Chapter 13: Giant and Companions

[22nd of Last Seed 4E 201]

After our adventure in Bleak Falls Barrow I had learned how to use an alchemy table, although the results, judged by the magical inscriptions on the small bottles, had been even less than mediocre. Judged by that I was unlikely to ever become a master alchemist, unless I worked very hard to improve that particular skill.

In the late morning today we, that is Fiona, the Bosmer, Freya, the shield-maiden, and I had decided to walk from Riverwood towards Whiterun together, as our business in and around Riverwood was completed for now; Fiona was supposed to return the Dragonstone we had found to the court wizard, and I carried the heavy stone in my large backpack. In the barrow Fiona had been the only one who had heard the chanting from the word wall, and it seemed to be likely that she was the Dragonborn, although the final confirmation – herself being able to shout – was still in the future. Would we soon encounter Mirmulnir at the Western Watchtower? That was supposed to happen soon after Fiona delivered the Dragonstone to Farengar, right?

For now, we were on the road along the river north of Riverwood in mid morning. Fortunately the light morning rain had mostly stopped; the sky was still full of clouds, though. With the river and lots of bushes and flowers to our right and the cliffs to our left, I looked at the rock walls and lazily wondered if one could find some fossils in there when digging, like from dinosaurs or so? In the 'Oblivion' game, there had been a mod about an Archaeology Guild, and that had been a lot of fun; I wished that there was such a guild here in Skyrim.

When we had walked in silence for some time, I noticed that the distance between Riverwood and Whiterun was significantly larger than in the game. But of course, in the game certain limitations applied, but here, in this real world, distances appeared to be somewhat, well, 'more real'. It took us almost two hours before the road along the river started to meander and decline, indicating that we were now starting to leave the slightly higher elevation of Riverwood and getting down into the Whiterun tundra. However, after the third or fourth turn the road led back to the river, close to some rapids, and there was a small wooden bridge across, providing access to a house in a very scenic environment. The house had a big terrace in front with a number of tables and chairs around, all covered by a high hung roof, and two of the tables were occupied by people drinking and eating something. Freya apparently saw me looking over there, and she told me:

"Yes, that's a nice place, isn't it? We stopped here last time, and we learned from Faendal that the place is called 'Riverside Lodge'; it's an inn, conveniently located about halfway between Riverwood and Whiterun. We learned that the current owner is an Imperial from Cyrodiil, and he inherited the place from an uncle."

Wait – wasn't Riverside Lodge a mod with a player home? Obviously not here, but it looked at least as nice as the house in the mod. For now, we did not need a break yet, and thus we moved on. Another hour or so later we finally got to the point where the view through the trees opened up and we could first glimpse a view of Whiterun. When the city was finally visible in all of its glory ahead of us, briefly illuminated by a few rays of sunshine piercing the clouds, I stopped for a moment. Whiterun turned out to be even more impressive than in the game, and I suspected the city to be somewhat larger, while still keeping almost all of the houses inside of the city walls, at least according to what I could see from the distance. For a few minutes there was a nice rainbow visible right above the city; the sun was behind us, and the view of the city on the hill with the rainbow was almost magical. I was about to point out the city to my two companions, when I remembered that they had been here before just a few days ago. However, as I stood to admire the view, Fiona stepped next to me and said:

"You know, from afar this does remind me of the Golden Hall of Meduseld in Edoras, a little bit at least. I have watched the movies at least five times, and views like this one never cease to amaze me."

"You like the movies that much?"

"I don't just like them, I love them! In addition, I love to see rainbows."

"Yes, same here. You know, a rainbow always reminds me of the story of Noah's Ark in the Holy Bible. It was sent to us by God, as a sign and a visualization of a promise."

"Indeed, yes, good point."

She nodded, but did not elaborate further; maybe she also had a Christian background? And about the comparison to Edoras, sure, she had a point, and I wondered for a moment if some of the background from the 'Lord of the Rings' movies had inspired the Skyrim game developers here? On the other hand, a lot of medieval castles were built on a hill; that was nothing extraordinary, but something which had been, in the medieval times in Central Europe on Earth at least, dictated by common sense. For now, I enjoyed the experience that Fiona had really talked to me for a minute rather than keeping her usual distance.

