Work Text:
It was snowing heavily as night fell, and Meren stumbled up from the docks into the city, trying to figure out which way the inn was. He tripped and collapsed against a wall, and settled for wrapping his tattered cloak tightly around his heavy armour. Gods, his head hurt. Come to think of it, all of him hurt. He was alone again, Teldryn Sero was somewhere in Solstheim.
"Should not have left him there." Meren muttered. The Dunmer had proven to be a useful asset in battle, but when it came to the time between fights, he had grown tired of the bickering and Teldryn's comments. And then he got his hands on some skooma on the way back to Raven Rock. He'd drunk the entire case of it, sitting in the ash, and ended up running screaming back to the settlement because of ash spawn.
He slowly realised that there was a young girl standing near him, and he looked up at her slowly. His surroundings were no longer swimming, but he couldn't really make out her features.
"Yes?" He asked slowly.
"Are you all right?"
"Not really. Why are you out here?"
"Don't have a home." Meren paused, working on identifying the girl.
"Where are your parents?" He asked.
"They…they're dead. Mama died, and then papa went off to fight for the Stormcloaks. I'm… I'm all alone now. But I sell these flowers, so sometimes I'm able to buy some food, or sleep someplace warm." Meren sighed.
"I have… twenty gold on me. Here. It's already freezing out, get inside." He handed her the last of his septims, and she took it, holding the small pouch.
"Really? But what about you? You'll freeze, too!" She said.
"I'll be fine, just get inside, all right?" He told her. She nodded slowly, and ran off. He sighed and curled up on himself, working to preserve what little body heat he had.
He woke up to someone shaking him. As he opened his eyes, he saw the young girl in front of him.
"Don't sleep in a snowbank, you'll die!" She told him. "Please, get up!" He groaned, struggling to his feet. As he did, he realised there was someone beside her, wearing chitin armour.
"Hi, Teldryn."
"I look through the inns and streets of this damned city to find you, follow a child and find you dying in a snowbank, and this is the greeting I get?"
"I did tell you to leave."
"And I decided against my better judgement to come back. Thank you, girl." He said to the child, who smiled at the two and ran back into the darkness.
"What made you come back?"
"An underlying sense of you'll do something stupid, and that no one's really hiring anyone in Raven Rock, so I might as well stick with you. I'd be getting some money this way."
"Do you want me to rehire you? Because I'm broke." Meren said.
"No, I was quite enjoying our adventures before we parted ways." Teldryn said sarcastically. "I'll rejoin you for free."
"All right. Let's find somewhere I can sleep, and we'll head out in the morning." Meren said. Teldryn laughed, and they headed into the darkness towards the inn.