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The Line Begins to Blur	By : VirusVescichetta Category: +A through F > Elder Scrolls - Skyrim Views: 61884 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Look at the URL. Now back to the disclaimer. Now the URL. Back to the disclaimer. Sadly, I don't own Skyrim or make money off it, but you can now read a story that's written as though I did. And yes, I just wasted a mod's valuable time.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
I sat up with a groan and a yawn. My fingers dug into my neck in an attempt to loosen my knotted muscles. "I hate having horns sometimes," I murmured and yawned again. I wondered briefly how late in the day it was, though I guessed it couldn't have been much past dawn since Lydia was still sleeping in the room's bed. I smirked at the thought of how unfair that was.
I grabbed the edge of her blanket and gave it a sharp tug. "Wakey, wakey, eggs and..." I stopped short upon seeing her surprisingly naked body.
She opened her eyes and gave me a tired glare. I had to give her credit on seeming quite nonchalant about being nearly nude in the same room as me for the night. Male pride decided that she couldn't be the only one. "I don't know about you, but I'm grabbing something to eat before we hit the road," I said and tossed the blanket back to her. I hoped that she hadn't noticed the way my eyes had drank her body in or the effect would probably ruined.
"That's one of the best plans you've ever had, my Thane," she hid her sarcastic tone behind a tired yawn.
"Had to happen someday," I chuckled as I pulled my tunic and boots on. I decided against even bothering with the shredded remains of leather and chain that had once been my gauntlets. I set about buckling the various straps that held my armour together as I left the room.
Within a few minutes I was sitting at a table in the main hall of the inn across from my housecarl. We were both enjoying a plate full of what we had been told were eggs and venison. The scrambled white and yellow mass dotted with bits of grey looked a lot less appetizing than it ended up being to an empty stomach. I had learned from years of travelling not to argue with food that was actually cooked and on a plate. Being an Argonian had the handy side benefit of giving me a tough stomach but even I could be taken down by bad meat, especially when it was half-raw.
The whole situation felt so completely ordinary that it let me forget about the whole Dragonborn business for a while. I could even put the tightness of my Thane's badge out of my mind for a few minutes. I was back to being just another lizard wandering the roads, though the company was a little odd. Still, it wasn't a bad thing to have something a little different. Just so long as it didn't mean I actually mattered to the grand scheme of the world.
The feeling of gravel and cobblestone beneath my feet as we walked down the road helped relax me, as well. As we distanced ourselves from Ivarstead and by extension High Hrothgar, I felt my worries slowly ease away. We were even getting farther from Whiterun as we headed east. Before long the badge on my arm would be meaningless. I'd well and truly be back to being someone completely inconsequential.
I pulled the bounty notice I had picked up from Wilhelm from a small pocket in my armour. "Do you happen to know where Mistwatch Keep is?" I asked Lydia, breaking what had to be almost two hours of silence.
"I am afraid not, my Thane," she shook her head. "I'm not familiar with this part of Skyrim. I've never travelled too far from Whiterun."
"Damn. Should've gotten Wilhelm to mark it on my map," I sighed. "I remember him saying something about north, though. He may have been talking about something else entirely, for all I know, but it's worth a shot."
"Why are we trying to find this place? Is the bounty really so high?"
"It's...uh..." I paused and looked at the piece of parchment. It hadn't actually occurred to me to check how valuable it was. Raiding a bandit den just sounded like fun. "...Five hundred septims, plus whatever we raid from the bandits."
"We still haven't sold all the valuables we collected from the last nest of thieves we cleared out," Lydia reminded me quite sternly.
"Yeah, well...we'll have room in the packs. And they'll have packs or coin purses or something. It's about the experience more than the reward, anyway. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Apparently back at the inn," she said with a sigh but didn't protest the matter anymore.
"I'm sure we'll find something there to make it worth our while," I chuckled. "Besides, it isn't like we have anything better to do. I just want to start wandering east for the sake of wandering somewhere."
"You really have no plan or destination?" she sounded genuinely surprised.
"Not in the slightest, no," I shook my head. "I find life is vastly more entertaining when it's spent just kinda...wandering around."
"There's something to be said for the freedom of it," she agreed.
We walked down the road in relative silence, as was becoming commonplace for us. Every so often one of us would spark up an inane conversation and we'd pass a few minutes that way. I couldn't help but think about how enjoyable it really was to just wander the roads with Lydia. It was relaxing not to have any kind of plan. Just as she had said, there truly was something to be said for the freedom of it, especially after the time I had spent on High Hrothgar being told what I was supposed to be.
I stopped walking and looked to the sky as a cold tingle ran down the back of my neck. "My Thane?" Lydia asked and looked at me with what could only be described as concern.
