Compared to the cold Windhelm, the city of Whiterun wasn't as imposing with massive stone fortifications, but the Jarl's castle at the top of a mountain within the walled city stood out, expressing its power to the world.
But Belanor wasn't given the chance to appreciate more of the city architecture as he was pushed away by the passing crowd of people, making him frown but didn't voice out his disapproval. He merely followed the crowd to see where they were all going out of curiosity.
As he walked, he took his time to look around and compare the city again to the last city he had the displeasure to visit. It was far more green or a yellowish tone of green compared to the stone dead surroundings. They kept the grass short, and some buildings had rows of flowers, which were slowly losing its petals since the winter was coming.
Focusing on the stone road, he was pleasantly surprised that following the rude group led him towards the central market. Just like in Windhelm, multiple stalls showing off their products on the streets and shops of all kinds spread out. Yet his interest laid elsewhere as he walked up towards the notice board near the stone well.
He wanted to reach Solitude as soon as possible, but with his temporary stay in the city, his funds would become lower once again, leaving him with little to reach his destination. Any job to maintain a decent weight of his pouch would be enough, as long as it wasn't a reckless and dangerous job. Those would be left for the idealistic adventures seeking fortune and excitement.
One offer took his interest. It was a simple gathering job, and the reward was good, but it had some strange conditions which he easily met. Yet he needed more information regarding the job and the paper detailed the client and where to find her, instruction which he quickly followed.
He just looked at the building sign post. Most of them were stores for specific products, keeping a note of those that could be useful in giving a check at a later date. When he found the alchemist shop, he just walked to the door and opened without any problem.
"Greetings, are you Arcadia?" the elf asked as he approached the counter, taking a better look at the old imperial woman. She had shoulder-length brown hair and was wearing a rather ragged reddish robe.
"Of course. What do you need?"
"I read you posted a job offer on the notice board."
Her face lit up, "Ah yes, I did a while ago. I assume you are interested, then."
"Of course, but I need details. I doubt a simple ingredient gathering would require experts in combat and the reward is rather high." He pointed out the inconsistencies that caught his attention first. He didn't want to find nasty surprises in the middle of the job.
"Quite sharp, aren't you?" The old woman smirked and placed two rather worn out cloth sacks on top of her counter along with white and red flowers. "Well, I need you to fill two bags of these flowers. And the area that had been reported vast fields of these two, however, the land is quite wild and is likely you will encounter saber-tooths and wolves packs or stumble with giants and their pets."
"Again with the cats. Are they truly dangerous?" Belanor scoffed, animals were animals. There wasn't a good reason to fear them, since a firebolt was enough to scare them. And Trolls were scary creatures. He was thankful that he focused on fire magic when he was younger.
"Well, young man, if you aren't careful, one of them can easily rip your head off or disembowel you with a swift claw."
He rolled his eyes, "Would that be all?"
The imperial woman sighed as her warning rested on deaf ears, but quickly perked up when another thought came to mind, "There is also the slight possibility of bandits camping in the area. But the Jarl's men always patrol the city surroundings, so I wouldn't worry much."
Belanor rubbed his chin in deep thought. While there were dangers, it was only a possibility he could come out on top if worse came to happen and the job was very simple, "I will take your offer. So point me in the right direction."
The reward was tempting, to say the least.
"Lucky for you, I have a map." She turned around and left towards a different room for a moment before returning with a large parchment of paper which she spread on the counter, revealing a well-drawn map of the city and its surroundings, "The flower fields are around here, if you go by foot it will take a couple of hours."
Arcadia pointed a little farther from the west watchtower.
The high elf walked towards the window and checked the darkening sky. And his mind calculated the time it would take to reach the marked place and return to the city.
"Seems doable. If luck is on my side, then I will finish this job tomorrow." He assured her. The elf was planning to wake up very early in the morning the next day, as he didn't want to camp in the wilderness.
"I will be waiting."
Belanor quickly left the establishment and headed towards the inn. Bannered mare was the name he could read as he got closer and was able to see the sign with its name painted with big letters.
He opened the door and entered the building and felt the warmth from the fire wash over him, making his entrance rather pleasant. He quickly noticed the inn was full of people, either sitting around the fire or eating at a table.
Nobody paid attention to the new arrival.
The elf quickly walked towards the counter and saw a small board with the price for a room, rather than stay for idle chatter he pulled out his pouch and counted the exact amount of septims to pay the woman who was leaning on the surface idly playing with a golden coin.
He walked up to the wooden counter and placed the coins. The woman lazily looked up at him and then the small pile of money. She grabbed a set of keys under the counter with a small cloth with a number attached to them and pointed upwards with her right hand.
Belanor didn't waste time and grabbed the keys and left towards the second floor in search of his room. The crowd remained silent until one blonde man played his lute, which caught the attention of everyone inside.
