conjuredskies | Hello Nirn [for prototypezeus ]

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Hello Nirn [for prototypezeus ]

After the strange non-place of the Nexus, the first taste of Skyrim air is like a cold slap to the face. They've appeared beside a standing stone, no taller than a man, with a large circular hole near the top and carved with a pattern like an ornate eye. The Ritual Stone. It's a small thing, to look at. Yet Felix can feel the pulse and ebb of ancient power from it. He gives the curved surface a respectful pat and steps away, toward the stone arch that marks the path up here.

The stones sit upon a raised circle of rocky ground. To their left, there's a steep drop into the rush of a fast-flowing mountain river; to the right, a road curls about the base of a mountain whose sheer sides rear into a white haze of ice and cloud. Around them rise its lesser sisters, craggy and interlocked, hemming the road and river ahead into a narrow pass; behind them, the mountains fall away on one side and open up to a wide plain.

"Well, here we are." Felix draws a deep breath of the crisp air. He grabs a satchel from the base of one stone and stores his book safely inside, slinging it over his body. Then he turns to Alex and spreads his hands at the landscape around them. "Welcome to the realm of Tamriel."

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"Oh, they're sort of... a traveler, on a journey to find understanding. Inner growth, that kind of thing." He glances at Alex. "Seems like a fitting description to me."

"Sounds a bit..." Alex isn't sure quite what word to use, so he just sighs. "Never mind. That could work."

Walking on the road is bizarre for him, someone used to flat asphalt and concrete, not cobblestone with grass growing up between the stones. He's also not really used to walking in general. Usually if he has someplace to go, he runs.

He does a good job hiding it though, and peers at Whiterun from under the edge of his hood.

Felix shoots him a grin, well aware of his un-enthused response. He doesn't expect Alex to see the same connections he does, after all.

Coming off the shoulder of the mountain, the ragged road dips sharply downward to join the river. To their left, another road leads upstream, past a high waterfall. Ahead, the road cuts across a stone bridge to follow a smaller watercourse running down from the city. Just across the bridge stands a pair of buildings, two large stories tall and high-roofed. From the chimneys on top comes a steady stream of smoke and steam, carrying the scent of honey and grain.

Felix gives an appreciative sniff - and then his head snaps round, as the howl of a wolf rises from the mountains to their left. The sun is starting to get low...

"Hmm." It's not a serious threat, even if they were heading out there. He shrugs it off. "How should I introduce you, when we get there?"

Names are often a flexible thing, with less-mortal creatures. Unless you want to use it to control them, best to address them as they wish it.

All the water around makes Alex a bit nervous, and that does show. He stays on the road, but gets as far away from the river as he can while doing so, and hopes that these strange stone bridges don't collapse while they're going over it. Water isn't deadly to him, but it hurts, and he sinks like a rock.

He turns his head a little at the wolf howl, recognizing the sound from some of the memories he's taken, but doesn't think a wolf is much of a threat after fighting Hunters. Wonder what a wolf would do for me. Larger animals mean more biomass, after all.

Alex looks over at Felix with a slight frown. "My name doesn't fit here either?"

((I can't recall if Felix asked, so I'll assume they introduced themselves at some point, if that's all right. :P ))

"It sounds a little odd, that's all. I guess we could say it's short for Alexius if anyone asks: you look like you could be an Imperial under there." Honestly, he's not so much worried about it as he is having fun filling in the story.

He notices Alex's nerves as they come to the bridge, though. "Are you all right?"

((I can't remember either, so I'm good with that!))

Alexius. Well, that sounds... interesting. "You could go with Zeus, if that sounds better." He doesn't know how weirdly people are named here, after all.

He isn't sure how to explain it without wrecking the whole 'blending in' thing. "Don't like water much."

"Zeus, hm?" He tests out the sound of it, shrugs a little. "Sounds good enough to me." It's as important that Alex likes his name as to blend in.

Water strikes him as an odd thing to dislike. Kind of sad, really, to someone who spent so much of his boyhood around the Niben Bay. "Really? You're lucky: we're a long way from the sea up here. I can't imagine you'd be too happy in a port city."

