The Legend of Zelda: Skyrim - Chapter 5 - Welcome to Riverwood
Yes. Yes, I know I have not updated in a very very long time, I hit a severe road block in that I had no idea how this was going to go, but now I do. This story will now have at LEAST 70 chapters, and I'm gonna enjoy writing this.
The next morning seemed to arrive far too quickly.
Before Link knew it, everyone had woken up, done various morning things, eaten, and now the group was walking on the dirt path towards some place by the name of Riverwood.
Ralof and Hadvar were talking to each other about "the times before", whatever that meant, and the two men occasionally pointed out landmarks as they passed them.
Eventually, the group stopped on the path and both Ralof and Hadvar pointed out a massive black structure in the distance. "See that thing way out there? That's Bleak Falls Barrow. Hadvar told me once that he used to have nightmares when he was young about it."
"So did you!"
Ralof shook his head. "There's a lot of rumors about Bleak Falls. Nothing good has ever come of it, supposedly those ruins are crawling with undead."
Link gazed up at the towering arches in the distance. "How did they create all of that?"
"No one knows. With their bare hands, most likely. Come on, we've lingered here for far too long." Hadvar started to walk down the path and the others soon followed.
Around two minutes later, five wolves of various ages and coat colors stepped from the trees on the right side of the dirt path and gazed at the group for several seconds, before looking at Link. The wolves titled their heads back for some reason, howled, and then trotted back into the trees, as if they had never been there to begin with.
"What was that?" Ralof looked confused and so did everyone else besides Link. The Stormcloak shook his head and continued walking.
After a while, the group reached three stones, facing each other on a flat rock. "These three stones? These are the Guardian Stones. It's said that when you get close to one, if it chooses you, you gain some of its power. Go on, walk up to one and see what it does."
As Link stepped up to the first one, Ralof stated what it was. "That one is the Warrior stone, it supposedly makes you stronger in battle. The one to your left if the Thief stone, makes it easier to do various thieving things. The one on your right is the Mage, which helps your magic, if you've got any."
Link hesitated, then reached out and laid his left hand on the "Warrior" stone. It felt cold, and there was something carved into it. The stone started to glow, and then it flashed blue, revealing that the carving was someone holding a war axe and shield; then the stone flashed again and shot a blue light into the sky, punching the clouds. As the light died and the stone went silent, Link felt some sort of energy surge through him and he stepped back from the stone.
"Well? Did it work?" Hadvar crossed his arms and tilted his head back a bit.
"I believe so...I do feel stronger."
Ralof grinned. "Well done. I'd like to stay and see if you can choose more than one stone, but we really must be going, we've wasted enough time as it is."
Once again, the group started walking.
There was obvious tension in the air due to the fact that two opposing sides were so close to each other. Hadvar and Ralof looked nervous, as if the other soldiers from both sides would start fighting at any given moment.
Link ignored them and merely focused on his surroundings. Skyrim appeared to be mostly like Hyrule, with vast forests and dirt paths. Strangely, he felt right at home here.
After around ten more minutes of yet even more walking, something came into view.
There was a gate in the distance, guards standing on the balcony. The group had reached Riverwood at last.
A lot of things happened in quick succession after that. First, the group was surrounded by guards and Ralof had to explain what was going on before the guards attacked everyone. Second, the group slowly disbanded and various soldiers from both sides either returned home in Riverwood or stayed for a bit and then left to go do other things. Third, both Ralof and Hadvar gave Link a tour of Riverwood, then took him to the Riverwood Trader, where the three of them heard muffled yelling from inside the building.
"Well one of us has to do something!"
"We are done talking about this."
"Well what are you going to do then, huh? Let's hear it!"
"I said no!..."
Hadvar, Ralof, and Link merely shared a confused glance, before Ralof opened the door and they entered the building, only to find that a man named Lucan Valerius was arguing with his sister, Camilla, over something.
Lucan shook his head. "...No adventures, no theatrics, no thief-chasing!"He then noticed that they had company. "Oh, customers. Sorry you had to hear that."
Ralof waved a hand. "It's alright, Lucan, now what's all this about?"
Lucan only said in response, "Yes, we did have a bit of a... break-in. But we still have plenty to sell. Robbers were only after one thing. An ornament, solid gold. In the shape of a dragon's claw." before he went back to arguing with his sister.
There was a flight of wooden stairs to Link's left. Various food items and plants hung over a fireplace in front of him, while a table and chairs were before the fireplace. To the right of the fireplace was the counter, filled with various displayed merchandise. Behind Lucan was shelves with even more merchandise. At the right side of the room were cabinets and shelves that had more merchandise.
