Vilkas was first to enter the mead hall closely followed by the argonian. Vilkas walked down the stairs and down to the undercroft,
Hasir followed him. When they reached Kodlak's study, Hasir was stunned to see not only Rakel standing there. Aela and Vilkas were
there two. Kodlak eyed Hasir with quiet curiosity.
The harbinger smiled warmly at him.
"Well Hasir, looks like you beat Vilkas fair and square." He opened his mouth, but Vilkas cut across him.
"Sir, he hit me with his tail, I hardly call that 'fair and square'."
Kodlak groaned loudly and waved Vilkas down.
"Ignore Vilkas, he gets a little moody when a newcomer beats him." Kodlak paused, "Ah, but, you're not a newcomer, you are a
whelp."
Hasir gave Kodlak a sidelong glance.
"What, may I ask, is a 'whelp'?"
Kodlak looked from one circle member to the other for help. Sighing, he told Hasir what a whelp was and what is to be expected of
him. He may not be a full fledged companion yet, but, he is still part of the guild.
Kodlak cleared his throat.
"Hasir, did you have something you wish to tell me? Something about Terrfyg?"
Hasir's eyes went wide with shock. How could Kodlak possibly know he want to ask Kodlak about Terrfyg? Aela must've told him, no
doubt. Hasir was too stunned to think of any questions. One did come to mind seconds later, he decided to ask the harbinger about
who Terrfyg was before fogging the old man's mind to much with questions. Kodlak stood up and motioned for Hasir to come with
him into his bedroom, which was located on the right side of his study. Kodlak went to a cabinet that lay beside his bed and opened
it. From the old wooden drawer, he extracted an old, dusty journal the argonian had never seen before. Kodlak sat done on his bed,
journal in hand and motioned to Hasir to sit on the bed beside him.
Kodlak opened the journal, but, before he could read it aloud, Hasir stopped him.
"Ermmm, Harbinger, what is this?" He asked, tilting his head slightly
The harbinger blew of the thick film of dust that had settled on the journal over the years.
"This," He said, holding it up for Hasir to see, "is the journal of all of your grandfather, Terrfyg's thoughts."
The lizard again looked sideways aat the harbinger.
"Erm, I did not know my grandfather had survived; my aunt told me he died in the fire that took Blackmarsh," He looked at the floor,
mournfully, "along with my mother. My brothers and sister returned some years later to try and find her, but, the silver hand got to
them first."
Kodlak put a strong arm around Hasir and pulled him into a very heartfelt hug.
"I am sorry to hear that, Hasir."
The argonian thanked him and said that he did not join the search for his mother because that happened when he went to Akavir to
train to be a dragonknight. Kodlak smiled broadly and placed his broad hand on the argonian's chest; showing Hasir that they will
always be with him in his heart."
Without further interruption, he began to tell the tale of Terrfyg, how he gave the companions the curse of lycanthropy because he
had made a deal with the Glenmoril witches who had granted his dying wish for his descendents to be able to hold their own in tough
battles. With the witches curse came increase survivabilty and increased stamina as well, but at a cost. The witches did not want his
descendants to become all powerful, so they added a weakness to silver. Kodlak went on to say that Terrfyg's descendants saw this
not as a curse but a blessing, some even relished the idea of turning into a werewolf every night. Kodlak felt this way, even though
he was descended for Ysgramor..
He looked at Hasir and said as Terrfyg's descendant, he would think Hasir would view lycanthropy as a blessing as well, unlike Skjor
and Aela who were descendants of the line of Ysgramor.
Hasir looked up from the journa.
"Erm, who are Skjor and Aela?"
Kodlak slapped his forehead with his right hand.
"By the divines I forget, you haven't met them yet. In time, you will."
He got up, half turned to the beside table, and put the journal back into the drawer and then closed it. He turned to Hasir and told
him not to tell anyone what he saw and that this will be their little secret.
Hasir turned to leave. Looking at the clock on the wall, the harbinger called over his shoulder,.