I was about to shake it off and tell her it was probably nothing when a thundering roar echoed around the surrounding mountains and hills. I cursed and drew my sword the instant it hit me where I knew that sound from. I wasn't entirely certain my sword was going to do much good.
The dragon crashed to the ground before us and let loose a second roar. I saw Lydia's eyes go wide in shock and fear. I couldn't blame her. I was probably at least as terrified as she was. I just had the benefit of having faced one of these beasts before.
A stream of flame forced us to split apart and dash to opposite sides of the road. We both had the same idea of trying to flank the dragon and avoid its deadly jaws and fire, though that was far easier said than done. It snapped at us, keeping us well out of range of our blades. When Lydia got a bit too far around to its side for its liking it swiped at her with a wing. She took the blow on her shield but it was more than enough to knock her off her feet.
I expected it to attack her while she was vulnerable, so I was rather surprised when it turned its attention on me. I ducked a snapping bite and slashed my sword across the bottom of its jaw. It recoiled with a sharp howl and opened its maw with the clear intent to let loose another blast of fire at me. Some foolish thought possessed me and caused me to drop my sword in lieu of focusing the single flame spell I knew in my palms. For some reason it made sense to me to literally fight fire with fire.
"Yol!" I heard what had to be the dragon's voice echo from its throat and throw forth its fires. My fire spell leapt from my hands at the same time and the two forces collided between us. I poured every last bit of my magical power into the spell and silently prayed that it would be enough to hold off the beast's Thu'um. Within seconds, however, my own flames were pushed back until the dragon's were inches from my hands. The scales of my palms burned painfully and a harsh tongue of fire flicked past them to scorch across my shoulder. The smell of burnt leather wafted past my nose and the flesh there lit up in agony.
Whether or not I would have lasted much longer on my own became a moot point as Lydia drove her sword into the dragon's ribs. It shrieked in pain and slapped her away with its tail, its quarrel with me temporarily forgotten. I likely should have been far more concerned about the safety of my housecarl but I was too consumed by pain and battle lust to think so rationally.
"Fus Ro!" I Shouted at the dragon's turning back. The force of my Voice was strong enough to send it skidding across the road and well away from Lydia.
It rose up on its haunches and let out a deafening roar. It spoke something in its language, though the only word I truly caught was "Dovahkiin".
"How nice of you to notice," I called back. I had no idea if it understood Common Cyrodiilic or not and didn't really care. If it was going to yell at me in a language I didn't know I felt vindicated returning the favour.
The dragon spread its wings wide and made to take flight. In doing so, though, it exposed its stomach and the underside of its neck. I picked my sword up off the ground as an idea hit me. "Wuld!" my Voice carried me the short distance to the beast in an instant. I drove my sword into the base of dragon's throat and tore it to the side. Pain screamed up my arms from my hands as my burns dug into the rough leather that wrapped around the hilt of my sword. A torrent of blood poured from the wound and streamed over me. I leapt out of the way of the corpse as it tumbled to the ground. "And now I'm filthy. Wonderful," I grumbled and sheathed my weapon.
Remembering Lydia's earlier blows I hastily turned and prepared to run over and see if she was okay only to find her slowly approaching me. She didn't look terribly injured, though I imagined her shield arm was either numb or very sore. "My Thane!" Lydia actually sounded concerned. "Are you hurt?"
"A little," I admitted with a pained hiss. As the rush of battle left me I became extraordinarily aware of my burned hands and shoulders. "Nothing a quick spell won't fix, though. Thanks for being such an outstanding distraction. You okay?"
Before she could answer a familiar sound caught my ears. We turned to see the dragon's flesh burning away. The embers leapt away in tendrils of glowing energy that very quickly lashed out and coiled around me. It felt like I had just taken a punch to the stomach and I likely would have dropped to the ground were it not for Lydia catching me and holding me steady. My mind was flooded with the dragon's knowledge and the word from Shroud Hearth Barrow became instantly clear.
I shook my head to clear it of the glowing runes dancing behind my eyes. "I'm really hoping that gets easier someday," I muttered quietly.
"What was that?" it didn't sound as though my housecarl's concern had been lessened.
"Unpleasant," I answered.
She frowned at my vague response as I stepped back. Strength had returned to my muscles and I didn't much feel like leaning on her for any longer than I had to. "Your eyes were glowing," she said suddenly.
"Really?" I blinked a few times. "Honestly didn't know that happened when I absorbed a dragon's soul."
"That's what that was?" Lydia's voice held no small amount of genuine surprise.
I nodded. "Yeah. Whenever I kill a dragon, I take its soul and memories and that's how I learn how to speak their language so quickly." I chuckled at my housecarl's somewhat confused and concerned expression. "Or at least, that's what the Greybeards told me. Now I know what the word I learned in that crypt means and how to properly speak it."
