A rugged land of cold [Skyrim]

[Spicy]

Chapter 10



Having come to a consensus we returned to the cave. I'm probably going to adopt the same approach as Kaieela. Meaning I'm going to keep my eyes on M'aiq and, if he so much as moves his whiskers in an aggressive way, I'll test my new axe on him.

He was still standing by the fire, his tail wrapped around him. He didn't look dangerous, that's for sure. The fact that he didn't carry any weapons was off putting.

"Look at me now. I feel uncomfortable if someone isn't armed" I thought bitterly. My nerves were filled with tension and even the few hours of sleep didn't help much with that. It seems, just like Kaieela, I already assume there's danger everywhere. Seeing something that doesn't conform to that strikes me as odd.

"He probably has magic though, enough not to need a weapon" Said my paranoia "But, it's not paranoia if you're right damn it!"

"Hey, how come you're not carrying any weapons on you? Skyrim is a dangerous place." I asked M'aiq. My approach was as subtle as a bull in a china shop, but it was the only one I could think of. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Kaieela playing close attention.

He turned his head from the fire "M'aiq has back problems. He can not drag around lumps of metal in his travels. M'aiq is also a pacifist, otherwise he would not let himself be chased around by Lester." he said with a completely straight face. Kaieela was already scowling at him.

"I… see."

I didn't.

Alright, so that did nothing to alleviate my concerns and neither those of Kaieela I'd wager. Regardless of his… back problems, he could still have a dagger in his boot or something like that. Though the final part of his explanation caught my attention, Kaieela's as well.

"Who's Lester?" she asked him while handling me my other fur armor.

M'aiq grimaced as if he was remembering some unpleasant things. "M'aiq has quite an appetite and often gets very hungry on the road. Some time ago he found Lester and took some of his meat. He… wasn't very pleased about it and began chasing M'aiq around the forest."

Kaieela raised an eyebrow at his explanation "So you got lost while running from a well deserved beating. Why did you have to take his food in the first place, couldn't you have asked?"

M'aiq shook his head "If a few slaps were enough for M'aiq to repay the meat, he would have tragically suffered them. But no, from the look on Lester's face, he was planning to make M'aiq his dinner." he said while hugging his himself for comfort.

"He won't be a problem right? From what you're telling me he is around here in the forest" I asked. I would prefer not having to fight again, but I highly doubt it would come to that over a few bits of meat.

"Lester should have not left the forest yes. As long as we run fast enough, he won't be able to catch us."

"Run? Can't he be spoken to? It's just some food" said Kaieela

M'aiq suddenly look tired "No, among the numerous vulgarities M'aiq has blessed him with, M'aiq has also tried to plead for his life. Lester can't understand civilized conversation unfortunately" he said with a frown.

A barbaric man with anger issues then, even if you ignore M'aiq cussing at him. This Lester could prove to be a headache, but I doubt he would be foolish enough to try anything violent with the three of us. Surprisingly, Kaieela didn't seem to care either way.

"On the off chance we manage to meet each other in this frozen place, we'll figure it out then and there." she said with a shrug. "Now, Aron here managed to convince me to take you along. Don't make me regret it or you'd wish this Lester fellow would have caught you before."

"M'aiq appreciates your help. He assures you that you will not regret it." he said while standing up. "Are we ready to depart?"

I looked at Kaieela and she gave me a nod. Throwing a glance over the cave in case we forgot anything and putting the fur armor over my shoulder, I left for the exit. Kaieela and M'aiq not far way.

Once we reached the outside again, I could see a bit of sunlight coming in through the tree's upper branches. The sky looked relatively clear and a couple of stars could be seen fading away here and there.

"Which way do we go Kaieela?"

"Just like yesterday, we head north. Flakreath is directly in that direction from the border. Even if, by some miracle, we miss it, we'll just turn back a bit once we hit lake Ilinalta."

I nod "Alright, let's move then, no point in wasting daylight."

"Wait." Kaieela suddenly said then turned towards M'aiq "You're walking in front." she stated with no room for negotiation in her tone.

M'aiq just shrugged and went forward "Please try not to stare at M'aiq's tail. It makes him very uncomfortable."

Kaieela scowled, but didn't respond.

The conversation now over, we began moving. M'aiq in front, Kaieela and me to his sides and a bit to the back. With the exception of some crows and a passing fox we didn't see any other living thing in this place for hours on end.

I was very hungry by this point, not exactly starving, but close enough. Kaieela was putting up a brave front, but I knew she was feeling it too. If this kept up and we don't find anything to eat, I highly doubt we will reach Flakreath. We both burned through a lot of energy running and fighting, I even lost quite a bit of blood from that dog's bite. I didn't know how magic worked, but it had to consume something. Kaieela should be feeling the effects no doubt.

In the virtual Skyrim you often encountered deer and rabbits running through the wilds, but I haven't seen either one of those for the moment. Though, even if I did find some, it's not like I could do anything. I don't know anything about hunting and I'm not going to chase a buck halfway across the province just so I could hit it with my axe. Then comes the problem of butchering, which, again, I don't know how to do.

