Rorikstead
"ERIIK!" The man shouted as he threw a bucket of dirty dishwater after the two boys as they ran out of the Frosfruit Inn, in laughter.
"Ahhh, the smell!" I laughed, holding my nose as I ran.
"Did you see old man Jouane?! He puked all over the table!" Erik laughed as we jumped a fence into the farm, opposite the Inn.
"Yuuck!" I laughed as we ran across the small field of potatoes and cabbages.
"Your dad was sooo pissed! His face was redder than my mom's after she leaves the sleeping chamber with my dad!" I laughed as I hid around the corner of a farmhouse.
"Hahaha! Yeah!" Erik laughed, as he crouched down to hide beside me.
Other than Erik there were no kids my age in Rorikstead. And so we had become friends by default. Erik had freckles, copper red hair and blue eyes. And was, according to my mother, a bad influence on me since he was a bit too generic for his own good, and a bit of a troublemaker. He lived with his father, Mralki, in the Frostfruit Inn, and his mother had died birthing him, leaving Erik to her husband. But he was my only and best friend, and my childhood would have been quite dull if not for him.
Eriks father, Mralki, owned the only Inn in Rorikstead, the Frostfruit Inn. Erik and I had hid a dozen eggs on top of one of the large wooden beams that ran along the ceiling. And when, two months later, Mralki had decided to dust of the old beams the ¨fruits of our prank¨ had finally paid off, as they had all dropped to the floor and cracked open, filling the whole Inn with the stench of rotten eggs and death.
"Hey?… Don't you think he'll make you clean up?" I asked Erik as we had stopped our giggling.
"That's why we need to hide." He said with a large smile.
"He can't leave ¨that¨ there for the customers" Erik smirked.
"That's true." I agreed.
"But I'm not going back there for a long time." I said, making a face.
"He's not going to calm down until he spanks the both of us." I continued, slightly nervous.
"Let's go hunting with your brother, then." Erik said, realizing the truth of it.
"Your dad can tell my dad we went away for a day or two." Erik said giving me a pleading look.
"My dad's already out hunting with my brother. It's just me and mom home. Besides, he always says I'm still too young to go hunting with them." I said, lowering myself down untill only my head was leaning against the wall.
I lived at a farm, with my father, mother and older brother, in Rorikstead. A small farming town in the Whiterun Hold, one day west of Whiterun, the capital of one of the many holds of Skrim. Rorikstead was known land wide for having the best soil in all of Skyrim, and unlike any other settlement we managed to grow vegetables, berries and different types of grain most time of the year, except for winter. When harvesting season came we would pack and move the harvest by horse-wagon to Whiterun. Jarl Balgruuf, the Jarl of Whiterun, always bought most of our harvest, and whatever he left we would sell in the city's marketplace.
The town consisted of the Inn and two farms, one bigger than the other, and at the north end of the town was a manor where Rorik, with his wife, lived. Rorik claims he founded the town just after the Great War ended, 15 years ago. But in truth Rorikstead had existed since the First Era, over 4000 years ago, but had then been known as ¨Rorik's Steading¨. So Rorik had most likely seen the likeness in their names and simply renamed the town after himself.
My father, and Erik's, had served under Rorik in the Great War, and Rorik had therefore sold our fathers a piece of land each for a very generous price. My family's was however the smallest farm in Rorikstead and so we doubled as hunters, as well as owned the town's only pair of cows which provided milk to the town.
The surrounding lands to the east consisted of vast plains of yellow-brown tundra all the way past Whiterun, with a hill in between Whiterun and Rorikstead, making it impossible for the city and town to be seen from one another.
To the south and west were huge highlands and hills, flowing like huge waves, and peaks, over the lands. And far past those highlands and hilltops was the Reach, another hold of Skyrim, with the ¨city of stone¨ Markarth as its capital.
To the north the horizon was covered by a wide mountain, blocking the view of the Sea of Ghosts, stretching as far as one could see to the west. If one climbed the nearby hill, just beside Rorikstead, to where a shrine of Akatosh, the chief deity of the Divines, had been raised, in ages past, one could see the distant city of Solitude, the capital of both Haafingar Hold and all of Skyrim, resting on a cliff, beneath a mountain, arching over the Karth River which flowed out into the Sea of Ghosts.
The sun had almost gone down over the horizon, coloring the sky scarlet red, when I rose from our hiding place.
"I must go home. Mom is probably waiting with supper already." I said as I looked down at Erik, with my hands on my hips.
"Yeah,…" Erik said as he pulled himself up.
"I'm probably going to sneak into our store shed and sleep there tonight. Dad's probably waiting for me with his broom stick, sooo…" He said with a shamed look as I started to walk off.
"Hey!" Erik shouted after me.
"See you again tomorrow?!" He asked in a shout.
"Yeah! But you're coming to my place! Like I said! I'm not going to the Inn in a long time!" I shouted back with a smile.