Past the brewery, and they'll start to encounter a few more people as they enter the farmlands. A few workers are out tending the crops in the various small plots of cabbage, wheat, potatoes... and there's the faint clink of well-padded chainmail as a guard comes their way. The cloth sash over his mail is a golden yellow, as is the face of the shield he carries on one arm, marked with the horse-head of Whiterun. His stride is the easy pace of a man on patrol, and he gives one of the farmers a casual greeting ass he passes.

"On my world I'm trapped on an island." At least Manhattan is a decently-sized island. There's plenty of room to run and hunt, but he can't leave.

Alex can't help but eye people as they pass, assessing their threat levels. Most of them are barely worth paying attention to, and while even the guard looks laughably primitive to someone like Alex, he does pay some extra attention to the guard's weaponry and how he moves. This is someone who knows how to fight, at least a bit.

"Oh. That explains a few things." Felix nods to the guard as he passes. "Good evening, friend."

"Well met, Imperial." The guard pauses, though, eyes on Alex beneath his masked helm. A guardsman knows how to handle a weapon, but perhaps more importantly, he has to be good at getting a read on people. "You look like you're new to these parts, stranger."

Alex looks back at the guard, his expression a little guarded, but trying to act natural. "I'm a pilgrim. From out of town."

"Hmm, you don't say." The guardsman sounds amused, though, so the explanation's passed muster. He gives a nod and a word of advice before he moves on. "Stay safe on the roads. And remember to watch the skies out there."

"That's all the more reason we're heading into town," Felix says dryly, pausing to ensure there's no trouble. "It'll be nice to spend the night behind some solid walls."

Alex waits until the guard's out of earshot. "'Watch the skies'?" Felix has mentioned dragons before, but he doesn't know if that's the only worry, or if that's just the custom here.

"Right." Felix keeps walking. There's a long, winding road through the town defences ahead. "Ever since giant flying lizards started swooping out of them. Not that it ever hurt to keep an eye out for storms, especially in the mountains."

Alex doesn't quite shudder at the thought of storms, but it's a near thing. "Good suggestion." He continues to follow, looking at the wall of the city and thinking about how easily it could be bypassed. It looks far more climbable than the skyscrapers in Manhattan, and Alex runs up those like they're his own personal racetrack.

The main difference - though to Alex it mightn't mean much - is that the walls and towers they're climbing up to are designed to be defended. Right now there's the standard complement of guards atop them, keeping watch over the plains, the skies and the people passing under their gaze.

Just outside the start of the walls, though, are a number of tents around a couple of campfires. There's a small group of Khajiit moving around them, feline ears twitching in the cold breeze. Felix grins when he sees them and detours to the camp. "All right, stay close to me."

"Hey, Ri'saad!" he calls to one of the male cat-folk, who has particularly well-tailored clothes and thick brown fur. "How's business?"

Stay close? Alex doesn't see why a bunch of... cat people... would be particularly dangerous. But he's the tourist here, so he does as he's told, watching the caravan warily. Assessing them too. Claws, fangs... both very small, compared to what he's used to dealing with.

And apparently known to Felix by name. Allies? Rivals? Business associates? It's hard to tell just yet.

His fingers twitch absently, readying to form his own claws if he needs to. It's more a habit than any real preparation for combat.

Felix isn't concerned for their own safety, per se. Quick eyes have already taken surreptitious stock of them as they step up to the fire, making note of likely skills, hiding places for coin and blades alike. Stereotypes aside, there's fair reason for this. The guard in her steel plate armour is, perhaps, the quickest to size them up.

"Slow, too slow for such a cold day." The caravan leader's voice is low and well-spoken, despite the feline growl beneath them. He takes in the both of them as he looks up, tail giving a gentle twitch. "So, the Imperial mage returns. Have you come to sell, or to buy? Or to share some news of the roads, perhaps?"

