Dovahkiin (Discontinued)

Chapter Ten

I exit the building in a full set of iron-studded armor. It is mostly made of leather, but scattered all around it are little dots of iron. The set of armor is strange, but it will protect me from most attacks and make me look not suspicious. Simon walks out of the shop in plain iron armor, so it looks like he is a knight. We also bought new weapons. I got a steel greatsword and a small iron dagger, just in case. Simon got a hunting bow and a bunch of iron arrows. He also got a dagger.

We set off towards the castle straight away. People in Whiterun look at us strangely as if they had never seen a man in armor other than a guard.

We encounter a shopping area where there are many stands with things on them and people behind them selling the items or foods on display. There are also a couple of buildings that probably sell things as well, but we pass right through and go up a flight of stairs with ease to continue to the castle to the back of Whiterun. Ahead of us, we see a giant tree with many pink leaves at the top of it.

"Big tree," I say in awe.

"I know, I haven't seen a tree this big before," Simon responds.

"It's the oldest tree in Skyrim," someone says behind us. We spin around to see someone we would never expect to see again. Emma.

"Emma," Simon says backing away from her. "What a pleasant surprise to see you here."

"The feeling's mutual." Emma snarls. Simon jumps a little bit.

"So, Emma," I choose my words carefully. "What brings you to Whiterun?"

"Does it matter?" Emma says.

"Not really," Simon impatiently says. "Nice seeing you here, but we need to be somewhere."

"What's the rush?" Emma asks.

"Does it matter?" Simon backs away even further.

"I guess it doesn't if you feel like me cutting you open and ripping out your liver," she growls.

"We're going to sell a claw to the castle wizard." Simon panics.

"See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?" she smirks.

"Ok, we answered your question, now answer mine. What brings you to Whiterun?" I ask keeping my distance.

Emma looks around as if looking for how to answer my question. Then she finally says, "I'm here on Jarl Ulfric's orders. He sent me to come to Whiterun to retrieve information, and you two are in my way." she walks past us and down another street.

"Oh by the divine, I thought she was going to kill me." Simon breathes a sigh of relief.

"She could have you know," I assure him.

"I know that, but I'm glad she didn't."

"Yeah, me too." We go around the giant tree up another flight of stairs, but this time there are many more stairs to climb. It's not a hard climb, just time-consuming.

As we reach the top, a guard stops us. "Halt! State your reasoning for being here."

"We come from Helgen to bring news about a dragon attack," Simon says in a worried voice.

"A dragon attack? In Helgen?" The guard says in a scared voice. "Of course, follow me." The guard turns around and leads us to the keep. To get to the keep, we cross a bridge made of wood over a small stretch of water. I look over the edge of the bridge and see a skeleton floating inside it. I force myself to look away, trying not to imagine how it got there.

We enter the keep's large wooden doors. On the inside, it looks a lot bigger than the actual building. And what do you know, more stairs. I wasn't preparing for a leg day today, but then again I wasn't expecting to be alive right now, so I would say that I am doing a good job. Anyway, getting off topic, we go up the stairs to see a big fire in the middle of the long room with same length tables on either side. At the other end of the room is a man on the throne. The guard that is escorting us walks and kneels in front of the man in the throne and says "Jarl Balgruuf. These two warriors have news from Helgen about the dragon attack."

"Are they now?" the Jarl speaks with a thundering voice. The Jarl has blond hair and if he were to stand, he would be about half a foot taller than me.

"Yes, Jarl," I say, also kneeling. Simon kneels next to me.

"Hm, alright. You may take your leave," he says, gesturing the guard.

"Yes Jarl." the guard stands up and walks out.

"Now, you have news about Helgen?" he asks.

"Yes," Simon stands up first. I stand as well. "We had a good view from where we were." I give Simon a death stare, but he doesn't seem to notice.

"Oh, well where exactly were you?" he asks, intrigued.

"Oh, well... uh..."

I cut Simon off. "I was on the chopping block looking right at it." I couldn't believe what I had just said. Simon looks at me with disbelief, like I had a second nose.

"Were you now?" he stands up.

"Y-yes Jarl." I put my head down in shame.

The Jarl walks up to me and stops right in front of me. "So, what did you see? What did the dragon look like? What happened in Helgen?"

I couldn't believe it. The Jarl wasn't sentencing me to death. So, I told him all that happened at Helgen and the Jarl's face slowly went from his original emotionless expression to fear and awe.

"I see." the Jarl walks back to his throne and sits back in it.

"I think that we may need to send some reinforcements to Riverwood." A small man I didn't notice before speaks. "Riverwood could be in danger and a possible target for another dragon attack."

"Good idea. You do that." the Jarl agrees.

"Yes, my lord." the little man walks around the tables and out the keep.

"You may want to speak to our wizard. He is working on a... project." he gets up and starts walking off to the right. We follow.

On the right wall, there is a hole into another room and there is a man in wizard robes inside.

"Farengar. I think I may have found you some helpers." the Jarl says.

"Ah yes. You two must have been there. At Helgen." Farengar says looking at us.

"Yeah, we were there." Simon triumphantly states.

"Then you will be of great help to me," he says excitedly.

"What would you want us to do?" I ask.

"Ah, eager to start your adventure," Farengar exclaims. "Good, then I will need you to go to a place just outside of Riverwood called Bleak Falls Barrow and retrieve an... item of interest to me."

"What is it, because we may already have it," Simon explains.

"Oh? Well, what I need is a slab of stone with some writing on it."

"You mean this?" I ask, getting the stone slab we found.

"Yes, that's it!" Farengar takes it from my hands to examine it closer. "You two are better than I expected. Well, talk to the Jarl again. He'll have something for your efforts."

So, Simon and I exit the room and go back to speak with the Jarl again.

As we approach the Jarl, he asks "Yes?"

"We talked to Farengar and we ended up having what he was looking for," Simon says in a cocky tone.

"You did, well I sure am impressed. And for your effort,-"

"Jarl!" a guard is running into the keep yelling like a madman.

"What is it?" the Jarl asks the guard.

"Dragon. At the west tower," he says clearly out of breath.

"Dragon?" The Jarl stands up, visibly alarmed.

"Yes sir, a dragon."

"Where is it now?"

"It left but I can guarantee it will be back."

"Good work soldier. Go to the barracks and take some time off."

The guard nods and walks back down the stairs.

"Well, it looks like you could be of more help to us." The Jarl looks at us. I get a bad feeling.