Chapter 9: Anise's cabin

[20th of Last Seed 4E 201]

Once I had arrived in Riverwood from Helgen, I had been able to spend a nice couple of days here, meeting many people and working with some of them. On the day before yesterday I had worked with Hod to drag some logs from the woods to the sawmill and earned enough money to buy a used leather armor from Alvor. Yesterday I had met a Khajiit caravan and helped them to get their cart from the riverside up to the road again, and later I had assisted the blacksmith by getting a load of clay for him. I was looking forward to seeing what the next few days might have to offer for me; Riverwood was a nice little town, and for the time being I enjoyed being here.

In the next morning I woke up at sunrise, and it appeared that I was closer to my natural sleep rhythm now; I had been an early riser for decades in my previous life, and that attitude might come back to me now. I very much enjoyed to see the sun rising in the morning, to observe some small clouds of fog lingering on the river and meadows for some time, as the humidity was quite right, to listen to some birds singing and chirping, and to see nature in general waking up to a new day's dawning; I took my time taking that in, watching and listening in silence and admiration from the small island with the sawmill, and I was very much reminded of some of my vacation spots in my previous life, staying in some kind of cabin and being able to watch nature awakening in a similar way.

Stump, Frodnar՚s dog, was also up early, but it showed no desire to be close to me and rather kept some distance. I guessed that my predator cat appearance and smell did not appeal to it, just like dogs and cats on Earth mostly did not like each other a lot.

Gerdur served breakfast again, and once I had eaten and filled my stomach, I chopped some more wood for her. Apparently she not only sold lumber for construction and furniture, but also chopped wood for fireplaces and such, for those people who were too busy with their own jobs to bother with wood chopping. This was, like in the game, a task appreciated by many people and an easy way to earn a few septims.

Once this was done, I decided to go for a walk to get familiar with the environment. I had been in most corners of the little town already, and I was eager to scout the environment outside. I knew that 'Embershard Mine' was not far from Riverwood, somewhere to the southwest, and I wondered if I should go there and check if bandits occupied the place. However, I felt that I really needed to hone my fighting skills first before I dared to oppose a group of bandits on my own. Thus, I did not go that far, but rather decided to stay closer to town, and I started to explore the west bank of the river.

Once I had crossed the bridge, I saw the weathered but legible road signs, pointing out directions to Whiterun and to Bleak Falls Barrow; here I left the road and turned southwest, keeping close to the river. I first passed a few small huts and sheds which seemed to belong to the sawmill, and on the mountain side, next to a small creek cascading down from the mountains and feeding into the river, I noticed some section of the rock glittering with a slightly reddish tint. Steeping close I recognized some ore, most likely an iron vein. As I did not have a proper tool to work it and also did not know if that vein was maybe owned by somebody, I ignored it and moved on, and when I was due west of the town, I entered a small forest. Tall trees surrounded me, and more than once I saw a fox or a rabbit rushing by. I saw and heard some activity in the trees, and the chirping from the birds higher up reminded me of the tomtits and other species in my former life; several times there was also the very distinct noise made by an active woodpecker. On the ground there were a few anthills and tree stumps, and in one of the large hollow tree trunks I found a small box and some treasure – a few small gems and a pouch full of septims. I used the opportunity to sit down on a tree stump close-by; surrounded by a peaceful environment I closed my eyes, listened to the voices and noises of nature and pondered my situation.

So, quite obviously I was in Skyrim for real, and this real Skyrim was very similar to the game, but much larger; when we had walked from Helgen to Riverwood, this had taken several hours rather than barely ten minutes, so maybe 25 km on the road and at least 15 km as the crow flies. Most NPCs – well, people – had the same names as in the game, and there were more of them to meet, too. When talking to people, I was no longer limited to scripted dialog, and also their actions and comments were much more varied, although at least some of the side quests seemed to prevail. Also, one did not have to think about properly addressing people all of the time. I had grown up in Germany, after all, and the German language had this clear distinction between formal and casual addressing ('Sie' and 'Du'), above and beyond the distinction between using first or last names. Here in Skyrim, one could address almost everybody by first name, and maybe except for Jarls and such, no formalities were required or expected. As a matter of fact, I did not even know the last name for most of the people I had met so far. Was Ralof just 'Ralof of Riverwood', for instance?

