starting with a morning run around the city. Temperatures in the morning were kind of fresh on most days, and it was apparent that summer was past us for this year. My two saber cat cubs seemed to like that, and this was understandable, as they were snowy saber cats after all and thus used to low temperatures. For myself, getting warm by jogging was nice, and contrary to my previous life, where I had shunned most strenuous activities and sports, except for hiking and swimming, I actually enjoyed exercising my wonderful Khajiit body.

On rainy days, sometimes I went for a run nonetheless and sometimes I skipped it; when I got wet, I had an opportunity to use my flames spell on the lowest intensity I could managed and apply it to myself; it was not perfect, but as I did not have hair dryer or something like that available, it would have to do. On the other hand, as there was usually time for a training session with one of the other Companions after the run, that also helped me to get dry again, at least before I started to sweat. My favorite partners for training were Vilkas, who was an excellent trainer for two handed weapons, and Athis, who was great with one handed weapons. In addition to improving the handling of the axe I still preferred, the Dunmer introduced me to the art of throwing a dagger. I would probably never manage to master this technique, partially because small daggers seemed to be too small in my huge paws, but at least I could learn to evade daggers thrown at me. With my permission Athis demonstrated on my body how a properly thrown dagger could easily penetrate light armor, and he made one of those daggers cut deep into my upper left arm, even though I wore a double layer of tough leather there. Of course I could heal the wound right away with the combination of a potion and my magicka, but the lesson would be remembered. For a moment I got back into engineering thinking and compared the effect of an arrow to the dagger. The arrow might be faster, but the dagger had much more weight and mass, so that the impulse, as the product of mass and velocity, would likely by much higher; consequently, the force needed to stop it and thus the penetration capability would be higher for the thrown dagger. I was not fully sure to what extent those laws could be translated into weapon mechanics and effects, but at least my thoughts correlated with my observations and what Athis taught me.

Njada taught me some about blocking, specifically blocking with a weapon without using a shield. Farkas told me something on how to use my armor best, like turning and twisting one's body in a way that an enemy's weapon was caught by the armor's strong section rather than at a joint or so.

After training it was usually time for a quick bath to get rid of the sweat, and for the rest of the day, there was either some small quest or working on magic and other skills for me. I really wanted to enlarge my magicka pool; although progress was painfully slow here, I could maintain my two basic spells – healing and flames – for seven seconds now, compared to the original four, based on my estimation. Thus, by my calculation, I must have been able to increase my magicka reservoir by 75% already, which was not too shabby.

Finally, I tried to make it possible on each day to spend quality time with Hanni and Nanni. They were with me each time I went for my morning run, of course, but in addition we also went for an afternoon hike several times a week, and sometimes we also exercised hunting together. Fortunately, there was always plenty of game in the tundra west and northwest of the city, and my two girls got lots of practice, although they needed to focus on smaller prey for now, mostly rabbits and foxes, with the occasional smaller goat or deer. When my two saber cats were with me out in the tundra, at least I did not have to worry about any potential dangerous animals or bandits getting too close; they'd always warn me in time.

I also did not forget about my friends either. My special little friend, Mila Valentia, had her eighth birthday one of those days, and I was invited. I had no idea what to bring, but it turned out that the best present I could provide was to offer a ride on my broad shoulders for her and her best friends. I spent more than one hour jumping and running around the house and the city with one of the girls on my shoulders, and the shouts and squeaks I heard from above my head were proof enough that they liked it a lot. The girls who had to wait for a ride on me could spend the time playing with Hanni and Nanni, and it was good to see that my two cubs didn't mind that at all. Sure, sometimes the girls were a little rough, but the two cats were tough, and in addition they got a lot of attention; their fur was scratched multiple times, sometimes by two or three girls at the same time, and they even got kisses on their cheeks.

Looking at Mila, I was very happy to see that children in Skyrim did not look like in the vanilla game, specifically as there were more kids around than the game had had for Whiterun. The Jarl՚s kids did not bother to mingle with the commoners' children, of course, and I also could not see Braith, the Redguard girl who was known to bully some others, but there was a nice Imperial girl called Pia, there was Lucia, the orphan girl, who could be adopted in the game, and there was Britta, a sturdy Nord girl. Mila had also invited two boys, Lars Battle-Born and a Breton boy called Emmanuel. It would have been really odd for all of them to have the same face, like in the vanilla game, and of course they did not. All of them were real sweet and lovable, and I felt that the time I spent with them was not wasted, but rather spent in a very nice way.

Carlotta Valencia, Mila՚s mother, actually asked me a couple of times if the girls and boys weren't too much for me and if I needed a break, but I was doing just fine. The more time I spent with the kids, actually, the more I realized what I had missed in my old life – having a wonderful wife, a family, and children of my own. Now, with my new life and my new body, I might have a chance to get all of that sooner or later, but for now I enjoyed spending time with children, even if some adults in the city shook their heads when they saw me running around with one of the girls on my shoulders. It turned out that the girls really liked that, while the boys considered sitting on someone's shoulders, even if that someone was a huge Khajiit, was no longer appropriate for their advanced age. With the boys, I played tag and such instead.

One day later, I could pick up my new armor from Warmaiden՚s. I was happy to see that it was a perfect fit, and indeed the leather around the arms was thicker, without losing much flexibility. I gladly paid the 300 septims, and I was looking forward to finding out how the new protection worked out.

In Jorrvaskr, I had noticed some sentiment against my two saber cat cubs, though. Everybody had accepted or at least tolerated them as my companions, and there were no serious objections against having them in the big mead hall. However, I had made it a habit to also have them in or next to my bed, and after a drunk Torvar had stepped on a tail a few times, which had always resulted in loud yelping and growling, this turned out to be not such a good way to continue. I was not senior enough to get my own room by far, although two rooms were empty at this time, and we thought about options.

Looking around in the mead hall, I saw a small and narrow staircase in a corner going up, which I had not consciously noticed before; from outside I could see some kind of attic or loft or so, with open frames rather than windows. Getting curious I asked what this was for, and Aela told me:

"Oh, this small section has not been in use for many years. There is probably some garbage up there, but we have not been able to find good use for that room and the small roof terrace up there. We consider the mead hall and the basement living quarters much cozier, and in winter it gets a little cold up there, too, although enough heat probably comes up from the big fire below in the hall."

"So, what if I had a look up there, and it's all right, I could move in with my cubs?"

"Hm, I guess we'd have to ask Kodlak, but why not? But how would your cubs get up there? They cannot climb stairs, or can they?"

"Good question, let's see about that."

I led my cubs outside to the front, asked them to stay, went inside, and climbed the narrow stairs to the attic room. It was somewhat larger than I had expected, and it was certainly full of dust and clutter, but that could be fixed. I looked out on the west side and actually saw Hanni and Nanni sitting down on the ground. I called down to them, they heard my voice, and I called in a way to indicate that they were supposed to come to me. That took a few attempts, as they were unsure how to get up here. They ran around the building a few times, and after some time one of them managed to jump on the roof. From there, with claws extended, getting to the top and into the room was easy, and once the other cub had seen that, she followed quickly. We tried the same in the other directions, with the cubs up there and me going down via the stairs, and when I called from outside, they also managed to climb down the roof and jump the rest of the way. Once could see that this took some exertion, but with them growing it would become easier.

Now, with this procedure tested successfully, I talked to Kodlak, and when he insisted, I demonstrated how my cubs could climb the roof. He actually laughed when he saw it, and he told me:

"B'lushona, feel free to claim this attic room as your bedroom, for the time being at least. We don't have another use for it anyway, and having your saber cats down in the common area for much longer is indeed not a good idea. In addition, seeing your cubs climbing the roof is quite some fun; I will probably sit outside more frequently just to see that."

Over the next few days, I had to spend quite some effort on cleaning that room, and I also needed to get a bed up there, at least a mattress. That was hard work, but once it was completed, I had a bedroom of my own, sharing only with Hanni and Nanni, and I had lots of fresh air, which was a significant difference from the stale air down in the main quarters. In addition, there also was a small roof-terrace, and once I was able to get some soil or sand up here, Hanni and Nanni would have a place to go potty too, if needed.

When I could go to bed for the first time in my new attic room, I felt happy. Through the wall openings I could see some stars, I could hear muted voices from the mead hall below, there was fresh air around me, not heavy with alcohol like when Torvar showed up late in the night, totally drunk, and my saber cat cubs could stay close to me without anyone objecting or stumbling over them. This was almost perfect, but I'd have to see if the place was still tolerable in winter. I had a hunch that it might be all right for me; I had a couple of large and warm blankets, and even in my old life I had always slept with the window partially open and the heating off, even in winter.

