"Hello, traveler!" the first, a Nord, called. He stood tall and proud, yet deftly navigated the cracked and crumbling earth between them.
The woman behind quickly recovered as the ground beside her collapsed. "Whoops, sorry!" She called back to their third companion with a smile, who cursed her name in jest.
"Do you have wares you're selling?" he continued as he finished his approach. Nisil was incredibly suspicious as his heart raced.
The Nord looked over Escanor. "She seems a little worse for wear." His gaze returned to Nisil's crouched form. "Are you both doing alright?" His pause and sincerity reflected genuine concern.
Taken aback by this, Nisil began to feel more embarrassed than in danger and slowly shifted from behind the tiny shrub.
"It appears travelling is not my strong suit," Nisil said at length as he dusted off his robes. "We're headed south to the Rift, and as you can see…" Escanor lay down with difficulty, as if on cue.
"As you can see… we're having some issues."
"Ah," the third said, "ever been through the marsh before?"
Nisil stated the obvious.
The woman smirked and took a drink of her waterskin. The Nord smiled compassionately and nodded, looking them over. Nisil could not help but return the sheepish grin.
"Do you see the saplings, friend?" He kindly pointed for emphasis.
"Look for the saplings with knots in their trunks. They'll lead you through, but make sure you head straight for them, and don't you wander from that path."
Nisil nodded, noting more of the twisted trees in the distance. He felt like a fool for not noting their significance sooner and quickly stammered out a profuse thank you.
Composing himself, he bid them peruse his 'disorganized wares.'
"What do you do?" the woman asked, counting out two Septims for a bowl of salt and garlic.
Refusing her payment with a kind wave of his hand, he responded.
"I'm an apprent…" He stopped short.
"I'm an alchemist."
Nisil, fatigued beyond measure, turned his back on the Velothi Mountains and set his gaze upon the final sliver of the setting sun.
'Don't tread the swamp in the dark, you must push through it.' The woman's parting words echoed in his mind hauntingly as he surveyed the last mile before him. He could see the tree line and the road beyond, tantalizingly close, but he and Escanor were both so weary. He knew they were unable to traverse anymore of the expanse without enormous difficulty.
Even still, the old shack on the river seemed so inviting. Nestled from view, it beckoned to them as a place of refuge.
Nisil shook his head and stretched, gazing at the one measly mile left on their journey.
"C'mon ol' gal," he said to Escanor, "let us finish this trek through and make camp."
Begrudgingly, after mustering what energy they could to summit a small knoll, they continued their arduous trek southward.
They had taken no more than two dozen paces before Nisil grew somewhat disoriented, as the moons rose and stars grew brighter upon the darkened sky.
The tree line he had believed to be the end of the forsaken swamp simply curved. Following it with his eyes, he came to realize they had just cut across a large sliver of the marsh, rather than directly through it where he believed they would reunite with the road.
Nisil groaned and sat on a small boulder as he cast his eyes skyward. Perhaps navigating through an unfamiliar land had less to do with his intelligence and more with a physical knowledge of the route.
He hung his head and rubbed his eyes, muttering to himself, "the 'Rift is south' has a pretty large degree of error to it, you fool."
Even in his sorrow, he took solace in their compassion. These hunters, Nords nevertheless, had left their easy trail to aid him, and his steps since were emboldened by their selflessness. It gave him hope that others along this lonely road he now travelled would be as warm and inviting, and less cold than the Nordic relations he had always endured in Windhelm.
Down the slope to the banks of the Yorgrim, Nisil rolled his gaze. The old wooden hut sat shrouded in the darkness.
Brushing off the whispers of advice that clouded his decision making, Nisil had to drag Escanor down the embankment. She wobbled as she protested any further movement.
The Yorgrim bubbled lazily at this point just before the rapids in the distance, and Nisil's eyelids grew heavy as he drew nearer the hut. Ever weary, he let Escanor pull the lead from his grasp and proceed to quench her thirst in the cool waters.
Leaves and sand crunched underfoot as Nisil stumbled through the open doorway into the unlit, solitary chamber beyond. Blinking rapidly, he allowed his eyes to adjust only slightly, until he could make out the general interior.
Daring not light a torch to reveal the dank quarters he now found himself in, Nisil settled for being grateful with their accommodations, no matter how meager. He breathed in the earthy warmth and smiled, elated as he focused upon the large bed directly before him.
