A Stranger in Skyrim

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Stranger

By: N3k0

In which bridges are crossed.

Time seemed to move differently in the real world, faster somehow than it did in Skyrim. Several days had passed, and after that initial success, she hadn't been able to conjure so much as a single spark of magic.

It was food for thought.

She was beginning to feel like she had a split personality.

Her real-life self was downtrodden. She took a cocktail of pills every night and morning - legal drugs designed to stave off the crushing depressions. She had recently started to feel like they were helping less and less.

And then, there was the Dragonborn, the Dovahkiin. She didn't need the drugs to be - if not happy - emotionally stable. Hell, she didn't even need glasses.

Sure, there were downsides. Getting bitten by something that looked and acted suspiciously like a werewolf was the least of her trouble, really. Assuming she survived that - and the Dragonborn seemed to be exceptionally resilient - she still had the seven thousand steps to climb, the Graybeards to meet, and, eventually, a dragon to slay.

What if she turned in to one of those beasts herself? While she herself wouldn't mind, what about Lydia? What about Lucia?

She found that she cared - actually a lot - for that little girl. Getting Alvor and Sigrid to take care of her had been a huge relief, honestly. She still wished she could take care of the girl herself, but that didn't seem to be especially practical at the moment.

Eventually she crawled out of bed, yawning hugely. The day had dawned with a cold, miserable rain. She opened the front door to see it for herself, to appreciate being warm inside.

In retrospect she had no idea what possessed her to do so. She had never been a fan of the great outdoors, not really.

A tall, gaunt figure stood across the street, its limbs spindly, over-long. It turned its pale head, as though to look at her. It had no eyes, but she could feel it staring at her. It had no mouth, but she would swear it smiled at her. The smile wasn't a good smile.

She blinked once, and it was gone. The fear that had rooted her to the spot diminished not at all.

A trickle of warmth ran from her nose - she cursed and shut the door abruptly, all but running for the bathroom. She'd never really had a serious nosebleed before, and now she'd had two in as many weeks. Ugh.

She sopped up the blood as well as she could, tilting her head back belatedly to try and get the worst of it to stop.

"Are you all right?" her mother called from the front room.

"I'b fide," she replied.

This was going to be a great day.

She'd already lost her sanity and more than a pint of blood - what else could go wrong?

A day passed, two - she would swear she caught glimpses of the thing following her, but never anything nearly as obvious as that first time. It kept her on edge even more than wondering when she'd next be ripped away from reality.

She was honestly relieved to wake up in Skyrim.

She was clean, warm, and, on inspection, bandaged carefully. Her robe and armor sat neatly on the end table beside her, though the robe was starting to get rather tattered, no matter how nice the enchantment that kept it clean was. The armor was blood soaked and basically ruined. She winced, sitting up and looking it over.

There really wasn't much that she could do for that, no.

"Good morning, my Thane." Lydia looked wary. Of her? Maybe …

She smiled reassuringly, all the same. "Good morning. I assume you took care of me … ?" She gestured at her shoulder, where the worst of the lingering ache was.

"Yes," Lydia said simply. "You were badly injured, and - I thought it best not to mention the nature of the wound to anyone."

"You think that it - that I - "

Lydia glanced away. That was really all the answer she needed, wasn't it?

"We'll worry about it later," she said with forced cheerfulness. "For now, we have a stair to climb, right?" She asked Lydia for the confirmation - she honestly didn't know if they were there yet or not.

Lydia nodded slowly. "Do you think you're up for it?"

Mariah made a show of standing up on her own two feet, blood loss or no blood loss. Then she realized that, other than the bandages, she was quite naked. Pretending that she wasn't at all embarrassed, she turned towards the gear, putting on the robes and everything salvageable with slow, careful movements. "I'm fine," she said with a certainty she didn't quite feel.

"If you say so, my Thane."

She slowly walked out into the main room of the inn, squinting slightly in the light. There was a plain, short-haired man behind a bar - she approached him quietly.

"Do I still owe anything for the room …?" She asked, voice soft. Everything was so loud all of a sudden. Or maybe she was just hearing things more clearly ….

The man shook his head. "Your friend paid for the room last night, when they brought you in. You looked like death …."

"I'm sure I did," she admitted. "But I'm better now." She smiled at him. "Thank you again, what do I owe you for a decent meal for me and my friend?"

After she paid up, she helped to arrange two of her newfangled 'sandwiches' for the road - they'd wasted enough time, hadn't they? Handing one to Lydia, and thanking the innkeeper, she made her way out of the inn.

"I still have no idea where we're going," she admitted, when they were out in the open. The sun was so bright! She felt the beginning of a headache coming on.

Lydia sighed softly, smiling at her. "This way, my Thane."

The housecarl led her past a somewhat impressive logging operation, toward a bridge.

"Ho, traveler!" A bald man called out. "Passing through on your way to High Hrothgar? I need a fresh set of legs to make a delivery for me."

Lydia made to interpose herself between Mariah and the strange man. "That's not really our concern," the housecarl said abruptly.

"Hey - that isn't nice." She smiled apologetically to the man. "Do you go up the mountain often?"

He shrugged vaguely. "I used to do it more often, drop off supplies for the Graybeards and the like, but my legs aren't what they used to be and the path just isn't safe."

"Oh? What kind of dangers are there?" She smiled charmingly. She wasn't a threat to him, and she tried to convey that.

He glanced behind himself, toward the path. "There's the occasional wolf pack, or stray, but that's all I've really had to deal with. It shouldn't be a problem for someone like you - and your friend."

"Well, all right then. We'll do it," she said with a firm nod. "I'm supposed to be meeting with the Graybeards myself, so - "

"My Thane," Lydia said softly. "Is it wise to discuss this so openly?"

She paused, thinking it over. "I suppose not," she admitted. "Thank you for the information, Mister-"

"Klimmek is fine," he said. "And thank you for your help. Here are the supplies - " He handed her a heavy sack that smelled like dried and salted foods. "Just drop them off in the offering chest, and you'll be done."

She winced as the weight put strain on her shoulder - happy thoughts, green light, healing - before setting them down gently. She slid the backpack off, stuffing the heavy sack more or less inside. Carefully settling the pack across her shoulders, she waved once and started off, across the bridge and up the path.