She didn't ask me to elaborate and I didn't much feel like explaining. I actually considered it somewhat useless, at least in comparison to the other two Shouts I knew. Being able to throw a man off his feet or sprint great distances in seconds seemed a lot more useful than calming down animals. Still, I supposed that in a pinch I could probably use it to keep a bear or sabre cat from mauling me.
I quickly tended to my hands, pressing a healing spell in between them to heal both palms simultaneously. We walked while I worked on my shoulder. I silently lamented how damaged my armour had become in the relatively short time I had owned it. The gauntlets were long gone and if this dragon business kept up I'd be without a tunic soon, too. I didn't much relish the thought of wandering around Skyrim completely shirtless. It was far too cold.
I glanced over at my housecarl and smirked to myself. Then again, maybe the entertainment would prove worthwhile. I was beginning to think more and more that maybe our innocent flirtation back and forth should stop being so innocent. Unfortunately, I was still uncertain of whether or not Lydia agreed on that point. I didn't want to make any kind of advances on her without being certain that it would be reciprocated. If she wanted something to happen, she'd very likely need to be the one who made the first move.
A slight frown pulled at the corners of my lips. My experiences with humans were screwing with me, I thought to myself. With other Argonians there was never any doubt as to whether or not the female was interested. The signs for either were natural and I knew them instinctively. With humans, I didn't know how to tell.
I let the thoughts drift to the back of my mind as we crested a hill and what I assumed to be our destination came within sight. It was a trio of towers standing atop a large hill overlooking something akin to a valley. I assumed there were hot springs on the valley floor by the smell of sulphur and the layer of mist. I also assumed that was what had given the fort its name. I hoped that after we were done with the bandits in the fort I could jog down and wash away the dragon's blood.
"Think this is the right place?" I asked as we approached.
"We've certainly travelled far enough to be in Eastmarch by now," she said with a satisfied nod.
I figured Eastmarch was just another section of the country and probably where the bounty notice had come from. I pondered over how to confirm the bounty as we approached. I wasn't much in the mood for carrying a head with me to whatever city ruled over the area, especially if it took more than a day or so to reach there. Maybe the Jarl would simply take my word for it, I wondered and laughed aloud at the thought of some pompous Nord actually believing an Argonian at his word.
As we got closer I began to see how dilapidated the fortress really was. I thought dimly that nearly every fort in Skyrim was dilapidated and crumbling. "Why are none of these actually, you know...occupied?" I asked my housecarl. "I mean by people other than bandits."
"I'm not entirely sure," she said with a shrug. "You don't have abandoned forts and strongholds in Black Marsh?"
"Not really, no. Probably a couple around Soulrest or Blackrose, but anything that gets abandoned just ends up being taken by the swamp. Hard for bandits to haunt a place already inhabited by fen snakes and gloomwidows," I answered. Lydia's curious eyes silently asked me to continue. "Really big snakes and spiders. And by big...a full grown gloomwidow is about three or four times bigger than the biggest frostbite spider I've seen here. It's literally a spider the size of a house."
My housecarl's shudder didn't escape my notice. "What could they possibly feed on?" she asked with a bit of revulsion lining her voice.
"Pretty much anything stupid enough to get caught in its web," I shrugged and chuckled. "Luckily they don't leave their webs so you really can just walk right past without it giving a damn."
Further conversation was halted as we came upon the structure's gates. Or the broken arch that had once held the gates. The wood itself had long rotted away to nothing, leaving quite the open invitation to any who would dare enter. I walked straight through, despite the rather disbelieving look my housecarl shot me.
My eyes flickered around the courtyard. There were two men to the side, sitting on a set of stone stairs leading up to a walkway. The walkway ran around the inside of the walls and would have led to the doors of the fort were the bridge not raised. A female stood before the door across from the raised bridge with a bow sitting next to her foot. Movement from behind the bridge alerted me to one last man close to the lever that I assumed would drop it.
The men on the ground level stood from their spot on the stairs. "Excuse me, but you wouldn't mind helping a lost traveller find his way, would you?" I asked with a smile. I felt warmth spread across my palm as I readied my flame spell. I quite forcibly pushed away the thought that it felt just like the dragon's fires burning my skin.
"You picked a bad place to get lost, lizard," one of the men sneered at me.
"Oh? This isn't Mistwatch?" I asked, feigning ignorance. My muscles tensed like coiled springs, though I did my best to keep a relaxed appearance. I heard Lydia's steps as she walked up behind me. "That would be an awful shame, being as there's quite a bounty on that place."
If the bandits' reactions were anything to go by we were in the right place. Both the men before me drew their blades and made to lunge at me. My spell spat fire from my hand to torch one while I flicked my own sword from its sheathe to block the other. I barked an order at Lydia to get the bridge down so we could deal with the archer. She ran ahead to deal with the third man while I contended with my remaining foe.
