Arc 1—Chapter 2:

It was a week later when I walked back into The Bannered Mare, with Lydia trailing behind.

The innkeeper's eyes widened when she saw me. They widened further when I pulled out a coin purse.

Whispering to me, she said, "Great gods! I'd given up hope on ever seeing my money. Or you again, either, for that matter."

Lydia, who was keeping a close eye on the other patrons in case any decided to make a move on me, laughed.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said, as much to my housecarl as to the innkeeper.

"I'm Hulda, and I've heard they're calling you the Dragonborn. Oh, and it's fifteen more septims that you owe me."

I think I surprised the woman when I shoved the whole purse across the counter to her. "There are 100 septims in there; the fifteen I already owe you and the rest to keep feeding the girl until I return again in about a week or so. I want you to let her sleep inside, too. She doesn't need to take a room from a regular paying customer, I'm sure, but it's cold outside—give her a blanket and let her sleep in the cellar or under the counter or wherever you have space for someone as small as she is. Will that work?"

Hulda, who was probably about the same age as my mother would have been if she'd still lived, gave a little smile. "Yeah, I'll take care of it, Dragonborn. You'd better come back though. I'd really hate to let her stay inside for a week and then have to pitch her back outside again if you get yourself killed and don't return."

"Yeah, I'd really hate that, too. For all three of us."

~ESV~

We'd made our way north into The Pale when we finally stopped to camp for the night as a thunderstorm approached. Not wishing to attract bandits, beasts, or whatever other fearsome creatures might be looking for the same shelter we'd just found, we didn't make a fire. Instead, Lydia and I sat close together under the rock outcropping with a bearskin wrapped around us to preserve as much of our body heat as we could while we ate bread and dried horker jerky, shared a bottle of Alto wine, and tried to stay dry. I think my housecarl ended up drinking more of the wine than I, and with her somewhat smaller build, it worked to loosen her tongue more than I'd seen in our time together to date.

"Thane, why are you taking interest in that girl? You don't actually know her after all, do you? Is she a distant cousin...or perhaps your secret love child?"

I almost spewed the drink of wine I'd just taken, causing Lydia to laugh lightly. A flash of lightning briefly exposed the rivulets of wine that had escaped from the corners of my mouth, so she used something to dab my mouth and short beard. I wasn't sure how effective it was in the darkness that swept back over us between flashes, but when the next burst came, she dabbed no more. Instead, she pursued her question. "Well? You probably have children all over Skyrim, right?"

"No, afraid not," I replied with a chuckle. "I haven't been here. My mother and little sis died in the plague that hit our village when I was nine, and our village and my father were never the same."

She gave my arm a squeeze as she said, "I'm sorry." Unlike her usual attitude, there seemed to be real compassion in her voice.

"It's okay; it was a long time ago. We ended up leaving the next year, heading south to Cyrodiil where my dad hoped to find work and a sense of solace."

"Did he?"

"I don't think he ever found the second, but we were lucky on the first. He started working as a caravan guard traveling the province, with me going along to take care of the animals and do odd work on the trip. There weren't that many caravans, though, and they were very intermittent, so we took whatever jobs were available, as miners, a smith and his assistant, and later, when I was older, occasionally as carters, too. We were good workers, so finding work usually wasn't very hard, though we did have to move around a lot."

"That doesn't sound bad compared to the situation here while you were gone. And everything that's happened recently. Why on Nirn would you come back to our screwed up little mess we call Skyrim?"

"It's home. And my father died about a year ago in Bravil."

She gave my arm another comforting squeeze but said nothing this time. She seemed to be waiting for me to continue, so I did. "I would have walked out then, but I stayed in that hellhole for a while because of a young lady. We'd grown close...very close...in our time together—"

"Ah, so your kids are in Cyrodiil."