With these thoughts on my mind we walked and walked, avoiding the occasional pitfall and thorny bushes. My hunger made me even more weak than I already was and the axe on my back was starting to get heavier. Kaieela lost her breath a few times so we had to take quite a few breaks. The only one unaffected by the effort was M'aiq. He was easily dealing with the rough terrain. I don't know if the grace he had while moving came from his own experience as a traveler or the feline nature of khajiits.

Close to sunset we set up camp near a huge tree. It was a bad spot and quite in the open, but it was the best we could find. We did have some luck though. When we were gathering wood for the fire, Kaieela managed to find a couple of snowberrie bushes. I also stumbled on some mushrooms, but their bright blue color was less then assuring. Both Kaieela and M'aiq agreed we should stay away from them.

The snowberries were round in shape and had dull, red color. They tasted mostly sweet with a bit of sour at the end. The many seeds in them were annoying, but me and my stomach couldn't care less at this point. Kaieela reluctantly shared some with M'aiq who unceremoniously went through them like popcorn.

Night quickly arrived and we had a bit of a dispute over the watch order. Kaieela wanted one of us to keep watch with M'aiq while the other slept. I wouldn't have a problem with that, but she wanted to go first and alone. While I understood her need to be alone with her thoughts, it would be foolish to have the khajiit, the one with night vision, not take first watch.

We argued for a bit, but in the end she agreed to let me and M'aiq go first. We settled down and began waiting the night out. I had to wake up M'aiq a few times, but nothing special happened otherwise. I already learned my lesson from last time and every time I felt sleepy I would rub some snow on my face to freshen up. The coldness was good at keeping me awake, but so were my thoughts and the forest's different noises.

Was that sound made by some creature out to get us or by an owl flying overhead? I certainly didn't know, but my imagination was having a field day with it. By the time our shift came to an end I was already contemplating how to fight off werewolves, vampires and giant mudcrabs.

 

[JTibbs]

Lester is probably a bear or something

 

[Endgames]

Lester is probably a bear or something

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I was thinking something like a troll myself. Could be a Falmer?

 

[Spicy]

Holgder POV



"Where the hell is my mead?" Sunrise was already here and I was not drunk enough to welcome it. "If that dumb bastard got into my stash again I'm going to flail the skin of his bones."

"Bah! You talk big, but Jenskr would beat you into the ground faster then you could blink." said Bjorel, my partner for this past night's watch duty. He was making a long face at the empty bottle in his hand.

"What if he goes after your skooma next time huh? Gut him in his sleep like you tried to do to me a few weeks ago?"

He gave me a sour look and waved his hand like it was no big deal "You still haven't forgotten about that? You know I had to much of the stuff in me that day, thought you were a draugr."

He had the nerve to laugh about it. Lucky for me the bastard wasn't seeing straight and missed or I would have been feeding the crows.

"As for what I'd do to Jenskr… Damn, I don't know." he said with a frown.

I scoffed "What? Big, bad Bjorel is to scared to give that drunk a beating?"

He shook his head "Yeah, well… You try starting something with the boss so strung up these days. Last time someone walked out of line was a week ago. You saw what happened."

Yeah, I saw everything as did more than half of the boys. Two morons got into a fight over a sweetroll of all things! Yeah, sure we don't come across that often around here, but damn if this isn't one of the reasons people don't take our group seriously.

Anyway, something like that wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, aside from the stupid sweetroll. The boss had rules in place, no fighting among us was one of them. We had nothing to treat injuries if fools gutted each other when they took things too far, as they often did. Though the boss soon learned not to care if no weapons were involved and people stuck to punching their teeth out. It was something of a half-respected rule, like most of them actually.

Everything changed when that shady fellow showed up. He hashed up some kind of deal with the boss. Why he listened to him and didn't smash his face in I wouldn't know, but after that there was no more playing around here.

The boss stopped the brawl midway and thrashed the unlucky fools. Then he told us about the next raid and to get our sorry asses ready.

That was a week ago, the raid would happen today, at noon. A caravan will be coming from the border along the east road. It was bigger then anything we would even think to rob, but the boss was somehow convinced it was a good choice. Our job was to do what we did best while our "friend" lynched some poor bloke. Why? I didn't care, apparently he'd pay us a good sum after and that meant everything among our ilk.

What everyone else didn't know was that I was planning on scampering out, not just from the raid, but the whole bandit operation too. A couple of nights ago, the boss took off with more than half of us to shake down some farmer or something. I didn't care. What was left of us here were either dead drunk or about to be.

Except me. Jenskr drank all my mead so I was left to dry out.

But then I saw an opportunity. I wanted to get away from here for some time now, but the right timing never arrived. With the raid in a few days and the boss out, I sneaked into the orc's private quarters. I wasn't looking for his gold, I wasn't even looking for that enchanted war hammer of his. No, I was looking for some scrolls, Spell scrolls to be exact.

I heard rumors that the boss had a few stashed away somewhere and I was hoping to help myself to one of them. After about a quarter of an hour I finally found them. Three in total, stuffed at the bottom of an old chest. I knew how to read, nothing fancy, but I could figure out what each letter meant. I piked the most destructive sounding one and slipped away unnoticed.

I really wanted to take all of them, but I had nowhere to hide them. Even now, the "Great Fireball" scroll, was inside the workings of my armor and away from sight.

The boss and the boys wouldn't let me leave that easily. Being hunted down both by the law and your former comrades would give me no small amounts of headaches.

