Winds of the Ashfall: An Elder Scrolls Tale
Greg J Miller
~O~
Chapter 13
Middas the 31st of Last Seed 4E71 Morning
After pushing himself as hard as he possibly could, Alaron Suvaris still arrived far too late. He screamed his useless protest across the burning canyon below. His throat already painfully raw from running so hard to reach that place and yet still failing to arrive in time.
Crazed by the hist-induced rage, the rampaging hordes of bloodthirsty Argonians roared back at him from across the far side of the gorge. The raging reptiles continued beating weapons against their shields in time with the war drums.
There was nothing he could do but watch on helplessly as the fleshed burned and peeled away from the bodies of his wife and children down in the gorge below. As his brother and his wife struggled to hold their son up above the conflagration, they seemed to momentarily stare back at him with harsh glares of accusation from their dead eyes, before the flames also took them all.
In unison, the raging Argonian horde seemed to bellow in gloried triumph.
The smoking lava flared up just one last time, before leaving nothing more than a low oily fire upon the simmering surface, followed by light ashes cast upon the wind.
Even trapped within the persistent spell of his sub-conscious imaginings, Suvaris knew in his mind that none of it could have happened quite like that. In fact, he was quite certain that it could have been nothing at all like that. Even so, he seemed unable to break the spell, as the infernal heat from the gorge below assaulted his senses and the beating of the Argonian war drums continued to pound. The noise of the drums seemed to penetrate both his body and his soul.
With a sudden start, Suvaris jolted to wakefulness and sat up. He quickly realised that someone was persistently knocking at the door to his rented room.
"Suvaris? Suvaris, you awake?" It was the voice of Faryl Rurvyn calling out to him.
Suvaris cleared his throat. "Yes… Yes, I'm awake. Be there… be there shortly."
"Righto, then. Shortly." Faryl seemed mildly satisfied with the response, evidently leaving the door and going back downstairs to the tavern of the Ald'draduh Oad.
Suvaris rose in a hurried fashion. He firstly reached for his water flask to quench his thirst, then made his way for the chamber pot to deal with next most urgent matter.
After that, he paused by the water basin set upon the side table. He took a moment to wash his face, clearing his eyes and wiping away the sweatiness from his brow.
By the dim morning light, he briefly caught sight of the image in the old mirror. His blood red Dunmer eyes gazed back with weariness. Despite having had enough sleep, his countenance appeared rather more haggard than he expected. He splashed some more water over his face, then set to getting dressed and prepared to join the Rurvyn traders downstairs.
Pulling on his boots, Suvaris released a heavy sigh. To the best of his recollection, decades had passed since he'd experienced any nightmares of that nature. He reasonably expected that it had been brought on from his current activities. Visiting some of those once familiar parts of the homeland had most likely stirred up those imaginings that he'd previously managed to keep well buried beneath the weight of the passage of time.
Suvaris silently reminded himself that what did actually transpire all those years before was easily terrible enough, without having his sleeping mind dreaming up even more terrible horrors. Even so, though he might well remain the master of his waking mind, he seemingly held less influence over what his dreaming mind might conjure. He could only try to concern himself with the substance of the present and continue onward.
Though he wasn't yet feeling particularly hungry, he kept a saltrice biscuit on hand, then replaced the last of the loose objects into his travelling pack and tied off the straps.
He briefly glanced outside through the northern window as he hoisted the pack onto his back. In the twilight, a misty haze obstructed the view over the water to the north. He could only just barely make out the shadow of the small isle situated off to the north of Old Ebonheart.
Already feeling that he'd taken far too long to ready himself, Suvaris made an effort to hurry downstairs.
Descending the timber stairs, Suvaris found that the tavern area of the inn was quiet and empty. Neither Dranas nor the Bosmer barmaid was about. Since Faryl wasn't there either, he hoped that he'd find him waiting outside.
Suvaris left the key to his rented room upon the service counter next to the other keys that he assumed had been left by the Rurvyns and then hastened for the front door.
Stepping outside, he immediately spotted Faryl leaning by the side of the building. He was looking out at the light mist on the water with a dust mask in hand. Since he wasn't carrying that shoulder bag, it was fair to assume that his brother had taken it to pack onto the guar.
Suvaris cast an eye out over the waters where the mouth of the Thir merged with the bay, noting only a subtle whiff of something unpleasant on the air.
Faryl spoke up. "Yeah, seems Dranas was right. Can barely smell it. Maybe, just a touch of the bad vapours in the mist. Not too bad. Just enuff ta remind of what's out there."
"I do hope I haven't caused unsatisfactory delay." Suvaris' mildly questioning expression prompted Faryl to speak again.
