Inheritance - Chapter 2 - A Chance Encounter

  • It had taken them three days to get to the small town of Ivarstead due to bad weather. The path they had followed had led them past the ruins of Helgen; there had been many plans to rebuild the town yet it had never been done.

    Throughout his life; short as it was Alarne had heard many a tale of the day that the black dragon Alduin had destroyed the town and how his father had been born (or walked from depending on who was doing the telling) from the flames to become Skyrim’s greatest hero.

    That last part he believed to be an exaggeration, most likely his father had been as terrified as those around him. Still unaware of his power he had probably done everything he could to survive.

    “Hey Alarne ya there?” Alarne was snapped back to reality by Blaise’s voice. They were sitting around the fire in the Vilemyr Inn.

    “I was just thinking, what do you want Blaise?” As he spoke a grin crept across Blaise’s face and when he finally spoke it was in the jovial tone of his youth that Alarne rarely heard.

    “Ya think; that’s got to be a first” At the look he received his face grew solemn “We should probably head out tomorrow and I mean early, to try to avoid the storm that is brewing”

    “If that’s the case we should probably start out now instead of waiting and risking getting stuck here for another day, I’ll get the horses ready you get the bags.” With that Alarne was up on his feet and heading towards the door.

    As he passed through the entrance he felt a familiar presence and turned to see a large hooded man entering behind him; the man’s most striking feature was his immense size he towered over Alarne which was a rare thing. Just before the man closed the door behind him he stopped and looked directly at Alarne, all that could be seen of his face was a rough outline and a pair of glowing eyes.

    There was a nearly inaudible click as the latch snapped into to place but it was enough to bring Alarne back to himself. Looking around he noticed Blaise standing in front of him; saddle bags over his shoulder and a quizzical look upon his face. “Alarne ya ok? Ya look like ya just saw a ghost or something”

    “That man just then… the one that entered the inn as I left did you see him?”

    Blaise’s face showed nothing but bewilderment as he said “What man no one came into the inn after ya left. Are ya sure yah all right?”

    This only served to confuse him, he was certain that the hooded man had really been there but the certainty in Blaise’s voice had started to spread doubt through his mind “Yes I’m sure I’m fine must have been my imagination”

    This answer obviously did not please his friend but he accepted it and made his way around to the back of the inn where they had tied the horses. Blaise returned with both horses ready for the road to find Alarne staring off into space again.

    “Alarne!” He was snapped back in an instant, thoughts of the man’s glowing eyes had crept in as soon as Blaise was out of sight. If this kept happening they wouldn’t be getting very far today, with this in mind he made a mental not to focus on the task ahead of them.

    *****

    They had set up camp on the rise near a lake in the wide expanses of land that the Rift boasted. He couldn’t deny it he was worried about Alarne, ever since they had left the inn he would space out; the worst part was that Alarne himself knew something was wrong he had made a visible effort to stay alert. But now that they had the camp set up he kept drifting off just to shake himself back to the present.

    Blaise was positive that it had something to do with the man that Alarne claimed to have seen at the inn “Hey Alarne could ya describe this man that ya saw to me? Just in case I did see him”

    The question seemed to clear his friends mind because he was able to answer as clearly as he would have before their adventure had begun “He was tall and I mean really tall, he towered over me and he wore a hood that obscured his face. All that I could make out were his eyes, they glowed Blaise they actually glowed” he was gone before he even finished speaking.

    This wasn’t good in all his years Blaise had heard only a couple of tales of men and women with eyes that glowed. Each tale was the same yet each teller was different one had been a farmer the only survivor from the attack on a small town in Hjaalmarch, another had been a heavily armoured man with a crossbow strapped to his hip, he had claimed to be a vampire hunter based out of a fort near Riften. Each story ended with a warning to those listening “Beware those with glowing eyes for they are a vampire”

    He spoke the words without thinking yet Alarne didn’t stir, this just served to intensify the worry that had been building since he had found Alarne standing in front of the inn.

    Hopefully Alarne would be back to his normal self by morning and his fear would be for nothing, if not then he would have to do his best to get him to that hunter of vampires who claimed to be from the Rift.

    It was fairly easy to get Alarne to bed once they had eaten he was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the ground. Blaise however could only look forward to a night full of worry as he kept watch over his sleeping friend.

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