The air grew thin as Nanashi climbed up the narrow path into the Jerall Mts. Large coniferous trees older than the elf himself dominated the scenery around him. He stopped to breath in the crisp air of winter. He knew too few actual winters. Having been born in the Summerset isles. For now he enjoyed this bright new experience.
The sun finally set far below the horizon, revealing the two moons Secunda and Masser. The air began to become more chilled, and Nanashi began regretting not choosing better clothing. Hours of searching and calling for the horse, the Altmer finally found his steed.
Further up the road was its corpse. Various parts of its body were gnawed away, and Nanashi feared it was the work of a Troll. He investigated the scene for any other relevance, but eventually decided to butcher what remaining meat he could, and leave. He found a small clearing off the turn of the road, and decided to make camp there. If a Troll was indeed in the area, he would have to be on guard for a night attack.
Nanashi set up a small fire and laid out a fur-lined sleeping roll. He opened his bag and began to eat a half roll of bread. He also pulled a bottle of wine, and began to wash down the dry meal. The fire took time to grow larger, but once it had the Altmer began to cook the meat over the fire.
The raw horse meat sizzled loudly as the fire began burning the exposed sides. The succulent smell of burning meat wafted throughout that corner of the mountain side, and off in the distance a predator took note of the scent.
Nanashi had his blade ready, knowingly drawing the Troll out of hiding. The beasts were insatiably ravenous all the time, and often they would drag their fallen prey to some dark crevice in the earth they called home. He had faced many Trolls in Cyrodil, but he had also read of the Trolls in Skyrim. Just as insatiable as a normal Troll, but the Trolls in Skyrim have some measure of intelligence. Sticking body parts of their prey on wooden spikes, dangerously intelligent.
When the Troll drew near the campsite, Nanashi had already made note of its presence. It wasn't the sound of movement that gave it away, no, it was quiet silent in its approach as matter of fact; no it was its scent.
A strong musk that had a faint woodland taste to it. Easy to miss if you're not searching for it. One could confuse it with the smell of a pine, or a maple. Now Nanashi could hear it. It was a stone's throw away behind him. The Altmer could practically hear its stomach. The Troll was waiting, as was Nanashi. Yet the Troll waited for a moment of utter complacency, or some better vantage point to best surprise its prey.
"Truly astounding" Nanashi said out loud.
Surprisingly the beast leapt out of its hiding spot in attack, however it was not behind as Nanashi thought, but from the tree branches above.
The Altmer turned to see nothing, and realized too late where his foe was. He had enough time to barely step back from his back heel to dodge the surprised assault from above.
The Troll landed hard, sending the ill footed Nanashi on his back.
Flames illuminated the frosty white fur of the terrible beast facing the Altmer. It was the most dangerous breed of Troll in Skyrim: the Frost Troll.
It rose to full stature standing over the six foot-eight Altmer by more than three feet. Its barreled chest shown three arrows lodged in its right breast. The same kind of arrows as the one that hit the Altmer no more than a few hours ago.
Nanashi saw the beast snarl, and raise its massive arm up to attack, and yet the seasoned warrior was still unfazed. He grasped his largest blade, the Akavirii Dai-Katana, and time slowed briefly as his years of countless training and instinct kicked in all at once.
He lunged one leg forward while twisting his body to pull the blade free with one hand. The arm nearly upon him was cleaved in two by one mighty slash.
The beast howled in agony and ran back into the woods, abandoning its lost limb. Nanashi sighed in relief. He wiped the blade clean off the forearm of the Troll. Staining the silvery white coat with more blood.
He put the large blade away, and studied the massive blood trail that led into the dark woods in the midst of the mountains. He picked up the bottle of wine and took a deep gulp before returning the cork. The arrows lodged in the beast's breast had revealed many clues about the corpse of his horse. Normally a Troll brings back what's left of its prey back to its lair, yet the horse remained. However, two Bandits that ran in fear stumbled upon the Troll mid-feeding, and was able to loose three arrows into the beast before something unfortunate happened to them.
