Once we were back in Riften, Ash bought a house, he would have rented it, but it was cheaper to buy. He also bought just about a full shipment of paper and ink. He started writing to various different Priories asking for some Knights to be sent to Whiterun Priory.
I spent a day reading all the journals and letters that we had found in Forelhost. I bought a journal and started writing my findings about Dragons and Dragon Priests. At some point, we would have to track them all down and make sure they stayed in their crypts.
The one thing that did stand out, aside from the tragedy of them killing their own children, is that they expected dragons to return. They expected Alduin to come back and bring them back to life. To them, it was a certainty, which did not really bode well.
Ash was well into writing and didn't even lift his head when I put food down on the table. I told him I was going skinny dipping in the lake right outside town and he just said have fun. I'm sure sometime tonight he will run out to the lake and try and find me.
So instead of giving him a complete heart attack, I left a note on the lamp post on our back deck saying that I would be at the Bee and Barb. And just to see if he really was paying attention, I put on the same corset outfit, that he had already threatened to burn and asked him if he liked my new outfit.
I sighed at the grunt I got and picked up my lute, heading out to see if the wizard was any good with his hands. One way or the other, I planned on having some fun... and a couple too many drinks!
I woke the next morning with a mussy head and an upset stomach. I got up and grabbed a piece of bread and tore off a chunk. That helped to settle my stomach, I grabbed a healing potion and downed it. My head cleared up, but I still felt, stale I guess is the best way to put it, so I grabbed some soap-sand and two towels and walked out the back door.
The Water felt cool to my skin when I jumped in, but I needed the shock of it to completely wake up and lose the rest of the mussy head. I swam for a good long time floating in the middle of the lake watching the star's wheel across the sky. When I decided I was wrinkled enough I swam over near the boat tied to our dock and washed my hair and the rest of me.
I tossed the cloth up onto the railing and then swam around to the steps where I had left my towel. I looked around and saw no one, so slowly got out of the water wrapped the towel around me, and used the second one on my hair.
It wasn't until I got to the top of the steps and turned towards the door, that I saw Ash sitting in the shadow at the table. I stopped and glared at him.
"Geeze Ash, learn to whistle or something!"
"Why, would you have stayed in the water longer if you had known I was here?" I heard the amusement in his voice.
"ah, no, but it might save you a little pain when you startle the crap out of me and I throw a spell at you." I grumbled under my breath, " You know if it wasn't for the fact that you changed my nappies, I'd think you were a pervert the way you are always around when I take a bath." He tipped his head sideways slightly and narrowed his eyes.
"How many daggers do you have on you right now?" I stuck my tongue out at him.
"None, but I can caste more than you can carry." He inclined his head.
"And what about the Argonian that was fishing this morning? Could you have caste a spell at her, under the water, as she was pulling you into the deep?" I did not let my surprise show or at least I did not think I had, but he nodded anyway.
"That is why I watch and that is why if you are going swimming you need to have a dagger strapped to your leg and learn a spell that lets you breathe underwater." I shivered and headed towards the door, Ash got up and followed me.
I tucked my bath towel in better then grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the fireplace. I sat sideways to it and started rubbing my hair to dry it, then tried to pull a comb through it. Ash watched me for a while but then got up with a sigh and grabbed the comb out of my hand.
"You're putting in more knots than you're taking out." he bunched up my hair and started combing from the bottom, teasing out all the knots.
" I ought to just cut it all short." I should, but my hair had always been long, Ash had always brushed it out when I was young. He grunted and made another non-committal sound.
"It's your hair and you are old enough to decide what you want to do with it. I have a knife or a pair of shears whenever you decide." He kept at my hair until it was dry, braided it, and then went back and sat at the table, picking up a bowl of stewed apples.
I got up to go put a robe on and came back and fixed myself a bowl of the stewed apples, but put some cream and a bit of spice over the top. I sat at the table and we ate in silence.
"Ash...Why you?". He looked up from the last of his breakfast and chewed slowly.
"Because I was there." I blinked a few times and tried to sort that out, I knew that would be the short answer and the truth, but it could not be all of it.
"Just because you were there? No other reason? You weren't the best man for the job.. the most skilled, you got my guardianship simply because.. you were there?"
His lips thinned to a tight line and I could see the far away look in his eyes. He rolled his shoulders and tipped his head to one side quickly and I could hear the joints popping.
"No, not that simple. I was sent to the Priory you ... no, hummmp. Do you remember anything of the Priory in High-Rock?" When I shook my head he lifted one shoulder and dropped it. " Well not really much chance, you were a toddler when I got there. While I did help bath and dress you, you were already out of *nappies*, when I got there." He pulled out the thin-bladed knife he carried and reached over his shoulder to the shelve grabbed a small piece of wood he was carving."
"The Priory was run by two old Knights and an even older Priest. I and two others were sent there to help out and in time, perhaps take over. I was newly a Knight, just two years, but had already fought many Deadra and other things at the Orders bidding." His smile was lopsided as the scars on his face pulled in odd angles.
"You had been brought to the Priory by a woman, the Priest said she was *otherworldly* they were told to care for you, as you were our Father's Daughter. It did not take them long to figure what was meant, not when you conjured tiny dragons made of fire, that talked to you in another language." He turned the wood in his hands and started whittling from another direction.
"Not long after I and the other Knight got there some Deadra attacked the Priory and the Priest decided to bind your powers, for a time, they were drawing things that you could not handle." I looked at the scars that crossed his nose, cheek, and eyelid, four long scars made by a Winged Twilight that he had found standing over my bed. I did not remember, but still, it caused me to tremble, that was the first time Ash had saved my life and he had been doing so since.
"The Priest decided that as soon as the snow melted with the spring, I would take you to a Priory near the Imperial City. We left in the dead of night, two days before Winter Solstice. I got you to safety and the Head of our Order decided that I should be your Guardian." He again pulled that lop-sided smile," In no small part because you would not let me out of your sight." I looked into his ice-blue eyes and saw the laughter in them, I smiled back at him.
"It was long ago, Tsurista and I have taken being your Guardian seriously. Two Priest's and three Knight's gave their lives that night so that we could escape. I know I have been restrictive, but think, since your powers were unbound, we have kept on the move. Never do we stay any one place too long." He sighed and I could see regrets in his eyes, not of things he missed, but for the childhood that I never had. We had been over that topic before.
I stood up, having finished my breakfast, and leaned over to kiss his cheek.
"Thank you, Ash, not just for what you have done, but for who you are. You have been the rock that I have clung to in the raging storm of life. I know you often push me away and I act like a spoiled brat at times, but I have learned my lessons well. I can care for myself, though I learn new lessons in that, daily, you are still my mentor, guardian, and best friend."
I spent a day reading all the journals and letters that we had found in Forelhost. I bought a journal and started writing my findings about Dragons and Dragon Priests. At some point, we would have to track them all down and make sure they stayed in their crypts.
The one thing that did stand out, aside from the tragedy of them killing their own children, is that they expected dragons to return. They expected Alduin to come back and bring them back to life. To them, it was a certainty, which did not really bode well.
Ash was well into writing and didn't even lift his head when I put food down on the table. I told him I was going skinny dipping in the lake right outside town and he just said have fun. I'm sure sometime tonight he will run out to the lake and try and find me.
So instead of giving him a complete heart attack, I left a note on the lamp post on our back deck saying that I would be at the Bee and Barb. And just to see if he really was paying attention, I put on the same corset outfit, that he had already threatened to burn and asked him if he liked my new outfit.
I sighed at the grunt I got and picked up my lute, heading out to see if the wizard was any good with his hands. One way or the other, I planned on having some fun... and a couple too many drinks!
I woke the next morning with a mussy head and an upset stomach. I got up and grabbed a piece of bread and tore off a chunk. That helped to settle my stomach, I grabbed a healing potion and downed it. My head cleared up, but I still felt, stale I guess is the best way to put it, so I grabbed some soap-sand and two towels and walked out the back door.
The Water felt cool to my skin when I jumped in, but I needed the shock of it to completely wake up and lose the rest of the mussy head. I swam for a good long time floating in the middle of the lake watching the star's wheel across the sky. When I decided I was wrinkled enough I swam over near the boat tied to our dock and washed my hair and the rest of me.
I tossed the cloth up onto the railing and then swam around to the steps where I had left my towel. I looked around and saw no one, so slowly got out of the water wrapped the towel around me, and used the second one on my hair.
It wasn't until I got to the top of the steps and turned towards the door, that I saw Ash sitting in the shadow at the table. I stopped and glared at him.
"Geeze Ash, learn to whistle or something!"
"Why, would you have stayed in the water longer if you had known I was here?" I heard the amusement in his voice.
"ah, no, but it might save you a little pain when you startle the crap out of me and I throw a spell at you." I grumbled under my breath, " You know if it wasn't for the fact that you changed my nappies, I'd think you were a pervert the way you are always around when I take a bath." He tipped his head sideways slightly and narrowed his eyes.
"How many daggers do you have on you right now?" I stuck my tongue out at him.
"None, but I can caste more than you can carry." He inclined his head.
"And what about the Argonian that was fishing this morning? Could you have caste a spell at her, under the water, as she was pulling you into the deep?" I did not let my surprise show or at least I did not think I had, but he nodded anyway.
"That is why I watch and that is why if you are going swimming you need to have a dagger strapped to your leg and learn a spell that lets you breathe underwater." I shivered and headed towards the door, Ash got up and followed me.
I tucked my bath towel in better then grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the fireplace. I sat sideways to it and started rubbing my hair to dry it, then tried to pull a comb through it. Ash watched me for a while but then got up with a sigh and grabbed the comb out of my hand.
"You're putting in more knots than you're taking out." he bunched up my hair and started combing from the bottom, teasing out all the knots.
" I ought to just cut it all short." I should, but my hair had always been long, Ash had always brushed it out when I was young. He grunted and made another non-committal sound.
"It's your hair and you are old enough to decide what you want to do with it. I have a knife or a pair of shears whenever you decide." He kept at my hair until it was dry, braided it, and then went back and sat at the table, picking up a bowl of stewed apples.
I got up to go put a robe on and came back and fixed myself a bowl of the stewed apples, but put some cream and a bit of spice over the top. I sat at the table and we ate in silence.
"Ash...Why you?". He looked up from the last of his breakfast and chewed slowly.
"Because I was there." I blinked a few times and tried to sort that out, I knew that would be the short answer and the truth, but it could not be all of it.
"Just because you were there? No other reason? You weren't the best man for the job.. the most skilled, you got my guardianship simply because.. you were there?"
His lips thinned to a tight line and I could see the far away look in his eyes. He rolled his shoulders and tipped his head to one side quickly and I could hear the joints popping.
"No, not that simple. I was sent to the Priory you ... no, hummmp. Do you remember anything of the Priory in High-Rock?" When I shook my head he lifted one shoulder and dropped it. " Well not really much chance, you were a toddler when I got there. While I did help bath and dress you, you were already out of *nappies*, when I got there." He pulled out the thin-bladed knife he carried and reached over his shoulder to the shelve grabbed a small piece of wood he was carving."
"The Priory was run by two old Knights and an even older Priest. I and two others were sent there to help out and in time, perhaps take over. I was newly a Knight, just two years, but had already fought many Deadra and other things at the Orders bidding." His smile was lopsided as the scars on his face pulled in odd angles.
"You had been brought to the Priory by a woman, the Priest said she was *otherworldly* they were told to care for you, as you were our Father's Daughter. It did not take them long to figure what was meant, not when you conjured tiny dragons made of fire, that talked to you in another language." He turned the wood in his hands and started whittling from another direction.
"Not long after I and the other Knight got there some Deadra attacked the Priory and the Priest decided to bind your powers, for a time, they were drawing things that you could not handle." I looked at the scars that crossed his nose, cheek, and eyelid, four long scars made by a Winged Twilight that he had found standing over my bed. I did not remember, but still, it caused me to tremble, that was the first time Ash had saved my life and he had been doing so since.
"The Priest decided that as soon as the snow melted with the spring, I would take you to a Priory near the Imperial City. We left in the dead of night, two days before Winter Solstice. I got you to safety and the Head of our Order decided that I should be your Guardian." He again pulled that lop-sided smile," In no small part because you would not let me out of your sight." I looked into his ice-blue eyes and saw the laughter in them, I smiled back at him.
"It was long ago, Tsurista and I have taken being your Guardian seriously. Two Priest's and three Knight's gave their lives that night so that we could escape. I know I have been restrictive, but think, since your powers were unbound, we have kept on the move. Never do we stay any one place too long." He sighed and I could see regrets in his eyes, not of things he missed, but for the childhood that I never had. We had been over that topic before.
I stood up, having finished my breakfast, and leaned over to kiss his cheek.
"Thank you, Ash, not just for what you have done, but for who you are. You have been the rock that I have clung to in the raging storm of life. I know you often push me away and I act like a spoiled brat at times, but I have learned my lessons well. I can care for myself, though I learn new lessons in that, daily, you are still my mentor, guardian, and best friend."
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