Felix shakes his head. "It's quiet out there today, but we weren't on the Markarth road." He gestures to Alex. "And I've gold for you this time, not steel. My friend here could use some clothes for a pilgrimage. Perhaps you have something to suit him."

Alex tries not to look too uncomfortable under the scrutiny, but usually when someone looks at him that way they're getting ready to holler for reinforcements and come after him with thermobaric tanks, so it isn't easy.

He looks at the tents instead, noting for the first time the items set out on display. A merchant caravan, then. Must be the guys he was talking about. They look like they move around a lot. Guess we're lucky they're here now. He doesn't have a clue what he's looking at for a lot of this stuff, but the things made out of cloth are probably clothes. Brilliant deduction.

"Ah, yes. One must be properly equipped for a strange land." Ri'saad is more than capable of reading between lines - and around and beneath them. He cocks an ear at a female Khajiit, one hand keeping her skirt out of the way as she adds another log to the fire. "Atahbah, see if we have any robes to fit this one."

"Hmm." Atahbah looks back at Alex, taking mental measurements, then goes and rummages through one of the stacks of cloth under a tent. "We have black robes for a mage, or green and almost new. Brown for the humble traveller."

Felix looks to Alex as she brings them over to show. "Whatever pleases you, my friend."

Alex doesn't want to stand out, or be mistaken for a mage. Not that mages are bad, he just doesn't want to set up expectations that he can do magic. "Brown," he says. He'd probably prefer black, but brown looks like it'll blend in better.

It occurs to him that since Felix is paying, he should probably ask the price. It seems... polite. "How much?"

"Ah, a wise choice," Ri'saad seems to purr lazily. "And for you, friends, merely eight septims."

"Don't be ridiculous," Felix says promptly, clearly waiting to say it. His tone is light, cheerfully scolding. "Six is fair, you fluffy-maned scoundrel."

"I have told you before, our wares come with guarantees you will not find elsewhere." The Khajiit blinks up at him. "Guarantees for which you also pay."

"Of course. They wouldn't be worth six on their own, whatever you tell the provincials."

Alex is kind of bewildered by the exchange going on right now. He doesn't know what a septim is, nor how much it's worth, and to his eye they're arguing but there doesn't seem to be any bite to it. Which is... weird, to say the least.

He looks back and forth between Felix and Ri'saad, not sure who's in the right and not really sure why it matters to him. He crosses his arms over his chest, mostly to keep his fidgeting hands from itching to turn into claws so they can just take what they need.

The hillside wind whips up for a moment, catches at clothes and makes fur bristle along the back of the Khajiits' necks and tails. Probably an effect of the chill. Ri'saad's head half turns, eyes considering Alex sidelong for a moment.

"Is our service worth so little to you?" he asks Felix then.

"Don't oversell yours- oh, come off it. Six and a half, and I know you're leaving tomorrow. Leave me some goodwill for next time, won't you?"

"Done." And Atahbah offers the robes to Alex, while Felix digs a small pouch of coins out of his tunic. (Sadly, appearing to pull that from nowhere is not a standard conjuration skill.)

Alex takes the robes from Atahbah, and looks at them for a few moments. He's never had to actually put on real clothes before, and certainly nothing similar to this, so it takes him a minute to figure it out.

Good thing he doesn't really get embarrassed.

He manages to get the robes on overtop of his copied clothes, and while he still looks a bit odd - mostly because his sneakers are not covered, and he's wearing two hoods - the look mostly works. Much better from a distance than up close, certainly.

Atahbah's ears flatten for a moment in surprise, but she's too discreet to question him. The caravan sees more than its share of odd customers. Quite a bit more.

Felix looks back at him once his remaining coin is safely stowed once more. It's a curious sight, but given the weather he doesn't see how anyone could object to a foreigner overdressing a little.

"Not a bad fit," Atahbah offers.

"That'll do it," Felix agrees. He flashes a smile to the Khajiit and bows slightly. "Thank you. And good evening."

"A warm night to you, friends," Ri'saad returns. As Felix steps away he adds, in the softest purring mumur, "I am certain you will find it."

Hello Nirn [for prototypezeus ]

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