Chapter 43: Orphan Rock
[21st – 22nd of Sun's Dusk 4E 201]
After I had met Vilja in the 'Bannered Mare' and a thunderstorm had hit Whiterun and mostly destroyed the Gildergreen tree, the Nord Lady and I had decided to travel to Eldergleam Sanctuary together. She needed to get there to release the content of her very special bottle, as she claimed, and I was expected to get sap from the ancient tree there to revive its sibling in Whiterun. Before I could do that, though, I needed to get my hands on a special tool which was called Nettlebane, and Danica had told me that I'd have to go to Orphan Rock and fight hagravens for it. Not exactly my preference, but together with Vilja and my cubs I should be able to manage, and at least I had a chance to spend some time with the pretty lady.
Vilja and I had passed Helgen, while staying just outside of the town palisades, and soon afterwards I consulted my map several times. I had been on this road before, but I had not paid much attention to the sides before. Today, I found the small path leading north, towards Orphan Rock, which Danica White-Spring, the priestess of Kynareth in Whiterun, had marked for me; without the map marking and her verbal instructions, I might have easily missed it. When we turned off the main road, I told my companion:
"Vilja, we need to be careful from now on. Danica hinted that the area is claimed by hagravens and witches, and I do not know how strong and dangerous they are. I believe that it should be best to lure them out one by one if we can, and I hope that my saber cat cubs might help us with that."
"Sure, whatever you suggest."
Before we proceeded, I thought about alternatives for a moment. Could negotiations be an option? Could we just talk to the local witches and maybe buy or borrow the tool? But no; I had mentioned this to Danica, and she had stated that the hagravens were not talking; there were known to fight if somebody came close and use corpses for their evil purposes. Thus, we probably did not really have a choice, and I gave Hanni and Nanni a sign to proceed and hid behind a large tree. It did not take long before I heard a shout, and the two cubs came running back, followed by somebody trying to hit them with a fire spell. As if we had talked about that, Hanni and Nanni passed close to my tree, and when the witch noticed me I hit her with my axe, stunning and hurting her. I hit a second time before she was able to recover, and she sank down to the ground, dead. I sent the cubs back, and about ten minutes later they came running again. This time a witch blasted at them with a strong frost spell, but my cubs weren't snowy saber cats for nothing, and getting hit by something very cold did not bother them at all. I stepped forward and blasted my flames against the witch; that stopped her, and Hanni and Nanni did the rest.
"That was easy enough!" Vilja commented.
Yes, maybe it had been to easy. Now, as the first fight was over, I was hit by a conscience attack again; did I have a right to attack the local witches and hagravens without provocation? Didn't they have a right to live here like everybody else had their place? Was the quest to find and retrieve Nettlebane, even given by Danica, a priestess of Kynareth, sufficient to warrant such an action? While I was still plagued by my thoughts, Vilja stated boldly:
"I think that I will take the next one now."
"Vilja, be careful!" I told her, but she sneaked ahead anyway. My 'girls' and I followed at some distance, and soon Vilja encountered an adversary. My companion got her sword out, but the witch also applied magic, and Vilja now called for help. My cubs and I attacked from two different sides, and we managed to get the young lady out of trouble quickly; she needed some healing, though.
"Maybe my fighting skills are not as good as I thought" she meekly admitted once her health was restored.
With three witches dead, I assumed that most of the guards should be down now, and I slowly guided us to a ledge which allowed us to look down at the central rock and the environment from the east side. On the central rock a person was seen working at an alchemy table, and she had not yet seen us. A fallen tree provided a path between our area and the rock.
