Chapter Text
At the bottom of stairs, which led to the great Jorrvaskr, stood a timid looking girl. Seven summers old, short and thin, like litter's runt.
The child wore a pelt of an ice wolf, the animal's large head hiding her face and the long front paws laid over her bony shoulders. The wolf had been far more bigger than her when alive, so rest of the predator dragged against ground behind the small child.
The girl kept pulling the animal's etched head against her own with both hands, peeking from under it at the large building, which roof looked like a boat upside-down.
She remembered mom and dad telling that it really was a boat and really had been used by no-one else than the famous Five Hundred Companions of Ysgramor.
The child wondered how the boat had been managed to put on top of the building. And whose idea it had been.
Could it still float though? There were holes in it but what if they were covered?
"Gyvas", gentle voice called next to her, and the little girl lifted her face.
Her eyes were striking blue, smutched by small pieces of grey, and there was dark circles under them.
She looked uncertainly at the tall, bald and armored Nord, whose gentle smile was almost covered by bushy mustache.
"Should we go?"
The girl seemed to think deeply at the question, the space between the eyes wrinkling and the bit scared gaze glancing up to the building that throw a large shadow over them in broad daylight.
Mom and dad had lived in the Companion's house once, before she was born. They had met there when mom had joined them, and she and dad had gone to many… Dangerous…
Quests.
Then they had left the Jorrvaskr but Gyvas really didn't know why.
Sometimes talking about Jorrvaskr and Companions made mom and dad sad.
Especially dad, making him distant and silent in middle of whatever story he would be telling...
Tears threatening to rise the little girl closed her eyes tightly and shook her head so hard, that the animal's head swayed from side to side.
"Gyvas…"
The girl shook her head again, harder, until finally speaking in frail voice.
"...Can't we just... Go... Back home?"
She glanced at her mother's housecarl, who had always been beside her. Taking care when mom and dad were away and also when they were home. The gentle looking, tall Nord had practically been the third parent to her, a best friend.
And now he too was going to leave her, to protect someone else and their children.
Gyvas didn't want that. She didn't want any of this, she wanted to go back home!
To home where…
She didn't want to be here, away from home!
"Gregor", the girl begged, turning towards the man who crouched and took his former thane's child into a hug.
"Let's go home, please", she whimpered while trying to swallow down the suffocating piece in throat, body shaking.
But Gregor didn't have any other choice, his thane was dead and he was going to be pointed either to a new one or be added back to Dawnstar's guards. The least he could do, was to see that his thane's child didn't end into Riften's orphanage, but instead into a relative's care. The child's sorrow and begging didn't make it any easier though, the warrior fighting back own tears as he hugged the girl who he had seen growing through years into a lively, smart little girl.
Then saw her crumble more like into a starving puppy, tired and sad all the time.
He didn't know how to fix something that had broken inside her at that moment when a courier brought the news.
Gregor petted the girl's head through the thick fur, listening her sniffling.
"…I'm sorry Gyvas."
He pushed the girl a little bit away, looking at the blue eyes and moved couple of dark brown strands away from her face and tears from her cheeks.
"Now listen" he tried to talk calmly, not letting his voice break nor waver. The girl stared at him, full attention only at him and not on the people that passed them with curious glances.
"I told you, your pa's brother lives here. He's a good man, just like your pa, and will take care of you. I want you to act nicely towards him, listen to him and do as he tells you to, okay?"
The Nord waited for a moment, seeing the child was in crying point but was fighting it down. He was proud she tried, but he needed to hear her.
"Gyvas, do you understand?" he asked more sternly.
The girl nodded, biting her lip and roughly rubbing her eyes with her dark green shirt's sleeve.
"I under- Sta- Stand", she huffed, drying her face determinedly.
"Good", the housecarl said with a proud smile, looking at the girl who was like own child to him.
"Now", he rose to stand and hold his hand out to the little one. "Let's go meet this uncle, and try to be a brave. What pa always said about fear?"
"…That it's brave to admit being afraid?"
Especially when spider was in dad's boot and he asked her to get the small insect out of the house.
"And deal with them when they are in front of you", Gregor added, holding the small hand that the girl placed into his large one.
The little one gave a weak smile, and followed up the stairs to the carved wooden doors, the wolf's hide dragging behind with every step.
When Vilkas the Harbinger had heard the news he had been… Shocked.
Closing himself into his quarters that had been in his use after the previous one had left with his brother.
Old memories, good and bad, that had been deeply buried away not to be remembered again... They had flooded right back onto the surface as he paced around the study, pulling his short dark brown hair and read the damn letter again and again.
Like he could find some kind of hint that the letter was fake.
The phrase, sorry for your loss, almost like an echo in a ice cave.