I laughed. "No, no kids. Anywhere. Like I said, Dre and I were close, but something was—I don't know—off with her? Or maybe off in the way she saw herself with me. Or maybe it was just me? I don't know, but she just could never get completely comfortable with our relationship. Though she did seem to really enjoy it at least part of the time when we were together."

"Really? Hmm, I may have to keep that in mind someday."

"Oh, stop teasing," I replied with a chuckle before pausing to watch the falling rain during the frequent flashes of lightning. With a sigh, I decided to tell her the rest. "When Dre pushed me away yet again, I decided that was the last time. I collected my wages and left Bravil, heading north to the Imperial City, then on to Cheydinhal and finally to Bruma. This time, I couldn't find good work in any of them, so I finally decided to head home."

"What did you plan to do when you got here?"

"Start over. Maybe finish my training and open a blacksmith shop or perhaps a livery stable. Find a nice girl, settle down, and have a family. I don't know beyond that, but walking into an Imperial dragnet and into the midst of a civil war sure weren't parts of the plan. Taking up arms was pretty low on my wish list, believe me. And I could never have conceived of being named the bloody 'Dragonborn' or even thane, for that matter."

"Yet here we are, Thane," she said with a yawn. "Perhaps you couldn't dream of it, but you couldn't stop it from happening either."

With the lightning finally starting to move on but with a light rain continuing, she yawned again, forcefully this time, and nestled closer against me. Her hand came up to my cheek and rubbed it and my short beard.

"I've really got to get you a razor. Mmm. Good night, Thane. Wake me in a couple of hours and I'll take a turn standing watch." Her head rested against my shoulder and she was out.

Knowing it would be many hours before she awoke, I whispered, "Good night, Lydia."

~ESV~

The mission was a complete bust, with some foolish prankster having removed the item we'd been dispatched by the old Greybeards to retrieve. The idiot even left my nickname on a note with the location where I could come to retrieve it. It was an obvious trap if there ever was one, so I crumpled up the note and shoved it in my pack.

Due to the frequent rains and an unannounced nighttime visit from what we guessed, based on a massive paw print, was a cave bear, our supplies were running low. Lydia suggested that we stop in the nearby town of Morthal to sell some loot and make some purchases before heading back to Whiterun.

Having never been there before, it seemed to be a dreary little town when we entered and it got worse from there. They didn't have a real store or a blacksmith shop, so we'd have to carry everything back to Whiterun. Lydia's attitude seemed to get worse than usual, too. Then, when we stopped by Highmoon Hall, the local jarl's hall, there were several people outside arguing about the woman and her administration. Not knowing the issues and not wishing to get into a fight with the locals, we sidestepped them and headed for the door to the hall.

When we were inside to pay our respects, I soon learned that the complainers might have a point. The jarl was a most depressing woman who seemed to have visions about the future. Personally, I didn't usually put much stock in such things; my father had always told me that fortune tellers could weave very elaborate predictions of what was to come out of cards, bones or entrails, or even, in desperate times, tea leaves or coffee grounds…as long as the person receiving the prediction kept giving little hints the fortuneteller could use to keep the prediction believable and the person receiving the reading could keep a steady stream of money flowing to the teller.

In the jarl's case, she didn't take money, which made me wonder. In fact, she claimed her ability to be a gift from the Divines. As doubtful as I was that they would wish to share such a gift or, if they did, if a gift it would even truly be, I didn't argue the point.

It was a result of her mentioning "gift" that made me realize that I had no gift or tribute to give her and my "The dragons are coming!" routine from Whiterun wouldn't work any more since word about them had spread over the land like wildfire. Therefore, since this was my first visit to her town, I took the alternate tact of offering a service. I figured she'd have me stand guard duty for a day, let me chop some firewood, or maybe track down our cave bear visitor or some other predator eating the livestock in the area. Jarls wanted the business and the septims that adventurers brought, so they tended not to make such services too onerous.

