The mountains that kept them slowly flattened out in more inhabitable places. Rabdom seemed excited by the prospect that they were actually going to see people while on their way to the Mage's College. Dolniir could only grimace every time the elf said this or that in his high, squeaky voice. At least it never got too quiet. The Nord was sure that any predators within earshot would turn and flee when they heard Rab. He might have, too, had he not promised to let the elf follow him to Winterhold.
Due to the everlasting winter farther up north, and thus the short days that followed, both were forced to stop for the night early on. Finding a small clearing within the woods off of the road, the two began to set up camp. Dolniir tasked himself with building a fire – he really didn't trust Rabdom with fire – and sent the elf out to find something to eat. Rabdom seemed a little too happy with this task, almost skipping off into the darkness as he pulled his hood over his head.
It'd been at least half an hour and Dolniir had already lit a fire and laid out his bedroll when Rabdom finally returned. Well, if you could call it that. He'd first only heard the crashing of foliage and breaking of sticks, and half rose with his dagger in hand. The crashing continued for well over a few minutes, and it took Dolniir that long to figure out that he heard grunting as well. Dagger still in hand, he picked up a nicely sized stick and stuck it in the flames of the fire. Once it was well lite, the Nord slowly picked his way towards the sound. It wasn't too hard to figure out who was causing all of it.
"By the Nine, Rab!" Dolniir cursed when the light finally shone on the elf. "A whole army would hear you approaching from a mile away!" The elf could only smile sheepishly.
Behind him, Dolniir quickly noted, as he got closer, the Dunmer dragged a large elk – how'd he manage to drag that thing? – by the antlers, and around his belt hung three hares. When Rabdom went hunting, he sure made sure to get enough for everyone, didn't he? Dolniir could only scowl; sheathing his dagger, he grabbed the one of the antlers and attempted to aid the elf in dragging his kill back to 'camp'.
"There's a lot of game here," Rabdom squeaked as they walked. "They sure aren't smart; they don't listen for me like some of the other game I hunt does!"
"Hm, and what would that be?" Dolniir asked, trying not to trip on his own feet [or drop the 'torch']. Might as well try and amuse the elf now so he wouldn't try to overcome him with words later.
"It depends!" Rabdom gave a hard a tug as he could when the elk felt like it was lagging. That caused him to stumble, and Dolniir was almost worried that he was going to fall over if he tried that again. Almost. "Sometimes, when I'm in Whiterun, I get moose, and elk, and deer; even foxes and wolves! I tried to kill a mammoth once, but that didn't blow over so well."
Dolniir snorted at that. Rabdom, who looked sickly and barely able to carry his own armor, taking on a mammoth? He hardly looked like he could take on an elk. But then again, he seemed to have proved him wrong already.
"I sometimes hunt cave bears and saber cats," Rabdom went on, "but that's only if they're a pest or something. Sometimes I hunt for Skeevers, too, and Frostbite Spiders. Draugr are the hardest, though. They're smarter than the animals; I guess because they're dead!" Dolniir almost stumbled at that. It was lucky they were nearing the light of camp.
"You hunt Draugrs for a living?" Dolniir asked.
"Sometimes," Rabdom nodded, "but usually I -"
Instantly Rabdom silenced and stopped in his tracks. Crouching down, the elf turned towards their destination and leaned forward; seeming to listen carefully. It only took a few seconds to realize what Rabdom had been hearing: up ahead, there came a ruckus of noise and movement and overall yelling. Dropping the elk and leaving Rabdom behind, Dolniir rushed back to the camp nearby.
He'd just stumbled in when laughter erupted. "Well, what do we have here?" asked what he assumed to be a Redgaurd, dropping Rabdom's satchel where the elf had left it earlier. "Don't tell me, these are your things?"
Dolniir's eyes darted around, half in worry, to the figures that invaded their camp. There were six in all; two nords – a man and a woman – along with the Redgaurd, as well as two elves and an Orc. The elves were happily looking through the rest of their things, while the others seemed happy to approach the Nord. What a fair fight this was.
"Yes," Dolniir replied, shifting on his feet wearily, "and I'd appreciate if you'd return them where you found them."
