So… We're not in Riften, but we're really close!

  We're in Fort Greenwall tonight, sleeping in the upper level of what I think is the prison section. I'm not entirely sure because we haven't fully explored it, but I did find a set of shelves full of ragged clothes like what prisoners are normally dressed in.

  Anyway, we got up, had a nice, hot breakfast courtesy of Haran, and set out. Valdimar had to promise to come back "within the decade" to all of them, first.

  According to Valdimar, the weather wasn't too bad for Windhelm, but it was still freezing and blowing snow all over the place. Luckily, I was able to shorten that long walk I was worried about by going off the road and heading straight down towards Windhelm!

  Not much interesting happened, aside from running across one of those domed ruins almost entirely covered by snow. There was a bandit in there, along with a dead student. Valdimar just shook his head, and made a note on the map so he can tell Mirabelle when we go back.

  The student had set up a little laboratory space in there. It was a bit chilly, but there was a fire, a bedroll, a table and chair, and some crates and barrels full of supplies. All in all, it was actually quite cozy!

  There was also an alchemy table, and I found a book called "The Herbalist's guide to Skyrim." Erandur said that was one worth studying, so I'll probably read that tomorrow night. I'm too tired to do it, now.

  Far as we could tell, the bandit we found holed up in there probably ambushed the poor guy. The student only had a dagger on him, and from the looks of it, he didn't strike us as a Destruction mage. Valdimar said that bandits around here normally wouldn't dare attack a mage, especially not alone. The man had probably watched and waited until he had done a bunch of spells before jumping him.

  Either way, they were dead, and we kept going once Erandur said a few words for the both of them.

  Oh, I did find a a scrap of paper on the bandit with a drawing of what looks like Valtheim Towers on it. There's a small X on the shoreline. I think it's a treasure map!

  Anyway, we kept going, and aside from some frost trolls and skeevers (we managed to avoid the angry horkers) we had a very cold and blustery hike to Windhelm.

  We made it right before midday, so we went to the Grey Quarter to warm up, sell off what we could and get a bite to eat. Revyn had some new goods in from Morrowind, including Ashfire mead and even some clothes. He said something in Dunmeri to Erandur while he was gesturing to the clothes, and it started a discussion that even Valdimar got in on. They were going too fast for me to follow, but it got animated enough that Erandur dropped the fancy accent midway through!

  They ended up laughing, and I finished my trades. I did buy a few sets of Dunmer clothes, though. They have decent enchantments on them, and we're going to Solstheim at some point. When we do, I want to be prepared!

  We left for Riften once we were finished with lunch, and they told us (Lydia only caught some of it) what they were talking about. Revyn was poking fun at Erandur for looking "too Skyrim" and even picked on his accent. He said that Valdimar talked more like a Dunmer than he did!

  Erandur switching back to his regular voice changed the whole thing, and they ended up joking and tossing friendly jabs back and forth.

  Boys.

  Anyway, we followed the road past Kynesgrove, but I got distracted on the way and ended up leading us on a side path straight to the big rock in the middle!

  You know, where dragons love to roost?

  Once I realized my mistake, I suggested we go back to the road in as straight a line as possible, but we ran into the gross little hut where the hags live! It was right there!

  Yes, I literally led us between a big, huge rock and a hard place.

  Lucky for us, there was only one hag, so we were fine. There were a few wolves and such on the way, but there was another group of adventurers ahead of us, and they ended up taking care of most of the animals ahead of us. One of them could summon a Dremora! And I'm not sure if it was the same person in their group (we didn't manage to catch up to them, they were pretty far ahead) but someone summoned a Dragon Priest!

  I didn't know you could summon those!

  So, yeah, we hung back and just let them do all the work while we cleaned up after them. I'll never understand why they don't take the pelts or anything, but whatever. Their loss is our gain!

  Night was starting to fall by the time we hit Shor's Stone, and we arrived in the middle of a Vampire raid!

  There were three of them attacking the townsfolk, so we rushed in to help. I heard Sylgja call for help, and Erandur and I stopped our Flame attacks to find her. She was nearby, and had her pickaxe out, ready to strike as she tried to limp away from the fight. Before we could get to her, Valdimar came out of nowhere and stood between her and the Vampires, with his weapons ready.

  He told us to go, and Erandur nodded before he ran forward, bursting into flames as he did. I saw Lydia grab a guard by the cloak and haul him out of the way so Erandur could fly past, straight into the Master Vampire.

  The fight didn't last long after that! Once his Flame Cloak ability wore off, Erandur insisted on checking everyone for Vampirism, but everyone was clear. Sylgja was unhurt as well, and happy to get her bag back full of letters from her parents.

  She thanked us, and we decided to keep going towards Riften. There's nowhere to bunk in Shor's Stone, and it wasn't that late. We figured we'd get to Riften late and sleep in.

