Chapter IV

I don't know how long I slept, thankfully with dreams of home and humans and being human rather than the events of the past day. So I felt rested when an insistent nudging on my shoulder brought me back to wakefulness. It was Shadowmere, nudging my shoulder with his nose urgently, trying to wake me up.

"Get up, quickly and quietly," He urged me, his voice low and urgent.

I complied without question, getting to my feet almost silently. Almost silently to me and my newly enhanced deer hearing, but I knew a human wouldn't have heard me at all. I didn't say anything and simply looked at Shadowmere in question.

It was late afternoon, but not quite evening yet, there was still quite a bit of daylight left. It was then that I noticed the forest around us was almost silent. My not-quite-a-voice told me that the forest being silent was a bad thing and I should be ready to run.

"There are hunters from Falkreath nearby," Shadowmere told me softly, it was then that I realized that he wasn't making horse sounds while he spoke. His mouth itself wasn't even moving. That was a neat trick, one that I was going to have to have him teach me at some point when there wasn't imminent danger.

I nodded to him, not trusting myself to speak without making noise.

"We need to get out of here, quickly and quietly without you leaving a trail," He continued, I blinked showing some confusion at his statement. Why did it matter that I didn't leave a trail? He read the look and explained, "Horse track are not their concern, they are not hunting horses."

I nodded in understanding again and stepped slowly out of my semi-hidden sleeping hollow. My eyes, ears, and nose were all on alert for any sign of the hunters Shadowmere spoke of while I hoped my instincts would warn me if I needed to run.

I had a rough idea on which way the Twilight Sepulcher was, I had completed the Thieves Guild quest line more than once. Without waiting for Shadowmere to say anything more, I started westward, walking as swiftly and as silently as I could. I really, really didn't want to become some hunter's dinner.

Shadowmere walked almost directly behind me. I glance back at him to see him stepping exactly where I has stepped, disguising my footprints with his own. I didn't know how he would have disguised my trail, but that certainly wasn't anything like I had imagined. I thought it was absolutely brilliant though.

I concentrated on moving, hoping I was heading in the right direction and not waltzing directly into a hunter's line of fire.

We walked in silence for what seemed like forever, heading deeper and deeper into the forest. I mostly only knew I was going west and that the Twilight Sepulcher was west of Falkreath itself. I vaguely remembered that there was a fortress of some kind that was inhabited by orcs. There was a mine with orcs living in it somewhere around here too, which made me wonder why they didn't have a stronghold here.

I could tell the sun had moved by the time Shadowmere spoke again, "They are far enough behind that we may speak freely now."

I sighed with relief and stopped, turning to look at the big black horse as he walked a little further to stand beside me. "You're going to have to teach me how you talk without making any animal sounds like you do."

A huff of air that seemed to be a quiet laugh met my statement, "It is a state of mind. It should come to you with time."

I nodded, "It would be handy if something like this happens again." Which it wouldn't if I had anything to do with it. My plan was to find somewhere I could have at least a semi-permanent home, a safe place that could be my home base when I didn't want to move around and travel like Shadowmere suggested.

"You will learn to do so with time. It is not difficult, it is the active practice of doing so that will take time to perfect," Was Shadowmere's response as he took the lead. It could be considered early evening now, but I realized that with the mountains on the west side of Falkreath that it would get darker earlier than I expected and was used to.

"You knew enough of the area to head west?" Shadowmere asked as we walked, still appearing alert as he kept his head up and both ears flicking this way and that to catch sound. His eyes never stopped moving either. I was a little jealous that he made it look so effortless.

I had to concentrate to look, listen, and smell for trouble. Plus talk and answer his questions, while concentrating on not making animals sounds while I talked. I suddenly remembered Barbus, Clavicus Vile's faithful dog, who could talk without moving his mouth. He had actually barked like a normal dog while he talked. That had always struck me as extremely annoying since he would bark in the middle of saying something.

"Yeah," I answered as I stepped over a fallen tree. "I've got a rough map of Skyrim and Cyrodiil in my mind, but it looks different on the ground than on paper." I told him as we walked, "I could eventually probably find my way where ever I want to go, but it feels like the distances are greater."

He snorted, "Does distance not usually look shorter on paper than when walked?"

