Chapter Five:
Tarah awoke to the pounding of the rain, her body despite the sleep didn't feel well-rested due to her wolf blood.
She found herself in a bed, the room being softly lit by two candles on either wall. Turning she could see her bags on her left, right next to a dresser. There was a window next to the dresser where Tarah could see the rain pouring down outside, several other houses in sight. Cautiously she got out of the bed, feeling for the knife in her boot she pulled it out. It was an Iron dagger, but it was all she really needed, the power of her voice and the beast blood that flowed through her, along with the destruction-based spells would be more than sufficient to protect herself.
As Tarah was about to go to the door her wound on her stomach started to irritate again.
"Better not get too overconfident again." she thought, remembering that this was the exact same attitude that had gotten her injured in the first place.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to be better prepared." She thought, seeing her bag again out of the corner of her eye. As she turned to see what supplies were in there, she heard footsteps approach. Tarah turned around in time to see a curly brown hair man come through the doorway, a bowl of stew in his hand. He had been humming when he walked in but stopped and froze when he saw her, not only up and well but wielding a knife too.
Unsure if the stranger had brought the stew for himself or for her, Tarah raised her weapon at the man.
"Hey now… let's not do anything drastic," he said raising both arms very slowly the stew still in his hand, not even bothering to get close.
"Who are you?" Tarah demanded, moving cautiously closer to her bags. If she played her cards right would be able to get her axes quickly.
"My name is Norin." The man said, thunder and lightning going off from the window somewhere nearby. "I found you on the road. Passed out I might add, and I thought it would be better if I brought you here."
"Where is here?" Tarah asked, noting the sincerity coming off his voice, but nevertheless took a step closer to her bags.
"Fornost, you had passed out a few miles from town, took a lot of effort to get you and your things in here before the storm hit." As if almost to emphasize his point there was another rumble of thunder, immediately followed by lightning, briefly illuminating his face some more.
Slowly lowering her knife Tarah took another look at the man, wishing that Indigo was there, he always had a way of reading people's true intentions. After a few moments Tarah lowered her weapon completely, then putting it back in her boot, she was still a few steps away from her bag. "Thank you," Tarah said as she turned to attend her things, pretending to rummage through them, a final test, if he tried to attack her while she seemed busy Tarah would embed her ebony ax in his face.
"Phew!" The man said from behind. "I have some stew if you want any." There was a sound of a bowl being placed on the wooden table next to the bed, "If you need anything I'll be out in the dining hall." There was the sound of a closing door, with it hastily being reopened "It's to the right." Norin said before closing it back up again.
Tarah stopped pretending to rummage through her stuff and actually looked things over. Her equipment had been turned around from all the moving around but both bags seemed to have all of her things. After she was satisfied that everything was still there, she moved to the bowl of stew, still letting steam off, putting her nose as close to the bowl before the heat was too much she took a few very long sniffs. Though she couldn't be sure that it was free from poison or not the fact that there were no smells that seemed off was enough for her to risk a taste. After she was sure that nothing in the stew tasted weird she swallowed, her hunger revived by the taste of food.
She quickly finished her bowls worth of food, the stew tasted heavenly after being unconscious twice for who knows how long, running for miles and having to fend off two attackers. When she had licked clean the stew from the bowl Tarah turned her eyes to her stomach wound, she was surprised that time had done its job and it had healed nicely, leaving a small scab where the wound was.
Finally, she felt confident enough to see the rest of the house, as she opened the door to a small hallway she noted that there were a few rugs made from sheep wool that aligned the hall. A stack of books was also present aligned on the wall. They were written in a language that she didn't understand, taking note of this she turned right and quickly found herself in what she guessed was the main living room, a flight of stairs was located to the left, and the kitchen was visible behind the living room, the fireplace having a large pot where she guessed was where the food was cooked. The living room itself consisted of a long rectangular wooden table with two chairs on either side and one on either end, this was where Norin was sitting, quietly eating his own food, a set of candles were lit.
He saw her approach, rising from his seat, "Ah, please sit." Indicating the chair at the opposite end of the table. Tarah obliged, saying nothing as she inspected the rest of the room.
"Sooo...Do you have a name?" he finally asked, his voice weary.
She briefly considered using her real name, but she couldn't help but wonder if it was a good idea. Sure she was in a new place where nobody seemed to know her, but Tarah couldn't be sure, besides what if one of her enemies was trying to find her. But there was also the risk that if her friends tried to find her, her fake identity could work against them too.
"Lerah." She finally said, picking a name that Indigo had nicknamed her sometimes, it was rare but both Serana and Lucien had heard it, so the chance that they might connect a physical description along with that name might be enough to lead them to her.
"Nice to meet you," Norin said. "What were you doing passed out in the middle of the road, if I may ask?"