I also found that people were easier to talk to than on Earth. I mean, back home many people, specifically younger ones, had been mostly interested in fashion, cool cars, the best gadgets like smartphones, and stuff like that I did not care much about, rather than being concerned about the climate change and increasing pollution. Here, in this land, people cared and talked about more basic things, like food, proper clothes, protection from bandits and creatures, and such. This was something I could much better relate to, specifically as people talked mostly straight instead of trying to transmit additional messages 'between the lines'; that was something I had always had great trouble in understanding. I mean, when somebody greeted me by saving 'How are you doing today?' my first instinct was to answer truthfully, like 'not too good; got some headaches' on some days. I had always needed to focus and understand that this was not what most wanted to hear, except for a few good friends. Here, I could actually say how I was really feeling, and people were mostly willing to help when and if needed.

Last but not least, I now had an amazing new body, probably about as muscled as Arnold Schwarzenegger in his best years, like when he had acted in the 'Conan' movies, and although I also was somewhat clumsy and mediocre in fighting, I loved this new life, so far at least. Overall, things were fine, and I whispered a "Thank you, Akatosh!" into the forest around me.

Focusing on said forest again, I also tried to identify the tree types. Apparently most of the trees were conifers and looked similar to firs and spruces on Earth. There were a few broad-leaves in between, but I was not a botanical expert and did not know of what type; my assumption would be something similar to beech trees. Besides, it was probably unrealistic to assume that Skyrim flora fully resembled Earth flora in such aspects, and the trees were surely at least of a different species, like most flowers were as well, at least according to what I could tell. Maybe at some time in the future it would be helpful to find a book on the country's flora, if something like that was actually available.

Happy with myself and my situation, for the moment at least, I eventually dared to wander further, and on my right, when I looked up, I could see a few structures which probably were part of 'Bleak Falls Barrow', high up in the mountains; lazily I wondered how long I'd have to walk to get up there; surely not in five minutes or so like in the game. Was there really going to be snow up there, even in late summer? Clouds prevents me from seeing any details in that direction, and I might or might not find out at another time, most likely.

Done with my musings and reflection, I looked around in the forest. Ahead of me, at some distance, I could see a small L-shaped cabin in a clearing, and I walked in that direction for now.

When I got close, I saw an elderly woman, presumably a Nord, sitting on a chair just outside. For a moment I thought about people in the wilderness potentially being dangerous; she could be a necromancer or conjurer or witch or something like that and just wait for unwary travelers, but she had already seen me, and I approached her nonetheless. When I was close enough, she greeted me with a smile:

"Hello there; it's so nice to have a visitor."

"Greetings, my name is B'lushona, and I am just exploring the nature around here."

"I am called Anise. Yes, it's quite nice at this time of the year. Winter is different, though. If I wasn't a Nord, I could not stay out here in the winter."

"I can imagine that. How do you survive out here all on your own?"

"It's tough just scraping by out here, indeed, but I make do. Fortunately, the two children in Riverwood, Dorthe and Frodnar, sometimes come out and visit, and they usually bring some food with them. I give them a few potions in return, and from time to time I tell some old stories. And, of course, I have some work tending the orchard."

"There is an orchard here?"

"Look over there, to the west!"

I did as she suggested, and just west and northwest from the cabin there was indeed a larger group of small tress which resembled apple trees or similar, with some distance between them and grass covering the gaps. A few goats peacefully fed from the grass, and most of the trees had quite some fruits on them, which made sense for the time of the year, late summer.

"I had already wondered if the apples I had found were local products or imported from Cyrodiil."

"Oh, we get some apples and a few pears from this orchard, and they have more orchards south in Falkreath hold, and I think in the Rift as well. I herd the goats, and they also fertilize the trees with their dung. Where the larger trees don't block it, we get some nice sunshine from the south here, and the dominating shadow from Bleak Falls Barrow to the North keeps the cold winds away and most of the bandits, too."

We sat in silence for a few minutes until Anise asked:

"Lately, I heard rumors about something more interesting than old stories. Dorthe mentioned a dragon, but those are just legends, aren't they? There haven't been any live dragons for centuries!"

"Well, only a few days ago one showed up at Helgen and destroyed half of the town."

"Are you sure? I remember that were were same black clouds in that direction two or three days ago, but a live dragon?"

"I am, lady, and I was there myself and saw the creature."

I found myself sitting with her for half an hour and telling her a summary of what had happened at Helgen. When I had finished she thanked me for keeping her company, and I took my leave and wandered on. Getting back to the river I could see the Guardian Stones on the other side, and I decided that this was far enough. I swam across, got up to the road and turned left again, towards Riverwood. So far, his had been a nice hike, and it had helped a lot to clear my head and prepare for whatever might be waiting for me next.

