- 10th of Last Seed, 4E 202 -
What a waste of a day. I'm already exhausted from the past two weeks, and getting lost today did not help. While I have a horse, Esbern is on foot, so we had to travel more slowly. It also meant we couldn't outrun the dangers we came across on the road.
We dispatched the first pack of wolves we encountered fairly easily. The second pack took about as much effort. But shortly thereafter we saw a horse approaching with a dark elf rider. I wasn't too concerned until the rider dismounted as we neared each other. He wore heavy orcish armor and produced a short blade in one hand and fire in the other. It was obvious he didn't intend to let us pass peacefully.
So I dismounted and drew my mace, and Esbern and I stepped into a fight we didn't want. My first move was to shout the elf to the ground, while Esbern's was to fortify his abilities and shield himself magically. The elf recovered from the shout and got to his feet. I was bashing him with my heavy shield while Esbern let him taste some serious magic. I felt that any moment we would overwhelm him.
But he was a tough elf, and a good fighter with strong magic of his own. Before I knew it he was getting the better of me, mostly with a searing flame that streamed from his fingers. Eventually I had to retreat, and thankfully Esbern stepped into draw his attention away from me or surely I would have died right there, smoking like a horker loaf over a campfire.
With Esbern handling the fight, I backed off and tried to recover from the magical beating I had just taken. Esbern and the dark elf went back and forth, showering each other with deadly magic, until finally Esbern fell to a knee. I didn't hesitate, and ran back into assist him. I shouted the elf to the ground again and proceeded to smash him with my shield and bludgeon him with my mace. Esbern recovered and rejoined the fight, and after some time we were finally able to end the fight for good.
After such a brutal battle I wanted nothing more than to find a bed and recover for a week, but it already past midday and it didn't feel like we had made much progress. I'm still not familiar with this part of Skyrim and wasn't planning to strand myself outside at night on the road.
But after traveling a bit farther I realized we were on the wrong road. We would have to retrace our steps back to Riften and head out again. We had to kill a thief and another pack of wolves before we finally arrived back at Riften. By now, though, it was closing in on evening. There was no point in heading out again.
So I sit here in the same tiny room I was in this morning when I wrote my previous entry. Frustrated. Tired. Hurting. Impatient. The morning cannot arrive soon enough.
