"Come on, boy. It's not far now I'm sure" Olbert said.
Behind him, Meeko gave a loud bark and then ran a circle around him. Then the dog ran ahead, and turned to look back, before giving a small bark, as if telling Olbert to hurry.
Olbert chuckled "Alright, boy, I'm coming."
As they crested the next hill, Olbert let out a sigh of relief. Below him he could see several rooftops. They had finally found a proper town. Olbert could also see people milling about, and a few hold guards were patrolling the streets.
"Those uniforms…looks like we found Morthal" Olbert muttered. "Hopefully they have a shop or a smith…"
Meeko barked at him, and Olbert turned to look at the dog.
"No, I haven't been here before. Noone from Morthal has ever ordered any of my goods. Now, let's go see what's going on in there."
As they entered the town, they were stopped by one of the guards.
"Hold there" the guard said "I've never seen you around here before. What bring you to Morthal?"
"Just passing through, looking to do a little trading" Olbert said. "I'm a capable blacksmith, and Im looking to work in exchange for a bed and some supplies."
The guard laughed "I'm afraid you're out of luck there friend. Nothing here but a few houses, and the Jarl's Hall of course. If you need a bed there's an inn down that way" the guard pointed "But there's no smith around here."
Olbert sighed. He had a mere 3 Septims in his pocket, not nearly enough to rent a room for a night.
"Thanks friend, but my pockets are feeling a little light. Could you by chance point me toward the nearest town that would have a blacksmith?"
The guard thought for a moment. "That would be Dawnstar I believe. Just take the road that," the guard pointed again "And follow the signs."
"Much appreciated, friend. I'll be off now."
Olbert turned and started walking down the road
"Wait!" The guard called out "Dawnstar is at least a day's walk away! The sun will be going down soon; you should stay in Morthal at least for the night!"
Olbert just laughed "where would I sleep? The ground outside the inn? I'd rather just start walking now, maybe I'll find a campsite I can sleep at."
With that Olbert resumed walking, Meeko following closely behind him, tail wagging.
After walking for almost an hour the sun had gone down. Olbert was whishing he had a torch when Meeko suddenly stopped and sniffed the air.
"What is it, boy? What's wrong?" Olbert asked.
Meeko didn't react; instead he hunkered down and growled, while looking off to the side of the road. Olbert squinted and tried to see what was in the trees in the dim light. Suddenly a glob of green slime came flying out of the tree, and it landed on Olberts neck with a loud thwap! It began to sting, and Olbert yelled and tried to scrape the venom off his neck.
The frostbite spider that had launched the attack came quickly scurrying out from the trees, and raced at Olbert. Olbert desperately tried to draw his dagger with one hand while still wiping the venom off with other. The spider drew close, when Meeko jumped from behind Olbert and hurled himself into the spider.
"Meeko, no!" Olbert yelled.
Olbert finally managed to get his dagger free, and he turned to face the spider. However, by the time he had readied himself fully the spider was dead, and Meeko was standing over the corpse, looking rather pleased with himself.
Olbert laughed "Good dog!"
Meeko barked in agreement, and walked back to Olbert, tail wagging, and the two of them began to walk again.
Another hour passed, when Olbert started to hear voices, and he could a light from a campfire. The source of all of this turned out to be a mining camp, Stonehill Mine according to a sign hanging over the mine entrance. A few of the workers were sitting around the fire, preparing dinner and getting ready to sleep.
Olbert walked over, and struck up a conversation with one of the workers. The worker told him that, while the mine was not looking for any more workers, there was an extra tent and bedroll Olbert was welcome to use if he liked. The man also offered Olbert some of the bread and stew the workers had been preparing.
After the meal was done, Olbert and the miners sat around the fire and talked. Olbert told them about his caravan, the bandit raid, and his subsequent adventures. The miners were sympathetic, and some of them also had stories about being harried by bandits. Eventually the conversation lulled, and one by one everyone went to their tent to sleep. Olbert crawled into the vacant one, laid down on the straw mat, and was asleep in a few minutes.
Olbert woke up only a few hours later, the sun was getting ready to rise, but it hadn't yet made it over the distant mountain peaks. All of the miners were still asleep when Olbert crawled out of the tent. Meeko stirred and woke soon after, he seemed eager to be off. Olbert ate his last remaining apple, and grabbed another one from the produce barrel the miners had. Then he and Meeko headed back toward the road, and resumed the walk to Dawnstar.
The rest of the journey continued rather uneventfully, and Olbert and Meeko walked into Dawnstar at around noon. As they walked through the town, Olbert overheard an argument between what looked to be a few Imperial veterans and the Jarl of the hold. Olbert paid them no attention, as he had found just what he was looking for: a blacksmith.
