The moment the large axes started to raise, Sotek used the ability of the whirlwind shout. He managed to shoot past the blades before they had even reached their full height, let alone start to swing down in their deadly arc. Once she saw that he made it through safely, Aela called out to him from the other end of the corridor.
“There should be a lever or a chain you can use to disarm the trap”.
He looked around the small chamber he was in for the mechanism which would stop the axes while he whispered to himself, emotionally focusing his mind on the task.
“Disarm the trap, disarm the trap…” As he glanced back at the corridor, he saw a small arched hole in the wall. All that was behind him, was a stairway, leading further into the complex. Apart from that, he found little, so he cast a light spell in the hole. As he peered inside it, he saw what he was looking for. At the back of the hole was an old, rusty, web ridden chain. Attached to the end of it was an overly large iron hoop. “I’ve found it, now what?”
Aela, who was peering at the ground at her feet, lifted her head up as she angrily growled at him.
“What in Oblivion do you mean, now what? You pull the blasted thing, you idiot”.
Upon hearing her disgruntled, barking reply, Sotek smiled down the corridor at her then shook his head.
“No”.
“What the fuck do you mean no?”
As if Aela’s very words could hurt him, Sotek stepped back a bit but his defiance remained.
“You’ll hit me because I made you jump, so I’m not pulling it”.
Both Farkas and Vilkas started sniggering which only fuelled Aela’s temper. She punched them both in the chests, which did little except to give them cause to increase their laughter. She found herself almost screeching at Sotek as she glared along the corridor at him.
“You bloody bastard. Turn off the axes”.
Sotek smiled at her which just made her worse, but he simply folded his arms as he lent against the wall.
“No. You have to promise that you won’t hit me first”.
Aela’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor, she stared at him with disbelief as her fists tightened once more.
“You are fucking kidding me… What?”
“Promise me that you won’t hit me”.
“Fine, I swear I won’t hit you. Now shut off the bloody axes”.
“Ok”. Sotek smirked wildly as his hand reached in the hole and pulled on the chain. Within seconds the axes stopped, but then a new threat to his welfare came charging down the corridor at him. A threat in the form of Aela. Sotek quickly backed off towards the stairwell holding his hands up defensively as Aela approached him. “Wait, you promised”.
Aela stood angrily in front of him, then submissively lowered her head.
“Yes, yes I did”. The next second however she kicked him in the calf, making him holler out. As he held his leg, which was rapidly turning stiff from the kick, Aela grabbed him by the collar. “I said I wouldn’t hit you. That was a kick, not a hit”. She then kissed him on the lips but instantly afterwards she kicked out again. This time she hit him behind the knee with her foot, swiping his leg out from beneath him. With a surprised expression on his face, Sotek fell to the floor with a crash. Aela blew him a second kiss then stepped over him as she continued up the stairway.
Vilkas and Farkas both shook their heads at him as they too stepped over his tangled body. Farkas looked back over his shoulder at Sotek as he smiled broadly at him.
“What did you expect?”
Sotek clambered up to his feet then proceeded to follow behind the three companions.
“You could have helped me up. Thanks guys”.
Vilkas laughed as he replied for the pair of them.
“Aela put you there, so we’ll not either interfere or lend assistance. She hurts and she don’t play fair”.
As Sotek dusted himself off for what he believed to be the third time since upon entering Forelhost, he called out to them both sarcastically.
“Oh really? Thanks for the heads up”.
“Quiet, damn it”. Aela’s voice was a whisper, but Sotek knew all too well the urgency and warning which it held. He drew his bow and stealthily moved up in front alongside her. “There’s something here, it’s close”.
Aela turned to the other two and signalled quietly. With just a slight nod, to acknowledge Aela’s command, both brothers drew their bows while Aela scrutinised the long dark room in front of them before turning her head slightly to Sotek.
“Cultist ghosts at the far end. We’ll shoot until they get close then we’ll charge in”. They all took aim as best as they could due to the dark gloom which resided at the other end of the chamber while they waited for Aela’s signal.