We continued following the winding road descending to the valley floor, and while we walked, I had another look at my two female companions. The two were very different; Freya, the Nord shield-maiden, still looked like she had just left a professional dressing and make-up studio, although no signs of make-up were visible, at least not for my untrained eyes. Her light blond hair was perfectly styled, and once again I thought that she must have some special magic allowing her to appear like this all of the time. Fiona, on the other hand, had her usual tousled hair, and she looked worried and not fully rested. I could understand this; after all, we had been in this world for less than one week, and unless somebody had some knowledge about what was going on, like I had, the radical change was likely to be very troubling. At least, though, no dangers of any kind showed up today, and neither bandits nor wolves tried to intercept and attack us.

We did encounter an Imperial patrol, though, and they had two prisoners in Stormcloak attire with them; they were walking south, probably towards Imperial controlled Falkreath hold. We stepped to the side of the road to allow them easy passing, and once they were gone, Fiona asked:

"So that's about the Civil War Ralof mentioned, right?"

I nodded and replied:

"Yes, quite so. Imperials and Stormcloaks are fighting each other and I don't see that ending any time soon. Both of them control four holds each, with Whiterun being neutral."

She shook her head and said:

"It's a pity, but I guess that there is not much we can do about it, right?

"Probably not, at least for now."

"Don't they see" Freya chimed in "that, with dragons now being around, there are more important issues to worry about that a petty rebellion?"

"Freya, I don't think that the knowledge about dragons being back is widely known at this time. Even if it was, neither Imperials nor Stormcloaks may be willing to end hostilities, but maybe they could at least negotiate a limited cease fire agreement; I doubt that they are willing to do that, though."

The pretty shield-maiden snorted, but abstained from replying to my comments. I thought about the negotiations at High Hrothgar in the game, and although this only happened much later in the main quest, I wondered to what extent one could help to mediate between the two factions? Time might tell, but for now we had other priorities on our minds, and anyway we needed to learn more about country and people before even thinking about getting involved in the war. It certainly would not do to push in one direction only to learn later on that the other direction would have been the wiser one.

Half an hour later we had fully descended to the lower ground where the small river from Whiterun met the larger one from Riverwood, and when we got to the road crossing southeast of Whiterun, there was even a small guard post there. The two soldiers looked a little bit uneasy when they saw our mixed party, but we greeted them in a friendly manner and they nodded back. In my opinion it was good to see that such an important road crossing had a least a guard post.

When we turned left and soon passed what I assumed to be the Honeybrew Meadery – or something like that at least; I did not bother to read the sign – I took some time to admire the colorful flowers and butterflies at the wayside, but soon I started to pay attention to the road ahead, trying to ignore the distraction from mother nature. Wasn't that the area where a giant damaged the fields and three Companions tried to kill it? But wait, that happened when the Dragonborn passed the farm for the first time, right? For now, at least, there were no indications of trouble, and once we had passed the meadery, we saw a nice meadow with several apiaries placed on it, and I even thought that I saw lots of bees flying around. The meadow with many wild flowers on it provided a nice contrast to the yellow-brown tundra grass which dominated the vegetation all around, and I stopped for a few moments to admire the scenery, which was enhanced by occasional rays of sunshine illuminating the flowers through some gaps in the clouds. Beautiful vistas like that one had always helped me to relax and warm my heart, and I forgot about potential threats and challenges for a few moments.

The peaceful feeling did not last long, though; I could hear some fighting noise ahead, from the west. Alerted by those I started to run and could soon look past some rocks on my left; there was indeed a giant on a farm field and three people fighting it, one of them with arrows and the other two with swords. One of the sword fighters appeared to be a young woman, and when I was getting close to them she stumbled on a small rock and fell down. The giant raised its huge club, and I realized that the woman might have trouble evading it, being on the ground like she was.

