When Fastred awoke the next morning, the Dragonborn had already left the room.
She was quite embarrassed by her behaviour the night before. Why had she leapt into her bed? Had she always been so easy to scare? But the storm had been nothing like she had ever heard before. It had been different, and terrifying. She had thought that the inn might collapse. Being close to the Dragonborn had made her feel safe and secure.
It was childish, she knew, but she couldn't guarantee that her fears wouldn't take over. She had no way to protect herself in the open plains of Skyrim and needed someone like the Dragonborn to help her.
She was not surprised to find the Dragonborn sitting beside the inn's fire, her dog chewing on a piece of meat beside her. She seemed to be sharpening an ebony sword, refining and polishing it and apparently putting a lot of care into it. Fastred ordered a small bowl of stew at the bar before sitting down on a chair beside the Dragonborn, fascinated with the work she was concentrating on.
'Why are you doing that?' Fastred asked, curious.
The Dragonborn kept her eyes lowered and fixed on the sword. The carved detail on the blade shone in the firelight, making it seem delicate, yet the sharp blade made it look sharp and deadly.
'This will be your sword,' the Dragonborn said, still polishing it with a small rag. 'I will teach you how to use it properly.'
Fastred blushed slightly, knowing full well what had prompted the Dragonborn to do this. 'I am sorry for my behaviour last night.'
Instead of tensing up, the Dragonborn shook her head. 'I'm sorry I caused a rough storm.'
Fastred blinked. Had she heard right? 'Pardon?'
But the Dragonborn had had enough, and stood up, placing the ebony sword in a sheath and holding it just out of Fastred's reach. 'Eat your stew. We'll be leaving soon.'
The innkeeper had placed Fastred's bowl of stew down on the table beside her, and she slowly turned to eat. On this morning, Fastred realised that the Dragonborn was confusing her more each day. When evening eventually came, she felt as though she might have found another piece of the puzzle to the Dragonborn's mysterious story, but when morning came, she felt back at square one again.
The Dragonborn timed her exit perfectly as she went back into their room to pack up their things, and as she closed the door behind her, Erik opened his own door and stepped out into the inn. He took a quick glance around the inn, most probably to look for the Dragonborn, and when she was nowhere to be found, he went behind the counter to fix himself some breakfast.
Just the sound of Erik's voice floating through the inn was enough to irritate the Dragonborn. She hurried to pack her things and re-entered the main room to fetch Fastred. She had only just placed her spoon back in the bowl after finishing her breakfast when the Dragonborn motioned for her to follow. Startled at the Dragonborn's sudden desire to hurry on out, she stammered out a goodbye to the innkeeper and to Erik, who both seemed nonplussed at the Dragonborn's behaviour.
Lagging behind slightly as she left the inn, she found the Dragonborn already on the path, their bags hanging from Shadowmere who was walking beside her. Meeko was running around the tall grass beside the path, snapping at butterflies. Fastred ran to catch up to them, breathing heavily as she struggled to move fast on a full stomach.
'What's the rush?' Fastred demanded.
She didn't even expect a reply. Instead, she looked around to see where her new ebony sword was, and saw that the Dragonborn was holding it in her left hand. She was excited to learn how to defend herself, but scared at tasting a deadly art that her parents had always frowned upon.
To think that just a fortnight ago, she was back at home with her parents and their modest farm. Now, she was on the road with the most famed woman in the whole of Skyrim, a wealth of stories already under her belt that she would share with the children back in Ivarstead and they were barely halfway there.
She was eager to get started with the day's lesson, but she was unaware that the Dragonborn was waiting an hour or so for her stomach to settle before they began. She spent that hour too shy to ask the Dragonborn when they would begin, and waited for her to initiate the lesson. She began to think of a younger Dragonborn, just beginning to learn how to hold a sword.
'When did you learn how to fight?' Fastred asked quietly.
The Dragonborn's lips curled too slightly for Fastred to see. Her first fight was a fond memory, and one she thought of often.
'I was young when I began to take it seriously,' she replied.
She had always wanted to hold a sword and ward off threats. She had despised being the youngest, and thus, the weakest of her family. Always the baby that needed protecting. She had always dreamt of hiding in the corner of a cave and shooting an arrow at the back of a man's head, for him to only hear the arrow rip through the air at the last second.
There was a dragon lurking within her. When she had been a child, she had eagerly given into her desires and began to find small adventures in the small town where she resided. She stole cheap jewellery from relatives' houses, attempting to refine her stealth and thievery skills. She was caught several times, but this only helped her learn from her obvious mistakes.
When she was blossoming into a teenager, she managed to successfully steal a bow and arrow from a family friend for the day until she would return after her sneaking to pu it back into place before anybody had noticed it missing. There was a small cave about thirty minutes away where a recent infestation of mudcrabs had gathered. They were harmless to those who wouldn't bother attacking them, but the Dragonborn had felt the need to finally kill something.
