Turdas 27th of Last Seed 4E201
I woke up early this morning, it was still dark. After a fast fruit breakfast I left Riverwood and headed South towards Helgen. After an uneventful first hour, only killing a fox that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, I arrived at a crossroad and at an unusual sight. Before me I saw a dead wolf, a dead bandit and a dead skeever, with next to it a Khajiit being attacked by a wolf. I darted towards the wolf, finishing it off quickly with my axe.
Well, the Khajiit was a strange one, he said his name was M'aiq, and all he did was boast about himself, not a word of thanks for saving him or anything. And once he finished boasting, he even refused to talk to me any further. For a second I considered to let my axe do the talking, but I figured he must have been out of his mind. Well at least I relieved the beasts of their skins, and the bandit of his valuables, and left the crazy Khajiit behind.
The sun was just rising, failing to evaporate the morning mist as I reached Helgen. I could not hear a single sound coming from the walled town, and there was no soul in sight. As soon as I had entered after opening the main gate, it was clear that the town was completely abandoned. The destruction left by the dragon was clearly visible, though all corpses outside were gone, but for one charred one. Must have been dragged away by wolves or something.
 |
| Helgen |
I started working my way through the rubble of collapsed, burnt out houses, but found little of value. Only a nice set of regular boots. Even the keep had little of value left in it, though I salvaged some arrows from the corpses inside. The smell of decay quickly forced me outside again, it was pretty clear there was nothing to find here anymore. Helgen had become a ghost town with nothing of value left.
Since it wasn't even nowhere near noon yet, I decided to take another Northern exit out of the town, so I could do a little detour along lake Ilinalta on my way back to Riverwood. It wasn't long until I stumbled across a seemingly abandoned bandit camp, the fire was barely lit anymore. After grabbing a honeycomb from a nearby beehive, I searched the camp for anything useful. I found some gold, a silver necklace, and a book called 'The Refugees'. I was just stuffing a few rabbits and a pheasant in my knapsack when I heard shouting.
 |
| Abandoned camp |
Three bandits showed up from between the trees, all readying their bows. I must admit I had a hard time blocking their arrows with my shield, and had it not been for my sturdy new leather armor I would have surely become injured. Giving them a tactical run around gave me the advantage though, and in the end I managed to slay them fairly easy. Knowing the area was safe I took my time to roast a pheasant over the fire and ate it for lunch.
Proceeding towards lake Ilinalta I noticed a house tucked away in the pine forest. The door was locked, nobody home. Since I was off the path, I decided to cut across the forest towards the lake. Perhaps not the safest route, because just a few steps from the house I got attacked by a pack of four wolves. It was a good thing I was still traveling light, as I danced in between the wolves, blocking one while attacking the other. I'm proud to say though that not one of them got to taste my blood. It seems like my agility and reflexes have been growing ever since I returned to Skyrim.
Just before I reached the lake's shore I stumbled across another odd sight. An altar between the trees, littered with skeletons, a dead wolf next to it. On top of the altar, next to yet another skeleton I found a book called 2920 Heart Fire, volume 9. Since the skeleton lacked eyes anyway, I took it. Still it was strange, because I'm very convinced I never came across this altar in my childhood.
 |
| Forest altar |
Heading North-East along the water I decided to go say a prayer at the statue of Talos, which I knew should be just up ahead. And once again a strange sight met my eyes. At the bottom of the shrine were seven corpses, and it seemed they had been killed very recently. This was clearly the work of imperials! Gerdur had told me about how the empire had forbidden worshipping of Talos, but I didn't expect them to massacre people for it. Thinking back of my own near execution, it seemed like the Imperials only know how to apply one penalty in Skyrim, the death penalty!
 |
| Shrine of Talos |
After receiving Talos' blessing I resumed my return trip to Riverwood, dreary, and with growing hate of the empire. Once I arrived at Riverwood I didn't feel like talking to Lucan Valerius at all, so I skipped the shop and went straight to Gerdur's. For some reason dinner felt like a tasteless obligation. I think I'll read a bit in one of my books to clear my mind. 'Refugees' I think will be my next choice. I'm thinking of leaving for Whiterun soon, I don't want to overstay my welcome at Gerdur's. But before I leave Riverwood behind, there's one more place I want to check out first...
No comments:
Post a Comment