Our swords were locked together for a moment before I let my wrist go slack and stepped to the side. The bandit stumbled forward from the force he was using to hold my sword away from his skin. A quick flick brought the tip of my blade across his throat. The move was simple, obvious and one of the first I had been taught years before. No one who actually knew what he was doing with a weapon would fall for it, but then I knew most bandits weren't the most skilled swordsmen.
I raced up the stairs as Lydia impaled her opponent. She brought her shield up in time to deflect another arrow from the archer across the way. It clattered to the ground along with about half a dozen others. I gave the bridge's lever a swift kick and watched it fall into place. Within seconds I was across the span and cutting down the woman while she frantically tried to open the door. A strangled plea for mercy was halfway through her lips as my sword carved through her back.
We wasted no time in rushing inside. I expected to find more enemies but all that faced me was an empty hall. There was a large wooden door at the end of the hallway, though what concerned me most was the single room just before it. I couldn't help but feel that an ambush was waiting for the moment I passed by it. Instead a man walked out to stop me and I very nearly cleft his head from his shoulders. I saw that he was dressed in simple clothes, however, rather than any kind of armour. He looked middle-aged but then very nearly everyone in Skyrim did to me. It occurred for a brief moment that I was terrible at judging how old humans were.
"You're...you're not bandits, are you?" he asked hastily. "You're not with this gang?"
"No, but that doesn't mean it wasn't an immensely stupid idea to just jump out in front of me," I frowned at him. He stood about half a head shorter than me, so it wasn't much trouble to intimidate him a little. "What if I was one of the bandits? What would you have done?"
"I assumed that the bandits wouldn't come charging into their own fort, looking ready for a fight," he countered. After seeing I wasn't hostile he didn't seem particularly bothered by my height advantage or weapons. Or the blood covering me from my earlier fights. "Look, if you're not one of them then I need your help. You look like you're fighting them anyway."
"That depends entirely on what kind of help you're asking for," my frown deepened. Something about this told me I wasn't going to be getting paid much for helping this man.
"It's my wife, Fjola. I think she's being held in this tower," he explained. "She left the farm months ago on an errand and never came back. I heard a rumour that these bandits were kidnapping people for ransom." He let out a tired sigh. "I managed to sneak past the guards and get this far, but I don't think I can keep going. I'm no warrior."
"What makes you think she's here?" Lydia asked from behind me.
"The kidnappings started around the time she disappeared and I've looked countless other places. It's the only hope I've got right now."
"Well, we are already here to clear this place out for a bounty," I mused. "Alright. I'll help you, so long as it means I get paid."
I saw the man tense up for a moment before he let out another sigh. "Very well. I don't have much to give, but I'll give you what coin I can. Oh, and take this key. One of the guards dropped it while I hid. It'll probably come in handy," he said as he handed me a worn iron key.
I slipped the key into a pocket in my armour and motioned to my housecarl to move on. The key as immediately useful, since it was actually for the door right at the end of the hall. "Might come in handy, indeed," I chuckled dryly and pushed the door open.
We were greeted on the other side by a pair of bandits leaning against the wall next to the door. Before he could reach for his weapon I had slammed one's head against the stone wall. The blow stunned him enough to give me a chance to very quickly twist his neck. The dull snap told me that I had done a good enough job that I needn't worry about his retaliation.
I turned to see Lydia's sword sticking from the other man's chest. He had clearly meant to sneak up on me and in turn had been impaled from behind by my housecarl. "We're getting good at this," I said with a wide grin.
The rest of the tower proved empty and we eventually came to a ladder that led to the roof. The sun was still bright outside and I couldn't help but wish it were raining so some of the gore may be washed off my skin and armour. I looked down at the torn up leather and chain haphazardly hanging onto me. "Or what's left of my armour, anyway," I mumbled quietly to myself.
"My Thane?" Lydia's questioning voice caught my attention as we walked along the ramparts connecting the towers.
"My armour's kinda tattered," I answered. "I'm pretty sure the only thing holding it on anymore is what's left of the left shoulder and some of the straps on the side. I don't think it's gonna last much longer." I looked back at her with a slight frown. "How come your armour isn't all torn up and burnt like mine?"
"I don't dive headfirst into every fight," she replied with a slightly incredulous look. "Nor do I stand in front of dragons while they breath fire."
"Hey, it isn't as though I had much chance to get out of the way," I grumbled. "Though I am immensely thankful my sword didn't break in that fight."
I shut my mouth as we opened the door to the next tower. Inside I could smell fires and cooked food. I tightened my grip on my blade and whispered to Lydia to stay put for a moment while I took a look around. If we were lucky, she might even be able to get the drop on someone if they attacked me.
I didn't have to wait long for such an occurrence. Within seconds of entering the room I had to duck an axe being swung at my head. My sword drove into the man's stomach through his thin hide armour and I didn't even bother trying to extract it. I knew it was jammed on bone and the orc behind him swinging a massive battleaxe at me wasn't likely to give me a chance to work my blade out of his friend's spine.
