A Lost Bloom in the Snow

by kyro2009

Summer Rose, a highly skilled destroyer of monsters and baker of cookies, was just finishing up her assignment when she suddenly gets dropped into a portal to a whole new world of magic, warriors and dragons. Having forced to adjust to her new situation and travel alongside the Dragonborn of prophecy, can she survive long enough to find a way back?

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Delving For Answers

Adrien and Ralof walked down the road they all once travelled. While the others decided to stay and rest up, he was asked by Gerdur to clear out Embershard Mine for the people of Riverwood. It would have been the ideal place to hunker down in case of a dragon attack, but to what he had been told, it was currently occupied by bandits. So, after taking a small meal and gearing up, it was up to them to make it safe.

He no longer wore the Imperial light armor, since it was damaged and reeked of bloodstains from two different creatures. Instead, Alvor had given the knight a set of iron armor after telling the blacksmith about the request. It would be free of charge if he cleared out the mine he said, and anything he found down there would be his to keep.

The iron armor gave him an almost familiar feeling of wearing a second layer of skin again, but the downside to this armor was the lack of protection in certain areas. The torso was solid with a leather shirt underneath the iron plating, but it lacked having pauldrons for protecting the upper arms. The iron tassets covered the sides of his hips and legs, but his legs had no cover, only wool trousers which left no protection against piercing. His gauntlets consisted of animal fur for warmth, leather gloves, and a plate of iron strapped to the gauntlet by leather straps. It gave decent protection for the forearms, but the rest of his arms were left bare to the elements. His leather boots had a thick fur lining at the top, and a strapped metal plate to act as the shin guard for his ankles. Last, but not least, was the iron helmet. It had the near traditional Nordic look of a spangenhelm, protecting the eyes, nose, cheeks and head, and half the back of his neck, but not his stubble jaws, and his throat was left open for attack. And it had one feature in which Nords have used for intimidating their foes; the horns that were placed on the sides of the helmet. To Adrien, it made him look more like a brigand than a warrior, but beggars could not be choosers.

He would have preferred to wear a suit of steel armor, but he believed he would be pushing his luck with the people's generosity. Besides, it was another upgrade better than that leather legion armor he begrudgingly had to wear.

Ralof, on the other hand, was told to go by her demand that they work together. He did not mind much since he was helping his home village, but there was another reason for going with him. They soon stood in front of the dead wolves they killed before coming to Riverwood, and this was the reason why.

"Alright, time to get to work." Ralof muttered aloud as he pulled out one of his carving knives, got down on his knees in front of one of the dead wolves, and started his process of skinning it.

"You go on ahead," he said as he skillfully yet carefully cut the skin of the wolf down the middle, from the neck to the genitals as the remaining blood began rushing out. "I'll catch up to you once I'm done here."

"That's going to take you a while you know," Adrien mused as he watched, even though he had no experience with skinning animals.

"Trust me, I've done this enough times along with a friend where I can be quick about it. So go ahead and kill a few bandits for Riverwood, would ya?"

"I'll hold you to that. See you later then." He said in farewell as he walked away.

"Aye." He walked over a couple other of the dead dogs and continued down the road. He eventually found the trail off the left side of the road. The trail was almost hidden in the foliage that one would pass by and not notice it. There were logs dug into the ground for easier climbing as he walked up the steps. He was soon near the entrance, but a lone sentry stood guard, leaning against a post. He wore hide armor: far easy to move around in but offered little protection, with a single circular plate covering the center of his chest. It did not even offer warmth either, not that it mattered to the Nords. And neither did it matter to this guy.

The bandit looked ahead from his boredom after hearing movement, and saw a man decked in iron armor appearing before him. "You lost or something? Or are you here to join up?" He asked him ignorantly.

He paused for a moment, somewhat surprised that the bandit mistook him for one of their own, but he was not here to fool anyone. "No," he said coldly as he drew his iron sword.

The bandit had a flicker of shock on his face at first, but then made a menacing look. "Oh, some adventurer, huh?" He sneered as he pulled out his iron war axe. "Normally I'd tell you to turn around and go back the way you came… but I've been getting rather itchy as of late."

The knight got ready to fight.

"Heh, guess no one will miss you when you're dead!" The bandit went at him with forward momentum and his axe raised high for a powerful strike. He believed that this fool was some would-be adventurer judging from the iron sword he carried, but that assumption had become his fatal and last mistake.

The knight took the opportune moment and went sprinting in a burst of speed. The bandit did not have time to bring down his axe when the knight rushed into him, and his heart was run through. His momentum was completely halted, his breath taken right out of him in surprise, and his strength waned as he dropped his axe. He was shoved back as the sword slid out easily, now profusely bleeding out as he struggled to stand, all while trying to comprehend what just happened when the knight sliced his throat open. The force of his swing spun the dying bandit around to the ground, and he died choking on his own blood while building up a pool.

Adrien flicked some of the blood off his blade. He hated bandits just as much as everyone else did. They pillage, murder, rape, and rob whoever and whatever they wanted without regret or remorse, living a life as outlaws and raiders. He would not have to guess that, with the civil war going on, the bandits living in Skyrim had gotten more bolder as of late. It would take adventurers from the Fighters Guild, and even the Knights of his Order in order to bring these lawless villains to justice, but from what he could remember back in his younger days, Skyrim still did not have a Fighters Guild. He wondered sometimes, just how on Tamriel did they deal with them?

He walked past the corpse, not bothering at all to pilfer his belongings. He still followed his morals, even if the man he just killed was scum. He went into the entrance to the mine, expecting to spill more blood.

---

Ten minutes ago

Summer walked out of the house while Gerdur went into conversation with the knight. The food was rather decent, if a little tough to chew, but as they say; you learn about the people by the food they cook.

She was without her white cloak and attire and was instead wearing the spare dress clothes given by Gerdur, seeing that it needed tending to after having it covered with bloody splotches of both wolves and large spiders. After borrowing a wash bucket and having cleaned her cloak and clothes of all the filth as best she could, she then had it hung up on a clothesline and went to find a quiet place. She never expected herself to be dropped off somewhere, killing creatures that bleed without carrying the proper cleaning supplies, and having to clean her clothes the older fashioned way. To those who now saw her without her hood, her hair was long down to her upper back, made into a ponytail by a velvet bow.

She walked across the street and went behind an inn to find some peace and quiet from all the noise. She wanted to find out what was going on with herself, and the only way to do so was through Aura meditation as planned. It is a technique used to focus on the energy that is their Aura, and to cultivate and expand that pool of energy for more use. She was only going to be focusing on seeing her Aura, to investigate and determine what was wrong.

She found a dry spot and sat down on her knees. She laid her hands on top of her legs. She closed her eyes, and she breathed deeply, calming herself and clearing her mind of everything before going into controlled breathing, and beginning her concentrated descent into nothingness.

She was in a black void, like a lonely fish swimming under a moonless night. But unlike the fish, she peered deeper into that darkness to find her soul… but what she saw caught her by surprise as something else was in its place she did not expect to find within herself. Glowing in the place of where her Aura should be was a large aura of blue energy.

'This was never here before,' she thought, and her sense of dread was beginning to grow. Her Aura had the color of white, and this was definitely not the color she had before, but curiosity was getting the better of her as she decided to delve further inside this blue mist. Deeper and deeper she went, hoping for a sign that her white Aura would still be here somewhere, but once she reached what she believed to be the center, she had found her Aura, but the current state of it baffled her.

It was small, so small that she could reach out and grab it, but a question had sprung up from the back of her mind:

'It's so small. Why is it not regrowing?' She asked herself with growing concern. Then she looked around at the auric mist that was the blue energy and had a questioning theory. 'Could this blue aura be holding it down?' She looked back at her Aura, and then curiously reached out to touch it, that perhaps it needed some kind of reconnection. She yelped. What she did not expect was a strange orange covering to zap at her touch, making her recoil her hand back in pain. 'What the—what is this!?'

The jolt of pain ruined her focus, and she was dragged out of the blue aura, the void, and back to consciousness as she then opened her eyes. Her features creased, the experience now had given her more questions than answers. Although she should be relieved that she still had her Aura, but something about the state of everything she saw was troubling.

