CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

A/N:


THIS IS NOT PART OF THE MAIN STORY. 


Seeing as it's Christmas Eve I thought I'd surprise you all and make a short Christmas special chapter! This hasn't really got anything to do with the main story, it's really a spin-off. This part is around after Chapter 10, before Skylar's birthday and after her and Vilkas start to become friends. 


Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!




*****


12 Days Before Christmas


"Watch what you're doing with that tree, icebrain!" Aela snaps at Farkas. 


Farkas, Vilkas and Torvar are carrying a large pine tree, dropping pine needles everywhere. In the space of three minutes they had almost decapitated Vignar and knocked over a whole rack of warhammers, leaving a rather ominous dent in the floor. 


"Don't worry, Aela, we've got it sorted!" Farkas calls cheerfully. 


"Keep it moving," Athis instructs the boys. "We can put the three in the corner over there," he points at the far left corner of the hall, near Vignar and Brill's room. 


"What are you doing to help, you useless elf?" Torvar huffs. His face is red and he's covered in pine needles. "You too, Aela and Skylar,"


"We're supervising," I say smoothly. "And anyway, the three of us aren't as strong as you boys. We'd be crushed under the tree," 


"Flattering our egos won't work," Vilkas says grouchily, his face obscured by several branches. "Gods, I think these pine needles are going to blind me,"


Farkas, Vilkas and Torvar struggles onwards with the tree and finally get it securely into the corner of the mead hall. They stand back and admire their work and pat each other on the back. 


Farkas flexes his biceps. "I told you we had it all under control," 


Aela rolls her eyes. "I don't see why we need the tree out here now. It's only the twelfth, Christmas isn't for another twelve days,"


"We have to put the tree up before Christmas," Farkas looks incredulous. "Aela, this isn't game. It's Christmas," 


"Hircine preserve us," Aela mutters. 


Ria and Njada come up the stairs, carrying crates with them. "We found some decorations," Ria says, her cheeks flushed pink with excitment. "There's quite a mixture though. Nordic decorations, Imperial decorations and Elven decorations,"


"Well it represents us all quite well," Vilkas nods his head. 


"No it doesn't, there's no Breton decorations," I shake my head. "Nevermind. I'll check Belethor's shop to see if he's got anything I can buy for the tree,"


Njada and Ria set the boxes down and Farkas opens them up eagerly. "Oh, Vilkas look, it's Kolb and the dragon!"


"Who?" Athis asks. 


Farkas looks apalled. "Don't tell me you've never heard of Kolb. We all grew up with him and his stories! Look, it's his dragon in ornament form!"


"I grew up with stories of Mephala and Nerevar," Athis shrugs. "Dunmeri stuff. Oh, and Lady Almalexia,"


"Me too," I nod my head. 


"Well surely you've heard of Saint Asgar," Farkas frowns. 


"Who?"


"Gods! Saint Asgar. When we were children we were told that if we'd been good all year, Saint Asgar would bring us presents and if we'd been bad children we'd have bad luck until next Christmas and get no gifts," Farkas explains. 


"Oh, sort of like Lord Azarath," Athis smiles. "If you've been a good Dunmer you'd get presents and if you were a bad Dunmer we were told we'd get Brain Rot and lose our ears,"


"That's...grim," Ria pulls a face. "We never had stuff like that in Cyrodiil. If your parents could afford to get you a gift you'd get one and if they couldn't then you wouldn't get any,"


The eight of us look through the boxes of decorations and we begin attaching the decorations to the branches of the tree, bickering over what should go where and which race has the best Christmas tradition. The Nords have mead drinking contests and sing songs, the Imperials have a feast and recite poetry and the Elves drink, eat, sing and perform magic for each other. 


"Depends on what kind of Elf you are though," Athis reminds us. "The Altmer spend a lot of the time praying to the Gods and trying to outdo each other's parties, the Bosmer go hunting and us Dunmer are the real party elves around this time of the year,"


"I remember the stuff we'd do in Raven Rock," I smile fondly. "The elf who ran the local inn would put on the best feast ever and the finest Sunjamma you could ever drink,"


"Ah, Sunjamma," Athis sighs nostalgically. "Gods I miss the stuff,"


****


10 Days Before Christmas


"Gods, I hate Christmas shopping," Vilkas groans as we walk into the market. It's freezing outside and we're both wrapped up in wolfskin furs and and boots. "I have no idea what to get anyone,"


"I have a sort of idea," I shrug. "Get them stuff that'll help them with training. For Aela I'm planning to look for some enchanted bracers to help enhance her archery, for Athis I'm geting him a book on dagger techniques and for Njada I'll find something on shields and blocking techniques," I explain. "I'm stumped on what to get Vignar and Brill though,"


"Well Brill has a rather large shoe collection so get him a nice pair of boots," Vilkas frowns as we walk into Belethor's. "And Vignar....well, he won't appreciate whatever you get him so get him anything,"


"Welcome, welcome," Belethor greets us. "Christmas shopping?"


