Hadvar stopped and turned towards her. He said to her, “I have an uncle in the nearby town of Riverwood. He’s the blacksmith there and goes by the name of Alvor. I am sure he will help you if you tell him you’re my friend and what happened here. He might have some ideas too on what to do next. Riverwood is just a small place. It is totally unprotected other than the locals who live there.”
She looked at Hadvar and asked, “What are you going to do? Where will you go from here?” “I am going to Riverwood too so you can follow along if you’d like. I need some time to rest up a bit and recover before returning to Solitude. That’s the capital of Skyrim and the headquarters for the Imperial legion.”
“I need to let them know what’s happened here. I thought you might want to separate from me considering everything that happened.” She replied, “No, I trust you. We defended each other’s backs making it through all of that. Regardless of what happened before. I know you’re a soldier and were only following orders.”
“You know, I don’t believe I’ve ever met someone like you.” “What do you mean like me.” “You have this fierce bravery about you, but yet underneath that there lives a soul that honest, true, and kind.” “Really! thank you Hadvar. Considering we both know so little of who I might be, that’s truly kind!”
She briefly looked off towards where the dragon had gone, then she said to him, “Hadvar, I saw the hesitation in your eyes, as if you felt it was wrong, what they were doing to me and that thief. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll follow along behind you until we reach Riverwood. I can decide what to do and where to go from there.”
“Okay, but what am I supposed to call you. Have you remembered anything else like your name?” She thought a moment still staring towards where the dragon vanished from site. Then she appeared to be far away again. “Hey Breton, you still with me? You’re not looking well. “
Hadvar was ready to say something else when her skin turned a pale white again. Like it had when the dragon had spoken to her. Hadvar looked upward expecting to see the dragon again but no, the sky was clear of anything like that creature. He thought, “Normally her skin is a bright complexion with freckles sprinkled across her nose. “
She suddenly collapsed to her knees. Her hands laid upon the deep rich soils of the mountain tundra. Her fingers dug into the earth, then she began to weep and Hadvar came to her side, “Breton what’s wrong with you? Speak to me? She felt a pulling away as if something were lifting her spirit away from inside her.
“Daughter, I give to you this ballad written in the Elder Blood before time was sparked, before the world of Mundus came to be. Learn its song! Discover who you are!” She cried out then and Hadvar saw the raw passion of her call, “Mother, what do you mean?” Hadvar reached out with a gentle touched on her shoulder. “Breton I am here for you, what is happening?”
Then before her the roots of the trees began to weave together from the earth, the fallen leaves, the firelight of those insects beginning to float nearby. A parchment was forming in her hands. Then the fireflies swirled around the parchment forming and they began burning writing across its scroll. Hadvar watched as it said,
“Daughter, your name is something you must earn! There is a journey you must make. Listen to its song and understand its meter:”
“In the quiet hush before the dawn, when the world is still a dream,
She walks a path where shadows hum with ancient, unspoken themes.
Not a name etched in stone, but a riddle spun from light and flame,
A journey inward, where the heart holds the essence that it holds.
“The first of it means, one who is rooted in passion and love.”
Her name is not a label, but a call,
A symphony of why she burns, why she falls, why she dares to call.
Rooted in love’s unyielding soil, she grows through storms and scars,
A tree whose roots are woven with the threads of every star above.
**
“In Resilience not a shield, but a dance!”
Resilience is not a just a shield, but a dance,
A flicker in the dark that refuses to be erased,
She bends, she breaks, she bends again,
For in her bones, lies the echoes of a thousand suns remains.
“Not all has been told, from resilience and love is the little fire born.”
This fire is not a roar, but a whisper in your chest,
A spark that turns to flame when love’s truth is confessed.
It was born before the first word of The First Elder Scroll Exist,
A secret kept in the marrow of the old, you must be reborn to learn who you are.
“You are she that is reborn and transformed though its birth, beginning before the dawn.”
You die each night, only to rise anew at the first break of light,
A phoenix stitched from fragments of your own dark night.
The dawn is not an end, but a mirror,
A reflection of your old self ends, and then it shows you begin again.
**
“It Is Of The Elder Blood, spoken before the First World of Dawn.”
Your blood is not of this world, but a legacy etched in time,
A covenant between the mortal and the divine,
The Elder Blood remembers what the scrolls cannot tell,
That love is not a choice, but a call that heals and kills.
“Daughter your name is your journey, they are one in the same.”
So wonder, may you seek, may you unravel the thread,
For in the journey, you’ll find the name has always been,
This name is not given, but earned through fire, through love, through pain,
A name what whispers: “You are the root. You are the rain.”
