-Chapter XI- Land of Confusion
-Windhelm, Skyrim
-23 First Seed
-7:41 P.M.
-Saria
"Dayabu, betawanay! Guda...bushta?"
"No, I don't think so...to be completely honest." Nick replied to Rayman.
"What are you doing?" Saria asked.
"What do you mean?" he replied.
"You can understand this creature?" the man who had been sitting upon the throne on the opposite side of the room inquired.
"Yes...can not you?"
"Not one little bit."
"And you cannot either?" Nick turned to Saria, who, in turn, shook her head.
"Fredya, fudooyan..." Rayman said.
"What do you mean? Why?"
"Yutobistu."
"Nick..." Saria stopped him.
He shook his head, and turned back to the man who was now walking to them from his throne. "High King Ulfric Stormcloak."
"Greetings, Nicholas." he smiled, "How is the dovahkiin on this day?"
"Dovahkiin?" Saria asked.
"I'm not dovahkiin. The sages were wrong." Nick said sternly.
"But...I-"
"-I'm not dovahkiin!" Nick said again, this time very angered, and with his slight rage brought more guards into the room and surrounded him, which were quickly, yet still reluctantly, dispersed with a wave of Ulfric's hand.
A long silence followed, where Saria, Nick, Rayman, and Ulfric now all stood in the room with no other people inside. Ulfric took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, Nicholas. I take it this is why you are here and not in Whiterun with Max?"
Nick did not reply for a while, but eventually wordlessly nodded.
"What's wrong, Nick?" Saria asked.
"Nothing." he replied, walking to the middle of the room.
She and Rayman looked at each other, then to Ulfric as they were seated along the long dining table that was nearly the length of the even longer room. Saria still wondered what was all going on, with the talk of something called the dovahkiin and what, or at least from where he came, Rayman was, what had happened with Nick, and the strange tension that was so strong it was nearly tangible. She scanned the room, then the meal that was set before her. She still hungered, and she knew not what was proper, especially in the presence of the High King of Skyrim.
Silence awkwardly hung in the air throughout the mead hall as the night followed through, and Saria eventually did bring herself to eat, albeit painstakingly slow. She still continued to watch Nick with curiosity that even confused her. She studied him, examining what he did, and she wondered why he seemed uneasy around Ulfric. He ate silently, just as Ulfric did in the same manner, while Rayman scarfed his own meal down, seeming to enjoy every bit of it, even though it seemed like he wasn't even tasting it.
Just when her restraint began to run thin, Ulfric decided to break the silence by clearing his throat, and then speaking clearly in his deep voice. "Well, Nicholas, I must say you seem to have grown up quite well." In response he wordlessly nodded with a quick grin. "Well, who is this lovely lady here?"
He looked up from his food and reluctantly introduced them. "Ulfric...this is Saria. Saria...Ulfric." He looked at Rayman with a smile. "I believe you've already met Rayman."
"Hello." Saria greeted in a shy, yet still kind tone.
After cleaning his plate, Rayman followed, "batayunay." He wiped the leftover food still on his face with a hand and bowed his head quickly.
Silence began to follow again, something Saria wished not to happen, so she desperately tried to continue the conversation, "so Nick..." she said quickly, "how do you know High King Ulfric Stormcloak?"
"You may just call me Ulfric." The High King said with a smile and deep chuckle that echoed through the room, disappearing as quickly as it came.
"My father was one of his soldiers." Nick said quickly without looking up from his plate.
"Your father was my very best soldier." Ulfric said, "he was clever, agile, and quick-witted. You actually remind me much of him yourself, Nicholas."
Nick, though it was a compliment, seemed to have taken offense. "I am nothing like my father." he said grudgingly.
Ulfric sighed, "Nicholas, I only meant-"
"I am nothing like my father." Nick repeated, this time slightly louder and much sterner. Everything seemed to come to an abrupt halt at this, and Nick quickly set his silverware down on the table next to his plate, and promptly got up. "Excuse me." he said quietly before exiting the room, disappearing through one of the heavy wooden doors that led to the rooms Ulfric had been willing to lend them until their leave.
