My Random Skyrim Stories

Good Advice (1)

(Another short fic inspired by my playthrough with a Breton Dragonborn on my PC where I managed to glitch several things.
In this one I ended up taking both Farkas and Lydia with me for several quests. It has the same parings as a few others I've written recently, but it's a new story from a different perspective at least.)

Elyzara, who had been affectionately nicknamed Zara way back when she'd first joined the Companions, had become the Harbinger nearly two years prior... she also happened to be the Dragonborn.

Even though all of her shield-siblings assured her it wasn't the case, Zara couldn't help but feel she'd been a pretty poor excuse for a Harbinger while she was off fighting dragons and never home.

Now that she had finally completed her duty as Dragonborn and defeated Alduin, she was determined to actually do more Companions' jobs like she figured a young Harbinger was supposed to.

She got herself dressed and ready for the day, braiding her long coppery hair out of the way and donning her trusty wolf armor. Even though she'd cleansed her beast blood along with the twins over a year ago, she still found the old symbol of the wolf rather suitable for herself and the rest of the Companions. Even without the beast blood, many of the Companions still operated something similar to a wolf pack.

As for Zara herself, she couldn't say why, but she was just particularly fond of wolves. She always had been. When she conjured a familiar it took the shape of a wolf— always had, ever since she'd first conjured it as a little girl.

Conjuring a familiar and casting a simple spell to heal herself was where her magical talents ended though... she actually suspected she was half Nord— and not just because her mother had never mentioned who her father was...

Zara had never met or even heard of a Breton who could manage heavy armor the way she could. She wasn't fast, she could stand her ground in a fight much better than someone her height looked like she should have been able to.

The Companions had become her new home so easily once she left Riften. She was proud to be able to say she'd defeated Alduin wearing Companions' armor and wielding Wuuthrad.

Vilkas and Farkas had trained her, and trained her well. Aside from Lydia, actually, the twins had become her dearest friends.

She smiled softly to herself as she thought of Farkas and Lydia. Zara had noticed some time ago that her housecarl had taken interest in the Companions' heavy armor specialist. She also noticed more recently that those interests seemed to be mutual.

It was actually adorable to watch the two of them shyly interacting, blushing over the littlest things, smiling sheepishly.

Farkas had become Zara's favorite shield-brother in the last month, mostly because he and Lydia worked so well together. There was very little the three of them couldn't handle. She had already told him to be ready to set out for their next job that morning, and she suspected he'd be already upstairs and ready to go by the time she got there.

Now all she needed was a job...

Vilkas had been keeping track of most of their latest requests that might be serious enough to merit the Harbinger of the Companions taking a shield-sibling and a housecarl to deal with.

Besides that, if she was being honest with herself, she had a bit of a soft spot for Vilkas... though, unfortunately, he seemed to have gotten rather irritated and distant with her in the last month. She couldn't make any sense of why, he'd seemed to be such a genuine friend these last two years...

They'd spent many an evening sitting up, drinking and reading a book together... he'd even given her a few books to take with her on her travels...

...but now, even when their conversations started off pleasant, they always seemed to end in him getting grumpy and clamming up. Zara missed her friend.

Taking a deep breath and hoping for better results this morning, Zara made her way out of her room and upstairs.

She found Vilkas in his usual spot eating his breakfast. She gave him a friendly smile as she sat beside him, and his usual scowl softened a bit.

"You planning to stick around and train, or are you heading off somewhere again?" He asked curiously.

"I figured if you're stuck training whelps all day, somebody needs to bring in the coin," she replied elbowing him playfully, "what contracts have we got?"

"Actually," he smirked slightly in response to her elbow, "we have a bit of a sensitive matter this time. A wealthy family has... misplaced one of their heirlooms," he said as he handed her the letter, "they claim the culprits are vampires," he added warningly, "I try not to listen to swaggle like that, but figured it was good to know..."

"Ooh, killing vampires and bringing in coin," Zara nodded as she skimmed the request. "I think I can manage this."

"I'm sure you can," Vilkas said with a slight smile and an approving nod, "but it... it might be wise to take a shield-brother for this one..."

Zara smiled. She was happy to hear him showing concern for her, it made her feel a warm, fluttering in her chest, and her cheeks might have flushed a little.

"Don't worry," she assured him, "Farkas has been ready to go since yesterday, we just needed a job to go on."

"I... I see," he said, suddenly looking back to his plate with a furrowed brow. "I'm sure you'll bring honor to the Companions then," he said a little stiffly before getting to his feet and heading for the training yard.

Zara watched him go with a furrowed brow of her own, feeling slightly like she'd just been punched in the stomach.

She shouldn't have been surprised at this point, that had been pretty much how he ended all of their conversations lately. She just wished she knew what she'd done to make him this grumpy again.