Farkas took the lead as he and Aela entered the cave. They had barely taken five steps when the passageway which lay beyond opened out into a much larger cavern. On one side, three torches burned brightly illuminating yet another tunnel. Aela groaned in annoyance as the realism that they had in actual fact entered a far bigger network of tunnels and passages than they first realised. She felt disgruntled with the whole situation and willingly expressed her views.
“Why the hell are we doing this? We should get back to the others”.
Farkas tried to quell her fears but he couldn’t help but feel the same. He buried his own concerns and smiled back at her whilst they proceeded along the passageway.
“Hey, keep it down! We’ll be ok. Did you see Sotek move in the water? Damn, I’m glad he’s on our side. I knew he was a sneaky bastard but...”
Aela felt a small giggle in the back of her throat but she quickly swallowed it. She was amused when she watched Sotek swim under the platforms and lash out at the Silverhands but now there was no water to hide in.
“I’m just saying this is stupid. He’s pulled some bloody stunts, but this?”
Farkas stopped moving then turned towards her; from the light of the torches set in the walls he could see the anxiety on her face. It smothered her like a veil.
“Hey, you should have some faith in him. He’s done well so far”.
She held back her anger at the latest series of events and huffed at him instead. Taking her current mood out on her ‘brother’ wouldn’t help anyone, restraint was the order of the day.
“Humph. Yes, I know he has damn it. There’s no river here though is there? What If they come across him in these tunnels? Then what?”
Farkas’s shoulders childishly dropped as he whined back at her.
“So you’re not worried about us at all? You’re just worried about him? That’s nice isn’t it? That’s bloody marvellous... Careful Farkas, we don’t want you getting hurt..... Nope, as long as Sotek’s alright”.
Aela nodded enthusiastically until she realised what she had said. By then it was too late.
“Exactly! What? No, that’s not what I meant”.
He chuckled back at her and grinned like a drunken idiot. When Aela saw his true emotions, rather than the upset mood she thought he was actually in, she returned with a timid smile of her own. He held her by the shoulder and lightly squeezed it in an act of brotherly love.
“Yes it is. Aela, it’s ok, Vilkas is with him. Now for the love of the divines, keep your bloody voice down”.
Various sections of the tunnel were dim and a dank musty smell of mushrooms and toadstools filled the air. Due to the lack of lit torches which were sporadically placed apart, there was precious little light. Darkness and shadows dominated the passageway, leaving the actual torches to serve as nothing more than waypoints. Hence, the two Companions found the flooring difficult to transverse as they made their way forwards.
Ahead of them through the gloom, a door’s outline began to take shape. As they neared it, Aela took hold of the handle and slowly tested it. The latch slid across, freeing the door from its frame. She blatantly shoved the door to the side and strolled inside leaving caution way behind.
The room itself happened to be smaller than Aela anticipated. The air felt warm on her face due to a log fire in the corner. Its orange flickering flames threw shadows in all directions. Aela had hardly taken two steps when a Silverhand attacked her. She barely had enough time to raise her shield to block the initial blow. As she defended herself, she moved away from the doorway. Her opponent followed her footsteps while he maintained his assault. The silver sword banged against Aela’s shield, jarring her shoulder from the blow as it tried to break through her defences.
Without even trying to draw her dagger, she backed off, kiting the Silverhand away from the door where she had so foolishly entered. The Nord followed but he never checked the doorway either. From the darkness of the corridor Farkas thrust his sword straight into the Silverhands back, killing him instantly.
Farkas grabbed hold of the nape of the man’s neck and lowered him to the ground. Angrily, he tugged at Aela’s shoulder, pulling her around to face him.
“Now will you keep your bloody head in the game? Damn it girl, what’s wrong with you?”
Before she could answer him, shouts from ahead alerted them of their discovery. Aela stepped behind him and readied her bow while Farkas prepared himself for another fight. A door on the opposite side of the room opened with a loud crash as it slammed into the wall. Without even waiting for anyone to step inside, Aela let loose an arrow.
The missile slammed into the chest of a young Breton, causing him to burst into flames. Elemental ice damage tore into his torso while the momentum of the arrow knocked him off his feet. The brutal attack forced the other Silverhand to back off, giving Farkas an opportunity to add his own ferociousness to the fray.
With an almighty cry, Farkas charged the Imperial, shield bashing the man into the wall. His opponent was almost crushed under the brutish Companions weight. Farkas stepped back and rained down blow after blow with his Skyforged steel blade. The Silverhand raised his sword and managed to block the initial attacks but Farkas didn’t relent. Again and again his sword came crashing down onto his opponent. Under his titanic strength, the man’s arm gave way, giving the Companion ample opportunity to cut the Imperial down.
With both enemies dead, Aela stood as still as a statue as they listened for any sign of detection. All she could hear was Farkas’s heart beating rhythmically, a contrasting drum to her own heart which hammered in her chest.
With each passing moment they both came to the same conclusion, their presence was undetected. Silently Aela breathed a sigh of relief.
Farkas was somewhat more relaxed as well, albeit due to Aela’s swift action rather than the lack of opponents.
“That’s more like it! That’s the Huntress we know”.
“My mother”.
Farkas stopped and looked at her, she seemed distant and he didn’t like it one bit.
“What about your mother? Aela, what the hell is it? You’ve got to get real girl”.
