Honor of the Dragonborn

Translations and Kicking

Krinna had just reached her second trimester. The weeks had been passing peacefully. It was late one evening, Vilkas was ready for bed, but he suddenly realized Krinna was not in bed... With a tired sigh, Vilkas crept out of their bedroom and through the dark manor, hoping to find her without waking up the rest of the family.

"What are you doing love?" Vilkas asked curiously when he found her sitting with a book in the upstairs library. He'd expected her to have come to bed a while ago, she was already wearing her long sleeping tunic, and everyone else had already gone to sleep.
"Hmmm?" Krinna looked up at him from the large leather bound book in her lap. "Oh, Blaise said something at dinner that reminded me of a book I found a couple of years ago and I was just curious." She held up the book and Vilkas saw draconic letters across the cover. "I don't remember where I found it, but it's actually just a translation of a lot of the dovah language."
"Learning anything interesting?" He asked curiously. Vilkas pulled another chair from across the small room and sat beside her. Krinna leaned on his shoulder and shifted the book for him to see it better.
"A bit," she said pointing to a word on the page. Vilkas looked at the page and saw the book was set up almost like a simple dictionary. The word his wife pointed to; 'krin' translated to 'courageous.'
"Well that seems appropriate," he chuckled.
"Glad you think so," Krinna smiled, "Ma told me the word for my name came to her in one of her visions. She added the -nia to make it sound more Nordic, and I dropped the i when I got older. I never knew what it meant though."
Vilkas put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek and she smiled at him. Then she looked down and began flipping back through the pages.
"I thought something like that might be an option for choosing names," she added with an uncertain look at Vilkas.
"Potentially," Vilkas nodded thoughtfully, "any ideas?"
"Not so far," Krinna shook her head. "Beyond that though," she continued looking back at the book, "I've just found a few random interesting things."
"Like what?" Vilkas asked, curiously looking back to the book as well.
"Like 'drem yol lok'  is a standard greeting... 'krosis' means 'sorrow' or 'unfortunate' and can also be used as an apology."
The greeting reminded Vilkas of what Parthunax had said to him when he announced that Krinna had defeated Alduin... the sentence had definitely started with drem yol lok...
"Parthunax greeted me directly when he announced your victory to Whiterun," Vilkas told her as he began to look over the book with interest as well. "But he said more than 'drem yol lok,' it was a whole sentence..."
"Do you remember it?" Krinna asked curiously. Vilkas thought for several moments. It had been nearly three years ago, but the moment had been such an emotional one, it was sort of burned in his memory... he was pretty sure he would at least recognize the words if he heard them again...
"I know it ended with 'dovakiin,' or maybe 'se dovahkiin' ...the other words were something like 'sorot' and 'amul'... I think he said 'drem yol lok, sorot amul se dovahkiin'..."
"Hmmm..." Krinna began flipping to the s section of the book and they skimmed through the words together.
"That's it," Vilkas said suddenly pointing to the word on the page, "'sahrot'." He hadn't remembered it quite right, but close.
"Mighty, great, or significant," Krinna read. "Sounds right to me," she added with a smile. Vilkas blinked in surprise, wondering if he'd remembered that correctly after all. He knew he was among the strongest warriors in all of Tamriel, but it was a bit of a shock to be called something like that by a dragon. He skimmed the other s words on the page just to verify there was nothing else he could be confusing the word for... there was one...
"Or it might have been 'sahvot'," he said, pointing at the other word on the page, but he was still pretty sure he remembered hearing the r and not v...
"Faith, to believe, or faithful," Krinna read, "also potentially appropriate," she nodded. Vilkas smiled at that and planted a kiss to the side of her head.
"Ah, and 'se' means 'of,' or 'belonging to,'"
"So 'se dovahkiin' definitely makes sense," Vilkas nodded with a smile as Krinna began flipping to the a section to look for the other word he remembered...
"That's it, 'ahmul'," Vilkas said a moment later, pointing at the word.
"Husband," Krinna read with a nod.
"So he either called me 'mighty husband of the Dragonborn,' or 'faithful husband of the Dragonborn,'" Vilkas nodded. He was mildly surprised they'd actually been able to make sense of what he'd remembered and find the translation.
"I like both of those," Krinna said turning to look directly at him with a grin.
Vilkas chuckled, "I do too, love." He moved his hand to the side of her face and gently pulled her into a kiss. He felt her smile into the kiss as she snaked one arm around his middle and the other found its way to the back of his head. He loved the feeling of her fingers in his hair... "I think," he said when their lips parted several moments later, "that this would be more comfortable in our bed..."
"Sounds good to me, sahrot ahmul se dovakiin," Krinna replied with a smile. Vilkas thought her adoring smile was the most beautiful and arousing thing in the world. Ahmul se Dovakiin was definitely his favorite of all the titles he'd ever earned.

***

Relaxing at home with her family while her twins developed was a surreal experience for Krinna. She was hungrier than normal, she more tired than normal, and she was grumpier than normal... but at the same time she was happy. It didn't make logical sense, she felt relatively miserable when she thought about it, but she was still happy.
Watching Vilkas prepare for the birth was endearing. He wasn't as overprotective as Farkas had been, but Krinna could tell Vilkas was a bit nervous every time she went out without her armor.
Then the babies got big enough for her to feel them moving... at first it was just a tiny flutter, almost like a muscle spasm... if it hadn't happened in the center of her abdomen where she knew two babies were starting to fidget around in her womb, Krinna would probably have dismissed it as either a muscle twitch or her imagination. As the weeks passed the flutters got stronger, and then they were noticeable kicks and jabs, but still nothing that could be felt from the outside. Finally one night she was laying in bed, on her side, trying to sleep, but the babies would not be still. Vilkas was dozing, but she could hear that he wasn't quite asleep yet...
"Vilkas!" Krinna whispered, looking over her shoulder at him.
"Hmm?" He blinked and then woke up a bit more, "do you need anything my love?"
"Yeah," she smirked, "come here." Vilkas cocked an eyebrow at her as he rolled onto his side, against her back. Krinna reached back and took his hand, and then pulled it across her to rest on the bulge in her belly. Vilkas looked confused for a brief moment and then his eyes went wide in amazement. He gently flattened his hand across her belly and just felt the twins move around for several moments with an awed expression on his face.
"It feels like they're having a boxing match in there," Krinna commented after several moments.
"Aye," Vilkas chuckled. "It's amazing love."
"Mmhmm," Krinna nodded sleepily as she let her head flop back to her pillow. "I just wish they'd do it more during the day and less when I'm trying to sleep," she grumbled.
"Ah," Vilkas said with another quiet chuckle. Vilkas sat up so he could lean over her and kiss her cheek. Then he moved to place a gentle kiss on Krinna's belly. "Alright you two," he said in a low, gentle tone, "settle down in there and let your mother rest. I'll teach you all about how to fight when you're older." He placed another gentle kiss on her belly and to Krinna's surprise, the babies' movements actually calmed down.
"That's actually working," Krinna said looking up at Vilkas in amazement, "your voice is actually soothing them."
"Feels like it," Vilkas nodded with a surprised grin of his own as he gently rubbed Krinna's belly. The babies were still moving, squirming around and such, but the flailing and kicking had stopped. Vilkas settled back on the pillow, still pressed against Krinna's back with his hand draped over her middle. "Get some rest love," he suggested with a kiss to the back of her neck, "if they wake you up again I'll try and soothe them back to sleep."
"Vilkas, you are the best," Krinna smiled happily closing her eyes.
"I know," he replied as he nuzzled into the back of her neck. Krinna could feel the proud smile on his face.