"You got it," I nod.


"Anything specific you're looking for?" he asks us. 


"What would you get an angry, sarcastic redhead?" Vilkas asks. I elbow him. "Ow! I could be talking about Aela too, you know!"


I look on Belethor's bookshelves and I find several copies of useful books. I pick up The Last Scabbard of Akrash for Eorland, Battle of Red Mountain for Njada and Dagger Etiquette for Athis. After some more browsing I find a pair of enchanted steel gauntlets that are specifically designed for warhammers. Perfect for Torvar. 


"Khajiit caravans are in town...y'might wanna check those out too," Belethor advises us. "I hear they offer gift wrapping too,"


"Can I see what you bought?" I ask Vilkas. 


"Absolutely not," Vilkas snaps at me. "It's a secret," 


Vilkas and I load our gifts for people into our satchels and we head back to Jorrvaskr, planning to wrap the gifts and then put them under the tree and after that we were planning to head down to where the Khajiit caravans were. If I can't find any decently enchanted weapons there I'll have to sweet talk Farengar Secret-Fire into enchating a few weapons that I'll buy from Adrienne. 


"Hey, watch out," Vilkas pulls me back. 


"What? What's happening?" I look at him, feeling confused. 


"We both nearly walked right under some mistletoe," Vilkas points at the mistletoe, pinned onto one of the posts. 


"Thanks the Gods you saved me from that," I roll my eyes and elbow him playfully. 


"Yeah," Vilkas laughs uneasily. 


***


3 Days Before Christmas


"Dwemer! Dwemer ruin!?" I call out. Ria huffs and shakes her head. She points at the ground again and hunches herself up. We somehow talked ourselves into playing a game of charades and the teams were mixed up. It was me and Ria, Athis and Njada, Torvar and Farkas and Vilkas and Aela. 


"Gods you're bad at this game," Vilkas scoffs. 


Ria covers her eyes and continues with the hunched up position. 


"Blind?"


Ria nods her head excitedly. She points at her ears and does a thumbs up. 


"Blind, good hearing, lives underground and is hunched - FALMER!" I exclaim. 


"Dear Lord, you took your time with that," Ria rolls her eyes. "Who's next?"


"Us!" Torvar grins. He picks a card from the pack. "Oh, this is easy,"


He points at me. 


"Dwarf?" Farkas suggests. I glare at him. 


Torvar shakes his head. He points at me again and then points to his throat and opens his mouth widely, as if he were shouting quietly. 


"Dragonborn?" Farkas guesses. 


"Excellent," Torvar grins and high-fives Farkas. 


"This game is unfair," Vilkas moans. "They always get the easy ones,"


***


Christmas Eve:


"Can't sleep?" I hear Vilkas's voice as he takes a seat next to me on the bench by the dying fireplace. 


"Nope," I shake my head. "I could never sleep at Christmas time. Even last year..."


"Where were you last year? For Christmas?" Vilkas asks. 


I sigh. "High Hrothgar. It was freezing...it was when I was doing a mixture of training with my sword and learning Shouts,"


"Oh...I take it you didn't really celebrate?" 


"No. It was just another normal day," I smile sadly. "I left a week after that and headed into Riften where I met Iona. We explored a lot together and then we went into Blackreach..." my voice trails off.


"Hey, it's okay," Vilkas awkwardly puts his arm around me. "You're not there anymore, you're safe. You've got me, Farkas, Aela..."


"I know," I smile. "I'm so glad I came here,"


Vilkas hesitates and then returns my smile. "I'm glad you're here too,"


"You hated me when I first came," I nudge him. 


