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A soft sigh of wind brushed through the foliage surrounding the Elven friends.
Red eyes glinted watching the valley below. She had started out searching for elk, bow at the ready quiver full, but since staking a better claim up the bank, she had seen two dark forms and quietly followed their progress across her hunting ground.
Whistling low to her Bosmer friend gaining her attention, She pointed to her eyes, then to the targets down below.
Leith crept forward, a sharp intake of breath whistling softly through her teeth as she took her friends vantage point.
The golden skinned elf had seen it too.
Three trolls the snow dusting their shaggy coats as they picked through the foliage for food.
The silent Dunmer moved, keeping low as she was able sliding through the flora.
"Atty! Leith hissed "Where are you going?"
She waved a response not slowing her decent.
"You're not going to help?" The distress was obvious in her voice. "They could be poor, Then what's in it for us?"
Again Atty only waved.
"It's more profitable if they die, at least then we can loot their corpses."
The Dunmer held a finger to her lips. Then with a flat hand and a downward motion told her friend to get down.
She could see the forms were men, alike in features, dark hair, dark armour, yet as chalk and cheese as Atty and Leith.

The young men saw the enemies, and the trolls angered from the Interruption, turned to face the sound of clattering plate mail. The first lumbered forward swinging its long ape like arms gaining speed with every gallop of its twisted legs. The two in the back were slower to follow but turned the same, baring yellowed fangs and growling deep and low.
Creaking as its stretched to full tension the mammoth tusk bow protested the overdraw Atty put it under. Still as a statue she waited for the perfect moment.
The men set their stances low, they were ready to fight but she knew the damage a frost troll could do.
Holding her breath she let fly.
Straight and swift the arrow flew, shrieking through the air as it did. Catching the troll by surprise transferring the force into its head, throwing it from its feet. The two men and remaining two trolls paused stunned. Atty took their hesitation to reload. Leith joined her. The two elves in unison drawing back until a slight tremor ran through their arms, and with Atty's nod they released.
A sickening crack followed the high pitched song of the duet of arrows as they flew through the valley. The final two fell, flung off their feet simultaneously by the unified stealth assault.
One young man turned, his weapon still drawn his eyes narrow and suspicious. The other with longer hair looked towards the felled beasts. Placing his axe on the ground he scratched his forehead.
Atty stood slinging her bow about her shoulders. She drew a blade from the sheath in her back. The long slender instrument glinting in the late afternoon like like a orange ribbon. The first brother raised his weapon sure this new treat would attack, yet the leather clad woman walked forward striding towards her kills as though he didn't exist.
"Are you backwards!" Leith shouted at her friend struggling through the long grass. Some of the tufts clearing her head.
"We had them!" She bounced.
Vilkus relaxed a raised eyebrow changing his gruff face to something comical as he watched the enthusiastic efforts of the Bosmer Archer.
"You had us?" He queried his accented growl cutting through the evening. "I think that would have required the element of surprise."
She huffed pulling level with him, "We would have surprised you. Don't you worry."

Farkas was not as brash as his brother, he also was left watching the silent woman go about her task running the thin flexible blade under the skin of the dead troll shedding it of its pelt. The blade was nothing to be feared it was a hunters tool. A far more precise instrument than he had seen in the Champions. She was skilled, he admired her technique, though she seemed to have trouble pulling the weighty body to strip the pelt. He approached her to help, A bloodied hand and bloodier knife raised in his direction as soon as the grass whispered of his movement. All he could see of her face was her eyes, red surrounded by white tattoos on green grey skin. A vowel and mask covering the rest of her.
He held up his hands in surrender, to show he meant no harm. Approaching slowly he knelt next to her placing a large weathered hand on the exposed skull, and positioning himself, he grabbed the other side of the pelt nodding to her that he Was there to help.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Atty quickly bent her head and returned to work, with her new helpers aid. His strong hands and brutish strength made quick work of it.
"Well fancy that." Leith breathed watching the scene, "That's not something that happens every day."
Vilkas sheathed his weapon, sure that the two woman posed little threat, though the little one attempted to threaten him at any turn.
"My brother has a bigger heart than brain." He sighed.
"Atty is not one to trust lightly. He must have something special going for him." She slung her bow and crossed her arms, "Leith by the way, and you?"
"Vilkas and Farkas." He announced pointing to himself and the other "Brothers of the champions."
"Champions?" She mused "And what are you doing so far from Whiterun, for gold or for blood?"
"What's it to you rogue?" He snapped angered by her prying
"Oh we are always out for blood." The little Bosmer smiled showing of her teeth.
"For we shall eat none that comes from the Forrest."
Vilkus shuddered under his armour hiding his discomfort from the little elf. Wondering if perhaps the cherry rogue was far more sinister than he could have imagined.

Atty and Farkas finished she parcelled up the flesh and bound it ready to find a tannery. She pulled back her cowl and with it the mask that covered her face.
A sweeter smile than her friend graced her green/grey features as she looked at Farkas, she raised a hand to her chin and then Dipped it away mouthing the word Thank you.
His brother smirked his eyes dropping to his blood stained hands, the Dunmer whipped a brown cloth from her pack and after cleaning her blade took his huge mits in her own slender hands and with a quick dash of water from a flask cleaned Him up.
"How is it." Vilkus muttered looking between the girls "That the Dunmer get the bad reputation?"
"Red eyes and fireballs." Leith told him simply "You humans were always stupid enough to judge on looks."
Atty approached the two as the talked idly, a tiny smudge of blood on her chin from the hand sign she made earlier. With barely a turn of the head she scanned Vilkus her nonchalant behaviour undermining his confidence, angering him. She stopped, turning on her heal only to look at her friend.
"Oh now you want to leave?" Leith snaked "Make up your mind."
"Before you leave may I have your name?"
Her eyes snapped up, the white tattoos accentuating her scarlet eyes locking him with her haughty stare. Her nose and sharp eyes, cat like and angled. There was not a soft feature on the woman, unlike her friend who was unnervingly cute.
"Atty. Like chatty on account that she talks so much." Leith answered for her.
The Dunmer mockingly bowed As her introduction.
"You're leaving?" Farkas broke in, looking to the horizon as the sun quickly sank. "It's night soon, perhaps you should stay with us? Safety in numbers?"
Leith cackled her hysterical laughing echoing through the landscape. Atty smiled shaking her head, changing her direction, patting the larger brother on the chest plate as she did. Her motion hit him square over the heart then touched her own chest.
Leith spoke as if she was speaking the words the mute Dunmer meant. "You will stay with us,"

Night fell, tents set. Vilkus rubbed two sticks together in a futile attempt to make fire.
"Atty is good at fire." Leith told him, perched on the edge of his log peering mischievously over his shoulder.
"You should ask her."
He huffed at his fringe "I don't need her."
"Sooner we have fire. Sooner we eat, or you eat, I don't mind my rabbit raw." Again her little pointed teeth flashed.
Atty watched him in silent judgment, he could barely see her in the growing gloom arms crossed red eyes fixed on his failed attempts. Finally the stick broke, he kicked it in frustration spewing pieces every where.
The still figure moved, she picked up the pieces and rebuilt the fire. Stacking it in a cone shape. She pulled a glove off and lay a hand on the tinder. With in seconds a fire leaped up, licking the logs eagerly. She stood as quietly as she came stepped past the ring of light that was beginning to brighten, and looked down into the valley they had just been in.
Farkas was curious, his brother was wary of the two travellers, the silent one in particular, but Farkas felt no ill will from her. He enjoyed the simplicity in her movements, each just an honest extension of limb to a necessary task.
A low rumble echoed through the valley, the steady thump of heavy foot steps.
Giants migrating under moonlight moving their mammoth flock to a new area.
He watched Atty rather than the flock her eyes glazed with a memory, as if seeing them reminded her of something dear. A smile tugged at her lips as the lumbering Shepards continued on their way.
The final giant pulled up the rear and any old or sickly beasts were kept in check by him. After tapping the rump of one animal with his club to coax it along he looked up to the silent watchers.
Bow in hand Atty raised it to her chest. Hand to heart and hand to sky her the mammoth tusk shimmering in the dusk. He raised his club heart to sky in reply, before.lumbering along with the rest of the heard.
"You know a giant?" He asked dumbfounded by the interaction.
Though clam enough if you left them alone he never knew them to be friendly with any one even elves.
Atty turned to him taking a closed fist taped her chest once then extended two fingers on each hand and tapped them together.
"Her father." Leith translated across the camp.
Frowning Farkas looked back to Atty, trying to see any biological markers of her giant heritage, she rolled her eyes as if she knew what he was thinking, again another hand Gesture, open as if holding a cup to closed.
"She was adopted." Leith managed to encapsulate the exasperation in tone, and Atty returned to her friend sitting lazily on the ground leaning back against the log.
"So why doesn't she talk?" Vilkus asked gruffly "Tongue cut out? Born mute, a sickness."
Red eyes slid from the fire up to his face.
"There is a strategic advantage in silence." Leith didn't need to see the sign for that, Atty was an assassin, and though initially as she left the giants she didn't know a lick of the common tongue, now it was by choice, she listened and she always found those that mattered understood.
"I like quiet," Farkas interjected slowly "No words for people to poke fun at." Atty pointed at him and tapped her nose. Smiling at his intuition.

Night rolled on, moon rising high in the tide of black that stole the dusk of the evening.
Atty voted for first watch, as she always did, leaving Leith to slumber, Farkas yawning, bade his goodnights. Vilkus stayed still wary of the silent woman with her vigilant red eyes.
She shed her leather As they sat in the dark by the fire, turning the playable armour in her hands locating a tare. She pulled tools from her bag and sat in the silence of the night calmly ignoring Vilkus repairing her armour.
The soft grey of her skin reflected the Fire light and danced off the bizarre scarification that littered her shoulders and arms.
"Do you ever stop working?" He jibed attempting to rile her.
Her head tilted and she raised an eyebrow as she glanced sidelong at him for half a minute before returning to her work.
"You never answered my question. Do you choose not to speak or are you not able?"
She shrugged.
He sighed heavily not getting any Feed back from her.
"How did you meet Leith?"
A hand extended to her bow and she patted it.
"Archery?"
She shook her her holding it close to the light pointing at it.
"She tried to steal your bow?"
The Dunmer exhaled sharply, putting her armour to one side and with a long finger drew a picture in the dirt.
"Mammoth tusk." He exclaimed, frustrated that it took him so long to figure it out. He noticed Farkas seemed to have no issue, and he had half the smarts. With out thinking how she would explain his mouth asked the question on the edge of his mind "What happened?"

