A/n; welcome and thank you for taking the time to continue to read this story. Hope my terrible writing of the first chapter didn't ruin the story and hope you find this chapter somewhat better. The * have translations at the bottom of the chapter, I used an online translator so if you're an expert, I'm not, sorry it's not perfect.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Elder Scrolls, only my OC's and no longer my sandwich.
"Well," Endrur started to say, "This place doesn't look to be very busy now does it?". He was right, from what they could see of the main road it looked completely deserted. Ysjarn studied the surroundings and replied, "They're probably somewhere nearby. There's still a bit of smoke coming out of some of these houses.", looking at the sign next to them, "Probably called Riverwood.". They walked through the gate and into the town to get a better view of what happened. "The forge is still hot, and there is some livestock running about it seems, so they can't be far from here." Ysjarn said.
"Maybe, because we did hear a bit of talking on our way here. But it's strange that the mill's not running", Endrur said, he took another look around, "Look, that building has more smoke coming out of it than the others. Should we check it out?"
"Sure, but keep your spells ready incase this is a trap. I haven't seen a single sign of guards being posted here, if there hasn't the villagers could be scared by either us or the dragon and make a trap for bandits thinking there's more looting out this way." replied Ysjarn. As they steadily made their way to the building, keeping lookout for anything, they noticed other buildings, the blacksmith's building, a two story wooden structure with a metal sign, in the shape of a scale, out front displaying 'The Riverwood Trader'.
'Yep, definitely called Riverwood.' thought Yjsarn, before reaching the building they were heading towards.
It was a bit larger than the others, even the trader's building, and like the rest of the building's in the town, made out of wood and straw. It had a wooden sign out front that was painted with a giant sleeping, and under it said the 'Sleeping Giant Inn'.
"Hmmm," started Ysjarn, "In a small town like this, an inn could be a place of refuge if they thought danger was near.". He started to scan the Inn looking for potential signs of any inhabitants, but with the purpose of an inn that made it hard to tell what scuff markings and worn patches were new and what happened in the past.
"Well should we go and look or just go on our merry way to find another town?" said Endrur with a hint of sarcasm, indicating which choice he thought was better.
"If you want to go check it out so badly then go for it I'm going to take a look around the rest of the town to see if I can find anything or clues to where they might have gone." replied Ysjarn as he turned around and started walking back towards the other buildings.
"Fine, I'm going to see if there's people in there. If not, then I'm going to get some food." said Endrur.
The heavy pine door swung open as he made his way through the doorway and into the dark room. "Damn this place is dark. Guess there's nobody in here then. Well, I'll help myself to some food then." He said as he walked farther into the building, heading towards the barely visble counter guided by the low light provided by the door.
'Wonder if there's a torch somewhere in here, I can't see a damn thing and I can't use my fire to see, why blazes would they build out of straw and wood?', He thought as he pulled a bottle of mead up and looked at it with disgust, and tossing it away he reached for another bottle, this one wine, 'It'd be helpful if they had windows…wait…..didn't I see window's outside near the rafters….'"SHIT!", yelled Endrur as he dropped the bottle of wine and leaped into a sprint towards the door only to have it slam shut and encase the building once more in darkness.
He suddenly thought about lighting up the room with a small fire, just before he heard a faint whooshing sound and a sharp blinding pain in the back of his head, and the sound of shattering glass before he fell into the darkness of unconsciousness. Well, deeper darkness than he was currently experiencing.
Ysjarn turned away from the inn and started walking back towards the mill. He crossed the river and looked around the mill which showed signs of recent use such as sharp and rough scratches in the wood along the track with the saw, the sap on the saw blade itself was slightly squishy signifying that it wasn't more than a day old.
'There's still some sawdust here and there, it would've been blown away if it had been more than a week at most. Maybe they went to Whiterun?', he thought while heading back over the river to the blacksmith.
He climbed the steps and surveyed the forge. It had what most forge setups did, a forge, obviously, a grindstone, an armor table, a tanning rock, and miscellaneous items lying around such as iron ingots and leather.
He noticed a lone iron bar with one end sitting in the flames of the forge, he pulled it out and set it on the stone part of the forge while thinking, 'Hmph, bad smithing habits. Their going to ruin the blade, letting it sit in the fire that long at this stage in the process.' while looking back on his own smithing training and smiling internally at the beratings his master would give him if he made a stupid mistake, especially one he'd made before.
Unsheathing his sword from his back he looked at the edge in disgust and then at the grindstone. 'Whosever forge this is, I'm sure they'll forgive me for using their grindstone to fix this garbage. If not they're not a good blacksmith.' he thought as he sat down on the end of the bench connected to the grindstone and set about trying to give the old beat up sword an edge again.
After sharpening the sword as well as he could before the sword would become a toothpick, he saw a few leather strips lying on the ground and picked them up. 'Hmm…..do I have anything of value? Well I have five strange looking gold pieces I picked up when we were wandering around that cave beneath Helgen. I hope they won't be too mad about the price I'm giving them.' He thought as he unwrapped the old leather around the hilt of his sword and started to wrap the new leather around the hilt.
