Skyrim - A Story

Chapter 5

Farkas and I stood in a vast room, heralded by a huge monumental wall at the very end of the room. There was a huge embalming table in the middle of the room, and upon that sat a pedestal. We walked further into the room, and saw the room was lined with stone coffins along the walls. Just in front of the huge table, was one coffin. That was probably a leader.
"Go grab the piece, but first, check and see if there's any good loot,"
I nodded, and scanned the room. Beside the gigantic wall thing, was a large ornate chest. I opened it, and found about two hundred gold pieces, a shield, a necklace and three rubies. The shield would come in handy, I grabbed it for myself. I put the gold and rubies in my pack. The necklace I shoved in the pack too.
"Anything else of value?" He called.
"No," I said, going to grab the fragment of Wuuthrad. I put it in my pack, and went to join Farkas.
"Got it?"
"Yeah,"
"Well, let's go," he said. "Now where's the way out?"
Suddenly, three coffins burst open and their occupants stalked out, brandishing axes and swords.
"Here we go again..." he sighed, and we both went to meet the draugr head on.
~
The last draugr fell at my blade.
"There's the last of them," Farkas commented. "Oh, and there's the way out," he pointed. It looked like one of the coffins was false backed. It had a passage behind it.
"Um, Farkas?"
"Yeah, Zelda?"
"Am I going to get in trouble for seeing what I saw today?"
"Oh, no, you won't," he said, "But I probably will," he sighed and scratched the nape of his neck. He looked out over the plain, it was probably sunset. I climbed out of the cairn, walking up the stone steps.
"Oh hey, you really can see Whiterun city from here," I said, surprised.
"Told you, Zelda," he chuckled. "Now, let's go, I don't want to be out here any longer..." he shuddered.
~
"We've been awaiting your return, whelp," Vilkas says. He stood in front of Jorrvaskr, like a sentinel. "Follow me," he said, mostly to me. Farkas already knew what was up, so he ran ahead.
The Circle, stood waiting for me in the middle of the training yard. The others all stood on the stone steps near the outdoor dining tables. They all watched, almost as if this were a court case of some kind. Kodlak stood, with Aela to his left, and Skjor to his right. Farkas took his place beside Aela and Vilkas went to Skjor.
"We shall take judgement upon your actions today," Kodlak spoke.
"Using this Trial, we assess your competency to bear arms with your fellow Shield Siblings," Aela continued.
"Should you not pass this test, we'll merely assign you to lesser jobs until the time comes again for you to retry," Vilkas said.
"Your Shield Brother will pass judgement on you," Skjor finished.
Farkas looked at me, then turned to the rest of the Circle.
"This woman, young as she might be, has proven herself worthy of the name Shield Sister. She holds her head in grave situations, and I would have her back, as she mine, as though the world may never overtake us,"
"Hmm. Very philosophical, Farkas," Kodlak chuckled. "But nevertheless, his word stands. Well, girl, you're one of us now," Kodlak said to me, as the rest of the Circle, and the other members retired to dinner.
"Thank you, sir,"
"Please, call me Kodlak. Oh, now that I think of it, what do they call you, lass?"
"I'm Zelda," I replied.
"Such a flowery name, but it suits you," he complimented. "Do you have any questions for me, at all, Zelda?"
I instantly thought of the Silver Hand incident.
"One," I said quietly.
"What is it?"
"Is it true?" I asked.
He smirked slightly. "Ah," he said, "I see you've been allowed in on some secrets before your appointed time,"
"It was an accident, sorry,"
"No no, it's okay, it is true. However only the Circle has the Blood,"
"Well, you see, in the cairn, we both went to look at a suspicious thing, and it turned out to be a trap, and well, Farkas protected me from the Silver Hand that attacked us--"
"The Silver Hand? Oh."
"Yeah..."
"Hm. Well, I have some things to be doing, so I'll leave you to your celebrations, Zelda. Goodnight," he started to walk away.
"Goodnight," I said, still standing in the now quiet training yard.
"Oh, and Zelda?" He turned slightly.
"Yes, Kodlak?"
"Go and see Eorlund, for a better weapon than whatever, that, is," he chuckled. "Think of it as a congratulations present,"
"Thank you!" I smiled.
The weapon would have to wait.
I pushed open the doors, walking into the mead hall. There was a loud roar of cheering, mostly coming from Farkas.
"Here she is!! The champion maiden of the hour, Zeldaaaa!" He yelled out, holding a half full tankard to the ceiling. Everyone let out another roar, their tankards flying up too.
"Come have a drink with me~" a Nord wearing leather armour, and had a gruffy beard slurred, he sounded perpetually drunk.
"Uh, thank you but I don'--"
"Come onnnnn~" The woman with the face paint slurred, grabbing at my arm. "It's your party~" she snickered.
I looked across to Aela, who shrugged minimally. It appeared she didn't have an opinion on it.
"Oh okay then, I'll have one,"
One turned into ten.
~
The next morning I sat up, head throbbing.
Tilma stood in the doorway.
"Oh, finally awake, hm? That was quite some celebrating you did last night," she chuckled.
"Oof, my head..." I groaned. "What did I do exactly?"
"I remember everything," she chuckled. "You had a drinking competition with Torvar, then arm wrestled Njada, sung a drunken duet with Ria, and then tried to woo Vilkas," she swept the hallway between the two dorms.
"Oh," I went red.
"Oh indeed," she chuckled. "It's okay, usually it's pretty crazy when a whelp becomes a proper member of the Companions. Don't think too badly of yourself,"