  Oh, we were wrong!

  We left the town and planned on sneaking past Fort Greenwall like we did last time, but there were two groups of adventurers fighting the bandits in the fort! There was a lone mage, separated from the others and being targeted by several archers, so we ran to help him.

  Septim and Lydia rushed inside to help the rest, so once we were done with the archers, we ran in and kept on fighting.

  There wasn't much to do once I got in there, though. The mage had run off towards Shor's Stone, and the other adventurers left as soon as the last bandit fell.

  So, we wandered around and took what we could find off of them, and did a bit of exploring.

  Fort Greenwall is sort of long and narrow, and sits across the road between Riften and Shor's Stone. There's a square keep with a tower on it at one end, and another tower at the opposite side, with walls connecting both.

  It was getting late, so we decided to see if there was anywhere to sleep in the fort. We started with the tower side, and went in from the top. We fought some bandits on the way down, and eventually got to a large room. In it we found two dead Khajiit traders and what was left of their goods piled in the center of the room. Off to the side was a cage with a dead alchemist in it.

  I found a bottle of poison next to his body.

  Erandur shook his head and said a few words over the unlucky victims before we kept going down. We found a few more bandits, but mostly the tower seems to be a storeroom. There was lots of food in there, along with a grindstone and empty weapon racks all over.

  We didn't really see anywhere to sleep, so we decided to check the other side of the Fort.

  The prison area, where we are now, has a staircase going up that leads to what I'm assuming is the officer's quarters. We found their leader in there, along with a very strong mage! He took a while to take down, and his magic was strong enough to shatter my Wards!

  Their chief wasn't easy to fight, either, and she had on a full set of carved Nordic armor.

  That'll fetch a nice prince from Balimund when we give him his fire salts tomorrow.

  While we checked for more loot, Valdimar made a note of the double bed around the corner of the room, where the pair had come from. He quipped that he hoped we didn't interrupt anything!

  Lydia didn't think we had. The lady was fully armored.

  Erandur was busy looking over the books on the shelf in the room and said, "Never stopped me before."

  The rest of us went quiet and I could see Valdimar start to blush. Erandur must have noticed, too. He got a sly look on his face and said, in that smokey way he does, "You just need to be careful, or you'll get pinched."

  I honestly hadn't considered getting armor bites from that, but yeah, that would be something to watch out for!

  Valdimar rallied, and tried to start in by asking if he had experience with that, but Erandur just cocked an eyebrow at him and asked, "You don't?"

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Valdimar went even redder, and that was too much for us. Lydia and I almost fell over laughing, and this time it was Erandur's turn to dodge as Valdimar chucked a pillow from the bed at him.

  It felt good to laugh like that again. Things are starting to feel a bit more normal, now.

  Anyway, we left the quarters and went into the top part of the prison area to have some dinner and get set up for bed. We didn't find any sleeping areas for troops, so either the beds are gone, or they slept on bedrolls when they were here.

  And that was our day. I've got first watch, as usual. Septim's cuddled up at my feet, with his armor in a pile next to us.

  I'm glad he likes wearing it. He doesn't fight any harder, luckily,and I feel better knowing that he's not going to get all torn up with it on.

  As much as I hope the kids like him, I sort of wish he could stay with us. The Healing spells are doing a great job at taking care of the old scarring, and Erandur's been slowly fixing up the old injuries I wasn't able to before we met him.

  Not to mention how he helps us outside of fights. I've lost count of the times I've seen him cuddle up to Erandur when starts having nightmares. He likes to play with Valdimar, too.

  By the Nine, I just realized something!

  Lydia doesn't like crowds.

  Septim always puts Lydia between the two of us when we're in crowds. He's even jostled her until she's next to me, like he's herding us, then he drifts off to give her some space.

  He and I make a nice little pocket of air around her so people can't get too close. She gets all stiff when there's so many people we get pushed together.

  Oh my gods, that's probably why she never takes off her helmet in town! All geared up, she's scarier than a sabercat and people usually make room for her. Without it, people see a pretty lady in beautiful armor and aren't scared any more.

  I don't blame her, honestly. I'd probably do the same.

  Speaking of Lydia, it's about time to get her up. I'll have to pay more attention next time we're in Solitude or something to see if I'm right.

  Now we're in Riften.

  We're at the Bee and Barb tonight, and Talen-Jei's trying so hard not to let his intentions slip to Keerava that he can't control his tail! He's already got several people in the ankles with it, and knocked over a stool when she said his name.

  It's adorable!

  Anyway, before I get too far, back to this morning.

  We woke up later than usual, but that was fine. We took our time with breakfast and stowing away our sleeping gear. It feels like we've been rushing everywhere and doing a lot lately, so it was nice to take things easy.