The smith was called Rustleif, and he offered to give Olbert some iron ingots in exchange for some help around the forge. Olbert helped Rustleif craft a few sets of leather armor, and then used his payment to craft himself a full set of sturdy iron armor, an axe, and a shield. Olbert grinned at his handiwork. Granted, it wasn't fine Nordic Steel, but it could block swords and arrows far better than his current shirt and trousers. Olbert slid the armor on, picked up his new weapon, and headed off to the inn for some lunch.
After exiting the inn, Olbert walked up to one of the Dawnstar guards.
"What is it?" the guard asked. "Trouble?"
"No, friend. I just need directions. I need to get to Whiterun, and since Dawnstar doesn't seem to have a carriage I guess I'll have to walk."
"Whiterun eh?" The guard thought for a second "Well Whiterun is a pretty long walk if you stick to the main roads, it'd be a day and a half, if not more."
Olbert sighed. "is there no other way? A path through the mountains of some kind?"
The guard paused again, than answered "Well, there is. However I would highly suggest you don't take it. Last I heard it was swarming with wolves, and some people have made reports of a frost troll in the area,"
Olbert thought about it. Wolves he could handle, he had killed quite a few in his travels across Skyrim, but a frost troll would pose a real threat. One of those could tear a man's arms off without even trying.
"How much time would this passage save me?"
"If you moved quickly you could probably make it to Whiterun before the sun went down, if you survived the trip of course" the guard said.
"That decides it then, which way is this path?"
"It's the first left when you walk down that road, "The guard said while pointing, "but don't come crying to me if a bear chews your leg off."
Olbert thanked the guard and headed off down the path. He had to concede that it looked fairly ominous; a narrow footpath with steep cliffs on both sides would be very difficult to fight in.
"Let's hope the people were wrong about the frost troll, eh Meeko?"
Meeko barked in agreement, and then let out a low whine. He didn't like the path any more than Olbert did.
"Come on, boy. The sooner we get through here the better."
With some trepidation, Olbert and Meeko began walking down the path. The grey cliff walls rose ominously on both sides of them, but the continued on. Eventually the path widened, and gaps appeared in the cliff walls. Olbert sighed with relief, but it was cut short by a growl from behind him.
Olbert whirled around, his axe at the ready. Three wolves were creeping up the path behind them, and they looked hungry.
One wolf broke away from the pack and charged at Olbert, snarling. Before he had a chance to react, Meeko jumped into the wolf, and the two of them landed on the ground and began fighting. The two other wolves took this opportunity to charge Olbert. The first one leapt, and Olbert ducked while raising his shield. The leaping wolf hit the shield with a yelp, bounced off, and hit the ground on its back. The second wolf ran for Olbert's leg. He kicked, and his foot caught it right under the jaw. The wolf yelped, and stopped for a second, stunned. Olbert swung his axe down, and crushed the front of the wolf's head. It crumpled, dead before it even had a chance to make a noise.
The first wolf was now back up, and snarling at Olbert. He turned to face it. It rushed in to attack, and Olbert swung his shield into its face. The wolf was knocked back, and Olbert took the chance and buried his axe in the wolf's side. The wolf howled once, and fell over dead.
Olbert turned again to aid Meeko, and he turned just in time to see Meeko tear the throat of the last wolf. The wolf fell over with a gargle, and twitched once. Meeko turned to Olbert and barked rather happily, blood still dripping from his jaws.
Olbert gave a sigh of relief, and sheathed his axe. He then went to each wolf and crudely skinned them, before rolling the pelts up together and tying them to his back. He then looked over at Meeko and whistled. Meeko barked again and began to follow as Olbert made his way down the path.
The two of them had barely any time to catch their breath before they heard shouting, and the sounds of combat, coming from further down the path. Olbert unsheathed his axe and raced toward the noise, with Meeko following at his heels. As they turned past a large boulder, they were greeted with the sight of a bandit fighting with two black robed mages. Before Olbert had time to say anything, the bandit sunk his sword into the chest of one of the mages. As he turned to face the other mage, a blast of lightning caught him in the chest, and he flew backwards and hit the rocks with a sickening crunch.
The surviving mage turned to face Olbert, and grinned. Electricity crackled around his fingertips.
"That….doesn't look friendly" Olbert muttered, just as a bolt of lightning flew over his head.
Olbert ducked down low and raised his shield, just as another bolt smacked into it. The force of it made him stumble, but he didn't fall. He took a step toward the mage, and the mage launched another bolt into the shield.
"I'll get you eventually" the mage yelled, as he charged up another attack, "I am a master of the arcane!"
"You're a master at talking big" Olbert said back "But so far you haven't impressed me."
