Preparing a fireball spell in her hand, Amalia smirked, this was too easy. A draugr was standing out in the open, next to a word wall that would allow her to achieve the next level of power. She wasn't quite sure how she got there, but odds are she had simply smashed her way through with Lydia. Things were simple like that. Anyway, with a little luck, this would be an easy kill, now where was Lydia…
"For Whiterun!"
Oh, apparently, she was there, dressed in full Ebony armor and swinging an enchanted sword that Amalia didn't remember her getting. Maybe she had looted it somewhere or forged it? Lydia was good with the smith hammer, so it wasn't really a surprise.
Still, Lydia might need some help, so without further ado, Amalia released the energy she had been building in her palm towards the Draugr that Lydia was currently engaged with. Now, normally, Amalia might have taken the care not to use such a wide scale attack with Lydia so close, but that full Ebony set meant that she could definitely handle it. A few moments of healing hands afterwards and she'd be right as rain.
After pelting the two with fireballs, enough to make a dragon jealous, the Draugr fell. Lydia was on her knees, and Amalia jumped down from her position on the balcony.
"Whoo! That was fun right? Where'd you get that armor?" Amalia asked, raising one hand for a healing spell, "Oh here, let me-oof!"
The hilt of Lydia's sword smacked into Amalia's side, causing the Dragonborn to stumble backwards, gasping for air.
"I am tired, my Thane." Lydia's voice said, her voice unchanged despite the helmet, "Of your incessant yammering."
"I...I don't..." Amalia spatted out, struggling for air.
"Of your stupidity." Walking up to her causally, Lydia smacked Amalia with her shield, making her fall on her back, sliding across the floor from force.
"W-what…Lydia…" Amalia rasped out, crawling backwards and prepping herself up against the wall.
"Of your neglect." Sheathing her sword, Lydia pulled out an axe, a daedric axe, a hellish thing used only by the most depraved of killers.
"I...I…." Amalia gasped, not even thinking to defend herself.
"But, I tire most, of you. You pathetic excuse of a Dragonborn." Dropping her shield, Lydia held the axe with two hands.
"Lyida...I'm...I'm...sor-"
"Goodbye, my Thane." Lydia said, then brought the axe down.
Amalia's eyes shot open, and bolted upright. Panting for breath, her long red hair falling in front of her face, the young girl looked around. She was in her house, laying on the masterbed in night clothes, not in some forgotten ruin with a murderous friend.
It's okay, I'm in Breezehome. Whiterun. Home.
Sighing in relief, Amalia let herself fall back onto her bed, spreading her arms out. On her neck, all the way to her left shoulder, a very visible and ugly scar lay there. Once, when she was younger, she had stumbled upon a Chaurus nest, and one of the creatures had gotten too close. At the time, she was too paralyzed by fear to move out of the way. The end result? The insect took a large bite of her shoulder, she nearly died. But her adopted dad, a Nord warrior, was nearby, and heard her screams. Saving her just in time. Ever since then, the wound festered, even when she was attended to by healers.
And it was times like now, when she could feel the phantom pain of the bite. When she was emotionally unbalanced, when she couldn't sleep. When she had something to do.
"Of all the stupid…" Rising herself from her bed, and taking the covers with her, Amalia tipped toed over to the guest room, where Lydia slept.
Dearily opening the door, Amalia peeked inside her best friend's room. There she was, the Nord Warrior who assaulted her in her nightmares. Asleep, no Ebony armor, no hell axe, no scary voice.
Next to her bed was a cupboard where she kept most of her stuff. On it was her favored armored gauntlets
Opening the door further and tip toeing inside, Amalia measured her pace carefully, oh so carefully, and reached for the gloves.
"Nrrgg…" Lydia muttered, shuffling in her bed, causing Amalia to freeze mid-grab. Her heart pounding against her chest. Soon enough though, Lydia went back to restful sleep. Letting out held breath, Amalia grabbed the gloves and exited the room as quickly as possible.
"Hail Dragonborn."
"Hi Gary. How's the knee?"
"Pretty good, thanks for cure disease potion by the way, wife was real worried about that. Damn vampires. What brings you to Dragonsreach so late at night?"
Amalia rolled her eyes and stepped back, allowing the guard to get a full view of her barely bed sheet covered body, "To seduce you-no. I need to use Farengar's enchanting table."
Gary the guard crossed his arms, "What for?"
