Many hours earlier, when Luna and Ky'ell had just finished off the giants of Guldun Rock, they took the opportunity to take a short break to rest from their first life threatening battle as a traveling pair. Every single solitary muscle in their bodies had become very sore from the harrowing experience. They found a soft patch of grass near the giant camp to lie down and listen to the sounds of the surrounding environment now that they knew they were out of danger. They were certain that nobody would dare to even come close to the camp considering that most should be assuming the giants were still guarding the camp. While Luna was lying down on the soft grass, Ky'ell had been fooling around with the numerous belongings that the giants once owned. She turned her head in his direction and found that after he had raided one of the treasure chests, he had dove headfirst into one of the strange hide sacks that had been placed by the bonfires by the now deceased giants.
"Sir Ky'ell, may we ask what in the world are you doing?," she asked slightly irritated. "We are trying to rest without having to worry about thou trying to hurt thyself."
"Hey Loony!" the man's voice echoed inside the bag. "Lookee at what I found!"
With a groan, Luna rolled on to her knees and pushed herself up on to her feet. She walked over to one of the bonfires where Ky'ell was hanging inside one of the hide bags. As soon as she was a few feet away, he hopped out with two bowls in his hands. The bowls seemed to be filled with a gooey white and yellow substance of some kind.
"It smells good, so I figured we could munch on it," Ky'ell stated as he brought the bowl up to his mouth and started downing the substance.
"While we appreciate the thought of thou gathering sustenance for us, we must question the idea of eating things that simply smell good Sir Ky'ell." she replied warily with a raised eyebrow. "Ponies rarely survive when confronted with such things in the wild."
However, as she saw the man enjoyably eat whatever the bowls contained and not suffer any side effects, she reluctantly decided to give it a try. She gingerly pulled a chunk of the gooey substance out and put it in her mouth. After chewing a few times, she felt a pleasant and strong sensation dance on her tongue.
"Is this cheese?" she asked.
"That's what I'm thinkin. I wonder if all of the giant camps around Skyrim are filled with these yummy treasure troves," the armored man replied with his mouth full of cheese.
"Indeed. It has a nice fragrant flavor to it. It reminds me of a type of cheese back home that sister enjoyed a lot on her pasta. I believe she called it mozzerella."
The man belched as he finished off the last of the cheese in the bag by the bonfire and tossed his bowl back into the backpack.
"You mean you guys eat that stuff everyday? Where do I sign up for grub like that?" the man asked.
"Perhaps...If thou asks us nicely we might be able to arrange for thee to dine with us and our dear sister Celestia back in Equestria so that thou may partake in our lands numerous culinary flavors. At least, when we get back anyway."
After eating her own bowl of cheese, she went back to her resting spot and took a small 15 minute power nap while Ky'ell explored every crack and crevice of Guldun Rock. It felt good for her take a brief moment to regain her strength and to digest her snack before moving on down the road. After waking up and getting back on to her feet, she found her companion walking out of Guldun Cave with a number of enchanted daggers, amulets, and potions. One of the amulets appeared to be in the shape of the cross guard of a sword that curved slightly upwards like wings. She felt a strange, and powerful, almost fatherly aura come from the amulet. It gave her a sense of comfort, but also a sense of power and confidence. She decided to pocket it until she could learn at a later time what power resided over it.
After gathering their belongings, they decided to move back down the path to continue onwards towards their destination on the other side of the mountain. They soon made it back down towards the main road where they proceeded eastwards following the path of the river. The path soon came to a peak where it then sloped downward at a steep angle. In the distance, came the shape of a smoldering structure that had looked like it had just been in a battle of some kind. Large stone towers on either sides of the river connected by a stone bridge that lay at least a hundred feet above the river. Upon further inspection, Luna had seen bodies littering the entire perimeter of the structure. Large pieces of the tower were now broken off and fell in the river and on the shore by the road. Luna and Ky'ell ran down the sloping roads to investigate the ruins.
