And of course, it starts raining.
A silent snarl lifted her lips as the drops fell from the slate-gray sky. Softly as first, just a gentle tap tap on the surfaces it touched, but as Aaliyah ran towards the alcove of rocks to her left, the rain fell harder, and thunder boomed in the distance. The Imperial stopped and looked up at the sky, like the answer to her anger management would come from doing so. She sheathed her dagger to the strap across her chest and ducked under the rocks as the rain fell. It wasn't that she minded the rain, she was just on her last thread of nerves and didn't want to end up in Riften soaked to the bone and looking like she'd just rolled around in a grassy field.
"Aaliyah, I think we should seek shelter elsewhere," said a voice beside her. Aaliyah glanced at Feera, her Breton companion. The woman's grey-green eyes were watching the sky and she sighed. "The clouds are getting too dark, and the thunder is closer. This storm will be a bad one."
Aaliyah ran a hand through her mahogany colored hair and groaned. It would take about ten to fifteen minutes to get back to Whiterun, if they moved as fast as possible. But the sky was starting to open up and the rain was falling hard enough to sting any skin it came in contact with.
"Run?"
Feera nodded, hiked her satchel up her back, and held Aaliyah's shield over her head. "Run."
They took off then, dodging puddles and mud, but laughing as they started to race. Feera was quicker, but Aaliyah was sneaky, lunging over rocks and flipping over low tree branches like an acrobat. The two women shrieked as lightening lit up the sky and the crack of thunder deafened them. They weren't going to make it to Whiterun in time to evade the oncoming storm, but they were almost half-way to the stables outside of the city.
Feera got there first, throwing herself into the soft hay and laughing as her drenched companion skidded to a stop, spraying the wood with mud. They were soaked, and Aaliyah cursed as she examined her armor.
"It's going to rust."
Feera gave a sympathetic click of her tongue. "I'm sorry. Maybe we'll find something in town."
Aaliyah frowned, "Nah…I wanna go dungeon diving."
Feera's eyebrows shot up, "Not with me you won't." The woman hated the undead, and while Aaliyah had a penchant for necromancy, she wanted none of it and often waited outside while her friend ransacked tombs for loot.
"Not right now. I need to sell all the stuff I found last time."
Feera shivered as memories of their last "adventure" came to mind. The snow had been falling particularly hard that day, and due to lack of sight, the two had sought shelter in an abandoned fisherman's shack between Marthal and Solitude. They had settled in for the night, and while Feera had gone to the river to catch their dinner, Aaliyah had snuck off towards the forest with her dagger. She had claimed she was hunting deer, maybe a goat, but Feera knew better. She abandoned her fishing pole and silently followed the Imperial.
Aaliyah dug her steel boots into the half frozen dirt, and dug her nails into a sapling to her right, trying to pull herself up over the lip of the hill. Feera looked up just in time to see her friend vanish, and as she walked around the hill, she heard a commotion from where Aaliyah had just gone. Panic set in and Feera ran, her long legs galloping over the rocks and through the brambles towards the fight.
Aaliyah was standing there, a thick, heavy branch in her hands, and a bandit lay at her feet. "Oh, hey."
"Good job," Feera said sarcastically. "Now you can add murderer to your list of qualifications."
"Does he look dead." Aaliyah frowned. "I just hit him in the face and knocked him out."
Feera made an uh huh, suuuuuuure kind of noise in the back of her throat and looked around. They were in a snowy patch of forest, and to their right was a rocky cliff face that separated the Reach from the Pale. She sighed heavily. Skyrim was so different than her home of Black Marsh. She had been raised by Argonians. Her family had been on a trip to the other country when a group of bandits attacked their caravan and killed them all, but her mother had been clever. She hid Feera in a tangle of Jarrin roots and pacified the infant with a Flin soaked rag to sedate her. After the bandits had been hauled off by guards, one of them found the baby and Feera grew up with the reptilian creatures. Her birth name was unknown, and she had been called Feera from that day forward.
