Mutants Misplaced
Chapter 8
An Average Day In Whiterun
The seven mutants sat in the inn, the Bannered Mare, and had managed to finally get some food, not having eaten anything for nearly a whole day, and having to fight both bandits and the undead, had left them very hungry. The food was simple, grilled chicken, bread, cheese, apples and some ale made up their meal, sure it had cost them all gold they found on the bandits, but it was worth it.
People had looked at them as they had walked to the inn, but didn't seem to care about the reptiles appearance, even if Tyroth's wings drew some attention at first. Hulda, the woman that owned the inn, on the other hand, simply welcomed them as any other guest and seemed like a very nice person, offering them a table.
"Ah... that hit the spot." said Mikey, after swallowing the last piece of chicken.
"It sure did, but we can't afford these prices for very long, not with the small amount of gold we have, and we still need supplies if we're have to travel the countryside." said Leo.
"So what should we do then? Get part time jobs?" asked Raph.
"That's not gonna be easy, I mean, what can we do besides fighting that the people might need help with?" said Sephie.
"Not that much, I'm afraid." said Donnie.
Suddenly the door opened violently and a large, green skinned humanoid walked in, dressed in a leather loincloth, a pair of fur boots and metal gauntlets. Numerous scars showed on his bare muscular chest and he had two axes hanging from his belt.
"An orc?" Mona whispered.
"Why not, we've already seen elves and undead, so why not an orc as well." said Raph.
"Wonder if we'll see any dwarves or trolls." said Mikey.
The orc had walked over to the bar counter and slammed his fist onto it.
"Mead!" he demanded. But Hulda seemed unfazed by his lack of manners, and simply gave him a bottle of mead. Much to the mutants surprise, the orc actually paid for his drink. Looking around the hall, the orc soon spotted the mutants.
"Well, what do we have here? New meat, huh?"
"Leave them be, Gularg. They're just travelers that want to rest a bit." Hulda said to the orc, but he didn't listen. Instead he walked over to the reptiles.
"You all look like capable fighters, especially the big guy with wings." he said "But I bet that I can take you. So what do you say to real fight? Let's see who's the stronger one!"
"Not interested." Tyroth said. He didn't want to cause any trouble.
"Oh yeah? Well if pride isn't something to fight for, how about gold? The winner gets one hundred gold from the looser."
"Hey, he said we're not interested." said Leo.
"Playing hard to get, huh? Fine. Five hundred gold it is then."
"Come on, we don't even have that much money. Just leave us alone, please." said Mona.
"So you're poor, huh? Well, I'm not leaving without a fight, so I'll put up five hundred septims, and I'm pretty sure that that sword of yours is worth at least that much." Gularg said pointing at Ryujin, Tyroth's trusted blade. "My gold and your sword, winner takes it all."
Tyroth took a sturdy grip around the handle of his sword, he would not loose it to someone else, but they needed the money and he knew that he was strong. Thinking about it for a moment, he stood up and placed his sword on the table.
"You got yourself a deal," he said, much to the shock of his friends, "but you will pay for any damage caused to the inn. Understood?"
"Ha! You won't last long enough for anything to get damaged!"
"Are you sure about this?" Leo asked.
"We need the money, and I ain't loosing to this braggart."
"The rules are simple, we fight with fists only, no weapons and no fancy magic either. First to go down, lose."
'That's gonna make it more challenging.' Tyroth thought to himself. Before he got to do anything else, Gularg punched him in the face, still wearing the gauntlets.
Shaking off the shock, Tyroth blocked another punch and snarled as he landed his own punch in the face of the orc, hitting him hard and sending him into one of the pillars in the room. Ready for another attack, Tyroth relaxed when Gularg collapsed on the floor.
"Are you okay?" Sephie asked, walking up to her mate.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"What a cheater! No warning and not even removing the gauntlets. That's just plain dirty." said Raph. "Good thing that you floored him."
"Yeah, you knocked him out cold. Do you think he'll remember that he owes us money?" Mikey asked.
"I hope so, otherwise I'll have to beat him up again."
"Oh, he'll remember." said Hulda from the counter, "Gularg isn't known for fair fights, but he always honors his word. If he loses a bet or fight, he will pay up."
"Is he always like this?" Leo asked.
"I'm afraid so. He has some form of desire to prove that he's the strongest warrior there is, even though he isn't. He's lost fights a few times before, but I'll admit that's rare."