He strode forth quickly and flopped upon it unceremoniously: burying his face in the thick fur blanket stretched across the lumpy, rounded frame.
He dared not think of the disgusting pile of hard straw that comprised this mounded bed, nor the amount of rain that caused it to stink so terribly.
Sighing once more, Nisil was astounded by the effect the long day's travel was having on him.
He had become so used to walking that he still felt as if he were moving.
He smiled, eyes closed, as he prepared to kick his boots off from his prone position.
Nisil felt the bed seemingly shift underneath him.
He opened his eyes.
The bed was shifting underneath him.
Escanor wisped her tail at flies trying to land on her. She reached down and grabbed a small shrub in her teeth before chewing it into cud.
She looked up slowly and continued to chew as a high-pitched scream and a garbled string of profanity emanated from the interior of the hut.
As Nisil sprinted out, she slowly turned her head to watch him charge recklessly into the water.
He stumbled, landing face first in knee deep water before crawling deeper and scrambling to his feet.
Escanor wisped a horsefly with her tail and continued to chew lazily, bits of stem hanging from her wrinkled, gray lips.
Nisil sprang forward, pitching himself into the water. Desperately, he swam to the opposite bank, gasping and coughing for breath in his burning lungs.
Escanor slowly turned her head and watched as a massive grizzly bear roared, then charged from the hut in close pursuit.
Nisil wailed, shouting to the Divines as he thrashed as hard and as fast as he could through the water.
The bear charged after him into the shallows. It thundered forth. Waves rolled across the river and water droplets sprayed high into the night air.
Escanor chewed her cud.
Nisil crawled up the muddy bank, slipping and dragging his soaked form in traveler's clothes. His heart skipped a beat, as he saw the remainder of the steep, slick clay bank.
The bear forded the stream, slowly yet powerfully traversing the depth on its hind legs.
Escanor shook a fly off her neck. She paused a moment and the majority of her cud slipped from her slightly gaped maw with a splat.
Nisil lunged at the bank and immediately slipped back down, unable to crawl up the nearly vertical surface. He froze, terrified of what was to come. Briefly coming to grips with his fate, he believed he could feel the bear's breath on his back.
His eyes lit upon salvation.
The bear emerged from the shallows, roaring mere steps behind him.
Escanor watched this unfold as she slowly reached for more flower nestled in the crack of the boulder.
Nisil leapt once more, grasping the root firmly and catching his weight. He flailed against the bank, pulling with all his might as the bear lunged. He hefted himself up just as the bear swiped and narrowly missed him.
Nisil slid back again, unable to find footing higher on the bank.
He fell flat against it, his feet landing atop the bear's shoulders, and frantically dodged the bear's jaws. Mustering all the intestinal fortitude he could, he let go with one hand and reached into his satchel.
The bear roared, swatting Nisil on the hip and sending him swinging. He kicked at the bear as he tried to stand, but it slammed into him once more. As the root ripped free from its purchase on the bank, Nisil was sent tumbling down the embankment.
He rolled into the water beside the behemoth, disoriented but alive.
Before he could even withdraw, it towered above him roaring. Nisil threw his hands up, fists clenched, trying to protect himself as the beast toppled down.
In a last ditch effort, Nisil swung his hand up, shattering the potion into the bear's face.
Glass showered down and Nisil shielded his eyes and mouth. The great bear roared as it rocked back and lumbered off him. Nisil slid back deeper into the muddy water as quickly as he was able.
The bear began to thrash and charged into the water as it rubbed its face. Drunkenly, it emerged on the opposite bank, somewhat placid and groggy.
It staggered, sauntering back towards the cabin. Nisil watched its gait become more uncoordinated and slow, before it slunk back into its lair.
As he sat on the opposite bank, covered in mud, but very much alive, he felt a severe tremble go through his body. Immediately, the gravity of his experience settled in and he began to shake uncontrollably at the mixture of terror and disbelief that coursed through his veins.
He struggled to regain his composure, yet found it within himself to look around for Escanor. After a few frantic moments, he eventually spotted her in the dark.
Delicately, she stood perched upon a large boulder a few paces away.
In the center of the Yorgrim, she chewed her cud and returned his disbelieving stare with a sleepy, disinterested one of her own.