Whiterun 2

Finally, after a month of travel I reached Whiterun.

"Okay, no drinking with strangers this time."

I entered the city with no problems. Whiterun was as exactly as I remembered. A bustling city full of people from different races and lives.

I could see adventurers donned in mostly leather armors, city guards surveilling with utmost vigilance. I guess you would except a lot of trouble from a place with so many people.

This time, instead of the previous inn, Bannered Mare, I chose another.

The Drunken Huntsman.

The interior wasn't as grandeur as Bannered Mare but since this place was designed for hunters, there were a lot of trophies and animal heads mounted on the walls.

Hunters from all around the Skyrim was gathered here and making merry.

I rented a room for the day first then asked for something to eat.

Found a table to sit and went on to dig in.

While I was eating, the seat right across me at my table was pulled.

I lifted my head to see who it was and I saw a dark elf woman dressed in leather armor and cloak with a bow on her back and two daggers strapped to her belt.

Typical of the dunmer, she had slanted red eyes and jet black hair.

"You don't look like a hunter to me." She said after sitting down and putting her plate on the table.

"I guess you could say I'm an adventurer instead of a hunter." I replied.

"Huh you bunch mostly hang around in Bannered Mare. Did you get kicked out or something?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"Nah. Just had a weird encounter there so I decided to check out this place."

"Oh I know a thing or two about weird encounters. Was it a married woman?"

"No? It was a man." Why was the first thing that came to her mind was a married woman?

"Oh so you swing that way, got it."

"No, I'm not. For a stranger you are quite interested in my sexual inclination."

"Well, yeah. It's been a while since I had a good looking man. Of course I would be interested."

"You are quite open with these stuff huh."

"Is this your first time talking with a dunmer?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Oh, that explains it. Seriously, you menfolk are too strict with this stuff. Just bed whoever you want. Why would you care whether they are married or not?"

"Of course I would care about that. Is that your personal taste or something? Or is it something with every dunmer?"

"I wouldn't say every but most of us are promiscuous by nature. Probably coming from the influence of our Goddess of Dusk and Dawn. But enough about that are we going up stairs or not?"

"Nah, I will just rest. I have been traveling for almost a month now, I'm tired."

"What a shame. Well, I'll be around here if you change your mind though. Name's Jenassa."

"Alaric. Are you a hunter too?"

"I'm a sell sword. If you got the coin, I'll be in your service. What do you say?" Then she threw me a seductive look.

"I'll think about it. But at the moment I don't need a traveling companion since I'm planning on staying in Whiterun for a while." But I was unfazed.

"Oh, I'm fine with that. Once you see my 'techniques' I'm sure you will change your mind. Hope we run into each other soon f'lah." She threw a final seductive look and then we separated.

She went outside while I went upstairs to get some shut eye.

The next day, I woke up early as always, donned my armor, ate a simple dish served by the innkeeper then went outside to find Jorrvaskr.

Because Companions were famous, it was quite easy to find Jorrvaskr.

It was located in The Wind district right below the Dragonsreach where the Jarl of Whiterun resided.

From outside, the building looked like an upside down ship but it was probably my imagination.

I went inside and was greeted with mostly silence.

There were only a few people. I guess it was too early even for them.

'Now what was the guy's name again? Uhhh, oh right, Kodlak Whitemane.'

"I'm looking for Kodlak Whitemane. Do you know where he is?" I asked a woman that was cleaning the place.

Guess they partied too much last night since everywhere was full of empty mugs, broken bottles and spilled ale.

"Downstairs." She pointed towards the stairs. "Then turn right and walk straight ahead. He is most of the time in his room."

"Thank you." I expressed my gratitude and walked according to her instructions.

The downstairs was a huge area, much more spacious than shown above and dimly lit.

I found lights coming from the room right at the end of the hallway.

'That must be his room.'

There were some voices coming from inside and I could hear it easily since the door was open.

I could hear two people talking, one with an aged voice and the other with a younger voice.

"But I still hear the call of the blood." The younger voice said.

"We all do. It is our burden to bear. But we can overcome."

"You have my brother and I, obviously. But I don't know if the rest will go along quite so easily."

"Leave that to me."

