My Random Skyrim Stories

Noticed (13) Epilogue

"You wanna run that by me again you fucking drunk?"

Vilkas cringed at the sound of Inga's yelling carrying through the mead hall and hurried up the stairs... Inga had gone up only a few minutes ahead of him, and even though she'd been plenty happy with him as they'd gotten up and dressed that morning, Vilkas was expecting someone would need a healer if he didn't get up there quickly and calm his wife down.

They'd been married a little over two years now, and Vilkas could honestly say he'd never been happier... and he knew Inga shared his sentiments... but it didn't take much to set off her temper these days...

"I didn't mean you look like a whale!" Torvar was sputtering frantically and backing toward the door when Vilkas reached the dining hall, "I meant... most women your size look like a whale— you're carryin' it really well!"

"You're about to be carrying your head between your ass cheeks really well," Inga snarled as she lunged at him.

Torvar dodged very ungracefully and was only spared from Inga's left hook because Inga wasn't as quick as she used to be.

Vilkas rushed forward and caught Inga under her arms from behind before she could chase after Torvar as he darted out the door.

"Easy love," Vilkas said, doing his best not chuckle and anger her further, "I'll break Torvar's nose for you if you need me to, let's not have you over-do it..."

Inga huffed grumpily and leaned against him, resting her hand atop her round belly as she let Vilkas haul her to the bench beside the door.

"I do look like a whale," she grumbled once they'd sat down.

"No you don't," he smirked placing a kiss to the side of her head, "whales aren't near so beautiful."

"I feel like one though... I'm starting to think there's two of them in here," she sighed, looking down at her stomach.

"It's certainly possible," Vilkas nodded bringing his hand up to rest on top of the large bulge in her belly. He grinned proudly as he promptly felt a firm kick underneath his hand.

She was in the seventh month of her pregnancy, but her belly was large enough that most who saw her expected her to be in the ninth.

She'd handled most of the pregnancy well. She only got a little ill and tired in her first trimester, then she'd had her armor refit to cover and protect her belly so she could continue training in her second trimester, but now that she'd reached the third trimester, he sheer size was starting to cause her trouble.

She couldn't move as quickly as she used to. That, and concerns about her belly getting in the way, had pretty well stopped her training, which was making her restless and grumpy. She also wasn't sleeping as well because the baby— or possibly babies would move around and kick so much in the night. And then of course there was the simple, obvious problem of the large belly just making her feel awkward and uncomfortable; her back was starting to hurt, and her feet would be swollen by the end of each day.

Vilkas thought she was still the most gorgeous woman he'd ever laid eyes on. He made sure to remind her of that frequently— and not just to avoid the wrath of her temper. He was genuinely over the moon to be a father. Seeing Inga pregnant with his child was an amazingly beautiful thing to Vilkas.

"Come on love," he smiled, "let's get you some breakfast and then you can watch me kick Torvar's ass in the yard. I think Tilma just took out a fresh batch of sweet rolls."

Inga sighed again and gave him sheepish smile, and Vilkas helped her back to her feet.

When they got outside with a plate of hot sweet rolls, they found Farkas and Ria laughing at Torvar's explanation of why he'd just been chased out of the mead hall.

"You had that coming," Ria told him, shaking her head.

"You're lucky Vilkas got there when he did," Farkas nodded.

"Oh he's still getting a beating," Vilkas smirked as Inga sat down at the table, "we're just not going to make the Harbinger waste her time with it," he added, cracking his knuckles.

Torvar groaned. "I said I was sorry!"

"Can I have one of those?" Ria asked Inga, looking at the plate of sweet rolls with interest.

Inga narrowed her eyes...

"Please?" Ria added with a hopeful smile.

"I guess," Inga sighed, handing her one of the hot pastries, "but only 'cause you're family."

"Thank you," Ria smiled gratefully.

They settled into a comfortable silence while the women enjoyed their sweet rolls and Vilkas contemplated how he was going to make Torvar sorry...

Then Ria suddenly set her sweet roll down with a furrowed brow, and then even more suddenly got up and dashed inside looking like she was going to be sick.

"What the...?" Farkas hurried after her in concerned confusion while Vilkas and Inga exchanged confused looks as well.

"The rolls seem fine..." Inga said, warily stopping and examining the one she'd been in the middle of.

"Aye... they look and smell normal," Vilkas agreed looking after them in concern.

Vilkas headed inside to make sure his brother and sister-in-law had all of the help they needed before coming back out to make sure Torvar didn't get off the hook.

Ria's mysterious illness passed as quickly as it had come... and then returned the next morning... and the next...

By the third morning that saw Ria throwing up the first thing she ate, everyone suspected that her 'problem' was in fact good news, and Farkas eagerly took her down to the temple of Kynareth for a check-up.

Vilkas had heard Farkas's gleeful cheers all the way from Jorrvaskr when Danica confirmed their suspicions.

"Sounds like our whelp will have a cousin to play with," Vilkas grinned.

"Sounds like it," Inga agreed with a smile, but then she suddenly stopped with a grimace...

"Are you alright, love?" Vilkas asked worriedly.

"Yeah, but I think you mean our whelps," she grumbled, "I just got kicked in the kidney and the ribs at the same time."

"Ah," Vilkas nodded, getting up to rub her back.

"Life is certainly about to get interesting around here," Tilma smiled as she brought Inga another venison chop.

And Tilma was certainly right...

Two months later Inga gave birth to a pair of healthy twin girls with full heads of dark hair and bright blue eyes.

Six months after that, Farkas and Ria had a baby boy who looked nearly the same.

...and that was just the beginning.