Always Lost, Always Hopeful (192) A Lucky Fall

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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






4-202-02-27 07:29
Faldar's Tooth, The Rift, Skyrim


I feel awesome after a good night's sleep in fresh air. The sun is shining and the view is stunning, if you're not too disturbed by the bandit corpses lying here and there.

Reluctant to get on my feet, I ask Lydia: "Maul didn't punish you, did he? For keeping him busy while we killed the Black-Briars."
"No. In fact, he seemed fine with our takeover. He said I was much prettier than Maven."
"Did he fuck her?"
"You'll be surprised, Laura, but I asked that very question."
"So, what did he say?"
"He insisted he hadn't, but I'm not sure he told the truth."
"Yeah, I can imagine. At Maven's age, it's probably not all that easy to find men who actually want to go to bed with you. Yet she didn't look like one who would take it lying down." I burst out laughing when I realize what I just said. Lydia finds the pun hysterical too, but agrees with my estimate of Maven Black-Briar's, um, possible attitude towards sex.

Jordis and Jenassa have noticed we have woken up. We all go and have a wash in the lake-turning-into-a-river. Then we run to Ivarsted via Sunguard City, stepping into a couple of shops, less for shopping than for hearing if there are any sensational news. Seems like the power change hasn't disturbed the population's quiet industrious life.

At the Ivarsted inn, however, I am mildly surprised when the young woman Lynly who, apart from waiting tables, also sings occasionally, even though she doesn't have a very high opinion of her musical abilities, unlike the proprietor Wilhelm who... Um, sorry, I meant to say, she asks to speak to me in private. We go into one of the empty guest rooms where she asks me to promise I won't tell anyone about what she's going to tell me. She assures me she hasn't committed any crimes, it's just kind of private.

I agree and promise.

Lynly asks if the rumor that Sibbi Black-Briar is dead is true. I say it is. She wants to know if I'm absolutely certain.
Yes, I rather think so, I reply. I killed him myself.
A bright smile appears on Lynly's face a moment before she hugs me, tears in her eyes. Turns out she is that ex-girlfriend whom Sibbi wanted captured and brought to him for a terrible revenge. Her real name is Svidi. She had been hiding here in Ivarsted dreading the day Sibbi would get out of prison and resume his search. She vows I can always count on her help, should I ever need anything. In fact, she has distant but influencial relatives in Morrowind. She even thought about relocating there, but she figured the journey might be more dangerous than hiding here, and besides, she likes it much better in Skyrim. Yeah, I know the feeling.
I almost turn to go, but then I ask: "By the way, do you know Svana?" Just idle curiosity.
"No, the name doesn't mean anything to me." A moment later, she adds: "Don't tell me it's a virgin who thinks Sibbi is the love of her life."
I chuckle. "You're guessing right. And now she hates me."
Svidi shrugs. "This is a far lesser evil than if she had actually given herself to him."
I raise my eyebrows. "Was he that bad?"
"You have no idea."
"No, I don't. Tell me."
"Can we talk about it another time? Please?"
"Oh well. Okay." Maybe she didn't appreciate my eagerness. Maybe she just needs some time to process the amazing relief. "Good luck, Lynly... er, Svidi."
We hug goodbye and I leave.

The weather is still very nice when the girls and I run up the Can't-remember-how-many Thousand Steps. I almost stumble over a sleeping bear. That was hilarious. Just in case you're curious, the bears are the usual brown here, not white like they are in northern Skyrim.

The Spriggan Soap doesn't affect trolls, but we simply outrun them.

I leave my followers waiting in High Hrothgar and run up the mountain alone. I can now consider it proven that Spriggan Soap protects me from the hurtful fog. Evidently animals are immune to the effects of the fog and the soap makes the universe perceive me as an animal. I can feel a kind of a weird prickling and even ever-so-slight pain, but that may well be just fear. So in all likelihood the fog wouldn't hurt my followers either, but I don't want to take the risk.

I still get attacked by an icewraith, but I just keep running and leave it behind.

On top of Mount Nexus (or Throat of the World as this place is officially called), the fountain of strange white energy is still there. Once again I step into it and once again nothing happens. Just sparkling untouchable white things filling the air around me. Alduin's corpse has finally disintegrated and vanished. And Paarthurnax is not there. Just snow and rocks. I climb everywhere I can and wonder if I ought to shout his name, but I don't quite dare make a loud noise in this strange and awe-inspiring place. Apart from which, if Paarthurnax doesn't want to be contacted, I'll have to just accept it.

Feeling lonely on the top.

There isn't anything like a shrine here, but that small ruin of an unknow structure which I mentioned the last time is the closest thing available. I go there and pray silently that Paarthurnax should be well and that the gods would protect him against Rudelphine's evil schemes and that I may be allowed to meet him again someday. Then I begin my journey back to High Hrothgar, trying my best not to cry, because tears in my eyes could easily be deadly on those steep snowy slopes at unimaginable elevation.

Running away again from that icewraith, I have to kill a troll blocking my way. Then I recall my childhood in Wayrest in the region of Stormhaven, High Rock. That's where I was born. It was very dangerous to venture out of the city, but my parents who were not from there didn't know it at first, and neither did my brother Cortoran. I think it was before I turned 4 that he began to take me along with him on his boyish exploration trips. We went to craziest places and I so loved it. How come we didn't get killed many times over is one of the world's biggest mysteries. When our parents found out about our fear- and clueless journeys, they were... I don't know, "shocked" is not the word. Elanna was still a baby and they decided it was high time to relocate to Camlorn in the west which was far safer. There we had plenty of adorable forests similar to the one east of Dragonbridge. Pine mostly, though, whereas the spruce prevails in Skyrim, but the landscapes, plants and animals were practically the same. The sun shining through long straight treetrunks, the cones lying about under the trees, the plentiful blueberries... That's why I always feel so ecstatic in western Hjaalmarch.