"Nah, still on time, more or less. Dravyn an' Bradyn are gettin' the guar loaded an' movin'. Gonna meet up with 'em out the front of the city, if we don't meet 'em along the way."
Suvaris returned a silent nod of agreement and they both fell into step, headed uphill for the centre of town. He quietly munched on the bland saltrice biscuit as he walked. Given that he hadn't yet spotted the other two, he assumed that they were most likely already well ahead of them. That inspired him to move just a little more quickly, challenging Faryl to keep pace.
The previous evening, Faryl had advised of intent to travel directly to Mournhold without stopping at any location along the way. At the end of the summer, they could possibly count on about thirteen and a half hours between sunrise and sunset. With fair weather, that meant about fourteen hours or so of light at best. From Suvaris' best recollection, that journey would likely take all of that time, provided nothing caused any notable delay. After sundown, there would be only some poor moonlight from a partially brightened Secunda, since the waning Masser wouldn't even be up until a bit later. Each of those factors served to hasten his step.
Suvaris and Faryl quickly passed through the mostly empty streets about Ebonheart Plaza. A Redoran guard sitting upon a bench up against a wall appeared to be snoozing. He probably thought that nobody could tell with that heavy helmet covering his face, but his posture easily gave him away. The only other person out on the street that early was someone emerging from the bakery with a basket in her hands.
Soon enough, they were briskly passing through the stone archway of the fortified wall separating the main city centre from the comparatively open area out on the southern side of the Ebonheart Isle. Looking about, Suvaris still could not see where Dravyn and Bradyn might be. Faryl passed no comment, merely doing his best to match stride.
They were soon about to pass by the old metalworker's bazaar. It appeared that no one else was yet about that place so early in the day. That circumstance didn't really seem so surprising at all.
Off to his right, Suvaris noticed a pair of traders with a heavily loaded guar and an armoured guard marching outward past the lumber stores. They were obviously headed for the western bridge, where his travelling party had come from just the day before.
Looking in the opposite direction, along the row of timber houses lining the road to the east, he still caught no sight of the other two Rurvyns with the guar.
Suvaris turned about to look to Faryl, then suddenly halted, causing the other Dunmer to almost run into him.
Suvaris' odd expression and intense gaze directed back toward the fortified wall prompted Faryl to turn and look. "Righto, there they are. Looks we got ahead of 'em."
Dravyn and Bradyn appeared to be trying to persuade the pack-guar to move along more quickly. The beasts didn't seem quite as heavily loaded as the previous day, but they seemed just slightly less cooperative than they'd been over the past few days.
Faryl silently waited until the others had finally caught up. He looked like he was about to say something, but Dravyn spoke up first.
"Got held up by these s'wittin' idiots." Dravyn was obvious talking about the guar.
Bradyn offered his opinion. "Think there might be a female in season. Back at the livery. These two been kickin' up a big stink about headin' out this mornin'."
Dravyn grumbled. "Always said we shoulda got a couple females instead. Or least, looked ta gettin' these two properly looked at."
Faryl didn't offer any argument nor add any fuel to his brother's opinion. "Need ta get ourselves movin' out. Long day ahead of us."
Though Dravyn grumbled to himself, nothing else was said. They all headed off down the road toward the eastern bridge of the Ebonheart Isle as fast as the misbehaving guar would follow. Up ahead, a pair of male Dunmer emerged from one of the timber houses near to the road, then headed eastward at a hurried pace. From the way that they were dressed, they looked like they were most likely farm workers.
Soon enough, Suvaris and the traders were approaching the crossing over the eastern channel of the river delta. Those other two Dunmer had already passed that way, crossed over the bridge and were still moving quickly toward their intended destination.
At the far end of the bridge, a pair of armoured Redoran soldiers leaned against the stone wall at the side. With their faces fully covered by those enclosed helms, it was hard to tell that they were watching until they shifted position and fully turned.
One of them clearly took interest as they approached, stepping away from the stone wall and onto the main path. He obviously meant to obstruct clear passage. "Yer them traders from up north Blacklight way, ain't ya? Sera… Rurvum?" His voice provided an indication of some relative youth.
Faryl maintained an earnest expression and tone. "Rurvyn, sera. Rurvyn Traders. We just been deliverin' fresh dust masks to the trader's warehouse of Ol' Ebonheart."
"Special dust masks, for the bad vapours." Dravyn held up the mask that he still had hanging from his belt.
The soldier nodded with his bonemold helmet. "Any luck, folks won't be needing that."
"That could change at any moment." Faryl tried to make it sound more like a helpful suggestion, than anything more ominous. He patted the mask that he'd also hung upon his belt.
