"You know, for a ranger who is apparently used to sleeping in the wilds and avoiding random attacks by wolves and bears, you sure do snore obnoxiously loud." Aria complained as she trekked through the streets of Whiterun with the minor headache lack of sound sleep can cause.
Bishop rolled his eyes, "Oh, I'm sorry Princess, did my snoring keep you awake last night? It would have been a lot quieter had I taken the bed, but it's okay your highness, I'm glad you didn't wake up with a back ache."
"You chose to take the floor."
"Because it was the chivalrous thing to do."
"Chivalry!? You made me share a room with you after only knowing you for less than a day and told me I needed a bath, and you want to talk about chivalry!?"
"The bath comment was a slight to your instable muscles sweetness, not your hygiene. Those hills would have been killer for a person not used to climbing them. Your legs must have hurt like hell."
Aria stopped short and stared at him with an open mouth, "I…"
Bishop raised his eyebrows at her tauntingly.
She narrowed her eyes for a moment before stomping past him towards the massive staircase leading to Dragon's Reach. Bishop followed close behind with a bemused smirk. When they reached the gate to the Jarl's palace, he placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Look, I think I'm going to wait outside…Jarls and politics aren't really my thing."
"Afraid the steward will recognize you from a bounty poster, ranger?" Aria teased.
Bishop pursed his lips and glared at her for a moment, "I'll be out here if you need me."
"Suit yourself." She shrugged before the guard opened the gate.
Nearly an hour later, Aria emerged from the palace annoyed and rather flustered, her rugged companion nowhere to be found.
"I'll be here if you need me, my ass…" she mumbled under her breath, storming down the steps towards the rest of the city "Fool is probably down at the pub drinking away the afternoon and our travel funds."
She stopped short as Bishop finally came into view. The ranger was climbing the rocks just above the shrine of Talos with a group of the village children carrying suspicious looking buckets.
"…The Imperial machine enforces the will of the Thalmor against its own people! So, rise up! Rise up children of the Empire! Rise up Stormcloaks! Embrace the word of mighty Talos! He who is both man and divine!..." a priest raved just below them, "…For we are the children of man, and we shall inherit both heavens and Earth. And we, not the elves and their toddies, will RULE SKYRIM! FOREVER! Talos the mighty! Talos the…"
Bishop glanced over his shoulder at a Redguard girl behind him and smirked. With a nod, they released the contents of their pails upon the head of the priest before scrambling down the rocks giggling like the insufferable troublemakers they were. The priest stopped his raving short and glared in the direction of the ranger.
"Guards!" He called, "Arrest this imbecilic for obstructing the word of the divine!"
A guard sauntered over and shrugged his shoulders, "I am sorry Heimskr, but we cannot arrest a man for harassing a priest when you are no longer technically a priest. The Empire has outlawed Talos worship…"
"No longer a priest!? This is what I was saying good people of Whiterun! The Thalmor have infiltrated even your local government! Today it's your religion, tomorrow it's your children! And I for one, will not stand…"
Bishop rolled his eyes and slipped a septim to the child before finding Aria in the crowd that had gathered at the base of the steps to the palace.
"What the hell was that about!?" She demanded, "How old are you!?"
Bishop smirked and shrugged, "Braith says that lunatic has been raving outside the palace for weeks now. I stood here for nearly an hour listening to him and even I knew it was time someone shut him up."
"I don't think you shut him up, and furthermore, who the hell is Braith!?"
Bishop chuckled mildly and pushed his way through the crowd, winking at the child as she ran off. "Jealous are we, Princess?"
"Just answer the question, I am in no mood for your horse-shite."
Bishop's smirk became even more cheeky, "Braith, for your information, was the little girl. She was harassing some kid named Lars, and in order to break it up I asked her about the lunatic. She told me he's been preaching that end of times, apocalyptic nonsense since the civil war started and we decided it was about time he shut the hell up."
"You are such a bad influence."
"Thank you. Now, judging by the fact that the stick up your ass seems to be in deeper than normal, I'm going to assume that things did not go well with the Jarl. Let me guess, he wants you admitted for some kind of testing at the shrine of Kynareth downtown."
Aria pursed her lips and bit back a snarky comment, "On the contrary ranger."
Bishop stopped short just outside the home for sale next to The War Maiden, "So he did believe you."
"Yes."
"So why the hell are you in such a pissy mood? You told the Jarl about the dragon attack and now we can be well on our way to The Rift to get my wolf back."
"Not quite…"
"What do you mean 'not quite'…" Bishop snarled.
"We have a bit of a…side quest."
"What. Kind. Of. Side quest."
