Under Autumn Skies: An Elder Scrolls Novel
Greg J Miller
~O~
Chapter 12
Loredas the 2nd of Frostfall 4E49
Monika stirred as she felt a hand upon her shoulder. It took her just a moment to realise exactly where she was. She'd been asleep on Alex's bedroll in a clearing in The Great Forest, but he wasn't there under the blanket with her. She quickly remembered that he was keeping watch over the camp. It was his hand that woke her. There was nothing urgent in his touch. Nonetheless, she blinked her eyes open and rolled over to face him.
"No trouble?" Monika mumbled with a croaky voice.
"No trouble." Alex spoke with a calm and reassuring tone.
Monika looked about through bleary eyes. It seemed that the sun had not yet risen above the distant Valus Mountains in the east, but there was plenty of light to see by. It was probably less than half an hour before the dawn. The light breezes of the previous evening were absent in the still of the early morning. The air felt a little cool, but not too cold. It still seemed unusually warm for that late in the year.
Sitting up, Monika took a few moments to shake off her sleepiness. Anticipating what she might have suggested next, Alex had already made a move toward waking the other two.
Looking over toward the edge of the dense woodland, Monika noted a subtle mist hovering just above the ground. Off toward the south, she could see some much heavier fog already starting to rise above the tops of the trees in the distance.
Turning to look about toward the north, she observed some slow moving high cloud cover coming down from the Jerall Mountains. The clouds were drifting from the northwest, headed in a generally southerly direction. It didn't really look like rain. It was too high and too insubstantial.
In passing, Alex had casually mentioned that he caught a glimpse of another shooting star during the early hours before the dawn. Because he actually saw it for himself on that particular occasion, he was reasonably certain of what it was.
Monika acknowledged the comment, but wasn't terribly concerned. The occasional shooting star in the night sky wasn't really anything out of the ordinary.
Once everybody in the group was up, had attended to immediate matters behind the bushes and taken the time to have something from their rations, they set about breaking camp to be off on their way.
By the time that they'd buried the remains of the small campfire and were ready to go, that light mist near the ground had already started rising up over the trees and was beginning to melt away under the morning sunlight. Even though they couldn't quite see the sun over the trees, it had obviously risen in the east by then.
The morning calls of unseen birds rang out though the forest. Other than those four Guild Fighters, that seemed to be the only other sign of life in the immediate area.
Monika took up her bow and pointed toward the east, then they started heading back into the woodlands.
Loran and Odiil passed her as she paused a moment to look down at a cluster of ferns just near the edge of the clearing.
Alex noticed what seemed to have drawn her attention. It looked a bit different from the more common ferns of the forest. That plant had a couple of long stalks growing up from the centre with long dried out bulbs at the end. Those bulbs looked like they'd already dropped their seeds. "Is that one of the plants that Florence had mentioned to you?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, I think so. Somnalius." Her friend at Chorrol's College of Whispers had asked her to keep an eye out for a few things in the forest. That was one of them.
Alex kneeled down to examine the plant. "Should we…?"
Monika hesitated, glancing toward Loran and Odiil. "Yeah, alright. Loran, hold up a moment." She turned back to Alex. "No, no. Not the bulbs. Just the fern leaves and take just a few of them. We don't wanna kill the plant."
Alex proceeded to cut away four long fronds from the plant. That was probably less than a quarter of the whole thing. Monika's silent nod confirmed that was enough. He gathered up those fronds and found a suitable side-pocket in Monika's pack to store them.
Loran took some interest in what they were doing. "Is that stuff valuable?"
Monika wrinkled her nose. "Not really. Not unless you're an alchemist. Even then, more useful than valuable."
The former Legionnaire returned a questioning glance.
Monika responded with a slight shrug. "Friends at the College of Whispers."
Loran nodded and looked away. He didn't seem to hold any further interest.
Taking the lead again, Monika and Alex stepped ahead of the other two and they continued onward into the woods in search of goblins.
Just before the dawn, Ras'Dar woke Forester and Maplewood. He'd been keeping watch through the last part of the hours of darkness. He'd found no reason for alarm during his pre-dawn vigil. Certainly, the Khajiit would have heard various things at some distance from the camp, but apparently nothing that presented any immediate threat.
The previous evening, the three Guild Fighters had returned to that spot that Forester had taken note of during the afternoon to make camp. Of course, Ras'Dar had no trouble at all finding it again just before it started grow dark. In fact, he probably could have found it just as easily by dim moonlight.
