Day Four
The assassins and four of the hunters lay dead, and I was to blame. The assassins had come for me but they had no idea who I was. That proved that the dark brotherhood were poorly organized and probably a broken home. I would have to fix that sooner or later for better or for worse. There was no reason for me to stay here so after giving some nice words and even helping dig a shallow grave for one of their fellows I moved on. It took about three hours before i came upon a town, there wasn't much to it, basically just a shop a ruddy looking inn and a blacksmith workshop. The few people I noticed seemed to be friendly enough, one even welcomed me to their city. Riverwood, had a nice ring to it almost too bad that there were no empty houses that I could perhaps buy later.
I approached the blacksmith of the town and asked if there was a fee to use his station, he kindly said that I could use it if I wanted to, so long as I left it in good condition for him later. I knew what I was doing, in the army I smithed my own weapons and armor frequently. The only downside was that I had neither ores or leathers to make anything, and a sword with no scabbard or soft handle was not a sword at all. There was a store just up the street from the blacksmith forge perhaps he would have the required materials. After taking some time to talk to a local child I walked into the small junk shop. On the desk there was a golden claw shaped thing that looked expensive. The shop keep looked at me and asked if there was anything I was looking for. I told him I was looking for iron ingots and leathers both whole and strips. The grand total was 40 gold, I thought that I had made out like a bandit. Until I noticed that the iron had a lot of imperfections in it and the leather was from some kind of sheep or goat.
Back at the blacksmith forge I set to work, the lazy people who buy all of their weapons think they are made in a matter of moments but it could take hours. Sure I could make a crappy shank out of metal in a matter of moments, but a well crafted blade required time and love, like a nice cake. Two hours spent and my new weapon was starting to look more and more like a sword and less and less like scraps. It wouldn't be long before I could right all the worlds wrongs, and wrong all the rights in the world. I was the kind of person who didn't really care who won or lost, but that I was involved in the fight at all. Songs were not written for the winners, but for the brave. Another two hours and my blade was finished, keened and straight. It was the kind of blade one could take to the grave...if they died before they could make a better one. I cheated and bought a suit of iron armor from the smith he seemed surprised that someone like me would wear heavy armor at all.
I stayed at the inn for about six hours, had a few tankards of ale, some cheese and bread. That left about five and a half hours for sleep. After I woke up I walked out of the inn, flicking the keeper an extra gold for his services. I walked out of the city and headed for the foothills just at the north exit. Another four hours on the road and the foothills had turned into a winding mountain path I was nervous about the footing at some of the turns it almost felt like I was going to fall. As i came around another bend i found myself walking towards a plateau, it extended for about one hundred feet and was nearly double that wide. I thought I had found a perfect place to rest, but then I heard a blood curdling roar, as a dragon came over the south all of the basin-like clearing.
Drawing my new weapon in my right hand and knocking the hilt against the new armor I recalled the knowledge of the fire spell into my left hand. The dragon let out a roar that could have shattered a diamond, i looked it in the eyes and smiled. The dragon took off for the sky as I launched a line of fire at it, it was not even close to hitting it but I wanted it to know i meant business, that I wasn't here to screw around. This dragon was not at all like the one that had picked me up before my execution, it was smoother and had no hooks on it's back or face, if I didn't know better I may have even thought this was a young dragon. It swooped at me breathing a mouthful of fire in my direction, i rolled out of the way and launched my own bolt of fire back this time I hit the monster, but it didn't seem to care all that much. After a second swoop and yet another line of fire it landed about twenty feet away from me. I knew opportunity when I saw it and I rushed the beast letting out a yell trying to show him that he was not the only one around here with a brilliant set of scream pipes. The beast reared his head and began to let loose a stream of fire, I rushed along under him dragging my sword along his underbelly, that he felt. He rose up into the air as I lashed out with a blast of fire it struck him in the same place that I had hit it with my sword. I thought I was going to get out of this this unscathed but that was not going to be the case. The dragon's tail came down and landed square on my back, throwing me a good ten feet into a snow drift. I was unimpressed to be sure but I knew that the snow drift was a softer place to land then on a rock. The dragon lashed out another line of fire the snow bank was all that protected me this time. Iron armor was good for most things but it's ability to keep cold things cold was not one of them. The snow melted from the blast of fire and I stood up turning to face the beast. I rushed him again, this time I took my sword in both hands and buried it deep into the monsters nose, it would not be a killing blow but a tide turner. I used the sword as leverage as i pulled myself upon him channeling the fire in my mind to my right hand as well as my left. I Took aim and blasted the metal sword with a grand stream of fire. The sword started to glow white hot the dragon screamed in rage as the sword got hotter and hotter. It wasn't long before the dragon threw me off of his back, and it was even less time before he crashed back down to earth. He still wasn't dead but he was in pain. He wasn't going to breath fire at me with that sword in his gate, I had the upper hand now. I walked towards the dragon, this time I was arrogant I knew I was about to win. I channeled the fire in my hand again aiming them right at the dragon's head. That sealed the deal, the dragon thrashed around for a moment before falling limp on the ground.
I thought it was over but then something started to happen...
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