When I awoke the next morning the first thing I realised was that someone had put me to bed after I fell sleep on the floor the previous night with Falin. The second thing was that they hadn't bothered to remove my armour so my back felt like an angry giant had used it for target practice, again. I decided to go and find Falin, to see if she was alright, and also to see is she could do anything about my back. I strapped on my sword and headed up the stairs to the main hall.
As I walked through the door, I noticed that Njada was sporting a split and a bruised jaw. She was also sporting an expression of sheer hatred and malice towards me. She stood up and began to make her way other to me. I panicked, without the adrenaline rush of last night, there was no way I could beat Njada in a fistfight. Before she reached me however, Athis stepped in from outside, followed by Vilkas. He took one look at Njada's bruised face before bursting into laughter, "By the Three Njada. Who did that to your face? I've never seen you lose. Who was it? Uthgerd?" Njada looked at him for a second, before drawing her arm back and punching him straight in the gut.
Athis doubled over, spouting expletives. When he recovered, he advanced on Njada with a fire in his eyes. Most of the other Companions started grinning, anticipating a fight. None of us was expecting the loud crashing noise from the living quarters, nor were we expecting an absolutely furious Ram-Ku storming up the stairs wearing only a pair of trousers with a hole cut in the back for his tail. "Who was it?" he roared, "Which one of you ignorant, racist Nords decided it was a good idea to go after Falin?"
I had thought that giants were fearsome creatures. Compared to the look of absolute fury in Ram-Ku's eyes though, the giants seemed like milk-drinkers. Aela stepped forward with her hands raised in an attempt to calm Ram-Ku down, "Calm yourself Ram-Ku, this is not going to help anyone." He turned on her,
"Was it you?" he demanded, "Did you scare Falin?"
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about." The huntress appeared to be somewhat frightened by Ram-Ku. I heard Vilkas's voice behind me.
"Ria, Athis, you're not Nords, you try to talking to him." I realised that he was probably right, but that didn't make the task of calming down the massive Argonian any less of a daunting one. Athis on the other hand stepped up to Ram-Ku,
"Calm down friend, have a drink, a let's start all this from the beginning." He offered Ram-Ku a tankard of mead from the table, "What's going on hmmm? You know I didn't do it, I'm not a Nord. Please explain."
Ram-Ku glared at the Dark Elf before snatching the offered tankard from his grasp, and proceeding to down it in one. He threw the now empty tankard to the floor and sat down. "I woke up this morning to find Falin clinging to me, covered in sweat. Like she always does after nightmares. Once I calmed her down I asked what was wrong. She told me that a Nord had told her she wasn't worthy to be a member of the Companions, shouting abuse at her." He took a deep breath before continuing, in a much quieter tone, "I just want to know who it was, and to let them know that I will not let Falin be mistreated like that, she deserves better."
There was silence at this announcement, broken by Skjor's gruff, "Well that worked." Aela looked furious and started demanding to know who could have done this.
"Njada," I said, "It was Njada." Ram-Ku and Aela both looked at me.
"How would you know?" Ram-Ku hissed, at the same time Aela said,
"Do you have any evidence?" I looked between the two of them.
"I walked in when she was doing it," I said, "I punched her in the face, and told her to leave Falin alone."
Ram-Ku stared at me for a second, his piercing blue eyes locked on to mine. He turned and began to advance towards Njada. Vilkas and Farkas both stepped in front of him, "Calm down brother," Vilkas said, "Kodlak and the Circle will deal with Njada. How about you go out on a job for us?"
"Yes," Aela cut in, "We have reports of a bear invading a house in Riverwood, and the owners have sent for someone to deal with it. I think you should go, let off some steam maybe?" I could see the anticipation in her eyes, and the smouldering anger in Ram-Ku's eyes. He nodded before turning around and heading towards the living chambers. I let out a breath that I was unaware that I had been holding as the door swung shut behind him.
Silence filled Jorrvaskr. It was the silence you experienced before two armies met on the battlefield, before the skies opened up and bolts of lightening pelted the ground. It was the silence before the storm. "Njada," Aela's tone was deceptively soft and quiet, "Why? Why did you do this?" Njada attempted a response, but in the face of Aela's silent fury she began to stammer and her excuses fell away. Then came the storm, "How DARE you speak like that to a fellow Companion!" Aela snarled, regardless of how they may appear, they are each our shield-siblings and will be treated with respect!"
Skjor cut across the huntress' rant, "You will forbidden from taking contracts until the end of next month, and until we deem you to have been punished enough you will help Tilma with anything that needs doing around Jorrvaskr, and I mean anything." The menace in his voice was undeniable.