As he was finishing up he hear a loud 'SHIT!' ring out through the air and the slamming of wood against wood.
'That sounded like…..What has that idiot done now?!' Ysjarn thought as he picked up his sword and started sprinting towards the inn. He leaped over the steps and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open.
'Great, a deadbolt. Well that hasn't stopped me before and this isn't as sturdy.' Ysjarn thought as he backed up a little bit and brought his leg up and extended it with all of his force, kicking the door right above the handle and forcing the door open with a crash.
He couldn't see anything in the darkness of the room beyond what the door provided him, but he could hear things moving around in the darkness. He heard a floorboard creak next to him and he stabbed his sword at the noise, glancing something. A scream was heard and more noises of movement, all coming closer to him. He readied his sword and shield for a fight, and he had the advantage in the doorway.
All of a sudden a voice cried out "STOP!", and the sounds of footsteps faded and the room was flooded with blinding light as the curtains covering the windows were pulled away revealing a large group of people, as well as a bearded man on the ground holding his lower thigh, where his sword struck him, holding an assortment of items ranging from glass bottles to metal poles, all held as ready weapons. He noticed a patch of blood that looked recent, with some shattered glass near it.
They all stood there for a moment, just looking at each other trying to figure out what to do, when, out of the back, came a breton woman with blonde hair tied behind her head and light pale skin, and asked with a stern voice, "What are you doing here and what do you want?", in a blunt and brisk manner, "We'll defend ourselves if it comes to it. Are you with the other one? Are you bandits here to rob and kill us? Well? Speak up."
"Where is he?" was all that Ysjarn said as he sheathed his sword and slung his shield over his back.
The breton woman was taken back for a moment. "He….. He's this way. Follow me, stand down everyone. I don't think we have need to worry yet." as she led him to one of the side rooms on the left, the rest of the villagers went to the farther side of the inn and grouped together, keeping their makeshift weapons close. Lying there on the bed was Endrur with a bleeding head, and barely breathing.
"Here he is, now are you going to tell me why you're here?" the breton woman demanded of him.
Ysjarn let out a grunt in response as he went to work on tending to Endrur's wounds. He grabbed a bottle of mead that was on the table nearby and took small swig, after looking thoughtful for a second he swallowed it and poured a little bit on part of the wound and dabbed it up with a somewhat clean cloth, taking some of the rags next to the bed and going past the annoyed woman and finding a pot and filling it with water. "Are you going to answer me? And what are you doing?" asked the breton woman folding her arms across her slim build.
Her only response was silence as he put it on the wooden log hanging across the fire pit and started a fire going and dropping the rags in the pot. He went back to a where Endrur lay and started fishing around through his bag. 'I know it's around here somewhere, we didn't use all of the healing potions we got from Helgen.' Ysjarn thought while still ignoring the pesky woman who was still demanding to know who he was and what he was doing here.
"Are you ill in the head? Are you a mute? Can you even understand what I'm saying!?" the breton woman shouted at him.
"Zu'u dreh tinvaak, ahrk mindol rinik pruzah kogaan"* snapped Ysjarn.
"Wha…..What? What did you say?" the woman asked. With a look of confusion on her face with a bit of…..happiness in her eyes?
"What was that?", one of the other people in the inn asked overhearing what Ysjarn had said, "Delphine, do you know what he said?"
"No, Faendal. No I do not.", she responded with her face already under her gruff mask, "But I intend to find out why you're here." she started to walk away.
'Finally', Ysjarn thought , finding the potion, 'she left me alone for now. And I found that gods-be-damned potion.' as he uncorked it and gently poured some down Endrur's throat and let it start to do it's work.
'I need to go check if the cloth is sterilized yet' he went to the pot to find the water boiling, pulling the pot down he grabbed a spoon and went to the room. After fishing the rags out he looked at the wound caused by the bottle and saw that it had mostly healed. He wrapped Endrur's head with the rags to keep it clean.
"Are you going to use the rest of those?" asked the breton, what was her name? Delphy or something. She was gesturing towards the rest of the rags. "We need to use them on Embry, the red headed, bearded man you stabbed in the leg. He's fine by the way."
He handed her the rest of the rags and gestured her out and followed her and shut the door out on the way. Deciding to test something he had a suspicion on earlier he asked her " Fen hi nahkip mu fah aak?"* It was rough but passable.
"I...I honestly don't know what you're saying but I'm sure I've heard that language there before" , Delphine responded, "but you need to pay for some of that, you can either help out around here or help one of the other people here in the inn. If you do a good job you might get a meal."
'So she know's what it is and claims not to know what exactly it is and not know how to speak it. Interesting. How much else has changed?' Ysjarn thought. He went out into the main room and saw a nord couple about to leave with wood axes in their hands. Going over to them he motioned to his coin purse and to the axes.
"Do you want to cut wood for money?" asked the man, studying the massive build of the nord in front of him. Ysjarn nodded and took the proffered axe from the man. "You'll find a chopping block near the mill, go and cut as much wood as you can and we'll come by in a few hours to see how you're doing and pay you accordingly, as Delphine asked, alright?", the man asked.