She had never been one to kill a mouse purely because she could. She thrived from a fight and even as a young child, she knew that she had to earn her kill. She took a small amount of arrows, hoping to gather back and clean all of them before their return and knew from her constant reading that the bow was in top shape.
What did she not know was that a young boy, around her age, had been following her. She was too excited to be aware of her surroundings, and he had managed to stalk her all the way to the cave entrance without being noticed. When she finally realised he was there, she pulled out her blunt kitchen knife and pointed it to him, furious with both him and herself.
'Why do you follow me?'
The boy was taller than her, and unafraid of her puny dagger. She knew who he was, although the name escaped her. He was a boy that played with wooden swords with his friends and gained his adventure by causing fights with younger children. He too longed for adventure, but she had seen him fall from a tree only the week before and burst into tears at scraping his knee. He was not fit to stand before her.
'I'm curious to see where it is you're going,' he replied, grinning excitedly. The Dragonborn had tutted and turned her back to him, walking toward the mouth of the cave.
'Are you quite sure you're doing the right thing?' He had called after her. She made no reply, and didn't tell him to go home as she was rather curious to know if he would follow her. Continuing on until she was several feet into the cave, she dropped to a crouch and plucked an arrow from its quiver. She could see the largest mudcrab, sitting in the small pool by the wall of the cave. It was an extremely small chamber, but one that a child could knock an arrow and it would go all the way and hit the wall.
The boy had indeed followed her, and she turned around sharply to address him. He apparently had no idea of the pest problem, and fell onto his knees beside her as the Dragonborn reprimanded him for his loud and clumsy walking.
'What are you doing here?' The boy hissed, afraid to gather the mudcrabs' attention. 'You're a foolish girl, you know that?'
'The fools are those who know of this problem and do nothing about it,' the Dragonborn had retorted. 'Not only will I be ridding this area of pests, but I will also be able to get some practise out of it...'
She crawled forward slightly to hide behind a large rock that kept her hidden from view of the mudcrabs. She shifted herself so that she was kneeling and could see the tops of the mudcrabs' shells before her. She lifted the bow, a hundred lessons pouring out from the books she had read, and went to pull the string with the arrow in her hand.
Putting what she had read into practise was a lot more difficult than she had anticipated. She had pretended knocking an imaginary arrow as she read the archery books, but actually having the fine wooden bow in her hand made her feel as though she was forcing it to just do as she wanted.
'Do you even know what you're doing?'
That, and the fact that she had the extra pressure of a bully watching her made her hands shake slightly. She had half a mind to turn and knock the arrow into his eye.
But instead, she aimed at the largest mudcrab and let her arrow fly. She had aimed for the eye, a victorious first kill had it struck accurately, but it instead hit its belly. It was hit, but not dead, but from the location of the wound, it would die slowly.
The other mudcrabs became aware of the children's presence and began to scuttle over to them to attack. The Dragonborn had hoped that she could have been stealthy enough to take them all out with her arrows, but was instead forced to use her kitchen knife to take out the rest. It was messy and unrefined work, and the Dragonborn had hoped to take home her dead trophies home for a feast, but she could not be bothered to argue with her parents about how she had acquired them. The boy had watched her from the other side of the cave, feeling vulnerable and somewhat intimidated by her. After that event, he no longer taunted younger children whilst she was around for fear of her kitchen knife.
'Will you tell me about it?'
Fastred's voice brought her back to the present day, and the Dragonborn said nothing in reply. Instead, she stopped walking and as Fastred turned to see why she had stopped, she handed her the ebony sword. Compared to the other swords she owned, it was weak. It wasn't even enchanted: the Dragonborn had felt that such enhancing on a weapon would be wasted with Fastred.
'I will teach you how to defend yourself with this weapon until you can escape,' the Dragonborn spoke clearly to get this important fact into her head. 'You must not have false confidence in your non-existing abilities. If you are lucky, you will never have to use this.'
Fastred took the sword with both hands, her hands trembling slightly as she took it with reverence. She had never held a sword before. She had touched one, but even then she had been cautioned to be extremely careful. As she held the sword awkwardly in front of her, she watched as the Dragonborn unsheathed her own dragonbone sword with ease, as if wielding it was as natural to her as breathing.
If the Dragonborn were alone and riding Shadowmere, she might have reached Whiterun by that evening. However, since she was teaching Fastred how to use her new sword, they kept stopping every so often. The Dragonborn would teach Fastred using her own self and sword as an example, and Fastred would copy. When she knew a few of the basics, the Dragonborn would then slowly strike at Fastred, teaching her how to block and dodge. Fastred was overwhelmed; she never knew the Dragonborn could talk for so long.
She wondered if it made her happy, that she was useful to someone who actually appreciated her. They had passed by many people since the beginning of their strange journey, and Fastred had expected people to throw themselves down onto the ground for the Dragonborn who had risked her own life to save theirs. However, nobody seemed to care who she was or what she had done for them. A few people would even go so far as to insult her. If the Dragonborn cared about strangers' remarks, she showed no reaction.
'Don't look at my face, look at my sword.'
'How do I do what you've just done?'