The soldier nodded again. "Could do, could do… but hope it don't."
Faryl returned an agreeable grin. "Better to be prepared, just in case."
"Can't argue with that."
Stepping over to stand next to the first one, the second Redoran guard spoke up, sounding somewhat older than his comrade. "Where you lot headed then?"
Faryl responded in his generally congenial manner. "On our way down to Mournhold. We got goods to deliver, goods to pick up. Usual sorta thing."
At first, the older guard seemed to be looking to the pack-guar, but then it became more obvious that he was actually looking directly at Suvaris. "Ain't seen you travellin' this way with a guard before. Who's this fella with ya then?"
Faryl kept up his earnest demeanour. "Just a traveller from Cheydinhal, on his way to Mournhold. Travellin' together for safety like. Don't hurt none that he's pretty handy with lookin' out for troubles."
Suvaris recognised some casual measure of tension in the guard's posture. He immediately sought to alleviate any sense of apprehension. "Ju'rohn, sera. Alaron Suvaris of the Cheydinhal Fighters Guild."
The younger soldier on the right appeared to look to the older one as though he seemed somewhat uncertain.
The older Redoran guard spoke again. "Ya ain't nothin' ta do with them lot over in Mournhold then?"
Understanding the inference, Suvaris shook his head. "No, I've not had any dealings with them before. I'm actually looking for a younger Dunmer going by the name of Travlon Suvaris, said to be in Mournhold recently."
"Relative of yers?"
"That remains to be seen. That's why I'm headed there."
"Yer from Cheydinhal, ya say?"
"Yes, for the past few decades. Originally hailing from the Kragenmoor area, before all the troubles. I now serve to protect our fellow Dunmer living in Cheydinhal."
The older soldier seemed to pause on a thought for a moment. "Back when I first joined the guard… think I hearda some fella called Suvaris… with the old Fighters Guild. Back when we had that sorta thing in these parts. Think there useta be another fella called Vedran, who they say went over to Cheydinhal. Course, that was years back."
Suvaris returned a respectful nod. "Yes well, I am that Suvaris and Drals Vedran currently serves as Guild Head of Cheydinhal's Fighters Guild."
Only from his posture, the older guard appeared to find some measure of approval in hearing that response. After another short pause, he nodded. "Well then, I s'pose ya best be gettin' a move on, if ya plannin' on makin' yer next stop in good time. Azura be with ya."
"An' Azura be with ya, as well." Faryl returned a friendly nod.
The older soldier gestured to the other one, encouraging him to step aside and make room for the travellers to pass and then they were once again on their way.
East of the Ebonheart Isle, Ash Mountain loomed large. Of course, Suvaris knew that Vvardenfell's Red Mountain had to be much larger, but he'd never passed so close to that other angry mountain and he truly felt no desire to do so.
For the most part, Ash Mountain seemed content to quietly grumble; offering only reserved outbursts from time to time. At that particular moment, it wasn't even billowing any clouds of ash. Of course, that could change easily enough, without any notable warning. Even so, it was only very rarely such a violent affair. Nothing at all like Red Mountain.
A couple of relatively minor rivulets of molten lava dribbled down the western slopes of Ash Mountain. The features about either side of the narrow streams indicated earlier and more virulent flows. Though the lava seemed to reach for the waters east of Old Ebonheart, from the road it could not be seen whether the lava actually managed to get quite that far.
To the north of the eastbound road, the stone towers of that ancient estate could still be seen. However, the rise of the hillside between the road and that location soon came to obscure any clear view. Before that view became fully obstructed, Suvaris had noticed some farm workers about the front area of that estate. That provided some fair indication that someone must have been making use of that place in a productive manner.
Just a little further along the road, the eastern farmlands of Ebonheart came into clear view. There were only a few crop fields to the left of the road. The fields on the right seemed more substantial, occupying a significant portion of the area between that road and the stony hills to the south.
Other than those cultivated farmlands, the landscape remained fairly barren, as was typical of that part of the Stonefalls region. There were few larger trees to be seen. Aside from just a few shabby looking mushroom clusters, growing no taller than waist height, only patches of wild kreshweed and roobush grew here and there.
An old lava flow ran along the back of those farmlands to the left of the road. The most recent flow had long since cooled and hardened, but it marked the line of sorts between the farmlands and the rise of the rocky hills up to the larger mountain above them.
From there the road gently veered southward, following a path parallel to that old lava track to the east. Along that stretch, a lesser road turned off to the west. The signpost indicated that a mine was located in that direction.