***
Father stomped the ground an grunted holding up three enormous fingers then pointed in the direction off the shifting grass.
Atty hand on heart acknowledge him and with her bow in hand bowed below the grass line and ran in the direction if the poachers.
The first arrow flew, it's arc was high and slow it lacked the speed and strength of the Arrows her own bow fired.
She drew, splitting the Arrow in mid flight, she spied the man who fired it and notching another she let fly faster than he was able. It was a high enough angle to knock him back and pin him to the ground. She readied another turning on the noise coming to her side. She hesitated. The face she met wasn't large broad, human or masculine. She had not seen a wood elf for years not since father and herself walked the mammoth from the hill forests. She allowed the bow to go loose. Shaking her head at the golden creature before her. She made a shooing motion with her hands trying to coax her away.
"Hey what's one mammoth to you." She quipped "You've got 12 more."
Atty knew this elf was talking to her but she didn't understand the words, vowels and consonance making less sense than grunts and hand gestures. Again she shook her head her long black dreaded hair accentuating the movement. She pressed her hands together in a gesture of begging then waved. Frustrated that she was being ignored.
"Come on. I just need a tusk." Leith asked.
This time Atty broke protocol she touched the woman turning her by her slender shoulders and pushing her before her. Fearing that this fellow elf didn't know if she didn't stop her actions her father would intervene, meaning there would be an elf coloured smudge on the end of his club.
While the back and forth was happening the man who had been pinned to the dirt freed him self, lunging at his former attacker. Throwing her to the ground forcing an arrow to her jugular. Atty struggled against it, pushed on her back she tried to get her feet under the man to get herself some leverage. He was enraged strong and had far more desire to kill Atty than Atty had to kill him.
She heard a snap of the bow string and wondered if perhaps the elf was trying to help her comrade. But she felt no pain and the body on top of her went limp. The shaft the golden elf had let fly had lodged itself in the back of the mans neck, a very definite shot, not an Accidental shooting. Throwing the dead weight off her, she looked Up. Touching her chin and bowing her hand forward. She signed "Thank you."
The elf laughed tipping an invisible hat "You're welcome."
Screaming through the bushes the forgotten member of the party approached, sensing a fight on their hand. Weapons ready at seeing the elf bandit turn, aiding the feral creature that lay In the mud before her, his trajectory changed racing for the woman that killed his brother in arms.
Atty grabbed her new friends hand wrenching her to the side, yanking the Arrow from the dead mans grip she notched, drew and fired in the blink of an eye. The body collapsing in a heap, the shaft piercing his right eye.
The two girls sat in the grass quietly. Wind rustling the foliage around them and the two dead men. Atty turned to the wood elf, a fist to her chest thumb sticking up she made a circle. Looking at her with apologetic eyes.
"It's fine." The smaller elf replied having a feeling for what the bizarre feral woman was trying to say. "They all turn on you at some point any way."
Tucking her feet under her Atty stood holding out a hand to Leith.
For once the wood elf raised by bandits accepted the hand extended to her. Finding a strange desire to trust this silent woman dressed in furs, with dark dreaded hair.
Across the tundra she lead them stopping at a mound looking down into a valley. Mammoth sculls. Bones skeletons littered the area. Along with tusks.
With a flat sweeping hand Atty indicated the bones and tusks were there for the taking.
Leigh laughed, "Well I guess I should have just asked"

Raising an eyebrow Vilkus stared at the complex drawings explaining her answer to his question. Like cave drawings the line art in the dirt showed giants and mammoths, bandits, bows, arrows and death. He looked up at the elf who thinking she had given enough information returned to her repairs.
He sighed "I have no idea what any of this thing means."

Shards of sun stretched out across the valley. Dew twinkling in the morning light.
"Ready?"
Atty nodded and Farkas pulled back and threw the stick into the air with all the force he could muster.
Firing not once but five times, Atty kept the wood in the air, bouncing, each arrow catching it with force, pushing it up and along. The only sound the crack slowly getting quieter as they moved further away.
Farkas laughed impressed. "And Leith is just As good?"
Atty screwed up her face and waved her hand back and forth.
"Almost as good."
Atty smiled, if Farkas realised that it was her ego not letting her admit her friend was on an even peg he wasn't letting on.
She pointed at him the the bow.
"Me. You want me to have a turn? Ha no. I know when I'm out mastered." He picked up his axe and held it before him. "This is my talent. If you call it that. Blessed with the strength of Ysgramore. My brother got his smarts. Still slamming this in to my enemies does the trick."
Attys face broke into a large smile. Her body shook though she made no sound.
"A laugh at my expense?" He teased.
She shook her head, tapping her chin twice. Then raising two hands in the air with her thumbs sticking out she wiggled them. Pointing to her chest then taping over her heart.
Farkas watched perplexed.
"You like it?"
She nodded, he was more or less right.
His way of doing things was simple, Effective she had spent so long in the company of convoluted killers.

Sunning her self, stretched on her back in the grass, Leith felt a shade pass over her. Vilkas made darker by the back lighting loomed above her.
"When do we leave?" He asked hinting that he would like to do it sooner than later.
"We leave, when Atty says we should." Leith told him sliding up so that her face could get more sun.
"You put a lot of faith in a woman who can't tell you what she's thinking."
Leith chuckled making herself more comfortable. "Oh you always know what Atty is thinking. She's not a liar like me." She shot him another cheeky grin.
One of the screaming Arrow whistled passed his head. Narrowly missing his ear and lodging itself in the ground near enough to Leith's head she should have flinched.
"She also has exceptional hearing."
He felt the eyes in the back of his head. He didn't need to turn and see her unimpressed face. "I feel she hates me."
"Don't take offence, she hates every one." Leith answered nonchalantly
Vilkas sighed heavily and looked back to his brother and the elf. She had retrieved the arrow she had shot at him and picked a strange wild flower on her way back. She handed some to Farkas and proceeded to show him how to suck the nectar out. "Are you sure?" He asked as he noted the shared smiles between the two.
Leith laughed "Well I suppose he never threatened her, or looked at her like she was going to stab him in the back.
"Mistrust is healthy." Vilkas told her. "When in company of Rogues"
"She's an archer."
"She's a hunter." He retorted quickly.
"Alright so she'll skin you and salt the meat, but she will come from the front." Leith closed her eyes again getting snippy at the mans insolence.
"Why are you so quick to defend her honour? When you seem to have no care for it yourself?"
"It matters to her." She told him flatly.
"But you tease her, in fact only yesterday you called her backwards."
She sat up and looked at him aggravated that she wasn't going to be left alone to sun her self in peace. "Do you let people tease your brother because he's slow. Despite reminding him to bolster your own ego?"
"Of course not." Vilkas bit back.
"Family is family, and only family torments family."
He scoffed. "Only she's not even the same race as you."
"So?" Leith asked not seeing the problem.
"So she can't be family."
"By the gods you're stupid." She threw her hands up in the air.
He stammered. "Well you're short."
Leith looked at the dark haired man for a moment before bursting into laughter. Flopping back onto her back.
"You need to relax." She told him "If any one is shanking any one it's me, and I am happier getting my daily dose of sun right now."
He sat down next to her reluctantly taking her advice. They were quiet together for a time, before Leith queried "It's just the two of you?"
"As long as we have known. The companions took us on when we were young, but it was always us."
He glanced over to his brother, enamoured by the dark elf. She appeared to be showing him things, explaining through hand signs, and demonstrations.
"You can't protect him from every thing." Leith said "Atty won't hurt him lest he deserves it."
The elf was taking time with his brother, something few did. Yet he didn't see her patronise him, something he himself was guilty of.
"I worry for him. He is simple."
Leith raised an eyebrow. "Not as simple as you might think. I thought for the longest time Atty was dense. We often think worse of those who don't speak up. But she let me know she's clever."
"Really how?"
"She smacked me upside the head when I was disrespectful."
Vilkas laughed they were as close to sisters as he and Farkas were brothers.

