Day 3 – The open road

I wake up with a jolt at around 7am. Despite not requesting a wake up call, my room is filled with music and frankly awful singing. Seems the downside of sleeping in a pantry in a pub is that there is no sound proofing. Frustrated, I stagger up the stairs to find the source of the din. It’s a dark elf with a lute, standing in the corner and bellowing her lungs out. The song ends and a few people applaud. I stand and judge silently and perhaps a little too obviously.

In the corner I spot a well built gentleman with an enormous sword on his back. Mercenary! I wander over and start chatting with him. He informs me that it is dangerous to travel the roads of Skyrim alone. Heh, don’t I know it. However he charges 500G just to get his arse out of his seat, so I leave alone. I quickly check in the market to see if any shipments of wood axes have arrived overnight. They have not. Well then, fuck you Windhelm. I’m out! I leave the city and strike a pose with my dagger on the way out. I actually look rather fearsome. Not like “muscular adventurer who could kill you in one punch” kind of fearsome. More sort of “crazy old hobo with a freaking knife” fearsome.

I pass the stables and take the western road, over the bridge and towards the wolves. As I draw closer than I did before, I notice that the road actually splits and another path disappears into a valley to the left. Well shit, I could have avoided the wolves altogether this whole time. Not 30 seconds later, following this new road, I am clear of the snow and find myself surrounded by tall green trees and ingredients. I run up and down the road, grabbing the herbs from either side. Then I eat a thistle because of a reason. Some Imperial soldiers who witnessed the event and had been rather nonchalant then ask me to move along. I find some new ingredients along the road, Jazbay Grapes, Dragon’s Tongue and Creep Clusters.

Before I can stuff each one into my big stupid mouth, I notice that there are some more wolves up ahead. No working around them this time. I’m going to have to fight them. It’s only when they are charging at me that I notice that there are three of them. I then proceed to get my arse kicked by them all. I flail my dagger around like a mental person and cut two of the wolves down, the third disappears off the road. I put my dagger away and then get bitten on the arse. Seems the wolf was only going around to flank me. Unsatisfied with this turn of events, I jam my dagger into the wolf’s throat. Only a couple of hours into the day and here I am, surrounded by dead wildlife.

I continue to gather the ingredients along the road and kill another wolf who had the gall to give me a look of vague interest like that! Stab. It’s then that I realise that all this wolf slaughter has made me terribly thirsty but I do not have anything to drink about my person. I try a few of my new ingredients, including a raw bird egg I found in a nest. None of them help quench my thirst so I quickly keep moving. I find a group of three goats and slaughter the one who wasn’t fast enough to get away from my crazy knife waving technique. Upon examining the kill however, it turns out that this goat was comprised of nothing more than bones, skin and lies. Not an ounce of meat in sight.

I wander into a mill by the name of Mix Water Mill. I take a brief look around and notice yet another chopping block with no bloody axe near it. Disappointed, I enter the worker house. While the interior could use some TLC, the room contains 3 beds, a ton of raw meat and food, ingredients and a ridiculous amount of alcohol.

I also discover an iron dagger much like my own on the table, along with some gold pieces. Hell yeah, a second free weapon. Now I can dual wield these bad boys. I’m really moving up in the world. Check me out!

Now I do look crazy!

I leave, eager to get on the road again and see what else the day has to offer. As I walk towards the road however, something catches my eye. I quickly skip over to a nearby crate to make sure my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me.

They were not. Whoo! Wood Axe!

I also notice that the house is owned and somebody appears to be home. I invite myself in. Inside I meet Gilfre, the owner of the mill.

She seems nice enough and even offers me money to chop wood for her. Whoo! Employment!

I immediately head outside and get chopping. Taking 12 lumps of firewood back to her. She seems impressed and hands over 60G! 60G!? For making 6 chunks of your own wood slightly smaller!? Why the Hell did the previous workers leave? Did they work for a day, get rich and move to the Imperial City? That’s one option. She might actually be a crazy bitch who eats penises and the previous work force are buried under the floorboards somewhere. Like I care. I get back to it with gusto. 30 blocks of wood later I pass them to Gilfre who hands me 150G. This is certainly not a bad way to make money, unless the monotony gets to you.

I chop 12 more bits of wood and the monotony gets to me. I decide to keep these bits for myself so I can make that bow I’ve had my mind set on since day 1. Thing is though, there aren’t any workbenches or forges here at the mill so I will have to up and leave first thing in the morning. Huh, guess the previous workers and I are quite alike in that sense.

I then realise that I never got round to quenching my thirst prior to chopping wood in the sun for about 5 hours. The only thing I have on me is the booze from the workers house, so I round up my shift by getting monumentally pissed on 5 bottles of wine, 8 bottle of mead and a loaf of bread. I then decide to do a thing on the chopping block.

With that out of the way I head back into the workers house. A free bed for the night is just what the potato-faced, woodcutter hobo ordered.