Trusting Strangers

I dragged another body away from the Valtheim Towers to my workstation. In Nirn cannibalism is applied to any sentient being that eats the flesh of another sentient being, but when have I ever let the local customs come between me and a fresh kill. I doubt even the werewolves of the Circle deal with the mouthwatering craving when they enter combat, identifying the foe as prey rather than an enemy. And so I do my work well away from the others, butchering my victims and smoking the meat for future snacks as I treat myself to a raw morsel here and there.

The act would horrify my past self, but he wasn't a giant lizard man, and while memory and perspective may tinge the now, hormones and instinct are far more powerful than most realize. We are not what we eat, we are a culmination of millions of years of action and reaction, survival and success. Navel gazing and bemoaning your nature is for other men, weak men. The weak are meat and the strong must eat.

After all, waste is the only true tragedy.

The Companions of course know of my predations - the details of my close friendship with the bosmer brother's who own the Drunken Huntsman are well known in Whiterun - and they operate under a general out of sight out of mind mentality the same way in which I ignore their furry little problem. Thank the Divines they hadn't approached me with an offer of joining their merry little band of werewolves. Imagine this glorious body transitioning to mammality. Heinous, disgusting, unthinkable.

I made my way back to our camp after hanging the remaining meat to smoke and having sucked the marrow out of the best bones. Aela and Jack were instructing Brienne in a bit of target practice alongside many of the more range challenged fighters. The general consensus had us as dragon slayers till there were no more dragons to be slain, a glorious or disastrous entry into the Companions saga depending on how well we do, but with one win under our belts we definitely were off to a great start.

We drew straws for the night's watch and I drew the lucky last straw, my watch the hour before dawn. After a restful night's sleep I enjoyed the peaceful sunrise and doubled up as the cook for breakfast, something the returning Farkas appreciated as he finished lacing up one of his bracers.

"From the look on your face I can assume you did in fact spot the dragon where you expected it." I grinned as I scrambled some eggs Aela had scavenged up from nearby nests.

"Big white bastard was just sleeping on top of the ancient word wall!" Farkas smiled at the memory despite the likely exhaustion from both his transformation and running such a great distance.

"Then it is good everyone spent some time working on their archery yesterday." I told him and handed him a plate of eggs and sausage, "We will need to prevent the damn thing from flying unless we want to let it escape."

"We won't let that happen." he referred to the Skyforge Steel great bow I passed onto him before we left.

Standard arrow shafts were unable to impede the beast's capabilities unless they struck in the eye or nostril, any shots to the wing joint would either bounce off or break off with little hindrance, but the thick javelins fired from our great bows were more than enough to cripple the joint and prevent flight.

Only Jack and Farkas possessed the raw strength to operate the great bows out of the rest of my companions, making them far more valuable to a dragon slaying operation than the others. Torvar, Kodlak, and Vilkas all favored weapons heavy enough to be a genuine threat to our winged nemeses, while everyone else were only good for harrying strikes. They'd be able to bleed the dragons at the very least.

As the rest of our team rose with the sun and set upon the food and mead, Farkas explained the presence of the dragon at the Bonestrewn Crest. With target confirmation we set out on the road to glory.

Which was immediately waylaid by the presence of a man on the road south calling out to us.

"Thank the gods." the nord declared, "There is a necromancer in my family crypt defiling the bodies of my ancestors! My aunt has already gone in after him, but we need help."

"You let your aunt fight a necromancer alone?" Jack asked in disgust.

"It shames me, but I have had a crippling fear of the place ever since I was a child." He hung his head low, "Please, I beg of you, stop this madness."

Brienne looked to Kodlak who gestured for her to make the choice.

"We will help you hunt down the necromancer." Brienne nodded and allowed the man to lead us to his family tomb carved into the mountain side.

When we got there I noticed a problem right away.

"Your ancestors didn't build this place with accessibility for people like me in mind, did they?" I muttered as I looked at the entrance that would be tight for the normies, let alone a meat mountain like me.

"I don't think anyone has ever built anything with people like you in mind." Golldir commented, "Perhaps it is best you wait at the entrance, be there to catch the necromancer if he runs from us. In fact, I might just stay with you… double the chances just in case."

"Suit yourself." I told him as I ripped up a nearby boulder and placed it in front of the tomb before sitting on it.

"How?" was all Golldir asked as he gaped at the feat of incredible strength.

"Some people are just made different." Jack smirked before following Brienne into the tomb.

"I bet they are getting to fight all sorts of undead." I mused while Golldir and I waited, "Draugr, skeletons, maybe some zombies. Bet they are having lots of fun hacking them to bits."

"Have a care." The man objected, "Those are the bodies of my ancestors they would be hacking to bits."

"Think they are tearing up your aunt's reanimated corpse." I idly spoke while I chewed on some smoked breton.

"I hate you." Golldir snarled, "I hate you so much."

"Don't let the whole you owe us for saving the day thing stop you from coming at me." I mocked, "You happen to be at the perfect place to drop off your craven body."

"That's it!" The man drew his axe and I snatched up his neck in one hand, raising him up into the air as he tried to hack my arm to no avail. When that failed he tried kicking me, to an even lesser reaction while I choked the life from him.

As he finally stopped twitching I dropped his dead body and laughed at the eye bulged expression on his face. I didn't risk eating him, as his cowardice is probably too contagious for even my immune system to handle, so I fleeced his pockets and pouches and tossed him into his family crypt.

About an hour later the crew came out of the cairn having successfully slain the necromancer.

"What happened to Golldir?" Brienne demanded.

"He caught a fatal case of stupid." I told her, "Happens sometimes."

"Really?" Brienne fake asked, "Because it looks like he was strangled by a man with very big hands."

"Big hand." I corrected her, "I strangled him with only one hand."

"Why?" she cried in outrage, "Why would you kill the man we were helping."

"Sometimes people turn on you, Tater Tot." I said while looking her in the eyes, "You just have to hope that when they do they are as stupid about it as your pal Golldir. The odds of it happening are a ratio of how scary you are to how dumb they are. Some people are just too stupid to live. Get comfortable with that. Killing them is a favor to the universe."

"Are you going to turn on me?" Brienne accused, "Is this the start of some crazy lesson?"

"Nah." I denied, "But that would be some good foreshadowing for the double cross if I was dumb enough to betray the literal Messiah. Sorry kid, you're stuck with me cause I got to get you to the Alduin fight or the world gets eaten."

"And after the world is saved?" she looked at me with wide eyes.

"Now those are some good instincts." I complimented her, "Keep thinking like that and you just might catch some smug asshole before he gets the drop on you."

"Goddammit Grunt." Jack interrupted, "Stop trying to traumatize the girl. You want her jumping at shadows?"

"Alright alright, I'll chill on teaching her lessons." I swore to the wife, "But if she winds up bleeding on the ground while some asshat monologues about what a fool she is and how she has been a pawn in his game the whole time I am blaming you."

"You think I haven't already told her how dumb it is to help out randos she meets on the road side." Jack hmphed, "You are like a whole half our late, Big Guy, been there and done that."

"Ahh." I sighed, "Well Golldir died like a bitch."

Ha! The last word is mine!