A Young Griff's Guide to Skyrim

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Chapter 2

A day later, Aegon was chopping wood for the fires for the Skaal. His attire had changed to something more suitable for cold frigid weather. He wore a thick winter coat fashioned from horker and seal skin. Aegon's eyes had widened to comical proportions when he was shown what a horker was. But the aside, the coat kept him warm in the cold environment and kept him from getting soaked from water owing to the water resistant nature of seal and horker skin. His legs and feet were clad in furs made from wild boars that the Skaal hunted.

Sweat poured from Aegon's brow as he swung the iron axe blade down onto another log, splitting the timber in half. Although it was cold enough to warrant wearing a winter coat, the coat itself was very warm and the laborious work of chopping wood meant that Aegon sweated like a hog in the desert.

"Griff?" Turning his head, the young man saw that Frea was approaching him. Over her shoulder she was carrying the carcass of a small deer that she had obviously tracked and killed. "Got enough wood for the fires?" she asked the blue-haired lad.

"Aye, we have enough to last the next few days, provided we're careful," replied Aegon as he wiped his brow with the sleeve of his coat. "Venison stew tonight?" he then asked conversationally.

Frea nodded. "Mh. Tracked it myself, we should eat well for the next few days," she said.

Aegon smiled in satisfaction. "Good, I was getting a little tired of chewing on seal blubber," he japed.

"It does get tiring after a while," Frea agreed with a smile. "Although Father would say that to eat seal blubber is what the All-Maker would have us do," she added sarcastically.

"A very strange god you people worship, but there are strange gods where I'm from," Aegon remarked.

"So, you've said," Frea noted. Hefting the carcass on her shoulder, the shaman's daughter said, "I'm heading inside and dressing the carcass for evening meal. Would you care to help?"

"Of course. I need to brush up on my dressing skills," Aegon stated as he put aside the axe and started carrying armfuls of chopped and split logs in his arms and followed Frea inside the house she shared with her father Storn. "Where is your father?" he then asked Frea.

"He'll be at one of the Tree Stone today, communing with the spirits of nature," Frea informed him.

"Hm." Aegon nodded in contemplation as he remembered some of the customs he was told of the Skaal by Storn. Dotted around Solstheim were special standing menhirs sacred to the Skaal, named after the All-Maker. According to Storn, the All-Maker stones could grants special powers to anyone who used them. Although Aegon was somewhat sceptical that simple stones could grant magical powers, his encounter with the Demon of Madness and how he arrived in Solstheim made him more open to the concept of magic and such.

After depositing the split wood logs into a nearby receptacle for later use tonight, the blue-haired lad joined Frea in skinning, gutting and dressing the deer carcass she had caught. Frea had changed out of her armour and into a leather apron and shirt. In her dominant hand she held a small but wickedly sharp skinning knife which she was sharpening on a whetstone held in her other hand. The gritty sound of steel grinding against stone filled the house as Frea sharpened the edge to a razor's edge. After she was satisfied with the sharpness of the knife, the shaman's daughter grasped the hind leg of the deer and began to cut into the thin flesh. Circling around the joint that connected the hoof with the limb, Frea then cut straight down the middle of the leg. Putting the knife aside for a moment, Frea used her strong hand to slowly but strongly pull down on the skin.

The skin of the deer leg peeled away from the muscle beneath like how one would peel the rind from an orange. Getting to the hind quarters, Frea grabbed the skinning knife and did the same with the other hindleg. Once she did the same as she did before, she then began to cut into the guts of the deer; starting from the collar of the neck and sawing downward in a straight line, across the chest and over the gut before finally reaching the genital area, Frea put the knife aside. Wiping her hands clean of any blood, Frea then reached into the split open stomach of the deer carcass and began pulling out intestines, putting the organs into a nearby bucket. Once a majority of the stomach organs had been removed, the Skaal woman wiped her hands clean on a rag and looked at Aegon who had been watching the whole time.

"Want to try?" she offered him the knife.

"Sure," came Aegon's response as he took off his winter coat and put on a spare leather apron then took the offered skinning knife from Frea. Sharpening the blade on the whetstone to get a fresh edge, Aegon did a similar process to what Frea did to the front legs. After peeling back the skin up the shoulders, Aegon then made a cut into the skin to split it apart from around the foreleg. Doing the same to the other leg and also to the hindlegs, the blue-haired boy then began to pull back on the hide, separating it from the muscle and meat. Sticking the skinning blade to cut away the tougher parts where the skin stuck closely to the meat, Aegon yanked away until much of the ribs and back were exposed.

His hands becoming sticky with blood and fat, Aegon put the knife aside for a moment and washed his hands in a bowl of hot water that Frea offered him. The water became cloudy with animal blood and fat as Aegon washed his hands. Drying his hands on a dry cloth, Aegon took up the knife again and sharpened it once more when the door to the cabin opened bringing a gust of cold air inside and stepping into the abode was Storn.

"Father! You're back," Frea smiled happily. "How are the spirits?" she asked casually.

