Chapter 15: Ferwen'sn ew pet

[2nd / 3rd of Second Seed 4E 202]

Antonius and I had traveled to Granite Hill together with Commander Ralof and his aide, to do a fortification and troop inspection. While we had been there, a smaller group of riders had approached from the west, pursued by a larger group, and the small group had turned out to be Fiona, the Dragonborn, with housecarls and companions. They had been followed by many Imperial soldiers, and the Stormcloaks on site had been able to capture most of them, although a few had refused to surrender and had to be killed. Antonius and I had decided to travel back to Whiterun with Fiona and most of her group, while Ralof was going to continue the inspection and eventually also go north to Rorikstead.

On our way back to Whiterun we had joined with the caravan lead by Ri'saad, and he had mentioned some danger to his caravan by bandits calling themselves 'Saints', showing some weapons and armor with a golden glint. Interestingly, the area where those bandits seemed to be based, was not far from the road we were going to take. Noon had not yet passed when we got close to the location where the road branched off to North Brittleshin Pass to our right, as I had learned earlier and as the map showed. Normally there would not have been any reason to go there, but from some distance and before we had actually reached the side road, I thought that I saw some glittering on a rock, which looked unnatural. There was always a chance of a bandit ambush, specifically as we approached the location Ri'saad had given, and I warned my companions immediately. Right here we decided that Iona was going to stay with the caravan, together with Ri'saad himself and Atahbah, whereas Khayla and Ma'randru-jo, a warrior and a mage, were going with Fiona, Lydia, Ferwen, Antonius and me. Just in case we wanted to make sure that the cart was protected.

From our position we sneaked uphill to the south, with Ferwen and me leading. The Bosmer was excellent in walking quietly, and I admired her skills. We first tried to get around the hill where I had seen something and approached from behind. It turned out that no person was there, but somebody had just left a shimmering item, a shield which looked like it was made of gold. We left it where it was and went further south, and after about one hour we heard faint noises. We approached carefully, and from our hiding spots we could see some kind of camp. The most visible item was a dark cave entrance further in the background, and there were a few chest, bedrolls, and of course people, five we could see. Most were clad in typical bandit attire, which was a wild combination of different pieces of armor and clothes, but some had some special golden pieces on them, including weapons.

It was not my habit to attack people without a good reason, and as we had agreed before, I intended to approach them and initiate a conversation. If that made them attack, my companions would intervene at once; they had their bows ready. I stepped out from behind the tree I had used for cover and walked towards the camp, slowly; before, I had commanded my two saber cats to stay behind the tree, for now. One of the people noticed me and said:

"Look who we've got here!"

All of their eyes were on me now, and while I did not like the views I was getting, I tried to be polite at least:

"Hello ladies and gentlemen! I have seen this camp, and I was getting curious who lives here. Would you be amenable to introducing yourselves? My name is B'lushona."

I was not sure if I had said something wrong or they just did not like Khajiit, but the assumed leader quickly suggested:

"Now, we are giving you a choice. You can either give us all of your belongings and we might not kill you, or you will be dead within ten seconds. What do you think?"

"I think that you may be dead in ten seconds unless you yield to me!"

They all laughed, and the leader replied:

"That's funny! Do you really think, even with your size, that you can defeat all five of us at the same time? Fool!"

Triggered by a hand signal from him, two bandits raised their bows, and the other three, including the leader, got their melee weapons out, two golden swords and a steel one. I raised my hand as well, and the two archers got killed by arrows from my friends right away. That did not stop the others, though, but at least I had only one of them directly against me now. Using my old trick with flames I was able to distract him, and as Hanni and Nanni now also rushed towards me and helped, he was dead a few seconds later. When I looked up again, the other bandits were dead as well, defeated by my companions. Okay, they had attacked me, and they had refused to surrender. Bandits – what kind of a choice did I have, except for trying to avoid them altogether? Thinking about that, maybe I could learn some kind of paralysis spell, allowing to bind bandits instead of killing them; captured bandits could be delivered to the proper authorities...