"Hasir, I have a favor to ask of you, The Crimson Fang is due at the Windhelm docks by four o'clock. My favor is this: can you go to
the Windhelm docks and escort Quinchal, Inigo and Moonman back here?"
He winked at Hasir and started to open the door to the mead hall.
"Oh, and take Rakel and Aela with you, that stubborn fiery-haired nord can be really helpful...when she wants to be."
Hasir nodded, said he would not fail, and left the harbinger's study. He pushed open the doors and walked past a high backed
wooden bench where Aela and Rakel sat waiting for him. They got up and made up a game to see who ccould catch up to the
Argonian first, Aela agreed on the terms set out. The two nords ran along the hall to see if they could catch the argonian who was
walking at a pretty good pace. The fiery-hair nord beat out the brunette. Rakel swore under her breath and muttered something
about being beat by one of her own race. Aela heard this and turned back and stuck out her tongue at Rakel.
Rakel became infuriated by this and threw herself at the unprotected back of Aela. The huntress sensed Rakel's movement and
side-stepped just as Rakel flew towards her. Rakel slammed, head first, into the wall a few inches from where Aela stood roaring with
laughter.
Aela bent down and helped Rakel up,
"Ha, you will never outwit me, I have double the speed you have, plus I can sense things people like you," Shee pointed a finger at
Rakel, "can't."
Rakel stood there with a confused look on her face.
"How can you? Unless you're...wait...you're not are you?" Rakel asked Aela, wide eyed.
"Am I not what?" Aela asked, bewildered.
Rakel's mouth moved before her mind could comprehend what had just come out.
"A werewolf, not a manbeast, more a true werewolf, one that is two times bigger than that of the common wolf."
Aela looked sternly at Rakel,
"Are you dumb? Of course I am."
Rakel, her hands on her hips, looked straight at Aela.
"Prove it." She said with disbelief.
Aela started tranforming. The bones in her hands broke and elongated, she dropped to her hands and knees. The bones in her legs
and feet broke and reformed into different, more wolf-like shapes, just as her arms did.. Deadly three inch long ebony claws
protruded from her hands and feet. Red fur erupted all over her body. Her teeth elongated into razor sharp, pearly white fangs. A
wolf's snout was where the mouth of a nord was minutes before. her ears grew more pointed and her eyes turned from brown to a
more wolfish shade of yellow. The wolf stood there, silently watching Hasir and Rakel.
Rakel gasped and ran to hid behind the table in the undercroft.
Aela, I thought you were just pulling my leg. I had no idea you actually WERE a werewolf!"
Hearing Rakel's shocked admittance of the truth, the wolf transformed back into Aela. Hasir and Rakel both stared open mouthed.
Aela stared at them and said all of the companions, well at least the ones that share the beastblood can transform as she did. Rakel
asked what her wolf form is called.
Aela turned and looked over her shoulder.
"My wolf's name is Red, since I have red hair and...it goes without saying what color fur my wolf has." As she said this, she brushed
her hand under her hair so it gracefully arced through the air. Now come on, the old man gave us a task and we must not fail." With
that, they exited through the undercroft door to the main hall.
She stopped Hasir, who eyed her with stunned comprehension.
"Em, what do you think your doing? Danica has asked for you, best not keep her waiting." Aela said with a smile like she knew
something he didn't.
The argonian's shoulder slumped as he crutched over to the main doors and pushed. He stopped once he got over the threshold and
breathed in a lungful of cool afternoon air. In the distance, he saw the temple of Kynareth where he would find Danica. I wonder
what she wants to talk to me about? He thought. He started walking over to the temple. When he got there, he knocked on the door
with one clawed finger, no response. He called out Danica's name, no response. He tried again, this time, he could hear shuffling
behind the door, it opened to reveal a young nord woman.
She smiled as she saw Hasir.
Hasir, I was expecting you, how's the leg?" She asked, tilting her head
Hasir smiled back.
"It'ss ok, it hurtss off and on."
