A/N: Okay, two weeks off and this is what I bring you. I'm sorry for the delay but Schoolwork was starting to pile up a bit and I needed to deal with that instead. Anyway, In this chapter we finally retrieve Ram-Ku from Bloated Man's Grotto, and we discover how he met Falin for the first time. Enjoy.
As Gabriella had told us, Bloated Man's Grotto was indeed on the north shore of the Ilinalta. However, it was on the other side of a particularly tall mountain that we were forced to circumvent. This resulted in a short encounter with a territorial cave bear which Falin dispatched with a couple of fire spells. The grotto itself was open to the sky and was a pretty place, or at least it would have been were it not for the corpses of numerous men, mer and beastkin that littered floor. They appeared to have died either by claws, most likely the werewolf that the Innkeeper had mentioned, or by blade. I motioned to Falin to be on her guard, we did not know whether Ram-Ku or the werewolf had been victorious, or even if they had finished fighting, although the conspicuous lack of noise suggested that this was the case.
I drew my sword and we advanced cautiously towards a set of ruins that appeared to have been spared the bloodbath of the lower areas. Falin quietly cast a detect life spell to see if anyone was around. She hurriedly grabbed my shoulder a gestured towards the ruins frantically. We advanced quickly up the stairs where we found a bearded Nord man lying in a pool of partially-dried blood that seemed to have spread from a large gash in his side. Falin rushed over to him, golden healing magic already glowing in her hands. The man coughed as she tried to heal him, bringing up blood from within. I was no healer, but I knew that meant that he was bleeding inside, something that only temple healers could help with.
"The werewolf?" he said, "Is it dead?"
"Yes," I replied, "At least, we think so." The man coughed again.
"We were too cocky," he said, "we thought that we would be able to bring him down. We were wrong." He paused, "We did not think that he would be that strong, that he would be able to send us flying. I have fought and killed many werewolves in my time with the Silver Hand, but none have been as strong as that one was. It only got worse when the Argonian showed up."
"The Argonian?" I asked, wondering how it could have gotten worse when Ram-Ku had shown up.
"Aye, a big, black bastard. Wearing steel plate but moving like he was clad in leather, swinging an elven greatsword like a dagger. He tore through us like a whirlwind."
Dread filled my stomach, why had Ram-Ku attacked these people. The man coughed again, bringing up even more blood before he continued. "He was screaming the whole time about how we had killed some man named Skjor. I never heard the name before, but we're a big organisation, it could have happened."
The dread turned to anger as I realised where I had the name Silver Hand before. It was when I had heard overheard Aela and Ram-Ku discussing Skjor's death. This man was one of those responsible. Oblivious to my rage, the man continued, "Last I saw he was hacking at the werewolf. I am not long for this world, please, end my suffering quickly." He pleaded with me. I drew my sword and plunged it into his gut, ending his life. I stood up and drew a deep breath, remembering what Kodlak had once told me about revenge and retribution.
"Revenge and retribution can often seem the most fitting courses of action in response to a death, especially to the young, and in the heat of the moment. Nords especially are given to these impulses, but revenge and retribution can often become a vicious circle, escalating in violence and magnitude. The old and wise seek to avoid these occurrences as best we can." I inhaled again, deep breaths would often help calm me down when I was angry. I turned to Falin, we still had a shield-brother to find.
The sound of footsteps approaching caused me to turn around, the sound of blade being loosed caused me to draw my own sword and Falin to ready her magic. We were fully ready to attack until we recognised the figure that stood before us.
"Ria? Falin? What are you doing here?" Ram-Ku locked somewhat shocked.
"What are we doing here? Looking for you, you stupid lizard." I replied. "Do you have any idea how worried we've been? Falin's been worried, and I've been worried, and Aela's been worried, and, and," I finally took him in properly, "What in the name of Akatosh are you wearing?" I finally demanded. In addition to the steel plate armour he had most likely stolen from bandits, Ram-Ku was wearing some sort of pelt that I didn't recognise draped over his shoulders, with some peculiar motif on the front.
"What, this?" He asked fingering the edge of the garment, "This is werewolf hide, sort of." He quite clearly did not want to talk about it, but I was angry so I decided that he would talk about it.
"What do you mean, sort of? It doesn't look like something you could make in a cave, and I seem to recall that you weren't much good at smithing. Tell me the truth Ram-Ku."
"You want the truth? Fine, I sold my soul to Hircine, and this is what he gave me in return."
"Wait, you did what?"
He shrugged, "I'm an Argonian, I don't have a glorious afterlife in Sovngarde like the Nords, I don't really worship any of the divines, so I might as well spend my afterlife hunting. It's called the Saviour's Hide, like it?" He grinned cheekily at me.
"Does that matter? You sold your soul to Hircine, you are a Daedra-worshipper."
"Well if you want to split hairs about it, technically I'm his champion."
"I don't even want to know, go talk to Falin."
The Dark Elf in question promptly launched herself upon Ram-Ku, who hugged her back, right up until she decided to shock him with her lightning magic.
"Oww, what was that for, Falin?"
Apparently it was for being an inconsiderate jerk who didn't seem to care that he was being called an inconsiderate jerk.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry." He turned back to me, "So, what's happened while I've been gone? Did I miss anything?"
