Chapter 43: A warm glacier means a happy Glacier

[5th9th of Second Seed 4E 202]

Glacier claimed that she was ready now to face the low temperatures in Winterhold. We decided to rest for one day and start our trip early in the morning on the day after. The rest of the day was filled with stories from all of us, and checking our equipment. In particular, T'mara showed Glacier our selection of bows; we found a 'Nord Hero Bow', which basically was an 'Ancient Nord Bow' improved in the Skyforge. It was very lightweight, but almost as strong as a 'Dwarven Bow', and Glacier claimed to love it immediately. We also got her a quiver with 'Steel Arrows', telling her that those could easily be replaced later with loot arrows found in all kind of places.

I handed Marine a set of 'Ebony Daggers', and she was grateful for those. As Glacier and Marine now both had new warm fur armor, that was all we needed for now, and after a relaxing day at home we went to bed, mentally preparing for our upcoming trip which we planned to embark on early tomorrow.

The weather did not really cooperate with our plans, and a light drizzle came down from a cloudy sky. Fortunately, as were in the month of 'Second Seed' already, temperatures were not too bad. As we were not in a hurry at all, we took our time, stopping for a few minutes at interesting places and sometimes taking our time to chat with people. Going north, we soon passed the 'Chillfurrow Farm' and the 'Battle-Born Farm' as well as the 'Whitewatch Tower' and the 'Loreius Farm', until we eventually got into colder regions and encountered the first isolated snow spots on the road. Once we met another road and turned east towards 'Nightgale Inn', Glacier suddenly found herself facing an Ice Wraith, and only her thick fur armor prevented her from getting frozen. She yelped: "What in Oblivion is that?"

T'mara helped out with a quick fireblast, and once the beast had been slain, my wife told her: "That was an Ice Wraith, my dear. For fighting such enemies a strong fireblast really helps!"

"Yes, so I have noticed now", Glacier admitted meekly. "I am really good for nothing here, I am afraid."

We assured her that not everybody could be a great fighter and proceeded to walk towards the inn. Before we got there, though, T'mara spotted a few bandits lurking close to the entrance of the tomb known as 'Silverdrift Lair', probably waiting for easy prey on the road. She turned to Glacier and suggested, trying to encourage her:

"That's your chance to whittle them down with your bow!"

Glacier beamed, got her bow ready and switched into sneak mode. Finding cover behind a tree she started sending arrows, and it took five or six arrows until the bandits found out from which direction the attack came. One of them got close to the next tree, searching for us, but Marine had been waiting and cut the bandit's throat with a swift move, using one of her ebony daggers. The remaining bandit was tall and strong and clad in tough Nordic armor, and he was not so easily defeated. Arrows did very little damage to his health, and he kept his distance from Marine's daggers, raising a huge warhammer and threatening:

"Coming here was the last mistake you will ever make!"

Hearing the standard phrase again, I almost smiled. I decided to accept the challenge and stepped in front of Marine, greatsword drawn. Although the bandit chief was not small, I still towered over him. We circled around each other for a short time, and when he attacked, I quickly stepped to the side. Due to the very heavy weapon he held he could not change his angle of attack as quickly as he wanted, and I managed to bring my own weapon down on him, cutting of his head in one huge swing.

Marine and Glacier looked at me in awe, and I bowed before them. Just to make sure that they understood properly I said:

"Please do not believe that I enjoy killing people like this. However, being in Skyrim and helping the Dragonborn, my lovely wife, to do her job properly, I better keep practicing my fighting skills."

Half an hour later we got to the inn, and although the day was not over yet, we got ourselves rooms and enjoyed a few hours in the main taproom, with milk, juice, and venison stew. When our stomachs were full, T'mara asked Glacier:

"Glacier, tell us, have you been cold today?"

Glacier smiled and warmly replied: "No, not at all – thank you so much for the nice and warm fur armor!"

T'mara smiled and added: "I am glad to hear that. It's not only the armor itself, though; it has an additional enchantment to ward off the cold and reduce damage to frost attacks. I had hoped that this might work for you. But I wonder about something else: Where did you get your name from, seeing that you don't really have an affinity to ice and cold?"

Glacier sighed and replied: "I have been asked that before. I do not know why my parents had decided on my name, but in hindsight it must have been mocking."