  When we were ready to move on, we headed to the doorway leading down. As we suspected, it was in fact the prison, and it was full of Frostbite Spiders!

  I'm so glad they didn't decide to pay us a visit while we slept!

  There were three big ones, and the webs were so thick down there that I could hardly see. I got jumped as soon as I managed to burn through the sticky mess, but at least I had my Flames at the ready.

  There wasn't much down there, to be honest. A handful of cells with nothing in them, two dead bandits, and a locked store room with a chest. There was a nice Healing potion and some gold in the chest, though, so it was still worth it.

  We left the prison, and as we were heading out, Septim started barking at the covered well by the archway.

  I moved the boards aside, and saw a ladder leading down! I could hear some squeaking, but it was too dark to see anything. Lydia dropped a stone in, and we heard a splash. We figured "why not?" and went down the ladder. It wasn't that far, and there was water, so Septim was able to jump down safely.

  There's a cavern with a low ceiling and walls lined with glowing mushrooms down there! The water was only a bit past my knees, so we didn't get too soaked, but it was enough to make the walk here a lot chillier than it needed to be.

  We looked around, and found a tunnel that led out of the cave. We came out from under a stone outcrop in a little dip in the forest, not far from the fort.

  The road wasn't too far, and we could see the watchtowers overlooking the road to Riften from the trees.

  There was a dead elk in the road, and when I went to check for what killed it, we got our answer! A bear came at us out of the woods, and while it wasn't too bad, a second one ran up, and then a third!

  Temba wasn't kidding when she said the area has a bear problem!

  We managed to fight them off without too much blood loss, and once we'd got everything we could off the animals, we went on our way.

  It started to snow, and I pulled out a torch to help keep warm. We saw Ahkari her caravan outside the gate, so we took a minute to trade with her before we came in.

  It was fairly quiet outside, but inside the walls, Riften is buzzing!

  I'd completely forgotten about Saturalia.

  It's huge in the Capital, and according to the others it's pretty popular here, too. It mostly gets the party started for Old Life and New Life, though. Back in the Capital, the decorations would've been up for at least a week by now, but they said that the lights and stuff usually go up the day before, here.

  Anyway, we were still a bit damp from that cave, and what wasn't wet was covered in dust, blood and spiderwebs.

  We looked very festive, I'm sure.

  Erandur insisted that we come here to wash up before we did any of our deliveries, and I'm glad he did!

  I felt human again after that bath - They have theirs in a separate room in the cellar - and gave Keerava a few septims to clean my mage robes while we were out and about. I have a set of regular clothes in my pack for relaxing in, and while it felt strange to wander around town without my robes, I figured we were safe enough. It wasn't even evening yet, and it's not like I didn't have my daggers on me.

  Besides, who attacks people the day before Saturalia?

  The others took care of their armor while I got us all a quick bite to eat and secured our rooms for the night. I suggested to Erandur that we could all just wear our clothes and leave our armor here, but he shook his head. He wanted to wear his armor to the Temple, if only to needle Maramal.

  We made our deliveries first, starting with Marise and Balimund in the market, and then Ingun and Hafjorg down in Elgrim's Elixirs. We got a nice pile of gold and goods out of it, and Ingun was so thankful for all the trouble we must have gone through that she gave us a key to her personal supply chest. She invited us to take whatever we needed out of it whenever we were in town!

  I don't think I'll need to use it, but it's nice to know it's there, just in case.

  Next, we went to the Temple of Mara.

  Maramal's reception was as icy as ever, but Dinya welcomed us warmly, with big hugs all around. As Erandur suspected, she already knew that we'd helped Calcelmo, and she wasn't annoyed that we took so long to get back to her.

  She said that Mara gave her one last vision. Two people, whose love for one another was so strong that even death couldn't stop it.

  I could hear Valdimar take in a quick breath behind me, then Dinya handed me an Amulet. She said that I should wear it, and let Mara guide our way. I asked her what that meant, and she looked past me to give Valdimar a strange little smile.

  She said not to worry because we already had experience dealing with love from beyond the grave. Helping two "lost souls" shouldn't be a problem. We just had to have faith in Mara.

  Yeah, she knew!

  Figures. I don't know why I was surprised.

  Anyway, we left the Temple with our new assignment, and came back here.

  We sat down for some much-needed drinks while the dinner crowd started to fill the room.

  Valdimar was reeling a bit after Dinya "looked right through" him. I mean, he was as surprised and not-surprised as the rest of us. Mara is the Goddess of Love, after all! Clearly, She's known all along.

  Speaking of love, I wanted to give Talen-Jei his amethysts earlier, but he was too busy putting up lanterns and pine branches before. Now that the place was full, I was able to just call him over and slip them into his claws along with our dinner payment.

