Chapter 44: White River Watch

[22nd – 23rd of Midyear 4E 202]

Finally Fiona and I had managed to leave Whiterun again, first heading towards High Hrothgar. Of course, the Dragonborn had her two housecarls and her direwolf with her, and I was accompanied by Jordis and my two saber cats.

Originally we had planned to get beyond Valtheim Towers today, but our journey had been interrupted already shortly after the bridge at the crossroads, by a dragon circling around the mountains. The creature had first attacked people around what we assumed to be a bandit lair, but then also turned against us, and we had managed to kill it with good teamwork. As it appeared that a number of suspected bandits were dead now, courtesy of the dragon, we decided to enter the cave – White River Watch – and see what we could find.

First we searched the exterior area and made sure that the two people who had been attacked by the dragon were really dead; there was even a third dead person who we had not seen before; maybe he had come out at the wrong time. There was a campfire with some food and a couple of chests with minor loot, and the bandits did not have valuables on them. One of them had a note on him, and I showed it around:

Rodulf, Your little stunts try my patience.
I know my uncle has issues, but he is our watchman and you will respect him.
No more sneaking in and out. No more games with his ledger, or nails on his chair.
One more 'joke' and you'll see how funny a day in the cage can be. Hajvarr

None of us knew the background for that note, and we didn't really bother to worry or care about it; who was related to whom or who played pranks on whom among the bandits was of no particular interest to us. Cautiously we stepped into the cave, but at least initially we did not encounter anybody. Vaguely I recalled this place from playing the game and thought that there should be a blind man inside right after the entrance, but maybe he had gone outside and was the third corpse out there.

Anyway, Nymeria led the way, followed by Fiona, and my saber cats and I guarded the rear. Along one of the rock walls there were a few patches with various mushrooms, and I picked a few of them, mostly out of habit and not really caring about the species. A set of stairs and a passage later Fiona slowed down; likely she had heard something. Iona and the Bosmer both readied their bows and released their arrows at the same time, and then proceeded. It felt kind of odd for me to be in the back and not really able to see what was happening up front, but I started to get used to that; I did not always have to be in the lead position, and the Dragonborn in particular needed to get used to making her own decisions.

With my excellent hearing I could sometimes catch a few phrases uttered by more bandits, just before they fell to our arrows, and they seemed to talk about the next raid and potentially taming and training a wolf. I almost laughed when I heard the latter; wasn't Fiona's Nymeria a good example that this could actually be done? Although, they might be thinking about an adult animal which would be much more difficult to train than a juvenile one; likely, almost impossible. Anyway, the place did not provide any specific challenges for us, and only once did Fiona command Nymeria to jump forward and help. Lydia, Jordis and me could focus on searching for loot, and at least we found a few filled coin purses. In a large niche there was indeed a metal cage with a single wolf in it; with that animal showing its teeth and growling, it did not exactly look tamed to me; maybe said taming had just been an intention for the future. For now, we left the beast where it was.

Eventually we got to the very top, and a short passage lead to an overlook, a mostly flat area outside of the cave. Cautiously we moved out, and as expected, the outer area was empty, without a single person there. This was the place where the dragon had picked up the suspected bandit chief, and the wooden planks covering part of the rock make it more or less even were partially charred. There was a small table and a chair, both also charred, and a big locked chest leaning against the mountain side below the table; this probably reflected the typical 'boss chest'. Fiona picked the lock, and we found a couple of large coin purses, some high quality potions, and some more valuable items. The table had some food and a journal on it, and I started to read:

Pickings have been good these past few weeks. Must be because of the war – lots of merchants and cowards looking for somewhere to curl up and hide from all the fighting.
I've told the men to ease the burden on these poor souls by relieving them of all that gold they're carrying.
Guard patrols along the road are way up – we can barely set foot outside. Travelers must have complained to the Jarl.
It looks like the guard isn't ready to move against us yet, but the pressure is getting to the men.
I'm having Ra'jirr keep watch with Ulfr now – that should shut them up about our security. Damn that Balgruuf!
…
Now if we could just find out why this big shiny crystal is good for.
Most of the men feel irritated by the soft buzzing from it, but I find it oddly soothing; I claimed the room where it is as my private chambers.
Wonder who put it there?
 ...
A mutiny! Among my men! I can hardly believe it. Thank the gods Ulfr heard of it in time – he may be blind, but he's not deaf.
I killed Anjor myself. A couple of the others ran for it, but we hunted them down quick enough. Only Eisa and Ra'jirr got away. Good riddance.
There's rumor of a dragon attack on Helgen. A dragon! Hardly.
More likely just a story made up by some idiot frightened out of his wits by the war.
In any case, the guard seems to have pulled back to the city, so we've been able to run a few decent raids again.
One of the merchants had some odd cargo... bunch of pelts and animals, including a wolf.
I let the men roast the other animals, but the wolf I saved – be handy to have a guard dog like that, if we could just train him a little…
 …
Recently some of my men told me that they saw a huge flying creature not far away.
They need to have their eyes checked, I guess; there's no such thing as big flying creatures, as dragons have long been gone.

At the very least this kind of proved that those people here were indeed bandits, and it appeared that the person who had written the journal, likely the bandit boss, had learned the hard way about how real dragons actually were. Considering that the letter mentioned the rumors about a dragon attack at Helgen, which had happened almost a year ago, either rumors had been very slow to reach that place or the note was not a recent one, or maybe different parts had been written at different times; that was not relevant for us, though.

There was a lot of loot which was too heavy for us to take, but I decided to mention the place to the guards and soldiers at Valtheim Towers, so that they could pick up the remainders. On the way down from the top I suddenly heard a faint noise from a side passage we had missed when we had come from the other direction. I was getting curious and investigated, and the short passage led to a small chamber with a single bed, a table with a few valuables on it, and a large blueish glimmering crystal – a skyshard, or at least something I considered to be a skyshard, based on previous findings – on the ground in a corner, quite like the one I had seen in Stony Creek Cave and the trio below Hamvir's Rest before. I called my comrades in and showed them around, but none of them really knew what that was or implied. Obviously that room had been the private chamber used by the bandit boss, judged by the journal I had read. Further down we passed the cage with the wolf again, and Fiona decided:

"We can't leave it like this; there's nobody alive any longer to feed it."

"True" I replied, "but won't it attack us as soon as we open the cage?"

"Nymeria should be able to take care of that."

The Dragonborn did not hesitate and pulled the chain to open the cage. At first, it looked indeed like it wanted to attack, but the Bosmer's direwolf, already being larger than a normal adult wolf, growled, and the other wolf stepped back; after a quick look around, it ran towards the lower cave section and the exit, which was probably a good idea.

Back on the road, we proceeded on our way, but the next obstacle was presenting itself soon; from an elevation to our left somebody was blasting frost spikes in our direction. Another dragon? No, the caster was smaller, about human sized. Fiona, Iona, and Jordis retaliated with their bows, while I ran around the rock and found the stairs leading up, with Hanni and Nanni right on my heels. The mage or necromancer or whatever it was had their back to me, and before they realized the danger, my axe killed the person. While I still didn't like to kill someone, a person who attacked without warning and cause was fair game. There were also a few skeletons around, but my saber cats took care of them quickly. Jordis was now running up next to me; once she had verified that there nobody left to pose a danger, she pointed to some kind of obelisk like structure and explained:

"This is the Ritual Stone, my Thane."

"Ritual Stone?"

"Well, one of the Standing Stones, supposedly providing a specific benefit when touched."

"Ah, yes, of course. Do you believe in such effects, Jordis?"

"Not really, no. We were taught to find strength in ourselves instead of relying on such dubious magic; what about yourself?"

"Same here, Jordis. But say, how do you know what this stone is? Let me guess: Solid housecarl education?"

"Actually, yes, although I wouldn't have phrased it like this. The hold guard leaders and those training to be a housecarl in Solitude got educated on the stones and much more by Sybille Stentor herself."

"She's the court wizard in Solitude, right?"

"Correct. She is very knowledgeable, although something is odd about her."

"There is?"

"Some people say that she's been serving previous generations of Jarls in Haafingar, but she looks like she's still in her thirties or so. Herself being a Breton, she shouldn't have such an extended lifespan, but maybe she just knows powerful spells or potions to keep looking young."

"Sure, maybe."

