Tagged : Elmira | Words : | Notes : So I totally got a new template.

Should Coulson Pike have been explicitly thankful to the group of “noble” thieves that had gotten him out of a problematic situation involving a handful of Nord soldiers who had mistaken him for a Forsworn, he surely had an odd way of showing it. Cole was fine with their insistence that he travel along with them for the time being, even if he had to wonder what they planned to get out of his presence. The occasion of their meeting had happened two days before, and aside from a few too many personal questions, the thieves had proven to be a decent group…in theory. Really, they were all a bunch of horkers who could only claim that they were noble because they apparently had never killed a single human being. But they’d treated Cole fairly well, and the Breton felt compelled not to just up and leave them since they were at least trying to appear as good people. Cole even had a…semi-decent bowl of soup in his hand, that one of them had made them from out of their store of rations. Unfortunately for their standing with Cole, they weren’t making the best of impressions otherwise.

It was some hour or so before midnight, and a camp had been raised as it had the previous night. Unlike last night, though, the group was in close proximity to a town – being moderately near Dragon’s Bridge – and had apparently found them a few women passing through the town whom they could spend the night with. Ever since they’d brought the women into the camp, Cole hadn’t even turned to look at them, and by now he thought they’d all gotten to the real business of the night by now, as their laughing and flirting had ended and all he could now hear from them was the occasional guttural sound or peep from the thieves and their “guests” and the crackling of the fire that was before him. The camp – and the woods, so long as the fire didn’t die out – was his for the night and no longer. Cole was going to try to slip out of the camp and not have to apologize for leaving once the thieves had fallen asleep, as was his plan. He didn’t care for them to have any continuing insistence that he continue traveling with them that might turn them violent…and if that wasn’t a good enough reason for him to leave his benefactors high and dry…well…behind him was all the proof that Cole would ever need. They also all smelled pretty terrible, he’d already decided at length; he thought that was good enough reason to skip out on anyone and get back to business.

Whatever that business was. As Cole sat in his dimly lit little circle of the camp, a smartly-placed boulder as his seat as he “dined” on the moderately tasty combination of rations that he’d been provided, he wondered where he would even go when he left. When the incident with the aforementioned paranoid Nords to the south of Markarth had taken place, Cole had just been leaving the presence of a small mining group that he’d assisted with a few of his unique skills – not everyone in western Skyrim could go flinging streams of light around a dimly-lit cavern, after all, and they’d been willing to pay him fairly decently. Cole hadn’t come up with his next move before falling in with the thieves. It almost made staying with the thieves sound like a good idea…at least until a slightly disturbing noise coming from one of the pairs by the tents broke him from his reverie. Cole’s mouth twitched long enough to scowl before it fell back into a neutral position and his gaze remained on the flickering fire. Flickering-out fire, at that. Cole sat his bowl aside and reached over to grab one of the sticks that had been gathered for maintaining the fire. It was dropped in the fire mechanically, Cole never even bringing his eyes up. The slightest of sighs escaped his lips as he scraped his spoon through the last dregs of his soup, Cole figured his ideas for where to go next were at their last dregs, too. Was he becoming as bland as the rations in the soup?

Another sigh. "Already am...", he said to himself, barely audible. After all, Cole was sitting in a camp with a bunch of rent boys. That had to count for some level of irrelevance.

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #171818; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #171818 solid; border-bottom: 10px #171818 solid;] I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to Fly {WORDS } 903 {TAGGED } Cole!{WEARING} Armor Elmira was dead on her feet…or her horse. The day had certainly been a long one, busy from sunrise to sunset. She was eager to get to Solitude and actually appraise how much the dragon bone she held in her possession actually was worth. It had all started about two weeks before now. She had bumped into an old friend of hers while she had been about to search the ruins of Volunruud for a ceremonial sword. A sword that a wanderer from High Hrothgar had paid her a good sum for her to find. Perhaps it was worth more to sell than it was to travel all the way back to his location, but true to her word, Elmira had obtained and brought him his sword, asking no questions on why he wanted it or what he was going to use it for. She was comforted that it had actually been a Nord that now possessed it. Though she didn’t know where it was going to go from there, at that moment, someone that shared the same heritage as the sword had it. Perhaps she didn’t have the right to care, since the one paid to retrieve items from various caves, dungeons, and ruins usually shouldn’t ask questions. That time it had been hard not to. But that wasn’t where the story had been going. Her friend, Cyrus Sunglass, a man that confused her with his sharp tongue, but seemed supportive of the times they had shared campfires, had urged her to get the bone appraised to see how much it was worth. Elmira had nothing to lose in doing so, and had figured that to get an accurate price she should go to Solitude. They did have more money there than most places after all. And that was why she was currently where she was. Elmira hadn’t stopped earlier because she hadn’t found an appropriate place to set up camp. And had then come across the camp that she was now watching. Thieves no doubt. By the looks of the camp, that where the men were much more concentrated on the women they had with them than stealing anything, they wouldn’t try to steal the items in her saddlebags. It wasn’t that she didn’t think she could keep track of herself, no, nothing like that, but she had an aversion to people, especially in large groups that she had never met, and felt like simply fading back into the darkness and skirting around the group. Unfortunately, her biological drives had different ideas. Elmira was weary, and her stomach chose that moment to growl as if it were a lioness attacking its prey. So it was decided. She didn’t trust this group of fellow humans, but they might provide food she wouldn’t have to spend any time making herself, as well as a fire to warm herself by. Protection? Though they might be a protection from certain things, like saber-cats or the like, Elmira would rather tangle with the cat than a bunch of bandits. When it came right down to it though, she had no doubts that she could deal with them If need be, and she wanted some warm food right then. So it was settled. Sharply commanding her wolf so he knew not to attack anyone, Elmira nudged her mare with her heels and wound through the darkness and toward the camp, getting closer and closer. The first man she came across was stumbling through the camp, one of the women tucked under his arm. Though she didn’t dismount, he was forced to acknowledge her when he nearly stumbled into the shoulder of her mare. Steadying her mount with a firm hand, Elmira explained her desire for some food. He couldn’t seem to make any sort of sense out of the wolf, and stared at the greyish beast until Elmira once more patiently repeated herself. He was too drunk and lustful to bother giving her any sort of rejection, and simply motioned toward a fire where a lone figure rested, and directed her to ask him for some food. Nodding her appreciation, Elmira reined her mare to where they obviously tied mounts, before dismounting the mare. Because of her current location, Elmira didn’t dare to loosen her saddle or remove her bridle in case of the need for a quick retreat. Instead, she fed her mare a carrot she had in her saddlebags, whispered her apology at the saddle remaining on, and gave her one last pat. Her legs were stiff, but it only took a few steps to walk that off, before she moved with the silence and ease of one born to the wilderness. Her time as a huntress had caused her to be extremely quiet in her movements. And of course, the wolf made no noise while he pawed along at her heels. Though her voice was very soft while she came up from behind, Elmira figured the man should hear her. “Excuse me.”, she said lightly, her wolf flickering its ears toward her and then at the man, sitting there in front of the campfire, looking as if he was trying to glare some secret from the flickering flames. {NOTES} AWW YEAH

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by Kelly Clarkson

Tagged : Elmira | Words : 1022 | Notes : So I totally got a new template.

