"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"Noo," Dovahkiin groaned. "Do you see any city in MILES?!"
And just to prove his point, mountain echo repeated his words.
"Nope," Danny shrugged. "That's why I'm asking. I don't even know where we are going. You only said you have some 'important business', that's all."
Dragonborn sighed. "We are going to Markarth, we should be there by sunrise. Even if that dunmer ran away, I still found the civilians and I intend to get money for three days without sleep."
"Yeesh, guess that's why you are so easily provoked. Why don't you set up a camp or something?"
"Forsworn. There are a lot of them in that mountains. Once you close your eyes, those savages will jump from nowhere and cut your throat while you are sleeping."
"I can watch out for them," Danny offered.
Dragonborn didn't respond, which caused Phantom to narrow his eyes. "Wait. You don't trust me, do you?"
"I just met you. Yes, you saved my guts, but I still don't have any reason to trust you."
Danny's lips formed a thin line, before he sighed. "I get it. People don't trust the undead like me, for some reason."
"I can name multiple reasons."
"You aren't helping," Danny grumbled, before perking up. "Look!"
Dovahkiin looked where the teen was pointing at. There was a dim moving light, most possibly coming from a torch. It could be the imperial patrol, stormcloaks don't go that far on the west, well, at least not that freely. Whoever that was, his newest companion was going to cause an unpredictable reaction. And Danny realized that as well.
Dragonborn heard a strange sound and noticed a white flash behind him. He turned around and blinked in surprise at what he saw. On the place of white haired ghost stood someone else. There was a normal human teen with dark hair and ice blue eyes every nord will be jealous of. He was wearing some strange short sleeved red and white shirt, and his pants were made from even stranger blue material. Phantom grinned innocently, like he always looked like that.
They kept going and tne light was coming in their direction. Soon, they found out who that was. There was a group of elves with golden skin, one of them was dressed in black robes, while the others wore armor made of some golden material.
"Damn, it's Thalmor," Dovahkiin cursed. "Listen kid, watch your snarky mouth. We don't need problems with them."
Phantom hummed, he would like to hear more details about that later. He sounded like he knew about them more than average man.
"Hey you, stop right there!" The elf in black clothes called harshly. Two travelers had to obey, and so they stopped. "By the name of Thalmor I demand that you show what you carry."
"What for?" Dovahkiin narrowed his eyes.
"We are checking for anything belonging to worshipping of Thalos. If you attempt to resist the search then you will be arrested."
"Fine, just make it quick."
Dovahkiin jumped down from the horse and handed his leather bag to the nearest soldier. While the soldier was digging in the bag, another one came to the ghost teen. Danny watched him cautiously, but decided to follow his companion's advice and didn't resist. He wondered what their reaction will be once they find...
"What is that?" The soldier asked, taking out Fenton phone and examining it.
"Give it to me," Justiciar ordered. The soldier gave the phone to him. He started to examine it throughly, raising his eyebrow.
"Hey, this thing is very expensive. Careful with it."
"Where did you find this artifact, human?" Justiciar demanded to know.
"My parents made it. Every member of our family has one."
"What is it for?"
"Many purposes, actually. It's harmless mostly, but it can help in daily life a lot. Can I show you how it works?"
Justiciar hummed. "Without surprises, or you will regret it," he handed the phone back to Danny.
Dovahkiin had a feeling that it's not going to end well.
Phantom made a swift movement and opened the clamshell phone. The elves, and Dovahkiin, too, stared at the strange device.
"Alright, they can take required energy from two sources: electricity or ectoplasm. The most basic thing it can do is show time, see? It's three in the morning."
The time seemed surprisingly accurate, but of course, not the date.
"What else?"
"Numerous things. For example, it can make the hardest calculations in less than a second. Good for trading..."
"We will find out the rest by ourselves. We confiscate this item for further research."
"What gives you rights to do that?" Danny asked in bewilderment.
