What Happens In Solstheim

Chapter 3

Farah woke with a start, the dream still replaying in her head. It felt too real, as if she was reliving that dreadful day all over again. She slowly sat upright, combing her fingers through her hair and inhaling slowly. She needed to calm down, otherwise things might really get out of hand.

When she managed to take a few deep breaths, the events of the previous day flooded back; the town, the journey, Ralis, camping at the ruins and... where's Teldryn?

As if feeling her oncoming panic, he appeared in the doorway of the tent, fully clothed in his armor, helmet on his head and a bowl in his hand, "Look who finally decided to wake up. Can't believe you actually managed to sleep through that attack."

Her body tensed, "What attack?"

"A few ash spawn that crawled from the ground nearby, saw the fire and came to see what was going on." He shrugged, "Nothing I couldn't handle, but we should get moving before more comes. Here."

He handed her the bowl with some more ash yam stew. Seemed like it's all he knew how to make – thank Akatosh it was good. She finished the bowl in less than two minutes and started dressing up, then helping Teldryn packing up camp. He assured her they were almost at the temple and that they would reach it before noon if they walked fast.

When they were finally on the road again, he had all the bags on his back, leaving her to carry only the rucksack Geldis gave them. Their supplies were running low and he figured that they had enough ingredients left for one more meal. He needed to hunt something or hope to find a merchant on the way – which was very unlikely this far from Raven Rock. The nearest civilization was the Skaal Village and he doubted the painfully traditional native Nords will welcome strangers with open arms. He never sat foot in that village before, so he had no idea if it would be wise to ask them for supplies. No, it would be better if he gathered some things for them, since she wouldn't know what to look for and he knew these lands better than her.

Farah was walking behind him, unnaturally quiet for a change. He immediately knew something was off and figured it had something to do with her dream, "Was it a nightmare?"

Her head jerked up, her eyes burning into his back, "What?"

"You were muttering in your sleep. Sounded like you were having a nightmare. You kept mentioning an 'Elska' and yelling for someone to come back."

Farah cringed at the name, unwrapping the cowl since they've left the ash lands behind.

Out of the corner of the glass hole in the helmet, Teldryn noticed that and had to ask, "Was she someone you knew?"

"Yes." Her answer was barely above a whisper. Farah sniffed, wiped at her eyes and shook the memories away, "Can we not talk about it? Just like you don't like questions about your helmet, I don't like questions about that part of my life." She shut her eyes, as if it would help her unsee that dreadful picture, "It brings back too much pain."

Something in him broke a little when he heard the dark tone in her voice. Yesterday he had the privilege (or was it?) to get to know her carefree side, her curios nature and her eagerness to meet new people and to explore. That morning he just found out that behind every carefree person lies a victim of great pain and torture. What did she have to endure that caused her to close herself off to other people? What happened in her past that gave her nightmares like those? Was this Elska person the reason why she has been traveling alone for the past two years?

It began snowing lightly and Teldryn cursed. He wasn't one for the cold – no Dunmer was. There was a pretty good reason why he practiced only destruction spells that had to do with fire; he hated the cold. Looking back to see if Farah was still following, he paused. She had stopped a few steps back, her head turned upwards towards the sky, her eyes shut tight and a smile played over her lips. At first he thought that this girl has completely lost it, but after taking a closer look he realized that she just loved the snow. The tiny particles of ice fell on her face, making her crinkle her nose. She stuck out her tongue to catch a few flakes from the air – only to pull a face when tasting the ash in the snow.