Bound in Blood
Chapter 2: Gone Mining
The sun was setting down just as Theryn and Val entered Riverwood. As they passed through the gates, they were approached by a strong Nord. "Who goes there?"
Theryn reached out his hand. "We're just travelers. Coming from the south." The Nord shook his hand. He took a look at Theryn's clothes. "You don't look like travelers."
"We ran into trouble at that town a few miles south." The Nord was surprised. "Helgen? What happened?"
Theryn wanted to say that the town got hit by a dragon, but he knew that the Nord would take him for a madmer and likely tell them to leave the village. "The town wa..." His words got cut short by Val's. "Helgen got attacked by a dragon." Theryn covered his face with his hands.
"Dragon!?" The Nord was shocked. "Dragons went extinct in the Merethic Era, young one. You must have imagined one." Theryn put his arms down. "It's true. It was a dragon. Black as night." The Nord nodded towards a house behind him. "Come with me. We don't want to scare anyone."
Theryn was surprised to see that the Nord believed them. He probably wouldn't. They passed a small bridge that lead to the mill across the river. Riverwood was a typical lumber village built around the wood mill. They got on the porch of the house and Theryn saw a forge and a tanning rack. The Nord was a blacksmith.
They entered the house and the Nord went to the stairs leading to the basement. "Sigrid!" He yelled. "Get some mead up here, we have guests." He turned and pointed towards the table. "Sit down and tell me what happened."
Theryn and Val sat down. The Nord sat at the head of the table. "I'm Alvor. Who are you?"
Theryn started to explain. "I'm Theryn Elinos and this is Val. We were caught in an Imperial trap that was trying to catch Ulfric Stormcloak." The Nord was shocked. "Ulfric Stormcloak? Did they kill him?''
"No." Theryn continued. "They put us on a cart going to Helgen for execution. Just as the girls head was about to roll, a giant black dragon came out of nowhere and burned the entire town down. I don't know if anyone else managed to get out. We escaped through a cave and came here to find a place to rest our head."
Alvor was silent for a moment. "I only have place for the girl to stay here, your gonna have to check the inn."
Theryn nodded. "Of course. I don't have any coin now, but I can work at the forge tommorow to pay for dinner for me and Val."
Alvor stood up. "Don't worry, this one is on the house. But before you go. Someone has to tell the Jarl about that dragon. Riverwood is a small and defenseless village." Theryn nodded. "I will take care of it."
Theryn entered the inn and approached the innkeeper. "Maeg'ovannen." said Theryn. "I need a room." The innkeeper nodded towards a Nord woman that was cleaning the floor. Theryn called her. "Excuse me, mam. I'm looking for a room." The woman looked at him and said. "That would be 10 septims."
"I'm sorry mam, but I don't have any septims currently." The woman smiled. "I don't know from where you came, but here we have to pay for a room."
"I know, mam, I know. I'm willing to work for the room." The woman was silent for a second. "How are you with the sword?"
Theryn smiled. "I know some things." The woman handed him a letter. "Some of the Jarl's men came and left this note. It's a bounty for the bandit clan in Embershard mine, two miles west of here. You kill them tommorow and I get the bounty reward."
Theryn nodded. "You have a deal." The woman smiled. "This is your room here. I'm Delphine by the way." Theryn shook her hand. "Theryn, nice to meet you."
Val was sitting at the table with Alvor, Sigrid and Dorthe, their daughter. "How is the food, Val?" asked Sigrid. "It's very tasteful, I love it." said Val.
"How old are you" Sigrid continued. Val was happy to talk with a woman after a week spent among men that did nothing but talk about swords and giants. "I'm fourteen. My birthday was two months ago." Sigrid smiled. They continued into the night.
As they went into bed, Val was visited by Dorthe. "Did you really see a dragon?" Val smiled. "Yes I did. It was this huge and black as the void. He could breath fire from his mouth and call down giant flaming balls from the sky, wush, wush, wush." Val was swinging her hands around. "And the dragon came down on the soldiers and took them to the skys and dropped them down."
"Alright, time for bed Dorthe." said Alvor. "But father, I want to hear about the dragon." complained Dorthe. Alvor raised his voice. "Dorthe." The child frowned and went to bed. "Yes father."
Alvor turned to Val. "Is the bed okay, nothing wrong?"
"It's perfect." said Val.
Theryn opened his eyes after the sunlight hit his eyes through the window. "Damn windows." he said. He got up and got dressed. As he exited the room he saw Delphine. "Off to Embershard?" she asked. Theryn nodded.
He got outside and went west towards the mine. The woods were beautiful this time of the year and the sunlight shined through the branches. Theryn could saw a deer on the other side of the river. If only had arrows to spare. He needed the ones had to deal with the bandits. He could settle down here if it wasn't for his mission.
Theryn approached the mine and saw a man standing there. "A Nord. Arrow into the chest should take him down." muttered Theryn to himself. He hid behind a tree and crouched. He aimed at the bandit. All the bandit could here was the arrow flying through the sky. The arrow pierced him with such force that it came through and nailed the bandit to the tree he was leaning on. "Fetcher." said Theryn as he lowered the bow.
Theryn entered the mine and saw a mine cart full of iron ore. A little bit down he saw a trip wire. "Those idiots didn't even try to hide it."
Theryn backed up and pushed the cart down. The noise of the cart atracted two bandits. "Check the wire." said one of them. As the bandit approached the wire, Theryn fired an arrow and hit the stick holding the wire, leaving the two bandits burried under the rocks.
He continued depper into the mine after looting the tow bandits. He came upon a small circle of ice. "Fal magicka." he said as he stood up. "There's a mage here." And just as he said that, he saw a wall of ice coming at him. He jumped out of the way at the last second.
"Welcome to my humble abode." said the mage. "It is a rare thing to find another of my kind in this land. Maeg'ovannen, kinsmer."
"These bandits, they're your thralls?" asked Theryn and the mage nodded. "Yes. They are. For about a week now."
"But the real question is, what are you doing here?" the mage asked. Theryn smiled as he aimed his bow. "I'm here for you."
The arrow pierced the mage in the leg. "AAAHH! Bastard!" he looked at his men. "What are you standing for? attack him!" Just as he looked back at Theryn, he saw an arrow in front of him. The arrow hit him in the neck and he fell to the ground. His bandits collapsed as well and become dust.
Theryn got to the mage and swinged his swords, cutting of the mage's head.
An hour later, he returned to Riverwood and gave the head to Delphine. Delphine nodded and Theryn left the inn.
Theryn knocked on the door of Alvor's house. "Come in." he heard from inside.
Theryn entered the house and saw Val playing with Dorthe. "Come on Val. We're going to Whiterun."
Dorthe jumped up. "Already? We're not finished playing." Theryn smiled. "I'm sorry, but we have a lot of things to do in the city."
Val put on her coat and they went towards Whiterun. "Where did you get that coat?" asked Theryn.
Val smiled. "Alvor gave it to me. Why are we going to Whiterun?"
Theryn patted her on the back. "We are going to talk to the Jarl."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
To get more immersed into the Theryn's character, I decided to make him talk in elvish sometimes. All the elven words are from Ehlnofex that carried over to the Altmer language, except the greeting, Maeg'ovannen, which I took from Middle - Earth elvish as I couldn't find a greet in the Altmer language.
Maeg'ovannen - Well met
Fetcher - Scum, thief
Fal - Snow, ice
Magicka - Magic
CHAPTER 1: The Black Dragon Table of Contents CHAPTER 3: Looking for Help
Comments
I spent an hour thinking about putting it in or not.