Chapter Twenty - Whiterun - 22th of Last Seed 4E 201 - Umbra
The festivities were for the most part done with, but still Berry and I managed to find a couple of bards still sober enough to play a few tunes, and a few pints of mead to drink. As we sat at a table where we were the only two, she had a tight smile on her face, her eyes guardedly looking up at the sky.
"It's not like a dragon will appear out of nowhere, it will roar first," I said nonchalantly, Berry's eyes snapping back down to look at mine. "Kind of them to give an advance warning that they're about to try to eat us whole, don't you think?"
"I think you're mad," Berry said, her fingers holding on to a mug of mead. "I think the blows to the head turned you into a moron of the highest order, and that you're silly, and..." she grimaced, "I'm really the Dragonborn," she whispered, her head falling down to gaze at the mead's surface inside her glass, "my name is Berry, and I'm the Dragonborn." She shook her head, grimacing as she whispered that. "Will the bards speak the tale of the great Berry?"
"I'm sure they will," I replied, "Though perhaps they might use the word Ysmir, the dragon of the North," I continued. "Between Ysmir and Berry, which would you rather be told in bards' ballads?"
Berry's eyebrows scrunched slightly up as she seemed to think it through for a bit, and then came to an obvious conclusion. "Berry," she said with a straight-face, "If I'll ever have a song made after me, I want my real name in it."
"A hero, a hero, claims a warrior's heart, Berry's the Hero of this tale that is dark," I hummed, "in battle and war the dragonborn came, the rays of the sun made her mane," I continued, "a quick-witted lass, with quite the bit of sass!" as I sang that last part a bit louder than the rest, a firm hand placed itself on my shoulder, and I turned my head just in time to come face to face with a nearby Bard.
"I will pay you," the bard said, "If you swear never to sing again for the night." I opened my mouth and then closed it shut as the bard actually dropped five gold coins by my side, "Do we have a deal?" the bard stressed out, and I quickly nodded as I pocketed the gold coins. "Good!" and then he began to play his own rendition of a song, which clearly wouldn't have been capable of competing with mine. Why else would he have paid me if not because I truly had a voice worthy of the Gods?
"Thank the Nines you shut up," Berry whispered with both hands covering her face. "It was atrocious."
"Nobody understands my art," I huffed, "I'll let you know I actually invented that song on the fly."
This didn't seem to please Berry, who remained with her face hidden by her hands for a few more seconds, her shoulders starting to shake until she eventually broke out in laughter, "You really are mad."
"Not really," I retorted, "I'm just thinking different." I smirked back. "By the way, we'll have to get you to use the Thu'um if we want the Greybeards to summon you up to the throat of the world," and as I said that, I inwardly realized a tiny nugget of truth that this world would, without a doubt, have.
Seven thousand steps awaited us to reach the summit of the treacherous mountain. Seven thousand steps that would be icy, filled with packs of wolves in the best of circumstances and ice wraiths and frost trolls in the worst cases. Seven thousand steps were...a lot. To reach the summit of High Hrothgar, I would have to scale them all.
"Yeah, about that," Berry muttered, "How is that supposed to work?"
"Well, first of all, I want you to close your eyes and think inwardly," I answered, "Try to think about the meaning of any of the words you've read from the Word Wall back in the Bleak Falls Barrow."
Berry made a grimace at the memory, and then sighed, "What next?"
"Is there a word that comes to mind more than the others? You should harbor the memories of the dragon whose soul you ate too, so try to unite the two things, to think about a word in particular, its meaning, and then...well, then let it out...but don't aim your mouth at me though!" I added hastily as I realized she was gathering up air to speak.
Berry stopped gathering air, turned her head to the side, and then exhaled, "Fus," she spoke, the voice a low rumble that grew in intensity as the ground shook briefly in front of her. An invisible current of force pushed the dust and the small pebbles forward, letting them bounce and scatter away.
"That's very good," I said.
"It is, isn't it?" Berry replied, her hands gathered together as she smiled, "I feel like I could take on the world right now."
"Let's go one foe at the time, shall we?" I replied, only for her to turn to lock her gaze with mine, and smirk.