I blew an annoyed huff of air through my noise at the rhetorical question and didn't answer as we kept walking. I hesitated a moment before breaking the silence after a few minutes of silent travel, "Isn't there a keep with orcs in it somewhere in this direction?"

"I believe so, yes," Shadowmere answered as he angled his course more north according to my new mental compass, "We will be avoiding the keep and its inhabitants."

I rolled my eyes. I had figured that.

We were going uphill steadily now, though I was finding I wasn't having as much trouble as I expected I would with the terrain. It also seemed like my deer instincts were kicking in more and helping me find the easiest, quickest path I needed to take wherever I was walking. That was one feature I wouldn't mind keeping when I was human again.

Thinking of being human again made me think of my family and my friends.

While I was more of a couch potato, my best friend Emily was a go-getter who loved to just go and do. This included going to the gym, which she dragged me to, biking, which I didn't mind too much unless she wanted to go off-road, sports, which I hated, or hiking, which wasn't always horrible. How horrible the hiking was really depended on where she wanted to go.

Emily would have loved it here.

She would have especially loved it if Shadowmere had let her ride him. Emily had always, always wanted a horse. I would almost swear it was her life dream to own a horse… or ten. Emily never did anything by halves, so I could also see her getting a ranch and raising her own horses someday.

Thinking about Emily brought a wave of homesickness crashing down. I was so ready to go home, the last day had been more than enough excitement to last me a lifetime. Maybe two lifetimes. Playing out an adventure on TV in a video game or reading it was totally different that living one.

I would never, ever look at Skyrim the same way again.

We were walking along the edge of a huge rock that capped the whole top of the hill we had just climbed. I paused and tipped my head back briefly to look up at the imposing heights. It was really almost unbelievable how tall the rock was. I looked back and jogged a couple steps to catch back up with Shadowmere.

"Do you come this way much?" I asked Shadowmere, concentrating on not making noise with my mouth. I was thrilled with myself when I discovered that, while I was still moving my mouth, I wasn't making animal noises like before.

"Not often, no," Shadowmere answered as we walked into a thin spot in the trees that continued on to make what I identified as a drastically overgrown path. It was vaguely familiar and I got the feeling that this was the sort-of path that led all the way to the Twilight Sepulcher. I had only ever come this way when I completed the Thieves Guild quest line.

"I do not often find myself inclined to wander," He added on after a few moments of silent walking.

I was not content to walk in silence, so I kept questioning my horsey friend, "Don't you get bored hanging out in that pool of water waiting for Astrid to need a ride?"

I was probably being nosey, but I figured I might as well ask while I could and try to find out all the differences between the game and… Whatever I was in now. I wouldn't quite call it real life since it still didn't really seem real, but it definitely wasn't a dream.

We had been going steadily uphill for a while now and the ground was beginning to flatten out as the rise of the hill tapered off. It felt like we were getting close.

"Sometimes, yes," Shadowmere answered, I mentally sighed when it seemed like I was going to get another short answer. "Time passes differently within the pool. It is almost as if I am asleep, yet I am aware of what is going on around me in the immediate area," He continued, much to my interest. I even sped up a little so I was walking beside him, "It is how I knew you were there."

"And you were curious about the funny looking deer acting crazy in front of the Black Door?" I asked jokingly. The trees had thinned out here and we were almost in a canyon, the rocks and mountains rose up steeply on both sides of us.

I was pleased to note that I almost instantly knew that I could scale either side as well as a mountain goat.

A snort met my attempt at a joke, meaning I had succeeded. "Quite," Shadowmere agreed, "If the hunters had not been nearby, I would have suggested using my pool as you would a mirror," I blinked at him and gave him a puzzled look so he elaborated, "You would know how different you look from the usual deer."

"Oh!" I got it then. I nodded, "I'll look later," I told him. Really, there wasn't a rush if I was going to be stuck here for a while. "You said to only stay here a few days. I'm going to try to think of somewhere else to go while I'm here, hopefully lots of somewhere elses, but I'll stop in and let you know where I'm going next before I leave."

He nodded in reply, "If you do not return, I will assume something ate you."

I made an offended/hurt sound and stopped dead in my tracks, glaring at the back of Shadowmere as he kept walking. He stopped when he realized I had and turned to look at me, then snorted, "That was a joke."

I groaned, the sound different than I would normally make, but it still sounded like a groan. "Not funny," I protested, but I wasn't really mad anymore as I resumed walking. Shadowmere resumed walking once I was beside him, "Because if I don't come and visit again I probably really did get eaten. Whether by another human or by animals would be the question."