"Ugh... By Shor, what happened?" Gularg asked as he came to. Trying to get up, Tyroth took a strong grip on his shoulder and pulled the orc up to eye level.
"I beat you, that's what happened. That cheap stunt you pulled, don't do it again, or you won't be getting back up the next time."
Having said that, Tyroth released Gularg. The orc rubbed his face where he had been hit, then he started laughing.
"Hahaha! You're something else, being able take such a punch and take me down that easily. I admire your sense of fairness, but you'll find that not every one fights fair in these lands. Survival is the only thing that matters in a fight."
Reaching for his belt, Gularg grabbed a pouch and tossed it to Tyroth.
"Here, five hundred septims, just like we said. Spend them well."
Gularg then walked out of the inn, saying something to himself about getting a helmet.
"What a strange dude. Well, at least we have a way to make money now." said Mikey.
"Forget it, Mikey. Once is enough." said Tyroth.
"But why? You can beat anyone in a fistfight."
"Tyroth's right. Even though the people are indifferent towards our appearance, we should still try and keep a low profile." said Leo
"I think I'll go and see this Farengar fellow and see if he has anything for us yet, and you're coming with me, Mikey." said Tyroth.
"Wait, what?"
"You're the one that saw the necklace, you know how it looks and that could be vital to figuring out a way back home."
"Great, then we're stuck." Raph sighed.
"While you do that, we'll check around town for a while, see what we might need. We'll meet up here again once we're done." said Leo.
Said and done, the mutants split up with Tyroth and a reluctant Mikey heading back to Dragonsreach. Leo, Donnie and Sephie headed to Arcadia's Cauldron to see about medicines, in case they would need them, while Raph and Mona went to the general goods store. Leo and Raph both took half of the money they had, in case they had to buy something important.
Entering the Cauldron, the trio saw the same kind of chemistry table they saw back in the tomb, there were shelves on the walls with bottles and jars containing differently colored liquids as well as herbs, dried insects and other things that was probably used for medicine or the like. In the middle of the room, across from the counter, was a small fire pit, the fire spread a warm glow in the shop.
"Hello, you're those newcomers everyone's been talking about, right?" asked a woman in her late thirties with shoulder long black hair. The three reptiles assumed that she was Arcadia.
"Yes, that's us." said Donnie. "We was wondering if you could help us. We found these liquids earlier, and we're not sure what they are, the labels aren't readable anymore."
"You've come to the right place. Let me have a look at them." Arcadia said.
Giving her the bottles, the three reptiles watched as she preformed a few tests on the contents. Pouring up a tiny amount of each in bowl, she added a pinch of some form of dust to each. When nothing seemed to happen, she, just like Tyroth, rubbed a drop between her fingers, smelled and tasted the liquids.
"Well?" Sephie asked.
"There's nothing to worry about, these are medicines." Arcadia started. "The green ones are potions of stamina, warriors and hunters often use these to regain their endurance after or even during fights and hunts."
"So a form of energy drink, then. Just like Tyroth guessed." said Leo.
"In a sense, yes. The red ones are something almost everyone carry, especially out on the road. They're healing potions, they'll help heal cuts, broken bones and pretty much anything else, very handy to have. They do not, however, work against diseases or poisons but they will help heal the damage caused by such things."
"Good to know, now it will be easier to plan for any trips we may have to make." said Leo. "Do you have any suggestions on what diseases we should be careful with?"
"All of them, not many are lethal, but in the wilds of Skyrim you have to be at your best. I have something that I think you'll appreciate."
Picking out a few bottles with pink liquid from the shelves behind the counter, Arcadia then placed them on the counter for the mutants to see.
"What are those?" Sephie asked.
"Anti-disease potions. All diseases have something in common and these potions will work against those few similarities. With so many different diseases, it's almost impossible to have the right medicine at hand, so these were made instead. Same thing with antidotes."
"A universal medicine? That's something I've never seen before." said Donnie.
"It's very practical, but it doesn't work as fast as specific medicines would against their specific disease, it will still take about an hour or so before you're cured."
"An hour?! Not even our strongest medicines can cure someone that fast." said Donnie.
"They sound very useful. We should get a few, just in case. How much do they cost?" Sephie asked.
"Ninety five septims a bottle."
