Chapter 42: Traveling with Vilja

[20th – 21st of Sun's Dusk 4E 201]

On the day before I had been passing the Honningbrew Meadery, and two men had stopped me and asked for my help; they claimed that they had been cursed by a bottle, and that had led me to find Vilja, a female traveling Nord, in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. She was about broke and wanted to get to a place called 'Eldergleam Sanctuary', but likely needed help to get there. I had not yet made up my mind about either helping her or maybe not, and when I had gone to bed in my attic room in Jorrvaskr, a thunderstorm had passed; based on the loud boom I had heard, at least one flash of lightning had struck very close.

After waking up on the next day, one of my first thoughts was about that big thunderstorm which had been over the city in the late evening before, and even before I went to get some breakfast, I decided to get outside and see if there had been any damage around.

The effect of the lightning strike was obvious and impossible to miss when I had just done a few steps out of the front door and looked down the stairs; the beautiful Gildergreen tree was severely damaged, and Danica Pure-Spring, the priestess of Kynareth, stood next to it and cried. When she had calmed down, I stepped next to her, and without being prompted she turned towards me and explained:

"The Gildergreen; it's quite an eyesore at the moment. Lightning struck it yesterday evening, and I am not sure if it can be revived. It has always been so inspiring for the pilgrims coming here, and my heart bleeds to see it like this."

I acknowledged her statement with a nod and did not know how to respond; the sight was indeed pitiful and discouraging; the beautiful and gorgeous tree, which had looked fully healthy just on the day before, was now mostly burned and had lost almost all of its leaves, so that I felt sorry as well. After a few minutes the priestess continued:

"We need to try to do something at least."

"But what can we do, Danica?"

"To the east of here is a hidden grove where the Eldergleam resides. It's the oldest living thing in Skyrim, and maybe in all of Tamriel. Our tree here in the city was grown from a cutting of that tree. You can still feel the glory of the mother tree through it."

"Yes, I have heard about Eldergleam Sanctuary, and I roughly know where it is."

She nodded and continued to talk:

"The Eldergleam is an old tree, and they say that it was a seedling when the first men were arriving from Atmora, thousands of years ago. The sap is precious. It can restore barren fields or bring life to rocks. I think if we had some of the sap from the parent tree, we could revive its child here. But even if you could get to the Eldergleam, you couldn't tap it. Not with any normal metal."

"So, what do we need?"

"Eldergleam is older than metal, from an ancient time before men or elves. To even affect it, you have to tap into the old magic. Unfortunately, you will have to deal with the Hagravens. I've heard about a weapon they've made for sacrificing Spriggans – it's called 'Nettlebane'. It's held in a Hagraven nest called Orphan Rock. I am afraid that I am not enough of a warrior to retrieve it from there."

"Danica, it will be an honor to get the tool, but I am not sure if I can manage on my own. After all, I have never dealt with hagravens before. Fortunately I have met somebody, and I will ask her to help with that."

I recalled part of what this was about and I realized that I would not be able to retrieve the special dagger on my own, but together with Vilja and my cubs, it might just work, I mused. It might have been wise to ask one of my Shield-Siblings to come with me, too, but I really wanted to get some time just with Vilja, and this appeared to be a perfect opportunity. I also asked:

"By the way, how is the injured man doing, the one I brought in from the quarry?"

"Oh, don't worry, he will fully recover in time; we managed to repair the damage to his body, and he needs only time to get back to his former state."

With a nod I went back to Jorrvaskr and got my breakfast from Tilma. I was not in the mood for jogging today and thus sat there quietly, but I did some work-out in the backyard afterwards.

An hour or so later I went down to the Bannered Mare to find the Nord lady. Vilja had just had breakfast, which I had already paid for, and I led her up to the tree. It was indeed a sight to almost induce tears, if one compared the pitiful remains of the tree to what it had looked like only on the day before. Quite a few citizens of Whiterun had gathered around what remained of the formerly impressive and awe-inspiring Gildergreen tree, and all of them looked worried and unhappy. Vilja was also very sad as well to see the tree damaged, and when I explained that I would be going to Eldergleam Sanctuary, but first needed to get Nettlebane, she agreed right away to help me retrieving the tool:

"Of course. Let's go to Orphan's Rock first and to Eldergleam Sanctuary afterwards; we can kill two birds with one stone that way. I will be happy for your company, and who knows, maybe I can offer something in return."

