A/N: I'm back again, been in Germany for the last week or so, and my Laptop doesn't seem to understand Wifi anymore. Anyways, enough excuses, this chapter we start on the search for Ram-Ku, who isn't in this chapter but will be in the next one for those of you who miss him. Now, story time.
It was late evening by the time we arrived back in Whiterun. Just inside the main gates, outside Warmaiden's, we were accosted by a pair of Redguard men who had somehow managed to mistake me for a Redguard woman. The younger of the two had immediately attempted to interrogate me ruthlessly. His older companion had pulled him back and apologised profusely upon realisation that I was, in fact, an Imperial, before asking me if I had seen the woman that they sought after. I told them that I had not. He then said that if I had any information to come and speak to them in Rorikstead as they were not welcome inside Whiterun.
Falin and I returned to Jorrvaskr to be greeted by the sight of Torvar lying across the front door, snoring loudly. He seemed to be blissfully unaware of the fact that the local children were busying themselves making flower chains to drape in his hair. We stepped lightly over his prone form before entering the mead hall. Inside, Athis and Njada appeared to be having a drinking competition, whilst being egged on by Vilkas and Farkas. Aela sat nearby, smiling and laughing whenever the others looked her way, but as soon as no one was watching her, her expression returned to one of grim sorrow. Tilma was busily sweeping up what I quickly identified as the remains of a chair. I considered various scenarios as to how the chair had been broken, including one particularly fanciful idea involving a sweetroll fight, but realised that it had probably been a casualty of Njada and Athis fighting. This idea was evidenced by the black eyes being sported by both combatants.
I felt tired out after our raid on the bandits, so decided to call it an early night, and headed downstairs before any of the others could entice me into a drinking contest, causing me to wake up on the floor, or to go after Mikhael again.
When I awoke the next morning, the hall seemed to be very quiet. Upon further inspection I realised that this was because the only people in the building were myself, Falin and Kodlak, everyone else having gone out on jobs. When I approached the pair of them, Kodlak looked up and beckoned for me to come closer. "Ah, Ria, you're awake. Come, come. I was just about to tell Falin the good news."
"Good news, master?" I asked him.
He smiled, "Ria, how many times must I tell you, I am nobody's master. But, anyway, we've received reports of Ram-Ku."
Falin and I both looked at him, suddenly interested.
"Really? Where is he?" I asked excitedly. Falin also seemed to barely be able to contain her excitement, practically rising up out of her seat.
Kodlak held up his hand to calm us down. "Don't get too excited," he said, "It's a pretty vague area that we've heard he's in." He paused, "Apparently he's been sighted in Falkreath Hold, heading away from the city."
Falkreath? What on earth was he doing in Falkreath? Apart from being nowhere near the fort that he and Aela had raided, and not on the route back either, what was there in Falkreath to attract Ram-Ku? The place was famous for its graveyards, for Divine's sake. Other than Lake Ilinalta, there was nothing I could think of to attract an Argonian.
"Do you want us to go and find him?"
"If you could, he is a member of the Circle, after all. We need him back here, being responsible, especially after Skjor's death. Go to Falkreath and ask around after him. With any luck, the residents will remember a massive Argonian."
"As you wish Harbinger." Falin and I turned to leave. As we did so I could have sworn I heard Kodlak mumbling something. "…brave, strong of heart…" I discounted it as being one of his memories of Skjor.
As Falin and I headed towards the main gates, I spotted a man clad in steel armour, with a stained blue travelling cloak draped about his shoulders. As we neared each other he began talking. "Excuse me ma'am," he said, "I was wondering if you could help me with my enquiries? I am a bounty hunter from Eastmarch." Two things stuck in my mind. One, that he was from Eastmarch, the chief hold of the Stormcloak rebels, prompting worry that he was bringing an ultimatum to Jarl Balgruuf from Ulfric. And Two, that he was a bounty hunter, one of the elite guards in each hold allowed to cross the jurisdictional boundaries of the holds in pursuit of criminals with exceptionally high bounties, giving a reason as to why he was in Whiterun, and dispelling the worry of the previous thought. "I am seeking a criminal," The man continued, "Apparently he now lives in Whiterun, but I have been unable to find him. I wonder if you could provide assistance?"
