A Holiday in Morrowind, OR: How Eilidh got her mojo back Options

[PhonAntiPhon]

"You should go to Morrowind." Said her friend Callius. "I have some friends in Ald'ruhn, I can give you a letter of introduction if you like."

Eilidh, who'd had a difficult year what with a failed relationship, a fifty thousand septim loss on a business deal with a meadery in Skyrim which had subsequently failed; not to mention a slow and creeping sense of boredom and general malaise, gave the idea some brief consideration and agreed.
She'd never visited the area, indeed since arriving at Anvil some three years previously she had not left Cyrodiil, she knew little about the region; Callius had told her something of it but that was all. It would make a pleasant get away and also maybe reignite a little of the expeditionary spirit that she'd always enjoyed and which had formed such a big part of her previous military career back in her homeland across the sea.

It turned out that Callius' hometown was not on the Morrowind mainland but was instead located in Vvardenfell, a large island in the Inner Sea. After the briefest of searches - (it helped if one was a monied Princess, even a foreign one) - Eilidh was able to charter a cabin aboard a scheduled Imperial brigantine bound for Seyda Neen, a small Imperial settlement to the southwest of the island.
The Captain, one Marcus Lucillius, was the perfect gentleman as indeed were the officers and ratings, at least up on deck and in his presence. Eilidh was not naive enough however to assume they would be the same were she to venture into the dimness of their world below the deck, and so limited herself to her cabin, the captain's, and the aft, by the wheel.

The journey took some two days or thereabouts, and Eilidh spent the time either playing cards with Captain Marcus, writing in her journal, or hanging over the side of the boat and breathing in the salty air whilst staring out over the calm and deep waters of the Inner Sea; the wood creaking and the rigging and sails slapping as they came ever closer to Seyda Neen.
For the first time in a long while she felt a growing excitement and anticipation in her breast.

-X-

[PhonAntiPhon]

I'll be interspersing the narrative with some firsthand accounts taken from Eilidh's journals and letters back to her friends in Cyrodiil, one of which will follow shortly.
(A note on the journals and letters: obviously the language of her adopted home is not her mother tongue and even though she has an aptitude for language utilised and honed during her time as a military scout in her father's armies - see narrative in fanfic and Oblivion threads for history, plus the blog - there are many nuances that still elude her, especially in the written form, add to that the fact the language and writing of Cyrodiil and indeed Tamriel is very different from her own, and that she could barely speak or write any of it when she arrived...
So it is that after translation her missives and notes can come across as rather formal and stilted, as she's still not that comfortable writing in her adopted language).

~SEYDA NEEN. 19 of the clocke~

My dere Callius,

~It is hotte here in Seyda Neen, and a most uncomfortable humid to boot, worse e'en than the Blackwood.
As you have said, the settlement is small, hardly a towne at all, with only a single shoppe and a small inne.

~The Goode Captain Lucillius had his men unload my belongings - (such as they are for you know I travel light) - he insisted on personally accumpanying me to the Custom House - (I believe him to be enarmored of me somewhat) - wherein I acquainted myself with the local agent, one Socucius Ergalla.
He took my particulars - (although he struggled no small amount with my ascent) - I did as you said and passed myself as a native of the provinces. He thenne presented me with my pass.

~I have been here one full day now and my intent is too travel by Silt Strider - (You know, because I have told you, that in my land we have beasts of burden not unlike them, but you are right enough in your assertion that they are indeed impressive beasties) - however the caravaner will not be ready until the weeke is out.

~Therefore I have acquainted meself with the tavern - it is smalle buit the wine is fair, and in loo of a room there agent Ergalla has put the me up at the customs House.
The accursed heat, Callius! All my body is soaked with moisture and the flies and smell - it is guid that my military days have given me some preparedness for the conditions! Sinann Herself knows I am no a delicate bloom and will not shy from hardship.
It is guid though - thank ye - to be somewhere new and thus I shall take the delay as a oppertunity to explore the local about the towne.
To be sure tis a place different from the hills and forests of my homeland and though similar to, as I have told you, the Blackwood and the south of Cyrodiil, as I see it, it has a twist if you will.
I have my bow and sword and plenty of Septims! Do not worry dearest Callius.

I shalle write a further missive, soon.
Fair ye well, Callius, take care.

Yours Ever,
~Eilidh~

This post has been edited by PhonAntiPhon: Aug 20 2014, 10:55 AM