The door to the sleeping chambers banged again, this time Ram-Ku was fully dressed in his steel armour, carrying his greatsword across his shoulders. He glanced once at Njada before he swung open the main doors, and disappeared into the sunshine.
I headed towards the sleeping quarters, intending to get my sword, then go and see Vilkas for a job. I preferred Farkas to Vilkas, but I had never been very credible when I tried to intimidate people around Skyrim, that was Njada's area of expertise. I was stopped in my tracks by Vilkas, "Hey, whelp, where are you going?" I tried to formulate a response but he continued, "Have you forgotten about our practice sessions? Or are you trying to escape them?" he grinned at me. Of course, the training, something I had completely forgotten about due to all the drama of this morning and last night. I greatly regretted ever asking Vilkas to teach me about two-handed weapons, but my pride as a Companion refused to let me back down, no matter how difficult it got, or how much Vilkas still battered me after nearly three months of training.
I groaned inwardly, and altered my course to instead grab one of the steel greatswords from the weapons rack by the doors. Vilkas chuckled as he walked out of the door; it seemed that my two-handed training was a point of humour amongst the Companions, at least if Athis' grin was anything to go by. I groaned again before following Vilkas out to the training ground.
When I got outside, Vilkas was already warming up with his blade. His motions seemed so fluid to me, so effortless and graceful. Especially when compared to my slow, clumsy movements with the big blades. Regardless, I hefted my borrowed greatsword and began to run through the warm-up routine that Vilkas had designed for me. As I did so, I allowed my mind to wander on the subject of greatswords, the only people I had seen using them, other than the occasional bandit I encountered during my jobs, were Vilkas, Farkas, and now Ram-Ku. In my unfocussed mind this equated to the fact that only large males knew how to use greatswords properly, therefore, as an average female, I would never be able to wield a greatsword properly. This all made perfect sense to my subconscious, but when I actually thought about it, I realised it was complete rubbish. I just needed to keep trying.
"Whelp. Whelp. WHELP!" Vilkas' voice cut through the fog of my daydream, "Stop daydreaming, and come at me." I flinched slightly, before raising the blade of my greatsword up into a rough approximation of the ready position that Vilkas had taught me. Vilkas sneered at my attempt, "Move that left hand further up the handle, bend your right elbow a bit more, hold it steady." Each instruction was accompanied by a sharp rap with the flat of Vilkas' greatsword to illustrate where the problems were.
"Alright, close enough, let's begin." Vilkas swung his sword at me from my left, I barely got my own blade up in time to block the swing, but I knew that for Vilkas, that movement had been slow and almost ponderous. I needed to improve my speed. He swung his sword again, slightly faster this time, almost hitting me. Somehow I had managed to dodge out of the way, almost dropping my sword in the process. "You need to keep a better grip on your blade than that whelp." Vilkas' taunt caused the tips of my ears to redden with embarrassment, I knew I was crap with the greatsword, but did he really need to announce that fact to the rest of the Companions.
The sparring continued on towards noon. I was getting tired, and was making frequent mistakes, but Vilkas had barely broken a sweat, and seemed to be almost as energetic as when we started. I began praying to the divines that we would finish soon, preferably before I completely humiliated myself. As I circled round Vilkas, a flash of blue on the porch caught my attention. Falin had come outside, and was watching us spar with a small smile on her face.
"Eyes on the prey, not on the horizon whelp." Vilkas shouted, drawing my attention back to him just in time to block yet another swipe from his greatsword. Falin jumped at the loud noise produced by the clash. I had no further opportunity to watch Falin's reactions, as Vilkas began to increase the speed and power of his attacks, driving me across the courtyard with his relentless attacks. My grip on the handle of the greatsword began to lessen as my palms became sweaty, a sure sign that I was almost finished.
Suddenly, the blade slipped out of my hands, just as Vilkas brought his blade round in a devastating arc. Without my blade to block it, the momentum of his swing sent the blade into the gap between my armour and my bracers. I screamed in pain as the sharp metal of the blade dug deep into my arm. I collapsed to the floor clutching at my arm. As the blade fell out, I glimpsed white bone through the torn flesh. The wound was far deeper than any I had previously received. I began to black out. I vaguely heard Vilkas cursing, shouting pleas to all the divines, including Talos. The last thing I saw before the darkness claimed me, was Falin rushing over, her hands wreathed in flickering, golden light.
A/N: Hope everyone's enjoying this, if you are, let me know. If you aren't, let me know how I could make it better. Also, I'd like to know everyone's opinions on the characters of Ram-Ku and Falin.