‘I am here!
I have arrived!
I can’t feel my legs again; this is giving me a weird sense of deja vu.’ It was afternoon; it turned out that the Standing Stones were very close to Riverwood, which for Septimus was a very good thing.
There was only so much wandering a man can do before needing civilization.
Approaching the gate, he could hear a loud buzzing sound.
‘Must be the lumberyard, cool place.’ Riverwood was eerily similar to the in-game version, while Falkreath looked much larger and had many more people living in it; Riverwood looked very picturesque.
Standing at the gate, he could see the exit on the other end of the street.
A guard wearing the classical Skyrim uniform approached.
“Hail, traveler!
Stop there for a moment!” Septimus complied, his legs feeling like lead.
“Hail to you, guard.
How can I help you?
Make it quick if you can; I am beyond tired.”
The guard nodded.
“Yes, I can see that.
Tell me, wanderer, where do you come from and what happened to you?
That’s a mighty lot of blood you have on you!”
Septimus looked down to where the guard was pointing; the bottom half of his cloak was stained by dark red dried blood.
‘Ahhh, I forgot about that; blood splashed on me when my good boy bit the guy’s head off.’
“Ahh, about that, you see, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.”
“Uhuh, I’m listening.” The guard crossed his arms.
‘Should I tell them I killed someone?
It is Skyrim and the guy I killed wasn’t exactly good, but admitting to murder in front of a guard seems like a bad idea.
Then again, the fishermen the cannibal ate might’ve been from here; he could have had a family, uhhh, fuck it!’
“I come from Falkreath, followed the shore of Lake Ilinalta all the way here.
About a day’s journey away, I ran into a murder scene: a daedra worshipper killed a fisherman, and well, he ate him.
I then proceeded to kill him.”
Hearing the story, the guard’s arm flew to his weapon.
“Daedra worshippers?!
Here?
Come with me, wanderer; you must tell me everything!”
What followed were a couple of very exhausting hours where Septimus had to wait patiently inside the guardhouse, yes, Riverwood had a guardhouse, and explain the incident repeatedly.
Still, the guards seemed like reasonable people, and seeing him wearing an Amulet of Arkay made him look much more trustworthy in their eyes.
Finally leaving the guardhouse, Septimus looked like he was about to fall asleep on his feet.
“Thank you for your help, Septimus.
We will send someone to check the place.” The guard pulled something out of his pocket.
Septimus took the coins.
“Alright, thanks, take care.”
Making his way to the tavern, he watched the people walking around, mostly young people, a whole lot of children too.
‘Looks lively.’
The tavern stood on the side of the main road; it was a large building, its insides smelling of smoke and alcohol.
“Innkeeper, give me a room for the night!” Septimus called out.
The person who answered tho, woke up his muddled mind real quick.
“One room, 30 septims, no food, no warm water, wells in the back.” The voice belonged to a woman.
When Septimus made eye contact with her, he locked up; she was tall and blonde, with a small scar on her face, not a beauty by any means.
‘Shits thats Delphine, what the heck is she doing here?
Does that mean the events of Skyrim will happen sooner than I thought?’
“Hey, are you alright, traveler?” Delphine called out.
“Yes, I’m sorry, I spaced out.
Are you sure I can’t get hot water?
Look at me, I really need it.” He spread his arms out, showing his clothes, caked in mud and blood.
“No hot water, traveler, it’s policy, now pay up!” Septimus quickly fished 30 septims out of his bag, handed them over, took the key, and almost fled to his room.
‘Ok, that went well; she didn’t suspect anything, right?’ He dropped all his gear in the room and went out back to clean up.
Seeing that Delphine was ignoring him made him sigh in relief.
‘The three tenets of survival saved the day once again: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome!’
After washing up both his body and clothes, he rushed back to him and jumped straight into bed, finally able to relax inside a warm, cozy room, which allowed Septimus to fall into a very deep sleep.
====================
“Uhh, what’s that noise?” A very loud sound was coming from the other side of the wall.
“Is that a goddamn chicken?” It was, in fact, not a chicken but a rooster.
