Finding My Place. Part 4

• Posted by Lolindir June 18, 2012 - 781 views

  FACADES. Everyone wears some type of mask. The reasons may be different but the result is always the same; eventually we grow tired of the facades and our true selves find a way to break through.

  I am awoken by the sunlight shining through the window. I can hear birds chirping outside and the cool, gentle breeze seeps in through the gaps between the wooden boards that make up the wall. I rub the crust from my eyes and stagger to my feet. I search for the bottle of water that was left there by Belyn the night before. I pick it up and press the cold bottle to my lips and take a swig.

  I glance around the near empty room as I take in the sounds of Skyrim coming from outside. It takes a moment but then I realize that something is wrong; I am alone. “Skeever?” I call out to the emptiness.  “Delyna?” I walk into the next room and then back to the storage room. No one is here. I begin to grow worried at this point. “Belyn, are you there? Is anyone there?” I call out to the silence for a few moments but to no avail.

  I’m not sure what has happened to everyone or where they went, and I consider furthering my search for them. But I am then hit by a splash of reality; the bodies of the guards have surely been discovered by now, and I cannot tarry here any longer. I need to be moving onward, out of Eastmarch.

  I search the house for any supplies I could take but nothing particularly useful is discovered. I find no weapons, no armor, no canteens or anything that was helpful to a man on the run. What I did see was plenty of cabbages, cheese wheels, cast iron pots, and wooden plates. Oh sure, if the bandits of Skyrim demanded cabbage soup instead of blood then I was in luck. Sadly, that is not the case.

  After turning the house inside out and finding nothing of use, I decide that I would try my luck elsewhere. Although I must confess, that this would be much easier if I could just stroll into town and buy from the smith.

  It takes a few moments for me to conjure up the courage to walk out of my newly found safe haven, but the guards will soon be knocking down doors to find me and Skeever. My plan from here is to perhaps persuade the carriage driver to help me get to Whiterun Hold by promising him double the rate if he gets me there. It is a long shot but what other option did I have?

  It is a short walk to the stables from the farm but by the time I reach the carriage I can see that an Orc appearing to already be arranging a trip. “Damn.” I mummer under my breath. I pause to think of someway that I can still board that carriage. Perhaps he will allow an additional passenger.

  I quickly decide that it’s the best choice that I have and so I make my way towards the Orc. I search for the courage to interrupt the large Orc who was speaking to the driver about something. I open my mouth to speak but the words I hear next were not my own.

  “GO!” a voice screams. I look down the long path to the city and see a young Nord lass sprinting towards the carriage. She is waving her arms frantically and yelling to the people at the carriage. I quickly look at the Orc and see both him and the driver jump into the carriage. I look back again to the woman who was much closer now. I’m curious as to what is going on but my curiosity quickly dismissed by the sight of the two guards chasing her. My eyes widen and I jolt back. “Oh shit!” I say to myself. I didn’t bother sticking around to find out what happened. Instead I turned and jolted back to the direction in which I came. I hadn’t got two steps before I heard a man’s voice whisper loudly.

  “Hey! Kinsman!” I look off to my left and see a man standing in the stables by the horses.

  I stop in my tracks and look at him with a sideways face then look around. “Quickly, this way!” He shouts again. With the guards closing in and with me still robed in a bloody guard uniform, I dart off towards him.

  When I reach him he quickly ushers me into a hay pile behind the horses and a few armfuls of hay is tossed on top of me. I lie extremely still and try to control my breathing so that I may not be detected. I hear voices in the distance; I assume that they were that of the guards. Luckily they never came too close to where I was hiding and I don’t blame them. Hell, I didn’t want to be near where I was hiding. The smell off horse waste was overwhelming and I could feel myself becoming nauseous. It’s amazing what a man will do when his freedom is in jeopardy. I’m sure that hiding in a combination of wet hay and horse manure is not the worst thing that a criminal in Skyrim has done to escape the reach of the guards pursuing them.

  “Come on, before they come back.” The stranger says to me. He extends his hand and helps me to my feet. He helps pull me up and I look at his face and see that he is also an Altmer. I pause for a moment and smile as we lock eyes. “Welcome brother elf.” He says with a very warm smile. I smile back and laugh a bit because it’s not every day that two high elves find each other in such a hostile territory. He shows me inside his house which is attached to the stables.

  I follow him inside and we are immediately met by yet another high elf but this time it was a woman.

  “What was all that racket?” She asked with concerned eyes.

  “It was nothing. We have company.” The Altmer man said.

