Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter CXIV - Revelations

The sun was slowly setting on the horizon, letting sharp rays fall onto their campsite, broken by the cliffs enveloping them.

Aeyrin was getting increasingly nervous. Night would be upon them only in a couple of hours and there was no sign of the twins yet. She kept fidgeting, pacing around the camp and trying to think of what to do when the night actually came. Maybe she could go inside the pass. At least there she would likely only kill bandits if she turned. If there even were any. But nothing guaranteed that she wouldn't find her way back outside and to Bishop. She couldn't let that happen.

Bishop was oddly calm the entire time. He tried to comfort her a few more times, but when it became clear that she was more interested in wallowing in her rising panic, he instead focused on their usual ritual, setting up camp and making them some dinner. His ease was staggering. She didn't understand it at all. How could he be so calm? She could practically rip him to shreds at any second! Why wasn't he afraid of that?

Maybe he didn't realize what it meant yet. Did he ever even fight a werewolf? Not that she had much experience with them, but she did fight that... pack once with Vuaerion and the Vigilants. They were vicious creatures. Monsters.

Like she was now.

"You wanna taste this for me, sweetness?" he tore her away from her pacing as he pointed to the pot on the fire with the rabbit stew. She was pretty sure he didn't need any help telling whether the food needed any more seasoning or anything like that. He was just trying to distract her.

"I can't even think about food right now," she shook her head somberly. She still felt sick. Not as sick as she had back when she had that horrid taste in her mouth, but still too sick to even have a small taste of anything.

"I'm sure they'll be here soon," he gave her a reassuring smile.

He didn't know that! He couldn't know that. This could all turn very ugly at any second. She didn't know what would prompt the transformation. Was it the appearance of a moon in the sky? Weren't the moons there anyway, regardless of time of day? She had no idea how any of this worked.

But just as he had said it, a sound echoed through the plateau. A tell-tale scraping of a metal door.

Bishop rose to his feet by the campfire and she quickly rushed to his side. They could already see the two brothers in their black armor approaching.

The moment the two Companions spotted Bishop there, however, their hands instantly shot towards their weapons, almost in a simultaneous motion.

"Don't you fucking dare!" Aeyrin yelled at them. Gods, that made her so furious. How dare they?! They did this to her. Maybe not them specifically, but they knew and they kept this from her. They were monsters, just like Aela and Skjor. And they dared to even insinuate that Bishop was the one who should be under their sword.

Bishop raised his brows at Aeyrin at her exclamation. He almost startled at that. Fuck, she must have been really pissed, not that he would blame her. But he didn't even remember the last time he had heard her swear. If ever. She never swore. Unless he made her beg him to fuck her in the throes of passion, but that didn't really count. It was kind of touching how mad she got at the brothers' actions. He himself had definitely expected a hostile reception.

"Pup," Vilkas gave her a chastising look, but that only served to anger her more.

"No! None of that! Hands off your weapons, now!" she barked. This was really making her blood boil. They knew why they were there and still they dared to turn this around to getting their stupid bounty?! She made a point to look as threatening as possible, though that didn't take much effort just then – the rage did most of the work for her.