She stood up off the ground and sighed as she pressed her curled fingers to her forehead. "Just how…?" She wondered aloud in mild frustration. She raked her hair with her fingers and dropped her hand down to her side. Her emotions were swirling with worry, but then a thought came to mind about summoning her Aura manually. She brought up her left hand, and concentrated on bringing her Aura to glow a sheen around her hand. When nothing happened, she tried harder, but try as she might, she could not bring it out.

"What gives!?" She asked no one but herself in frustration as she shot her hand down and sighed. Her mind still went swirling with questions. She first thought that the blue aura was what kept it compressed, but witnessing this strange barrier had made her think otherwise. Could it be that her Aura formed its own barrier to keep it safe from harm? She had never read anything about Aura doing something like that, so that had to be a contradiction. And that blue aura; how did she get it? Did she contract it as a side effect from the portal she fell through?

Her own situation had become more complicated than she thought.

---

Meanwhile

Adrien went in through the door and walked carefully down. It was as expected to see in a mine; the support beams were built to keep the ceiling from collapsing as the miners dug deeper, and the wooden track next to him was made to carry waste rocks and mineral ore out of the mine.

He soon halted when he spotted a line of rope hovering in front of his ankles. He looked left to see it tied to a stake at one end, then looked right to see the rope wrapped around a wheel, all the way up past the scaffolding. Good thing the torchlight to his left exposed the trigger mechanism. Otherwise he would have been crushed by the large rocks placed above him.

When in caves, ruins, and even camps, bandits would always create traps to either alert them of incoming intruders, or to just kill them. They would make a rope tied with bones to act as an alarm in case no one was looking, for example. Or they would rig a chest by hanging a chained spiked mace to the ceiling to smash one's skull in case they tried opening it. And it's not just the bandits that can make traps. Even the goblins back in his home province were crafty with making their own traps, primitive though they may be. In ancient ruins, there are traps already built in to act as a security measure to halt or get rid of unwanted guests, and even after a thousand years, they would still function to this day.

He considered himself lucky. He had laid witness to traps more elaborate than this, and had survived many other traps back in his day as an adventurer to know where to look and what to expect. Sometimes, a trap laid out to stop you could also help you. There were times where he would turn the enemy's traps against them if the odds were going against him. It's all about thinking ahead. Plus it could sometimes be funny to take advantage of their low intelligence.

He carefully stepped over the rope line, keeping in mind that he would have to come back and disable it. Then he continued down to what he saw would be a large chamber, with a wooden deck built over the shores of a cave pond.

"Aren't you worried that someone's going to walk in here?" He heard a voice coming from the right of the chamber and hid behind a wall, then he took a glancing peak around the corner and listened in. Luckily, the wall he hid behind was shrouded in shadow. "The entrance isn't exactly hidden, you know."

"This again?" The other bandit said with annoyance. "I told you, we have someone standing guard out there. And don't forget the rock trap we rigged up. So, stop your worrying and get some rest. Your shift is coming up and I don't want you dozing off again like last time."

There were only two bandits, and one of them was done chipping away at something with a pickaxe, but he could hardly tell what it was from where he stood, even with the campfire illuminating part of it behind them. Sneaking was out of the question because of his armor, but he did not care for that. He was a warrior, not an assassin. So he went out of hiding and walked on the deck.

"Hey." He called out and got their attention out of surprise.

"What the–who are you!?" The bandit with the pickaxe asked. "How'd you get in here!?"

"I went through the guard to get in here." He answered evenly as he slowly walked along the deck. "I would ask that you all leave this mine and never come back… but I guess that's too much to ask."

The bandit growled in anger at the insult given by a mere adventurer. "Get him!" He barked, and the other bandit dropped the pickaxe, pulled out his steel war axe and joined his companion wielding an iron mace as they ran towards the ramp.

The knight was biding his time, walking as he pulled out the iron sword. The bandit duo were now on the deck, running at him without any care for a plan of attack. The bandit with the iron mace swung at him, but the knight parried the swing and shoved him aside hard enough to make him fall over the railing. He quickly dodged to the side away from a downward axe swing, and when the bandit tried to swing at him again, his wrist was grabbed by the knight and was then stabbed through in the lung between his rib cage. He pushed the surprised, dying bandit away from his bloodied sword, swung his weapon down hard and finished him off in a spatter of blood.

He did not have time for a breather when he sensed incoming danger and, with excellent reflex, he parried away a thrown mace? It caught him by surprise, but it was enough for the angry, charging bandit to tackle him to the ground. The bandit punched him twice in the face before pulling out his iron dagger and attempted to stab him, but the knight was luckily not dazed enough as he stopped the incoming knife by grabbing his wrists with both hands. The struggle ensued, and the snarling bandit put more muscle into his arms in the attempt to bury the dagger into his throat, but surprisingly the knight still held it back against his strength. On a dare, Adrien freed his right hand as he put more force into his left arm to keep it at bay, then his hand went down and pulled out his iron dagger. The bandit was too focused on killing him to notice the incoming dagger as the sharp weapon became buried into his left eye. The bandit screamed in bloody pain as the socket bled out, relieving the pressure, dropping his dagger and reflexively reached up to the dagger buried in his eye, but that left him wide open as Adrien grabbed the bandits dagger and plunged it into his stomach. Then he used his hands to grab his sides, lifted him up and then pulled out his leg to then kick him off and away from him. The knight was getting up as he grabbed his sword, then ran and stabbed the bandit in the chest, just right after the scum pulled it out. He twisted it harshly to silence the bloody yells, as the bandit went still.

He breathed easy as the adrenaline wore off. He pulled out his iron sword in a wet squelch and inspected the bodies. They were both very much dead as the pools of blood seeped through the cracks between the floorboards and dripped into the pond. They must have been the grunts to his inspection of their fight. With them out of the way, he then inspected the damage to his sword in the dim light. Its sharpness was getting dull as the edges were getting more chipped away, and he spotted a few dents here and there, even amongst the bloodstains. He guessed that any more stress to the sword and it just might break. He did not have a whetstone on him to re-sharpen the blade and thought of getting one at some point, but he filed the thought to the back of his mind for later.

He sheathed his bloodied sword and looked around. Beyond this deck was a cave pond with a waterfall raining from above next to a raised drawbridge at the end. In order to get across to the next area, he had to find the lever connecting to the bridge. He did not know where it could be at first, but he could guess that the lit overlook above the pond could be where the switch was. He then looked down the large hallway, illuminated by a single torch sconce which might lead to the lit room he saw, but right now, his mind grew curious as to what the bandit was picking at. So he walked over the body and went down the ramp, went past the bonfire and kneeled in front of the strangely shaped rock stuck against the cave's wall. Thanks to the lighting from the fire, he got a decent look at what it was, and to his small surprise…

"Well, what do you know… iron ore." He discovered. "So this mine isn't empty after all."

He stood back up after being satisfied with the discovery. He was never given much information on the mine itself, and only knew… well, assumed, that the mine was empty of resources, but as it turned out, they were untrue after all. But that also meant that the bandits here had a reason for occupying the mine. They may have a blacksmith of their own, which was a high probability, and if he was right, then they could be using this mine to forge weapons and armor for the scum to start a raid on the defenseless people of Riverwood. He was not going to let that happen, and it was all the more reason to kill them and put an end to their operation. His job was to clear the mine, while at the same time saving the village from being burned to the ground. So in retrospect, it would be like killing two birds with one stone.

He walked back up the short ramp and turned right into the large dark tunnel. To his delightful discovery, he found a passage which definitely led him to the room. He followed down that way and was soon within the brazier lit room after taking a turn. He had already spotted the lever built onto a slab of bricks on the wooden balcony floor, right next to a natural column, but he took a quick look around the area first. The wood floored overlook was a little spacious, with a natural column at the center, and very few furnishings like the single square table and chair to his right, and across from them a near empty storage shelf and a small mead barrel placed on top of a barrel. There was nothing that he needed in here, so he walked up to the lever and cranked it forward. The drawbridges became active as they went down one at a time with a creaking pat, now connecting the two points together, but suddenly heard a commotion.

"The bridge went down!" One of the bandits said in surprise.