Not that she minded, she loved her family, both human and not.
"Feera!" Aaliyah hissed suddenly. "Look! A cave!"
Without waiting, the woman took off into the darkness, Feera scrambling after her.
They'd almost been killed.
The cave was full of bandits and their monster servants, and though the two women did well, Aaliyah got too cocky and wound up being held captive in the bandit chief's room where she was beaten and tortured, but after faking a seizure, Feera had managed to get loose and waylay the man so Aaliyah could lockpick herself free.
Most of the injuries weren't all bad, and Aaliyah had just been dramatic and screamed a lot. The bruises and cuts would heal. But as she tried to run out of the cave, she hit a pressure plate and activated the swinging gate that was studded with spikes. She was hit in three places through gaps in her armor, but after a few weeks, those had healed as well, thought the scars remained. The loot they picked up was decent, and would give them some much needed coin in exchange if they sold it to the right person.
Feera turned to look at her friend, dashing the memories away, "Where do you think we should go?"
"I have an acquaintance in Windhelm who can appraise most of this." she smiled at Feera's sigh.
"Could it be any farther away?" she moaned. "Can't we at least make a stop in Whiterun and stay the night?"
Aaliyah blanched at Feera's hopeful expression. Damn Breton and her cuteness. But the other woman was right. It was getting dark, and this storm wasn't going to let up any time soon, if at all. With an exaggerated groan, Aaliyah hoisted her satchels onto her shoulder and started walking towards the farmlands nearby.
…
I miss Morrowind. Aaliyah thought as she and Feera walked through the soaked streets. The rain had stopped for a bit, but she could tell it would start up again because the wind had picked up, and the air smelled like ozone. I miss Vivec and Sadrith Mora and Ald Ruhn.
Aaliyah had been born in Cyrodiil, but traveled between Vvardenfell and Mournhold as a child before finally settling in Skyrim when she was nineteen years old. Her father had been a healer, and was well known for his spells and potions and was often called when someone of great importance was ailing. Aaliyah's mother, who had passed away in childbirth, was born in Morrowind, and Aaliyah was often left with extended family while her father was away.
I wonder was Traian and Zephyr are up to…Aaliyah missed her younger brothers, who traveled between all the different countries; Traian having taken over for their father as a healer, and Zephyr who was journeying to become a warrior. They were triplets, and while Aaliyah was the eldest, she didn't boss her siblings and let them live as they wanted.
"Aly?" Feera's voice snapped her out of her reverie and Aaliyah looked over to the Breton.
"Yes?"
Feera stifled a yawn behind her hand, "Where to?"
The Bannered Mare was the inn of Whiterun, and since it was cheap, Feera had suggested they stay there for the night before venturing out to Windhelm. They walked by a smithy, and the small market stalls before arriving at the inn. Rain had started to fall again, and they were grateful for the warmth the inn provided. A roaring fire crackled in the center of the inn, and people sat around, drinking merrily and talking of their adventures. The owner, Hulda, stood behind the bar, offering mead to one of the seated men in the common room. Feera walked over to the woman and requested a room.
"One or two?" she asked Aaliyah.
"One. Cheaper."
Aaliyah's distracted. Feera noted. Probably fantasizing about all the gold she's going to make by selling all her loot.
Aaliyah was humming to herself, looking around the room at all the people inside. The bard was playing his lute in the corner, while a man in Nordic steel armor sat by the fire, staring into its depths as though it held a great secret. Next to the stairs was a female Nord who seemed to be angry about something.
Feera walked back to her and smiled, "Shall we?"
As they walked around the barmaid, Aaliyah shifted her burden onto her shoulder, and jogged after her friend, but the loot slipped and knocked into the table to her right. She cursed.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" shouted the redhaired woman, slamming her tankard down.
