Always Lost, Always Hopeful (259) What If They See Us?

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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 inevitably reveals a lot about the game.
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previous day 






4-202-05-05 08:23
Thoromhel's House, Sunhold, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion


While cuddling with Thoromhel, I ask him about the political situation and me and my girls' safety here. I want to get several people's opinions to have a better idea of the general picture.
Thoromhel says in Sunhold we are heroes. Should a thalmor army approach to apprehend us, someone is bound to come and warn us even in the middle of the night. However, do I know Glenview?
The small military outpost west of here?
Yes. We'd better keep away from it, he says.
All right, we will.
Thoromhel gives me a sign to turn my back on him. I had already begun to wonder if he doesn't want sex at all. Guess the elves have more patience than humans or Khajiits.  :-)

When I meet up with my followers, we run north and then east. That is because I figure that between the road along the coast and the road along the southern shore of the big lake, there should be another eastward road or path. It probably won't go all the way to Dusk, so we'll turn left at some point before the big mountains and run to Shimmerene, and to Dusk from there. I'm reluctant to approach Dusk from the west along the coastal road, because I don't want to have to kill the mage-bandits who reside in the Cliffs of Dusk village. (And, to be honest, they are so strong I'm not even entirely sure we can defeat them.)

Right now, we're still on the Sunhold–Riverfield highway, though. We turn away from it and proceed eastwards, spend some time admiring my favorite adorable little pond northwest of Aro Pass, and then continue eastwards. It's more a path than a road, but it's comfortable to travel along, and there are bridges over bodies of water. I get a nice picture of a swamphound:

Approaching the high mountains, we notice a strange mist to our right. Walking towards it, we end up on the shore of a lake.

There's a number of most curious rocks that look exactly like old men sitting and thinking. They are covered with patterns that look too elaborate to be natural. In other words, these rocks seem very much like statues or even slumbering creatures. But they are showing no sign of an intention to come to life.

There are remains of a wooden pier at the southeastern end of the lake, but nothing like caves or ruins.

We can already see a tower high up the mountains. It must be Dusk. Let's see if we can somehow reach it from this direction after all.

No we can't. We end up at a scenic narrow lake or possibly the beginning of a river where we are attacked by a group of skeletons.

It's impossible to climb up the steep rocky mountains. Yet we are so near Dusk already that I don't want to run to Shimmerene and then come back all the way along the east coast. We'll go south and try to sneak past the bandits, should there be any.

Indeed, with the help of Invisibility potions, we succeed in getting past them. The Invisibility potions are notoriously unreliable, but our Sneaking skill is so high that we succeed in running past right under their noses. We hear bits of obscene conversation and in fact by the time we have reached the winding walkway up to the gate of Dusk, there are confused shouts somewhere behind us. We're not going to find out what it's about. We just run up as fast as we can and enter through the gate. No one is pursuing us. I hurry to Bradwin's place.

We talk and make love and such. When I realize it's quarter past six already, I wonder if I should stay the night. Bradwin reminds me I wanted to come here for a couple of weeks someday, so right now I'd better proceed to where I was headed and return when I don't have anywhere important to go to.

He's right. A few more hours with Bradwin wouldn't give me what I really need, and would only keep me from my goals, the achieving of which would bring closer the time when I could come back and be really properly with him. I know, I tend to get a little philosophical around here.  :-)

I go to the inn (naturally, I'm curious to see what the girls are up to; nothing special this time) and then we exit by the main gate. The sunset has painted the sky in most beautiful shades of orange. I jump right off the top of the walkway onto the ground and land between three bandits. I had completely forgotten there might be some on this side too!

We don't have much difficulties with just three of them, but they gave me a mighty scare. (Or rather I caused it all myself, jumping into unknown like that.)

The road to Shimmerene and the sights from it look truly like fairytale at this hour.

We run past Mana Grove, Fort Nettle and Silverwood and over the bridge across the river without being bothered by anybody.

When we arrive on the Shimmerene marketplace, the traders are just going home. We are eight minutes late!!