Pausing in the midday sun Atty froze like a hound that had just caught the sent of game. Her posture changed, she pulled an arrow and readied it.
Leith sat up, her friend was scared, this was not a wild beast nor any creature, her head was darting following the noises. There were many, surrounding them. Stalking them quietly in the morning sun.
The first lunged, sword and shield in hand, but Atty's arrow was quicker.
A second popped up behind Leith and Vilkas, her next shot catching him with a wet thwack.
A pair jumped up, Leith thankful for her paranoia rolled the attacking man off her, using her bow that she kept at her side.
The surrounding enemies attacked. The four travellers were heavily out numbered. The archers doing their best to keep the greater numbers from swarming them, the two heavily armoured picking of those stupid enough to venture close.
Three rushed Atty, she caught one with an arrow to the throat sending him to the dirt, the last two tackling her lifting her off her feet and slamming her onto her back.
Kicking punching and biting, beneath the two large body's the dunmer didn't see Farkas transformation. She heard a crack of bones she thought the sickening sound was coming from her own compacted chest.
Oxygen filled her lungs as one of the body's attempting to hold her down was pulled away. Followed by a shriek. The second turned his attention on the far more deadly beast. Atty scrabbled for her bow for some arrows while man and beast fought. Finding only the latter, she held the arrow head in her hand like a dagger and stabbed it into the mans shoulder with all her might. He bellowed in pain, and the beast tore out his throat his bellows turning to gargles.
Leith and Vilkas hacked and stabbed their way through the last few that remained brave enough to fight. Leith made sure to chase off those that fled with a few well placed arrows.
The snarling beast that was Farkas remained . Feasting on corpses in his blood lust.
"Cursed silver hand!" Vilkas exclaimed. "Hunting us like animals at every turn."
"Well." Leith began stretching the word. "They aren't with out some cause." She pointed to his brother.
Atty stared wide eyed at the beast that saved her life, his muzzle and claws coated in blood. It wasn't the death he had caused that made her stare but the wound In his side.
"Don't." Vilkas said as she approached him. "Though beasts we aren't." He hissed in Leith's direction. "When wounded we can sometimes mistake friend for foe."
Atty placed a firm and steady hand on the eldest brothers shoulder and pushed him aside as she approached Farkas. He growled low in his throat, bearing his teeth while shuffling backwards.
"He won't be able to transform until he calms." Atty heard Vilkas utter.
Laying her bow on the ground, she extended her hand. Slowly Palm raised fingers reaching softly forward. She remembered father would coo to the wounded mammoths who would do the same thing, soft noises to sooth the creatures. She had no words to console him, no sounds to calm him. All she had was her hands, her touch. Finally after inching forward her fingers connected with his snout, until they lay flat against him. His eyes looked up and through the fur she could still see what was unmistakably Farkas. He leaned into her hand, until eventually his large furry head rested on her shoulder.
A sigh slipped from his mouth and the cracking and crunch of bones returning to their original shape echoed through their camp.
"Good gracious he's naked." Leith exclaimed looking up At the sky. Averting her eyes from the obvious man form that was collapsing into her friend.
Atty clicked her fingers twice.
"I am not touching him now, I preferred him as a wolf, at least there was reason for the hair." She protested.
The Dunmer clicked again more forcefully this time. But it was Vilkas that answered her call. Helping her prop up the slowly fading Farkas. The beast was keeping him upright, something primal keeping him from feeling the effects of the knife to the gut.
Together they lay him down back closer to the camp. Covering him in a blanket, Atty disappearing into the brush.
"So your both wolves?" Leith asked.
Vilkas nodded, "flee now if you must, I didn't expect you to stay. The dark elf hasn't."
She pulled out her water flask From her belongings and knelt next to the wounded Farkas covered enough for her to look upon his form. She spilled a little on a cloth and dabbed his forehead. Patting away the beads of sweat forming three
"She'll be getting herbs or something for a poultice, something to draw the infection out. She's an alchemist you know."
Vikas licked his lips and began slowly. "Atty, is your hunter, your healer, she starts your fires sets your camp, tells you went you can and can't travel..." He paused and looked at the small elf. "What is it that you do."
"I talk." She said as if the notion was clear as day. "It's awfully hard, to trade your wares with no voice. Woefully hard to convince people of your innocence when you are rendered silent. Atty has skills with the wilds it's true, but that is where it ends, she had no concept of money, no idea of our language."
"And now that she does?"
She sighed looking into the direction of the rustling of her friends return.
Attys signs were sharp, her body language conveying urgency.
"I still have my uses." Leith snapped at Vilkas's dumbfounded face.
She threw a kettle on the boil and pulled out some bowls for Atty, while the Alchemist herself grabbed mortar and Pestle and began mixing a paste out of what ever she pulled from the foliage. The two women working in unison with out so much of a word.

The brews ready she waved Leith away, back to a lazy position far enough to let Atty work, and any action she was inspired into quashed.
"An assistant then?" He was baiting the lazy bosmer.
Atty had made a series of rude hand gestures to get him to leave his brothers side, and he needed to do do something to take his mind of worry. A wound in the wild could turn quickly, and neither himself or elven companions were a healer, so they had to rely on silent alchemy.
"An assistant is all you peg me for?" She scoffed pulled to her feet by indignation. "I am the hero of this merry tale."
"You? The little thief?"
She turned from camp looking towards the tree line and the small river flowing from the cluster and down the hill.
"You are not the only one with a secret." she took a deep breath and opened her mouth "Fus Ro Dah".
Trees cracked grass swayed and more the one flock of birds took to the air.
"Dragonborn." Vilkas whispered.
They heard a clap getting her attention with the rude signs from earlier repeated.
"Sorry." Leith begrudgingly apologised before return ing to the stunned man.
"Let me tell you the irony of the Dragonborn and her mute friend is not lost on me."

Evening crept up over the plains like a lazy cat. Heavy with a moonless night.
"Will we leave?" Leigh signed to her companion, shadowed heavily, fingers light dancing of her features.
Atty was reluctant, this would be their second night with the young men, they had caught no big game, travelled no distance. Leith was getting fidgety, she could see it. Casting a glance at Farkas she thought maybe they could cope alone.
"Tomorrow then?" Leith shrugged with her hand movements, watching her friends face and the concern she had for this stranger.
The dark elf nodded offering her friend a rare and thankful smile.
The night proved to be dark, the crescent moon from the night before had waned and no light shone from the sky. Atty sat cross legged next to Farkas. The others retired for the evening leaving her on watch. She let the fire burn low and the sweet darkness envelop her.
Her patient groaned in his sleep. Twitching he woke up and sat up swiftly, disorientated in the dark. She reached for his hand offering comfort, seeing only the edge of shapes in the darkness. He swiftly reversed her grip, snatching her hand in his, his thick fingers holding her tightly as he pulled her towards him.
Inhaling sharply she felt a moment of panic rise, startled warriors could be a dangerous thing, he was unarmed but that didn't mean he couldn't hurt her.
She fell against his chest and she felt his arms go about her body tightly. He hugged her, a physical response she was hardly use to. "Thank you." He whispered into her hair.
Patting him gently on his naked back she let him know it was alright. Then a quicker sharper tap let him know it was time to let her go.
He chuckled awkwardly "I'm sorry. " his gruff whisper cutting through the silence. She squeezed his shoulder, communication was difficult when there was no light to go by. Her fingers drifted to his neck lingering under his chin. She was in fact checking his pulse. It was slowing from the initial fright but becoming normal. She felt him lean into her hand.
"I had dreams, dreams of Sithis, and death. I thought, I don't know what I thought." He sighed heavily "Your hands are cold it's nice."
Lingering longer than she should have on his flesh, they were both rendered quiet again. Delivered once more to the silent pitch of the wilderness.
"Are you afraid of death." Again the whisper was low, as he asked her questions he dreaded to ask his brother, knowing whether she judged him or not she wouldn't speak of it.
"I am, but only because the wolf blood means I cannot go to Sovngarde. I always thought maybe in death I would find my family."
Atty moved leaning against his shoulder, the Dunmer didn't have the same beliefs as the Nords and the Giants had another thought on life and death altogether. Yet she knew that feeling.
"I suppose you're not afraid of anything."
He felt her shrug, Atty was a mortal like any other, things scared her. Death was not one of those things. Her adoptive father was a giant, who raised her from a babe. And the woman, her adoptive mother, who moulded her into an adult was the bride of Sithis. She could talk to death, talk to the night mother and the mother listened. The tight lipped silence that followed the assassins guild everywhere suited her. She couldn't fear death when Death and Leith had been her only two companions for years.

Hushed whispers floated to Leith's ears. She watched the two dark figures, her keen hunters eyes making out enough in the glow of the embers to worry that her friend would make another excuse to stay with the brothers in the morning.
Attachment was not the safest thing with their lifestyle. A head rested on a shoulder, an arm sat around a body before it braced itself on the ground. A proximity and care in the actions spoke volumes for the relationship brewing.

Morning trickled trough the camp waking weary travellers. Farkas had remembered a head on his shoulder, the smell of hair, the warmth of another body when he went to sleep. But there was nothing now. Leith found all their bags packed and rolled but no Atty to be found.
Hair a mess eyes filled with sleep Vilkas connected the dots. "Atty has chosen for you to leave then?"
"I appears so." It was had to mask the surprise in her voice after witnessing the moment last night.
"Dissuade her. Come to Whiterun with us. The champions could use you." He insisted.
She laughed "To what fight bears? To pick a side in a civil war fought by men, who ran the indigenous from their homes so long ago they turned pail and sightless?" Stretching she continued her nonchalant airs while he fumed at her blunt comments.
"You'd rather hunt deer and be a criminal?"
"I may be a criminal but I'm honest about what I've stolen, I don't lie and pretend its mine."
He opened his mouth and shut it huffing at his loss of words.
"Shouldn't have expected anything more from an elf."
A grin slid across her face as the human showed his true colours.
"And there it is."
Before the argument was continued Atty burst from the wilderness a collection of things filling her arms. Yanking a square if fabric from her bag she divided up what she had found and her bagged goods.
"You're not giving them our rations!" Leith protested.
Un fazed she pointed to the the fresh rabbits. She took the parcel and pressed it into Vilkas hands. Holding a small vial up she pointed at Farkas, made a motion to rub a small amount on the wounded area. Her gestures continued a flurry of information.
"Food for a few days, and a salve for Farkas wound." Leith translated, "travel in mornings or evenings, to avoid the silver hand, the morning dew should mask a lot of your trail." Atty's gestures became bigger more demanding "DONT camp in the valley, find a spot higher, it's a migration path, you'll get trampled while you sleep."
Atty tapped Vilkas' head.
"Use your head," Leith explained
She pointed to his eyes.
"Keep your eyes open. And don't linger." With that she smiled at him and gave him a firm nod clapping him on the shoulder once. Before turning to Farkas.
"I guess that's the only goodbye you're going to get." The bosmer said speaking for herself bluntly.
"I meant it, there is work, honest work, and beds in Whiterun should you choose." He pressed
The cheeky smirk returned "Then should I choose, I will see you there."
Atty parting reluctantly from Farkas joined Leith on her walk down the valley and deeper into the hunting grounds of skyrim.
"I understand the travel bag." Leith sighed to her friends signing."I don't think they will survive a day with out us either."
***

"You keep looking back to Skyrim as if you left something behind." Leith whispered into Atty's ear, the dark elf lingered on the docks like she had done since the had arrived on the small island looking out to the horizon.
Two signs came as response, We, did.
Scoffing Leith frowned "Like what?"
Her hands closed like a clam, came together with her two fingers touching completing a rotation of a circle to fingers touching, then brought her hands together like a peek of a house touching them twice.
Leith flopped down next to her friend and kicked her feet to skim the water.
"That land held nothing but contempt for us, guilds took what they could and left us to spin." She sighed "As for family..." Her sentenced trailed off.
Atty looked at her friend, there was almost a sweet confession in her words but shed never utter it out loud.
Atty herself missed father, but she'd missed father for years now, the ache was dull and something she had grown use too despite the added distance.
She lay a hand on her friend and smiled sweetly in the warm sun, whilst in the land so different from their hunting ground in Skyrim.
"That's right," Leith exclaimed "We're as much family as we need." She laughed "You sap."
Atty's smile turned to an unamused raised eyebrow and her pat turned into a shove, as she pushed her "family" into the tepid waters below.
"Cow," Leith splashed watching her friend slip calmly into the liquid. Dipping her head under the water, slicking back her thick dark dreads.
"I'm glad you said what you did. I was almost worried you were pining for the wolf boy." The bosmer continued.
Atty spat a spout of water out of her mouth, then poked out her tongue.
She signed quickly then swam backward.
"You bet I was?" The bosmir splashed loudly "Ha! I don't even remember their names, I'm not nearly as bad as you. You slept with one."
Atty signed furiously in defence of her close proximity to Farkas.
"Near enough is good enough, patient or not." Leith snarked "Though you seemed like you were doing more than checking on his health when you were leaning against his toned shoulder."
Atty's face said it all As she grilled her friend silently.
"Toned, hairy, yes I saw a smidgen of his nakedness. Frankly I'm thankful his brother had the decency to keep his clothes on. Yes, Vilkas well armoured and opinionated."
Atty fixed her friend with a judgmental glair before shaking her head.
"So I remember a name!" Leith splashed the water.
Atty's glare became a smile, she gave Leith a playful shoulder bump before wading up to the docks.
Amusing that they should meet such men days before they left Skyrim. Their lives had be exciting, filled with crime, murder, sometimes noble deeds, never had any one struck a chord. Never has there been reason to linger in Skyrim. Then serendipitous fate reared it's head.
Still a plan is a plan and a promise is a promise, seeking fortune was at hand and there was no time for men.

