Skyrim: Solitary Stories
Chapter 1: Miss Miri
Disclaimer: I do not own The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, or any of the characters involved except Miri
Author's Note: This story will be slightly different than my normal ones, rather than it being one cohesive story where each chapter builds upon the next it will instead be isolated stories featuring a few of the individual Skyrim characters I've played, their stories, and things like that. A few of them that I played for a long time (Miri for example) might get multiple chapters to cover different aspects of their story. With that out of the way, let's dive in.
Mary smiled as she set down the large tower she'd been carrying. Her dad, currently laying on his back under her desk crawled back slightly to look up at her.
"Everything alright up there?" he asked.
She nodded, "Yeah dad, all good up here, I'll dangle the cables back once I have them plugged in," She replied.
She leaned forward from her chair, plugging in a series of different cables with practiced proficiency. Once she finished, she spun the tower around so that the cables dangled down over the edge.
"Thanks, I got 'em" her dad replied.
Mary waited and watched as her father put the finishing touches on her new PC. When he was done, he crawled out from under her desk and smiled at her.
"All set up, ready?" he asked.
She nodded and wheeled herself forward, locking the brakes on her chair to make it easier for her dad to pick her up. He tucked one arm under her legs behind her knees and the other behind her back. On the count of three she pushed up from her chair with her arms while her dad lifted. He set her down on her bed.
"Alright, let's see here," He picked up the virtual reality helmet they'd purchased a few days prior and nodded.
"All plugged in, powered up, let's do this," he said.
She nodded and he gave her the helmet, she fought to get it on from her laid-back position, but once it was comfortably set on her head, she gave her dad a thumbs up.
He nodded and clicked the launch button on her favorite game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
"Here we go," he said with a smile.
"Ready," Mary waited and, in a moment,, she fell asleep, or at least that's what it seemed like. She opened her eyes and looked around, she found herself in a dank, dark jail cell. She was laying on her back, much as she had been before they launched the game. She pushed herself up with her arms and then tried to move one of her legs, and to her great joy, it worked. She slowly managed to climb to her feet, stumbling and grasping for the wall to support herself. Eventually she was standing in the cell and smiled.
"Yes!" She shouted.
At that moment her vision spun around, so that she was now looking at her own body. It looked like her in real life: Long blonde hair, thin frame, modest breasts, fair skin. She wasn't tall and was glad she'd installed the mod that allowed her character to be a different height than the default one. She then looked down to see a ghostly version of her body floating below her. She swiped her hand through the air like the instruction book said to do and her menu appeared, she flicked once, twice, going through all the different options. She smiled as she watched her body morph and change before her very eyes. Eventually she settled back to its default appearance, sliding back the option for age so that she was much younger than the default Skyrim character. She smiled as she pushed the confirm button, it then prompted her to name her persona with a virtual keyboard. She typed in the name she'd always loved the most: Miri.
Hitting the confirm button again the prompt appeared one more time:
"Female, Nord. Level 1, Miri. Confirm?"
She nodded to herself before pushing the Confirm button. In another dizzying spin she was back inside her own body. A journal appeared in her hands and as if by magic the first page filled in one line:
"Approach the Statue of Dibella to begin your new life,"
She did as instructed and kneeled before the statue.
"Approach my child, and tell me how your new life will begin," It said
Miri looked through the options, scrolling past each one and picking options that had multiple choices to see which one she'd like the most.
Back in the real world, her dad was watching from her computer screen, making sure everything was going alright. He then heard something that worried him slightly: Lightning, or specifically Thunder crashing outside. He looked out of Mary's window and spotted the dark clouds already overhead.
"That's not good," He said to himself as he got up. He remembered that in the instruction book that came with the VR headset that he was to specifically exit the game on her computer so the VR headset could shut up, there were some visual disorientation issues that came with just pulling the helmet straight off and it was only recommended that it occur in an emergency, he didn't think it was at that level yet.
He took the mouse in his hand and hit the ESC key as Mary had shown him, and as his mouse hovered over the "Exit Game" button the screen went dark, as did the room and the whole house.
"Uh oh," he said to himself looking around. He got up from the computer chair and walked over to Mary laying in her bed.
"Mary, you ok?" he asked.
No response.
"Mary?"
His voice contained some panic.
"Mary!?" He knelt down and gave her a shake on the shoulder, her body limply flailed back and forth in place.
"Sweetie!? Mary!? Please! Answer me!" He shouted at her.
Nothing.