I took the blow on the bandit's corpse and stumbled back from the hit. As luck would have it, the force knocked my sword loose and I let the body drop to free the blade. "I've got this one. Get the archer over there!" I barked at my housecarl as she approached from the orc's side. I had noticed a third man nocking an arrow to his bow while the orc had been trying to cleave me in two.
There wasn't much I could do with my single sword, I quickly realized as the head of the orc's axe left a shallow gouge in the side of my tunic. I picked up the first man's axe and tried to get a shot in while my enemy was vulnerable. Unfortunately I had next to no experience with using axes in battle; so far in my life all I had used were various swords and daggers. I didn't know how to control the extra weight or radically different balance.
The bandit and I worked on dodging each other, neither of us terribly keen on the idea of actually getting in too close. Regrettably for me, however, the reach of the bandit's weapon exceeded mine by over a foot. I realized too late that he had backed me into a corner between two tables and a wall at my back.
I blocked his mighty downward swing with my weapons crossed before me. The edge of the blade still reached far enough to cut into my shoulder, slicing through what little leather and metal still held my armour together. With little other chance for getting out of the poor situation, I let my legs give out and hit the ground on my ass. I shot my foot out to slam my heel into the orc's groin and hacked the axe in my hand into the side of his thigh. Whether the former actually made any difference towards dropping his guard didn't matter so much as how satisfying it was to land a solid blow.
His battleaxe hit the ground to free his hands so he could grab me by the shreds of my armour. I was lifted clear of the ground and slammed onto the hard wood of one of the nearby tables. I had to give the orc credit on not only lifting me but being able to do it with a wounded leg and crushed testicles. It occurred that maybe the latter hadn't done as much to slow him down as it did to spur his rage.
The sword and axe in my hands clattered again the stone floor so I could try and fend off the brute choking me against a table. I didn't hesitate to jam one of my thumbs knuckle deep into his eye socket. The soft organ exploded from my claw piercing its delicate flesh and blood flooded down my hand and wrist. His deafening roar of rage and pain was twisted into a garbled mess when a lightning spell burst from the hand gripping his skull. My other hand grabbed the other side and between the two the orc's head was roasted in electric fire.
I tossed his body off as he finally went limp and pushed myself to my feet despite how much the fight had exhausted me. There was no telling how many others had shown up and I couldn't leave Lydia on her own. I caught sight of her just as she bashed the last man standing with her shield so she could impale him while he lay prostrate on the floor.
What looked to be the last of them was swinging a sword in a wide overhead arc at me. I silently lamented checking for threats to my own well-being after Lydia's but didn't give it much thought after catching his blade against my forearm. The dull sword didn't cut past the bone but still had enough force to send me stumbling back over the orc's corpse and cursed as I once more hit the floor. Pain raced up my arm and I was forcibly reminded of the use of wearing gauntlets, regardless of how damaged. Flames leapt from my palm to engulf my attacker, though his metal armour kept them from staying for long. My tail swept out his legs from under him. I was back on my feet in an instant and the sword biting through the flesh of his exposed neck never gave him the chance to do the same.
"Is that all of them?" I asked and coughed, bringing a hand up to rub at my sore throat. The orc had a vicious grip.
"I believe so," she nodded and sheathed her sword while I did the same. It was then that I noticed the thin trickle of blood running down her arm, as well as a fresh notch in her armour.
"You're hurt," I noted with a frown. I quickly made my way over to my pack at the doorway.
"Not as badly as you are," she spoke from behind me. I assumed she was referring to the ugly, jagged gash in my shoulder and the deep cut in my arm.
"Most of the blood on me isn't mine," I waved her off. I was glad I was facing away from her so she wouldn't see me wince at the pain of using that arm. I grabbed the pack and turned to see her approach. How did she get so sneaky? I briefly wondered.
Lydia bared her wound to me. In truth, it wasn't terribly serious, just a slice running from the back of her upper arm around to the front of her elbow. It had probably been from a blow from her unshielded side while she was taking care of the archer. The cut was already scabbing over from the surprisingly dry air inside the fort. "You need any medical supplies more than I do, my Thane."
I was curious why she didn't simply suggest I use my magic to heal myself. As much as I may have liked to I was far too drained from my constant use of magic throughout the day. If I tried to use any more I was liable to faint. "I'll bandage myself up if you make sure to take care of your arm," I said. I wasn't terribly sure why I was bargaining for whether or not to treat my injuries.
My housecarl frowned at me, likely as unsure as to my reasoning as I was. "If that is your wish, my Thane," her voice carried something akin to scepticism. She reached for the bag but I lightly batted her hand away.
