Chapter 77: An exicting new task
[2nd – 7th of Morning Star 4E 202]
After we had successfully defeated the bandits, Silver Hand and Alik'r at Swindler's Den, we had sent four of us to Whiterun to get some carts to get the huge amount of stolen ware back to Whiterun; more carriages had been hired by the bandits before and arrived there as well, and we confiscated those. We had a total of seven carts now, one loaded with prisoners and six with merchandise, and on our way home we had stopped for the night in Granite Hill; traveling with seven full loaded carts was slow, specifically across uneven terrain, and we did not want to overwork the horses either.
Maybe I should not have spent time thinking about having actual real seasons in the evening before. When Antoninus shook my shoulders to wake me up for my shift, I was almost awake anyway and felt well rested, but when I looked around in the dim light of Masser, I found snow all around us – maybe ten centimeters had fallen on the ground during the night. Oh great; getting the carts to Whiterun would be even harder now. Together with a town guard and Athis I prepared breakfast for the entire group, and when everybody was awake some time later, we ate, and with the rising sun we attached the horses to the carts again and loaded the prisoners onto the cat dedicated to them. It turned out, though, that pulling the wagons across snow was easier than I had expected; the snow was not deep enough to slow down the horses, and the cart wheels rolled more easily across snow than they on the blank ground before. This made sense, as the snow leveled the unevenness of the unpaved roads.
Now, Hanni and Nanni had fun in the snow and frolicked around, and I enjoyed the scenery as well. Fortunately, my large feet were well insulated, and walking barefoot – or maybe 'barepaw'? – was not a problem; my feet did not get cold easily. As Khajiit were at home in Elsweyr with a much warmer climate, I might not have expected that, but either this was normal or Akatosh had made sure that my new body was properly prepared. Looking at the snow covered mountains in the distance and the snow covered trees and bushes nearer to us was nice, too.
During the entire morning, the road was mostly empty, and we only encountered the occasional traveler and adventurer. When we got close to Fort Greymoor, though, almost at noon time, I saw Hanni and Nanni changing their behavior. They stopped running around, sniffed the air, and gave signs that there was some danger around. I shouted out loudly to the carts to stop and for my companions to stay alert, and seconds later some people in two groups emerged from behind a rock to our left and ahead from behind a rock to our right. Any question towards their intentions was answered right away when they pulled their weapons, and Aela had her bow out within seconds, shooting away. All together, we had about two times ten bandits against us; somehow they must have seen our trek and assumed that we had lots of valuable stuff, and that was that. Now, fortunately we were not helpless; Hanni and Nanni and Spirit started to distract the few enemy archers, Vilkas and Athis had their swords out, and Fiona started to shout 'FUS RO' into groups of bandits. I climbed on a smaller rock and fired bolts from my crossbow as quickly as I could, but we were still in danger, specifically when I saw more bandits coming from the direction of the fort. However, at the same time a detachment of soldiers marched in our direction from the Western Watchtower, and within a few minutes they got involved in the fight as well. The hold guards made the difference; while the bandits still had numerical superiority, the hold guards were much better trained, and they all wore proper armor and had good weapons, whereas most of the bandits had only light armor and inferior weapons. Nonetheless, there also was a bandit in shining yellowish armor, maybe Dwarven, and the guards had trouble with him. The guy had already killed or at least severely wounded two guards and was about to attack more, when I decided to get involved. I knew that my fighting skills would not be good enough by far to defeat that person in fair combat, but fair combat was not what I had in mind. Right when the armored bandit raised his sword against another hold guard, I shouted out:
"You there!"
For some reason he stopped his attack and turned around, seeing me towering over him. When he noticed that I did not have any weapons in my hands, he briefly laughed and raised his sword again. That was what I had waited for; with my left hand I blasted a quick fireball against him, and once he screamed, I cast shock with my right hand for several seconds. The combination made him roll on the floor, and while he would probably have recovered soon, the guard who had been under attack last stepped next to him and got his sword down on the bandit. Due to the enemy's heavy armor, though, the damage dealt by that attack was very limited, and the bandit started to rise again; however, I suddenly remembered that my own weapon was a glass battleaxe, thanks to a gift from Jarl Balgruuf when he had made me Thane of Whiterun. It still took some effort to overcome my conscience, but I swung my axe and hit the bandit's neck, right when he tried to get up again, and despite his high quality armor he was dead within seconds. Yes, this high quality armor was difficult to pierce even with a glass weapon, but as my glass battleaxe was a very heavy and sturdy weapon and I could swing it quickly, at least when I used both hands for those special needs, the force resulting from that – thinking about basic laws of physics, with force equaling mass times acceleration – was big enough to overcome that obstacle.
