White Wolf

Ch 1

His brother meant well when he asked Vilkas to go to the Bannered Mare with him and Torvar that night, but they didn't count on a pretty woman catching the short haired twin's eye. "Come on, Vilkas! Look at her! She's beautiful, looks strong and independent. I bet you two have loads in common!" "No. I came here to drink with my brother, not tumble in the sack with a stranger." "Brother, I asked you along so you can have a good time away from the rest of the Companions." Vilkas groaned, knowing he was outnumbered. "Here. I hope this makes it easier." The short haired Nord glared at the blonde, taking the mug from him and downing it's contents like water.

He slammed the empty mug down onto the wooden table. "I'm no lightweight, whelp. You should know this by now." Torvar put his hands up, "Hey, I'm just trying to help." "Just go talk to her." "Farkas, that's not how this works." "That's exactly how this works. You're better with words. Go talk to her." Vilkas dropped his head to the table, glaring defiantly. Farkas deadpanned at him in response. Torvar nervously glanced from one brother to the other.

This went on for a while until the short haired twin grew impatient, growled, downed another drink and got up. He knew he wouldn't be able to get drunk enough for this, not without filling his stomach with alcohol and possibly other substances that were currently illegal in Skyrim. Even then, he'd have trouble getting intoxicated enough to be considered drunk. If he did, it wouldn't last long enough for anything to happen. 'Damned beastblood.'

There she was, sitting at the bar....talking to Hulda. He took the seat beside her. She noticed. He could sense the change in the direction of her attention, even though she hadn't stopped talking yet. He could smell her wild scent, and it was having quite an effect on him. "The Gildergreen sappling is doing quite well. I have a feeling it will grow to be just as beautiful as the last tree." "Dianica didn't think so when I first gave it to her. She'll come around, though." Hulda nodded in response, moving on to other customers.

"So, you're the one that brought that sappling back here?", Vilkas started, grasping for a topic to break the ice. She nodded. "What made you do that?" "I like helping people." He nodded in understanding. "Was Dianica not pleased when you brought it back?" She shook her head, "She sent me for Eldergleam sap to wake the tree, not a sappling to replace it." "Why didn't you get what she asked for?" Then the woman did something to truly startle him. She stabbed the bar in front of him. When she pulled her hand back, an evil looking dagger was standing straight up out of the wood, tip burried deep. "I would have had to hurt the tree.", she simply stated, watching the wood rot around the dagger. "It's Nettlebane. Stole it from the Hagravens up at Orphan Rock. I never want to touch that damned thing again."

Contradictory to her words, she pulled it from the rotting wood, and placed it into a small stone case. "I was planning to give it to Dianica, but she'll have nothing to do with it, so I'm either going to bury it, or destroy it." "That's old magic, isn't it? I've read about it, but to see it with my own eyes..." She downed her mug, "Hulda! Can I get another?" The bartender came over with a bottle of mead, pouring it's contents into the mug,"Careful. Don't want you getting too drunk." The woman scoffed, "I wish I could get drunk enough, let alone too drunk."

This legitimately sparked the male's curiosity, "What did you do?" "Do you really want to know the answer?" "I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know." She sighed,"Bad things to good people. Nature of the war, I suppose." "So, which side did you take?" She laughed humorlessly, a truly terrible sound to grace the Companion's ears, "Whichever paid the most. Happened to be the Legion. Ulfric's heart was in the right place, but his head wasn't. Tullius is just a bastard to everyone. Can't blame either of them."

He'd heard about Ulfric's execution a few days ago. "I hated seeing a truly well meaning man die in such a pitiful way. I'll bet he went to Sovengard. He died fighting." "So, you were there." "I'm the one that killed him." He could tell she was torn up over it, so he scoured his mind for a way to transition to a lighter topic.

"If it makes you feel any better, I've killed at least one of everything in Skyrim. Well...not a dragon." "Would it upset you if I told you that I'm a bona fide dragon slayer?" "Really, now? What makes you qualified to be a dragon slayer?" The female Nord seemed to think for a second before sassily retorting, "My strength." "Are you saying you're stronger than me?", the male asked, feeling challenged by her boast. "Maybe...", she replied slyly. "100 gold says I can take you!" She threw her head back and laughed, "You're on!"

They discarded weapons, and squared up, fists raised. The twin took note of her stance, and the fact that she hadn't thrown a punch yet. "Defensive, eh? Fine.", he thought aloud, he threw a punch from his left. She ducked, grabbed his arm, planted a foot on his ribs and kicked him backwards. He landed across his table. Farkas smirked and raised a mug to him, and Torvar was already out cold from the alcohol.

"Wait a minute.", he stated as he got up. He took note of her still raised hands, but her stance relaxed slightly. 'Leather armor. Easy to move in.' "Let's make this a little more fair, ok?", he said, pulling his heavy armor over his head, leaving him in a light cotton shirt. "So it hurts more when you go down? Fine.", she retorted, tensing up in a defensive stance again.

He threw a punch again, from his right this time. She dodged, but he caught her with an uppercut on her way down. She flowed with the blow, avoiding anything more damaging than a bruise. She smiled brightly, "You sneaky bastard. I love a good challenge." He felt a wolfish grin split his face at the compliment, "You're not too shabby yourself."

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Both came out of the fight pretty evenly matched and bruised...until he pinned her under him. "You threw me off pretty easily before.", he taunted. She snarled playfully at him, "You weren't directly on top of me before." She squirmed under him, arms and legs pinned by his greater weight. He laughed at her efforts, trying to ignore the way she looked and felt when she squirmed underneath him, "Stop squirming so I can get up. It'll do no good to have me fall wrong on you." She stopped, and he got up. Once he was up, he held out a hand for her to take. She looked from him to the outstretched hand. "Never had help up, before?" "First time for everything, I guess.", she replied, taking the offered hand.

Once up, he offered a seat at their table. "This is my brother, Farkas." Said man smiled brightly, "Hello." "And this drunken lout.....is Torvar." The blonde had slumped over into Vilkas's seat. The stranger smiled, "Nice to meet the one that's still conscious." The brothers laughed at the comment. Farkas pulled the unconscious Torvar towards him, effectively pulling him upright and out of his brother's seat. The woman pulled up a seat as Vilkas redressed himself. "So, what brings a woman such as yourself to Whiterun?", Farkas asked. "I actually just got back not long ago, but I was also going to hopefully head out soon. I was going to see if the Steward had any bounties open."

"The Steward tends to give us extra bounties if an influx come in. Giants, trolls, the occasional bandit camp. Things like that.", Vilkas stated, taking a drink of his mead. "I take it you haven't had any?" "No, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. Vilkas here would have already gone if that was the case.", Farkas said, "It's pretty late. You could head up tomorrow." The woman nodded in agreement. Torvar leaned over onto Farkas this time. "I think we should get him home.", Vilkas said, poking the unconscious man in the face.

"Do you need any help getting him home?", she asked. "No.", Farkas said, throwing the blonde over his shoulder. He smiled innocently at her, "Nice meeting you.", then he proceeded to walk out of the tavern. "Show off.", Vilkas lamely retorted, then he turned to the woman, "You, uh..... you never gave us your name." Said woman giggled at his awkwardness, "Kina. My name's Kina." He smiled genuinely. "Well met, Kina.", he said, following his brother out the door.