Chapter 36: Arcadia's new assistant

[15th – 22nd of Frostfall 4E 201]

After I had found my two saber cat cubs, Hanni and Nanni, I had left Ivarstead, and I had convinced Mia, the alchemist, who had lived in the Alchemist's shack, to come to Whiterun with me. We had stopped for the night close to Helgen, and as my two pets were around, we did not have to post a watch, and on the next day we had started to move on towards Riverwood.

We passed the Guardian Stones and got close to the upper section of the White River. On the other side I could see the roof of Anise's cabin through the trees, and I recalled the time I had been there and talked to the old lady. I was feeling dirty and, for some reason, a tiny bit dizzy after the long walk and thus decided to go for a quick swim. While Mia had a quick break to eat something, I discarded my armor and jumped into the water. Maybe that was a heritage from my earlier life; back on Earth I had not done much sports, but I had loved swimming. Same here as Khajiit; I loved it to go for a swim from time to time, and my fur kept the cold out if I did not stay in the water for too long. Hanni and Nanni joined me eagerly, and all three of us made attempts to catch some fish. Initially, we had no success, but once I found out where some fish, likely salmon, jumped out from the water around some of the rapids, I only needed to lurk there and wait, and a few minutes later I managed to grab a large salmon. I felt like one of the Kodiak bears I had seen in a nature documentation doing something similar around the rivers in Canada and Alaska.

Hanni and Nanni were not patient enough and came out empty, but once I had caught a few more fish and had more than I needed, I handed two smaller salmon over to my cubs; they started to devour the gift quickly. Soon I got out of the water again, and to get dry and warm up, I just packed my armor away and started to jog up and down the road for a few minutes, with the warm sun shining on my fur. The swim had been refreshing, but I still did not feel too well.

Mia shook her head and chuckled: "You are quite an odd Khajiit, you know."

"Have you met many others?"

"Well, there have been a few in Riften, yes, but most of them did not enjoy getting in the water. On the other hand, the Riften water, at least the one in the city, was not very clean either. And of course, there was that one Khajiit who was quite odd, too; I heard about him during my last visit to Riften, and I quickly even saw him before the guards took him in."

"Indeed?"

"Yes, maybe he had some brain damage. Can you imagine, he delivered himself into jail, claiming that he needed to atone for something bad he had done? It is actually amazing, as he also has an unusual fur color; like you, his fur also has some blueish tint."

Could it really be? The description sounded like Inigo, one of my favorite followers, and I had sometimes tried to mimic his fur color with my own looks, not very successfully, though, mostly due to limits of the race menu in the game. Curiously I asked:

"Is it possible that this is my old friend Inigo?"

"You know him? Really? Actually, yes, I do think that he calls himself Inigo. Some people told me about him and his name when I was in Riften just a few days ago to sell some of my potions and buy some supplies."

Wow; I had not expected that. Of course, I started to wonder if more of my favorite followers were waiting for me, too. It probably would be too much to expect that Vilja would be there as well? I had been in the Bannered Mare a few times, but had not seen her there. On the other hand, maybe she did not look like in the game, or she'd show up at a totally different time.

When Hanni and Nanni were done with their meal and I was in my armor again, we resumed our walk towards Riverwood, and my thoughts about Riften and Inigo were rudely interrupted by three bandits stepping out from behind a larger bush, right where a small path came down from the hills, maybe from the area around Embershard Mine. They had their weapons drawn, and one of them grinned and said:

"Well, ain't that a nice surprise!"

I got ready to fight, but Mia quickly raised her left hand and cast a spell on all three of them; the three villains sheathed their weapons, and one of them told us now:

"Nice weather today, isn't it? Have a good day!"

Wow – had she calmed them? We made sure to get some distance from the three bandits, and then I asked:

"Did you cast 'Calm' on them?"

"Actually, I used 'Pacify'; 'Calm' is not good enough for most people. I am pretty good at illusion magic, and if needed, I can even cast 'Harmony', which is powerful enough for almost every enemy, although it requires quite a lot of magicka. I am not so good in fighting people, and those spells have saved my life more than once."

