U.O.T.W. Chapter 45 Secrets Out

  • With still a few hours of riding to go before Markarth even came into view, a Nord man wearing a light leather outfit flagged down the wagon causing Bjorlam to tug on ‘Chestnut’s’ reins thereby bringing the cart to a stop.

    “We’re expecting someone from Whiterun. A Sotek? An Argonian? Ah  that’s you I guess”. He stated as his eyes fell upon Sotek who was quietly watching from the back of the wagon.

     

    Sotek climbed down then approached the Nord who was part of a group of warriors currently sitting around a small campfire situated to the side of the road under the shadowy gaze of the mountains.

    “I’m Sotek, you asked for my help?” He formerly held out his hand as a greeting but the Nord blanked his gesture and signalled to the other men. Each in turn rose to their feet and somewhat cautiously walked over towards him.

     

    He wasn’t sure why five Nords needed any assistance from him as their gear was in obviously good condition. Each wore heavy armour while all their weapons were silver. Two of them had Silver broadswords. Sotek could have sworn the weapons were just as large as Vilkas’s own sword if not bigger. One Nord held a one handed silver sword along with a shield. There was even one warrior who wielded a silver war axe. The five warriors, introduced themselves as the ‘Silver Hands’. Sotek presumed they picked that name due to their weapon choices. The only one not wearing plate armor was the man that first approached him. Sotek quickly noticed that he had two silver daggers. The man was obviously an archer as he picked up from the few bags of supplies dumped in a pile, a bow and a quiver full of silver tipped arrows.

     

    The youngest of the group gave a slight smile as he led Sotek to the six horses which were tied up to an old dead tree while he excitedly explained the situation.

    “Yes, we asked for you. We have heard rumours of a bandit camp a fair few hours from here. We’ve paid for some horses to take us so I hope you don’t mind heading straight off. Now these bandits are tough so go careful. Even the dragonborn will have some problems if he isn’t careful” As he spoke he pointed to Sotek, leaving him no doubt that they knew exactly who he was.

     

    One of the older men made a passing comment which caused the group to laugh at the lads expense.

    “Grief, he’ll be asking for the Dragonborn’s autograph next”.

     

    The young man’s face fell to the floor as he turned around dejectedly. Sotek watched him for the slightest fraction of a second before answering the older Nord.

    “You said he was next, does that make you the head of the que?” As Sotek spoke he crossed his arms tightly and stood right up with his feet spaced apart. His eyes bore into the man who tried to match his stare but embarrassment made it impossible. Sotek walked off alongside the youngster to the horses wearing a massive grin which the young lad shared.

     

    Moments later Sotek bid Bjorlam farewell as they headed off towards the south to an undisclosed location on the farthest part of the plains. Sotek glanced around as they rode for any landmarks he recognised but as he and Aela never ventured this far, he couldn’t be absolutely sure as to their position to Whiterun. All he knew was that it lay somewhere to the east.

     

    When they arrived at a particularly rocky section of the base of the mountain range, the group came to a stop then as one they dismounted and each man in turn handed over the reins to their horse to the youngest member of the group. He was given the job of restraining the horses which he did by tying a long stretch of rope several times around a particularly large boulder. Once the horses were secure Sotek was led single file up an old mountain track towards a cave.

     

    What greeted them was nothing less than a scene of absolute carnage. Two humanoid bodies were torn to pieces leaving trails of blood and the stench of death which reeked as if from the very ground throughout the entire area. One of the Nords lightly kicked a body as if to check to see if it was actually dead. Which in itself was utterly pointless due to the fact that it’s stomach and intestines were ripped out and left to fester a few feet away.

    “This is the place alright. It looks like they beat us to it. Now everyone, for the love of the Nines go careful”.

     

    As they entered the cave, it split up into different pathways. Sotek followed a Nord who had a two handed silver broadsword. They headed down a tunnel which housed numerous side passages and caverns. Two Silverhands went up a ramp cut out of the side of the rock face which led to another network of various passages. The last two Silverhands headed off in the opposite direction towards what looked like an entrance to a wide fissure which was seemingly made over the last thousand years by a stream which now trickled through various cracks in the wall.

