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Chapter
9: A Blight Annoyance
A
desolate landscape crawled by as the silt strider walked slowly along. The hot,
dry air parched my throat, and the town was nowhere in sight. I drank what
little Greef was left in the bottle and tossed it out into the deserted hills of
sand and rock. The heat seemed to be getting to Schimmel as well, wearing all
black in a place like this wasn't a good idea.
The wind
began to blow, bringing a bit of relief, but it continued to get stronger. By
the time we arrived in Ald-Ruhn, there was so much sand and ash from the Red
Mountain it was difficult to see, or breathe.
I led
Schimmel down the narrow ramp for people using the silt strider, both of us
nearly fell off at least once. We hurried into the first building we found, the
Mages Guild. I shook my head violently, sending whatever was stuck in my hair in
all directions. Schimmel coughed, wiping the dirt from his clothes.
"Blight
storms... that's another thing I hate about this town." I grumbled, taking off
my robe and shaking the ash from it. A member of the Mages Guild standing nearby
gave me an irritated look, but I ignored him.
"I sure
wouldn't want to live here..." Schimmel said, peeking out the door. The blight
storm was still going strong.
"Other
than the blight storms and heat it's not that bad of a town. You can find a lot
of good stuff here, plenty of shops to browse." I said, putting my robe back on.
"Why don't we go relax? Those storms usually last a while."
Schimmel
looked around the Mages Guild. "Okay."
We took a
staircase down, leading to the floor the spare rooms and teleporter was on. It
overlooked a fair sized sitting area with two tables, both had books scattered
on them. An Altmer and a Bosmer were sitting at the end of one of the tables,
having some sort of debate. I grinned, I hadn't visited a Mages Guild since
joining Forlorn. I hurried down the staircase to the sitting area, quite excited
to be back. When I reached the bottom of the staircase I heard someone yell.
"Nem
Orian! Where the hell have you been?!"
I
stumbled backwards, tripping over the bottom stair and toppling over. The person
must have startled Schimmel as well, he missed a stair on his way down and fell
down the last few steps, landing right next to me.
A Breton
with long brown hair, a dark blue robe and a fierce expression stood over me.
After seeing the look on her face I realized who it was, and why she looked like
she was about to beat me to a bloody pulp. I attempted to flee backwards on my
hands and feet up the stairs but she stepped on the bottom of my robe to keep me
from going too far. I gulped, giving up on escape and began wondering what she
was going to do to me.
I
chuckled nervously, grinning slightly. "H-hi Edwinna... it's been a while hasn't
it? How've you been?"
"Don't
give me that crap!" Edwinna shouted, giving me a stern look. "Now answer me,
where have you been for the last two months?! Your guild dues are overdue and
you still owe me a dwemer tube!"
"Yeah...
I kinda, well... forgot about that tube... and I don't have anything to pay my
guild dues with at the moment..." I stuttered. This woman was usually nice to
other people, but she seemed to have some kind of grudge against me. I never
bothered to try asking why, she scared the crap out of me.
"Enough
of the excuses, when will you have what I want?" Edwinna asked, taking her foot
off my robe.
"A couple
weeks? I'm on a mission right now... so I'll get it right after I'm done, okay?"
I asked, standing up.
"Don't
forget again." She said coldly, before turning and walking through the door to
the Mages Guild equipment shop.
I
breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Schimmel, who was still facedown on the
floor. "Uh... Schimmel? Are you hurt?" I asked, sitting down in one of the
chairs.
Schimmel
looked up, quickly getting to his feet. "I'm fine. I just didn't want to attract
attention to myself when someone like that was around." he said, sitting down in
the chair across from me. "Who was that anyway?"
"Edwinna
Elbert, she's the leader of Ald-Ruhn's Mages Guild. I have no idea why she's so
hostile toward me. I'd rather not talk about it right now." I said, reading the
titles of some of the books scattered about the table.
Schimmel
leaned back in his chair, thinking about something.
I
couldn't take the silence for long, "So Schimmel, where are you from?" I
inquired, it was the only thing I could think to ask. I didn't know much about
him, and yet we were sent on a mission together.
Schimmel
didn't seem to expect me to ask about that, it took him a moment to react. "I'm
from Pelagiad, my family has a small farm down there."
"Pelagiad...
haven't been there in a while." I said, recalling the last time I had been
there. "That was the first city I went to after arriving in Vvardenfell. After
visiting there I expected most of the other towns to be as pleasant, no such
luck. Why did you leave, farm work get boring?"
"A bit...
I'm just more interested in adventuring. There are so many places to visit and
adventures to be had. There's some great adventure out there waiting for me, I
just know it!" Schimmel said with confidence.
I stifled
a chuckle. "Well you're bound to have plenty of adventures working for this
guild... I sure have. Beats my dull life back in High Rock, that's for sure." I
began telling Schimmel about my hometown, and reasons for coming to Morrowind.
Along with a bit of the crap I went through before and after meeting Parven.
We
continued to talk about whatever came to mind, going on for a little over an
hour. The topic eventually wandered back to our mission, we were talking about
the different ways to try and locate it when someone interrupted.
"Excuse
me." A Dunmer said, sitting next to Schimmel. "I didn't mean to listen in, but I
heard you mention something about having to find a tomb?"
I glanced
over at her, she had long brown hair and wore a green robe that was similar to
mine. She looked familiar, but I could never remember names. "Yes, do you know
of any that are a bit unusual?"
"That's
one way to put it. I went out for a walk one day and ended up running for my
life. Three cliff racers thought I would make a good snack. I ran as fast as I
could away from them, and found a tomb in the middle of nowhere. I hid inside,
hoping there were no undead, but they were easier to handle than those winged
terrors. I explored it a bit, all that was in there was a staircase leading down
and a split path, both leading to dead ends with strange markings on the wall.
That's all I found, no urns, no undead, nothing."
Schimmel
and I glanced at each other, each thinking the same thing. "That's it."
After
getting directions to the tomb, we hurried to the exit and opened the door. A
blast of wind knocked us both backwards. The blight storm hadn't stopped yet. If
anything, it had gotten worse. We turned back to the Mages Guild, wondering what
do to.
"I'm
gonna get some sleep for now." I yawned, walking back down the stairs and
turning toward the spare rooms. "How about you?"
"Maybe I
will in a while, I want to look around a bit right now." Schimmel said, going
down the second staircase back to the reading room.
"Okay,
see you later." I said, before going into the nearest room and collapsing on the
bed. I fell asleep within seconds.
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