The writing was done and the scroll rolled into her hands. She returned from some other place and said, “Hadvar, what happened to me I feel faint.” The she rolled over onto the ground with the scroll still clutched in her hands.
Hadvar disconnected his cape and covered her with it. He used some gathered leaves to form a pillow under her head. He sat there with her wondering, what strange destiny had woven her fate? There they stayed and he sat there thinking through some of the verses he saw being written about her.
Later she suddenly asked, “Hadvar, what happened to me, where are we?” “We are where you fell when I asked you if your remembered your name. Do you remember any of it? ” She thought a moment then said, “I remember hearing someone call me daughter, but how could that be!” “Help me to sit up Hadvar. Is this your cape, did you cover me up when I collapsed, I remember something like I felt faint.”
“The scroll you have held in your hand, open it” She did so and said, “ It reads like a ballad, but it clearly is written to tell me I will discover who I am when I understand the meter of its words and song.”
Hadvar said, “You seem to be bound to a strange destiny. How many people are asked their name and then watch a scroll form from the earth before their eyes? And not just form, but then have a ballad about the journey they must take to discover who they are written by the burning embers of fireflies?”
Hadvar paused, then said. “We still need to get to Riverwood. My sister Sigrid should be fixing dinner right now. Her husband, my uncle Alvor is the smith in town. He should be hammering the last of his work and getting ready to get cleaned up a bit before dinner. Do you feel up to walking a bit, maybe it will help clear the cobwebs away. We should be able to be there in about an hour or less. “
She said, “Okay Hadvar let’s go!” She grabbed his arm once she was standing up and returned his cape. “So I never said what my name is?” Hardvar replied, “Not according to what I saw, it is all tied up in some kind of journey you must take to discover who you are, maybe what you name is.”
As the made their way down the path they came to a split in the road. Hadvar said, “Come on lets go this way. It will lead us down where the waters from the lake spill over in falls as it tumbles it way down to Riverwood and beyond. There are some beautiful views along that path. The other way falls into the deep shadows of the mountains. I’d rather not do that way since it’s getting dark.”
They both made their way down along the road leading to Riverwood. At one point the arrived at the curve in the road where Hadvar stopped them for a rest. “Let’s catch our breath a moment and just take in the view. She saw an old lady across the way looking their way. She was hooded and dressed in old, hooded clothing. “Who’s that across the way?”
Hadvar looked and said, “her name is Anise. She is believed to be a witch, but I have never heard of her harming anyone. Also, she is considered to be a really good Alchemist and will sell the locals potions and salves to help them. Sometimes, it easier to trade with her then make the long trip into Whiterun the holds capital.” “Does she just live in the woods?” Hadvar said, “No she has a small cabin deeper in the trees there. Can’t see it right now but it’s there.”
“What are those Hadvar. Oh they are the standing stones There are supposed to be thirteen of these spread around Skyrim in different locations. I believe though from what I read in some of the old books in Solitude, that this is the only place three of them appear together. “
“What are the for? Who built them, and why here between Helgen and Riverwood?” “No one knows the when, but many believe they may even predate the first era when the dragons ruled the skies and lands of Tamriel.”
She pointed over across the way. “That ancient place up on the mountain. What is it called?” “That is called Bleak Falls Barrow. It was built during the first era when the dragons ruled the land and sky. They had followers back then and a priest who worshiped them. They were called the Dragon cult. It is said that they still walk the halls of that place deep within.
Guarding something. No one knows what though.” She stood and walked closer and looked at the ancient barrow as the first stars began to twinkle above. “What, who said that?” Hadvar asked, “Who said what?” “She pause a moment then said, “Never mind, I thought I heard something. “ She stepped towards a place between the stones so she could look at them.
They began to hum as if coming to live, then she remembered something, ‘She walks a path where shadows hum with ancient, unspoken songs.’ “Remember that Hadvar?” He replied, “Yes part of the ballad. You think the two are related?” “Maybe but let’s go, this makes me nervous.” As they stepped away from the standing stones the hum ceased.
They both began to walk down what was more like an old road now. As they traveled past some steps going upward to the right of the road, Hadvar said, “That trail leads up to the opening of Embershard mine. No one goes there anymore and it said that some bandits took up residence there recently.”
They heard some wolves howling to the air further down the road. Hadvar drew his weapon and shield. She left her shield on her back. And her weapon sheathed. As they came around another bend, three wolves were above them on a ridge and began to come down at them.