By the time that the evening had started to grow late, they'd already sorted the arrangement of who'd be keeping each watch during the hours of darkness. Rena stayed up for the first watch, later waking Forester for the second watch. Ras'Dar actually wanted to take the early morning watch. Neither of the other two objected at all.
Once Forester and Maplewood were both up, the Khajiit mentioned that he'd seen a second light in the sky just a few hours before dawn. There had already been a conversation the previous evening after observing that first streak of light that briefly dashed across the sky, ending in a bright flash well short of reaching the ground. Just like the first one, that second trail of light had winked out in the sky somewhere over the trees in the distance.
During that discussion of the previous evening, Ras'Dar had used a rather colourful term for shooting stars. He'd referred to them as 'tears of the Mother Cat'.
That unique sounding reference had sparked Rena's curiosity, but the diminutive Suthay remained rather reluctant to elaborate upon what he'd described as 'the lessons of the clan mothers'.
Forester seemed to know something about that, if only a little. He'd suggested that Khajiit beliefs included a deity similar to the Divine Mara, sometimes referred to as the 'Mother Cat'. He also believed that the 'clan mothers' of the Khajiit passed on their spiritual teachings only by word of mouth.
In response, Ras'Dar had only nodded slightly, adding nothing more.
Rena didn't know anything at all about Khajiit beliefs, but that sounded like an acceptable explanation. Of course, she'd seen plenty of shooting stars before. Though she'd never actually seen any make landfall, she had heard that they sometimes did make it all the way down to the ground as sky-stones. That was about all she knew on the subject.
Forester had a bit more to say about it. He'd learned a thing or two about those matters during his time with the Synod, back before he ended up with the Fighters Guild. He'd started going on about how there were some shooting stars that were large enough make landfall as meteoric iron or glass. As he understood it, falling stars that contained iron were far more common than those comprised of meteoric glass. He'd mentioned that both types were generally imbued with magicka from the heavens. He'd also noted that old Ayleid wells like that one just near Brindle Home had been constructed with materials from those kind of Aetherial Fragments.
With a wink directed at Ras'Dar, Rena had suggested that she rather preferred the sound of 'tears of the Mother Cat' to Aetherial Fragments.
Aside from Ras'Dar mentioning that he'd seen that second light in the sky before the dawn, there was no more talk of it that morning.
Once they'd attended to immediate concerns and then broken camp, the three Skingrad Guild Fighters readied themselves and set off into the woodlands again.
Though they remained fully alert to the possibility of any danger as they cut a staggered path though the forest, it remained rather quiet throughout the first part of the morning.
Of course, the occasional noise or unexpected movement caused alarm from time to time. However upon each occasion, it turned out to be nothing of great concern. It most cases, it just turned out to be a bird taking flight or else a startled ground pheasant dashing off through the underbrush.
Forester had made the observation that it seemed noteworthy that they hadn't encountered any forest rats. He reminded Rena and Ras'Dar that it might be something to do with the goblins in the area.
Of course, at those goblin camps they'd recently found near Skingrad, they'd both previously noticed that large forest rats had been harvested for roasting over cooking fires. At that time, Forester had told them that more established goblin camps commonly farmed rats like that for livestock.
At first, Rena had been just slightly surprised that goblin tribes actually kept rats in that fashion, though she imagined that it made some sort of sense. It would certainly be far less work than hunting them in the wild. She just hadn't thought that goblins were actually smart enough for that.
After cautiously traipsing through that part of The Great Forest for the next few hours, it was little later in the morning before something actually presented as a matter of concern.
It was Ras'Dar who raised the alarm. He'd stopped unexpectedly, seemingly aware of something that his two Colovian companions had yet to notice.
Of course, Forester and Maplewood had paused to look to Ras'Dar.
After a long moment, Forester spoke very quietly. "What is it?"
The Khajiit held his tongue another moment, with his ears twitching. "You can hear those noises, yes?"
Rena whispered with a frown. "No. Can't hear anything."
Ras'Dar pointed with his bow. "That way. Something approaches."
Forester shifted his head this way and that, trying to see through the trees. He kept his voice low. "I can't see anything. What do you think it is?"
"This one cannot say. Something large." Ras'Dar drew a shaft from his quiver and nocked it to his bow in preparation.
Rena already had her blade drawn and shield at the ready.
Forester also drew his sword, whispering quietly to himself as he prepared a familiar spell for his free hand.