"I'll take care of it. Come on; I need you sitting somewhere," I motioned with my head to one of the tables. It had a chair that actually hadn't been knocked over or destroyed by the fight sitting nearby.
Lydia sat down and fixed me with a quizzical stare when I told her to remove her bracer. "It's in the way," I said simply. The cut in her arm ran disappeared just under the top of her gauntlet and if I was going to bandage the whole thing the metal plating would need to be gone.
"I still don't see why you have to do this, my Thane."
I didn't bother answering her. I simply stood next to her and stared down at her until she let out a defeated sigh and did as I asked. It took me less than a minute to get her arm bandaged up. After the dozens of times I had taken care of my own injuries - mostly due to sheer negligence of my magical talent - working on another person's wounds was a snap. The crisp, clean white cloth wrapped around her arm would keep her cut protected until it healed.
I stood back up and looked down at what remained of my hardened leather tunic. Bits of chain dangled from it in various patches. The right shoulder was gone completely, burned away by the dragon's fire. The left shoulder still had a frayed strip of leather holding it together that was biting into the bloody ravine carved into my skin. Only one of the straps still remained at the side to keep my armour in place, and even that had been sliced almost halfway through by some foe's blade. All in all, I had to say that it was well past any kind of serviceable state.
I muttered quietly and quickly tore away what remained of the fragments keeping it on. The fact that they gave to my own strength made me feel justified in ridding myself of what was left. The brutalized and blood-soaked armour hit the stone floor with an underwhelming rattle of broken metal and torn leather. I was somewhat sad to see the armour that had more or less lasted me since arriving in Skyrim go, but its time was done.
Lydia and I changed places and she hastily set to patching me up. She murmured something about stitches but I waved her off. My wounds would probably be almost healed by the time we arrived in Riften. It took longer for my housecarl to tend to my various injuries than it had for me to work on hers but I didn't really mind. I was happy to let our little excursion wait a few minutes while we licked our wounds. I was feeling fairly confident that we had dealt with every bandit in the fort. Still, the fact that we hadn't run into the missing Fjola was somewhat troubling.
Just as the thought crossed my mind I noticed a scrap of paper sitting on the table next to me. I held my arm out for Lydia to work on the still-bleeding cut between my elbow and wrist while I picked up the small note with the other hand. I mumbled the words quietly to myself, though I was cut off by my own hiss of pain when Lydia poured some antiseptic fluid over my cut. "Find something interesting, my Thane?" she asked with some exaggerated innocence. She was actually enjoying making me flinch.
"Our missing wife may be dead," I said and tossed the note back on the table. "I'm gonna be a little miffed if she is. I don't think that Christer guy is gonna be too keen on paying us if we don't bring his woman back." I hissed again when she gave the bandage around my arm a harsh tug to tighten it.
"We haven't explored the entire keep yet," my housecarl reminded me with a firm voice.
"I know. I was just saying," I muttered and rubbed at my aggravated wound. When I stood and made to move on Lydia cleared her throat to catch my attention.
"Aren't you a little under dressed?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"A little, but there isn't exactly a replacement set of armour handy," I said and shrugged lightly. "If you see a shirt that looks like it'll fit me, by all means be sure to mention it to me and I'll be sure to cover up." A smirk pulled at my lips and I couldn't help but tease my housecarl a little. "Unless of course you'd rather I continue walking around half-naked and swathed in bandages."
The slightest dusting of pink settled on her cheeks before she brushed past me mumbling something I couldn't make out. I was surprised at how much I had to restrain myself from making further advances on her. I had decided that if anything were going to happen between us it would be her who made the first move. I wasn't confident enough with humans to try such a thing, despite my past accidental successes. I had to frown at myself at the thought that I was willing to stand in front of a dragon's fire without fear but refused to approach a woman.
I was saved from walking further down that embarrassing trail of thought by the discovery of a woman's body. "Do you think that's Fjola?" Lydia asked as I walked over to the corpse.
I crouched down next to the body and looked it over. I picked up its left hand and inspected the fingers. "I don't think this is her," I said and stood back up. "Her fingers have never had a ring on them. There are no callouses or scars between them." I walked past my housecarl on the way to the stairs that led to the top of the tower.
We found the rest of the building to be deserted. A heavy wooden door led to the balcony connecting the second and fourth towers and we walked outside to see that it was just breaking into afternoon. I was surprised; I had expected it to be night time for some reason. I figured that it seemed weird because most of my adventures tended to end by nightfall. A small smirk spread across my face at the thought that by noon I had already killed a dragon and broken into a bandit hideout to kill the inhabitants and collect a bounty. My life had gotten rather exciting since coming to Skyrim.
The final tower was little more than a curving hallway that ended in a large room that dominated the centre of the building. I heard footsteps and saw a woman come out of the room. She was dressed in simple cotton clothing, despite the fierce painted markings on her face. I immediately assumed her to be the one leading the bandits, though the fact that she was unarmed and without armour made me relaxed enough to take my hand from my sword.
