Arc 3—Uncivil War—Chapter 11:

I awoke to find my arm around her, my hand held tight by her own, clutched against her breast, and my face resting against her dark brown hair. It was an almost idyllic scene except we were outside among some pine boughs and it was quite cold.

"Are you awake, my love?" whispered Idgrod, dressed in Serana's usual outfit.

"Getting there," I quietly replied. "What time is it?"

"Mid-morning."

"What? We need to be on our way."

"I know, but you haven't rested much in days and, after what you went through last night, you needed every minute of sleep you could get. You can yell at me later, okay?"

I chuckled. "Thank you, dear. And I'll never yell at you. You know that, right?"

"Of course," she said with a grin as she twisted around to face me. Her lips sought out mine, hungrily, and I felt stirrings that apparently mirrored her own. She eventually broke off the kiss with a long, quiet sigh. "My mother better give her blessing soon or I may have to tell her what she can do with it."

"Let a girl sleep with a guy one time and she starts getting naughty ideas," I teased.

"Deliciously devilish ideas," she agreed before kissing me on the nose and then smoothing my short mustache. "Seriously, Aerik, it's different, sleeping outside, next to someone, particularly after sneaking through the Labyrinthian. I've heard of it and lived near it all my life, but have never ventured into it because Father always said it is so dangerous."

I nodded. "Your father's right—this time, at least—but you did an amazing job keeping quiet as we slipped through, particularly considering the number of frost trolls we heard. If they'd heard a noise or even gotten a sniff of us—"

"I told you my scentless potion would work. Lami helped me create the formula after I told her my idea."

"Well, sweetheart, they all worked great, and I'm proud of you for it."

"Now that we're south of there, what do we do now?"

"We'll continue on down, out of the mountains, and then go west. If all went as planned, Serana, our fake Idgrod, and Gorm disappeared before getting to Fort Snowhawk. They'll come south through the Coldrock Pass in the mountains. We're going to meet tonight near Greenspring Hollow and then head to Whiterun to get Lucia."

"Father always said that pass was very dangerous, too. Is it?"

"Sometimes," I agreed, "but I wouldn't think it would be anything to someone who'd braved their way through the Labyrinthian."

Idgrod's hands slipped behind my neck and she pulled me close for another kiss before pushing me back. "We're late. Guess we'd better get going to see what other dangers you can lead me through." She winked at me and stood up, gathering up her backpack and staff.

I rose and took her hand. "Idgrod, you know I never want to purposely lead you through danger if there was another way, right? That I want more than anything to keep you safe? To protect you?"

She put her arms around me and pulled me tight. "Of course, Aerik. I know that and you know it, too, but the world doesn't always work like we want. Sometimes we have to go through dangers to get to safety and better times on the other side. And just so you know, there's absolutely no one I'd rather be with, leading and protecting me, than you."

My heart seemed to flutter at her words, so I hugged her tight and kissed her forehead. Not sure what more to say, I took the easy way out. "Guess we better get started."

~ESV~

We swung well to the south to avoid the crypts and the undead types that I'd encountered there in the past before we turned west and made our way to the rocky overhang I'd once used as shelter. We were almost there when I heard a rumble and saw a flash of movement.

"Drop!" I yelled to Idgrod as I stepped forward just in time to see a tawny blur flying in at me. I was going for my dagger but had no time; the sabre cat was almost on me when I rolled backward, hitting the ground and continuing the roll as the beast hit me. I was about to go over with the roll when I extended my arms and legs, pitching it as far to the right as I could, trying to keep it as far away from Idgrod as I could. With its feline reflexes and agility, the big cat twisted in the air, landing on its feet before bounding back toward me.

I only made it as far as my knees before it hit me again, but this time I was armed, ripping upward with a dagger in each hand as it brought its huge, sharply-clawed paws in a raking attack on me. The cat screamed in pain and surprise, immediately leaping away and disappearing into the distance.

"Aerik, you're hurt," cried Idgrod, pulling a potion out of her satchel and shoving it toward me.

"I'm okay, Sweetheart," I replied. "Seriously. It's not that bad."

"Oh, you stupid hero-types," she griped, as she forced the bottle to my lips. "Always trying to keep from worrying the ladies. 'It's not that bad,'" she mimicked.

