At long last, we'd be able to see our loved ones again. Even though it had only been a day since the end of the bloody conflict, I couldn't wait any longer to hold my children once again.
Our remaining soldiers had done an amazing job of cleaning the streets. The blood had been soaked away, the bodies cleaned and currently on their way to various Holds for their families to bury. The Thalmor were long gone, marching across Skyrim to the nearest port, where ships waited to take them back to their own home. Never again would they come to scourge us.
Still, not everything could escape change. The marketplace stalls were in disarray, the lampposts outside of shops scuffed and scorched, and the front gates were burnt beyond repair. We had double the number of guards posted at the city's entrance, to make sure no bandits got any bright ideas while we were waiting for the next gate to be rebuilt.
The stables, too, had been harmed, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. Standing in front of the stalls, I glanced over the nicks and burn marks in the wooden siding, thankful that Whiterun had fared better than we could've hoped. The Thalmor hadn't been concerned with burning the city down with us still in it. They must've been counting on their war machines, but the gods had shown us favor and destroyed them.
"The trees will regrow," murmured Vilkas, nodding toward the bald patches in the forest between us and Riverwood. "The forest will come back strong."
"I know," I replied as I took his hand in mine. "I can see the wagons."
It didn't take long for the rest of Whiterun's soldiers to spot the carts carrying their families closer and closer to our home. Men and women around me whispered, danced in place, held onto each other with the anticipation of seeing their loved ones again.
Just in front of me, Sofie gripped Eirik's hand until the poor boy's fingers had turned as white as his sweetheart's hair. No doubt, they were nervous to see what Eorlund and Fralia would say about their budding romance. They could handle whatever came their way. They were Companions, after all.
Even I had butterflies in my stomach. Not only would my children be on their way back to us, but we were going to meet our new niece or nephew. I only hoped Farkas had made it in time to witness the birth of his third child.
I spotted Farkas's broad shoulders in the first wagon, and he had his wife's blonde head leaning against him. On his other side sat Bria, and she had little Kale in her arms. Across from them were our children, and as soon as we saw each other, their little faces lit up.
It was agony to wait until the wagons rolled to a stop in front of us, but as soon as the horses stopped moving, we rushed the carts to hold our loved ones again. Vilkas and I jogged toward the front wagon and barely made it there in time to catch our twins as they flung themselves into our arms. I caught Jergen under his arms while Vilkas managed to scoop Embla behind her shoulders and knees, bringing her wriggling form into his chest.
"There's my girl!" he laughed, nuzzling his nose against hers. "Keep Jergen in line, did you?"
"He was brave, Papa," she said back while she wrapped her arms around his neck. "So brave. Auntie Tyra needed us to be strong for her when the baby came, and we were brave until Uncle Farkas got there."
"I'm sure you both were," I said, walking closer to the carriage as my burly brother-in-law hopped out of the cart with two of his children in his arms. Once his feet were on stable ground, he put Bria down, turned on his heel, and held his hands up to ease Tyra out of the wagon.
Now, without the railing of the cart in the way, I spotted a small bundle of gray wool in Tyra's arms. She bent down, kissed it, then grabbed Farkas's hand to ease herself down.
"Are you all right?" I asked, shocked that she was up and walking just a day after giving birth. "Do you need our help?"
Tyra shook her head. "No, Ylva, I'm fine." Then, she walked up to me and presented the bundle. "Meet Kensley, your nephew."
Vilkas and I craned in to look down as Tyra pulled back the flap hiding the baby from us. Once we laid eyes on his scrunched, red face, my heart melted. He was smaller than I expected, since Tyra had gone to full term with him, but that only made him all the more delicate. The mop of dark hair across his wrinkled scalp surprised me, too, since their other children had been wheat-blonde right out of the womb.
"Oh, Tyra, he is precious."
"I was there to catch him," said Farkas, pride beaming across his smiling face. I couldn't imagine how he must've been feeling, seeing his wife with his new son.
Only hours ago, Tyra and Farkas welcomed this new baby into the world. A new world. A better world than the one he was conceived in.
As one big family, we walked up the path back to Whiterun. I set Jergen down, Vilkas helped Embla back to the ground, and we led the way back to Jorrvaskr. With little evidence of the battle from the day before, no one would've suspected anything had happened. Sure, there was damage to the walls, gates, and ground, but nothing that couldn't be fixed in a matter of weeks. Everything would return to normal before long.