By the time they made it down to the bottom, they were able to more clearly see the grisly scene that had lied before them. Many of the bodies that littered the road were either burnt beyond recognition or hacked up into a ragged state. Luna took one look at the clothing the bandits had been carrying and gave a sigh of relief and slight sadness.
"Bandits," she simply said. "While I am glad that they can't do any more harm to anyone else, I can't help but feel saddened by any loss of life, no matter how despicable they may be."
"I wonder what happened?," Ky'ell asked scratching under his helmet. "It looks like a twister hit this place. A twister filled with torches and axes."
"I sense a strong magical signature left behind by whomever dispatched these bandits. And the bodies appear to be freshly killed which means whomever did this was only here a short while ago. Only a very powerful spell could have done this," she mused as she scanned the ruins.
"I think we got here a little too late. Whoever did this stripped the bodies of most of their valuable possessions. Aw man, and I really wanted to see if we could find some treasure in all of this."
"We can look for treasure and riches to plunder later Ky'ell. Right now, we should make haste to our destination. We wish to make it to Ivarstead before sundown"
They moved down the road and continued through Valtheim Pass until they made it into Eastmarch . The first sight to greet them was the titanic pine trees that towered into the sky and made up a lush forest. The river seemed to sharply turn right alongside the road where a dirt path on the other side seemed to continue on in a seperate direction. They followed the road to a small stone bridge that lead them to the other side. On the east side of the river, they came to a crossroads where a sign pointing towards various different cities lied. To the left two arrows indicated was the direction to go if you wished to go to Windhelm or Winterhold. To the right, two more arrows indicated the direction if they wished to go to Riften or Ivarstead. Naturally, they followed the road to the right which lead them southbound.
On their way, they came across a group of guards in blue armor who were presumably patrolling the borders of the hold for any potential threats. Their shields were grasped tightly in their right arms while their shining steel swords hung low at their left sides. Their hands were kept on the pommels as if waiting for so much as the slightest trigger for them to attack. To Luna's confusion, the moment the guards saw her, they came up to greet her as if they knew her already. After a few quick explanations to clear up the misunderstanding, she properly introduced herself to them.
"Forgive me sir guards, allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Princess Luna."
"It is a pleasure to meet you your highness. We must apologize to you. You looked like your sister at first to us." one of the guards replied respectfully.
"WE didn't YOU did," the second guard snapped at his companion.
"Please sir guard, can you tell me if my sister is alright? I am trying to look for her while traveling with Sir Ky'ell here, the new Thane of Whiterun."
"Thane eh? Bout time Balgruf the Indecisive actually made a smart decision for his hold other than flip flop around like a gutless worm." the second guard said.
"We did see your sister leave the city with a Khajiit woman in mage robes," the first guard replied after giving the other one a glare. "We assumed she was trying to get out of the hold and look for you. But none of the border patrols saw her leave Eastmarch."
"She must have gotten lost," the third guard agreed.
"So there's a chance that she might still be close by?" Luna asked rhetorically.
"We might run into her on our way around the mountain," Ky'ell replied.
The three guards looked at each other for a moment before simultaneously nodding.
"We need to stay on our patrol route as much as possible, but we can give you and escort you five miles east over to the next check point."
"Thanks. Just don't run out of dialogue options and revert back to the same generic default question and we'll be good," Ky'ell nonchalantly added.
The guards simply stared at him for a few awkward seconds before answering him.
"Quite."
The guards did as they promised and led the duo through one of the more dangerous parts of the journey. Before they made it to the next fork in the road, they were ambushed by a large swarm of venom spitting Frostbite Spiders. After killing them off, Luna found a way to extract their venom and bottle it. all it took was a precise slice to a specific part on their hairy mandibles and the oozing green liquid began to flow.
"I don't like these things, but their venom is quite useful in enhancing a sword or a bow against a bandit. Some of the guards around here like to use frostbite venom from time to time," one of the guards stated. "I am surprised that you know of the process."
"I just like the way it makes my sword all shiny!" Ky'ell replied
"I....heard stories that one of my ancestors used this method after slaying local Nagas that were pluguing our forests." she replied. I figured that the process might assist me here as well if we going to face foes like this."