Right after that, I went inside the room and saw two people as I expected. An old aged man with long white mane like hair and another man with medium length black hair with calm and calculating but wild look to him.

I easily discerned who Kodlak Whitemane was.

"I'd like to join the Companions." I said.

"Would you now? Here, let me have a look at you?" He squinted his eyes at me a little. "Hmm. Yes, perhaps. A certain strength of spirit."

"Master, you're not truly considering accepting him?" Then the other man in the room protested.

"I am nobody's master, Vilkas. And last I checked, we had some empty beds in Jorrvaskr for those with a fire burning in hearts." But Kodlak placated him.

"Apologies. But perhaps this isn't the time. I've never even heard of this outsider." But the man, now named Vilkas didn't relent.

"Sometimes the famous come to us. Sometimes men and women come to us to seek their fame. It makes no difference. What matters is their heart." The old man said with obvious wisdom shining in his eyes.

"And their arm." But Vilkas was still against me joining.

'What does this guy want from me?'

"Of course. How are you in a battle, boy?" Then Kodlak turned to me.

"I still have much to learn."

"That's the spirit. Vilkas, here, will get started on that." Then he towards the man. "Vilkas, take him out to the yard and see what he can do."

"Fine." Then he grudgingly accepted.

Then we went outside to the training are where a lot of training equipment was located.

And now I finally understood why there were so little people in the building, because they were in the training area.

The trio I saw from before were here also.

Red haired woman, Aela, was shooting arrows at a target dummy while doing acrobatic moves, the man and the swordswoman were sparring.

But I focused on Vilkas who grabbed two iron swords from the rack and threw one of them at me.

Then he grabbed a shield for himself.

"The old man said to have a look at you, so let's do this. Just have a few swings at me so I can see your form. Don't worry, I can take it." Then he tapped his shield.

He will only be defending?

Fine by me.

I shrugged and with a burst I disappeared.

I thought he wouldn't be able to react to my speed but he surprisingly did.

'Huh? So, he can react to a Magicka Burst with 200 units.'

I was about to continue but he suddenly got angry.

"What do you think this is?! We don't do battle with magic around here, new blood. Now come at me." He yelled furiously.

Oops, guess I shouldn't have used magic.

"Got it." I replied with a nod and attacked him without any magic this time.

Every attack was blocked by his shield and I couldn't penetrate his defense.

I tried to overpower him but it was useless too. Every time I tried it, he somehow used just a little bit more strength than me to push me away.

It was the first time that I was overpowered strength wise by another person.

After a few more swings, we stopped and this time he had an approving expression on his face. "There you go! Not bad. Next time won't be so easy! You might just make it. But until then, you're still just a whelp to us, new blood. So you do what we tell you to. Here's my sword. Go take it up to Eorlund to have it sharpened. And be careful, it's probably worth more than you are."

Then he left with a grin on his face.

'Guess, he warmed up to me quickly.'

I wanted to say hi to the trio but decided against it seeing they were pretty focused on their training.

So, I did as Vilkas said and went to find this Eorlund person.

He was not that far away, just go upstairs, a short walk away from the training area.

There was a huge smithy and a blacksmith working on the finishing touches of a shield.

The blacksmith turned to me, " What brings you here?"

"Vilkas sent me with his sword."

"I'm guessing you are a newcomer then?"

"Does Vilkas always send newcomers on errands?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. They were all whelps once. They just might not like to talk about it. And don't always just do what you're told. Nobody rules anybody in the Companions."

"Oh, that's good to know. But somebody has to be in charge though, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm not sure how they've managed it, but they have. No leaders since Ysgramor. Kodlak is the Harbinger, and he's a sort of advisor for the whole group, but every man is his own. Every woman, her own."

"I see. I'll need to be going."

"Wait, I have a favor to ask."

"What is it?"

"I've been working on a shield for Aela. My wife is in mourning and I need to get back to her soon. I'd be much obliged if you could take this to Aela for me."

"Sure, why not? I was gonna head to Jorrvaskr anyways."

"That's a good man." Then he passed me the shield he was previously working on.

———-

F'lah: An informal way of saying friend or fellow in Dunmer/Dark Elven.