Chapter 49: Heading west

[4th of Evening Star 4E 201]

After I had been made a Thane of Whiterun by Jarl Balgruuf the Greater, Kodlak had suggested that I travel to Solitude together with Athis, the Dunmer, and Antonius, my new housecarl. On the way we were supposed to retrieve a special book from a Nordic ruin, to deliver it to the headmaster of the Bard's College. Thus, on a nice but cold morning – this was the last month of the year and thus something like the start of winter after all – we left the city and started to walk west, not bothering with either horses or a carriage.

The Whiterun tundra had only few and mostly isolated trees, almost all of them evergreen conifers; some of them were quite large ones and partially skewed and bent from the wind, just like that one mod I usually had installed for them, 'Bent Pines' or so. There was, of course, an abundance of grass and flowers. The grass was not just yellow or light brown, but it looked like there were different species or subspecies growing, some of them more yellow, some more brown, and some more like green; this made for a nice mix of colors, specifically considering the various small daisy-like flowers in between. Flora also included the distinctive white tundra cotton, lavender, which I remembered from gardens at home, and multiple variations of mountain flower, with many of them still blooming even at this time of the year. Maybe many flowers in Skyrim had adopted some concept to allow them to bloom in sub zero temperatures, like snowdrops and others on Earth, too? Obviously, both flora and fauna had adapted to the harsh climate, one way or another, as there were also butterflies of different colors in abundance around the flowers, and various animals, small ones and large ones, could be seen in some directions.

When we reached the partially destroyed Western Watchtower and greeted the guards there – being a Thane of Whiterun certainly had the advantage to get a friendly greeting from most guards and soldiers, which I tried to return, of course – I decided to take a few minutes to climb to the top of the tower and look around; the stairs were damaged, but still usable, and further repair efforts were ongoing. Far off to the north I saw something which looked like a camp with giants and mammoths, and Antonius explained that this was 'Bleakwind Basin'. I had seen the camp from the distance before, when I had been hunting on the plains, but I had always kept my distance; I had no ambition at all to attack giants and mammoths unless I had a very good reason, but I had watched and observed the great mammoths a few times before and imagined how it might have been on Earth, at the end of the Ice Age, with mammoths roaming around. Closer to us we saw a herd of elk passing, and all around us various smaller animals, probably foxes and rabbits, were sometimes visible in the grass, too.

When we had left the tower and passed Fort Greymoor, following the main road and turning southwest, I recalled previous encounters with wolves and other creatures, and I decided to pay more attention to my environment. As a human, this would have mostly involved looking and listening, but as a Khajiit I should also pay attention to smelling. This sense, though, was limited by wind direction, and I should probably be able to smell an approaching animal when it came with the wind, but not in the other direction. Also, while my sense of smelling was certainly better than for a human being, I still wasn't able to categorize smells properly. I had learned by now to distinguish smells for people and animals close to me, like Antoninus and my saber cats, and slowly got used to some specific plant smells, like those I frequently collected; when I grabbed blossoms from blue mountain flowers, for instance, I sometimes got my nose close to the plants to inhale the smell. For animals not usually close I struggled and could not easily identify the smell, though; for instance, I could not distinguish yet between the smell from wolves, fox, and other animals. So, for now, maybe I'd better focus on seeing and hearing. Eyesight was certainly helpful, here on the Whiterun plains, which was close to a prairie or tundra, or whatever they called it. There were some trees and even a few copses, but overall wolves and other predators would have a hard time approaching without being seen. On the other hand, in some areas the grass was quite high and there were also some smaller and larger rocks, so that a crouching and sneaking predator might well be able to move unseen.

Hearing was also something I should train, but with Antonius and Athis beside me, that was not going to work well. Athis was all right; as a Dunmer and wearing light armor, he moved without generating much noise, but Antonius, even in light armor, was not very good in sneaking, or maybe he did not really try at this time. Thus I told the two of them:

"Antonius, Athis, would you two mind to walk at some distance behind me, please?"

"Why that?"

"I want to practice my hearing, and your walking noise is an issue, Antonius."

"Yeah, I know that I need to work on that; all right, my Thane."

Once they were behind, far enough to not disturb my senses too much, but close enough to get to me quickly if I needed them, I perked my ears – funny, but I could actually move and twist them a little bit – and listened. Hanni and Nanni were able to move completely silently on their paws.

