(hi i'm here again, still extremely depressed and struggling with alcohol issues. I halfassedly drew jo'shak and lilija at different points in the past few months. Pretty sure sigrid gave lilija a child's dress. Art is at bottom, please don't steal, trace, or otherwise use it without my explicit permission. Let me know if their looks match your expectations :) sorry for those on ff net, please go to ao3 to see the images!)

TW FOR CHAPTER: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF BURN VICTIM AND MEDICAL PRACTICES ASSOCIATED WITH BURNS. Marked with ***Asterisks*** for your convenience. Stop reading at the asterisk, she passes out afterwards and you don't need to read graphic stuff.

22 First Seed, 4E201- Jo'shak and Jenassa

In the morning, when Jenassa woke from her slumber, Jo'shak wasn't in his bed, and was nowhere to be found in the room. She stretched her weary muscles, contorting on the straw stuffed bed, feeling the familiar twinge of old scars waking from the stress of yesterday.

She groaned as she sat up, acutely aware of the grime clinging to her skin under her armor. Slept in it. The group had the great idea of rubbing off most of the blood with snow before coming into town, so she didn't smell nearly as bad as she could have.

Jenassa flipped the covers off and set about peeling herself out of the grody items. After a quick wash with provided washbasin and cloth, she changed into different underclothes. A quick wipe-down of her armor had it looking better, but not the best. She could service it fully when she got to Whiterun- better yet, she could have Adrienne do it for her, considering her take from the barrow.

As she was sitting down to breakfast with two extra bowls, Jo'shak returned, an extra gold pouch sitting in his paws and a proud smirk on his face. His striped, fluffy tail curled up at the end in happiness, held high in the air.

Jenassa smiled back at her old friend, who seemed to be in better spirits than she had seen him in since she reunited with him. He plopped down beside her on the bench.

"What's got you grinning like a sabercat with the farmer's prize pig?" Jenassa asked, pushing one bowl to Jo'shak. Slow-cooked sweet beans with bits of roast pork belly. Jo'shak thanked her before shoving a spoonful down his gullet, then tossed the bag onto the table. It clanked heavily as it fell onto the table, and stayed where it thudded down. Jo'shak swallowed his mouthful,

"That comment Lilija made before we left; to ask Lucan about the barrow? Well, I followed up on her tip. Turns out, the bandits stole that golden claw key from him. He gave us a decent reward for something this one was planning on selling to him anyhow." He ended his sentence with a chuckle, then dug back into his food.

"Very nice, my friend. Have you seen our other traveling partner this morning?" Jenassa asked over her bowl of beans. To herself, she wondered how Lilija knew to ask Lucan about the barrow. A question for another time, when the strange redhead was around.

"Speak of the Daedra, they shall appear." Jo'shak replied, gesturing to the wall behind Jenassa. She peered over her shoulder to see Haedil staggering out of his room, eyes still hooded with sleep and looking for all intents and purposes dead on his feet.

Jenassa wordlessly pushed the remaining bowl to the Bosmer as he sat down at their table. Wordless thanks was conveyed even through his voracious destruction of the carbohydrates before him. Jenassa and Joe scootched away from the splash zone. The rest of the time was spent in companionable silence.

After breakfast was had, the three set out for the day. Alvor was out on a supply run to Falkreath, so Jo'shak left a pouch of gold with Sigrid to pay for the backpack and clothes they lent them, and their hospitality. After that, they were out of Riverwood.

The journey back to Whiterun was extremely uneventful, and none of the travelers felt up to much conversation. They passed a few wolves, but the animals deemed the group of them too large to attack and skirted off into the woods momentarily after sighting.

Haedil parted from their group at the Whiterun stables, a nervous, excited energy encompassing the elf as he boarded the wagon bound for Solitude.

"I can't thank you both enough for helping me home. Any time you come to Solitude, go to the docks, ask for me, and I'll do anything you need. Really, anything for you." Haedil said, settling down into his seat. After giving their thanks for his offer, Jenassa and Jo'shak waved him off with a friendly goodbye, then began their trek into Whiterun. Jenassa got Jo'shak past the gate guards with no issue, and they dropped their new belongings in their respective rooms at the Drunken Huntsman. After a quick snack, they both agreed to go find Lilija, then head to Dragonsreach to present the tablet to Farengar.

It was an hour later, and many questions and searching, that the two companions faced a whole lot of other Companions. The two watched from the doorway as Lilija sang and danced side-by-side with one of the large, dark-haired twins. A few others were up and dancing as well, or just watching and clapping to the beat with bemused expressions.

Neither Jo'shak nor Jenassa recognized the tune everyone was singing and dancing to, but watched with amusement as Lilija seemed to coach the others on how to dance a certain sequence of slightly ridiculous moves, and there were mentions of some "Cotton-eyed Joe" and being married a long time ago. After the song and dance was over and a few laughs were had, Lilija wandered over to them, as she had noticed their arrival while coaching the Companions to do more and more ridiculous shit.