“Fire!” Arrow after arrow poured down the room to almost disappear in the darkness. One cultist was struck three times but the other one managed to avoid the worst of the barrage. In answer to their attack, an icy white cloud formed and trailed rapidly along the passageway towards the Companions. Sotek lowered his bow then cast his ward spell. Within seconds a magical barrier formed and solidified in front of him as he grabbed Aela with his bow still in his hand and dragged her behind the magical wall. Trails of ice formed around the barrier, and ice particles froze against the sides of the walls, but Sotek kept up the shield as the freezing wave of magic past over and around them. Aela glanced down and saw a frost form at the base of the spell wall and creep along the ground towards her boot. Just as the icy particles reached her foot, the spell dissipated, leaving a frosty trail towards the Cultist priest.
Once the freezing fog had past, Sotek dismissed the spell then drew his two axes and charged at the magic wielding cultist. Farkas followed suit along with Vilkas while Aela fired off a few arrows which shot past them. Both missiles struck the wounded archer in the chest. The unearthly spirit was consumed by fire. It fell to the ground then vanished, leaving a glowing pile of ashes as the spirit finally left this world and departed to the abyss.
The priest cast his ice spell again, but this time Sotek and Farkas got caught in the blast. Sotek raised his hand and cast his ward spell once again but his actions seemed painfully slow as his limbs struggled against the freezing magical gale while his mind fogged up. To Farkas, Sotek seemed to move in slow motion as the spell also took effect on him as well. He felt the icy chill bite as he too started to freeze from the ice spell.
Vilkas however was too far to the right of the priest to get caught in the casting. He bought his sword crashing down on to the priest’s shoulder, forcing the priest to the ground by the strength and weight of the blow. Within moments, Sotek and Farkas had recovered and they aided their comrade. With such overwhelming force of the three Companions, the priest rapidly disappeared beneath a multitude of simultaneous blows. Seconds later, all that remained was a pile of glowing ash just like the archer who died moments before. In the pile of ancient dust, were some remains of the priests armour.
Sotek cast his grand healing spell, mainly for his and Farkas’s benefit while Aela cursed him for near blinding her. Ignoring the She-wolf’s rebuke, Sotek started examining the room. He knelt down in one corner and produced his dagger then he started digging out some toadstools. Aela cast an initial, bewildered look as she watched him pack some in his herb pouch.
“What you got there?”
“Oh, nothing of a great importance. Arcadia was after some Bleeding Crown, so that’s one thing of my list”.
Vilkas called Sotek over as he searched the priests remains.
“Here’s some armour, a chest piece”.
Sotek cast a quick look at him then got to his feet as he walked over to the armour.
“Thanks for the thought Vilkas, but it’s not suitable. I’m after three sets of female armour, that’s a male piece. Sorry, but it’s useless”.
Vilkas shrugged his shoulders.
“Fair enough, I’ll give it to Veezara to sell in the shop”.
Aela glanced over to the archer then called out to Sotek.
“How about her? She might have some”.
“She?”
Aela smirked as she examined the pile of ash and remnants of the archer.
“Yep, I should know, I shot her enough times. Here you go, a pair of gauntlets. Any good?”
Sotek nodded then stored the gauntlets in his pack.
“Yess, a chest piece would be better, but I might as well look for three full setss”.
Aela looked over at him peculiarly.
“Three full sets?”
“Yes, I explained to you the other day why I want three sets”.
“But surely you don’t mean helms as well?”
Sotek paused for a few seconds as his mind absorbed the question.
“What? Helms? No, I’m not after the helms”.
Their conversation was interrupted by Vilkas calling out to them.
“Dibs on the treasure chest”.
Farkas cursed out loudly.
“Oh, for the love of”. But then he started sniggering. “No Vilkas, you had the boots. Aela, tell him”.
Vilkas screwed his face up at his brother as he produced a lock pick.
“Screw the boots, this one is mine”. A good several seconds later, and after various grumblings from Aela due to the length of time it took him to unlock it, a satisfying click resonated from the chest.
Aela got off the table which she was sitting on then proceeded to head towards the door to her left.
