Broken Helm Hollow: Riften, Skyrim

-= Later That Morning =-

It had been hours the sun had risen and the snow continued to fall, I had searched three damn caves and still have been unable to locate this damned Dunmer Naurgul. Then out of the corner of my eye I caught a flicker through the falling snow. A lantern, high up on the mountain side near what sounded to be a large waterfall. I set out on foot up the mountainside with the pup hopping through the snow behind me from one footprint to another.

From seemingly no where an arrow skipped off the top of my helm ricochetting off some distance behind. Ducking behind my shield I roared out in defiance, "THATS IT YOU LITTLE SHIT! MAKE THE NEXT ONE COUNT, CAUSE IF I FUCKING FIND YOU, YOUR A DEAD MAN!"

The next arrow shattered on my shield, the pup and I both growled in responce and began a slow but steady advance up the mountainside. The arrows began to double in number, given the firing rate it appeared there were two archers further up the mountain. Continuing my steady advance, I glanced over my shield just in time for an arrow to skip off the top edge of my shield, then off the top of my helm the archers were no mor than 20 yards away up a dirt path blown clear of snow, with a roar of pure unadulterated rage I charged them. Slamming heavily into the first just as he released an arrow straight into the face of my shield, I drove him back straight into the rock wall. Whipping around I was able to smash the edge of my shield into the hand holding the bow of the other archer, fouling his shot. Kicking out with my right foot I caught him in the chest with the steel studded sole of boot sending him tumbling down the mountainside. It is then that I register some pressure in the heavy ebon Kings mail chain on my right side. Turning I see the man whom I had just slammed into rockface, standing with a darkened blade in hand. My gaze goes from the blade to his face. Huffing a heavy breath of fury steam shoots forth from my helm like a guizer. He steps back, jaw rattling like stones in a can tumbling down the stairs, "Na- now, now, now, hold on... I, I-" It was all he could stammer out before I was close enough to back hand him across the face with the shield followed up by a shot with my empty fist to the stomach. I do not let up, blow after blow I drive the man back until he fell back. The pup clamped down on his boot growling and tugging at it with a dark chuckle I dropped to a knee on his chest and straddled the man raining blow after blow down on his bare face with steel clad fist and shield edge.

An arrow richochets off the stones over my head, seems the tumble and the cold air was making it difficult for the other archer to aim. Standing up from the twitching body of the first dead archer I take up a fist sized rock and hurl it at the archer down the slope who ducks out of the way. It is then that he notices the body of his fallen companion and lets out a wail of sad fury rushing up the slope bow in both hands like a greatsword, turning take up the lantern in my free hand, blocking the bow he swung at me and with an over hand swing shattered the lantern over his head, oil and flame washed over him. He dropped to his knees trying to swat out the flames with his hands only to catch the sole of my boot as it hurtled into his face. The pup leaving to the boot to suffer in its demise now stood crouched beneath me growling and barking at the man wreathed in flame as he died. Roaring in triumph, my cry of victory was joined by a small howl, breathing heavily I looked down to see the pup finish her howl and sit looking up at me with her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth, smiling down at her, I whisper down to her, "You have come into your name it seems, welcome to the world Skaela. May you always howl to the winds in victory and never in sadness little one."

I hear support bars slide from their homes behind the door tucked back into the rock face, it creaks open in protest just loud enough to be heard over the falling waters, "Nord I must thank you for your timely assistance, come in come in please."

"I seek a Dunmer by name of Naurgul, is that you?"

"Why, yes yes that is me, how is it you come looking for exactly?"

"I am told there is no better enchanter in all the region when it comes to fire..."

"HA! Try the country!"

"I will be back in a bit, I must get my horse, and the items how much room do you have in that cave?"

"More than enough for you, your hound, and another 7 or 8 horses and the men they might carry, even have a stable for the horse..."

"Good."

I move to pick up the corpse of the first man only to have the Dunmer ram a small black stone into his chest, "Thank you, if your looking to have items enchanted his soul will come in handy... dont worry about the other I'll collect his soul while your gone."

Shrugging I call to Skaela, "Wait here little Skaela, I will be back in a moment."

She cocked her head to the side listening and responded with a short little woof, and sat watching the corpse of the boot she had 'killed'.