A snort, "Being as you are not currently human, the phrase 'another human' is inaccurate."

I groaned again, "Smartypants."

A pause, "Morgan, I am not wearing any pants."

The matter of fact tone mixed with confusion was my undoing. I threw my head back laughed, making the weirdest sound I had yet. It reminded me of a bugle of some sort, which reminded me that elks made a noise called a bugle. I'd seen it on a hunting show my dad was watching once. Except instead of being a long, smooth sound like a elk from my world's was, my rippled like a human's laugh would.

It sounded hilarious.

Which set me off even more, I had to stop walking I was laughing so hard. My rippling bugle of a laugh was bouncing and echoing off the walls of the almost canyon around us, how was I going to explain that figure of speech?

"Morgan!" Shadowmere snapped harshly, "Be silent immediately!"

The angry, harsh tone shut me up immediately mostly because it frightened me. I even took a couple steps away from the suddenly very intimidating, angry looking demonic looking horse in front of me.

"You will give away our location!" It felt like he was yelling at me, yet he hadn't raised his voice in the slightest. I instinctively hunched down, feeling like a scolded child, and looked guiltily away from him. I hadn't meant to laugh so loudly, in hindsight in the wake of getting in trouble, it wasn't even funny anymore.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"Do not apologize to me," Shadowmere snapped as he turned and continued walking down the trail, "It is you who will have to deal with the consequences if trouble is drawn here."

I hesitated, then started walking again. Silently, with probably the length of a horse in between us. I hadn't even thought about noise attracting trouble by my laughter, but I also hadn't expected my laughter to be so loud either. Trouble would likely be in the form of human hunters or predatory animals. I probably wasn't going to be able to risk staying here very long now.

I wasn't sure if I'd be brave enough to go visit Shadowmere before I left either.

Seeing Shadowmere angry had been scary. He had looked more like I had pictured him to look as a demonic horse. Picturing how the angry horse looked, I paid more attention to details I hadn't registered before. His eyes had been a darker, angrily looking red, his mane had been all fluffed up and dancing around him like there was an invisible wind, his teeth had been bared, revealing the fact that not only did Shadowmere have fangs, but that all of his teeth were pointed. It had also seemed to get darker around the black steed, which might have been the scariest part…

Or maybe it was the teeth, I wasn't sure.

To me, pointy teeth meant that he probably ate meat instead of greens. What did that make me if Shadowmere decided he was hungry?

He had said that he didn't need to eat, he just liked doing so. Did that mean he liked hunting for his food? Was it of the animal sort or did he hunt down humans to eat? Or maybe Astrid fed him the bodies of people she and the other assassins killed…

I only barely controlled my urge to shiver at those thoughts.

We continued the rest of the trip in silence.

I wasn't brave enough to break it and he didn't bother. I would have almost been sad if I didn't feel so much like a scolded child. Even if he was a little bit of a patronizing jerk, I liked the horse.

It was almost completely dark by the time we arrived at the Twilight Sepulcher. I kept walking until I stood beside Shadowmere, but I didn't say anything or look at him. I was looking the hidden away building and seeing it with fresh eyes. It was beautiful in the twilight, the sunset having turned the waterfall on the left to liquid, flowing from the fading rays of the sun before turning back to normal on its way down to flow into the pool in front of us.

The sealed, locked door to the temple was a black hole in the lighter colored rock around it. It drew my eye next as I looked around. There were more trees and shrubs than there seemed to have been in the game, along with plenty of grass and flowers that I thought would keep me fed for a couple days at least.

"You should be safe here for a time," Shadowmere broke the silence after several minutes of neither of us speaking, enough time for the sun to have set completely, turning the waterfall back to normal.

"I hope so," I answered, casting a look around before hesitantly looking at him.

He gazed back at me with red eyes that glowed brightly in the darkness and I had to resist the urge to shiver at the image. A black horse in the dark with red eyes, it was like something out of a nightmare. I wasn't truly afraid of him though, I had seen him be gentle. I knew he wasn't evil, at least, my instincts insisted he was not.

"You are afraid of me," He stated after a long moment of us silently staring at each other.

"I am afraid of your anger," I corrected him instantly, surprising myself. I was even more surprised when I thought about it and found it was true.