Ysjarn grunted and walked out of the inn and across the river once again, to the mill. He found the block of wood near a table and two giant piles of unsplit wood. Heading of to the first pile he grabbed one of the circles of wood and began to get to work.
Endrur felt a throbbing in the back of his head. Groaning, he sat up and held his head in his hands, he felt some cloth on the upper part of his head, feeling around it went all the way around his head and was centered over the throbbing in his head.
'What happened? Where am I? Where'd Ysjarn go? And what in Oblivion is that awful taste?' Endrur thought as he was starting to taste some nasty concoction of flavors. Looking around he saw nothing to drink, and then the door opened, revealing a short breton woman with blonde hair, blue eyes and a stern look on her face.
"Thirsty?" she asked. Holding a wooden tankard. She walked in and offered the mug to him. "Your friend was here earlier, he made sure you were alright and tended to the wound caused by the bottle. Orgnar's sorry about that by the way."
She leaned up against the wall and continued speaking, "What are you even doing here in town anyways, I couldn't find anything out from your friend."
Groaning, Endrur responded with, "We were passing through on our way from Helgen. It was attacked by…..by a dragon". All of the thoughts of Helgen came rushing back and he felt sick, he started to shake.
"Whoa, take it easy, we saw it don't say anything else if you need something just ask, your friend is out working to get a bit of money and to pay for a few broken things. He'll be back soon, what's your name? I'm Delphine." the breton woman, now known as Delphine asked.
"Endrur", he responded. Sitting there lost in thought and trying to not think about what happend in Helgen to much.
"I'll leave you alone, then.", Delphine said as she left the room and closed the door behind her. When she left Endrur started to think about Helgen and how he had been captured near the border.
'I was going to Cyrodiil for a friend when they captured us. I knew we shouldn't have gone through Skyrim to get there'. He was taken with the rest of the prisoners to the town on carriages. He wasn't on the same carriage as his companion or the nord leader of the rebellion. He remembered how sick he felt when the first revolutionary was beheaded.
Shaking himself out of his thoughts he decided on figuring out what had happened since he had been knocked out. He ventured out of the room he was staying in and into the main room. As he did all conversation stopped as they all stared at him and watched him cautiously to see if he was going to do something.
Looking over he saw Delphine sweeping up some wood splinters near the now vacant doorway. The door was missing, but wasn't inside the inn. Going over to her, he asked "What happened to the door?"
"That, would be from your friend. He came shortly after we...attacked you" she explained awkwardly. She continued to sweep up the remaining splinters of wood outside and off the steps.
"It was getting old anyway and would've had to be replaced soon anyway. So don't worry about it" she said to him. As she was talking to him, two people walked past them and headed for a small bridge going across the river
"They're going to check on the work your friend has done. We'll give you a free meal this once regardless of his work but you still need to pay for the damages." she said.
They returned after ten minutes each holding as many pieces of wood they could hold, followed by a large third pile of wood with a pair of legs under them. Delphine and Endrur each had a look of disbelieving shock on their face at the amount of wood he was carrying. The other two went inside the inn with some difficulty and Endrur's companion stood by the doorway, they came back out after a few moments and helped take a bit of the wood that he was carrying and all three took a bit to get through the doorway without dropping to much wood.
"Well, Delphine. I'd say he's paid off the doorway and everything else, as well as that meal", said the female, as she handed him a large bag full of coins.
"That he has Gerdur. So, I now know your not up to anything in the town you're welcome here. I never did get your name, are you going to talk now?" Delphine asked the large nord.
"Sizaan Gein" Ysjarn responded with annoying Delphine and shocking Endrur.
"What was that?" Endrur asked. He was about to ask Ysjarn meant when he sent him a look that told him to shut up right now. Doing just that he decided he would ask his companion about it later without the chance of someone hearing.
Bringgin over two plates of bread, fish and some mead, Delphine spoke, "Well, Sizaan Gein, here's your meal and your friend's. If you want to keep using the room that'll be ten Septims." Ysjarn looked at the woman for a second before recognition ran across his face as he pulled out the bag of coins and pulled out ten and pushed them in Delphine's direction.
"It's your's till tomorrow evening, when you'll either have to pay again or get out." Delphine said as she walked away with an annoyed look on her face.
Without saying a word Ysjarn grabbed his plate and bottle of mead and walked to the room, Endrur followed him and closed the door as he entered.
"What was that about?", asked Endrur, "What was that you said back there? And why didn't you tell her your name and give her that other…. name instead?"
Ysjarn didn't respond and just continued to eat and chugged the rest of his mead when he finished and pulled a spare set of blankets out of the cupboard nearby and rolled them out on the ground and laid down on them.
"Fine, I give up. You're never going to talk much are you?" Endrur asked finishing his meal and going over to the bed he looked at the pillow which still had a bit of his blood on it. He turned it over and laid down on the bed, going to sleep.
And here ends the second chapter of my first story. Hope you liked it, if you did drop a review. Constructive criticism is welcome, flames are not and will be ignored and/or deleted.
Dragon translations:
I do speak, and think very well thank you.
Will you feed us for help?