"Or else you'll what?" the Redgaurd mocked. "You do realize how many more of us there are then you, right?"
"Yes, but I -" Dolniir stopped mid-sentence as a flash out of corner of his eye caught his attention. One of the elves had managed to find his satchel, crouching down beside it, and upon opening it, pulled out the gem he had worked so hard to find.
"Look what we have here," the elf mused. "This seems valuable, wouldn't you say?"
"I'd suggest you'd put that down," Dolniir warned, anger rising in his voice as he turned towards the elf. "You don't know what power it holds."
Inquisitively looking the gem over, the elf muttered, "Power, eh? You can't seem to get enough of that now a days."
"Put. It. Down."
The Redguard cackled at this. "As I've said before, there's six of us and one of you," he said, arms crossed. "What do you plan on doing about it?"
Dolniir's torch barely had time to hit the ground.
In an instant, his battleax was drawn and the fire spit out shards of burning wood; the Redgaurd's head slowly cooking in the fire. Not a split second later, and before another weapon could be drawn, an ebony arrow sprouted out of the Orc's shoulder. The man barely had time to cry out and draw his dagger before another pierced his skull. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Finally the rest of the company seemed to realize what was happening; the elf with the gem stood and stumbled backwards as her companions drew their weapons. Dolniir made a quick glance around – Rabdom was nowhere in sight. Just when he was about to curse the elf for abandoning him, another arrow whizzed into camp; logging itself in a tree, right above the elf women's head as she attempted to flee. This time, it came from a different angle. Well, at least the damned Dunmer could move faster without dragging some accursed beast or machine behind him.
In an instant, the two Nords charged at him. Dolniir easily dodged one attack, and parried the other. The woman stumbled, and with another dodge from the man's weapon, the woman was easily slain. If he chopped off any more heads, he might as well start putting them on stakes. An arrow whizzed past his own head, and it took Dolniir a moment to realize that the second elf had brandished an arrow. The Nordic man opposing him raised his Warhammer with a battle cry – and then stumbled as an arrow suddenly protruded from his side.
The elf with the gem – of whom had hid it somewhere in order to brandish her magic skills – watched wearily from the edge of camp. Dolniir tried his best not to simply rush past the Nord and gut her like a pig. Instead, while his opponent was temporarily fazed, he brought his battleax down on his shoulder. The man fell instantly. Just as the archer went to shoot him, his readied arrow let loose of its own accord and lodged into a tree nearby. Dropping his own bow, the elf fell forward and flat onto his face; three arrows sticking out of his back. Dolniir expected to see Rabdom standing not too far behind the elf, however strangely enough; there was no one to be found. But that was not what fueled his anger.
Turning, Dolniir glared at the mage, who was readying a fireball and looking anxiously from the Nord to the darkness that surrounded them. Fully aware that she probably wasn't going to leave the clearing alive, Dolniir said, "You want to cooperate and hand that gem over now?" The women forced out a laugh.
"Over my dead body!" she said. Dolniir smiled.
"That can be arranged."
On cue, an arrow whizzed into camp, lodging itself into a tree. It wasn't even a few inches from the women's head. The women jumped and faltered; the fireball went cascading into the darkness and dispersed against a tree or a rock. Dolniir could have sworn he saw movement in the few seconds that the light had given them in the forest. The women turned and readied another fireball – and found herself with a dagger in the stomach. The women trembled and fell to her knees as Dolniir pulled the dagger out. An arrow – from behind the women this time – propelled her forward. If the stab to the stomach hadn't killed her, then surely the arrow had.
Dolniir frowned and sheathed his dagger. From where the arrow had almost magically appeared, there came a ruckus of crunching leaves and breaking sticks. Rabdom emerged, bow still in hand and a lopsided grin on his face as he examined the mess around camp. He seemed a little too happy about all the blood and gore.
"Looks like we showed them, huh?" the Dunmer squeaked as he sheathed his bow. Dolniir could only grunt.