"The Jarl wants me to find something called a Dragon Stone. Apparently, this ancient artifact might be able to explain where the dragons are coming from as well as how to defend against them. Its last known location was some kind of ancient crypt called Bleak Falls Barrow."
"No way!" Bishop shook his head furiously, "I don't care if Tiber Septim himself asked us to go tracking down this stone, we aren't going. It will take too long, and my wolf will be long dead by the time we get out of there…IF we get out of there…only greedy fools looking for treasure enter those crypts and ninety percent of the time they never leave the damn place. They are boobytrapped, full of frostbite spiders, draugher and all sorts of other unpleasant things I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole."
Aria rolled her eyes, "Scared of some giant spiders are we…now who's the princess…"
Bishop growled at her.
"Look, the Jarl asked me specifically to take care of it. I am the only person in Skyrim who has come face-to-face with a dragon and lived, therefore I am probably the only person to get out of Bleak Falls Barrow alive. He doesn't have time to mess about and send several platoons of men in looking for this thing. The hold is in danger and all of Skyrim could be too. As for your wolf's life being at risk…if he's as stubborn as you are, I doubt they have killed him off yet. The fools probably think they can turn him into their own personal attack dog. Besides, favors for the Jarl have perks. Maybe he can secure a few horses for our trip to The Rift."
Bishop huffed, "Fine. But one pitstop only. I didn't sign up to be your sell-sword, princess."
Aria rolled her eyes and headed toward the smaller mountains to the south of the city.
Needless to say, it was another long and difficult day. The terrain of Skyrim was not well known for its ease of travel, and was once again rough on the bodies and minds of two well-traveled life-long residents. Thankfully Aria's natural clumsiness was under better control today, and there was only one time in which she almost fell down the side of the mountain. Bishop continued to be unimpressed by her lack of balance, and even more so of her tendency to nearly wind up rolling down the same hill she just climbed. It was a tense and strenuous journey, and it took the better part of the morning.
By the time they reached the Barrow, it was already mid-day and Bishop was once more unamused.
"Let's get this over and done with. The sooner we get in and out of this crypt, the better chance we have of making it down the mountain by nightfall and back to the city by midnight."
"Gee, I wonder if someone is eager to get out of here."
"Look Princess, any native to Skyrim knows that Barrows and Redoubts are chuck full of treasure, yet so many are untouched even to this day. There is a reason for that. The way I see it, there are only two types of people who chance these places: fools, and the suicidal. You want to die and have no one ever know where you went, these are the places to be."
Aria crossed her arms and stuck out her hip, "that's very reassuring…in fact, I'd say…"
She was cut off by the sound of an arrow whizzing past her ear and planting in a snow bank just to her right. She pursed her lips and dropped to a crouch at the same time as Bishop.
"Bandits." He whispered under his breath, "Shit."
Another arrow whizzed past Bishop's shoulder, clipping his pauldron and burying itself in the pristine canvas beside him.
"I knew this 'side quest' of yours was a bad idea. We are sitting ducks. They have the high ground, and everything around us is blanketed in white. There is nowhere to hide."
Another arrow planted in the snow a foot from Aria's shin. She snarled and whipped the bow off her back, pulling an arrow taught and judging her shot on the archer atop the ruin before them.
"You wanted to make this quick and take the trip in broad daylight. I suggest you start living with the consequences of that choice."
She released the arrow and it split the air with frightening force, planting itself swiftly and unexpectedly in the left eye socket of the offending archer. Even with a distance of 100 yards between herself and the bandit, she could clearly see the blood spatter on the snowbank below him before he tumbled head first over the ledge, dead. Bishop's face contorted in surprise before another offending arrow planted in his gauntlet. He snarled and broke the arrow off at the base of the tip before whipping his own bow from his back.
Aria had already strung and released another arrow of her own, watching as it once more split the air with frightening speed, headed for the second offending archer standing atop the ruin. Her arrow missed, ricocheting off the corner of a stone pillar the archer ducked behind at the last moment, and bouncing non-threateningly to a halt at his feet. The bandit poked his head around the corner and strung another arrow of his own. This time, it was Bishop's arrow that caught the bandit in the side of the head and sent him tumbling down the ruin's steps with a clatter of loose stones and ruble.
Aria scowled, and proceeded forward slowly, still crouched and watching for any signs of movement atop the ruin's ledge before them.
"I doubt that was the last of them." She muttered.
"No, those were just the scouts." Bishop confirmed, following her lead, "Good news is that bandits usually only have a few scouts. Bad news is, they probably sent a third ahead to warn the others."
"Of course…"