"Come on, I think I heard something over here." The other bandit muttered as they went across the bridge. The leading bandit was a Nord who wore hide armor and carried, with two hands (or perhaps dragged), an iron battle axe while the other (an Imperial renegade like the other two) wore fur armor and wielded a steel war axe. Once they reached the other end (while Adrien walked out of the room to fight them), they came across the bodies of their dead comrades.

"Damn! I thought we had a guard posted outside." The bandit with the war axe said somewhat nervously.

"We did! But keep your eyes peeled. I don't think we're alone in here. You check the entrance. I'm going to look over here."

"No need!" Adrien called out as he charged at them from the hallway with his sword drawn.

"You're mine!" The bandit with the battleaxe growled in anger as he ran at him and lifted up his large axe for a powerful chop. The knight saw this coming almost too late and had to dodge at a split second before the axe could chop him in half, then he shouldered the bandit in the side to get him off balanced. He had to block an attack from the war axe wielder by using his left iron gauntlet as a shield before finishing him by stabbing him in the heart with the sword. The gauntlet was surprisingly effective as a shield for a half inch thick slab of iron.

"Damn you!" The knight had already pulled out his sword when he spun around to meet his attack and immediately raised his sword. He used the flat side, used with both hands while his left hand was placed almost to the end of the sword. Perfectly, and luckily timed, he successfully block the axe head from chopping his head. The axe landed near the sword guard where the blade was wider and thickest. If it had hit the middle, then the sword would have broken in half, and the axe would have continued its descent. He immediately redirected the axe off to the right, then with both hands holding the sword like a spear, he shoved the sword into his gut, but just missing his heart. The Nord growled in pain, but the pain only served to anger him more, acting like a painkiller as the bandit kicked him fiercely away from him as the sword slid out of his body. The knight fell to the floor backwards from tripping over the dead body, and then had to roll out of the way of an incoming axe chop as the weapon buried an inch deep into the wood, right where his head used to be. The knight got back up and made to block, but the Nord swung the axe hard enough to disarm him, and then went in to pin him against the railing with his axe, but the knight had righted his footing so he would not fall over, and had his hands on the battleaxe as well.

The struggle was on, a power struggle between two strong men in a bid to show who was dominant, but it only lasted a moment before the knight used his strength to start pushing him back a bit, surprising the Nord before the knight used his boot to kick him in the shin to make him buckle, then pulled the bandit forward to head butt him with his helmet. He was not done as he pulled him back in for a second headbutt. The second impact dazed the Nord, then Adrien shoved him and yanked the battleaxe from his hands. The bandit was never given time to recover as he got bashed in the right cheek by the butt end of the axe, spitting out blood and shattering teeth as he spun halfway and staggering. He then felt jolted and breathless by the axehead buried in the center of his his chest. It became the final blow as the axehead was forcefully pulled out, pulling him to the wood floor as he rapidly bled out, soon losing his life when the axe came down again one more time.

The adrenaline slowly disappeared as he breathed from the fatigue of battle, then he pulled the axe out of the dead Nord's back and laid the weapon against his shoulder as he went searching for his iron sword. He found it where it landed in the natural hallway and lifted it to inspect the damage this time under the torchlight, but he already noticed right away that this sword was beyond saving. The blade was broken off diagonally near the guard to his quiet surprise. It was not everyday one would witness someone hitting the exact same area a second time.

Seeing it had completely outlived its usefulness, he discarded it and brought the bloodied iron battleaxe to bare for inspection. It weighed about twenty pounds, made with hardened wood and forged iron, with long leather strips crisscrossing all the way down to the iron cap. The axehead was obviously singular, being sharp and designed to split skulls, combined with a spike made behind it to perhaps act optionally as a war pick (or battle pick). This weapon, meant for using two hands was rather versatile for having options, although he would prefer using a greatsword than a battleaxe. Speed-over-weight and all that. But for now, he would be using it.

He walked out of the hallway, retrieved his iron dagger from the corpse of the bandit, took the still burning torch off the wooden sconce and walked across the drawbridge, ready to continue on with completing the quest.

---

Meanwhile

While everyone was going about their business, Summer walked about with a troubled thought of her personal situation after walking away from behind the inn. Although she knew that continuing to dwell on the questions behind her Aura's imprisonment was not going to get her answers anytime soon, but she could not help it, and the experience she witnessed still shook her. The Silver eyed Huntress had never been in a dire situation where her Aura would never activate, and just the feeling of being forced to no longer rely on it scared her for once. Many Huntsmen and Huntresses have relied on their Aura and Semblances to perform incredible feats to give them an edge against the Grimm, but she could no longer do that now. And now the next question would be… what was she going to do now?

She was now reaching the middle of an intersection of the village, still brooding when they were broken by the now loud sound of metal being pounded repeatedly. She looked up ahead, past the porch to see Alvor working tirelessly at the forge, shaping a super hot piece of large metal into… what she would guess would either be a tool or a weapon. A little girl with dark hair stood close, watching his work in fascination. The sight of the primitive forge suddenly brought up memories of when she first started learning to forge. She was a young girl, who grew to be fascinated with weapons, and was curious to learn how they worked. Her father was a blacksmith who cherished the thought of passing the torch onto her, but when it came to the point where she joined a combat school, she promised to one day perfect the art and surpass her father. That was where she forged her very own personal twin axes. Those times were a bit tough for her growing up training to be a warrior, but they were rewarding, and they were something she would always cherish to this day.

'Maybe he could use some help?' She asked herself when an idea had come to her. 'After all, I could use the distraction.'

She strolled up the short steps to the porch, went alongside the house and stood next to a wooden support beam. She was planning to knock on the wooden beam to politely get their attention, but the sound of creaking wood with each step she took caught the girl's attention as she spun around to see the visitor.

"Oh! Hi miss!" The little girl greeted with a cute smile. "Come to watch my father make awesome stuff?"

She giggled at her question, and learned that she's his daughter. "I'd love to, but I was wondering if your father needs any help around the forge."

That drew his attention as he stopped, although he had to stop cranking the bellows to hear her better after putting the metal bar back in the forge. "Hm? Oh! Your name is Summer, right? Did you say if I need any help?"

"Yes. Since I got nothing else to do, I figured maybe you could use an extra hand."

"I wouldn't mind the assistance, lass, if you've got the skills." He mused as he then hummed in thought for a second, stroking his beard when he came up with a test for her. "Alright, how about a test. Try forging an iron dagger for me. The materials are all available here for you to use.

"Go ahead, give the forge a try." Alvor stepped away but, before he would let her step up to the forge, he realized one other thing. "Oh, and you'll be needing this, lass." He untied the straps behind his back, took off his apron and handed it out to her.

"Thank you," she said as she gladly took the apron from him and put it on. It was somewhat big but it covered half around her torso and managed to have it tied around her waist. With that done, she strolled up to the forge, and examined her surroundings. The table to her right had almost everything she needed to complete a dagger, with one half of the table having the materials while the other half had weapons and armor pieces strewn about. She found the iron dagger on the table and picked it up to examine the details. It was somewhat simple in design, with the double edged blade having a simple crease going in the middle. The guard had a simple pattern in design. The wooden handle had iron wires going around the handle to hold the wood in place, with a single nail holding the blade, ending with an iron pommel. Now to her, this was what the iron should be used to make, not make something so long like that longsword.

'I don't really have to make it the same, should I?' She thought in question, but then she shrugged deciding to make the dagger her own way. She set the dagger back on the table and looked back at the materials, spotting one long metal bar the length of her forearm. It was perfect for her to use as she grabbed the end of the bar and stuck the other end into the hot coals of the forge. She then firmly grabbed the handle with her left hand, but before she pulled it down, she looked to Alvor. "I hope you don't mind the wait. I haven't forged anything in a while since I got married."

"I can understand, so I won't mind this time." He replied in understanding.

She nodded in thanks, returned her focus back to the forge and pulled the handle down, activating the bellows to blow into the hot coals. The forced air made the coals glow brighter along with the heat's intensity upon the bare skin of her face until she stopped pulling down the rope and letting up on it, dragging her gripped hand back up as the bellows went down, and the coals returned to their dim glow until she pulled it down again. It took a bit of adjusting in pulling down the handle, but she soon made a rhythm of evenly pulling it down and up again and again, about seven times until she grabbed the tongs next to her and pulled out the now super heated metal and laid it on the anvil while still hold it with her tongs.