"The spirits are restless," Storn replied stoically. "There is a tide of change coming upon us and soon," he said grimly. He shook his head and added, "But that can wait for another day. I see you've caught us some dinner and our guest is skinning it for us."

"Lady Frea did most of the skinning, my lord," Aegon said modestly. "I wanted to brush up on my dressing skills and this was a good opportunity as any," he added.

"Well, you seem to have done a good job," Storn approved. "May we give thanks to the All-Maker for this bounty," he declared as he put his hands together and bowed his head in reverence. Frea put her hands together and bowed her head as well to give thanks to the patron deity of her people. Aegon observed the custom quietly; it was an odd custom, but he would not question it since this was the way of the Skaal.

After giving that short prayer, Storn then began to stoke the open fire pit with the wood legs that Aegon had freshly cut. "Any troubles while you were hunting, daughter?" he asked Frea who shook her head.

"It was quiet. Saw one or two Rieklings wandering about, but other than that, it was peaceful."

Storn furrowed his eyebrows at this and muttered, "Something is on the horizon. I can feel it."

As Storn stoked the embers of the fire, Aegon whispered to Frea, "Should we be worried?"

"My father is always worried when it is peaceful, but he's never been wrong before."

"Right," Aegon pursed his lips in thought as he continued dressing the deer carcass. After he finished skinning the carcass entirely, Aegon then began cutting out the internal organs, setting them aside for other uses. After doing that then removing the head of the carcass, Aegon looked at Frea and asked her, "What next?"

"Now we to let it hang for a few hour to drain of the blood and wash up ourselves," she replied as she indicated both their bloodied aprons and hands.

"We did make a bit of a mess," Aegon quipped jestingly. "Where can we wash up?"

"Follow me," Frea then led the blue-haired boy down to another corner of the cabin where a large wooden pail waited for them. "Strip off and I'll fill the pail with hot water. There's some soap and a brush you can use," she instructed him.

"What about you?" Aegon asked in a puzzled voice. "Aren't you going to wash up as well?"

"I will," Frea confirmed to him and she began to pull off her apron and clothes, revealing her underwear. Whilst Aegon wasn't unfamiliar with the female form thanks to Septa Lemore's morning habit of bathing in the River Rhoyne almost every morning, he was a little uncomfortable with getting undressed with a woman in the room who was his host. His cheeks going slightly pink, he turned away. "What's wrong?" Frea asked him in concern.

"I shouldn't see you like this," Aegon replied hesitantly. "It would be improper of me to see the daughter of my host naked," he further said.

"You mainlanders," Frea clicked her tongue. "There's nothing to worry about. We're just washing up and I trust you to be a complete gentleman about it," she told him.

Sighing heavily, Aegon reluctantly began to disrobe but kept his back to Frea the whole time, to avoid letting her see him naked as well as to avoid seeing her in a similar state.

The sound water was heard as Aegon waited for the pail to be filled with hot water. "You can climb in now," Frea said to him. With some awkwardness, Aegon climbed into the wooden tub and sank down into the hot water, letting out a sigh of contentment and a moment later, Frea joined him sitting opposite him.

"Aren't you going to look at me?" the Skaal woman asked Aegon who reluctantly forced himself to look at Frea and he had to swallow a lump in his throat as he saw Frea's pale bare flesh. While much of her body lay beneath the bathwater, there was still an enticing view of her bosom which looked full and perky, bobbing in the water almost hypnotically. Frea lifted her arms out of the water, droplets falling from her soaked skin as she grabbed the bar of soap and began to rub it against her bare flesh. Frea noticed the way Aegon was staring at her and the blush that was spreading across his face. An amused expression came over the Skaal woman's face as she said, "See something you like?"

Aegon almost got whiplash as he spun around to face the wall of the room, looking anywhere but Frea. The Skaal woman tittered in amusement and said, "Look at you. You're acting a like a maiden boy." She looked more intently at Aegon and asked, "You're not a maiden, are you?"

"I am… saving myself for marriage," Aegon admitted reluctantly, not wanting to look at his host's daughter.

"Commendable of you," Frea remarked. "It might interest you to know that I too am a maiden," she said off-handedly.

"I see," Aegon mumbled absently.

"But that isn't to say I would not partake of the pleasures of the flesh," Frea said humorously, chuckling amusedly at the way Aegon's back stiffened up at the words.

"Good for you," Aegon muttered tersely, feeling uncomfortable with the subject.

Frea hummed as she continued to scrub her sweaty and blood-stained skin, the bathwater becoming a rusty brown shade as blood, fat and sweat mingled with the hot water. "Here, scrub yourself clean," she told Aegon offering the bar of soap over his shoulder. Aegon took the soap and started scrubbing himself. A warm scent of lavender hit Aegon's nostrils as he scrubbed himself with the soap.

"Where did you get soap like this?" he asked. "Did you make it yourself?"

"We traded with the Dunmer for it, cost us a few things to get, but the Dunmer needed what we had as well," Frea answered.

"What could you trade with the Dunmer for a bar of soap?" Aegon asked curiously.