The plan I came up with was perfect, solving both of my problems. When everybody would be charging the caravan's guards I would use the spell scroll, blasting everyone to Oblivion.

Then with no one in my way I would just waltz back here, nab everything shiny and run for the hills to Riften. There I could pawn off everything I didn't need and finally pay up my bounty.

I'd be a free man, with money in his pockets and no past to catch up to him.

"Let's go, our shift's over. The boss wants us to gather down at the creek." said Bjorel

We got up and made our way over there. The other fellas were already gathered. Most of them wore vile smiles on their faces. The caravan supposedly had quite a bit of valuables on it. Good motivation it seems. Gold, jewels, women…

"Alright you runts listen up!" Said the big brawny orc in front "Our target will be coming through the east side of the valley, so right up our usual spot. No need to bother your puny minds with any complicated stuff. Leave our friend to his business and no touching the women until we have everything secured. Understood!?"

A chorus of "Aye" resounded in the small clearing. Everyone was pumped up for this one since we never had a target this big.

After a couple of hours we reached the road and positioned ourselves as usual. We had to wait a bit more. Finally word came that the caravan has just passed the border. It won't be long now until it gets here.

The Spell scroll was shifting uncomfortably in my armor, but I didn't want to draw any attention to it so I left it as is.

A little past noon, the target finally arrived. Our archers fired a volley of arrows, nailing the head wagon's driver right in the throat. Even one of the guards got hit in the shoulder. I heard a few of the fellas howling as they ran for the prize, their weapons out. The boss, as usual was the one leading.

I made to sure to keep at the back, where no one would notice me as they were dealing with the guards and the other poor schmucks who jumped in the fray. It looked like they had eight people in total, two of them were hired guards.

The boss ordered the rest of us to distract them while he and a couple of boys took out the armed civilians. It didn't take long. The orc covered in steel with an enchanted weapon smashed through his foes like a mammoth through paper.

As he made to regroup with the rest of us I saw my chance. I took a distance from everyone and took out the scroll. It was really easy to use it. I took of the wax seal and opened it. The squiggly letters glowed amber for a second before the paper turned to ash and I was left with a flame in my right hand.

I somehow knew that it responds to my will. All I had to do is point and order it to fire.

So I waited another couple of seconds until the group was whole again. Then I raised my hand towards them.

"Have fun in Oblivion you scumb-"

"Woof, woof!"

The bark sounded right from behind me, old Hadsnr's mutt was there, looking frightened by the fire. It gave me a good scare and I instinctively turned a bit. That was a mistake since I had done so right the moment I fired the spell.

The fireball flew right above the heads of everyone and hit the wagon, where the non combatants were hiding. The shock's effects didn't last long and before I knew it the two guards were dead.

I heard something about some survivors running away, but I couldn't care less about them right now. All I could see was the seething orc rapidly approaching me.

That got me out of my stupor. I turned and ran, but I didn't get very far before an arrow pierced my left calf and sent me tumbling on the ground. I looked up and I could see Bjorel in the distance with a bow in his hands.

"Where do you think you're going rat?" said the orc

I didn't manage to answer. The first strike hit me right in face, sending the few teeth I had left flying. The steel gauntlets came back down again with fury. My face was numb from all the hits and my eyesight was almost gone thanks to all the blood that got in my eyes. Unfortunately it was good enough to see the boss lift his war hammer up.

"I don't take kindly to traitors" he said with a gruff orcish accent.

The sound of something shattering was heard as the weapon came down on one of my knees. I screamed a dull scream, my jaw too out of place to open it fully. The enchanting on the weapon made sure to burn everything it touched to a crisp. The second strike came soon after, hitting the other leg.

Tears were flowing down my eyes and I was on the verge of blacking out, but the smell of my own burnt flesh kept me awake.

"Let this filthy skeever to the wolves. He doesn't deserve a quick death. Now, you two, go after the ones that manged to flee, the rest of you..."

My ears couldn't hear anything else as the cold, silent darkness embraced me.

 

[Endgames]

Guess that explains the fireball and lack of mage follow-up. Bandits really aren't too bright.

 

[Spicy]

Chapter 11





That night I slept literally hugging my axe. Yeah, sure I could have cut myself in my sleep, but it was either that or suffer my imagination's machinations until morning. At least the thing brought me a sense of comfort.

Once I fell asleep, just like yesterday, I had to awake too soon for my liking. The fire was out and Kaieela was around the camp looking for more snowberries in case she missed any bushes yesterday.

Meanwhile I woke up M'aiq, taking a bit of pleasure in disturbing his sweet sleep. Was it petty of me? Probably. But the khajiit was way to comfortable on our current journey and it pissed me off for some reason.

"Tough luck. I found a few more, but only a handful for each of us." Kaieela was back, a few snowberries glistering with dew in her hands. I contemplated whether to eat them now and start the day in force or to ration them until we find more of them or something else to eat. In the end I sacrificed my stomach's pleasure and decided to ration them. Kaieela chose to do the same, saving them for the future.

"M'aiq does not believe in this so called future you talk about. M'aiq is here, not in the future and he is quite famished." he said before proceeding to stuff all of his share under his whiskers.

