Chapter 45: Maurice
[23rd – 24th of Sun's Dusk 4E 201]
Vilja and I had managed to retrieve Nettlebane, the special tool which was supposedly needed to tap the Eldergleam tree and get some sap to revive the Gildergreen tree in Whiterun, from Orphan Rock, and we had arrived in Eldergleam Sanctuary. When the local priestesses of Kynareth had learned what tool I had, they were shocked, and they had begged me not to hurt the Eldergleam tree with it. However, Maurice Jondrelle, a monk and follower of Kynareth, had pointed out an alternative, and thanks to his efforts I now had a sack with a sapling from the Eldergleam tree.
Maurice had decided to travel to Whiterun with me, and we left the beautiful Eldergleam Sanctuary after breakfast which we shared with the local priests and acolytes and Vilja. On one hand I was a little bit sad to leave the pretty Nord lady here without helping her any further in whatever she needed to get done, but on the other hand I had promised to get something back for the almost dead Gildergreen tree in Whiterun, and that was a priority for me now. Besides, I had no interest in becoming an errand boy for all kind of tasks the Nord lady might want me to do.
Once we had left the beautiful Eldergleam Sanctuary in the wee hours of the morning, leaving Vilja to her own affairs, we first passed some of the hot springs again, and I insisted in taking the time for a quick bath; the warm water was just too tempting, and I knew that I was going to get my fur dry easily during the long walk ahead of us, before we left the hot spring area with pleasant temperatures and got back into the hills and the more typical late fall chill. I promised myself to come back here when I got a chance, and when Maurice warned me about the time, I jumped out, grabbed my armor, got dressed quickly, picked up the bag with the sapling, and off we went. At least I had been able to relax in the wonderful hot water for some time, and it had been worth the delay. This time we turned northwest rather than southwest and met the road near 'Mixwater Mill', after we had swum through the narrow river. At the mill, we chatted for a few minutes with the owner, and from there we headed towards Valtheim Towers.
The Breton showed a lot of endurance and stamina, and with him at my side our pace was significantly quicker than it had been with Fiona, for instance. He was a good travel companion, in my opinion at least. He was much less talkative than Vilja, which was of course not a fair comparison, but when he talked, I'd better pay attention; that's what I learned in the first few hours, when he had warned me a couple of times of dangers around I should have noticed first, with my Khajiit senses, but had not.
A few times we had to stop to fight off a wolf pack or a lone bear, but most of the time he sensed the animals before we encountered them and we could avoid a confrontation. A couple of times I could also my 'KAAN' shout to calm down animals and allow us safe passage. Besides, similar to Earth, many animals did not really jump at us when they noticed us, but most kept their distance, and a little bit of attention to the environment helped to not get into fights with them. Saber cats might be different, but we did not meet one of those.
We also met a few bandits, and once, when a group of three bandits attacked, I had to set the bag with the sapling on the ground in order to be able to fight properly. I had had enough weapon training to hold my own against a single bandit with a minimum of weapon proficiency, and in addition Hanni and Nanni were a great help to distract attackers. They were not yet big and strong enough to actually kill trained adults on their own, but they could keep them busy at least.
The bandit boss, though, clad in high quality heavy armor which looked not quite like steel, but something else I could not identify, with dark yellow tint, caused trouble, big trouble. After disabling a sword wielding bandit, Maurice was now running after an archer who had posted himself at a reasonable distance, and despite Hanni and Nanni interfering, I had to fight for my dear life against the strong opponent in heavy armor. I tried my stunt with the flames, but the enemy ducked quickly and just caught some of the heat with his armor. I failed to find a proper spot to hit with my axe, and without my saber cat cubs I would already have been very dead very soon. When I almost saw the bandit's greatsword cutting into my body, he suddenly flinched, and I only now noticed that Maurice was back, and he had shot a strong shock spell against my adversary. Another one followed, and that gave me the opportunity to search for a week spot in the bandit's armor; I almost could not find any, but decided to hit a joint will all my strength and thus aimed for the bandit's right knee. I had the feeling that my axe was close to breaking, but Eorlund՚s Skyforge steel was really something special; the bandit boss yelled and dropped to the ground, also dumping his weapon. Maurice used the opportunity and pulled the enemy's helmet off, and I quickly separated his head from the shoulders.
