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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
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previous day
4-201-09-07 06:57
Uthgerd's House, Hviterun, Whiterun, Skyrim
My small house doesn't have a bath, but I don't need one as badly as I have in the past few days, so I decide I'll wash myself in the river when we'll be traveling east later today rather than spend money on a bath at the inn.
It's a nice morning. I run into the market trader Fralia who is apparently on her way to work. I tell her Thorald is safe. She recognizes the passphrase Thorald gave me, and is movingly happy.
After I've told her a modest version of how we liberated her son, I have to wait a mere quarter of an hour for shops to open. I sell everything I don't need, and use the opportunity to get some training in Alchemy. I also find a moment to ask Carlotta about Jon.
Carlotta confirms my suspicion that Jon is a big-time womanizer. "Olfina and I seem to be more or less the only women who have been able to resist his charm," she sums it up. "Apart from married women, obviously. But Hulda and Arcadia have slept with him." She refers to the innkeeper and the alchemy shop owner, both in their forties.
"Lydia?"
"Sure. But maybe you don't want to remind her of it."
"Why? What did he do to her?"
"No, no, she didn't have any conflict with Jon. It's simply that Lydia is not very proud of her past."
"Oh, of course." I should have thought of it myself. "But what about Ysolda?"
"Why don't you ask her?" Carlotta replies with a wink. "You seem to be getting along with her well. She may tell you more than I know."
Good idea. I'll do that. But right now I have to be off to Valtheim Towers.
Here's a splendid view of entire Hviterun from the south;
For your orientation, there's a crossing southeast of the city. The southern road goes to Riverwood. The western road goes past Honningbrew Meadery into the southwestern suburb where one branch leads to the main city gate and the other one to the west towards the Western Watchtower (where we killed the first dragon a couple of weeks ago) and Granite Hall. The northern road goes past a couple of farms through the eastern suburb in the direction of Whitewatch Tower, Loreius Farm and ultimately Dånstar. From that suburb, you can also enter the city proper through the other gate. The eastern road goes over the bridge, turns north and then east following the riverbank (to the right in the picture below). That's where we are going.
Lydia says Hviterun guards are telling tales about a small hill east of the river where walking skeletons dwell – and possibly evil mages who bring skeletons to life. Indeed, as the road turns east along with the river, there's a hill on the left side of the road. We approach it with utmost caution. Suddenly I hear the roaring of a dragon in the sky. Dammit! He picks his moments! We begin to shoot at him, but the stupid beast just flies by and quickly disappears in the distance. We shouldn't have bothered with it at all.
Now I sneak up the hill a little ahead of my followers who have to keep some distance from me and watch the other directions. On top, there is indeed a sorcerer whom I shoot dead. I can see no one else. The sigh of relief remains stuck in my throat when a skeleton suddenly awakes to life. Not hard to kill, though. Or rather to be helped back to death where he belongs.
Well, this place is a real godsend. It has a Standing Stone. Remember those three between Helgen and Riverwood I told you about the first day? This is one of their kind. It's called Ritual Stone and it's truly amazing. Its blessing will enable me to reanimate nearby corpses to fight for me once a day. Taking the blessing of this stone will terminate the effects of the Thief Stone, but I don't mind. This one is much more useful.
Valtheim is not far. In fact, we can see it from this very hill. It consists of a high stone bridge across the river with towers on both sides. As we sneak closer, I can more sense than see a bandit standing outside the door. It takes several arrows to kill her and that, unfortunately, is noticed by the bandits high above us. After some shooting, we succeed in reducing their numbers slightly and I decide to enter the nearer (southern) tower, as the enemies are really hard to hit from down here.
We have to walk up narrow staircases and soon we can see the bridge again. It's not too difficult to kill the bandits on it. The one on top of this tower is kind (or foolish, rather) enough to walk down to meet us halfway rather than keep his ideal position and wait for my head to appear from the stairway.
A few minutes later, it's me and my followers who are standing on top of the southern tower. I believe there are one or two bandits on the opposite bank... yes, I can see someone move in the northern tower. Too far for my Sense of Smell power, he is practically impossible to target, because he's hidden by the structure and shows himself only for brief moments when passing by one or another window. However, his obvious intention is to come out and attack us. So we wait patiently, hoping he'll appear from the doorway eventually.
Yes! There he is. Not easy to hit running fast, but he has a long bridge to cross. He hasn't even covered a half of the distance when our arrows kill him. Mine, mostly. I'm quite good at bow shooting when no one is obstructing my view.
We descend, cross the bridge and search the other tower. There is no one there. We have completed our mission.
The view from the bridge is spectacular.
The bandits aren't too bad-looking either. A pity they're dead.
Well, it's time to move on. We go down the stairs again and wash ourselves in the river. Then we head east. It's a nice sunny afternoon. However, I'm not sure if we'll be able to make it to Eldergleam Sanctuary in daylight.
Not far from our destination, I see a fort on the roadside. Fort Amol. I know it's a bad place. I order the girls to sneak, but it's too late. A very nasty-looking mage is running towards us. Apparently we're out of range. But he isn't. We kill him without much trouble. Then we walk past the fort on tiptoes. I dreamed of this place only last night and I saw that Jenassa was killed here. I know it's silly, but I don't want to go in there. Especially as we have another job to do. We'll come back another time.