“About bloody time. Grief, you’re slow”.
Vilkas half turned to her as he lifted up the chest lid.
“Aww shut up. Hey, look what I got”. He pulled out a pouch of around a hundred gold, then picked up a scroll. What in all of Aela’s cooking is this?”
Sotek examined it then slapped him on the back.
“Well done, that’s the most useless scroll you could possibly find here. Gratz”.
Vilkas’s eyes darted back and forth between Sotek and the scroll as he tried to work out why it was so worthless.
“What? Why? What does it do?”
Sotek handed it to Aela to store in her pack as he explained.
“It’s a fear scroll, which works on undead. Basically, the cultists will run away from us”.
Vilkas went to snatch it back away from Aela but she stepped backwards away from him.
“Damn you! But why’s that useless here?”
Aela started laughing as she tucked the scroll away.
“Because we want to kill them, not chase them throughout the entire complex, you knucklehead”.
Finding nothing else of interest in the room, they quickly made their way through the door which Aela had already started heading towards when Vilkas found the chest. The door opened to reveal a small stairway which promptly came to a halt. Another door blocked their route, but this door was far larger than the other doors they had seen so far.
As Sotek turned the handle, Aela warned him as to what was on the other side.
“There’s lots of corpses here. It’s kind of odd how they’ve been laid out though. Watch out for cultists”. Sotek nodded then turned the handle fully. The door opened quietly and one by one the four Companions stepped inside.
They entered what looked like a dormitory, as there were multiple beds laid out at one end of the large square room. In the adjacent corner to his left, Sotek noticed a passageway which led further into the complex. However, what really caught his eye was the decayed remains of several bodies all lying on the beds.
“What in Oblivion? Aela?”
Aela scrutinised the room suspiciously as she scanned for cultist spectres.
“Like I said, it’s odd the way they were laid out”.
Sotek carefully walked over to a bed then picked up an empty vial from the floor.
“Poison. Damn, they weren’t laid out, they laid down”.
Aela gave him a slight confused look as if she couldn’t conceive his meaning.
“What?”
Sotek examined three other beds but no matter how bizarre he thought it, he could only come to one conclusion.
“They weren’t killed, they poisoned themselves… all of them”.
Aela looked around the room with a new sense of horror.
“All of them? What unearthly force possessed them to do that?”
Sotek cursed slightly as he felt his anger rise.
“Dragons, it must have been when the Dragons were defeated long ago”. A second later an arrow shot past him, and Sotek once again found himself running for cover. “Damn it, why me”. He smiled to himself when he heard Aela laughing as she returned fire.
Aela’s voice was filled with alarm as she yelled out a warning to her shield sibling who was advancing beyond their lines.
“Farkas, to your left!”
“What? Where?” He franticly looked around, but he couldn’t see anything. From out of nowhere, a sword smashed down behind him, catching his shoulder. “Aghh. You fucker”. He pulled away as his shield fell to the floor and he stabbed out with his sword, catching the cultist in the chest. Before he could withdraw the tip of the blade, the cultist raised his own sword again and bought it down at Farkas. All he could do was close his eyes and wait for the inevitable strike.
Instead of the fatal blow which he was expecting, Farkas heard an almighty clang. He looked up to see Sotek’s Dragonscale shield blocking the strike. Sotek bought his own axe down at the cultists neck and dealt a crippling blow as his axe tore a massive gash into the ethereal spirit. Farkas dropped to his knees as he clutched his arm. Blood poured out from the wound, as Farkas fought back unconsciousness.
Before Sotek could deliver a second blow, he heard Aela scream as she fell to the floor. Glancing over to her, he saw her clutching an arrow which had skewered her thigh, crippling her. With an evil smile of victory, the cultist drew a wicked looking sword and rapidly approached her.
Vilkas stumbled backwards from a series of lethal blows when he was distracted by Farkas’s yell. It took a second for the cultist to take advantage of Vilkas’s lack of attention and before the Nord knew it, he found himself laying on the floor, prone to the attacks of the cultist standing over him. Twice the cultist hammered down with his sword at Vilkas who desperately fought off the attacks.