I just shrugged at M'aiq. I knew he had a few tiles missing from his roof so I'm not gonna bother understanding his thinking. Kaieela certainly didn't care.

I stuffed my snowberries inside one of my old shoes and gave the other one to Kaieela so she could do the same.

We once again set out. My legs were in quite a bit of hurt from walking all day yesterday, but nothing I couldn't ignore. Thankfully my recently acquired pair of shoes helped with the snow and the uneven ground. It's fascinating how quickly I've attached myself to my new gear. Now I couldn't see the armors, axe and shoes as anything other than mine and not something I plucked from two dead bodies less than 48 hours ago. The dagger was already like a family heirloom to me.

"M'aiq is concerned about the passionate gaze you're directing at that knife."

"You're just seeing things". I told him.

It's a healthy appreciation for the weapon that saved my life… or helped me kill two people, but I prefer to look at some things with selective optimism.

Ignoring how the khajiit seemed to have taken a bit more distance from me, we continued through the seemingly never ending sea of trees. Almost everything we saw was either white, gray, brown, or some combination of the three. Skyrim was a pretty dull place when you're not in mortal danger. Go figure.

From the few words we exchanged up until now I realized we were in the middle of winter. That was actually some good news, at least for me. It meant this is the coldest it could get. Admittedly it was freezing, but, hey, it felt like one of those rock bottom situations. The only way from here is up.

"I'll never set foot in Winterhold. If Falkreath is freezing over then that place must be glacial. No wonder it looked like a dump in the game. Can't rebuild anything if even the damn nails crack from the cold."

Noon passed without incident. I had already gone through half of my snowberries. M'aiq almost got an axe in the chest when he tried to nab some off of me. I told him his suffering was the consequence of his own decision to not ration his share.

"M'aiq does not believe in the past. He is here now and should look after himself."

I think I'm starting to understand why that Lester fellow wanted to tear M'aiq apart. Fortunately for me, once Kaieela threatened to "shove his tail down his throat and stuff it in with her mace", he relented from trying to take my berries.

Around mid afternoon we stumbled upon some more snowberrie bushes. Were there only snowberries in this forest? No, of course not. Those simply were the only ones we knew for sure were edible. We came across others, but neither of us knew what they were. Better to feel hungry then risk poisoning ourselves.

We started picking everything we could. I heard somewhere, a long time ago, that you should leave some and not take everything from a bush, tree or mushroom group. I don't know why, but I couldn't care less. An extra berry made the difference between us reaching Falkreath or feeding the wildlife with our corpses.

"Woof, woof!"

While struggling to reach a snowberrie that was way inside the bush I heard a couple of barks some distance away. I quickly turned to look, searching for the sound.

A dozen or so trees away, near a few huge rocks, a struggling deer was cornered by two wolves. The deer had a bloody leg and bite wounds on it's back. The wolves were readying themselves for a final lunge that would bring their pray down.

I didn't see what Kaieela or M'aiq were doing, but I definitely knew what I was seeing near those rocks. Either a problem or an opportunity. If those wolves were not satisfied with the deer, they could be coming after us next. We could leave now and be a considerable distance away from them when they finish their meal.

Or we could take the opportunity. I don't know about wolf meat, but some venison skewers sounded amazing right now. But what should I do? It's all about risk and reward now and I don't have the time to think.

Food or safety?

While desperately trying to come to a decision I heard Kaieela's voice from the other side of the bush.

"Damn, there's fewer than I thought..."

A moment, then two...

"To hell with it!" I took the axe off my back and blasted off.

"Kaieela!"I hoped she would react fast and come after me. I couldn't waste any time while they were distracted by the carcass.

I ran with purpose, trees passed my vision like cars on a highway. I was burning more energy now than all the snowberries in my pouch could give me, but if I succeeded I wouldn't need them anymore.

As I closed the distance I realized I had underestimated the real size of the beasts. The fact that wolves are related to dogs, but absolutely not the same thing was, as I have just discovered, something very true. They were massive, easily reaching my stomach on all fours. They looked malnourished, possibly because it's winter, but could still wipe the floor with that bandit's dog from earlier.

"Too late for regrets." I was already close to them by now. Thankfully the wolves, as starving as they were, were to engrossed in thrashing the deer's corpse to notice me.

My axe came down on the beast's head like lightning striking stone. I heard a sickening crack and the wolf fell down on the ground, it's snout still deep inside the deer's intestines.

I had no time to celebrate as the other one tackled me to the ground, the axe flying out of my hands. I hit the ground hard, my head bouncing off of it and sending no small amount of pain through my nerves.

For a couple of seconds all I could see was a rain of fangs, blood and drool. I brought my hand's up to push the beast off me, but I stood no chance against it's weight and strength. I could barely see anything since my face was covered in pieces of deer guts that kept falling from it's mouth.

Acting more on instinct, rather than logic, I grabbed his jaw and snout, using all my strength to prevent those sharp teeth from reaching anywhere near my throat. We kept wrestling, me trying not to have my fingers bitten off and the wolf doing his best to eviscerate me. My dagger was firmly strapped to my left forearm, but the moment I reached for it would be the moment the beast reached for my flesh.

* THUD *

Something hit it's head, giving me the opportunity to get up from underneath it. Kaieela was gasping for breath, her mace still held at an angle in her hand, a bit of blood painted on it.