     

    As Sotek and the Nord made their way through the tunnel system they came across another corpse. Just like before his chest was torn open. Apart from the body, there was no sign of anyone.

    “Are these the bandits you were looking for?”

     

    “No, these are just poor travellers that got caught up in this. Can’t help them, but they will be avenged”. One of teh men replied.

     

    Something screamed at Sotek’s mind and it wouldn’t let go. He had a closer look at the body which confirmed the feeling he had that something wasn’t right. Despite the severe wounds caused he could tell from the body that the victim was no traveller due to the rough weathered skin and ill matching gear. The rusty armour had clearly seen better days and it didn’t fit the body properly. Sotek couldn’t help but feel these were bandits, and if these are killed like this then what the hell killed them.

     

    He thought about the cave with the trolls where Aela had been so wild with him. Subconsciously his hand rubbed the side of his neck. A fleeting thought entered his head but it was rapidly dismissed as implausible. ‘Aela couldn’t have done that to the trolls, she said the frost trolls attacked each other. Maybe trolls did this?’ He shook his head slightly. That just couldn’t be the case here.

     

    Heading further down the passage way, the Silver hand explained a bit about themselves.

    “Our leader, he’s known as the Skinner. He’s not here. You will meet him in a week or so, if this goes ok. He pays well. There’s a fair bit of gold to be made here”.

     

    “Where is he at the moment?” Sotek listened to the Nord explain about their leader, a hunter of sorts. Extra gold sounded good and this job wasn’t going bad so far.

     

    “He’s tracking the red wolf, a bitch. Hard to kill she is, but they set her a trap. Now they’re just waiting for her to fall in it”. He was gloating about how they set up a false trail and she was walking right into it. Sotek presumed they were on about a wolf.

     

    Soon the passage opened up at another junction which meant that Sotek was sent off away from the Nord whom he was with.

    “Right I’ll go straight ahead, you search that section. Go careful, they are here somewhere”. He then proceeded to head down the corridor, searching side rooms as he went.

     

    Sotek moved forwards opening an old wooden door which no doubt previous occupants have erected earlier. The moment the door started to open, Sotek could smell the waft of death. What had greeted him was a scene similar to the outside of the cave. There were bodies torn asunder with their limbs ripped off and entrails lining the floor through pools of stinking blood. It was like a slaughter house. At the end of the cave was another doorway he opened it and stepped in. This room was big like a hall carved out of the rock. There in the far side was a fireplace which was little more than an alcove. Sotek cast a fireball then threw it at the fireplace igniting the old half burnt wood that laid there.

     

    The flames lit up the area allowing Sotek to walk unhindered across the uneven rocky cavern floor. As he made his way further into the cave he suddenly found he wasn’t alone as he had first initially thought. Three hulking great forms of half wolf half human beasts stepped out of the shadows. Initially they all growled menacingly as they brandished their sharp white fangs while the claws flexed in the orangey glow from the flames. The two younger beasts which were covered in thick off black fur stepped forwards as their paws lifted up to prepare to lash out. After only taking a single step they stopped poised ready to strike but at the same time as if they were waiting for an order. Meanwhile the third creature who was covered in grey fur actually took half a step backwards as if separating him from Sotek.

     

    Sotek drew his axe, 'Spirt' and his shield then boldly stepped forwards between them all the while carefully watching the three werewolves as they started surrounding him.

    “Come on then what are you waiting for?”. He shouted as he held 'Spirit' aloft. Slowly pivoting on the spot allowed him to face each one in turn but never leaving his back exposed for more than a few seconds to the werewolf behind him. In the corner of his eye, he saw one seemingly move towards him. He didn’t wait to check if he was sure, he reacted… with force.

     

    Sotek instantly launching  himself at the nearest one shouting out in his Dragon tongue at the same time.

