Chapter 9

Kili continued to work with the Companions for about a month or so. However, it was mostly doing busy work for Vilkas. A good majority of it was cleaning up after everyone, of course Kili would do the work without complaining, because well…she was getting paid. Then when ever Vilkas couldn't find any busy work for her to do, Farkas would step in and send her out to beat up the bullies of Skyrim.

"Kili, are you down here?" Roxanne's voice rang out through the barites of Jarrvaskr.

Kili put her map up that she was studying and walked up to peer out from behind the new blood's shared room to look at her friend as she ran through the door, "Yes Roxanne?"

"There you are; hiding from Vilkas?" Roxanne asked with a slight giggle.

Kili blushed and looked down at the ground. "More like thinking about him…" she muttered out.

Roxanne tilled her head to the side, "Hmmm….what was that?"

Kili just shook her head and looked back at her friend. "Nothing…so what can I help you with?"

"Oh! It's kind of a silly request but—"

Roxanne was cut off by the sound of glass shattering and a loud bang filling the air.

"What in Oblivion was that?" the two girls screeched as they ran down the hall as smoke filled the hallway.

"It came from Vilkas' room!" Roxanne said as they ran down the hall. Kili trailed the Khajiit.

Vilkas stumble out of his room coughing a wheezing.

"Vilkas are you all right? What happened?" Roxanne asked as she helped him up.

"I'm fine…" he coughed out, "just an alchemy mishap…"

"Again…Vilkas…"

"Don't start Roxanne…" he growled at his future sister in law.

"Did you learn nothing the first four times?" Roxanne snapped, "You are so stubborn!"

As the two warriors continued to argue Kili slipped into Vilkas' room as the smoke cleared out. She saw the formula book near the alchemy table; she grabbed the book wanting to figure out what went wrong.

"What were you trying to make Vilkas?" Kili asked softly as she flipped through the pages.

Vilkas turned his attentions from Roxanne and looked at the woman flipping pages through his book, "A simple heath potion if you must know…" he muttered bitterly.

Kili started looking at the formula that Vilkas had marked in the page. But once she flipped the page the ingredients changed. Confused by the dramatic change of ingredients she started flipping the pages back and forth trying to figure out what was wrong. Nightshade is not one of the ingredients for a health potion, it was for poison. Kili walked out of the room with the book in hand rubbing the page together.

"Vilkas…you combined two formulas together…." Kili said softly.

"What…?" Vilkas asked grimly.

Kili held the pages up to him. The pages were indeed stuck together. Vilkas turned red with embarrassment, and then quickly changed to anger.

"You think you're so smart don't you?" Vilkas snapped.

"No…I was just trying to-"

"Oh save it!" he snapped again cutting her off, "I don't need my mistakes pointed out by some nobody like you!"

'Oh that's it!' Kili thought to herself, as her temper flared in a white hot rage. "You know Vilkas; I wasn't trying to point out your mistakes you over sized horse's ass!"

Vilkas stood up and glared at her. "Watch your tongue whelp…" he growled out at her.

"That's another thing! I have a name: it's not "whelp" or "new blood", its Kili. K-I-L-I. There are four simple letters two in which are the same!" Kili snapped her eyes narrowed to sharply, making eye contact with her oral victim, "I figure someone as smart as you are could figure that out!"

Vilkas opened his mouth to snap back at her, but Kili wasn't having that. She closed the book shut with a deafening slam. The words that spewed from her lips where loud and precise, Kili waved her arms in front of her to express her anger.

"Oh, I'm not done you just keep your mouth shut! If you were as smart as you say you are I'd think you would figure out that Nightshade does not belong in Health potion since it POISINOUS! So naturally it belongs in, perhaps, maybe, a poison! Also, it's highly flammable, so you don't use an open flame when you mix with it anything, even if you were making a poison you mix it with water once it's been crushed up, and then, and only then, do use fire. And since we are still on the Alchemy topic, you don't drop the flame on to any formula you boil with. Do you understand BOIL? That, my companion, is the only reason for the flame, not for the fire works!"

At the end of her rant, Kili shoved the formula book into Vilkas chest. Then with her hands curled into fists, she quickly turned on her heels and marched out of the barracks tears running down her face, not wanting Vilkas to see her as more of a weakling. Roxanne snapped out of her state of shock from her friends' outburst when Kili slammed the door, then quickly ran after her friend.

Vilkas just stood there in shock, trying to figure out what just happened.

Kili walked out of barracks with eyes watching her, she ignored everyone and headed out to the training yard. She slumped down on the one of benches and cried into her hands.

'Why am I crying…I shouldn't be upset…' she thought to herself, 'Damn-it Vilkas!…Why do you hate me so much…?'

"Kili…?"

Kili looked up and saw Roxanne looking down at her. She quickly whipped her tears away as her friend sat down next to her on the bench.

"I'm sorry…" Kili whispered.

"It's okay; I told Farkas…he'll make sure Vilkas is okay." Roxanne said as she rubbed Kili's back with her paw.

"I don't know what happened…I just snapped…I didn't mean to-"

"Kili its fine, Vilkas had it coming. Now let's go somewhere, calm your nerves a bit." Roxanne said, trying to sooth her upset friend. "Anything you need to get done or something?"