The wolf was staggered, but not dead. I quickly found my axe and threw it in an overhead swing. As luck would have it, he was either positioned perfectly or I had somehow gotten the blade alignment just right.

It's head separated from it's body, blood violently gushing out after it. Unfortunately, my momentum was too great and it kept carrying me forward. Before the head touched the ground I smashed into it with my knee, sending it flying.

The sound it made when it hit the tree resonated in my mind like a church's bell in a cemetery.

 

[Endgames]

The sound it made when it hit the tree resonated in my mind like a church's bell in a cemetery.

Click to shrink...

That makes me think he's kicking off an avalanche or something. Hmm, that's something we never dealt with in the game, so it would come as a bit of a surprise.

Not sure why he didn't coordinate better with his companions. If the wolves really were that oblivious, it could have made the attack more of a cakewalk. Guess that's what hunger does to you.

 

[Spicy]

Chapter 12





The severed head had it's eyes still opened as it rolled away from the tree. It left a bloody trail in it's wake starting from the splash around the trunk. Of course it couldn't compare to what was currently happening near my feet. The rest of the wolf's body was sprawled on the ground, blood pouring out of it's neck like a spring of dread.

I took a few steps back, trying not to flood my shoes when a hand grabbed my shoulder and forcefully turned me around.

I came face to face with a furious Kaieela. "What in Oblivion were you thinking!?"

"I thought I could go for some venison?" I foolishly said

She grabbed me with both hands by the fur around my neck and shook me, her face distorted from all the anger she was probably feeling.

"Have you gone insane kid!? What made this seem like a good idea to you? If I hesitated for even a second you'd have been torn apart!" she practically screamed in my face.

In truth, she was right. There were any number of ways this could have ended badly. Kaieela not arriving on time, there being another wolf I didn't see or me missing that first strike. If I was honest with myself, it was a really poor decision, one that could have gotten me killed.

"And for what? A mutilated dear carcass?" I was getting desperate and it was starting to affect the logical part of my mind. No matter how I managed and focused my thoughts I was still bound to have errors in judgment. The last couple of days were horrible. When I thought I could eat barbecue, something that related to happy times in my mind, I went wild. Logical planning lost to my need of emotional comfort.

"Look, I'm sorry. I thought a bit of meat would go a long way to helping us get up on our feet. The snowberries helped, but they were far from enough."

Kaieela scowled, but released her grip on me. She gave what was left of the deer a look then turned to me.

"You're lucky. This here?" she drew her arm around, highlighting the scene we were a part of "All of it is luck."

I gave her a nod. "Yeah, I figured that out too. I don't plan on doing this again."

I took a few deer bits of of my face then gave Kaieela my dagger "Can you have a look at the deer? See what meat you can manage to salvage from it?" I got into this idiotic thing, might as well get something out of it.

She gave one look at the dagger, eyes fixed on the skull carved at the base of the blade, before she backed away with a scowl on her face. "I'm not touching that thing." then after a pause "I'll gather wood for a fire, we might as well stop for today."

I wanted to facepalm, but was afraid the blood on my hands would make it stick to my face. "Good job me. Give her the weapon that killed her husband."

Kaieela was gathering wood while I washed my face and hands. Having snow everywhere proved useful in these kind of circumstance, even if it left my hands and face numb after I was done.

"This savagery reminds M'aiq very much of the time he met Lester, though he did not have the decency to cleanse himself after he was done with the poor creatures."

The khajiit slowly walked towards the scene. He was non-pulsed about the patches of blood everywhere, stepping over them like they were random puddles on the road. I actually forgot about him. Where was he while I was fighting? What was he doing?

With these questions in my mind I watched him near the first wolf, the one who's head I cracked. He gave a few distasteful tweaks of his whiskers then kicked the corpse a few times. He must have seen my expression because he deemed it necessary to explain.

"Not rarely has M'aiq been chased around Skyrim by these foul beasts. He believes they enjoy tormenting M'aiq. He would have shown them the error of their ways, but he is a pacifist... and they are usually in a pack."

I didn't know how to feel about M'aiq's explanation so I just kept my mouth shut and shook my head.

"Help Kaieela gather firewood. Or do you want to try gutting the deer?"

He frowned "You do not know how hard it is to get blood out of fur my friend. M'aiq prefers keeping the scary woman company."

I shrugged. After getting the last bit of blood of my face, hopefully since I didn't have a mirror, I sat down near what was left of the deer. It's stomach was wide open, guts and organs spilling out. A few pieces of bone, ribs I think, were hedged inside the fleshy mess here and there. The head, with it's vacant, opened eyes, was untouched, except for the blood flowing out of it's mouth.

I shivered a bit when I saw myself in it's place for a second.

I let out a forceful breath and rolled my shoulders. After moving the dead wolf off of the deer, I began cutting where I assumed the biggest pieces of meat were on the torso then I moved towards the legs. By the time I was done I had a few strips of meat near me, on the snow. They should suffice for a full meal for the three of us. What was left of the carcass was a mess. I didn't know what I was doing at all. I more than likely missed some meat, but we would have to do with what I managed to get.

By the time I was done, Kaieela and M'aiq had a fire going and were waiting for me. I cut the meat into smaller chunks and placed them on some sticks. My companions helped me cook it and soon a mouth watering smell surrounded the area.