Following the Khajiit's lead, they cautiously moved forward in the direction that he'd indicated. They didn't need to go that far before the object of Ras'Dar's alarm drew near. They could all hear it before they actually saw it. It almost sounded like a sizeable bear struggling with prey that wouldn't just fall down dead.
Soon enough, a large goblin came blundering through the underbrush between the larger trees. Aside from a ragged loincloth, it wore only an array of bones like a chest plate, strung together with strips of leather. It looked like one of those typical skirmisher type goblins, but slightly larger than usual. It was stumbling forward, waving its arms about with a rusted blade and a crudely fashioned shield.
Ras'Dar didn't hesitate at all. He fired off an arrow at the creature, striking it in the mid-section. The goblin flailed about and screeched in pain. A second arrow missed as the Khajiit prepared to launch a third.
Forester had called up a fireball. Only at the last moment, he held back. He silently cursed himself as he reconsidered the wisdom of selecting fire as his first choice of weapon in that part of the forest. Still, it was too late to change tactic by then.
Rena held back with her sword and shield for a few moments. She intended to allow Ras'Dar to soften it up with arrows before preparing to move in closer.
In that respect, the little Suthay Khajiit seemed to be doing quite well. Though a few arrows had missed the target, the goblin was already starting to look like a pincushion, with about six shafts already sticking out of it. None of the wounds seemed immediately fatal, but it was certainly struggling with the injuries.
Just as the goblin was really starting to stagger, Ras'Dar held off as both Forester and Rena moved in on either side of the creature with their blades. Just a few well-placed strikes were needed to put it down for good. If anything, it seemed just a bit too easy.
Keeping his bow at the ready, Ras'Dar had again paused in place with his ears twitching as he listened intently for anything else on the way.
Forester looked to the Khajiit with a silent question.
After just a moment, Ras'Dar shook his head. "This one cannot hear anything else coming this way."
Rena drew attention back toward the dead goblin. "Look at this." The goblin showed signs of having been scorched by something, though it didn't exactly look like fire.
Forester cleared his throat and took a closer look. "Interesting. That looks like fresh burns. Perhaps the kind that might be caused by someone with a lightning spell or the like."
Rena glanced to her husband, then leaned down to examine the creature's hideous face more closely. "It looks to me like it had been blinded."
Forester agreed with that. "Yes well, I suppose that might explain why it was stumbling about like that."
Ras'Dar had come closer to take a look for himself. He kicked at the carcass to convince himself that it was dead. "Perhaps, other Guild Fighters had fought this goblin, yes?"
Forester cleared his throat again. "Perhaps. It's not likely that Elynwen would do something this. I suppose that it could've been Suvaris." He looked off through the trees toward the south. Of course, there was nothing to be seen.
Rena passed a comment. "Suvaris' team would be a fair way off, wouldn't they?"
"Yes, I suppose so." Forester tried to estimate just far south that they'd travelled. He felt fairly certain that they hadn't gone all that far.
Ras'Dar busied himself trying to retrieve his arrows from the goblin's hide. He needed to use his knife to dig some of them out without breaking them.
Since that goblin seemed to have come from the south, at Forester's suggestion, they continued onward in that direction just a little further. As it was the first one that they'd actually found in that part of the forest, he wanted to see if there were any more nearby.
It was just shortly after midday when Ras'Dar detected something else ahead of them. It wasn't immediately evident what was drawing his attention. Though all three were fully prepared to face goblins, it turned out to be something else altogether.
Through the trees, Ras'Dar spotted Elynwen with her bow drawn. Temel-Za and Jaras Artellian were just behind her. It seemed that Forester's group might have travelled just a bit further southward than they'd actually thought. Either that, or Elynwen's team had travelled further north. It might have just been a bit of both.
Forester and Elynwen came together and general greetings were exchanged. Rena stood at her husband's side. Ras'Dar held back, keeping a sharp eye out for any unexpected danger. Temel-Za and Artellian held back also, though they seemed rather more casual.
After speaking of that large goblin that they'd just dealt with not too far from that location, Forester raised the obvious question. "Have you encountered any goblins nearby?"
Elynwen vaguely indicated the southern direction. "We did find some dead goblins just a short distance from here. Four of them."
Forester's expression conveyed his confusion. "You didn't kill them?"
The Bosmer allowed the hint of a grim smile to form. "No, we didn't, but I'm quite certain that we saw what did."
Rena prompted her. "What was it then?"
Elynwen raised one eyebrow. "It was a large Land Dreugh."
"Land Dreugh?" Forester sounded like he doubted her word.
