I gazed across the vast lake, Markarth was visible just in the distance.
"So what exactly are we looking for?" Marcurio asked, his eyes scanning the lake the same as mine were. It seemed relatively peaceful, no walking rocks were visible and there wasn't a person in sight.
"Over there," I spotted a small wooden shack across the water, "maybe somebody who lives there can tell us what's going on."
We marched around the perimeter of the lake, trying to keep our boots dry as we did so. The unbroken silence made me uncomfortable, my companion took notice.
"Is something the matter?"
"No," I replied, keeping my eyes on the water, "It's just...where I'm from silence either means it's safe or someone is watching you," I turned to look at him, "I'm more inclined to think someone is watching."
"Pessimistic much?"
"Oh, like you're one to talk." We were only a few yards from the shack, "besides, isn't this place supposed to be crawling with golems?"
Marcurio shrugged, I walked to the front door of the shack and knocked.
"Over here!" shouted a voice, we followed it to the side of the house. A elderly man planting potatoes waved as we walked into his garden.
"Hello there friends!" he said, obviously very excited to have visitors, "have you come to try some of my renowned potatoes!"
"No, we're here about the golems." Marcurio responded, disappointment washed across the old man's face.
"Oh yes, yes of course." he muttered something else under his breathe before enthusiasm returned "Oh! My friend! I have forgotten introductions! I am David, the best potato farmer in all of Skyrim!"
"We're working for the Companions and investigating the appearance of golems in this area." I said, "Can you tell us anything about them?"
"Yes of course! Please come inside and share some delicious potato soup with me and I'll tell you everything I know!"
The farmer waved us inside the small shack, he welcomed us to sit as he poured us soup.
"So, the golems?" Marcurio asked again, ignoring the bowl of soup on the counter. He threw me a dirty look as I happily stuffed my face.
"What?" I swallowed, "It's good."
"Yes, yes, the golems the golems." David muttered more things that I could not hear, "they're very tall, and rocky, and walk all over my potatoes!"
Marcurio was growing impatient, "Anything else?"
"Yes, yes, they only come out at night. Gave me a good scare a few times."
"Did they attack you?" I asked between chews. The old man shook his head.
"Nah, I kept quiet when they come 'round here," he poured me another bowl, " They don't notice me one bit, not that make myself obvious."
"Well, I guess we're camping out until the sun sets," I said, "thank you for your time David."
"But wait! Don't you want to buy any potatoes?!"
"No," Marcurio said bluntly, "Goodbye."
As we got up to leave I mouthed the words "Sorry" to the farmer and followed Marcurio out the door.
"The sun is close to setting now so it's only a matter of time before we should see the golems." he said, watching the sun sink lower into the sky.
"Lets find a place to sit with a good view of the water."
We found a small hill along the edge of the lake that gave us a pretty fair view of our surroundings. While waiting on the grass, I examined the bow I had picked up on my way out of Whiterun. It was simple, no better than the one Aela had given to me on my first quest. The arrows weren't any nicer, just good enough to pierce someones heart.
"How long have you been doing archery?" Marcurio watched me as I plucked at the bow string. I put it on the ground next to me and picked at the grass.
"As long as I could hold a bow, my mother taught me."
"You see your mother often?"
"No, she died a while ago."
"What about your dad?"
"Dead."
"I'm sorry."
I snorted "Don't be, you didn't kill them. You have any family?"
He looked at the setting sun, the colors set the sky on fire. "Not really. My mother died in child birth and my dad is the biggest ass I've ever known."
"That's definitely saying something given the amount of asses we encounter on a daily basis."
"Yeah," he smiled, "it's rare to find nice people in this world."
"You're not bad."
"Well," he laughed, "That's one person I fooled."
I took a long breath and watched the sunset come to an end. I noticed him studying my face as I watched the night fall, no doubtedly wondering about the unnatural color of my eyes or the awkward pointyness of my ears.
"You know..." he started to speak, but I quickly cut him off.
"Shhh, did you here that?" I popped up from the ground, combing the surface of the lake. Near dead center of the lake emerged a giant rocky figure. We watched silently from the hill as golem after golem spread through the water.
"Even with my skill there's now way we can take that many." Marcurio commented, I nodded in agreement. Even if he had the skills he though he did we would be no match.
"You think we can sneak in?"
"Maybe, but we'd be going in blind. Who knows what's under there?"
We waited a couple minutes for the golems to spread away from their entry point and made our way down to the water's edge.
"I'll have you know that these robes were hand crafted.."
"Oh shut up, I'll buy you new ones."
"With what money?" he muttered, I shushed him.
The water was cold and difficult to move in. Even with my light armor I had trouble keeping afloat. Not far off I could see a golem swimming towards the shore. Interesting how they didn't sink like normal rocks. My mind wandered, thinking about what the golems could be made of and how they walked without bones or muscles. Did a spirit posses every individual golem? Or maybe they controlled one golem that told the other golems what to do. I waded around the point where the golems had risen from and waited for Marcurio to catch up.
"So, what now?" he whispered as he swam closer.
"Now we.." I was stopped by water filling my mouth. Something had grabbed hold of my ankle and was yanking me down. The inky blackness of the water limited my eyesight and my range of motion was close to nothing. All I could do was wave my arms helplessly and kick. I hadn't gotten a sufficient amount of air in my lungs before being pulled under and my chest ached for oxygen. I attempted to struggle more, but my body didn't respond. Despite my efforts, my eyes snapped shut and my mind blanked out.
"get up" said a quiet voice, a gentle nudge followed it. I went to open my mouth but only water spewed from it. I coughed.
"I said get up." the voice was firmer and louder and the nudge turned into a constant shake. I coughed some more.
"If you don't get up right now I swear to Talos I will never forgive you for leaving me alone in this dingy cave!" the voice sounded angry and concerned at the same time. I could feel hands on my shoulders shaking me violently back and forth. I coughed several more times, water flushed out of my lungs and splattered on the cave floor. I tried to replace the water with air, but that resulted in a weak breath followed by more gagging and coughing. I gripped at my burning throat and grabbed onto Marcurios shoulder to pull myself upright.
"Are you alive?"
"I think so." I croaked, he helped me up to my feet.
"Here's your bow," he handed me my weapon, "you should really keep better track of your things."
"Thanks, now what the hell is going on?" I took in my surroundings. The cave was dark and winding with a low ceiling. Two golems where standing motionless by a pool of water placed at the entrance of the cave, only a dark path was at the other end. Marcurio waited as my brian sorted out our situation.
"A golem dragged you under the water, a second later one pulled me under too." he ruffled some water out of his hair, "I was ready to take out the both of them when I surfaced but they just stood there like statues."
"Strange." I wrung the water out of my braid as I walked over to the golems. I ran my fingers over its cold stony face, no reaction. It appeared as though it hadn't ever moved, like it was only ever a statue guarding a pool of water. "Why did they bring us here?"
"I don't know, but I guess we'll find out soon enough."
author's note- hello my lovely readers! I just wanted to apologize for taking forever to write the next chapters of this story. I can't promise that it'll be consistent, but I'm gonna try my best to keep updating this. I love hearing ideas for the story so if you have an adventure you want Victoria and Marcurio to go on let me know in the comments. :) Also, I love including my friends and other people's characters in my stories so if you want to be part of it or you want your character to be give me a brief description of appearance and personality and I'd be happy to add them. ~Stay geeky