"I'm guessing that since you're standing in front of me you've killed most of my men," she said nonchalantly. "Or, more likely, all of my men."
"To be fair, I think there were a couple females in among them," I said and gave a light shrug. I had to keep myself from wincing at the pain the action ignited in my shoulder. "I'm collecting the bounty on this place and looking for some woman named Fjola."
"Fjola? How do you know that name?" the woman narrowed her eyes at me.
"Because your husband asked me to find you," I answered with a frown. "Though now I'm beginning to think my two jobs are kind of conflicting."
"I'm terribly sorry to complicate the unrepentant slaughter of my men."
"Yeah, well, you should be. Besides, it isn't as though they didn't deserve it. They were, you know, bandits and murderers and all that noise," my frown deepened into something of a scowl.
"Murderers? I made sure no one in my gang killed anyone. You can't ransom off a dead person," Fjola actually sounded somewhat disgusted at the concept. Maybe she wasn't enough of a scumbag to warrant killing for a bounty, I thought with enough amusement to lift my frown.
"You might have wanted to run that idea past your gang. Apparently Burbag took too heavy a hand to some woman you picked up recently," I was surprised by my housecarl's addition to the conversation.
"Wait, when did you read that note?" I asked as I turned my head to face her. I momentarily forgot my conversation with Fjola.
"After you put it back on the table," she answered as though I should have known. Apparently I needed to pay more attention to what she did.
"Oh. I didn't notice," was all I could say in response, so I turned to face the other woman again. "Anyway, I'm willing to not kill you if you go back to your husband or something. So long as the bandit problem in the area is solved I'm sure I'll still get paid."
"I'd rather die than go back to being that man's wife," Fjola scoffed.
"How terrible could it have been? He didn't seem the needlessly abusive type."
She let out a harsh sigh. "He wasn't. Living with him was just...beyond boring. I can't stand settling down like that."
"And banditry seemed the best recourse?" I could hear some measure of contempt in Lydia's voice. I figured it likely had something to do with her being a guard and soldier who had to defend people from gangs like Fjola's.
I could sympathize with the woman's desire to stay free to do as she pleased, though. I didn't necessarily agree with how she went about it, but I could definitely see where she was coming from. "So what do you want me to tell your husband?" I let the bounty issue go for the time being. This was a problem more likely to be easily solved.
"I don't care. Tell him I'm dead, for all it matters. Just get him gone," she said with a shake of her head. "He's...a good man. I don't want him dead over this. Give him this ring and tell him you found it on my corpse," she handed me a simple gold band. I didn't know what separated it from any other ring in the world, but I'm sure there was something to identify it.
I handed the ring to Lydia. "Go give that to him and let him come to his own conclusions. If he asks about it, just shake your head or something," I murmured to her. "Now then, I was kind of expecting to make some money off this. Being a mercenary kind of makes that a priority."
I saw Fjola glance at my housecarl for a moment. "We can discuss your payment in private. I'm sure we can work out something, if you're so concerned about not collecting your bounty."
My eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion at her request to speak in private. Still, I was fairly certain that if everything went sideways I could probably handle her in a straight fight. I gave a nod to my housecarl and told her to leave it to me. She nodded in return and left with a quiet warning to be careful.
"Now then, about that payment," I started as I turned back to her. I stopped dead in my speech when I found her without a shirt. It lay in a crumpled heap on the floor by the entrance to her room.
I saw her eyebrow quirk slightly along with her lips. "Well, it seems you're a man after all," she chuckled low in her throat.
I couldn't help the frown that pulled at my lips. "I would've thought that was fairly obvious. I'm kind of lacking a shirt. I could take off my pants, too, if you really want to make sure."
"I may wish you to take off your pants for another reason entirely," Fjola actually sounded amused.
Despite all my trepidation when it came to human women there was no mistaking her intent here. Before I could make a witty retort she had wandered back into her room. I couldn't help but feel I was losing my rhetorical edge. I followed her into the room to find her working at unbinding the belt holding her pants in place. "You certainly seem eager," I remarked as I approached her from behind.
"It's been a while since I shared my bed, I suppose," she looked over her shoulder with an entertained smirk pulling at her lips. I wondered faintly if she expected me to kiss her.
"So the scales and the tail and the horns don't bother you?" I asked to distract myself from thinking about unknown things.
"I've never had sex with an Argonian before. I have to admit that I'm fairly curious," she shrugged. "The smooth skin and hair doesn't bother you?"