"Well… I got my barbecue I guess."

I took my first bite, careful not to burn myself. The taste was bitter and not good at all, while the texture was anything but pleasant. Salt or other condiments would have gone a long way into making this a meal and not just a fuel intake for our bodies. At least we were no longer hungry.

After washing the horrible taste from my mouth with snow and some snowberries I was actually feeling much better. The world seem, well not brighter, but less like hell in any case.

Kaieela had some color return to her cheeks and it no longer seemed like a strong wind would topple her over.

After eating we followed the same procedure as last night. Me and M'aiq took first watch while Kaieela went to sleep, now used to the improvised blanket.

Around an hour passed until M'aiq suddenly wanted to make conversation.

"Say… was it a good idea to camp so close to the corpses? M'aiq thinks this whole area smells of blood."

I gave a wary glance to the side. The closest was the wolf with his head still attached. It was around 30 feet away while what was left of the deer was a couple of inches to it's right. The decapitated one was a bit further. They were rather close now that he mentioned it. We forgot about them. The location was good for setting up camp and we were eager to eat so nobody thought about moving the bodies.

If I focused a bit then I could feel a smell that reminded me of iron. "It won't be a problem right? I mean this forest is pretty big and the wind isn't blowing so what are the chances something troublesome may come here?" I said, more in an effort to convince myself.

Right, it was the middle of winter, food was scarce and most predators had a razor sharp sense of smell.

"Damn, we messed up."

M'aiq seemed to feel the same, judging from the way he was scratching his head. We spent another couple of minutes in silence pondering on what to do when a rustle and heavy steps sounded from nearby the corpses.

M'aiq was the first one to notice and his eyes went wide when he looked over. He jumped on his feet, a scared expression on his face. "W-we must flee at once. Lester has sensed the blood. If he sees us we are in big trouble!"

"What? That Lester fellow is here? What is he doing wandering at night?" I wanted to ask.

I didn't have night vision like M'aiq, but the fire's light made it possible to distinguish the shape as it was drawing closer.

Among the bloody snow and dead animals stood a seven feet tall hulking creature. With rock solid muscles and white fur covering him. It's three eyes scanned the scene around him with the arrogance of an apex predator. The dead creatures around him stood as perfect decorations to it's fierce appearance.

There stood Lester.

The frost troll.

 

[Cheeseburger602]

I get Trevor and Lester from GTA5 mixed up really easily, so I thought Maiq had somehow gotten mixed up with Los Santos' favorite sociopath. In hindsight, the troll seems a bit obvious.

 

[Endgames]

Dang, yeah. Frost Trolls are bad friggin news until you get a few levels, some decent equipment, and sustainable fire damage.

Or, you know, Calm. Illusion is such a useful school of magic.

 

[Spicy]

Chapter 13




"Why the hell is Lester a frost troll!?" I wanted to scream. "Wait, did the crazy bastard actually steal meat from a troll!?" I turned to the frightened khajiit and whispered as quietly as I possibly could.

"What in the actual f-why didn't you tell us Lester is a frost troll?"

M'aiq averted his eyes from the hulking beast and answered me. "M'aiq is not prejudiced against anyone's race. M'aiq wanted you to judge him by his character, not assume that he is that way because of his nature."

"He's a fricking frost troll!" I hissed.

"See? You're already judging him by his race…" He looked me in the eye "...you racist."

The slow crackling of flames gently sung for a moment.

"I'll seriously stab you!"

He raised both of his hands in a placating gesture. "M'aiq thinks we should concentrate on our current problems not create more."

Yes. Yes that's true. I took a deep breath and calmed myself. Though I would take great pleasure in lynching him, right now we had to somehow survive an encounter with a frost troll. Fortunately for us, at the moment, the beast seemed occupied with the animal corpses we left behind. He was happily tearing off ribs out of a wolf's body and munching on them like a kid on a candy bar.

I shivered at the sight. "Wake up Kaieela." I said while trying to come up with some sort of plan.

"M'aiq does not believe it is wise for him to be the first thing the violent women sees when she wakes up." He said in a hurried whisper, eyes jumping all over the place, searching for a place to hide.

I grit my teeth and made my way to Kaieela. I shook her a bit. Her eyes opened quickly, but she was still more asleep than awake.

"Kaieela, you need to wake up right now. Lester is here and he's a frost troll" And isn't that just a lovely sentence to wake up to?

She looked at me for a moment "Lester? What are-"

"Hiss, do not say his name so loud! He's trained to answer." M'aiq furiously whispered from a few feet away.

"O my God! What do you mean he's trained to answer?"

"Aron what's going on right now?" Kaieela stood up, shaking off the last remnants of sleep.

"Shh, not so laud. Listen, remember Lester?" seeing her nod I continue "Turns out he's not a person, but a frost troll." She gave M'aiq a nasty glare. "I don't want you to panic, but he's here right now, eating the wolfs I killed earlier."

She snapped around and, sure enough, there he was, slurping on intestines. Kaieela looked at it for a second, before turning back to us. "We need to get out of here. That thing will rip us apart like leaves if it gets to us"

I concur. Even in the game, frost trolls were a pain to deal with until you got to a high enough level. They were strong, tough and, most problematic of all, they could regenerate. Meaning, whatever partly wound we managed to inflict on it, it would just heal itself in a matter of seconds.