It was almost creepy how the woman sat staring at me for a minute, then two, before a strange look came over her face. "I sense...something...yes, something about you. Perhaps there is a way you can provide a service to pay your respects."

I stand up from my efforts and stretch before moving back over to the window. There is so much to say, but so little time left to record it. I would much prefer to stand here and watch the birds and the waves below, but the appointed time is coming sooner than I'd like.

I retake my seat and refocus my thoughts.

The jarl's little problem ended up being more substantial than I anticipated, but Lydia and I solved it for her. When we reported back to her, the woman's initial aloof and off-putting manner had been completely replaced by one of being quite friendly. At least she was to me; as a servant, she paid Lydia no attention all. I felt sorry for my housecarl as the jarl directed all of her praise at me despite the fact that Lydia had done more of the work than I had. The jarl also invited me to eat dinner in her hall that evening with her, her family, and her advisors. Since we were leaving the next morning and since it would be a free meal and would save us some coins, I gladly accepted despite Lydia being overlooked. I had an idea of how I might make it up to her.

After cleaning up as well as I could that evening, I was prepared to go but Lydia told me to stop. She had me sit as she pulled out a new straightrazor that I later learned she'd purchased that afternoon from the local apothecary. She had me lean back and remain still while she proceeded to shave off my short beard and trim my mustache. "There! You look much more presentable."

Not sure if I liked it, I gave Lydia my thanks none-the-less, and handed her some septims for her meal and a bottle of wine I'd found and secreted away during our recent adventures. Its quality wasn't nearly good enough for the jarl, but it would be fine for Lydia; she accepted it with a smile and her thanks. The sun was setting when, clean-shaven, I headed back to the jarl's hall.

After meeting more of the jarl's advisors, I was quite surprised to find myself seated next to a very pretty but rather melancholic young woman in her early twenties. She was the jarl's daughter and the source of her gloom was apparently her duty to care for her much younger brother. The boy was abundantly blessed (or perhaps cursed?) with his mother's gift, which the young woman shared to a much lesser degree. She was absolutely delightful when I was able to divert her attention to other matters, but a turn of her head toward her little brother brought reality crashing back down on her shoulders. She finally asked to be excused to go put the boy to bed, but she returned a short time later as we diners were rising from our seats at the table.

"Would you like to walk with me?"

I couldn't believe my ears. "I'd be delighted, my lady," I said, giving her the crook of my arm.

From the hall, we walked north to the bridge where, under the light of Tamriel's twin moons, we talked while occasionally trying to skip rocks on the river. Next, we made our way around the docks along the river inlet, chatting as we went. The responsibility that seemed to weigh so heavily on her melted away slowly, but she was laughing and enjoying herself when we returned to Highmoon Hall a short time later.

She was the jarl's daughter, but I was quite taken with her, so I summoned the courage to kiss her hand when I said goodnight. The guards by the door looked ready to step in and do bodily damage to me at that, but she surprised them and me even more by brushing my smooth cheek lightly with her lips, telling me goodnight, and going inside.

Where the guards had initially looked at me with suspicion, her kiss in return caused them to glare at me with hatred in their eyes. Seeing that and being in a good mood, I couldn't resist giving them a grin and saying, "It is a good night, gentlemen. A really good night. Enjoy your guard duty." I turned away from their protests and headed for the inn.

I'd made it just a short distance down the street when I heard a sound in the shadows. I'd sensed something a couple of times during our walk, but had never been able to catch sight of anything, so I'd figured it must have been muskrat or perhaps a skeever. My hand was on my dagger, ready to draw, when she stepped out of the shadows, matter-of-factly, and walked up to me, taking her place by my side as we approached the inn.

Handing me the still unopened bottle of wine, Lydia said, "Thane, you had a nice walk."

I noticed that the way she said it and the way she was looking at me, it wasn't a question.

~ESV~

Author's Note:

Thanks again for reading. Please let me know your thoughts about it, including any constructive criticism. Thanks!