Aela’s breathing was still rapid when she heard the portcullis rise up from behind. She spun around to see Farkas walking towards her. With her hand on her chest, she hollered at him for making her jump.
“Damn it Farkas, you scared the crap out of me!!”
Farkas ignored her initial outburst. His attention was on his brother, Vilkas.
“Are you coming down or what?”
Vilkas yelled back down at his sibling with what he considered to be a rather good point.
“How?”
Aela took a few deep breaths to compose herself. It was all lost in a second when she yelled back at him.
“Back through the tunnel, you stupid bastard, or you can jump! Farkas will catch you!”
Vilkas laughed as he took aim to ‘land’ on Aela.
“If I jump I’ll aim for you! Something soft to land on. I’m not going down that tunnel. That bloody great hulk of a bastard ran down there”.
Aela picked up a stone and threw it straight at Vilkas. He raised his gauntlet for protection as he listened to Aela’s rant.
“Get you bloody worthless hide down here. Don’t make me come up there you bastard!”
Aela turned her back on Farkas and walked under the now raised portcullis by herself so she could try to gather her thoughts. Red’s actions caused her a mass of confusion let alone her own feelings which blurred lines in her personal life. She wasn’t used to such emotions and she hated herself for having them. These ‘feelings’ disgusted her. She felt like a traitor, someone who should be despised.
Vilkas walked down the sloping tunnel and exited the passageway to find Aela leaning against the cave wall. She had one knee raised up and the heel of the boot pressed against the rock behind her. She looked sullen and gloomy yet questions burned in Vilkas’s head. He took one look at Farkas had now joined them and he could see his brother felt the same as he did.
Vilkas eyed Aela suspiciously as he approached her, knowing full well her temperament can easily escalate.
“Ok, what the hell was all that about?”
Aela jumped in fright to the sound of Vilkas’s voice. She was so deep in thought that she never even heard them enter the cave. Guiltily she turned away from them both and prised herself away from the wall.
“What?”
Vilkas snapped. He had spent the last twenty minutes praying for a miracle that his shield sibling would be alright and now that she was safe, she insisted on playing games which he was not in the mood for.
“Don’t bloody ‘what’ me, Aela. That business between Scarface and Red? We saw it, remember?”
The fear of Red’s feelings being discovered and the damage it would do between her and Sotek was nigh unbearable. Aela went straight on the defensive, fighting for not just herself or Red’s honor but of her relationship. The two brothers were pushing her in a direction which she wasn’t prepared to go. All she could think on was the cost if Red’s feelings were known.
“What the hell are you on about? Scarface and Red?”
Farkas joined in, siding with his brother.
“Fine, if that’s how you want it. We’ve seen you look at Sotek... you looked at Scarface the same bloody way! Hell, you were holding him in your arms! Red was all cosy as well. Go on, I dare you, deny it”.
Aela’s face turned white. She wanted to run, to hide in a dark corner and never come out. She wanted to disappear and prey that Hircine would re set the clock. Start the whole day over from scratch. Knowing that would do her no good, she fought back.
“She wasn’t ‘cosy’ with him at all. I certainly wasn’t either... this is crazy. You know what? You’re both bloody morons. Did you fall off a horse and crack your stupid fat heads?” She left the cave and made her way back through the catacombs, ignoring the two Companions as best as she could.
Farkas finally caught up with her and pounced, grabbing hold of her arm. She raised a fist to his face but before she could proceed with her threat, he gently gave her a hug and lowered her head to his chest like he had seen Sotek do when she was upset and worked up.
“Aela, We know what we saw. You and Red, you both had an attraction with him. Who is he?”
Aela felt her eyes well up. She gripped hold of Farkas tightly as if he was a shield, protecting her from the horrors of the world. A tear trickled down her face to be caught on the nail of her finger. She wiped the offending tear away on her hip and drew a deep breath.
When she was composed enough to speak, she pulled herself away from Farkas and addressed both brothers.
“I don’t know who he is. Yes Red does want him, but I don’t know why! I don’t know who the hell he is, but I want him kept away. Please, please you’re my brothers; please don’t mention any of this to Sotek! I didn’t do anything; if you saw everything then you know I tried to fight him off. I tried so hard to. Even Red tried to, you know she did! Vilkas, Farkas, please, both of you keep this to yourselves”.