Seconds.

How the hell are we supposed to deal with that? Yes, trolls had a natural weakness to fire, but I'm not letting Kaieela anywhere near that thing. Maybe if she was more advanced in magic and could shoot out something like a fireball. And that's maybe.

"I know, but where could we run? It's still night and we can't see anything. I really don't want to end up blind and in the middle of nowhere."

Kaieela bit her lip, just as stuck as I was. The only one who would have a chance of running away was M'aiq, thanks to his night vision. We could make him lead us, but that would mean moving slowly and if anything happens along the way, me and Kaieela would be stuck.

I was going through scenario after scenario, each one more grim than the other when Kaieela spoke.

"Our best bet is to hide. Trolls are afraid of fire and with his belly full from those wolfs, it won't have a reason to come here if he doesn't see us." she said

That was our only option at this point. I looked around for a place to conceal ourselves when I hear some rustling nearby. M'aiq was gathering sticks and leaves on himself, even a bit of mud and snow.

"Damn it M'aiq, what the hell are you doing!?" It was getting harder and harder to keep my voice low.

M'aiq looked at me like I was an idiot "M'aiq is hiding. He is trying to become one with the forest. He hopes Lester does not suddenly become interested in a random pile of leaves."

He then proceeded to cover the top of his head with dirt and snow and lay unnaturally still on the ground. All things considered he was well hidden.

Except his tail. The thing was standing up from the end of the pile like the damn Excalibur out of the stone.

Whatever I wanted to say to M'aiq never left my mouth as Kaieela dragged me behind a couple of rocks. The loss of the fire's warmth was immediately felt, but my old pal, adrenaline, was there to take it's place.

We moved just in time as Lester finished eating the first carcass. Now that his hunger was a bit sated, he looked around, the fur around his face red with blood. His three eyes roamed along our camp for a few seconds before turning around and moving to his other meal.

Seeing him go further away from us, even just a couple of feet to the other wolf, made me sigh with relief.

"Good, eat and don't come back" I thanked our stomachs that we finished all the venison in one meal. If we still had some of it laying around the camp who knows if Lester would have been tempted by it's smell.

Kaieela was right behind me. She was shifting uncomfortably as she eyed the mace that was still near her sleeping place. My axe was not far from it. In our scramble to hide we totally forgot about our weapons and it was definitely unpleasant to be away from them. Not that they would help us much in this situation, but they were better than nothing. I still had my dagger though, but I was not planning to use it anytime soon.

Time passed and we could hear the vague sounds of the beast gorging itself. If I wasn't so tense, I might have even fallen asleep. Kaieela was watching Lester like a hawk, witnessing every moment of him tearing through bone and organs. I peeked at the out of place pile of leaves, sticks and mud in the camp.

"Are you kidding me? Don't tell me he's actually bored!"

"Excalibur" was lazily swinging left and right in a steady rhythm. The fur on the left side had a gentle gloss from the flame's light. I wanted to throw a few rocks at him in order to make him stop, but I couldn't risk hitting his head or something. If M'aiq yelps in pain or makes some other kind of scene than Lester would surely notice us.

A few more minutes passed and Lester was done with his meal. After scratching his nether regions for a minute he left without further trouble. We stayed hidden a bit more until we finally had to return. The fire was dying and we had to give it some more fuel.

M'aiq had fallen asleep in that pile of his. I don't know if it was that comfortable or if he was just an idiot, but I don't care enough to find out. It was still the middle of the night. Kaieela was too tense to go back to sleep so she took watch.

I had to make a bit of an effort, but in the end my exhaustion caught up with me and I went out like a light. Thankfully, nothing happened while I was asleep. Kaieela woke me up after a few hours so she could get some more rest.

I watched the treeline for the remaining time until morning with my axe in hand. I don't think Lester would return if he hadn't done so by now, but I was still weary. All in all, I was sadly getting used to these kind of nights.

The darkness was shifting, the flames were dancing and the snores coming from underneath "Excalibur" were pissing me off.

 

[Greater thunder]

Your M'aiq is evolving!
.
.
It's evolved into a Kazuma!

 

[Spicy]

Chapter 14



Morning arrived together with heavy snowing. It made no difference to the terrain since it was already covered in it, but it will be a pain to travel through. Thankfully it was only an annoyance since my armor did it's job well and kept most of the heat from escaping.

I gently nudged Kaieela awake and gave M'aiq a good kick in… whatever it is I hit, but I hoped it hurt. Technically it was not his fault for what happened last night. We were all guilty for not remembering about the corpses. Even if we knew what Lester truly was, it would not have changed the situation at all.

There was an ice troll together with us in this forest. One we could do nothing against should we meet with it again.

"M'aiq does not understand why you are looking at him like that" he said.

There was still some leaves on his clothes with more than a bit of mud spread along his front. He was giving an innocent look to Kaieela who was probably contemplating where on his face should she plant her mace.

"You knew there was a damn ice troll in these woods and you didn't see fit to warn us about it?" She had her arms crossed and was looking intensely at the khajit.

"She wants a reason to bash his face in" I thought with sigh "Well, even more of reason anyway."

