Chapter 5:
"No." Kian spat for the tenth time as he stormed through the streets of Whiterun toward the gate, Lydia hurrying to keep pace just behind him.
"My Thane, forgive my rudeness, but if you would get out of your own thick head for a moment and listen to me- "
"No, Lydia, you listen!" Kian whirled on her with anger flaring in his eyes. "I get that you care; I know you're sworn to your 'duty' but I do not need a nanny nor a baby sitter. I don't need you to escort me to High Hrothgar, so bug off!"
Lydia's expression turned from shock to indignation faster than a lightning strike.
"Oh, you don't need my help, do you? Is that why you only come home five days out of the month, arriving in the depths of night only to leave at day break again? Is that why every time I see you, you look like you're about to keel over where you stand? Is that way you look as if death has chased you from Solitude to Helgen on the regular? Kian, you can't keep going like this, you'll die!"
The adventurer recoiled from her ferocity, and turned away from her in shame, unable to voice his objections in a way that would not sound dismissive and self-deprecating. Lydia seemed to calm herself as well, though conviction still burned strong within her.
"I only wish to help you. You disappear for so long, and I have no clue where you've been. I feel as if I no longer know you, when you used to ask me to accompany you to the most remote reaches of Skyrim. And it's not just out of duty as your housecarl." She injected, cutting off Kian's retort. "It's because I am your friend, and I feel as if you no longer need me." Her voice trailed off with dejection tinging the tone.
Kian winced at the sound, and placed a hand across the woman's shoulders.
"Oh, Lydia. I'm not trying to push you away, it's just that there are many dangers I must face as a part of who I am. And I wish not to drag you into business that is mine and mine alone."
With a scoff, she pushed his arm away.
"Have I yet to prove to you that this sword on my belt is not for decoration? And the weight of a problem is no burden if taken for a friend." Her jabs still contained their bite, but Kian refused to cower and stood firm in his conviction, ready to retort.
"In another lover's spat again, you two?"
A jovial voice broke the tense atmosphere, and both warriors swung their heads towards it. A blond headed Nord with a short cropped beard dressed in the garb of a Stormcloak strode into the square they had stopped to argue in.
"Ralof, you old crow!" Kian greeted lightly as he broke from Lydia to greet his longtime friend.
They met in a grasp of arms before pulling into a quick hug and moving apart once again.
"So what's sent a Stormcloak like you slinking into an Imperial den?" Kian jibbed in an effort to press a few soft spots.
Ralof responded with a smirk and pulling Kian in with an arm wrapped around his neck.
"Insinuating I am a traitor, are we, Dragonborn? And here I though you didn't pick sides." Ralof countered, falling into their easy banter.
Lydia walked over to them at last, shaking her head in disapproval, though a smile has taken her face in place of her former stormy mood.
"Ralof, honestly, you keep cracking jokes like that and the town is like to believe Kian is taking me into his bed."
Ralof only offered a shrug.
"I feel some may already. Any unmarried man and woman living beneath the same roof is like to set imaginations running. And Kian would not be the first to take a housecarl to bed."
Kian paused for a moment, at last catching the glances of a few citizens who had been witnessing their… confrontation earlier.
"I do hope they don't seriously think that."
Ralof chuckled.
"Ever the hero, aye, Kian? Always looking to maintain that wholesome, influential image." The Dragonborn only shrugged.
"I do what I can."
The Nord at last released his friend.
"I suppose we have that to blame for loosing you to the cause. Doubt you'd make a good revolutionary anyway."
"Though that does beg the question, why are you here?" Lydia studied the man with a hard gaze.
Though the two were at least mutually companionable, having gotten to know each other being Kian's closet friends, after the Stormcloak attack on Whiterun, Lydia's loyalties left her suspicious. Ralof raised his hands in a form of defense.
"This has nothing to do with Stormcloak business, I swear to you. I was simply back at Riverwood visiting my relatives, and thought I'd stop by to visit an old friend."