I made a mental note to make an attempt to also learn one of those spells at some time in the future; being able to calm down enemies rather than having to fight them was a concept I found appealing.

We entered Riverwood now, and I asked Mia if she'd prefer to stay for the night or walk on to Whiterun, and she opted for the former. We got two rooms at the Sleeping Giant Inn, and Orgnar grinned when I ordered a big jug of milk. His smile vanished when he noticed the small saber cats on the floor behind me, who growled at him at first. I managed to calm down both the cubs, and then I got out the fish which I had caught earlier, saying:

"Orgnar, would you mind preparing that fish for my companion and me, maybe together with some potatoes and leeks? You can use whatever is left for other guests, too."

The barkeeper liked this offer and promised to have dinner ready in an hour or so. I got my milk right away, and my cubs got half of it while I drank the rest. Then I offered Mia, who had never been here, to show her around in town.

Just when we stepped out of the inn, Dorthe and Frodnar saw us, and Dorthe squealed: "Look, the Khajiit who pretends that he is a bear!"

She was no longer afraid of me, and while Frodnar kept his distance, the girl jumped into my arms to get a hug; my cubs were tagging along behind me. When she saw the tiny wood elf, Dorthe smiled and said:

"Papa says I'm too friendly with strangers, but you seem all right."

"Mia, this is Dorthe, daughter of the local blacksmith. Dorthe, this is Mia, and she is an alchemist."

"Cool! Can you make a potion for me to make me invisible?"

"No, certainly not!" Mia was adamant about that.

"And this is Frodnar, son of the lumber mill owners" I completed the introductions. My 'girls' used the opportunity to growl a little, and I hastened to add:

"And those two are Hanni and Nanni, my new friends."

We met a few other people, in particular Alvor, the blacksmith, and while Mia wandered around I helped Alvor at the forge for half an hour, before it was time to go back into the inn and get our dinner. Orgnar had managed to prepare a few large pieces of salmon for me and a couple of smaller ones for Mia, and we both indulged. I had liked to eat fish in my previous life, and I liked to eat it as Khajiit, too. For me, salmon was not quite on the same level as venison, but a close second.

I did not feel really well in the next morning, but despite the rain, we started to walk towards Whiterun. Most likely the exertions of the past few days started to affect me, and I was glad that I had Mia at my side. Maybe I started to get a cold or something like that, and I just hoped that it was not going to be something more serious, like a real flu. On the other hand, any sickness I might have should react to a good potion, and maybe I'd better ask Arcadia about that once we were in the city.

Nothing, no animal and no bandit, stopped our hike, and we arrived at the city gates before noon. I was now a respected citizen and my entrance was not questioned any longer, and the guards also did not see an issue with Mia, although they looked at my cubs with obvious uneasiness. I led us to the market area right away and entered Arcadia's store. She greeted us:

"You'll find tonics, salves, poultices, and potions on my shelves. Browse, to your heart's content."

I smiled at her, being familiar with some of her greetings, when she added:

"You look rather pale, my friend. Could be Ataxia, or maybe some other illness. Come on, let me have a closer look at you."

At first I felt inclined to ignore her, as I knew that she sometimes claimed something like that to confuse customers and make them buy additional potions; above and beyond that, I seriously doubted that the dense fur on my body allowed any potential paleness to show. However, Mia chimed in:

"She is right; you do seem to be ill. I guess that it might actually be Rockjoint; you probably got that from the wolf bite yesterday."

Et tu, Mia? On the other hand, I had not really felt great since waking up and I had felt like at least getting a bad cold, including some mild headaches, and now as Mia mentioned it, the bite mark on my arm indeed hurt; so, maybe they actually had a point? The two ladies selected a potion for me and made me swallow it, and over the next few minutes my overall condition improved notably.

While I recovered, Mia asked the proprietor:

"How is business going? How do you manage to collect ingredients and brew potions to keep up with demand?"