Link waited for a bit before walking up to the counter and rapped the counter once with the axe's pommel. That got Lucan's attention. "I'm terribly sorry, it's just that the two of us are at our wits end here. Is there something I can help you with?"
"I can get this...Claw back for you, if you want."
Lucan's face lit up. "You would?! Oh, this is fantastic! I shall pay you four hundred Septims if you can bring it back in one piece. Of course, I will gladly give you supplies before you go."
Link nodded, then got an idea.
The Hylian took out his Rupee satchel from the near infinite satchel he had - for some reason it hadn't been taken from him - and then emptied it completely onto the counter - twenty five Rupees in all, 5 green, purple, orange, red, and light blue gems. "I'd like to exchange all of these for Septims."
Lucan's face lit up even more and he started nodding frantically. "I shall give you seven thousand, one hundred Septims for all of them."
"I'll take it."
The twenty five Rupees were exchanged for Septims, then Lucan told Link that he would receive a ten percent discount on whatever supplies he wanted to buy for the trip to Bleak Falls Barrow.
The Septim amount at the end of the transaction - after subtracting from his total Septim count at the time - was six thousand, five hundred and seventeen.
Link ended up buying three Iron Arrows for 3, two Potion of Minor Healing, for 17 each so 34, one Potion of Minor Magicka for 20, one Potion of Regeneration for 380, one Potion of Resist Fire for 96, two loaves of bread for 4, three Eidar Cheese Wheels for 13 each so 39, one Potion of Cure Disease for 79, and one iron sword for 25.
After this, he tested the iron sword, found it was to his liking, thanked Lucan and his sister for their hospitality, then traveled with Ralof to his sister's house. His sister was named Gerdur, she had a husband named Hod, and a son named Frodnar
The house was nice enough. It was in an L shape, with a dining and cooking area on his left, and bedrooms and a bar on his right. However, Link didn't have time to walk around the house and see everything, because he suddenly felt extremely tired. Ralof must have noticed this, because the man walked him over to a bed, and then he was pitching forwards -
Ralof caught Link as he fell, moved him so he would sleep more comfortably, then walked over to the table where his sister and brother-in-law were sitting and sat down.
"So, Ralof, I heard you and the boy escaped a dragon attack?"
Ralof nodded. "We did. He somehow convinced those Imperials that traveled with us to cooperate."
"Did he now?" Hod stroked his chin in thought for a second before leaning forwards a bit."He a Wood Elf? Bosmer?""No, he says his people are named Hylians.""Hi-lee-ans?""Yes. Hylians. He says that he's from a land named Hyrule, and that it's most likely past the Summerset Isles, to the West."
Hod nodded. "How old would you say he is? He's not eighteen, I could tell that as soon as I laid eyes on him."
Ralof leaned back in his chair a bit. "You know, he never told me. I'd say he's around either fifteen or sixteen, maybe even seventeen."
Gerdur drummed her fingers on the table in thought before speaking. "Well he's certainly well mannered. I heard he took up Lucan's offer to go get that claw of his back?"
Ralof nodded. "Yes, Hadvar and I are going with him."
"Hadvar? You mean the Hadvar you used to run around with when you were a boy?""Yes. I suppose we've been trying to reconcile, it feels as if our friendship has returned, at least somewhat."
Just then, Ralof was interrupted by something. A black and white wolf with blue eyes was standing near the table, merely looking up at him. Ralof grabbed the sword above the fireplace and held it in case the wolf attacked. Hod grabbed the handle of his axe while Gerdur jumped in her chair from shock.
"Hello, how did you get in here?"The wolf wasn't talking, obviously, and Ralof shook his head, then lowered the sword a bit. "Well, as long as you don't attack us, I suppose we'll get along just fine."
The wolf walked over to the door, sat down beside it, and eyed Ralof with a slightly impatient look.
"So you need to go out, do you?" Ralof got up from where he had been sitting, crossed the room, opened the door, and watched the wolf calmly walk outside.
Hod had gotten up and was now standing beside Ralof. "Well behaved for a wolf, isn't he?"
The two men watched in silence as the wolf walked to the edge of the porch, looked down at the steps for several seconds, slowly walked down them, then disappeared from view around the side of the house.
Ralof and Hod shared a glance, then the two men decided to follow the wolf and see what they did.