"Well, the south of the island is covered with volcanic ash. Very little grows there, and game is scarce there, so whilst we Skaal keep to ourselves, we do have limited trading with the Dunmer on the South of the Island," Frea explained. "We trade with them meat and furs and whatever produce we can grow ourselves in exchange for goods from the mainland and what they can produce themselves, such as their sujamma," she said.

"Sujamma?" Aegon echoed as he finally turned around to look at Frea.

"Mh." Frea nodded. "It's a kind of alcoholic drink. I don't know what it's made from, but it's quite popular with the Dunmer and some of us Skaal enjoy it from time to time," she explained.

"What is it made from?"

Frea frowned in thought and replied, "I'm not quite sure to be honest. I never really asked, but I don't venture that far south of the island anyway."

"What can you tell me about the Dunmer to the South?" Aegon then asked. "Are they a peaceful people?"

"They're the same as any other people," Frea stated. "Some are good and some are bad," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. "The good Dunmer are those living in the Dunmer settlement of Raven Rock, but there are Dunmer reavers, pirates and bandits along the coasts of the Solstheim."

"Sounds a lot like the Ironborn back home," Aegon remarked.

"Ironborn?" Frea repeated. "Are they a people of your lands?" she enquired.

"Mhm." Aegon nodded. "They're people famous for their seamanship and sailing the seas of the known world, but more infamous for their practice of raiding, pillaging and looting the coasts of my lands, carrying off any women as captives and salt wives and enslaving any men they haven't killed to do the work they're too lazy too," he explained.

Frea scowled at this and said, "A people that live for nothing more than plunder and conquest have no future and will only doom themselves."

Aegon nodded his head vigorously at this in agreement. "Exactly. I sometimes wonder why no-one has seen fit to finally rid my homeland of the Ironborn entirely, but sad to say, they haven't for as it would be a very hard thing to do given the nature of the Iron Islands themselves," he said dryly.

"Why is that?" Frea questioned.

"Well, I can't speak from experience as I've never been there, but the soil of the islands is said to be poor, not very good for growing things like wheat and grain," Aegon replied. "That and the fact that the Ironborn have one of the most powerful navies of my homeland and excel at ship-to-ship combat as well as piracy," he said. "The Lannisters are said to have a good navy and have tried to wipe out the Ironborn many times for raiding their coasts, but to no avail," he added sheepishly.

"Lannisters? Are they a clan of some sort?" Frea asked innocently.

"If by clan, you mean a family of nobles, then yes, they are," Aegon confirmed. "The Lannisters are famous for their numerous gold and silver mines, easily one of the richest houses in my country, giving them great wealth and influence. But they're not to be trusted," he finished grimly.

"Why is that?"

"A Lannister always pays his debts," Aegon quoted that infamous line. "A saying from when the patriarch of the Lannisters, Tywin Lannister, had come of age; two vassals of the Lannisters who had done nothing but mock and besmirch their liege lord's house and when Tywin demanded they answer for what they had done, they mocked him. So without delay, Tywin Lannister mustered his forces and marched on the lands of those who mocked his family and he did not stop until both houses had been utterly eradicated, their castles torn down and their lands sown with salt and skulls. Not even their smallfolk were spared. Afterwards, Tywin was said to have paid bards and singers to sing about it all over his lands so that none would dare challenge his house ever again."

Frea was wide-eyed at this as she asked, "Why would this Tywin destroy two whole families? Surely his pride was not worth massacring two families?" Her tone was shocked and horrified.

"From what I was told, Tywin was obsessed with the legacy and honour of his family, for it to be unchallenged by anything, not even by the king himself," Aegon replied darkly.

"The king himself?" Frea repeated in rising dread. "Are you saying that this Tywin Lannister had a king killed for insulting his family?" she asked in horror.

"No, at least not yet. Tywin simply needed to wait for the right time to," Aegon told Frea grimly. "Prideful and prickly he is said to be, he is a cunning and patient man, able to sense weakness in almost anyone he meets and a calculating individual who can bide his time, waiting for the opportunity to present itself for him to move in," he said.

"Sounds like a dangerous man," Frea said with grim look on her face.

"He is, from what I've been told," Aegon said with a nod of his head before giving a sigh and added, "I think I washed myself enough." He turned around to climb out of the bathtub and began to dry himself off. "I'll go see how see Storn is doing," he stated as he dressed himself in his clothes again and left the room.

Frea sat alone in the bathtub, contemplating what her guest had told her. And there she sat until the water had gone lukewarm so she climbed out of the pail and dried herself and dressed in some clean clothes.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: There! After a long wait, I finally updated this. Just a pointless filler chapter, but hopefully the next chapter will have some action as Frea and Storn take Aegon on a hunting trip. What will they encounter in their hunting trip? Don't know. Could be anything from Rieklings, wild boars or even some adventurous Dunmer reavers looking for loot and plunder.

And it may interest you to know that I've set up a romance poll for this story, so if you haven't already, feel free to cast your vote. And apart from that, I haven't got anything else to add, so I'll see you all in the next one.

Be kind to one another,

Angry lil' elf.