One day later we resumed our walk and planned to get to Winterhold before dusk. We had traveled from the inn to Winterhold or the other direction before, but we had so far always sneaked around 'Fort Kastav'. This time T'mara and I decided that the fort would be another good chance to test the girls' fighting skills, and before we got close, we discussed our strategy. After all, we had noticed before that some bad guys had chosen this fort as temporary residence, and we did not know exactly how strong they were. First I asked the girls:

"If you were in charge, how would you attack the fort?"

Marine suggested: "It might be a good idea to lure out the bad guys one by one, so that we don't have to attack them all at once."

"Good point", I nodded, "but that is not sufficient. We may get lucky, but usually people tend to notice when an attack takes place."

Glacier offered: "Those of us who are proficient with a bow could find a place where they cannot be easily detected and start shooting from there."

"Yes", I nodded, "this is what my wife and I have already done before in similar situations, and I like the idea. Where would you place an archer?"

The girls looked around, and Glacier soon suggested: "If we can get one person up on the hill opposing the fort across the road, no enemy will easily be able to get up there without a significant detour. The hills to the south also looks good, but it might be difficult to get there without being detected."

"You seem to have a feeling for that", I praised her, "and indeed, the northern hills look much more suitable. I think that we should also place an archer on the road further to the northeast, to shoot from a different angle of attack. Who is agile enough to climb the hill?"

The girls were not sure, so that T'mara did that. While she was starting to climb, I took the girls and we sneaked around the fort, following the road in easterly direction until we were out of easy bow range. Brand and Pammy were with us, and Edric, my wife's griffin familiar, flew up to scout the area from above. A quarter of an hour later T'mara had found a proper spot and started releasing arrows into the fort. I had my own crossbow ready and told Glacier to be prepared with her bow; Marine was now hidden behind a few rocks closer to the fort, and Bran and Pammy stayed close to her. It did not take long before until we saw a few skeletons emerge from the fort, heading slowly in our direction while looking around and searching for us, Once I had nodded to Glacier, she eliminated them one by one with her bow before they had a chance to get closer. Next a couple of conjurers came up, raising a ward against the arrows. I started to send bolts with my crossbow and Glacier continued shooting as well, while T'mara sent arrows into the fort's interior courtyard. Nonetheless, one of the well warded conjurers made it close to us, but had not seen Marine behind her rock in time; the girl came up behind the conjurer and quickly killed him off with one of her ebony daggers. Now I sent Bran and Pammy ahead and waved to the girls to follow me, while we slowly proceeded towards the fort. Quite a few more enemies were still concentrated in the courtyard, and we continued to whittle them down from behind cover.

Eventually, though, a group of three necromancers noticed where we were and proceeded towards us more quickly than I had expected, so that I had to drop my crossbow and get the greatsword out. As I could easily wield it with one hand, I had the other hand free for a spell and send a continuous flameblast against the one enemy who attacked me. Looking to the side for a moment I saw Bran and Pammy helping the girls. It did not take me long to overcome the necromancer who had picked me, but another conjurer now started to send nasty frost spikes in our direction; this enemy was located on a small tower controlling the courtyard from the East, and we could not quickly get there. Above and beyond that, poor Glacier by now looked almost completely frozen with frost spikes and was unable to move, while Marine managed to keep her position and dodge most of the attacks.

This was the time Edric selected to attack, and on a quick rush downwards he picked the evil conjurer on the tower, so that the long distance spell attacks stopped right away. This gave me the chance to kill the bad guy who was threatening Glacier, and Bran and Pammy now helped Marine to get rid of her attackers. For now, no further attacks came and we could rest for a moment, so that I checked how Glacier was doing. As she was almost completely encased in ice, I started to thaw her out, and once I managed to do that, also cast a healing spell. As soon as she could talk again, she uttered:

"I am fine, thank you. This enchanted fur armor is really incredible, and it sure prevented me from freezing to death."

We also quickly looked into the fort's interior, which was called 'Captain's Quarters' for some reason, and we found quite some valuable loot. I promised to help the girls selling some of it in Winterhold and allowing them to keep the money.

After a short break and double checking for potential further injuries, we continued our trip to Winterhold once more. When we had reached the neighborhood of 'Stillborn Cave' and could look over snow and ice fields towards the 'Sea of Ghosts', Glacier stopped, taking in the vista, and she sighed:

"This looks so bright and peaceful. If it wasn't so cold, I might actually enjoy the scenery."

