Yo! Sooner then expected I know, but I was feeling good. I was originally going to do some small pov sections in Westeros, but most of it came out like a description of canon which would be kinda boring, nobody wants to read 2000 words describing pre cannon when its not going to matter for a long time in story.
Anyways!
Enjoy,
…..
The massive stone walls in the distance put a smile on his face, four gates on the only way up to the forts walls standing sentinel, four layers of walls before the main keep each taller then the last, his future home, the Sunfort was undergoing repair on all sides. A massive work camp formed at the bottom on the forts hill, with the keep being uninhabitable right now, Jon as Thane had been received by his workers and guards, along with the caravan.
He could see the many workers and architects buzzing around the fort, clearing away rubble and still useable stones were piled for further use, to save on the cost of repairs. Jon looked back to the Caravan's camp, 78 infantry, a mix of trained guards, mercenaries and green-boys looking for adventure, 26 archers, mostly hunters using short bows, 33 cavalry, skilled mercenaries and well trained guards, 137 total.
Jon had already set about whipping them into a proper fighting shape, distributing Halberds to the infantry and training them in the use of the weapon, and the beginning of formations under Thrain, the archers were integrated into that formation, Ari taking command of their training, and the cavalry were directly under Jon's command, with Hella and Ragnar serving as lieutenants.
Still for the amount of wealth Igor was hauling around the security was rather light, the man had given Jon permission to recruit as he saw fit up to 300 men total, a decent size group but finding recruits was not exactly easy, the caravan life was not for everyone and many green-boys who would sign up would drop out in a few months if not weeks. For now Jon focused on training the men already here, when they resembled a proper guard Jon would recruit more.
"Alright boys and girls! Marching drills! And if any one of you shitheads lets your halberd touch the ground we are going to have a spar!"
….
Falkreath hold was once a glorious forest, untouched by human or elf almost in its entirety, Sprigans roamed its woods and hunters took down game unrivalled in size. Now as Jon and the Caravan rode through it, forest still dominated tough it was often broken by farms, ranches and villages, much of what might once have been its majesty lost in favour of human habitation.
"Enjoying the view Jon?"
"Very much so, I have always liked forests, something about them is comforting to me."
"I can understand that, growing up in the exclave I spent much of my time climbing the mountains, I suppose its similar to me."
"Can you tell me about the Exclave?"
"Not much to tell really, some 5000 Altmer living in an old Dwemer outpost in the mountains of eastern Skyrim, a tough life but a safe one away from the other races who still bear something of a grudge against my people." Hella said, staring into the distance with a forlorn expression, the Altmer rode besides him as she had often done in the past two weeks of travel. "How about you, how did the Hagsbane grow up?"
"I did never tell you did I? Alright then, most of my youth I spent as a Bastard, living in my fathers castle, under the watchful eye of guards and instructors. I took to training like a fish to water, learned to ride as soon as I could get onto a horse and left as soon as I could."
"I am going to hazard a guess and say leaving had something to do with your family? Your fathers wife hated you for being a Bastard?" When he nodded she continued. "I know something about being an outcast, pretty much all Altmer are outcast after all, but being the daughter of a Nord none of the other Altmer really ever acknowledged us, its why I started traveling."
"So who trained you how to fight? Your father?"
"My mother actually, my father was a bit of a wimp, Mother was a warrior through and through and she insisted on teaching me and Ragnar everything she knew about fighting. I spent nearly a decade learning how to fight with my axe before I was deemed skilled enough to leave." Jon nodded, he could appreciate the dedication to training, having spent night after night training with Alessia in the dream world to master the dagger and sword. "Who trained you?"
"Same as you, my mother taught me damn near all I know."
"I thought she was dead?"
"She is, technically."
"Oh."
…..
"The conflict is reaching a boiling point, Thane Angband is pushing to remove Jarl Jagga now that he has married Thane Karlus daughter he controls the north and east of the hold. Normally I would do my best not to get involved in any conflict between rulers, but I received news that Thane Angband has been raiding trade caravans in the Jarls territory under the guise of protecting the roads against Forsworn."
"Anybody with even a modicum of knowledge about them knows that the Forsworn are nearly destroyed east of Markath, he's not really trying to hide it then." Jon nodded, he knew about the conflict around Falkreath, it had been going on for nearly five years at this point, it was common information that Thane Angband wanted the Jarls position, being a cousin of the Jarl he had a decent claim, if not for the Jarls unmarried Daughter being the lawful heir. "I am assuming we have to be extra alert?"
"Naturally, more then that, we need to find the 'Outlaw' camp, it should be somewhere near the road and share the location with the Jarl, that's as involved as I am willing to get, but we will be stopping at Falkreath for almost a week, plenty of time for some of the 'Exploration'."