She just stared off in the distance. The bright light grey eyes which shone with such life and passion seemed dull and glassy.
“My mother, she died fighting the Forsworn at one of their bases. The Companions never even found her body to give her a funeral. She’s still out there, lost. Nothing but a corpse rotting in the darkness. She didn’t deserve that! He should have found her... he should have brought her back...”
Farkas’s eyes opened wide as he stared around the room.
“She died here?”
Aela just shrugged and gazed blankly at his chest. She couldn’t bring herself to make eye contact.
“Maybe, I don’t know”.
Her sibling sighed and tenderly held her by the arm. He pulled her towards him and kissed the top of her head.
“You said ‘he’. Who is ‘he’ exactly?”
Aela suddenly snapped out of it and quickly composed herself. Farkas couldn’t help but feel it was almost as if Aela was trying to hide something. This thought was confirmed when she blanked his question.
“You’re right; I’ve got to get focused. Please don’t tell the others, keep it to yourself”.
Farkas’s face disappeared in the palms of his hands. His eyes peeked through his sausage like fingers at Aela despairingly. Not wanting to cause her any more pain than what she was already going through, he tried to lay the conflict aside and concentrate on the job in hand.
“Ok, fine, but... you keep your mind here and for the love of the Nines, wake up!!”
Aela tried to bury her emotions. She knew he was right and she was fully aware she acted stupidly by simply barging into the room. It wasn’t often they could learn from mistakes as mistakes were usually fatal ones. She gave the slightest of nods then moved to the side allowing Farkas to take point.
He wasn’t prepared to move beyond the threshold of the doorway yet though. Instead, he egged Aela into following him. She did so unwillingly as she expected more of a ‘telling off’ but she recoiled in surprise when Farkas kicked a pile of straw which was lying in the corner. Buried underneath it was a small wooden chest crying out to be opened and have its contents pillaged.
Farkas smirked as he saw her eyes glint at the numerous possibilities of treasure.
“Go on then, open it up”.
She stared at the chest for several seconds until it dawned upon her that he was waiting for her to pick the lock instead of doing it himself. With a lockpick in hand, Aela knelt in front of the chest and started manipulating the levers in the iron lock. A few clicks later and the box gave up its secrets. Aela lifted the lid excitedly to find at the bottom of the chest a single gold coin waiting for her.
Farkas couldn’t help himself but cackle at her misfortune. He slapped her on the back, almost knocking her to the ground and bellowed with laughter.
“Oh wow! Now, you be good and share it with the others else I’m telling the Harbinger”.
The single septim was snatched from the base of the chest and lobbed straight at Farkas with all the spite Aela could muster under the circumstances. The gold coin bounced off his armor and fell to the floor, adding to his amusement. He picked it up and slipped it in his pocket before following Aela as she stormed off through the doorway.
A light tap on her shoulder gave Aela cause to slow down. Being far more cautious than before, she crept along the snaking passageway which twisted like a stream running across the plains. Upon reaching a corner, Aela slyly stuck her head around the edge and peeked along the next tunnel. All she could see was a junction and a doorway set in the rock face. After she signalled to Farkas that the way was clear, she decided upon trying the door, leaving the passage to the left temporarily unexplored. The wooden door opened easily, but albeit more importantly, quietly.
Beyond the door itself, Aela could see the back of a Silverhand. Some sixth sense alerted him to the sudden deadly danger which he now found himself to be in and he drew his sword lest he was unable to defend himself. Turning around, he stepped back in astonishment to see the two Companions gawping at him instead of being greeted by an empty corridor. He was quick to recover his wits and screamed out as he charged forwards.
Aela was the first to react. An arrow slid out of her quiver and was quickly notched then the bowstring was pulled back and released. Her opponent had hardly closed the distance between them when the arrow punched him off his feet. Flames exploded all around him and ice froze his chest adding to the catastrophic damage of being shot at point blank range.
The man was dead before he hit the ground and his sword fell to the stone floor with a loud clang.
Aela searched the corpse but she didn’t find much of value. Her eyes fell upon the silver sword which would fetch a fair price but as she reached across for it, a heavy boot pinned it to the floor. She looked up to see Farkas gazing down at her.
“Eye’s off hussy. That’s mine”. Leaving her on the floor feeling somewhat speechless, Farkas picked up the sword and secured it in his pack. He chuckled as Aela’s complexion turned red as she screwed her face up at him.
Finding them in a dead end, Aela headed along the way they came and shoved the door back on its hinges, almost catching Farkas in the face. A loud ‘bang’ threw the door forwards as Farkas kicked it away.
The other corridor led to a large solid looking door. It looked somewhat older especially with the rusty iron fittings. Aela tried the handle while she watched Farkas in case he had any ideas on retaliating over her ‘accidental shutting’ of the previous door but he hung back a bit and drew his sword on the off chance that there were yet more enemies behind the new section of passageways and rooms. The handle refused to turn, drawing Aela’s attention back to the job at hand. Quietly and quickly, she started to pick the old lock which confirmed the age as specks of rust broke away and coated her hands. After several seconds and a fair few curses to Hircine, there was a reassuring ‘click’ as the lock finally gave up.
Comments
*Ebonslayer. I'll have a look at that line.
Is this any better?
Did her mother abandon her or did she lie about where she was going?
So, let me get this straight, Aela's mother is Katria right, but it's a different Katria and not the one found in that Dwemer Ruin?