However, right now I needed to focus on the situation at hand. None of us had received even a minor injury, and we could now take our time to look around and search for hints and loot. Khayla and Ma'randru-jo confirmed that the bandits, using parts of Saint armor and weapons, looked like those who had troubled the caravan before. While my companions checked out the chests in and around the camp, I had retrieved a journal from the corpse of the bandit leader, and I read it together with Fiona:

Now this is what I call easy coin! I'm proud to be one of the Saints. Every few days, Ri'saad comes down the road, and his wares are ours for the taking. We don't take everything, mind you. If he don't got nothing to sell, he can't stay in business, and then where would we be? We just skim a bit off the top each time. Kinthal should be happy with our latest take. He'll be leaving his camp up near Karthwasten to pay us a visit soon. Those damn Seducers were eating into our profits, until we drove them off up north. Other merchants pass through those parts, so maybe they'll stay gone.

"What?" the Dragonborn uttered. "They know the caravan leader's name, and they deliberately did not rob his caravan of everything, so that he could stay in business and would not be scared away?"

"It appears like this, yes. Look, there is also some mentioning of another camp, near Karthwasten."

"Yes, but this is fortunately far away."

"Yes, it is in The Reach, and I sure won't go there anytime soon."

While we were still discussing the information in the journal, we heard Ferwen and Lydia both shouting:

"Look over here! Has anyone ever seen something like this?"

They were next to the large cage, and Fiona and I were now walking over to them to see what they had found. Ferwen was pointing towards the cage, and I soon saw what this was about. Hanni and Nanni were already there and looked, and inside the cage I saw a very strange creature. It vaguely resembled a big insect or spider, but the raised head on a visible and extended neck made it actually more look like a mantis, I guessed. While mantis insects were not native in Germany, I had read about them, and once, when I had been on vacation in Hawaii, I had actually seen a few. Even disregarding the size and the color, this animal here was not the same, but only remotely similar. Now, where had I seen something like that before? Lydia had looked into a nearby drawer and found a note she now showed to us:

We found a buyer for the strange creature we've hauled all the way from... well, best not to say. Not a day too soon, as its chittering keeps waking me up at all hours of the night. Just a few more days. If the coin is worth it, we'll have to go back for more of these things.

Liked on cue, the animal chittered now, and while that kind of noise was not really scary or so, it was also not something I particularly liked, and I could feel with the person who had written about that chittering keeping them awake. I did not fell like bothering with the creature, but Ferwen, the Bosmer, knelt down next to the cage and even stretched her arm inside to pet the animal. There was more chittering, and I heard Ferwen talking to the animal:

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

The answer was, of course, more chittering, but maybe Ferwen, as a Bosmer who had some special affinity with animals, could at least guess what the chittering was about, and I heard her also saying:

"Aren't you an adorable little bug! I wonder why they kept you caged. Do you want to come with me?"

The chittering got more excited, and Ferwen nodded and smiled:

"I think you're kind of cute. Do you want to be my pet, or rather my friend?"

Obviously, the animal liked the idea, and as we also had found the key to the cage, Ferwen unlocked it. The animal hesitated for a moment and then got out, and then it walked over next to the Bosmer right away. To my surprise Fiona also got there, and she carefully and slowly touched the animal, which induced more chittering. Fiona's wolf, Nymeria, kept some distance, but Ferwen laughed and claimed:

"I think that she likes us both, Fiona!"

"She?"

"Well, just guessing, but I refuse to call such a cute animal 'it'!"

I had worked my brain hard for a few minutes, but I did not recall what the creature's species might be and where I could have seen it before. Eventually Lydia called out and brought our attention to the note we had read before. With a very pale ink, barely readable, somebody had written above the term 'strange creature':

Manic Elytra Nymph

And now something clicked in my mind. Of course! Elytras were common creatures on the Shivering Isles, and somehow one of them had found its way into Skyrim, probably not willingly. On the Shivering Isles, those creatures had always been hostile, but a nymph – was that the term for a small one, a baby or an adolescent? Okay, if I could adopt and raise two saber cat cubs, why couldn't Ferwen adopt an elytra nymph?

There was also something else about the note which I considered interesting:

… go back for more of these things …

Did that imply that were was indeed a way to get to the Shivering Isles and back from Skyrim? If so, I would very much like to learn about it. That would be so cool! I'd love to be able to explore the Shivering Isles, like enjoying the vibrant colors of the northern part, together with good friends and comrades.

Meanwhile, my companions had taken all of the loot we wanted to take, including some golden armor parts and weapons. Of course, we were going to share with Ri'saad; the caravan share was going to nicely compensate them for the last few thefts, I assumed, and then some more. It appeared that Ri'saad's caravan might have been the main source of 'income' for the bandits, but they had sure robbed other travelers as well, and the increasing troop movements had apparently not yet been sufficient to scare the 'saints' away. While we walked back to the caravan, this time taking the more convenient path down to the access road to North Brittleshin Pass and north from here, Fiona asked me to walk with her behind the others and asked in German:

"You know something about those so-called 'saints', right?"

