U.O.T.W. Chapter 91 Support

• Posted by Sotek November 16, 2015 - Filed in TSC: CB Story - 1,059 views

   

  Eorlund sighed as he mentally took stock of the pile of work he still had to do. Various weapons needed sharpening and there was at least three pieces of armor which were in urgent need of repair, if he could repair them at all. He picked up a pile of leathers which he had previously sorted out earlier in the hope of fixing one of Aela’s Ancient Nordic armor chest pieces and tossed them on the ground in front of Sotek.

  “Here, I’m too busy to help so you’re by yourself. You can use these to make it”.

  Sotek gawped at the pile of leathers in despair until Eorlund started laughing at him.

  “Oh, praise the gods. I can almost hear your desperation. Give me a moment to finish this piece then we’ll make a start. Or is that I’ll make a start? Hmm?”

  Sotek slowly flexed his shoulder whist he tried to bear the pain from the wound. He knew that he couldn’t help much but he certainly wasn’t prepared to sit back and watch.

  “One will help where he can... If he can...”

  Eorlund rested his overly large hand on Sotek’s good shoulder and held him tightly as he nodded his approval.

  “That is all I ask. Now, get that shirt off. Let’s see what we have to work with”.

  Below the Skyforge two Whelps started giggling due to overhearing Eorlund and Sotek talking.

  “Eorlund’s making Sotek strip. Wonder if Aela should be worried”.

  Sotek growled softly then peered over the top of the Skyforge overhang. He saw the Whelps who had by now tried to move under the roof of the wooden porch but they were too late. He looked across the forge and quickly helped himself to an apple from Eorlund’s lunch.

  “Can I borrow this?” Moments later a Whelp cried out as the apple slammed into their leg. Sotek smiled triumphantly as he rejoined Eorlund.

  “Got her!”

  Eorlund rewrapped the rest of his food in a large cloth and moved it away from the Argonian before any more of it disappeared.

  “That’s my lunch, not ammo. You owe me an apple!”

  After a few hours of intense labouring and a fair few cries of pain due to his shoulder, Sotek and Eorlund finally finished. They had spent over an hour curling the leather so it would fit tightly against his shoulder and several frustrating minutes of just trying to allocate where the straps should go. Sotek then struggled to fix it on but he managed to secure it with Eorlunds help. His left arm and shoulder were covered in hardened leather but what made it unusual was it contained minimal joint movement. He walked to the edge of the sky forge and tried a fireball, it pulled his shoulder and caused some discomfort but he hit the wall without crying out. Sweat still covered his brow but the pain was bearable.

  “Hey it works”.

  Sotek seemed more than happy with the result but Eorlund had serious misgivings about the whole thing.

  “You won’t be able to hold a shield with that, or a weapon”.

  Sotek just laughed as a second fireball formed in his hand. He held it out at waist height as he couldn’t lift his arm any higher due to the injury but more so due to the restrictions of the armor.

  “I couldn’t anyway, but now I can hit back”.

  Feeling pleased with their days work, Sotek entered Jorrvaskr to see a Whelp rubbing the back of her leg where a black bruise had formed on her calf muscle. He broke out in a snigger as light erupted in his left hand from the healing spell which he had just cast.

  “There we go, all better”.

  The Whelp grudgingly thanked him then exited the hall so she wouldn’t have to face any further rebuke from when she laughed at him. Kodlak however was more impressed in the fact that Sotek could cast a spell with his left hand. The apple incident was forgotten as he inspected the leather harness.

  “Ah, that’s what you were thinking of when I said support. Nice to see that it works. I dare take it that you’ve been throwing fireballs around outside?”

  Sotek cast a wink at Tilma as he sat by the table so he could pour himself a flask of water.

  “Just the one... Or two”. His tail started twitching about as he looked around the hall for Aela. He dismissed her room due to it still being daytime. She would sometimes go there during the evenings but hardly ever during daylight. “Hey, where did Aela disappear to?”