In the next morning, when I went down the narrow and steep stairs from my new attic room, I found that Hanni and Nanni were actually able to follow me; they were agile and nimble enough to use the stairs, although slowly and carefully. Thus, I could have skipped the effort of having them climb outside, maybe, but it turned out that the preferred the roof to the stairs, which made sense.

When I had just finished my morning run with my saber cats on that day, Aela and Farkas came and told me:

"Shield-Brother, please come with us. We have just received word that a bear has invaded the farmhouse of 'Loreius Farm', and it appears to have two cubs with her. The farmers don't know what to do, as a bear with cubs is usually very aggressive. We need to try to get them out, but that will be very difficult."

"I am with you, of course."

I had no idea what I could do to help, but I'd try at least. We left the city in a hurry and jogged up the road towards the farm. As the 'Loreius Farm' was located even north from Whitewatch Tower, not far from the hold border, it took us some time to get there. Everybody made sure to keep their distance from the farmhouse, and when Aela and I sneaked up to a window, we could see a large adult brown bear with two cubs snoring peacefully. There was no doubt, of course, that the mother would awake instantly if we got any closer, and it would fiercely defend the cubs. Slowly I stepped back again, and we stuck our heads together to ponder options.

"As much as I hate to admit it," Aela stated, "we may not have a choice; we may have to kill the bear."

"But are the cubs old enough to survive on their own?" I asked.

The huntress shook her head and looked unhappy: "No, I do not really believe so. I'd hate to kill their mother, but, as I said, we may not have another choice. You are really strong, I know, but even Farkas and you together will not be able to subdue the bear without weapons and without wounding it."

She was almost certainly right. I did not like this at all, and having to kill a bear just because it had decided to occupy a place it did not belong to was not something I wanted to get used to; I was glad that Aela seemed to feel the same. I was not feeling good about that at all, and suddenly my mind started to get in a frenzy. I had my eyes closed and I had no idea what happened at first, but then I heard a disembodied voice speaking to me:

"I can feel your worries, and I feel the same. You have meditated more than enough on that shout – use it now – you can do it!"

What was that? Who was speaking like that, and why did this voice appear to be in my mind?

I heard a little bit of laughter: "Why, this is Kynareth, of course. Now, go ahead and do it! And do not forget: Use Nature's gifts wisely."

Meanwhile Aela asked me: "B'lushona, are you all right? Did you just faint?"

I opened my eyes again and responded:

"No, I did not faint; I guess that I had a vision."

"A vision? Really? What about?"

"Kynareth spoke to me, and she encouraged me to use the shout I have been meditating on for weeks, since I was up on High Hrothgar."

"Which shout?"

Rather than explaining, I rose, opened my mouth wide and shouted: 'KAAN!'

The shout was not as loud as Fiona's 'FUS', much more subdued, but clearly a dragon shout nonetheless, and I could almost see the waves from it rippling around me. My companions and the good farm people looked at me like I had just come from Mars – well, maybe not a proper analogy here, but I had no knowledge of other planets in Nirn՚s system – and I looked around to see if the shout had any effect. A female deer had approached us and had just been about to flee after recognizing our presence, but the shout had calmed it, so that it started to feed from the grass again and ignored us. I stepped close to it and ran my hand along its neck and back, and the deer did not mind at all; it even rubbed its head against my arm for a moment and seemed to enjoy the attention.

Aela՚s jaw was now hanging down, and she obviously did not know what to say.

Farkas had some words, though:

"Wow, this is quite something, Shield-Brother! That's going to make hunting too easy!"

"That shout is not supposed to be used for hunting, Farkas, or else I might lose Kynareth՚s favor quickly. However, I wonder if it also works on the bears; maybe we can relocate the bears peacefully now, using the shout?"

"How would you do that?" Aela now asked.

"What if I shouted again, close to the farmhouse, stepped in, grabbed the two cubs, and carried them away? The bear mother would follow me peacefully rather than attacking, or wouldn't it?"

Aela looked at me with surprise:

"Why, yes, that might actually work."

"Where do you think I should lead the bears to?"

Aela looked around and thought about that for a moment before she pointed towards a rock and an overhang about one kilometer north from us:

"Over there, under the overhang in the distance, might be a good place, if you can make it that far."