Fortunately, no one in the fort notices us.
Soon the highway turns south, but we have to get off the road as our destination is in the east away from roads. We swim over the river and end up in marshlike country. There's a couple of tents nearby, possibly a hunter camp, but we ignore it and proceed eastwards. Eldergleam Sanctuary is quite near. We enter a cave, go through a passage and reach a huge cavern with lush vegetation and a hill in the middle, and a large tree on top of the hill.
There are a woman named Asta, a priestess, and man named Sond, a pilgrim, sitting and admiring the scenery. Asta tells us that that big tree Eldergleam is blocking the way uphill with its huge roots, but there are rumors of a weapon, the fear of which can get the tree to lift them out of the way. She recognizes Eldergleam and beseeches me not to hurt the tree. I shrug and walk on without bothering to answer. The tree will survive. Danica the priestess of Kynareth wouldn't have sent us here otherwise.
I didn't have the guts to tell you before – I'm terrified of this place. I've had many nightmares where one or another of my followers got killed here by horrible strong creatures who defend the trees and whose name I didn't know. (I do know by now – spriggans.) That's why the stunning beauty I see around me gives me no pleasure whatsoever. Will I succeed in the reality where I have failed in my dreams? Let's find out. In fact, I've been giving this a lot of thought and I've come to terms with the possibility that some of us may leave their lives here.
We walk uphill. Indeed, there's a root almost as thick as human height across the path. It is impossible to bypass or climb on. However, when I pretend to strike with Nettlebane, it rises up and we can proceed. I repeat the process three or four times along the way, and then we're on top. No spriggans.
Now I have to use Nettlebane to make a cut in the tree trunk to get some sap to bring back to Danica. As soon as I've done it, I can see a spriggan appear from somewhere behind me. One of my followers engages it. I quickly draw my bow and together we kill the thing. During that brief encounter I've already taken considerable damage and have to use the Healing spell to cure myself.
I tell the girls to keep behind me, and we descend with utmost caution. I can sense another target behind a bend. I sneak very slowly around a large rock with my bow at the ready. It's another spriggan. I see it a moment before it sees me. We kill it. That was not too difficult.
This green is the spriggans' natural color. That glowing white thing is an ice spike cast by one of my followers.
We walk on, looking around us constantly. The place where I spoke to Asta can now be seen. She's not there anymore. I wonder if she'll attack me too. At any rate, it's strange that there are no more spriggans. We've descended almost all the way down.
Suddenly I'm overcome with panic. I'm going to die here! For a moment I'm like paralyzed with this cold, gagging, stifling fear. I can't explain why. With every nerve in my body alert, I retreat a dozen paces back uphill. Screw my followers, I'll have to save my own life. The followers' job is precisely to defend me.
I notice an outreaching rock next to the path. If I sneak onto it, I'll be able to overlook the clearing down below and maybe spot something.
Indeed I'm now seeing what I missed before – there's a spriggan of lovely bright green color standing in the lush green grass in the middle of the clearing. Too far for the Sense of Smell , but I don't need the glowing silhouette in my mind's eye since I can see the target clearly with my physical eyes.
As far as I can tell, the creature is not spotting me. I aim with utmost care and release the shot. The spriggan falls down. I'm not quite sure if it's dead or simply thrown off balance, so I send another arrow into it to kill it for sure. While doing that, I notice a large shape move past that spriggan onto the path that leads to our position. It's really fast and now my view of it is obstructed by vegetation. Before I can figure out what to do, it's already here in melee fight with my followers. It's a very, very big spriggan. Spriggan Mother – the name somehow springs up in my mind. I aim my bow at it and take shots whenever I can be sure not to hit one of the girls. Lucky this bigger kind of spriggan is so tall that I can shoot at its head above the heads of my followers.
Finally she falls down, dead. I count my followers. Three. Good. Now let's get the fuck out of here.
Without encountering anyone, we cross the clearing and the bridges across the creeks. The narrow stony corridor leading to the cave entrance feels like a sunny beach to me right now.
Out through the cave entrance, and we're back in open marshland. It's not yet too dark to see, but there's no point trying to return to Hviterun for the night. Jenassa and Lydia know there ought to be a village somewhere south of here. Maybe they have an inn.
Yes, there's a village all right, quite near. Darkwater it's called. I'm exhausted – more from my emotions, I think, than from actual fighting.
This is a safe place. I can take my helmet off.
I'm always a little worried that helmets would ruin my hairdo, but I've managed pretty well so far.
I'm always a little worried that helmets would ruin my hairdo, but I've managed pretty well so far.
Darkwater has a mine and a shop and little else. An inn too. A nice woman Annekke tells us that a man named Derkeethus has gone missing near some waterfalls. Other than that, nothing seems to be going on here. I like the place all the same. It has a friendly feel to it. Soon Annekke's husband Verner joins us and we basically idle the evening away at the campfire they have between the mine and the river, and then I rent a room at the inn for myself and my followers.
next awakening
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