Meanwhile....
Celestia and Katia had just left Whiterun and begun to make their way back down the road towards Ivarstead to catch up with Luna and K'yell. Naturally, they had to pass by White River Watch again to make it to the Pass of Valtheim. This time however, Whiterun guards were there to meet them instead of bandits. Now that they had their bearings, the journey was going a little bit faster than it was before. Soon, the road began to sloped downwards as they made it to the pass once again, where the now ruined Towers of Valtheim stood over the White River in the distance. Small wisps of smoke coming from the battered towers blew in the breeze that gently brushed the mountainside.
"We should probably be careful here. I thank you for casting that spell whatever it was. But it can't hurt to be a little cautious in Skyrim." she said as she pulled out her sword and held it loosely in her grasp.
"Do you think your sister saw all of this when she came through here?" Katia asked.
"Probably. However, her companion and her must have just decided to quickly move on. Luna can be impatient sometimes so she probably payed it no mind." she said as they began to walk
"Don't you have some kind of sibling sense or something? I heard siblings have like a super sense to feel what the other is feeling." Kaita asked innocently.
"You.....could say that we had something like that, but after Luna was forced to...leave a thousand years ago. We kind of lost that connection."
"What kinds of things were you able to do? Could you see through her eyes? Could you dance in synch with her? Could you-Oof!" Katia said as she slammed her head into something hard with an audible thwack.
She fell on to her back with a solid thump. The fall left her slightly dazed as she hallucinated golden stars flying around her head.
"Oh! Are you alright Katia?"
"Yeah...just give me a minute and I'll be up." she groaned. "What did I hit anyway?"
Celestia looked up to find an extremely surreal sight right before her.
A wooden horse drawn cart that seemed to be perpetually suspended in midair about five feet off the ground. She was confused for a moment and thought she might have been seeing things until she held out her arm and found out that she was able to touch the cart.
"I'm not sensing any magic....so how?" she asked bewildered.
She noticed something moving around in the cart and when she got on her toes to look over the edge, what she found confused her even more.
A giant sweet roll that was somehow stuck in between the floorboards of the cart but at the same time...not. It seemed to be blinking in and out of existence as it violently shook around the bottom of the wooden cart. She tried using her immense physical strength, or at least the strength she had recovered, to bring the cart back down to the ground. She found that she couldn't so much as budge it an inch. Confused, she tried using her magic to pull the cart back down, but to her surprise, she found that a magical method also proved fruitless.
"Huh..." she mused. "
'Lazy Microsoft Programmers.' one of Katia's voices said.
'I guess it was too much to ask to completely go through the overworld for flaws before the final release' another voice said.
'They could have gone through all of this in the beta,' the first voice added.
"What are you guys going on about?" Katia asked.
'Nothing! Carry on!' they cried in unison.
"Must be one of Sheogorath's childish tricks. We must not allow these obstacles to distract us. Let's move on. I am sure that as soon as we deal with Sheogorath, his warpings on this world and my own will disappear. I can only hope that Twilight and her friends can deal with Sheogorath accordingly."
"It was kinda funny to bump into a floating cart, but maybe I should watch where I'm walking next time."
"Just a little bit yeah," Celestia replied mischievously.
They continued their way back down the hill and out of Valtheim Pass, until they made it once again to the White River. The water rushed by faster than normal, most likely from the recent rainfall that had hit Whiterun Valley and filled the river. A small rain shower began the moment they made it back to the river. It was light enough to refresh any casual traveler going through the forest and not enough to soak. A perfect mix for autumn weather. They turned the corner back towards the right and towards the bridge that would officially mark their return back into the hold of Eastmarch. Before they came to the bridge, Celestia saw a figure on the other side of the river moving around frantically. She looked closely and discovered that it was a Frostbite Spider pathetically scurrying around on the small patch of dirt it found itself trapped on beneath a small cliff. As they approached the bridge, the Spider noticed them and began waving its front legs threateningly and snapped its mandibles at the two girls.