Danica looked puzzled at this strange speech pattern. why was Hasir hissing? She thought. Hasir said that when he is in pain, gets
anxious or nervous he tends to hiss. Danica stood aside so the argonian could hobble over the threshold into the temple. She offered
him a table to lay upon, she took his crutches and leaned them against a pillar that had vines growing up it and returned to the
argonian, looking concerned.
Hasir looked up at her from where he lay.
"Tell me doc, is it bad? does it need to be amputated?" He smirked at his attempt at a joke. In response, Danica just shook her head,
sighing to herself. Hasir looked taken aback by Danica's seriousness. "Geez, Danica, lighten up, I was just trying to defuse the
situation with some humor. By Hircine, you are so serious." He punched her in the arm, "Lighten up. Your patients will thank you for
it."
Danica recoiled as if Hasir's punch was a hot coal.
"I will not because I have a pretty demanding job. Patients come in, expect to be treated for various ailments and then leave. I
hardly think levity is in the cards, you foolish lizard." She said as she untied the leather straps that held the Argonian's cast together.
Without the bonds, the cast feel apart in her hands, she set the pieces of the hardened leather on a wooden table that she had
brought over. Hasir looked at his gauze covered leg and jokingly stated that he is glad the gauze was there or else his leg would fall
off. Danica returned from what she was doing and told Hasir that the gauze has to come off. As she unrolled the gauze, Hasir's scales
became as white as a sheet as he looked at its leg, which had become a bright shade of green. He guessed that now she would have
to amputate it.
Hasir called to Danica.
"Er nurse," he smirked as he pointed to his leg, "I might have a severe case of gang green."
Danica scoffed at him.
"By the gods, Hasir, you are an argonian, your legs are supposed to be green. Stop fidgeting so I can examine it." She said in a tone
which stated she was fed up with his humor.
Hasir chuckled to himself.
"Oh wow, what a relief, for a second there, I thought I was going crazy." He smiled to himself as he lay back on the stone slab so
Danica could start her art in earnest.
Danica left the argonian and went into the back room where Rakel had waited weeks before. Hasir guessed she was looking for
a powerful spell in her multitude of healing art spell books that she could use to see through his skin to closely check on the
bone's rate of healing.
While she was gone, there was absolute silence. Hasir could go mad if that silence was not broken soon. He looked over
at a stone slab a few feet from his own and discovered a young altmer female was fast asleep on it. Hasir had to squint to see
properly, she had a similar looking leather cast on her leg.
Hasir picked his head up and turned in the direction of the lame elf. Minutes later, she stirred and surveyed her surroundings. She
saw a male Argonian eyeing her from across the temple. Hasir tried to swing himself so that his legs hung over the edge, but when
he attempted this, a sharp pain shot though him, so he thought against it and turned his body halfway and lent on his elbows for
support.
Hasir smiled widely at the Altmer.
"Hi, my name is Hasir. He looked around him, smiling. "Well, isn't this an ideal place to meet new people?" He asked, jokingly
The Altmer blinked a few times, as if to ward off the intense light which shone through the vine-covered windows.
"What?" She said, her voice raspy.
She grabbed her crutches, which were fashioned out of cedar, and went over to where Hasir lay. The argonian repeated his greeting.
The Altmer put both crutches under one arm and stuck out the other.
"My name is Ceralyne Athaen, nice to meet you, She said jovially, "you said your name was...Hasir, correct?"
Hasir nodded, beaming, pleased to have someone else to talk to.
"Yep, the one and only. He bent forward a little, shifting his elbows, "may I ask why you are here?"
Ceralyne's face turned away in embarrassment.
"I don't want to bore you with the details."
Hasir said it was no problem so Ceralyne told him how she ended up here. She told him that she was investigating a silver
hand hideout, when a silver hand came out of nowhere and caught her offgaurd; shattering her leg with his massive two handed
sword. She said she has to wear the leather cast until the fracture heals, which she surmized would be well into Rain's Hand. She
then turned to Hasir and asked him about his injury.
Hasir waved a hand in the air.