In an instant I had flames ready in my left hand, the battle axe I had acquired in the barrow in my right, and I attacked the giant from behind, slashing through his thigh and blasting flames right into his loin region. The beast yelled from pain and slowly turned around, swinging the monstrous club in my direction, but giving me time enough to evade and jump back. Once I was safely out of reach, my mind started to berate me about my stupid show of bravery against the giant, which was easily twice my size, and I hesitated to attack again.

Now, though, the man in the group of warriors, a very tall and broad shouldered Nord, used the opportunity to attack with the largest greatsword I had seen so far, and on my side Freya also joined in. Our combined efforts brought the giant down, and while we all needed a few minutes to rest, Fiona had been standing back, probably scared by the giant, which was somewhat understandable. Naturally I did not have something like a measuring tape, but that giant was easily four to five meters tall, and I assumed that one hit with the huge club would turn any human being, or Khajiit, of course, into a corpse.

While we recovered and caught our breath, my mind got distracted for a moment, when I thought about sizes. How could I really know or at least estimate how big or tall things or creatures or people were here in Skyrim? I did not have any calibrated scale to compare to, so in theory we could all be miniature models like in 'Honey, I shrunk the kids', right? No, probably not, as the rain drops I had seen so far were still more or less 'normal' sized, and the standard laws of physics sure also applied here. However, some variation was possible, and I was likely not going to get a chance to find out. On the other hand, did it matter? Probably not.

Forcing my mind to get back to my environment, I looked at the group of warriors, and unless I was very mistaken, they were likely to be to be members of the Companions of Whiterun. I could not go by faces alone, not only because my memory for faces was very limited, but in particular because real life faces were somewhat more distinct and, well, so much more real than faces in the game. There were ways to make mountains and plants look almost photo-realistic in computer games, but human faces with facial expressions had a long way to go still, at least for the games I had played. Now, when I looked at the three warriors, I noticed that they looked much more than those modded with something like 'Bijin Warmaidens' or 'Pandorable's' rather than vanilla, which I appreciated. Specifically the red haired lady had some warpaint on her face, and the male one was quite tall and bulky. I had done the entire Companions questline practically every time I had started a new character in the game, and I was reasonably sure that I was looking at Aela, Farkas and Ria. After all, I had at least started and almost always completed the Companions questline every time I had played the game so far, and those people were much more familiar to me than, let's say, the members of the Bards College in Solitude or the members of the Dark Brotherhood.

We, that is Freya and me, helped to look at the injuries the suspected Companions had suffered; however, except for a few bruises and scratches the lady on the ground had from falling, there were none. The lady with the bow addressed me:

"You handle yourself well. You could make for a decent Shield-Brother."

The younger lady, a young Imperial with short black hair, chimed in:

"You probably saved my life – thank you, stranger."

The term 'Shield-Brother' confirmed my assumption, and the red-haired lady with the bow could only be Aela. While Ria had something like a scaled armor on her body, covering most of it, Aela did wear a somewhat skimpy armor, but she was a tough Nord after all.

I nodded politely and told the ladies:

"You are Companions, right?"

They both nodded, and the huntress replied:

"Right, we are. I am Aela, this is Ria, and the bulk of a man over there is Farkas."

Indeed he was big, and I was glad to see that this real Skyrim had much more variety of sizes than the game had. It really did not make sense for all male Nords, for instance, to have the same size. Farkas was clearly much taller and bulkier than all other male Nords I had seen yet, and he looked like he could take almost anything. Truthfully I replied:

"I have heard about you, and I am pleased to meet you in person."

"When you get into Whiterun, head up to Jorrvaskr in the Wind District, if you consider joining us. You will have to talk to Kodlak Whitemane; the old man's got a good sense for people. He can look in your eyes and tell your worth. If you go to him, good luck."

Of course I already knew that, but it was good to get confirmation at least. Naturally I wondered if my 'worth' would be good enough? I might want to find out.