Sotek quickly glanced at Aela, then at Vilkas as he tried to take everything in at once. Aela drew her dagger but collapsed as she tried to get to her feet. Her dagger dropped to the floor leaving her defenceless.
Vilkas screamed out as the cultist attacking him, stabbed him brutally in the arm. He now found himself prone and unable to defend himself. At the same time the cultist fighting Sotek thrust his sword forwards towards Soteks stomach.
Everything seemed to slow down around Sotek as he watched the tip of the blade push inexorably towards him. Inside, a dark force snapped, just like it did months ago when he fought the sabre cat by the farm outside Whiterun. Before he even realised he did it, a dragon shout echoed throughout the complex. For Sotek, it was almost like someone else was shouting instead of himself.
“FUS RO DAH”. The cultist fighting Sotek received the full force of the shout and was flung against the wall. The impact along with the blow that Sotek had struck was simply too much and the spectre dissolved into a mist as he evaporated from the mortal plane. Aela, who was crouching down, was thrown against the wall as well, along with the cultist who was close to killing her. Vilkas was lucky in some respects, he escaped the worst of the shout but was rolled across the floor a few feet. That was where his luck failed him, and he smacked his head against a boulder. His assailant wasn’t so lucky and was lifted in the air by several feet as he slammed into the far wall along with the others.
The one who escaped entirely was Farkas but that was just because he was to Sotek’s right. The cultist who he was fighting, caught the tail end and was spun about, his weapon flew several feet away as it was ripped out of his hand. Farkas grinned back at his assailant and brought down the hilt of his sword onto the top of the warrior’s head, smashing the spectral skull into vapour and ash. Sotek took full advantage of the disorientated enemies and was already running towards the cultist who laid next to Aela and delivered two hammer blows with his axe. As he did so, he cast his grand healing spell, three times in succession. Even before the others had recovered enough, Sotek had his foot on the third cultists chest and struck twice at the neck. The cultist’s head came off on the second blow but before the head could roll anywhere, it evaporated into a fine mist then dissipated in the air.
Farkas clambered up to his feet as he held his shoulder. Although the wound had been healed, it still ached badly. Meanwhile Vilkas sat up where he lay, groggy from the blow to his temple.
“Urrg, my head. Damn it Sotek, what the fuck…”
Aela turned to Vilkas and snapped as pain shot through her body.
“Shut it you moron. Oh Hircine, my leg”.
Sotek, in concern for his mate, knelt beside her and pulled off some rubble which was sent propelling into her.
“Nothing’s broken but I need to get that arrow out”.
Aela cursed as she saw the arrow sticking in her thigh.
“You fuck off, you fucking idiot. I’ll do it. Get out of here”.
Upon hearing her words, Farkas took Sotek by the arm and tried to pull him away from the She-wolf.
“Come on, we need to move”.
“What? I’m not leaving her”. Sotek replied almost as if he was in a daze. He yanked his arm away from Farkas to resume his position by Aela’s side.
Vilkas came over and saw first-hand the agony Aela was in. He knelt down then snapped off the arrowhead. To Sotek’s surprise he then took Aela’s hand and rested it on the arrow shaft. He lightly slapped Aela in the face, drawing her focus on him rather than the pain.
“Here, hold it. Come on, grip it”. Aela’s fingers wrapped around the arrowhead then gripped it tightly. Sotek could see that she was shaking, but what upset him was the fact that he was being pulled away.
“We got to go. She’ll be fine, honest. Hurry, it’s for the best”. Vilkas then grabbed Sotek and started pulling him away as well.
Sotek started fighting off the pair of them as they proceeded to drag him away.
“Get off me you bastards”. Sotek head butted Farkas as he forced himself away from them then ran to Aela.
Aela surprisingly shouted to Sotek as she started pulling out the arrow.
“You stupid fucker!” She screamed in agony as the arrow came out of her leg, and for an instant Sotek turned to see Farkas and Vilkas run back along the corridor as if they were running for their very lives.