"If we had known there was something so dangerous around here we would have been more careful" she said

M'aiq rolled his eyes "You speak nonsense. Lester would have caused trouble regardless of our mindfulness. That's how these creatures are. Crazy the lot of them."

I raised and eyebrow at him "What happened to not judging him by his race?"

He shook his head with a disappointed expression "That is ridiculous. Trolls will always act like trolls. Lester, especially, is an avid supporter of their ways." He said with a nod to himself.

I was massaging my face trying not to lash out at him. Kaieela was trying to set M'aiq on fire with her gaze, hell she was probably thinking of actually doing it. I really wanted to let her, but we had better things to do right now.

"Kaieela, forget about it. There's nothing to be done about it." I said

She turned to me "Forget about it? Aron, had that troll noticed us last night we would either be dead or about to be. You saw how it was ripping apart bones like they were twigs. I would have liked to know beforehand if that thing was wandering around here while I slept."

I massaged my temples "Yeah, you're right, but there's nothing we could do about it. At least we know now. We'll make sure to set up a bigger fire tonight and avoid leaving anything bloody around the camp."

Kaieela still looked like she wanted to say something. She gave M'aiq another glare then huffed and turned away.

"How far away do you reckon we're from the city?" I asked, after making sure my equipment was in order.

Kaieela was still frowning, but answered me nonetheless "If we keep this pace up we should reach the gates by evening two days from now. Though, if this snow continues, I gather it would slow us down some more."

I got up "Well, no sense in wasting time then. Let's go."

And so we set out once again. M'aiq was still walking in front, but kept a noticeable distance from Kaieela. I don't know why he didn't do the same with me, but I wager I'm not as scary looking as her.

The snow was just as annoying as I imagined it to be. It constantly got in my eyes and it seemed like the wind was only blowing from ahead. Needless to say, it didn't take more than half an hour for the three of us to be covered in snow.

Our walking pace was indeed slower, we were moving, but not at the rate we used to. It was frustrating to be slowed down like this, especially when I was pretty desperate to reach civilization.

Thankfully, the snow let up around noon during one of our breaks. I was filling my, once again empty, stomach with whatever snowberries I had left. After a few minutes I felt a familiar rumbling and it took me a few moments to figure out I needed to go number two. It looked like I finally ate enough to do so.

Fifteen minutes later and a very intimate encounter with some leaves we set out again. The tension from last night began to fade. The walk became boring once again. We saw an elk at one point, but it only looked disinterestedly at us for a few seconds before minding it's business. I made no plans to go after it. It was aware of us and could easily outrun me so we proceeded further.

We hadn't managed to come across any more snowberrie bushes, but with the meal we had last night I was not worried anymore about starving before we reached the city.

The sun set quickly and we had a bit of trouble on deciding where to set up camp. We had two options. The first was a clearing with a small stream running through it or a giant hallow tree. Me and Kaieela voted for the clearing. The tree would better insulate the heat and protect us from wind and snow. But, the clearing would let us build a bigger fire than usual, like we discussed in the morning, and make it easy to see if anything was coming towards us. It was not snowing right now and we bet on it staying the same all through out the night.

M'aiq was quite vocal about the tree saying that "M'aiq's fur is more stylish than functional. He requires as much warmth as possible while sleeping."

He quickly changed his mind when I made him imagine what would happen if he came between the tree's trunk and Lester.

"M'aiq's fur can repel cold better than Lester's teeth. He will sleep better knowing he does not have to think in which direction to run."

With that out of the way we spent more time than usual gathering not only sticks and branches but even a few logs of wood. My trusty axe proved to be quite efficient in this undertaking. It tiered me quite a bit that's for sure, but seeing the, arguably, huge fire I felt better.

As we were used to, me and M'aiq took first watch. Kaieela didn't bother saying anything. She just took my other fur armor when I gave it to her and fell asleep.

Like the nights before I stared into the flame, my mind going through possible explanations on how I ended up here. Of course I knew that all of it was speculation, I had no hard facts to base my conclusions on. By now I was doing it mostly for entertainment anyway. Like how Akatosh got piss drunk and accidentally ripped my soul from my own world. Or, my personal favorite, that I am a Daedra with faulty memory descending to Mundus, my life before being some sort of trip from smoking Oblivion hash or whatever they got over there.

Point is, I have given up on figuring out what happened for the moment. I had nothing to point me in the right direction and I had more important things to think about right now.

For example, what am I going to do once we get to the city? Should I follow Kaieela to Whiterun or go on my own? In which part of the timeline am I? What can I do to improve my chances of surviving in this place?

Questions after questions. Some of which I had a few ideas on how to answer, others less so.

"Thinking does not suit you. M'aiq suggests you stop before you hurt yourself."

… Well, at least I know what I wanted to do to M'aiq. It involved his tail.

And my axe...

 

[Fragnostic]

And my axe...

Click to shrink...

And my bow!

Yeah, don't think too much about your existence on Mundus. That way lies the realization about the Tower which is the Wheel and CHIM.

 

[Quinn Porthos]

And my bow!

Yeah, don't think too much about your existence on Mundus. That way lies the realization about the Tower which is the Wheel and CHIM.

Click to shrink...

All things serve The Beam, luv. Even boots masquerading as obnoxious khajiits.