"Eeeeeep!" Katia shrieked as her fur poofed out and she jumped behind Celestia.
"Oh, calm down Katia. It can't hurt us from over there." she said.
Celestia pitied the Spider as it looked to be completely trapped. So she carefully picked up the Spider with her magic and lifted it over the cliff and set it back down. The Spider seemed to be stunned for a moment before it hissed at them and crawled back off to wherever it came from in the first place. Celestia sighed, but came to terms with the fact that not many people nor creatures in this world was going to be as gracious as her own ponies. They proceeded down the road and crossed the first bridge over into Eastmarch. They came across the same road sign pointing to the various cities and towns in Skyrim. Following the direction of the sign that pointed to Eastmarch, they continued on down the road and through the pine forests of Eastmarch to the South.
"I don't think I've ever asked. What is your sister Princess Luna like?...you know...If its alright for me to ask." Katia asked politely.
"Luna is in many ways my polar opposite, but she does share SOME of my qualities. I like to think that she's a mare of the last millenium. After she returned from her thousand year banishment on our moon, she's been struggling with adapting to modern life especially now that there aren't any armies of darkness always trying to break down our front doors," she explained. "She's very easy to talk with and demands honesty from everyone. Although, she can be a little too harsh or stern with some ponies sometimes. That's not to say though that she doesn't get along well with my little ponies. Quite the opposite in fact. After a bit of introducing her and urging from my last prodigy Twilight, most of my ponies especially the children adore her. She loves each and every one of them just as much as I do. Some have even gone as far as saying that she is now easier to approach than I am, despite my numerous attempts to convince ponies that we are equal in that regard."
"She was...banished for a thousand years?" Katia replied horrified. To the moon? What could she have done to deserve THAT?"
Celestia stopped for a moment and thought about whether or not she should answer Katia's question. Celestia and Luna had long gotten past the pain of their fight, but even a year after her return, the wounds still felt fresh. She was about to answer her when she heard a small noise coming from the side of the road. Then all of a sudden, a dark figure pounced from out of the thick brush of the forest.
Celestia was fast enough to push Katia out of the way and dodge the blade of a dagger that just barely missed slicing
at her chest.
She turned to get a good look at her attacker and saw an Argonian man dressed up in some kind of midnight black body suit with blood red accents covering various parts of it. She didn't get much more of a good look before she saw the man try to thrust his blade into Celestia's chest once again. A second time which she dodged with skill despite the seemingly cumbersome weight of the heavy armor that was now in her possession. When her would-be assassin tried to slash at her a third time, Celestia was ready.
She pulled out her sword with her right hand and stopped the blade of her attacker with her own. They held each other's ground for a few moments, struggling against each other's strength, until Celestia pushed the assassin back a few feet and sliced open his chest with a downward diagonal stroke. The assassin fell to the ground dead as his blood pooled on the road.
From Katia's perspective, all of this happened in the blink of an eye and wasn't completely sure what she had just seen her new teacher just do.
'Are you getting a lady boner again from that? Cause I totally am.' one of Katia's inner voices quipped.
"What...the heck just happened?" Katia asked. "How did you do that?"
"I have fast reflexes," Celestia replied nonchalantly. "Though for now, I would like to know why this misguided soul tried to kill me. He was definitely skilled in the deadly arts."
Katia walked over as Celestia approached the corpse and began searching the body, pocketing any valuable item and piece of information that he might have. She found a sizable sack of coins and a few gemstones. In a side pouch she found a small slip of paper with a message scrawled on it in elegant handwriting.
Dispose of the Khajiit and the Nord, but bring the horse women to Markarth. Alive. Lord Bal wishes to have his way with them before he heralds his mighty return. He will help us dispose of Sithis.
Astrid
"What is it?" Katia asked.
"We need to find Luna and find her and her friend fast. We are all in more danger than I first previously thought."
Then all of a sudden, Celestia heard what sounded like a scream coming from just a few hundred feet up the mountain. Then a bright blue flash lit up the sky for a second before going silent.
"What was that?" Katia exclaimed.