  He was shocked that someone would do such a thing for him. He said that he honestly didn't think we'd help him, even though he knew Erandur was a Priest of Mara. He confessed that he didn't have much to give me in exchange, but I told him "Happy Saturalia," and to save his coins for the wedding.

  He said the least he could do was give us some free drinks, so he mixed us up some of his special cocktails.

  "Mara's blessings be upon you both," Erandur said, and we all tipped back our drinks as Talen-Jei thanked us again.

  -/-/-/-/-/-

  The guys are back from their outing and we talked for a bit. I'll get to that soon.

  -/-/-/-/-/-

  Anyway, once he left, Lydia commented that Dinya and Maramal are going to be busy, what with all the weddings they have coming up! Erandur laughed, and said he was honestly a little envious.

  Apparently he loves doing weddings. He has a bunch of vows memorized in different languages, and he's studied all the different customs, whether they involve Mara or not. Lydia teased him a bit about how he's a hopeless romantic, but he just laughed and asked if we wanted to hear about wedding hi-jinks he's seen.

  I mean, of course we did, so he entertained us while we ate.

  While he spoke, he was doing that Warmth thing again, but it was different, this time. It's usually directed at someone, but tonight it was just a general type of Warm, sort of like when he finally let us see him back in the Silver Hand's hideout near Dawnstar.

  It's strange, but it feels like sitting next to a fire at the end of a long day.

  I know I'm not mad because other people feel it, too. Lydia's asked me about it a few times, and I know Valdimar notices it.

  Anyway, once we were done eating, Erandur left to go say his nightly prayers. He was going to the Temple, and asked if any of us wanted to join him.

  Valdimar jumped up right away, and Erandur looked shocked. He invites us to pray with him sometimes, and as far as I know, none of us have ever taken him up on it.

  Valdimar admitted that he probably wouldn't pray, but he'd go with him, all the same. Erandur wondered why, and as they left, I heard Valdimar joke that someone had to keep him and Maramal from killing each other!

  We all laughed, and once they were gone Lydia offered to get this and my writing kit if I ordered us some more drinks.

  While she was up in our room, Talen-Jei came over with our drinks and said he still wanted to give me something for helping him out. He slipped me a small black vial of poison. It's a nasty one, too. He said that we can never be too careful here in Riften, even on Saturalia, and to stay safe.

  I asked him if that meant anything, and he was confused. No, he said, this is just a rough town, and he knows a bit of poison on my dagger might come in handy!

  I thanked him, and slipped it in my pocket before Lydia came back down.

  Speaking of daggers, she wanted to finish sharpening mine, so she worked on that while I wrote.

  She's almost done with the one I got from Astrid. Erandur's drinking some wine while he reads, and Valdimar's mending some tears Keerava noticed in my robes.

  When the two of them got back from the Temple, I asked Erandur what I should do about the Amulet Dinya gave me. I haven't put it on yet in case someone gets the wrong idea, and especially not now! I don't know about Skyrim, but back in Cyrodiil this is a very popular time for proposals.

  He said that she usually gives people visions through prayer or in their dreams. He suggested that I wear it to bed and see what happens.

  I don't know if it'll work, but it's worth a shot.

  Speaking of bed, it's getting late. Tomorrow we head for Fellglow Keep.

  I'm not too eager to go back to that awful place, but at least we'll know what to expect.

  What a way to spend Saturalia!

  -/-/-/-/

  I HAD A VISION!

  We need to go to the Gjukar Monument, that big pillar thing in the plains past Whiterun. There's a woman out there, I think? Anyway, we need to go there.

  Divines, Lydia must have thought I lost my mind!

  We have to share a bed here, and I woke up thrashing and shouting the name "Fenrig". Septim was in the bed, too, whining and licking at my face.

  Poor boy was worried about me!

  Anyway, I went across the hall to Erandur's room and woke him up to tell him. He wasn't surprised to learn that I can only remember bits of it. He said that sleep visions can fade as quickly as normal dreams.

  Lydia joined us and wanted to know what was going on. While I explained, Valdimar banged on the wall and asked Erandur what in Oblivion he was doing.

  I'm pretty sure he heard me laugh, because he was in the doorway next to Lydia a second later.

  He was happy to know that I'd had a vision, and pointed out that we'd be passing by the monument on the way to Gauldur's tomb. We won't have to change our travel plans at all!

  Finally, some good luck for a change.

  Anyway, everyone else has gone back to bed. I just wanted to make sure I got it all down.

  everything, especially her words. I can imagine that's why she's so quiet most of the time; it's just habit. Being with Bronwen and being seen as just another anonymous mercenary or adventurer passing through is probably a relief!

  learn things after they get a few bottles of mead in them. ^_~ I have the Holidays mod, and I love it so much. It's my first time playing with it, and I installed it just in time for Saturalia! It adds so much to the game, I highly recommend it.