It would take some getting used to after her long absence from forging, and although this technology was more old fashioned than what she was used to having acquired back home, it would luckily become easy for her to adjust as she grew confident in her skill, and continued to roughen the shape of the blade in her image.

---

Meanwhile

Adrien was already on the other end of the bridge, walking passed the brazier and into the dark mine tunnel. Thanks to the torch in his left hand, it was easier to see where he was going, but he still walked with caution knowing there could still be bandits around any corner. At least he won't be ambushed so easily.

There was already some light at the other end of this stretch of the tunnel, and before he made for that corridor, there was some cracks of light coming from the right periphery of his vision, and he turned his head and saw wooden boards boarded up into partly a wall, with an opening large enough for anyone to stick half their bodies through. He walked up to the opening, seeing there was a coin bag with a few silver coins lying about on the square table, along with an iron dagger stabbed into the table, a spell book by the look of it, and an iron mug. He did not have to guess after peering halfway through the opening that this was a treasure room. The room contained barrels and sacks from their raids elsewhere (probably caravans), and even had a large ornate treasure chest set next to a weapon rack. As for the weapon rack itself, Adrien spotted an iron greatsword propped next an iron warhammer. That would be the kind of weapon he would prefer to wield, just so he would not need the weapon he currently held, but to get what he wanted, he would have to find the door to the room. He could not just climb on though this large opening without alerting someone, otherwise he would be caught in a compromising position. That someone would be the one guarding the door to the loot.

He went away from the opening and continued on down the tunnel until he went around the torchlit corner… Only to expectedly walk into someone when he grunted with "huh?" He quickly looked to his right to see, even in the dimmed distance from the torches, was a man quickly standing up from his chair, which he was standing next to the gate leading to the treasure room. His attire was very dark in the darkness, but he could tell he was wearing studded armor, an upgrade from the hide armor a few of the others were wearing, but it was called that because the tassets were studded.

"Well ain't this a surprise!" He said in a low, guttural tone as he pulled out his steel mace and went charging at him. Adrien tossed the torch forward at the bandit and readied his battleaxe. The torch illuminated the bandit's visage for just a split second before he deflected it with his mace to ground next to him. He turned out to be an orc, with the recognizable dark green skin and the two sharp tusks jutting up from his lower jaw. With a growl he took a diagonally overhead swing at him, but the speed of a mace was slower than swinging an axe, making it easy enough to block with the shaft of his battleaxe.

Although maces are heavier to swing due to how they are designed, the powerful blows they give make up for it, and they can be damaging to those wearing plate armor without having to penetrate them. But this steel mace had flanges meant to cause both denting and penetrating armor. So if a blow to the iron helmet were to happen, it would be fatal.

The impact shook him, and the edges of the mace caused dents to both the leather and wood, but it was not powerful enough to destroy the shaft as he shoved the flanged mace back to the orc. Then, while keeping his guard up and the orc swung it from his left, he moved back and the mace missed him by a couple inches. The orc made for an overhead swing again, but the knight was already on the move, blocking the attack above him with his axe and kicking the orc in the stomach, forcing him to stumble back with the air knocked out of him. Then he immediately and powerfully swung his axe to kill him before he recovered, but it was not with the axe's blade. What finished the orc was the axe's spike which penetrated through the side of his skull. The orc flew sideways spasming for a bit before falling ungracefully to the ground.

The spike was already pulled out of the now dead orc when he flew, and all was almost quiet when he heard the faint echoes of metal being pounded, and they came from further down the tunnel, giving him the obvious answer that they are making weapons. His mind went back to the task at hand, and was about to approach the body when he heard rapid footsteps coming from where he came. The light at the corner was rapidly growing brighter, so he leveled his axe and got ready. But it soon became a false alarm when he recognized a familiar Stormcloak Nord coming out from around the corner, holding a torch and a waraxe.

"Ralof...?" He asked in surprise as he lowered his guard.

"Adrien! It's good to see you're still in one piece." He relaxed as he put away his axe and walked up to him. "And I'm amazed how well you've taken care of them without help."

"I survived many battles and adventures thanks to the Fighters Guild. That was before I gained my knighthood."

"I see," he nodded in understanding, "now I can see where you got all that from."

"I'm kind of amazed you skinned all those wolves that quickly."

"It comes with experience my friend. So what now?"

"I was about to pilfer the key from him and pick the door over there," he says as he gestured his finger towards the cage door.

"Well, let's see…," the Nord rebel kneeled beside the dead orc under the torchlight, going the satchel until he felt something slender and solid and took it out to reveal a key. "Alright, This must be it." He stood back up and walked up to the door. He slotted the key inside the lock, twisted it until it made click, and he opened the door and stood aside, gesturing him. "After you?"

The knight nodded in thanks and walked on inside. The first thing he went for was the bag of septims left on the table, and while he poured the twenty three Septims into his coin purse, he struck up a conversation. "So Ralof, where did you learn to skin animals? I thought you said you never liked using the bow?"

"Yes and that's still true, but I learned it from a friend of mine who took me hunting with him oftentimes. I tried to be decent with a bow at times, but I just couldn't have the feel for it like he did. Yet when he taught me how to skin them, I was more than capable of doing so. So whenever he came back hunting, he would bring his kills to me."

"What was your friend's name?" He asked as he picked up the spell book, identifying it to be for a Clairvoyance spell. 'Maybe Summer could use this?' He wondered, then he stuffed it into his pack for later thought.

"His name's Fenrik Ingrikson… was Fenrik. He died in battle not long ago." He soon spoke solemnly.

"I'm sorry. You have my condolences." He apologized after he had set down the axe beside the barrels, and was inspecting the iron greatsword he took out from the rack when he paused.

"Thanks but there's no need. Although he used a bow during that battle, but I know he died a true Nord after taking a few with him."

"I see…" He soon went back to looking at the rest of the large sword after making a quick silent prayer. The condition of this weapon was freshly decent and unused. The wooden handle was long for two hands and the guard was wide enough to protect his hands. The blade was wide near the guard, but continues to shrink toward the tip. It was thick and sturdy enough, even for iron, but at least he could wield what he was more comfortably proficient at. So he returned the greatsword to the rack for the time being and opened the chest. He spotted two bags of coins, plus a couple enchanted items to possibly sell. Luckily, he did have enough room in his backpack to carry the rest of these items, so he took an enchanted ring, an enchanted dagger, and the enchanted iron gauntlets, and put the other two coin bags into it as well. He closed the chest and retrieved his new sword, then was all done as he walked out.

"I'm all done," he said. "Are you sure you didn't want anything in there?"

"Nah," he shook his head, "I'm fine with what I've got. I've got enough provisions that I can make it back to Windhelm on foot."

"Whatever helps you, I suppose." he shrugged, then he turned serious. "Let's go."

The two warriors continued on through the cavernous tunnel. They could hear the banging of metal getting louder as they drew close. Eventually, after going through a corridor, they came upon an entrance to a much larger room. They crouched down and crept up to a column to take a better look at the environment without being spotted. The room was very large in height, being nearly three stories. It had a smaller pond with a waterfall at the end of the chamber. A suspension bridge stretched across from one level to their left, all the way to the other end. A sentry patrolled the bridge with a bow strapped to her back. At the bottom, they could clearly see the glowing forge built between the surrounding ramplike stairs, with a bandit forging weapons as he heated the forge again and again before pulling out a hot metal bar.

"So the mine is not dried up after all," Ralof commented in a whisper.

"Ralof." Adrien had his attention with a hum. "We should split up. I'll take care of the blacksmith and get the archer's attention while you run up the ramp and take her out. Sound good?"

He nodded. "I'll go when you start the attack."

"There may be more hiding somewhere, so be ready." Once the archer's back was to him, he got up and moved at a quickened pace. He turned his head right after noticing some light to see a hollowed out area, which the ground was built over with floorboards, contained three bedrolls and a table with a lit candle horn, and a minor healing potion being left there. He went up and took the healing concoction into his pack, then made a beeline for the ramp going down.

"Hey!" He called out, stopping the blacksmith from his work as he looked up at him with surprise and confusion.

"What the– who are you?!" He asked the armored stranger in apprehension and anger.

"Who do you think?" He asked back evenly and threateningly as he stood there on the wooden platform and readied his greatsword. Realization dawned on the bandit quickly, now seeing him as the outside threat who got this far through the other guards defending this place.

