Not Alone (A Skyrim Fanfiction)

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

     I kicked a patch of snow violently, sending a little puff of it into the air.  It may not seem like that snow deserved it, but trust me, that was a very offensive patch of snow.

     Did all the Skaal talk so much, or was it just Frea and her father?

     Apparently Frea had disdained to tell Storn what had happened at Miraak’s temple, so I was left the tedious process of explaining what had happened for a second time.  When I had finished he professed that ‘what he feared had come to pass’ and asked for ‘the All-Maker to protect us all’.  I almost asked what the All-Maker was, then realized that would be the stupidest question ever and that it would give Storn yet another reason to talk me to death.  I did however ask if he knew what the place I had been was. 

     I had guessed it was a plane of Oblivion, but I hadn’t known it was Apocrypha, the plane of Hermaeus Mora, Daedric Prince of knowledge and memory.  Every single encounter I had had with one of these beings had ended badly for someone, either me or another, and here I had a book in my pocket that could transport me to the domain of one at any time.

     Storn Crag-strider had considered for a few minutes, then finally sent me to a location called Saering’s Watch to learn a Shout that Miraak had mastered the first time he walked the earth.  Apparently it could somehow free all the enchanted people if I used it on the various stones around Solstheim.  How learning another Shout would help me defeat someone who probably knew a few thousand of them was beyond me, but I certainly couldn’t defeat him now.  This wasn’t an admittance of defeat, just a simple logical fact.  My magic was much weaker than his, and he would take me down before I could close with hand to hand combat.  It hurt to admit it, but he was stronger than I was.

     Did that mean I couldn’t defeat him?  No.  When I found out I was Dragonborn there was no way I could have killed Alduin, but nearly a year later I had become strong enough even to follow the beast through a portal into Sovngarde and kill him there where he had enslaved the dead.  I did not doubt that somehow I would find the power to kill Miraak as well.

     And I wanted to kill him, very badly indeed, and not just for personal reasons.  Yes, he had made me feel like a ten year old boy who couldn’t even lift a sword, and yes, he had annoyed me by first complementing me for slaying Alduin then made it an insult by saying he could have done it himself, but these personal issues didn’t blind me to the truth of the thing.  I may not have heard of Miraak before, but I knew his type.  Guys like that wouldn’t stop at conquering an island with two settlements on it and a length that I could traverse in a day.  As soon as Miraak conquered Solstheim, trust me, he would be on his merry way across the sea to Skyrim.  I had saved Skyrim once, and I’d be banished to Oblivion if I was going to let it be destroyed now.

     I glanced up from the uneven terrain that I had been keeping an eye on and stopped abruptly.  I had reached Saering’s Watch, if the stone structures built into the mountainside were anything to judge by.  Torches glimmered from sconces set into the rock, a sign I took to mean that there must be draugr somewhere nearby.  Ducking behind a rock, I carefully scrutinized the entire place.  Not a dragon in sight, but I had no doubt one was around somewhere.  They were attracted by word walls, cold, snowy heights, and animals to hunt.  All three conditions were right; I had passed several wild goats roaming the hills.  Maybe it was off hunting….  Yeah right.  I never get that lucky.

     There was still no sign if a dragon, either in the skies above Saering’s Watch or sleeping near the word wall.  Well, there was nothing for it.  I wasn’t going to wait here in the cold forever to find out whether there was actually a dragon here, so I sidled out from behind the rock and cautiously made my way to the right side of the location where I could see a way up.