Chapter 42: The boneyard

[20th of Midyear 4E 202]

After Delphine had attempted to command Fiona back to Skyhaven Temple, the Bosmer had sent Ragnar with a letter back to the Blade, and instead of traveling to Skyhaven Temple, the Dragonborn had decided that she needed to spend some more time on training and getting experience, including learning more shouts. For that purpose, it seemed to be best to visit the Greybeards again, and I really wanted to go there once more as well. Tentatively we had agreed to leave soon, but had to delay the plans for a few days as an urgent request from the Companions had come in; apparently, there was some kind of animal trouble around Loreius Farm, and my participation for dealing with that was wanted; this task had priority for now.

One hour later we were already passing the crossroads southeast of Whiterun – Aela, Ria, Hanni and Nanni and myself. Aela kept mostly quiet, but Ria was more of a talker, and I didn't mind listening to her at all; she had a pleasant voice, and I liked her way of talking. While some of what she said was just small talk and rumors and such, there was also more background on the Companions and events around Whiterun. I tried to join the others on various tasks whenever there was a good opportunity, but my other obligations had made me, let's say, less integrated with the group than the young Imperial, who had been accepted as full member at the same time with me. With me not only sleeping in the attic instead of the large common underground area, but also being off with the Dragonborn or other tasks for extended periods of time, I had fewer opportunities to socialize, and above and beyond that, some aspects of that socializing, in particular long evenings in the mead hall with plenty of drinking and boasting, did not appeal to me at all. I was accepted as I was, though, and the Harbinger approved of my somewhat different way of being a Companion and my frequent periods of being absent. Nevertheless, I liked to spend more time with individual shield siblings, and Ria was one of my favorites, not in a romantic way, but as a good friend and comrade; sometimes she even approached me and asked for some time to talk when something bothered her, and she always appreciated a friendly hug. This was something I had not had at all in my first life; I had not managed to gain female friends like that, as good comrades and easy to talk to, at all. Sure, I had had no problems getting along with female colleagues at work, and for a few years I even had had a female manager. However, having a real good and non-romantic female friend, that was kind of new for me, and I appreciated it a lot.

While we turned north to head towards the farm, Ria mentioned a couple of people who had come into Jorrvaskr to become Companions recently, and Kodlak had, as she said, rejected both of them. One had apparently not had the right spirit of heart, and the other one had utterly failed in the sparring with Vilkas, not showing enough potential according to the sword fighting master. I had always had some trouble understanding what that actually implied, when Kodlak decided if one was fit to be a Companion or not, and thus I asked:

"How can Kodlak actually tell about the right, what does he call it, 'strength of spirit' and such?"

"I am not sure" Ria replied, "but it is said that Harbingers always have a gift to find out if applicants are worthy to join."

"But this is apparently not always reliable" I objected. "After all, Kodlak accepted Erik."

"Yes, he did, but this is more an exception which confirms the rule. According to what I heard, Erik was the only misjudgment in many years."

I nodded, and I wondered if there were going to be any new whelps any time soon; time would tell. At this time, I was distracted from my thinking as Hanni and Nanni ran off to the right; an adult saber cat was approaching, and the hands on Battle-Born farm already prepared to fend it off if needed. However, my girls managed to 'convince' the other saber cat to turn its attention somewhere else, and eventually it strolled off towards the river. I watched the large animal why it moved away, and I really enjoyed being able to see and observe those creatures in nature instead of just a zoo in cages and behind bars and walls. Of course, zoos did not and could not present live saber cats, or maybe more commonly know as 'saber-toothed tiger', but they were well known based on fossils and such. My knowledge on those findings were very limited, but based on the adult saber cats I had seen in Skyrim so far, including the one which we had just seen, they seemed to be about the size of a large tiger. Ria apparently also watched the retreating animal and mused:

"Hanni and Nanni aren't quite that large yet; how long do you think they'll need before they are fully grown?"

