Eye of the Wind – Ch. 6 – 3: Search and Seizure

  • After following the scattered, meandering tracks for the better part of an hour, we came at last to a well-worn footpath in the mud.  Here the tracks were fresher, cleaner, and made with less care.  For a moment I wished Jorin were here to sniff out the trail of strange humans, but seeing as he was not, I made due with my eyes and ears.

    Half-turning to Derkeethus, I held a finger to my lips and we crept along the path silent as shadows.  The roaring, rushing waters to our right didn't hurt to conceal our movements either.  Slowly the sun sank beyond the mountains and the sky became dusted with stars and pale, pink clouds.

    The path wound along the river and eventually behind the rocks before turning and heading uphill.  Derk began to stalk further ahead, but I drew him back by grabbing onto the bedroll strapped to his waist.  I shook my head emphatically, and snuck around the base of the low rise, crawling through the grass in an attempt to remain unseen.

    Eventually my progress was impeded by an escarpment supporting a scraggly tree, and as I looked up, I noticed a bone chime dangling from one of the branches.  

    "What is it?" Derkeethus whispered, his voice hot in my ear.  I nearly jumped in surprise.

    "It's a bone chime.  Supposed to let someone know if there's an intruder.  It makes a sound when you hit it," I hissed back as loudly as I dared.

    Derk rose on his haunches to bat the chime.

    "No!  Don't!" I said far, far too loudly.

    Fortunately, a light breeze stirred the apparatus and the bones clacked eerily just as I spoke.  Beyond the barrier of earth, I heard a man grunt sleepily as he was on the alert.  Soft steps crunched over the dirt as they approached.  

    Without thinking, I grabbed Derkeethus and pinned him against the rock, turning my head so my dark hair hid my pale face.  The man stepped close to the edge, looking around both above in below, perilously close to noticing our forms hiding right below his feet.  In one ear, Derk's breath hissed between his teeth.  I clapped my hand around his snout, closing it.

    "Damn wind..." I heard the man grumble before walking away and down the path to patrol the area.

    I waited a little while longer to be sure he was out of earshot before I let go of the Argonian's mouth and released the breath I had been holding.  As I turned my head to share my relief, I realized our faces were dangerously close and I backed away from him as if electrocuted.  Derk's eyes glittered in the dark, and for a moment I felt a flicker of some emotion pass through the connection before it was gone and his expression was once more immutable.

    Carefully we edged along the dirt cliffs, keeping our bodies as far into the shadow as possible as we headed back towards the path.  Somewhere above us we heard the man plodding along the path, humming tunelessly.  The creak of leather met us as he wandered close to our hiding place, then turned away to head back up towards what must be his camp.

    Up the hill we went, following on his tail as he meandered along.  We kept to his back, just out of his field of vision as he led us right into a camp consisting of a lonely tent set among partitions made of hide and dead branches.

    With a quiet shink Derkeethus drew his weapon, and I felt his eagerness as keenly as if it were my own.  I shook my head, pointing towards a cave entrance I spotted further up the hill, but even as I did, the man stopped and turned slowly, hearing the sound.  As fast as a serpent, he drew his bone sword and slashed at Derk, leaving a neat rip in his tunic and a thin line of blood.  Derkeethus retaliated, swinging the side of the pickaxe into our foe's head, sending the man reeling and clutching his skull.

    I responded instantly, drawing my blade and sinking it into his back before he could gather his wits.  There had been no time to wonder if we could disable him, and the man fell even as he tried to heal himself.  My ears alert, I listened carefully to the night, waiting to hear any further response.  There was none.  It seems the Forsworn here believed themselves to be well hidden.

    With my friend's help, we dragged the man over to his tent and set him on the bedroll, positioning him as if he were asleep.

    Taking a section of leather from the tent, I went back down the path and erased our tracks as well as I could in the wet earth.  When I returned, Derk had covered the blood with fresh dirt and covered the man with a fur blanket found nearby.  At least it would not alert any other passerby to any danger.  Not immediately, anyway.

    Relaxing fractionally, we stalked up the last bend in the path that led to an entrance to a cave.  At the top of the crevice, a horrific skeletal sculpture hung, overlooking us with dead eyes.  These men had taken the skull of an elk, the chest of a troll, and the antlers of a massive buck and fashioned them to look like a monstrous god to guard their home.

    A small brazier was lit underneath, and in the flickering shadows the creature seemed to breathe as Jode rose bright and red behind it.

    "What are you waiting for?" Derkeethus asked.  "Whatever we're looking for has to be inside.  So let's go, I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

    For a moment longer I stood, eyeing the skeleton.

    "I have a bad feeling about this, Derk..."

    "What?  Surely you don't believe this place is cursed!  They're just bones some mad men put over their door.  It's an affront to all exterior decorating," he joked, placing a hand on my shoulder.  I didn't feel any better.  The sense of foreboding was palpable, but there was no other choice.  The White Phial wouldn't get repaired if I just stood there and did nothing.

    So, gathering my courage, I followed Derkeethus inside.

Comments

3 Comments
  • Kyrielle Atrinati
    Kyrielle Atrinati   ·  January 18, 2013
    It's the cave at Druadach Redoubt where the Forsworn from No One Escapes Cidna Mine! quest.
    It was possibly an unconscious reference. ;)
  • Jake Dassel
    Jake Dassel   ·  October 8, 2012
    Ahhh, the bone chimes, always a source of utter fascination for the followers of skyrim
  • Kynareth
    Kynareth   ·  October 5, 2012
    Those screenshots are magnificent, Kyrielle...they, along with your prose, really give that sense of foreboding and eerieness that is found in the Reach at night or near any Forsworn camp, really.  They are such an odd group, one in which I can feel great...  more