One-Shots // Skyrim

Aela x Male!Reader

TITLE: Progression
WORDS: 2,538
COMPLETED: 1/22/21
[R E Q U E S T]

When you really begin to think about it, we were all born to die. Everything was, no matter if it's the minuscule life of a mangy rabbit who only battles throughout life in a desperate fight to survive; or if that life belongs to the vicious predator that is the dragon, with a fire in its soul and the hunt ever present on its mind. Everything concludes. Nothing goes on forever.

Progression is a crucial role in life. Many will claim that time can go on forever, ticking by even when the world is vacant, but that's a false claim. Time is only a manmade concept. Progression, however, is what they're thinking. Progression keeps going, even beyond the inevitable end of everything. Even when the entire planet ceases to exist, all those around it will continue to progress through life as if nothing had ever changed. Progression is the only thing that will never end.

Dashing throughout the plains that covered central Skyrim, the sabercat's legs pumped fast in a desperate attempt to do something that it's never been forced to do before: outrun a predator. Never in this poor sabercat's life had it ever been conceived as prey. But it was intelligent enough to assess that it was being hunted. And its chances for survival were slim to none. Growls were fast to chase the large cat, which was now scampering around like a traumatized kitten.

Not even minutes later, I witnessed the large beast tackle the sabercat, the two of them struggling against the other until one fell motionless. I hadn't even been shocked when the werewolf looked up at me, green eyes gleaming with pride before morphing.

The large body began scaling back, taking the shape of a human. Muscles shrinking down and matted grey fur disappearing back into pale skin. The dog's snout had began pushing back into the skull, shifting from beast to human. Once the ears had disappeared, human hair the color of copper tumbled down and laid over the woman's shoulders. Eventually, the beast had turned back into my Shield-Sister, Aela, who was simply smirking at me.

"Told you I could do it," She spoke with somewhat of a smug expression on her face. She was hardly ever one to boast and brag, but when it came to the close relationship that the two of us shared, competition was a rather regular thing.

"Yeah? I could've done it quicker," I input as she looked exceptionally annoyed at my bold claim. But she only shrugged at me, making her way over to my side.

"Perhaps. But before we prove that fact, we need to offer this beast to Hircine," Aela explained as I nodded, following her lead as the two of us made our way over to the now deceased sabercat.

While, sure, the two of us might be having a competition as to who the strongest was, but we weren't just going to leave these animal corpses laying around for no reason. Instead, the two of us planned to offer these dead monsters to Hircine, who was the Daedric Prince of the Hunt. Hircine was also the prince who loved and claimed those of us who suffered with the lycanthropic condition, which was just a fancy way of explaining that he treasured werewolves and other creatures of the sort.

I watched over Aela carefully as she pulled out a small steel dagger, placing certain cuts in the flesh of the beast before muttering a prayer to Hircine, explaining how she offered this beast to him. I respectfully stood at her back, waiting for her to finish what she was doing.

Once she was done, she looked to me with pride shining in her emerald eyes.

"Since you're a big strong man, then perhaps taking on a giant in this form won't be so difficult for you," She explained to me, sarcasm dripping from her words and amusement dancing in her eyes. I just nodded, knowing that I didn't need to shift into a werewolf in order to kill a giant.