Cole’s eyes rested on the fire again, the dancing of the flames almost hypnotic as he again tried to perceive his next course of action. Obviously, he couldn’t afford to merely sit pat and wait out the thieves only because ideas weren’t rushing in through his ears. Cole supposed that…Solitude might be a welcome abode, considering how his past couple of months had only involved travels through the western end of Skyrim, and by rule, he didn’t visit Markarth all that much due to the same issue that had nearly gotten him killed before the thieves arrived. Images of the Forsworn were still too freshly imprinted on the minds of the Nord populace there, meaning Bretons got cold food and cold glares on most occasions. Cold…Cole’s soup was getting cold. Still doing his thoughtful staring into the fire and letting his body move methodically on its own, Cole dropped himself onto one knee in front of the soup pot and dipped out another full ladle that he nearly missed his bowl with. He returned to his perch just as methodically. So to Solitude...with the main problem being that he had to find some sort of work there that would pay off the expensive fees for rooming at Solitude inns. Cole could have talked himself out of traveling north and fronting those fees, but as he recalled the situation in which he sat, the money seemed very much worth the change in scenery.

At the very edge of his hearing, Cole could hear a voice spring up from the moderate quiet that had taken over the camp. A focus on the voice revealed a second voice – male and female. Cole payed them no more mind than that, figuring one of the thieves was rattling off some drunken dissertation to his female companion. Cole wished that he didn’t even have to hear an inkling of anything those lecherous duffers were having to say to the company they’d fooled into thinking that they were genuinely something special. A few stronger scrapes to get some escaping soup off of the edge of his bowl drowned out any trace of the conversation until Cole decided that the exchange had ceased. He foolishly paused long enough to ensure he was right, and once convinced, returned to his planning.

And there he would stay, again entranced enough by staring into the fire that his mind wandered freely to subjects that weren’t altogether worth thinking about. In truth, Cole realized that he was tired and probably should have spent this last night sleeping in the camp, but what with all of the thieves…all over their night’s assortment of women, he wouldn’t get any sleep in the tents either. It really was best that he-

Cole could have sworn that he heard the people speaking again, and against his better judgement, he looked over his shoulder to where he thought to have caught their voices in the first place. No…no, the area with the tents and the adjacent woods sat devoid of people in general. The tents were already witnessing the men’s appetites at the moment, and Cole surely didn’t want to accidentally catch any glimpses of that, so his gaze returned to his food as he went on about his eatin- wait. Something didn’t feel quite right. Cole didn’t count himself among the most spatially aware individuals in all of Skyrim, but Julianos knew that Cole felt like he was being…watched, as cliché as that might have sounded. His face belied his curiosity in finding out whether or not he was right as he slowly lifted his face from his bowl of soup, shoveling a spoonful into his mouth, and slowly scanned around him to search for-

He stopped with eyes widening, slowly removing the spoon from his mouth.

Clearly, Cole wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the young, blond, undoubtedly Nord woman who stood staring back at him from mere feet away. An immediate assessment of her features informed him that she was extremely attractive; that fact served as a warning even before he noticed that she seemed to be carrying weapons. Considering the company of his benefactors on the evening, Cole assumed at first that she could be another girl to show up from out of the town to provide the men of the camp company for the evening. Had no one gotten the memo that Cole didn’t…want any part of their little stress-relieving session? Cole had noticed the other women, though – none of them were carrying any sort of weapons whatsoever, save for a couple of them who had daggers on their belts. What primarily convinced Cole that this young woman, startlingly terrifying in the way she’d just appeared, was no random man-entertainer from the town was the creature that sniffed around her heels, causing Cole’s gaze to slowly and uncomfortably lower from her face down to the dog…no, wolf…at her feet.

Suddenly, he thought Talos would prove a little more effective in this situation than Julianos.

But Cole did finally manage to pry his gaze from the wolf and return it to the woman’s face, eyes still large as saucers. His brain fruitlessly searched for some sort of sensible few sentences that he could say to explain just how confused the situation had made him, but with thoughts screaming what is it she wants from me and why does she have a wolf and why is she standing there staring at me in a thieves’ camp, Cole couldn’t quite manage to develop anything particularly elaborate to say to her. Instead, he swallowed down the spoon of soup that he realized he’d forgotten, cleared his throught when it went down uncomfortably, and sat the bowl down. ”I- can I- do I need to help you with anything?” Obviously, Cole couldn’t consider his “greeting” to be his most cordial, sensible, or worthy of an admittedly very pretty woman, but he didn’t think, with his having thought the evening would consist of a bowl of soup, the company of the fire and wind, and an eventual stroll through the woods, that he could be blamed for any awkwardness regarding females who appeared from thin air.

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #171818; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #171818 solid; border-bottom: 10px #171818 solid;] I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to Fly {WORDS } 786 {TAGGED } Cole {WEARING} Armor Elmira hesitated a moment, waiting for this man to notice her attempt to gain his attention. Despite being hungry, tired, and extremely weary of the location she was at, the blonde was going to stay there until she either got a meal or until someone tried to pull something on her. That seemed highly likely with the company that the men had currently. Obviously robbing poor people blind might not be on their minds. That didn’t mean that she was out of any danger though. They might mistake her for one of their cheap company that they had right now. If so…she would take advantage of her horse already being saddled and ready to go. Every extra moment that she remained where she was, she felt more and more ready to cut and run even without her soup. But that would mean either going hungry or taking the time to hunt for her food – since she had run out the night before. After waiting what she thought was a proper time to allow him time to response, Elmira tried again, thinking he had just not heard her. “Excuse me?” Her voice was more forceful this time around, though still somewhat quiet. Though she wanted food, the blonde didn’t want to have to deal with anyone, especially some lone man. Come to think of it, why was he alone when it seemed like everyone else in the camp had a woman that was warming their furs? She didn’t have an answer for it, but once again noticed that he wasn’t responding to her. Shifting her weight between her different feet, she tried once again. “Excuse me!” This time her voice was more forceful as she tried to get his attention. Blast, he still wasn’t paying any attention. With a furrowed eyebrow, Elmira glanced down at her wolf, who was panting there at her feet, looking up at her with ready eyes. She wasn’t surprised that her wolf was at her feet. He could feel the tension in her from being around people, and was probably staying by her side to make sure that nothing bad happened to his master. Stroking his head lightly, she once more looked at the man, then glanced toward the soup. Was this man just sitting here to guard the food from people? It didn’t make any sense, and she was getting extremely sick of waiting around while he peered deeply into the fire and came up with some answers about life. Elmira just wanted one stupid bowl of soup! Was that a challenge? Obviously to this man. Clearing her throat loudly, Elmira tried once more. “Excuse me!” Even that didn’t seem to get his attention. Sharing an exasperated look back toward her wolf, Elmira shifted even closer, wondering then if he was deaf. Could he be deaf? Hard of hearing from some accident? Well…if that was the case, she was going to have to take some more extreme measures. Calculating the man, Elmira shifted closer, a hand raised. Okay, so…he must be deaf. She needed to get his attention, and twice now in just a few weeks she found herself wondering how one gained the attention of the opposite sex. It hadn’t gone so well for her back in Solitude with Mr. High and mighty love books man, but he’d at least helped her. This man might be more challenging if he was deaf. So she was going to have to smack him. That should get his attention. Elmira loomed right over him, hand raised to thwack him on the head, when he suddenly seemed to realize that she was there. Finally! Elmira slowly lowered her hand from where she had been going to slap him, nodding solemnly. “You’re not deaf?”, she questioned in confusion. Well why would someone deaf talk out loud if they weren’t going to understand? Shaking it off, Elmira found that she couldn’t quite look the man in the eyes. Despite her irritation at him, he was…attractive. That was just…she wasn’t quite sure how to deal with that yet, and so her eyes burned a hole in the soup pot. “Are you the soup guard?” Struggling with what to say for a moment, the blonde finally shifted nervously and gestured toward it. “I’d like to have some…” {NOTES} None!

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by Kelly Clarkson

Tagged : Elmira | Words : 711 | Notes : So I totally got a new template.

Cole felt pretty certain that he could get past the fact that a woman had materialized nearby him if it didn’t appear that she had opted to get as close to him as possible without essentially throwing herself around his shoulders. The notion that she could be another woman from the town come to take advantage of passing male company and the gold of that company persisted with her utter closeness to Cole’s previously oblivious circle of awareness. His broken question to the blond was founded in the idea that she could be wanting something from him, but again Cole noticed the presence of the wolf and the very hunter-like nature of her clothing – he wasn’t staring, no – and felt that if she had indeed arrived out here in these woods with plans to find her a strapping young man and…entertain him, no one had taught her what to bring along for such a base sort of thing.

And then she asked him if he was deaf.

Cole almost choked on the soup he’d swallowed, breaking loose into a couple of coughs before he turned his head away awkwardly to recover. Opening a conversation with a question about someone’s hearing ability was not something that the Breton had ever encountered in his life, so as his eyes settled on the face of the blond yet again, he felt as if he was almost being rude with the pained confusion written on his face. ”Am I d-? I’m- no, I’m not deaf,” Cole bumbled out, searching for help in the crackling fire as he stumbled along with it. A temptation to turn back and ask if the woman was deaf in return crossed his mind, but then he’d be asking as strange of a question as she had asked. Cole quickly beat back the idea, instead looking up at the woman only as an invitation for her to continue with…wherever their virgin conversation was supposedly heading.

He noticed that she wouldn’t exactly look at him straight-on, and so followed her eyes over to the fire where she seemed to be staring. By the time his gaze reached its destination, though, another question arrived that made Cole double back to the woman. ”What?”, came his sudden reaction to her mention of a “soup guard.” A few seconds of waiting for some kind of explanation of her rambling led to realization finally hitting Cole upside the head. Oh, she wanted the soup that was in front of him. ”Oh...right, hold on.” Popping to action, Cole sat his own bowl off to the side of his seat and shuffled over towards the stack of bowls under the lip of the small tent where the food had been prepared in the first place. Cole grabbed one and dropped down in front of the bowl of soup, motioning at his previous perch. ”You may as well take a seat.” As he dipped the last bit of the soup into the bowl, not quite managing to fill it, Cole again stole a glance at the woman. If he was to completely disregard any notions about the strangeness of her arrival, Cole could start to sculpt out an explanation for her appearance – she could be a woman passing through these parts, perhaps even a Stormcloak or someone else involved in the war, who happened to want some soup to keep her warmed and…decided to accost random, potentially dangerous men to get said soup. Of course, considering the wolf that still strode along near her, Cole supposed she had nothing to worry about from much of anyone with half the sense to avoid a scuffle with a wolf.

Once his work with the soup was done, Cole started to step his way back over to the woman with the bowl in hand before he remembered the wolf and stared at it anxiously, wavering in place. Anyone who knew Cole well – not many these days – knew that Cole and dangerous animals typically didn’t mix. Usually, he’d just as soon hit one with a paralysis spell as try to make friends with one. Considering he didn’t want to lose a leg, his eyes settled on his guest with a question. ”Your friend wouldn’t like to eat any human food tonight, would he?”

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #171818; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #171818 solid; border-bottom: 10px #171818 solid;] I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to Fly {WORDS } 789 {TAGGED } Cole {WEARING} Something! Despite keeping her eyes off the man, Elmira could pick up on his hesitancy to speak to her. Well good, she felt the same exact way. If he would just get over his being deaf and pay attention to her long enough for her to get some food and leave, she would be perfectly happy. A glance skittered back in his direction unfortunately made her realize that now rather than his not paying attention to her in the slightest, he was now staring at her like she had four heads. Quickly she dropped her gaze back, centering it on the food that she really wanted, and felt herself color with heat. Even now, she hated that idea of someone watching her, and wished that he could find something more interesting than her to stare at like he hadn’t ever seen a Nord before. Oh…so he wasn’t deaf. “I figured you couldn’t be when you spoke.”, she pointed out. Before that? She would have staked things on his being deaf. Man, what else could he have been when he was so blatantly ignoring her? Now she had to reassess that too… So he wasn’t deaf. It took him long enough to answer her. Brushing her armor with her fingers nervously, she glanced back at him once more, this time happy to see that he seemed to have taken an interest in the fire rather than just to stare at her. Whew, that was a relief. Almost instantly she relaxed a bit, her shoulders not so ridged. She was relaxed enough to ask if he was the soup guard, and if he would give her some. When he asked her what she had said, Elmira’s brows furrowed together slightly. It seemed like people were hell bent on repeating what she said half the time, and she was slightly perturbed that people couldn’t seem to understand her half the time. “Are you hard of hearing just a little bit?”, she questioned a second time, unable to really believe that he was completely fine with hearing. Maybe he had a bit of earwax build up. “I asked if you were the soup guard.”, she repeated. Though he didn’t answer that question, at least he seemed to actually realize what she wanted when she asked for some soup to eat. Her stomach’s gnawing helped to make her remember what she had ventured into this camp for. While the soup guard went to get her some, Elmira stood there awkwardly shifting between her two feet to distribute her weight, keeping her eyes away from his movements, though she turned back to keep track of him every once in a while. When he mentioned the seat, she eyed it wearily. “Alright.”, she finally agreed, before settling herself down on his previous seat and waiting for him to get her the food that she wanted. While she waited, she locked her hands over her knees and stared at them, rocking forward slightly. His footsteps alerted her to be able to look back up. Instantly she realized that he felt some apprehension, as she was used to people feeling that way when around her Storm. As if on cue, the wolf lowered its head and growled softly. “Sst.”, she hissed lightly to get him to stop, before shaking her head. “He does fine on what he can get during the day.”, she mentioned, her eyes peeled on the soup that he wasn’t bringing toward her. It had been a long day and she hadn’t stopped to eat any food. While she eyed it up, Elmira signaled her wolf to lay down, which he did almost instantly. Hopefully that was better and would get him to give her the soup, instead of standing there worried over a wolf. {NOTES} THE CONFUSION

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by Kelly Clarkson

Tagged : Elmira | Words : 622 | Notes : So I totally got a new template.

The gods must have required, someday long ago, that all of the genuinely attractive in Skyrim were required to be either dangerous or rather odd and worrisome. Taking the wolf and the fact that the woman seemed bound and determine to accuse Cole of deafness, she probably kept to both of those requirements. Cole would have explained to her that he heard what she said about his being a “soup guard” but hadn’t been prepared for her to bring up something about the soup from out of the blue, but instead he thought it best to simply fetch a bowl for her. Insulting her by attacking her with words, when Cole was starting to understand that the woman apparently didn’t want to say much in general considering her hesitation and tone, wouldn’t exactly encourage her to feel more at ease and let up on the entire “hard of hearing” deal she seemed so Oblivion-bent on pressing. Eventually, Cole fortunately convinced her to take a seat, though even that didn’t seem to comfort her totally. Perhaps once she had the soup, she’d start to act more like a…sensible human being. If Cole could get the soup to her without that wolf diving on him and eating both soup and living being…

Cole frowned deeply at the wolf as it took the mention of it as a cue to start making a fuss. And people wondered sometimes how a man couldn’t love animals particularly much. In all honesty, though, the woman’s odd hiss seemed even more terrifying. Cole had to admit that it probably seemed worse only because the night was already proving to be so confusing, but nonetheless he stared at her for a few moments to ensure that he was not the one being hissed at for some strange reason. No, no, th woman had hissed at the wolf. Cole returned his suspicious gaze to the wolf as his newfound company spoke. ”Oh…so he already got his fill of some other lonely man in a camp sometime today,” he said, lightly joking, doubting once he’d said it that the woman would actually find it funny at all. None of this meant that Cole felt comfortable enough to step forward to the woman with the wolf still waiting there to gnaw on him, and only once the woman commanded the wolf to sit did he again start forward and gingerly hand the bowl over to the woman.

Strategically, Cole placed himself back on the rock on the opposite side of the woman from the wolf, staring slightly past her to ensure that the beast didn’t make any sudden moves before Cole again reached for his own, now-cold bowl of soup between the two of them. He took in a spoonful, unsure of how to advance things beyond the two of them sitting there in a horribly painful silence while…the rest of the camp behind them performed their unappetizing work. Cole kept his gaze focused on the bowl in his hand as he spoke to her. ”I’ll answer to ‘soup guard,’ but Cole is my name,” he admitted, giving a light nod of his head. ”Though if you call me soup guard with no soup around, people will start to think you’ve lost your mind.” There was no harm to be found in attempting to make some pleasant conversation with a good-looking woman, was there? Well, yes, with the wolf in tow and her not seeming like a particularly…sociable person so far, he imagined all sorts of harm could be found. Nonetheless, Cole peered at her from the edge of his peripheral, casually letting the end of his spoon swim around in the very last dregs of his soup as he did so.

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #171818; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #171818 solid; border-bottom: 10px #171818 solid;] I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to Fly {WORDS } 802 {TAGGED } Cole{WEARING} Armor Storm eat people? Elmira furrowed her brow while she took the soup that he handed to her. Pondering a moment at his words, she finally shook her head and shifted in her seat. “Storm didn’t eat any lonely man…today.”, she finished, remembering that one time he had attacked a man sitting at a campfire. In the wolf’s defense, he had been a threatening character. While she concentrated on the first real meal she’d had that day, she continued to talk on that subject, wondering why he was so concerned about the diet of her wolf. “Storm usually only attacks humans when I tell him to. Aside from that, he usually just attacks things like rabbits or the like. I suppose if he got hungry enough he would try for a man.” Somehow she thought that would be comforting to the odd man she had stumbled across. And he really was odd. Once more he had ignored her question about his seemingly being hard of hearing. That just made her think more that he was such. Why else would someone ignore a direct question? Not that she really cared if this man was hard of hearing or not. If so, it was no real wonder that he traveled with a group. If you couldn’t hear, how were you supposed to figure out if anyone was stalking up behind you or not? It would be nearly impossible, not only to hear them, but to stay alive through that. She had to hand it to him for being this old if he did have trouble in that area. But…that was his life to live, not hers. So she just busied herself with her meal and tried to ignore the sounds of the camp surrounding her. She didn’t like being here…didn’t like it at all. No, Elmira would rather be out in the wilds in a small camp of her own than surrounded by men that only seemed to have their minds on one thing. The one thing she wasn’t going to be giving anyone anything of. Wait… Was that what this man was looking for as well? Pausing mid-bite, Elmira narrowed her blue eyes and stared at him for a good few seconds, as if trying to tap into his brain. If he was just looking for…that, he could just go fall off a cliff. At least he hadn’t attempted anything yet, she could give him credit for that anyway. And seemed…despite being slightly odd, somewhat nice anyway. So maybe he was an alright guy. If he did try anything, after all, she could not only sick Storm on him, but have her own weapons out on a moment’s notice. Cole, that was a nice name. “Elmira.”, she returned softly, shifting in place to cover her spurt of shyness. Even now just talking to people that she didn’t know was hard for the blonde. Very hard for her. And despite his odd-ness with the hearing and the obsession with Storm’s diet, he was an attractive person. Not that she was noticing of course. Not really wanting to bring it up, but also wanting to know if she had to be worried that he was going to jump her at some random time, Elmira swallowed a bite of her meal and glanced up to look at him directly. “How come you aren’t…otherwise occupied, like your friends?” Along with the question, Elmira was sure that she had bright red creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks. She was hoping that the fire would cover that as just the heat. She didn’t really want to know about his life in that regard…at all, but if she was going to have to fear for her safety, she wanted to know instantly, instead of later on. Unless he was-…well, she just wouldn’t think about it and eat her soup. That was obviously the best option here. With that thought in mind, she once more lifted the spoon to her lips and took a bite. {NOTES} Icky post

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by Kelly Clarkson

Tagged : Elmira | Words : 644 | Notes : So I totally got a new template.

”Mmm…hmm.”

The lack of apparent humor in the woman’s expression and voice when she specified that the wolf – Storm, apparently – hadn’t eaten a human within the last day justified Cole’s worries. After satisfying himself, through studying her face, that she wasn’t making any jokes, another worried stare was sent the wolf’s way. Her continued explanation also didn’t go very far to reassure Cole that the night wouldn’t find him a fleshless stack of bones lying in the grass. ”Are you sure he doesn’t want some soup, then?”, Cole rhetorically asked, planning on making sure the wolf didn’t reach the “man-eating” point of hunger that the blond spoke of. Then again, Cole didn’t care to waste perfectly good soup on a wolf that probably ate…raw, bloodied animals on a daily basis. Whatever freed Cole from having the wolf turn him into a raw, bloodied animal was well worth the trouble, though. Nonetheless, Cole tried to resume his focus on his eating and attempting to get something that sounded like conversation going with his guest.

Okay, good, she answered with a name and…shifted in her seat, leading Cole to cut his gaze to her waist for a few seconds before returning attention to his soup. To avoid making her even more uncomfortable, he only imagined her features again instead of looking into her face as a way to figure out if the name matched the appearance. He settled it in his mind that Elmira did seem to work, since he was obviously the best judge of these things, being a part of the race that tried to make the sounds that formed their names as complicated as possible. As he still believed her to be Nord, Cole applauded Elmira’s parents for giving her a name that didn’t make one sound as if he was yodeling when saying it aloud. A slight temptation to quietly yodel the name struck him and caused him to pause, but Cole decided that finishing his soup was a better way to spend his life’s next few moments. He was slightly disappointed to see the bowl empty, even as bland as its contents had been. Cole leaned forward to drop it somewhere in the general vicinity of the fire to let someone not named Cole clean up. Elmira spoke up again-

…What had she asked?

His arm was left hanging, extended before him, as his focus diverted solely to her face to again study it and see if she was joking or serious. Oh gods. The question had been serious. His eyebrow shot up. Now, her reasoning behind the question could have consisted of two entirely different things. One could be that Elmira was appalled by the goings on in the rest of the camp and simply wanted to assure herself that Cole didn’t care to participate in such…actions. The other…well, maybe if it was the other possibility, Cole’s first impression of whom she could be hadn’t been all that far from the truth. Swallowing heavily, he choked on a word before making a quick recovery and averting his gaze to the back of the camp, away from the eyes looking back at him. ”Uhum…I wouldn’t exactly call them friends…” Okay, that was avoiding the question. Cole took in a deep, stalling breath. ”I’m not the type…I mean…I wouldn’t…take a woman into camp in that way…for that.” He gestured in the general direction of the…”natural” scene going on somewhere behind them, before his eyes settled on her again, and for whatever reason, his mouth decided it should keep moving. ”I- don’t mean I’m against…men and women having…relations or anything, but I wouldn’t…go get them and bring them back here for...” His shrug and turn to the ground at their feet finished the sentence well enough for the situation. Now Cole had to…wait to see what Elmira planned to say as a follow-up.

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #171818; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #171818 solid; border-bottom: 10px #171818 solid;] I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to Fly {WORDS } 765 {TAGGED } Cole! {WEARING} Armor By now Elmira was just getting exasperated. Why should her wolf – trained to look out for himself when it came to food, need any soup? Did wolves or dogs even eat soup? For all she knew, they would just turn their noses. Though…one never knew, because it sure seemed like if they were hungry enough they would eat anything that they needed in order to stay alive. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that Storm didn’t need to eat any soup. For some reason Elmira really couldn’t quite get over that this Cole fellow seemed quite so intrigued by what Storm decided he wanted to eat. As long as it didn’t have the local authorities chasing them down, Elmira didn’t really care either way, so why did he seem so all fired concerned about it? “No, he should be okay.”, she repeated as she eyed up the soup guard. Maybe he was afraid that Storm was going to get into the soup? To ease his fears of that happening, Elmira tried to smooth things over. “He won’t be getting into the soup pot, if you’re concerned about that.” Curiosity – and the desire to know if she was safe, led Elmira to ask a question she really didn’t want to know about. What he did with his life in regard to women had nothing to do with her and she would rather take a tumble off a small cliff than ask him about it. Unfortunately for her, Elmira couldn’t be sure she was near any safety without asking about it. For that reason and that reason alone she went out on a limb and actually forced herself to ask about his personal life. She didn’t want to, and even then could feel the heat working its way up the back of her neck and creeping onto her cheeks. Sometimes she just wished she could crawl into a hole and hide there. But she couldn’t. After she asked that, Elmira’s eyes locked on her bowl of soup once more, waiting for his response to try and come up with the next possible course of action. Which was either to remain here at the fire with him or leave, the fire as well as the camp. While she waited, Elmira remained tense in her makeshift seat. The first part of his answer made her start to relax. “You’re staying in the camp with people that aren’t your friends?” She had asked the question in sincere curiosity, but remembered after she had that she was doing the same thing herself. Flicking her eyes up, Elmira hesitantly looked at him for a few seconds before dropping it down and once more concentrating on her lap while he stumbled through what he was trying to say. When he finished her shoulders slumped in relief. It wasn’t that she didn’t think she could fend off any advances, but it was always better not to have to deal with something like that. “Thank you.”, she managed to get out with, before she gulped and shifted her feet around on the ground. “I had to, uh…make sure.” The silence that lapsed was somewhat awkward. Perhaps Elmira had overstepped that invisible boundary that had been set up, or was set up regularly between those that didn’t know the other person. In fact, there was probably a good chance of that. Should she say something else to break that silence? Nibbling on her lower lip, Elmira finally took another bite to try and distract herself. Ultimately though – which only really took a few seconds – she decided to say something to try and get a conversation going again. Unfortunately for her, she had never been very good at that particular skill. Without thinking, she blurted out the first thing she thought of. “What made you get involved with these people?” {NOTES}

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by maroon 5

Tagged : Elmira | Words : 814 | Notes : So I totally got a new template.

Elmira’s companionship with the wolf must have been what was causing her inability to understand that Cole didn’t care what the wolf did with the soup (not that there was any left for even the smallest of animals), but what the wolf would do if it got hungry enough. Thus, Cole would much rather the wolf eat whatever remained in the pot rather than Cole’s own leg or shoulder or other…body part that he didn’t feel like losing tonight. The Breton knew when to digress, though, and taking Elmira’s comments as a cue for him to shut up since she wasn’t going to understand that his whole goal was to do all that he could to avoid having sharp wolf teeth boring into his flesh, Cole returned his concerns to his own food and to wondering that, if wolves had thumbs and were more civilized, whether or not they’d cook human beings in soup before eating them. Sadly, Cole would need to ask a werewolf that question, and Cole had long before decided that if he never met a werewolf over the course of his life, he could probably die very happily.

He could have also died happily without Elmira making their conversation highly awkward. For a few seconds, Cole was starting to wonder if they wouldn’t have their meal together rather peacefully, or as peacefully as two complete strangers who had met in a random camp could manage. He supposed that the question was merited, especially if she wasn’t asking to…to…secure Cole for…nighttime entertainment. Cole figured if he was a woman and he’d ended up in a camp with a bunch of men – and he was using the term loosely – draped over every woman, both alluring and…the opposite, he might have to ask the one unattached man what it was he was supposedly doing in sitting around by himself and choking down soup. As he looked back into Elmira’s face finally, he could tell that she seemed more embarrassed by the question than Cole did. This girl…woman…whatever…was such a strange one, but Cole still felt totally compelled to explain his reasoning behind his…isolation from the rest of the camp, not wanting her to think he was some sort of wild dog in heat like the rest of them…not counting the wolf.

”They’re...acquaintances,” he poorly explained, after she’d asked about his mentioning that they weren’t friends. ”The types I would avoid if the last few days had gone a little differently.” The Breton did hope that the conversation could end with his…very…very clear explanation of his feelings on the activities going on in the rest of the camp, but Elmira’s thanks to him brought his eyes up from their feet and back to her face, again trying to see if she was sincere or only joking about it. She was thanking him…for not being a lecherous bastard with no sense of respect for the better looking gender? Maybe thanking him for not having dived on her as soon as she’d entered the camp? Either way, Cole swallowed heavily, still studying her profile, and gave her a fairly genuine, if subtle, ”You’re welcome.” There was something oddly appealing going on with this young Nord, but…

How was silence so apt at picking the perfect times to creep their way into human interaction?

Cole stopped expecting Elmira to say anything further, considering how sheepish she had looked and sounded before, so he worked to avoid looking at her with as much focus as she seemed to be avoiding looking to him. It was probably wise to let her eat her soup and, assuming she didn’t want to stay in a camp with these men a few steps away, leave to go back to whatever had brought her to him in the first place. He clasped his hands one over the other, starting to slowly become entranced yet again by the fire before Elmira asked him another question. Cole peered at her, shifting in his seat to pick up a small chunk of wood at his feet and fling it at the fire. ”A bunch of crazy Nords – no offense – thought I was a Forsworn just because I set foot in Markarth long enough to pick up some food. So after a lot of swinging and stabbing and threatening, the charmers behind us showed up and made sure I wasn’t burned alive or beheaded or something else that usually ends in death. Sure, I would have loved to run off and forget the whole thing happened, but…" He leaned in to whisper at her ear. "I’m sure you know how thieves are about returning favors.” The answer was, as he assumed Elmira would know, not particularly willing to let those favors pass to the wayside.

Cole felt compelled to keep this normal chat going. ”What about you? Do you show up in camps asking for soup every day?”

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #171818; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #171818 solid; border-bottom: 10px #171818 solid;] I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to Fly {WORDS } 907{TAGGED } Cole {WEARING} Her armor Though he’d explained his reasons for what he was doing by the campfire all alone and his position as to what the rest of the men of the camp were doing, Elmira couldn’t quite trust him yet. He seemed…good, someone that was respectful, but one never knew about people. They were often false in their own selves, and she had been cautious of vipers for years. Ever since her parents had been killed, any part of her that actually trusted the society around her or the people in it had died as well. And thus the caution when it came to this man. If she would be sharing the same fire and food with a stranger, she felt the right to know at least this about him. Then again, even she could feel how awkward the air had become and almost regretted asking such a personal question. After all, it wasn’t like she really should have asked him what she had. But it was too late now, she refused to try to back pedal. At least he answered her, even if for quite a bit of time he had been staring at her as if she had horns sprouting from her head. Elmira had tried to ignore his staring at her in such a fashion, and hidden her embarrassment over close scrutiny by shifting around on her makeshift seat. She let out her breath slowly when he turned his attention away from her. At that moment she turned her gaze on him to study him while his attention was turned to something else. Despite having studied him before, she found herself going over the finer details on his features and wondering more about him. Why, she couldn’t quite place a finger on. Nonetheless, his explanation of his ‘friends’ did seem to go together, and she couldn’t find anything wrong with his story. “I see.” It was a simple comment, but Elmira thought it would do as a response, before she very quietly thanked him for explaining to her about himself and his motives. Though he did seem somewhat surprised by that, she heard the quiet response and nodded to show she had heard him. After that they seemed to have a mutual desire for a moment of silence. At least this time it felt slightly less awkward than it had moments before. She could live with this anyway. Still, she couldn’t quite dull her curiosity, and found herself glancing at him subtly from the corners of her eyes while she finished up the meal that had been in her bowl. He seemed to be deep in thought while he stared at the fire. She kept her own gaze away from directly doing the same. The last thing she wanted to do was dull her eyesight by becoming ‘blind’ from the fire. She’d officially become paranoid. Whatever made her speak up again she wasn’t sure, but she was glad to break the silence – and equally as glad for him to do the talking and her do the listening. Life was normally easier if that was the case. Her lips curled up in a smile when he excused the quip on crazy nords, and Elmira waved it off with her hand in a slight motion. She would know that Nords could indeed be a bit…zealous about life. The smile was cut off and the apprehension returned when he leaned in to whisper about thieves. It was particularly hard to function when you were talking to a strange attractive man, and immediately she glanced around to see if anyone else was around, before lowering her voice to answer as well. “I do.” She’d met her fair share of thieves in the years as a huntress, and while she’d never thrown in with them and tended to avoid being with them too much, it didn’t take time to realize they wanted repayment for anything they deemed as a favor. Though she did feel somewhat inadequate when the conversation was turned toward her, Elmira bolstered up her courage and shook her head. She did get the fact that he was teasing her about the soup…it was a joke, right? She smiled while she looked down at her bowl of food and shrugged a shoulder. “No, not really. I tend to stay away from most camps if I can, especially one with…the going on’s of this one. I didn’t get a chance to get the meat to make a meal today though, so I was hungry.” She wasn’t sure if she should admit it or not, but she figured she would attempt it anyway. “I’m really in search of a faction called the Blades, have you heard of them?” {NOTES} Nooooneeee

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by Kelly Clarkson

Tagged : Elmira | Words : 1008 | Notes : WE ARE BACK IN ACTION.

To his surprise, Cole finally earned himself a smile!- to something that something wasn’t quite joke material, but he would take what he could get at this point, considering it had seemed to him before as if Elmira was one of…those people, like servants of the divines, who never smiled or did anything to indicate they were much more than a dwemer automaton. And, actually, Cole was also glad that she didn’t take the comment about the Nords like some overly prideful sons of Skyrim might and proceed to throw him in the fire for it. Letting his own lightly amused look form on his face as he continued, he thought he just might make a comfortable conversation out of Elmira’s appearance if he kept trying, though he thought he’d worried her to the point of nervousness when he decided to whisper to her about the thieves. He scrunched up his nose and half-shrugged a shoulder at her expression of worry as a way to tell her not to get her underclothes in a knot…and all the same, tried not to think overmuch about underclothes with a woman sitting right beside him. His eyelids fluttered a few times with the thought, but he nimbly recovered. ”They’re all so far…into their business, I wouldn’t worry about them,” he told her, remaining quiet as he shifted his gaze from her to the back of the camp just in time for another moan that made him cringe deeply as if he himself was embarrassed by it. A sigh broke the cringe. ”I was...thinking I’d get out of camp once they really settled down with their…company. I don’t know how settled they are, but they’re…well, they’re down one way or another.” Well, he’d managed to fail in keeping awkwardness out of the conversation, but he only gave Elmira a rather sickened look before his eyes returned to the one place of focus that was comforting him – the ground at their feet.

Cole did have a way, he thought, to get the conversation back off the certain, face-reddening theme by asking Elmira about her typical comings and goings. She’d made it pretty clear that she wasn’t in camp to…indulge herself, so he assumed that the answer she was hopefully going to give him wouldn’t end up completely ruining his plans for avoiding talk of the “work” of the camp’s other occupants, especially once she seemed to catch his joke about the soup and smile again. Cole, against his better judgment, was compelled to take note that when Elimra actually bothered to form a smile, that smile was nice enough to make a follower of Dibella proud, for what they were worth.

He leaned forward to rest his elbows against his legs as she explained herself, thinking for a second that he would curse into Oblivion whoever had first made his people so short compared to even Nord women. For a few seconds, with her being a Nord in mind, he wondered if she wasn’t a Stormcloak scout, perhaps, or someone of the like, but she didn’t seem to indicate as much. A Nord who wasn’t going all nuts about the war and spouting out “Hail Ulfric!” every few seconds? Cole counted himself very lucky, and counted her explanation as perfectly reasonable. So reasonable that he leaned forward towards the pot again, hoping to scoop her up what remained in the bottom and let her have it, since he could not have cared less if any of the rest got hungry while they were…performing their best Molag Bal impression, without the creepy portion.

Cole had just gotten the ladle in his hand when Elmira dropped a name that he had not been expecting to hear said aloud. Promptly, along with a slight jerk of his head to look back to the blond woman, Cole dropped the ladle and left it to clank against the rocks surrounding the little cooking pit they’d made. His focus was on Elmira, and on the incredulous look he was giving her. ”The Blades?”, Cole rhetorically asked her, his voice fading as he said it as if there was some Thalmor waiting behind a tree to slaughter him for even speaking the word. Considering what Cole knew of Thalmor activities, it wasn’t so farfetched.

He managed to gather his own attention long enough to slowly remove his gaze from the Nord and to try finding a position where he wouldn’t feel as if he was going to fall over, perching beside the fire. Once there, the gaze returned. ”You’re going to be searching for a long time, then.” Cole fetched the ladle again, suddenly remembering how to dip out the soup and laughing quietly, with no amusement. ”The Imperials’ elf friends brought all their heads to court. And the ones they didn’t, the Imperials themselves sent packing to the ends of Tamrial, probably to have their heads removed too.” If Cole knew anything, he knew his history, and he knew the Blades were all fussy about the Thalmor coming after a Dragonborn who could be the next in the line of extremely powerful emperors. And the Thalmor were so fussy in return that they’d pretty much started a war to see the Blades eradicated. With the Thalmor plastered all over Skyrim, Cole doubted that any of them had slipped through the Thalmor’s fingers, especially not with the Imperials kissing Altmer feet.

But the point wasn’t that there might be any of them still around – the point was that going after them was utter lunacy. His eyes settled with concern on Elmira. ”To warn you, I wouldn’t go lightly dropping the word ‘Blades’ around anywhere… You might end up stretched end to end on a torture rack with some pointy-eared bastard trying to make you a little taller.” He dropped the soup into the bowl once he had it all scooped up, standing to hand it to her. ”Unless you’re Dragonborn…then…by all means, carry on,” he tacked on at the end, slightly sarcastically, before he sat down again at her side.

