It was a typical Jorrvaskr drinking session, most likely to be followed by a typical Jorrvaskr morning after the following day. Falin had already excused herself to go downstairs to the sleeping quarters, making sure to avoid Njada on the way. Not that was too difficult, seeing as Njada was already arguing with Athis about something, possibly dual-wielding versus sword and shield from the gestures being made. Soon enough the two of them had abandoned any form of weapons in favour of fists, egged on by the, mostly-drunk, Companions. I grinned slightly as I took in the forms of Aela and Torvar preparing to begin a drinking contest… a drinking contest that was interrupted by Skjor beckoning to Aela to come with him. She did so, after informing Skjor that the bet was off until next time, and that no, she wouldn't be paying him anything, as she couldn't possibly lose a contest that hadn't started. Torvar seemed ready to argue until Skjor growled at him and told the pair to stop acting like children.
Aela followed Skjor in the direction of Ram-Ku, who was sitting on his own, drinking Honingbrew mead out of a tankard. A quick discussion followed, which led to Ram-Ku following the others out of Jorrvaskr.
My musings on the matter were disturbed by Torvar shoving a tankard of mead at my chest. "All the others are busy; Aela's run off with Skjor and the new guy, leaving me without an opponent for my drinking competition." He grinned.
"Leaving me as the only option." I guessed, and judging from his widening grin, I judged Torvar's motives correctly. "You want me to have a drinking contest? With you?" I could barely keep the surprise out of my voice, "Torvar, are you not aware that most people consider me to be a bit of a lightweight? Nordic I may be in battle, but not in drinking."
He continued grinning, "Ah it doesn't matter, all I need is someone to drink with. Someone to-"
Unfortunately, whatever else Torvar needed someone to do was drowned out by a howl from outside, followed by the shouts and screams of townsfolk and guards.
"What the hell was that?" Athis demanded, breaking off from his current dispute with Njada. His question was answered when a guardsman in a torn and bloodied uniform burst through the doors and started saying something about a werewolf running wild in Whiterun.
I suddenly felt really nervous, surely werewolves were just ancient Nordic folk tales, they didn't exsist right? They were like dragons. I looked to Farkas for guidance on the matter, and saw something that didn't exactly make me feel any better. Both Farkas and Vilkas had the same expression on their faces, an expression of fear and worry.
Suddenly someone from outside shouted, "Oh Gods, more of them!" and another loud howl split the night. Farkas and VIlkas suddenly seemed to be more reassured, although how two or possibly even three, werewolves were better than one was anyone's guess.
Kodlak chose that moment to come up from the sleeping quarters, trailed by a half-asleep Falin. "Vilkas, Farkas, run these beasts out of town, bring them down if you have to." He quickly took charge. Vilkas and Farkas both nodded, grabbing their weapons and heading out of the door towards the loudest concentration of howls and screams. Kodlak then turned to the remainder of the Companions, "The rest of you, get some sleep, two nights of heavy drinking in a row is bad for anyone who isn't Torvar. Tilma doesn't need to clean up the main hall two nights in a row."
This announcement was followed by assorted grumbles, most notably from Torvar who would have been quite happy to carry on drinking. Slowly, everyone made it downstairs to their sleeping quarters, but in Torvar's case, not their beds. Njada fell face first onto her bed, Athis curled up on his and promptly fell asleep, Falin was flat out on her back, wearing an unenchanted version of her mage robes and peculiar-looking gloves on her hands. Unlike the rest of the Companions, I had some difficulty in falling asleep, I was worried about the werewolves. I knew that Farkas and Vilkas were excellent fighters, but would they be able to hold their own against the werewolves, never mind drive them out of Whiterun as Kodlak had suggested. As I began to settle down, I also began to wonder were Skjor, Aela and Ram-Ku had gone. Had they left Whiterun before the werewolves had appeared? For some reason I felt that Aela and Skjor would do better against the werewolves than Vilkas and Farkas could do. Still wondering what the two circle members could possibly want with Ram-Ku I let sleep claim me.
It seemed that the werewolves were affecting my mind. In my dreams all of Whiterun where werewolves apart from the Companions, and we were forced to fight and kill people that previously had been our friends. At first we held them off easily, but eventually sheer numbers began to overwhelm and one by one, my shield-sibling fell to the teeth of the werewolves. Eventually the wolves fell upon me, tearing at me with their fangs and claws.
I woke with a start and did a quick self-assessment to ensure that I still had all of my limbs, and that I had not been torn apart by a horde of werewolves. I realised that it was late morning, and that I needed to get up before they sent someone to wake up.
As I entered the main hall I noticed that Vilkas and Farkas had returned and were talking to Kodlak about the werewolves from the previous night.
"Well look who it is, miss lightweight," Torvar's voice caught my attention, "Drank some more last night did you?"
"Torvar, what are you on about?" I asked.
"Why it's midday, even I've been awake longer than you have."
I groaned, out even longer than Torvar, I would be the butt of drunken jokes for a while to come.
"Whelp!" Vilkas' voice called, "I've got a job I need you to take."
"Yes Vilkas," I replied, "What is it?"
"Ahlam has been kidnapped, we think she's being held in Rannveig's fast. We need you to go out there and rescue her."
