To Protect the Dragonborn

Uneasy Questions

As they continued through Dustmans Cairn, Farkas let his depression give way to anger... not at Duna at all, but at the Silver Hand... if they hadn't disrupted Duna's trial he could have told her about his beast blood in his own way, at an appropriate time... now he was sure she was traumatized by him and all his hopes for the relationship he wanted to build were gone.

Fortunately anger was more useful than depression; depression would have had him give up, but anger fueled him to keep going.

There were a few more Silver Hand hiding out in the cairn, several of which fell to Farkas's hammer before they could draw their weapons, and Duna took the rest of them out with her bow before they even saw her. She also took out most of the draugr; Farkas only had to handle a few with his hammer. There were also a few spiders, but none of them were as big as the one they'd found in Bleakfalls Barrow.

Duna seemed to calm down some as they made their way through the passageways, but Farkas still noticed she was keeping her distance from him. She didn't crouch close to him for cover anymore, or jump toward him when something startled her... it just made him more angry at the Silver Hand.

Then they found the room with the fragment of Wuuthrad.

"Is this it?" Duna asked, carefully picking up the fragment from the pedestal it was on.

"Looks like it," Farkas grunted. He was about to comment on the wall of ancient dragon text like the one they'd seen in the barrow, but then he heard draugr stirring in their sarcophagi. He drew his hammer as several popped open and the ancient undead Nords rushed at them.

Duna jumped back and was soon shooting arrows. The draugr all swarmed towards him... there were more in this chamber than had been in the other rooms, and the sarcophagi were arranged all around the room, so it was easy for the draugr to surround him as they emerged. Several fell to Duna's bow before they reached him, but there were too many... Farkas was tired from his transformation and he was starting to worry he was going to be overwhelmed, but then suddenly...

"FUS RO!" Two draugr behind him were sent flying and moments later Duna was standing at his back, with her sword and dagger drawn.

He wasn't able to really watch her as much as he wanted to as they fought, but he could tell her training with Athis had been paying off.  After several adrenaline filled minutes a total of seventeen draugr lay dead, and nothing else moved. Farkas looked back over his shoulder to see Duna sheath her sword and dagger with a sigh. She pulled her bow back out and continued scanning the room.

"That all of them?" She asked a moment later in a nervous voice.

"Think so," he nodded, he didn't smell anymore. "You alright?"

"...Yeah," she replied, but she still sounded hesitant.

She had just rushed in to fight at his back, but she was still afraid of him, he realized sadly.

...but she did at least still care enough to have come to help him... It was exactly what a shield-sister was supposed to do.

"You did good," he commented in an even tone, "you'll be a good Companion."

"Thanks," she mumbled. She didn't sound happy, and she looked down, avoiding his eyes. "I'm going to check out that dragon word wall before we get out of here," she added before taking off and jumping quickly back up to the wall.

Farkas just watched as she looked over the wall and one of the words lit up for a moment... he'd guessed that was what they did when she learned a new word for a dragon shout. He put his hammer back on his back and walked slowly up to stand behind her, but he made sure to stay several yards back.