I nodded and waited until my throat had recovered. Then I asked my companions to stay back, left my two saber cat cubs with them and cautiously approached the farmhouse again. When looking in through the window I saw the cubs awake, but the adult bear still asleep. I prepared myself, opened the door and stepped inside. Within seconds the bear mother woke up and started to rise; I opened my mouth and shouted 'KAAN' again, and indeed, it settled down again. Without losing much time I grabbed the two cubs, holding them under my arms, got outside again, and started to jog towards the overhang Aela had mentioned; when I turned around for a moment I saw the bear mother following me, but not showing any signs of aggression.

A little more than halfway there I noticed the cubs getting a little antsy and I heard a first soft growl from their mother. I stopped, shouted again, and proceeded. When I had reached the overhang, I carefully put the cubs down, patted their heads, waited for mama bear to arrive, patted its head as well, and stepped back, bringing some distance between them and me. I felt the shout effect running out when I was about one hundred meters away, and that was good enough to be safe. For the time being, the adult bear was busy looking around, and a few minutes later I was back next to my companions. Aela and Farkas looked at me with admiration, and when we had all watched the bears settle in at their new place, Aela stated:

"That was absolutely amazing! How did you learn to do this?"

I told them about my time in High Hrothgar and how I had started to meditate on the shout there; Kynareth had obviously approved my goal, and I had been able to learn the shout relatively fast, considering that normal people took months or even years for a single shout.

"On the other hand" I explained, "this is not a shout for attacking. Rather, it can be used for a good purpose, as we have just seen, and maybe that is the reason why Kynareth allowed me to learn it quickly. I doubt that she'd help me that much with 'FUS' or 'YOL'."

"You seem to know a lot about dragon shouts" Farkas now asked. "Are you kind of a scholar, too?"

"I am indeed some kind of scholar, yes, but I guess that's mostly because I spent some time with the Dragonborn, and I have also read a few books on them" I replied, evading the real reason. That was good enough for Aela and Farkas, though, and they nodded. Meanwhile, the farm people had come back, and they approached us with gratitude. So far, they told us, they had seen the bear and her cubs a few times in the neighborhood, and they did not mind, as they were not aggressive. Now, would the bears stay out there or come back to the house, they asked.

Aela took that:

"Normally wild animals are not attracted by houses and do not invade them. Maybe there was a special reason. If you look inside, do you see something out of order?"

The farmer's wife, Curwe, opened the door and looked around, and soon she found something:

"Oh, look, they took some honey."

"Honey?"

"Yes, we have some apiaries around, and I was preparing to fill the honey in jugs for sale."

"Well, that explains it; the bear must have been after the honey. Why don't you store it somewhere else in future?"

Curwe nodded: "Yes, I guess that this is a good idea. I will do that right today."

"Please do let us know if they come back!"

The farmer and his wife nodded, and when we turned around to leave, Vantus Loreius, the farmer, said:

"Do you mind if I go down to the main road with you? There is somebody there who has been bothering me a few times already, and it seems I can't get rid of him."

"Sure" Aela replied. Hanni and Nanni had kept their distance during the whole operation, as they were not on very friendly terms with bears in general, but now they were back at my side, like they wanted to say something along the line 'I was afraid that you might like the bear cubs better than us'. I scooped them up in my arms and scratched their fur for a few minutes before releasing them again, and they jumped around like they did not have a single concern in their mind, which was probably close to the truth.

When we approached the main road again, we noticed a wagon which had apparently been damaged; one of the main wheels was off, and an oddly dressed person was around and looking troubled. We had not seen cart and person before as we had taken a shortcut across the grass when we had come from Whiterun, but now, coming down the narrow path from the farm, we couldn't miss it. My brain needed a few seconds to make the connection, and then I almost facepalmed myself. Indeed, when we came closer, the person was heard talking to himself:

"Agh! Bother and befuddle! Stuck here! Stuck! My mother, my poor mother. Unmoving. At rest, but too still!"

So, a small male person, dressed like a jester, talking in a strange way, with a broken cart and a coffin on it, right east of Loreius Farm? Really?

[Author's Notes: When you look at Jorrvaskr from outside and above, like the images shown on some of the Wiki pages, you can see something which can be mistaken for an attic room on top, like a roof extension in the center. From close up, it's just decoration, of course, and a little too small in size, too, but for the purpose of this story I decided to make that an attic and a small roof terrace.

On a different note: This past week the story got to more than 100 followers, with twenty new ones in June; this is a first for any of my stories, and I am really happy to see that there are quite a few readers who are waiting for new chapters and seem to enjoy reading. Please do not hesitate to tell me about any issues and details you like or dislike; any feedback is very welcome and appreciated, even just a few words!]