To Protect the Dragonborn

A Rabbit Among Wolves

Farkas went to find Duna and was relieved to find she had slept in and was still in her bed in the whelp room. He thought about how relieved she must be to be sleeping in a bed again, and decided not to disturb her.

When she did finally get up, the first thing she wanted was a bath. After that Farkas reminded her to go to Eorland to get her new skyforge steel sword. Then he watched as she practiced with it in the yard for a bit.

Athis came out and gave her a few pointers, and Farkas just watched as they had a casual sparring match, wondering when would be a good time to talk to her about what his brother had told him. Then Skjor came out to watch her as well and Farkas noticed she was almost immediately uncomfortable with that. She conceded the match only a few minutes later and excused herself to the market saying she needed to sell some things and buy more potions.

Farkas followed her hastily and caught her right before the steps of Jorrvaskr. She had taken her helmet off and was ready to casually walk through the streets of Whiterun...

"May wanna at least keep your helmet on," he advised in a low voice.

"Why?" Duna asked, looking back at him in alarm.

"Didn't want to mention it in front of the others, but Vilkas told me we've been hired to find a noble woman who got kidnapped," Farkas explained. Duna's eyes went wide in fear as she clearly caught his meaning. "Before you panic," Farkas added gently, "Vilkas figured out they meant you, so he didn't take their money. Kodlak agreed, we won't sell you out, but we wanna be careful someone else doesn't recognize you, no tellin' who else they showed your picture to."

"I see," she sighed, visibly relaxing as she stepped back to the wall to dig through her enchanted gear pack.

She pulled her leather helmet out and looked at it thoughtfully before putting it back on. It hid her hair, but her eyes were still fairly noticeable, and Farkas realized Vilkas was right, it was a wonder the Imperials hadn't recognized her.

"I guess that explains what Kodlak meant last night when he told me not to worry because 'we look after our own here'... that's a bit of a relief actually," she smiled. "They weren't mad were they?"

"Nah," Farkas shook his head, "you never lied to us, and Vilkas understood why you told them what you did. They're more worried about makin' sure you stay disguised."

"Ok," Duna nodded, "thank you."

"You want some extra muscle while you shop?" Farkas offered, "just in case?"

"Well I thought I could handle shopping on my own," she chuckled, "but if you're not busy I definitely won't mind some extra security."

"Alright then," Farkas smiled.

The shopping trip was pretty uneventful. Farkas didn't like the sleazy Breton that ran the general goods store, but he gave Duna good prices now that she was a Thane, so Farkas didn't complain.

When they got back Duna went up to the forge to talk to Eorland and sharpen her new sword while Farkas finally took his opportunity to go to the washroom himself.

Duna was up at the skyforge till Farkas called her down for dinner. He suspected she was still avoiding the rest of the Circle members.

Then at dinner Farkas noticed Skjor sit down next to Duna and whisper something to her, which Farkas thought was suspicious... but Duna didn't seem any more nervous than she had been with Skjor all day, and Farkas hadn't thought much more of it...

So Farkas was surprised when he was woken in the middle of the night by a knock on his door. He could smell Duna on the other side... her pulse was nervous...