It had been sometime since Kian had seen Ralof, what with his constant excursions and the blonde's duties to the rebellion, fate had kept them distant.
"Well I'm afraid this may be a bad time, friend." Kian said with some regret. "I have urgent business with the greybeards, so I am off to High Hrothgar immediately."
"And I told this self-destructive idiot that I was coming with him." Lydia injected with renewed vigor.
Kian cast her a look of disbelief, but before he could counter-
"Perfect!" Ralof spoke with a jovial tone. "We can all go together."
"What?" Kian and Lydia questioned, Kian more with shock and Lydia with curiosity.
"Well I was stopping by because I had nothing that needed attending, and that still has not changed. I can shift my plans for a trip to Ivarstead."
"That sounds perfect!" Lydia looked to Kian with a devious grin.
"Wait, I- "
"Yes, a good excursion with friends, always a joy. Especially in such tumultuous times."
"But I- "
"Indeed. And two sets of eyes can keep a Dragonborn in sight." Lydia growled with a hint of a threat.
"NO!" A bit of dragonshout magic slipped into the force behind Kian's assertion and a gust of wind briefly startled passersby as it tossed leaves and rustled skirts.
"Listen, both of you!" The shock of his voice had startled both Ralof and Lydia into a standstill.
"I know you mean well, but this is personal Dragonborn business that needs to be attended to by myself."
Lydia raised an arm to interject.
"I know you're worried about me Lydia, and you're right, I should check in more often, and I promise to take you on my next, less important excursion. But right now, I need to do this alone."
With the matter settled, Kian turned and stalked off towards the gates.
"And don't follow me!" The Dovakiin shouted back as he disappeared into the cluster of buildings and people.
Ralof sighed in exasperation and rubbed a hand through the back of his blond hair.
"Well I guess I'll bunk down in a tavern for the night and head back to the camp in the morning."
The Nord turned to leave before a strong grip stopped him.
"Lydia?" He questioned. But her attention was trained on where Kian disappeared, gears turning in her head.
"What are you-?"
"Just giving him a head start."
Ralof did a double take towards the city gates.
"You're not…?"
"Oh, but I am."
"Lydia, Kian asked us to respect his wishes. Don't you thing as a friend you should- "
"I gave him plenty of chances to come around on his own."
"Well why- "
"Because something is obviously wrong with him. Don't tell me you haven't noticed, Ralof? He looks like he's been reanimated by a novice necromancer!"
"Aye, those black circles beneath his eyes did seem deep…"
"I know something's weighing him down, and he needs help he's too stubborn to ask for. If he won't tell me willingly, I'll find out myself."
"I'm still not sure I should help." The Nord said with suspicion.
Lydia turned back to him at last.
"Do you wish to leave his health to chance?"
The Nord looked to the sky, where dark clouds were gathering in the distance, a possible sign of first snow.
"Best not."
Kian continued to cast furtive glances back towards the city long after Whiterun's watchtowers had faded into the distance. Not far from the crossroads outside of the town, the adventurer had taken a sharp detour off the dirt paths and into the rocky, tree covered hills that shaped the landscape of Skyrim's south, and now only allowed himself to relax when he felt little chance of any eyes on him.
Casting another worried look towards the tree line, Kian slung the pack down from his shoulders and lifted the flap open.
"Alright, little one, you can come out- No Scarn! Don't eat that!" Kian exclaimed as he pulled a fraction of eggshell from the young dragon's mouth.
The little beast was caught off guard by the man's sudden removal of his treat and squeaked indignantly at him from the bottom of the traveling sack.
"That stuff's not edible, friend. If you're hungry I can get you something else." The Imperial reached in and scooped the dragon out, blinking his large red eyes as sudden sunlight filled his vision.
The beast started wriggling in Kian's grasp, and the Dragonborn allowed him to ungracefully plop to the forest floor. An excitement seemed to fill the dragon, and Scarn set about stumbling around, sniffing at every rock and leaf he spotted while taking in the outdoors; something that was only being seen for the first time in his life. Kian laughed to himself while the black scaled lizard hopped around with accompanying wing flaps to help propel him farther across the pine strewn floor.