"Well, yes and no. I don't know what the golden weapons and armor do here in Skyrim, but I do know where they and the elytra likely come from. You do know about the Daedric princes and princesses, right?"

"Well, I have heard about some of them. I read the story about Martin Septim and the Hero of Kvatch defeating Mehrunes Dagon, and I have heard about Nocturnal, princess of shadows and darkness, for instance."

"What about Sheogorath?"

"Isn't that the one who talks about cheese most of the time?"

"Yes, indeed, the same one. Now, each Daedric regent controls his own realm, and some of them allow mortals to visits their areas from time to time. Sheogorath controls the Shivering Isles, and Saints and Seducers are two groups of people there."

"And elytras live there?"

"Indeed, they do."

"So, this is part of the Skyrim game, too?"

"No, actually not, this was part of the predecessor game, Oblivion, or more specifically, a DLC to it, some additional but official content. At this time, I don't have a clue how this might be related, but I'd love to find out."

"If this is from a different game and a different world, how can there be a connection?"

"Oh, the two games take place on the same continent on the same planet, just at a different time, about two hundred years apart. A connection is quite feasible, I believe."

"Is this going to impact my Dragonborn task?"

"One can never be sure, but I do not think so."

"If Ferwen and I keep the elytra as pet, this is not going to create an imbalance or so, right?"

"No, I cannot imagine that it might. Once you learn how to tame dragons and raise them as pets, then we might talk about an imbalance, though."

Fiona laughed and replied: "Yeah, I wish."

We were soon back at the caravan, and for now we stored most of our loot on the cart. Ri'saad was, of course, quite happy when he learned that we had defeated the bandits; in future he should be able to pass this place with more merchandise than before and not risk losing some of it. The caravan leader thanked all of us for our help, and we happily proceeded towards Whiterun.

The remainder of our trip to Whiterun was not very eventful. Due to the number of people in our group, wolf packs did not attack, and we also did not encounter any other bandits; the one encounter we had had, though, gave me a lot to think about. When we eventually arrived at the Western Watchtower, some of the guards greeted me and Fiona by name, and one of them even called out:

"The Dragonborn is back! Welcome back, Thane Fiona!"

The petite Bosmer later admitted to me:

"You know, this is really pleasant and welcome. In my previous life, people usually looked down at me, not only literally, but also seeing me as unworthy and such. Here, I am Thane, and people are happy to see me. I like it!"

Yes, I could understand that. As the sun was about to sink below the horizon, we decided to stay here for the night, and the guards were happy to have us. While my companions had been on horseback, the caravan had been traveling slowly, and the encounter with the strange bandits had taken several hours, too.

In mid morning of the next day we stabled our horses, and the stablemaster got quite some work. Fiona knew that she could easily get a room at Dragonsreach if she wanted, but she did not want to bother the Jarl with so many followers. She decided to send Lydia and Iona to the barracks together with Antonius, and she was going to get a room at the Bannered Mare together with Ferwen. I asked:

"Do you think that Hulda will object to having your elytra pet in the taproom?"

"I hope not!"

I was curious to see the citizens' reaction, and I went to the inn together with her. When we had entered, most people did not even notice the insect at first, but those who did reacted mostly with something like:

"Oh, how cute! What is that?"

"It does not bite, right?"

Apparently, word traveled fast, and after some time, while Fiona had paid for a room and ordered lunch, more patrons came in, even at this early time, just before noon, and some said that they had only come to have a look at the cute animal. It looked like Hulda was getting quite some additional business today. I stayed for lunch, and afterwards, once I had agreed that we'd meet tomorrow late morning to talk – Fiona planned to sleep in, as she claimed – I stepped out of the inn with my saber cats. I had planned to spend some time at Jorrvaskr and pass on the news to the Companions, but remarks from passing citizens reminded me that today – 3rd of Second Seed 4E 202 – was actually a Sondas, a Sunday, and thus I changed my mind and started to look for a quiet place for prayer and meditation first.

[Author's Notes: B'lushona is not aware of the 'Saints and Seducers' CC mod and thus does not know the background in this environment and this province. About Ferwen: She is supposed to look like her namesake in the mod 'Pandorable's Heroines'; quite an attractive Bosmer IMHO.]