  He felt a heavy handed tap on his ‘armored’ shoulder and knew there was no way that it belonged to Aela. Turing around, he found himself confronted by a rather puzzled looking Vilkas.

  “What the hell is that you’re wearing? It looks uncomfortable”

  Sotek shrugged his shoulders, albeit slower than what someone would usually do. Or rather he shrugged his shoulder as the left one was too tightly wrapped in the leather harness to move.

  “I have to admit it’s not the greatest looking armor I’ve made, with Eorlunds help I might add but it serves its purpose. Look!”

  Sotek slightly lifted his left hand and concentrated as a blue misty ball formed. He threw it in front of Vilkas and a shimmering gate appeared. From its depths stepped out Sotek’s Familiar which seemed to recognise Vilkas. It prowled around then howled out at its master.

  Sotek pointed at Vilkas and was just about to give it a command when Kodlak called out at him.

  “Don’t! You’re in enough trouble with Proventus”.

  Sotek chuckled as he gracefully backed down.

  “Harbinger, you are right. Vilkas, my apologies”. He then whistled a couple of notes which bought the Familiar straight to heel. “Aela!! Seek!!”

  Upon his command the wolf howled out and sniffed at the air for a few seconds before it leapt on the table and ran across it, knocking over flagons and plates in the process. It dived over the flame pit, burst through the doors and ran through the streets of Whiterun leaving a rather confused Sotek behind and a maid who more angry than anything else.

  “What the hell are you doing? Get that flea bitten mongrel out of here. Kodlak! You can’t just sit there... Tell him! My table! If there are claw marks boy I swear there will be mop marks, I’ll bloody flay you with it”.

  Vilkas gave Tilma a rather confused look as he tapped on the table.

  “You’ll flay him with the table or the mop?”

  Sotek’s head tiled as he looked at Tilma with a puzzled expression.

  “Never mind the table and her mop! Why the hell has he ran off? What did you say to him, Tilma? He’s sensitive I’ll have you know”

  Tilma gasped in disbelief at Soteks accusation. She tapped herself in the chest a few times then snatched her mop which was standing up in a bucket in the corner.

  “I never said anything to it... It’s a summoned creature for crying out loud... Right!”

  Kodlak sighed as he saw a fight between Sotek and Tilma breaking forth. One which would surely involve him.

  “Sotek, you can’t just summon that wolf up. There are rules and you need to adhere to them. As for Aela, she is with Farkas. They headed out to hunt a few wolves near the farms”.

  Sotek backed away as Tilma closed in on him. He saw an opportunity to get away from her so he took it and ran towards the doors.

  “I hunt and kill deer. Do I really have to obey them as well? Sorry, I’ll go join up with them. Ermm, Aela and Farkas”. He then spoke to the Harbinger quickly as he shot through the doorway. “It’s only wolves, so I’m giving this a field test won’t be long”. As he spoke he pointed to his shoulder and arm the rapidly closed the door behind himself so Tilma couldn’t follow.

  Kodlak shouted out at him but it was just for show so that he wouldn’t have to endure Tilma’s temper.

  “Adhere to the rules, Sotek not a deer... Just obey the bloody things damn it!”

  It didn’t take him long to reach the mill but unfortunately there was no sign of Aela or Farkas anywhere. He first thought about the large rocky ledge which formed part of the mountainous region towards Bleak Falls Barrow. Wolves or even sometimes a sable cat would hunt in the area as deer could be found making their way from Riverwood as they headed towards the plains.

  A scent caught his attention but he couldn’t discern enough of it from the other smells which seemed to mask it. While he was doing his best to track the odour, a howl grasped his attention like a smack in the face. He drew his axe and ran past the mill to a small farm where a few cows were kept in a large pen.

  He was rewarded for his efforts with confirmation of the location of three wolves that had already torn apart several chickens. Feathers coated the grassy field and he could make out muffled screaming from the farmhouse. Leaping over the wall to engage the three wolves, he hissed loudly as pain once again reminded him of his limitations. One of the wolves, who was snapping it’s fangs at a cow in an attempt to separate it from the other cow, turned the focus of its hunger to him.