"I don't know, of course, but I guess at least another year, maybe more."

"They are snowy saber cats, at least mostly; does that imply that they will be even larger?"

"I have not really compared sizes and weight between snowy and normal saber cats, so that I don't know; good question, though."

"Cuddling with such large animals will be interesting…"

"Yeah, I guess we'll have to be careful so that don't cuddle us to death then."

Ria chuckled, and I was glad that we were thinking along the same lines. Hanni and Nanni were of course not yet grown up; after all, they were not much more than one year old, according to my assumption. However, they had already grown beyond the size of wolves, and they were quite impressive to look at.

Following the road north, I had the opportunity to enjoy the scenery around me once again. Aela and Ria walked briskly, but that speed wasn't much more than a leisure walk for me with my long legs, so that I had plenty of energy to look around. The section of road between Whitewatch Tower and the crossroads at the river was well known to me, as I used it for my morning run several times a week when I was in the city, but nevertheless I enjoyed it every single time. There was a city on one side and lots of nature on the other, there was a river not far, and there were snow covered mountains in the background, the most prominent of them of course being the peaks of the Throat of the World, or whatever the name of the mountain itself was. This was, as I had admitted to myself multiple times already, close to my ideal visualization of where I wanted to be and live if I had a free choice, and I was so happy that it had become reality. Naturally, flora was abundant this time of the year; we were in Midyear, which was, if my understanding was correct, equivalent to June on Earth and thus close to midsummer. Judged by the more moderate differences between seasons and the less pronounced difference in daylight hours between summer and winter I assumed that the axis tilt of this planet was a little less than that of Earth, but it clearly existed; with my scientific and engineering background, I just could not help myself and had to analyze observations. Mountain flowers of different colors seemed to dominate the tundra around us, and I had learned enough to also recognize lavender, tundra cotton and a few more. I believed that the variety of flora was significantly greater than in the game, but while I might have recognized many plants and flowers typically found in Central Europeans parks and gardens, I did not know much about those commonly found on forest edges and in tundras; above and beyond that, there were of course a number of species totally unknown on Earth; a dream for a botanist's heart, I guess. Naturally, there was some wildlife, too, and there clearly were more birds around than in the vanilla game.

Almost one hour later we passed Whitewatch Tower, and the road further north was slightly downhill from here. One of the guards up at the tower waved at us, and Ria and I waved back. Hanni and Nanni had some fun running up to the tower, greeting the guards, and rushing back to us, not only once, but three times in a row; those two adolescent saber cats had a lot of excessive energy to spend as it appeared. Fortunately, they were well known by most of the hold guards, so that they had no reason for being alarmed by suddenly seeing two adolescent saber cats racing towards them. Hanni and Nanni were obviously snowy saber cats, but their fur pattern was somewhat different and special, with darker fur around the paws and the neck; I suspected that one of their ancestors, maybe a grandparent, could have been a regular saber cat. Anyway, that made it easier to distinguish them from 'normal' snowy saber cats.

Aela, the Huntress, was very reserved in her dealing with Hanni and Nanni, which was understandable, with her being a werewolf. Ria, on the other hand, was delighted to have my two girls around. In general, all Companions were automatically friends or, for the Circle members, at least allies to my girls; after all, Jorrvaskr was our home. Hanni and Nanni were very open and friendly with Ria, too, allowing touching, petting, and more, and the young Imperial warrior clearly enjoyed doing all that; she stated:

"I wish that I had such a wonderful animal for me!"

Aela huffed, but Ria didn't pay attention to her. With a smile I replied:

"Finding baby saber cats to raise may be rare, but you could try to search for baby bears, I guess?"

"Hey, that's an idea!"

"Just make sure that any baby bear you may find is actually abandoned; you wouldn't want to have Mama bear forcing her way into Jorrvaskr to retrieve her child!"

"Oh yeah, that wouldn't be so great. Although, Njada might have fun wrestling with her."