'Take a breath and think about your action before you do it.'
'What do I do if I drop the sword?'
Fastred was eager to learn, and the Dragonborn seemed intent on teaching her. How anybody could treat the Draognborn with anything but respect was a mystery to Fastred. She had a few of her coin in her pocket, but there was no real gain in this from her. Fastred knew the journey had been extended by this lesson. It seemed that the Dragonborn had made a bad first impression on her that was slowly being changed.
It would take them twice as long to get to Whiterun, and they hadn't even made it to the watchtower by the time the sun began to set. Fastred was enthusiastic, but her exhaustion showed clearly on her face. The Dragonborn led her off the path to small gathering of trees where they would pitch another fire and wait for morning.
The Dragonborn was somewhat satisfied that Fastred had been productive and learnt new abilities, deficient though they were. She allowed Fastred to sleepily gaze at her new sword while she hunted a rabbit for dinner. She removed the pot from one of the bags hanging from Shadowmere and began to make a stew for the three of them, adding vegetables and a small portion of water that Fastred had collected at the inn.
'Thank you,' Fastred mumbled, her eyes reflecting the crackling fire. 'Maybe one day, I can save you from bandits.'
The Dragonborn found it hard to suppress the beginning of a grin as she thought of Fastred becoming stronger than her. When that day came, she would gladly hand over her Aetherial crown to her.
With her eyes still locked on her sword, Fastred thought that, since the Dragonborn had spoken quite a lot during their lessons, that she would continue to keep up the conversations. 'Do you ever get lonely, travelling only with your dog and horse?'
Although she didn't seem to be in the mood for speaking, the Dragonborn shook her head in reply. She stirred the pot, adding herbs and spices to the mix every so often. After a while, she covered the pot with a lid and sat back to let it cook.
'It hasn't been long since I left home but I'm missing my parents terribly,' Fastred complained. Then, choosing her words carefully, she looked up to watch the Dragonborn. Choose your actions carefully. That was what the Dragonborn had taught her. 'I... also miss Klimmek. He didn't like the idea of me coming out here...'
She watched the Dragonborn for a reaction to the reference to the man she was courting. She wasn't sure why, but she wanted the Dragonborn to show a reaction to her statement. Even a nod of acknowledgement would have been something, but the Dragonborn continued to stare at the cooking pot.
'Do you have someone you care about? Someone who worries about you as you save the world?'
The Dragonborn cringed as Fastred spoke so naively about her job. She could practically hear the smile in her voice as she continued to be so ignorant.
'I have a husband.'
This wasn't exactly an answer to her question as she didn't care for her husband, or at the very least, not as a wife should. She cared for him as much as she cared about her housecarls. She had figured that Fastred was asking about courtship or marriage commitments, and had decided to be straight.
Fastred's face fell slightly as she moved slightly to look for the wedding ring on her finger. 'You wear no -.'
'He deals with certain businesses on my behalf and cares after an adopted child we have. There is nothing more to our relationship than that.'
'But you shouldn't marry someone if you don't love them -.'
'It was necessary.'
Fastred doubted that, but she felt her heart jump slightly as she learnt the Dragonborn had nobody to love. She didn't know what she was feeling; the Dragonborn had slapped her, had told her off and had insulted her but she was still by her side and escorting her home. Was it true that she was so naïve and ignorant of the world that she would throw herself at anybody who showed some attention to her? Or did she actually find something about the Dragonborn that she liked?
They remained in silence until the stew had fully cooked. Fastred was able to carefully place her sword down onto the ground while she ate. As soon as she finished, she began to doze as she leant against a tree, and the Dragonborn took her bowl and wiped the remaining cutlery and bowls down before putting them back into her food supplies bag on Shadowmere. Then, allowing Meeko to hog the heat from the fire as he began to fall asleep, the Dragonborn moved to a tree several feet away from Fastred and gazed up the sky above.
After several moments, when she had been convinced that Fastred had fallen asleep, she had been surprised to notice her wearily standing up and moving over to her. She opened her mouth to tell her to go back to the fire, but she was already on her way over. She had grabbed a blanket from Shadowmere's back that he didn't seem to be appreciating and moved to sit beside the Dragonborn.
She threw the blanket over the both of them, despite the Dragonborn's protesting, and moved slightly in front of her so that she could lean against her without the dragonbone armour jabbing into her. The Dragonborn could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she grew increasingly annoyed at Fastred's childish performances.
'Go back to the fire -.'
'I'm still scared,' Fastred mumbled. She had enjoyed holding onto the Dragonborn back at the inn as she slept and didn't want to sleep on her own again. She wasn't sure of her feelings and felt they didn't even matter, so long as she could inch a little closer to her defender if it meant a comfortable sleep. She dozed off within seconds.
The Dragonborn, however, was annoyed that her personal space had been invaded yet again. She had half a mind to throw Fastred into the fire, but when she looked at her calm, sleeping face, she decided she couldn't be bothered to deal with her crying, and left her leaning against her.
It seemed to take years for morning to arrive.