Chapter 3: Falkreath
3 MONTHS LATER.
Lakeview Manor had become cramped over the past three months. If it wasn't bad enough that six people planned to all squeeze together in a house, that despite its size it didn't have much room, eight gods planned to stay in there also! Fourteen people all in one house. Needless to say, it became a mess and food was used up quickly.
There was a little garden outside the house that would support Argon, Kara, and Argon's adopted daughters when they came to visit, but with fourteen people that garden lasted only two weeks. So, naturally, Argon had to make a frequent runs to Falkreath to get food. Today was one of those days.
As Argon was preparing the carriage and horses, he was approached by Kara.
"Mind if I come with you this time? I need to get out of that house." she asked.
Argon looked at his girlfriend, taking a moment to take in her beauty. Kara had removed the side braid from her hair and now had most of her hair tied and flung around her shoulder. There were a few places of her brown hair that she had missed when tying it back, but Argon didn't mind, it actually made her look even better.
"Sure." Argon said, "Climb aboard."
~~~~~~~~
For a little while they rode in silence only listening to the CLOP CLOP CLOP of the horses' hoves. Argon had removed his mask and felt the nice warm feeling of the sun on his cheeks, the slight warm breeze blowing through his hair, and he got to fully see and take in his surroundings. It was the time of year in which the green leaves of the trees took on different colors and drifted peacefully to the floor below, Argon sometimes wished his life could be like that of a leaf's not ever having to worry about monsters, or vampires, dragons, or evil gods, they just got to sit around and blow in the wind. The only thing they had to fear was a horse's hoof.
There were times in which Argon despised his life. He hadn't chosen to be the Dragonborn, he hadn't chosen to have the greatest power in the world. No, the Divines had chosen that without his consent. However, he had chosen to use that power and to protect his world and the people in it. That, was his choice, he had chosen to fulfill his destiny and even when that was done he had chosen to keep helping people and to keep using the power of the Voice to keep the world safe, and even though it was a hard life filled with danger and regret, Argon wouldn't have it any other way.
Argon turned to look over at Kara and watch her for a moment. She had her eyes closed and he head raised high, the breeze blew against her face and made her hair fly back. The radiant sun made her skin shine and it cast a nice light around her whole body. Kara felt someone looking at her and she slowly lowered her head and opened her eyes. She looked over at Argon and saw him looking at her.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
"Everything's fine. Just checking on yah." Argon said.
"Well, I'm okay. Are you?"
"What do you mean? Didn't you just ask me that?"
"I mean, aren't you scared? Talos was a hero to all the nords, he was so great that the Divines made him their ninth. Now he's evil and planning on taking over Tamriel and killing the Divines. Plus, he has the same powers as you. He IS the Ultimate Dragonborn. Not to put you down, you are pretty ultimate yourself, but Talos is a god his Thu'um is stronger than yours, he could easily tear you apart." Kara said.
"I know. He's me, but stronger. Am I scared though? No. I'm angry. How can someone so honored, so revered, so great, become so bad? How can someone like that, someone that all men, and even some elves, look up to plan on doing something like this? What is it he REALLY wants? Power? Fame? He already has those, unless he is getting greedy which is highly possible, I think there might be more to it than that. He has to have an ulterior motive, something worse, more evil, and that is why I am mad. That Talos of all people, can plan something so evil." Argon said, "Does that answer your question?"
"Yeah, it does." Kara looked forward.
~~~~~~~~
As they were riding along, again listening to silence, they came across a merchant being mugged. The poor guy had been pushed off of his horse by bandits and was now being beaten and his belongings were being taken. Argon pulled the carriage right up next to the man and the bandits, they didn't notice him.
"Hey!" Argon said.
The bandits turned around, instantlly they recognized Argon as the Dragonborn.
"Leave him alone."
The bandits laughed and started to approach Argon. One of them even went as far as to put his hands on Kara. The woman broke the bandit's nose with her fist. This angered the rest and they took more steps forward. Argon looked straight at them, and they looked into his eyes. They saw the anger and the rage building up inside of the man, and they realized this was not a good time to attack him. Argon acted like he was about to get up from the carriage and the bandits dropped the merchant's things and ran off over the hill into the woods. Argon sat back down.