Kili sniffed and pulled out her map from before. "I need to retrieve something for the Greybeards…I've put it off…but I think now would be a good time…" she said as she pointed to the mark on the map.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Roxanne said as she jumped off the bench, "Let's get going, we're burning day light!"

Kili smiled, "Thanks Roxy, you're the greatest."

"So…what's in this tomb again...?" Roxanne asked Kili as they walked through the dark tunnels.

"The Greybeards want their founder's horn. This is one of my tests from them…Why? Scared of the undead?" Kili asked, slightly teasing her cat friend.

"Just a bit…Farkas is usually with me on missions like this…" Roxanne stammered out, taking careful steps around a stony bend.

"You two are pretty close huh?" Kili asked as she shined her torch on one of the coffins.

"Yeah…We've been through a lot together."

Kili just giggled and pressed on through the tomb together. They fought through the hordes of the undead. Both of females were impressed with each other's skills. From time to time they would swap complements. For Kili she would complement Roxanne on her archery, and Roxanne would complement back with Kili's sword skills. After fighting what seemed like endless resistances from the draugrs the pair found themselves stuck in a puzzle like room.

"There's no way to open the gates from here," Roxanne stated as she looked though the iron bars of the three closed gates before them.

Kili started looking around the room, and noticed three stones with odd markings on them. She made her way over to the first one and stepped in front of it. A bong nose echoed through the room and the first gate sprung open. Roxanne yelped and sprung back away from the gates.

"Roxanne move," Kili said softly.

Roxanne just nodded and moved back. Kili took a few steps back and ran through the row of stones. Then at the last second she shouted.

"Wuld!" and with a burst of energy Kili flashed forward through the closing gates.

"What Oblivion...?" Roxanne asked as looked at Kili through the gates.

Kili pulled the chain to raise the gates for Roxanne to pass through to her.

"Kili…you're…"

"The Dragonborn?" Kili the finished her friends sentence with a sigh. "Yeah…"

"Why didn't you say anything?" Roxanne asked softly.

"I didn't want you treat me any different…I'm Kili first, and I wish I was Kili only…" Kili said sadly, "Then I'm this so called Dragonborn, and of course I'm also the Thane of Whiterun. I'm afraid…that I will no longer be the girl I was born as…"

"Kili…you were born with this blessing…You're still Kili. You just happen to have titles." Roxanne stated to her friend. "You shouldn't worry about what people think about you, or how they treat you. People will act however they want, and you can't change that."

Kili smiled at her friend, "Thanks Roxy, you're the best."

Roxanne giggled, "We girls have to stick together, that's what Aela's always telling me,"

"All right, let's keep going."

"Well…that was a complete waste of time!" Kili screamed out as her and Roxanne exited out of the tomb, "We were nearly killed by those bloody undead corpses only to find that someone else had taken the bloody horn!" Kili continued to shout as she gripped the note in her hand.

"It could be worse…" Roxanne said sympathetically, "They obviously want talk to you I mean whoever they were they told you where to find them."

Kili sighed and calmed her furry. She looked down at the note again before tucking it away in her bag. "You're right…I'll head out to Riverwood tomorrow…"

"That's the spirit," Roxanne cheered.

They two of them continued down the dirt path back to Whiterun. Roxanne started humming happily to herself, as Kili just stared off into the distance.

'Wait…Roxanne asked me for help this morning…' Kili thought to herself, "Hey Roxy…"

"Hmm?"

"What was it that you wanted this morning…before my pissing game with Vilkas?" Kili asked gently.

"Oh! I was wondering if you could bake."

Kili raised her eye brow at the question. "Why would you want to know that?"

"Simple really," Roxanne said as she turned to walk backwards, "I can't"

"Why would want to bake Roxanne?" Kili asked bluntly.

Roxanne gave a small smile and her ears flattened against her white hair, "Because I wanted to make something for Farkas…"

Kili give a small snort of laugh at her friends tone. "What's his favorite berry?" she asked trying to hold down her laughter.

"Snow berries…" Roxanne mumbled out.

Kili smirked. "Then we'll start by finding snow berries."

Kili watched as Roxanne's ears perked up, then she braced herself as Roxanne threw herself at her for a hug.

"Oh thank you Kili!" Roxanne gushed.

Kili just chuckled and helped her furry friend look for berries.

"How many do we need?" Roxanne asked as she picked the berries and put them into her bag.

"Well…that depends on how much he eats." Kili said as she glanced over at Roxanne to see he reaction.

"Umm…have you seen Farkas…I'd say he eats his fair share of everything." Roxanne muttered out.

Kili laughed and continued to keep watch. Suddenly a familiar roar echoed through the sky. Kili froze, as the roar shook through her body. Franticly she started to search the skies. She remembered from her training with Mirmulnir that when learning a new Thu'um then a dragon would be attracted to her, for her gain knowledge. Fearing for Roxanne Kili turned back to her friend.

"Roxanne, we need to head back," Kili said trying not to sound harsh.

"What's wrong?" Roxanne asked as she stood up.

"Remember that I said I am the Dragonborn?" Kili asked as she gently garbed Roxanne's arm to pull her back towards the road.

"Yeah…"

"Well-"

The ground shook, and dust surrounded the two women. Kili jumped in front of Roxanne to shield her from the gust of dirt. When the dust cleared the two women looked up, coming face to face with the snout of a dragon.

"One of the dragons found me…" Kili muttered as she stared into the dragons bright yellow eyes.

To be continued…