The chances that the two young bandits were alive were astronomically low. To the Altmer's best reasoning anyway, and yet the intelligence to stick human heads on a stake gave a small chance that they might also take prisoners, and possibly torture said prisoners…
Regardless, Nanashi had already decided that the troll needed to die. So he refueled the fire with dead brush, and picked up his gear. It was time to go hunt a Troll.
Deep in some cavern Rodgier awoke. He awoke to the smell of rotting flesh and an overpowering stench of pine. He choked from the sheer disgust of the smell. His arms were bound tight, one of them was also broken. His feet as well were bound. He could barely roll over onto his back to inspect his surroundings.
A crude fire was erected on a ledge within the cavern. The light of the fire outlined the unmoving body of his companion Vaynlse off to his right.
"Hey, New Blood!" he hushed. There was no response. He struggled against his restraints as best as he could, but it proved to be futile. He rolled himself over to her body until he was practically on top of it.
"Hey, wake up!" He whispered urgently. Still no response, despite his physical and verbal nudges. Panting from the effort he rested his head on her waist, and felt a slight motion in her body. He silenced himself to concentrate on listening. Faintly he heard her breaths, she still lived thankfully.
With that he rolled back over to see if he could find anything that could help him free himself. So far even the floor was free of debris, he could only see what the light from the fire showed, and it appeared to be nothing but neatly kept floor. It was hard as stone, as the Nord had smashed his head against it a few times during his rolls.
He rested himself on his back and sat up as far as possible. He bent his knees up to rest his chin on top of his kneecaps. He positioned his feet to sit firmly on the ground. He felt immense strain on his shoulders, and from his broken arm as his hands were tied behind his back. He felt a joy of relief upon slowly sliding his arms underneath him. Once he finally accomplished this task he clumsily fell forward, smacking his forehead against the stone, again. He groaned in pain, and laid there in shame for quite some time. Silently regretting many life choices.
He could've been a forester, like his father, or enlisted in the Imperial legion. He could have even joined those Stormcloak fools in defiance to the Altmers. Regardless he became a bandit, and let himself and his companion become fodder for a Troll. Three arrows didn't even slow it down.
Still, there had to be a way out of this, and methodically he slid himself around the ground in search of some means to cut his bindings.
Nearly an hour he chased the Troll around the Jerall Mts. Astonished to see the blood trail quickly diminish by nearly every step. Nanashi drew his Katana and pursued doggedly after the wounded Troll. Through snow and tree brush he followed the bloody bits all the way to a tiny valley between two mountains. The trail had ended. He searched the ground for any obvious signs of a Troll's foot traffic.
"By Sithis…" He swore as he remembered how the beast ambushed him. He looked up and saw a trail of broken tree limbs and claw marks all through the upper canopy of the woods. He saw the destruction turned left, and he saw the small outcropping of a cavern.
He rushed to it at once, and saw it was but a small opening in the ground that was not but three and half-feet high. It would seem the Troll slid under, so Nanashi did as well. Once his body passed under, he found there was no more ground, but instead a steep drop. He felt his body free fall briefly before he smacked against hard stone. The thud of his body echoed all around him, as did his groans as he rose to his feet.
Only a tiny sliver of light entered the cavern. It was enough to see that he could stand at a slouch to move through the cavern, and that there was small opening in front of him. Nanashi held his free hand in front of him, started to cast Candlelight. The small entrance was quickly lit by the white ball of light that bounced around Nanashi. He entered the narrow passage that led down into darkness.
He could hear the sound water dripping in the distance, and the odor of trolls. The pungent scent of freshly killed prey hung just above the musk of the troll. Nanashi spotted many dead travelers and adventurers as he passed through. On the ground, and some gathered up in a pile. All of them were mutilated. Too many he noted before briefly examining them as he passed by, the Altmer noticed that all the bodies were no more than a few days old.
Rodgier had played dead as soon as he heard the Troll's return. Peering through his shut eyes he had seen it was missing an arm, yet the bleeding had completely stopped. Vaynlse still had not woken up, and Rodgier had begun to succumb to the very real reality that he was not going to live, and neither was she. That is until an echo faintly resounded the chamber. A thud, and then shortly after a groan.
