"Oh hello there little fellow, you're a handsome one aren't you. What are you doing here by yourself?" The odd man crooned to the Dwemer spider. The machine hissed at him and lashed out,
Starling Jane was close to killing the spider herself, but instead she stood back and watched to see how the oddly dress stranger would react.
The man dodged the strike with ease and tutted at the machine. "Now now now, that's not what your supposed to do, you're not a security drone, you're a matinence worker, you aren't programed for combat,
and I'm not made of metal!" The machine blew hot steam at the man, and Jane gripped her sword, ready to defend or attack the odd human if need be. It was obvious that the spider was getting ready to attack him, but he just shook his head
and crouched down dangerously close to it's level. The man pulled a small rod of metal out of his tunic and grabbed the spider at a point just behind the main gyro housing, and winced at the heat of the metal.
The rod glowed and started to buzz, and the spider stiffened and stopped moving. The man waved the rod along the gyro housing, which caused it pop off. He pulled a few gears, and a bit of oil out of his tunic, and fiddled with the creature for a few
moments before putting the housing back where it belonged. Jane noticed that the soul gem that usually powered the machine had been replaced by a more compact, glowing component. The rod glowed a few times, and spider hummed back to life.
The man stood up and backed away a little. The machine seemed uncertain as to what it should do for a moment, before it turned and pittered off to a malfunctioning peice of machinery. The man breathed a sigh of relief. "There we go, good as new. The question is,
why hasn't anyone been around to repair you in such a long time."
Jane was more curious than scared now, as she'd never seen someone actually REPAIR a dwemer spider before. She still had her hand on her sword, but she was less
cautious now, and as she was trying to get a closer look, her foot accidentally hit a piece of scrap metal. She winced a little at the loud clanging noise it made. As a master huntswoman, she shouldn't be making mistakes like that anymore. The man turned towards the noise, but rather than being defensive, he smiled in her direction. "Well come on out, you might as well introduce yourself."
Jane hesitated, wondering if it was worth it to try and make a kill shot with her bow from this distance. She almost tried, but something in this odd nord's manner seemed friendly enough, and she didn't think that he meant her any harm; So she slowly moved from her crouching position and out from behind the wall she was crouching behind.
The man's grin got bigger. "Oh look at you! aren't you beautiful! I haven't seen a elf hybrid like you in ages!" He rushed towards her and she stiffened and pulled out her sword, the man stopped and showed her his hands.
"Don't worry! Look? See, I'm not armed! Not attacking! Just a little over excited."
Jane lowered her sword, and narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing here? Did you come here with the expedition?" The man paused for a minute, "Actually, no. I'm with the imperial legion, I'm here to investigate the disappearances" "Isn't it a little obvious that the crazy skooma addict that was running around did it?" "one human-" "Actually he was a Khajiit" "Alright then, One Khajiit, killed all those people?" Jane shrugged. "Well most of them were asleep when he did it, and you know, insanity kind of makes people stronger. Plus it was only about four people so-" "Wait, what are you talking about?" Jane stopped and looked at the man strangely. "I'm talking about the expedition team that got snowed in here, what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the Dwemer who lived here." Jane raised an eyebrow, and backed away a little. This man diffinitely wasn't with the imperial legion. "The Dwemer have been gone for thousands of years."
The man shook his head, "Not these ones, they stayed behind when the others went on their pilgrimage." Jane kept nodding and began to inch her way towards an opening. "Actually what era is this?" Jane was definitely confused now, but she was certain that this man was insane, so she decided to play along. "The fourth era, actually towards the beginning of the fifth era. Why?" The man groaned and slapped himself on the face. "I was supposed to land in the second era! I was off by a thousand years! good lord this has to be a record, well I guess that there's nothing I can do about it now, but can I ask you one more question?" Jane nodded "What?" "did you say that they got snowed in?"
She nodded again "yeeesss, why?" "Because it doesn't snow here, the valley, too protected by other cliff faces"