Miri, meanwhile, had finally decided on her choice of starting point: She was to be a newcomer to the region, arriving by ship in one of the three major ocean-side holds of Skyrim. Her trouble came when she was debating on which hold to start in. As she finally decided Solitude, so she could join up with the Empire for this playthrough, the menu disappeared.
"An excellent choice," The statue said to her.
"Please, rest, and your new life will begin,"
"What? I didn't pick anything yet?" Miri asked.
She tried to stand and kneel before the statue again but got no response. With a shrug she moved toward the bed located in the back of the room.
"I guess it's a glitch. Probably, new software and everything," She laid down in the bed and relaxed, soon her body fell asleep and everything went dark.
She awoke with a start. Looking around, she was in some kind of forest, large trees stood a few feet apart as far as she could see. Struggling to stand once again she looked around, the sun was high in the sky and she could feel that she had no shoes on, swiping her hand to open her menu and check her inventory she was surprised to find nothing appeared.
"What?" She asked herself.
Looking over herself she saw she had a small pack on her back and was wearing nothing but the ragged clothes she'd had in the cell.
"What is going on? I don't remember this start…" She said, at that moment something growled near her.
She jumped with a start and looked to see a wolf in the trees moving towards her slowly.
"No no no," She panicked as she looked around for anything she could use as a weapon.
The wolf barked once before taking off toward her.
"No!" She shouted, throwing her arms in front of her to shield her face and upper torso.
Then she heard an unfamiliar sound, and a quick whoosh before the meaty smack of something piercing the wolf, its body flew a few feet to her right, the momentum of whatever struck it sending it flying. She opened her eyes to see a red-feathered arrow was sticking out of its corpse.
"Are you alright?" A figured asked.
She looked over and saw a man, wearing a simple green shirt with a brown vest over it, brown pants and boots. His skin was a light tone of brown and his eyes were completely black, as she examined the rest of him she noticed that his hair was a dull white and styled up in a ponytail, but the thing that caught her attention the most were his ears: they were large, and pointed, leaning toward the back of his head.
"Hey, are you alright?" he asked again.
Miri jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, "Yes, thank you."
He nodded before stepping forward. She took note of the large, recurve bow in his hands as he knelt down and produced a small knife from his belt. He set the bow down and used the knife to skin the wolf, taking it's hide with practiced precision, retrieving his arrow in the process. Once he was finished, he slung the hide over his shoulder, slid his knife into the sheathe and picked up his bow. The whole process took only a few minutes. Miri watched in fascination as he performed all these things. He looked at her and nodded his head toward the direction the wolf had come from.
"C'mon, town's only an hour's walk that way," he said.
She nodded and followed him silently. They continued like that for some time, eventually Miri made out the sight and smell of wood smoke, it reminded her of day's spent at her grandparents' house. She smiled fondly at the memory, but then realized something that made her heart stop.
She couldn't open her menu, she tried swiping her hand again, hoping the man wouldn't notice, but nothing happened. She tried her other hand, then both hands, swiping in different directions or complex patterns. Eventually the elf noticed her and cleared his throat when he realized she was so involved in her signing that she didn't notice him stop to look at her.
"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked again.
She nodded, dropping her arms to her sides.
"If you say so," he turned and continued down the road to the village. The two eventually came through the small, stone gateway and the elf stopped at the first building on their left: a small smithy was set up just under a cover made of thatch and wood.
"Alvor! I've got a hide for you, today wasn't as plentiful as I'd hoped," He said as he approached the smithy.
A man, human and much older looking than the elf appeared on the small porch that faced the street. He wore a simple red tunic and white pants with a black apron over his front. He had short blonde hair and a matching bear.
"No worries Faendal, I appreciate whatever you can bring me," he said, his voice was thickly accented, and as he took the wolf pelt and slapped the young elf on the shoulder, he noticed Miri.
"Who's this then?" he asked, his gaze made her uncomfortable and she dropped her eyes and shuffled uneasily, it was a new action and she liked the way it felt, it somehow gave her a sense of ease even though Alvor was still staring at her.
"I found her in the woods, she doesn't seem to talk much, and she seems a bit on the crazy side," Faendal whispered his last observation in private.
"Do you think she's been cursed?" He whispered back.
Faendal shrugged.
"Either way, it's good that you found her, don't need those beasts getting anyone," Alvor returned his gaze and voice volume to Miri.
She looked up at him.
"Come here child, let me take a look at you," Alvor said.