About one hour past Fort Greymoor I heard something, and I stopped for a moment to focus on the noise. I slowly turned my head right, towards the north, and there was a small herd of elk and deer at some distance; what I had heard was probably their hooves on the grass when they moved on to find fresh grass. They had not noticed me yet, and at that distance they might not mind my presence either. A few minutes later I heard some other noise, and I could not understand what it was. It came from a slightly different direction and was somewhat – lighter? And from multiple sources? I stepped onto a rock for better viewing, and soon I could see what happened. A pack of wolves, hard to see with their grey fur against the tundra background, approached the small herd, and they tried to form a semi circle around them. Hanni and Nanni were next to me and getting nervous, as they probably heard and smelled what was going on, too, but I made a sign for them telling them to stay at my side and sit down, and I commanded 'Sitz!' to confirm my intention.

While I was watching, I saw one of the elks turning its head around a few times, and suddenly that elk made some kind of noise; this was probably a warning sound, as now all of them stopped feeding, and the larger adult ones formed a perimeter around the younger animals. The wolves stayed around for some more time, but apparently they were not hungry enough to attack a group of adult elks, and soon they moved off. That scene had been quite interesting to observe.

Athis and Antoninus now caught up to me, and I related what I had seen. Athis nodded:

"Yep, adult elks can be dangerous, and wolves usually try to get the young ones separated. Same for us, by the way. For hunting, we either target an isolated younger elk or just kill one from a distance, with a bow, and wait until the herd moves on. An adult elk can easily kill a man or mer if we are not careful."

"Why not kill an adult elk for getting meat?"

"Ah, well, you see, venison from an adolescent elk is more tender, and the amount is more than one person can carry anyway. Sensible hunters always try to only kill what they can also carry, and they don't want to attract scavengers with the remainder."

I nodded, and I assumed that the taste issue was like for beef and veal back home; veal was certainly more tender and preferred by many. And yes, I could imagine that an adult elk was too heavy to carry, even for me. I had sometimes hunted young elks around Whiterun, and I had clearly noticed the weight. I usually took the elk to Anoriath or Doria or somebody else as it was, as my knowledge on proper skinning was practically nil, and I had learned over time which size I could still carry and which ones were already too heavy for me. Above and beyond that, I had also learned that there were different species of deer and elk around in the plains, with different size, looks and weight; at some later time, I might want to find out more about those, from a kind of scientific point of view, too.

When we found a nice spot close to a narrow side path branching off the main road, we used the opportunity to have a break for lunch, eating from our supplies, and my cubs got a bowl of milk filled from the jug I had with me, as usual. Looking at the side road I was getting curious, and I asked my companions where this led to. Antonius told me:

"This is the path to Brittleshin Pass, my Thane. The pass connects our hold to Falkreath Hold, but a significant part of it is below ground, cutting through the hills between the plains here and the area north of Lake Ilinalta on the other side. It is supposed to be quite dangerous to use."

"Right" Athis added. "Last I heard is that some necromancers made it their home, and it is in general not recommended to go there, unless one absolutely needs to. I certainly would not want to go in there on my own. If Falkreath hold and Whiterun had a good relationship with each other, maybe we Companions might be asked to clear the area, but as it is, Jarl Balgruuf does not bother, not at this time at least. Besides, that passage does not end in a strategic location, but just close to the northern shore of Lake Ilinalta, and there is not even a road connection on the southern side, I believe."

Just before we finished our meal, a couple of travelers came from the west, and one of them was leading a pack animal, maybe a mule or so. The two, a male and a female Nord, did not look dangerous, and when they got close to us, they introduced themselves as traders.

"Not all of the trading in Skyrim is done by Khajiit caravans" they explained. "The Khajiit have some of the more exotic merchandise, and they usually stop at the towns and cities only. We stop at each farm, and we have many utensils and wares for daily use."

The two wanted to talk more, but right at this time two people came down the road from the pass; they apparently first saw the two traders, who were now standing right at the road branch, whereas the rest of us were in a small niche and not directly visible from the side road. It turned out that the two newcomers did not have good intentions, which was obvious by their shouts:

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

"Can't wait to count out your coin..."

The male trader turned against the attackers, but got injured right away. While my own reaction time was, as usual, not quick at all, Antoninus and Athis were up in a second, and while the Dunmer protected the female trader, my housecarl turned towards the two bandits and kept them busy. Hanni and Nanni now got involved as well, and with them starting to bite one of the bandits, Antoninus managed to finish off the other one. As usual, the second bandit refused to surrender, and he had to be killed as well.