"I'm not sure, but I'm sure going to find out," she stated.
S
The guards that escorted Luna and Ky'ell over to the next checkpoint had to depart them and go back in the other direction back to their patrol route along the border of Eastmarch. They proceeded down the road with a mountain towering to their right and a view of a moor filled with hot springs, geysers and empty fields filled with bones to their left. Eastmarch held many ominous sights as they passed right on through. One of the stone bridges they came to lay before a roaring waterfall spraying them with a refreshing mist. The road continued onwards for about ten more miles until it curved around up the mountain.
As the road began to slope upwards, Luna and Ky'ell began to encounter more and more wild animals. Things like goats, giant Elk which reminded her of a former lover in the Western Unknown forests, foxes, wolves that took an immediate liking to her and treated her as one of their own kind, much to Ky'ell's confusion. Unfortunately, they were forced to come into contact with more than a few Sabre Cats that pounced on the duo while they continued upwards. They passed a number of cave entrances, one of them surrounded by stakes with the bodies of little imps impaled through the chest. Luna pulled K'yell over to the other side of the road, as she knew that it was a good idea to give the opening a wide berth. The trees began to change again as they sloped further upwards. Luna was noticing that it was drawing into the early evening as the sun looked as if it was beginning its decent.
The giant pine trees of the forest soon gave way to smaller Sycamore trees that were more open and spread apart. The road began to get more wider as they came back on to the main cobblestone road. Another thundering waterfall soon came into view as they came to a bend turning west. The waterfall at the bottom of the mountain was most likely connected to this one as it fell down to the bottom in segments. As a large stone bridge going across a gorge came into view, they saw the figure of a man lying on his side in pain. As her caring instincts kicked in, she rushed over to see if the man was alright, while also keeping a hand on the hilt of her blade. Ky'ell followed closely behind her.
"Sir! Are you alright? Do you need assistance?" she asked in a neutral tone.
"Oh thank Aetherius! I thought I was going to perish out here," the man exclaimed. "Can you help me? i was attacked by bandits and had most of my possessions stolen from me."
"My...companion and I must hurry along, but I think we can spare a moment to assist thee," Luna replied.
"Thank you kind stranger. My camp is just across the bridge and up the hill. From there, I think I will be alright," the Imperial man said.
When Luna turned around, she found Ky'ell sticking his head into a nearby bush growing up against one of the sycamore trees and pulling out strange looking flowers. As she was beginning to get annoyed again at his odd antics, Ky'ell pulled his head out and pocketed the flowers into a side apothecary pouch on his belt.
"What's up? We got a new mission or somethin? I was just pickin some of those pretty lookin flowers!"
"Not quite Sir Ky'ell, we just have to help this man across the bridge and we will be back on our way," she explained as she rolled her eyes at him. "You can pick the flowers later."
"Okie dokie then!" he replied with a mock salute.
'Its hard to believe that you of all people are the legendary hero that's meant to save this world from destruction' she thought as she rubbed her eyes.
Coming over to the Imperial man, they each got on either side of him and lifted him up on to his feet, using their bodies as support for him. They began to slowly but surely make their way across the stone bridge and over to the man's camp that he said was on the other side. As they were closing in on the other side of the bridge, Luna sensed that something was off about the man that they were helping and about the structure that was peeking up out of the trees. Whatever it was, she had to keep her wits about her just in case the man they were assisting was not what he claimed himself to be.
When they came to the other side, the duo could feel the man stop limping in their grasp, signaling to halt.
"Alright, I think I can make it the rest of the way on my own," the man said.
"Are you sure?" Luna asked in a neutral tone. "We can continue our assistance if you need it."
"Ah, that's very kind of you, but my companions should be able to help me. They are just over that hill."
"Then we shall be off sir. We have a place that we must make haste to as soon as possible," she replied.
"Wait a minute!" the man exclaimed. "Allow me to....reward you for the help you gave to me."
"That won't be necessary sir, we were just assisting someone in need."
The man eyes seemed to become nervous to Luna as he fidgeted around where he stood. Luna could immediately tell that something fishy was going on.