Though the morning warmed quickly, it hardly seemed anything nearly as hot as that first day they'd departed Blacklight in the north. The patchy cloud cover slowly drifting overhead might have played some part. Even so, it just seemed as though the sun had not been beating down quite so harshly. The light breeze periodically blowing from the south probably also played some part in it. It wasn't at all like the gusty winds of two days before, but easily enough to keep things feeling somewhat cooler as they marched along.
Since they remained primarily focussed upon maintaining a steady pace along the road, any thoughts of casual conversation seemed fairly restrained. The further that they travelled away from Old Ebonheart, the better behaved that the pack-guar became.
Nobody even called for a piss-break until they'd almost reached the fork beyond where the road turned south, then eastward once again and then joined up with that other road that came around from the southern side of Old Ebonheart via the lesser southern farmlands.
After that fork, the road turned north-east for some distance, seemingly headed in the wrong direction. A few lesser roads and tracks veered off from the main road into the hills below Ash Mountain. Though he'd never had reason to go near them, Suvaris was vaguely aware of some old ruins and the like among those hills in the shadow of the mountain.
A little further along, they were passing by another road leading away to the ancient Othrenis necropolis. It occurred to Suvaris that he'd originally expected to be passing that way nearly three weeks before. However, twice encountering travellers in need and then ending up in Blacklight had significantly diverted that intent.
Further along past the Othrenis turn-off, the eastbound road would eventually drift even further north, passing through a small township, and then eventually reaching the Darnim Watch township located further east along the southern coastline of the Inner Sea.
Of course, they'd be turning off in another direction well before any of that, at the next major split where the southbound road headed through a pass in the rugged hills on its way down to Mournhold.
After leaving the vicinity of those farmlands to the immediate east of Old Ebonheart, they'd not encountered anybody at all along the road that morning. Some dried guar-shit here and there along the road provided indication that it was travelled often enough. At least one fresher pile of dung suggested that a guar had passed that way no more than a day before.
It didn't seem so terribly unusual to see nobody along the road. As Faryl had casually mentioned more than once since leaving Blacklight on Sundas, some days they might come across quite a few people out on the roads and at other times, none at all.
Despite Suvaris' reasonable expectations, there'd been no direct encounters with any of Morrowind's more dangerous creatures along the way. Around mid-morning, he'd spotted what looked like a cliff racer flying over the hills below Ash Mountain, but it remained quite some distance away and subsequently of no immediate threat. He'd also observed a large shalk beetle picking its way over the hardened lava flow north of the road, not far from the Othrenis turn-off, but again that creature wasn't near enough to cause concern.
Similarly, they'd heard noises coming from over a hill between the main road and that other road leading to Othrenis. It sounded like two or more alit involved in some sort of scuffle or the like. Though the distant noises clearly agitated the pack-guar, those other reptilian creatures remained distant, not even coming into view.
Even by midday, it still didn't seem quite so hot that day. Though the southerly breeze seemed perhaps a little warmer by then, the wind had increased in intensity. The net offset seemed to make for relatively comfortable conditions.
It wasn't until they'd finally made it to a position just north of the pass that would take them from the south of the Stonefall region to the north of the Deshaan, that Faryl held up his hand and called for halt. By that time, it was well past noon and even past the mark of one hour after midday.
Turning to his brother, Faryl handed over that dusk mask that he'd left hanging on his belt since leaving Old Ebonheart. "Reckon we oughta be stoppin' for a short one, while we got the chance."
"Not too long. Still wanna make Mournhold before dark." Dravyn looked to shoving the two dust masks into a pack on the guar, then rummaged in another pack looking for rations.
Bradyn added his thoughts. "The guar need a bit of rest." He was already looking to setting down the water dishes for the thirsty beasts.
Glancing upward to gauge the position of the sun, Faryl sounded optimistic. "We been makin' pretty good time. If we don't get no trouble, we oughta make it to Mournhold easy enuff. Reckon we'll be there before we go runnin' outa light."
Dravyn only grunted in response.
Though it had been several decades since he'd passed that way, Suvaris remained cautiously confident of Faryl's assessment. Still, he felt no need to directly weigh in with his opinion. By that time, he was certainly feeling thirsty again as well as quite hungry and he meant to deal with both those things as quickly and effortlessly as possible. That saltrice biscuit from earlier hadn't done much to serve as lasting sustenance. Reaching into his travelling pack he retrieved some dried meats and some cheese, feeling confident that it would serve him nicely to last the remainder of the journey.
With eating, drinking and resting at the forefront of concern, nobody spoke until each of those things was attended as best as possible. Despite any weariness from the steady march of the day so far, the idea of resting wasn't given much serious consideration. Soon enough, Dravyn was insisting that anyone needing to take a piss should go get it done and then once the guar were readied, they were quickly on their way again.
~O~