Rorikstead
"ERIIK!" His father shouted as he threw a bucket of dirty dishwater after the two boys who laughing ran out of the Frosfruit Inn.
"Ahhh, the smell!" I laughed, holding my nose as I ran.
"Did you see old man Jouane?! He puked all over the table!" Erik laughed as we jumped a fence into the farm opposite the Inn.
"Yuuck!" I laughed as we ran across the small field of potatoes and cabbages.
"Your dad was sooo pissed! His face was redder than my mom's after she leaves the sleeping chamber with my dad!" I laughed as we hid around the corner of a farmhouse.
"Hahaha! Yeah!" Erik crouched down to hide beside me.
Other than Erik there were no kids my age in Rorikstead. And so we had become friends by default. Erik ha freckles, copper red hair, and blue eyes. And was, according to my mother, a bad influence on me since he was a bit too generic for his own good, and a bit of a troublemaker. He lived with his father, Mralki, in the Frostfruit Inn. His mother had died birthing him leaving his father to care for him alone. But he was my best and only friend, and my childhood would have been quite dull if not for him.
This time Erik and I had hidden a dozen eggs on top of one of the large wooden beams that ran along with the ceiling of the Inn. And when, two months later, Mralki had decided to dust of the old beams the ¨fruits of our prank¨ had finally paid off as they all dropped to the floor and cracked open, filling the whole Inn with the stench of rotten eggs and death. One of our better pranks if I dare say so myself.
"Hey?… Don't you think he'll make you clean it up?" I asked Erik as we had stopped our giggling.
"That's why we're hiding." He said with a large smile. "He can't leave it there for the customers. So he'll have to clean it up himself," Erik smirked.
"That's true. But I'm not going back there for a long time." I said, making a face. "He's not going to calm down until he spanks both of us." I continued.
"We can go hunting with your brother then," Erik said as he realizing the truth of it. Better to keep away for some time. "Your dad can tell my dad we went away for a day or two," Erik said giving me a pleading look.
"My dad's already out hunting with my brother. It's just me and mom home. Besides, he always says I'm still too young to go hunting with them." I said, lowering myself down until my head was hanging between my knees.
I lived at a farm with my father, mother and older brother. The town called it Shoal's Rest Farm. Rorikstead was a small farming town in the Whiterun Hold, a day or two west of Whiterun itself, the capital of one of the many holds of Skrim. Rorikstead was known across the land for having the best soil in all of Skyrim, and unlike any other settlements, we managed to grow vegetables, berries, and different types of grain almost all around the year, except for winter. When harvesting season came we would pack and move the harvest by wagon to Whiterun. Jarl Balgruuf, the Jarl of Whiterun, always bought most of our harvest, and whatever he left we would sell in the city's marketplace.
The town consisted of the Inn and two farms, one bigger than the other, and at the north end of the town was a manor where Rorik, with his wife, lived. Rorik claims he founded the town after the Great War ended, about 15 years ago. But in truth Rorikstead had existed since the First Era, over 4000 years ago, but had then been known as ¨Rorik's Steading¨. So my dad said Rorik had most likely seen the likeness in their names and simply renamed the town after himself.
My father and Erik's had served under Rorik in the Great War. And Rorik had therefore sold our fathers a piece of land each for a very generous price. My family was, however, the smallest farm in Rorikstead and so we doubled as hunters as well as owned the town's only pair of cows, which provided milk to the town.
The surrounding lands to the east consisted of vast plains of yellow-brown tundra, reaching all the way past Whiterun, with a hill in between Whiterun and Rorikstead, making it impossible for the city and town to be seen from one another. To the south and west were huge highlands and hills, flowing like huge waves, and peaks, over the lands. And far past those highlands and hilltops was the Reach, another hold of Skyrim, with the ¨city of stone¨ Markarth as its capital. To the north, the horizon was covered by a wide mountain, blocking the view of the Sea of Ghosts, stretching as far as one could see to the west. If one climbed the nearby hill, just north of Rorikstead where a shrine of Akatosh, the chief deity of the Divines, had been raised in ages past, one could see the distant city of Solitude, the capital of both Haafingar Hold and all of Skyrim, resting on a cliff arching over the Karth River, which flowed into the Sea of Ghosts.
The sun had almost gone down over the horizon, coloring the sky scarlet red, when I rose from our hiding place.
"I must go home. Mom is probably waiting with supper already." I said as I looked down at Erik with my hands on my hips.
"Yeah,…" Erik said as he pulled himself up.
"I'm probably going to sneak into our storage shed and sleep there tonight. Dad's probably waiting for me with his broomstick. Sooo…" He said with a shamed look as I started to walk off. "Hey!" Erik shouted after me. "See you again tomorrow?!" He asked in a shout.
"Yeah! But you're coming to my place! Like I said! I'm not going to the Inn for a long time!" I shouted back with a smile.