Author’s Note: This is my answer to a recap. What I wanted to do was keep to the story and include the recap as part of the story itself. How do I this? Have a read and find out.
Warning: Contains past chapter spoilers.
A few minutes after Sotek, Aela and the other Companions left Jorrvaskr, Kodlak was outside by the steps looking across Whiterun. He watched with a quiet fascination as the last Companion walked through the gate, effectively leaving Jorrvaskr in the care of himself and Tilma. Sighing, he turned around and re-entered the hall.
The Companions had barely left when Tilma deliberately banged her broom against one of the table legs. She muttered angrily under her breath while Kodlak shuffled through various pieces of parchment. He owlishly looked across the hall at her and caught her watching him.
“Yes? What is it Tilma?”
“Nothing”. She mumbled. Mere seconds had passed when she once more banged her broom and sighed even louder.
Giving up with trying to sort out his paperwork, Kodlak piled the pieces of parchment together and set them aside. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs at the ankles and stretched out before calling the maid to him.
“Whatever is the matter old girl? You’re banging your broom about as if you are chasing someone. What’s up?”
“Don’t old girl me you old buzzard! Oh… it’s too quiet! There’s no noise and I hate it”. Tilma threw her broom away from her and let it fall to the wooden floor just so it would make some noise to break the insufferable silence which she felt.
Kodlak sighed and nodded back at her then he pushed a chair away from the table with his foot so Tilma could sit on it.
“It used to be quiet even when they were all here. All we had was Aela’s ranting to contend with”.
“Until ‘he’ came here”. Tilma stated.
“Until who?” Kodlak asked. He watched Tilma’s old wrinkled features and easily noticed she was looking tired.
“That reptile; Sotek that’s who! This hall hasn’t been quiet since. Aela howling in the Undercroft, Sotek’s familiar howling in the yard. Sotek and Aela having howling matches in the hall. You know last week they had a water fight in the yard? Sotek and Aela?”
“Humph! They were all out there! Throwing water around like a river of it ran through the town”. Kodlak complained as he remembered the wet puddles inside the hall.
“Yes well…” Tilma stated. “I remember damn well you joining in. It was you that threw the bucket of water inside”.
“I was throwing it at Sotek. It’s not my fault that rascal stood by the door and opened it when I threw the bucket at him”. Kodlak stifled a chuckle as he remembered Aela laughing so much that she fell to her knees.
“I remember I was on the other side of the door at the time! I was soaked!” Tilma stated as she threw Kodlak a glare.
The doors to the yard opened and Eorlund stepped inside brandishing his flagon and a large empty jug which he would fill from one of the numerous barrels scattered around the hall. He walked to the closest one and turned the wooden tap, allowing sweet golden mead to fill his jug. As he watched the amber liquid flow, he cast a quick glance across the unnaturally quiet hall.
“Where is everyone? I saw some of the rabble head towards the gate. Has everyone gone?”
“All but us”. Kodlak answered. He pushed out a third chair and motioned the blacksmith to join them. “Take a seat. We’re about to play cards… unless you’re crying poverty”.
“Humph… I’ll show you whose septimless”. Eorlund pulled out the chair a bit further and slammed down his flagon, banging it on the table. “It’s so quiet in here; it’s not right”.
“It is right”. Kodlak stated. “Well it was right I suppose. We were talking about Sotek and his ungainly influence on the hall”.
“Ungainly? Harbinger, that lad pulled Aela from the abyss. She was on a road to self destruction that one. Hell she still is; least he slowed her down”. Eorlund stated. He knew of Aela and her temper. Too many a time she ended up fighting everyone just to release some pent up energy; even him.
“Slowed her down? You realize they broke a bed don’t you? I think he’s escalated her temper. Oil and flint those two”. Tilma said when she thought back to all the times she chased Aela and Sotek with her broom and mop.
Kodlak started chuckling as he cast his mind back months before.
“I saw him you know; when he first entered Whiterun”.
“Who?” Eorlund asked as he took a sip from his tankard.
