Have you ever walked into a place and just felt at home? I had that feeling as I gazed around, it felt as if I had returned to a beloved spot from my childhood, though I had never been here before. Marcurio and I walked to the nearest Dwemer building and opened the door, both of us ready for anything to attack. Nothing did, but the room looked as if someone had. That someone was a skeleton, so it was at least some little while ago. We looked around the room, that the person was an Alchemist was plain from all the herbs on the desk and counter. I was looking at one that I had never seen before, but recognized the noise from, when Marcurio found the Alchemist's journal and read it to me.
We cleaned up the little building because both of us felt it could be defended pretty well. We burried Sinderion and I carved a stone marker for him with magic, then had to show Marcurio the spell. It didn't take a lot of power, just a lot of control. Marcurio was always willing to learn any spell I would teach him, he was also a very fast learner.
After the building was all clean and straitened up, we cooked a meal and set up to sleep. The one thing about the Dwemers bed's they didn't fall apart, but weren't soft either though. With running water nearby, food and wood for the fire pit is the only thing we were lacking. Marcurio slept first so I sat in a chair and thought about this situation some.
Surely the Dwemer would have more than one way in and out of here. Well it's not like their would be a big arrow over the tower we were supposed to find, so we'd have to go in and out of a few. Perhaps we would find one of the lifts, they dotted the landscape up above, so a few had to come from here. With access to a lift we could get wood and food and continue to look for the proper tower. I got up and lit another of the little pot's of oil that I found in a Dwemer automaton, they weren't always the easiest to light, but once lit burned brightly and slowly.
As I sat back down I thought how much Bjorn would have loved being here. Finding someplace completely new was something he really loved to do. We had always meant to get out of Skyrim and explore some of the places he had only heard about. He always talked about the walking trees in Valenwood, how much he would love to see them or the giant mushrooms that housed people in Morrowind. The deserts of Elsweyr were such an alien concept to him that he had a hard time picturing them in his mind.
I laughed softly as I remembered the way he, Kalin and Talin had constructed a miniature mushroom village, complete with tiny stick people, cows and a couple sticks with feathers representing chickens. They worked on it for a couple week's, all the children in Solitude running in and out of the Inn to look at it. When a Dunmer merchant had come in and asked them which village it was supposed to be, the three men beamed with pride. I had rolled my eyes and laughed. It was rather amusing to see a mushroom with tiny windows and doors and even a chimney. When I had suggested they construct a wood mushroom, to make a playhouse out of it to go along with the "village", they did just that. With little carved dolls that had clothing and armor that Kalin made. Talin not to be outdone carved miniature horses with saddles and bridles. Bjorn, made the furniture and I, I caste a light spell on tiny pieces of clear rock, so that they would caste light in the darkness and placed them in tiny lanterns. We then gave the whole mess to a local orphanage for the children to play with.
Shaking my head, I let the images go and went back to figuring out the best way to explore down here. It seemed to me that I had seen a wall opposite the building we were in, on the other side of the balcony we had come in through. Start their and work our way around the big cavern clockwise? Septimus had said Tower of Mzark, which to my mind left out buildings such as the one we were in. Peek into doors and gates to see what was their, Map each place out and write down about where it was at.
With all that firmly in mind, I decided I needed at least a little bit of sleep before we went exploring. I woke Marcurio up and took his place on both our sleeping furs.
When I woke up Marcurio had made something to eat, where he had gotten the egg's from I don't know and don't really care. Egg's, buttered bread that had been toasted and roasted apple, Lovely. I went over what I had thought about last night and he said he had come to the same conclusions. So we left most of our gear in the building and I put a small rune spell on the door, anyone opening it would have a shocking surprise.
We walked strait across from the building and headed clockwise along the base of the balcony til we reached a dark area, where we found out that their are some nasty flying insects down here. The next thing on our trip was a Dwemer machine infront of a gate. I pushed the activation button and the gate opened, we both walked in and looked at the lever, smiling at each other I pulled the lever and up we went. Looking out it was very easy to guess where we were. So supplies wouldn't be a problem, if it took to long to find Mzark Tower. We debated on unlocking the gate, but in the end decided that Dwemer automatons, Falmer and their pet's were enough to deal with. We didn't need to add bandit's to the list.
I kept tract of where we were and which direction we where headed in on a large piece of paper, I am no cartographer, but I can do a reasonable map. Each building I marked. I would see about making different colored ink's with herbs and such one night while Marcurio slept, it shouldn't be really difficult coming up with a couple different colors do mark the different types of buildings. I also kept a journal with directions, Devines help the person trying to figure it out. It was more for me, so I could explain it to others.
Fighting a few Falmer and Chuarus along the way, we made pretty good time. After the last small group of Falmer, we climbed the ramp and crossed the bridge to the tower on the other side, after a peak inside, we decided it didn't look as if it might be what we were looking for. Going back the other way, we saw a giant globe, yellow in color, but obviously constructed by the Dwemer. It was over what appeared to be a large fort type structure, though it was very hard to tell in the darkness. We walked a little further and saw a couple towers in the near and far distance. We both decided that they could wait for the next day and headed back to the building we had set up shop in.
After I dissipated the rune on the door, Marcurio went inside and then came back out with a small table and the stew we had left simmering, along with some bread and mead. We both sat on the spongy like ground and enjoyed our dinner and the view of the underground river. From this vantage we could see the yellow globe in the distance and a slightly different side of the "fort".
"Unless it's no other place, I would prefer not to have to go into that Fort like building. I would be my last piece of gold that their are Falmer their and probably a lot of them." Marcurio narrowed his eyes looking at the fort.
"Not a bet I will take, I have a feeling your right. We'll just keep going the way we did today and leave that area for last. Did I see the wheel's turning inside your head, about coming back here at a later date?"
I laughed at him and said in a neutral voice, " Now what would ever give you the Idea that I might want to come back to this dank, dark hole in the ground?" He burst out laughing and I joined him.
" The same thing that makes me want to come back, cur-i-os-ity. And knowing that no one else had explored this place in a very long time."
I nodded and then said it would probably be best if we went inside before we drew the attention of every Falmer in this place. We went inside, and I spent Marcurios sleep time writing my impressions of this place, along with some sketches of things we had seen.
When I went to sleep that night, it was to the sound of the Crimson Nirnroot and picture of the giant glowing mushrooms swaying in an un-felt breeze.
No comments:
Post a Comment