"Thank you," I replied as the healing liquid started doing its work and I came to realize just how badly the creature's claws had penetrated the weaker areas of my armor. However, I knew if it had caught me with its huge, curved teeth, it could have been much worse.

After looking around to make sure there were no other dangers nearby, I took a few moments to add a healing spell and then one more to ease the rest of my pain.

She watched as I did. "I can cast a minor healing spell on myself, but I need to learn to heal others. I'm a sorceress, but...well, I'm not a very good one. Without my potions..."

With my gauntlets off, I reached up and gently rubbed her cheek with two fingers. "Idgrod, you've studied a bit of magic, but you've never had to actually use it in combat. When we get a chance, we'll pick up a couple of spell books and do some practicing. Your ability with potions, on the other hand, is quite remarkable. Lami's told me you have a real gift for it. Like last night, remember?"

She smiled at me. "Thanks, my love. You know how to make a girl feel better. So, how much further do we have to go?"

I looked back at the overhang where I believe the cat had been before attacking us. Pointing, I said, "Oh, about 20 paces."

~ESV~

After searching and burying a dead hunter who'd apparently tried to take shelter below the little overhang, I did what I could to repair my armor and clean my weapons. We tried to work on Idgrod's limited spell repertoire, but between the potential for attracting unwanted guests and my own very limited spellcasting ability for offensive spells, we gave up and talked until the sun started dropping close to the western horizon.

"Hello in camp," called Serana, surprising both of us and revealing we'd been paying a little too much attention to each other instead of our surroundings as we'd planned. "Are you two lovebirds okay?"

"Serana, Gorm, welcome," I called, before noticing that the housecarl was walking with a pronounced limp. He slumped against the wall, so I steered Serana away and asked, "What happened?"

"Another troll had taken up residence in the pass," she told me. "What is it with that place that's so attractive to them? Whatever it is—anyway, Gorm got up front to hold him off so I could use the Firebolt spell you bought for me, but he took a bad blow to his leg and I had to go one-on-one with it. I kept backing up, letting the troll come to me while I used lightning to weaken him and fire to keep him that way. Gorm got a few arrows off on him, too, which helped. I gave him a healing hands spell, but you know how well that works for me. Can you help him?"

"Hopefully," I said. Going over to Gorm, I told him, "Here, let's take a look."

A few Healing Hands spells over the next hour or so was all it took to get him back to health and in good spirits.

"Ah! Being in the great outdoors, away from the pressures of the jarl's hall. Dovahkiin, while I love protecting Jarl Idgrod, perhaps I should speak with her about accompanying you from time to time on some of your other excursions as a means of exercising my muscles," he said as he flexed himself, "and, perhaps, honing my martial skills."

Both Idgrod and Serana gave me interesting looks, as if they felt it might be a good idea to discourage such ideas. Idgrod spoke up while I was trying to formulate a proper response.

"Gorm, Mother greatly values the protection you provide and the advice you give. I'm sure she would feel, well, lost, without your services." She looked at me and raised an eyebrow, as if expecting me to reinforce her point.

"Uh, that's right, Gorm. You're far too valuable to the jarl to be running around being wasted on some of the boring missions that we undertake. Besides, you can spend an hour or so practicing with the Morthal guards from time to time to sharpen your skills. They can show you how to improve your abilities and they might find you can help them sometimes, too."

"Hmm," he said, slowly nodding. "Perhaps such practice could be good for both of us. Still, it's not quite like going up against a troll."

"Nor a sabre cat," I replied, "but the guards will generally be more forgiving of any errors you might make and willing to show you how to improve on them than those ferocious beasts. Trolls, giant cats, and—dare I say?—dragons generally don't give us a second chance to learn from our mistakes."

We let him think about this overnight as we took turns on guard duty. Early the next morning, with Serana and Idgrod having swapped their outfits, we dispatched him downstream with instructions to follow the watercourse and then head due west for some miles until he came to Rorikstead, where he would then be able to follow the roads back to Morthal and his duty with Jarl Ravencrone. The rest of us headed east for the Greymoor Road.

~ESV~

We saw the dragon in the sky when we were just a few miles north of Crab Creek. Our pace was slower than usual since Idgrod couldn't keep up over time when we went that fast.

"I'm sorry, Aerik," she'd told me. "I can go fast, really fast, for short distances—I have to in order to keep up with Joric—but I'm a city girl and have never had to run long distances like most country girls."