Vilkas walked up to her and held her tightly on the shoulder. He gave her a slight shake, just to help focus her mind.
“You don’t know who he is at all?”
Slowly she shook her head. As she answered she made a point of looking at Vilkas right in his eyes. That way he would know she was telling the truth, not that she was any good at lying anyhow.
“No, I’ve no idea”.
From the room beyond, a weak feeble voice called out to the group.
“No idea about who?”
The three Companions entered the cavern as one to find Sotek crouched over the bench which he was laying on when they left him. He had a heavy bruise on the side of his temple where he fell off the seat and cracked his head on the floor. Aela ran over to him and helped him sit up.
“Oh Hircine, you look awful”. She held his head to her bosom and stroked the side of his face. His scaly skin felt hot to the touch, giving Aela more to worry about. “Damn it Sotek, you’re still burning up”.
Sotek’s face strained as he tried to open his eyes. He slowly and painfully reached down for his flask and struggled to lift it let alone shake the bottle in front of Aela, knowing full well it was empty.
“Water, I need water... I drank all of mine”.
She took her own flask and pulled out the stopper then slowly started pouring it in his mouth. He started swallowing the much needed drink but before he had his fill the flask was empty. Aela looked around despairingly but she needn’t have worried. No sooner than her bottle was placed on the bench, when another flask was offered to her.
She looked up to see Farkas gazing back at her.
“Let him drink his fill”.
She weakly smiled back at him then proceeded to attempt a second time to quench Sotek’s thirst. As before the Argonian seemed to drink far more than what Aela had to offer. She turned to Vilkas to aid her but he waved his hand at her before she could even ask him.
“No! He’s not having mine. Aela before you start, this is the last of our water. He’s been like this before and Tilma swears he emptied two whole tankards. The bastard must have been pissing for a week. If those two flasks didn’t help him then this one won’t either!”
Sotek slowly pulled himself upright and rested the back of his head against the wall. Opening one eye, he tried to focus on Aela but she seemed little more than a blur.
“Vilkas is right, sorry I drank so much. You said... Someone said something about ‘he’? Who is ‘he’?”
Aela moved next to him and held his hand in her own. He felt her hair brush against his cheek then the soft touch of her lips as she kissed the side of his face. As she held on to him, holding him tight, she tucked his head into her; partly out of concern, partially from fear and guilt.
She looked across at the two brothers, Vilkas and Farkas who both gave her a weak smile, letting her know that her secret was safe.
“No idea about who?” Sotek asked once more. Despite his condition, the question burned inside like a fire.
Aela felt a lump in her throat. She gulped loudly then spoke, telling him only what she would dare to.
“Scarface was here, he helped us fight off the Silverhands”.
Sotek quietly huffed as his tail feebly flipped to the side. He suspected something like this for the mood of the room whispered to him, secrets and fear; the room stank of it.
“What the hell is he after?”
Aela had a sense of panic but Vilkas answered for her, giving his shield sister the much needed respite.
“We have no idea what he has his sights on”.
Pulling in reserves of strength which were minimal at best, Sotek groggily climbed to his feet. He glanced down the tunnel where the Skinner had run down before he turned to the group.
“She still alive? The Skinner?”
Aela simply nodded; she didn’t trust herself to speak. Using her to steady himself, Sotek took a single step towards the exit of the catacombs.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!!”
Progress through the tunnels was slow and both bothers found themselves taking turns to aid Sotek as he tried to walk. Once they breached the outside perimeter, Sotek’s eyes slammed shut as sunlight flooded the valley. Aela was the first to notice simply because she never took her eyes off him.
Farkas sat him on the wooden platform overlooking the stream while he and Vilkas gathered up a few horses which they happened to come across when they approached the forge.
Aela watched Sotek for a few seconds until Vilkas gave her a nudge, prompting her to walk over to her mate. She had barely taken a step when Sotek leaned forwards and plunged head first into the river. Aela ran up to the edge and peered over but he was gone. She looked down from the other edge to try and find him while she called out to Farkas to help her.
“Where did he go? Can you see him?”
She had only just turned around to face her brother when Sotek launched up out of the water and grabbed her hand. With a playful scream, Aela tumbled forwards as Sotek pulled her into the river.
Comments
Lyall!!
But if Lyall's theory is real... better make the betrayal worth it, Sotek.