"Shit! We've got an intruder!" He yelled out to everyone that was left in the chamber as he dropped everything he held, pulled out his iron mace and ran up the ramp to fight him.

His sword was poised and ready to chop him when he felt a sense of imminent danger coming from above. He immediately jerked up to see the archer about ready to fire an arrow at him as she then did so. He took a step back to dodge the arrow as the tip got lodged into the floorboard, and he immediately refocused back to the blacksmith. The knight had enough room to swing his sword when the bandit readied his mace, strong enough to disarm him both his hand weapon. The bandit lurched in pain but had half his head chopped off in a bloody fashion when the knight swung the sword back using the other edge.

Meanwhile, Ralof had heard the shouting of "intruder" as the signal, and made the cue to run out of hiding, pull out his axes and go up the ramp that was built into the cave wall, but was then accosted by a bandit running down the ramp from the level above, wearing fur armor and wielding an iron warhammer. They caught each other by surprise, but the bandit was more surprised than him, and Ralof immediately went charging up to the bandit, and it only gave the scum little time to react. The bandit tried an overhead swing but was too late as he was rammed by the rebel Nord, then got headbutted which made him end up with a destroyed nose and disoriented him, then got an axe buried deep through his shoulder, making him yell out in pain.

It got the archer's attention after she angrily aimed for his head to avenge the blacksmith and let loose another arrow, only for it to glance off the back of his helmet and made him yelp a bit in surprise. She turned her attention to see her other comrade get finished off by having his windpipe get torn open by a waraxe. She quickly knocked an arrow, pulled and immediately let it loose, only to successfully hit the Nord in the shoulder. Ralof grunted, but his toughness and adrenaline numbed the pain as he yanked the arrow out of his right shoulder, hopped over the dead bandit and ran after her with killing intent.

The knight saw her getting ready another arrow, but he was not going to let her finish as he dropped the sword, pulled out the iron dagger and threw it at her. She was aiming at the Nord rebel when something sharp went buried into the side of her torso. She grunted loudly with her teeth bared as she let loose the arrow, but it went off course and missed him as he ran up to the distracted archer and brought down the axe deep into her right shoulder, causing a deep, bloody wound. He pulled it out and the archer fell to her knees as he moved to her right side and, with both axes, executed her by chopped her head right off in a shower of blood. Her decapitated head rolled off the bridge, landed onto the ground and rolled into the pond.

"Nice work, Ralof." Adrien congratulated after relaxing himself from battle. He then knelt down and picked up his greatsword.

"No problem, and thanks for the assist." Ralof complimented back as the adrenaline wore off and he slid his axes back into their holsters.

"You're welcome. I saw you get shot with an arrow."

"That's just nothing but a sting," he verbally waved it off while his shoulder kept bleeding. "I got what I need to patch myself up."

Shrugging it as Nord toughness, he changed back to the main topic of concern. "You know, I'm a bit surprised there was no bandit leader this whole time." Adrien thought out loud with wonder.

"You're right. Maybe they're branching out?"

"Maybe. I'll go look around to see if they have anything to offer us."

"You do that. Meanwhile I'll be checking up here."

The two went about their way while Ralof went for a seat on the second level to patch himself up. Adrien went down the ramp to investigate the forge and everything else around it. Besides the forge, there was a grindstone and a workbench set up next to it. In the back, the lit torch sconce showed a weapon rack surrounded by a dozen pieces of armors, and a table having lumps of ore and what he could see were two books, ignoring the bucket underneath it. He went to the table, and he first picked up the red book which titled Light Armor Forging. Something irked within his mind to take the book with him, but thinking back to how much room he had left in his travel pack, he guessed he could only carry a couple more. So he set the sword against the table, unslung his backpack around and set it on the table as he then opened it and put the book inside. Then he went for the next book which looked smaller than the other one, and it was wrapped in leather which gave him the idea that this was a journal. He picked it up and opened it to see handwritten writing which was just decent enough for him to read. It turned out to be belonging to the one forging the weapons and armor, detailing the little exploits he made so far, as well as writing his complaints. But as he read further, he came across an entry which piqued his interest.

"So we've come to this mine and for what, make ready to start a small war?! This is nuts I'm telling ya! Our boss tells we're being paid by some noble in Falkreath to do some business, and we're told to start making weapons and whatnot to take over one small town for ourselves. If you ask me, this smells wrong, even if it is going to give us quite a fortune. I'd rather not dig my own grave, but I'm no fool. They might sooner cut off my head if I say anything wrong. So all I now do is forge this and that, breathe and sleep in damp dirt, and all we gotta do is wait until the boss says we're ready. This seriously better be worth it."

'A noble in Falkreath?' He thought with intrigue, until it dawned on him. This must be a backdoor political move. He was no fan of politics, and his Order always made it their business to stay out of the game, but there are times when they unexpectedly end up being the unsuspecting pawn. This may be one of them, but it would seem he in turn interrupted the intrigue.

'Perhaps Gerdur should take a look at this,' he thought, and he put the journal in the bag. He looked at the lumps of ore and soon came up with a thought. 'Maybe Riverwood should consider re-opening this mine for business? Hmm, but with the bandits possibly coming back to check up on their work…'

It was concerning, but he filed it away for later, since he had more important business to take of as he reslung the backpack, grabbed the sword and a lump of ore, and strolled back up the ramp to meet up with his companion. He was back on the second level as he strolled to the next ramp leading the next level. Upon reaching where his companion was, he spotted Ralof coming out of a room to his left, bearing the wrappings around his shoulder to stop the bleeding.

"Ah, Adrien. I just found a food storage in there," Ralof explained, "and I even found a few gems and some treasure. You can have them by the way."

"No, you keep'em, I'm good with what I have for now." He politely turned down the offer. "And I'm sure you'll need them for the long road home."

"Suit yourself," he shrugged, "but thanks."

"Well, I guess that's everything." He looked back at the bridge, and followed the path to a open tunnel above. "Let's head across the bridge and into that tunnel." He pointed his gloved finger towards the tunnel. "Perhaps it'll lead us to the exit."

"I'm right behind you." The two went across the bridge and went up into the tunnel, eventually leading them, to their small surprise and relief. A secondary exit.

---

When they reached the exit, they discovered to be near Riverwood to both their convenience and phantom concern. They started strolling downhill across the lightly forested land, but Ralof had something on his mind to ask him.

"Adrien," he said.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking, maybe you should join us."

"Join your rebellion?" He was beginning to know where this was going.

"Yes. You saw what the Empire truly is, so why not take up arms and join Ulfric's cause."

He thought about it, until they jumped off onto the road in front of the gate. "I think I'll have to give it some more thought. You know we've went through a lot to get here." It was not that he wanted nothing to do with the civil war, since his Order had been explicitly told not to interfere, but for the time being he was conflicted.

"Well, I guess I understand your point, and I won't push you. But, if you do decide to join, you'll find Ulfric in Windhelm."

"Duly noted." Since they were back through the same entrance they had before, Adrien decided to meet up with the blacksmith as his first order of business to deliver the good news, and show his discovery. To their surprise, not only did they see Alvor leaning against the support beam and not working, but he was watching Summer as she worked diligently with the forge, and without her hood.

"Never expected her to work at the forge so soon." Ralof mused.

"She did say she forged her axes. Let's go see what she's crafting." They were both in agreement with curiosity getting the best of them as they strolled up to Alvor's forge.

"Alvor," Adrien called out to him, loud enough through the noise of the bellows.

The blacksmith turned his head to the familiar voice who called his name, and to his relief, Adrien and Ralof had returned from raiding the mine, though almost covered in blood. "Adrien! Ralof! It's good to see you both back in one piece. So, I take it that the mine is cleared?"

"It's cleared, with all the bandits now dead." Ralof answered for him.

Summer overhead it and faltered a bit, but otherwise she continued her work.

"We found some treasure and a food storage, most likely stolen no doubt. I'm sure you folks would want it more than I do." Adrien added.

"Really, thank you for letting us know." Alvor thanked. "I'm sure we'll put them to good use."

"That's not all. Take a look at what I found in the mine." Adrien handed up the lump of ore to the smith, and upon a quick examination, his eyes widened with surprise.