"To enchant these." Reaching into her bedsheets, Amalia pulled out a set of steel plated gauntlets.
"Aren't these Hoursecarl Lydia's? Why do you have them?" Gary asked, raising an eye beneath his helmet.
"..." Amalia was silent for a moment, an odd occurrence from their resident Dragonborn, "I just...need you to trust me."
"Aye. Whatever you need miss."
"Grrk, Dragonborn? What do you want at this Akatosh denied hour?" Adrianne Avenicci of Warmaiden's asked, rubbing her eyes.
"I know, but I need to use your forge." Amalia stated, "I also need three Ebony ingots and two leather strips. Please."
"What's this about? Are you trying to forge one hundred iron daggers again?" Adrianne asked, "And why are you wearing only your night clothes and bedsheets?"
"Just-"
"It's about Lydia isn't it?" Adrianne asked, cutting her off, causing Amalia to nod. Sighing the imperial rubbed her head, "Wait here, I'll get my apron."
Lydia awoke early, as she often did. Out of the the two, Lydia liked to think of her as the responsible one, she made breakfast, cleaned the armor, and made sure Amalia would get up in the morning. Heavy sleeper that one. Funny thing though, Amalia would always wake up on the same minute she went to sleep on. 10:21pm? She'd wake on 8:21am. No expectations. When Lydia asked about this, Amalia just shrugged, "I dunno really know." She said in response. Lydia had chalked it up as one of the many quirks of the Dovahkiin.
"My Thane, it's time to get up!" Lydia called out after properly dressed. Odd, her gauntlets were missing. They should've been on the cupboard, oh well, didn't matter right didn't seem to be an adventuring day anyway, so maybe they would just stay in Whiterun? Unlikely, but, it would be nice for a chance to stay in.
"My Thane?" Lydia called again, entering her room to wake her. To her dismay, she found that her master wasn't there, and the bedsheets were missing as well. Frowning, Lydia ran the possibilities in her mind, was she trying to forge two hundred iron daggers again? Did she go swimming under the bridge to Dragonsreach? Did she go to jail for trying to murder Nazeem?
"My Thane? Amalia?" Something wasn't right, maybe she really did kill Nazeem was in jail. Grabbing her sword off the nightstand, Lydia hurried down the stairs. If she acted quickly, she could maybe get the Jarl to go easy on her, make her do some bounty hunting, clean the sweeps to High Hrothgar, something, anything, as long as it wasn't jail. If she couldn't, then she would have to prepare a horse quickly for when Amalia would blow the doors down with her thu'um. The jails would never recover from that.
Her questions were answered when Amalia Farseer stumbled through the doorway, alive and unharmed, but dressed in her night clothes and wearing her bedsheets.
"Amalia! What are you doing?" Lydia demand. To her surprise, Amalia looked up to her were tired looking eyes.
"Mhm." Her hands were behind her back, was she holding something?
"My Thane, are you-" Lydia was cut off as four objects were thrust into her hands, "My Thane?" She asked, perplexed.
"...Promise you won't get mad?" Amalia asked in a half whisper.
Lydia blinked, and saw what was being held in her hands. Two sets of gauntlets, her steel plate ones, and a set of…
"Ebony gauntlets? My Thane, where did you get these?" Lydia asked, observing them. They were finely tempered, reinforced to a great degree. And there was… "My name?" Written along the side of the gloves was her name in ivory.
"Mimhm." Amalia confirmed.
"And you...enchanted these?" Lydia blinked, observing her steel plate ones, they were enchanted with a heavy fire resistance spell, made with a Grand soul gem, at least.
"Just in case, you know, I send a fireball spell at you and you get mad and-"
Embracing her in a hug, Lydia smiled, "Thank you my Thane, what brought this on?"
"W-well, you know...H-happy birthday, Lydia."
"Thank you, Amalia."
Hello again, this one mainly came out of this one time I sent a fireball spell (which, by now, you can probably tell is my favorite spell. EXPLOSIONS) at Serena, Dawnguards best follower, and well, she got mad at me and started attacking. This freaked me out for a sec, but just sheathing my weapon caused her to calm down.
Anyway, I know what some of you are going to ask, especially the more...open minded among you, but no. Lydia and Amalia aren't a couple. It'd better to think of their relationship as sisters. One being the older, more responsible one, and the younger more adventurous one.
And by the way, points to K0H for noticing the gold hording thing like classic western dragons.
As always, please, review! Truly Wandering, Outlaw.