The merchant scrambled to his feet and gathered up his things.
"Th-thank you, Dragonborn." the man said and he ran over to shake Argon's hand.
"You're welcome, here take this gold as payment for the items they broke, and as compensation for being mugged." Argon handed the merchant a fat sack of gold.
"I cannot take this from you, it is yours. Besides, you had nothing to do with any of my items breaking keep the gold." the merchant tried handing the sack to Argon, but Argon pushed it away.
"Keep it, I'm the Dragonborn, if I need more gold I 'll go kill a couple giants or something and collect the Jarl's bounty."
Argon cracked the reigns and the horses continued forward towards Falkreath.
"Argon," Kara said, "that man was a merchant, why didn't we just buy all of his items off him so we can get back sooner?"
"Because, I want to stay out of that house as long as I can." Argon said.
~~~~~~~~
Eventually the carriage reached the gate to Falkreath. Argon parked the carriage outside the gate and tied the reigns of the horses to a post. Argon and Kara walked into the city.
"So what do we need to get?" Kara asked.
Argon showed her the long list of food items he had compiled.
"You think they have all that?" Kara asked.
"I hope so." Argon said.
"You know what I don't get?" Kara asked him.
"What's that?"
"Why the Divines need to eat, and why they can't just conjure up their own food or have Kyne grow a few trees with fruit for us to eat."
"I thought about suggesting that, but then I realized if they did that then I wouldn't get to leave that crazy house."
"Don't you think they would have thought about it themselves? They're pretty smart."
"I think their fear of Talos is clouding their judgement." Argon seemed to have an answer for everything.
~~~~~~~~
Argon held the door to Gray Pines Goods open for Kara, she walked in the place and Argon followed lightly shutting the door behind him.
"Ah, Argon so great to see you again." said Jolus, the son of Solaf the previous owner of the shop.
"Hello again Jolus, great to see you." Argon said as he shook the man's hand.
"And who is this beautiful lady?"
"My name is Kara. Argon and I are courting."
"Ah, well Argon is a very lucky man." Jolus said, and he knelt down on one knee, grabbed Kara's right hand and kissed the back of it.
"Well someone is friendly." Kara joked.
"I try to treat my customers with the utmost respect." Jolus informed her.
"A respectful man, I admire that." said Kara.
"Ah, Argon you sure can pick 'em." Jolus said, "So what'll it be for you today?"
Argon handed Jolus the list.
As Jolus looked at the list he shook his head and without looking up from the list he said, "Argon, how do you run out of all these things so quickly?"
"We've had a few extra mouths to feed." Argon answered.
"You must have more than a few if you have a list this big. Who are all you feeding, giants?"
"Six heroes, including me, and eight other people."
"Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is, I have most of the items on this list, however I am fresh out of chocolate covered sweet rolls." Jolus told him.
"Sheo's gonna be a little upset. It's okay just give me what you've got." Argon said.
"Why can't Sheo conjure this stuff up for us?" Kara asked.
Argon already had an answer, "The last thing he tried to conjure up messed up and he came out with some animal that has never been seen before in Tamriel."
"You mean Thadon? His sloth? I was wondering where that thing came from." Kara said.
"Well now you know."
"Okay you two, here you go, I've put everything in this chest, have a nice night." Jolus plopped a large chest up on the counter.
Argon handed Jolus a large sack of coins like he'd given the other merchant, then Argon picked up the heavy chest and he and Kara left the store.
~~~~~~~~
Argon gently put the chest down and the carriage seemed to lower down a little bit under the weight of the chest. He grabbed the rope off of the side of the carriage and used it to tie down the chest so that it wouldn't come off as they were driving.
"Huh, it's already getting dark." Argon said.
"Yeah, we'd better hit the road before we run out of daylight." Kara said.
"Or we couldn't."
"Huh?"
"Come on, why don't we just stay here for the night? Rent a room at the inn, you and I can have some alone time away from that crazy house, just for the night." Argon suggested.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? What if something happens?"
"If Talos was going to attack the Manor, then he would have done it three months ago, but he hasn't. So obviously, he doesn't want to." Argon said.
"But what if the reason he hasn't attacked was because you were there?"