Slipping up to the bar between the patrons Atty found a seat, she knocked on the bar to get the attention of the inn keeper and placed some coins in a neat pile in front of her. The rabble was atrocious, men of all classes shoulder together with little care for the elven women. Elbowing a couple of patrons she made enough space for Leith to join her with the drinks and the two drank in the atmosphere as well as the liquor.
Gaining a gauge on the temper of the room, Leith flagged the inn keep down a second time and hazard a question.
"My friend and I are looking for work, you heard of anything? Long lost princesses, terrible beasts we could hunt?"
A inebriated local, with a thick wiry beard, fill with drippings of missed ale leant over Atty. "Hey knife ear, I have a terrible beast you could hunt, in my pants" he chuckled heartily to his friends.
With out a warning twitch Attys hand snapped up off her mug, spread it's self over the back of the mans head and slammed it down into the bar. He groaned, and slipped back off the table. Sensing the brewing anger, Leith drew her short blade on one of the mans nearest friends. All the while Atty calmly sat ignoring the situation enjoying her drink as an unconscious man slipped down her leg.
"Now is not the time to be stupid men." Leith growled, eyeing up some very aggravated humans.
"If we all just..." Her sentence was cut off. An arrow flying towards her like a bolt of lightning, she spun off her seat, changing weapon while she moved, notching an arrow to return fire. The arrow racing for her caught instead by the inn keeps chest.
He was avenged swiftly by her hungry shaft, as an all out riot began.
Men who didn't know how the fight began struck at other. Men eager to fight. Chairs and people flew through windows, the bards fled. Tables and chairs became kindling.
Finally Atty, pillar of solitude moved. She poured the drinks left on the bar over, grabbed a couple of bottles of spirits and doused a few other pieces of furniture, then made a trail with it, while taking a hand of Leith and another woman Leith assumed was the inn keeps wife. Just as they got to the door, a fireball formed in her hands. The biggest Leith had ever seen her make, she launched it at the riot, and the fuel drenched kindling before shutting the door.
The fire took a few moments to gather itself and take on the riot and the in, but soon smoke was pouring out of broken windows and stunned men were falling out into the fresh air gasping.
The new woman turned to Atty "I never realised you were this... Thorough." She reached into a purse and began counting coins. "I can finally leave this gods forsaken island. Thank you!"
Leith shook her head. A contract, of course Atty had a Contract.
"Well you made us enough enemies to sink a ship, I hope your getting enough gold for it." She snarked.
Atty smiled wryly to her friend as she counted the gold, and she was right to, Neither of them had killed the inn keep, and in the mess of the brawl all the drunk men will remember is a curse word to an elves lass.
"Why are you leaving the island?" She pressed to the woman. "Is it terrible here?"
"Since the stewardship began." She sighed "The monarchy were good but they died more than two decades ago, and their heirs disappeared."
Atty paused in her counting and looked at the woman, raising and eyebrow to coax her on with her tale.
"Twins they were, strong Nord baby's. Two boys, black hair silver eyes. Vanished soon after the king and queen died. They can't be on the island, they'd be recognised right away. Unless they were killed."
"They were probably killed." Leith offered off hand "Who wants that liability lying around."
Atty looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh what? I've said worse things before."
The mute elf shook her head and held up two fingers, the shook a cupped hand like she was brushing her nails on her shirt.
"Two boys. Yes I heard the woman. Such a travesty." She mused sarcastically.
Frustrated and her friends insolence Atty cuffed Leith over the back of the head. Hoping the jolt would put her brains back in order.
Suddenly it dawned on her "Spriggans Tap root, you mean Vilkas and Farkas!" She exclaimed. "It all fits. Lost lamb syndrome, no one knows their family, black haired, Silver eyed twins. " She paused "You think there is a reward?"
Atty smiled and shrugged. She didn't know about the steward. He would possibly be quite unhappy to be un throned by the true heir, but Farkas would be pleased. Possibly even Vilkas. They would have a home, know their place in the world. Surly that was worth a priceless heirloom or two.

Meer weeks they had lasted Away from Skyrim, here they were back, walking up the path on a pleasant yet crisp afternoon to the up turned ship that was the home of the Companions. Leith deviated from the front door, hanging a left to sneak around the side.
Atty stopped clapping to get her attention.
"What? You weren't going to just knock and asked where they are?" She quipped.
Glancing over her shoulder back to the door Atty nodded briskly and beckoned her back. Leith obliging mumbling to herself.
After no immediate answer Atty pushed on the heavy wooden door opening them up to the huge roaring fire and long dining tables of the main hall.
Though lively in appearance, the hall it's self was devoid of people. The two women began searching for signs of life. Leith poking amongst the main hall picking meat off plates as she went Atty fingers trailing on side boards wandered to the stairs and down the the living quarters.
A peaceful dark enveloped the area, broken by soft candle light. Rugs lined the floors so thick the whisper of her foot falls were gobbled up by the shag. The doors were left open, the people of the guild trusting of one another.
Atty came to a room, much like the ones she had walked passed. But this one had two beds only instead of four, one training dummy, and a desk. both beds were made tight and tidy but one had some clothes and armour piled on top of it. She ran her hand over the split leather. Recognising the damage for the garment Farkas was wearing when he transformed. She picked it up, musing that the brothers still shared a room despite their age.
"Excuse me?" An aged voice asked rhetorically behind her.
She spun. Dropping the armour eyes wide like the feral child she was at heart. She was confronted by the old woman.
"Child calm. I'm not going to hurt you."
Attys eyes danced back and forward between the door an the woman blocking her path.
"You must be Farkas' Atty." She continued a small chuckle leaving her lips. "You're just as he described, he's talked about you almost non stop."
Confused Atty pointed to herself.
"Yes you, my dear, I've been here tending these companions since before those boys have had real memories. There are few secrets from me." The elderly woman smiled tenderly. "I think it's adorable my self, but he's not here, are you looking for him?"
Atty nodded fervently attempting to convert some urgency to the dear old lady. She was about to ask where when a crash echoed down the stairs. The realisation dropped on her face like a tone of freshly hewn stone. Leaving the woman she bolted up the stairs and around the corner.
The scene would have been humorous had it lacked a certain level of deadly threat. Leith half hanging, half poised on the top two shelves of a large oak book shelf, brandishing a very smart silver candelabra at a older balding man who Atty could only assume was the leader of the companions.
She clapped twice loudly attempting to break up the fight.
"What happened to walking In and asking where they were?" Leith shouted agitated at her friend ignoring the large nord with a broadsword pointing at her. "Oh the companions are good people we don't have to sneak." she added sarcastically before biting "Well your sneaking has gotten me in trouble."
Atty gawped with indignation. Pointing to her self in diss belief before pointing an causing finger to her friend.
"What? one candelabra?"
Atty frowned rolling her hand over to egg her into continuing.
"And 16 forks, 2 plates and a handful of loose change." Leith mumbled
The frown didn't slip Atty stood in silence letting her friend sweat.
"Collectively 87 gold pieces, but it's not all from one person, so it's not that bad."
The man Leith was fighting looked between the girls then to the maid, praying one woman in the house would make sense.
"Skjor These girls know Farkas and Vilkas. They are the ones from the valley." She told him. "Atty and ..." She lingered trying to search for a name, Farkas had only adoration for the dark elf named Atty and Vilkas had been less forthcoming with information.
"Leith." The bosmer added dropping from her elevated spot. "Atty and Leith"
Skjor mulled over the information "the hunter and the thief?" He muttered "though Vilkas had mentioned that he witnessed the thief use the thuum." His eyes returned to leith "I take it your the thief."
Leith the dragonborn flourished a mocking bow.
Atty knocked forcefully in the table before Leith could open her mouth, an eyebrow twitch urged her to keep at the task at hand.
"My friend and I are actually here to look for the boys. We have some information they might be interested in"
"What is it?" He asked.
Both girls looked at him, brows set firm and crossed their arms. Finally coming to stand together.
"Well wait to tell them."

A day passed in jorviskarr, Leith ate twice her weight, white Atty picked at what she was given and watched the comings and goings of the guild brothers and sisters. Each time the door creaked she got more excited. Yet each time had new faces to greet. So many she stopped turning and just went back to leering through a book she found absentmindedly picking at a plate of berries as she did.
"Atty?" The gravely voice murmured, Farkas had thrown open the door expecting the warm fires and great feasts of jorviskarr, but had instead caught sight of a head of long black dreads and pointed grey ears.
She spun in her seat, leaping up and ran to him, they stopped with in inches of each other, gaining silent permission, before he picked her up in a huge bear hug. Leaving the rest of the guild rather stunned.
"Vilkas" Leith greeted the other brother with out rising from her comfortable position.
"Leith." He nodded in return.
Farkas put the dark elf down his hands though never leaving her, still unsure if it was a cruel trick or a wisp that would disappear as soon as he let go.
"I thought you were gone." He told her in disbelief.
Atty signed their story with speed and gusto, faster than Farkas could make out all the pieces. He looked to the wood elf, at her leisure with her feet on their grad table.
"She means to tell you. We think we found your parents."
***

Description
A soft sigh of wind brushed through the foliage surrounding the Elven friends.
Red eyes glinted watching the valley below. She had started out searching for elk, bow at the ready quiver full, but since staking a better claim up the bank, she had seen two dark forms and quietly followed their progress across her hunting ground.
Whistling low to her Bosmer friend gaining her attention, She pointed to her eyes, then to the targets down below.
Leith crept forward, a sharp intake of breath whistling softly through her teeth as she took her friends vantage point.
The golden skinned elf had seen it too.
Three trolls the snow dusting their shaggy coats as they picked through the foliage for food.
The silent Dunmer moved, keeping low as she was able sliding through the flora.
"Atty! Leith hissed "Where are you going?"
She waved a response not slowing her decent.
"You're not going to help?" The distress was obvious in her voice. "They could be poor, Then what's in it for us?"
Again Atty only waved.
"It's more profitable if they die, at least then we can loot their corpses."
The Dunmer held a finger to her lips. Then with a flat hand and a downward motion told her friend to get down.
She could see the forms were men, alike in features, dark hair, dark armour, yet as chalk and cheese as Atty and Leith.

