11
"Are you going to be warm enough?" I asked Gaea as we headed up the hill behind the fort and into the woods.
"Sure, I'll be fine. I spend hours at a time standing at the top of the walls, don't forget. This armor is very warm." Gaea had her sword drawn, carrying it loosely in her hand as we walked, her eyes darting left and right.
I kept my sword sheathed, but I noticed her wariness. "Are the woods really that dangerous?" I asked. "I know there's wolves and bears to worry about."
"There's also the barbarians, the berserkers," Gaea said. "You can usually hear them coming, though, cause they scream like crazy when they spot you. We see them near the fort sometimes, and half the time they barely have any clothes on, just boots and a loincloth or something. They're dangerous cause they're so unpredictable, but you can fight them off pretty easily."
"I know about them," I said. "In some places in Skyrim, you have to put yourself into the battle-trance and spend a week or more in that state, in order to gain rank as a warrior. It takes incredible endurance to survive like that."
"I bet it does," Gaea said.
We walked past a grove of trees and over a ridge, and I glanced back behind us to see the top of the fort disappear from view as we crested the hill. This was the farthest I had ever walked into the woods, but I felt confident despite the many warnings I'd received about the dangers of the forest. I had spent most of my youth in places more inhospitable and dangerous than this, and I didn't seriously think a bear or a wolf would bother us.
"Anything else we have to worry about?" I asked.
Gaea looked around and said, "Well, there's also the forest fairies. I hope we don't run into one of those things."
"What are they?"
"They go by a bunch of different names. Forest fairies, treefolk, spriggans, wood nymphs. They're like natural spirits, about the size of a person but they look like a tree."
"Okay, I know what you're talking about. I've heard of those. They're actually protectors of the forest, they guard the trees."
"Yeah, I've heard that," Gaea said. "But they're dangerous. Even if you manage to kill one of them, they come back to life again and again. All you can really do is run away and hope it doesn't chase after you."
"I'll keep that in mind."
We walked through the trees at a steady pace, our feet crunching in the snow, our breath coming out like smoke. Gaea's armor clinked and clanked as we walked, but I moved almost silently, stepping on small rocks to minimize the sounds my footsteps made.
We traveled uphill for some time, through a maze of tall fir trees with snow on their branches. Occasionally, one of the branches would tremble and a cascade of snow would tumble to the ground, and I watched carefully to see if one of the spriggan creatures was the cause. But I saw no sign of any other animals.
Walking among the trees made me feel more at home, although the area of Skyrim I grew up in didn't have forests like this. But the feel of the cold on my face, the smell of the trees, the emptiness and the sense of natural purity seemed comfortable to me. These woods were untouched, this entire area felt brand new, as if we were the first people to ever see it. I wondered how long this area might remain so pristine.
Eventually, the mining colony at Raven Rock, if it was successful, would grow and expand. That meant more people and more buildings. And then Fort Frostmoth would also expand, and eventually, a village would spring up on the shore to provide more services to the guards and the miners. And that meant more wood for construction, and more hunting for food. Someday, the trees that surrounded me might be chopped down to build a new town center or some other building..
"How far is it to Raven Rock?" I asked.
"About five or six miles," Gaea replied. "Normally, we don't go through the woods when we go there. We walk along the coast and then head north, cause it's a safer trip. But the Captain said to go as fast as possible, so we'll go the direct route."
"Speaking of Carius," I said, "Was he acting strange today, or what?"
Gaea laughed a bit. "He was acting strange, yes. I was going to ask you about it, actually. You must have really made an impression on him last night. I've never seen him behave that way."
"I didn't think I was that good," I chuckled.
"Well, he must have thought so. I think he's fallen for you."
"I get that a lot."
"Do you?"
"Not really," I laughed.
We chatted a bit more as we walked, but eventually we stopped talking and focused more on our surroundings as we penetrated deeper into the wilderness of Solstheim. Gaea assured me that she knew where she was going, so I just followed her and kept my eyes on the treeline for anything out of the ordinary. During the day, the forest seemed safe and pristine, but I certainly did not want to find myself out here at night. At some point, I also decided it was safer to have my sword already in hand, and I carried it the rest of the way.
We passed over ridges and climbed hills, until we must have been at an elevation hundreds of feet higher than the fort. The air even seemed colder and drier. My lips became chapped and my face stung with the cold, but still I felt good.
In the end, despite my repeated warnings about how dangerous it was, Gaea and I only caught sight of two wolves during the trip. I noticed them far in the distance, watching us warily from the top of a nearby ridge, but they didn't follow us. We had no other problems the entire time, and made it to Raven Rock in one piece.