"This is… it's iron ore!" Alvor exasperated. "And you found this in the mine?"

"When Gerdur said it was once abandoned, I thought it was because the mine was dried up. But then I saw one of the bandits picking away at a large boulder before killing them. That's when I discovered it was an iron ore vein he was trying to extract."

"Truly… and do you have more?"

"That was just a sample. There's plenty more ore in that mine, and I've seen several or more veins in there to start a business. Which was what I've been thinking about on the way back."

"Re-opening the mine for business, huh?" Alvor wondered as he stroked his beard in thought. "It could most definitely help with my ore situation. That way I won't have to pay for the ore deliveries anymore, and it could bring more people and wealth to Riverwood, that's for sure, but the entrance to the mine is just too far away for safety."

"Actually, we just came out of another entrance near Riverwood. It could be safe if the other entrance further away is blocked off."

"That would help with the distance problem, but I'd go and tell Gerdur all about this if I were you."

The knight nodded. "I will, but speaking of people...," he turned his attention towards the woman, "how long has she been at the forge?"

"Well over thirty minutes I believe. She asked if I needed a helping hand, so I'd decided to give her a test by having her forge an iron dagger." He then looked in her direction, seeing her sharpening the edges of the dagger like an expert. "And I think she's nearly done."

Adrien and Ralof went to the porch and to the forge to see her work. Summer, meanwhile, was staying focused, inspecting both edges from time to time as she grinded the metal against the fastly rolling grindstone. She soon stopped grinding the edges and inspected the sharpness one more time. She smirked and nodded at her own handiwork, and stopped pedaling the grindstone as she then stood up, pushed back down the folds of her long skirt to cover her legs, and went to the smith.

"Here you go, all done." She proudly hands out her finished dagger to him. He gently took the dagger and examined it. The little weapon was nearly simple in design, with the guard being made into a short, wide V shape. The wooden handle fitted well with the blade and guard, and the pommel was well made. The double edged blade looked to be longer than the typical iron dagger's, and the framework was almost simple to look at with the raised crease going in the middle. He turned it over to see how sharp the edges were, and to his amazement they looked as sharp as a razor due to how thin she put them, yet still seemed thick enough not to chip so easily.

"I gotta say, it's simple in design yet well made." He complimented. "How about we test it's cutting edge." He walked past Summer and to the table, picking up a piece of parchment before turning back around and handing it out to Summer. "Here, hold this for me, will you?"

She grabbed hold of the blank parchment with both hands and held it stretched out to him. He set the knife on the top middle of the parchment, and to his amazement and the others, the sharp blade had cut through the parchment with ease like a knife through butter. "Haha, it's as sharp as a steel dagger! Well done."

"Thank you," Summer said as she smiled at the compliment as she set aside the two parchments.

"Mind if I take a look at that?" Ralof asked, and the blacksmith nodded before passing it to him to look at it.

"You know, even for a simple forge like this, it took me only a bit to adapt. I'm still glad I haven't lost the talent." She stated positively.

Ralof gave the dagger to Adrien to inspect it, and he, too was fascinated by how well she crafted such a simple dagger.

"Well, since you sound very confident," Alvor said, "how about one more test?" He turned around and knelt down in front of a box under the table. He opened it to reveal leathers and furs, and only picked out two leathers before closing it and standing back up to hand them to her. "Now normally I would have you de-fur the pelts into leather, but that will be a long process for another time. Use these leathers, along with the other pieces, to make a hide helmet for me. Think you can do that?"

"A hide… helmet?" Summer had a blank expression of confusion, and as she tried to make sense of how to make something that simple, she only ended up drawing a blank. "Uhhh…"

"Is something wrong Summer?" Adrien asked as he stood from showing the girl the dagger.

"Uhm…"

"What's wrong lass?" Ralof asked with a bit concern and curiosity.

Summer was beginning to blush out of embarrassment while trying to avoid eye contact with everyone. She had been fascinated with weapons and how they were crafted and built, and almost her entire life, before becoming a full fledged Huntress, had been dedicated to creating old and new forms of weaponry imaginable. She never once bothered to learn any form of armor other than weapons. In fact, almost everyone never bothered to learn it, since they relied heavily on Aura as their armor and weapon against the Grimm threat. But now, with her Aura being sealed away, she had now come to realize her newest flaw.

"Guys?" She spoke. "Remember when I told you I made the axes myself? Well, you see, the truth is…," she pokes her fingers together, "forging and building weapons is my only specialty." She answered with guilt.

"Only weapons?" Alvor asked to his incredulous surprise.

"Yeah. I never considered knowing how to make armor because I thought it was boring, since I've always relied on my firepower and training. But now that I'm in a whole different situation…" She lowered her head in regret, letting the rest be understood, though she left out one small detail.

"You're saying you now feel regret for not taking the course." Adrien stated.

"Yes."

He hummed for only a moment. Then he turned his attention to the blacksmith. "Well Alvor, what do you think? Think you have the time to teach her?"

Summer was taken aback as she looked to Adrien in surprise. Deep down she thought she was going to be ridiculed, but she felt glad to be given a chance, if only Alvor approved though as she then looked to him.

Alvor thought for a moment to reflect on how much work he had to do, but only came up with a few, and there seemed to be no rush in finishing them right away. "I don't have much else to do today, so it wouldn't hurt to kill some time teaching. Are you okay with that Summer?"

"Yes," she said gladly, eager to branch out and learn more in order to survive. "Thank you so much."

"Think nothing of it, lass. I owe you two for saving my nephew's life, so allow me to return that favor even further for today."

"As much as I would like to watch, I think he and I got some things to do. I've got a delivery to make." Ralof said as he then turned to the knight next to him. He placed his hand on his shoulder. "How about you go and deliver the news to her yourself, I'm gonna go look for Faendal."

"All right," he shrugged, then he looked to Summer and Alvor before waving them off and following Ralof off the porch. "Have fun you two."

"Take care!" summer waved them farewell, and as they left, she returned her attention back to the blacksmith. "So, how do I start making a hide helmet?"

"I'll show you." He said as he gestured for the leathers. She gave both of the leathers to him and he went to the table and set them down. "First, here's what a hide helmet looks like, just to get an idea of what you're crafting." He picked up the hide helmet from the table and gave it to her to inspect. The helmet had the iron outlines to rivet the leather and keep it together, with the spikes lining the top. A riveted, triangular head plate looked made to protect from frontal blows to the forehead, and it had cheek guards on both sides that seemed to be placed backwards. The back of the helmet had rope lined studded leather covering the back of the neck for some protection. To her conclusion, it would not give that much protection due to the leather being more easily cut than iron, but she knew she had to not be picky about what she wanted to learn to forge.

"Okay, so the first thing I should do is work on the metal outline?" She guessed.

"Yes, but before you do that, you'll have to perform measurements to your head." He instructed.

"My head?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow, but it took her only a second to realize why as she raised both her eyebrows. "Oh! It's so the helmet can fit my head, correct?"

"That's correct, now…," he grabs hold of a tape measurement and gives it to her. "Can you measure yourself?"

---

While Ralof went to the sawmill to deliver the furs to the man named Faendal, Adrien went through the path up the hill to Gerdur's house. Once there, he spotted her tending to the crops.

"Gerdur, I'm back." He said, and the Nord woman looked up.

"Ah, it's good that you're in one piece…," but confusion and a hint of worry were etched onto her features due to the lack of someone else, "but where's Ralof?"

"He went to deliver the furs to Faendal." He explained. "He'll be back soon."

"Oh, I see. Thank you for keeping him safe." She said in relief as she walked up to him from her work. "So how's the mine? Though I can see dried blood on you."

"It's all cleared and the bandits are all dead," his features then turned forlorn, "but we have a problem."

"I don't like the sound of that," she warned as she crossed her arms. "What kind of problem is this?"

"Hold on." He knelt down and slung his backpack off him as he opened it up, and pulled out the journal he took and gave it to her. She grabbed the journal, opened it up and took her time reading through the contents. Her eyes widened with surprise at the shady deal between Falkreath and this tribe of bandits, but it also gave her concern learning there were more of them.

"This isn't good." She said as she shook her head in concern. "But what I don't get is why Falkreath would do something like this."

