By: The Orange Mask
I woke up feeling refreshed. It’s amazing what a day of rest can do for the body. My magicka was almost completely restored. Then I started to think, and I immediately had a headache. I spent a few seconds staring at the ceiling, trying to remember what had happened last night, only to find no memories there. Maybe it was the pain of the hangover, or perhaps it was the drink, but I honestly couldn’t remember what had transpired the night before. Then I began to stretch, until I felt something next to me in the bed. I froze; my eyes grew wide. Oh, gods, please tell me that wasn’t who I thought it was. I slowly turned my head, afraid to look.
Claudia. I had gone to bed with Claudia. Memories began rushing back into my head, which I refuse to account for here. My headache got worse as I slowly got up, trying not to wake Claudia as I dressed myself and packed up my things. I even muffled myself with a spell. Then, just as I was walking out of the door, I heard movement.
“Good morning!” she said, very cheerfully. I was surprised she wasn’t crabby, considering the hangover she must’ve had. “So, did you enjoy last night as much as I did?” She had a very subtle, almost inviting smile on her face as she talked.
“I’d enjoy it more if I didn’t have a headache,” I said, faking a smile. She still somehow made me nervous. “but yes, I did have a good time.” In all honesty, I couldn’t recall many details about last night, but I got the basic idea.
“Good. Where do you think you’re going this early, though?” She began to get up and get dressed, and I turned away to give her some privacy.
“I’m heading up to the Jarl’s palace. I’ve some business with him.” I said, still turned away.
“Ooh, what kind of business?” Claudia said, still excitedly. “And you can look now, you know.” I turned to face her, seeing she was once again dressed in the outfit I saw her in last night. Gods, it hugged her body so tight…
“Uh, I- I’m to ask the Jarl about the dragon that attacked at the Western Watchtower a few years back.” I must’ve sounded like a complete moron, as Claudia giggled as I finished speaking.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay with me, today? You’re looking pretty hard at me.” Claudia’s voice had adopted a sultry tone, and she had pursed her lips; I couldn’t tell if she was teasing me or trying to seduce me.
“The offer’s tempting, but I’ll have to pass.” It was so difficult to say no to such an offer, and it didn’t help that I had a splitting headache. I still somehow managed a smile.
“Aww… Well then I’ll just join you, I guess!” Any hint of disappointment in Claudia’s voice was gone, and she began to cheerfully skip across the room to join me. How could I say no to one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met? Besides, I’m sure it won’t turn into a serious relationship. Not that I have time for one anyway. Deciding to be gentlemanly, I took her hand and led her down the stairs.
It was still early morning; perhaps 7:00. The sun’s light hadn’t even breached the tops of the houses yet. I began to walk down the street with Claudia, her smiling and looking at me and me trying to look at anything but her. The market in Whiterun was fairly big, and most of the vendors had already begun to set up shop for the day.
“Ooh, I love that necklace!” Claudia blurted out, seemingly distracted for the moment. I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling relaxed for the moment. I felt muscles relax that I didn’t know had been tensed and chuckled a bit.
Suddenly, I heard Claudia groan as we walked past the last of the stalls and started to go up a flight of stairs. I turned to look at her.
“What is it?” I asked, somewhat curious as to what made Claudia’s seemingly inexhaustible cheerfulness dissipate in a scant few seconds.
“It’s the sunlight. I guess my hangover’s starting to kick in…” Claudia trailed off and began to walk in front of me.
“So what do you do for a living, Claudia?” Now here’s something I was quite curious about. She looked like an assassin, but any good assassin has had some sort of magical training, and Claudia was obviously not at all versed in the arcane arts.
“I’m a wanderer. I go from town to town, farm to farm, looking for odd jobs to do here and there. What do you do?” Claudia said, grabbing my arm as she asked. This made me feel more than a little uncomfortable, but I’d been in enough spots like that that I was able to remain somewhat calm.
“I’m a mage from the College of Winterhold. I’ve been there for a few years, and it’s nice, but there are just some things you can’t find in Winterhold. So I decided to go out and explore.”
“What can’t you find in a place like the college? It’s probably got everything!” Claudia let go of my arm at this point and began to twirl about, almost hitting the huge tree in the middle of the courtyard. She let out a yelp and stopped herself mere inches before the tree, then rejoined me.
“Well, dragons, for one thing. That’s why I’m here; I want to find something incredible and bring it back to the college for all to use.”
“So have you found anything yet?” I almost started to talk about the enchantment Wuunferth and I had made, but then I remembered my promise not to tell anyone about it until he said so. My fear of what Wuunferth might do if he sees some guard running around stealing enchantments overrode my captivation of Claudia. But only just barely.
“No, but I’m hoping I can use the information I get here about dragons to make a new discovery.”
“I think you’ve already made a pretty amazing discovery. And I have too, you know.” Claudia began to look at me very seductively, and I began to tense up again. I smiled nervously, and didn’t say anything else to Claudia until we got to the Jarl’s palace.
We reached the top of the staircase rather quickly; I had tried to keep from thinking about Claudia during our ascent, but she kept groaning and mumbling about the sunlight. Despite her grumbling, she did take a few seconds to lean against the railing stretched across the bridge leading to the palace. This made her figure stand out even more, and I couldn’t help but stare at the incredible image that stood before me; the sun glowing a perfect orange, her just sitting there, seemingly content and even smiling a bit. I could swear she saw me out of the corner of her eye, and stretched out a bit more before standing up straight again. I immediately jerked my vision away from Claudia and back toward the jarl’s palace.
“Here we go…” I said, cracking open the giant wooden doors.
To be continued…
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