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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
4-201-09-12 09:03
The Winking Skeever, Solitud, Haafingar, Skyrim
I can see Aurelius is hard. He wants me to suck. I spread my legs and say he can stick it in if he really has to, but I'm not in the mood for physical exercise this early in the morning. So he takes me the conventional way. Maybe that wasn't very nice of me, but I don't feel it's right to agree to oral sex the first night, and besides I'm really not in the mood for straining myself like that the first thing in the morning.
That said, I'm impressed by Aurelius's, er... capability. He has gotten me curious about Imperial men in general.
I go downstairs to have a bath. My followers aren't there, nor in the taproom. Still sleeping, the lazybones! Must have done something exhausting last night. I'll make them tell me everything about it. Yeah, I'll have to tell them too. I know. That's the world we women live in. But it's really a good thing – we can learn not only from our own experiences, but also from many other women's. :-)
While I'm eating my breakfast, one man after another comes and tries to make conversation, but I can only think of work. You know, the usual routine – improving our gear, taking the best weapons and armor to myself, giving the next best ones to the girls and then selling the rest.
On the main street, there are children running back and forth. They invite me to play tag with them, but I refuse as friendlily as I can.
Halfway to the palace, I find this unfortunate dog. I've no idea how he met his death.
Note that every creature's name becomes visible once it's dead – as long as it has a name.
Names have strong magic to them. Every child knows it where I come from... er... wherever that may be.
Names have strong magic to them. Every child knows it where I come from... er... wherever that may be.
I meet Jenassa on the marketplace. I say I hope the three of them managed to get a good night's sleep in a double room. Jenassa says casually: "Oh, it was all right. I had the bed all to myself," and goes on examining the carrots and onions on Jala's stall looking as if she had just given a stranger some directions or something.
I know she's playing with me, but there's nothing I can do about it. I wonder if our timid Rayya did finally get lucky. Jenassa smiles amusedly as we stroll away from the marketplace and I'm so impatient I want to grab her by her shoulders and shake her.
"I'm sorry, Laura," Jenassa finally deigns to say. "I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. I don't know what happened either."
She keeps teasing me some more, but then I drag it out of her that they all went to the Jana's Flaggon inn in the southwestern suburb where Lydia and Rayya got chatted up by two sailors, an Argonian named Vozei and a Redguard named Fadeel. Jenassa left early, returning to our inn and going to sleep. She says she's pretty sure the girls intended to go upstairs with the guys – she'd guess Lydia with the Argonian and Rayya with the Redguard, but she doesn't know for sure.
When I've run out of questions she doesn't have answers to, Jenassa says: "Say, isn't that Lydia?" pointing with her jaw at something behind my back. Looking over my shoulder, I see Lydia who has evidently been standing right behind me for quite some time.
I make a move towards laughing Jenassa and she jumps back quickly.
Well, to cut the long story short, Lydia informs me that she and Rayya not only went to bed with the sailors, but they actually did it in the same room. On separate beds, though, and each with her guy, but still Lydia saw and heard everything that Rayya did with Fadeel, and she was quite astonished with her skills. As well as his.
While she's telling me all that, I look carefully in her and Jenassa's eyes. I'm still not sure they're not pulling my leg. Lydia goes on telling that she did it twice with Vozei and then they went to sleep while Rayya and Fadeel were still boning like there was no tomorrow. They hadn't yet woken when Lydia and her partner left earlier this morning.
"So where is Rayya now?" I ask.
Lydia shrugs. "For all I know, she could still be with him."
"Indoors," adds Jenassa. She and Lydia burst out laughing again.
Even now I'm not entirely sure this isn't some kind of a prank, but, well, if it's true, I'm happy for them. Let's go shopping.
It's afternoon by the time we're ready to leave for Dånstar. We exit by the southern gate and go to Jana's Flaggon. The barmaid Bojena confirms that Rayya is still here. Lydia says she'll go quickly and fetch her. No, you won't! I'm not staying behind here. I follow her upstairs. When she stops in front of a door that apparently is the right one, I look over my shoulder. Jenassa has remained downstairs.
I see Lydia's hand raised. Before I can prevent her, she knocks on the door. Well, it doesn't matter, because I find the door locked. Lydia yells that it's us. By the time Rayya comes to open, the dark-skinned man whom I presume to be Fadeel has, of course, had the time to hide under the blanket. He keeps his knees bent, so I can't see the state of his penis.
I sit in a chair, stretch out my legs and say in a completely neutral tone: "If you were in the middle of something, then we can wait."
Rayya casts me a playfully angry glance and begins to get dressed. I say "sorry" to the man before I exit the room after her and Lydia.
"It's actually a good thing you rescued me," says Rayya when we're going out the inn. "But I hope we'll be in Solitud again someday."
I assure her we will.