When we had done our best at healing the wounded, we learned that the Jarl had sent a few additional soldiers towards the Western Watchtower, and when those had seen us getting attacked from their vantage point on top of the tower, they had quickly come to our help. The soldiers suggested to all get to the Western Watchtower, and lunch was prepared for everybody there, while the wounded got more treatment.
We had a few more prisoners now, and three of the soldiers guided us back to the city and helped us to guard the captured bandits. A few hours later our trek stopped at the Whiterun stables. The captured bandits were marched towards the Dragonsreach dungeon, and we helped the guards to unload the chest and barrels; with some smaller handcarts we moved them to the open place just outside of the city gate, where the assembled merchandise would be under the eyes of the gate guards at all times. Meanwhile, the horses were led to the small pasture next to the stables to rest and feed, and the stable hands took care of them. At the end of the day, I was glad to be able to relax in my bed in Jorrvaskr again; those last few days had been quite eventful. I had, of course, missed the activities of the New Life Festival in Whiterun and the parties and banquets associated with it, but while this was somewhat unfortunate, my friends and I had been able to achieve something quite important, both by getting rid of the Alik'r assassins threatening Saadia and by claiming a huge amount of stolen goods and money. Some people would be happy to get their stolen belongings back.
The events at Dustman՚s Cairn, Hamvir՚s Rest and Swindler's Den over the last few days had been interesting and exciting, but also exhausting; in particular, getting the heavily loaded carts and the captured bandits back to Whiterun had not been pure fun. I was looking forward to a few nice and easy days, and specifically I spend considerable time in the large pool in the basement of Jorrvaskr, some times alone and sometimes with my saber cats.
School was on winter holiday break, as I learned when I met Minolewen, the teacher, on the streets. However, I did see some of the kids, and on one day, when Hanni and Nanni were out with Mia, the young alchemist, to spend time with her when she picked ingredients on the Whiterun tundra, I had visited the market in the morning together with Antonius, my Nord housecarl. We walked around without a specific goal, and close to the Gildergreen tree Lucia ran around; she saw us and asked:
"Balu! Antonius! Do you have some time for me?"
"Yes, we do; for what?"
"Andurs believes that Garm should also spend some time outside of the city, but I am not yet allowed to go there on my own. Will you go with me?"
"Actually, yes, why not. Antonius, are you in?"
"Sure, and maybe we find a nice spot for fishing, too."
Ah, yes, he had recently discovered the hobby of fishing; anyway, Lucia was happy:
"Great – come on then!"
She rushed off, towards the city's Hall of the Dead, opened the door quickly and called in:
"Andurs! Are you there?"
We heard the voice from inside:
"I am here, and you don't need to shout! I may be getting old, but not deaf, my dear."
Antonius and I smirked and followed the girl inside. Lucia had been an orphan girl in Whiterun, and for some reason nobody had bothered to sent her to the Riften orphanage. She had been forced to beg for food, and when I had found that Andurs, the elderly priest of Arkay, had a fully grown husky but was either unable or unwilling to walk the dog enough, I had suggested that the priest could kind of adopt the girl, and Lucia would spend a lot of time with Garm, the husky. Dog and girl got along with each other very well, and Lucia had a home and a companion. Of course, Lucia was not old enough to walk around outside of the city on her own, and she had to rely on some adult to be with her. I explained to Andurs that my housecarl and I had a lazy day planned and that we would not mind at all taking Lucia and Garm with us, and he quickly agreed.
Outside we met Mila, Carlotta Valentia՚s daughter; she and Lucia were about the same age and good friends. Mila asked:
"Where are you going?"
"We were going to walk Garm outside of the city."
"Oh, can I come, too?"
"Well, if your mother agrees – where is she?"
"At her market stand, as usual."
We walked there first and found Mila՚s mother. When I suggested to take Mila with us, she agreed quickly:
"Oh yes, please, she has so few chances to run around outside of the city. Thank you!"