  He charged forwards, swinging his Axe ‘Spirit” at the wolf. The axe head bit into the wolfs side, tearing into it with ease. The momentum and force of the blow sent it sideways onto the floor. Sotek immediately grasped the window of opportunity and cast his fireball at the animal before it had a chance to attempt to recover. The fireball struck the wolf and exploded in flames, killing it outright.

  From the other side of the farms, the explosion was heard by a few farmers and two Companions who had yet to find the wolves. Their own search had failed due to the farmers relaying wrong information and inadvertently sending them in the opposite direction. Aela cursed as she saw the fireball in the distance but she had no idea that Sotek was at this moment fighting for what soon would be his life.

  “What the hell! What’s that moron doing? Come on Farkas, we’d better get over there”.

  Meanwhile Sotek moved forwards to engage the second wolf which tried to pounce up at him. Without even thinking Sotek shouted out.

  “FUS RO”. The wolf received the full force of the shout and hurtled through the air to slam into the wall of the farmstead where the farmers were still calling out in fear.

  The wolf was quick to recover and it charged again brandishing its fangs thretengly. Sotek cast a fireball at it which it ran straight into. The blast knocked it on its side making the air stink of burnt flesh and fur. The wolf whined loudly as it tried to focus but the damage was too great. Half blinded and with its throat scorched from the flames, the wolf collapsed in a heap. Seconds later Sotek’s axe found its mark and drank deep of the blood from the wolfs neck.

  The third wolf charged towards him, leapt up at point blank range and knocked Sotek backwards. He was pinned to the ground and tried desperately to use his left arm as if to block the wolf’s vicious fangs but he couldn’t lift his hand. Having no choice, Sotek was forced to drop his axe and try to force the wolf off him with his good hand, all the while his eyes fixed on the snapping deadly fangs which were as of now, mere inches from his face.

  Flames leapt from his left hand engulfing the wolf’s underbelly as he tried to close his fangs around Soteks throat. The Companion held the wolf back with his right hand just enough to prevent its fangs from making contact with his scales, while he kept casting the flame spurt spell.

  Having suffered horrific injuries from the spell, the wolf broke away and tried to run but the burnt flesh caused it too much pain. It lay on its side as the flesh smouldered and the soft underbelly blistered and cracked. Sotek quickly dispatched the wolf with a few blows to its neck.

  Without even sheathing his axe, Sotek moved towards the far wall and slumped against it. His back slid down the stone work until he was sitting on the ground, if the truth was told he felt exhausted. His breathing was rapid as he fought back the pain from the fight with the three wolves which he had left at the other side of the enclosure. His axe fell on the ground and he inexorably glanced at one of the bodies.

  “That was harder than I thought!”   

  Before he was even back on his feet, a swift boot kicked him in the leg. It didn’t cause him any pain, but it certainly drew his attention to its owner.

  “What the hell are you doing? You’re a bloody moron, there are wolves about”.

  Sotek tutted to himself as he slightly shifted his leg away from the offending boot. He looked up at the two overcastting shadows which were looming over him and blankly smiled like he was the village idiot.

  “Hi Aela, Farkas... Wolves? What wolves?”

  Aela angrily snapped at his lack of common sense and the fact that he was smiling like he was high on skooma.

  “There are three wolves around here you knucklehead. What would you do if they attacked you? You can’t fight in your state”.

  Farkas was initially puzzled with Sotek’s blatant careless attitude especially with Aela breathing down his neck. The fact that he was seemingly happy and ignorant on Aela’s concerns were just infuriating her even more. He had a quick look around the large pen then started smiling as well as he noticed the dead wolves.

  “Ermm, at a guess he would hack at them with his axe and use fire? The real question is how will he skin them?”

  Aela shouted at Farkas in response to his seemingly tactless reply. Instead of enforcing the point she was trying to make, he in actual fact were making a mockery of it.