Tramping down the mountain I stand before Mace and tell him our wandering is over, take him by the leads, and lead him up the mountainside. I unhook the sleigh from him once the snow runs out and take up my packs. Weighed down by the armor I trudge back up the mountain with Mace in tow he shies a bit when we reach the bodies but with some urging he gets over it and follows me through the door way into the cave where Naurgul take his leads.

"Be right back I want to get rid of those bodies before they attract wolves."

Naurgul nods his understanding and watches me as I heave the bodies out into the waterfall, "Your legion aren't you..."

"Former legion, why?"

"You didnt strip the bodies. Bit of a waste many would say."

"I don't need knives, theyve no decent armor so theyre likely to have no money, and I prefer a crossbow."

He shrugs and asks me to bar the door which I do happily, and follow him down the path deeper into the cave.

"So what might a man of the Legion need of a poor enchanter that the Legion could not readily supply?" he asked simply.

"Fire and Ice Resistance." I reply bluntly.

He paused and looked over his shoulder, "Well... that was... to the point."

I shrug, "No time to waste on words. I've beasts to kill, wars to wage..."

He gave me a suspicious look, "I... thought you said you were formerly Legion."

"No, retired Legion."

"But you said you had wars to wage... and no beast I know of can wield fire and ice other than man and Mer..."

"Dragons."

His eyes nearly popped out of his face, "YOUR GOING AFTER DRAGONS!?!"

"Aye."

"Bloody hell... You've one hell of a deathwish soldier."

"They invaded..."

"Well yes but it takes armys to kill one of them! They can squish you like a puny little beetle... or roast you like a steak, mmmm that sounds wonderful right about now..."

"Look I've already taken down one of the scaley brutes, if they think I'm going to sit here and let them burn my new house to the ground theyve another thing coming."

He hesitates a moment, "Ha- you know thats a fair point."

"I thought so myself."

He resumes his pace towards the stables and just tosses the leads over Maces back and lets him wander where he will, which is straight over to the pile of hay, "So again I must ask why seek me out exactly? The Legions have enchanters applenty..."

"Legionnaires dont normally like enchanters messing with their gear, Personally I know it must be done if Im to survive another dragon flamebath."

"Hehehe why in the Aedra's name would you want to do that?"

"So I can ram my blade down their throat."

He stands there looking straight at me with hands on his hips, "You're not a very nice person much are you..."

"I killed those two out front with my bare hands despite having a blade at myside..."

"Noted. So, Fire and ice resistance you say? I can certainly do that. Tell me do you happen to have any more souls with you?"

I exhale a deep breath, "How many will I need?"

"How much enchantment do you want?"

"All of it."

"Right dragon fires... ok so lets see. One for each gauntlet, one for each boot, one for your greaves, 2 for the chest thingy-"

"The Cuirass"

"Right right whatever you call it, one for each of the pauldrons, one for the helmet, one for the sword and one for the shield, whats that come to... uh-"

"Twelve."

"Right, twelve."

I rifle through my bag and take out a small baggy the size of my unarmored fist and toss it to the man, "Convicted murderers it fell to me to rid the world of. Take your pick."

His eyes nearly bugged out of his head, "YOU JUST CARRY THEIR SOULS AROUND!?"

"Better I carry them that they do not get used by others for dishonorable deeds."

He shutters and selects 10 gems handing back the bag as quickly as he can, go relax by the fire... this will take some time... where is the armor?"

I hand him the bag which he nearly drops its so heavy and watch as he struggles to take it over to an archane enchanter tucked away in a shed. Tucking the soul gems back into my bag I wander over to the fire with little Skaela following quietly behind. Sitting down around the fire I begin sharpening my Ebon broadsword while I wait, while the pup curls up beside me with her head in my lap. Smiling I resheath the blade and remove my gauntlets to rub her head, and begin humming old warsongs as I wait...

It was out of the middle of no where that I was mauled by an overly happy little ball of slobbery fluff. Covering my face with my arm I roll over and shuffle slowly to my knees struggling to get up without having my face licked off by little Skaela, "GAH! WOULD YOU JUST SIT! Ugh you fuzzy little rugrat... please would you just..." completing what seemed to have been six laps around a pebble she sat twitching right in front of my face and licked my nose one last time.