I almost chocked when I thought about something she could offer indeed, and I tried to get my mind out of the gutter where it had been for a moment. Pretty young ladies should be a little more careful about making statements like this, in my opinion. On the other hand, maybe it was more like I should avoid coming to conclusions which were most likely not intended. I cautiously asked:

"Such as?"

"I may not be a very good alchemist, but I can make some simple potions."

"All right, that should work; let's get to Riverwood first, stay for the night, and then use the next day for our first task."

"But, how will I earn some money to pay for a room at the inn?"

I was tempted to offer sharing my room with her, but that was of course not the proper way to proceed. Thus I suggested:

"On the way to Orphan's Rock we will pass the town Riverwood, and while we walk, we can collect various ingredients. Once we are there, you can show me how good you are and use the alchemy table in the inn. Orgnar in the Sleeping Giant Inn is always willing to buy some potions. But first, let's check with the local alchemy store."

I guided her into 'Arcadia's Cauldron', and we found Mia busy at the alchemy table.

"B'lushona," Arcadia started, "this Bosmer girl was sent by the Divines. She is almost better than I am in making some potions, and I should probably make her a partner; there is not much left I can teach her. We already have a nice supply of potions, and I am waiting for a good opportunity to sell some of them in other towns in the hold, such as Rorikstead or Riverwood."

"Oh, it just so happens that Vilja here and I will go to Riverwood today, and we're about to leave. We could take the potions you want to sell there, if you want."

"You could, really? That would be so great! Yes, please, deliver them to Lucan, and he will offer them in his store. I already have an agreement with him, and he will pay me later, depending on how the sale works."

I had some space in my backpack, and a second, smaller backpack was filled for Vilja to carry. We got some advance payment for our services, and we left the store.

Next stop was Jorrvaskr, and I picked up Hanni and Nanni. Vilja՚s eyes got quite big when she saw the saber cat cubs, and she asked:

"Are you sure about that? You really want to raise them to become adult saber cats?"

"Yes, I am sure" I claimed. "As long as they want to stay with me, they are welcome to do so. They are my friends and very dear to me."

I could clearly see that Vilja was not convinced, and her attitude and body language made it clear that she was not exactly fond of Hanni and Nanni, but she'd have to accept the situation, if she was going to travel with me. I got my small jug of milk from Tilma while Vilja waited outside, and off we went. When we had passed the stables and were about to pass the Honeybrew Meadery – no, the sign out there told me that it was 'Honningbrew Meadery'; somehow I always got that wrong in my mind – the two people I had met yesterday were not there, and I wondered how and where we could meet them for Vilja to remove the curse; they had not told me. I mentioned that to Vilja, and she responded:

"I do not really believe in that curse, but I can sure talk to them. However, if they don't want to be found, it's their loss."

Along the road we picked various flowers, and Vilja stored the ingredients in her big apothecary satchel. Like always when I took that road, I loved to observe and enjoy the scenery around us. Starting from the Whiterun plains, it first looked like there were only mountains and hills up south, and when the road started to climb and meander, it somehow managed to find a way between river and elevations. The mountains on either side soon got hidden from view by the trees, and the vegetation on the ground changed accordingly. There were still mountain flowers, but now also some mushrooms, and Vilja helped me out by stating that most of them were 'mora tapinella'; she picked up some of those and claimed that they could be used for 'Restore Magicka' potions. When the road leveled out and we had the rocks to our right and the river to our left, just before we got to the bridge to Riverwood, a small pack of wolves attacked us. I had been talking to the pretty Nord and not paid much attention to the environment, and the wolves were around us almost before I could get my weapon out. The first one who tried to jump on me got blasted by fire from my left hand, and the next one was cut in half by the big axe in my right hand. Vilja was also fighting off two wolves, and from a corner of my eye I saw Hanni and Nanni in a growling contest with another wolf. Quickly I helped Vilja to dispose of her attackers, and then we watched my cubs. They were still somewhat smaller than the wolf, but their big fangs had already started to grow, and their adversary was clearly intimidated; once it had found out that it was all alone by itself now, it turned around and ran off. Hanni and Nanni raised their heads and whined, and they got busy with one of the wolf corpses, searching for the best pieces to feed from, or maybe just trying to find if wolf meat was edible at all for them.

