Power

Hot breath on her neck woke Sabrina with a start. The ghostly wolf's face greeted her as she opened her eyes, and she leapt up in shock. Alek'sir's face lit up as a giant grin spread across his face. "Did my friend here scare ya a bit lass?" His thick accent brought yet another question to her mind. It wasn't exactly normal for someone from Hammerfell. It sounded more like someone from Nordic villages far beyond the edge of Skyrim.

"I have two questions," her thoughts raced to select only two from the myriad that coursed through her brain. Finally choosing two, she continued speaking. "One, how did you tame that ghost wolf of yours? He's so well trained, and the whole ghost thing is awesome. My other question is, who are you?"

His deep voice rumbled, "I take it you haven't been around magic much. He isn't a ghost dearie, he's a part of me. He's called a familiar. A small part of my soul has been let loose onto this world, and it's capable of many things. I can feel him and I can see what he can see. He can defend me and he hunts rather well. As to who I am, well that's quite a bit to say in one sitting. Let's just go with, I'm an adventurer with a very complicated past. Perhaps I will tell you more in our travels, but for now, I'm an adventurer, a mage, and a friend. I've been all across Tamriel, and I've seen everything from undead draugr to ancient vampires. Something is changing in this world though. I can sense a power in the air."

Sabrina's mind whirled with the thought of releasing a part of her own soul, "Can you teach me how to use magic?"

His eyes widened, and then he shrugged. "I suppose. But it won't be easy. Also, we will need to find a spell tome."

"Oh you mean like this?" Sabrina pulled the blue book from her satchel, and watched as Alek'sir's jaw dropped.

"Where did you get this? It's a tome of telekinesis. These are very hard to come by." His tone was incredulous.

"Oh, I found it in the ruins of my house. It didn't burn when everything around it had, so I figured it might be important." Sabrina fingered the spine of the book, feeling the power as her fingers passed over the soft leather of the book's cover. "So, is there some ritual that I have to do to use this?"

Alek'sir's milky white eyes looked her up and down as though pondering something, and then he burst out laughing. "Yes, there is." He then, in very serious tones, told her what she must do. Sabrina nodded, trying to remember everything he said. As soon as he was finished explaining, she scrambled off into the woods to find the items required for the ritual while he started to cook breakfast.

Returning with her supplies, she began to perform the ritual. Alek'sir sat down against a tree with a thud and watched as she began her sacred task. First, she put on the grass skirt which was required, as it made her connection with nature stronger. She then deliberately took a bite from an apple, then thrust it into the air with her outstretched arm. Twirling in a circle, she then bent low, touching the apple to the ground in eight spots around her, once for each of the gods. Once she had done this, she placed the apple on the ground and began bowing to it from each spot she had touched it for the gods. Upon completion, she then shot up into the air, landing in a squatted chicken pose. She struggled to keep her balance as she chicken danced her way in a circle around it, her deep purple eyes never straying from the apple. Finally, to complete the ritual, she had to sit entirely balanced on the apple while hand squeezing two grapes, one in each hand. This proved to be quite the challenge, and she found herself toppling from the apple over and over. It really didn't help that Alek'sir was laughing at her. Ok, laughing may have been an understatement. Alek'sir was rolling back and forth, holding his sides and wheezing, his dozens of long black braids flopping loudly as he swayed. Finally, she stopped trying and just stared at him.

"I'm… I'm… keeheehee… I'm sorry. Oh, that was great! Oh, hahahahaha, no, no, there isn't… there isn't a ritual. I just wanted to see you do that! Ha!" Alek'sir's eyes were watering as he grinned a big toothy smile.

Try as she might, Sabrina couldn't stay mad at him. A grin worked it's way across her face, then she laughed, her voice bubbling across the forest. When they both had calmed down, Alek'sir pulled her down next to him and handed her the tome. She looked into his eyes, and noticed that the whiteness of his eyes was not due to blindness, which he obviously could not have. It was in fact a magical swirling storm of white in each eye. "Why are your eyes white?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Oh, that's just the effect of a ring I'm wearing." he pulled off his gauntlet and revealed a large ebony hand which bore seven or eight rings ranging from gold to copper, each glowing slightly with various colors of the rainbow. "It makes me able to see things far away as though they were right in front of me, and it also makes my eyes see as though it was always a well lit day. I can see as though it were high noon on the middle of the night. But come now, let's get this tome used."

She eagerly took the book from his still gloved hand. Opening it up gingerly, her eyes widened as the book floated up a fingers breadth away from her hands, intense blue streaks swirling out from its pages, encircling her as her mind was flooded with the knowledge of the telekinesis spell. As soon as the magic stopped flowing from the book, she felt exhausted, and the book was just gone.

Alek'sir jumped up, and directed her to try and levitate one of the sausages out of the pan. Sabrina concentrated hard, trying to feel the sausage and lift it up, but apparently she was thinking too hard, and the sausage shot straight up into the air, way up by the tips of the trees, and then exploded, raining sausage on the entire camp.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that one was burnt anyway. Try to relax, and just let the sausage float, like this." Alek'sir lifted his fingers and the meat floated up into the air. He then pulled it close and snatched it out of the air before popping it into his mouth and attempting to grin with a full mouth.

Sabrina tried again, and this time the sausage floated up, wobbled, and then dropped back into the pan with a sizzling plop. Her face lit up, and she tried a couple more times to get it to stay longer, but soon Alek'sir had packed up everything, and they were eating sausages while walking towards Helgen. She couldn't wait to get there and see the shops.

Trips to Helgen had always been the highlight of her month. She would admire the waraxes and the armor at the blacksmith's shop, and wish she could buy herself fancier clothes. At least she could get some jazbay grape mead. She couldn't wait to get there, and pressed on as quickly as she could get her companion to move, which was actually quite fast, considering how old he must be.

Alek'sir wasn't old per say, but he had a certain feeling about him, like he had seen many things, both good and bad. He had a wisdom about him too, like he knew many more things than he let on. His olive green orcish armor had dents and scratches from the many fights he had been in, his imperial sword hung comfortably at his hip, and his remarkably small fur pack hugged his back. This was a man who had seen many battles, and had come forth victorious. She had to hear his stories, but that would have to wait until she could pry them out over a campfire. For now, she pressed on eagerly.