Farkas and Drust were gone. Dead.
Dead!
First they had the nerve to betray him and now they were both dead!?
Storm of sorrow, rage, agony and denial rampaged inside of him. Made his body ache so that he fell onto his knees, feeling the change in his body.
Felt how his mouth started to twist, bones snap to reform newly and his eyes started to burn. A deep rumble rising from inside, rising, vibrating in his chest…
But then coming out as a pitiful, silent whimper as he just collapsed onto the floor.
The transformation painfully pulled back, as the strong Companion just curled into a ball and fought for breath.
Aela had heard him, rushed into the Harbinger's quarters and after seeing him, she also fell onto her knees and felt his sorrow shaking her own soul.
Knowing that the also old getting Companion didn't have a heart attack, but worse, the Huntress had not fought back the tears.
"I'm sorry Vilkas. I'm so sorry."
After couple of days another letter came. Talking about Gyvas, Farkas' and Drust's pup.
Vilkas knew about the girl, Farkas had sent a letter after the child's birth. Vilkas hadn't replied to it, feeling like Farkas was boasting to him by telling how the girl had their hair but her eyes were mix of theirs and Drust's eyes.
Like telling what he had instead of Vilkas.
And then the ice brain had dared after that to write, that he was sorry.
Sorry?!
After that, as Vilkas never answered back to any of their letters, there were no more. Neither from Farkas nor Drust.
…He should have answered to his brother. He was supposed to be the smart one of them but instead, when Farkas had reached to settle things, Vilkas had slapped his hand away with a snarl.
Vilkas should have answered to every letter, made the proposed visits and grasp onto his brother's hand.
But it was too late, wasn't it?
Just like always, his anger and bitterness took the better of him. Just like when Kodlak died.
He hadn't learned from that and still he dared to keep the title of Companions' Harbinger.
The letter, after Farka's and Drust's death, told about their little pup who needed a new home and someone to guard her. Drust didn't have any family, not in Skyrim nor outside of it, and Farkas… Well, that's why this Gregor named man had written the letter.
Almost begging that Vilkas would take Gyvas into the Jorrvaskr.
The still alive twin hesitated for a week before answering. And even after that, he wasn't sure could he take the girl in.
Aela wouldn't mind it, nor Ria, Athis or others. Contrariwise, they were curious and enthusiastic to see the child of their former comrades.
Vilkas himself just didn't know could he stand the sight of the child.
But he did own that to Farkas and Drust, didn't he? He practically drove them away with his own anger towards them.
So, he had written back. That the girl could come to live in the Jorrvaskr and she could… Have her father's room. He just needed to tell Athis to move.
It hadn't been an easy choice.
The pup should be arriving in couple of days now.
Vilkas was sitting in his study, mindlessly going through paperwork but not really paying attention to them. He had been nervous and on edge since Drust's housecarl had sent another letter, telling when the girl would arrive.
The remaining twin didn't know could he do this, look at the pup and welcome her sincerely.
Emotions were still near his heart, every one of them dominating over another, his soul shaken as the beast inside was also nervous.
What if he turned? What if… Somehow his wolf saw the child as traitor brother's cub, and wanted to kill her?
What if he hurt her?
Grasping his forehead, feeling another headache coming, Vilkas stopped moving the papers.
He heard Aela approaching the doors long before she even knocked. She knew this, but still politely knocked before coming in.
With tired eyes the man turned on his chair and looked at the red haired warrior.
She gave him sharp, evaluating look.
"…You're gonna scare the pup with how you look", she said bluntly. Vilkas chuckled dryly.
After a silent he spoke cautiously, staring at the floor instead of her, his hands together like praying.
"I'm… Not sure if this is gonna work, speaking the truth."
"No-one is sure", the Huntress said blankly again, the twin lifting his gaze.
"Everyone is wondering how you will react when she's here. It's no a secret what happened between the three of you."
Vilkas didn't meant it to happen, but he growled warningly. Aela didn't back down though.
"But you have decided to give her a new home. Maybe this will be a chance for you to mend your bond with the two of them, through her."
Wise words. Funny.
He should be the one, as Harbinger, who spoke wisely and gave advises. But it was as... Drust had said back then.
"I can't be Harbinger. Not alone at least. I don't feel like knowing enough about Companions and how to… Lead or whatever the Harbinger does. Vilkas, will you and Farkas help me, please?"
"Guess you're right Aela."
"Of course I am. Now, try to wash your face at least. Athis is taking the girl in with everyone else upstairs, she just arrived with Drust's housecarl."
Vilkas' eyes widened as he listened and heard Aela's words were true. There was racket going on upstairs, and he could smell two new scents.
His hands started to shake and heart beat faster as he smelled the pup's fresh, young scent.