A/N By the way. I don't own anything appart from the characters. (I did make up the Dwemer Ruin although from fragments of other ruins, Black Reach is one.)
I like writing and i plan to continue with the Green series. So if you could review the story that would be great but if you could at the end write whether you'd like me to write about a) Green's Childhood b) Green's Relationship with Steffilka or c) Green's life in the College. My personal favorite is b, but i don't mind whatever.
It was cold. No surprise there, it's always cold in the northern parts of Skyrim and there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it.
I pulled off the cured fox pelt that I curled up in for the night, and went about checking my backpack, making sure no young newcomers thought to better themselves by pilfering my goods. I was relieved when I unwrapped the linen cloth on top of my backpack to discover my Orcish bow in exactly the same position I left it, the string curled in an intricate pattern that was difficult to replicate so I'd know if someone had touched it. It had taken me over 9 years of banditry to gain this jewel and I was constantly aware that other jealous marksmen of the troop could make themselves forget the honour code that our piratical group held. We were a nomadic band of outlaws made homeless from our last place of rest 8 months ago by a rapid increase of Venomfang Skeever, and were now heading northward to find a new abode.
I took the bow and the string and shoved the string into my jerkin, no sense in ruining the bow by stringing just yet. Quickly checking through the rest of the pack I hauled it onto my shoulders and made sure I could reach my arrows easily. Walking around the campsite I saw that I was the only one up who wasn't on watch. I went to the dying fire, which was no more than a few embers and stoked it up for breakfast.
I put a pan of water over the fire and walked over to the female side of the encampment, Picking up a bucket of frozen water as I went. I passed through the undulating heaps that were the females' lithe bodies and sought out the bedroll that had a distinctive stripe of yellow fur down the side. I found it and pulled back the covers, revealing the face of my dreams, Illianda. She is the only other Bosmer, wood elf, in the camp, being one myself, and the subject of my affections, she also happened to be the camp cook and while she was deadly with a dagger, wasn't expected to fight in raids or defense. I looked upon her face, tender and even as every Bosmer's is. I ran the back of my hand over her cheek and traced the whorls of her war paint that Skyla, a large Nordic Women, had put on Illianda after she had saved her life. The moment quickly passed and I carried on with my original business, getting breakfast. I took the bucket of frozen water and chipped some of the ice out into my hand, once I had a fistful I chucked it onto Illianda's face, laughing quietly as she tensed up in her bedroll and then scrunched up her face as the coldness of the ice seeped into her skin.
She quickly got ready, packing her bedroll and possessions she had out the night before into her shoulder bag and joined me next to the fire. She was wearing a low cut blouse of deep green fabric and a full length skirt that concealed heavy fur boots that she wore. As she neared she gazed into my purple-black eyes and I in turn was entrapped by her golden ones, the staring continued for a while neither of us moving until the pan of water I had previously put on the fire started to bubble, lifting her gaze from me and turned to the pot as she deftly took a satchel out from beneath a bench and pulled out a handful of tea leaves which she cast into the pot, I was about to ask if she needed any help but then she started to hum an old Bosmer nursery rhyme a signal that all was well and it would do well not to disturb her.
Taking my leave I went to the camp perimeter to see what the lookouts had been noticing. Climbing a snowy crag I came to the western lookout by far the best post to be situated in this campsite, not on the path of any potential hostiles but some brilliant views and ample drama to be entertained by. As I came up the current lookout, a human named Dard, signalled for me to be quiet and come up. Intrigued I scrambled up the last few metres of cliff and sat next to him on the ledge.
"Look. Below us and to the right, Bears." Dard said to me in a hushed voice pointing to the area he described. Following his fingers I could indeed see a couple of large black bears on a rocky ledge jutting out from the mountain opposite us doing their best to annihilate each other. I quickly calculated the ease that it would take to kill the bear that survived, go down there and get back with the loot, my odds were good if Drad stayed at the top to catch the meat and pelts when I chucked them up to him I could scramble up the slope no problem.
With this in mind I told my plan to Drad. He seemed pleased with the idea, so I quickly took out the string from my tunic and with a considerable effort strung my bow. I tested the strength and when I was convinced it wasn't going to snap I took out 4 steel arrows and laid them in a nook formed by the rock. Next I took a small vial that was stoppered with cork and sealed with wax, this was one of the various potions I kept in my pack and this variety was very detrimental to one's health, once the vial was open I emptied the contents onto the arrow tips, the poison washed over the arrow tips and a few drops fell into the snow, turning the colour from a pure white to a pale green.
Looking back up at the fight I could see it was nearing its conclusion, the larger bear was more powerful but the younger was more nimble, as the larger bear reared up roaring at the younger bear getting ready to smash it into the ground. The younger bear ran up to it and leapt onto the older bear. The younger bear then stepped away and let drop a hunk of flesh from its jaw and you could see the older bear was missing its throat.
