"Shouldn't you have a shield brother with you?"
Athene couldn't help herself. She should have watched Farkas from a distance and tried to follow him once he'd changed, maybe stolen a horse from the Whiterun stables to keep up, but she was curious. And she felt no danger, though some part of her mind told her that was idiotic.
"Or sister," she amended as the warrior turned to look at her.
"I'm just going to do some stuff."
"That's what you said last time. And then you became very hairy. Even more than usual."
He looked around at the stables and the cart-for-hire nearby. Just up the road a camp of Khajiit were selling their wares.
"It's too busy here to talk. And you're not supposed to know about that."
She stopped herself from telling him he'd contradicted himself. Were they going to talk, or not? But everyone called him stupid. She decided to try a different route.
"Maybe I'm not supposed to know, but I do. What are you going to do about that?"
She stepped closer and looked up. Way up. He was tall for a Nord, and for a Wood Elf—well, they were all short compared to any Nord.
"Back up or you'll get my fist," said Farkas.
She gave him a little space.
"Why are you talking to me?" he said. "So you know our secret. What are you going to do about it?"
"I just want to know more. What it's like, how it happened. I want to know if it's something that can spread, like vampirism—"
"We're not like vampires," he spat.
"I know," she said quickly. "But I don't really know. I want you to tell me."
"Why me?"
"Because you told me I should become a Companion. You don't call me 'little elf' like everyone else. And like I said a minute ago, you're alone. You should have a shield brother or sister with you, but you don't. And it's been that way a few times. I'm alone too. It makes me curious."
She hoped she wasn't laying it on too thick.
He shuffled his feet and looked back up the path to Whiterun. "They've all been busy lately. Vilkas, that's my brother, he's been talking to Kodlak a lot. They think this... this gift maybe isn't a gift. Skjor and Aela think it is. But everybody's worried about what's going to happen." He shrugged. "They don't have a lot of time left for running around the place."
Athene actually felt for him. She'd started investigating the Companions out of her usual sense of wanting dirt on anyone tougher than she was. They were a group of fighters? Fine; She'd make sure she knew enough that they'd never want to mess with her. But having identified their weakest link, now she found herself getting sucked in. She hadn't lied when she told him why she'd chosen him, even if she'd left off the part where she might blackmail them all.
"I do," she said, as he shuffled some more and sighed. "I have time to run around the place, if you want. Tonight, anyway."
It was a brash thing to say and she expected him to laugh her off. She did not expect him to grin at her with a twinkle in his eye like he was entertaining the thought.
"Can you keep up?" he said, reminding her of her previous doubt that she could, without a horse.
"I'm fast, and I'm smart." She saw the doubt flicker to his face and quickly corrected herself. "Not that you aren't smart, but I might be able to find a better path and catch up when I need to. Also, I'm determined."
"Well I can tell that," he said. He looked skyward, to the moons, and his longing was obvious.
Athene began to walk off the path, further from the city and away from other eyes. She'd been a vampire this week, and now she was going to romp with a werewolf. She was part of a plot to murder the Emperor of Tamriel. Could things get any better?
"Let's run," she said.
Farkas barely had time to nod before he was into the shadows, growling and changing. Athene broke into a sprint and let the plains take her far away, the pounding of wolves' feet hard in her ears.