The passages within the cavern were smaller, and seemed sleek to the touch. Moisture had built upon the surface, as the very walls themselves seemed to sweat. The stench of the troll had grown stronger as Nanashi's sandals clopped their way through an expanding room. The light from the spell revealed a large room with a raised cliff at the back side where the light of a large fire was seen.
Large stalagmite pillars lined the walls of the room as stalactites hung menacingly from above. Nanashi gripped the hilt of his Katana as a beastlike roar was heard from the cliff far in front of him. The one armed Frost Troll appeared on its ledge.
It began to hop up and down while giving off grunts of anger, and forewarning. A typical troll tactic of intimidation, or so the Altmer thought. Movements to his left and right caught his eye, and he soon found himself surrounded by darkish Trolls, Cave Trolls. Nanashi counted at least five, but the darkness hid their true numbers as they slowly crept out from behind the stalagmites.
"Tch. How bothersome." The Altmer muttered gripping his Katana's hilt even tighter before pulling it out with a flourish and pointing it at the Frost Troll.
"Has your intelligence grown so much that you are capable of hierarchy and organization?" He swiped the blade down to his side. "Well, who am I to fight nature." He said with a grin.
There were definitely more than five. Yet he couldn't pin down an exact number. A troll rushed him from behind, but the Altmer ducked under its blow and struck the trolls back before facing the rest of them that now joined the fray. Nanashi fled around the room, heading towards the stalagmites.
He weaved in-between the spaces, and sliced his way through any trolls that caught up to him. He noted that he was just giving superficial blows against their thick hides, and not actually killing any of them, but the confined space between the series of jutting rocks eliminated the advantage of their numbers. Allowing the seasoned warrior to formulate a strategy.
He could easily dispatch all of them if he used his Destruction Magick. He shook his head of the idea, and concentrated on the situation at hand. He still bobbed and weaved through the many jagged spikes, fending off any aggression, but there was a limit to his stamina. Eventually they would overpower him. Unlike the Frost Troll, these Trolls were not all that bright. Vicious, and bloodthirsty, but stupid.
Nanashi grinned as a plan came to mind. He headed back out towards open ground with a small horde of trolls rushing after. He ran towards the stalagmites on the other side of the room, and pulled out his Wakizashi. He then threw it swiftly at a large pillar. The blade sung as it soared through the air and embedded itself in the rock.
Nanashi laughed in triumph as he leapt mid-run. His feet touched the hilt where he stepped off to run up the pillar before jumping off twirling midair and into the horde below katana ready. He landed on the shoulders of one troll before lopping its head off with one swift blow, and then the Altmer leapt onto another troll, merely slicing at its face before jumping to another and stabbing it slightly. He pounced back and forth on the backs and shoulders of his foes, leaving behind only pain and annoyance for the simple band of trolls.
So close together, and having not the sufficient intelligence to gather their wits, the trolls began attacking each other as their frustration boiled over.
Nanashi leapt off towards his stuck blade. Glancing back to see the horde thinning itself out. His breaths were ragged as he had hit his limit long ago, but the fight wasn't over. He attempted to pull the small blade free, but found he had not the strength to do so he instead propped himself up with it, giving himself a small breather.
A blood curdling roar from the Frost Troll stopped the others. Most of them lay dead by their own hands on the ground, but three remained, bloodied, angry, and now coherent to who their true enemy is. The Altmer cut his break short, and stood to face the last of his foes.
He gripped the hilt of his blade with two hands, and postured himself accordingly. Thinking back to his teachings, and training he steeled himself for what was next. He closed his one eye in concentration, thinking of the humble ball of light floating above him.
"Seek nothing outside of yourself." He muttered the words of his teacher. "All things come from within." The ball of light began to grow, and change shape erratically. "The strength to carry on comes from within." He raised his left arm to grasp the ball of light, it struggled to be contained by his hand as he brought it down to the hilt and grasped his sword. "The wisdom to learn from your failures comes from within." Suddenly the blade of the weapon began to shine brightly as he spoke. "The integrity to right your wrongs comes from within. More importantly the conviction to follow through comes from within yourself!" He cried in one last charge.
