The Language Of Dragons-A Skyrim Story

12. Alchemy

My legs hurt as I walked. We had been walking since the magic lesson at dawn and it was now starting to get dark. Gradually the snow had turned to the dead grass that spanned the majority of the land in skyrim, now it was raining only slightly and we would have to find shelter soon as the storm clouds in the distance were looming closer and closer.

The wind started to pick up eventually and my face started to feel numb with the cold, the rain around us was swirling so wildly that you could only just see in front of you. "We can't go much further, we have to find shelter before it gets dark or we might die out here."

"I think I can see a light up ahead." Miraak replied. Once he had pointed it out I saw it as well, a slight flicker of a flame, perhaps a lantern or a torch. We immediately started to head towards it and once we did it seemed we had come across a cave where someone had been living, but on the floor outside there was blood staining the mud at the entrance. "Well weapons out." Miraak, suggested. "Well look who is the king of stating the obvious." I smirked back at him as i cast my bow spell and we entered the cave.

It wasn't to dark in the cave, as there was a lantern at the entrance. We went down a narrow passage, following the blood until we were met with and opening in the rock. Suddenly as we entered the cave a loud growl was emitted and I immediately knew what it was.

It was obviously a cave that had been used for magic because there were shelves around the room with potions, ingredients and soul stones, and at the far end there was an enchantment table and an alchemy table.

At the end of the cave was a large brown bear crouched over the body of what I could only assume was a mage covered in blood. As soon as I could i pulled back on the string of my bow and aimed the arrow straight at the bears head and within seconds the bear collapsed. "Well this seems like a good cave to stay the night." Miraak said. "I don't think that this was just a mage."

At a closer inspection, it seemed that they were trying to bring the dead back to life, because there were several skeletons littering the dry floor, and that was probably what had attracted the bear. We moved the bear and the bodies to our side of the cave so that it wouldn't attract predators into the cave and we set down our bedrolls next to the fire pit in the centre of the room. "Well seems like they were busy." Said Miraak as he bit into a pice of freshly cooked skeever. "Yeah, I'm surprised the bear managed to win to be honest, they were clearly very powerful."

Miraak stood up and walked over to the alchemy lab and asked "So, alchemy, do you enjoy it?"

"What do you mean?"

He picked up a pice of honeycomb and placed if on the table, the honey trying to escape the wax, and replied with "Well is it fun?"

"Really? You? The last Dragonborn asking me if alchemy is fun." He only nodded and I could see a slight flush spread across his cheeks as if embarrassed.

"I guess it is quite fun, you can make some very valuable potions as well." I smiled as he turned to look at me and I moved to stand next to him at the lab. "Why do you ask."

He looked back at the table then, pressing his palms against the edge and leaned against it. I saw his eyebrows furrow together as he said, "Well in Apocrypha I didn't really try any alchemy. I tried to get my head around it but I think there is more to it than just mixing ingredients together, I think I needed a proper teacher." He stopped and ran his hands through his raven black hair, his grey eyes reflecting the light on the torches. "The reason I asked you if it was fun was because my mother was an alchemist and she always like looked happy when she did it." He sighed as if he was getting something off his chest.

I felt so sorry for him, very one he had known had gone in his time in Apocrypha, he had no one, absolutely no one and I was treating him like crap. I stood right next to him and I stated "I agreed to teach you remember, I could teach you now."

"Sure why not" he smiled.

I grabbed some dwarven oil, some mora tapinella and some fire salts and placed them on the table. "Ok, so roll up your sleeves, and I'm going to to give you the mora tapinella and I want you to grind it into a paste and I'll heat up the dwarven oil"

So we did but when I finished I realised that Miraak was doing it wrong, "Here you do it like this." I stepped under his arm so I was directly in front of him, my back pressed against his tall frame and held onto the back off his hands as he held the pestle and mortar. I stated to guide his hands and I noticed he seemed slightly startled by my reaction so I continued speaking so he wouldn't have to. "You need to be gentle, otherwise it won't work properly, it's not like you are trying to kill the mushrooms."

I could almost feel his smile against the back off my neck, and I knew I could definitely feel his warm breath against my neck, making the hairs stand on end. It was then I realised how close we were, I could feel my hands start to get clammy and I could feel my heart rate pick up. I had no idea why, it must be my instinct trying to tell me to be careful but I couldn't help feeling like it could be something else.

I let go of his hands and stepped under his arms  and went back to what I was doing, pouring the fire salt into the heated dwarven oil. "You know what, this is fun." Miraak practically cheered. I then inspected the paste he had been working on and put it in with the oil and salt.

We were there for about an hour working through each step, talking about small and irrelevant things as we distilled and evaporated the ingredients into a magicka potion.

"This is really amazing, how it works I mean." As he stared at the finished potion.

"Yeah, that's why I love it so much. In my house I have a green house and my own alchemy room just for doing this." I blurted.

"I'd love to see it one day."

I suddenly felt as if we had gotten to close, that this was a mistake and yet everything about the moment felt right to me, like it was meant to be. So I simply replied with "Maybe you will." And I genuinely smiled.