"That means we better take a break" I informed Vilja. The young lady was a little out of breath and nodded, and we sat down on two tree stumps not far from each other. We had missed lunch on that day, and I got some of my supplies out to share. The cubs got a bowl filled with milk from my jug, and they lapped my hand thanking me. Vilja made very sure to keep some distance from the cubs, though.

This break gave me the opportunity to have a closer look at my travel companion. She was clothed in what looked similar to studded hide armor today, but it looked more sturdy; maybe this was some form of her wolfcry armor? Anyway, it covered most of her skin, and her boots reached up to just below the knee. Yes, this was proper armor for traveling and fighting, and contrary to some other Nord women, she had her arms covered and protected as well. My own leather armor was more sturdy, but not by very much.

Vilja must have noticed my looks at her, and she asked me:

"Tell me, do I look fat in this outfit?"

I had to apply all of my willpower not to start laughing. This was so much like the Vilja in the game, after all. As far as I remembered, one of the possible scripted answers to that was 'Wow! Get out the harpoons!', but of course that did not do her justice. Her armor and clothing hid most of her figure rather than emphasizing it, and although I suspected that this was not what she might like to hear, I managed to reply with a straight face:

"No, Vilja, not really. I mean, the armor does hide and protect most of your body, and that's what it is for, right?"

"So, I do look kind of fat – I knew it."

I sighed, and for the first time since I had met her I started to doubt if she was the right partner for me. She was easy on the eyes, sure, but the way she talked and behaved needed some time to get used to, and even more important, she seemed to dislike Hanni and Nanni.

We continued our trip to Riverwood, and when we entered the town from the north, I plugged a few strands from the plants hanging down the sides of the walkway, just for fun; hanging moss, wasn't it? Strange; back on Earth I had always considered moss as something which grew on the ground or maybe on tree bark, but not hanging down. It was of course entirely possible that similar plants actually existed in other regions there. Now, after passing under the walkway, our first stop was the Riverwood Trader. Since I had returned the Golden Claw, Lucan Valerius, the proprietor, was very friendly towards me, and he seemed happy to see me again. I introduced my companion, assured him that my two saber cats were going to behave, and then said:

"Lucan, we have some potions for you from Arcadia in Whiterun. She said that she had talked to you about that."

"Oh yes, right, of course. I don't get access to many high quality potions here, and I am looking forward to see if I can get customers for those."

Vilja and I got our potion delivery out from our packs and handed them over, and once this was done, Vilja bought a few small items from Lucan, too, using some of the money Arcadia had given us. We left the store and went over to the inn; inside, I asked Orgnar if we could use his alchemy table for some time, and he nodded. Now, Vilja՚s skill turned out to be nothing like Mia՚s, for instance, but still significantly better than mine. She managed to create some decent potions for healing and magicka restoration, using the ingredients she had collected and some from my supply, and Orgnar was more than happy to buy them from her. We gave him a big rebate, and this earned us dinner, two rooms for one night, and breakfast on the next day. We ate the dinner right away, as we were hungry after the day's walk, and before going to bed, we strolled around outside for some time.

Despite being larger than in the game, Riverwood was not really a big town, and partially hidden behind some bushes not far from the inn I noticed two familiar people. One of them, the big Nord, noticed us and started to talk right away:

"Oh good, you have found the lady. So, can you remove the curse from us, please?"

Vilja looked at me for a moment and asked that I step back and have her do this alone. I obliged and went to explore another section of the town further southeast, where I met Faendal and chatted with him for some time. I also asked him:

"Now, Faendal, how are things with Camilla nowadays?"