"I insist. We have a surplus of supplies that we can spare," the man tried.
Luna looked at the man for a solid second before answering him back.
"Very well, we accept your...gracious gift to us," she replied.
The man then suddenly walked up the hill and out of sight, leaving the duo in an awkward silence.
"Ky'ell, I think we may be in troub-" Luna began.
"I know," he seriously replied. "Two bogeys to the left, two on the right and one...."
He then slowly grasped his bow hung around his torso preparing for the inevitable. He closed his eyes and listened for any sounds that shouldn't be there. When a faint rustling came to his ears, he strung his bow and let loose an arrow directly above at a rock like a flash, almost faster than Luna was able to track. For a few seconds, nothing happened, until a body fell down to the path with a splat.
"-right behind us," he finished.
Luna simply gawked at Ky'ell in surprise unable to process what had just happened for a moment, before a roar from another man brought her back to attention.
"Bastard! You'll pay for that!"
They leaped into action as a duo of orcs wielding battleaxes jumped out from over the hill. Luna and Ky'ell rolled out of the
way and quickly ran up the hill into a more wide open space to get a better idea of the numbers they were facing.
Over by the right side was a camp site where three other bandits rushed them, each with different weapons. The Imperial man who tricked them, was attempting to pick off the duo from the back near the cliff. They quickly dispatched the three bandits, but K'yell stopped in his tracks when he realized that the archer had a clear shot at him and he wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time. So when the archer strung his bow and shot an arrow right at Ky'ell's heart, he did the only thing that could come to mind.
He held out his sword length wise in an attempt to block the arrow. The arrow ricocheted off of his sword and comedically ricocheted off of the trees and the rocks, with everyone present attempting to watch its path. It kept doing so until it came back and struck the Imperial man right in the chest causing him to stumble backwards and fall right off the edge of the cliff with a scream.
"Well that just happened," Ky'ell said bluntly.
"Quite," Luna replied with a confused look.
They then dispatched the rest of the bandits without much effort and then took their time to ransack the camp and the stone tower known as Nilheim for any valuables it might have. Fortunately, they were lucky enough to come across a small cache of potions and iron ingots in the stone tower that they were certain they would put to good use in the near future. Ky'ell found himself a treasure by the camp site that Luna was immediately regretting allowing him to keep.
They went back across the bridge and continued their way down the main road towards Ivarstead, allowing the road signs to properly point them in the right direction.
"Why Sir Ky'ell did you choose a bearskin suit of all things to keep as a battle trophy?" Luna asked in a disgusted tone as she rubbed the bridge of her snout.
K'yell then whispered something into her ear that she seemed taken aback by.
"You want to do what to somebody in that bear suit?" she said in disbelief.
He whispered into her ear again for a few seconds.
She simply raised her eyebrows and gave a sigh of defeat before continuing on down the road. After another half half hour of walking, they came across a stone bridge going across a small oxbow lake. On the other side, was the town of Ivarstead and the starting point of the 7,000 steps up to the mountain monastery of High Hrothgar. The town itself was not that big, but it seemed friendly enough all things considered. There were a few scattered wooden buildings, a tavern, a few traveling merchant carts, houses and a saw mill that sat at the edge of the river.
"Well there it is." Luna said
"Yup".
"It's probably going to be cold up there."
"Yup."
"And its going to get even colder tonight."
"Yup"
She continued staring at the immense imposing snow covered mountain nervously for two awkward minutes, until she finally deflated.
"Perhaps it would be proper if we took an hour or two to relax here at the local pub and gather much needed supplies before we make our way up the mountain".
"Yup"
"You are starting to sound like one of our more soft spoken subjects, you know that?"
Meanwhile, Celestia and Katia were about to face another dangerous delay on their way up towards Ivarstead and the 7,000 steps...
Next Time: Chapter 15: Reunity at 7,000 Feet
"Looks like you picked a bad place to be meat" a sultry voice says threateningly. "At least you will be a good drink for me"
"Sorry sweetie, but my blood is off limits," Celestia quips.