I needed a couple of minutes to recover from the exertion of the fight, and then I told my companion:
"Maurice, thank you for helping me out. This guy was really strong, and I had major trouble standing my ground against him. I am really glad that I have my two saber cat cubs to help, but even with them I would not have managed, and I almost thought I'd be dead any moment. By the way, what kind of armor is this?"
"This is Dwarven Armor" Maurice explained. "As you can see, it covers almost all parts of a body, and unless you have a weapon which is strong enough to cut into it, a person wearing such an armor is difficult to defeat. A shock spell, like I used, is almost always efficient, though, not only against armored enemies, but also against attacking creatures."
"So I have noticed, yes" I replied. "I guess that I should continue to work on my own magical capabilities as well."
"I do believe so, yes." Maurice nodded. "Myself being a monk, I do not condone attacking people without good reason, but one needs to be able to defend oneself against nature and bad people in Skyrim, there is just no way around it. If you want, I can teach you a few tricks."
"You can, really?"
"Sure; please kneel down in front of me; I will need to touch your forehead."
I did as he requested, and he put both hands on my forehead for a couple of minutes. I did not really feel much, but when he was done and allowed me to get up again, he assured me:
"Your magicka pool should be a little bit larger now, not by very much, but at least something; there is a limit to what we can do."
"Thank you, Maurice."
"You are welcome, B'lushona."
"By the way, Maurice, where did the bandit get a full set of Dwarven armor from?"
"We can't know, of course, but likely it was stolen from a trader or a caravan. It is also conceivable that a group of bandits ventured into a Dwemer ruin and found it there, but they rarely dare to go in there; many of the Dwemer automatons are still intact and not to be trifled with."
"All right, this makes sense. I have another question, though. Some people use the term 'Dwemer', and some say 'Dwarves' and 'Dwarven'; is there a difference?"
Maurice also knew the answer to that one:
"No, not really. Mer usually call them 'Dwemer', which translates into something like 'Deep-Elves', and men mostly say 'Dwarves'. Knowledge on that race is somewhat limited since they disappeared for unknown reasons in the First Era."
During the fight and while we had talked afterwards I had completely forgotten about my familiar and also about the bag with the sapling, and now I remembered that I had put it on the side. Looking around for it, though, I could not see it any longer, and I wondered where I had dropped it. My two saber cat cubs yelped, and when I followed the noise I saw that the bag was on the border of a steep ravine, and without Hanni and Nanni holding it with their small fangs it would already have been sliding down; I quickly recovered my previous load and petted my saber cats' fur. Both had some cuts from the fight before, and I used my magicka to heal them. Of course I also took the time to collect all of the pieces of Dwarven Armor from the bandit's corpse; it sure would not fit my body, but I hoped to be able to sell that for quite some money.
While we moved on, I though about that fight against the bandits. Enemies in light armor and with limited weapon training were no longer a problem for me, one to one, and one of my standard approaches to distract them with flames and then hit with my axe, usually worked reasonably well. More experienced fighters, like the bandit boss in heavy armor, though, were one or more levels too much for me, and I wondered if I would ever get to be properly prepared for such fights, too. Would I need better armor for myself, much more weapons training and practice, or maybe more proficiency in destruction magic, or all of that? I did not know, but I sure would continue training and exercising.
In late afternoon we passed Valtheim Towers, but we decided to not push it to the city of Whiterun and rather made camp for one night close to the road; my 'girls' allowed us to skip standing guard.