Once again I passed the farm where Ralof՚s friend, Phintis, worked on the field, and as I was not in a hurry at all, I offered my help, which he gladly accepted, even when I mentioned that I was very unskilled in farm labor. Back home I had never really worked on a farm, except for driving a tractor around a few times, and my food had always been bought in a supermarket. Operating a scythe properly to cut the spikes was nothing I could and would learn quickly, and the Imperial did not expect me to, but at least I could help with secondary tasks like bundling and carrying; in addition I contributed a lot towards getting the dried harvest from the days before back into the farmer's barn, where the supply would be stored for later use.

I worked with Phintis and his hands for a couple of hours or so until he called lunch break; my assistance earned me free lunch in the farmhouse, at least, and after the meal I asked:

"Say, with all of the wheat on your big field, where is the milling done? I have not seen a windmill in Riverwood. Do you carry the wheat all the way to Whiterun or do you have other ways to process the crops?"

While I had no experience in working on a farm, I was, thanks to a good school education decades ago, at least in theory familiar with the concept of processing crops through a mill to remove the outer shells and to produce flour, which was the main ingredient for food like bread.

"No, not at all" Phintis laughed. "That would kind of counteract our independence, right? No, there is a small watermill on the river bank across from my large wheat field, but it is mostly hidden by trees and not easily seen from the road; it's run by my wife's cousin, and you have probably missed it."

When I took my leave, I promised to come again if I had the time, but I honestly mentioned that I did not know yet how long I'd stay in Riverwood:

"I really like this town and the people who live here, but I have a few commitments which may lead me somewhere else some time soon."

When I stepped out of the farmhouse, I was really glad that the people in Skyrim, or at least those in Riverwood, had built the door frames higher than the ones back in good old Germany. Back there, the standard door frame height had been two meters, and I would have had to duck all of the time with my current body, but here I was fine, although there was not too much room to spare. I was not sure if that was done more because some Nords were quite tall or to allow also guards with helmets to enter houses easily; one day I might want to ask about that.

Anyway, once I had left the farmhouse, which was the one closest to the town's southwestern gate, I encountered three hold guards who had arrived from Whiterun just an hour or so ago, as they told me and any locals who were interested to listen. They also mentioned that the Jarl had heard about the dragons and wanted to have some aid sent to Riverwood. One of them elaborated when I asked for details:

"A young Bosmer and a Nord warrior lady came into Dragonsreach and told Jarl Balgruuf the Greater that they had been in Helgen herself. The Bosmer girl is not very fluent in Tamrielic, and she seemed to be quite afraid. But nonetheless the Jarl listened to them, and they came back with us, with a male wood elf as well."

"I came with them down from Helgen a few days ago" I told them. "If I may ask, where did they go?"

"Farengar, the court wizard, asked them to get something from Bleak Falls Barrow, I think" the guard replied. "Just before the bridge, they followed the side road up there. That was not much more than one hour ago, right?"

"Indeed, yes. If you ask me," another guard added, while pointing up to the barrow, "this place is dangerous. According to what I heard, there are bandits up there, and the inside of the ruin is full of draugr, too. I sure wouldn't want to go in there unless I absolutely had to. When I was a boy, my uncle used to tell me that ghosts might come down from the barrow to haunt me if I did not behave."

So they, assumedly Fiona, Freya and Faendal, had indeed been sent to and into the barrow? To retrieve something which, if I recalled Farengar՚s words properly from the game, 'might or might not actually be there'? Now, was I supposed to wait here for them or follow? I knew that there were most likely quite a few bandits up there, and while Faendal probably lived up to his reputation as capable archer, the so-called shield-maiden was not very experienced, as we had seen a few days earlier, and the Bosmer girl was probably useless on her own, unless she had some talents I had not seen yet.

I sighed and made up my mind; rather than just waiting here for the group to return, I was going to follow them, to the ruin's entrance at least. If they were already in beyond the entrance area, I was not sure if I was brave enough to follow them all alone, but I was at least going to get there and have a look. Thus, I quickly picked up a few more supplies, mostly dried meat and such, from Gerdur, who insisted not to get paid for them, bought a few potions with my last septims from Lucan, and headed out of town, crossing the bridge on the north side. I had seen the side road branching off before, and now I turned into it. It was less wide and less even than the main road further down, so that I needed to be careful where I put my feet down. Every few minutes, though, I decided to stop for a moment to enjoy the view, and getting higher and higher the view was getting better. Riverwood soon looked like a toy village, but the temperature up here dropped significantly now. Down in the valley we had had decent weather, sunshine and comfortable warmth, while I found myself facing some almost icy temperature about two hours later. I wondered if I should have also bought a cloak, but for some reason I was not really feeling cold; maybe that fur on my body actually helped.