"Well…" I said, "Let's see, you missed Falin's trial and initiation, Torvar waking up covered in flower chains, and Falin getting piss-drunk and hugging everyone." I counted the items off on my fingers.
Falin looked at me, and signed that she didn't remember that bit.
"Of course not," I giggled, "You were absolutely smashed."
Ram-Ku laughed at the expression on Falin's face, "So who did she hug?"
"Me, Vilkas, Farkas, everyone apart from Njada, who got really pissed off, up until Athis started hugging each other instead."
"I'm just really sorry that I missed her trial. Who took it?"
"I did."
"Really? No offence, but why not Farkas or Vilkas?"
"Because, Icebrain," I said, using one of Aela's favourite insults, "She doesn't like Nords remember."
"No, no she doesn't."
"Also Ram-Ku, there was a bounty hunter from Eastmarch in Whiterun, looking for you. Any idea why?"
Ram-Ku paled visibly, "Shit, I didn't think they'd find me this easily. I thought that with the war on, I'd be able to hide in one of the Imperial-controlled holds."
"You must have a pretty high bounty then."
He grinned again, "Well, you could say that. 5'000 septims sound high to you?"
5'000 septims? That was enough to buy a small house. "By the Eight Divines, what did you do?"
He sat down, "It's a long story, and I need Falin's permission to tell you."
"I already asked her and she said to ask you."
He nodded, "Very well. What do you know about the Stormcloaks' chain of command?"
"Well, it's Ulfric, then Galmar, then all the other generals like Yrsarald Thrice-pierced. Wait, did you kill a general?"
"No, I killed Galmar's brother, Rolff."
I heard the name before, but I knew nothing about the man. I motioned for Ram-Ku to continue.
"You see, Rolff is a racist piece of shit. Wasn't good enough to join the Stormcloaks, unlike his brother. He became jealous of his brother's prowess and fame so he turned to drink. Everything that is wrong with Windhelm can be summed up in Rolff Stone-Fist. He enjoys walking around the Grey Quarter, the slums where the dark elves live, shouting abuse at the Dark Elves, or 'Grayskins'." Ram-Ku shook his head disgustedly. "He does the same to the Argonians on the docks. Calls us 'Scalebacks' and scum. Thinks that although we do all the hard work on the docks that we should be kicked out and the jobs given to 'true' Nords. Anyone who isn't a Nord is a potential Imperial spy to him." He sighed, "Anyway, I used to work on the docks, unloading the ships as they came in. Didn't pay much, but it was good work. Anyway, one day I was ordered to take a couple of crates from the docks up to the Stone Quarter, the market district. I think it was ingots for the smithy. So I did as I was told, received the payment from the blacksmith, and turned to leave. As I headed down the alleyways, I heard a commotion behind me. Some Nord and a Dark Elf had collided, spilling whatever it was the elf had been carrying across the floor."
"The elf being Falin?" I asked. He nodded.
"Yes, didn't know that at the time though. Anyway I'd been taught not to get involved with the Nords, to just be respectful and keep out of their way. So that's what I planned to do, just keep walking. As I was passing the pair, I heard the elf cry out. Rolff was going on about how 'grayskin women were all cock-teasing sluts', and they had no idea what a real man felt like." He sighed again. "My co-workers taught me not to get involved with the Nords, but before that, my mother taught me not to allow women be taken advantage of, so I turned around to confront him, just Falin shot him in the testicles with her magic."
A small smile crossed Falin's face as she listened to Ram-Ku recounting this particular tale.
"Rolff bellowed in pain and wrapped his hands around Falin's throat and started strangling her. Her face started going a really strange red-black colour. I charged at the man and punched him in the side of the head. That was when I recognised him, I thought that I was fucked just for attacking him, so I decided that I might as well go all the way with it and kill him. I drew my dagger and slit the bastard's throat. What I hadn't counted on was a guard entering the alleyway just as I did so."
He grimaced, "I didn't really think about it after that, I just grabbed Falin's hand and ran for it. Practically dragged her out of the city after me. Knew that she'd get blamed if I left her there, and I felt responsible for her. Killed one of the guards that tried to stop us and took his greatsword. We hid in a cave on the border with the Rift. Falin was absolutely terrified, I had to explain to her that I meant no harm. That was when we discovered that she couldn't speak. She just started crying. It was awful. We left the cave and travelled West, avoiding Stormcloak patrols, took armour and robes from bandits that we found on the way. Then we got to Whiterun and had a minor disagreement with a giant."
He grinned at me, that had been the point when he saved my life, and he called it a minor disagreement?
He stood up, "Right, that's enough story telling, I'm certainly no bard. Let's go back to Whiterun." And he just strode confidently through the archway… deeper into the cave.
"Other way, Icebrain."
"Shut up Ria."
Facing the right direction, we set off out of the cave and, from there, towards Whiterun and Jorrvaskr.
A/N: Just tell me what you think, your opinions, and anything you'd like to see. Also of you want your OCs in this story, you should send me a character bio in a PM, and you should probably do it soon, or I'll have to fill the slots with two characters that I created, and that would just be boring for me. Hopefully I'll update the next one sooner.