How I Found it All: Part I
#1 of Stories
In case you don't realize it right now, it's me, Jumps-In-Water. Okay? All right. Now let us get down to business.
When it all started, it was Loredas, Last Seed 12, 3E435. My sister and I had been living together in Rosethorn hall, although we didn't see each other most of the day, and sometimes even for whole days on end. That day was different. My sister sent me a message that said I needed go to the Arcane University in the Imperial City for an urgent matter. I could not comprehend what was going through her mind then, because I was hunting in a cave near the settlement Weatherleah, just south of Chorrol. I had heard that there was a very valuable weapon that was important to the count of Chorrol, and I think it would be an excellent addition to my collection of artifacts and riches. I unfortunately was cut short during the deep exploration of the cave when Marbles sent me that message through our magicka link she created years earlier.
I began to feel my way out of that pitch black limestone wonder. What I heard from a bit of rumors was that this specific cave was infested with ogres. I did not believe it, but I was still apprehensive, so I tried to keep a low profile with my leather moccasins. 'Wait,' I thought to myself, 'did I just hear something?' With one hand, I grabbed the hilt of my sword and brought my head around the corner. Thankfully, it hadn't seen me yet, because it seemed occupied with its meal. It was an ogre, and it was big. From what I could tell from such a poorly lighted portion of the cave, it was still a juvenile. This was a not a good sign. 'Where there is a little ogre, there is a big one.' I just backed off, while slowly drawing the sword from my back. Thud, I went when my body bumped into something large and drooling. "Oh crap!" I shouted. Immediately my instinct was to take the blade and slash at his throat. Unfortunately, the beast was so tall, I could not even reach it.
The ogre took his massive hand and rammed it into my side. "Aaaagh!" I screamed as I flew across the cave. My back hit a stalagmite, which broke beneath me. The ogre began to charge at me. I had little time to react, so I painfully grasped my six-foot blade as tightly as possible, and swung it down in front of me, jumping the beast clean on my sword. A roar that echoed through the entire cave came and went almost as fast as I pulled the blade out of his abdomen and returned it. A loud crash was heard, then silence. The death of such a magnificently horrible beast scared the juvenile, so it ran to the corpse's side and held it. I left it alone to weep in the way ogres did.
I had finally made it into the sunlight, glaring through the most friendly trees I could have imagined. I still had my sword in my hands, and just realized it was covered with the putrescent blue blood of the ogre, so I went off to find that stream I heard nearby. When I got there, it was a wonderful experience. The water was quick and cool, yet so comforting I decided to strip down and take a little dip. I did absolutely nothing for about an half an hour but taking in the sweet nectar flowing to the Gold Coast from the Jerall mountains. The droplets still on my scales when I came out cast a light show upon the ground when they were shaken off.
I spent the next two days hiking through the forest in between Chorrol and the Imperial City. It became an exciting experience when I was stopped by a highwayman the moment I came onto the road. "Your money, or your life," he said.
I just rolled my eyes, thinking 'ugh, this is going to make me late.' I simply took out my massive solid ebony claymore, crouching and posing as to say "Come and get, if you want it!" He drew his sword as well.
"I actually prefer it this way," he said with a complacent grin.
"Your move," I returned. He charged at me, almost like the ogre did. It only took one swing from my blade to knock his out of hand. Quickly spinning back around, I placed ebony to throat. "Just don't say it was three of us, okay?" And with that prideful remark, I went over to where his sword had landed and broke it in half between a stone and my foot. Turning back to him, I gestured with my hand and he bolted in the opposite direction. I think he presumed that I was going to launch a fireball at him, which I probably should have, just for the fun of it.
That was the last time I stepped on the road the whole way to the city.