Scowling at her I ask the pointless question, "What... In the bloody plains of the Deadlands... Has gotten into you pup?"

She sat there with little more than a happy, tongue lolliing grin on her face.

With an annoyed frown I suggest, "Ugh, I assume it's morning isn't it..."

She simply barked once and wagged her tail.

"Psh... morning person."

Climbing to my feet, I stretch and look around, spotting Naurgul sitting in a fur covered chair half asleep holding appeared to be a pint of coffee roughly the size of a pitcher, "Good morning General, care for a pot of coffee?"

"No friend, coffee makes me nervous."

He shrugged, "Good more for me then."

I chuckle and nod, "Do you have any spare kettles?"

He gestures to a box near the firepit, "There is a small spring over on the ledge behind you."

Nodding, I take out a small bag of oats, a second of tea, and a third of sugar. Setting them aside, I take a large pitcher to the spring to gether some water. Returning with the water I ask my host, "Would you care for some Oatmeal?"

Chuckling he asks, "When did I become a child again? Never mind, never mind. Yes I would love some, it has been ages since I had Oatmeal."

"Seems I'm one of the three adults in this world who still eats it near daily..."

He doubled over in laughter around his pot of coffee, "Well I doubt any would dream of mocking you about it."

With an evil grin I reply, "True, may be bad for their health."

His laughter tripled.

Kneeling over the firepit, I prepare breakfast for the three of us, myself, Naurgul, and little Skaela.

While cooking and eating our breakfast we sat and disgussed his progress on the enchantments, my plans for the future, his choice to live here in an old copper mine, and other news from around the country.

Once we finish our meal he returned to working on the enchantments while I cleaned the dishes, exersized and trained Skaela, cut new firewood, and then split it into managable pieces. By the time my work had finished, so had his, he presented me with the finalized armor.

"So... did you want to test it?"

"How do you propose we do this?"

"Well granted my flame and ice will only be maybe half that of a dragons..."

I gave him a suspicious glare calculating my chances, "...Better safe than sorry."

His jaw dropped open in shock, "Seriously? General sir you have one hell of a death wish..."

Stripping out of my travel armor I change into the new armor stating, "I was a Legitus not a General, either way it must be tested. If I die now I would eventually die before a dragon. If I survive, well I've a better chance of surviving against a dragon now dont I?"

He hesitated, debating his response, "My Apologies then, but I cannot argue that logic. It is pretty solid, though if I kill you I may not feel all that good about it..."

I shrugged, "If you kill me you may just be doing this world some form of a favor," tugging on the helm I finish, "I am by no means a saint of the Aedra, Daedra maybe but never an Aedra."

Turning back to face him, I hardly had any time to blink let alone dodge out of the way before I was hit by a wave of flame followed closely by the explosion of a fireball. He kept it up for some 5 minutes or so, the axe I had been using to split the wood had decayed to ash and melted into a puddle of molten metal yet there I stood in a somewhat warm suit of armor. I held my hands in front of my face looking from one to the other and arched back laughing uproariously!

The flames died away to be replaced by an arctic blast my foot which had been in the puddle of molten metal was quickly seized up in the puddle. The armor locked up frozen solid, and my laughter quickly died. I began to growl in anger, I had been promised armor that would resist the frost. Raging within the armor the armor quickly warmed up enough to allow me to move once again freely... all save for the one foot frozen in the once molten puddle of steel. I continued to rage and eventually ripped my foot from the floor. He kept up the frost as I stood there glaring at him with my arms folded over my chest.

Once he finally let up with the frost spells he stated, "Well... if your going to kill me make it quick would you? You do not look all that amused..."

"Melt his steel off my fucking foot... now."

"Fine, fine... stick your foot out..."

-= An Hour Later =-

I step from the darkness of the mine watching as little Skaela races out into the snow. Leading Mace out into the failing sunlight I lead him down the walk to the sleigh and get him hooked up, tossing my pack of clothing, the pack containing my Travel armor into the back of the sleigh. Whistling, I was nearly bowled over by Skaela as she bounced into the sleigh with a large stick in her jaws. Laughing I climb up into the sleigh and begin our long trip back to Skogurheim...