A split second later Sotek’s nostrils picked up a scent, but his reactions were way too slow to react to it. Red slashed out at him, sending him backwards as blood splattered along the wall from the blow Red had inflicted. Sotek gripped his side as blood poured out from his wound, but he felt a surge of energy as the life saving restoration woven into his very being kicked into life. As he learned greater restoration spells and had been casting them during the last year, his body had reacted to them. Restoration magic wove itself to his soul which gave him an ability to instantly recover health from a near fatal wound once a day. It was this ability which automatically kicked in and saved him from the blow which Red had delivered with such wanton savagery.
Sotek cast his grand healing spell which integrated with his healing ability and near instantly bound the wound. Red was far from finished though and she could smell fresh blood, blood which she tasted months before… With near unbound fury, she leapt towards her prey, giving him little chance to recover.
Laying on his back, Sotek looked up to see Red towering over him and for that moment in his life he knew what it felt like to be hunted by Red and Scarface. His eyes opened wide as he watched Red lift her front paw up above his head. With just a few seconds to act, Sotek rolled across the floor, narrowly avoiding Reds unprovoked attack, as Red tried to crush his skull from under her paw. Vilkas and Farkas re-entered the room and shouted at him.
“Run you moron, she’ll kill ya”.
Sotek rapidly scrambled to his feet then held his hands up to her to try to show her that he was no threat. But Red’s only answer was a low deep growling howl. Vilkas called out to him again as he tried desperately to get Sotek to move.
“She’s not listening, she’s not thinking. Run, damn it!”
Sotek shouted back at him angrily.
“No, not again. Damn you bitch, not again”. Red closed in on him once more, her paws swiping out as she tried to catch him with her claws. “Red, calm down, it’s me. You’re ok, calm down”.
Farkas stood there with disbelief strewn across his face. Once more he yelled out at his shield brother in the hope the Argonian would listen to his words.
“Sotek run! Aela’s not in control, she’s running on instinct”.
Sotek scrambled over some rubble just to see it disappear from beneath his feet as Red swiped at the pile where he was standing moments before. With a growl, he scolded Farkas for the lack of information to which he had only just decided to share.
“Why the hell didn’t you say so?” Red closed in once again, but Sotek shouted out a second time. “KAAN DREM”.
Near instantly Red stopped her attack and stepped backwards slightly. Sotek slowly and cautiously walked up to her and rested his palm against the side of her face.
“Hey, how’s my girl?” She growled out at him, but the ferocity was no longer present. The hatred and need for blood and flesh were gone. In their place was… was what? Red tilted her head to the side as a confused, blank expression took control of her features. Both ears propped up as if to hear every slight sound lest they aid her in clearing the mist that muddled her mind.
Having satisfied himself that he was now in control, or at the very least, now out of harm’s way, Sotek gave Red an order.
“Down, down”. As he had commanded, and much to Farkas’s and Vilkas’s disbelief, Red obeyed. She dropped to all fours and slowly followed Sotek to a stone block. Sotek sat on the floor as he leaned against the rubble and gently pulled Red’s head down to his lap where it settled. He slowly brushed his hand through Red’s fur from the top of her head to her back and with each passing stroke, he could feel her breathing slow down to a much more natural rhythm.
Sotek looked across the room at the others and called them over.
“She’s ok, come on. She’s ok”.
Farkas just stood there stunned, but it was Vilkas who found the strength to ask Sotek about what had happened.
“What shout was that? What the hell did you do?”
“Kyne’s Peace. It basically calms animals and beasts into believing that I’m on their side. At least I think that’s what it does. Rather than bend their will, it puts us on the same footing. She’s calming down. Hey, you hungry?” Sotek opened his pack then pulled out a bloodied linen bundle of venison steaks. As he unwrapped them, Red sat up and her tongue whipped across the side of her fans as her mouth began to salivate. She pressed down on Sotek’s leg with her paw to get his attention as she waited for the food.
Sotek grinned back at her and nodded. He placed three of them in front of her, which she rapidly and greedily chewed before swallowing almost whole.