Right now I have to run down a very joyless snowy mountain slope, though.

Sooner than I expected, I see High Hrothgar. The girls are waiting for me in the back yard, apparently preferring it over the castle interior, warmer as the latter may be.

It must be something in my face. My followers look at me as if I was returning from having group sex with Jarl Balgruuf, Irileth and a snowbear. They know I have remembered something important, but they're afraid to make a sound and thereby potentially bring me into the mood of not feeling like telling them just now.

I walk down to them without hurry. Then I look at them casually and say:
"Girls, you'd better address me as Laura Perardsdotter from now on."
Lydia rushes to throw her arms around me. "Oh, Laura! I'm so happy for you!" The next moment, Jordis and Jenassa give free reign to their joy and we all end up falling into the snow. They almost suffocate me. I hope none of the Gaybores are seeing us. Don't worry, says Lydia, they won't tell anyone. We're all in stitches from laughter.
After we've calmed down somewhat, I tell them my father is Perard Masierri, or Perard Jeriansson in the Skyrim way. That would make my elder brother Cortoran Perardsson, and my younger sister is, obviously, Elanna Perardsdotter, and as you already know, my mother is Frohilde Valgeirsdotter Masierri. In High Rock, we're just Masierris without the patronyms, of course.

I propose I'll tell them the rest while we are walking away from here. How do you fancy Ivarsted, girls? Keeping a straight face, Jordis replies: yeah, that's as good a place as any.

So I give the girls the gist of my childhood adventures with my elder brother while we walk down the mountain and run gigglingly past a troll here and there before they can make up their mind which one of us to attack.

Our next destination after Ivarsted is Cragslane Cavern south of Vernim Wood where we will hopefully catch some skooma traders. This means descending the mountains from Ivarsted towards Darkwater as we've done before. The weather is nice and I feel playful, so I choose a slightly more southerly route.

Honestly, this is scary, but I attempt a descent anyway, leaving (of course) my followers trying their best to catch up climbing down less steep slopes. Either that or wait until I'm down and teleport them to me.

This terrain really puts my abilities to the test.

My endeavor turns out a real cockup. Not only do I fall from so high that I get hurt and have to cure myself – I'm bloody lucky to be even able to cure myself, because I completely lose control over my movement. I'm not exaggerating when I say I could have easily gotten killed here. I'm so angry with myself for being so reckless and irresponsible.

The sights were really beautiful at times, though.

I get so close that I can actually see the road southeast of Darkwater. How to cross those last few hundred meters – that's the tricky part:

If you stood on that stone bridge and walked to the left (north), you'd soon reach Darkwater.
The uphill road straight ahead goes towards Vernim Wood,
shortly before which is a crossing (not visible from here) where you can turn right and head for Shor and Riften.
The views from the road and the bridge to where I'm standing now are among the most spectacular in all of Skyrim.
That knowledge gives me little joy right now, though. Getting-there-wise, I could just as well be 10 km away.

As you can guess, when one is desperately clinging to any hand- and foothold on her way down hundreds of meters, there's no control over direction. After I've-no-idea-how-long time, I find, to my utmost relief, a somewhat larger patch of ground. It is on the bank of yet another fast-flowing river at the foot of yet another waterfall ten of twenty meters high. There's a cave entrance nearby. It's called Darkwater Pass. Wow. Is it just a name or is there really a pass that takes you safely through those deadly mountains? Got to find out, what? So I teleport the girls to me and we go in.

There are semi-dark waterways. The only bright side is there's plenty of space to move. I spot Falmers.

As you know, I normally avoid disturbing Falmers, but I'm not going back into those awful mountains. So we start shooting them in order to get past. Soon we notice to our astonishment that there are human bandits here who are evidently friends with the Falmers. So, once again we're seeing evidence of the possibility of communicating with those mysterious creatures. Too bad we have not yet been granted entry to their inner circle.

This is a chaurus for a change, the flying variety.

Eventually, we find a cage with an Argonian man inside. Not too bad-looking if I may say so. It's that Derkeethus guy from Darkwater who went missing months ago and whom I was trying in vain to find on that day we accidentally discovered Nimalten instead. Now we've finally located him by sheer chance.

Sure. Just come along. I wouldn't want to reside in a place like this either.

We find another exit a little way to the west from where we entered. In other words, far from having found a pass to the eastern side of the mountain range, we've gotten farther still from Darkwater.

I'm rather stunned to find out it's dark and past 7 o'clock outside already. I mean, of course I knew what time it was inside as well, I just meant to say this is quite a depressing contrast to the sunshine earlier when we entered the cave.

The pond outside the cave exit may be scenic at fine weather, but right now it's raining cats and dogs, or goats and foxes if you prefer. Dammit, there's thunder as well. We'd better get out of the water quickly or we can all get killed!

This place is still at great elevation. What luck that Derkeethus knows the way! Following him, we run down a winding path with a show of lightnings all around us.

The path takes us to the main road which would lead to that elusive stone bridge I showed you earlier. We, however, are going to turn left onto the bridge that leads to the village of Darkwater, the houses of which you can faintly see in this picture:

Drenched to the bone, we arrive in Darkwater at nine. The rain ceases soon.

After an hour or so of celebrations, first at the campfire near the pier and then at the inn, I realize I'm awfully tired and go to sleep.



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