The young men saw the enemies, and the trolls angered from the Interruption, turned to face the sound of clattering plate mail. The first lumbered forward swinging its long ape like arms gaining speed with every gallop of its twisted legs. The two in the back were slower to follow but turned the same, baring yellowed fangs and growling deep and low.
Creaking as its stretched to full tension the mammoth tusk bow protested the overdraw Atty put it under. Still as a statue she waited for the perfect moment.
The men set their stances low, they were ready to fight but she knew the damage a frost troll could do.
Holding her breath she let fly.
Straight and swift the arrow flew, shrieking through the air as it did. Catching the troll by surprise transferring the force into its head, throwing it from its feet. The two men and remaining two trolls paused stunned. Atty took their hesitation to reload. Leith joined her. The two elves in unison drawing back until a slight tremor ran through their arms, and with Atty's nod they released.
A sickening crack followed the high pitched song of the duet of arrows as they flew through the valley. The final two fell, flung off their feet simultaneously by the unified stealth assault.
One young man turned, his weapon still drawn his eyes narrow and suspicious. The other with longer hair looked towards the felled beasts. Placing his axe on the ground he scratched his forehead.
Atty stood slinging her bow about her shoulders. She drew a blade from the sheath in her back. The long slender instrument glinting in the late afternoon like like a orange ribbon. The first brother raised his weapon sure this new treat would attack, yet the leather clad woman walked forward striding towards her kills as though he didn't exist.
"Are you backwards!" Leith shouted at her friend struggling through the long grass. Some of the tufts clearing her head.
"We had them!" She bounced.
Vilkus relaxed a raised eyebrow changing his gruff face to something comical as he watched the enthusiastic efforts of the Bosmer Archer.
"You had us?" He queried his accented growl cutting through the evening. "I think that would have required the element of surprise."
She huffed pulling level with him, "We would have surprised you. Don't you worry."

Farkas was not as brash as his brother, he also was left watching the silent woman go about her task running the thin flexible blade under the skin of the dead troll shedding it of its pelt. The blade was nothing to be feared it was a hunters tool. A far more precise instrument than he had seen in the Champions. She was skilled, he admired her technique, though she seemed to have trouble pulling the weighty body to strip the pelt. He approached her to help, A bloodied hand and bloodier knife raised in his direction as soon as the grass whispered of his movement. All he could see of her face was her eyes, red surrounded by white tattoos on green grey skin. A vowel and mask covering the rest of her.
He held up his hands in surrender, to show he meant no harm. Approaching slowly he knelt next to her placing a large weathered hand on the exposed skull, and positioning himself, he grabbed the other side of the pelt nodding to her that he Was there to help.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Atty quickly bent her head and returned to work, with her new helpers aid. His strong hands and brutish strength made quick work of it.
"Well fancy that." Leith breathed watching the scene, "That's not something that happens every day."
Vilkas sheathed his weapon, sure that the two woman posed little threat, though the little one attempted to threaten him at any turn.
"My brother has a bigger heart than brain." He sighed.
"Atty is not one to trust lightly. He must have something special going for him." She slung her bow and crossed her arms, "Leith by the way, and you?"
"Vilkas and Farkas." He announced pointing to himself and the other "Brothers of the champions."
"Champions?" She mused "And what are you doing so far from Whiterun, for gold or for blood?"
"What's it to you rogue?" He snapped angered by her prying
"Oh we are always out for blood." The little Bosmer smiled showing of her teeth.
"For we shall eat none that comes from the Forrest."
Vilkus shuddered under his armour hiding his discomfort from the little elf. Wondering if perhaps the cherry rogue was far more sinister than he could have imagined.

Atty and Farkas finished she parcelled up the flesh and bound it ready to find a tannery. She pulled back her cowl and with it the mask that covered her face.
A sweeter smile than her friend graced her green/grey features as she looked at Farkas, she raised a hand to her chin and then Dipped it away mouthing the word Thank you.
His brother smirked his eyes dropping to his blood stained hands, the Dunmer whipped a brown cloth from her pack and after cleaning her blade took his huge mits in her own slender hands and with a quick dash of water from a flask cleaned Him up.
"How is it." Vilkus muttered looking between the girls "That the Dunmer get the bad reputation?"
"Red eyes and fireballs." Leith told him simply "You humans were always stupid enough to judge on looks."
Atty approached the two as the talked idly, a tiny smudge of blood on her chin from the hand sign she made earlier. With barely a turn of the head she scanned Vilkus her nonchalant behaviour undermining his confidence, angering him. She stopped, turning on her heal only to look at her friend.
"Oh now you want to leave?" Leith snaked "Make up your mind."
"Before you leave may I have your name?"
Her eyes snapped up, the white tattoos accentuating her scarlet eyes locking him with her haughty stare. Her nose and sharp eyes, cat like and angled. There was not a soft feature on the woman, unlike her friend who was unnervingly cute.
"Atty. Like chatty on account that she talks so much." Leith answered for her.
The Dunmer mockingly bowed As her introduction.
"You're leaving?" Farkas broke in, looking to the horizon as the sun quickly sank. "It's night soon, perhaps you should stay with us? Safety in numbers?"
Leith cackled her hysterical laughing echoing through the landscape. Atty smiled shaking her head, changing her direction, patting the larger brother on the chest plate as she did. Her motion hit him square over the heart then touched her own chest.
Leith spoke as if she was speaking the words the mute Dunmer meant. "You will stay with us,"

Night fell, tents set. Vilkus rubbed two sticks together in a futile attempt to make fire.
"Atty is good at fire." Leith told him, perched on the edge of his log peering mischievously over his shoulder.
"You should ask her."
He huffed at his fringe "I don't need her."
"Sooner we have fire. Sooner we eat, or you eat, I don't mind my rabbit raw." Again her little pointed teeth flashed.
Atty watched him in silent judgment, he could barely see her in the growing gloom arms crossed red eyes fixed on his failed attempts. Finally the stick broke, he kicked it in frustration spewing pieces every where.
The still figure moved, she picked up the pieces and rebuilt the fire. Stacking it in a cone shape. She pulled a glove off and lay a hand on the tinder. With in seconds a fire leaped up, licking the logs eagerly. She stood as quietly as she came stepped past the ring of light that was beginning to brighten, and looked down into the valley they had just been in.
Farkas was curious, his brother was wary of the two travellers, the silent one in particular, but Farkas felt no ill will from her. He enjoyed the simplicity in her movements, each just an honest extension of limb to a necessary task.
A low rumble echoed through the valley, the steady thump of heavy foot steps.
Giants migrating under moonlight moving their mammoth flock to a new area.
He watched Atty rather than the flock her eyes glazed with a memory, as if seeing them reminded her of something dear. A smile tugged at her lips as the lumbering Shepards continued on their way.
The final giant pulled up the rear and any old or sickly beasts were kept in check by him. After tapping the rump of one animal with his club to coax it along he looked up to the silent watchers.
Bow in hand Atty raised it to her chest. Hand to heart and hand to sky her the mammoth tusk shimmering in the dusk. He raised his club heart to sky in reply, before.lumbering along with the rest of the heard.
"You know a giant?" He asked dumbfounded by the interaction.
Though clam enough if you left them alone he never knew them to be friendly with any one even elves.
Atty turned to him taking a closed fist taped her chest once then extended two fingers on each hand and tapped them together.
"Her father." Leith translated across the camp.
Frowning Farkas looked back to Atty, trying to see any biological markers of her giant heritage, she rolled her eyes as if she knew what he was thinking, again another hand Gesture, open as if holding a cup to closed.
"She was adopted." Leith managed to encapsulate the exasperation in tone, and Atty returned to her friend sitting lazily on the ground leaning back against the log.
"So why doesn't she talk?" Vilkus asked gruffly "Tongue cut out? Born mute, a sickness."
Red eyes slid from the fire up to his face.
"There is a strategic advantage in silence." Leith didn't need to see the sign for that, Atty was an assassin, and though initially as she left the giants she didn't know a lick of the common tongue, now it was by choice, she listened and she always found those that mattered understood.
"I like quiet," Farkas interjected slowly "No words for people to poke fun at." Atty pointed at him and tapped her nose. Smiling at his intuition.

Night rolled on, moon rising high in the tide of black that stole the dusk of the evening.
Atty voted for first watch, as she always did, leaving Leith to slumber, Farkas yawning, bade his goodnights. Vilkus stayed still wary of the silent woman with her vigilant red eyes.
She shed her leather As they sat in the dark by the fire, turning the playable armour in her hands locating a tare. She pulled tools from her bag and sat in the silence of the night calmly ignoring Vilkus repairing her armour.
The soft grey of her skin reflected the Fire light and danced off the bizarre scarification that littered her shoulders and arms.
"Do you ever stop working?" He jibed attempting to rile her.
Her head tilted and she raised an eyebrow as she glanced sidelong at him for half a minute before returning to her work.
"You never answered my question. Do you choose not to speak or are you not able?"
She shrugged.
He sighed heavily not getting any Feed back from her.
"How did you meet Leith?"
A hand extended to her bow and she patted it.
"Archery?"
She shook her her holding it close to the light pointing at it.
"She tried to steal your bow?"
The Dunmer exhaled sharply, putting her armour to one side and with a long finger drew a picture in the dirt.
"Mammoth tusk." He exclaimed, frustrated that it took him so long to figure it out. He noticed Farkas seemed to have no issue, and he had half the smarts. With out thinking how she would explain his mouth asked the question on the edge of his mind "What happened?"