"You said it yourself, Talos is more powerful than me, and he knows it. I have the highest of doubts that I'M the reason the Divines are still living. Come on, please Kara? We can leave first thing in the morning."
"Okay, let's do it." Kara said.
"Yes!" Argon yelled maybe a little too loud.
~~~~~~~~
The next morning, Argon awoke in bed in the Dead Man's Drink Inn. Snuggled up next to him was a naked Kara, the bed was a little cramped since it was only meant for one person and he had her both had to try to fit. Argon's arm was over Kara's body holding her tightly upclose to him. Argon sat up a little and kissed Kara on the head.
"Good morning." Kara whispered.
"Good morning to you too. How about you and me go and get some breakfast and then hit the road?" Argon said.
"Sounds good." Kara lifted up Argon's arm and gave it back to him.
Kara stood up and threw her black shirt back on and tied her red sash then picked up her pants from the floor and put those on too, then she slid her feet into her shoes. Her hair was a mess and hung around her shoulders, but she didn't care she could fix that on the carriage. Argon got up also and threw his armor back on but didn't but Konahrik on and instead slid it in his side pouch so that he could eat.
"Hey, so I got you something from the store yesterday." Argon said.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, check that wardrobe." Argon said.
Kara opened the wardrobe and pulled out a folded cloth. She set it down on the table and unfolded it. Sitting on the cloth was the most beautiful sword she had ever seen. It was three different shades of blue. It had a dark blue handle, a lighter blue blade and hand protector, but along the sharp edge of the blue were beams lines of bright blue and white that seemed to flow up to the tip of the blade. The blade itself was curved like a scimitar and it seemed to have an icy effect to it.
"I had it specially ordered for you last time I was here. It was crafted at the Skyforge in Whiterun." Argon told her.
"Oh Argon, it's beautiful. Thank you so much, I love it." Kara grabbed Argon and kissed him.
"Well you needed a new sword since your last one broke." Argon said shrugging.
"Let's go get some food." Kara told him and she hung her sword from her side on her sash.
The pair walked out into the tavern area and sat at the bar. There was a grim feel to the inn. The bard wasn't singing, there was whispering, and barely anyone was moving. The bartender slowly walked over to the bar and in a quiet, yet worried voice, asked what they would like.
"Two meads, and some bread please." Argon told him.
The bartender reached under the bar and pulled out two meads, then he walked over to the sheld and grabbed two loaves of bread and brought them to Argon.
"Thank you my good man." Argon said and he slid six coins across the counter.
The bartender pocketed the money and walked off.
Argon listened two the whispeing between two men and the other end of the room as he ate his bread.
"... shipping all across Tamriel, the courier only ships places that aren't in Cyrodiil if there is an emergency. Wonder what's going on."
"I should get me a copy, something terrible must be happening."
"Divines save us all."
Argon called the bartender over.
"Yes? Is there something you require?" the bartender asked in the same voice as earlier.
"You wouldn't happen to have a copy of the Blackhorse Courier, would you?" Argon asked.
"No, we ran out during the night. Won't get another shipment until later tonight. Damn shame written in that thing, gods save us." the bartender answered.
"Okay, thank you." Argon said.
"What do you think happened?" Kara asked.
"I don't know, but I don't like the sound of it." Argon said.
Argon and Kara finished up their meal and Argon left a small tip at the bar and they walked towards the door of the tavern. At the table next to the door was a passed out and drunken nord wish his head on the table. Underneath his head with drool on it was a copy of the Blackhorse Courier. Argon lifted up the man's head and pulled out the newspaper. He shook off the drool and then walked outside.
Outside the sky was a dark gray and it was raining hard.
"Let's see what all this fuss is about." Argon said.
He lifted up the paper to his head to read the main story, then he froze and dropped the paper. It fell and landed with a splash in a puddle of rain water.
"Argon? What is it? Argon?" Kara asked, her heart was racing.
Argon said nothing, so Kara grabbed the paper out of the water but it was too late. The water had smeared the ink and the paper was so wet that it broke in Kara's hands.
"Argon, what happened?!"
Argon opened his mouth to speak, "The Emperor.... Titus Mede is dead. Talos killed him."
Argon
Nerevar
Sheogorath
Fayen
Garnin
Kara
Talos