In the morning of the next day we hit the road again, taking the direct route from Valtheim Towers to Whiterun. I took the time to pick a few flowers and catch a few butterflies, and once we had to defend ourselves when a small pack of wolves attacked; this time, at least, I managed to not get a bite in my arm. About half way to the city, close to a small hill on the right, we saw a fight starting ahead of us. A person on a horse, maybe a trader or so, was attacked by two people, one of them looking like a bandit and the other one more like a mage, with dark robes and a dark hood. While the rider should have been easily able to flee from the bandit, the robed person cast spells from his hands, and horse and rider had obvious trouble evading those. I had practiced to conjure my new saber cat familiar as often as I could since the morning, and she and Hanni and Nanni now started to race forward and first encountered the bandit, who was sufficiently distracted now, but the robed person did not notice. I also ran and found myself close to the enemies, and as the bandit was occupied with fending off my three saber cat cubs, I prepared a flame spell and directed it right at the other enemy. The person twitched, and he or she had apparently neglected their own defense, seeing that the person on the horse was not using magic. The hooded person turned around and tried to raise their hands against me, but my continuous flame spell prevented that, and the enemy was down on the ground eventually, not yet dead, but at least out of the fight by now. By my estimation I had been able to cast the spell for about seven seconds, which was great progress, probably mostly thanks to Maurice's 'training'. Without the magicka spent before for the conjuring, it might have been even a few seconds longer.
Meanwhile, Maurice had been able to subdue the bandit. We took the weapons and money from the male bandit, and, as we saw when we removed the hood, female hedge wizard or so, and then we talked to the rider. He was indeed a merchant, and he was very thankful for our help. He had only minor injuries, and I handed over a potion of healing. We did not bother to bring the two attackers to prison, but just left them, without any weapons, and we proceeded towards Whiterun together with the trader. It was about time, too, as a person in a dark robe looked down from the hill north of the road, and they seemed to be tempted to get down and attack us. While we hurried to get some distance between them and us, Maurice explained:
"That place up there on the hill is where one can find the 'Ritual Stone', one of the Standing Stones in Skyrim. It is supposed to allow those who activated it to reanimate a corpse once a day, and necromancers love the stone. Naturally, a virtuous person keeps their distance. Say, have you ever been able to activate one of those Standing Stones?"
"As a matter of fact, I have, Maurice. I used the Warrior Stone some time ago, as I felt that my fighting skills need the most attention."
The monk nodded and seemed to approve; he replied:
"Yes, the Guardian Stones are popular, and as far as I know, it is the only place in the province where you have more than one Standing Stone in one location, too. Few people dare to touch either the Mage Stone or the Thief Stone, though."
"Why is that?"
"Those who try the Thief Stone make others get the idea that they are actually thieves, and even if they are, people usually don't want to advertise that. Similar with the Mage Stone; many Nords still have an aversion against magic. On the other hand, some families actually sent their young ones to the College of Winterhold if they managed to activate the Mage Stone."
In the early afternoon we arrived in the city of Whiterun, and my first stop was Warmaiden՚s, while Maurice waited outside; I was curious to find out how much I'd get for the complete set of Dwarven Armor I had looted from the bandit boss. Ulfberth War-Bear greeted me:
"If it's armor you need, we've got all kinds, both light and heavy. Almost everything you see here was made with skill and care by my wife Adrianne."
"I know, but today I'd like to sell something."
I dropped the set of Dwarven Armor on the counter, and he looked at it approvingly:
"Hm, a full set of Dwarven Armor, used, but in decent condition. I am willing to hand out 380 septims for the set."
I did not know, once again, if this was a fair price, and I took it; in addition to that I also sold some of the other loot I had collected. With a lighter load I stepped out of the shop and, together with Maurice, who had waited outside of the shop for me, I marched right up to the Temple of Kynareth to find Danica.
Her face lit up when she saw us and she asked:
"Oh, you are back, and look who we have here – Welcome, Maurice, I have not seen you for some time. So, do you have the tree sap from the Eldergleam tree?"
"No, Danica; forcing the sap from the magical tree seemed to be not a good idea, and I was asked to not do that by the local priestess."
"That's rather unfortunate!"
"No, not really" I replied while setting the wrapped sapling down between us. "Look, this is a sapling from the Eldergleam tree, and Maurice here was able to make the tree create it right for us. I am sure that it will quickly grow if planted and blessed by you and Maurice."