***
Father stomped the ground an grunted holding up three enormous fingers then pointed in the direction off the shifting grass.
Atty hand on heart acknowledge him and with her bow in hand bowed below the grass line and ran in the direction if the poachers.
The first arrow flew, it's arc was high and slow it lacked the speed and strength of the Arrows her own bow fired.
She drew, splitting the Arrow in mid flight, she spied the man who fired it and notching another she let fly faster than he was able. It was a high enough angle to knock him back and pin him to the ground. She readied another turning on the noise coming to her side. She hesitated. The face she met wasn't large broad, human or masculine. She had not seen a wood elf for years not since father and herself walked the mammoth from the hill forests. She allowed the bow to go loose. Shaking her head at the golden creature before her. She made a shooing motion with her hands trying to coax her away.
"Hey what's one mammoth to you." She quipped "You've got 12 more."
Atty knew this elf was talking to her but she didn't understand the words, vowels and consonance making less sense than grunts and hand gestures. Again she shook her head her long black dreaded hair accentuating the movement. She pressed her hands together in a gesture of begging then waved. Frustrated that she was being ignored.
"Come on. I just need a tusk." Leith asked.
This time Atty broke protocol she touched the woman turning her by her slender shoulders and pushing her before her. Fearing that this fellow elf didn't know if she didn't stop her actions her father would intervene, meaning there would be an elf coloured smudge on the end of his club.
While the back and forth was happening the man who had been pinned to the dirt freed him self, lunging at his former attacker. Throwing her to the ground forcing an arrow to her jugular. Atty struggled against it, pushed on her back she tried to get her feet under the man to get herself some leverage. He was enraged strong and had far more desire to kill Atty than Atty had to kill him.
She heard a snap of the bow string and wondered if perhaps the elf was trying to help her comrade. But she felt no pain and the body on top of her went limp. The shaft the golden elf had let fly had lodged itself in the back of the mans neck, a very definite shot, not an Accidental shooting. Throwing the dead weight off her, she looked Up. Touching her chin and bowing her hand forward. She signed "Thank you."
The elf laughed tipping an invisible hat "You're welcome."
Screaming through the bushes the forgotten member of the party approached, sensing a fight on their hand. Weapons ready at seeing the elf bandit turn, aiding the feral creature that lay In the mud before her, his trajectory changed racing for the woman that killed his brother in arms.
Atty grabbed her new friends hand wrenching her to the side, yanking the Arrow from the dead mans grip she notched, drew and fired in the blink of an eye. The body collapsing in a heap, the shaft piercing his right eye.
The two girls sat in the grass quietly. Wind rustling the foliage around them and the two dead men. Atty turned to the wood elf, a fist to her chest thumb sticking up she made a circle. Looking at her with apologetic eyes.
"It's fine." The smaller elf replied having a feeling for what the bizarre feral woman was trying to say. "They all turn on you at some point any way."
Tucking her feet under her Atty stood holding out a hand to Leith.
For once the wood elf raised by bandits accepted the hand extended to her. Finding a strange desire to trust this silent woman dressed in furs, with dark dreaded hair.
Across the tundra she lead them stopping at a mound looking down into a valley. Mammoth sculls. Bones skeletons littered the area. Along with tusks.
With a flat sweeping hand Atty indicated the bones and tusks were there for the taking.
Leigh laughed, "Well I guess I should have just asked"

Raising an eyebrow Vilkus stared at the complex drawings explaining her answer to his question. Like cave drawings the line art in the dirt showed giants and mammoths, bandits, bows, arrows and death. He looked up at the elf who thinking she had given enough information returned to her repairs.
He sighed "I have no idea what any of this thing means."

Shards of sun stretched out across the valley. Dew twinkling in the morning light.
"Ready?"
Atty nodded and Farkas pulled back and threw the stick into the air with all the force he could muster.
Firing not once but five times, Atty kept the wood in the air, bouncing, each arrow catching it with force, pushing it up and along. The only sound the crack slowly getting quieter as they moved further away.
Farkas laughed impressed. "And Leith is just As good?"
Atty screwed up her face and waved her hand back and forth.
"Almost as good."
Atty smiled, if Farkas realised that it was her ego not letting her admit her friend was on an even peg he wasn't letting on.
She pointed at him the the bow.
"Me. You want me to have a turn? Ha no. I know when I'm out mastered." He picked up his axe and held it before him. "This is my talent. If you call it that. Blessed with the strength of Ysgramore. My brother got his smarts. Still slamming this in to my enemies does the trick."
Attys face broke into a large smile. Her body shook though she made no sound.
"A laugh at my expense?" He teased.
She shook her head, tapping her chin twice. Then raising two hands in the air with her thumbs sticking out she wiggled them. Pointing to her chest then taping over her heart.
Farkas watched perplexed.
"You like it?"
She nodded, he was more or less right.
His way of doing things was simple, Effective she had spent so long in the company of convoluted killers.

Sunning her self, stretched on her back in the grass, Leith felt a shade pass over her. Vilkas made darker by the back lighting loomed above her.
"When do we leave?" He asked hinting that he would like to do it sooner than later.
"We leave, when Atty says we should." Leith told him sliding up so that her face could get more sun.
"You put a lot of faith in a woman who can't tell you what she's thinking."
Leith chuckled making herself more comfortable. "Oh you always know what Atty is thinking. She's not a liar like me." She shot him another cheeky grin.
One of the screaming Arrow whistled passed his head. Narrowly missing his ear and lodging itself in the ground near enough to Leith's head she should have flinched.
"She also has exceptional hearing."
He felt the eyes in the back of his head. He didn't need to turn and see her unimpressed face. "I feel she hates me."
"Don't take offence, she hates every one." Leith answered nonchalantly
Vilkas sighed heavily and looked back to his brother and the elf. She had retrieved the arrow she had shot at him and picked a strange wild flower on her way back. She handed some to Farkas and proceeded to show him how to suck the nectar out. "Are you sure?" He asked as he noted the shared smiles between the two.
Leith laughed "Well I suppose he never threatened her, or looked at her like she was going to stab him in the back.
"Mistrust is healthy." Vilkas told her. "When in company of Rogues"
"She's an archer."
"She's a hunter." He retorted quickly.
"Alright so she'll skin you and salt the meat, but she will come from the front." Leith closed her eyes again getting snippy at the mans insolence.
"Why are you so quick to defend her honour? When you seem to have no care for it yourself?"
"It matters to her." She told him flatly.
"But you tease her, in fact only yesterday you called her backwards."
She sat up and looked at him aggravated that she wasn't going to be left alone to sun her self in peace. "Do you let people tease your brother because he's slow. Despite reminding him to bolster your own ego?"
"Of course not." Vilkas bit back.
"Family is family, and only family torments family."
He scoffed. "Only she's not even the same race as you."
"So?" Leith asked not seeing the problem.
"So she can't be family."
"By the gods you're stupid." She threw her hands up in the air.
He stammered. "Well you're short."
Leith looked at the dark haired man for a moment before bursting into laughter. Flopping back onto her back.
"You need to relax." She told him "If any one is shanking any one it's me, and I am happier getting my daily dose of sun right now."
He sat down next to her reluctantly taking her advice. They were quiet together for a time, before Leith queried "It's just the two of you?"
"As long as we have known. The companions took us on when we were young, but it was always us."
He glanced over to his brother, enamoured by the dark elf. She appeared to be showing him things, explaining through hand signs, and demonstrations.
"You can't protect him from every thing." Leith said "Atty won't hurt him lest he deserves it."
The elf was taking time with his brother, something few did. Yet he didn't see her patronise him, something he himself was guilty of.
"I worry for him. He is simple."
Leith raised an eyebrow. "Not as simple as you might think. I thought for the longest time Atty was dense. We often think worse of those who don't speak up. But she let me know she's clever."
"Really how?"
"She smacked me upside the head when I was disrespectful."
Vilkas laughed they were as close to sisters as he and Farkas were brothers.