"I made it," thinking to myself, when I passed through the massive oak gates that led into a beautifully flowered plaza where a ten foot statue of Akatosh stood, made completely from solid white marble. Even this magnificent replica had only a minor spot in my allready occupied mind when I entered the temple district of the city. Where the Temple of the One once stood, an enormous monolith in the shape of the avatar of Akatosh currently stood, ever roaring into the sky, as if a great battle took place and victory was given to it. As a matter of fact, a great battle had taken place there. This is the grounds where the dark Mehruhns Dagon took his first steps on Tamriel since before the first era, preparing to destroy all manner of life, and rule over his Daedra in his new kingdom. It happened so fast, Dagons demise, since the statue of Akatosh here in the temple was all that was left of one of Marbles' best friends and all of Cyrodiil's emperor.
After making it through the temple, with as many intact emotions that I could spare, I arrived at the most hustle-bustle part of the entire city: the market district. "Oh, by the Nine, I knew I should have gotten here earlier," I muttered. The entire place was packed with merchants and commoners, all willing to sell or buy whatever they please. I tried to squeeze through the crowd with as little disturbance of those around me, but as I suspected, someone wass always drunk enough to start a fight somewhere.
"Come on, I don't have time for this."
"O, you'l hav' plent' of time after I'm done wi' you." He obviously had no idea who I was, or probably even who he was at the time, because when he came up to me, I couldn't help but notice the smell of skooma on his breath.
"Agh," was the sound I made when I recoiled, completely overpowered by the stench. "If you don't back off, my sword does have a blunt end, and I would be most obliged to hit it over your, at the moment, useless head."
"O, I don' think sooooo..." He swung at me. I had just enough time to react, since the skooma had impaired his coordination.
'Crap, not enough room,' I thought. My sword was too long to draw in such a crowded location. Since this would-have-been brawl had caught so much attention, many people had moved off of the street. "I'm not going to fight you, but I will call the guards if you don't settle down, and you will be arrested." That was a pointless remark on my behalf. I knew that no sense could be talked into him and he was looking for a fight. So, I decided to do what I do best, and that was jumping in water. Splash I went as the sacred lotus around me swelled and moved with the same upset and disorientation as the crowd I left behind. "Ha, a sewer grate," I said. With some effort, I lifted it off and swam through it, entering the most despised part of the Imperial City, leaving the skooma eater to the market.
"Ugh, blagh!" I coughed as I surfaced inside the wretched air that was the sewer. "This is almost as bad as the water." Since it was a long way through the narrow and claustrophobic pipe that lead here, I had to inhale the waste-ridden sludge only able to be called water by the slowest and most ignorant. Getting the taste out of my mouth took three days afterward, not to mention two mouth-cleansing potions made by my sister. Thankfully, the rest of the trip through the sewers was pleasant in comparison. I was thoroughly surprised when I found only one zombie for the whole time I was down there.
As I reemerged, I couldn't help but notice the sudden change in the attribution of air quality. The cherry trees were in full-bloom at that time of year, and I began to see people looking at me with disapproving eyes. I still smelled like the sewer, since I had just left the place. I remembered the mortar and pestle that my sister gave to me and I used it to grind up some roots and berries that I learned would act as a deodorant. I simply took the paste and slathered it on my exposed scales, specifically my neck and back, and my belly plates. "At least this will deter the smell for long enough to get to a bath." But bath time had to wait, because I still had my objective, which was getting to Marbles at the Arcane University.
The last stretch of the journey there felt like I was being carried by four servants in a buggy, since it, in comparison, was effortless. When I got there and stepped through the first gate, I was greeted directly by an Imperial Battlemage, who showed me to the "Arch-Mages quarters," as he called them.
"Jumps!" A scaly yellow figure said to me as I arrived at the other side of the transport-pad. "I have been waiting for a day-and-a-half for you to get here. Oh, come here." she gave me a big hug. I heard her sniff me. "Let me guess, you were too ashamed to come here and be seen by anyone, so you swam through the sewers?"
"Very funny. Some crazy skooma eater forced me to go in."
"I'm just poking fun at you, Jumps. It is nice to see you at this time." We moved over to her desk, where papers were stacked as high as the White Gold Tower itself. "Don't mind the mess," she said.
End of part I...