Chapter 7- Natures Fury

The Knights rose to their feet, still looking slightly in awe of Calvus.

"Well Crusader…" Amiel said "It's quite complicated. You see we, as Knights of the Nine, split the relics of Pelinal between us. We put them in safe places before we died, and in those places they stay, known only to few, including ourselves."

"So what relic should I look for first?" asked Calvus.

"If I may Sir Amiel?" One of the Knights requested.

Amiel nodded in response, the Redguard ghost who had just spoken stepped forward.

"My Lord, I was Sir Juncan and I quested for the Boots of the Crusader. I died whilst trying to find them, but I still managed to learn of their location."

"Where are they?"

"They are at a shrine to Kynareth in the wilderness, west of the Imperial City."

Calvus took his map out of his pocket. Another ghostly blue cross had appeared on the parchment. It slowly faded to black, pinpointing the location of the shrine, in the middle of the great forest.

"Thanks." Calvus said. "I will return with the boots!"

He walked to the door of the crypt, then hesitated.

"What am I going to do about my shield?" he said, eyeing it's shattered remains on the ground.

"You can take one of our shields from the undercroft." Amiel said "Good luck to you Crusader!"

The Knights vanished with a bright blue flash, leaving Calvus alone in the dim crypt. He decided to get out quickly. In the undercroft he found some red diamond shaped shields in a large chest, all identical to the one he had found by Sir Amiel's skeleton. He picked one out, it felt lighter and was larger than his steel shield. He disliked it already, it didn't feel right in his hand. But for now it would have to do.

Calvus walked up the stairs and outside into the priory. He had spent quite some time in that building, it was nearly dark. However, he needed to leave as soon as he could. He went back to the tree to untie his horse, mounted it and with a cry of 'On Tiber!' failed to speed off into the distance. Instead the horse looked at him reproachfully.

"Oh alright then, please?" Calvus pleaded.

Tiber snorted and started trotting before he broke into a full gallop.

So far, it had been a pretty average day for Allinus. He was a soldier of the Imperial Legion, and had been on patrol, looking forward to his drink at the Wawnet Inn, when this had happened. He had encountered bandits. Five of them. And instead of killing him (which was good) they had taken him prisoner and were rifling through his armour and possessions (which wasn't so good) and they said that after they were done they would kill him (which was bad). He was tied up next to his Bay horse, left in his underwear, and left with the humiliation of the bandits jokes around him, it was fair to say he was quite pissed off. Their Orc leader had made the worst joke.

"What'd ya call an Imperial without his clothes?" He had snarled. "Lunch!".

Somebody shoot me now, Allinus thought. But it was then he saw a blue light in the distance. The bandits had seen it too, and had stopped their jest to look at the oncoming light. It turned out to be a mounted figure, in quite spectacular armour.

"Stand aside in the name of the Nine Divines!" The figure shouted.

"The Divines? Who do you think we are? Priests?" A Bosmer bandit shouted back.

That seemed to anger the figure, who charged and with a glint of silver, beheaded their Orc leader. The figure then dismounted and walked into the middle of the now terrified group of bandits.

"BOO!" It bellowed.

The Bandits ran for their lives, a blue shiny figure had just killed their leader, and they didn't really want to stick around. The figure walked over to the tree and untied Allinus, who was in awe of what had just happened.

"W-w-who are you?" Allinus stuttered.

"Me?" the figure chuckled. "I am the Divine Crusader, and though on a quest, I stopped to save you from those brigands. Now I must be on my way"

The figure mounted its steed. Allinus felt quite embarrassed being in front of such of a glorious apparition whilst in his underwear, but he still had to ask:

"Is there anything I can do My Lord?"

The 'Crusader' hesitated, then replied: "When you go to the Inn tonight, tell your comrades this story, spread the word about me, give people hope in these unholy times!"

"Yessir!" Allinus saluted, again, feeling a bit silly in his undergarments.

"Thank you!" The figure reared his horse and galloped off along the road, glowing blue once more.

Allinus decided to put his armour on, and go and tell everyone what had just happened. This could even get in the Black Horse Courier! Apart from the 'him being pretty much naked' part.