Pausing in the midday sun Atty froze like a hound that had just caught the sent of game. Her posture changed, she pulled an arrow and readied it.
Leith sat up, her friend was scared, this was not a wild beast nor any creature, her head was darting following the noises. There were many, surrounding them. Stalking them quietly in the morning sun.
The first lunged, sword and shield in hand, but Atty's arrow was quicker.
A second popped up behind Leith and Vilkas, her next shot catching him with a wet thwack.
A pair jumped up, Leith thankful for her paranoia rolled the attacking man off her, using her bow that she kept at her side.
The surrounding enemies attacked. The four travellers were heavily out numbered. The archers doing their best to keep the greater numbers from swarming them, the two heavily armoured picking of those stupid enough to venture close.
Three rushed Atty, she caught one with an arrow to the throat sending him to the dirt, the last two tackling her lifting her off her feet and slamming her onto her back.
Kicking punching and biting, beneath the two large body's the dunmer didn't see Farkas transformation. She heard a crack of bones she thought the sickening sound was coming from her own compacted chest.
Oxygen filled her lungs as one of the body's attempting to hold her down was pulled away. Followed by a shriek. The second turned his attention on the far more deadly beast. Atty scrabbled for her bow for some arrows while man and beast fought. Finding only the latter, she held the arrow head in her hand like a dagger and stabbed it into the mans shoulder with all her might. He bellowed in pain, and the beast tore out his throat his bellows turning to gargles.
Leith and Vilkas hacked and stabbed their way through the last few that remained brave enough to fight. Leith made sure to chase off those that fled with a few well placed arrows.
The snarling beast that was Farkas remained . Feasting on corpses in his blood lust.
"Cursed silver hand!" Vilkas exclaimed. "Hunting us like animals at every turn."
"Well." Leith began stretching the word. "They aren't with out some cause." She pointed to his brother.
Atty stared wide eyed at the beast that saved her life, his muzzle and claws coated in blood. It wasn't the death he had caused that made her stare but the wound In his side.
"Don't." Vilkas said as she approached him. "Though beasts we aren't." He hissed in Leith's direction. "When wounded we can sometimes mistake friend for foe."
Atty placed a firm and steady hand on the eldest brothers shoulder and pushed him aside as she approached Farkas. He growled low in his throat, bearing his teeth while shuffling backwards.
"He won't be able to transform until he calms." Atty heard Vilkas utter.
Laying her bow on the ground, she extended her hand. Slowly Palm raised fingers reaching softly forward. She remembered father would coo to the wounded mammoths who would do the same thing, soft noises to sooth the creatures. She had no words to console him, no sounds to calm him. All she had was her hands, her touch. Finally after inching forward her fingers connected with his snout, until they lay flat against him. His eyes looked up and through the fur she could still see what was unmistakably Farkas. He leaned into her hand, until eventually his large furry head rested on her shoulder.
A sigh slipped from his mouth and the cracking and crunch of bones returning to their original shape echoed through their camp.
"Good gracious he's naked." Leith exclaimed looking up At the sky. Averting her eyes from the obvious man form that was collapsing into her friend.
Atty clicked her fingers twice.
"I am not touching him now, I preferred him as a wolf, at least there was reason for the hair." She protested.
The Dunmer clicked again more forcefully this time. But it was Vilkas that answered her call. Helping her prop up the slowly fading Farkas. The beast was keeping him upright, something primal keeping him from feeling the effects of the knife to the gut.
Together they lay him down back closer to the camp. Covering him in a blanket, Atty disappearing into the brush.
"So your both wolves?" Leith asked.
Vilkas nodded, "flee now if you must, I didn't expect you to stay. The dark elf hasn't."
She pulled out her water flask From her belongings and knelt next to the wounded Farkas covered enough for her to look upon his form. She spilled a little on a cloth and dabbed his forehead. Patting away the beads of sweat forming three
"She'll be getting herbs or something for a poultice, something to draw the infection out. She's an alchemist you know."
Vikas licked his lips and began slowly. "Atty, is your hunter, your healer, she starts your fires sets your camp, tells you went you can and can't travel..." He paused and looked at the small elf. "What is it that you do."
"I talk." She said as if the notion was clear as day. "It's awfully hard, to trade your wares with no voice. Woefully hard to convince people of your innocence when you are rendered silent. Atty has skills with the wilds it's true, but that is where it ends, she had no concept of money, no idea of our language."
"And now that she does?"
She sighed looking into the direction of the rustling of her friends return.
Attys signs were sharp, her body language conveying urgency.
"I still have my uses." Leith snapped at Vilkas's dumbfounded face.
She threw a kettle on the boil and pulled out some bowls for Atty, while the Alchemist herself grabbed mortar and Pestle and began mixing a paste out of what ever she pulled from the foliage. The two women working in unison with out so much of a word.

The brews ready she waved Leith away, back to a lazy position far enough to let Atty work, and any action she was inspired into quashed.
"An assistant then?" He was baiting the lazy bosmer.
Atty had made a series of rude hand gestures to get him to leave his brothers side, and he needed to do do something to take his mind of worry. A wound in the wild could turn quickly, and neither himself or elven companions were a healer, so they had to rely on silent alchemy.
"An assistant is all you peg me for?" She scoffed pulled to her feet by indignation. "I am the hero of this merry tale."
"You? The little thief?"
She turned from camp looking towards the tree line and the small river flowing from the cluster and down the hill.
"You are not the only one with a secret." she took a deep breath and opened her mouth "Fus Ro Dah".
Trees cracked grass swayed and more the one flock of birds took to the air.
"Dragonborn." Vilkas whispered.
They heard a clap getting her attention with the rude signs from earlier repeated.
"Sorry." Leith begrudgingly apologised before return ing to the stunned man.
"Let me tell you the irony of the Dragonborn and her mute friend is not lost on me."

Evening crept up over the plains like a lazy cat. Heavy with a moonless night.
"Will we leave?" Leigh signed to her companion, shadowed heavily, fingers light dancing of her features.
Atty was reluctant, this would be their second night with the young men, they had caught no big game, travelled no distance. Leith was getting fidgety, she could see it. Casting a glance at Farkas she thought maybe they could cope alone.
"Tomorrow then?" Leith shrugged with her hand movements, watching her friends face and the concern she had for this stranger.
The dark elf nodded offering her friend a rare and thankful smile.
The night proved to be dark, the crescent moon from the night before had waned and no light shone from the sky. Atty sat cross legged next to Farkas. The others retired for the evening leaving her on watch. She let the fire burn low and the sweet darkness envelop her.
Her patient groaned in his sleep. Twitching he woke up and sat up swiftly, disorientated in the dark. She reached for his hand offering comfort, seeing only the edge of shapes in the darkness. He swiftly reversed her grip, snatching her hand in his, his thick fingers holding her tightly as he pulled her towards him.
Inhaling sharply she felt a moment of panic rise, startled warriors could be a dangerous thing, he was unarmed but that didn't mean he couldn't hurt her.
She fell against his chest and she felt his arms go about her body tightly. He hugged her, a physical response she was hardly use to. "Thank you." He whispered into her hair.
Patting him gently on his naked back she let him know it was alright. Then a quicker sharper tap let him know it was time to let her go.
He chuckled awkwardly "I'm sorry. " his gruff whisper cutting through the silence. She squeezed his shoulder, communication was difficult when there was no light to go by. Her fingers drifted to his neck lingering under his chin. She was in fact checking his pulse. It was slowing from the initial fright but becoming normal. She felt him lean into her hand.
"I had dreams, dreams of Sithis, and death. I thought, I don't know what I thought." He sighed heavily "Your hands are cold it's nice."
Lingering longer than she should have on his flesh, they were both rendered quiet again. Delivered once more to the silent pitch of the wilderness.
"Are you afraid of death." Again the whisper was low, as he asked her questions he dreaded to ask his brother, knowing whether she judged him or not she wouldn't speak of it.
"I am, but only because the wolf blood means I cannot go to Sovngarde. I always thought maybe in death I would find my family."
Atty moved leaning against his shoulder, the Dunmer didn't have the same beliefs as the Nords and the Giants had another thought on life and death altogether. Yet she knew that feeling.
"I suppose you're not afraid of anything."
He felt her shrug, Atty was a mortal like any other, things scared her. Death was not one of those things. Her adoptive father was a giant, who raised her from a babe. And the woman, her adoptive mother, who moulded her into an adult was the bride of Sithis. She could talk to death, talk to the night mother and the mother listened. The tight lipped silence that followed the assassins guild everywhere suited her. She couldn't fear death when Death and Leith had been her only two companions for years.

Hushed whispers floated to Leith's ears. She watched the two dark figures, her keen hunters eyes making out enough in the glow of the embers to worry that her friend would make another excuse to stay with the brothers in the morning.
Attachment was not the safest thing with their lifestyle. A head rested on a shoulder, an arm sat around a body before it braced itself on the ground. A proximity and care in the actions spoke volumes for the relationship brewing.

Morning trickled trough the camp waking weary travellers. Farkas had remembered a head on his shoulder, the smell of hair, the warmth of another body when he went to sleep. But there was nothing now. Leith found all their bags packed and rolled but no Atty to be found.
Hair a mess eyes filled with sleep Vilkas connected the dots. "Atty has chosen for you to leave then?"
"I appears so." It was had to mask the surprise in her voice after witnessing the moment last night.
"Dissuade her. Come to Whiterun with us. The champions could use you." He insisted.
She laughed "To what fight bears? To pick a side in a civil war fought by men, who ran the indigenous from their homes so long ago they turned pail and sightless?" Stretching she continued her nonchalant airs while he fumed at her blunt comments.
"You'd rather hunt deer and be a criminal?"
"I may be a criminal but I'm honest about what I've stolen, I don't lie and pretend its mine."
He opened his mouth and shut it huffing at his loss of words.
"Shouldn't have expected anything more from an elf."
A grin slid across her face as the human showed his true colours.
"And there it is."
Before the argument was continued Atty burst from the wilderness a collection of things filling her arms. Yanking a square if fabric from her bag she divided up what she had found and her bagged goods.
"You're not giving them our rations!" Leith protested.
Un fazed she pointed to the the fresh rabbits. She took the parcel and pressed it into Vilkas hands. Holding a small vial up she pointed at Farkas, made a motion to rub a small amount on the wounded area. Her gestures continued a flurry of information.
"Food for a few days, and a salve for Farkas wound." Leith translated, "travel in mornings or evenings, to avoid the silver hand, the morning dew should mask a lot of your trail." Atty's gestures became bigger more demanding "DONT camp in the valley, find a spot higher, it's a migration path, you'll get trampled while you sleep."
Atty tapped Vilkas' head.
"Use your head," Leith explained
She pointed to his eyes.
"Keep your eyes open. And don't linger." With that she smiled at him and gave him a firm nod clapping him on the shoulder once. Before turning to Farkas.
"I guess that's the only goodbye you're going to get." The bosmer said speaking for herself bluntly.
"I meant it, there is work, honest work, and beds in Whiterun should you choose." He pressed
The cheeky smirk returned "Then should I choose, I will see you there."
Atty parting reluctantly from Farkas joined Leith on her walk down the valley and deeper into the hunting grounds of skyrim.
"I understand the travel bag." Leith sighed to her friends signing."I don't think they will survive a day with out us either."
***

"You keep looking back to Skyrim as if you left something behind." Leith whispered into Atty's ear, the dark elf lingered on the docks like she had done since the had arrived on the small island looking out to the horizon.
Two signs came as response, We, did.
Scoffing Leith frowned "Like what?"
Her hands closed like a clam, came together with her two fingers touching completing a rotation of a circle to fingers touching, then brought her hands together like a peek of a house touching them twice.
Leith flopped down next to her friend and kicked her feet to skim the water.
"That land held nothing but contempt for us, guilds took what they could and left us to spin." She sighed "As for family..." Her sentenced trailed off.
Atty looked at her friend, there was almost a sweet confession in her words but shed never utter it out loud.
Atty herself missed father, but she'd missed father for years now, the ache was dull and something she had grown use too despite the added distance.
She lay a hand on her friend and smiled sweetly in the warm sun, whilst in the land so different from their hunting ground in Skyrim.
"That's right," Leith exclaimed "We're as much family as we need." She laughed "You sap."
Atty's smile turned to an unamused raised eyebrow and her pat turned into a shove, as she pushed her "family" into the tepid waters below.
"Cow," Leith splashed watching her friend slip calmly into the liquid. Dipping her head under the water, slicking back her thick dark dreads.
"I'm glad you said what you did. I was almost worried you were pining for the wolf boy." The bosmer continued.
Atty spat a spout of water out of her mouth, then poked out her tongue.
She signed quickly then swam backward.
"You bet I was?" The bosmir splashed loudly "Ha! I don't even remember their names, I'm not nearly as bad as you. You slept with one."
Atty signed furiously in defence of her close proximity to Farkas.
"Near enough is good enough, patient or not." Leith snarked "Though you seemed like you were doing more than checking on his health when you were leaning against his toned shoulder."
Atty's face said it all As she grilled her friend silently.
"Toned, hairy, yes I saw a smidgen of his nakedness. Frankly I'm thankful his brother had the decency to keep his clothes on. Yes, Vilkas well armoured and opinionated."
Atty fixed her friend with a judgmental glair before shaking her head.
"So I remember a name!" Leith splashed the water.
Atty's glare became a smile, she gave Leith a playful shoulder bump before wading up to the docks.
Amusing that they should meet such men days before they left Skyrim. Their lives had be exciting, filled with crime, murder, sometimes noble deeds, never had any one struck a chord. Never has there been reason to linger in Skyrim. Then serendipitous fate reared it's head.
Still a plan is a plan and a promise is a promise, seeking fortune was at hand and there was no time for men.

