Thursday, November 10, 2011

(3) - Erased memories

Lake Ilinalta

Gwenneth woke up. It was late in the morning already, and Gwenneth saw the Hunter had moved a bit downstream with his fishing rod.  As she got up something across the water caught her eye, and her heart stopped for a second. There it was, the place her house had been, where she had spent her childhood, just across the water. Though there were no obvious remnants of the house left, she immediately recognized the rocky plateau the house had been sitting on.


There it was, the place her house had been...

As long buried memories of her childhood popped up in her mind, her stomach rumbled. She felt terribly hungry. No wonder, she barely had anything to eat for at least two days. Her breakfast consisted of bread and apple. As she was eating her mind wandered to the events of the day before.

"A dragon, a real life, huge and terrifying dragon. I only knew it from granddad's stories, and yet there it was. I still can't believe it, no one has seen dragons in centuries, yet it was real. Ha, and in a weird twist of fate it actually saved my life by appearing when it did."

Gwenneth scanned the sky above her. No dragons in sight at least. Perhaps she should avoid open areas for the time being, she wouldn't want to be confronted with a dragon with no cover near. Then she looked back across the lake. Time to have a look.
Gwenneth packs her stuff, gives the hunter a quick wave, and crosses a shallow in the stream coming from lake Ilinalta. As she reaches the place her place of birth had been, she can't help but be disappointed. There's nothing left, even the boulders that made up the basement are gone. Probably taken by someone as building material many years ago. It's like time erased the existence of what once was.

That's when a wolf bites her wrist. Gwenneth had been so pre-occupied that she never saw it coming. She quickly wrestles her arm from the wolves grip, and grabs her axe. Though she makes quick work of the wolf, and the other wolf coming in right after that, she's pretty upset.  She really needs to keep her guard up. It's time to leave the memories behind, and start living in the present now. She quickly skins the wolves, a thing she has done hundreds of times before, taking little time at all.

Then she makes her way back to the hunters small camp, and tends her wounded wrist. As she's still hungry, she throws two potatoes and a cabbage on the smoldering fire. The potatoes are OK, but the cabbage... oh well, there's not much choice. Looks like it's time for some old fashioned hunting.

For the next hours she carefully moves in growing half circles around the small camp, and then finally spots a deer. As she is upwind, she decides on using the longbow. The first arrow hits, but the deer runs off. Gwenneth darts after it, wasting one arrow after the other. Just as she is about to give up, she spots a larger camp. Three tents, and as many inhabitants, one chopping some wood.


Bandit Camp

She decides to give them a visit, so she wanders towards them, giving them a friendly wave. Perhaps those strangers are interested in buying some of her stuff. "That's as close as you get!"; one of the strangers shouts at her, as he draws his mace. It's bandits, and Gwenneth wasn't prepared at all. She hurries to defend herself, and is taking quite a beating as two of the three bandits fight her up close, while the third one uses a bow from a distance. Finally she kills the two bandits near her, then retreats behind a tree, while she quickly looks for a potion of minor healing in her backpack.

Gwenneth never liked using the health potions. Though they do their work, every time she had used one it made her feel strange inside, that unseen force creeping through her entire body, while she's watching the bleeding stop. Ok, now for the archer. Gwenneth quickly charges from behind the tree, catching a few arrows with her hide shield. The bandit with the bow isn't wearing any armor, so the battle is over quick.
As they are near a path, Gwenneth drags the bodies a bit into the forest, then loots what's of interest to her.

"Let's see, some gold, I'll take that thank you, a few lockpicks, and what's this, looks like iron. Heavy, but perhaps worth something. And what's this piece of paper... ooh, interesting, a map, with a marked X near Riverwood. I guess that might come in handy..."


Treasure map

As she tucks away her gains, she notices the studded armor on one of the bandits, a female Khajiit.

"Oh, that looks like my size. The Stormcloak cuirass I'm wearing is way to tight around my chest, and way too Stormcloak too. Looks this is my lucky day. Hmmm, and the fur shoes look a better size too."

After that her attention turns to the camp, and she gives it a thorough sweep. She finds a book, some more gold, a sack with 5 cabbages ("...of course, more cabbages, great! - *sigh*"), and some seared slaughterfish. The fish is still warm, so she eats it right away, off a wooden plate she decides to take as well.

She also finds a roll of parchment. It reminds her of when she was keeping a journal in county Cheydinhal, when she was still alone. It had been almost like having a friend, someone to trust your feelings to. She carefully packs the parchment in her knapsack. She really should take up writing a journal again, now she's back on her own. If only she had some ink and a quill now...

Then she notices the tanning rack. It instantly reminds her of her mother, she had seen her work on skins so many times in her childhood. Should she...yes. She tightens the two wolf skins in the rack, then starts scraping away with one of the daggers. The repeating motion of her hands is almost hypnotising, and at times it's like she is watching her mothers hands at work again. Only while it's getting dark she stops. Just as she takes the now clean leathery skins off the rack, it starts to rain, and Gwenneth takes shelter in one of the tents.


Gwenneth in her new second hand studded armor

"Now, where is it. Ah yes, The Book of the Dragonborn. Typical how I found it while I was under a dragon's attack, almost like I was destined to find it."

As Gwenneth reads the book in the light of a lantern, her thoughts go back to when she killed those Orcs in county Cheydinhal. The sound that she had made. The vision of her father and mother. And the encounter with the dragon mere days later. Was there a connection? Was there some role for her in this chain of events. And what was happening in Skyrim? The Stormcloaks and the Imperials engaged in some sort of... well, whatever it was they were engaged in. Gwenneth's thoughts became a whirlpool of questions and memories, as she fell asleep...



5 comments:

Pudi0072000 said...

I must content myself with looking at all the pretty pictures, until I get my game. I expect I'll keep reading your journal, even if it means spoilers. I can't help myself.

Shilka said...

Oh no! *grin*

The pictures aren't near as pretty as they could have been, since all of them are taken with a camera of my tv screen. And I often have to take like 4-5 before I have a decent one. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the overall looks, eventhoguh some of the (outside) textures do look a bit crude when really up close. I'm happy though, a huge improvement compared to oblivion (at least on xbox).

Gwenneth will be hanging around this area for a long while, one thing I definately won't be doing is run off in all directions to visit every city as soon as possible. So in that sense I hope spoilers will be limited to the area she is in now for the time being.

I can't help but wonder how many will manage to keep up with their blog, currently I take an hour of writing for each 2-3 hours I play.

Though, once Gwenneth will be able to do some writing herself, I probably won't be describing the whole day in such detail as I am now. I'll probably be alternating the current mix of 3rd person narrator and Gwenneths thoughts with her own written journal pages.

I hope you'll get the game soon, I love your style of writing, so I'll be definately reading yours!

Armathyx said...

I wanna read but I don't wanna spoil either D: but this looks great anyhow. Good pics.

Anonymous said...

muito boa sua historia garota,incrivel,a sua trama nos prende e não nos deixa parar de ler.

parabéns!!!

in portuguese

Sullas said...

i love skyrim too.