Shadowmere snorted, "As well you should young doe." He answered and I relaxed, instantly knowing he wasn't angry with me by just that single sentence. "You will tell me when you leave here?"

I nodded, touched at the concerned note I only barely caught in his tone, "Yes, and where I intend to go," I sighed, "Hopefully I'll have some idea on just where that is by then."

Another snort, "Then I must be going," He told me as he turned around to face the way we had come, "I do not believe Astrid had a contract to require my service, but one can never be too careful."

"I'll see you in a few days," I answered with a nod as I turned with him.

Shadowmere returned the nod, "I look forward to it. Wait for me at the top of the ridge above the Sanctuary when the moons reach their highest point, do not journey down to the Door unless you are in danger." He warned.

"Okay," I agreed, "I can do that."

Another nod was given from Shadowmere, then he turned and galloped away into the night. I lost sight of him quickly as he melted into the darkness, but I heard his hoof beats long after I lost sight of him. I stood listening until I couldn't hear anymore, then sighed.

I was all alone with my thoughts now.

It was nearly full dark by then, two poofing sounds behind me had me whirling around, ready to panic. The torch thingies on either side of the door to the Twilight Sepulcher had suddenly lit up with bluish-white fire. I sighed with relief that there was no one there, but I couldn't help but feel unnerved by the stark difference between what had just happened and the game.

In the game, the torches everywhere were always lit with no apparent reason as to why they were lit. I had always found it strange that there were torches lit in the deepest parts of ancient Nord burial crypts where no one had supposedly been for thousands of years. I didn't think the draugr would have been lighting torches and where did the fuel to burn come from?

The two torches here magically lighting themselves with clearly magical fire was almost more believable. Except that thought didn't really make sense since there really shouldn't be real magic in the first place… But I was somehow magically in Skyrim and had magically been turned into a deer so I didn't really have a choice but to believe in magic at the moment.

I sighed again, suddenly tired and more than ready to find an appropriate place to lay down and sleep.

My first thought was to simply lay down in front of the door underneath the outcropping of rock, but my instincts practically screamed against that idea. So that clearly wasn't safe. I looked around the little clearing I was in, but I wasn't really finding a spot my instincts told me was a good place.

I blew an annoyed breath of air through my nose and craned my head back to look at the star lit sky, with two moons in it. That would take some getting used to, since home only had one moon. I stared at the sky for several minutes before the not-quite-a-voice of my instincts started urging me to find a place to sleep.

I gave an aggravated sigh and glanced around again. At the door to the Sepulcher, around the shore of the little pool the stream flowed into, up the stream at the ledge the water was flowing from- That was it.

I took a couple steps forward to get a better look. There looked like there was a decent amount of space around the stream up on the ledge and it was too high and too steep for humans and most animals to get up. My instincts were satisfied too.

Perfect.

But could I make that jump? As soon as I questioned myself, I knew. So I acted. A short sprint beside the stream towards the small waterfall so I had enough time to get momentum and get my feet underneath me just right… I leapt straight up in the air and cleared the ledge with ease in a single bound.

I couldn't help feeling proud of myself. I just jumped, I looked and took a guess, ten feet in the air without breaking a sweat! That was just awesome! I guess being a deer didn't suck completely after all!

That thought froze me in place from my preening where I stood on top of the ledge next to the stream. I wasn't supposed to start liking being a deer. I was going to hate it and deal with it just enough to get by until the day I was able to go home and be human again. I was not allowed to like my enhanced senses, my ability to jump high, or run fast.

No, no, no, and no! Not a bit!

I needed to just stop thinking and go to sleep. I turned my back on the way I had come and looked over the area I had jumped to. It was a small clearing with a few trees and bushes right up next to the rocky side of the mountain that would be a perfect place to lay down in to sleep.

Wiggling into the brush without disturbing it too much to hide my passage, I didn't even have to think about it as I folding my legs underneath me and stretched my neck out on the ground with my head resting on a patch of moss. I was actually pretty comfortable for laying in a bunch of bushes on a pile of dead leaves.

I yawned once and when I closed my eyes I was sound asleep.

I have personal reasons for not updating sooner that I'm not going to discuss. I do apologize for the ridiculously long delay I will try to do better, but I can make no promises right now. I can only say thank you to the people who took the time to read/review my fanfic and having patients with me.