Tarah didn't want to reveal anything from her past or skill but also needed an excuse for not knowing anything from the culture or politics of the region. Noting that she had been walking on the East road when he found her, she decided to build her identity from that.
"I grew up east from here, my parents raising me in the wilderness." Not a complete lie but she had enough experience to make it believable. "I didn't talk to too many people growing up, but I was forced out of my home by bandits a few weeks ago." Drawing from what the soldier had said to his companion she was placing her bets that banditry was a common enough of a problem to pass her story. "I've been walking east ever since." She concluded, forcing a sigh, waiting for Norins' response.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He said finally, "You're welcome to stay if you want, you'll have to carry your weight but the bed is yours if you want it. The gods know that we are all going through some tough times right now."
"Oh?" Tarah asked, "What type of trouble?"
"Oh you know the emergence of a new dragon rider, and the subsequent conscript draft after the rebels' victory in the Beor mountains." Norin paused, "It doesn't help that Galbatorix hasn't done anything about the caravan raids in the region."
"Dragon rider?" Tarah asked, the two words the only thing that she stuck to her.
"Yeah, you know like in the stories." After a brief pause he seemed to note something, turning his attention from his food and back to her he asked: "You do know about the dragon riders right?"
Shaking her head Tarah improvised an excuse "It never came up in conversation before."
His eyes narrowed, she could practically feel the suspicion radiating towards her, "They were an order of humans and elves that rode dragons until Galbatorix destroyed them many, many years ago."
"Huh," Tarah said, noting that Galbatorix was the same name the woman had said in the woods. "Quite the accomplishment," she said.
Nodding Norin continued "Some reports say that he was riding around on his dragon a few weeks ago trying to find the new dragon rider."
He had said the sentence so casually that Tarah deducted that it was common knowledge that the "king" had a dragon of his own, so she tried not to act surprised. A dragon allowing a human to ride them was rare enough indeed, what type of power did the king wield?
"So Lerah, what story do you have to tell," Norin said, Tarah, froze for a small moment.
If I told you the whole of it we'll be here till next week. Tarah thought, but she said: "There isn't much to tell, I grew up out in the wilderness for most of my life, alone for more than half of it -"
"What type of wilderness," Norin asked suddenly, leaning on his fist looking at her.
"Forest," Tarah said instinctively, then silently cursing herself at not thinking it through.
"Must have been rough." he speculated, "Didn't you ever get lonely?" his tone wasn't hostile, but he was definitely not going to take her story at face value.
You have no idea, Tarah thought. Though aloud she said, "It's hard to miss what you don't know."
"True." He said, finishing his meal. After taking a moment to observe the ever-increasingly intense weather he got up, pouring a bucket of water on the cooker. "I'm going to retire for a while." He said letting out a yawn, "If you want any more food please help yourself." And with that, he turned to go upstairs.
Tarah who found the idea of heading back to sleep revolting and so opted to stay in the living room for a while, contemplating what seemed like an ever complicating situation she found herself in, and what she had learned. After a while however she turned to watch the storm, making a game of counting the number of times she saw lightning, how long it appeared after the thunder, and the intensity of the boom, by having to keep track of so much at once she managed to lose herself for a while.
Eventually, she got bored and decided to look around, noting the entrances and exits, as well as where they went. One exit went to the backyard, where a garden and fence surrounded the area, she could see the lights of the other houses glimmer from candles, and sometimes she would catch an outline of the inhabitants. The front door went out to the main street, it was wide enough for two carriages to barely pass side by side from what Tarah could guess. The windows unfortunately were too small to make as reliable exits, but she did note that a few of them had a weak frame, no doubt the wood rotting from exposure.
She was wrapping up her observations in the main kitchen when her eyes landed on a carpet in the corner, out of the way and not of much use. Chuckling Tarah walked to the edge of the rug, reaching down she removed it, revealing a hatch.
Some things never change. The thought comforted her somewhat.
She pondered about opening the hatch when there was a thunderous boom and an explosive crack from somewhere nearby. Running to the nearest window she saw that the roof of a nearby house had caught fire, the building quickly going up in flames. It was at this moment that the rain went from a downpour to an unexpected light drizzle. Enough that it wasn't enough to quench the fire on its own.
Rushing out of the house and into the main road, Tarah saw that the house that was struck had the top floor almost enveloping in fire. The wooden roof only fed the fire's fury.
Many of the neighbors had also come outside to the mudded street, at first to see what had happened, then trying to organize a team to put out the fire. Men and women rushing to grab buckets from nearby wells. Someone shoved past Tarah, it was Norin, in his undergarments, rushing to the scene, without a second glance a white-bearded man handed him a bucket.
For a moment Tarah watched, the flames going higher and higher as the fire ate away the top layer, bit by bit. Then there was a scream from inside the house, out of the front door a man holding a woman came tumbling out, the woman tried to rush back in but was held back by the man, on their knees they struggled, but with the help of a few other people, the woman was dragged into the crowd.