Jon nodded, Igor was right, it had been a while since Jon had hunted bandits, with the information of the camps location the Jarl was likely to let them stay within the walls, meaning that he would not be needed to command the guards.
…
"You spotted the camp?" Jon asked Hella, the Altmer dismounting her marble white horse, she looked winded, caked in mud and leaves from what must have been her hiding spot.
"I did, bloody big place near a stream in a burnt out village in the woods along the road, at least 400 bandits, half of them armed and armoured like men at arms, the others militia or recruited bandits."
"That's a lot of the fuckers, a lot more then we could handle if they try to raid the caravan... We need a plan, Ari." Jon said, turning towards his Orc Housecarl. "Gather the others, and get me a map."
After a few moments Jon and his companions stood around a hastily erected table, staring down at a map of the regions roads, a tangled mess of dirt paths and ancient stone highways. Few roads could support carts and wagons of the size that the Caravan travelled with, restricting their movement and making it impossible to simply avoid the camp. Confrontation was inevitable, that much was certain, victory without a battle in the field, that was the stratagem he swore too, but when a field battle was unavoidable Jon knew he had to take the terrain advantage.
"Jonny, I need to say that while I have the upmost faith in you, we are in fact outnumbered at least 2 to 1, really bad odds."
"Here." Jon said, pointing to a spot on the map, just before a highway crossed a shallow stream by a collapsed bridge, it was a place the bandits would consider a good place to ambush, they were likely to keep watch over it, it was in the forest, reducing the effectiveness of cavalry, the trees would prevent any charge. Still it had advantages to it, many exploitable advantages. "This place is where we shall beat them."
…..
"Is it usually so exiting here?"
"Not generally no, honestly this is going to be the fifth fight I have had in five years with the caravan."
"I expected as much, it seems conflict follows me wherever I go."
"Funny." Hella smirked, leaning back besides the fire, her eyes turned to Jon as he roasted a pair of fish over it, Jon had been an interesting person to travel with in general, but his cooking left much to be desired, then again she had yet to see somebody mess up fish. "Still, these days Skyrim, well Tamriel as a whole seems to have more conflict then in a long time. Markarth and Falkreath in Skyrim facing internal conflict, the Lords of Cyrodil drifting further towards outright warfare between each other, the conflict between the Bosmer and the colonies of the Pentarchy, never mind the never ending bickering of the princes of Highrock. Sorry, I talk to much."
"I like it, no worries, still what a time to be alive right?" The Thane asked, drawing a laugh from her lips, she smirked back at him before answering.
"At least it's not boring."
…
"Boss, a large caravan is heading down the bridge road, lightly guarded by the look of it, passed right by the sentries at high speed."
"Well get a move on then boys!" Laurus smiled his signature jolly smile, the short imperial Housecarl of House Angband mounted his brown warhorse, his words having roused his men from their rest. The bridge road was only a five minute walk away, and his men where more then ready for a fight, the marched along the river as always, arriving at their normal position with the dust trail of the caravan just within sight. "Ready the stopper, pull the string when they get here!"
The stopper was in fact a simple leaf covered barricade that would shoot up and stop any wagon, cart or horse just before they could make it to the other side of the steam. It bottled any caravan up against the tall collapsed bridge, the barricade and the stream, with his men on both sides of the stream to slaughter them like dogs while they struggled in the water. The caravan came into sight, and something felt wrong to him, nobody on foot, just horseman, no caravan, just horseman.
A whistling made him turn his head, just in time to see one of the men to his side be hit by an arrow, tracing where it came from he looked up, the collapsed bridge, now crested by two dozen archers, stomping feet from behind him made him turn. A column of spear armed soldiers advancing on them, arrows pinning them and cavalry charging them, an ambush. Fuck. Why was his head feeling so light, he reached up, feeling a wooden thing stuck in, fuck, that did not belong there...
…..
Ragnar stood on the collapsed bridge, watching the bandits run away back to their camp, leaving nearly 100 of their number dead or wounded on the battlefield, he hefted bertha over his shoulder and leaned on his shield, his mace dripping with blood as he did so. The fight had gone by quickly, but Ragnar understood the brilliance of the plan Jon laid out was to thank for that, waiting for the sentries to report back, then using reeds tied behind the horses to make it seem like there were more of them in the dust cloud, archers having snuck onto the collapsed bridge the night before and the infantry moving independently under Thrain to flank around and pin the bandits.
"Had fun Ragnar?" His sister had removed her helmet, showing her tangled black locks to be wet with water from the river. "Because I sure did."
"Had a little wash did you?"
"Yeah, got blood in my hair, I much prefer this." She planted her axe into the ground to lean on it, Ragnar noted that she seemed tired, not something he did not see on her often. "Had to keep up with Jon, that man moves like a fucking whirlwind when fighting."
"As good as he is, that cat of his is far more terrifying, I saw it crack open a man's helmet with its claws."