"It's okay, Sweetheart. We'll get there."

Now, as I saw the dragon circling in the sky overhead, I hoped it wouldn't try to make a liar out of me. There was little doubt in my mind that Serana and I could defeat the dragon, but could we do so without Idgrod getting hurt, or worse? Three people out in the open on the Whiterun Plain would make a tempting target to a hungry dragon.

"Aerik, what's the plan?" called Serana with concern in her voice. Like me, she knew that Idgrod wouldn't survive a blast of fiery dragon breath or, most likely, even one of frost.

From its current height, I couldn't tell the type of dragon, much less its type of breath, so I decided to take a chance. "We keep going, as fast as we can, and hope that it isn't hungry."

Serana laughed at my attempt to keep Idgrod from worrying, knowing that dragons usually only fly when they're hunting. Idgrod, though, looked even more worried. "I don't want to get you two killed because of me," she said, as we tried to pick up our pace a little. "If it is hungry and decides to come after us, save yourselves, not me."

"Idgrod—" I said, but Serana interrupted, rather forcefully.

"I don't want to be mean, Princess, but save your breath for running," said Serana. "We can make stupid jokes and laugh about them later."

The dragon passed over us a few times as we continued along, floating on the winds, only beating its wings periodically when it needed the lift. It was dropping a little lower with each pass, but was still too high for Serana's spells to be effective and far enough up that making an even halfway-critical shot with my bow was unlikely.

We could see the bridge at Crab Creek in the distance when I noted a rocky mound near the road. "Hold up," I said. "Idgrod, catch your breath. Be ready to run around this mound if you have to, using it for cover. Just don't let it breathe on you."

"Do you think—"

"Yeah," said Serana and I together. "Move around, always keeping the mound between you and the dragon. We'll bring it down to us, if it comes down to it."

Serana readied her spells and I quickly strung my bow and pulled out an arrow as the dragon moved in ever closer, circling us. We all moved opposite its course, trying to give Idgrod and ourselves as much cover as we could. At the same time, I was watching the areas around us.

There was no warning. From a gentle float, the big beast suddenly dived coming straight at us. I loosed my arrow and Serana fired off her lightning bolt a moment later, causing the dragon to veer away slightly, making its blast of fire miss us by a few feet before it beat its wings furiously to regain some altitude.

Despite looking terrified, I noticed that Idgrod didn't scream, pulling her dagger out instead, ready to join us in the fight. "Put it away, Sweetheart, so you don't trip and fall on it," I told her. "Remember, stay low and keep the rocks between you and the dragon."

She said something in reply but I didn't hear it, for as soon as I finished, I turned to the nearest level spot and shouted, "Dur Neh Viir!" before drawing and firing another arrow.

The dragon, figuring it was high enough, doubled back, diving at us again. It illustrated its agility almost immediately on seeing the shimmer taking place on the ground behind us, as it swerved, just missing another of Serana's lightning strikes. Its wings beat as they carried it back into the sky.

"Oh, Dovahkiin! Freedom you grant me once more, if only for a little while!" boomed the voice of Durnehviir, the dragon of the Soul Cairn. With a powerful downdraft the creature lifted off into the sky as he called, "Our enemy we fight?"

"That dragon," I yelled, "seeks to harm our lady. We must keep her safe."

"Then safe will she be," came Durnehviir's reply as he shot after our attacker.

Idgrod was staring at me, her mouth open, when I turned back toward her. She shook her head as if denying what she'd just witnessed before finally forcing out, "Aerik, I knew you were known as Dragonborn, but you can summon dragons, too? Did you call the one that helped us at Morthal?"

"Different dragon, but yes."

She looked at me, still incredulously, before saying, "I...I love you, but...but what else don't I know about you?"

~ESV~

Neither Durnehviir nor the dragon came back to us as we continued our way to Whiterun. After all of the excitement, Idgrod set the pace she could maintain, trotting next to me, peppering me with questions from time to time about my skills and the dangers I'd faced. She looked at me in disbelief as I mentioned my journey to Sovngarde and then shook her head in complete denial as I told her about the strange place called the Soul Cairn, though Serana succeeded in setting her straight on that one, particularly after mentioning it as Durnehviir's place of imprisonment.