Before they took three steps she rose her hands and a force came from them that struck them with a loud noise that sounded like a rockslide to Hadvar. It knocked all three of them back and they slowly rose stunned somewhat. Then they all three ran away leaving behind only their whining voices.
Hadvar said to her, “You create magic like it’s nothing. It just suddenly appears and then you sling it without effort.” He paused then said, “I’ve spoken to some Battlemages who are part of the Imperial Legion. They told me it takes a master mage to be able to pull power like that from Aetherius. For you though it just seems to happen!”
She didn’t respond but continued to walk down the road. But she was thinking about what Hadvar had said about magic and she thought, “Another mystery to be solved in time, I guess!” Hadvar then said, “We’re almost there to Riverwood. It should be just around the bend.”
As they rounded the bend she saw a house that was set up in the trees to the left. Half-way across the walkway bridge that spanned its way across the Whiterun river there sat a large tree with a couple of seats and a fire and pot sitting over it.”
She asked Hadvar, “Do you know who lives there in that tree house?” Hadvar glanced over and said no but I remember receiving a letter from my sister some time ago. She had said in it that an Elf, she said a Wood Elf from all the way down in Valenwood had come up their way and built a tree house to remind her of home. We can ask her about it when we get there. I think you’ll really like them. In fact, the whole town is full of interesting people who care a lot about Riverwood.”
As they crossed over a wooden bridge that provided a way over the waters tumbling down from a small waterfall off to the right she noticed the small shrine set up of one of the deities she suspected. She remembered Hadvar calling out to the divines. This one looked sad though, as if she were pleading for some return to something lost.
As they entered the town they were both surprised to see half the town standing there, pointing up to the barrow. She noticed one of them, a man with small horns and pointed ears. Maybe another person from Valenwood. He was carrying a load of cut wood somewhere and had a beautifully crafted bow strapped to his back.
They both heard the strike of a hammer working hot metal against an Avil. ”Come on Breton, that’s my uncle Alvor coaching some hot metal on his Anvil.” They were beginning to past the first home after walking through the gates to the town of Riverwood.
There, they saw a young man coming home from working at the inn. He was walking toward an old lady leaning against her handrails of the first house they were both just walking past. She was pointing up towards the barrow.
“I saw a dragon, as black as night and larger than the inn fly overhead and over towards the barrow. Then there was this humming sound from up near the three standing stones, the ground shook and rumbled. “ The young man dressed in garish looking clothing called out, “Mother, please be quiet or the whole town is going to think we’re both crazy. “
The old lady said, “Did you not hear all of that ruckus from up near the standing stones and see the big black dragon? What have we done to so anger the gods?” “Mother, I just finished my shift at the inn playing for a few patrons who are staying there. So, no, I did not see anything! Although I do remember hearing some kind of noise coming from outside.” “It was a big black dragon; I am telling you we are all doomed.”
Then Hadvar and the Breton both heard the forge hammer stop, a call came out from somewhere up on the porch in the deep shadows, “Hadvar is that you? What are you doing here? Are you on leave or something?” They both heard footsteps coming towards the open part of the porch and stairs that lead either up or down depending on whether you were coming from the porch or from the road up to it.
She noticed, A man with dirt and ash falling from his face and clothes came into sight. She silently thought, “He’s a really strong man, look at the muscles and structure of that man. He resembles the stone mountains that rise into the night skies all around this place. “ Then Alvor said, “Shor’s bones man, what happened to you Hadvar? You get in a fight with goblin shaman or did an imp come over the border and burn you too.”
“No uncle, we shouldn’t talk about it out here. Can we go inside and then we can talk all about it?” “Of course, but who is this, she looks worse then you! You okay girl? You have a hunted look in those eyes as if you saw a ghost or something!” “She’s a friend actually, saved my life more than once tonight!”
Alvor then said, “Okay, okay, come along you two and we’ll go inside. I’ll get your sister Sigrid to bring us something from the pot. We can all sit down and you both can tell us all about it.” She followed Hadvar and his uncle Alvor across the road and then up another set of stairs through another door. She opened the door and passed into the home.
She observed that Hadvar had walked over to a large stone fireplace with a large elk head mounted above it as if standing sentinel over the warmth it provided and the food bobbling in the hot kettle hanging from an iron stand. He was reaching out warming his hands. She could see just how burnt, bruised, and cut up he was and just imagined what she looked like.
She watch a young girl likely their daughter get up from a chair and run over to sit in another one closer to her uncle, Hadvar. Alvor called out, “Sigrid, come up here, there’s someone here you’ve been worried about.” “I’ll be there in a moment husband!” came a voice from downstairs somewhere.