Chapter 2 – The road to nowhere
I woke to a booming crash which cracked the walls of my bedroom, I could see a bright orange glow seeping through the cracks. The walls began to crumble around me and I was hit by a wave of heat, carried by an unrelenting dust filled wind. I got up from the bed raising my arm to cover my face as best I can. Noticing I was actually in my armour I pulled up my hood and covered my face with the face piece.
Thundering booms could be heard in the distance, reminded me of the tales Jorgen had mentioned about sieges of great cities. The ground appeared to be grass, but it was hard to make out with the orange light, I walked towards a small mound to try and get a better look at my surroundings, as I reached the top I was hit by the smell of sulphur.
Looking down I saw a lake it appeared to be filled with lava across from that there seemed to be some sort of building unlike any I’d seen, very tall and dark, it was hard to make out is features through the heat haze of the lava. A Voice called me from behind “Ma’am! Ma’am! Get down from there you will jeopardize our mission” And then I woke up.
Surely someone had to hear the unrelenting rumbling, right? I thought to myself as got changed into my armour. My dreams were very confusing right now, I had no idea who that person was, no idea where I was and no idea what that building was. Surely it can’t just be night terrors, I pondered to myself as I walked out of the tower. Jorgen was already packing up the horses by the time I had emerged “Morning Lass!” he said cheerfully. “Good morning, and what would you be so happy about?” “Well it’s a nice morning, I’ve had time for a shave, thanks to your talents were much richer than last night and I’m going into the village nearby to by mead” he said with a huge smile on his face. I chuckled, he really did love his mead.
After we had gathered our supplies and mead from Windhelm, we saddled up for the long journey ahead; the next village we’d be stopping at would be Whiterun. I had a questionable reputation in Whiterun so I would need to keep my head down and behave myself. Though I had done a few jobs for people who lived there since my last visit, hopefully the word has spread.
Apart from a pack of wolves the journey was pretty uneventful, unless you count being relentlessly piled with snow an event. As the skies started to clear and the snow stopped, we picked up the pace a little trying to make our way as quickly as possible through the volcanically unstable are near Kynesgrove. All seemed quiet as we approached Valtheim tower, a known Bandit hideout according to Jorgen.
As we approached the tower there were three Bandits waiting for us blocking our way past, and another two rolled out from behind the bushes flanking our rear. “Well if it ain’ ah bes’ pal Jowgan tha’ trai’er” Said the lead bandit. Jorgen immediately “We have no quarrel with you and your men, we wish only to pass through this road” “Ha ha ha well yoo see tha’s where we ave’ ah problem, cus’ we fink’ that yor lil’ frend ere’ makes quite ah bit of septims doin’ what she does, an’ we fink she owes us for all tha’ trainin’ and food we gave er’” replied the lead bandit.
I could see that this conversation was heading south very quickly, so I started inconspicuously preparing myself. Taking my feet out of the stirrups and taking in the positions and weapons of the Bandits, Jorgen drew his Warhammer which I took as a signal that there was no more that could be said in words.
I bought my knees up to my chest and used the saddle as a push off point I back flipped off the horse and landed behind the two bandits, and swept the legs out from underneath one of them. As soon as he fell to the floor I pounced with my wrist blade straight to the neck, the bandit coughed and spluttered as blood filled his lungs. No sooner had the first died the second was swinging a battle axe down for my head, I managed to roll out of the way…just.
I quickly gained my footing and unsheathed two long Daedric daggers from my back and readied my combat position; Jorgen was in his comfort zone, parrying the attacks of multiple opponents. They knew better than to get close enough for him to use his hammer properly. The bandit I was fighting took a horizontal swing at me which I ducked under and as he followed the motion of his axe, I dashed forward and slit the arteries in his legs followed by the ones under his arms, he fell to the floor before he could even scream.
I turned round to face Jorgen’s group, I moved for a clearer view as the horses were in the way. Drawing my hand crossbows I advanced on their position firing both at one target, Thuuk Thuuk one hit her in the thigh and the other in the torso knocking her back. I ran up closing the gap between us as I holstered my crossbows, and unsheathed my daggers again. There was little point as Jorgen took a mighty swing with his hammer taking out the remaining two bandits with the sickening sound of broken bones. If the last three weren’t dead, they would be by nightfall.
We looted the gold and set off again for Whiterun, the journey was quiet enough that I could enjoy the sunset over the city. We stabled our horses and went through the main gates. The guards let me through with no problems, either my deeds had raised their opinion or maybe they didn’t recognise me, or even just new guards. Probably more adventurer accidents…
To be continued…
