Watching You

Well and truly intoxicated, she made her way to Breezehome.

Alone.

No matter how much she desired Vilkas, she couldn't sleep with him. She couldn't play with him like that. Lying to him now was hard enough, what would it be like if they had that kind of life together? He wouldn't understand, most likely he wouldn't be able to wrap his brilliant mind around it.

Killing beasts was one thing, people were another thing entirely.

Opening the door to her house, she dropped her cloak on the floor. Lydia was asleep, so she climbed the stairs to her bed as silently a possible, leaving her travelling dress in a pile on the floor. The furs heaped on her bed, mead in her system and her beast blood more than enough to keep her warm for the night.

Her sleep was deep and uninterrupted, a rarity since her transformation. She dreamt that night of a jester. He was dancing in a field of nightshade, singing joyfully. He had a look of pure joy on his face, like a child who had just been given his first pup.

She knew the song he was singing, it was common in most of the inns in this area, so she joined him in his merriment and they danced and sung for hours.

She woke sometime in the late morning feeling more refreshed than she had in a long time, her beast limiting the effects of last nights drinking.

Rolling out of bed, she pulled on a simple tunic and doeskin leggings. Lydia had left bread and dried meat out with a note saying that she had gone to restock the alchemy supplies.

Grabbing the bread, she grabbed my coin purse and cloak from the chair Lydia had put them on.

Walking to Adriannes, she pondered whether to get a daedric dagger or a dragon bone one. She and Adrianne chatted about the different smithing techniques  and perks until Aja finished chewing in her dried meat.

Out of the corner of her eye, Aja saw a figure pass through the gates of the city and froze. It was an Altmer she had hoped to never see again. With half a mind, she bought both daggers, pulled her hood lower over her face and thanked Adrianne. She kept my head down and walked briskly past him, straight to the Skyforge. She paid for the restoration in her Nord bow, the old wood had needed some maintenance and Aja could never be bothered with it herself. Buying a new quiver of arrows, she slung the both of them over my shoulder eyeing the market for that man.

He made slow progress, stopping everyone that passed him, talking to them briefly before dismissing them. As he got closer to Jorrvaskr, she decided that they needed as much land between them as possible. Slipping into the underforge and through the tunnel at the back of the cavern, Aja ran to the stables.

She secured all of her belongings to her horse, running through the contents of her knapsack and sighed when she realised she had no food packed. Mounting her horse, she decided that fleeing this place was far more important than her stomach.

 

Windhelm was about a days ride from here, she would get there tomorrow evening at the earliest.

 

Pushing her poor horse to her limits they reached Kynesgrove by midday. Tying her to the fence outside of the inn, Aja prayed that the poor beast would make it through the night. They'd only stopped for breath and water when it was absolutely necessary and it was now snowing hard. If she died now, she would have to walk to Windhelm.

 

The inn was warm and quiet, just what she wanted. Paying the tired keep for a room, she was grateful that the fire was stoked and the beds had plenty of furs. Sleeping in her clothes was best, she didn't want to risk loosing more heat and she didn't have the energy to remove them even if she wanted to. She threw her cloak over her bed for extra warmth.

She woke before sunrise, weary but desperate to move. She was weak and light headed from not eating the day before, so she made sure to buy plenty of food for the day. It would be a slow journey with or without her horse thanks to all the snow piled on the ground.

She braced myself for the worst, from both her horse and the weather.

Her horse was alive, the weather however was going to make this harder than necessary.

Digging in her pack, she put the biggest furs she had under the saddle. Walking beside her horse to Windhelm slowly, she was surprised at how far she'd made it yesterday. It took nearly four hours to get to the stables. She paid for a space for her horse and made sure that the tired beast had plenty of straw. Pulling her furs from under the saddle, she made sure that the kind elf wouldn't sell her whilst she was in the city.