"Right, but why me? Surely you or Farkas would be a better choice."
"We can't go because the Jarl wants us to track down and kill these werewolves before they attack Whiterun again."
"How much damage did they do?" I asked.
"Go and have look for yourself," Vilkas grimaced, "It's not exactly pretty. Oh, and take Falin with you, it's about time she got some practical experience."
"Wait, why with me?"
"We need to send her out with someone," Vilkas explained, "She only trusts you, Athis and Ram-Ku, and those two are out doing jobs. Besides, it's only a simple rescue job, just keep her out of trouble, and bring Ahlam back."
"Is it like her trial then?" I asked, aware of two things; one, Falin had never done a traditional trial, she had been accepted as a healer, two, a trial was generally conducted under the supervision of a circle member, or a senior companion.
"Yes, it's her trial. You're the one taking it because she outright refuses to work with, or even talk to anyone who's a Nord, Athis is away, and Ram-Ku would be biased."
I almost corrected him about Falin refusing to talk to him, but I remembered that I had promised not to tell anyone about the fact she couldn't speak. Instead I grinned slyly at him. "Does this mean you're accepting me as an important member of the Companions then?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself whelp, you're not that important yet."
Our discussion had by this point attracted the attention of Farkas, "Vilkas, leave off Ria, she's proven herself to be a useful member of the Companions."
I grinned at Vilkas' expression, part put-out at being corrected, part shocked that Farkas had acted on his own initiative. "That's as may be Farkas, but she's still a whelp."
I left the brothers to their argument and headed off in search of Falin. I found her in the living quarters, hands glowing with restoration magic as she healed a sabre cat scar on Athis' chest.
"Outmatched by a sabre cat Athis?" I asked cheekily. Athis groaned and rolled his eyes.
"For your information Ria, there were two of them. I killed one and its mate caught me as I turned to face it."
"I didn't come down here to talk to you about your scratch Athis, I came to talk to Falin." Falin looked up at me this. "I need her to come with me to Rannveig's Fast for her trial."
"You're taking someone's trial, Ria?"
I didn't care much for the tone of disbelief in Athis' voice, "That's right Athis, I've been recognised as a responsible member of the Companions, tell me, how many trials have you presided over?"
He easily recognised the challenge in my voice and held up his palms in surrender, "Okay, you win, my chest's healing up nicely now, I don't need your healing magic anymore." The last part was directed at Falin, who nodded and stood up, shutting off the healing glow in her hands.
Ram-Ku had spent my a couple of days teaching me how to read Falin's body language and gestures, for any 'short-term occasions' that he was away, so I had little trouble understanding the question about what sort of job we would be doing.
"It's just a simple rescue mission," I reassured her, "We have to go and rescue someone from Rannveig's Fast."
Who? Was her next question.
"A woman named Ahlam, from Whiterun. There shouldn't be any problems. We just go into an old Nordic ruin, kill whoever's holding her captive, and go collect the money."
She nodded and began to gather numerous magicka potions from around the room.
"Falin," I asked, a thought striking me, "You can attack enemies, can't you? I mean, your magic isn't just limited to restoration is it?"
She smiled and held out her hand, and flames began to dance in her palm.
"So you can use destruction magic then?"
She nodded, shutting of the flames spell.
"Well let's go then." I said, walking up the stairs to the main hall, followed by Falin in her mage robes. As we stepped out of Jorrvaskr, I breathed in sharply. Vilkas hadn't been lying when he said it hadn't been pretty. The Gildergreen itself was miraculously unharmed, the wooden trellis surrounding it however had more or less collapsed, and the remains were held up by two or three supports on the temple of Kynareth side. As we headed down into the plains district it didn't get any better. Fralia Gray-Mane's stand outside the Bannered Mare had been torn apart, as had Anoriath's. The canopy outside Arcadia's Cauldron and Belethor's General Store had completely collapsed, due to the fact that all the supports had been torn to shreds.
I spotted the first bloodstains outside Breezehome, paling, I turned to the nearest guard, "Who's blood is that?" I asked him.
"It's Sven's he replied, "One of the three guards that the werewolf killed last night."
"Werewolf?" I asked, "I thought that there were three."
"Aye," he replied, "But it was the first one that did all the damage, the other two seemed to be trying to control it somewhat."
"Control it?" I asked.
"Aye," he said again, "Strangest thing, it was almost as though they didn't want anyone to get killed."
I thanked the guard for his time and set off with Falin towards the main gate, and from there to Rannveig's Fast.
A/N: I know I told everyone that I would be updating more regularly now that my laptop was fixed, but I forgot that my parents had booked a holiday to Italyand Croatia. The Wi-Fi here is terrible, as such I will probably get more written as I will not be distracted by youtube videos, but I probably will not be able to update, sorry.
On another note, how would people feel about the introduction of a drunk Falin? It will probably be Torvar's fault... or possibly Sam's fault. I now have an image of an extremely angry Ram-Ku opening a gate to Oblivion to duke it with the Daedric prince of drinking and debauchery, should be interesting. If I go with Torvar, then he will probably get punched. Tell me your opinions, should Falin get drunk, and who's fault should it be? There will be a poll on my profile.