Just in time for the Moot.
Gods, I dreaded the Moot. I had no idea what to expect, and that worried me. When I oversaw the temporary truce signing at High Hrothgar before capturing Odahviing in Dragonsreach, I had seen just how three Jarls in the same room behaved. Ulfric, Elisif, and Balgruuf had been nearly insufferable together. Tempers ran high, egos stood in the way, and if it weren't for Arngeir stepping up to keep the peace, I wondered if we'd have ever come to acceptable terms.
Thank the gods I'd had the foresight to hide my identity at that meeting. I shuddered to think what would've happened if everyone had known my true identity. It was hard enough for everyone to believe that dragons were coming back, and that the Dragonborn had arrived with their return. I doubted anyone would've believed the Dragonborn to be a young girl who had grown up a farmer.
Destiny was strange like that.
When we arrived at Jorrvaskr, the children ran towards the sleeping quarters, to retrieve their toys or who knew what. The rest of us followed behind them, but only to help Tyra into bed. While my sister-in-law may have said she was strong enough to walk from the stables to Jorrvaskr, her face had started growing pale, and her steps had slowed.
"I've missed the sound of laughter," I remarked, smiling at the cheers and shouts of our children just ahead of us.
"These halls are filling up with children," said Vilkas, "and with Skyrim liberated, I feel much better about that future."
That was only a half-truth. We had won our fight against the Aldmeri Dominion, but Skyrim wouldn't truly be annexed until the Moot. I still had to meet with Jarl Balgruuf and learn when the Moot would be, because if he didn't set the time within the next four or five months, I doubted I would be able to make it. I would be too heavily pregnant to make the travels across Skyrim, but my presence there was necessary.
Oh, if only I wouldn't have to leave. I only wanted my time in the sun to come to an end. For almost ten years, I had been made a spectacle for all to see. Now, I wanted to return to the life of quiet, unobtrusive honor. Saving people from bandits, bullying drunken louts into submission, hunting for game, raising my family. I never wanted to be made a pillar of strength, or for the masses to look on my face and beg me for my blessings. I was no god, and I never would be. My only hope was to maintain my quiet life until I passed away into Sovngarde for good, whenever that would be.
Hopefully, it would be a long time before my death. I wanted to grow old, see my children have children. Pass on what I knew to the next generation. The Companion life wasn't the best for child rearing, but I cared not. I couldn't imagine a better life for my children, knowing they would be protected here.
With Tyra safely in bed, and Kensley still asleep in her arms, Vilkas and I took our leave of the proud parents. While they'd had time together since the arrival of their new child, I didn't want to take any more time away from them. I would have plenty of time to coo over my nephew, and with my own child coming in the next few months, I wouldn't run out of children to dote on anytime soon.
"When will we tell them?" asked Vilkas as we walked to our children's room. "I'm sure they would love to know."
"After they get a chance to rest," I replied. "I don't want to take the excitement or attention off Tyra just yet."
He chuckled. "Remember how they found out they were expecting Bria only days after we had the twins?"
I nodded. Oh, that seemed like an eternity ago. "Seems strange how it's happened twice now."
My husband shrugged, standing just down the hall from the children's room. "Well, not if you remember their wedding came only a couple months before the twins were born. Couples who are newly wed tend to spend a lot of time together behind closed doors."
Try as I might, I blushed. How stupid of me! I was married to this man, had given him two children, and was carrying his third. How could he turn me into a red-faced mess teeming with embarrassment over something that wasn't even crass?
He only made me more flustered as he leaned closer, lips grazing my ear. "As for you and me, well, we were just making up for lost time."
I slapped the back of my hand against his shoulder. "Hush! Someone could hear you!"
With a kiss planted to my cheek, my husband headed into the children's room, leaving me standing dumbly in the hall.
When I finally came back to my senses, I shook my head and headed towards the children's room. Gods only knew when I'd have my next meeting with the Jarl. I wanted to take all the time I could with my family before I was needed elsewhere.
But it wouldn't be long now. Soon, this wretched war would be over once and for all. When the treaties were signed and the High King declared, Skyrim would know peace.
I would know peace. For the first time in fifteen years, I would be allowed to rest, knowing my parents were avenged, my home was free, and my children were safe.
Gods, I can't wait for that day.