    “Fus Ro”. The Unrelenting Force shout sent one werewolf crashing into a wall. A second later Sotek turned and charged the other greyish black werewolf by swinging his axe at its chest. The keen edge of the axe head swept through the thick furred chest but only just missed the flesh beneath by a whisker as the creature stepped back to try to disengage from the melee. Sotek followed through raising his shield up just as Farkas had previously showed him and half spun around as the shield closed in upon its target. The move wasn’t to use the shield as a means to protect himself, it was a weapon. The bottom of the shield caught the werewolf in the face knocking it back to the ground as a spurt of blood sprayed outwards. Without stopping Sotek arced 'spirit' around fully intending to bring it down into the targets chest.

     

    All of a sudden everything seemed to happen in slow motion as a single voice yelled out.

    “Sotek, Stop!”

     

    He just managed to prevent the devastating blow from impacting with its target causing him to stumble forwards slightly. Recognising the voice instantly, he  looked across the room. Where the biggest werewolf was moments before now stood Kodlak, the Harbinger of the Companions.

     

    The first werewolf Sotek shouted at was Farkas. He groaned as he slowly rolled on his side to stagger up to his feet, too dazed after hitting the wall to do anything else. Sotek’s eyes closed tightly as he gulped before looking down at what was moments ago his target to see Vilkas laying there. His face was bloodied by the blow from Sotek’s shield which now dropped to the floor with a loud clang that echoed through the cave systems. Vilkas’s eyes started to refocus after the colossal hit to see Sotek staring down at him. Sotek instinctively and without thinking about it lowered his hand, offering it to Vilkas. He grabbed hold of it, then started to pull himself up off the bloodied floor.

     

    Sotek took a few steps back as his mind tried to comprehend exactly what  was happening. The Harbinger was just standing there himself. Struggling to put some reason together as to explain how the fact that Sotek and the companions were currently facing each other, literally moments ago as enemies. Sotek lent back against the cave wall staring at him. Slowly his eyes fixed on the Harbingers hair.

     

    Within a second his mind raced along a chain of thought like wild horses. It threw varied bits of information together ending with one terrible picture embedded in his mind. He then stared wide eyed once more at the Harbinger as his voice hissed out.

    “Your werewolf’ss… Your bloody werewolf’ss. I knew it. That’ss why you had the sshrine of Hircine in the Underforge. All thosse ssecret talkss with Aela… Aela’ss a werewolf?” Sotek’s complexion changed almost instantly as his eyes switched to the cave tunnel. His fists tightened as he yelled out angrily like he had been betrayed. “No!!No, no sshe can’t be. Sshe can’t…” Within a few seconds he bound up to the Harbinger grabbing him by the collar and shoved him violently against the cavern wall completely catching him off guard. “You were grey… You were a grey werewolf, why the hell were you grey?”

    Vilkas tried to talk calmly while the Harbinger just blankly stared at him.

    “He’s grey because he’s hair is grey”.

     

    Sotek tried to shove the Harbinger away from him but Kodlak was pinned between him and the wall. Instead Sotek kicked out with his foot at a stone laying on the floor. It shot out away from him to bounce off a chuck of rock with a loud ‘crack’.

     

    Once again he turned his attention to the Harbinger.

    “You sstupid basstardss. Where the hell is Aela? Sshe’s a bloody werewolf… Where the hell iss sshe?”

     

    Sotek charged over to Farkas catching him by surprise and pinned him to the wall by the throat.

    “You bloody tell me right now or I sswear, I sswear I’ll beat it out of you”.

     

    “We don’t know, and if we did we wouldn’t tell you like this” Farkas’s voice was strained by Sotek’s iron grip. Grudgingly he let Farkas go just to see him fall under his own weight.

     

    “In here!!”

    From the tunnel where Sotek had entered a Silverhand shouted out as he charged inside the cavern with his sword raised to strike. The next second there was a piercing scream as he fell forwards due to Sotek lashing out at his leg catching him full in the knee cap with his axe. His weapon dropped to the floor clanging loudly as it bounced back up just a few inches. The next second Sotek stamped on the man’s back between the shoulder blades before pushing all his weight down on the Nord pinning him in place while he screamed out in pain as blood formed in a massive puddle around his shattered knee.