As we neared Fort Greymoor, we cut across country into the rich farmland along the Whiterun-Markarth Road. With Alduin gone and Whiterun straddling the fence in the war, a number of homes had been rebuilt and farms reestablished in the area over the past few years, with the reconstructed Western Watchtower providing some degree of protection from the occasional dragon or marauding beast.

We were nearing the main road when a farm-woman spotted us and came out with a pitchfork. "Don'cha be stealin' my produce!" she shouted.

Serana and I nodded and continued along, but were surprised when Idgrod trotted toward her.

"Good day, good lady," she said. "We are only passing through, but we would like to pay for our passage and buy a little of your produce if you have anything for sale."

The woman looked at her like she was crazy, but Idgrod pulled out her coin purse and handed her three septims. "I don't think we've disturbed anything along our way, but that should cover any minor damage we may have overlooked. Now, do you have some vegetables that you might sell us? We'll pay you well and save you the trip."

Idgrod bought a bag of cabbages and a wheel of cheese, which the woman sold with a smile and placed in a burlap bag. "Carlotta, the pretty woman in the marketplace, will be glad to purchase this, though she may not pay you much more than you paid me. It's market prices these days, considering she's not getting much from the north because of the damn Stormcloaks, so who knows."

"I thank you, good lady," replied Idgrod.

"Good day, and good travels," the woman called as we waved goodbye.

As we made our way on toward Whiterun, I asked, "What was that all about?"

"Aerik, you said you didn't want anyone to know you were back in Whiterun, but everybody here will recognize you. Nobody's going to recognize a traveling farm-woman bringing some of her produce to market. I'll be the one to go into town instead of you, so you and Serana can find a place to keep out of sight outside of town. Now, tell me what all you want me to do and where will I find you."

~ESV~

Late that afternoon, a dusty farm-woman approached the Whiterun gate. I watched from a distance as she paid the entry tax and was allowed to enter the city.

I wasn't there to see the rest of her adventure, but Idgrod gave me a detailed account, and Lydia and Lucia each added their perspective of what they witnessed after we were reunited. There was the note for Lydia and Lucia slid under the door at Breezehome, the selling of the produce to Carlotta Valentia in the marketplace, and then, a trip to Jorrvaskr, the hall of the Companions.

According to Idgrod, she entered the door at Jorrvaskr, saying, "Hello! May I speak with someone named Vilkas?"

She said she was so surprised that she jumped when someone stepped up behind her and placed a dagger to her back. It was a woman who said to her in a low, throaty voice, "Outsiders are not welcome here unless they have business, and then, they don't need to ask for a specific person. Now, are you here on business, or are you leaving?"

Idgrod said she was quite frightened but knew what she had to do. She turned to the woman, who had a striped facial tattoo, and said, "I'm here on business to speak to Master Vilkas. Are you going to help me, or do I need to speak to someone else?"

The woman, one of the most natural beauties Idgrod said she'd ever seen, stared at her before asking, "Who sent you?"

"Aerik, the new Companion, sent me. He said I must speak only with Vilkas."

"Aerik may be the Dovahkiin, but as a Companion, he is still new. He doesn't choose who one speaks to."

"For me, he does. I'm telling you what he told me."

The woman with the stripped tattoo looked angry as she leaned in close and closed her eyes, placing her cheek firmly against Idgrod's. The woman's nose was practically in Idgrod's hair when she took long, deep breath. She moaned lightly as she rubbed her cheek against Idgrod's for a moment before drawing back and opening her eyes. 'Yes. I would guess he did. Stay here and I'll find Vilkas."

Idgrod said that when Vilkas arrived, she told him basically what I needed him to do, but he was very reluctant to help. "The Dovahkiin is powerful, but he's only a junior member here. He joined a while back but has only done a few, very minor jobs for us."

"But he said he you were Companions, pledged to each other, and that he could trust you. By telling you all this, now I'm trusting you, too, with my life and with the lives of Aerik's daughter and his housecarl."

"His housecarl, the one known as Lydia?"

"Yes, and Lucia, his daughter."

Idgrod said that Vilkas rubbed the stubble on his chin and seemed to think for a bit before nodding and asking, "So exactly what do you want?"

She told him what I'd told her and asked for him his help and secrecy before leaving. She then went to the Bannered Mare and ate a meal and took a room, where she waited until dark.

~ESV~

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and special thanks for the new favorite this week! Please leave comments with your thoughts, too. Thanks!

Four more chapters remain in this arc.