Slipping up to the bar between the patrons Atty found a seat, she knocked on the bar to get the attention of the inn keeper and placed some coins in a neat pile in front of her. The rabble was atrocious, men of all classes shoulder together with little care for the elven women. Elbowing a couple of patrons she made enough space for Leith to join her with the drinks and the two drank in the atmosphere as well as the liquor.
Gaining a gauge on the temper of the room, Leith flagged the inn keep down a second time and hazard a question.
"My friend and I are looking for work, you heard of anything? Long lost princesses, terrible beasts we could hunt?"
A inebriated local, with a thick wiry beard, fill with drippings of missed ale leant over Atty. "Hey knife ear, I have a terrible beast you could hunt, in my pants" he chuckled heartily to his friends.
With out a warning twitch Attys hand snapped up off her mug, spread it's self over the back of the mans head and slammed it down into the bar. He groaned, and slipped back off the table. Sensing the brewing anger, Leith drew her short blade on one of the mans nearest friends. All the while Atty calmly sat ignoring the situation enjoying her drink as an unconscious man slipped down her leg.
"Now is not the time to be stupid men." Leith growled, eyeing up some very aggravated humans.
"If we all just..." Her sentence was cut off. An arrow flying towards her like a bolt of lightning, she spun off her seat, changing weapon while she moved, notching an arrow to return fire. The arrow racing for her caught instead by the inn keeps chest.
He was avenged swiftly by her hungry shaft, as an all out riot began.
Men who didn't know how the fight began struck at other. Men eager to fight. Chairs and people flew through windows, the bards fled. Tables and chairs became kindling.
Finally Atty, pillar of solitude moved. She poured the drinks left on the bar over, grabbed a couple of bottles of spirits and doused a few other pieces of furniture, then made a trail with it, while taking a hand of Leith and another woman Leith assumed was the inn keeps wife. Just as they got to the door, a fireball formed in her hands. The biggest Leith had ever seen her make, she launched it at the riot, and the fuel drenched kindling before shutting the door.
The fire took a few moments to gather itself and take on the riot and the in, but soon smoke was pouring out of broken windows and stunned men were falling out into the fresh air gasping.
The new woman turned to Atty "I never realised you were this... Thorough." She reached into a purse and began counting coins. "I can finally leave this gods forsaken island. Thank you!"
Leith shook her head. A contract, of course Atty had a Contract.
"Well you made us enough enemies to sink a ship, I hope your getting enough gold for it." She snarked.
Atty smiled wryly to her friend as she counted the gold, and she was right to, Neither of them had killed the inn keep, and in the mess of the brawl all the drunk men will remember is a curse word to an elves lass.
"Why are you leaving the island?" She pressed to the woman. "Is it terrible here?"
"Since the stewardship began." She sighed "The monarchy were good but they died more than two decades ago, and their heirs disappeared."
Atty paused in her counting and looked at the woman, raising and eyebrow to coax her on with her tale.
"Twins they were, strong Nord baby's. Two boys, black hair silver eyes. Vanished soon after the king and queen died. They can't be on the island, they'd be recognised right away. Unless they were killed."
"They were probably killed." Leith offered off hand "Who wants that liability lying around."
Atty looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh what? I've said worse things before."
The mute elf shook her head and held up two fingers, the shook a cupped hand like she was brushing her nails on her shirt.
"Two boys. Yes I heard the woman. Such a travesty." She mused sarcastically.
Frustrated and her friends insolence Atty cuffed Leith over the back of the head. Hoping the jolt would put her brains back in order.
Suddenly it dawned on her "Spriggans Tap root, you mean Vilkas and Farkas!" She exclaimed. "It all fits. Lost lamb syndrome, no one knows their family, black haired, Silver eyed twins. " She paused "You think there is a reward?"
Atty smiled and shrugged. She didn't know about the steward. He would possibly be quite unhappy to be un throned by the true heir, but Farkas would be pleased. Possibly even Vilkas. They would have a home, know their place in the world. Surly that was worth a priceless heirloom or two.

Meer weeks they had lasted Away from Skyrim, here they were back, walking up the path on a pleasant yet crisp afternoon to the up turned ship that was the home of the Companions. Leith deviated from the front door, hanging a left to sneak around the side.
Atty stopped clapping to get her attention.
"What? You weren't going to just knock and asked where they are?" She quipped.
Glancing over her shoulder back to the door Atty nodded briskly and beckoned her back. Leith obliging mumbling to herself.
After no immediate answer Atty pushed on the heavy wooden door opening them up to the huge roaring fire and long dining tables of the main hall.
Though lively in appearance, the hall it's self was devoid of people. The two women began searching for signs of life. Leith poking amongst the main hall picking meat off plates as she went Atty fingers trailing on side boards wandered to the stairs and down the the living quarters.
A peaceful dark enveloped the area, broken by soft candle light. Rugs lined the floors so thick the whisper of her foot falls were gobbled up by the shag. The doors were left open, the people of the guild trusting of one another.
Atty came to a room, much like the ones she had walked passed. But this one had two beds only instead of four, one training dummy, and a desk. both beds were made tight and tidy but one had some clothes and armour piled on top of it. She ran her hand over the split leather. Recognising the damage for the garment Farkas was wearing when he transformed. She picked it up, musing that the brothers still shared a room despite their age.
"Excuse me?" An aged voice asked rhetorically behind her.
She spun. Dropping the armour eyes wide like the feral child she was at heart. She was confronted by the old woman.
"Child calm. I'm not going to hurt you."
Attys eyes danced back and forward between the door an the woman blocking her path.
"You must be Farkas' Atty." She continued a small chuckle leaving her lips. "You're just as he described, he's talked about you almost non stop."
Confused Atty pointed to herself.
"Yes you, my dear, I've been here tending these companions since before those boys have had real memories. There are few secrets from me." The elderly woman smiled tenderly. "I think it's adorable my self, but he's not here, are you looking for him?"
Atty nodded fervently attempting to convert some urgency to the dear old lady. She was about to ask where when a crash echoed down the stairs. The realisation dropped on her face like a tone of freshly hewn stone. Leaving the woman she bolted up the stairs and around the corner.
The scene would have been humorous had it lacked a certain level of deadly threat. Leith half hanging, half poised on the top two shelves of a large oak book shelf, brandishing a very smart silver candelabra at a older balding man who Atty could only assume was the leader of the companions.
She clapped twice loudly attempting to break up the fight.
"What happened to walking In and asking where they were?" Leith shouted agitated at her friend ignoring the large nord with a broadsword pointing at her. "Oh the companions are good people we don't have to sneak." she added sarcastically before biting "Well your sneaking has gotten me in trouble."
Atty gawped with indignation. Pointing to her self in diss belief before pointing an causing finger to her friend.
"What? one candelabra?"
Atty frowned rolling her hand over to egg her into continuing.
"And 16 forks, 2 plates and a handful of loose change." Leith mumbled
The frown didn't slip Atty stood in silence letting her friend sweat.
"Collectively 87 gold pieces, but it's not all from one person, so it's not that bad."
The man Leith was fighting looked between the girls then to the maid, praying one woman in the house would make sense.
"Skjor These girls know Farkas and Vilkas. They are the ones from the valley." She told him. "Atty and ..." She lingered trying to search for a name, Farkas had only adoration for the dark elf named Atty and Vilkas had been less forthcoming with information.
"Leith." The bosmer added dropping from her elevated spot. "Atty and Leith"
Skjor mulled over the information "the hunter and the thief?" He muttered "though Vilkas had mentioned that he witnessed the thief use the thuum." His eyes returned to leith "I take it your the thief."
Leith the dragonborn flourished a mocking bow.
Atty knocked forcefully in the table before Leith could open her mouth, an eyebrow twitch urged her to keep at the task at hand.
"My friend and I are actually here to look for the boys. We have some information they might be interested in"
"What is it?" He asked.
Both girls looked at him, brows set firm and crossed their arms. Finally coming to stand together.
"Well wait to tell them."

A day passed in jorviskarr, Leith ate twice her weight, white Atty picked at what she was given and watched the comings and goings of the guild brothers and sisters. Each time the door creaked she got more excited. Yet each time had new faces to greet. So many she stopped turning and just went back to leering through a book she found absentmindedly picking at a plate of berries as she did.
"Atty?" The gravely voice murmured, Farkas had thrown open the door expecting the warm fires and great feasts of jorviskarr, but had instead caught sight of a head of long black dreads and pointed grey ears.
She spun in her seat, leaping up and ran to him, they stopped with in inches of each other, gaining silent permission, before he picked her up in a huge bear hug. Leaving the rest of the guild rather stunned.
"Vilkas" Leith greeted the other brother with out rising from her comfortable position.
"Leith." He nodded in return.
Farkas put the dark elf down his hands though never leaving her, still unsure if it was a cruel trick or a wisp that would disappear as soon as he let go.
"I thought you were gone." He told her in disbelief.
Atty signed their story with speed and gusto, faster than Farkas could make out all the pieces. He looked to the wood elf, at her leisure with her feet on their grad table.
"She means to tell you. We think we found your parents."
***