"Can you hit her with your bow?" I asked my companion. She nodded and her first arrow was a hit indeed, but not a critical one. The person looked up, not yet seeing us, and Vilja got a chance to send a second arrow, which also hit. Now the suspected hagraven was getting furious, and she started walking in our direction; it appeared that the two arrows had not injured her too much. Vilja՚s third arrow missed, and the enemy started to step over the fallen tree towards our position. Another witch came out from a tent to our right, and I signaled Hanni and Nanni to distract her. The adolescent saber cats ran towards her, and when the witch started to blast frost, my cubs ran away in the opposite direction, with the witch on their heels. I did not really get it – did the witch really assume that a saber cat had shot arrows? But anyway; we only had one enemy now, and Vilja was able to get one more arrow into her target. The hagraven was getting close now and saw us, and I got my large battle axe ready. The hagraven blasted a fireball at me, but I was able to step to the side and evade it, and before she could send the next one, I was next to her and plunged my axe down at her and into her with all of the power I could apply. Obviously her health had suffered from Vilja՚s arrows before, and she dropped to her knees; before she could recover, I hit her a second time and she was dead. I breathed deeply, and just when I wanted to look around a very cold blast hit me. Ouch! That was really cold! My fur was suddenly frozen in large areas, and my reaction speed was slowed down a lot, as was my line of thinking. I realized that another witch had found us, but fortunately it was the one who had followed my cubs, and Hanni and Nanni had returned with her, attacking her furiously now. Vilja helped with her sword, and soon that witch was history, too.
If I was honest with myself, I had to admit that my own fighting skills still lacked a lot, even after all of the training I had already gone through. I'd better work hard to make progress in that area, not only for my own benefit, but also for the benefit of those who were with me. Specifically, I wondered if there was a way to detect incoming destruction spells earlier, so that they could be evaded.
I needed to take some time for healing, and about half an hour later we cautiously proceeded towards the central rock where the hagraven had been, using the fallen tree trunk as bridge and passing a spike with a wolf head on it. We found some valuable loot and a few ingredients I did not know; I packed some of them into my apothecary satchel for later identification by an alchemist, like Mia or Arcadia. However, nothing looked even remotely like the special dagger we had been looking for. After some searching, Vilja came up with the right idea:
"Maybe the hagraven had it on her?"
Indeed; I had completely forgotten to check the body. We went back, and we found what we had been looking for; the hagraven which had originally been on the rock had a very specially carved dagger on her, and it matched the description I had been given by Danica. When we had retrieved the special tool we had been looking for, I also looked at the corpse, and yes, this was exactly like a hagraven had looked in the game. The clearly female figure had an ugly face, long claws at the fingers, and feathers attached to various parts of her body. I did not really want to know how something like this was possible. I turned away quickly, and after searching for anything we might have missed we turned back towards the main road again.
"What do you think, Vilja?" I asked my pretty companion. "We should be able to make it to Ivarstead today, and from there we can get to the sanctuary or at least the neighborhood tomorrow."
"Oh yes, that's great! I am so glad that we are traveling to Eldergleam Sanctuary together!"
"All right, then let's move on."
"Yes, please, let's hurry so that we can get into town before dusk; I don't really like to travel at night!"
I did notice that a narrow path continued further in northern direction from the rock, too, but I did not feel in the mood to explore it, and we turned south to go back where we had come from. When we left the rock, I mused about the name of the location for a moment; why was it called 'Orphan Rock'? I did not know, and I did not really care, at least not now. On one hand I was happy that we had been able to get Nettlebane without too much trouble, but on the other hand I also thought, again, that the witches and hagravens had a right to live in peace as well. We had killed all those who had opposed us, and they had indeed not been open to peaceful negotiations, but had I tried hard enough?
Still in my thoughts I followed Vilja on the narrow path back south, but apparently, one of my saber cats was not careful enough; when she explored the bushes next to the path, I heard something snapping, and there was a loud yelp, startling me. Examination showed that she had stepped into a trap, one of those metal ones made to stop larger animals, maybe like bears. The trap had caught one of the saber cat's front limbs, and it looked like it hurt a lot. Of course I quickly opened the trap again, so that she could pull her paw out, and once this was done, I applied my healing magic. Fortunately, at this time, my magicka pool was almost full, and I could repair the worst damage. For some time, the cub was now limping, but when we got to the junction with the main road, some of my magicka was back and I could complete the healing process.
