Ah, Christmas. Nothing better than free stuff from family and strangers who you sometimes forget are alive. On the up side, I'm finally old enough to appreciate socks. God, socks are awesome.

Skyrim SE would be cool, too, but I digress.

Anyway, happy holidays! Hope you had fun, and for those few people that had a sucky time; my extended apologizes. Now that that's over with, let's get this thing started!

I'm gonna try to do a long one here, but it still won't be how long I want it to be. (What I would want is 10k words, but I can barely do 2. I need improvement)

(As usual, there are curse words. Maybe I should change the rating?)

~Line-Break~

The next two weeks were a blur. I remembered them with a crystal clarity that was almost inhuman, if I was honest, but they passed so quickly. Despite how fast they seemed to pass, those weeks were not useless; instead it seemed like I went through an anime training montage.

At the end of it, I could fight Aela on somewhat even terms; if she actually tried I would be dead literally before I could react, she was so fast. And even then, it was mostly my new shield that improved my fighting ability. With me sucking hard at stabby things, what with my lack of skill with them, I was actually more dangerous with just my fists.

And my knife, and God Almighty was that a find. Aela gave it to me shortly after my 'first' transformation. Apparently she found it in the cage along with my torn clothing. The 18" (12" blade) SOG Kukri machete was my salvation. It wasn't really a combat weapon, more of a utility tool, but I hadn't been so happy to see it since I got it last Christmas. The saw back blade was very useful in getting firewood, as well.

It also made me shut down for a few minutes, because it was confirmation that I wasn't Home anymore. Aela's concern drew me back out, and I sucked it up; I could cry when I was in some cave.

My actual hand-to-hand ability went from "brawler" to "brawler that can take a punch." I didn't know what to expect, maybe some long lost martial art or something. Not 'beat it with you fists until it's dead.' Still, now that I wasn't tripping on my own feet, and my Blood gave me literally killer instincts, I enjoyed fighting. Not killing, which didn't make me sick like I expected, but fighting.

The fact that I actually killed someone, that was... interesting. Not in the way that I could, but that I didn't throw up, or cry, or become a bloodthirsty lunatic, like literally every piece of fiction I've ever read. It might have been my Beast Blood, which was changing me more than I initially thought, or it might be that I was a more fucked up person than I believed. Hell, it could have been the actual fucking magic in the air.

So yeah, it could have been any of those. Getting back to my improvements, my physical stats skyrocketed after my transformation. I was above a 'normal' civilian like Aela was above me; almost too fast to see and hit like a goddamn truck. In fact, I'd bet I was the same as a Halo Spartan in pure physical ability. My form was awful, and even a normal merc could kill me with skill, but it was something.

But it was my magic that really got me grinning. When we got back to our clothes after the Hunt, me following obviously, I found some interesting books in my bag. I, somehow, kept Aela from finding them, and was very surprised how different magic was from the game to Tamriel. In the game you just read a book, in Tamriel you get options. On the first page, some sort of 'link' was established between me and the book, and I had two choices; learn the spell instantly with it being a set thing, or read the whole book and learn it on my own. What that meant was basically a difference from the game to the fandom; in one every spell costs a set amount of magic and does a set amount of damage, and in the fandom you could 'overcharge' your spells to make them overpowered as fuck.

There were four spell books in my bag, as well as what equated to 'Magic for Dummies.' The spells were Healing, Flames, Silence, and something called Burn. I learned Burn first, because it was only about 30 pages. What it did was 'Burn' my magic up, very slowly. When it regenerated, after a few hours, I had slightly more. And by more, I mean if I had 100 point before, now I had 100.001 points. Wasn't worth it short term, in my opinion. The guide book was very helpful in explaining magic clearly, though.

In Skyrim different magic was used than in Cyrodil, and that went for every province on the continent. Skyrim magic, the book explained, was made like the Warriors that lived there; simple, strong, and not to be trifled with. It was separated into easy to remember categories that really explained themselves, but for a few exceptions. Destruction killed stuff, Restoration fixed stuff, Alteration changed stuff, Illusion played with stuff, Conjuration made stuff. It was pretty easy to remember, even before I got here.

It explained overcharging spells, which was basically if you use twice the magic, you go twice as fast. So it did what it was doing in a much shorter amount of time. The interesting thing was that there was no limit, no point at which you couldn't 'overcharge.' So if I had infinite magic, I could make Flames hotter than the core of the Sun.

Kinda scary, but it made me really want to cheat. I highly doubt the Alchemy-Enchanted Gloves-Enchanting-Smithing loop will work, but if it does... Oh shit, that would be cool.

Note to self: check out Enchanting.

All in all, I went from slightly-scrawny average teenager to kickass-werewolf explorer in a disturbingly short amount of time. I managed to get a look at myself in a pond and man... I was built like a brick shit house. Don't know how much that's me getting kicked around by the sexy Warrior Lady and how much is my werewolf stuff, but oh well.

I wonder if weight lifting would make me capital S Strong?

~Line-Break~

The time came. It was emotional, Aela almost cried.

...

Ok, no one cried, but she did hit me with slightly less force. Slightly.