This is where I came in, nocking the arrow into the bow I forced myself into the state of calm that every good marksman found himself in just before a shot, when I reached the state of calm I looked down the shaft of the arrow and saw the bear that was now licking its wounds, once I found it and was certain it wouldn't move I lifted the bow up a bit and let loose the arrow, unlike many other marksmen in the camp I knew how to fletch my arrows just right and how it worked with the bow, this knowledge meant that no sound came from the arrow as it slid through the air, I didn't have time to see if the arrow hit because I was already reaching for the next arrow, going through the motions efficiently and calmly, I knew I hit the bear because of the large cheer that Drad made behind me, still I drew back the bowstring with the poisoned arrow and looked down it's shaft at the bear, which was lying in a heap blood running into the fur around it's ruined eye where the arrow struck, seeing this I lowered my bow and placed the arrow with the other two that were there.
Nodding to Drad I unstrung my bow and laid it next to the arrows string tucked once again next to my chest. I took my pack off and laid it over the bow and arrows keeping them from rolling away should a sudden wind come up. I turned to Drad and smiled cheekily at him before jumping off the cliff backwards. I had always been agile like most Bosmer, and instead of just walking to the rocky balcony I was leaping from rock to rock, in a few seconds I reached the ledge where the two dead bears, I took out my large skinning knife from my boot and in about ten minutes both of the bear skins had been removed. I quickly washed my skinning knife in the snow and took out my dagger from my other boot. The skinless carcasses were prime specimens with plenty of meat on both, I took ten steaks from each, though there was still a lot of meat that some young member to come down to pick over. Laden with fur and meat I went back to the crag on which Drad was sitting, I knew there was no way I'd get up cliff edge carrying these heavy burdens so I threw them up to Drad, first the steaks one at a time, which he caught most of the time, then I folded the pelts into one another creating a dense clump of fur, and chucked them up as well, Drad then started to unfold them and placed the meat inside like a knapsack, and when I pulled myself on top the cliff he threw one of the sacks at me.
Taking my stuff and the bear sack. I followed him to camp, by now everyone was up and ready and was simply waiting on breakfast. As we walked in a great cheer rose from the far side of the fire and the flames obscured who it was.
"Greetings! What has our fine warriors of the watch brought us today!" boomed the voice and it was instantly recognisable as Jorrsk EarthenVoice, our leader. The large Nord rose up and outstretched his muscled arms. In response both Drad and I took the bear sack we were each holding and threw them at him. In one swift movement he caught both, one with each arm. Undoing the knots in the top he dropped the steaks into a wide shallow bowl, a low grumble of approval came from the rest of the camp when the last dropped out. Jorrsk then took the pelts and threw them to an Argonian woman who had come up. She was called T'ss the only Argonian in the camp and the best one to go to if you needed pelts cured or turned into leather. T'ss hissed at Jorrsk who laughed at the sight but her facial spikes rose up, a sign that she too was grinning. She walked off with the pelts to the tanning board and set about doing her work.
"There's more meat," I said loudly to Jorrsk, who was staring wistfully at T'ss. "There was only so much Drad and I could carry."
"Very well, Red, Warrick, go with Drad to find these bears and bring back all the meat you can get." He replied and a large Redguard, that was red, and an Imperial, Warrick, stood up and left with Drad.
"Green, follow me," Jorrsk said in a lower voice than usual.
Since that was my name, I followed him as he walked around the fire and over to his command tent. As he neared the entrance to his tent, he stopped and turned around to the rest of the camp and drew in a large breath so he could be heard all over the camp.
"WE LEAVE WHEN THE SUN RISES!" he said with earth-shattering force and all members of the camp turned to Jorrsk as he said it.
It was already light and if we had been on a plain the sun would have already risen, but as it was we were in northern Skyrim and in the middle of a mountain pass. So we had about another half hour left before the sun showed itself.
He went through the flap in the tent and I was greeted with real warmth for once, going inside I could see a brazier of coals sitting in the middle, quietly exuding heat that was trapped by the tent making it a comfortable temperature unlike any other part of the camp where it was either too cold or too hot next to the campfire. When we were both in, Jorrsk sat on his throne, it wasn't much, just some pieces of wood but draped with furs to hide its vulnerability, he gestured for me to take his study chair. When I went to his desk I saw his plans, the reason why he got a heated tent and a throne whilst the rest of us froze outside. The amount of sums that were going on in the sheet of paper was incredible, keeping 38 men and women going strong took a lot of arithmetic it seemed. Taking the chair and turning it so it was facing Jorrsk, I slumped into it before sitting upright to listen to Jorrsk.
"Listen, Green, first I want to say that I'm very pleased that you got that meat now we have something for tomorrow as well. But that wasn't what I took you in here to talk about it is something to do with a personal nature. It's about T'ss."