"Ah, Mira is such a good girl though, a totally lovable fluffball."
"Yeah, I forgot you were insane."
"Oh come on brother, we both know that runs in the family."
….
The towns they passed were always interesting, each having its own problems and feuds that people were always happy to make an entertaining story out of, villages however, Jon found to be almost boring. They had few people, and were largely just collections of farmers, millers and bakers, or wood cutters, saw-millers and carpenters, all living around a shrine, maybe he had been corrupted by his time in Markarth, but such small places just had so little that interested him.
Still, Jon reflected as he stared up at the near half-moon taking in the way it reflected off of the wet wooden shingles roofs of the town, giving the place an ethereal shine, at least its quite at night. He flexed a mental muscle, pulling his Magicka out and giving it shape, the green glow of the courage spell pushing into himself, feeling it rush over him. He knew he should not do it too often, the compendium had many notes on why it was a bad idea, addiction first among them.
"Still up?" The familiar tone of Hella's aristocratic Altmer voice, she had climbed the ladder up to the loft he had rented for the night, she sat down besides him before he answered.
"Yes, I am studying the moon as always."
"Making any progress?"
"Not really if I am honest, I seem to have hit a similar ceiling to the one I had before I connected to the Sun, I can do any basic spell connected to the moon with ease, anything more complex is not working properly, and finding words for the magic of the Moon is hard."
"Don't you have a book on ancient words?"
"I do, but the words related to Moon-magic appear to be hidden by Moon magic so that they can only be read under a full Moon."
"Which passed already, so you are stuck waiting."
"That sums it up rather well, either I wait until the next full Moon, or I connect to it fully, which is proving to be far harder than it was for the Sun, so I think I will need a Focusing Nexus."
"...Yeah I have no idea what that is."
He laughed at that, the mirth breaking his staring at the moon to turn his gaze to her, Hella was wearing a simple white shirt and linen pants, her shiny black hair was messy, and she was clearly sleepy. Honestly, he knew he was attracted to her, maybe it was the courage spell but for the first time since his fight with Morghannah Jon found himself admitting that he was attracted to a woman.
'While this is good, its also not the time, stop staring.'
'Oops.' Jon tore his gaze from her, hoping she had not noticed.
"A Focusing Nexus is a place where a particular sphere of Magic is more powerful, generally because its reflected in the environment, for instance the Red-Mountain is likely a Nexus for Sun magic, while the throat of the world is probably one for sky magic."
"And you have no idea where one for Moon magic would be I suppose."
"Exactly."
"You know, there were a few mages in the Exclave, I could enquire if they might have some information on that."
"That would be nice, my thanks."
"No need Jon, we are friends after all."
…
The city of Falkreath was far smaller than Markarth or Solitude by a great margin, at nearly a third the size of Markarth it had a far more personal feeling to it, the city held less than 10.000 people, while the surrounding lands were home to double that. Still it was a far more lively place then the towns Jon had seen this past three weeks, something he was rather happy about, it would be nice to spend a day or two exploring a city.
Unlike Markarth, Falkreath city was completely under its Jarls control, even if the Jarl was rather weak with the main economic centre of the hold, the north-east, being under the Thane Angband, it was the centre of the Jarls power and as such a good place to trade. Riding through its gates Jon found that the atmosphere of the city was mostly relaxed, if not for the clearly increased guard patrols.
"So, what are you planning Jon?" Hella asked as they dismounted, handing the reigns of their horse to Igor's hired tender.
"Before anything else I want to visit lake Ilinatha, it's a few days until full moon and I want to be their just in case it does happen to be a Nexus." She had gotten a letter back from her exclave yesterday and the resident mages had suggested the lake as a likely location of a Moon Nexus, something that he wanted to examine.
"Mind if I come along?"
"Not at all, it would be a pleasure to have you with us."
….
This was fun, its been a while since I did some world building and this has been highly relaxing, got me out of the exam stress, might even finish the next one before the end of the month, if a new idea doesn't hit me first that is.
Anyway,
Reviews:
Vargos: He will be back eventually, though not for a while, and for the state of Westeros, its currently pre cannon by about nine months to a year, so not much interesting is going on here. Glad to hear you are enjoying it too!
Flashking: Yeah, that's how it works in ES true, but I have in story explanations for all the points you brought up, I don't want to go off on a tangent here because spoilers, but if you want a detailed description send me PM and I will tell you all you want to know, as long as you don't go spoiling it for others that is.
Asoina99: Yeah, that's going to be a thing later as you can imagen, I love consequences.
LincilnRonnie94: Close yeah, its an object older than most relics with a lot of magic passing through it, its got a will of its own.
Robbler: Nice to hear! And yeah, somehow, even in stories I write, he seems to have bad things happen to them.
As always, Follow, Favourite and Review!
Later,