"Well, at least she allows me to court her, and she seems to enjoy spending time with me. Fortunately, with myself being a Bosmer, I have a decent life span ahead of me, unless I have a bad accident, of course, so that I can afford to take my time. Yes, since the events in Last Seed, things are looking much better, thanks to the nice young Bosmer lady, and I only wonder if Camilla will be happy spending her life in this little town here. I am not a big city person, and I enjoy the nature around here and the occasional hunting in the morning."

I nodded, and I felt happy for Faendal. About twenty minutes later Vilja came and joined us, and I did the introductions. I did not ask her how she might have removed the curse and she did not volunteer any details; this was something I did not have to know.

The sun was already below the horizon now, and eventually we found our way back to the inn. Vilja decided to stay in the taproom for some time and have another bottle of mead, while I retired to my room and was soon asleep.

After breakfast on the next day we – Vilja, my cubs, and I – started from Riverwood early and walked towards Helgen in a fast pace.

Today we took the road leaving Riverwood to the southeast rather than the one passing the Guardian Stones. Vilja did not mind one way or the other and had not yet been in the area before, as she freely admitted, and I wanted to explore that road, too. The road climbed upwards around a few narrow curves, but despite the effort needed to walk uphill, Vilja found the time and breath to ask many more questions, and she also told me a little about herself, starting with her youth in Solstheim.

Not far out of town we met Faendal again; he had been on a morning hunt and had a deer slung around his shoulders. Vilja greeted him and started to talk about something, but the wood elf admonished her:

"Lady, it may not be wise to talk in a loud voice around here. See that side path over there? Sometimes bandits lurk further up, and they might hear you."

It turned out that the elf's warning was justified; right at this time we noticed two people coming down the side path and another one coming down the road from the direction of Helgen. Before we could even think about a friendly greeting, they had their weapons out, and one of them threatened us:

"You'll be so much easier to rob when you're dead!"

The one on the road nocked an arrow in his bow, but Hanni and Nanni growled, which irritated the bandit, so that the arrow missed; he did not have the time for a second one, as the two saber cats were now on him and he had to drop the bow and fight for his dear life. Meanwhile, the two other thugs were close to us, and Faendal did not get a chance to use his own bow. However, the Bosmer had adapted something from me, when we had fought side by side in Bleak Falls Barrow, and almost in sync we blasted flames onto our opponents. This made them cover their faces and drop their weapons, which gave me the chance to use my battle axe and defeat my adversary; Faendal used a dagger and expertly cut his own opponent's throat. Vilja also had a short sword out at this time, but the fight was already almost over; the archer was on the ground with my to saber cats cubs watching him; he, or rather she as we could see now, had dropped all of her weapons, and we just let her go; she was unlikely to bother us again anytime soon.

Once we had rested for a few minutes and checked that we were all uninjured, we followed the narrow side path and soon found the bandits' lair. There was not much to see; there was only some kind of lean-to with two bedrolls and a chest with some minor loot, plus another chest with food. It did not appear that the bandits here had been very successful, or maybe they had just started to settle down here. Anyway, there was nothing here for us, and we took our leave from Faendal again and walked onward towards Helgen once we were back on the road.

A few hours later we passed the destroyed town outside of the palisades; the large north gate was closed and locked, and I was not in the mood today to find out if that was a coincidence or if bandits or other groups were now claiming the ruins for themselves. According to what I had experienced during Alduin՚s attack on the town, the keep was probably still mostly intact, and it might be a tempting location for some people to claim as a hideout. Helgen was in Falkreath Hold, and normally the Jarl should have placed at least a small garrison force here; after all, Helgen occupied a location at crossroads, and one of the roads south connected to one of the few passes across the Jerall Mountains, if my memory did not betray me; I had used the mod 'Beyond Skyrim: Bruma' once. One may have assumed that such a pass across the mountains and thus a connection to Cyrodiil was critical for replenishment and supplies for the Imperial Legion, but what did I know about Imperial policy and logistics. Also, even Jarl Balgruuf the Greater did not bother to occupy some important locations, such as Valtheim Towers on the hold border, and sure Jarl Siddgeir also did not care or did not have the troops to spare.

[Author's Notes: Here we go – Vilja in Skyrim. Is she going to stay around? Or maybe the right question would be: Is Balu going to stay around her? Want to make bets for how many chapters they will travel together?]