If I had that right, Sybille was a vampire, but I decided not to talk about that right now. Instead, I tried to remember if I had touched one of the three Guardian Stones between Helgen and Riverwood, last year after Alduin had showed up first, but wasn't sure; anyway, there was no reason to bother with one of those stones now, unless something was significantly different here from the game. Thus, I did not really care what the Ritual Stone was supposedly good for, and I kept my distance from it. When I had collected the little bit of loot from the location and got down again, Fiona had walked the short path to the north, further down and closer to the river, and she found a cave entrance, according to her shouting. While approaching, I could hear Lydia's explanation:

"This place is called 'Graywinter Watch', my Thane. It has a reputation for sometimes being inhabited by ghosts."

"Ghosts? This I need to see!"

Before anybody could stop her, the Bosmer got in, and I followed very quickly. However, we were both out again within a few seconds, and Fiona told the others:

"Ghosts indeed – I thought I saw one shaped like a giant troll or so. In general, I don't mind ghosts at all, but somehow I decided that this is not on my task list today. Shall we proceed?"

A ghost of a giant troll? Yes, that was what I had seen as well, or at least it had looked like this. Something sounded in the back of my head, but I could not recall any details. I was not specifically afraid of ghosts, considering that I had been fighting quite a few of them below Hamvir's Rest, but the one in there had somehow very clearly made it clear that we'd better leave right away; apparently Fiona, who claimed that she loved watching horror movies and thus should not be afraid of ghosts, had had that feeling as well; it was less a feeling of fear, but more one of respect and authority, even if that seemed strange related to a ghost. So, we got back to the road and walked east, and in the late afternoon we arrived at the Valtheim Towers. This was a good stop to stay for the night, and of course we were welcome here. Most places in the towers were occupied, but that was all right; after all, we had summer now and there was no rain, so that we all found a nice soft grass area and dropped our packs and bed rolls there. We had dinner with the soldiers, and I used the opportunity to mention that we had raided 'White River Watch' and that there was still some loot there. The hold guards would want to make sure that there wasn't anything left which could be of any use for a potential group of other bandits to take advantage from.

On the next day we left early, and we started our hike of the day by following the winding road downhill. Almost constantly I could hear the various sounds from the river, as water cascaded down the multiple rapids there; a few times, when the background noise was more subdued, several growls from a bear indicated at least one of those animals being somewhere around. Eventually we reached lower ground and the road evened out; ahead of us we saw the bridge across the side river whose name I did not know. On the other side we could hear and see people working on both sides of the road, but they fled towards and into Fort Amol when we approached. When had crossed the bridge, we noticed a clay deposit on the left, close to the road, and an iron ore vein to our right, at some distance. Maybe the people were about to do some repairs in the fort and had decided to not trust us?

As it was also conceivable that the workers were now about to alert the fort inhabitants to our presence, we tried out best to stay in and behind the bushes when we passed the fortification, and although we could see movement on the balustrades, we managed to avoid detection and attack. This was, in my opinion, another one of those places which really should be cleared and occupied by official forces for road safety. The next bridge allowed us to get across a river which Lydia called 'Darkwater River', once again proving her great knowledge in geography and locations:

"It originates in Lake Geir and runs down to merge with the White River just here."

"Is that the same river which passes through Ivarstead?"

"It is, actually, and we will walk along it for some time later on our way there."

Fiona found the narrow trail again branching off from the main road close to Fort Amol, right after getting across the second bridge. Looking back at the bridges, I found that they looked very similar; both were robust and sturdy looking stone bridges, apparently built to last centuries at least. In the game, I had sometimes used a mod to vary bridge design, but here function probably came first.

There was also an old road sign pointing out the direction, but it was nowadays almost completely covered by vegetation and hard to find; the inscription was barely readable and looked more like 'I...st..d' than 'Ivarstead'. Road maintenance services to keep signs readable and updated at all times were likely not very high on anybody's priority list; maybe we could consider ourselves lucky that there was a road sign at all, even a weather-beaten one.

Walking along the path was nice, even going uphill, and we took our time. After all, we were not in a hurry, and we could afford to enjoy nature while we walked. As this was the first time for me on the trail, I stopped occasionally to look around and enjoy the scenery, but also to revel in the variety of smells and sounds around. Wait, no, I had been here before at least once, when I had had Vilja with me, but we had gone the other direction, from Ivarstead down instead of up to the town; thus, the path did not really look familiar. Besides, when I had been next to Vilja, her almost constant chatter had been quite distracting. My current companions did not talk very much, and only occasionally Fiona had a question which was promptly answered by one of her housecarls.