It was time for us to go our separate ways, away from each other. The time I spent with Aela was very enjoyable, for many, many reasons; not the least of which is how badass sexy she is. I'm not even skirting around it any more, I've got a thing for the redhead capable of bending steel.

The fact she's nine years older than me doesn't help, but damn if I can't dream! It's just so disappointing that I'll never-

I dove forward, suddenly, as an arrow flew just where my head was a moment ago. Instead of sliding forward on my stomach I used my arms to roll onto my feet, almost immediately throwing the rock I picked up as hard as I could at the archer. The rock, traveling three times faster than a major league pitcher could throw, was turned to dust by another arrow before it could get close to its target.

I took the time the rock bought me to close the distance between us, opening up with a Spartan kick that caught them in the gut, sending them back several feet. She got up almost instantly, a dagger swinging in one hand. I hunkered down in a block with my shield, using the shock running through her arm to let loose a right hook on her cheek, followed by a shield bash to the temple. The fist made contact, but pushed Aela out of the way of the bash, leaving me open to her double kick to my unarmored gut.

I flew back a few meters, wheezing, before spontaneously jumping up and kicking both legs out at chest height, knocking the wind out of her, and making me fall on my spine which hurt like hell.

We were both up at the same time, but the redhead managed to disarm me of my shield, breaking my arm in the process. I took the time to take out my kukri, the inward curving blade extremely sharp and deadly. I did a few shoulder-to-hip slashes that missed, before I was blindsided by a roundhouse kick that sent my vision blurry.

The last thing I saw was a fist heading straight to me.

~Line-Break~

I woke up with a groan, not just of pain but also annoyance. This was how Aela 'trained,' she beat the shit out of me, and if I didn't learn she did it again. I admit, though grudgingly, the trial by fire took me to a level I thought impossible before in a very short amount of time. I really think if I was a normal human I would be dead a hundred times over.

I sat up, my aches and pains slowly becoming dull, easily ignorable throbs. I gave Aela, who was sitting on a stump, the meanest glare I could. She laughed. I brooded.

"One day, Aela, I'll be the one kicking ass." I said in my most serious tones.

Aela snorted. "Over my dead body, Whelp. You've got a lot of years before you get to my level." She said, completely serious. "I'm a member of the Circle, not some standard Merc."

"Alright, alright, I get it." I conceded exasperatedly. "Where are we going anyways? You're not going to dump be in the middle of nowhere before you go, are you?" I asked, somewhat fearfully. I wouldn't put it past her.

"No, Whelp, we are going to a village not far from here. Rorikstead, I think the name is." Aela replied. "I'm meeting another Companion there, and then you will go out." She said.

Suddenly, she turned around. The look in her eyes stopped me in my tracks, and I couldn't breath.

"But if I EVER hear that you went Feral, or abuse your powers, I will kill you." She menacingly stated.

And then she continued walking, warning given. I took the respite to catch my breath, wondering where that came from. She didn't act like that in the game!

"Got it." I mumbled, mostly to myself.

I didn't see any buildings, but I could just barely make out tiny dots that seemed cow-shaped, so I guess we're still a few hours off, maybe less.

I gave Aela another glance, considering my options. I nodded, decision made.

~Line-Break~

Our separation was... eventful. I refuse to remember most of it, keeping it vague to save myself any embarrassment. I will say this, however.

Nord's. Are. Big.

The person Aela met at Rorikstead? It was Farkas. He was six-and-a-half feet tall, with arms bigger than my torso. Very scary.

And he wanted to see how well I could hold my drink, to see if the 'whelp' that Aela spent 2 weeks with was any good.

I'm a teenager, so I've snuck a few drinks here and there. Beer, mostly, but I've had some sips of the stronger stuff. Let me tell you, Nord stuff, belongs to the Nord's. Even with my werewolf constitution, which was weaker than I expected for some reason, all it took was one mug and I was out. Gone.

I had fun, though. Not often you pick a fistfight with a Giant. Even less often you survive.

Note to self: my blunt force durability is ridiculous and inconsistent.

Anyway, what it came down to was Aela, Farkas and myself having a night only werewolves could have; that is, we got super drunk and beat the shit out of people, before going hunting. Thankfully, I don't remember much of the prep time for that, but when I shifted it was like and instant sober state.

That was... fun? Interesting, at least. Farkas was better than me, and I'm pretty sure Aela was better than him. Most of the night was them cutting loose, with me practicing my Beast Form.

When I woke up the next morning, Aela said goodbye and left with Farkas, leaving me alone in the inn with nothing but 30 gold, my knife, a shield, and some clothes.

Now what?

~Line-Break~

Ok, done. What do you guys think? Got to admit, I hate this chapter so much, it's not even funny. I feel so inconsistent, flopping around. It's getting stupid, and I feel like if I don't stop this will turn into a crack fic.

So yeah, kinda upset. Don't forget to review! And in your review, please add what you want Morgan to do next. Some examples I'm thinking of are Mercenary, Hunter, or just walking around. I kinda want to do a solid guild, but if I were there I would stay away from the ancient and dangerous things. Like the magic ball of death, or the Shadow Goddess, or the Vampire hunters. You see where I'm going with this?

Till next time!