The huntress snorted, but didn't fully succeed in hiding her amusement. With light bantering like this we moved on, and soon we turned left and uphill towards the farm. On first glance, the farm area looked similar to when I had been here first, late last year, to help with the bears which had taken over the farmhouse where honey had been prepared. Upon closer inspection, though, the fields had been expanded and the house had been enlarged. We were greeted by a male Imperial and a female Altmer, and they introduced themselves right away:

"Hello there, you are Companions, right? I am Denius Loreius and this is my wife Lannarie; it's good to see you."

"Pleased to meet you, and yes, we are Companions indeed" Aela replied. "The Imperial lady next to me is Ria, the big Khajiit is B'lushona, and I am Aela, the Huntress."

"Oh well, you look like you can handle a bear or a saber cat on your own" the farmer told me, "specifically seeing that you have two saber cats with you already. You have them under control ,don't you?"

The latter was spoken with some concern, which was fully understandable; as far a I knew, I was the only person in Skyrim with tamed saber cats. Thus I hurried to explain:

"Those two are my girls and best friends; I adopted them when they were barely more than babies."

"You kind of raised them? This is possible?"

"I did not know if it was possible at that time, but apparently it worked, and I'm something like a father for them. So, how long have you been here?"

"We moved in just a few months ago, when we received a letter that my uncle Vantus and my aunt Curwe had died. My wife is actually more a smith than a farmer, and she has started to set up a forge down at the main road."

I had seen a couple of new buildings under construction, on the main road close to the location where the path to the farm branched off, but I had not paid much attention to them. Apparently, that was where Lannarie was building her forge. And, well, Vantus and Curwe had not just died, they had been brutally murdered, as far as I knew, likely by members of the Dark Brotherhood, as punishment for aiding in getting Cicero arrested. There was no reason to discuss that here, though.

"Ah, so do you get enough business for that out here?" Ria asked.

"You'd be surprised" the Altmer lady replied. "There is always the occasional adventurer or merchant who needs a sword sharpened or an armor mended; besides, horse shoes are always in demand, too."

"The forge is already operational?"

"It sure is and has been for a week or so, although I still need to complete the hut and the storage shed."

"So, it's more mending and improving than forging new weapons and armor, right?"

"Mostly, yes, but I hope to be able to expand my business. But, why don't we have a look and go to the place where we have trouble?"

The couple walked ahead in westerly direction, and after about ten minutes we approached an open area with a small pond in the center and rocks all around. There were a couple of dead mammoths on the ground and three adult saber cats feeding from them; further back we could also see two bears who looked dead, a larger one and a smaller one. An abundance of bones indicated that various animals had apparently come to death around here, likely not just mammoths. The wind was against us and the predators could not smell us early, but of course we kept our distance.

"I know that my aunt and uncle sometimes talked about that place here" Denius offered. "I can still recall their conversation, during my last visit here, with Aunt Curwe saying 'I had a look at that boneyard the other day, Vantus. The one to the Northwest.' and Uncle Vantus telling her 'I told you I don't like you going there. I've seen scavengers picking at the mammoths. They could be dangerous.' Now, I know that there is an iron vein south of the pond, but I don't dare to go there again, because predators are around there way too frequently. The vein is very conveniently located for my wife's smithing, but I wonder if we can do anything about the wild animals around."

Aela shook her head after she had looked around briefly and told the farmer:

"No, I don't think so. I know this spot; saber cats and bears have been here frequently for decades at least, and even if we drove them away now, they'd be back sooner or later. This is their place, and I strongly advise against even attempting to drive them away."

"So, no iron for the forge here?" the Altmer asked.

"I'm afraid not, unless you want to risk your life every time you go there."

"What a pity; I had hoped that we could do something about it."

"However, you're setting up the forge down at the road and not close to the farm, right?"

"Yes, correct, but as it would have been mostly downhill from here, that would have been an advantage for transporting the ore."

