Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter CXIX - The Perfect Trap

Author's Note:

Dear all,

I hope you're still enjoying the book. We're nearing the end again, slow but steady. Well a little faster but steady. You may have noticed that I quickened my schedule again a bit for the holidays. I want to have good chapters for you for Christmas and this time mostly for the New Year's so that you can enjoy the festive mood ;) So my updates will continue to be generally more frequent now for a bit. I hope you don't mind ;)

On another note, I am well into writing the third book, with over thirty chapters written. I can't wait to share it all with you.

That's about it from me for now. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and that you're having nice and relaxing pre-holiday times if there are any holidays upcoming for you :)

Enjoy and thank you for reading.

_______________________________________

The rest of their fifth day in Hjaalmarch fortunately passed without incident.

Aeyrin rushed up towards the Wall, leaving Bishop to slowly make his way after her. She would have watched over him, but once she noticed the Wall, time was of the essence.

Much to her relief, learning the word was just like it always used to be. She learned the Word 'KRAH' and before Bishop got there, she tried it out at a safe distance. Nothing happened though. She tried and tried and once she accidentally let out her frost breath Shout, although barely as effective as ever. She had no idea how that happened. It was a strange feeling having these powers she had no control over whatsoever. It was even worse than back when she had discovered them for the first time.

But eventually, Bishop made it up there as well and she quickly turned her attention to him, examining his injuries. There was no one and nothing around, so it was probably safer to undress him so that she could feel everything properly, rather than having him walk all the way to Morthal wounded like that. It was only a small fracture of one of his ribs. It took her only three tries to fix it up with her spells. He would probably be a bit sore for a while, but he was fine otherwise.

After that, they decided against exploring Labyrinthian further. It's been a long day.

The following day, they decided to stay in Morthal. They headed back to Highmoon Hall to inform Idgrod about the dragon so that she could send her soldiers to harvest the bones. It was good – less chance for Alduin to come back and resurrect his fallen brother again, if he was capable of that. But Idgrod didn't need to know about that.

Later that day, Aeyrin had learned more about her new Shout. Her book on Dragon language said that it meant 'cold'. That explained some things. It was likely the second Word of her frost breath Shout. It was comforting that the lapse at the mountain wasn't entirely random and out of control. Still, there was no use for this Shout now. No use for any of them.

But those worries had to stay buried for now.

The rest of their day was spent in pleasant recuperation, only occasionally disturbed by the constant worries whenever Bishop went outside alone. He didn't even know what to do there most of the time. He pretended to scout out a bit outside the city limits or, much to his dismay, make small talk with the town guards about any explorable areas around. But nothing ever happened. It was kind of a relief, but still a bit frustrating.

He was set to go back to the alchemy shop later that evening – at least then he would have something to do and replenish their supplies which he had drunk a lot of already to numb his sore rib. But first, some good meal and a calm dinner with Aeyrin was in order. If only that screeching Orc would shut up for one night.