The Path Less Traveled, Part 3
Part three of this, and still no title :/
I'll figure it out soon enough. But anyways, here's this. May write part four after this, depending on how I feel.
Three days after Rekir's burial, we had our first good caravan come by.
Brekish and I were standing near the entrance to the tower when we heard the wheels of the horse-drawn cart rolling up the road, and I left the tower to look down the road. Two riders on the caravan, and one nord guard walking alongside. It was drawn by a single horse.
"Covered top too," I told Brekish as I walked back to the tower. "Don't know what they got in there, but they'll be here in a few seconds so we'll ask."
Brekish chuckled as the caravan came over the top of the road, and I went back to leaning against the tower. The day overhead was cloudy and grey, promising either snow or heavy rain.
As the caravan come over the road and neared the towers, Brekish left the tower and hailed the cart with a raised hand. They slowed down some then stopped, and the armored guard came to talk to the orc.
"...A toll road, you see...?" I heard Brekish start talking to the guard, who stood with his arms folded over his chest. The guard said something back but I couldn't hear it, then he gestured to the cart handlers. I saw Brekish shrug, then point back to the towers. Now the guard threw a hand at me, and I heard Brekish laugh. The orc turned to wave a hand at me, then called out,
"Grab Salin and check this cart here while this guard pays out the toll for the bridge!"
"Aye," I called back, then went around the tower and gave a loud whistle. I heard boots coming from the towers upper level, then the muffled sounds of cursing. Salin then put his head through the upper doorway of the tower, and I said, "Got a cart at the road. Come check it with me," and the redguard nodded.
Salin joined me at the tower doorway a moment later, wearing his usual chain mail armor and carrying his scimitar at his waist. I walked with the redguard around the cart, briefly glancing at the nord, then I went to the carts backside. Salin stepped up and pulled the cover away on the cart, revealing a stack of four crates and a few barrels.
Pulling a knife from his belt Salin began to pry the tops of the crates off, and I stood on the back of the cart, flicking the occasional glance at the guard. But Brekish was now entertaining the guard with a fairly amusing story of how he pulled a bee from a horses ass one time, and I returned my attention to Salin.
Three crates and one barrel in, all we had found so far were crates full of building materials and a barrel full of salmon. Salin scowled at the crates, but pried open the last crate with a crack of wood. He set his knife down and pulled the top of the crate away, then glanced at me.
"Look what we got here Fathhas," said the redguard. I stepped into the cart now and stepped over the crate and looked at it.
"Gods above," I muttered and crouched down. Inside the crate was a skeleton, laying with its hands folded over its ribcage. The skeleton itself was a dark grey clolor, as if the body had been burned so bad the bones had turned black. On the fingers of the skeletons were a few golden rings, but my attention was drawn to the left eye of the skeleton. In the socket was a small stone, not much bigger than the skeletons eye. It was a dull red and black color, and I starred at it.
"What is that?" Salin asked.
"Beats me," I said with a shrug. I looked up from the skeleton to where Brekish was still talking to the caravan guard. "Alright, lets get theses other barrels open," I said.
The other barrels only contained more preserved fish, and I left the cart and looked to Brekish. I caught the orcs eye and nodded. Brekish nodded back, then stepped back and pulled his sword from his belt. The guard immediately pulled his own sword, and both the caravan riders left the seat of the caravan.
Brekish engaged the guard and Salin went after one of the riders as I went after the other. They were both bretons, and as Salin caught the man who ran I moved pas them, chasing the other rider down the road a ways.
I didn't see the knife until the man was swiping it across my face, and the swing came surprisingly fast. I saw him turn and throw the knife, but I couldn't dodge in time. I felt the knife cut across my face, dragging over my left eye, and I stepped back with snarl. I grabbed my face as the breton started to turn and run back down the road, and I pulled my sword and chased after me. He made it down the road maybe four bounds before I had a hold of him, grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him to the road. I held him with my boot before swinging my sword down to hit his face, and the breton jerked under my boot. I pulled my sword up and held my face again, feeling the blood running down my face.
Jogging back up the road I sheathed my sword after flicking the blood from it, and found the caravan guard laying on the road. Brekish was nearby, cleaning his sword off while Salin was relieving the skeleton of its no-longer-needed valuables.
Brekish saw me coming back up and looked at my face, then grunted. "It'll heal," said the orc, "You'll scar, but it'll heal."
* * *
As the day wore long and ours shadows wore longer, I sat outside the cliff-side tower on the rocks, watching the waterfall tumble down the cliffside. Salin had used his sparse but needed knowledge of the healers in Hammerfell to heal my face, although it was throbbing and sore. The cut ran from the middle of my forehead and down my cheek, stopping just at the bone. I had gotten to keep my eye, and thanked the gods for it. Now I sat on the rocks as the waterfall roared on its constant downward descent, and looked at the strange ball that had been in the skeletons eye.
It was a mysterious thing. Dark red and black all over, but with a sort of pattern on its surface. It was completely smooth as I turned it over in my hand, and when I held it up to the moonlight it was completely solid. It wasn't much bigger than an eye, but as I looked at it I could feel it give of some kind of... power.
I rolled the stone in my fingers, but then tucked it away in a pouch on my bandolier. Standing up I touched my face, feeling the throb of the soon-to-be scar on my face. We had thrown the bodies of the guard and the riders over the falls after the caravan was looted, cut the horses loose, then broken up the caravan for firewood. It was lucky we did break up the caravan, because under the wagon in a small hiding hole we had come across three sapphires and a bag filled with two hundred gold or so. Brekish put all the loot away in his chest at the top of the cliff-side tower, but announced we would be heading for Whiterun in a few days to sell off what wasn't already good coin.
Leaving the cliff-side I went back inside the tower, and unrolled a bedroll that was at the towers base. I laid down and closed my eyes, and aside from my throbbing face, found sleep easily enough.