Chapter 4 - Closer than I'd like.
The air felt cold on my lips and I could hear the clouds thundering like distant giants hammering ancient hammers on even more ancient anvils. The shade from the clouds was a welcoming relief against the blistering sun, but with it came chill in the wind. This all set a really theatrical scene in my mind, still not completely comfortable with this whole Bandit purging expedition. We follow the makeshift road of rocks and sand until we find a path to the right moving up a hill between some trees and bushes. The path has makeshift steps made from round logs. Faendal crouches down and I follow in suit. We edge even further but a really slow and meticulous pace. Faendal keeps looking in all directions, possibly making sure we are not surprised. I start doing the same and look back down the path. "Not one more step!", my blood freeze as I realize that was not the voice of the Bosmer who was leading me on.
I spin around to see Faendal, bow drawn and ready, facing one of the biggest, and scruffiest, Orismers I've ever seen. The orc sees me flinch and lets out a spiteful laugh. He turns his gaze back to my wood elf companion, "Not this time little elf. News has been going around about you scaring off other bandits here. There is a nice juicy bounty on your head now." Faendal does not flinch at this and with a cool relaxed smile tells the ork, "Regardless, it's time for you to leave as well." With that the Orismer goes into a fit of rage and draws the rather overly large battleaxe on his shoulder, and proceeds to rush at Faendal with a battle cry roaring from his lips. He must have seen me as no threat, and decided to go for the most dangerous person first. I was still pondering on this when I noticed two arrows stuck to the leg of the orc, who now has stumbled forward and landed on his side in front of us. "I'll kill you. Kill you!", it spouts and tries to swing the axe to our legs. But he was not fast enough and the bosmer has placed an arrow in his wrist pinning it to the ground. Seeing as the orc will suffer and attract too much attention outside the door to the mine, Faendal stoops down and slits the orcs neck with a steel dagger. With blood spraying and bubbling from the open wound, I suddenly feel very nauseated, but not from the blood, but a sudden grip of fear. Is this what I'll be facing inside?
I can see I was not the only one in shock. My companion stood up slowly looking down at the corpse, and I could see a strange distance in his eyes. His frown was as unreasoning as the turning of the wind and I felt a sudden urge to reassure him it had to be done. But I didn't, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe I couldn't come to grips with the fact that I might have to do that next. I mean, these were no mere animals that we would be killing, but living, thinking people, that probably have families of their own. My train of thought suddenly gets disturbed my Faendal's soft whisper to himself: "He was really going to kill me there..." and then as if the brightest fire has been sparked in my mind, I realize I need to reassure my companion of his decision. "You did the only logical thing you could Faendal.", I tried to sound both sincere and scientific to only be short falling on the sudden dryness of my mouth. I cough and try to centre myself: "He would have killed us both, was it not for your quick thinking. I'm in your debt because of this." Faendal looks up at me and tries to smile, a dry unmotivated smile at best.
"Well,", he eventually said: "Not much else we can do now, but clear out the mine. It won't be long before someone comes looking for him. Help me move the body into the bushes over here.", Faendal was direct and without much emotion, so I did what he asked. Sweat dripping from my brow I strain at the sheer weight of the dead orc, and it dawned on me just how good Faendal was with the bow. Under such pressure to still hit a small target like the leg, and with two arrows never the less. With the orismer now completely hidden behind some trees and grubry of leaves and branches covering the body, we move to the door of the man made cave.