As Calvus rode off he thought about the recent encounter. He had thundered down the Gold road like there was no tomorrow, and then strangely, the Cuirass has started to glow blue, then the Helm, then his shield, then his entire body was bathed in the light. Tiber was glowing as well, making Calvus look like a huge frost charm charging down the road. In the distance he saw a rather large fire, and some figures surrounding it. They numbered six, one of them tied to a tree. He slowed Tiber down to a trot and looked closer, then realised that those figures standing up were bandits. He didn't want to draw his sword yet, so tried diplomacy. It failed, so Calvus drew his silver shortsword and charged. He went through the group, his silver blade gleamed as it cleaved through the neck of the Orc leader. Calvus then managed to scare off the rest of the bandits. He was quite proud of himself after he had done that. He had then untied the Imperial, told him to spread the word about 'The Divine Crusader' and charged off into the distance, and started glowing again, which was fairly strange. Then again these relics were made by the Divines, so what did you expect?

Calvus spent the rest of night under the stars, sheltered by the canopy of the Great Forest. He was finding it difficult to find the Shrine to Kynareth, so he decided to leave it for the morning. He looked at the trees surrounding him, tiredness making his eyelids heavy. Trees. Lots of Trees. Valenwood. Bosmer. Aranwen…ARANWEN! He had completely forgotten about her! He hadn't even told her where he was going! Well Andre must have told her! He must of! But he had disappeared from Anvil as well. Then it occurred to Calvus. Nobody knew where he was. Nobody alive anyway. Not even the Prophet knew.

Don't panic, he told himself, just get on with the task at hand and you will be fine.

That night he slept a worried sleep. When he awoke a deer was looking at him, but bounded off as soon as Calvus stirred, it's grazing abandoned.

"Well there goes breakfast." he said to himself.

He resorted to eating some bread out Tiber's saddlebags. It was starting to go a bit stale, but he had to make do. He mounted Tiber and started looking for the Shrine again. After about an hour before he spotted a grey statue through the trees. He cantered towards it, dismounted, secured Tiber and approached the Shrine. There was a statue of what appeared to be Kynareth; a wooden stand for holy tomes and six benches laid out in two rows of three. There were three priests there as well, a female Imperial with whitish hair, an elderly male Nord and a middle aged Redguard, all dressed green robes. The female priestess saw Calvus and approached him.

"Hail stranger." she said, "I'm priestess Avita, and this is the shrine of Kynareth. How may I serve you?"

"I seek the Boots of The Crusader, which I have been told are in your keeping, good lady!" Calvus replied courteously.

Avita blushed a little at being called 'good lady', but regained her composure and replied with deep seriousness.

"I cannot allow just anyone to claim the boots of the Crusader." she said " They need to pass a test to show that they are worthy…who are you? Do you have a title?"

"Indeed I do. I am the Divine Crusader! I have come because Umaril the Unfeathered has arisen once again, and I need to claim all the relics to defeat him!"

Avita looked Calvus up and down and it seemed for the first time she took note of the grand Cuirass and Helm.

"Are those the Helm and Cuirass?" she asked in bewilderment.

"They certainly are." Calvus replied

"Then I have no choice but to believe you!" she said. "However, you must still pass the test."

"And what would that be?" Calvus said.

"I cannot say" she replied sternly "You must find out for yourself. The only thing I can tell you is the tests location: West of here, about half a mile. And some advice: Respect the works and creatures of Kynareth, and they shall respect you. Now Crusader, I bid you farewell, and good luck in the test you are about to face."

She watched him leave, walking westwards. The Nord walked over to her and said:

"I bet he doesn't last five minutes."

"We shall see Jesper, we shall see." was Avita's only reply.

Calvus walked into a clearing in the forest. Many species of flower surrounded him. Their different colours were blobs amongst the long green grass. The many petals gave off a rather pleasant smell.

This must be the place, thought Calvus. So what's here that could possibly threaten me!

He heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps. More like paw-steps actually. Calvus turned around and saw the biggest bear he had ever seen. It was at least one and a half times his height and was the length of two horses. The huge creature roared, spraying bear saliva all over Calvus.

"Oh bugger..." he said.