"Well, this is not what I had expected, but I guess it is better than nothing" Danica was clearly somewhat disappointed.
Maurice chimed in and confirmed that cutting into the Eldergleam՚s bark with Nettlebane would not have been something sanctioned by Kynareth, and Danica got to work. We helped her to remove the remains and the deep roots of the old Gildergreen tree, get some fresh soil into the large round bed, and plant the sapling. Both Maurice and Danica spoke their blessings, and while we watched, the sapling already started to grow, even before we had started to water it. It was obvious that it would not require decades to grow into full size, but probably just months, and this was a clear sign that we had Kynareth՚s approval and blessing.
Danica Pure-Spring was finally happy, and this task was completed. The day was not over yet, though. While we were still watching and admiring the sapling and I was ready to sit down and relax, a distant roar was heard, and soon some guards shouted:
"A dragon!"
I quickly looked up, and indeed, one of the big flying beasts descended down to us. Many of the guards got their bows out, and I quickly reminded them to aim for the wings and joints. Some of them had been there at the Western Watchtower to fight Mirmulnir, and they recalled that dragons were not supernatural beings, but could actually be killed. The dragon passed over the sapling and blasted a strong fireball right into it. Danica looked totally scared and actually screamed, and I was very much concerned, too – had our trip to get the sapling been for naught? However, Kynareth seemed to protect her sacred tree, and it was completely undamaged.
After a few passes the dragon got plenty of arrows in its wings and crashed to the ground outside, close to the walls southeast of the city, not far from Chillfurrow Farm. Some of the guards could still hit with arrows from up here, and some others ran outside; I decided to join them, with Hanni and Nanni on my heels. When we reached the location, the dragon was almost dead, and I helped to finish it off with a few strikes of my big axe. A couple of hold guards were now dead, though, and a few more were injured; they were helped back to the city and the temple by their comrades.
No Dragonborn was around, and the dragon thus did not disintegrate immediately. Well, at least it was outside of the city, and we'd see how that worked out.
When I came back to the city, my first order of business was to look around if something had been damaged. The dragon attack had indeed set a few roofs on fire, but thanks to the availability of water in the city in various locations and the Jarl՚s orders to have a number of buckets stored in key locations, citizens had worked together to extinguish the fires. Two or three houses would need extensive repairs done to their roofs, but that was about it. For a moment I wondered about the possibility to have some water pipes installed. After all, water emerged from the Cloud District, and it should be possible to run some of it through pipes, to be used where needed. I was not sure if pipes were easy to manufacture, but this was something to keep in mind, specifically for the time when I might be able to build a house of my own. I stood close to the new Gildergreen tree, and while I double checked that it was indeed completely undamaged, Danica Pure-Spring was suddenly next to me again and said:
"B'lushona, I have not really had a chance to thank you properly for what you have done. The fact that the tree was able to protect itself from dragon fire is a clear sign that it is blessed by Kynareth herself, and I feel like I should return a small gift of my own. There is not much I have, but I am skilled in restoration and healing, and if you want, I can teach you some of that."
"Priestess, enhancing my own restoration skill is nothing I will refuse. Healing myself and others is always important, and I will gladly accept a gift to strengthen this ability."
Like Maurice had done before, she had me kneel down and touched my forehead for a couple of minutes, and I felt some connection between her and myself. There was nothing tangible, of course, but when we were done she assured me that my own capability of healing should now be better than before. Healing spells would both take less magicka and thus last longer and also be more efficient and find the body parts where they were needed more easily.
Once I had thanked the priestess and while I was still looking around to see if my help was needed somewhere, a guard stepped up to me and asked me to come to Dragonsreach; the Jarl wanted to talk to me. I obliged and climbed the stairs to enter the Cloud District; what did Jarl Balgruuf the Greater need to talk to me about? Maybe he wanted to get an eye witness report on the dragon event?
[Author's Notes: So, for now at least, Vilja will have to cope on her own or find other friends. I have not decided yet if we will meet her again; please don't hesitate to let me know if you'd like her to make an appearance again in a later chapter!]