When my two companions had the situation under control and looked out for potential more danger, I knelt down next to the wounded trader and looked at him; he had received two deep slashes from a sword, one across his belly and one in his left arm, and both were bleeding a lot. I had learned more about healing from Danica recently, and now was obviously a good time to use that. First I stopped the worst of the bleeding with magic, and I noticed indeed that the familiar faint glow around my hand kind of moved on its own towards the proper spot on the man's body, more clearly than it had done before; I also noticed that I could keep up the restoration spell for longer than before, maybe about ten seconds now, before I ran out of magicka. Anyway, the man was able to sit up now, and he accepted a healing potion from me to finish the healing process.

When we searched the corpses, there was not much of worth, but one of them had a shield with a golden glow in his left hand. This shield was unlike any other shield I had ever seen, and although I did not really think that it was made of pure gold, for reasons of weight and stability, I was curious. It also felt somewhat more heavy than it should, compared to other shields, when I picked it up for a moment. All of a sudden my nose picked up a faint smell of… cheese? No, surely I must have been mistaken. I asked:

"Is this some Dwarven metal or so?"

Athis shook his head: "No, I don't think so. It seems to be gold coated, but the form and pattern on it are uncommon. I have to admit that I don't know the background, and it certainly is very unusual."

My housecarl also shook his head, and we had to accept this as an unknown, for now at least. The two traders thanked us for our help and likely saving their lives; they offered to share some of their wares with us for free, but we declined; instead, we shared the loot from the bandits between us. While the traders continued their way east, we proceeded in western direction.

We continued our journey, and I kept on listening to the sounds around me as well as trying to identify some smells, although that part was much more difficult. On our right side, we passed two farms I could not recall from the game. They had some fields with the usual wheat and vegetables, but also big fields covered with flowers blossoming white, even at this time of the year. I was getting curious and asked my companions:

"What are they growing there? This is all tundra cotton, isn't it?"

"It sure is, my Thane."

"And why do they have so many of them? Do the plants provide useful alchemical ingredients?"

"That is possible, but the main purpose, as far as I know, is raw material for making clothes. Didn't you recently get a copy of that guide about plants?"

I nodded and retrieved the book from my backpack, and it indeed had a section on those plants:

Tundra Cotton

Not all Nords are savages wrapped in animal skins, howling at the moon. There are a wide variety of fabrics worn throughout the land, thanks in no small part to the stubborn Tundra Cotton plant. It soaks up what rain it can in the plains west of Whiterun, and blooms frequently. While it does not exhibit any of the more striking alchemical properties, it is a staple in potions for not only fortifying magicka, but for resisting spells as well. I wonder if that quality is what allows it to have adapted so well to this climate.

All right, we were on the plains west of Whiterun, and it did bloom a lot, and while the book did not go into details, something from that plant could obviously used to make clothes. Likely it wasn't a coincidence that the flower had 'cotton' in the name.

"We also import some flax and clothes from Cyrodiil" Athis added, "but those made from our own tundra cotton are not as expensive; there are a few small textile mills around in the hold making the clothes."

I had not seen any of those textile mills yet, but it would be interesting to visit them. I did not really know a lot about clothes manufacturing, but I was always willing to learn. Wasn't there a clothes brand on Earth called 'Fruit of the Loom'? And 'loom' was that device where the threads from plants were woven into cloth; I vaguely recalled that I used to have a miniature loom as a young boy, and it would be educating to see a large one in operation, provided that those devices were actually used here.

Before we moved on, I read that section in the book again, and I started to laugh. When my companions asked me what was funny, I explained:

"I just read the first sentence again - 'Not all Nords are savages wrapped in animal skins, howling at the moon'. Now, does this imply that most Nords are actually savages, and that some of them actually do howl at the moon? Are they particular about which of the moons to howl at, too?"

Athis and Antoninus laughed as well, and the Dunmer replied:

"Quite obviously the author was not a Nord!"

"Or it was a very humorous Nord!" I added.

About one hour after our lunch I noticed another road branch, with a path leading south. Athis knew about it:

"This is the entrance to a cave up there, called 'Bloated Man's Grotto'. A few Shield-Siblings were in there some time ago, and they told that there is an altar with a Shrine of Talos in there. Otherwise, it's not much, but there's always some wild animals if one wants to hunt. Due to the environment in there, though, hunting is dangerous, as the predators have plenty of opportunities to get close unseen. Some hunters go in there for a challenge, I have heard."

There was no need or motivation for us to go in there, at least not at this time, and we turned to move on, when I suddenly sensed or maybe smelled something, and just after I had uttered a warning, a pack of wolves came down the path, and they started to attack us right away. This time, at least, I had had a few seconds of preparation, and the first predator going for me was received by a short fire blast from my left hand. I got my axe out and used it to hit the second wolf, and my two companions were busy, too. All together we had almost a dozen wolves against us, quite a large pack, but on the other hand I had gained some experience and skills in fighting by all of the weapons training both up in High Hrothgar and in Jorrvaskr. This time I managed to not get hurt, and three wolves in total were killed by me. The final one was scared off by Hanni and Nanni, and we looked around carefully to make sure that we had not missed one, but a lone survivor would probably rather flee than stay around, as Athis assured me.