Now, what should we do next? We could, of course, go to the nearby Coruscate Mine, but our Spriggan Soap has worn off, which means the swamphounds would attack us, and I'm reluctant to kill them just for a little coruscate. What bothers me more is I don't have the slightest desire to have sex with Dulizar right now, but I can't think of an excuse to turn him down other than lie once again that I'm having my period.

We can travel to Winterhold and spend the night there, Jenassa suggests. Of course. Why didn't I think of it myself? We don't really have any more business in Summerset and no matter how safe Quillinda says Shimmerene Mages' Guild is, it might be wiser not to tempt our fate and spend more time here than is absolutely necessary. And much as I'd love to chat with Berenice, Noemie and Heloise, I feel I'd better not, because someday they may end up being questioned about when they last saw me and what we talked about.

So we run to the Mages' Guild, outside of which we stop for a moment to admire a running hare. When it disappears into the long grass, I cast the spell and we return to Skyrim.

Recalling longingly how beautiful it was in Summerset.

We go to the library, chat with Ertzebet and watch amusedly how Renna and Brelyna sit at one of the tables with Master Tolfdir between them. We can't hear what they're talking about, but the girls look at each other, I'd say, not entirely without hostility. I ask Ertzebet if she knows what's going on. She shrugs and says Master Tolfdir has something mysterious about him and she's sure those two are not the only ones fascinated with him. I quickly change the subject.

Eventually, I retire with Lydia and Jordis to the Arch-Mage's Quarters for the night.

I've been feeling strange about Lydia these past few days. Now I ask her what's wrong. The way she replies "Nothing is wrong," convinces me ultimately. I sit onto her, look her in the eye and demand she tell me what's bothering her.
"I don't want us to fall out over this, Laura," she replies with almost the same words I used that evening five months ago when I was laying on this bed and she was sitting on me.
"Cut the crap, Lydia. What is it?"
"How could you be so heartless about Fastred's parents?"
"What do you mean? They're monsters. Just like that woman in Skaal. Just like..." I shake my head and climb off Lydia. "All right. My childhood friend Petrille – I've told you about her, haven't I."
"Yes."
"I now remember her home. Her parents." I look pensively at the ceiling. "The awful things she told me they said to her. I remember how she dreaded going home, how she tried to stay away from her parents... Fastred is not like that, but the way her parents treat her, it's basically the same. They're destroying her, they want to keep her helpless, kill every bit of belief in herself she has, but she just accepts it. She doesn't have a character like Petrille's."
"Petrille should have been grateful that she at least had parents."
"What?" I'm shocked. I opened my soul to my closest friend and she spat into it! "Do you have any idea how it broke my heart when her mother told me that I should go because she needed to talk to her daughter, and how Petrille looked at me, her eyes pleading "Don't leave me alone with her!" But what could I do when I was ordered to leave someone else's home?"
"I would switch places with her this instant," Lydia says with blood-chilling determination.
Now I'm angry. "You don't know what you're talking about!"
For a moment, I wonder if it was too loud and if Jordis could hear it in her room. Then I realize I don't care.
Lydia's face is icy and she stares somewhere far away. It slowly starts to dawn to me that having no parents can be devastating too, in a different way.
I sigh. "Well, I don't know what I'm talking about either. I'm sorry."
Lydia closes her eyes and doesn't answer.
Whatever. I lie down and close my eyes too.
Half a minute later, I sit up, riddled with guilt. Lydia has turned away from me.
I kiss her shoulder and say: "We'll be friends again in the morning, agreed?"
"Agreed."



next awakening






return to the table of contents

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (170) We Came Too Soon, They Didn't

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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






4-202-02-04 05:01
Temple, Alinor, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion


Don't ask me how I feel. I feel I can just barely endure another couple of days in Summerset.

But (unsurprisingly) the girls refuse to leave until I've shown them The Lounge. So we go and take a look.

The bright side of it is the sun has risen by the time we're leaving, so we won't have to run through the forests in darkness.

I decide that instead of going to Sunhold, we'll travel east, to see if there's any news in Holly Falls. It's a very nasty climb, but I would feel bad leaving them sitting underground waiting for my help for what could be weeks. From Holly Falls, we'll proceed further east-southeast, skipping Sunhold altogether. The chances are excellent for us to be able to travel to Skyrim tomorrow and have plenty of time to reach Hviterun by the 7th as planned.