"I am not so sure about the 'peaceful' part, Glacier;" I objected, pointing to the East, "have you noticed the two frost trolls down the road over there?"

"What?" the young girl yelped and looked around frantically.

"I do not think that they have noticed us yet" T'mara offered. "Why don't you two go ahead and show us what you can do?"

Glacier was not so sure about it, but Marine prodded her forward. The two girls discussed their best approach quickly, and Glacier prepared to use her bow. As they were not close to the two frost trolls at all, the two beasts did not immediately notice where the arrows were coming from. One of them staggered in our direction, and Marine found a place on a rock which allowed her to throw her daggers. When she had expended most of her daggers, she blasted her fireball spell against the closest frost troll, and the combination of arrows, daggers, and spell finally overcame the troll's healing ability. The other frost troll, though, was only scratched so far and came closer. Marine had only a couple of daggers left and was almost out of magicka, but Glacier now also used a fireball spell. Both girls managed to stay out of the troll's attack range and continued with fireball casting, a few times supported by drinking a potion of 'Restore Magicka'. Precise throwing of her last two daggers allowed Marine to finish off the second troll as well, but just barely.

However, with the limited resources they had, both girls had done quite a good job, and I told them so. They should soon get another chance to show their abilities – as soon after we had passed 'Whistling Mine', a dragon decided to show up. We could hear the beast's roaring from a distance already, which allowed us to discuss strategy beforehand. Marine had collected all her daggers after the fight with the frost trolls, and both girl's magicka pool was filled again, small as it was. T'mara had educated the girls about finding out first about the dragon being either a fire dragon or a frost dragon and aligning spells and attack strategy accordingly. Fortunately, the loot in 'Fort Kastav' had included a spell tome of frost, so that the twin cousins now also had a basic frost spell available.

Eventually the dragon swooped down on us and blew fire from its snout. All of us quickly reacted with a frost spell, and in addition T'mara shouted 'FO'. We all managed to hit the dragon, and it reacted by shouting something in Dragon language which I did not quite understand. Following some kind of flight pattern, the dragon came back a minute later, and this time I had my crossbow ready with a bolt of ice. When it was hit by the bolt plus a series of frost blasts, the beast crashed down on the ice to the east of us, and Marine shouted:

"Is it dead yet?"

"No," I replied "keep your distance – a dragon can be almost as deadly on the ground as in the air! Those with ranged weapons please use them!"

Of course, on the ground the dragon was much more clumsy, and I continued to shoot my bolts, while T'mara and Glacier followed my example and had their bow ready. Despite the barrage of bolts and arrows the beast managed to rise into the air once more, but soon crashed down again. I encouraged my companions:

"One more round of frost spells, please!"

They all complied, and I followed with a couple of more bolts until the beast was finally dead. After T'mara had absorbed the dragon soul, she told the twin cousins:

"You have been a great help defeating the dragon – thank you!"

The girls high fived each other – we had been told that doing this was a habit from where they came from – and Marine commented: "Yeah – from now on we can call ourselves the 'Dovahtwins'!"

Glacier added: "You know, when that dragon blew fire close to me, this was almost comfortable, and I was getting so warm. Has anybody figured out how to use a dragon for heating?"

Once we had finished laughing, we proceeded on our way to Winterhold, and once the town was clearly visible, Marine commented:

"Wow, that really looks as bad as in the game, just a bunch of ruins."

I nodded and told her: "Yes, not much has been done about it. However, there are a few people in Winterhold willing to do something, and although this is not visible from a distance, we are planing to get a few more citizens in. I was hoping that a few Argonians might want to find a place for fishing down at the coast, for instance."

After entering the town, we first checked if 'Birna's Oddments' was still open, and as it was, I guided the girls inside and introduced them to Birna. She was happy to see me again and smiled at the girls, when we laid out all of the loot we had to offer:

"My, my, this is nice stuff you have for me. I am glad that you have not forgotten about me; let me get my septims out right now!"

As I had promised before, the girls got to keep the money, and we proceeded right towards the college. Faralda was in her usual place guarding the entrance and shouted:

"Welcome back Timotheus and T'mara! Whom do you have with you?"