"That's expensive, but understandable." said Leo "We'll take two, just to be on the safe side."
As he handed over almost half of the gold he carried with him, he hoped that Raph and Mona wouldn't spend too much of their half.
'Maybe Mikey's idea wasn't that bad after all. If this continues, we'll be broke in no time at all.' he thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Raph and Mona entered the general goods store. The walls were almost covered in shelves and there were a few tables positioned in the large room, all filled with various things, just like the counter. There were weapons, pieces of armor, vegetables, books, bottles with colored liquids, jewelry, plates, mugs and even a few human skulls and one very bestial larger skull.
"Ah, welcome, welcome to Belethor's General Goods Store!" said the man behind the counter. He had short black hair with sideburns and seemed quite happy.
"You got a lot of stuff here." said Raph.
"I'll buy and sell just about everything. I'd even buy one of your relatives, if you're looking to sell!"
A thought crossed Raph's mind and an evil smile grew on his face.
"Honey, don't!" Mona said. Catching on what her lover was thinking.
"Uhm... that's just a little joke." said Belethor, but Mona doubted that. "So, are you looking for something particular?"
"Just browsing. We may be leaving town soon and we wanted to know what kind of supplies you might have." said Mona.
"Sure, just give a holler if you find anything you like and I'm sure we can work out a deal."
Looking around a bit, Mona read a few pages from a couple of books, hoping to find something that maybe could help them understand this world a bit better, while Raph examined a sword in a display case.
Putting back the books where she found them, Mona continued to look around and spotted something in a corner of the room. A pair of backpacks.
'Those could be useful' she thought 'It will be better than that improvised bag we have.'
"Excuse me, what does these cost?" Mona asked, picking up and showing two backpacks.
"The knapsacks? A mere three hundred and fourteen gold a piece and those fine examples of good craftsmanship will be yours."
"Three hundred and fourteen!? For some moth-eaten backpacks?! That's highway robbery!" Raph yelled.
"If you don't have the gold, then there's no deal. Easy as that."
"Can't you at least go down a bit?" Mona asked.
"Lady, I'm not in business for charity, I'm in business for business."
"Well then, how about another deal? We're from a place most people haven't even heard about, we're sure to have things back home that are exotic and valuable to you. If you give us a better prize for these, I'll see if I can't pull a few strings when we get back home and have our merchants supply you with our wares for a fair prize."
"Hmm, I like the sound of that."
"So what do you say?"
"Alright, I'll knock down the prize a bit. The new price is two hundred septims a piece."
"Are you sure that you can't go lower, like one hundred and fifty?"
"That's too low for me, I still need to make a profit. I can stretch to one hundred and ninety."
"Still too much for us, how about one hundred and sixty?"
"You're really pressing it. I can't go much lower than one hundred and eighty. Any lower and I'll lose more money than I make."
"I was hoping that you could go down to one hundred and seventy, but how about if we meet in the middle?"
"One hundred and seventy five? Hmm, fine, that will do. Sure hope that I'll get more out of this deal later."
"Thank you, you won't regret it. Now we just have to, find our way back home."
Walking out of the shop with their new backpacks, Raph and Mona were now broke. They had entered the shop with three hundred and fifty septims, and now, they had nothing left.
"I can't believe how expensive things are. We so must find a way to make more money." said Mona.
"Yeah, but at least we got something for it. But I didn't know that you were so good at haggling, babe." said Raph.
"I've learned it from my mother, she really could haggle. Garage-sales, flea-markets, even some shops, she could always get some form of discount if she tried." Mona said proudly, but her expression fell when she thought more of her mother and the rest of her family, and how much she missed them.
'No. I have to focus.' she thought to herself. 'I may not be able to see them again, but they'll always be in my heart, I feel it. I'll always miss them but now my new family needs me, my friends need me, I have to be strong. I can't afford to risk falling back into despair every time I think of my old life.'
"Are you okay, babe?" Raph asked concerned, snapping Mona out of her thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm fine, love. Just some... memories, that's all. Come on, the others might be waiting for us at the inn."
And that's that. I've decided to cut it here as it was getting rather long, and I want to update. Whatever Farengar has to say, will be said in the next chapter, so stay tuned.
On a small note, I'll try to make Skyrim larger, both in terms of the land itself and the cities. You know, more people, bigger inns and the like, to accommodate the large party.