To my disappointment, the people of Holly Falls are not yet finished packing up. So we just get out of that hellhole again and proceed towards Aro Pass and ultimately Dusk.

This is that fascinating little pond shortly before Aro Pass. I can't get enough of it.

There are no new bandits to kill in Dusk. I tell the girls to sit at the inn or something while I go visit Bradwin.

This time it's just beyond my wildest dreams. I'm having one orgasm after another. It might well be the best sex I've ever had in my life. I'm beginning to understand why Jenassa is so crazy about High Elves. Wait, Bradwin is a Wood Elf. Well, they're pretty cool as well. By the way, for some strange reason, the Wood Elves in Aldmeri Dominion are much taller than the ones in Skyrim. I've gotten used to thinking of Wood Elves as small and miserable and pathetic and unhappy. But here they are almost as tall and confident as High Elves, to the point that it's often difficult to tell them apart.

This, by the way, is a Ranger Armor  which I picked up somewhere:

It goes with Ranger Pants , but those are so tight I can't put them on. Very embarrassing. Then again, my legs really aren't too thick, are they? Those pants are simply not made for normal women.

Bradwin confirms that my legs are top grade. I change into a normal armor and go to the inn to fetch my followers who seem to be having a jolly good time talking to those two men apparently residing there. Let's hope they didn't get drunk. (The girls, I mean.)

The girls give me very amused looks. I can only pray they didn't tell the men what I had gone to do. Yes, I know the guys probably guessed it anyway and I shouldn't worry about it in the first place, but I still can't help being shy about it.

Full of energy, I more fly than run along the coastal road towards Mana Grove ahead of my followers. As I approach, I can see three creatures who look like spriggans. Strangely enough, they seem to be fighting each other.

I approach carefully, not sure if my early morning bath with Spriggan Soap will make them think I'm their friend. Well, the answer is "no". All three spot me from quite far and attack me. We succeed in killing them, even though we have to do some running away for taking health potions.

Then we find the Black Pearl which is floating in the air. I can jump just barely high enough to reach it.

I'm the one with the sword.

Then we run towards Shimmerene along the road with a beautiful view down to the ocean shore.

When we arrive, the marketplace is still bustling with activity. Once again I'm irresistibly drawn to the Orc trader Agol. Maybe she wouldn't see it as a compliment, but she's like a man, in a good way. It's most frustrating I can't figure out how to get close to her. With great sadness, I have to settle just for usual trading.

Wait! Can she make me a small pahmar out of coral by tomorrow morning? She's a mage, not a blacksmith, but I ask her anyway.

Yes, she can. She'll have it delivered to the Guild. No, it's all right, I can come here and fetch it myself. No, it's all right, she can have it delivered to me. Very well. I'll be waiting.

In the Mages' Guild, I give the pearl to Bolwing and he tells me he'll need one last ingredient from a place west of here, southwest of the Riverfield village.

Well, that'll have to wait for our eventual return from Skyrim.

After my earth-shattering union with Bradwin earlier today, I just can't stand the thought of doing anything with my Shimmerene boyfriend Dulizar. So I tell him my period has started. It's not even an absolute lie because it will in six days from now. Yeah, it's still a lousy lie, I know. But if I hadn't lied, I would have hurt Dulizar's feelings.

Now, it's half past 7 in the evening. We didn't even spend a whole day on our journey from Alinor to here. But of course having a day in reserve is better than running late.

If it wasn't for Vera's birthday present, we could travel to Winterhold right now. But since we have to wait until the morning, we go and chill on the beach.

Our plan is basically to go to Hviterun via Dånstar, and we have two days and two nights to get there which is more than sufficient. I think we'll spend the whole of tomorrow in Dånstar and travel to Laintar Dale and Hviterun in the morning of the 6th. Then I guess I'll take Lucia to a trip to Riverwood. My followers can come with me or stay behind in Hviterun as they please.

