Skyrim: The Last Dragonborn (The Dragonborn Saga: Book 1)

Chapter 11: Egil

Egil peeled the shriveled slice of rasher bacon and dropped it onto his plate. Next he carried off the eggs soaked in the bacon's fat. He tore off a piece of black bread he had been carrying, some dried prunes, iced blueberries. He also toasted the bread in whatever fat still sizzled in the skillet and scratched butter onto the bread.

"Want some?" Egil asked to Ocellina.

The mage had her hood up across the crackling fire by some rocks and under an umbrella of pine. In her hand was a leather book with some etchings of a swirling knot. Between her fingers, she rubbed the stone talisman.

"No."

"I barely see you eat," he said. "Don't you get hungry?"

"No."

Egil crunched loudly on the toasted black bread. He sliced up the bacon and the egg, topped it on the bread, and bit with a savory groan. Ocellina peered at him with disgust.

"Do you ever not eat?"

He stopped, the crumbs and yolk caught in his beard. He swallowed hard.

"I do. But food is good and it gives you energy."

The Archmage's eyes scrolled down to his stomach, then his face. "How did you follow and fight with the Dragonborn through those chronicles?"

"Then it was simpler," he took another bite and spoke between the chewing. "Then I had someone to follow and adventure. He wasn't exactly the most fit lad too when I met him. He was pretty weak and was just a farmer. He was no stranger to hard work and heavy lifting but he wasn't dragon-killing ready either. So he trained with the guards and when I followed him on his adventures, we trained together. All that walking, climbing, and running we did, we both became strong men. But now, well, sitting and managing land isn't quite as active as one would know."

Ocellina stared at the fire.

Egil shrugged his shoulders and felt the grease of the bacon run down his lips and chin.

"What about you Mage?" Egil finally said after a long silence. "What was that back there? Do you only help those when its good for you?"

Her eyes snapped to Egil and her lips curled. "Easy for you to say, isn't it? It wasn't our decision to make."

"But you made it."

"Because I had no choice."

"Because you need me."

"Yes." Her voice was cold like ice. "I need you to find the Dragonborn."

Egil scratched his beard in contemplation. Doubt and suspicion had soon taken over with the ale he drank. "The Prophecy you told me about, the Vampires, what is it all to you?"

She blinked at him. "I don't have to answer your questions, Skald. You want to find him just as much as I need to."

"So your reasons are hogwash?"

"Hogwash?" Ocellina scoffed. "Like the hogwash you spew? About how you also partook in fighting dragons when all you do is moan about your aching feet and eat at all times of every day?"

Egil hunched his shoulders and sank back on his bedroll. The ale stirred his stomach.

"We have been traveling for days, soon to be a week. You haven't told me much about you, and I blindly followed your story and now I am starting to think it's complete hogwash."

"Believe what you will, Skald." She returned to her book. "I'll let you believe what you want. You have wanted to leave that home of yours since the day you settled in to write your book. You feel like you need this adventure. You feel that maybe you need this one chance to bring the Dragonborn out of exile. You won't turn from this journey because you feel you need to look him in the eyes and finally look him in the eyes."