"Aren't you the one who swore to carry my burdens? So if I say we're going to fight the world, shouldn't you just make preparations and follow me?"
I shrugged, and then shook my head, "No. I did specify I wouldn't be a pack mule, didn't I? So I won't do that. Consider me your voice of reason. Whenever you're about to do something silly, I want you to think Would Umbra do this? and if the answer is no then I want you not to do it."
Berry giggled, and then plopped her chin on her open palm. "Shouldn't it be the opposite?"
"Oi, oi, I'm the one who's been right until now, so I'll keep on being right even..."
The ground quaked. The air shifted. The clouds in the night sky parted. A thundering noise that echoed across my ears, that woke up all that lay to sleep and sent shivers down the spines of those who heard rippled through the very foundation of the world as the branches of the Gildergreen shook and parted, cracked and splintered to let dead leafs fall down upon the square.
"Dovahkiin."
The wind howled as thunder and lightning streaked across the night sky, the stars themselves burning brighter for a brief instant.
"See?" I said smugly as Berry's eyes went wide. "Told you they'd call."
We then had to quickly vacate the square because the people who had already gone to sleep rushed out screaming about yet another dragon attack, forcing pretty much everyone into a drunken frenzy, which ended only when they realized that no, no dragons were currently attacking Whiterun again.
The next morning saw me wake up in my large, comfy inn-bed with two foreign weights on me. Had these weights been beautiful women, I would have been glad. Instead they were Dragnor's left arm, the Nord snoring loudly on one side, and Mansel's right arm. I shuddered inwardly, feeling the deep need to cringe as not even among boy-scouts had I ever been forced to share a bed with two other men.
Also, since I was literally in-between them, I would need to wake one up in order to leave my bed. No, scratch that, I would have no choice but to vault over Dragnor's sleeping body in order to leave the bed. I would do it.
After extricating myself and landing with a soft thud on the wooden floor of the inn, I carefully pried open the cupboard looking for my clothes and armor. I then winced as I realized they weren't in a serviceable state to begin with. They had taken quite the beating, and even as I tried, and failed, to close the clasps and tie the belts together, it became clearer that they would need repairs of some sorts.
"Umbra," Willow's voice came mellifluously like that of a snake coiling around its prey, whispering to it how it would be painless and quick, only to then crush them into their guts and break their bones one after the other. She was sitting at the table of the inn, a plate of raw liver in front of her. I stared at the bloody plate, and then at her chin dripping with it. I calmly took a seat by her side, grabbed a piece of cloth from the table, and proceeded to clean away the blood from her chin.
"Best sister Willow," I said in a meek whisper, "Can you please forgive me for yesterday? I promise I won't do it again."
Willow stilled considerably, and then finished her bloody liver in one last swift motion. "Very well," she said without inflections in her voice, grabbing the cloth to clean her hands. "To begin with, remove that armor Umbra. It's broken and will need repairs. Also, you'll need a new weapon."
I chuckled nervously, "What happened to my mace?"
"It melted," Willow replied, lifting her left hand for the innkeeper while passing her right arm around my shoulders, "The first thing you must understand is that your best bet when fighting an enemy is to strike him down before he has a chance to realize what is going on," she began to speak, her left hand's fingers moving on the table surface slowly, but steadily. "People don't tend to look up often, Umbra," she continued, "and they rarely have armor here, by their necks," she tapped with her fingers right in the middle of my throat, "so when you thrust with a sword, aim at that spot, or at the holes in a helmet meant for the eyes."
I nodded, and Willow kept speaking, "If possible, lodge arrows in joints like the elbow, the wrist, the knee..."
By the time the innkeeper brought over my breakfast, I grimly realized he had brought another bloodied liver with onions. "Can I have mine..." the disgusting sensation of having a raw piece of liver force-fed into my mouth made me inwardly wish to churl it out, but the firm grip and motions of Willow's fingers made it impossible. Between choking or swallowing, I took the second option. By the time it was over, I was gasping for air and clenching my fists, tears in the corners of my eyes. "W-What was that for," I choked out.