  The woman froze in her tracks. “This is him?” She asked. The man looked at her and slowly nodded. He walked over to a small closet, opened it and pushed away the clothes hanging up. With a strong swing of his fist he struck the back panel and it jarred loose. He removed the wooden panel entirely revealing a staircase leading down under the house. The Altmer man turned and looked at me and motioned for me to follow him in.

  “You must be joking.” I said sarcastically.

  “I assure you this is no joke.” He replied

  “You expect me to follow you, a man I just met and know nothing about, down a small staircase leading underground?” “Ha!” I laughed. “No thanks, I choose life.”

  I turn and begin to open the door when the man’s voice calls out from behind me. “Then I suggest you come with me Lolindir.”

  His words stop me in my tracks. In a rage of anger I swirl around and march over to the Altmer. I grab him by his shirt collar and violently throw him against the wall. “Who are you? How do you know my name?” I shout. I can see in his eyes that he has grown afraid and begs to be released, but in my rage I grant him so such luxury. His mouth opens to speak but I was not finished interrogating him yet.

  “Who are you huh?” I grunt. “I’ve had it up to here with all the secrecy. I’ve been arrested, beaten, and tortured and yet I’m still not even sure why. So if you know something about me, about what has happened to me or why, then I suggest you start talking brother!”

  Once again he begins to try and speak to me but I don’t allow him to get more than a few syllables out before cutting him off again. I don’t remember much of what I said at this point, but what I do remember was that in the middle of my sentence I feel a pull on my shoulder and a woman’s plead for mercy.

  “Don’t hurt him please!” the voice cries. I turn my head around to the direction of the pull and what I see next captivates me.

  It was a woman- a girl. She was a High Elf like me. She was tall as Aldmeri are and she had long blonde hair. She was young in age, by my guess; she was near the same age as I. Her eyes radiated a beautiful green aurora and her skin was a medium gold color. As our eyes locked, I could feel my grip on the man loosening. Soon I found myself turned completely towards her, not being able to look away.

  I soon snapped back into reality. I turned back to the man, who had fallen to the ground gasping for air. I extended my hand and helped him up.

  “Sir, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to lash out like that. Please, you must understand.”

  “No worries lad, I deserved that.” He sympathized. “My name is Ulundil. That’s my wife Arivanya.” He said pointing to the woman I first saw when I entered the house. “And that young lass is Venassa, my daughter.” Once again I caught myself staring very intently at his daughter, Venassa. But what gave me most joy, was to find that she couldn’t stop staring at me too. But then again, that could be because I just tried to kill her father. Not exactly the greatest introduction.

  “I know you have a lot of questions” Ulundil said, “and I promise I will answer them in due time. But you need to trust me. Now follow me.” Seeing as how I just tried to kill the man and he never tried to fight back, nor did anyone from his family try to harm me when my back was turned, I decided I could trust him for a while and hear him out.

  I follow him to the closet and stepped through the panel and down a flight of stairs. It was remarkable; he had built a secret room in his house, one completely hidden from normal view. But as I descended into the underground room I thought to myself “Why is it that a horse keeper would need a secret room?” I began to grow uneasy for I was afraid that I had wondered right into a trap.

  When we reached the bottom, the stairway opened into a medium sized room filled with various oddities. As I looked around I saw swords on weapons racks, armor on stands, and bows laid out on tables. Bundles of arrows lines the northern wall and various daggers filled display cases. There was an enchanter’s table in one of the corners and an alchemy lab adjacent to it. Several bookshelves filled the gaps between tables and weapon racks. Upon them were many books, soul gems, and all kinds of potions and alchemical ingredients.

  When the four of us Altmers filled the room I looked at each of them then back to Ulundil. “You’re not a horse keeper, are you?” I said in a monotone voice. He kind of smirked “What gave it away?”

  “What is it that you want from me?” I asked. He paced around the room for a moment then turned to me to speak. “Remember when you were arrested here in Windhelm?”

  I’m not sure what kind of idiotic question that was. Of course I remembered! As if I could have forgotten being tortured in the past 48 hours. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I was sipping on Black-Briar mead with the Jarl and enjoying the company of beautiful wenches before you dragged me down here.” I said in a very sarcastic tone.

  “Now is no time for your games Lolindir. Lives are in danger!” I’m not sure what “lives” we was talking about but apparently he didn’t have much a sense of humor. This struck me as rather odd considering that he came across as a rather cheery fellow.

  “Yes, I remember.” I said irritated.

  “Why were you arrested?”

  “Because I was accused of being a spy.”

  “But we both know that’s not true, don’t we?”

  I knew that I was not a spy, but I’m not sure how he knew. Ulundil could tell that I was very confused at this point. “How do you know that?” I asked.

  He paced around the room for a moment then he crossed his arms and drew close to me.
  “Because Lolindir, I’m the spy.”