"I willl tell you later." He motioned to her with an open palm, "I would like to know more about you, like, for instance, where you
were born?"
She tossed her head so her beautiful blonde hair rippled through the air.
"Well, let's see, erm, I was born on Anar Riel.' Hasir's face screwed up in confusion. She could hear her father's voice saying
Ceralyne, not everyone knows Aldmeri, use your tamrielic words "Sorry, erm, In the common tongue, it is called Summerset Isles.
You would like the isles, with their white-stone buildings, massive castles, monasteries and vibrantly brilliant trees and valleys. You
should visit sometime."
Hasir was about to say that he would when Ceralyne's head whipped around to see the silvery moonlight that had just spilled into
the temple via its many windows, making the temple look like a huge disco ball, reflecting spots of silver light on the floor and
walls. The light touched the stone beds in such a way that they seemed to sparkle in the moonlight.
Ceralyne transformed where she was. Seconds later, where a young Altmer woman was seconds before was a nine foot long blonde
wolf who was looking down on a writhing and screaming argonian as if his spirit was being split in two, which was in fact the case,
the wolf licked Hasir's face to try and lessen the seven minutes of torture he was going through. During his painful transformation,
he pleaded to Hircine to lessen his pain. Several minutes later, a thoroughly exhausted white wolf was laying there, panting heavily,
his fur drenched in sweat. Next to the middle of the stone slab was another wolf, a black wolf, representing Hasir's two emotional
mindsets. The white wolf tried to right itself so he could get a better look at the blonde, he gave out a pitiful whine as he gave up
and lay back on the bed. The blonde wolf dropped to all fours and padded to the middle of the stone bed.
Whe she got there, she put her front paws on the edge and used them to pull herself up onto the slab, she straddled the white wolf
so her face was just above his. They looked into each other's eyes. Instantly, they knew that something had clicked between them.
She gripped the wolf's hind haunches with her powerful front paws and executed a rocking motion with her hips. The white wolf
knew something was wrong. The black wolf, however, was loving every second of this. This event lasted for the remainder of the
night.
Hours later, the sun ran its fiery fingers along the wall of the temple, bathing everything in a yellowish light. The Argonian and the
Altmer lay on the same stone bed; one wearing his black fur armor and the other wearing her vestment of leather armor.
Hasir's eyes snapped open as he backed away from her.
"Ermm, Ceralyne, did we just make love in the temple?" His face contorted in a mask of disgust.
Ceralyne nodded affirmatively.
"Yes we did, that...is not a problem, is it?" She asked, her face streaked with concern.
Hasir jumped off the stone bed.
"Yes, frankly, that is a problem, Ceralyne, you are very beautiful, but I have a girlfriend. I am not sure if she considers our
relationship as that serious yet." He looked up and saw the high elf's face was hidden in her arms. When she lifted it up, he could
she her face streaked with tears.
Hasir look shockedd and somewhat saddened.
"Ceralyne, her and I are just best friends for now as we had not done whatever that, He pointed to the stone bed, was." He put his
hands, palms out, in front of his face, as if warding something evil away, "I don't want to create a feud with you two, I am sorry
again for any misunderstanding I may have caused."
Ceralyne wiped her tears away.
"I'm sorry, it's just my mind is so fucked up after everything that has happened. I don't know what my wolf was thinking, she is as
confused as I am about all of this." She paused and looked at the Argonian, who was sitting on the floor, soaking up every word.
She continued after take a breath to calm hersel.
"You see, my brother, Adrian, was once a well respected member of the court in Alinor but that all changed when a courier delivered
a letter addressed to him."
Hasir looked at her with curiosity.
"Do you have any idea what the letter said?"
The elf shook her head, causing her hair to flail about. She said all she knew was that when her brother read the letter, something
happened. He was overcome with an unhealthy urge to help Molag Bal attain souls, but for what? She did not know, It might've had
something to do with Arkay. Anyway, he went to a fort where the silver hand were and joined up, no questions asked. He convinced
the silver hand to follow the orders sent to him by a mysterious figure.