"I understand, but I happen to know that there is an iron vein east of the road and not far" Aela suggested. "You might want to have a look there."

"Really? We never looked there, at least not much."

"What about corundum?" I asked.

"Oh, that's not a problem at all; there are two veins close to each other on the farm lands, near the eastern border" Lannarie explained. "The availability of both iron and corundum encouraged me to start a forge, and I have also found an orichalcum ore vein further northwest; I plan to extend the variety of metals I work on."

"Is that good enough for steady business?"

"Maybe not yet, but there are also deposits for clay in the area, and I am thinking about manufacturing bricks from it."

"Sounds like a plan" Aela admitted.

We had probably ignored the caution we should have applied, being close to where saber cats and bears roamed, and we had spoken louder than we should have; the three predators had noticed us and were now moving in our direction while starting to growl. Lannarie and Denius looked worried and grabbed their weapons, but Aela and Ria just smiled, and the Huntress asked me:

"B'lushona, would you, please?"

Of course I knew what she meant and shouted: "KAAN!"

Right away the three adult saber cats stopped, and to prove the point, I stepped ahead and started to scratch one of them behind the ears, while Hanni and Nanni started to play with another one. Naturally, the two locals looked at me like I was crazy, and I heard Aela explaining about my shout. Ria went ahead and examined the two dead bears, and she stated:

"Looks like they made a mistake by coming here and were killed by the saber cats, maybe because they also wanted to feed from the dead mammoths. Look, this small bear here would have been great as my pet! What a pity that it's dead."

"Even if it was alive, can you imagine Vilkas' face once you came back to Jorrvaskr with a baby bear? Specifically when it is not house trained yet? Besides, Tilma would definitely not be amused to find her kitchen raided by a bear searching for sweets."

Ria started to giggle, and we both knew that this would not easily work out. Meanwhile, Aela had stepped closer and nodded. I had a question for her:

"Does this happen a lot? I mean, are mammoths killed a lot here?"

"Oh, no, not a lot at all. There aren't that many mammoths around, but occasionally one gets lost or wanders off from Blizzard Rest."

That seemed to make sense, and I vaguely recalled that a bandit camp was probably located further to the west; wasn't that the one which had many mammoth bones, tusks and skulls, the one I had even had a dream about? Anyway, we enjoyed the peaceful time while my shout lasted. I extended it once by shouting again, and then we slowly walked back to the farm. Was I ever going to be allowed to learn the second word of the shout? Maybe this was something I could ask the Greybeards about.

This time there were other people close to the farmhouse, too. Two young boys played there, supervised by a Nord woman, and in the background I could see a male Nord tending one of the fields. Denius explained:

"Our two boys came with us, of course, and we were lucky to find a Nord couple working for us. She supervises the kids and does some of the household chores, and he helps me on the fields, and sometimes they eve switch. This location is just south enough to benefit from the milder climate around Whiterun, and we're about to establish regular deliveries to Dawnstar via Fort Dunstad. Of course, Whiterun is so much closer, but here we need to compete with all the other farms further south, whereas there is much less competition and thus better prices further north. Now, can one of you please tell me exactly where this other iron vein is located?"

Aela nodded and suggested: "Sure, let's get over there."

The iron vein at the other side of the road was partially hidden and not easy to find, and Lannarie informed us:

"I sure was in this area before, but I must have missed it. Thank you very much for pointing it out!"

"Oh yes, and before I forget it" the farmer added while handing a coin purse over to Aela, "although you could not help us with the wild animals, I believe that you earn the agreed compensation for the advice and for showing us that vein here."

The huntress nodded and accepted the payment, and once were back on the road again, we turned south, while the other two went back to the farm. It was getting late, and we decided to spend the night at Whitewatch Tower. At least there was no need to stand guard here, as there were always hold guards on duty.

[Author's Notes: Not all of the Companion quests here can be resolved by doing exactly what the request was.]