Looking back to make sure that his battleax was still where he dropped it – or maybe it was to make sure that there was no other enemies around – Dolniir stepped forward and, squatting down, began rummaging through the fallen elf's belongings. He found his prize quite easily; and, thankfully, it didn't seem tampered with or broken. Pocketing it, Dolniir sighed and looked up. Rabdom had already began retrieving his arrows from those that he had shot, and had even seeming to be looting them for various amounts of gold and gems. He seemed to pick something from the bandit's leader that looked important, however after looking it over, the elf gave a squeak and pocketed it. Must have been a treasure map or something.
"You hunt animals and Drauger, hm?" Dolniir asked as he carefully picked out the arrow protruding from the elves' back. "You killed these bandits as if they were one of your elk." Rabdom smiled sheepishly.
"Well, they're almost the same," Rabdom assured, carefully picking a golden necklace from one of the corpses. "Everything's just placed differently, if you think about it hard enough." Dolniir raised an eyebrow at that. He didn't feel like asking the elf any more questions; he wasn't sure if he even wanted to know. So he stood instead.
"We should probably get out of here before the wolves or saber cats show up," Dolniir said as he went to retrieve his ax. "I don't feel like fighting for my life for a second time tonight."
"Aw," whined Rabdom, frame going slack akin to that of a pouting child. "But what about eating dinner? And what about the elk I brought?"
"You can always hunt another," Dolniir assured as he returned his weapon back where it belonged. "Besides, we always have the rabbits."
Rabdom looked down to his belt. Dolniir was actually surprised that he still had them. And that they weren't mangled from all the movement he'd been doing. Finally, Rabdom sighed.
"Okay, I guess," he mumbled, bowing his head and shuffling to the Nord. Dolniir could only sigh and shake his head.
After handing the elf his arrow, the two worked quickly to retrieve anything they had yet to pick up and put out the fire. It was rather dark now, clouds passing over the moon in abundance and obscuring their view from it. This didn't seem to affect Rabdom as much as it did Dolniir. The Nord kept tripping on things on their way back to the main road, and a few times Rabdom easily pointed out things in front of him that would easily cause him to fall.
The road was much easier to walk on once they actually got to it. Rabdom was happily humming some sort of tune, one that Dolniir didn't recognize. He let him be; better to let him do that then pestering him with his own mumblings. He had more important things to think about, anyways.
The sun was slowly coming over the horizon when Dolniir finally decided that that they should rest. Snow slowly fell from white, puffy clouds overhead. The air was clean but cold and it stung at both of the men's faces. The ground was frozen from the cold, and it wouldn't have been surprising if snow blanketed the ground by that evening.
Rabdom actually seemed quite tired from their trek, and for that, Dolniir was thankful. Dolniir again build a fire while Rabdom carefully skinned the rabbits. The Nord was surprised that he didn't accidently cut himself. They ate in mild silence, Rabdom only taking one rabbit for himself. Again, this seemed to surprise the Nord. The Dunmer was so thin and frail looking, that often it looked like he would simply fall over if a small gust of wind trickled past him. There seemed nothing visibly wrong with him – aside from the scars on the right side of his face – and he didn't show any signs of being sick, nor did he show signs of being a vampire.
"Are you alright?"
The squeak made Dolniir jump. Looking up from his 'meal', Dolniir found Rabdom now squatting on the log he'd once been sitting on. His head was cocked like a confused puppy, and he actually seemed worried. Dolniir frowned.
"Yes, I was just thinking," Dolniir replied after another moment of silence.
"About what?" Dolniir almost groaned at that question.
"About stopping by Windhelm on our way to Winterhold," Dolniir replied. Alright, so that was only half truth. "I've some business there, and we're probably only a few miles away. But," Dolniir made a face, "I suppose an elf like you wouldn't take to going there too well, hm?"
"I actually kind of like it there!" Rabdom squeaked happily. "I have a friend there, too! He's really nice."
"You have friends in Windhelm?" Now this made Dolniir curious. Rabdom nodded happily.
"Yeah, and I'm sure you'll really like him, too!"
Rabdom seemed over joyed at the thought of Dolniir meeting one of his friends. Dolniir physically winced; what a lovely trip this is turning out to be.