Day Fourteen Part Two

I kept us going at a brisk pace and we soon came to a river where I decide to follow along the bank. Up ahead I saw a cabin and I could hear a the growls of a bear nearby. I spotted the bear poking his nose out of the cabin. With not much cover around, I decided we should cross the river, since our route did not go exactly towards the cabin anyway and the water was low there. Lydia did not argue. She knew bears could hit almost as hard as trolls, if not more. On the other side we followed the road, keeping an eye behind us in case the bear decided to follow. That was why we did not see the bear that was lying in the road in front of us until we were already upon it.

The brown bear had our scent and was standing up on his hind legs. There was no avoiding this one. I managed to get one arrow loose before he closed the distance. Lydia summoned one of her spectral wolves then laid into it with a sword, her staff in her other hand. I had forgotten she still had a sword as a backup weapon. I got one powerful slice at the bear's shoulder and he reeled back slightly but then one of his claws connected with my arm and it went numb instantly. I ran back and the bear took out Lydia's familiar with a single swipe. It then went after Lydia. I quickly healed while Lydia dodged and got in a good shot at the bear's exposed side. The bear reared up again and caught Lydia off guard with two slashes from his claws. She went down on one knee and the bear must have taken her for dead. He charged at me again. This time, I was ready for him.

I moved to the right just enough then used my full force shout on him. Despite his ponderous weight, the bear sailed into the air and tumbled over the low rocks on the edge of the road. I ran over and looked down the side to see him roll into the river below. After a moment, he seemed to recover but then he was struggling against the current as well. That gave us enough time to be gone. I helped Lydia up and applied my healing magic to the gaping claw marks, sealing them and restoring some of her energy.

"How was that for planning, this time?" I asked.

"That worked out well, of course it would have been nice if you had done that before he nearly took my head off. We'll work on your timing next, Dragonborn."

Lydia started to walk away then noticed I was not following and stopped. "Problem?"

"I get us out of that bear trap and you're still not happy," I said, "There's just no pleasing you, is there?"

"I wouldn't say that, Ralos. Perhaps you'll get your chance after all.

Coming...along, that is?"

I watched Lydia walk on up the road, not unappreciatively, mind you. But now, I was even more confused.

The weather held so the walk was pleasant. We did not encounter anything of interest until we were crossing a bridge by a raging waterfall and I noticed someone trapped by a fallen tree on the side. After some deft rock climbing, I reached the man but he had already perished, and judging by the smell, a while ago. I helped myself to the scattering of possessions he left behind. I found two books of interest. The first was titled 'Rislav the Righteous' which demonstrated how best to layer light armor for a better fit. The other was even more interesting, 'The Lusty Argonian Maid Vol.1'. This ought to make for an entertaining read along the road. Perhaps Lydia would enjoy it as well, though I doubted as much. I also found a small idol in the corner, a shrine to Dibella. I touched the stone and a feeling of eloquence came over me. Hopefully it would last by the time I got to a trader and sold some of my extra crap.

A little further down the road things started to look familiar and then I saw Valtheim Keep and I knew I was getting close to Whiterun. I walked past the bridge towers and I almost wished there were still bandits there so I could shout them off into the river. I started laughing to myself thinking about it and Lydia looked at me strangely as if wondering if the pressure was getting to me. I let her wonder.

Just before we topped another hill, I saw magic being used off to my right amongst a ring of stones. Evil laughter filtered down and I wanted to go and investigate to see if I could rid this area of more creatures of darkness. I decided against it but jotted it down on my map to check later. We continued along the road until some hooligans started raining catcalls down to Lydia from a rocky ledge. She answered back with references to their mothers' questionable hygiene, which I don't think they expected, then started shouting threats.

"Can we?" she asked.

It was getting close to dark but how could I refuse such lovely eyes filled with bloodlust? "Why not? Perhaps I'll get some more loot to sell."

We followed the path leading up to them. The first one, the loudest, charged with a warhammer ready to strike but he missed wildly and paid for his overswing. Lydia knocked him back and I finished him off by running him through with my sword. The other bandit tried picking us off with a bow but only managed to anger Lydia further. She killed him before I could even reach her to help.

