We're going on a bear hunt! (Vilkas)

 Prompt: two brothers and a bear

“It’s just an animal control contract, how bad could it be?” I ask Aela as she stands holding the paper with job details, having just refused to do it herself, a move very unlike her typically. “You and Farkas can find out if you want to.” Anna passes by having overheard some of the conversation, looks over Aela’s shoulder at the piece of paper, laughs, and walks off, wishing us luck should we accept it. Well if the two of them won’t do it I guess we don’t have much of a choice, besides, now I want to see what all the fuss is about. Aela hands over the paper so I can read it. There's a bear near Ivarstead that’s been causing problems for the townspeople and people on the road to and from Riften, that shouldn’t be too bad. Sure, it might be bad if you’re an archer by yourself and the biggest blade you use is a dagger, but even then I’m surprised Aela isn’t taking it. “You want it?” Aela asks, having given me time to read over the rest of the details. “If you won’t take it.” I go to add something else but before I can she just tells me that’s great and runs off, probably to go tell Anna who had gone upstairs. “Knock knock grab your stuff, we're going to Ivarstead.” I knock on the open door to Farkas’ room and gives me a silent look that says “we?” to which I hold up the job paper. “Aela doesn’t want it, Anna doesn’t want it, I want to see why. Apparently there’s a bear that's been causing problems.” I hand over the paper so he too can read the full details and once done he agrees. This should be interesting, and it’s been far too long since I’ve been in The Rift. The foliage there is much better than looking at the old dead tree that is Gildergreen in the center of Whiterun.

Unfortunately due to its small size there is no easy way to get to Iverstead by horse and carriage, the closest city the one from Whiterun goes to is Riften. At that distance it is faster just to walk and cross through some of the mountain passes, though still time consuming. Eventually Farkas and I get to the quiet village at the base of the Throat of The World. “So you and Anna really climbed all the way up there, huh?” I point out the tiny dot toward the top of the mountain that must be the Greybeards monastery. “It was not a fun time. There was a frost troll…and wolves…and a snowstorm.” he responds before going off to ask around about the animal problem to people he knows. The last two make sense, the first one less so. I think about it for a few moments before registering he’s gone “Wait Farkas why was there a troll?!” I call after him and in reply get a shrug as he continues walking. Trolls are strange creatures, I’d rather fight a bear over one of them any day.

 With nothing better to do I ask the guards about the bear problem though they prove less than helpful for the most part. Unlike my brother I am not particularly social and I think my demeanor makes them less likely to talk to me. I ask the innkeeper similar questions as he polishes glasses though he replies without looking up with “I just told you, go ask around the sawmill.” useful information, though he didn’t tell me recently. “You were probably thinking of my brother.” I say to the innkeeper who only now looks up and is a bit surprised. “You’re-” he goes to say something but I interrupt him “Identical twins.” I finish and he nods confirming that was what he was going to say. After that he apologizes and points me in the direction he had turned Farkas, it seems like the complaint primarily came from the woman in charge of the mill here. I do indeed find Farkas there talking to the lady, she seems rather upset, borderline angry even, but not at him specifically. Farkas fills me in on the location of the bear and the ongoing issue the lady has been having with them in the general area. In addition to this she offers payment if us, or anybody we happen to run into, can bring her ten bear pelts.

With the details of things cleared up and still enough light to deal with the problem we set off to find where the bear has been hiding out. “We're going on a bear hunt. We're going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day! We're not scared.” I hear Farkas mumbling the children's story to himself as we walk, it’s fitting given the situation. We first encounter a series of forest decay and bushes on our way to the cave. “We can't go over it. We can't go under it. Oh no! We've got to go through it!” I say to Farkas, the other repeating line from the story, informing him I had in fact overheard him as we trudge through it. We continue walking along, chanting the first portion as we walk and the second whenever encountering a problem until finally the cave comes into view. It really is not all that far from the village at all, I can get why the townspeople were concerned or at the very least annoyed. “See anything?” I ask Farkas who had snuck in a bit closer and he nods before returning to where I had decided to hide further back. “I know why Aela didn’t want the job.” he says trying to be as quiet as possible. “That thing is definitely a two person job if not more.” How big is this thing?! Silently he motions for me to follow and we sneak in closer so I can get a look at it and my eyes widen when I do. Without a doubt at least a two person job, we probably should have tried to drag Skjor along too. Thankfully the beast seems to be sleeping at the moment which allows us to plan a strategy. While not a typical tactic we decide the best course of action would be to try and sneak up to it and kill it while it’s sleeping. Less chance of being ripped to shreds, and less chance it will feel it. All goes well until I accidentally step on a fallen branch, making it break with a loud crack. Farkas and I both go as still as possible and look at each other, holding our breath and hoping the sound didn’t wake the bear. Unfortunately for us, the bear makes a noise and wakes up before noticing us and goes to stand up. “I told you this was a bad idea!” Farkas tells me as we go to draw swords. “How was I supposed to know it would me a giant bear?!” We don’t have time to argue. Moving as quickly as possible we go into attack and after a battle that arguably lasts too long we emerge from it relatively unscathed.

“This is why I stick to jobs that just involve intimidating people and occasionally punching the ones that deserve it in the face.” Farkas tells me with a hand on my shoulder as the two of us drag ourselves back to Ivarstead. That night I pass out as soon as we return to the inn while Farkas stays up talking to the innkeeper and whoever else happens to be awake that he knows. We drop the bear pelt with the owner of the mill in the morning and set off back to Whiterun.

Once home again safe and relatively sound I slam the paper on Aela’s desk as she sits looking over more paperwork while Farkas stands behind me, both of us looking worse for wear, and Anna sits nearby reading a book. Actually I think she is reading one of my books, I never said she could read my books. “We are not going on a bear hunt again!” At that Aela very calmly looks at me with a bit of smirk and responds with “We told you good luck.” to which Anna stifles a laugh. There’s no use arguing with Aela about that, she did sort of warn us…or at least me. Done with that conversation I walk over to Anna “What’re you laughing about?” She attempts to ignore me so I pluck the book right out of her hands “And I’ll be taking that, thank you very much. I never gave you the right to steal my books.” She makes a noise of annoyance and tries to grab it back but I walk off before she can. As I leave I overhear bits and pieces of conversation, mostly questions regarding the extent of injuries. It could be worse, I think Farkas got more scraped up than I did, thankfully he has Anna and Anna knows healing spells. With my book back in my posession I kick closed the doors to my room, lock them just in case a certain Breton is intent on stealing the book again, and flop into bed. I’ll take off the armor later, for now I just need to lie down and rest. We are not going on a bear hunt again.