     

    Sotek hissed wildly like a demented animal as he grabbed two handfuls of the man’s hair before slamming his head down forcibly into the rocky flooring.

    “Where iss the Sskinner?” ‘Thump’ “Where iss the Sskinner?” ‘Thump’. “Where? Tell me you sscum”. ‘Thump’. At that moment the man stopped crying out. Fuelled by frustration and worry Sotek gripped the sides of the man’s head and cracked his neck killing him instantly and without mercy.

     

    He grabbed his axe then glanced down unsympathetically at the corpse. Sotek never looked back at the Harbinger, instead a single sound escaped from his lips and echoed through the tunnel system.

    “Hssss”

    By now a second Silverhand ran into the room to be confronted by his fallen comrade. He looked up in shock as 'Spirit', Sotek's axe, whooshed through the air to strike him with all the hate and anger Sotek could feel. He felt no sense of satisfaction as the Nords head fell clean away and landed with a sickening thump on the ground before rolling across the floor.

     

    Sotek hissed out angrily at the three Companions regardless of their rank.

    “You sstupid bloody basstardss, Aela’ss the red wolf. Their bloody bosss the Sskinner, hass sset a trap to capture her. Their going for her and you let her go off by herself? You bunch of worthless dogss!”

     

    Sotek’s head shot to the side where the tunnel stretched out through the cave system. His ears strained as they locked on to footsteps running towards them. Another Silverhand ran through the tunnel towards Sotek not even realizing for one moment that he had now switched sides and was now an enemy. At least until a massive wild swing from Soteks axe hit him with excessive force smack in the chest. He fell backwards but the blow killed him instantly as it shattered the ribcage swiping the nord right off his feet.

     

    Sotek glared at the Harbinger before leading the way directly to the exit carefully avoiding the remaining Silverhands. Once they were free of the cave, Sotek untied the horses and divided them up. After securing the spare horses to the backs of their rides so the Silverhands couldn’t follow, they rode hard across the plains towards Jorrvaskr.

     

    By the time they arrived back inside the city walls it was late afternoon. Completely blanking the Harbinger’s position in the Companions, Sotek took it upon himself to organize the search around Jorrvaskr for any sign of Aela’s whereabouts. Upon following Sotek’s instructions, Farkas and Vilkas questioned the whelps while Kodlak spoke to Tilma and Eorlund whilst trying not to alarm either of them. Sotek himself prepared to search Aela’s room for any indication as to where she might have gone to.

     

    Literally running down the Undercroft corridor, he ran around the corner to collide with Aela’s door. Franticly he tugged on the handle but it was well secured with a big hefty iron lock on two catches.

     

    He tried his hand at lock picking but he was shaking too much to even find the initial starting point to successfully pick the lock. After he threw the lock pick to the wayside his two bare fists hammered at the door for a few seconds then desperation took over. He drew a deep breath then shouted out at point blank range as loudly as he could.

    “Fus Ro”.

     

    The blast ripped the door off its hinges and sent it smashing into a cabinet which Aela kept an old elven bow in. The locked container fell to the ground spraying glass in all directions while the heavy oak door fell sideways into a small table breaking the leg off it before crashing onto the floor.

     

    Sotek burst through the doorway like a madman. He threw aside anything which so much as dared stand in his way as he franticly searched the room. Aela’s bed was tossed over on its side so he could search underneath it but not before he launched her furs across the room. Moments later three draws were yanked out of the chest of drawers and their contents were strewn to the four winds across the floor. No matter how hard Sotek tried, he couldn’t find anything which would lead him to Aela’s whereabouts.

     

    At that point Vilkas called down the corridor with a scant piece of information.

    “One of the whelps saw her brushing off dust from her knees. Don’t know if that meant anything”.

     

    Sotek paused as he stuck his head around the doorframe.

    “Her knees? What? No that don’t mean a bloody thing, she always has dust on her knees when she.... Her hands and fingernails... They  were covered in dust... Where’s the Harbinger!”