The mage laughed. "Well then you'll have to tell me what you think of this, if you survive of course." More lightning crackled around the mage's hand, and Olbert braced himself for another blast, when the mage started yelling.
"Get off! Get off of me you stupid dog!"
Meeko had gotten behind the mage, and was tugging at the hem of his robes. The mage stumbled, and his shock spell went wild, missing Olbert and hitting the top of the nearby cliff. Olbert took this opportunity to charge the mage, and he caught the made in the chest with his sheld. The mage cried out as he was flung a good distance, and he landed hard on his back.
Instantly, Meeko was on the mage again, biting and snarling. The mage screamed and thrashed for a few seconds before slowly stopping. Blood pooled in the snow around his head, and he lay still. Olbert walked over and almost gagged.
"Meeko really did a number on you, kid," he muttered. Then he turned and patted Meeko on the head "Good dog."
Olbert began searching the corpses of the two mages and the lone bandit. He found a decent amount of gold, which he pocketed. He also noticed one of the mages' robes was enchanted, and he took the robe to inspect it later. Enchanting had always been an interest of Olbert's. He was terrible at it, but he still liked to try it out on occasion.
After getting what little he could from the corpses, Olbert started walking again, continuing on his mission to Whiterun. Meeko followed at his heels, he looked subdued and tired.
"We're almost there, boy. We'll be able to relax soon."
Meeko chuffed and wagged his tail a little. Olbert patted his head. The two of them continued down the path for quite a while, and the sun was starting to get low in the sky, when the rocks around them opened up and the plains of Whiterun came into view.
Olbert whistled as he gazed out over the sprawling plains. Rolling hills of green, as far as the eye could see sprawled out in front of him. Here and there deer and elk capered about, drinking from streams or eating the grass. Even Meeko seemed impressed by the view.
"That is…incredible." Olbert said. "I keep forgetting how beautiful this land can be."
Not far below them, Olbert could see what looked to be another mine. However this one didn't look nearly as friendly as the Stonehills mine. The perimeter of the mine had been surrounded by thick wooden logs whose tops had been sharpened into points. Inside the walls Olbert could see three people milling about, and they all carried weapons.
"Something tells me those guys aren't miners. Let's try and steer clear of them, shall we boy?"
Meeko and Olbert slowly made their way down the hill, trying to stay quiet and unseen by the bandits the camp. Just as Olbert though they were going to make it down to the wall, one of the bandits looked over and locked eyes with him. A grin crept across the bandit's face, and Olbert cursed.
"Well well, Looks like we've got ourselves a hero!" The bandit shouted as he drew a sword.
The bandits quickly all drew weapons, and began running toward the entryway for the camp. Olbert unsheathed his axe and ran for the same place. He got there first, and as the first bandit ran out of the open gate, Olbert hit him in the stomach with his shield, and then swung his axe upwards into the bandit's skull. He flew a short distance, before landing in a heap.
The next bandit ran out of the gate, and was met by Meeko. The dog leapt into the man, knocking him over. With a growl, Meeko closed his jaws over the man's throat and tore it out. The man gargled and thrashed for a few seconds before falling still.
"Right, one left." Olbert muttered "Now where's she gotten-"
His sentence was cut short by an arrow smashing into the dirt by his feet. Olbert looked up just in time to see the last bandit knock another arrow onto her bow. Olbert raised his shield, and the arrow hit it with a thwack and sunk in. Olbert lowered his shield and raced at the bandit. She began backing up as fast as possible, while readying yet another arrow. She let it fly before Olbert had a chance to react and it his chestplate and bounced off. Before she could knock a third arrow, Olbert grabbed her shoulder, spun her around, and buried his axe into the back of her skull. She fell forward, and landed in a pile in the grass.
Olbert sat in the grass next to the corpse and caught his breath.
"A pity," he said. "She was a rather pretty, young girl."
After composing himself, Olbert began looking over the corpses for anything valuable. He found some gold on the female bandit, as well as a ring of silver and amethyst. He pondered this, wondering if it had been a gift, or if she had just kept it from one her last raids. Eventually he put it in his pocket, it wouldn't do a dead girl any good, and he needed the coin it would fetch.
After examining the dead, Olbert headed up into the actual camp. He saw that the doors to the mine were closed, and light was spilling from the window. There were probably more bandits inside, but he didn't feel like checking.
Around the perimeter of the camp he found a couple of chests, which contained some gold, a few bits of jewelry, and some potions. He took all that he could carry, and then turned and left the camp.
Off in the distance they city of Whiterun loomed. Olbert adjusted his helmet and started walking.
"Come on, Meeko. Let's try and get to the city before night falls completely."