"Perhaps this was their quiet attempt at expansion?" He guessed. "It did say a noble from the hold made a deal with them."

"I have doubts about it." She rebutted. "The current Jarl is too lazy to make such an attempt like this. And we're in the middle of a Civil War, I doubt he would want to get mixed up in some territory war. Perhaps this could be the Thalmor's doing."

"Guess we'll never know, but right now we have a bigger concern with the bandit clan. If the clan they belong to comes to the mine for a visit, it could get messy."

"I have no doubt about it." Then she pondered on what to do for a bit before she came up with nothing. "What do you propose we do, Adrien?"

"I say we bury the entrance to the mine. There is already another entrance to it close by, so if we close off the other entrance, then hopefully the bandits will give up and turn back. If not…"

"Then the sooner the Jarl sends any spare guards by tomorrow, the better. As of right now, I should gather some volunteers to clean up the mine. Anything to expect?"

"Other than the dead bodies, there are a dozen pieces of armor and weapons, a food storage and a treasure room, and several iron ore veins as well."

"Ore veins?" She asked, taken aback after being a bit curious as to why he said a dozen weapons and armors. "I thought the mine was abandoned for a reason."

"I assumed it was dried up, but it looks like we were both wrong. Which brings me to ask of you. If the bandits don't come back, do you think it would be good to reopen the mine for business? I'm certain that Alvor would love to see that happen."

"Assuming the bandits don't come back, then perhaps I'll consider it. For now, let's focus on clearing things out. I'll go about gathering some volunteers."

"You can count me in," he volunteered, "I can go pick up Hadvar if he so wishes it."

"Whoever you pick I don't mind," she shrugged with nonchalance, "and thank you for offering yourself further."

He nodded, and the two went about gathering volunteers, starting with Ralof who had just come back from his delivery.

---

Dusk, 9:56 p.m.

Both parties had gone back to their respective homes to relax and rest up for the night after a hard day of work and hands-on education. After the dinners were made and eaten, and the food stained trays and utensils were cleaned and put away, they all just relaxed and chatted to each other, while others were playing games.

The hide helmet Summer had forged was okay (if a bit shoddy) on the first try but… She knew she had a long ways to go before she could perfect the art of forging protection. Other than that, she had spent the rest of her time learning much of what life in this province called Skyrim was like and how everything worked, all given to her by both Hod and Gerdur. Besides being a dangerous place to live in, where one must be strong, hardy and cunning to survive, at least their society wasn't as barbarous as people outside the province would say. Their laws were like an ancient feudal system, whereas individuals with a legal dispute would bring them to court with the Jarl, who acts as the keeper and judge of the law, and as for the simple rules of no stealing or murdering and so on, those problems would be resolved with the guards. She was a bit surprised there was no education system, and that it was up to the parents or legal guardians to educate them into their upbringing.

She had also learned how the provinces currency worked. The economy was run by use of three metal Septims, which are copper, silver, and gold. A copper Septim is the smallest of the three, and is worth 1 Septim. A silver Septim is the middle of the three, and is worth 25 Septims. The gold Septim is the largest, and is worth 100 Septims. To her unfortunate situation, her remaining lien meant nothing to their coin economy, so she considered herself flat broke.

Meanwhile, Summer was sitting at a table in front of two lit candle horns as she went about writing in her journal of today's adventure. She stopped mid sentence as she stifled a yawn, the feeling of tiredness coming onto her as she returned to her writing. Hod was reading a book to pass the time, while his wife watched Ralof and her son Frodnar play a game of King's Table on a wicker basket with interest. King's Table was nearly similar to chess but with a different set of rules, and the pieces were not set on opposing sides but had the dark pieces surrounding the white pieces on all four sides like an ambush. The objective to the game was simple: the player who controls the white pieces must protect the king to make sure he escapes off the board, all while the player who controls the dark pieces must try their best to trap and take out the player's king.

So far, Ralof had won two rounds while Frodnar had won four. They made a deal that, each time Frodnar wins, his uncle would tell him a story of his adventures in the Stormcloak rebellion, and if Ralof won, his nephew would have to tell a story of his time in Riverwood, which gave the adults in the room a few chuckles here and there. Right now, Ralof was struggling to keep his king from getting taken out by the dark pieces when he finally got blindsided by his nephew's next move.

"I take out your king, I win!" Frodnar said triumphantly.

"You don't look the type to strategize, brother." Gerdur giggled at her brother's losses while he groaned.

"Oh hush now, sister." Ralof snapped at her, then went with a frown when he realized the time. "Well, looks like we've stayed up long enough. It's time we went to bed."

"But uncle Ralof, can you tell me one more story? Please, please?" The boy pleaded.

"Okay, okay," he chuckled, "now let's see, hmm." He pondered through his memories as he stroked his braided beard until a memory from weeks ago dawned on him. "Ah! How about I tell you the time I killed a frost troll."

"Whoa, how did you do it?!" He asked in excitement of the story.

"Patience little nephew, I'll get to it." And then he began his story from weeks ago. The ladies giggled under their breath, and Summer had begun to think that maybe he was making up stories to entertain the boy. Yet a frost troll?

'A frost troll,' Summer asked herself incredulously, 'there's no such thing… unless it's a Grimm maybe. Do they have Grimm?' Now that she thought about it, she had not seen a single Grimm since they came out of that cave, and they only ran into real monsters, like the dragon and those Frostbite Spiders.

As she listened on, when he talked about traveling from a brutal battle with the Imperial legion to camping out in a snowy forest, the very word "travel" had made something click inside her mind, which reminded her with a quiet gasp that she wanted to look at a map to know where she was. It was something she had forgotten to do the entire day, much to her distraction.

"Oh that's right!" She exclaimed of the reminder, almost blowing out the candle and making Ralof to halt in his storytelling as they all looked to her curiously. "I forgot to look for a map!" She then looked at the family that suddenly started looking oddly at her, making her blush a little out of embarrassment. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Gerdur, do you, by chance, have any maps I can look at?"

"I do happen to have two maps stored away, but why do you need them?" She asked.

"Oh, that's right," Ralof remembered cutting in, "you said you wanted to know where you are, correct?"

"That's right," she nodded.

"Then I'd be happy to lend them to you. I'll be right back." Gerdur got up and strolled to the far side of the home where a fur covered straw bed stood between two dresser drawers, and she opened the chest which was set on top of the longer dresser to the left. She dug and pushed around a few items before taking out the two rolled up maps that she was looking for and closed the chest. She then walked back to where Summer sat and placed them on the table. "Here you are."

"Thanks," she said gladly as she eagerly picked the closest one to the front and untied the string.

"Now let's see…" Her voice halted after she unfurled the map to reveal… she did not know what she was looking at.

'What is this?' She looked intently at the map's ink drawn topography. There were mostly mountains, with names of territories and cities she obviously never heard of, and with the name at the bottom left corner which says "Province of Skyrim". This drew her into disbelief since there was nothing she could recognize. Plus, given the fact this was a province did not help much either. She rolled it back up and went to the next map, untying the string and unfurling it to reveal a much different location and topography. At first glance she thought she was looking at the map of an island, but given there were several named territories, she then looked at the bottom right to see the words "Continent of Tamriel".

"This is the continent?" She muttered skeptically.

Fortunately, the map had been given color (although rather faded), giving better detail to the landscape of Tamriel's provinces, like the tropics and deserts of both Elsweyr and Hammerfell, the thick wooded forests of Valenwood, the marshlands of Black Marsh, the dark ashen territory of Morrowind, the northern provinces of Skyrim and High Rock, the large islands to the lower left being called the Summerset Isles, and at the center of the continent, having both woods and grasslands, and having a small island at the center, was called Cyrodiil. This was no dragon shaped continent but a different continent entirely.

"What—n-no, this can't…," she muttered at the map, her mind trying in vain to go into denial of what she was looking at, and that deep down, a dreadful feeling grew. "Where's the dragon? Why isn't it…?"

"Summer? Are you all—"

"I need some fresh air!" She cut her off after no longer bearing to see the map, bolting up out her chair and went storming out the door.

Everyone was baffled into silence at what happened, and the only thing going through the rebel's mind was, "what the…"

---

Meanwhile, on the porch of Alvor's home

The stars were now out in their wondrous beauty. Adrien was outside in the cooler air, leaning against a log post as he went into contemplation. He was now wearing a belted tunic and dark trousers.