"Oh well, I could sell more if I had some help. Danica and her assistants at the Temple of Kynareth need potions for healing and magicka all of the time, the blacksmiths appreciate potions of fortify smithing, and with the civil war going on, everybody needs potions and poisons all of the time. If I had somebody being able to find and identify ingredients properly and even work an alchemy table with more than novice skills, I'd love that. Alas, nowadays, people claim to be an alchemist and cannot even distinguish Dragon's Tongue from Yellow Mountain Flower – pah."

"Is that so?" I replied. "This young lady here claims to know more, and she is looking for a job."

Arcadia stared at Mia, and after a minute or two she asked:

"Now, come over here, young lady, and tell me what that is."

After Mia had identified a dozen ingredients properly with only a single mistake – it turned out that she had never been up north at the coast and could not recognize a horker tusk – Arcadia was visibly impressed:

"This is certainly different from the others who came before. Young lady, if you can also show me that you can work properly with an alchemy table, you've got yourself a job."

Mia accepted the challenge and started with a simple healing potion. My eyes almost popped out when the table rewarded her with a 'pling' and the label 'Healing 115p'. Her level was, obviously and despite her youth, so much higher than my own, and Arcadia was visibly impressed as well. Mia created a different potion and also a poison, until the proprietor stopped her:

"That's more than good enough, girl. If you want, you can start as my apprentice right away, and you can live in a small room on the first floor. What do you say?"

Mia beamed, bowed and replied: "I accept, my lady."

I got a quick hug from her and took my leave, happy about the development. Now, with the constant rain I felt a little bit dirty, and I hurried into Jorrvaskr to take a hot bath. I checked with Vilkas if it was all right to take Hanni and Nanni inside with me, and to my surprise he readily agreed; the water in the bath was replenished quickly anyway from the underground hot water vein.

Down in the basement I found Ria in the larger center pool, and I asked her if she'd mind me to get in as well together with my saber cat cubs. She giggled when she saw them, but nodded, and soon I could relax in the hot water together with my small saber cats, who seemed to enjoy the bath at least as much as I did. Ria was quite fond of my 'cute pets', and Hanni and Nanni had absolutely no problem with somebody else scratching and petting their wet fur and playing with them, too. I might have to spend some time later on to make the saber cats understand who was my friend and who was not, but maybe they were just smart enough to deduct that from my behavior towards others. I was also happy to see and feel that the two had their claws under control and were both able and willing to have them fully retracted when playing with friends. So far, they had not scratched anybody.

During the next few days I got back into my old habits. I started many days running around the city to warm up, now with Hanni and Nanni at my side, and the two saber cat cubs visibly enjoyed those runs with me. Afterwards I had sword and axe training with Vilkas or one of the others and also worked on my magicka by practicing oakflesh and casting flames, hoping to slowly enlarge my magicka pool. I also took time each day to meditate on the 'KAAN' shout, but this really took time; no surprise here – I knew quite well that only the Dragonborn could learn a new shout instantly.

On one fine day in early afternoon I stopped by at Arcadia's and asked how Mia and the shop owner were doing. It turned out that Mia was just about to leave the city for a few hours to collect some ingredients, and I offered to join her, which she gladly accepted.

While the young alchemist collected flowers, butterflies and other ingredients, and Hanni and Nanni gallivanted around in the tundra, I had some time to ponder my current situation. I had now been in this land for a few weeks, and so far, things could have been much worse. On the plus side, I had left my boring life before, and I had entered a fantasy world. In addition, I had been granted a new body, which was both much younger and much stronger than my previous one. True, I was a Khajiit now rather than human, but I liked my new body, and that was just fine. On the minus side, this land did not have proper toilets and showers. I was not the Dragonborn, but considering all aspects, this was probably for the better. True, I was missing out on all of those cool dragon shouts, but I did not have the demanding tasks the Dragonborn had. No Delphine talking me into spying out the Thalmor embassy, no mandatory contract of the Dark Brotherhood on me, no Miraak sending his lackeys and stealing dragon souls. Of course, at some time I might have to assist the Dragonborn coping with some of that, but all in proper time.