The blade lit the room like a blazing sun, the Trolls recoiled in terror as the light quickly approached, blinding them as Nanashi moved in to strike. A troll tried to swat him away, but the Altmer stepped inside of the blow slashing sideways into its stomach while he moved past it to and used the movement from his last strike to deliver a downward slash against its back, and then slashing forward to end the troll.
"Such is the Way, and the Way is life!" He finished heroically while regaining his stance. One Troll fled for dear life as Nanashi leapt in the air sliced the head off its comrade.
The light died down as Nanashi turned to face the Frost Troll. It crashed down to the floor in front of him, accepting the challenge. The Altmer recognized the beast's obvious intelligence, and was more terrified that the Troll seemed to be studying him. He sheathed his katana to produce the Dai-Katana. It was longer, thicker, and after the last fight with the horde, it was probably sharper.
The two studied each other briefly. Neither moving. Nanashi relieved himself of tension, and relaxed his stance. The troll paced around the room, not once taking its black eyes off the Altmer. Nanashi mirrored the beast's movements with the tip of his blade pointing towards the troll.
The air was still in this final standoff, when finally the Troll rushed in for the attack. Nanashi ran forward to meet him. It swung with its remaining arm, but Nanashi parried the blow with a quick jab of the blade while moving forward to pierce the Troll's stomach with all of his might. The Troll had seem to anticipate the movement, because as Nanashi got close the Troll threw its head down, slamming into Nanashi's. The Troll had head-butted him into the ground. It picked the fallen Altmer up and sent him flying towards the wall where Nanashi impacted hard.
Nanashi fell to his knees, vomited blood onto the ground. He couldn't be sure, but something was broken inside, and caused internal bleeding. He gritted his teeth, and spit out the remaining fluids from his mouth and stood back up. He would not die here he resolved. With both hands he raised the hilt to his face, and pointed the long sinister blade at the beast while bending his knees. He shifted his feet to turn his body sideways, and began to build up tension in both arms by flexing his biceps. He prepared an all or nothing blow.
"Come beast." He beckoned. The Frost Troll seemed to understand that he was being taunted. It observed the blood dripping from its prey's mouth and ran forward with a snarl that revealed a maw of jagged teeth and fangs.
Nanashi breathed in and out softly, calming his beating heart. He carefully calculated the distance of the charging Troll. It quickly covered the distance between them and was nearly upon the Altmer.
Nanashi closed his eyes. In one singular fluid movement he stepped forward, shooting his right elbow down to bring the blade sideways, and releasing the built up tension in his left arm to swing the sword horizontally. Half-way through the slash the blade met the Troll's skin, and gave way like butter, for Nanashi had put his whole body into the force of the blade. The Dai-Katana sliced all the way through the Troll's mid-section in one clean strike.
The Troll's body fell apart as it was cut in two. Nanashi opened his eyes and looked down with the one. The Troll still lived…barely. It huffed intermittently before it stopped breathing all together.
Nanashi fell to one knee as more blood poured out of his mouth. He was gravely injured, he knew, but he had won. It took all of his strength to rise to his feet, and channel enough of Magicka to heal himself. The process took only but a few minutes.
"Hey! Hey you!" A voice called from above. Nanashi looked up to see a bound Nord with ruffled blonde hair calling to him. "Can you get up here and free us! My companion, Vaynlse needs help!" He pleaded.
"Humph. You're the one who hit me with that arrow." Nanashi responded. The Nord made an audible gulp. "That was a good shot." Nanashi praised as he rushed up to the ledge.
He freed the Nord and the Dark elf from their bounds. Yet the Dunmer was still unconscious. Nanashi examined her, and noticed a bad head wound at the back of her cranium. He began healing, and the wound disappeared shortly after.
"She may not wake up for a few hours, but she should make it." Nanashi informed the young Nord.
"You're not gonna kill us?" He asked. The Altmer shook his head. "Take the girl, and follow me back to my camp. You may rest there." Nanashi said as he hopped down to retrieve his Wakizashi.
"I'm…they call me Rodgier of Kynsgrove." Rodgier introduced. The Altmer didn't look back as he made his way for the exit. "You mean the fool who shot me with an arrow." Nanashi replied with irritation. "Just get the girl and move." He ordered. Rodgier did at once and followed the Altmer out of the cave.