"Heeeeeeey you two, I guess y'all bein' here means y'got the stupid stone." Lilija greeted them with a smile, placing the mug she was holding down. Immediately, Jo'shak noticed that she walked more sure-footed than she had the entire time he knew her. Her voice carried more of a strength behind it as well as her entire countenance screaming 'more confidence'.

"Indeed, we wish to know if you would like to accompany us to present it." Jo'shak said, his eyes trailing away from Lilija, sight wandering around the hall. It was dim, yes, but he wouldn't call it dark. Flickering light from a wagon wheel chandelier cast most of the center of the hall in soft oranges, while the brighter burning central hearth supplemented brighter yellow light. Weak sunlight streamed in through the smoke vents near the stop of the old overturned war ship. When his eyes landed back on Lilija, he was confused, as her body language had done a complete 180°. Where before her shoulders were relaxed and her arms by her sides, now she hunched slightly, bringing her arms in to protect her core, shoulders drawn in. The gestures were extremely subtle, but being a Khajiit, he could decipher body language well.

"I, uh, think that might be better for y'all t'do on your own." Lilija stammered out, weight shifting back and forth between her feet. Jo'shak gave her an unimpressed stare, then said,

"If there are three of us, we possibly get thrice the reward. Come." He looped his arm in hers and led her out the door. She turned her head, catching Farkas's eye, and waved goodbye to the mountain of muscle. He waved back from the table he was sitting at with his fork and a piece of meat.

"I s'pose I can't argue with that logic," Lilija halfways-mumbled, halfways-said as she was led up the steps of Dragonsreach. Jo'shak eyed her, slightly suspiciously, then continued attempting to herd her up the steps. She resisted momentarily, "I got a bad feeling about this, though."

"What do you mean?" Jenassa asked, startling Lilija; fucking Christ, she's going to start calling Jen a fart, she's silent but deadly. And may be apt to making Lilija shit herself.

"I- uh, just got a bad gut feeling that something's gonna happen. Let's just see how this all pans out, " Lilija brushed it off, and resumed walking up the steps without Jo'shak's encouraging grip.

The reception of the Dragonstone went almost identically to script in game as Lilija remembered it, the only deviation was Farengar starting to ramble on in much more detail about the stone, and the group of the three of them were already turning away from the mage's quarters before being intercepted by the Jarl's housecarl. Lilija couldn't remember her name, other than it started with an I, so she's calling her Irritable in her head. As the Dunmer was asking Joe and Jen to assist, Lilija was muttering, "I tol'ja I had a bad feelin', shit hits the fan and it's gonna spray far," and other such phrases. Both her companions ignored her. They moved up to the– war room?- behind Balgruuf's throne, and the soldier rushed in.

Lilija's stomach turned. It rolled, roiled, begged for expulsion as the sickly, crisp, burnt flesh smell hit her nostrils. She hid her gag behind a hand clapped over her mouth. Also to keep from puking. The soldier was clearly fucked up, the left side of his face, his entire left arm, the back and front of his torso and abdomen, completely charred to a crisp, fuck, that kid isn't going to make it to see the next day.

Now, as a former emergency medical provider, Lilija was privy to a plethora of information that the general public tends not to learn about the human body- which she found extremely silly, everyone should know everything about their bodies and how to diagnose their various ailments. Part of this information was something called the Rule of Nines. It breaks your body down into percentages to better calculate how large a burn is.

Each arm, front and back plus hand, is 9% of the body's surface area. Front and back of the head and neck is equated to another 9%. The chest, and the stomach, are both respectively another 9% each. Upper back, and lower back, another 9% each to them. Front and back of each foot and leg are respectively 18% each, with the genetalia area covering the remaining 1%. Most healthy adults can survive up to or around 70% partial thickness burns, also known as second degree burns. Up to or around 50% for full thickness, or third degree burns. You can get fourth degree burns, which goes all the way down to the bone.

From what Lilija could see of the crisped, charred skin with singed fibers and melted metal intermixed, she would estimate the soldier to have at least 45-50% third and fourth degree burns. During the time she was disassociating, examining the patient without actually doing anything, the whole world went on around her.

Joe and Jen ran off to go fight a dragon, Balgruuf shouted for a healer, and Lilija was left staring at the poor kid hyperventilating and swaying dangerously on his feet. Suddenly, she started moving, as if on autopilot. She moved to help the panicked, babbling soldier sit down in a chair, but the moment her hand contacted his self, an absolutely deafening sound issued forth, like someone had poked their head inside a great big church bell and struck. Blinding, bright golden light enveloped all of Lilija's senses, and then she knew no more.

The next thing her senses perceived was rudely being ripped from her slumber by an inexplicable, beckoning feeling, as if her entire soul was calling for her to leave, to go somewhere. Lilija groaned as she rubbed her face, how did she end up in a bed….? She looked around; recognizing the decor as Dragonsreach, she figured immediately that she must have passed out trying to help the burned guard. Her shoes were still on, even. As she swung her legs over the side of the bed, the very bones of the earth shook as a peal of what sounded almost like thunder assaulted her senses;

"DOV-AH-KIIN!"

If Lilija had any skill in conjuration, she may have just shit a brick. Alas, seeing as she didn't, all she settled for was an extremely upset groan, and to flop back down in frustration.