Aaliyah rose an eyebrow and Feera gently coaxed her friend away from a potential brawl. "Sorry."
Aaliyah looked at the other woman, "Are you alright?"
"What's it to you?"
"You're agitated. I'm amused."
"You won't be when I get through with you."
Aaliyah's smile was slow. "Is that a threat, friend?"
The Nord frowned, "I'm in no mood for games, girl. I bet a hundred Septims that I can knock you flat on your ass."
Feera almost groaned aloud. It wasn't that they were hurting for money, Aaliyah just liked having it because 'you never know when your life could take a turn for the worse' and they would need it for some reason.
The smile that graced Aaliyah's mouth didn't quite reach her eyes, but the crystalline orbs were lit with a fire that Feera knew would only be quenched with a good old fashioned beat down. With a sigh of resignation, she took a seat at the bar, where Saadia, the barmaid, offered her a drink. She also explained that Uthgerd the Unbroken was a mercenary who'd recently had some personal issues that shortened her temper, and she often challenged newcomers to a fight for money.
Aaliyah dropped her stuff, since Uthgerd claimed that this was a fists only fight. No weapons, no magic. She'd been in plenty of fights before, with friend and foe alike, and damn it if she didn't need those coins.
Uthgerd threw the first hit, and Aaliyah took the blow, pushing her weight to her thighs to absorb the shock, and she swung her fist at the older woman, nailing her in the temple. Stunned, she shifted back but rebounded quickly, delivering a flurry of punches (some of which were hard and hitting vital areas) that Aaliyah responded to by doing a back flip and creating some distance between them. She didn't want the fight to last long, and while she was capable of handling herself in hand-to-hand, Uthgerd was not only more experienced, but tipsy; and that was dangerous.
I need to end this quick before someone else gets hurt. Aaliyah taunted the woman then, claiming that she was too slow and drunk to hit properly, and with a cry of rage, Uthgerd charged, but Aaliyah was faster. She shifted onto her palms and caught her ankles around Uthgerd's neck, slamming the woman onto the floor as hard as she could.
Breathless, stunned, and under the influence, Uthgerd did not rise immediately. Aaliyah cracked her neck and stretched before leaning down to help the woman off of the floor.
"That was a good fight," Aaliyah said with a grin. "Been a while since I've brawled like that."
"Liar!" Feera whisper-yelled teasingly.
"Myself as well." Uthgerd said, returning to her seat. She dug into her armor and pulled out a small coin purse. "One hundred gold, as promised."
Aaliyah took it with a smile, "Thank you." She turned back to Feera and motioned for her to follow as she walked up the stairs.
…
The bed was nice and soft, and Feera sighed as she lay down on the green covers. It had been a long time since she and Aaliyah had slept in a bed, and she was grateful to be able to have clean linens instead of bug infested grass or a dirt covered hovel in the wilderness. Aaliyah didn't seem to mind much and was capable of sleeping anywhere, at anytime (while standing!), rain or shine, snow or ash.
"You've something on your mind, Aly?"
Aaliyah turned to gaze to the other woman, and Feera was captivated by the Imperial's eyes; brilliant and colorless, like a diamond, except for a dark blue rim around the iris. They had once been a dark brown, but after a skirmish with some rouge mages in a Daedric shrine, she'd taken a blast of magic to the face that had caused a case of blindness that, thank the Divines, had been cured by her brother, but unfortunately had ruined her eye color. Her vision was otherwise unimpaired except she was much more sensitive to light.
"I miss Morrowind is all," Aaliyah replied, running a hand through her hair. "Skyrim's so different, I haven't adjusted yet I suppose."
Feera yawned and watched her friend set their satchels next to the bed and pull her cuirass off. "Tired?" Aaliyah made a noise in the back of her throat and buried her face into her pillow.
"See you bright and early!" Aaliyah snarled and Feera laughed, closing her eyes and allowing the sweet void of sleep to take her.