The three Companions started to move back to the city, and Aela scowled at Fiona in passing:

"Well, that's taken care of. No thanks to you."

She was right, but not everybody could be a good fighter. Fiona had a bow with her, and she had proven earlier, against draugr in the barrow, that she knew how to handle it; here, she had probably been too scared to use it against the giant, and she had been keeping her distance from both the giant and the Companions. Was this tiny wood elf really the Dragonborn? What kind of sense did that make? I really hoped that Akatosh knew what he was doing. On the other hand, as she had probably not played the game before, her behavior was understandable. If I had arrived without any prior knowledge, I would not have done much better; for a moment I almost felt pity for her, and I wished that she'd be willing to talk more.

Just before we left the farm, I wondered about something else. The farm the giant had been on, Pelagia Farm or so, was not far from the Whiterun Stables, basically just across the road, so couldn't a few of the Whiterun city or hold guards also get involved in that fight? Why was it that the Companions had taken over that fight rather than the guards? Was there some kind of rule to split specific tasks between guards and Companions or so? Also, did the farmer have insurance? Probably that concept did not even exist here, but the field the fight had happened on had not many healthy looking plants on it any longer.

Slowly we followed the Companions on their way to the city, and I was not really surprised to see that the guards at the main gate looked at me very suspiciously. According to what I knew, they preferred to have Khajiit outside of the city rather than inside. I decided to not be bold, not at this time at least, gave the Dragonstone to Freya and said:

"Look, I don't think that they are about to allow me to enter the city without a lot of questions, and I don't want to keep you. Why don't you go ahead and we will meet up at some later time, all right?"

Before one of the ladies could reply, I took my leave and turned around. Most likely I'd meet them soon again, if events went according to plan. Actually, wasn't it likely that the dragon – Mirmulnir, or something like that – was already out at the Western Watchtower? On a whim I decided to have a look; we were already in late afternoon now and I expected darkness to start in a few hours, but anyway. A few minutes after I had turned right after the stables, I met a panting city guard who just gasped "Dragon! No time to talk! Need to call it in!" before he ran on. This must have been the guard reporting to the Jarl after Farengar had accepted the Dragonstone. Looking west I could see a dark shadow vanishing, and I had probably just missed the first attack. So, this was going to actually happen? A dragon showing up, and we'd have to kill it?

When I approached the tower after some time of jogging and exercising my limbs, only interrupted by a short break to empty my bladder behind a big rock, one of the guards called to me:

"Careful! There is a dragon around somewhere, and we do not know if it will come back!"

"Yes, I have heard about that; I met the guard running into the city to report. Are some of you injured?"

"Of course! Can you help?"

I went into the tower, and the injured soldiers had been placed here, on the ground floor, opposite from two who were obviously dead. I handed out most of the healing potions I had in my backpack – besides the very weak ones I had created on my own, I had bought a few stronger ones from some of my loot money – and also applied my healing spell, and the guards appreciated my assistance. I was pleasantly surprised that they seemed to accept me as I was, but probably my willingness to help with the injured people weighed more than my intimidating looks. While we waited, one of the guards told me how a dragon had suddenly shown up and killed two guards with fire before the others had been able to find cover in the tower. After circling the tower multiple times the beast had flown off, and they had sent the fastest runner to Whiterun to report to the Jarl. They had a feeling that the dragon would be back, though. If the story was going to develop like in the game, it certainly would be back, indeed.

[Author's Notes: There is indeed a mod called 'Riverside Lodge' on Nexus, and it has a very nice and cozy player home, although a small one and not suitable for many followers and/or adopted children.

The archaeology mod for TES IV Oblivion mentioned in this chapter is called 'The Lost Spires', and you can still find it, or a least a link to the external page, on the Nexus.

One more comment: I am unsure on using the preposition 'he/she' or 'it' on some specific beings, like giants here. A fandom page claims that giants are considered by the game as 'creatures', but anyway, if you think that giants are supposed to be 'he' rather than 'it', please do let me know.]