As soon as we were back on the main road again, Vilja mentioned something about not having spent much time on her horse lately. As I was curious about her horse and would not mind her riding at all, I told her:
"Lady, if you want, feel free to ride. I am quite a fast walker, and I won't mind at all. But your horse isn't around here, or is it?"
She looked at me with some surprise, like I really should know better, and replied:
"Bruse is always somewhere around, and he will come quickly when I call him."
She got a horn from her bag, blew into it, and Bruse, her white horse, was next to her a few seconds later, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, just like in the game. I smiled a little and could not help being fascinated about the way magic manifested itself in multiple ways in this world. Vilja mounted her horse, and we proceeded at a faster pace from now on. Naturally, I looked at her from time to time, and while the Nord was not exactly an Amazon warrior or so, Vilja on her white horse made for an impressive and appealing view. She had her horse in an easy trot most of the time, which forced me to walk briskly to stay at her side, but I did not mind this at all. Once or twice I may have been a little bit too close to her, but Bruse seemed to be cautious about me and always made sure to keep his distance, without a need for Vilja to tell him so.
The mountain pass was pretty cold at this time of the year, but I had my fur and cloak and Vilja was a Nord, so that this did not bother us too much. I had been on that road before and thus knew where to turn left, and as a result of our travel speed, we easily managed to get into Ivarstead when the sun was still above the horizon. Wilhelm, the proprietor of the Vilemyr Inn, looked up and greeted me with a smirk as soon as he recognized me:
"Hey, the milkdrinker is back!"
"Actually," I corrected him while laughing, not taking this as an offense of course, "we are all milkdrinkers, me and my cats."
Wilhelm laughed back, and had a large jug of milk ready right away, handing it over to me with a smirk, and then he asked Vilja:
"And what is the pretty lady going to have?"
Vilja stated clearly: "I am going to have some proper mead, please. Contrary to some other people, I am certainly not a milkdrinker."
Judged by the way she looked at me, she did seem to be a little bit annoyed about me drinking milk, and I allowed myself to be a little bit annoyed about her being annoyed about my milk drinking and about her not abstaining from alcohol, although I realized, of course, that my own preference was standing out in this world or at least this province. I was getting hungry; we had not had a proper lunch on this day, and I asked Wilhelm to prepare a double serving of elk or deer, whatever he had available, with potatoes and cabbage; Vilja ordered her own dinner.
We spend some time talking, and soon the meal was ready. Klimmek sat with us today, and we chatted about various topics. He mentioned that he was now doing as much hunting as fishing, and the inn always got a steady supply of both.
"Honestly", he admitted, "fishing can be boring at times, and I did it mostly because I assumed that the Greybeards prefer fish over meat; I am glad that this assumption was corrected, although quite a few people in town, in particular also Fastred and her family, do like to eat fish."
Fastred? Wasn't this the farmers' daughter, and wasn't there some love story somehow connected? I did not get a chance to ask, as Vilja was meanwhile halfway done with the third jug of mead, and all of a sudden she stated, not addressing anyone in particular:
"I will show you how we dance on the tables in Solstheim!"
And that she did. I did not really consider that funny, but she was obviously more than just slightly intoxicated. She stepped on the table I was eating from and actually started to wiggle her body in some kind of dance. I had to admit that she was skilled, as my milk and plate were not touched by her. In addition, seeing a woman dancing on a table and wiggling her body almost like a belly dancer did have some attraction for a male person like me, although I did not really want to say it loud.
She asked me why I did not join in, but I just shook my head.