He had worked himself almost to the bone helping this village, wiping out the bandits and clearing the place out. They would be taking care of the far entrance tomorrow since the evening had come. Out of all the belongings taken from the dead, the weapons and armor gathered were surely enough to make both Alvor and the general merchant rich for a while longer. Other than the added food being kept for emergencies, things were beginning to look up for Riverwood.

But onto his planning. He had regained enough money to last a few months here in Skyrim, and more than enough to get himself what he needed to complete his mission, but he was without his uniform (armor), and without it he would be bringing shame to the knights of his Order. Another problem had come to the forefront of his mind about the black dragon. That monster had burned an entire town to the ground, and burned the legion guards without having so much as a scratch. As a knight, it has always been his duty to keep the people safe, and killing that dragon should be his priority, and although he swore to serve Bruma for a time and that the quest to find a body was his last job, he had made a promise to help Riverwood. He suppose he would be stuck here for a while it seemed.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by someone coming outside, and when the person stood beside him, he glanced to see that it was Hadvar.

"Peaceful night, isn't it?" Hadvar stated. He spent half the day at the sawmill before having to join in cleaning out the mine. Although Hod had given him a hard enough time due to his status as a legionnaire, the soldier ignored the resentment and continued working to earn enough money to get food and rent a carriage to Solitude.

"Yes, it is." When he asked Hadvar to volunteer and help clear out the mine with the others, he and Ralof argued against the idea of working together. After doing a bit of convincing, the two simply stayed out of each other's way as they worked.

A moment of silence lingered between the two of them, until Hadvar spoke again. "You know, you are rather capable of handling yourself well. I say you should join up with the legion, we could really use someone like you in bringing Skyrim back in order."

"Do you really think I should join the legion, even after what happened in Helgen?" He said evenly.

"Of course!" He sighed as he remembered. "I know… today wasn't the best introduction into the Legion, but I hope you can give us another chance. Skyrim can really use all the help she can get."

He hummed and thought about it for a moment. So he, too was trying to recruit him, giving him the notion that they were getting desperate to win this Civil War, but he was a knight sworn to remain neutral from all matters of politics and conflict, and would only answer to the emperor, and since the emperor had ordered them not to partake in the civil war, they had thus maintained their duties in Cyrodiil.

"I'll have to think about it." He answered. "Otherwise, I must maintain my orders and code as a Knight of my Order."

"I'm curious. You say you're a knight, but from what Order?"

"I'm from… hm?" He made to answer, but he halted when he heard someone familiar. "Summer?" He muttered, seeing Summer coming down the path from Gerdur's home. She sounded rather distraught or frustrated about something as she rambled on.

"No… no, this just can't be right. It can't be!" She rambled to herself as she kept her head lowered with her hands raised nearly to her head. They then saw Ralof following behind her, catching up to her it seemed.

"Summer, what's wrong?" Ralof called out, but she seemed to be ignoring him.

"What's going on?" Hadvar asked.

"I don't know, but let's find out." They went off the porch and soon joined up with Ralof as they went after Summer.

"Hey, Summer!" He called out to her. "Out for a midnight stroll?"

She halted in her tracks when she heard Adrien call out to her. She looked in their direction, still with that troubled expression when it suddenly changed. Then she started storming up to them, and she looked desperate for something while Ralof followed behind her.

"You two!" She asked with demand in her tone. "What is the name of this world? Is this Remnant?"

"No, this world is called Nirn," Adrien answered, unsure of what she was getting at, but that was not the answer she was looking for.

"No..." She narrowed her eyes at him in disbelief and shook her head as her frustration grew, pointing an accusing finger at him. "No, you're lying. You have to be!"

"Why would I lie to you?! This is what our world is called!"

"Bullshit!" She yelled in denial. "The geography is all wrong! It has to be…!" But then, she started to babble frantically. "But where is the dragon continent of Lantis and Mimar?! Why haven't I heard or seen any Grimm?! Why—"

"Summer!" He shouted abruptly at her as he grabbed both of her arms, all to make her stop and listen to him. "Calm! Down! Just pull yourself together and explain to me." He reasoned.

She was both equal parts scared and shocked of what he did, but she started to calm down. That, however, got her to thinking out loud of something else to rationalize her being here as she thought back to the portal.

"Maybe… maybe the portal sent me back in time," she muttered in desperate reason as she then softly laughed and started backing away from him, all while the three men were being baffled by her nonsense. "Yeah, I think I'm in the past. That totally explains it! I mean, all I have to do is look at the…" as soon as she turned to look in the direction of the rising (presumably) shattered moon, she froze. Her smile slowly faded away, being replaced with horror, and felt her eyes looking on in disbelief at what she was witnessing right now.

"Two moons?" She muttered, trembling in exasperation. "How are there two moons? Where's the shattered moon?" There were two moons rising from the mountainous landscape, and both were of obviously different size. One was large and reddish in color, and the other was small and lightly grey. Neither of them looked to be like the shattered moon that she always would recognize. "I don't understand." Tears were beginning to roll down from from her watery eyes, and her mind tried in vain to come to rationalize what she was seeing but it was all for naught. Her legs became weak enough that she buckled down onto her knees as she sobbed, then she fell on her hands. "I don't understand."

"Ralof, what did you do?!" Hadvar accusingly asked.

"I didn't do anything to her!" He argued defensively. "She asked to look at a couple maps and Gerdur gave them to her. Then she started looking confused and bolted out."

Summer was still on the ground crying in sorrow, realizing the dark reality of her situation when she felt a pair of arms wrapped around her. She was surprised a little at first, but she was gently pulled in for comfort and she did not resist, but even so she could not stop crying when she knew she was never going home.

Adrien looked up at the both of them as he rubbed her back to comfort her. The three men looked to each other for answers, but found they could not give a single explanation as to what it is, but in their hearts they felt sorrow for her. One thing was becoming more clear, and a question that had come up time and again.

Just who is she?

---

A/N: And the third chapter is finally done! After writing this long story and going through some re-editing to make sure it stayed well, I'm proud to say I've made a new "word count" record for myself.

Now then, it looks like Summer has finally realized the horrible truth of where she ended up, and as a mother, it has become devastating for her. Will she be able to recover from that I wonder. Only the next chapter will let you find out.

Onto the next topic which is the bandits of Embershard mine. Until recently I've started wondering why bandits would base themselves in an iron mine so close to Riverwood, so I figured I give these scumbags a reason for being there, and a good reason to kill them all. Hope you guys like the shady political move done by some thane in Falkreath that I made up, though there's something oddly fishy about that as well. Also, I came up with the idea of Riverwood opening up a mine, adding in more story and economic opportunity.

As for the smithing, I chose to go into realism on this, because to make a pelt and turn it to leather, you would have to go pushing the fat and meat off the membrane of the skin, then eventually have it defurred and so on, and that takes days to get the process done. So yeah, Summer has a flaw in her smithing, whereas she doesn't know how to forge armor for the reasons above. She's gonna have to since her Aura is locked away by some magical seal in order to survive the harsh environment of Skyrim.

Next is the coinage. We all know the light-as-a-feather gold Septim that you somehow have a pocket dimension on your person to carry all the gold you want, and that it tends to be everywhere, even in tombs and Dwemer ruins for some very odd reason. Well Crux and I had a lengthy discussion about that topic, and we came to the conclusion that, story wise, it just won't cut it. I can't imagine how an empire can run its economy on just gold coins, and realistically the weight of the coins, if calculating it as the size of a half dollar but being made of gold, and timing that weight with two hundred coins, it would make you wanna carry the large coin purse with two hands, and you'll be struggling. So if one did find a purse that magically has a pocket dimension to dump all your hard earned Septims in without a problem with weight and space, it would be considered an expensive luxury item, since Nords look down on magic with scorn. That's why we had decided to go for the trope of copper, silver, and gold coins to make things easier, and to make it work.

One more thing, the game of King's Table is an actual, real life game made by the Vikings which is called Hnefatafl, which literally translates to the King's Table. I'd recommend you check it out if you're a Viking fan and want to know more about the game. You can even buy one online, complete with a guide on how to play the game.

This is Kyro2009, signing off.