Hasir's eyes went wide and his face become overwhelmed with shock.
This must be Molag Bal's plan that Hircine was telling me about."
Ceralyne looked at him, confused.
"Wait, Hircine contacted you?"
Hasir nodded. He spent the next fifteen minutes telling the high elf about what the wolflord had told him in a dream he had a
month ago. Ceralyne looked utterly shocked, she had absolutely no idea that Hircine knew of Molag Bal's plan to even the score with
Arkay, who he feel wroned him in some way.
Just then, she heard movement behind the door of the back room, the high elf hurried to get her crutches. Once she got them, she
hobbled over to her stone bed and lay down. Hasir did the same thing on his bed, he was sweating profusely. He did not want Danica
to know he was talking to, or had feelings for, one of her patients.
Danica opened the intricately carved wooden door as she emerged with the same wooden table but, this time, it was piled high with
many different books from different schools: restoration tomes, illusion tomes and alteration tomes. She had three neatly stacked
piles of books on the table. Hasir also saw that she also had a haphazardly stacked piles of illusion, restoration and alteration books
that did not prove useful in her line of work. She moved the table so that it was equidistant from the argonian and high elf.
Her forehead creased.
"Hasir, your broken leg, I can fix easily with a restoration spell, now which one to use? Fast Healing? How about no?" As she said that
she tossed the tome on the ground right near Hasir's bed, "Healing hands? Nope." The book joined the previous tome, "Close
Wounds? laaame!" "Grand Healing? Gods no. Where in oblivion where will I find-hello, what's this?" Danica knelt down and picked up
a healing potion someone had apparently discarded, uncorked it and brought it over to Hasir and dumped the contents of the bottle
down his throat.
The Argonian coughed.
"By the gods, what is that? It tastes like kwama dung."
Danica told him that was a healing potion and instructed Hasir to look at his leg. the argonian lifted his head and a shocked
expression stole over his face as his broken leg seemed to be enveloped in a sideways cyclone of golden light, it lasted several
minutes and then it faded, Hasir frowned when the light fizzled and died.
Hasir Furrowed his brow.
"Hey, what gives? my skin around the wound healed, but, I don't think the bone itself healed."
Danica smiled.
"Well, Hasir, why don't you test that leg out."
The argonian swung both of his legs counter-clockwise and stood up. His leg buckled under his weight and he dropped like a bag
full of heavy clay. Danica walked over and offered him her hand. He took it as she helped him stand up. She could see his face was
racked with pain.
She frowned.
"Aw crap, I thought the healing potion would work, but, I guess it only works on the top scaly layer. It has no effect on a tibial
fracture, which yours is."
Hasir laughed, panting.
"Yeah no shit," He pointed a finger at Danica, "What the hell Danica? you said you could heal me! You know what? I will find
someone else who knows what they are doing."
Danica back away, frightened, from Hasir and instead, tended to the elf. What she did not know was that he was right behind
her, standing on his crutches, watching her.
"Ceralyne, I am sorry but, no premade spell or potion can heal a tibial shaft fracture."
Hasir's face twisted in confusion.
"A what? why don't you speak plain fucking English, some of us are not as well versed in medical terminology as you are."
Danica turned around to see the mad argonian standing behind her.
"Oh, Hasir. I did not see you there, I was just telling Ceralyne about her fracture."
Hasir bade Danica continue and not to let him interrupt her. Danica laughed,
"Oh sorry. A tibial shaft fracture is where the big bone of the leg, the tibia, is broken in two parts along the shaft, or mid-section of
the tibia."
She then smiled and suggested that they both go to Arcadia's Cauldron. Arcadia can train you in how to make a homemade
healing potion that is far more potent than any of the premade potions." She hesitated for a moment and then added, "Hasir, you
might want to have her brew up something for yourself." With that said, she released them. Hasir crutched over to a pillar, got
Ceralyne's crutches, helped her to her feet and gave her the crutches, Hasir gave Danica a stern look, slowly shook his head and
they exited the temple.
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