The winding trail had not offered any surprises, and the few times a creature had come close, Hanni and Nanni had always been able to warn us. Once a huge log had fallen exactly right to from a connection between both sides of the river, and I could not resist the temptation to step on it and cross the river while balancing on the trunk. I had loved to do similar activities as a child already, and this one here wasn't very difficult, as the log was a big one; a few times I had to jump across a few branches, though, which blocked progress on the upper side. When I had reached a small rock platform on the other side, I looked back, and I saw Fiona doing the same. When she got off on this side, she smiled and claimed:

"That's fun! I really should do fun things more often!"

"Well, I don't think that there is a law saying that you being a Dragonborn excludes fun."

"Right!"

She almost ran back on the log, and I could see that Lydia and Iona had an expression of worry on their faces. And true, falling into the water from up here might not be fatal, but there was a strong current and many rapids, so going in was probably dangerous. Nothing happened, and with a smirk on my face I followed. I almost made it back, but when another branch blocked part of the log, I slipped when jumping and nearly lost my balance. I really needed to be more careful; after all, this was not a game where I could easily reload if something bad happened. Fortunately, I was able to regain my balance and could at least pretend that nothing had happened. Jordis, though, had sure observed me, and her look resembled that of a worried mother, if I was not mistaken. She did not say anything, but she did not need to; I got the point.

Despite going slow, we easily managed to arrive in Ivarstead easily before dusk, and we headed right for the local tavern. Wilhelm apologized right away when he saw us entering his inn:

"Folks, it's good to see you again, but there's only one room available today; all of the others have already been taken by pilgrims."

"Peak season, right?"

"Right; this it is. Many people love to walk up a few hours at least."

"No problem; we'll take that one room for the Lady Dragonborn and one of her housecarls, and the rest of us will sleep somewhere outside."

"You're welcome to claim my barn again, my milk drinker friend."

He said the last with a smirk, and I knew the proprietor well enough to know that it was not meant as an offense. Rather, he provided a large jug of milk right away, offering it to me:

"Your saber cats might be thirsty."

"Thank you, Wilhelm, I appreciate that."

While I poured some of the milk into a bowl so that Hanni and Nanni could drink, Fiona asked:

"What about dinner?"

"No problem; working on it! What would you like?"

Once we had ordered and now waited for our food, we decided that Iona and Nymeria were going to stay in the room with Fiona, while the rest of us were going to use the barn. Of course, before retiring for the night, we also discussed if we should all ascend the mountain or only some of us. We knew that the Greybeards did not like to get many visitors and that there was only a single large guestroom available up there, and so we decided that Fiona would have Iona with her, while Lydia and Jordis were going to stay in Ivarstead and get the single available room for a week or two; we did not know exactly how long we would stay up with the Greybeards. My housecarl was, understandably, not really happy with that choice, claiming that it was her duty to be with me and protect me, but she had to bow to the situation.

After we had eaten our dinner in the taproom, a familiar person came in and joined us; Siona, the Redguard. We had met her before in Ivarstead, and it was nice to have somebody to talk to. The lady was a friend of Rayya, and she was somewhat disappointed to learn that Rayya was not with us today. She asked:

"So, are you going up again tomorrow?"

"Yes, this is our intention" Fiona replied.

"Weather looks good, too" I added. That was not based on my own observations, but on what Wilhelm had told me; he should know.

"Say, would you mind if I joined you?" the Redguard asked. "Not all the way up, mind you, just half a day, so that I can get back on the same day. Myself being a Redguard, getting in very cold areas is no fun, but a little bit of a mountain hike in summer will be nice."

"Sure, we'd appreciate your company" the Dragonborn accepted the offer.

While the others kept talking and drinking for some more time, I excused myself and left the inn together with my girls. I helped them to find a proper spot to do their evening business – they had somehow learned that emptying their bowels in the middle of a city street was not really appreciated by others – and did my own chores, using the cold water of the river for washing. Finally I stretched my body in Wilhelm's barn and got to sleep thinking about the upcoming trip up the steps tomorrow.

[Author's Notes: High Hrothgar coming up once more. However, there is no fast travel in this story, and they have to hike up there.]