Day Five
The dragon lay dead at my feet, I felt better then I had in ages, all the combat training and all the thrill seeking I had done in my youth was worth it to stand over this defeated dragon. I was going to harvest as much meat and scales off of the beast as I could, but as I moved towards the dragon it seemed to glow with a fiery red glow and before I could run or scream out in panic the glow overtook my body and it felt as though I was meant to stand atop the world as a man among ants. For ten or twenty seconds I stood there letting the feeling over take me, before I understood what happened; I was stealing the soul of this dragon. I had no idea why I was taking the soul of the beast, but I knew that I was. As I absorbed the soul the dragon seemed to burn up it wasn't just the soul of the dragon but some of it's presence. The scales withered away to nothing, and all of the meat was gone as well. A whole bunch of gold and even an odd looking dagger fell to the ground as the belly of the beast dissolved. I gathered up some of the bones and some of the scales that had fallen to the ground. I was hoping for some of the black ones that I had seen on the back of the beast, but was instead left with some emerald green ones. I took the bounty of the dragon and turned to walk back to Riverwood.
They must have been standing there in awe, but when I turned around there were three or four people that I remember from Riverwood standing there slack-jawed. I approached them hoping to pass but the owner of the junk shop stopped me.
"Did you just kill that beast?" His voice was quivering worse then his knees as he asked
"Yes." I replied trying to act all calm and reserved as if I did it all the time
"After you killed it, did you take it's soul?" He asked this time taking a half step back from me.
"Yes, and I took some stuff from the remains of the corpse too." I smirked as he took yet another half step back.
"Do you do that with people too?" Two of the men who had come with him had placed their hands on the hilts of their swords.
"Only kill them, that soul thing is new to me too, and I only kill bad people." My response was cold and dry.
The two men released their swords as I walked towards the shop keep. "It also had a lot of gold in it, not to mention some stuff that I want to sell. Now lets go back to Riverwood, and have an ale or two and then we can talk business."
It seemed that that was going to be the best solution for the moment as we walked I shared my story of the defeat of the dragon. It seemed that they heard the beast roar and came to see what was making all the noise and when they came into the clearing to see me best the beast. Of course that also meant that they watched me steal it's soul. We hit the tavern and I bought everyone in the place an ale for their day and another round for their evening. It seemed that it was a good gesture as the barkeep offered me a room in the inn for the night. I took him up on his offer but I still had business to attend to with both the shop keep and the local blacksmith. Two more tankards of ale and I got up from my seat, the junk shop owner had already headed back to his business and the blacksmith sounded hard at work banging away on some new creation. I headed to the local smith first, I was hoping he could shed some light on the dagger I had found. I approached him and he gave me a smile as I waited for him to be done hammering away on what seemed to be steel armor.
"What can I do for you lad? Honestly didn't think you were going to come back to our little town." He was tired, I understood the sun had nearly set.
"I was hoping you would be able to tell me the origins of this dagger." I said producing the gold colored dagger I had taken from the beast.
He looked at it for a moment before nodding. "It's elvish, that much I do know, anything else I have no clue. I work in Iron and steel. It may not be fancy but it's cheep and it lasts."
"That it does indeed good sir." I laughed with him as he handed me that dagger back. "Think you could make me a scabbard for it?"
He nodded and told me I could pick it up early in the morning tomorrow. I then showed him the dragon bones and scales. He smiled saying that a master smith could make armor with it. I went back to the inn and bought a few more bottles of ale, and some trail rations, I had been to Skyrim on a couple of occasions and knew it never hurt to be prepared. and went to the room that the keep had offered me earlier, I closed the door and laid down.
I don't know how long it was before I heard the door creek open, I kept my eyes closed as I heard feet on the ground, this person was trying their best not to be heard. I called to mind the fire spell glad that it was not dangerous before you cast it, or it would have set the bed ablaze. I Sat up pointing my left hand at the intruder and grabbing the dagger that was on my bedside table with my right. The person was clad in red and black armor, that looked very similar to the armor that the assassins that tried to kill me a few days ago wore. Odly the nordic woman who looked at me was not armed.
"I come in peace shadowscale. There is no cause for alarm. I am only here to deliver a letter, then I will make my leave." She was speaking in whispers for some reason.
"Then deliver your letter and make your leave assassin." I hissed my reply "I was enjoying the dream I was having."
She nodded as she handed me a wax sealed letter, when I looked down to crack the seal she had used a spell to become invisible and she left. I read the letter to myself.
'Shadowscale, you bested four of my assassins in open combat, as such there is an opening in the ranks of my guild. The night mother would be very happy to have a shadowscale within it's ranks in Skyrim. You will not be required to do anything to accept our invitation, and there is no way to opt out. I should be frank here this is not a request, this is an order. You killed members of my guild, and I need someone to do the missions that they had left to fill. A contact will approach you and tell you what you are to be doing.'
I crumpled up the letter and threw it into the fireplace laughing as it burnt. It seemed that my life in Skyrim was going to be very interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment