Little Italy

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle rubbed her eyes with a yawn with one hand while shutting the door to the room with the other. She turned around and paused before going and seating herself next to Nil, propping her elbows on the bar and lacing her fingers together, resting her chin on her knuckles. Curiosity wanted her to ask about the half-prince's numerous scars, but judging by the tail end of last night's conversation, she decided against prying. It would probably get her a dirty look and silence in response anyway. She had noticed them the night before when she was stitching him up, but she had been too tired to really process much of anything at that point. Maybe she would volunteer to go get some armor from the Trader that actually fit him to save him from Camilla. She wasn't sure what was worse, facing Camilla or a horde of bandits without armor. Hard to say.

"Morning," she greeted, glancing over at him briefly. Honestly, she wasn't sure why he was still with her. He could have taken off long ago. he had all but said he had better places to be and things to do rather than tag along while she warned Whiterun about the impending danger. Whatever the reason, she figured she would find out eventually. Or not. She was fairly uncertain of anything at this point. This simple trip north had turned into one heck of an adventure, there was no denying that. Though she had to admit, she was all adventured out at this point.

She shook her thoughts away groggily and rubbed the sleep from her eyes again with a small sigh. As far as she knew, she had gotten plenty of rest, it just hadn't been very regenerative. She blamed the nightmares. Or dreams. She wasn't sure what they were. The light dragon, it had her voice, which she found quite disturbing, even if she didn't understand what it had said to her. Even though it had been exciting as well as terrifying at first, she was getting quite sick of dragons now. They seemed to be everywhere she turned ever since Helgen. For what reason, she had absolutely no idea. No one sees them for, how many years was it? Too many to count, and the first one sighted in all that time comes crashing into her life like an ebony meteorite. Just her luck. Unless, it wasn't chance

There, her mind had run away with her again. She caught herself staring into the flames of the torch on the wall, blinking a few times and sitting back to rest her palms on the worn wooden surface. She wasn't much for talking in the morning, so she didn't try to start conversation this time, content to sit and wait for Orgnar's return so she could get herself some breakfast. A low growl from her stomach reminded her she hadn't eaten much the day before due to all the excitement and and whatnot.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

As exhausted as she was, and as easy as it was to fall asleep, Elle's mind remained painfully active. She had the same nightmare she had had the night before, the one with the faceless warrior and the black dragon. However, instead of the dream shifting to the mountaintop like it had originally, she found herself in the crypt again, standing in front of the dragon shrine. This time, all the symbols were glowing, golden tendrils of light swirling around the room, the same war cry filling the air. Her gaze was glued to the shrine unblinking, the brightness burning her eyes and causing tears to stream down her face. The golden threads of light suddenly started weaving together, creating some sort of shape until she could see that it was a dragon.

It was smaller and less frightening than the black one from the Helgen attack, something in its eye that was neither malevolent nor kind. Elle wasn't afraid of this one, partly because its form was made of light and not tangible in anyway, but also because there was a certain degree of familiarity that confused her. The dragon's form started to shift and contort, turning into a single beam of light that shot straight for her, striking her square in the chest and filling her entire being with warmth. She felt a rush of adrenaline, like she could lift an entire mountain and hurl it into the sea.

However, she didn't get to enjoy the feeling long, because the sound of rock cracking and smashing to the ground caused her to whirl around to see what caused the ceiling to cave. The black dragon with bloodshot eyes had crashed into the cavern, hurtling straight for her. Elle yelped as a giant dark claw slammed her down and pinned her to the floor, the beast's face looming over hers with a growl rumbling in its throat. She wanted to shut her eyes and try to get away, but she was petrified, staring wide eyed and opened mouthed at the dragon. It started to speak in its natural tongue, fangs bared in a snarl as it did so. The words seemed to be drawing the very soul from her body, sucking the breath from her lungs and dragging the light from her eyes, the golden dragon taking shape again.

The black wyvern attacked the gold, and the two grappled and shouted, fighting tooth and claw and bringing the entire cavern down around them as they did so. She watched in horror as the creatures battled with intense ferocity that was both appalling and frightening. Helplessly rooted to the spot, she could only look on as the two tried to tear each other apart in desperation, but neither seemed to be able to get the better of the other. Suddenly, they both stopped, the golden dragon looking her dead in the eye and saying in a voice that sounded eerily like her own, "Vopraan vok, Eilonwy."

The Breton's eyes snapped open as she sat up abruptly, exhaling sharply and looking around the room, only to find herself still inside her room. She sighed with relief and fell back on the pillow, staring at the ceiling for a moment. There was a grey dawn bleeding through the window, and she knew she wasn't going to be able to fall back to sleep, so she reluctantly sat up and rubbed her eyes with a yawn, then swung her feet over the side of the bed and pulled on her boots. She stood and walked over to the wash basin, splashing water on her face and drying it with a towel to banish the lingering grogginess, pushing the dream as far from her mind as possible. It was still early, judging by the amount of light outside, so she was in no hurry to gather her belongings and walk out into the main part of the inn.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

And Elle's over there in emotional pain because she doesn't want to hurt her friend, then physical pain, then more emotional pain cause he bolted then he's ranting at her and she just wants a cookie XD metaphorically speaking

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle was relieved when he didn't question her further. No doubt he knew she wasn't being entirely honest, but maybe he didn't care enough to interrogate her about it. Or maybe he was just being respectful. Hard to say. Either way, she wasn't going to complain, because she wasn't sure how long she would be able to withhold the truth under questioning. He would find out eventually, that is, if they stayed in each other's company that long. It was difficult to tell what the future had in store. Once they reached Whiterun tomorrow, it would probably blow over and everything would return to normal. She still had plans to visit her friend in Falkreath, so perhaps after she fulfilled her promise to Gerdur, that's where she would go.