“I forgot they even had chickens in Skyrim, haaaa, it’s a bit early, but I’ll prepare and get going today.” Rising from the bed, he got dressed, grabbed his almost empty coin pouch, and went out.
A man was standing at the counter, dozing off.
Septimus did not try to make any conversation; he was too tired.
The food was surprisingly enough fried eggs with sausage and a leek, not bad for 10 septims; everything seemed cheaper than Cyrodiil.
Done with breakfast, he left the tavern to buy more supplies; on the way, he ran into one of the night guards heading for a drink.
“Morning!” The guard stopped and looked at him.
“Just a quick question, how long from here to Whiterun?”
Thinking for a moment, the guard replied.
“Well, if you leave now you’ll make it by sunset or so; it’s not far, take a right after the bridge and follow the river.
You’ll reach a waterfall, take a left and you’ll see the city from there.”
Septimus thanked the guard and went to the general goods store.
At the entrance, he spotted a very pretty woman carrying a bucket of water.
‘Hmm, that must be Camilla, the daughter or maybe sister of the general store owner.
She is quite pretty: black hair, brown eyes, clear skin, certainly the most beautiful woman I’ve seen to date, still, not really my type’
Passing right by her, he went inside the store. Find the original chapter at g.com.
The man behind the counter welcomed him warmly.
“Welcome to Riverwood Trader.
Take a look around; maybe you’ll find something you like.
I know some of it looks like junk, but everything’s a treasure in the right light!”
“Thanks, will do.” Septimus then began to ‘look around’; really, his eyes were glued to the golden claw.
‘Should I steal it?
The thing should be worth like 500 septims, and I could really use the money, but then again, what if it ruins the future?
The dragonborn will need to claw to enter Bleak Falls Barrow and get the dragonstone.’
*Sigh* ‘Don’t be too greedy; 500 septims aren’t worth the possible end of the world.’
Abandoning the idea of stealing the claw, Septimus began actually shopping.
In the end, he did not buy muth, just some supplies; with what he had from Falkreath, it would be enough for a few days.
The owner tried to sell him a few potions, but he still had the two health and one stamina potions he bought at the alchemist shop in Falkreath; luckily, he didn’t need to use them yet.
‘Wish I had more time to interact with the people here, but I can’t afford to waste time.
I am too weak to live properly in this world; first things first is to become strong enough to deal with any problems coming my way’
Septimus returned to the tavern, made sure Delphine wasn’t looking at him weird, grabbed his stuff, and booked it out of town.
The bridge was just outside the gate; after crossing it, he stopped and looked left.
‘That leads up the mountain to Bleak Falls Barrow; I wonder if I’ll ever go there.’
He then turned right and continued what he hoped to be his last day of journeying for a while.
This time he stuck to the road and hurried along; thankfully, nothing attacked him.
The only interesting event that happened was a pair of wolves chasing a large elk.
Just after noon, he arrived at the waterfall.
The guard said he’d be able to see Whiterun from there, so Septimus turned left and cut through the trees towards the cliff’s edge.
Making it outside the brush, he finally saw it for the first time, a place he explored when he was younger and that he planned to explore in person ever since finding out he was in Tamriel, Whiterun.
“Goddamn, it’s big!” The game did not do the city justice; from where Septimus stood, he could see it in all its glory.
The city stood on a bluff in the middle of the plains.
It had a stone wall at least two stories high, fully surrounding the hill.
Unlike the game, Whiterun extended a full 360 degrees around the citadel in the middle.
“Is that Dragonsreach?
How did they even build that?
Not only does it sit at the highest point, but it’s probably like 10 stories tall; the shadow it casts can probably cover the whole city, amazing!”
Outside the walls, there were fields of wheat as far as the eye could see; small figures were wandering around them, farmers.
Turning left, he saw a stone tower in the distance ‘Is that the tower that the dragon will attack later?
It’s still standing at this point in time.’
“I can’t wait to make it inside and actually live a little!”
Turning his back on the view to hurry down to the city, Septimus had a sudden realization.
‘Wait, does that mean I’ll have to get a job?!’