The Dragonborn's Family

The Bannered Mare

Set before the beginning of "His Harbinger"
The story of the night Farkas met Lydia, told from Farkas's perspective.
I'm considering expanding on this and turning it into its own separate work, let me know what y'all think!

***
"Shor's bones, what brings you handsome men in tonight?" The barmaid asked as she brought drinks to the dark-haired, silver-eyed twins.
'Oh no,' Farkas thought as he noticed the over exaggerated sway of her hips, 'she's new...' Farkas took his mead with a grunt.
"Just needed to relax," Vilkas told her politely, accepting his own mead.
"Well in that case, your next round is on me," the barmaid said with a wink at Vilkas as she sauntered away.
"Wonderful," Vilkas said with a smirk, and then to Farkas, "our usual wager?"
"Nah," Farkas shook his head, "she's already pretty obviously looking at you."
"Aye," Vilkas nodded, "but you wouldn't have to work too hard to steal from me..."
"Nope," Farkas chuckled, "this one's your problem brother."
"Which means so are the free drinks," Vilkas chuckled before raising his mug and taking a long drink.
The brothers didn't come to the tavern that often, they could drink for free at Jorrvaskr, but every so often they just needed to relax with a change of scenery. Alcohol was usually a good way to dull down the call of their beast blood and relax. A barmaid trying to dangle herself in front of them like a piece of meat was not. Unfortunately, that was a relatively common occurrence when they went out for drinks. The brothers used to make bets on which one of them would have to turn the poor girl down first, but lately Farkas had gotten tired of that game. He especially wasn't interested while some of the whelps he had been training were sitting at a nearby table as well.
Farkas watched as Torvar tried to flirt with the barmaid, but she obviously didn't pay him near as much attention. Ria rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm, and Athis laughed at him.

Vilkas finished his mead and motioned to the barmaid with his empty mug. The barmaid wasted little time in returning with more.
"I went ahead and brought two," she giggled, walking up with four mugs, "you two look like you can handle a lot, if you don't mind me saying..." she gave Vilkas another wink and Farkas resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"You can say whatever you like if the drinks are free," Vilkas laughed.
"Do whatever I like huh?" The barmaid asked in a sultry tone, running a finger along one of the shoulder plates on Vilkas's armor. Vilkas raised a hand and gently pushed her away.
"I said 'say,'not 'do,'" he corrected firmly. The barmaid giggled, clearly not taking him seriously.
"Oh I see, you like to be more private. Don't worry, I have a room for that," she gave him another exaggerated wink.
"Not interested." Vilkas shook his head, "we just came to drink and relax."
"Well, how about," the barmaid giggled and leaned over their table 'accidentally' showing off a lot of her cleavage, "your drinks are all on me tonight? ...and then this is for when you change your mind," she reached into the front of her dress and pulled out a room key. "I can make sure you have a good night."
Farkas watched his brother raise an eyebrow and smirk as she handed him the key.
"Which room?" Vilkas asked in a low tone.
"Second one on the left," she giggled before turning to walk away, again with an exaggerated sway to her hips.
"By Ysmir," Vilkas swore and then grabbed one of the mugs and chugged it.
"Think you set a new record," Farkas chuckled once Vilkas put the mug down.
"That is the first time I've gotten propositioned while trying to turn the woman down," Vilkas said staring at the key in disbelief.
Farkas noticed Torvar watching incredulously as well.

Several drinks later, Farkas's eye was drawn to the door as one of the guards walked in. A Nord woman with a guards' shield and a steel sword on her hip. There was nothing particularly impressive about her, what grabbed his attention was that off-duty guards rarely came in alone. She took her helmet off and sat down at the bar. Farkas felt his heart rate increase and his wolf stirred in his chest... 'probably the alcohol,' he thought... She had messy brown hair with a couple of braids, her cheeks were lightly flushed and her lips looked soft and full, and with his keen wolf eyesight, he could see she had beautiful blue eyes. Farkas was glad his brother had probably had too many drinks by then to notice what this guard was doing to him. He just watched quietly as she sat at the bar and ordered a drink.

"I've had enough," Vilkas said a moment later, pulling Farkas's attention back to his brother. Farkas watched as Vilkas stood and stretched, and Farkas could tell he was a little bit drunk. Vilkas pulled the room key back out of his pocket. He chuckled as he looked at it. "Let's see... second one on the left..." Vilkas slowly pointed to the correct door and then walked over to it.
"He doesn't have to rub it in," Torvar grumbled.
Vilkas reached the door with several eyes on him, and then, with a chuckle he slid the key under the door and walked back to his seat.
"Why in Oblivion did you do that?" Torvar asked in disbelief.
"Because I'm not interested in a good night," Vilkas grumbled. "If I bed a woman I want her to be my wife, not a tavern whore."
Farkas just laughed at the dumbfounded expression on Torvar's face.
"I'm heading home," Vilkas said bluntly to Farkas, not waiting for Torvar to respond.
"I'll head back in a bit," Farkas replied.
"Don't get too drunk," Vilkas warned before he left.
Once he was gone Farkas heard Hulda tell the new barmaid; "I told you so. That's Vilkas of the Companions, he and his brother have never been the type to take the barmaids to bed."

Farkas finished his mead, trying to keep his attention off of the guard woman he'd noticed. She looked strong.
He'd definitely had a little too much to drink, because he didn't hear someone approaching behind him. He was startled as a soft pair of hands snaked slowly across his shoulders.
"I bet you're a lot more fun than your brother anyway," the same barmaid whispered in a sultry tone.
"Nope," Farkas said flatly. He gently removed her hands from his shoulders and stood up to leave, not bothering to look back to see her disappointed face. He was making his way to the door when a small commotion broke out at the bar.
One of the men was drunk and yelling something mostly incomprehensible at the guard. Farkas caught something about "guards serving the people," and he hurried forward to intervene.
"I said no, you stupid excuse for a Nord!" The guard woman yell just before she punched a drunk patron square in the jaw. The man was out like a light before he hit the ground. Farkas stared at the man that had just landed at his feet, he was not a small man. Farkas was impressed.
"That... that was... wow..." he stuttered as he looked back up at the woman. Then Farkas froze as she turned to glare at him next, raising her fists.
"You want some too, Companion?" She challenged angrily. Farkas held his hands up non-combatively.
"No, was just coming to help, but you clearly didn't need it," Farkas said, doing his best to sound calm. His beast blood pounded in his ears. She smelled of mead, steel, and sweat, with an underlying hint of lavender. Her eyes were a little bloodshot, and Farkas suspected she was at least a little drunk. "Wouldn't dare hit a guard," he added earnestly. The woman slowly lowered her fists looking over him suspiciously, then after a moment her expression cracked into a mischievous smirk.
"Afraid I'd beat you?" She asked.
Farkas responded with a smug grin. "Not likely," he chuckled.
"We can see about that," she replied, still smirking. She sat back down on her bar stool, and then placed her arm on the bar and held her hand out, challenging him to arm-wrestle. "Loser buys the drinks," she offered.
"Alright," Farkas grinned as he sat down and took her hand.

Farkas was impressed... she was strong. He won, but not nearly as easily as he was expecting to. She kept her word and bought them each another drink.
"I'm Farkas," he introduced himself as Hulda handed them their drinks.
"Lydia," the woman smiled back at him.