She turned back around to face Nil when he spoke and nodded in agreement, "I won't argue with that. It would be nice if something went smoothly for a change," she said, turning and heading out the door and calling over her shoulder, "Good night, see you in the morning." She headed straight for her room and flopped face first into bed, kicking her boots off with her face still stuffed in the pillow. She was tired a sore, so it didn't take long for her to fall fast asleep.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Yeahhhh poor babies XD The whole thing leading up to that is going to be an emotional wreck gee whiz

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle was not a good liar. Once, she caught her brother sneaking out, and he made her promise to cover for him. When her parents asked her if she knew where he was, her response and behavior had been so contrary that they ended up realizing she was lying before she even finished the first sentence. Her brother had been pretty angry with her after that and the whole experience just hadn't gone very well for her. Now she had to lie about why she wanted to know about the dragon shrine. The real reason was that she was afraid she was going crazy and dragons seemed to be following her everywhere she went now and a billion other things. However, since Nil didn't seem to know much about it, she didn't think it wise to disclose all that, not until she knew more, at least.

"Well, um," she said after a pause, "It just seemed... rather unusual and I was wondering if it served some sort of purpose or did something, or, um, if the words meant anything important, or, maybe-" she stopped herself and bit the inside of her cheek, realizing that if she kept going, she would ramble. "Just, curiosity, I guess," she decided with a slight shrug, not sure what else she could say that would sound even remotely convincing.

As of now, she was torn between getting it all off her chest and keeping it to herself. She kept telling herself that it was the stress of being captured and almost fried to a crisp and having her head hit one too many times, but there was still a part of her mind that thought otherwise. The word, the dragon word she had seen on the shrine, why couldn't she say it? Its meaning was clear in her mind but her mouth couldn't form the sound for whatever reason. She wished she could, then she could tell Nil, but she couldn't, and it was frustrating.

I know you.

Shut up.

She closed her eyes for a second to rid her mind of the image of the dragon's red eyes before going back to stitching up the exit wound. Thankfully, it was smaller than the first one, so it didn't take her as long to get it closed up. She used the towel to wash it one last time before grabbing fresh bandages and wrapping them around his torso to prevent the stitches from ripping. "There," she said as she tied it off, "Just don't go getting stabbed again anytime soon and you'll live," she added sarcastically. She scooted to the edge of the bed and dangled her feet over the side before standing up and putting things back where she had found them in the first place.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

HAHA SO TRUE XDDDD OOPS SORRY NOT SORRY. But I mean we've got a ways to go before then so it's fine x3

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle listened to his explanation with intrigue, her expression taking on a very interested look as she worked. So her suspicion of his involvement with the Daedra was correct. She had never really encountered anything to do with them before; all she knew was what she had read. There were a lot of mixed feelings about the Daedric Princes across the board, and she herself had been rather wary, but after the past few days with Nil, the news didn't really faze her. Especially after the dragon attack and all the other weird dragon encounters she had had over the past 24 hours.

She glanced up at his face for a brief second and nodded when he asked her his question, "Yes, I think I read something like that once," she replied, pausing for a moment before continuing, "So, if you're not a Prince, and you're not mortal, does that make you a half-prince?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. While normally, she wouldn't consider his tone exactly friendly, it was much more amicable than usual for him, which made her comfortable asking more questions. She didn't want to pry, but she was genuinely curious.

The breton continued to work carefully until she had finished neatly stitching up the entry wound. She tied off the stitches and used the wet and dry side of the towel to make sure it was clean one more time. Satisfied, she climbed on the bed to sit behind him to take care of the exit wound, making sure it was clean before threading the needle and starting the process of fixing it up like she did with the first.

"You wouldn't…" there was a pause before she frowned, biting the inside of her lip as she debated on whether or not she should ask her question, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the dragon shrine we saw today, or anything like it, would you?" The glowing symbols, the war cries, that word, it was all burning in the back of her mind. She could hardly stand not knowing what it was all about, why she had seen and heard it and he hadn't.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Nyeheheheee it's perfect I totally forgot that we planned that until now. SO MUCH FLUFF AND AGNST ALL AT ONCE

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle set the needle to the side for the time being, gingerly unwrapping the makeshift bandages that were still crudely secured to his side. Thankfully, it had stopped bleeding long ago, but it didn't look much better than when she had first wrapped it. She dipped the towel in the water and wrung it out, gently pressing it to his side to clean up any blood and dirt. She could already smell the iron in the air again, which reminded her she should probably work quickly lest she should become pitifully intoxicated off of nothing again. Her cheeks colored slightly out of embarrassment at the memory of her conduct, still mentally kicking herself for acting like a five year old.

Once she was satisfied that the wound was fairly clear of dirt, she picked up the needle and thread again. She sat on the floor so that she was more eye level with the gash, planting on elbow on his thigh and the other on the bed to keep her hands steady. "This is going to sting a bit," she warned, lightly pinching together the corners of the gash and carefully beginning the stitching process. Considering the size and severity of the stab, it was going to take some time to sew it up right. "The good news is," she said, mostly to distract him from the bite of the needle, "that it's fairly clean, so we should be able to take the stitches out in a few days at least." Although, it could be less, since he wasn't exactly entirely human. A wound like that would put anyone in bed for days, and he had walked down a mountain within minutes of receiving it. It was pretty impressive, and it made her all the more curious about her half-mer companion.

"So," she began after a pause, "I gather you're not a native to Skyrim either. Where are you from?" she asked, all the while blue eyes focused on gingerly stitching the gash on his side. She figured he wasn't typically one for small talk, but she wanted to ask anyway.