"May I introduce Marine and Glacier; they are with us for the time being. Girls, this is..."

Marine interrupted me: "Faralda, senior wizard and master of destruction magic; yes, we know."

"Have we met before?" Faralda was curious. "But anyway, they need to show some magical skill before I can allow them to enter."

Both of the girls demonstrated that they were able to cast simple destruction spells at the testing circle on the ground, and Faralda let us pass. I lead the way to find Tolfdir and soon encountered him when he walked out of the Arcaneum. After the two girls had introduced themselves, Tolfdir beamed and said:

"Splendid – two more students! Do not worry about your lack of advanced magic skills for now; this is what the college is here for, and we will all help to teach you. Why don't you meet the other students for our early lessons tomorrow morning, and meanwhile let's try to find suitable rooms for you."

In the long distant past the college had had many more students and wizards than it had today, so that almost half of the rooms were unused. Tolfdir assigned two adjacent rooms in the students' quarters for Marine and Glacier, and T'mara and I showed them were they could get food. We also showed them our room and told them to not hesitate to ask use if they had questions. When the girls realized that T'mara and I were sharing the narrow bed, Marine smirked immediately, but Glacier did not get the point yet and asked us:

"How is it possible for the two of you to fit properly in that tiny bed? How can you both actually sleep there?"

Marine smirked even more and enlightened her twin cousin:

"Glacier, you do realize that there is sleeping and there is sleeping, and that those two lovebirds just got married barely half a year ago?"

It took the poor girl a few seconds to make the connection, and when she did, she looked very embarrassed. I assumed that she was happy about her dark skin, as the blush she probably had on her face was well hidden. T'mara and I could not help ourselves and we chuckled while looking at each other.

Later on, when we were alone, T'mara grinned and asked me: "So we are lovebirds; maybe I should start to do some pecking on you?"

For the early lesson on the next day, Tolfdir had planned to do one of his checks to find out how much progress each of the students had made by now; this would also be a good opportunity to introduce the two girls into the group.

Glacier with her very polite and distinguished way of talking managed to make friends immediately, while J'zargo found a soul mate in Marine. When he was boasting about his magic skills as usual, Marine used a few strong words to put him in his place. Rather than being upset about that, the Khajiit told her:

"The young pretty Redguard has spirit – J'zargo likes that. This one believes that she and he will work together very nicely, and J'zargo may teach her some of his skills."

Marine also seemed to like J'zargo, and later on Glacier told me:

"Marine always had a thing for Khajiit when playing, and apparently she is now curious to find out to what extent reality matched her expectations. Marine once actually told me that they look like grown up 'Hello Kitties'."

I failed to understand the reference, and Glacier did not elaborate further. I had another question, though:

"But you have met other Khajiit before, like Khajiit caravans and my wife – why the sudden interest now?"

"Well," Glacier explained "your wife is the Dragonborn. I don't think even Marine dares to bother her with too many questions. About the Khajiit caravans, Marine never got a chance to really bother them with too many questions either, as we needed them for protection. And most important, Marine always liked J'zargo when playing. Honestly, I think the two of them are quite a good match!"

Glacier found herself more drawn towards Brelyna, and soon I could hear them engaged in 'girl talk'. Hm, maybe I should fraternize with Onmund for boy talk? The problem was that I did not even know what boy talk could be. Most of my childhood had been spent with adults and older children in Cyrodiil, and when I had arrived in Skyrim, I had been on my own for some time, making friends later on with adults and younger kids, such as Mila in Whiterun and Dorthe in Riverwood. I had never had a chance to talk to other boys about girls, and I had almost considered myself a lost case in that direction before I had met T'mara. Well, I did not have to worry about girls in general any longer, I only needed to take care of a specific one, and I probably should not call her 'girl' too frequently, although she was nominally still a teenager.

At the end of the day I went outside for a quick walk together with my 'girl', and we could see Glacier running around happily. When she saw us, she approached, gave each of us a quick hug and a peck on the cheek and beamed:

"Thank you so much again for this wonderful enchanted fur armor. I so much enjoy being able to run around and play in the snow without being cold!"

Well, I guess a warm Glacier means a happy Glacier, indeed.

[Author's Note: I hope that you liked this chapter with the twin cousins being around; please review if you did! For the next few chapters, they will mostly stay in the background, but I will get back to them later for sure.]