“Sotek!” Kodlak reached out across the table and held Tilma’s frail fingers. “I was coming out of the Banner... Belathor’s; ‘cough, cough’. It was as you both know a few months ago. He first entered the town wearing a scruffy set of iron. Straps broke, rust… The Nines alone knows how he survived that place”.
“What place?” Tilma asked as she started dealing out seven cards to each of them. She picked hers up and studied each one as if they all had their place in the universe.
“Bleak Falls Barrow. He never spoke of that place, least not to me. All he said was… he went swimming! I would love to hear that story”.
Eorlund started laughing and nodded childishly as he grinned.
“We’ve talked about it; him and I. We often talk when we’re both working the forge. Not that we can both work it at the same time but there’s plenty to get on with when he’s working on his armor or a blade; or an axe!” He took a sip of his drink then wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his blacksmith’s shirt. “It all started with an Ambush! Those stupid Imperials; they set an ambush to capture Stormcloaks and nearly caught Sotek when he crossed the borders. That was his introduction to Skyrim hospitality. Slippery that fish, he escaped and found himself in Riverwood. You know the trade store there?”
Tilma clicked her fingers and excitedly answered.
“Yes! I often had dealings with that place. They absconded when Sotek reported them to the guards here in Whiterun. I can’t believe they sent people to Bleak knowing there were bandits there. How did Sotek survive?”
“He killed a spider there you know! Massive it was according to him. Can you imagine Farkas facing said beastie? Bigger than a horse it was”. Eorlund stated. "He told me about it when we were fixing some armor at the Skyforge. Well, I was fixing the armor. He was busy sharpening a Skyforge Steel dagger for Aela. Her ‘personal’ dagger; whatever that means".
“Ahh that dagger”. Tilma stated. “Aela uses that to shave her legs and… never you mind!”
After raising a white bushy eyebrow at the maid, Kodlak Shifted the conversation back to its original path. He weighed the blacksmiths words carefully; such spiders existed yes but in Bleak Falls Barrow? Yet he knew these were from Sotek’s exploits and the Argonian never boasted.
“If Sotek said it was that big then it was probably bigger. He must have come from there and headed straight to Whiterun”.
Tilma placed down three cards and quickly replaced them. She grinned broadly and added several gold coins in the pot, taking the opportunity to raise the bet. She had a strong card hand now and she guessed Kodlak wasn’t paying attention due to the cards he was busy throwing away.
“Raising the stakes by five. That was his first encounter with Aela. She and Farkas will never let him forget about the wheat bales he burned during the giant fight”.
Kodlak threw down his cards and huffed. He downed half of his flagon and pointed towards the yard doors.
“He barely gets over that meeting when he’s sent off like a lost puppy to High Hrothgar. That was when he learned the ‘Wuld’ shout. He still regrets mastering that shout. We’ve talked a few nights when Jorrvaskr’s fallen quiet and all’s asleep. Except for an old Harbinger and a young troubled mind”.
“Can you blame him?” Tilma felt some anger boil within her. It was mixed with equal measures of sympathy. “He fought with Aela for weeks. She did her damndest to get him out of the Companions and then bang! He all but kills her. I thank the Nines Danica was here; without her Aela would have been killed”.
Eorlund’s card hand wasn’t one of his best and he quickly withdrew when Tilma added three more gold to the pot. He knew she hardly bluffed and he admitted to himself that his mind had wandered somewhat due to the conversation.
“Yes, but Danica was here. I curse those few days. My fault more so than theirs”. Kodlak sat back and felt a wave of solemn guilt rise up in his gut. It was true as far as he was concerned; he let events lead to that horrifying moment.
He then started grinning. He took a few moments to decide upon telling of a secret he held for so long. Knowing both Eorlund and Tilma could be trusted, he decided to come clean.
“Lapsa Luna! It didn’t exist”.
“What do you mean it didn’t exist?” Exclaimed Tilma. She looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and confusion.