"Thalmor gives us the authority."
"This item has nothing to do with Thalos," Dovahkiin put in. "So you can't confiscate it."
Justiciar narrowed his eyes. "And since when a northern barbarian became a specialist in Altmeric jurisdiction? Watch your mouth, we haven't forgotten about the massacre you started in our embassy."
"You don't have any proofs it was me," Dragonborn crossed his hands.
"You came in without actual invitation, and when you walked out you were armed to teeth and our soldiers were dead. Be happy that the Dominion didn't take it as diplomatical insult."
"Hey, pal," Danny interrupted, turning to Dovahkiin. "Don't worry about it, they are too stupid to realize how the phone works."
"What did you just say?!" Justiciar glared at the teen.
Phantom smirked cockily. "Such big ears and such bad hearing? You have time only until the battery dies, approximately in two days. And, you don't know how to charge it. There are a lot of functions you won't be able to use because you don't know the language. Some functions require special combinations of buttons. The one on its side starts peculiar combination."
Justiciar looked at the device in his hand, before pressing the button on its side. A bright flash blinded the elf, and with a yelp he dropped the phone. Danny caught the device before it reached the ground, grinning all the way.
"What in Oblivion was that?!" Justiciar shouted.
"Hm, nice image," Danny snickered, showing the photo of the elf, who was grimacing so much that it was hard to hold back a laugh.
"W-what have you done?!"
"I did nothing. You did. Your soul is now trapped inside," Phantom grinned.
"But I'm still in my body."
"Yes, magnificent creation, huh? Your soul is inside and you can't even feel it. I can press one single button, and this illusion will be gone, and you will die. You can let us go, and then I'll free your soul. Deal?"
The expression on Justiciar's face deserved another photo, but it would have only scared him more.
"Soldiers, keep going," he ordered.
And with that they hurried to leave the two alone. And once they were on considerable distance, Phantom burst laughing like crazy.
"Oh my...that...that was priceless!" He said through his gasps for air, wiping tears from his eyes.
Dovahkiin shared the laugh, but not that much, of course. "It didn't really trap his soul, right?"
"Got that right," Danny grinned, "This is a simple picture. The phone thought that it is too dark for a photo, so it created a flash to lighten his face and take picture. I'll definitely keep it."
"You are cruel."
"Maybe," Danny shrugged.
After this encounter the two continued their way through the mountains. It was rather peaceful early morning. In order to ward away sleepiness, Dovahkiin was eager to tell the ghost teen about elves. And Danny was eager to listen. He learned that there were different kinds of sharp eared beings. That necromancer belonged to the race of dunmers, they all had gray skin of different shades and red eyes. Most of dunmers lived in province Morrowind.
That gold skinned elves were Altmers. They had their own state - Altmeric Dominion, which was considered the main rival of the Empire. Dovahkiin said that he knew plenty of 'high elves' who were nice, but every elf who was wearing Thalmor clothes was known to be an arrogant bastard.
To Danny's surprise, Orsimers, or simply orcs, were also considered elves. They lived as tribes in secluded fortresses, and despite being talented warriors and blacksmiths, they weren't some crazed up warmongers.
There were also Bosmers, or wood elves. They were known to be the shortest race, and were famous for their archery skills. By some rumors bosmers were cannibals, but that were only rumors. Nevertheless, that elven race was closest to their definition in Danny's world, about which Phantom told his companion.
"Wait, you don't have elves in your world?" Dovahkiin asked.
"Nope, only different races of humans. And ghosts. But, we still have different books about them. The most famous is 'Lord of the rings'. And, man, that book is enormous. It is a piece of art, not some scientific exploration. Everything there is just a fantasy, where orcs are corrupted elves, who serve the Dark lord Sauron. Where humans, elves and dwarves united to fight off their hordes, which destroyed everything they saw. Oh, by the way, do you have dwarves here?"