"You wish to fight, then you must learn to eat," Willow replied without missing a beat.
"That's...you're still...angry aren't you?" I asked, coughing as I moved a hand to the closest mug, taking a long drink out of whatever was inside. I stopped halfway through when the taste felt kind-of off, and yet also pretty much normal. "Milk?"
"Milk is good for your health," Willow said nonchalantly.
"You have breakfast with milk and raw liver," I said, as if that somewhat made it normal, using the back of my hand to wash the taste out of my tongue.
"Let us resume the lesson," Willow continued flatly, and did just so.
Had Willow been the only one, then I would have been glad. Unfortunately, Sharrum woke up just in time to overhear, and then decide to take over.
The cold winds of Skyrim were meaningless to the likes of me, a large rock held in my arms as I found myself witnessing Sovngarde's gates as I ran in circles around the Gildergreen, Sharrum barking orders to run faster even as I no longer had lungs to reply. There were no words that could describe just how hellish a morning in Skyrim was when apparently you had to run around a tree with a rock the size of a small dog in your arms.
Also, Sharrum was running by my side, so I didn't see the point of him yelling, but he didn't stop.
"Beloved younger brethren! Run faster! Faster than the wind upon the ghastly waves of an ocean in turmoil! Faster than an angry father in pursuit of its misbehaving child! Faster than an angry husband that pursues the man which slept with his wife! Run as fast as when a one night stand recognizes you in the streets with a babe in her arms that looks like you!" as Sharrum spoke, I sharply turned my gaze towards him, "I am merely yelling words to incite you, brother! I would never run from my responsibilities, for the true man of honor is he who faces all with clear conscience!" as he said that, as if he already knew what I was going to say, I blinked and he laughed. "It is good to know that your thoughts are as easy to discern as a parchment written by a masterful writer!"
My breathing came less as I slumped down on the cobblestone, letting the rock fall and roll to the side as I my vision swam. "Air..." I gasped, "Air..."
"Though your courage in the face of peril is quite something, brother," Sharrum said as he knelt right in front of me, a smirk on his face. "Perhaps it is true that thee's heart beats faster in the presence of such a fair creature," he chuckled, his voice sounding like gravel as he stood there under the morning sun with his shiny armor made of metal bands. "Spring has finally come for brother's heart? And perhaps this time it's not a cultist?"
"I can't have fallen in love only with cultists," I grumbled, only for Sharrum to unashamedly look away. "Sharrum, seriously, I cannot."
"When one curses the gods in public more often than not, only a certain type of person would ever associate with that one," Sharrum replied as if that explained it all. "But enough resting, brother. A dozen more runs around the tree before the sun is high enough for us to leave."
"We leave?" I asked.
"We do, of course," Sharrum said with a sigh. "I spoke with eldest sister in your stead, and she agreed it was best to let your folly play out for as long as it was harmless." Sharrum shuddered, "I did things to convince her, brother, things that once you recover your memory you will remember and pay me back ten times as much." I raised an eyebrow, but Sharrum did not elaborate. "Until then, I will keep an eye on you."
I nodded. "That's good to know," I said as I exhaled in relief. "Speaking of which...we'll be leaving for High Hrothgar as soon as we're ready. Last night..."
"So that was what the ruckus was all about," Sharrum grumbled as I finished retelling what had happened, and where we'd need to go from there, "I had been laying in the warmth of two beautiful ladies, their bodies sprawled beneath the moonlight when the noise shattered the peace." He lifted a finger and made a curt no-no gesture. "Do not mention this to Willow. I will gladly accompany you, for it would make the finest of tales, but do not tell our eldest sister. Climbing the throat of the world is not easy, and it is a dangerous and deadly task."
He stood back up, a dangerous glint in his eyes. He grabbed hold of my neck, lifting me as a sort of soothing energy pushed through my body, my aching limbs starting to feel normal once more. "Thus, there is but one solution," Sharrum said with a bright smile that yet felt terribly threatening. "We will train harder before we depart."
I stared at Sharrum.
Sharrum smiled back.
I didn't like his smile.
I didn't like it at all.