Further, Skyrim sure had potential for finally finding love. I longed for a female companion, not only with an attractive body, but also one I could really talk to, without holding back. On Earth, I had not been able to find such a lady, but here there were a few options, or so I thought at least. There had been Freya, and I was still sad about her death. Then there was Fiona, the Dragonborn. She was quite cute, and while I did not feel any real attraction to her body, she was the only one I had met so far who had also been transferred here from Earth, and I would have liked to talk about that more. Sadly, she seemed to not like me very much, and she had been quite reluctant to talk to me. However, we had at least separated in a kind of friendly way. There were also other nice ladies, and what I had seen so far was encouraging. Among the Companions, I probably liked Ria best; she was open minded, pretty and smiling a lot, and I knew that she liked me. She had admitted that she was not into Khajiit, but maybe that might change over time.

Above and beyond all of that, I had gained two 'kids', the two saber cat cubs I called Hanni and Nanni. They were cute, and I loved to have them. I was looking forward to seeing them grow, and I so much hoped that we could stay friends even once they were adult saber cats. At some time in the future, though, I'd have to find a home, preferably outside of any city walls. Saber cats cubs were one thing, but adult saber cats were not going to be welcome inside cities, I expected, and this was fully understandable.

Anyway, Mia was done now and we walked back. She told me that she was quite happy in Whiterun and that she loved to work and live with Arcadia; that was good to hear; she also mentioned:

"People here are different from those in Riften. I mean, there is the occasional disagreement between the Battle-Borns and the Grey-Manes, there are arrogant ones like Nazeem, and a few distrust me because I am a stranger, but most accept me as I am, and I start to feel at home already. Thank you so much again for bringing me here!"

Once we were back in the city and separated, I decided to visit Farengar once more, and this time I bought a spell tome for 'Conjure Familiar'. It was a novice spell, and I should be able able to learn it easily, although I was a little bit concerned about the ghost wolf I would be able to conjure, assuming that it would look like in the game, and how Hanni and Nanni would get along with that creature. In the evening I sat behind Jorrvaskr, read the tome a couple of times, and practiced. However, I was getting disappointed; despite all of my effort, I failed to conjure anything. Maybe even learning a novice level spell was not always guaranteed to work, but most likely I just had to be patient and practice more.

When I went to bed in the evening, with my two saber cat cubs close to me, I wondered what the next steps with the Companions were going to be. I had been a whelp for some time, and I had no clue how long the 'probation period' usually was. Well, I was not in a rush, and I just would have to wait and see, although Farkas had dropped a hint recently that my time would come soon. Coincidentally Ria, the young Imperial lady and other whelp, had told me with some excitement that Vilkas, her mentor, had dropped hints that her time as whelp were soon going to be at end, too.

After my extended absence, I expected that the Companions would claim me again for some time, and I was looking forward to anything they might have coming for me.

Indeed they started to keep me busy with lots of training, and on the day after I had been out with Mia, I had to go through a very exhausting training routine with mostly practical exercises, interrupted by occasional questions on lore and such. Even Vilkas had to concede that my weapon handling capabilities had improved, and I freely admitted that one of the Greybeards had helped me by conjuring spectral targets for me; the experienced Circle member was visibly impressed, although this did not keep him from repeating several times that I still had way to go. In the afternoon I was called down to Kodlak, who wanted to learn more about my stay at High Hrothgar, and I did not see a reason not to tell him. The white haired Harbinger also asked a lot of questions on my knowledge, and I was happy to talk to him for an extended period of time.

In the evening the Circle members were gone for about an hour, but that was not my business, and I used the time off to wander around a bit outside of town with my saber cat cubs, before I happily retired to my bed for the night. Fortunately, nobody at Jorrvaskr really objected to having Hanni and Nanni around.

[Author's Notes: The phrase 'et tu' means 'and you', like 'and you, too' or 'you as well'. B'lushona used to be a well educated person in his earlier life, and he learned Latin, the language of the Romans, at school. In William Shakespeare's play 'Julius Caesar' the Roman dictator speaks the words 'Et tu, Brute?' when being assassinated.]