Lydia says she'll come with us. She has no one particular to be with in Hviterun, and we both know that when I'm traveling with a child, two bows will be a lot better than one. We'll probably spend the night in Riverwood and return on the 7th for Vera's birthday party.

Jordis and Jenassa are going to stay behind in Hviterun. Jordis will want to be with Erik and Jenassa wants to just spend time with her old friends and get the updates on what's been going on in their lives. And possibly sort things our with Anoriath, which, as we hardly need to tell her, is way beyond overdue.

During the evening, some students join us and ask us about our travels and such. Eventually, we retire to the dormitory.



next awakening






return to the table of contents

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (167) High Class

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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.
———————————————




previous day






4-202-02-01 05:08
Temple, Alinor, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion


We exit the temple. Before returning to the ground, we go to the eastern side of this floating island and watch the sunrise which is an utterly magnificent sight at this height.
[series of 12 pictures you can click through; click on the first picture to make it big, then press the right arrow to see the next picture etc.; press  Esc to return to the text]

We are at incredible elevation. You will recognize the very high tower from yesterday:

Yet, there are places higher still:

Clearly, there's something magical at work in Alinor that somehow raises the water so high.

The temple doesn't have a bath, but it's still so early there are no people about, so we can wash ourselves in a little pond without being seen.

I think we'll take it slow today. Just explore the city, as well as watch out for any signs that the thalmors may be after us or anyone may suspect our true identities. (We're not traveling under false names, but there are surely many Lauras and Lydias in the world.)

So we walk around separately and socialize. Too bad the locals aren't very keen on chatting. But I do find an attractive Khajiit man Ma' Sana. When I run into Lydia on the street, she says every Khajiit man is attractive to me. I try to kick her, but she runs away. Maybe it's time I'll give her that spanking we've been talking about.

We've seen several types of houses in Summerset. The following pictures show what the most common type of home looks like in this city. The ground floor consists of one large living room with alchemy and enchanting facilities. This picture shows about a half of it:

On the second floor is the bedroom. (The houses being pyramid-shaped, the third floor is smaller than the second floor, and the second floor is smaller than the ground floor.)

On the third floor is the bathroom. Note the toilet on the left and the pool on the right. Don't ask me how they keep the water permanently warm. It's no kind of magic I've ever seen.

I use the opportunity to examine up close one of those large purple things with small white things. I end up none the wiser. Well, I can guess it's a fungus of some kind. I mean, giant mushrooms abound on this island, so this is most likely one of them. The point is, no one doesn't seem to live in them and those white things don't teleport you anywhere.

I return to that little stone cabin with teleportation orbs I mentioned last night. One of the orbs, in fact it's the big one in the center, takes me to the king's palace. It looks... I don't know, the word "psychedelic" springs to my mind. I can't remember where I picked it up from, and frankly I don't even know what it means.

That large empty space in the middle is not a hole. It's an invisible floor you can walk on:

Unfortunately, no one here will talk to me. Evidently I'm not important enough for the the king of Alinor to bother with. Point taken.

I exit the palace and walk back to the teleportation orb across this usunusal grass bridge which looks precarious but is in fact perfectly solid:

I return to the ground and use another orb to teleport me to another floating island on which is a large mansion called The Lounge.

I already know from the people on the ground that it's a luxurious brothel. As I've told you before, women are allowed to visit brothels in Summerset, even if it's just out of idle curiosity. I wouldn't miss this opportunity for anything!

The ground floor has a large sitting area with a bar and a pool.

There are only two people present, High Elf women in maid uniforms. One of them, Tarnilla, is very tall even for a High Elf. Her nipples are exactly at the height of my mouth. Not that I mean anything by it. The other one, Norna, is a couple of centimeters shorter than me. So, I guess the customers have pretty much the maximum of variety two women of the same race can possibly provide.

Upstairs are several rooms which I'm not allowed to enter, and one that I am. It has the most magnificent kind of bed I've ever seen.

I just have to put on my gorgeous red dress and take several pictures next to that truly royal bed.

Well, yeah, maybe the bed is a little too short, especially for High Elves.