“I take that as a yes”. She sat up then stretched out as Aela changed back.
She tucked herself in a ball with her back to her mate and she starred at the wall, hoping the darkness would hide her shame. For several seconds she laid there quietly, before faintly speaking.
“I’m sorry, I can’t help it”.
Sotek slid alongside her then moved against her, his own body pressing into hers as he wrapped his arms around his mate to comfort her.
“Yes, I gathered. I presume the pain caused you to change?”
Aela looked up at him, he could see she felt ashamed.
“… I can handle pain… But too much forces me to change, even if I have already changed that day. Even if I don’t want to. It’s a defensive mechanism, I guess. Why didn’t you run”.
He smiled at her then kissed the top of her head, causing her to blink.
“Because you needed me”.
“But why didn’t you run when I changed?”
With that, he held her tightly then kissed her a second time.
“Because Red needed me, that’s why. Are you ok?”
“Yea, just a bit shaky. Ohhhh… My leg hurts…”
“Ahh, I forgot about that. I thought you could handle pain?” He asked jestingly. Aela glared at the wall then elbowed Sotek in the stomach. He cringed and groaned before resting his hand on her thigh but then he noticed the wound had already healed up. “The wounds dealt with, Red saw to that. It’s just sore”.
Once Aela examined her leg, she laid against Soteks chest. She looked up at him as she spoke.
“What shout was that? It felt strange. Red had control, but at the same time she didn’t. It was an odd feeling”.
Farkas smirked as he answered on Sotek’s behalf.
“It was Kyne’s Peace. Basically, it turns a beast into an ally”.
Sotek added to Farkas’s statement hoping to pacify Aela’s anger at Red losing control to him.
“Yess, but she still had her own free will, unlike Bend Will, which directly controls it’s intended target”.
Aela stared at him blankly for a few seconds as she thought back on the last few minutes.
“You gave her an order… and she obeyed you”. The placid look upon her face turned into a scowl like a rolling thundercloud moving across the horizon.
Sotek gulped as his mind raced to find an answer which he hoped would placate the Huntress, one which she would find acceptable.
“Yes, but remember, I could always control Red, just as you can control Scarface. The shout just enforces that ermm obedience”.
She suddenly sat upright as she looked at his waist.
“Your side! Red clawed your side”.
Sotek chuckled as he held her tightly in his arms.
“I’m ok. See? No harm done. We’ll rest here for a few hours and eat. They’re not a hundred percent and you’re shaky. A meal will do us all some good”.
Aela rested her palm against his cheek as she looked at his eyes.
“And what about you?”
“Me? I’m fine”. He replied, brushing away her question. Sotek held his hand out, but even before it was outstretched it was shaking. “See, I’m fine”. Instantly, Aela and the others started laughing.
Between the two of them, Farkas and Vilkas broke up three chairs which they used for firewood, then Sotek started cooking some venison on the fire. Once they all ate, Sotek took a few minutes to study the various pack members. Aela, the She-Wolf of the pack was laying on her side, using his lap as a pillow. Her face was full of contentment and ease while she listened to the two beta wolves converse with one another. Farkas and Vilkas’s debate on one handed and two-handed blades seemed to flow from points of views to applications of force, benefits and disadvantages of either weapons. As for himself, Sotek, who was appointed as Pack Alpha, felt his own calmness slip away with each passing second. He glanced around the room and a restlessness started creeping in his bones. It was time to move.
He nudged Aela, coaxing her to move then he rose to his feet and addressed the pack.
“Right, how’s everyone feeling?”
Aela jokingly glared at him as she mimicked a sneer.
“We’re aching cause a moronic half spawn, force shouted us into a bloody wall”.
Farkas sat up smiling as he pointed to himself.
“Not me he didn’t”.
Sotek groaned as Aela’s jesting suddenly turned real.
“No, he missed you didn’t he. You flea bitten lizard”.
Vilkas shrugged at Sotek and smiled broadly. He pointed to his shield sister and grinned.
“She’s feeling better, let’s go”.
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