I shrugged, "I don't know how useful I'll be officer, perhaps if you could provide a description of the criminal."
"Of course, of course," he said, "Now then, the criminal is an exceptionally large male Argonian, black scales with red patterning, and two long, straight horns on his head. He also has three large scars around his left eye. He is believed to be travelling with an accomplice, a Grayskin female. Have you seen a person matching that description?"
I was silent for a moment, the man had just described, almost perfectly, Ram-Ku. And the Grayskin female was mostly likely Falin. I suddenly realised that Falin was nowhere to be seen. Hoping that the man had not noticed my momentary lapse of concentration, I shook my head.
"No officer, I can't say that I've seen anyone matching that description. Perhaps your information was wrong, or perhaps he's moved on?"
The bounty hunter nodded thoughtfully, "You may be right, no-one else I've spoken to seems to have seen him either. Thank you for your time ma'am, good day to you."
As the Nord walked off, I glanced around hurriedly for Falin. I found her hiding . "It's ok Falin, he's gone now." I said.
She nodded at me before standing up. As I turned to head out of the gates, I felt a panicked hand on my shoulder. I turned to see what Falin so, I followed Falin's gaze and my heart stopped. The bounty hunter was speaking to Mikhael, and Mikhael was pointing up the stairs, towards Jorrvaskr. I turned to Falin.
"We have to find him, and warn him that a bounty hunter's looking for him." I said. She nodded. "Why is the bounty hunter after Ram-Ku?" I asked, curious.
Falin made a series of gestures which I interpreted as meaning that I would have to ask Ram-Ku.
Once outside the gates, I spoke to the cart driver, who told me that it would cost us fifty gold pieces each to travel to Falkreath. Falin and I both rummaged around in our pockets before handing over the gold to the driver. Having counted the gold, and reassured himself that we had paid the full amount, the man nudged his horse into action, and we set off for Falkreath.
Falkreath was a much smaller place than Whiterun, hardly larger than Riverwood, the small village to the south, but it somehow managed to serve as the Hold capital. We decided to look for the inn, reasoning that if anyone knew anything about the whereabouts of Ram-Ku, they would be in the inn.
The inn was called, for some reason, the dead man's drink, hardly an enticing name to any prospective patrons, but it was the only inn in town, so we went in regardless. Inside, the inn contained two patrons, a waitress and the bartender. Not exactly a hive of information and activity. I approached the Imperial bartender, with Falin close behind me, eager to avoid the Nords surrounding us.
"Excuse me," I said, "I was wondering if you could help us? We're looking for a friend of ours…"
The woman smiled wearily, "Of course, in Falkreath if I don't know it, it ain't worth knowing." I smiled, this was a good start. The woman continued, "So, what do you want to know about? The werewolf? Or the strange Argonian? Course, they're related."
I was momentarily confused. Werewolves? In Falkreath? And how was Ram-Ku related to a werewolf? Then I realised that the woman meant that the story behind Ram-Ku was related to the story of the werewolf.
"Both, please. We're looking for the Argonian." I replied.
"Well, I'll start with the werewolf." She paused to draw breath, "A man by the name of Sinding came into town about a month ago, looking for work. According to Valdr here, he was also looking for some beast said to be roaming the forest. Anyway, he managed to find work as a labourer down at the town lumbermill, working for Bolund. He'd been working there for just over a week when it happened."
"What happened?" I asked. Her expression became grim.
"He changed, and murdered a little girl, tore her apart. He changed back and the guards arrested him. Threw him into the drowned cell under the barracks. He'd been there for three weeks when the Argonian showed up."