I crawled out of bed, dressed in my armour, the nice steel set I claimed from a chest somewhere sometime, and set off upstairs.
"Here's the rockstar!" The gruffy guy called out with a grin.
"How's the head this morning, hun?" The face paint woman asked sweetly.
"I've felt better..." I cringed, as the gruffy guy walked past the table next to me and knocked an empty solid tankard to the ground with a resounding (and painful) clank.
"Oh, um, Skjor and Aela were looking for you too," the woman continued, watching me a little pitifully. "Go find them once you wash up, would be my suggestion,"
"Where would I find them?" I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
"Hm, I think I saw Aela downstairs earlier, and Skjor, well, Skjor I don't know," she answered, a mouth full of food.
I finished my breakfast, well, more like brunch, and stalked off downstairs to wash up.
There was a tap on my shoulder, and a voice whispered into my ear, "Look under your pillow," the female voice said, "Don't tell anyone, and don't be late,"
Then as quick as I heard it, she was gone.
I casually walked back to my bed, and slid my hand under the pillow. I pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment.
The Underforge, tonight.
Ps - Vilkas was looking for you, go see what he wants first.
S&A
I looked at the paper. S and A?
Skjor and Aela were looking for me, Aela found me first, I have this note, and it's also telling me to look for Vilkas.
My memory flashed back the awful picture from last night's madness. Me trying to woo Vilkas, according to Tilma.

I walked down, and knocked on the door that I believed to be Vilkas's room. The door didn't open. So I knocked again.
There was the sound of a door opening, and a curt voice snapped at me, "What are you doing?"
I turned to see Vilkas standing in a completely different doorway.
"Y-you were looking for me?"
"Yes, get in here," he said, quickly looking around the hallway. "And be quick about it,"
I walked inside, and Vilkas shut the door.  "Take a seat," he said, gesturing to either the chair, or the bed. The bed was closer, so I sat there, perched on the edge.
He took the chair.
"Is this about last night?" I asked sheepishly.
He chuckled, "Despite the hilarity of it, and how flattered I am that you'd actually tried something as such, no," he said. "This is something completely different,"
I nodded.
Then he turned serious.
"What are Skjor and Aela planning?" His ice blue eyes, almost soulless, stared me down.
~
I wasn't supposed to tell him.
I wasn't supposed to tell anyone.