I was taken aback by this. Jorrsk had never made his affection clear to T'ss and some of the more insensitive people thought that Jorrsk was just intrigued by the Argonian physique than her as a person. But now he was actually saying to me that he had feeling for her.
"What about T'ss," I said scarcely believing what was about to happen.
"You understand this cannot go further than the fabric of this tent," Jorrsk said, with a worried expression on his face. His voice and stature in the chair was much more timid, whereas before he had talked to me as an equal or better, he now was asking for guidance like a young one new to the world
I nodded not willing to tell him that everyone in camp already knew.
"Well ever since she first joined the camp, I always seemed to get distracted by her and recently she seemed to be reacting to me in a weird manner and I just can't fathom it." He said, relief infusing his face as he got his confession out. "I realise now that I have deep feelings for her and I really don't know what to do about them, so I thought you might help considering you're the oldest in the camp."
"Save Illianda yes I am the oldest. I celebrated my 108th birthday 3 months ago. And I take it Jorrsk, you do know how argonians express their feelings yes?" I asked, with a sneaky suspicion of why this was so difficult.
"Um. Don't they just express them like normal humans do?" He said, doubt crossing his mind.
"Cyrodilic ones yes, but T'ss came straight from Black Marsh. The Argonians find it difficult to express themselves facially as they lack the number of face muscles that elves and humans do. The Argonians rely on other ways, like changing their skin colour, if you notice T'ss always changes her skin colour slightly when near, from a green to a soft lilac. Another way is moving the face spikes to express emotion, whenever you and T'ss interact together he spikes always lift up and fan out, this can be taken two ways the first is she is angry or scared but this isn't the case as you need to couple that with the skin colour which there isn't. The second is that she is trying to make herself as impressive as she can for a potential mate."
With this closing remark, Jorrsk looked sceptical and said "how do you know this?"
"I've only been a bandit for 12 years and 3 months, before I was a bard, a priest, a scholar and much more besides. I have lived a long life but there are still many things I wish to do, that should answer your question." I said. As I spoke, the weight of all those years that I had mentioned came back to me and I sagged in the seat from the strain.
"So you're telling me that she has strong feelings towards me," Jorrsk said, the hope evident in his voice and eyes.
"Of course, if she were a human you would've probably been married by now," I said forcing myself to laugh in order to stop myself from brooding over my life, and bring myself back to the present and stop dwelling in the past.
"Well in that case, thank you, I didn't know what to do and you helped. I am indebted to you." Jorrsk sighed, his face brighter than it had been for days. "I don't suppose when you leave you could get T'ss to come in; I'll need to make amends for the months of naivety on my behalf."
I stood up and nodded, then turned to leave the tent and swept the flap aside and walked into the cold.
After leaving the tent I strode purposely to the campfire where Illianda was serving Porridge with meat to the camp's inhabitants. She looked at me quizzically as I approached the queue and skipped a dozen people to where T'ss was waiting. I stepped up next to her and touched her lightly on her upper arm to get her attention. She turned towards me irritation showing by the oscillation of her facial spikes.
I leaned into her and whispered into her ear hole "Jorrsk would like to see you at your earliest convenience to discuss certain personal matters."
As I said this she tensed up and her skin went to lilac to red to green to lilac again, making it evident of her passion and embarrassment. She dropped her bowl that she had been carrying and with all haste that she could while maintaining her dignity went over to the tent and disappeared inside.
I picked up the discarded bowl and stuffed it into her pack and brought one out of my own from my pack and went into the queue. When I got to Illianda she didn't give me my portion but instead motioned for me to sit next to her and we both ate out of the cooking pot. Whilst we ate I told her everything that had happened in the tent and why T'ss was in the tent with Jorrsk.
"That is good, I don't think I've ever seen T'ss happier in camp," Illianda said as she washed the pot out. "T'ss is very important to me. She, Steffilka and I are the only non-human females in camp if you didn't know and we've built up a kinship that is rather tight."
"Hmm. It will be difficult for them, I don't know of a single Human Argonian couple in all the lands. It will be very difficult indeed. Especially since Jorrsk can't tell many of the emotions that play across T'ss's face."
"Oh yes, you'll have to teach Jorrsk how to interpret T'ss's emotion. Do you want the last of the tea?" She asked.
I shook my head and she shrugged drinking the last of the brown liquid, then scooped up the tea leaves from the pan to chew on later.
"Or we could just leave them to it." I suggested.
Illianda was about to reply but was interrupted by Jorrsk coming out of the tent with T'ss.
"WE'RE LEAVING, EVERYTHING ON THE PACK HORSES!" he bellowed. Then he went back into conversation with T'ss.
The camp bustled as the last of the bedrolls were stored on the pack horses and everyone got ready to leave.
The next 20 minutes were a blur but then we were setting off down the mountain pass, I was next Illianda who was leading a pack horse and Jorrsk and T'ss was in front of me in their own little world not caring of anything but each other.