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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
4-202-04-18 08:05
Horndew Lodge, Amber Creek, Falskaar
Lydia wakes up when I cuddle up with her. I know she doesn't mind.
"Are you looking forward to meeting Oudin?" Lydia asks after a while.
I slightly shake my head in amazement. "Can't hide anything from you, can I?" I haven't told her anything, but she has obviously noticed.
"I hope not," Lydia replies with a fond smile. "What are you going to do?" She knows that in all likelihood my period will end today.
I shrug. "What can I do?" I'm going to fulfill the duties of a decent girlfriend. Oudin has given me no cause to fall out with him, and I don't exactly have anything against him. I'm just no longer crazy about him the way I used to be. "Where are Jordis and Jenassa?"
Lydia points up at the ground floor.
I climb out the bed. "I'll go first." I mean the bath. Lydia nods and stretches herself out with delight in the middle of the bed.
The girls enter the bath as I'm getting dressed.
"Better stick around, Laura," Lydia says. "We heard something last night."
"Just as long as you don't make me wet." I sit down carefully on a dry place at the pondside.
Jordis seems to intend to do just that, but Lydia looks at her sternly.
Well, what they heard after I'd left is this: Rangarr's wife, Annelie, lost her life in the massacre of Pinevale 20 years ago, and she was pregnant at the time.
This news leaves me with my mouth wide open. I mean, really this time. I physically sit there with my mouth open. "Don't tell me Kalevi is Rangarr's son."
"We don't know," says Jordis, "and he could hardly have known either, so there was no point in asking him."
"Jenassa, is Annelie an elven name?"
She shrugs. "Sounds more like Nord to me. But this isn't exactly Tamriel."
Right. An elven woman can have a Nord name. And Nord parents can have an elven child if one of them has an elven ancestor. "But can Kalevi be 20 years old?" Jenassa is obviously the only one of us who can answer that question.
"Yes, he can."
We eat at the inn. By the time we've finished our breakfast accompanied by the chatter of Njola, Klara and Gabrial at the other end of the taproom, I have formed a plan. I will sneak alone into the mine of Pinevale and see if I can find something interesting. I can use Invisibility potions most of the way and should anyone actually attack me, I'll probably be able to make him peaceful for some time with the Bend Will shout. Hopefully it'll be enough. If it isn't, I can just run. A few hits from some bush thugs won't do much harm and as I've told you, I can easily outrun even wolves. Therefore I have a reasonable chance to succeed in searching the place without having to kill anyone. (We already know from the last time there's nothing to be found outdoors.)
On second thought, maybe we ought to do the exact opposite – burst in and kill all the bandits? After all, the situation has radically changed since the last time we were there.
I'm going to ask Oudin tonight what I should do, but we have other plans for today.
It's a nice weather outside. The sawmill is right across the street from the inn, but only Jonulv is there. He says Oudin ought to be in the jarl's house. I ask him to tell him I've arrived and will probably return to Amber Creek in the evening.
We also drop by Svea's shop.
She has nothing exciting to tell us, only that she's rather disturbed by that adventurer Harold still hanging out in Amber Creek. He lied low for a while, but now that the situation has calmed down somewhat, he has again taken up traveling around in Falskaar in the search of "her" ring.
Helena is not on the marketplace and I don't fancy meeting Oudin right now. I'm eager to get started with my new adventure – finding Rangarr's father's legendary warhammer.
There are mountains between us and Aspenfall Lodge. We could take the road to east and another road south, or a slightly longer route past Audmund's Farm. I prefer the latter.
Everything is peaceful on the road. Audmund and Helena are having a normal working day on their fields. The cows are unhurriedly munching grass in the midst of birdsong.
After a little chat with Helena, we follow the road east and notice a medium-large shack. It's empty. We proceed further east, admire an elk with magnificent antlers,
Fortunately, there are big rocks to cover our approach. I sneak closer ahead of the girls and sense a hostile human behind a big shack. I shoot him dead and we approach a house ruin where we kill several more hostile humans. This was easy. Of course, they weren't exactly alert either. How could they have expected such a sudden fierce attack?
There are trapdoors to the basement. We descend with utmost caution, but there's nothing near the ladder but a passage with walls of rock. It leads to a couple of smallish rooms as well as a bigger one with a big cage-cell, a small torture cage into which you can fit a crouching person, and some improvised torture devices. In the large cage is a dead High Elf woman.
I find a letter evidently from the bandits' boss ordering them to relocate without delay to Shattered Axe Redoubt in the mountains west-southwest of here, as well as to destroy this very letter.
We'll check that place out then.
The weather is beautiful, as is the birch forest. Just short of the actual mountains, we find a citadel ruin. There's nobody about. I check the map to figure out if we can reach our destination from this side or will we have to bypass the mountains and approach from the south. All of a sudden, a troll turns up and attacks Jordis. She's in real trouble and she's between me and the troll, and Lydia and Jenassa are behind me, so we need to maneuver for some time before we can get a good shot at the troll.
I don't say anything. Jordis is visibly shocked as it is. Not her fault, really. Could happen to anyone. That's why there are four of us.
We soon find the entrance to that Broken-whatever. Shattered, I mean. In front of it, I succeed in getting an amazing close-up of this apparently young fox.
Shattered Axe Redoubt is a system of stone and earth caves and passages, quite difficult to navigate, but fortunately very undermanned. We kill the bandits, including Garant himself, and get the warhammer of Rangarr's father.
It's still light outside. Quite near is Stargazer Grove we peeked inside briefly the last time we were in this area. Now we explore all of it. It's disappointing – a few draugrs and nothing interesting to find. We are back out a little before 8. After a brief visit to nearby Bailun Priory to pray to Dibella and make sure everything is in order there, we head back towards Amber Creek. It seems we should arrive just in time for me to spend some pleasant time with Oudin and then get a good night's sleep. Another perfectly time-planned day.
We find both Rangarr and Oudin at the inn. Rangarr is very happy and gives me my reward. After some reflection, he says his father would have wanted for the warhammer to be put to good use, so why don't I take it and kill some bandits with it. He looks so touched that I don't have the heart to tell him I don't use warhammers. I thank him solemnly for this signal honor. I'll find someone in Skyrim to give it to rather than sell it. Maybe Avulstein Gray-Mane? He can certainly use a good weapon and maybe it would help me make up with him.
I chat a little with Varrina and then go home with Oudin.
He wants to do it in my mouth. I beg him not to. I tell him I haven't had it down there for an eternity. I swear him I'll suck him off in the morning but not now. Grumblingly, Oudin gives in. He holds himself back long enough so that I can have an orgasm, but afterwards he falls asleep right away. So a discussion about Pinevale has to be postponed until the morning.
next awakening