"What did the Argonian do?" I asked.
"At first, nothing. Seeing as how he was badly beaten up and barely able to drag himself across the entrance to the city."
I heard a small intake of air from Falin.
"They took him to the priest of Arkay who managed to nurse him back to health. Once that was done, the Argonian went into the jail and spoke to Sinding. Shortly afterwards, the werewolf broke out of jail, and the Argonian rushed out of town as though the hordes of Oblivion were after him. There's been no sign of either of them since."
"Could you describe the Argonian for me please?"
"Of course, he was big, very big. Black and red scales, long horns, wore steel plate armour, three wide scars on the left side of us face."
The Inn was silent as I considered what I had been told. Ram-Ku had definitely been in Falkreath, but he had somehow become involved with a werewolf and left town. "Do you know where he went?" I asked. The woman shook her head.
"I'm sorry, but I can't help you there."
I thanked the woman for her time and headed out of the inn followed by Falin. We headed towards the guard barracks to see if we could find out anything from the guards there, Falin seeming apprehensive and distracted by the prospect of being surrounded by Nords that she couldn't 'kill with fire'. As we approached the barracks, Falin shifting about nervously, the door to the alchemist's opposite swung open, revealing a Dark Elf clad in dark robes with a red lining. She glanced around briefly before her gaze settled on us, her eyes passed over me but she seemed to do a double take upon seeing Falin. The woman approached us slowly. I felt my hand move to my sword hilt, as though in preparation for a fight. The elf, upon seeing this, stopped a short distance away from us.
"Falin," she called softly, "Falin, is that you?"
The effect that this had upon Falin was profound, she immediately stopped glancing around, instead focussing entirely on the other Dunmer. The two stood that way for a moment, before rushing to embrace each other. The other woman spoke rapidly to Falin in Dunmeris. Falin smiled and disentangled herself from the other woman before gesturing for me to speak.
"Ermm… Who are you?" I asked uncertainly, my hand still not leaving my sword hilt.
The woman looked at me before speaking, somewhat condescendingly, "My name is Gabriella. I am Falin's sister. Who, are you?"
I looked at Falin, "You never said you had a sister."
She smiled at me before gesturing that she had never said anything. I laughed, "Okay, fair point. But is she your sister?" Falin nodded. Gabriella meanwhile had been following our exchange looking more and more confused.
"What on earth is going on?"
I decided that I had to explain, "Well you see, Falin can't speak…"
"Nonsense. I think you'll find that she can't stop speaking. Always wanted to know exactly what I was doing, how it worked, could she learn to do that..."
"Runs ins the family does it?" I inquired, "It's true though, she can't speak anymore. Apparently some Nord crushed her vocal chords." I stopped speaking when I saw the expression on the other woman's face.
"Who was this Nord, and where can I find him?" She hissed at Falin, "I will kill him for hurting you sister."
Falin quickly gestured at me, looking slightly scared of her sister.
"'Already dead' she says." I translated, "Killed while attempting to strangle her apparently."
Gabriella nodded, a glint of murderous intent not quite faded from her eyes. "Good. So what are you doing in Falkreath then? There's pretty much nothing here."
"We're looking for a friend of ours, a big, black Argonian." I explained.
Gabriella looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded slowly, as though coming to a conclusion. "Yes, from what I've heard, you should be able to find your friend in Bloated Man's Grotto, on the Northern shore of Lake Ilinalta.
A/N: And there you have it, Ram-Ku has managed to get himself involved with werewolves and daedric princes(Again, not that Ria or Falin know that). Also, Falin is Gabriella's sister, this is an idea I've had since the start of this story, it was either Gabriella or Aranea Ienith. Let me know what you think of this. Also, which path do you think Ram-Ku will take?
And Remember, I would like to include OC's in this, mainly to have some different characters in the story. Thanks for continuing to read.