Saria heard Rayman swallow hard as the door shut with a clank of the metal knob and thud of the hardened wood while she was slightly left agape. She had not expected this sort of behavior of her savior, after the entire time examining what he did and how he did it, this didn't seem like the sort of thing someone of his persona would do without a hidden cause. She turned to Ulfric, "I'm...so sorry about that."
He offered a halfhearted smile, and waved a hand aside as if to show it was nothing. "Do not worry..." he looked at the door, "it isn't him, it isn't me, and it's certainly not either of you two." He drew another heavy sigh.
"Was he all right?" Saria asked, "he seemed a bit..."
"Pallid?"
"Yes, that is a very good way to put it."
"Fuya..." Rayman nodded.
"I'll talk to him." Saria offered, standing from her seat.
"No, no. Just leave him be, at least for now." Ulfric contradicted.
A loud shout in pain broke through the night shortly after, that sent Saria straight to the room that Nick was in, hoping that the worse case scenarios that flashed through her mind were not what happened, for it was his voice that called out. Ulfric followed close behind, with Rayman at their side and when she opened the door abruptly, hoping to stop anything that might have caused him pain.
"Nick!?" she called.
She ran into the room, drawing her dagger to find Nick on the floor, doubled over in pain. His arms were wrapped around something, something that shone black, like obsidian. She reached out to lightly touch him, assuring his well-being, and as soon as her finger lightly grazed his shoulder, his muscles tensed as he quickly shot awake. He looked down at the thing he was holding, and, in shock, stared at it wordlessly.
His gaze moved over to her, and, in a hardly audible whisper, he said, "what happened?" He looked around, searching the room for an unknown reason, in a daze, as though he hardly knew what he was doing. His eyes shot wide open, as though he had just woken up, and shook his head, regaining his senses. He looked to the door, then to the thing of which he caressed unknowingly. It was some sort of creature, so deeply emerged in sleep that when Nick moved away his arms and slowly dragged himself to its side, he still remained in his restful state.
"What-" she looked to where he stared, but when she saw nothing, she turned back to him, "what's wrong?" He said something just beneath his breath, impossible to hear what it was that had escaped between his lips. The only way she could tell he said something at all was because he had moved his lips to form a soundless word. "What?"
He looked over to her, "was...was someone else in here when you came in?" She shook her head in vigorous confusion, "no...why? Should there be?"
"N-no...I was just..." he trailed off, picking himself up from the ground, and stood wearily just barely over Saria. "...wondering is all."
She took a deep breath, unable to contain the fear of not knowing what the creature that now slept where Nick seemed to be attacked was. Her breathing was uneasy, her fingers trembled slightly, and her mind was more confused more by whether this was the proper reaction to such a thing as fear or not than anything else.
"Nick, are you sure you are all right?" Ulfric said in earnest worry.
Nick turned to Ulfric and shamefully nodded his head. He swallowed hard as he open his mouth and took a deep breath, "I am sorry, Ulfric."
"What?"
"I've been acting like that of an immature child, unable to get their own way and forced to obey their parents' rules over their own, no way to act by anyone, especially by someone such as myself, and to someone of such familiarity." He cracked a smile, "would you be willing to forgive me for my juvenile actions, High King Ulfric Stormcloak?"
The creature woke up, and stared at Saria.
Ulfric couldn't help but smile back, "Of course, young Swiftsword. And I will caution myself not to mention, let alone compare you to your father. Believe me, I had a similar standpoint with my own as you do now." He outstretched an arm that wrapped around Nick's shoulders, "come, let us no longer fret, but talk."
"But first..." Saria said fearfully.
They stopped to look over to her, "what's wrong, Saria?" Nick asked.
The creature and Saria had not broken eye-contact since it had woken up, her hands quaking, legs trembling, and her spine shivering. She gradually raised an arm to point to it, trying her very best to not shake it as it hung in the air, "...that..."