I wonder if I could pay the establishment for being allowed to come here with my own lover. And I wonder what might be in those rooms I can't get in. Guess I'd better leave before curiosity kills me.

I enjoy myself for a while sitting downstairs at the fireplace, but I give the pool a miss this time. I do, however, taste some of the cheese on offer, and I'm surprised to find out it's much better than Skyrim cheese.

I know I'm not exactly supposed to hang around here, but they don't mind, because they rarely have customers at this hour. Norna informs me they've got some more girls who live down in the city, but they'll come to work later when the business will be brisker.

As I presumed, this is a relatively expensive establishment. The basic fee (what a man has to pay for one vaginal intercourse) is 200 septims.

I leave this delightful place with some regrets. I'll tell my followers about it after we've left Alinor. They'll go green with envy!

As I exit, I'm astonished to see the sky covered with gray clouds. I had already begun to think it never rains in Summerset.

The little glowing sphere is the teleportation orb I'll have to use to get back to the ground.

It's about 3 in the afternoon and I have the feeling I've seen enough for one time. If we hurry, we can even reach Shimmerene before the market closes. Even though we have some business up north, it's Shimmerene I feel I want to go to right now. I don't have to be awfully rational all the time, do I?

I choose a route as different from all the previous ones as I can. We'll go east-southeastwards first, pass between mountains and cross the Sunhold–Ebon highway somewhere between Riverfield and Holly Falls. Then we'll proceed east-northeast through the woods or whatever there'll be, and we should reach a road south of the big lake that leads to Shimmerene.

Between those mountains, we find a pond with entrances to a Sload Den which we're not going to explore today. Past the high towers of Holly Falls to our right, we reach the main road. After thwarting an attack by swamphounds, we find in the middle of the forest a shrine to Clavicus Vile.

He's a daedra, but I don't know anything about Him... no, thank you, Jenassa, I don't want to know either. In front of the big statue of a human of undeterminable sex and a dog are a few benches and a man, apparently a priest of this place. He shows no signs of hostility and there are no altars with bloody corpses, so we leave him alone and move on.

I run ahead of my followers as I usually do, and get attacked by a pack of Plague Rats. Yuck!

Even though not hard to kill, they are more repulsive than any other creature I've ever seen. And the lazybones of my followers arrive only after the battle is over. (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they had hid themselves in nearby bushes to have a laugh at me.) Lucky I didn't catch a disease.

We arrive in Shimmerene after six, but the traders are still at work, so I get a lot of stuff sold. I find myself strangely fascinated by a woman named Agol.

She looks like a hybrid between an Orc and a Dark Elf (although I'm not sure if it's biologically possible). She's close-mouthed and certainly below the average in terms of feminine charm, but there's something that draws me to her irresistibly. She irradiates some kind of a firmness, absolute confidence. I have the feeling that if I were to just stand next to her, nothing in the world could hurt me or even worry me. Quite frankly, I can't recall if there's ever been a man who has made me feel like that.

Whatever. I'll have to discuss this thoroughly with my followers later, but right now we complete our shopping and head for the Mages' Guild.

I give Quillinda her ring and she asks me to go and meet a female wizard in or near Alinor and help her find a certain mysterious place she needs to go to.

On my way to see Bolwing, I run into my boyfriend Dulizar. I tell him I have to go and report to Bolwing, and it won't take long, and then he can have me. With some reluctance, he lets me go.

Bolwing thanks me profusely and I'm not even surprised to learn he has found out in the meantime he'll need one more ingredient called Black Pearl.

I won't have to go farther than Mana Grove this time, though. It's that spriggan place south of here. Looks like I will no longer be able to spare the lives of the spriggans who live there.

I now go to Dulizar. I tell him I feel like going outside, not one of those dull and sterile study rooms again. The beach ought to be abandoned enough. I mean, making love right outside the front door would be infinitely cool, but a bit too risky.

We find a somewhat elevated place free of pebbles that has a nice view to the ocean and is well out of sight of the Guild building.

This is exactly the kind of romantic setting I was longing for. I'm very happy, and so, it seems, is my lovely Dulizar.

Afterwards, he walks me to my room in the dormitory where I fall asleep quickly.



next awakening






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