Well, that was that. Soon we passed the city gate and turned west before we met the main road. Garm was allowed to frolic around, and we slowly found our way across some rocks and creeks. I kind of missed Hanni and Nanni, but I had other nice company today. We managed to lead girls and dog in the direction we wanted, and eventually we arrived at a pond Antonius knew. As usual, there were a couple of mudcrabs around, and my housecarl killed the larger one, while Garm was allowed to take care of the smaller one, with Lucia and Mila cheering for him. Once the area was declared clean, girls and dog got permission to run around the pond as much as they wanted, and Antonius assembled his fishing rod from the parts he took from his large backpack. He found a nice spot on a rock, sat down, and got to work, which, after the initial action, mainly consisted of waiting. I had never tried fishing in my previous life and I did not intend to start. However, I forgot which weekday today was, and when I asked my housecarl, he replied:
"Today is the 4th of Morning Star, Sundas, boss."
What? Today was actually a Sunday? Well, that was almost perfect. Antonius was busy with fishing, Lucia, Mila and Garm ran around and had fun, so that I could easily find a spot close by, on another rock, to sit down and meditate and pray. Sometimes, when I was traveling or busy, I had missed Sunday, and there were no church bells reminding me. But now, as I knew which day it was and I had time, I was definitely going to have a time of prayer and reflection.
The year 4E201 had changed into 4E202, and I had spent about four and a half months in Skyrim. There had been a few problems, like with wolves enjoying to bite into my arm, myself getting poisoned once or twice, and (few) people talking bad, but all together, my time here had been great so far. I was a member of the Companions, the Jarl of Whiterun had promoted me to Thane and liked to consult me from time to time, I had even gained a second Thaneship, I had two great and reliable housecarls, and last but not least I had my two saber cats, Hanni and Nanni. What I did not have was a female companion to love and have intimate relations with, and I hoped and prayed that the future would have that for me, too.
For now, even Fiona, the Dragonborn, enjoyed a break from her duties, and she probably trained somewhere with her own housecarls. Training did not only imply fighting, but also magic, and I knew very well that spells could be decisive in critical situations. Keeping this in mind I conjured Spirit, my saber cat familiar, again and again, and she sat quietly at my side. I allowed my mind to wander and to relax, and I likely sat there for more than one hour before I noticed that Lucia and Mila had sat down next to my housecarl. Sooner or later she'd want to eat, and so I ended with quiet time with a prayer, ending with the Lord's Prayer, before I slowly walked back to the others.
"Oh, here you are!" Lucia called out.
"Let me guess, you are getting hungry?"
The girls both nodded, and I started to prepare a simple campfire. Antonius had actually managed to catch a few fish, most likely something like carps, and I started to roast four of them on a wooden spit, once my housecarl had prepared them properly. When the meal was ready to eat, we had two larger fish for Antonius and me and two smaller ones for the two girls. I offered bread and raw vegetables to got with it, and soon we were all chewing, including Garm, who had helped himself and managed to catch his own food.
After that much running around and eating, the girls were getting slightly tired, so that we packed our belongings and slowly walked back to the city.
During the next couple of days I saw Fiona a few times, and she was usually busy training, mostly with Lydia; once we also spent an hour together exercising our magicka and comparing the spells we knew. I also managed to spend some time with Janina, but in a different way than I had expected; with Aela՚s permission, I invited the Redguard to Jorrvaskr to get her a chance to train with the Companions. When she fought against Vilkas or Farkas, she failed to win, as the twins were tall, strong, and extremely well trained. When it was my turn, though, I found myself on the ground and defeated in less than one minute, and I did not even know how this had happened; Athis and Njada fared only slightly better. Janina sure knew how to fight in an, as Vilkas called it, somewhat unorthodox way.
For a day or two, not much was going on, which was good for me, as I still needed the rest after the events at Swindler's Den and the way back, I was called into Dragonsreach to meet Jarl Balgruuf the Greater. I did not know what the reason for this call might be, but I would learn soon enough. Once inside, housecarl Irileth guided me up to the big balcony, where the Jarl was waiting for me. He greeted me, dismissed Irileth, and started to talk:
"Thank you for coming, B'lushona. First of all, thank you for the great work in helping to recover all of the merchandise from Swindler's Den; a lot of people are happy to get something back which was stolen some time ago, and the septims from the bandits will be put to good use. Proventus and I had suspected a larger group of bandits being active since a few months ago, but we lacked details about their hiding place and their activities."