After some time Vilja calmed down and sat on her chair again. I was getting tired, but Klimmek seemed to have some fun watching the Nord lady and talking to her. That did not last long, though. About half an hour later another young Nord lady came into the inn, and Klimmek called "Fastred!" right away. The two talked for a few minutes, and then they left together, with Klimmek not even looking back at Vilja. At almost the same time, a female Redguard lady came in, and Wilhelm greeted her as 'Siona'. Wait, Siona? Lydia and Rayya had mentioned her name, and hadn't they been in that barrow together, the one right east of town? As soon as Siona had ordered a drink and a meal, I asked her if she knew Rayya and Lydia, and it turned out that she did. Rayya and her had met frequently over the last years and were friends. We talked for some time, but when Siona got her meal served, I used the opportunity to excuse myself, as I was tired now. I hoped Wilhelm would make sure that Vilja also found her room sooner or later and that I would not have a tired and hungover travel companion on the next day.
On the road again! I did not have a photographic memory and certainly did not recall all of the locations in the game, but I did have a map, and it showed the hamlet called 'Darkwater Crossing' at the southern border of the hotspring area, and it also showed 'Mixwater Mill' at the western end. I knew or rather hoped that I should be able to find the mythical cave easily from one of those locations, and I followed the path northeast of Ivarstead, leading down. Vilja was sometimes at my side and sometimes staying back for a few seconds, like when she picked some ingredients. Today she was not on horseback, and Bruse had gone to an unknown location, maybe some kind of a special pocket dimension where all magical creatures could rest and wait until they were summoned again.
For the first few minutes our journey was not eventful. The sun shone on us, the temperature started to rise, and Vilja started her comments on various topics related to the environment around us and in particular about herself. I would have preferred to just enjoy the scenery around us silently; after all, that was a road I had not been on before, and once again I almost felt like I was on a mountain hike in the Alps. However, with Vilja next to me, I did not get that chance. Soon after we had started I asked my companion:
"Vilja, say, after all of that mead you had yesterday evening, aren't you having some kind of hangover?"
She laughed and replied: "Oh, I had that, of course, but I have learned how to make a potion for that, and I always have a supply with me."
Well, that explained it. I guessed that many people on Earth might be very interested to get their hands on such a potion, too. I shook my head slightly, and the Nord lady continued to talk:
"Wouldn't it be nice" she told me once more "if I told you a little more about myself?"
As a matter of fact, eventually yes, but for now I'd really rather walk without talking all of the time. I did not want to be rude, of course, but fortunately nature itself helped me out here, as a troll waited under an overhang ahead and two bears also lurked not far from here. Vilja stopped talking right away and got her sword ready, but I used my 'KAAN' shout, and all three animals were docile all of a sudden. I did not linger until the shout wore out, but I quickly petted the bears when we passed them.
Naturally, the young lady was impressed and wanted to learn what I had done to calm down the troll and the bears, and I responded truthfully that Kynareth had allowed me to learn this very special shout. Vilja used this opportunity to ask questions on High Hrothgar and the Dragonborn, and it seemed to be fair to tell he a little more about my own life and the adventures I had been in; I did, of course, neither mention anything about my previous life nor anything related to Fiona's background. When she asked about my youth and such, I was pretty vague and just stated that I came from a place very far from here and that I was still looking for a proper home. Once the lady's curiosity had been satisfied, Vilja got back into talking mode, and I had to admit that I did not pay too much attention to all of the details she talked about. I listened, though, when she mentioned that she and her family had always been friends with wolves and that they usually had had a few tamed ones around. That did not always, as she freely admitted, help in encounters with other wolves, though.
A couple of hours and many comments from Vilja later, after following the winding path downhill, we met the main road, the one which passed the hotspring area on the southern side. According to the map, northwest of us was Fort Amol, and Darkwater Crossing to the right, east from here, seemed to be more suitable as a goal, so that I turned in that direction. Vilja did not mind either way as long as we headed for the sanctuary.
[Author's Notes: This story – Balu in Skyrim book A – is now about half published; the final chapter count will be between 85 and 90, and I have already started to write on book B, too. There is a lot more to come.]