I laughed aloud and simply shook my head in spite of the pants and undergarments dropping down her legs. Her body looked nearly as fit as Lydia's, if not quite as strong. Apparently her time as a bandit had been good exercise. A few scars dotted her back, though she didn't have nearly the mess of pale lines and dots I did. I pushed away the reminder that my shoulder would doubtlessly have a rather ugly, jagged stretch of scar tissue in a few days.
"How do you want to..." I began to ask but was cut off when she spun around and pulled me down to kiss her. Maybe humans didn't place so much value on the gesture as I had originally thought. I reached down to work at the buckles holding my pants in place but didn't get much undone before Fjola pulled me with her to her nearby bed.
As much as I may have wanted to drag out and enjoy the first sexual experience I was having since leaving Whiterun about two weeks beforehand, I knew I was on a fairly strict time limit. It wouldn't take Lydia long to get to Christer and deliver the ring. Fjola's lips swallowed a satisfied groan when I finally got the bindings for my pants loose enough to extract my hastily stiffening member.
Her hand slid down my bare chest to wrap loosely around my shaft. A quiet mewl of approval told me she liked what she found. My own fingers dipped between her legs to find she was already nearly dripping in arousal. "You really are eager," I chuckled quietly in her ear. She moaned softly when I slipped a finger inside. The feeling of a human's vagina was something I wasn't likely to get bored of.
I had to be quick, a stray thought reminded me. I hoped that Fjola was thinking the same thing and promptly pulled my hand away from her moist centre to brace against her hip. The hand that had been stroking me slowly guided my pulsing erection to her entrance and with a swift push of my hips I was buried inside her. I couldn't help but notice for once that I couldn't get my entire length into her before I hit what I assumed was her cervix.
I started with slow, experimental thrusts but that didn't last long. She wasn't as tight as Ysolda or Camilla, my mind distantly noted. I wasn't about to complain, though. Sex was sex and I was more than happy to be having it.
When the minutes began to tick by in my head and my body showed no sign of nearing its completion I began to grow slightly worried. Never before in my life had I wanted to finish so quickly. Why couldn't this have just been a simple minute of clumsy, aimless thrusting to ruin my self-esteem like when I first lost my virginity? I likely would have skipped out on the stupid, needless apologies this time, though.
My own hiss of pain brought me from my reverie when Fjola's fingers clamped onto my shoulders. I likely wouldn't have minded her gripping my bandaged wound so much if she weren't doing it with her nails. I tried to shrug her off my left shoulder, but she was too lost in pleasure to notice. I would have been proud if I weren't worried about her tearing an already ugly gash into something far worse.
My solution was to pry her hand off, pull out and flip her onto her stomach. She let out a small whimper of disappointment at the loss of my thick cock. She didn't have to suffer without for long, though. As speedily as I could manage it I lifted her waist so she was propped up on her knees and pushed back into her. From this angle I could fit nearly my entire prick in her wet, gripping heat. I wasted no time in setting a pace to match my earlier pounding. Her moans were brought back to their former volume and even I couldn't help the odd hiss of pleasure.
I wrapped an arm around Fjola's stomach and pulled her up so I could bite and lick at her neck. My hand went to her breasts to squeeze at the soft, firm flesh and pinch lightly at her pink nipples. Its opposite at her waist held her steady so I could thrust my hips against hers with whatever strength I could muster. I was determined to be finished quickly.
It took only a couple minutes for me to finally feel the tingling build-up of my impending climax. I made no attempt to hold it off and when Fjola's inner walls began rippling in time with her increasingly loud moans I knew she was reaching her orgasm. I lifted my hand from her breasts to turn her head so I could engulf her lips with my own and swallow her screams. When my own orgasm finally hit I pushed as far into her suddenly constricting canal as I could. My seed pulsed from my body in hot, fast torrents and filled her until I could feel it seeping past my cock to run down her thigh.
I held the woman tight against my chest for a brief moment while I regained my breath. I lifted my head as I withdrew my softening member from Fjola's now relaxed confines. I was ready to let out a sigh of relief when my eyes caught sight of Lydia standing at the entrance to the room and my breath caught in my throat.
She was staring at us, eyes wide and jaw hanging. I heard Fjola chuckle quietly when she noticed the other woman, though I couldn't quite figure out what was terribly entertaining. She pressed a hot, almost sloppy kiss to the juncture of my jaw and neck. For the umpteenth time that day my usual wit failed me.
I decided to deal with a much more easily solved problem and looked down at the naked woman pressed against me. "Probably a horrible time to ask, but would you happen to have any shirts kicking around that might fit me?"

A/N: So this has easily been the hardest to write chapter for this whole story. At no point did I manage to sit down and just write for a couple hours. None of it flowed out easily and I ground my way through most of it with clenched teeth, trying desperately to write something I didn't dislike. Also, Halo 4. I'm hoping that the next chapter is easier to get out. Regardless, tell me what you thought of the whole mess and I'll do what I can to get back to you.
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The Line Begins to Blur