Garas lifted his hoe and brought it down on the soft ground. The ground cracked under the impact and a lump of earth shifted and after a couple more hits there was enough of a hole for the potato plant that he was planting. Pelagia wanted the entire crop planted by the end of the day and that was a huge job, especially since two of the other farmers were in bed with rock-joint. Bloody Skeevers, he'd have to talk to Pelagia and see about getting some poison to kill the biting little bastards. They were everywhere; they had even got to some of the animals. Three of the chickens had been eaten and the cow had been bitten. The last few weeks had been a living nightmare.
Life had never been easy in Skyrim but just recently things had got a lot harder. The high king was dead, courtesy of Ulfric Stormcloak; leader of the Stormcloak rebellion. The empire had been in charge until Ulfric stormed in to the high king's palace and shouted him apart. He used the ancient power of the Greybeards to kill the king and try to steal the throne. This caused the civil war that was currently raging across Skyrim. Luckily Whiterun was mostly neutral in this war, but everyone agrees that at some point Jarl Balgruuf will be approached by one or other of the sides and he will have to align himself with someone.
Garas was no fool, he knew that at some point there would be a fight for Whiterun and that one way or another they would all be dragged into the war. However for the moment at least things seemed to be ignoring the city and that was fine by him. He kept working for the rest of the afternoon and finished the planting. Pelagia would be happy. Garas left the farm after receiving his pay from Nimriel, the farm manager, and headed up to Whiterun for a drink. He entered the city and walked past Warmaidens, the blacksmith's shop. The blacksmith herself was sitting by the grindstone working some sort of greatsword; she paid no attention as Garas as he headed on up the hill. As he walked up towards the Bannered Mare he past Ysolda. He stopped to exchange pleasantries and talk about what she was doing. She was looking for a mammoth tusk to give to one of the Khajiit caravan leaders, Ma'dran. Garas wished her luck with that and they parted ways. He kept walking up and past Fralia who was at her stall at the base of the Bannered Mare.
"Good day?" she asked as Garas stopped next to her stall.
"Bloody back-breaking. Pelagia wanted the entire crop planted today" he told her as he had a quick look at the jewellery that Eorlund had made.
"Well it was worth it wasn't it?" she asked.
"Yea I suppose, it does mean that I get paid more, because three other farmers were out with rock-joint"
"Skeevers?" she asked.
"Of course. I have told Nimriel but nothing's been done yet"
"Well have a good evening" she said and turned to serve Anoriath.
"Will do" he answered and headed into the Mare.
Hulda greeted him as he entered and he sat down on the bench around the fire.
"Drink?" she asked and Garas nodded and Hulda went to get his drink. As he was sitting there he heard Saadia talking to Uthgerd about something which was gathering quite a crowd. Garas got up with his drink which Hulda had got him and he made his way over to the gathering crowd.
"Are you sure" asked Uthgerd in answer to a statement that Saadia had made that Garas had missed.
"Yes I am sure. Ulfric Stormcloak was captured by the Imperials a few days ago." At these words there was a cheer from most of the assembled crowd. It was pre-mature.
"Don't get too excited, yesterday he escaped from Helgen."
"How did he escape from the Empire" called someone in the crowd. Garas thought it was a member of the Battle-Born family but couldn't be sure.
"Helgen was raised to the ground" Before anyone could ask the obvious question Saadia continued.
"By a Dragon" The sudden lack of noise in the room was deafening. I asked the question that I knew was burning to be said.
"I thought all the dragons were long gone. Why would they come back now, just when Skyrim is at its weakest?"
"Ulfric must have summoned it" said one of the Battle-Borns "Using that Shout power he learnt from those Greybeard hermits"
"It does seem very convenient for Ulfric that as soon as he is captured a Dragon arrives and destroys the town he is being held in. Also he escaped from Helgen whereas no one else did." a voice said from the doorway. The whole group turned to see who it was. Irileth, the Jarls personal Housecarl was standing by the door with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.
"Now let's stop all this idle chat, if the Empire, Stormcloaks or the Dragons are going to include Whiterun then they will do so no matter what any of us do"
The group hesitated for a second then broke up. The Battle-Borns left together muttering to themselves, while the Greymanes sat themselves around a table and started to talk about the new implications of a Dragon.
Garas went to Hulda and asked for his room for the night. Hulda nodded and took the 10 septim's that Garas handed over and waved him off to bed with a distracted "Good Night"
Garas heaved himself up the stairs, opened his door and lay down on the bed. He lay there thinking about what had been said in the common room. Dragons for Stendarr's sake. He decided that these problems were not his problem and he rolled over and fell asleep.