"My baby!" The woman hollered as Tarah approached. "My baby is still there!" Those around her had a guilty look on their faces, knowing that they wouldn't be able to save the child as the house quickly began to turn into an inferno.
Tarah's walk slowly began to turn into a jog, and when another scream was heard somewhere on the second floor, it turned into a full sprint. At first, she hadn't made the conscious decision, but her legs had a mind of their own.
Because she was coming from behind them, no one was able to stop her as she plowed through the group of spectators and firefighters.
"Stop." Someone shouted in the crowd, a hand tried to grab her shoulder but she moved too fast. Just as the front door was about to collapse on itself, taking a deep breath Tarah dove through, the debris crashing behind her, the shouts of despair from the people outside silenced as she focused on her surroundings.
Continuing to hold her breath, Tarah tried to keep low from the smoke. She saw the support beams slowly being consumed by the flames above.
Activating her frostbite magic she poured her energy from her mana pool, quickly moving her hands across her arms, legs, and hair she managed to lower her body temperature, that along with her long resistance of fire would hopefully allow her to avoid being badly burned.
As she did this Tarah began to move up the stairs, cautiously at first but as the fire began to spread she moved faster, the longer she waited the more likely the supports would collapse. When she arrived at the top of the stairs, a wave of flames ran into her, singing some of her clothes. Using her Frost magic she put the fire out, compared to Dragonfire, these flames tickled by comparison.
Crossing the hallway more cautiously, Tarah re-applied what little of her frost magic that she had left. Holding her breath started to become increasingly difficult, but she knew that breathing in the smoke would cost precious time as she would surely start to have a coughing fit.
Reaching the end of the hall, Tarah could hear someone coughing and crying on the other side of the door, the flames started to spread all around her now. Cooling the handle with her magic Tarah tried to tug and pull at the door, but it wouldn't budge. No matter how hard she tried, the stubborn thing wouldn't move so much as an inch.
"Oh come on, I've rescued more people in more intense situations, and against worse odds, I'm not about to have that pristine record ruined because a stupid wooden door doesn't want to do its job." She thought ferociously. Then with a final determined push, she managed to get the door out of the frame enough to have it come crashing down. Though to do this Tarah had accidentally opened her mouth, immediately inhaling smoke. Covering her mouth Tarah crouched her way through the door, her eyes watering. In the right corner of the room was a little girl, huddled in a ball, weeping and coughing as the flames surrounded her.
Using all of her mana that she had left Tarah poured a layer of frost over the surrounding flames, upon feeling the cold, the little girl looked up, her tears running down her face. When she saw Tarah washing away the flames the girl ran to her, hugging Tarah's waistline, burying her head on Tarah's upper leg. Grabbing the girl Tarah tried to turn back to the hallway but the floor crumbled away before she got to the fallen door frame. To her dismay, there were no other exits, and the fire was beginning to regain lost ground, with her mana reserves depleted and that there was too much smoke in her lungs for her to use her Thu'um, their only option was to make their own exit.
Choosing the wall the girl was huddled against Tarah prepared herself for a running start, the girl probably sensing her intentions through body language tightened her grip. RIght before Tarah charged through the wall they made eye contact with each other, the girl's fear reflected by Tarah's grim determination. Within a moment a silent conversation took place, the girl putting her faith in Tarah began to tense up.
Putting all her energy into it, the Dragonborn rushed through the flames, her body shielding the girl from the worst of the burns, then a moment before making contact with the wall, Tarah through her right shoulder first, the cracking of wood audible as they crashed out of the second floor of the burning house. They were in midair for three heartbeats before Tarah's back felt the dirt smash against her. Gripping the girl tighter as they rolled on the ground for several moments as their momentum kept them moving, until finally, they stopped, Tarah having wrapped herself around the child during the fall.
She kept her grip until she could feel the arms of people trying to pry her loose from the girl. Opening her eyes she could see the townspeople surrounding her, worried and relieved looks on their faces. Relaxing she allowed for people to take the girl from her embrace, Tarah could hear the whimpering of the man and woman as they embraced the child. The rest of the people had refocused their attention on combating the fire.
Though a few people tried to make sure that she was alright, Tarah moved to ensure that the child hadn't been badly injured, she saw that the girl was in a tight embrace with the woman who she guessed was her mother. The man who had kept the woman from rushing into the house was standing over them, his face when he saw Tarah nothing but gratitude and relief.
"Thank you." He said.
"It's what I do," Tarah replied, a small sense of purpose coming back to her.
AUTHORS NOTE:
Thank you to everyone that has decided to give this story a read, I feel truly honored and hope that you enjoy this story as much as I like writing it.