Hello, trusty journal. I believe when I last left off, I was ruining my armored trousers as a dragon flew over our heads outside of the cave connected to the smoldering remains of Helgen. Fortunately for both of us, we were able to hide behind a conveniently placed boulder until the dragon got bored and flew off. For now.
Hadvar thanked me for all my help, such as it was, and suggested that we split up. He told me to talk to his uncle Alvor in Riverwood, whoever that was. I personally wasn’t entirely on board with splitting up, as up to this point he’d been keeping me alive. Not that I couldn’t hold my own, mind you. But I was a strange cat in a stranger land, and I suspected stranger things were on their way. Not that it got much stranger than a stay of execution via dragon.
Now that the immediate danger had passed, I was curious as to what had become of my belongings prior to my capture, but Hadvar had no interest in talking about it, and repeated his suggestion that we split up. He seemed really keen to not be seen hanging out with a Khajiit, apparently. Fine. If that’s the way he was going to be, so be it.
As I dejectedly plucked some random flowers from the side of the road, Hadvar suggested that I seek solitude, and join the Imperial Legion, which sounded like the opposite of solitude to me. Then I took out my map of Skyrim that I didn’t realize I’d had, and saw that Solitude was the name of a city in Skyrim. And apparently it was a magic map, because it had a little You Are Here arrow, showing where I was. Riverwood wasn’t that far away.
Then he started rattling off some conspiracy theory about the Stormcloaks hiring the dragon or some such nonsense, which seemed really unlikely to me. I didn’t know much about these Stormcloak people, but considering their leader was captured, and that Hadvar here had single-handedly killed a slew of them by himself, they didn’t seem organized enough to obtain the services or loyalty of a legendary creature of death and destruction.
So maybe I didn’t want to hang out with Hadvar after all, if he was going to be paranoid. So I nodded my thanks to him and headed my own way. Which, apparently, was the same way that he was going. So that was a little bit awkward.
I guess he accepted the fact that we’d be sharing a road for a while, so he began to get a bit chatty. He pointed to a big, foreboding structure on a distant mountain and said, “See that ruin up there? Bleak Falls Barrow. When I was a boy, that place always used to give me nightmares.” I wasn’t sure if he meant that he was afraid of it, or if the place was literally some sort of nightmare generating shrine. After seeing mages, dragons, and giant spiders, I wasn’t ruling anything out at the moment.
Hadvar continued, “Draugr creeping down the mountain to climb through my window at night, that kind of thing. I admit, I still don’t much like the look of it.” Aw, he was opening up to me about his childhood! That was almost heartwarming. And a bit unsettling. Did he think we had bonded? I guess so, if he wanted me to meet his uncle.
We continued in somewhat awkward silence for a while, neither saying anything. Had I accidentally made a friend? Out of someone who, and hour or two earlier, expected to have my head removed? What sort of madness was this? I guess once a dragon shows up, all the rules fly out the window. Which was fine with me, as I had no plans of losing my head.
We came to a group of three very phallic-looking stones. Before I could make any sort of immature joke, Hadvar explained, “These are the Guardian Stones… three of the thirteen ancient standing stones that dot Skyrim’s landscape.” Then he looked at me and said, “Go ahead, see for yourself.”
I didn’t know what he meant, but he just stood there expectantly, so I shrugged and walked up to the Guardian Stones and examined them closely. I noticed that each of them had a constellation on them, The Thief, The Mage, and The Warrior. I knew these! Back in Elswyr we were all required to learn the constellations. So presumably the other ten stones would also have constellations on them. Neat.
I turned back to Hadvar, but he was still staring at me, waiting for… something. So I turned back to the stones again, and noticed that when I got up close to them, I felt a sort of weird, tingly energy around them. Tentatively I reached out and touched The Thief stone, as it was my favorite constellation. I felt a weird sensation within me, as if my thieving abilities were slightly accelerated.
This didn’t seem to please Hadvar, who snorted derisively. “Thief, eh? It’s never too late to take charge of your own fate, you know.” Shut up, Hadvar, who asked you? Besides, I did take charge of my own fate, which is why I was a thief. Because it was, a… wholly original idea that was in no way influenced by my father who was a thief, my brother who was a thief, or my uncle, who wasn’t a thief but collected taxes which was in some ways worse.
So, okay, yes, there were two other thieves in my family, but to be fair there are about two dozen people in my family, most of whom are not thieves. Oh, my sister-in-law is also a thief, but only as a hobby. Not that she couldn’t be a full-fledged thief if she chose to. She definitely has the skills.
“Come on,” said Hadvar, “I’ll feel much better once we’re under cover in Riverwood.” So we were spies now? Undercover? Or maybe he meant actual covers. I think maybe he liked me more than I liked him. On the other hand, he was a soldier, so perhaps he just meant physical shelter, with a roof covering our heads. I was clearly overthinking it.
“Listen,” he continued, “as far as I’m concerned, you’ve already earned your pardon.” Pardon for what? What did you catch me doing, sir? I still hadn’t been accused of anything. And I was clearly not with the Stormcloaks, as evidenced by the… well, the one that I finished off in the very first room. Technically he killed all the others. But I didn’t try to stop him, which should count for something.
Then his face turned somber. “But until we can confirm that with General Tullius, just stay clear of any Imperial soldiers, and avoid any complications, all right?”
Of course! That’s me, Mister Uncomplicated. As if the day hadn’t been complicated already. But to make a long story slightly less long, we found our way to the edge of the village called Riverwood, so called because of the river and wood next to it. (I made a mental note to not visit the town of Swampdung, if there were such a place.)
The next thing I knew, I was meeting Hadvar’s uncle. It was getting late, and they were talking in hushed tones. His uncle was surprised to see him back from murdering duty so soon. Hadvar suggested we go inside and talk, but his uncle was still confused, asking “What’s going on? And who’s this?”
And then Hadvar said something I did not expect: “He’s a friend. Saved my life, in fact.”
What? I saved his life? When did I do that? Sure, I shot a wolf on the way to Riverwood, but that was nothing. I’d shoot wolves all day, for free. I hate the filthy things. They’re more wretched than mudcrabs. Perhaps he had noticed that I’d killed some of the giant spiders? I wasn’t sure. But suddenly I felt guilty for all of the bad things I’d been thinking about him. Perhaps he wasn’t such a jerk after all.
His uncle, Holvar (or something like that) said “Okay, let’s go inside, Sigrid will get you something to eat, and you can tell me all about it.”
Sounded good to me! I loved telling people all about what I was eating.
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