“Sotek made it up. Aww hell; come on! Have you ever heard of such a thing? He needed a way to fix things between him and Aela; you remember the atmosphere? Sotek thought that by forcing Aela to give him some tasks to complete then the debt between them would be settled. Well it worked didn’t it?” Kodlak took another sip of his flask and glanced at Eorlund for approval.
Eorlund nodded. He knew of the situation the two young Companions were in and even he had to admit it worked.
“They’ve accepted that you know. Lapsa Luna. The other week when a Whelp was hurt during a silly stunt they initiated Lapsa Luna to put it right”.
Eorlund then started laughing. He pictured Aela setting out to remove Sotek from the Companions then pictured her sneaking around the Undercroft like a thief as she made her way to Sotek’s room.
“After spending so much time trying to get him kicked out, she spent the next month trying to keep him in her bed. You remember everyone’s face when we all realized they were sleeping together. A Nord and an Argonian? Aela? Even Hircine himself would run from her”.
“Sheogorath didn’t run. He certainly plagued them. I expect he was there at the start. One moment we’re dealing with the revelation that they were a couple and then Aela’s like a cold dead fish while Sheogorath had spirited her soul away. What was it with that door?” Tilma looked straight at Kodlak to explain.
“Yes. The Daedra Lord created that hell hole just to hold Aela there. I still don’t know what his aim was. That was how everyone found out they were sleeping together. Sotek’s scent was on Aela and he used that to locate her; clever move. As to the door; now what was on it?” Kodlak thought long and hard over the past few months and tried to picture what Farkas had said about it. “It started with a sign, didn’t it? No man or beast has ever left alive?”
“Yes, that was it”. Eorlund said. “And the actual door had a picture of a woman. Sotek picked that door on the pretence that the man and beast doors were traps. Oh…..” He seemed to turn less jovial and the atmosphere turned far darker.
“Oh what?” Tilma asked. She remembered that night when they saved Aela from Sheogorath and she suddenly knew what the issue was. “Her nightmares! That was when her nightmares started. Greymane; that feral bastard”.
“Don’t worry about Greymane Tilma”. Kodlak stated. “He may have tormented Aela and Sotek but they got him in the end. Sotek… He had nightmares as well didn’t he?”
“That’s right!” Eorlund added. “When he took Aela to Winterhold College. That was when his nightmares started”.
“He had a nightmare when they arrived. It was in the shape of a dragon”. Tilma’s eyes were wide open as she pictured the mages and archers all firing their arrows and spells at the gigantic beast outside Winterhold.
“It was just after that event when all hell broke loose”. Kodlak stated. “I headed off with Farkas and Vilkas, Sotek went off by himself leaving Aela to her own devices”.
“Didn’t that work out well?” Tilma complained. She knew the upset and worry that particular week had caused. “Sotek discovering you’re werewolves. Aela getting captured by the Silverhands and being threatened by ‘The Skinner’. Us not knowing where she was. Sotek and Aela fighting with each other on the way back here then that silly hatchling nearly getting himself killed so Aela could get away. Masterful planning that, brilliant”.
The doors to Jorrvaskr suddenly opened and the Companions and Whelps poured inside. Tilma looked outside in shock. The whole day had passed and she hadn’t done a thing.
“This is typical. No sooner have you all disappeared then you’re all back here messing up the hall and getting in my way. I hardly get a moment to myself as it is. For the love of the nines I wish for one day I could just sit down and rest but no! Work, work, work. Farkas! Get those stinking feet off the table!”
Comments
story. It feels more like another chapter than just a recap and gives a
fun look into the old buzzards' lives as well. It may be my turn next
to steal some ideas... more
story. It feels more like another chapter than just a recap and gives a
fun look into the old buzzards' lives as well. It may be my turn next
to steal some ideas from this; a conv... more
I was hoping this chapter would go down well as I didn't want to do the typical recap for my story. I'll be adding others later on as well to help readers keep up to date with everything that has happened.&... more
“(Bleak Falls) Barrow. He never spoke of that place, least not to me."
He weighed the blacksmith... more