She nodded and stepped closer. He took her chin in his hands and turned her head gently one way then the other, then he looked her up and down.
"You don't seem to be someone who's been roughing it out in the wilderness for too long, where are you from?"
"Indiana," She said instinctively.
"Indiana? That's a new one, I've never heard of such a place. Tell me, is that one of those counties down south in Cyrodil?" Alvor asked.
Miri quickly realized her mistake, "Yes, sorry, it's a small one, we don't have anything that makes us too famous, so I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it,"
"Regardless. Tell me, do you have a craft by chance?" he asked.
Miri shook her head, "No sir, I've always just tended to the house: cooking and cleaning up,"
"Hm, surprising, you must do pretty well for yourselves in Indiana if you don't know how to tend a field or forge a blade," Alvor put his hand on his beard, seeming to try and stroke his chin underneath as he spoke.
Miri tilted her head, conceding his point, "I would say we do,"
"So, tell me, what's your name lass?"
"Miri," She replied, "Whoa… I wanted to say Mary, is the game making me adapt some of my answers?" She thought to herself.
"Well Miri, how about you help me out around the forge here, and we'll see about getting you out of those rags? You look to be about the same size as my wife, I'm sure she has a few things she could let you wear,"
Miri nodded, "Thank you Mr. Alvor, It would be a pleasure."
He nodded, "Glad that's settled, thank you Faendal," he said to the elf, giving him a nod.
Faendal nodded in return and turned on his heel, heading deeper into the village.
"Well young Miri, let's get you inside and find you something suitable to wear, what say you?"
"Yes please," She answered.
The two entered the small house attached to the smithy and Alvor introduced Miri to his wife: Sigrid and his daughter Dorthe. After introductions Sigrid and Dorthe helped Miri find a suitable change of clothes amongst Sigrid's older outfits, a simple yellow dress with a crossing string pattern on the torso.
"When you're ready, I'll be outside, might teach you a few things while you're with us, help you make some money while you're here," Alvor said to her.
Miri nodded her thanks and watched Alvor leave. She looked to Sigrid.
"I don't mean to be more trouble, but do you have any food? I haven't eaten in a long time,"
"Of course, let's get you something to eat hm?" She smiled at her and Miri followed Sigrid to the main area of the home. There Sigrid gave her a bowl of potatoes and some venison they'd gotten from Faendal the other day. After eating her fill Miri thanked Sigrid and made her way outside.
Stepping over to the forge she watched as Alvor pulled a large blade from the forge, the metal was glowing white-hot and he set it on the anvil before grabbing up his hammer and slamming it down on the metal, sparks flew at him, bouncing off his apron. She continued to watch him for some time, dipping the metal back into the coals, only to pull it back out as it got hot again and continue hammering it into shape. When he finally had made a blade, he liked the look of he dipped it into a small water trough nearby and the hiss of hot metal being quenched in the water sounded over the small work area.
"So, do you think you can do that?" Alvor asked, turning to Miri.
"I… I think so," She said.
"Good, let's start you off working on an Iron Dagger, you'll find what you need there on the workbench beside you,"
He pointed to a rectangular metal bench to her right. She noted the two objects on it: A rectangular ingot of a dark gray metal, and a long leather strip. She picked the two items up and walked over to Alvor. He began the process of heating the ingot, explaining to her how to work the metal, guiding her actions. After that he showed her how to sharpen the dagger, guided her on crafting a hide helmet and improving its fit. When it was all said and done, she smiled to herself with content as she placed the helmet on the table and sheathed the dagger in her belt.
"Not bad, you have talent, let's keep working on it shall we?" He asked
Miri nodded and the two worked all day, Alvor giving Miri smaller tasks to do such as sharpening or tightening, occasionally letting her try her hand at forging again. After the sun began to get low in the sky, he called for her to stop.
"That's enough for today,"
She nodded and set down the sword and handle strap she'd been wrapping around it.
"I think you've earned this," he said as he they came around the front of the house.
They stepped inside and Alvor quickly fished a sack of coins out from his bedside table. Slapping them down into Miri's hands she did a quick count and figured there must be at least one hundred coins there.
"I can't take this," She said.
"Please, the help you've given me today has paid that back and a little extra. I'll keep that little bit as payment for food, clothes, lodging, and the lessons,"
She nodded, "Thank you."
"Think nothing of it," Sigrid chimed in.
The couple smiled at Miri and for the first time she felt hopeful, maybe getting trapped in this world wasn't such a bad thing after all.