The Daily Dose Of Boredom Book

Skyrim Oneshot

Ninhé Short-Staff was leaving Windhelm.
Not for a journey after which she would return, weighted down with the fruits of her adventuring. No, this time she was leaving for good.

As the heavy iron gates closed behind her she set down her pack and contemplated the events that had lead up to her voluntary exile.

The skooma, the farm and that damned dragon.  In that order, her life had gone from perfectly imperfect, to something that would make the civil war seem like a trip to the tavern... Well, at least in her opinion.

She felt a surge of bitterness in her chest, as she began to trudge over the large stone bridge, the cold wind biting at her nose and at the tips of her ears. It wasn't her fault that she'd become addicted to skooma.. She'd only drunk it thinking it was some fancy potion that was, "Guaranteed to change your life!" Surely by that point she'd have realised that things weren't that easy.
Of course she'd gotten hooked to the stuff- spending septims she earned at HollyFrost farm to buy her next bottles.
Her life had gone far from perfection, but she wasn't struggling.. Until that skeever-ridden, divines-cursed dragon burned down the whole bleeding farm. Now all she had left was two and a half bottles of Skooma; the iron mace she had picked up out of the rubble of the building; thirty septims and the clothes on her back.

She needed gold and she needed it fast. The ships at the dock had no need for workers and she could no longer afford her bed in the New Gnisis Cornerclub. When she had wandered out of the Grey Quarter and into Candlehearth hall, she had narrowly been run over by a middle aged Redguard woman in the garb of a mage. Elda, the innkeeper was so in awe of the woman who had just left, she didn't notice Ninhé standing before her until the dark elf cleared her throat. "Who was that?" Ninhé asked, sitting down on one of the stools at the bar. "She's the Dragonborn!" Elda gushed. "She defeated the dragon Alduin nearly fifteen years ago." Ninhé nodded slowly, having faint memories of celebrations when the dragon had been defeated.
Elda pulled out a cloth and began wiping the counter surface, a frown deepened the already harsh wrinkles on her face. "Then she helped the blasted general Tullius kill Ulfric Stormcloak. Put that soft Brunwulf in his place." She began wiping the counter more vigorously "That man will see those Dark Elves and those lizards running around Windhelm, you mark my words."

Slightly angered at the old woman's scornful words, Ninhé stormed out into the biting wind. Her ears burned furiously with humiliation and she vowed to become as successful as the Dragonborn. Maybe she would be able to escape the Skooma addiction along the way...

A snowflake landed in Ninhé's eye and drew her attention back to the unpleasant present. She hunched her shoulders over, pulled the hood of her cloak tighter around her neck, and began trudging forward over the long bridge. A voice called her name over the howling wind and she turned her head slightly to investigate the sound. Running towards her, lute slung over his back and steel sword buckled at his side was her Argonian friend Jahen-Ra.

He caught up with her, and grinned widely. "Did you think that I would let you go off into the wide world and leave me behind stuck in that shipyard?" She smiled sheepishly. "You don't want to come with me Ra."
The Argonian wrapped a scaly arm around her thin shoulders and squeezed. "Come on Ninhé, I have got to be there when you have wild adventures, so I can write epic ballads about them." She sighed in defeat, although inwardly she was beaming.
"Very well Jahen-Ra. You may come with me on my travels. But don't expect stories like the tale of the Dragonborn." Jahen-Ra chuckled. "I will settle for something to equal the tale of Ragnar the Red. What should I name this great ballad?"
The dark elf smiled, and began once again walking across the stone bridge.
In the far distance, a dragon roared as the bard and the Skooma addict turned their backs on Windhelm to begin their adventures in the province of Skyrim.

"Uh Short-Staff... You didn't answer my question, what should I name our ballad."