"All dwarves disappeared long ago. All we have are ruins of their cities."
"What do you mean 'dissappeared'?"
"Just that. One day they fight against dunmers, then like on snap of the fingers they are gone. But, we still can use what they left behind. If their machines don't kill you, that is. By the way, Markarth was built by dwemers. And speaking of, we are here."
Danny looked where Dovahkiin was pointing at. By the look on his face it was easy to guess that he was awed at the sight. The city was huge. It was built between several mountains, and its architecture looked a lot like dwarven cities in movies and books. Stone buildings with golden roofs were positioned on mountain slope, behind big stone walls. Danny stared at the sight, and didn't notice how he was falling behind.
"Hey, kid, you going or not?" Dragonborn called with amusement in his voice.
"Coming," Danny said and ran to him.
"Never saw anything like this before, huh?"
"Well, I was in New York. Buildings there reach to the sky, and there aren't any houses in central part of the city which have less than thirty floors. A few millions live there."
"Wait before you see Solitude," Dovahkiin rolled his eyes.
They passed one small farm and mining town, before getting to the city gates. Dragonborn left his horse in stables, and together they entered the city. On the inside it looked rather predictable. There was one road leading up and down. Near the gates was a lively marketplace, and a small river was flowing nearby, leading to another mine down the road. While Danny was examining his surroundings, he didn't notice all the strange looks he was receiving. Human looking or not, his clothes did look weird.
"Alright kid, I'm going to get some sleep. Do whatever you want until I wake up," Dovahkiin said.
"What?! You are going to leave me like that?" Danny asked in bewilderment.
"You can take care of yourself for a few hours," the older man waved his hand nonchalantly, before entering the nearest tavern.
"Jerk," Phantom mumbled, crossing his hands.
He was wandering around the city without any purpose in mind. For some time he even played some primitive games on his phone, sitting on the edge of the brige over the river. Frogger, for instance. It wasn't very entertaining, so he just put it back in his pocket. Then his stomach started to growl, and he realized that he didn't have any food since yesterday burger at lunch. Danny walked to the market, and only when he got there he understood that he lacked local money. He doubted that they accepted dollars.
Phantom started to think what to do, there was no way he was going to steal anything, even if his abilities were a blessing for any thief. While Danny was contemplating his course of action, he noticed something with an edge of his eye. Some guy in white shirt took out a dagger. He was slowly approaching a redhead woman near jewelry stand. Deciding to wait for right moment, Danny started to approach the man as well.
When the man raised his dagger and prepared to stab the woman in her back, people around gasped and screamed. Phantom kicked him from behind. He then put his leg in front of the man, tripping him. Once the man was on the ground, Danny put him in unbreakable handlock.
"Let me go, brat!" The man shouted, squirming under him.
"Should have thought about that before taking out this dagger," Danny grinned, holding the weapon in front of his face.
"Get up, lad," one of the guards in armor and green clothing ordered harshly, "We have it under control."
"Oh, I see," Danny said, rolling his eyes.
He still got up. The guards took the man and lead him down the street.
"THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING! THE REACH BELONGS TO FORSWORN!" the man started yelling, and everyone on the streets heard that.
And while Danny wondered who exactly were the forsworn, he turned to the shocked woman who that man tried to kill.
"You alright, ma'am?" He asked.
"Oh, gods, forsworn in the city," she whispered, as if she didn't hear him, but still she turned to him. "Yes, I'm alright, thanks to you, young man," she smiled.
"Nah, that's nothing. He wasn't even fighting back."
"Still, I am alive only because of you. Please, take this as my gratitude."
She gave him a silver ring with crimson garnet, before going away. Danny blinked, before hearing something rustle under his feet. There was a list of paper. Phantom picked it up, before seeing that something was written on it.
'Meet you in Shrine of Thalos,' was everything it said.
Phantom had a feeling that there was something big going on. But, war is war, but breakfast is always sheduled.