     

    Sotek ran along the corridor and bolted up the stairs yelling out for the Harbinger with every single step. Behind him, just outside Aela’s room Vilkas’s eyes nearly popped out when he saw first-hand the devastation which Sotek had caused. A few minutes later Sotek was explaining to Kodlak about what he had learned and its potential significance.

    “She had dust on her hands. The earth in the Underforge is of that colour so at some point she went in there. She’s hidden something, buried it. Whatever she is up to, I bet it’s in there”.

     

    The Harbinger led Sotek and the two brothers outside to the doorway which was embedded in the rock. Slowly the door shaped like a slab of rock started to move. The moment the gap opened wide enough, Sotek headed inside and started searching around the floor for disturbed earth.

    “She had dust in her fingernails so this morning she had buried something. It’s here, it’s got to be… Look around”.

     

    Vilkas was the one to spot it. Behind the pillar some disturbed earth lay scattered around as if to vainly attempt to hide the fact that the ground had been disturbed. Sotek dropped down to his knees and dug into the ground with his clawed fingers as quickly as he could, knowing every second was one second that Aela was in danger. He soon dug up a small metal box and without even trying to pick the lock, he smashed the box against a large boulder, spilling the boxes contents out over the floor.

     

    A small diary was flung towards the Harbinger and landed by his feet. It only took him a few flicks of the pages to realize what Aela was trying to do.

    “She‘s been tracing the tokens of Hircine”.

     

    He passed the book to Sotek who came to te same conclusion.

    “Yes but this don’t help. The last entry mentions a map”.

     

    Farkas picked up a handful of small pieces of parchment. On one such scrap was a roughly drawn map of various locations around Skyrim. One such place had a tick which he was quick to point out. He passed Sotek the map and pointed to the marked area. “Here!!! I guess this is where she’s headed”.

     

    Sotek entered the hall and threw his pack over his shoulder before heading to the main doorway.

    “Where are you going?” The Harbinger called out.

     

    “Where? To get her. I’m bringing her home” .

     

    “Not without us you’re not” Vilkas stated as he and Farkas picked up their own packs as well. “Mind you, they had her for over a day now. They’re probably begging to surrender”. With that Vilkas gave a laugh, not a fun laugh, but one which struggled to remove some tension.

     

    The three of them headed off to the stables to hire out some fresh horses as the ones Sotek ‘acquired’ were tired after the frantic run back to Whiterun. Without another word between them, they rode off into the night.

     

     

Comments

10 Comments   |   Aela The Huntress likes this.
  • Sotek
    Sotek   ·  March 30, 2016
    Relycs, you make a good point of the Axe. I've gone through this chapter and added 'Spirit' a few times to tie it all together. I will have to keep an eye on this for future reference.
  • Relycs
    Relycs   ·  March 30, 2016
    Packing to read. I think it's good that it got revealed this way.



    A small thing, that I'd like to suggest, is changing at least one time the word "axe" to "Spirit" (the name of Sotek's axe), as I think this helps as a reminder, a ...  more
  • FlameLord
    FlameLord   ·  September 21, 2015
    Found a few typos in the body of the chapter, between 3 paragraph down and 5 up I think
  • Sotek
    Sotek   ·  July 2, 2015
    Fixed the error. With regards to the bandits.... Nope, no way, not your bandits. GULP!!!
  • Exuro
    Exuro   ·  July 1, 2015
    Typo, the sneaky type: but they will be revenged”.  Avenged
  • Exuro
    Exuro   ·  July 1, 2015
    Argonian angry, Hssss! I hope those weren't my camp bandits that got killed
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  June 30, 2015
    And there I go putting a typo. Haha. 
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  June 30, 2015
    You're welcom, Sotek. It wasn't a problem. 
  • Sotek
    Sotek   ·  June 30, 2015
    Thanks Lissette.
    You were a big help with this one.
    Thank you.
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  June 30, 2015
    Nice to see this one up. 
    Good read, very action-packed.