  “Will you shut up! This is serious... What the hell in Oblivion do you mean? Skin them?” As she turned to face him she noticed he was busy gazing off in the distance. She turned around to see what he was looking at but even before her eyes clapped sight of the three dead wolves, she could smell them. She detected them earlier but was too busy ranting to act upon it. “What? How did you do that?”

  Her face scrunched up, which had the habit of showing her teeth like it was some sort of threat display, until she actually noticed his shoulder. She tapped it like Vilkas had done so when he first saw it but she went one stage further and pulled Sotek around so she could look at the back of it as well.

  “What the hell is this?”

  “It’s a support for my shoulder, it takes the strain away from my spells”. Although it did exactly what he said, it certainly didn’t help him get to his feet. His initial attempt failed and he fell down on his backside leaving him in the sheepish situation of having to be lifted to his feet by the one person he was trying to convince that he was fully capable of going out hunting. That person being Aela.

  Aela examined it as he dusted himself off.

  “It does work I hope?”

  Sotek smiled at her then held her with his good arm.

  “You can ask the wolves that. I don’t think they are in the mood for questions though. It’s great for spells, I can’t use a weapon or shield but, I’ll get around its limitations”.

  Aela started laughing as she pointed to the ground.

  “Limitations? Like getting up off your ass? Ok, Ssotek, sshow me”. As she folded her arms a smug look covered her face while she waited for him to back up what he had stated.

  Sotek cast a fireball with relative ease. The three of them watched it shoot across the pen and fly over the wall. Everything went well until it shot past a second pen and promptly exploded in a great fiery blast of heat and flames, setting light to a wheat bale in the process.

  Aela instantly burst out laughing but Sotek’s reaction was far more desperate. He grabbed her arm and broke into a run in the opposite direction to the farms just as the farmers were opening the door to their farmhouse.

  “Oh rats! Run!!” Sotek shouted at Farkas as he dragged Aela away from the scene before they were spotted. A short time later they arrived at Whiterun gate albeit from the opposite direction of the farms. When they entered the hall of Jorrvaskr, the Harbinger approached the three of them.

  “Any luck with the wolves?”

  Sotek instantly covered Aela’s mouth with his good hand as he answered for the three of them.

  “Nope, no sign of them. They have either been killed or chased off by the farmers. We couldn’t find them”. Then he pulled Aela away, leaving Farkas to singlehandedly face the Harbinger. If Sotek was worried about what Farkas might have said he didn’t show it nor did he need to worry. Farkas just shrugged then sat down alongside his brother and started drinking.

  Downstairs, a loud bang echoed along the corridor which originated from Aela’s door. Sotek slammed it shut and hid behind it, almost as if he was trying to keep it closed by leaning against it. Aela couldn’t help but laugh as she collapsed on her bed which was nothing more than a pile of furs.

  “You’re a bloody menace! You did it again!”

  During the late evening when everyone was in the main hall, including Sotek who was far quieter than usual, Aela, the she-wolf, the Huntress, was on the prowl. She filled her flask with mead then downed the lot in a few seconds and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. The flask thudded down on the table top and she shoved the chair away so she could stand up.

  Aela approached Sotek who was sitting on his step and whispered in his ear.

  “I can’t find my bed, take me to it”. She then held his right hand and led him off downstairs. Tact and discretion were completely forgotten and she ignored everyone and anyone who had just so happened to be watching her.

  When they got to her room she sat on the furs, kicked off her boots and laid on her back spread eagled. She lightly closed her eyes as her head tipped back in anticipation of the ecstasy which she expected to feel. After a few moments of hearing nothing, not even Sotek’s boots being chucked across the room, Aela’s eyes flicked open to see him standing by the bedding. He started chuckling as he mentally played out the night ahead.bedding

  “Sorry you’re out of luck”.

  Aela lifted herself up and glared at him. She was obviously annoyed at his supposed lack of interest.

  “Why may I ask?”

  He carefully pulled off his shirt, threw it on the other end of the skins and tapped his injured shoulder.

  “You got to do all the work... Remember?”

  She glanced at his shoulder, and then sniggered.

  “You bastard! That’s what you meant!”