Fire And Fangs

Chapter 24

"I said I am fine, Serana. You don't need to keep asking me if I am alright."

Serana rolled her eyes as they walked, the city of Whiterun appearing through the early morning mist. It had been two weeks since they had retaken Solitude, and in those two weeks, they had been helping out the citizens there in any way they could. Some had asked for a few septims, others had asked if they had anything to fear from the Imperials under a new leader...the questions went on and on, and it was only a matter of time before Morgan had finally lost her temper...and she had Shouted into the sky.

No-one bothered her or Serana after that.

The members of the Dark Brotherhood had vanished the same night the fighting had ended, and had taken 8000 septims from the vaults as payment. Elisif had been angry at the fact that they had taken the money without her consent, but she also knew that they wouldn't have helped them if they had been expected to fight for free.

Morgan had then asked Elisif if she needed anything else, and she had shaken her head as she had embraced her gently, telling her to go home and take some time off for her own needs. After a little persuasion from Serana, Morgan had agreed...and now here they were, nearly back home.

"Morgan. Stop. We need to talk about what happened."

Morgan sighed and ran her hand across her face. She knew that Serana would keep asking her until she gave in. she was worse than Lydia when it came to being fussed over.

But Lydia doesn't feel for you like Serana does a part of her mind told her in a whisper. That was the truth, and Morgan wasn't sure how she should approach this...so she simply nodded to Serana and sat down on the stone bridge that crossed the river and waited for her to speak.

"You cannot keep thinking that you should have been there for them, Morgan. We were around half a days walk away, and we had no way of knowing they were there." Serana said as she sat down next to her, keeping her hood covering her face so that the sun wouldn't touch her skin. As if on cue, Serana spoke again.

"When did you feed last?"

Morgan sighed and ran her fingers along her eyes gently. She felt tired and irritable and had felt this way for...

"Four days."

"Fucks sake. Drink this and sip it." Serana said, passing her a bottle of blood.

Morgan did as asked and as the red substance went down her throat, she started feeling a little better.

"You have been starving yourself since you saw what had happened. You cannot do that. After four days or so, you become almost feral. Any further days after that, then you become even worse than that. So...are we going to talk about it or what?"

Morgan knew that she had been a complete idiot, but after hearing how close she had come to being an animal shocked her more than she wanted to admit.

"You're right." she said after a moment.

Four days earlier, southwest of Morthal...

"Where's that smoke coming from? There are no settlements here." Morgan said as she watched the black clouds of smoke rise from beyond the hill.

Serana shook her head. She didn't know much about Skyrim like she used to. Only Solitude and Whiterun had been around the last time she had been awake.

"I don't know...maybe a dragon attack?"

Morgan nodded. That was likely. The bastards were still around despite Alduin being defeated and every so often, someone would be attacked on the roads or a town would get a brief attack from one of the dovah.