I WANT TO SEND A SHOUT OUT TO THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOWED AND LIKED THIS STORY SO FAR! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
When Dragonsreach had begun to fade into the distance, Lara finally slowed her horse to a stop. She'd been so ready to start her journey, that she hadn't given any thought to where she would go. Looking around her, she mumbled a curse under her breath before she'd caught sight of a Giant camp. She dismounted and tied her horse to a nearby tree, taking a few quiet steps closer. Seeing the Giant moving around his camp was intriguing to say the least. They were so much larger than she was and thought Lara had seen drawings of them in Kodlak's books, she'd never seen one with her own eyes.
A small smile caused her lips to curve upward but she gasped as the ground began to shake. Fear filled her eyes as she scanned around her for a second Giant, only to find a Mammoth had somehow managed to sneak up on her. Lara's jaw dropped and she fell backwards in fear, her arm going towards her dagger. However, to her surprise, the Mammoth did nothing. The beast just looked her over, sniffing her with its trunk. Turning her eyes to the Giant, she saw he was looking on at the spectacle, but making no more towards her. He seemed to know that she held no danger.
Letting lose a breath, Lara turned her eyes back to the large beast above her. She stood slowly, keeping her eyes on both the Mammoth and the Giant. Reaching out, she slowly touched the warm and furry trunk, the beast letting out a huffed breath. She ran her other hand over his carved tusk and smiled, turning her eyes to the Giant. "Nice artwork." The Giant tilted his head and grunted, turning away towards his fire. The Mammoth followed suit, letting Lara make her way back to her horse.
She untied it, climbed into the saddle and turned amused eyes to the skies. "I know you guys said you were watching over me, but that was a bit much." She chuckled and made her way back to the road, deciding Riften might be a good place to start.
The road to Riften sure wasn't an easy one. Lara was thankful that she knew healing magic, because between the trolls and the frost spiders, she would have been dead otherwise. However, it wasn't without reward: she had plenty of vials of spider venom and troll fat. The spider venom wasn't too terrible to collect, but the troll fat would probably give her nightmares for weeks. Stopping at the stables, Lara paid 20 Septims for boarding her horse and made her way towards the gates of Riften, her items on her back. One of the Guards stopped her with his hand up.
"Hold there. Before I let you into Riften, you need to pay the visitors tax."
Lara froze, confusion in her eyes. Visitors tax? Kodlak had said nothing about this! Suddenly, a voice in her head sounded. 'Mortals are often greedy.' Recognizing Mara's voice, Lara felt anger in her bones. "What is the tax for?" She asked, sounding innocent and naive. The guard scoffed under his helmet. "For the privilege of entering the city. What does it matter?"
Lara could stand it no longer. "This is obviously a shakedown." Her voice came out matter of fact and the guard coughed. "Alright, keep your voice down...you want everyone to hear you? I'll let you in, just let me unlock the gate. The gate's unlocked. You can head inside when you're ready."
Looking up at the late afternoon sky, Lara was glad to be going inside. She knew the Thieves Guild was prominent here, but she was counting on that. She'd learned a lot of stealth in her years with the Companions, but what Lara needed help with was lock-picking. If she was going to be delving into Dwemer ruins, she would need all of her skill enhanced. Taking a deep breath, she made her way into Riften.
A man named Maul bombarded her with questions when she came in, but when he saw she posed no real threat to the people of power here, he let her go by. However, she missed the way his eye moved over her form, and why would she notice? He wasn't her type and romance wasn't very high on her list of priorities. It was when she was a younger girl, smitten with any boy that would look her way, but Lara found out the hard way that real love wouldn't come easy to her. Not in her life as a living and breathing Dwemer artifact.
Making her way to the square, she saw that people were packing up for the day. Sighing, she asked a passerby where the Inn was. With a new direction in her sight, she made her way inside, instantly paying for a room so she could get the load off of her back. When she dropped off her belongings in her room, always keeping her dagger on her thigh, Lara locked her room and made her way back down into the tavern. Sitting at the bar, she let out a breath and ordered some food.
Soon Keerava placed in front of her a steaming bowl of venison stew, some bread and butter and a large pint of Juniper ale. Taking a long swig, Lara let the refreshing drink warm her cool bones. Letting out a breath, she smiled at Keerava and handed her 5 coins as a tip and began to eat her meal, listening to the people around her. The venison was fresh and tender, the carrots and potatoes perfectly soft and the broth was rich and the perfect temperature. The bread was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The butter melted perfectly with it and Lara loved how real the food tasted here than in her old life.
She couldn't remember much about it really but just remembered the taste of what her favorite foods had been back then. Between there and here, the taste was astronomical. Everything here was real with no preservatives, it was wonderful. She'd finished her food and paid Keerava for another ale when a man lid into the seat next to her.
"Never done an honest days work in your life for all that gold, eh lass?" Blinking, Lara set down her pint and turned her icy blue eyes to the man sitting next to her. His eyes widened as he took in the way her eyes looked and the shape of her ears. His eyes moved down her form until he saw the Dwarven Dagger strapped to her thigh. "By the Nine! You're her! The Dwemer girl that the Companions found!" His voice was a whisper but the words caused Lara to tense and her eyes to shift around them. Rolling her eyes, she turned her eyes back to her pint. "My wealth is none of your business and neither is who I am. Leave me be or I'll gut you."
He listened to her words for a moment before chuckling, the deepness of his voice causing a tremor down Lara's spine. She wouldn't give in though. Of course she'd seen how good looking he was. Messy red hair tied away from his face by braids, the way his green eyes looked like the rolling fields undisturbed through parts of Skyrim. She wasn't blind. His voice sounded a moment later. "That's where you're wrong. Wealth IS my business, no matter whose it is." Lara turned her eyes to him again, watching him look at her in wonder. She sighed, taking a sip of her ale. "Since you speak of wealth, I assume you're a member of the Guild?"
This time he was taken aback, almost looking as if he didn't know what to say. "You know of the Guild? Surprising." She turned her angry eyes to him, her hand clenching around the handle of her mug. "Just because I was sealed away for over 4000 years doesn't mean I'm an idiot. I've been alive in this world for 30 total years. I know who all the Guilds are in all of the cities in Skyrim, so no, not very surprising." His eyes widened and his hands both raised in defense. "I meant no offense, Lass, I just..." He let out a curse, his eyes moving to the floor. "I spoke out of turn in my shock. My apologies to you."
Lara took another swig, turning her eyes back to him. "I'm in Riften looking for the Guild, to be honest. I would like to improve my stealth and lock-picking skills." His brow furrowed and he watched her for a bit, his eyes calculating. "Is that all you wish for from the Guild? Not to join?" Shaking her head at the question, Lara turned her eyes back to her mug. "No, I don't want to join you. I don't like stealing, however, I need the skills for helping me to learn who..."WHAT I am." He nodded slowly, understanding filling his face. "Aye, I see. You wish to be able to sneak and pick locks better than you do because you want to delve into the Dwemer Ruins."
No words were necessary and she nodded, finishing her last ale for the night. Sensing she was finished talking, he nodded, standing from his stool. "Aye lass, I will help you. Get some rest tonight and make your way into the Ratway. You'll have to fight your way through, but prove that you can handle yourself and you can have all the training you wish." Lara turned her shocked eyes to him and nodded. "I will be there tomorrow." He smiled and held out his hand, which she took. "I'm Brynjolf." Lara returned his smile, happy that she would be getting some help. "I'm Lara."
This one is kind of short but the next one is gonna be preeeeeeeetty long because I'll be covering a LOT./p