The huge amount of money we had found had been split between all involved and the Jarl; we had agreed that it made sense to allow Jarl Balgruuf to decide how to spend some of it, for the benefit of hold and citizens; we had received our share, though. I bowed my head, and the Jarl continued:
"Now, I am afraid that I need your services. Have you ever been in Windhelm, the capital city of Eastmarch hold?"
Naturally I had visited that city a lot in the game, but this was reality now, and so I shook my head and replied:
"No, my Jarl, I have not been there."
"But you know a few people there, don't you?"
"Well, yes, there is Ralof, and I kind of promised to show up in Windhelm eventually. He'd like to see me joining the Stormcloaks and fight for them, but I can't do this for various reasons. In theory, even Jarl Ulfric should remember me; after, we both survived Helgen and Alduin."
"Good – you are exactly the person I need. You see, over the past few years my position here in Whiterun has been a difficult one. I much prefer our hold to stay neutral in the Civil War, but while this has worked just fine so far, I am not sure for how long I can maintain this position. Sooner or later either General Tullius or Jarl Ulfric may force me to take a side, and I still haven't decided which side is better for the hold and for Skyrim. It is possible that my decision may be the small weight tipping the scales, so that this is not an easy decision at all. For a long time I had been slightly more in favor of the Legion, as I believe that they represent the legal government, with us being a province of the Empire. The recent news, including the treatment you and Thane Fiona got from Tullius, are slowly changing that, and I start to doubt that what Tullius is doing is actually in the Empire's interest. Things were not as bad under High King Torygg, and much better under his father, High King Istlod, during the Great War, but now, without a High King, Tullius seems to believe that he's got a free hand."
I nodded and waited for more to come; I realized that I had seen how Tullius treated me, but not much about Ulfric՚s side.
"In addition to that, Jarl Ulfric started as a leader for Nords and only Nords; you sure have heard his slogan 'Skyrim for the Nords', right?"
I nodded again, and the Jarl elaborated:
"Now, I am a Nord myself, and while I might feel tempted to agree with that concept, my hold has citizens from almost all known races; everybody is welcome here, although we need to be careful with caravans, and specifically I do have a Dunmer housecarl. However, in the past months at least, I have been hearing that Ulfric seems to be changing his attitude. I don't know why and to what extent, but all of a sudden he appears to be more open to other races. I badly need more information, and I prefer to send somebody with authority – one of my Thanes. I could send Fiona, but she needs to focus on the Dragonborn task; so, I would like to send you. Also, with you being a Khajiit, you might be able to experience directly how non human races are treated there; they may not openly oppose an emissary, but you should be able to get a feeling of how people think and behave. Travel to Windhelm, talk to Jarl Ulfric, stay a few days, talk to residents of different races, and report back to me. You did mention a few times that you would like to visit Windhelm anyway, right? Can you do this for me?"
Yes, I had mentioned that I wanted to go there, but not necessarily now. After the excitement of the past days and weeks, I really wanted to stay and relax for some time, and maybe start looking for a proper plot I could purchase, plus find some ways of making more money for ground and house, although my share from the recent quest was, together with earlier savings, a very good start already. For the Jarl, I tried at least to phrase this politely:
"My Jarl, I am not sure if I am fit for this task right now. The last few weeks have been demanding, and I had hoped to be able to stay in your city for some time to further hone my skills, both fighting and magic."
"Hm, is there anything in particular you might need help with?"
"For weapons training, the Companions help a lot. However, I had been hoping to talk to your steward soon and find out about plots of land for a house to be built, outside of the city walls, but not far away. My saber cat cubs and I would like to have a home of our own eventually; I should not keep them within the city walls for much longer."
"Tell you what, B'lushona. Do this trip to Windhelm for me, and I make sure that you get one of the best plots of land for almost nothing; what about that?"
"My Jarl, this is a very kind and generous offer, and I accept."
Yes, I was still a little bit tired and looking forward to a few more quiet and slow days, but after all he had not asked me to clear a bandit lair all on my own, but to visit another Jarl, and I'd have my two housecarls with me, too. With the Jarl՚s assistance, I should be able to find a nice place for a house much easier and cheaper, so it was worth to spend another week or two. For something like that, I could be bribed, yes. Jarl Balgruuf smiled and nodded, and we had a deal.
[Author's Notes: So, not much rest for Balu; let's see how Windhelm treats him.]