"I was jealous," Vilkas admits. "I'd worked for years to get to where I was. I was born and raised amongst Companions and watching you fit in so easily and rise in the rankings so swiftly...I don't know, it threw me off guard. You're smart, amusing, a talented fighter, I was worried that I'd fade away in your shadow,"


"That's silly thinking, Vilkas, nobody is as smart as you are and as good a fighter. Most of us can either be brains or brawn and you managed to do both. There's no way I could replace that," I tell him. 


"Thanks," he says. I find myself gently resting my head on his shoulder and he briefly tenses up but then relaxes. He hesitantly tucks a strand of my auburn hair behind my ear and I shut my eyes and lean against him. 


***


Christmas:


"It's Christmas!!!" I hear Farkas's voice shout us all awake. I groan and roll over in my bed, feeling exhausted. I don't remember how long I spent sort of cuddling with Vilkas last night but it felt nice. It left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, but I can't quite place why. 


Farkas bursts into my bedroom, wearning nothing but his sleeping tunic. "Come on, Skylar, it's Christmas!" 


"Ugh, I'm awake," I rub my eyes and sit up in bed. "And so is everyone else in Whiterun thanks to you,"


"Don't be such a grouch," Farkas sits himself down on my bed and ruffles my hair. "Get dressed! Let's open presents!"


Farkas bounds out of my room, waking up everyone else in Jorrvaskr. I drag myself out of bed and run a comb through my long hair. It's in desperate need of a trim soon. I put on my leather training gear and slip on some warm, furry boots. It's chilly downstairs but hopefully Tilma or Brill would have gotten the fire upstairs going soon so we don't all freeze to death. 


I can hear the others making their way upstairs and I step out into the main hall of the living quarters. Grandfather comes out of his bedroom and smiles at me gently. "Merry Christmas, Skylar,"


"Merry Christmas, Grandfather," I grin at him. 


Aela groggily joins us in the corridor, her red hair pinned up in a messy bun. "Merry Christmas," she yawns. "Gods, I'll get Farkas back for waking me up this early,"


"Oh, leave him be," I hear Vilkas's voice as he joins the three of us. "Remember last year when he tried to buy Skjor-" Vilkas cuts himself off and goes quiet. 


Aela smiles sadly and looks down at her feet. "Yeah. I remember,"


There's a bit of an awkward silence and the four of us head into the dining hall upstairs. Tilma and Brill are already serving up breakfast and hot milk with cocoa for us. I grab a tankard of it eagerly and pick up a honey nut treat to munch on while we start to open gifts.


People get gifts relating to their skills, mostly. Aela got a lot of new arrows, a new bow from Eorland, the special gauntlets I got her and several books on famous archers. I also noticed a book about Hircine from Farkas. Vilkas mostly got books on history and science, Njada got a new shield and things relating to the block skill. Brill got shoes from everyone (but he seemed happy enough with them all) and Torvar mainly got alcohol from people. I had managed to find a bottle of Sunjamma from the Khajiit caravans and Athis looked ready to cry out of happiness when he opened it up and gave me a bone-breaking hug. 


My own presents were fantastic. Vignar and Brill got me a new dress, I received jewellry from Njada and Ria, a copy of Kolb and the Dragon from Farkas, a bracelet with the Dragonborn symbol from Vilkas, a special dagger from Aela that I could conceal about my person in case I ever lost sight of my own weapons, a book about Stalhrim and its properties from Eorland and grandfather got me a tool to sharpen my weapons with. 


We spent the day eating food, bantering, drinking, having playful brawls and in the evening we sat out in the training court and I did a Clear Skies shout, in order to summon the Northern Lights to the night sky. Everyone gasped in awe when the beautiful lights appeared and I felt Vilkas grab my hand. I glanced over at him and he looked down at me and smiled. I felt my heart racing slightly and I began to notice how...handsome he looked. I tried to shake away the thoughts. I didn't have time for silly fancies and crushes. I had a serious job to do. I tried to focus on the lights and tried to join in with some of the songs the others sang as we lit a bonfire and sat around it with mulled mead with spices. 


I looked around at my new family and felt a rush of happiness. These were my people now. I loved them all, even Njada...well, maybe Njada not as much. I tolerated her. I felt a smile creeping upon my face. For the first time in a long, long while I was actually happy. 


A/N:


I know that this wasn't an official update, per say, but I thought it would be nice to make a Christmas special chapter!


Merry Christmas guys, I hope you have a wonderful time! And to those who don't celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful holiday and make sure you enjoy yourselves!







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