"To Oblivion with you!" a voice roared, followed by the swish of a sword. The attacking beast paused in its onslaught to rear back and spit. The owner of the voice dodged to the right, narrowly escaping the blast. He cried out angrily, sprinting before the creature could try again.
"Urrrr…agh!" he shouted, chopping down with all his strength. The creature hissed as one of its legs dropped from its body. It faltered, but regained its footing quickly, turning on its seven remaining limbs, its mouth pincers chomping. It lunged for the young man's face, but he drove his sword into its eye. The beast fell back, shrieking. The young man yanked his sword from its eye and the creature tipped onto its back, long hairy legs thrashing in the air. The young man took his chance, driving his sword deep into the bowels of the monster. The beast's shrieking heightened to a fevered pitch, then abruptly ceased. The legs drooped, and the creature stilled.
Aventus stepped back, running the back of his hand over his brow, surveying the Frostbite Spider. Brunwulf hadn't been joking about the dangers in the south. Still, he'd fought a hoard of Falmer, albeit with help. The point was a measly spider couldn't scare him. He considered his sword thick with sticky yellow fluid. There was no stream nearby.
Aventus gazed to the west. The sun was almost on the horizon. The cold of night would soon be upon him. He tromped back to his horse several meters away, patiently waiting for him. He leaned into her mane and spoke towards her ear. "Too faithful, you are. You would have been better running farther away." Moonshadow had been with him for nine winters. The dappled grey mare had been a gift from Brunwulf in his second year as ward. He had raised her with his own hand and she rewarded him with absolute loyalty.
Aventus slid his sword through the pack on Moonshadow's back, making sure she wouldn't be sliced by the blade. He swung himself up into his saddle, ignoring the clumped spider guts on his hands. He pushed Moonshadow into a trot, then a gallop. The last traveler he'd encountered said there was an empty cave and a shallow pool nearby. A mile or so and he came upon the hidden grove with the cave at its back. He slid off Moonshadow and let her sate her thirst at the pool. He knelt beside her, washing the grime off his hands, then retrieving his sword and cleaning it as well.
Next, he cautiously surveyed the cave. It was shallow with no evidence of any other resident, man or beast. Aventus clicked his tongue and Moonshadow paced obediently to the cave entrance. He spent some time gathering leaves and wood and building a small fire a few feet into the cavern. He procured his flint and soon the cave walls flickered with flame. He unwrapped a rabbit he had caught and skinned this day, knifing off its meat and skewering the meat on his cooking stick. As it roasted, he gazed at Moonshadow still standing at the entrance, flames reflected in her deep brown eyes. "Tomorrow, our journey ends."
Aventus sighed. He hadn't told Brunwulf why he was leaving, but he had promised to come back. He'd been traveling for over a week. It had been so long since he'd gone this way, he hardly remembered it. But although his memory of the road failed him, his memory of Riften did not. It sat as heavily now as it always had.
"Tomorrow," he whispered into the fire. Tomorrow he would reach Riften. Tomorrow the wrinkled crone that haunted his memories would be dead.