The Bosmer tilted her head. "Yes. Somewhat unexpected."
Forester was still shaking his head in mild disbelief. "A Land Dreugh. I can't imagine why one of those would be so far north. That makes no sense."
Ras'Dar was obviously far more confused than everyone else, but for a wholly different reason. "This one does not understand. What is a Land Dreugh?"
Of course, everyone else knew exactly what it was. Forester offered a brief explanation. He told him that a Land Dreugh was a large creature that looked something like a cross between a giant crab and some sort of Daedric monster. As he suggested, they don't normally stray too far from water, since Dreugh are essentially water creatures that become land-going creatures for just a short time as they grow.
Rena tried to learn more about what happened with Elynwen's team. "You didn't need to take on that Land Dreugh, did you?"
The Bosmer shook her head. "No, it didn't come to that. We stood ready to fight, but it didn't see us, or else it ignored us. Better to leave it alone, anyway."
Rena nodded her silent agreement.
Elynwen continued. "I don't think it was even interested in those goblins. It looked more like they tried to take it on and ended up fried by its internal lightning. I expect that larger goblin must have managed to survive."
Forester asked the obvious question. "So, which way did it go?"
"It kept heading south." The Bosmer waved her hand in that general direction.
Forester looked off toward the south, not that he could see very far through all the trees. "Yes well, Suvaris might be off in that direction."
Elynwen tilted her head in acknowledgment. "I'm confident that he'll manage, if it comes to that. I'd expect it more likely that he'd also try to avoid any confrontation, if at all possible."
Forester nodded. "Yes, I expect so. Tell me, have you encountered Suvaris at all, since you've been in the forest?"
"No. Not since Fredas morning. When we left Fort Ash."
Rena interjected. "Have you actually found any goblins? Live ones, I mean?"
Elynwen shrugged and wrinkled her nose. "Just two yesterday. They were no trouble."
Rena returned a shrug of her own. "We came across three just near the Hackdirt Road, just before we made it to Odiil Farms. Since putting them down, we hadn't seen any until we found that one just near here."
Elynwen released a small sigh. "I'm sure that we'll come across more of them. If not sooner, then I expect that there will be more than enough to go around, once we reach that larger tribe at the old ruins."
Rena's expression indicated that she agreed.
After glancing upward through the canopy overhead, Forester spoke up again. "Since it looks to be about midday, or thereabouts, I'd suggest that it might be a good time to take a short break before returning to task."
That recommendation provoked a fairly enthusiastic response from both Temel-Za and Artellian. Elynwen agreed that it sounded like a good idea.
After Ras'Dar took another moment to again confirm that nothing of concern seemed to be nearby, the seven Skingrad Guild Fighters settled in for a short rest and to take something to eat and drink from their packs.
Sipping from his flask, Forester remained somewhat incredulous over the matter of a Land Dreugh straying so far north from the waters of the south. Ras'Dar was the only one to hold no opinion, since he'd never even seen one before.
Of course, Elynwen accepted that it was notably unusual. However, she seemed rather more matter-of-fact over the encounter, accepting it for what it was. She still intended to keep a sharp eye out for that creature when they headed off again.
Responding to the ongoing mention of Land Dreugh, Temel-Za had a brief story to share that he'd heard from his father. Apparently, his grandfather had been a sailor on the vessels that sailed the southern coasts from the east of Argonia to the lower peninsular of Elsweyr.
As Temel-Za understood it, Land Dreugh were not all that uncommon in the eastern wetlands, at certain times of the year, not that he'd ever been there himself. However from what he'd heard, the matured water-dwelling Dreugh were not seen nearly as often.
According to what he'd been told, Temel-Za's grandfather had been on a vessel that once came across a horde of more than twenty Dreugh feasting upon the carcass of a huge Sea-Drake in the shallows off the coast from Lilmoth. They hadn't thought that the Dreugh had actually killed the sea-beast, but they had certainly made the most of the find.
Jaras Artellian saw fit to challenge the likelihood of the truth of such a story. Before it actually became an argument, Ras'Dar's questions served to head that off, if somewhat inadvertently. They needed to explain to the land-bound Khajiit exactly what the water-dwelling Dreugh were like and what a Sea-Drake was. It didn't seem that Ras'Dar fully grasped what they were explaining to him, but he seemed fascinated nonetheless.
After some further idle talk, brief farewells were exchanged and the two teams broke off to go their separate ways. Elynwen's team moved off back toward the south and Forester's team headed back toward the north.
~O~