"Hey look, a cave," she said. "Wonder what's inside."

I finished checking their bodies and a nearby chest, but did not find much of interest. "Might be more bandits."

"Might be more loot. Still saving for your rise to power, aren't you?"

"Let's go get them, then," I said, leading the way.

Inside the cave I first ran into an old man sitting at a table. I readied my bow but he spoke first. I could never get the hang of sneaking around.

"Who's that? Rodulf, is it you?"

Lydia whispered in my ear, "He must be blind. Let's just go around him."

Her whispering sent an unexpected shiver through me that was hard to ignore. I forced myself to focus on the old man. Blind or not, he could still raise an alarm.

"Yes," I said, "It is just me, Rodulf."

Even in the dark I could see Lydia mouth, "Are you stupid?"

"Better go see the boss at the top of the mountain quickly," the old man said, "He's in a foul mood for sure."

I did not risk saying anything else and we just slipped past him, though he did perk his head up for a moment.

"You're smelling a little sweet today, Rodulf? Been rolling around with the boss' woman again?" He cackled until he coughed.

We moved on as quietly as possible.

Three more bandits succumbed to our thorough cleansing process. A dresser nearby yielded a fine set of clothes that I packed up to take with me. A bit further and I could overhear an orc talking about training wolves like dogs. I decided to put him to the test and pulled a chain that I saw would release his nearby caged wolf. While the orc and another bandit were busy fighting off the wolf, I noticed two bandits with bows watching from a ledge. Lydia and I took them out with just a few well placed shafts to their chests. The wolf took care of the orc and his partner but then turned on us on his way out. That was gratitude for you. We threw its corpse on the pile and moved on after a quick search. The uphill trail lead to a tunnel that opened to the outdoors.

I spotted their boss sitting with his back to us staring out over the side of the mountain. Even better. I tried exceptionally hard to creep as close as possible then fired two arrows in quick succession. Lydia conjured a wolf familiar and it dashed forward towards to bandit. I stuck two more flaming arrows into him before he was able to take out the wolf. I rushed in with my greatsword and after blocking his first strike, bashed him in the face and hit him with first a power stroke to his head then a slash across the throat. He fell sideways, his body lying across the railing, his blood draining down the mountainside like crimson spring runoff.

It turned out this bandit was highly successful, most likely due to his formidable hideout. I found on him a nice pair of gauntlets that I swore made me stronger just by wearing them. In a chest, Lydia found an iron battleaxe with a green glow to it. Touching it gave me an odd sensation of my stamina being drained. I took it to sell. Lydia found another staff for conjuring familiars which was good since she claimed her other one was nearly empty of power. We packed up whatever else we could, including a nice sum of gold, and left the way we came.

On the way out I told the old man the boss said he could have the rest of the night off.

"Hajvarr said that?" he asked. "He must be drunk. No sense wasting it. Thank you, Rodulf. May your next woman smell as sweet as you do now."

We left him cackling and coughing some more.

Arriving at Whiterun, I could not help but look for the Khajiit caravan that was sometimes set up outside. But they were not there and I reminded myself I had agreed to fight this thing. Inside the city, I went to Adrienne's first, then to Belethor's. On the way to the general merchant I overheard two guards already talking about a dragon at Kynesgrove. How in Tamriel did they already know about it? I sensed magework afoot. Night was coming quickly and I could feel my muscles beginning to tighten and twitch from my need for skooma. We finished at Belethor's quickly then stopped at the inn for dinner. I was tempted to ask Lydia for a bottle of skooma to tide me over. I was sure with the right tone and a little of my dry wit, she would hand over one, maybe even all of them. But then I wondered how many she actually had. If I used one now, what if I needed one in the morning when the cravings were the worst? We sat down at a table. No, I would be patient.

"Three ales!" I called out to Saadia, the server. She flinched but then ran like a rabbit being chased.

Lydia looked scornfully at me.

"What?" I asked innocently.