We walk downhill along the street that goes towards Dragonbridge. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that a Khajiit caravan, one I haven't seen before, has made camp between the inner and the outer city wall. They seem to be... let's say, used to be mistrusted, but they warm up when they sense my sincere admiration. Which doesn't mean any neglect of due diligence on either part. There's no mercy in trading. But neither is there any need to get hostile. Respect. Attention. Diligence.
Sorry, I'm boring you again with my gabbing. When our business with the Khajiits is completed, we turn away from the main road and go to the shore between the harbor and the farm that is south of the city. We hope to find a private place where we can strip to swim to the eastern shore. (Yes, I know, there's a ferry, but swimming across is less trouble than trying to locate the damned boat. Every local I've asked just says it's down at the harbor and looks at me like I was an idiot.) What we do find instead is a distraught-looking man with a painted face and baggy trousers. His name is Rashid. He speaks with a strange accent and quite a few grammatical errors. But I doubt that even when recited by the headmaster of the Bards' College, his story would make much sense. It's something about him being in great danger and me and my followers should go somewhere where there's a boat waiting and travel to some faraway island and beware of pirates along the way. We take leave of him as soon as we politely can, go a little further and swim across the gulf.
In the east lies a swamp:
Those blue-green things are dangerous. They emit poisonous gas.
I got too close to one today and ended up weak and coughing for half an hour.
I got too close to one today and ended up weak and coughing for half an hour.
We have to carefully choose our path. It's rather tedious and dull. In order to pass the time, let me tell you about the different races all those people in this world belong to. I should have done it a long time ago, I know. I will now.
The humanoid intelligent creatures of Tamriel are roughly divided into three groups – human races (or "Men"), elder races (or Mer) and beast races.
The so-called human races are Nord, Imperial, Breton and Redguard. The Nords are the natives of the Skyrim province. The Imperials predominate in the higher offices of the Empire. I, as you hopefully remember, am a Breton, and so are coincidentally the Forsworn insurgents of western Skyrim (although, if I may say so, I don't feel having anything in common with them). Redguards are dark-brown-skinned people who originate from... Hammerfell, right? My follower Rayya is a Redguard.
The so-called elder races are Altmer or High Elves, Bosmer or Wood Elves, Dunmer or Dark Elves, Dwemer or Dwarves (extinct), Falmer or Snow Elves (semi-intelligent evil creatures who live underground) and Orsimer or Orcs. Jenassa is a Dark Elf.
The grammatical way of speaking is "one Altmer, several Altmer" etc., but in the spoken language it's just as common to hear people say Altmers, Bosmers, Dunmers etc.
The so-called beast races are Argonian (reptile) and Khajiit (feline). A subgroup of Khajiit known as Pahmar walk on four legs. In some regions, Pahmars are intelligent and can talk, in some regions they're wild animals who try to eat you when they see you. There are neither in Skyrim.
Strictly speaking, you're not supposed to say "a Khajiit woman", only "a female Khajiit" (etc.), but it seems weird to me. I always use the words "man", "woman" and "child" for the beast races too.
Belethor, the grumpy shopkeeper in Hviterun, is a Breton, whereas Proventus the steward is an Imperial, as is Evette the market trader in Solitud. Hulda the innkeeperer is a Nord, and so is Lydia. Well, I think you've got the general picture now. We've arrived in a snowy hilly forest area. Just a little farther to the east is a road that takes us quickly to Dånstar – or it would if we wouldn't make a long stop to wait out a skirmish between imps and storks.
They are not many, but they're all unusually tough (or maybe they have difficulties hitting people in the darkness), so it takes quite some time. After we've looted the corpses, we stop to kill a couple of skeevers (animals similar to rats but much bigger and slightly less disgusting) at a roadside ruin, and arrive in Dånstar late in the evening, dog-tired.
The Khajiit caravan is there. Kharjo is already sleeping. I wake him up and give him his amulet. He offers to become my follower. I don't need to be asked twice. Jenassa, I'm sorry, but it's time for you to go. No more than three followers at a time. That's the rule.
Actually, she can replace Kharjo as a caravan guard if she wants to. No, she doesn't. She's going home to Hviterun. But she will travel along with them a part of the way southwards. That's the sensible thing to do. We hug her farewell. It's sad actually. We were a good team. But I want Kharjo. I will surely be seeing Jenassa again, because I'm bound to be in Hviterun a lot.
I can barely move my feet now, so I go to the inn to get some sleep. So does Rayya who evidently didn't get much rest last night. Lydia says she'll go to say hello to Bjarne and join us shortly. Right, shortly. ;-)
Lydia looks slightly offended and I hurry to apologize. I didn't mean to insult her boyfriend. I was being ironical, meaning to insinuate I didn't believe she'd return very soon. We hug to make up.
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