I was quite happy with myself; not only had I sensed the wolves approaching this time, likely due to a favorable wind direction, but I also had been able to come out of the fight without a single bite. While we moved on, I told Antonius about my experience with wolves so far and about the various bites I had received specifically on one of my arms, including what Mia had told me about it, and he smirked, but did not offer a comment of his own.

After a few more hours of walking we approached a settlement – Granite Hill, as Antonius confirmed. This town was, as far as I recalled, from a mod and not part of the base game. Nevertheless, here it was, and it was nicely integrated and strategically positioned where the side roads north to Rorikstead and south to Falkreath branched off the road between Whiterun and Markarth, making the road crossing, or rather almost crossing, as the roads to Falkreath and to Markarth did not branch off exactly at the same place, part of the settlement and enclosed by walls and fences, although low and wooden ones. The top elevations of a fort on a hill were visible in the east, close to the road towards Markarth. There was an intact and undisturbed dragon mound right outside of the fence just northeast, though, and that got me concerned a little bit. If Alduin decided at any time to resurrect this dragon here, it might lay havoc to the town and the wooden buildings. Most likely the locals were not even aware of that danger; dragon mounds had probably been around for centuries or even millenia, and nobody would expect a dragon to emerge from it all of a sudden.

Why there had been no such settlement in the vanilla game was beyond my understanding, but in this real life Skyrim Jarl Balgruuf or one of his predecessors was apparently smart enough to have a small village here. Or wait, was this place still part of Whiterun hold? I asked my housecarl about it, and he replied:

"Actually, this spot and road crossing is right on the border and claimed by both holds, Whiterun and Falkreath. The Jarls are not actively fighting about it, but there are some disputes on taxing and jurisdiction."

"Indeed" Athis confirmed. "I don't know if they have been able to reach some agreement recently, but at least there's no open fighting about it. Most of the time, guards from both holds share the accommodations in the local barracks, and occasionally, I have been told, even hold guards from The Reach show up."

"The Reach is the area to the west, with Markarth as capital city, right?"

I was pretty sure that it was, but it did not hurt to get confirmation, and Antonius promptly nodded:

"Sure is, my Thane. This road here is their main connection to the holds in the East, and a far as I know, there is no good road connection directly between Haafingar and The Reach. Just after the Civil War started, the Empire used to send some additional soldiers and carts north from Cyrodiil, via Falkreath hold, and they have passed right here. They have not sent much recently, I believe, but that's maybe because they likely have a lot of snow already in the Jerall mountains and at Pale Pass."

Before we turned into the local inn, we explored the little town first, passed a small market area and bought some food for the next day, sold the loot we had collected from the two bandits earlier in the day, talked briefly to a few locals and enjoyed the many flowers and butterflies. Just before we were ready to enter the inn, I saw a fort located on the hills west of the town, and the last rays of sunshine illuminated one of the fort's towers. I saw someone standing on that tower and looking around, but I could not determine race or anything else, and I asked my companions about it. Antonius replied:

"This is Fort Sungard, and it already belongs to The Reach. A long time ago guards from that hold occupied it, but in the last years and decades the Jarl of The Reach has not bothered any longer, and I believe that the Forsworn have reclaimed it. They have never tried to attack Granite Hall, as far as I know, but that fort would make a good border fortification if the Civil War got closer. For now, the people here just keep their distance."

Athis nodded and did not have anything to add, and as I was getting tired after a day of mostly walking, I suggested to head in now; I felt tempted to talk more about the Forsworn, but right now this could wait for a better opportunity; we were going towards Solitude and not Markarth at this time, after all. The sun was below the horizon, and we entered 'Sheepshead Inn'. The proprietor, a female Imperial, greeted us and offered food, drinks, and rooms, and we took all of that. After a good meal Athis got a room for himself, and Antonius shared a larger room with me and my cubs. He got along with them splendidly, and they seemed to understand that he was now part of the 'family'.

[Author's Notes: The mentioned mod 'Bent Pines II' is one I actually use for playing, and I like it.

The village of Granite Hill is not part of the vanilla game, but covered by several mods from different people, with different names. It is located where the road from Falkreath to Markarth meets the road from Whiterun to Rorikstead, east of Fort Sungard. It does appear to make sense to have a settlement here at the road crossing, I believe.]