However, when they walked around to the back of the house, the wolf was gone, but standing there on the dirt path, barefoot, unarmed, silently looking up at the blazing lights in the sky, was Link.
"First time seeing Skyrim's Aurora?"
The Hylian whirled around, spraying dirt everywhere as he did so, and looked as if he was ready to fight someone. Then he saw Ralof and Hod and visibly relaxed a bit."Ralof! What are you doing out here?"
The man merely crossed his arms. "I could ask you the same question."
Link began to look everywhere except towards the two men. "I..I was...Ah...I was just…"
"You know what?" Hod glanced sideways at Ralof "I think he was that wolf that we saw."
Ralof tilted his head to the side a bit in thought. "Perhaps. He certainly is avoiding my question, isn't he?"
"You asked me two questions. The answer to both is yes."
Hod nodded. "I knew it. Look, we aren't mad at you for not telling us before, about the wolf bit, we're alright with that."
Ralof also nodded. "Other people might have seen you."
"I didn't even think about that. Do you think they'll do anything?
Hod looked up at the blazing lights overhead for a moment. "Who knows? I suppose as long as you can control that transformation of yours, it'll be fine. Now, about the Aurora, it's been in the sky as anyone can remember. It changes colors and shapes depending on what time of the year and at night it is, and the location of where you are in Skyrim."
Ralof was about to add on to what Hod had said, but was interrupted by a loud scream and then drunken shouting.
There were six guards trying to pull apart a Nord and Bosmer, who were drunkedly trying to hit each other. The two men were yelling various insults, such as "milk drinker" and "son of a horker" but those weren't the main problem - it was making sure that Camilla was safe, for she was currently sitting on the ground, in between the Bosmer and Nord, unable to move.
"Alright, alright, I've had enough of you two!" Hod ran up and shoved the two men apart, then started to yell at both of them. "Sven, Faendal, this has gone on for long enough!"
The two men shoved their captors back and then the Nord knocked Hod to the ground. Ralof ran up, as did two guards, and the three tried to deal with the two drunken men while the other three guards helped Hod up. While everyone seemed to distracted, Link darted over, ducked under the fighting men, and helped Camilla up.
The two shared a glance, then Camilla darted away, towards the porch of the Riverwood Trader, where Lucan was standing. They seemed to talk for a bit, before Lucan ran towards the fight and helped deal with the drunken men.
Somehow, no one was injured, the guards took Sven and Faendal to the Inn to "think things over", while Lucan thanked Ralof, Hod, and Link for their efforts. To their shock, he then offered to give them two hundred extra Septims in addition to the additional four hundred.
"Here. I just so happen to have it on me."
He was holding a small cloth pouch filled with said two hundred Septims. Ralof reached out to take it, but hesitated. "How about we split it three ways, of course, one would get one extra."
Hod nodded. "Personally, since Link's the one who got Camilla out of harm's way, it should all go to him."
Link seemed to reluctantly accept the two hundred Septims before the two Valerius' returned to the building for the night. "Should we leave for Bleak Falls now or in the morning?"
Ralof shook his head. "It'd be a death sentence trying to head there now. We leave in the morning, around sunrise. Are you returning with us?"
"No, not yet, at least. I'd like to stay up a while longer."
"Well, stay up if you want, Ralof and I are heading back to the house."
The guards started to return to their posts as the two men left Link and returned to Hod's house.
The young Hylian stood on the porch of the Riverwood Trader for a minute, then walked to the edge, jumped down, then started to walk towards the stone bridge in the distance. When he neared it, he didn't cross it, but instead walked over to a tree, looked up at it for a moment, then jumped upwards and grabbed the lowest branch. Link then pulled himself up, then continued to climb the tree until he was near the top. Beyond the bridge was a stone path that lead in two directions. He decided that the path to the left had to lead to Bleak Falls, but the right one seemed to disappear in places, for there were hills and valleys covered in various grasses, trees, and wildflowers.
Link then sensed something above him and he looked up, only to see a massive thing flying overhead. It was a dragon, and it appeared that he had been the only one to notice the beast. Strangely enough, Link felt as if he wanted to spit fire, to freeze things, to summon storms and wind, to fly, and to stand above all those who exist - the feelings were gone, for the dragon had flown out of sight behind a nearby mountain.
'What was that? Why was I able to sense the Dragon before seeing it? And those things I felt, why did I feel them? ...I think I'll dwell on this tomorrow, something tells me getting that Golden Claw will take a few hours. Or ten.'
The Hylian looked up at the Aurora for as long as he could, before he eventually drifted off.