Plants on the road side got fewer, and when I could see the lone watchtower in the distance, there were a few splotches of snow on the ground. The wind had picked up and blew from ahead, and I remembered that I'd better start to look out for potential bandits before I got too close to the structure. However, all I could see were some corpses and a couple of dead wolves. That either implied that the others had been here and dealt with the bandits successfully, or that a trap was laid out to make people coming here think that the bandits were dead. None of the corpses were Fiona, Freya or Faendal, but nonetheless I approached with caution, and I wished I had a 'Detect Life' spell or something like that. However, there was indeed no living soul around, except for a few birds like hawks or falcons circling around. In addition, the few chests in the tower were all empty, so that they had probably been looted before. Thus, I proceeded uphill without further delay.

About halfway up to the barrow from the tower, in my best judgment, the occasional snowflakes which had been coming down developed into a veritable snow storm; visibility dropped to only a few dozen meters, and I could only hope that I was still on the proper path. The occasional stone pyramids on the side certainly helped, but they did not indicate which path I was actually on. It was pretty amazing, actually. Down in Riverwood, we had had comfortable and pleasant late summer weather, and up here, after only a few hours of strenuous hiking, I found myself in a snow storm with temperatures around zero. I had always liked snow, and while I felt that being exposed to the elements like this for a longer period of time might be exhausting, I enjoyed it for now.

My view forward was severely obstructed by the whirling snow and I made very slow progress, but suddenly a dark shape materialized ahead of me; somebody came down from the direction of the barrow, more stumbling than walking. I was instantly on my guard and pulled my war axe, but when the person was getting close I recognized Faendal. We had not been introduced, but he looked like in the game, with his angular face and pointed ears. He was trying to say something, but failed, and he slipped down to the ground. I did not know what was going on, but when I stepped closer I noticed that he was injured. His left leg had a big cut in it, and his head was bruised. After I had spent the little magicka I had on a healing spell and fed him a potion of minor healing and one for stamina, he finally recovered from his exhaustion, looked up and thanked me:

"I do not know who you are, but I appreciate your help; I feel much better now."

I had not been able to heal him completely, but at least he was no longer losing blood; without thinking much I replied:

"You are welcome. I am B'lushona, and you are Faendal, right?"

"You know my name? Do I know you?"

"No, I guess not. But I heard people in Riverwood talking about you, and I guess that there aren't so many Bosmer around in this area."

"No, indeed, I am the only one. And now I recall you from the evening a few days ago, when I briefly saw you with Gerdur and some others."

The Bosmer paused for a moment and remembered why he was up here:

"By the Eight, I really should not have agreed to going to the barrow with the two young ladies. I should have known better. Farengar was very persuasive, though."

"Yes, I assume that he might have been; but what happened up there?"

"There have been reports about bandits up there, and I just ignored those. We managed those down at the tower all right, and up there close to the barrow I used my bow to get the two bandits who lingered outside. With all of that snow it was not easy, but I thought that the area was clear when we sought shelter from the elements under the roof close to the entrance. While I was scouting around to make sure I had not missed an enemy, some of them must have stepped out from inside behind my back, and when I turned around, the two young ladies had daggers at their throats; they were taken captive. One of the bandits came for me, too close for the bow already, and when I defended myself with a dagger, I got that wound in the leg; I barely managed to escape into the snowstorm, and I had to leave my bow behind. I do not even want to think about what they are going to do to the girls now."

[Author's Notes: Will Fiona՚s journey be over already at this time? Let's find out in the next chapter!

I realize that the game uses something like the Imperial measurement units, with yards and foot and miles and such. Our hero and narrator, though, grew up in Germany, and he thinks metric. In the same way, he also thinks about temperatures in 'Celcius' (centigrades).

We all know that the distances in the games are way too small; you can jog from the exit of Helgen underground to Riverwood in a few minutes. Some other stories blow up the distances and entire Skyrim to make it fill its place in Tamriel like it should be, but I don't feel like having my characters walking for weeks to get anywhere. Thus,I am going for a compromise, with Helgen to Riverwood like four to five hours and Riverwood to Whiterun a little more than that. Assuming an average walking speed of 5 km/h (3 miles per hour), this make the distance between Riverwood and Whiterun about 20 km as the crow flies, which is good enough in my opinion. Looking at longer distances, Whiterun to Rorikstead will require two days of walking, and Whiterun to Solitude four orfive. I estimate that this makes Skyrim about the size of Switzerland (41,000 square km) or even a little more, and this is good enough for me. B'lushona on his own can easily walk much faster, but he is not alone most of the time and thus has to slow down for the benefit of his companions.]