"And here I thought you were hungry."
As if he had spoken the magic words, the dragon's head turned and locked eyes with the man before scrambling over with an unnatural vigor. Scarn came to a sliding stop before Kian, gazing up at him intently.
"Hm. Guess you were." The Dovakiin turned back to his bag and started rummaging through his extra pockets.
"Let's see… cheese?" He offered a slice towards the dragon, who took one sniff and shook his head rapidly in rejection.
"Alright, maybe an apple?" Scarn stepped back from the offering after giving it a once over, and Kian could only stare back in frustration.
"Well I don't really have anything else; and it'll take me who knows how long to even find something to hunt. What will you eat?"
But Scarn seemed to have become distracted, and took off sniffing along the ground towards the trees. With a sigh, Kian let his head drop to rest in his hands, fingering the longer strands of hair that fell beside his face.
Across the clearing, Scarn was locked in immense concentration, eyes trained on the ground before him. Keen vision picked out a rustling amongst the grass and leaves, and with only a pause to collect himself, the dragon pounced with a screech that was trying desperately to be ferocious. Kian looked up, alerted by the sudden noise. A large beetle burst through the undergrowth with Scarn hot on its trail. Before the bug could even scramble halfway across the clearing, the dragon was upon it and scooped it up in its mouth, ending its life with a sudden crunch.
"Bugs, huh?" Scarn chirped in agreement. "I suppose that makes sense, it would be the easiest thing for dragon hatchlings to find when they're this small. It seems you can handle hunting for yourself for now, yes?"
"Chuuur!"
"Alright, then. Come now, Scarn, we have a long trek to Ivarstead."
With a motion toward the dragon, Scarn stumbled and flapped over to the adventurer and crawled along behind them as they continued their way through the country side.
Lydia's hand at last found a grip on a particularly difficult outcropping and hauled herself up the sheer side to rest atop the hill. Ralof joined her a few moments later, panting and massaging his scuffed-up hands.
"How did Kian make it through here?" He questioned with both awe and annoyance.
"He's been scaling mountains almost as long as he's been a Dragonborn." Lydia informed. "I remember how he found the climb to High Hrothgar barely concerning, and was undaunted trying to reach Bleak Falls Barrow."
"We certainly have our work cut out for ourselves tracking him." Ralof muttered as he scanned the surrounding hills, each rockier than the last.
"He was always one to take the most direct route." Lydia commented as she came to stand beside the Nord.
"Alright, which way did he head now?"
Lydia crouched close to the ground, looking over the dirt and rocks with careful scrutiny. At last she spotted a familiar foot print carved into the soft earth.
"Lucky for us, it looks like he took a lower path around here."
"Thank Talos…"
"Wait, what's…" The armored woman trailed off as something else caught her eye.
"What is it?" Ralof questioned as he leaned over her to try and get a look at what she was seeing.
"There's another set of prints here, but I can't tell what they are."
"Another set? I thought he said he was traveling alone?"
"They're not human, that's for sure. Too small, and it looks like whatever it was had claws."
"Claws… Was he hunting something?" Ralof asked, as he looked off into the distance, trying to spot Kian.
"Can't tell, they only show up here or there, and they're not very clean. Like whatever it was had absolutely no sense of balance."
"Perhaps a wounded animal simply scampered by before we got here."
"You may be right." The housecarl straightened and began slowly descending the rocks. "Either way, it's of little importance. We need to keep him within our sights, especially with night approaching."
Ralof did not follow immediately, instead choosing to take a moment and track the progress of the sun.
"I hope I do not live to regret letting you influence me so…"
"Are you coming?!" Lydia called from bellow.
"On my way!" Ralof replied as he descended after her.
Across Skyrim's mountainous peaks, flecks of white began to fall, adding to the piles that never melted from the rocks. The first snow had begun.