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #171818; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #171818 solid; border-bottom: 10px #171818 solid;] I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to Fly {WORDS } 912 {TAGGED } Cole {WEARING} Fur armor Somehow nothing that was being said helped to ease her discomfort. While a bit of it was appeased by a few things he said, unfortunately it woke up different strains of awkward, so she was left to fiddle with the spoon and bowl that she had in her hands no matter what the situation was. Talking about anyone about…what happened between a man and a woman was awkward enough, but unfortunately for her, this was a very attractive man that she was talking to. She had done that too few times in her life to feel any comfort whatsoever, and this subject happened to be one that was even worse for her to have to talk about than most. So she found herself yet again shifting around in her seat and try to not let her imagination wander. Thankfully she could do that, and instead caught the look Cole gave her and studied him when his gaze went back to the ground. Funny, how as soon as his gaze was off her, it seemed as if the tension around her shoulders relaxed a bit instantly. Perhaps this was what it felt to be around attractive men, or maybe it was just more of her lack of social confidence. Shaking her head slightly side to side, Elmira focused on a few parts of what he’d said. “I was only going to get some food and then go.” With that, she twisted in her seat to get a clear vision of where she had tied her mare up. It was in relief that she noticed her dapple was still tied where she had placed her. Despite thinking that these men were much too occupied to do anything to her mount, she didn’t trust any of them not to try and take her mare if they wanted to. The less time she spent around people like this, the better. Another reason for her shifting on her seat. Still, he did manage to get a smile out of her soon enough, and while she didn’t meet his gaze for very long, the smile stayed up on her lips for a bit. Despite her shyness, she did also want to ask about the Blades. He seemed like a knowledgeable enough man, so maybe he could actually help her with this. She needed the help too, since she hadn’t seemed to be getting much information trying to search for them by herself. She supposed when it came right down to it, she had no idea where to even start looking for the Blades. From what he said though, she figured that he would know something about them. With eager ears she turned to give him her full attention. The bit of disappointed flare she felt was quickly repressed in favor of actually listening to what else he might have to say, hopefully with better news than what he had first said. Unfortunately he didn’t have any better news, and so she was left sitting there clutching her soup bowl and thinking about what he said in despair. How was she ever going to find the Blades? And did they even exist at all anymore? She had hoped that she would find them, or at least a part of them, if she had really settled down to look. Now she wasn’t so sure though. It seemed like they were really long gone. With a sound of disgust deep within her throat, Elmira shifted forward and took the bowl while she thought about what he had said. “There isn’t any chance that any of them survived and regrouped?” Somehow this information really bothered her. She had wanted to find the Blades for some time now, and while it hadn’t been going so well, she still had a strong desire to do so. His warning did reach her mind though, and while she took another bite of the warm food she thought about it a bit deeper. “I won’t.”, she promised. Despite realizing that the Thalmor didn’t like the faction called the Blades, Elmira hadn’t quite made the connection that it would be so bad for her if anyone did hear that she had been asking for them. “The Thalmor need to be driven out of Skyrim.”, she said as an afterthought, a disgruntled look on her face. Despite remaining neutral in the war, there was definitely no love for the Thalmor or the Imperial army for siding with them. His question about being the dragonborn surprised her for a moment, and she blinked while holding her filled spoon halfway to her lips. Slowly lowering it back to her bowl, Elmira furrowed her brows. “Maybe I am, and I just don’t know it yet.”, she stated, half in serious and half in jest. She didn’t think she was the dragonborn, but then again, how did anyone know they were the dragonborn? {NOTES} I never pass up an opportunity to quote Skyrim

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by Kelly Clarkson

Tagged : Elmira | Words : 946 | Notes : The jokester, missing the jokes.

”That’s a good plan,” Cole replied, genuinely, as he contorted an eyebrow and thought about it. ”Take their food and leave as soon as possible. Steal from the thieves…” There was absolutely nothing interesting about the point he was making; Cole simply wanted to keep non-awkward conversations afloat for as long as was possible. And he supposed it was indeed a great irony that the thieves were basically having the food they made choked down by a couple of people who weren’t going to contribute anything further to any of them. Cole had been the victim of thieves on a pair of occasions, so perhaps he carried some pent-up desire for revenge (that had certainly been well-concealed, considering he’d never noticed it before) and needed the chance to see this rare group of friendlier thieves punished for the transgressions of some completely unrelated criminal. Or, as was probably the case, Cole was sitting beside a credit to Dibella herself and simply wanted to let his mouth stop his eyes and mind from working in tandem to come up with all sorts of wild, awkward ideas. He figured his words were probably born of some combination of the two explanations, especially since neither of them made especially much sense.

As it seemed, though, Cole was not the only one in the business of bringing up subjects that really seemed to come from out of Skyrim’s whipping winds. With regards to Elmira’s subject – the Blades – she was lucky she hadn’t spoken so bluntly to someone who actually cared about the whole Thalmor-against-Blades dynamic. Still, he was taken aback by her even mentioning it. Cole was a Breton, and thus his views on the whole war, the Thalmor, and Nord concerns typically fell into neutral territory; if he ever made commentary on any of those subjects, he did so to explain how each side was mostly composed of fools, with only a few actually knowing what they were fighting for. As for the Blades, though, Cole had never needed to make any commentary. How often did a long-since-disbanded group of Imperial guards who only dealt with matters involving the dragonborn come up in a typical conversation? Never was the answer. For Elmira to bring them up at all had to mean that she had some sort of vested interest, and if she had a vested interest in the Blades, she was probably trouble on two feet.

Still, knowing that she could be such trouble didn’t stop Cole from sitting back down beside her, or continuing to answer her questions. He glanced between her face, still trying to gauge her seriousness, and the renewed supply of soup that she held in her hands. She seemed completely frustrated by the information that he was giving her, and though he wanted to ask why a woman who seemed relatively young and relatively average for a Nord would be concerned about the Blades, he held his tongue for the time being, knowing he had to continue poisoning her mead with his answers. ”Survived? Possibly. From what I heard, most of them who weren’t stepping on Thalmor gowns managed to escape. Regrouped?” Naturally the question was rhetorical, but Cole paused long enough to figure out how he was going to explain the situation to Elmira. ”If there are any Blades still alive, the likelihood that they were able to get reorganized or wanted to reorganize and risk having the Thalmor after them are…small, if none of them are suffering from brain rot. They would only survive on their own, and since they were all…I don’t know, secretive agents, I would think they could all figure that out.” He gave an apologetic shrug, because judging by Elmira’s first reaction, he wasn’t telling her what she wanted to hear. Why she would care either way had him completely at a loss, leaving him to have to study her again to figure out what brought on such talk.

The laughs he managed once she spoke of the Thalmor came out devoid of humor. Oh, so she was one of those typical Nords. Cole wasn’t judging her – he knew that the Thalmor were a bunch of narcissistic, elvish offspring of trolls who needed to have someone yank their heads out of their own asses – but Nords tended to have a more…vocal opinion of the Thalmor that got them all into trouble and simply made things worse for Skyrim. ”I’m sure the Thalmor would love to hear you say that, too,” came his answer, as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

He noticed her pause when he made the aside about her being the dragonborn. Cole’s gaze turned to regard her with her spoon hovering in the air between the bowl and her mouth, and he was sure his eyebrows knit deeper and deeper the longer he waited for an answer. Or for a shout, as it were. The worst part of his interaction with this woman before him was that he could not for the life of him tell whether she’d simply taken his words too seriously, whether she was as being serious herself, or whether she was joking and she simply had immense control over her features to conceal the joke. He blinked a few times at her, incredulous before he’d slowly come to the realization that it didn’t matter whether or not she was joking anyway. His head slowly turned back to face the fire, as he tried to return his focus to the questions that he’d wanted to ask her before. ”What’s with your interest in the Blades, then? You want them to run the Thalmor into the Sea of Ghosts?”