Eye of the Wind – Ch. 1 – 6: The Elixir

  • I must admit to a considerable degree of relief upon seeing the watchtower standing tall and formidable on the hill.  Especially with the sun bright and the birds soaring overhead.

    "There must be a village ahead," I said, peering about.

    "Hmm, there's supposedly some place called Shor's something-or-other," pondered Derkeethus.

    "Shor's Left Toe, perhaps?"

    "No, Shor's Right Nut...Shor's...Short--"

    "Derk!"

    "What?"  He was smiling so broadly his face appeared to be divided by teeth, but that smile fell as we passed the watchtower.

    Nael nosed the body near the entrance.  The death was recent enough.  Worried, I drew my knives and cautiously stepped inside.  A table laden with an uneaten meal and mug of ale sat untouched.  Inside the mug was a thin film like oil on the surface of the liquid.  Under the table was a letter that had been dislodged by a breeze.

    Akar,

    We've word of a band of Legion soldiers advancing on your position. Reinforcements are on the way. Talos guard you.

    Frowning, I crept up the stairs, fully expecting to see yet another arrogant Imperial soldier standing around, mucking about.  At the top was nothing more than two other dead guards and a small chest.  I closed their eyes and laid a septim on each one.  "I'm sorry," I murmured.  Opening the chest I found only a few oddments and miscellaneous personal effects.  A few septims, spare quills, broken arrowheads, a drawing done by a child, and...ah...a ring.  It was beautiful and shined brightly in the light with a well-made sapphire setting. 

    "Find anything useful?" Derkeethus called from below as I returned to the ground.

    "Some septims and a few arrows.  More cheese.  Ah, yes, and this."  I held up the ring and turned in the light.

    "Oh, now we're talking!  Madesi will get us a good deal for that in Riften.  Maybe we'll even be able to afford a night at the Bunkhouse. If all he tells me is true..." He clapped his hands together and licked his lips.

    I looked back at the watchtower.  "Well, hopefully Shor's Left Toe-Right Nut won't be nothing more than charred rubble."

    It wasn't.  The hamlet, Shor's Stone I quickly discovered, though relatively deserted, still maintained a couple of guards and a working blacksmith.  A mine emitted distant clanks of pickaxes on ore deposits, which must have been where the remaining population was.  We sat down for an afternoon meal around the communal fire, listening to the chickens clucking softly in time to the bang of the blacksmith's hammer.

    Curious, I left Derkeethus to ponder the mine--he had been fingering his pickaxe the entire repast--while I pried the blacksmith for information on the region.

    "Yer from Darkwata, ain't ya?" the blacksmith, Filnjar, grunted, barely pausing in the regular beat of the hammer.

    "We started from that place, yes."

    "There's a girl heah, name's Sylgja, been missin' her parents somethin' fierce.  Been waitin' fer a couria to send 'em a letta."

    "Well, I'm no courier--"

    "I know that, girly.  I'm only suggestin' that you take that letta with you until you go home."

    "All right, she's in the mine, I take it?"  I started to leave, but then I remembered something.  "Have you ever encountered a sickness caused by mines?  Something that causes miners, especially children, to succumb to a kind of melancholy and avoidance?"  

    Filnjar forgot all about blacksmithing.  "Come to thinkin' of it, an alchemist down in Rift'n handed me this queer ore.  Ain't never seen the like of it.  Said it was makin' his cli-ents ill.  Wanted me to tell him wut it was, but I dun know.  You betta take it back to him since yer goin' that way anyway."

    "Courier indeed," I murmured, taking the tiny bottle containing the sample.

    Derkeethus presently emerged from the mine, looking refreshed.  He handed me a letter upon approach. "A girl in the mine said she wanted us to take this to Verner and Anekke back home.  I said it was no problem.  Was nice to see the daughter they talk about so much."

    "Ready to go?" I asked and only just avoided adding 'before anyone else foists their errands onto us.'

    "Hi-ho.  Off to Riften we go!" he said, mounting up.

    The sun was well past its zenith as we headed down the main road of that golden land.  A gentle breeze played about the aspen trees, and ever was there the soft sound of clapping leaves.  Like polite applause.

    Not far down the way, a large fort intersected our path.  High on the walls, ruffians padded back and forth on the lookout.  Silently, we dismounted and crept under the shade of the trees.  Our armor, more suited to the green forests and grey stones, did little to conceal us.

    "Should we go around?" Derkeethus asked.

    "Hmm.  No, I heard the guards in the hamlet were discussing raids on the mines at night from bandits. These, I would guess, would be the bandits."

    "Well, we can't let them do that, now can we?"

    "No, no we can't."  We both grinned like skulls.  Notching arrows, we took aim, and fired.  Then we charged, Jorin yipping excitedly.

Comments

7 Comments
  • Matt Feeney the New Guy
    Matt Feeney the New Guy   ·  May 4, 2013
    ...damn you, Queen of Eternal Darkness!
  • Kyrielle Atrinati
    Kyrielle Atrinati   ·  May 4, 2013
    "She's not looking.  Okay...  Just...a little nibble."
  • Nelaf
    Nelaf   ·  May 4, 2013
    That second picture is scary as fuck!!!

    "I will murder the guards....AND YOUR FAMILY".
  • Matt Feeney the New Guy
    Matt Feeney the New Guy   ·  May 4, 2013
    What the hell is up with that horse's eye?!
  • Knight-Paladin Robert
    Knight-Paladin Robert   ·  March 1, 2013
    Gotta love the accent X)
  • Eviltrain
    Eviltrain   ·  September 10, 2012
    easy to like. What else is there to say?
  • Kynareth
    Kynareth   ·  September 2, 2012
    The attention you pay to your natural descriptions (trees, animals, breeze, etc) is very Bosmeri in itself, I think, and I think that is a large part of the magic of your tale.    You wrote a very nice dialect with the blacksmith, too!