The high elf was curious at first, but dismissed that feeling and went up the wooden stairs and saw a long hallway with doors on each side, with a number engraved on them. Since the rooms were in order, he merely counted doors until he reached the number 11 and entered his room, where he quickly dropped everything on the floor.
His room wasn't special, it was simple. With a bed, a chest to safeguard his most valuable belongings, which explained the extra key in the ring. And there was a small closet to the left. But before he could start organizing, he merely walked up to the bed and dropped on top of it to give himself a slight moment of rest on a proper bed.
He needed to wake up before the sun peaked on the horizon if he really wanted to finish his job in a single day, so sleeping earlier was the best course of action for the young elf.
The dawn of a new day was a calm and beautiful scenario.
Usually the time when farmers start their day so they can tend their crop and cattle. But also for the guards to shift turns, which took some time waiting at the gates before he could be allowed to leave the city. He was alone as more nord citizens were also waiting next to him. Belanor assumed they were farm workers as their clothes looked too dirty to be anything else.
Two additional guards came to the gates and opened them while the others left their posts, indirectly giving the signal for everyone to move. However, the sun-skinned elf was surprised to see people waiting on the other side, many of them carrying a backpack or large sacks above their shoulders. The curiosity died down as he crossed the gates and followed the stone road with his gaze focused on what was in front of him. After passing the secondary gate, he saw a couple of buildings down the road, which were the horse stables he saw when he arrived with the group of nords.
Belanor rubbed his chin in thought taking in consideration the distance he would need to travel to reach the place the old woman marked and the use of a horse would halve the time needed to finish his job and it would be safer than he could outrun most potential dangers from the wilderness.
As he approached the stables, a single bearded man was sitting alone on a wooden bench in front of the building next to a small fire, probably to keep him warm. The closer he got, the better view the elf could get of the man wearing a humble shirt and a pair of ragged pants. The long beard was enough sign for the elf to guess that he was another nord.
"Are you in charge of the stables?" He asked once he was close enough.
The nord lifted his gaze and nodded, "Aye."
"How much for a horse?" Belanor pointed at the horses which were idling inside the fence.
The stable master raised 3 fingers.
"Hundred?"
"Thousands." He corrected with a dry tone.
Belanor furrowed his brow as the price felt excessive, "That's out of my budget."
The nord took another look from head to toe and pointed at the corral on a specific horse with his right hand, "You can take the old one for half the price."
Belanor saw a brown horse with long black mane tied to the corner of the fence, "Can he still run?"
"She." The farmer corrected, "And yes, she is still capable of running and trotting."
"I see." The high elf looked at the mare for a while, but the moment he heard the price in the thousands he shot down the idea of buying a horse, it would be more detrimental than helpful, especially on the associated costs of owning a horse.
The original plan was to buy a cheap horse and sell it at a loss to recoup some of the money and he would still make a decent margin profit with the quest reward.
A high-pitched scream broke him away from his thoughts and his attention turned to the direction where it came from. But there was nothing but an empty road and a small silhouette of a mill in the distance,
"Was that a scream?"
The nord barely moved his neck to check and shrugged, "Must be another skeever attack. Damned mongrels know no end."
The image of the diseased and almost undead looking rodent came to mind, "Do you know why are they so hideous? Back home they look just like rats, but bigger."
"I know nothing, but if you get bitten, you get sick with rockjoint. So it is a good thing to be bitten around here rather than in the mountains or in the middle of the road."
Belanor winced. He knew the symptoms of the disease and anybody afflicted by it and with no immediate treatment would face a grim end.
"Don't you worry about being attacked?"
The man raised an eyebrow and pointed to his right, "See that? That keeps them away."
Belanor's gaze landed on a large wooden pole with a blazing fire on top, "Is only a torch?"
"The smell keeps them away."
The eld leaned closer to sniff but only the stench of animals invaded his nostrils, "I can only smell dung."
"This is a stable. Of course it smells like dung, but burning whatever that is keeps those mongrels away from me and my house."
"Do you know where I can buy some?" The elf became interested, as it would be very useful in his future travels.
However, his interest died down when the nord shook his head. "You are out of luck. I only buy it from the Khajit caravan. They come once every two weeks. And they left 4 days ago."
He clicked his tongue, "Thank you for your time."
"Be careful out there."
With a nod, the elf kept following the road and turned to his right at his own pace.
He might have sped up his journey if he trotted instead of walking, but he kept his steady pace to maintain his energy in case of anything he could stumble into. Being at his best in case of a fight was a prudent decision.
He needed to reach the watchtower and then venture into the wilderness, walking on a straight line until reaching the lake. Besides admiring the scenery and the mountains in the distance, there was little he could do to keep himself entertained, as it would be hours of walking.
