There's a twist in midair of rainbow light, coruscating over the heads of the combatants.

It unfolds briefly, giving glimpses of a starry void -

And a very surprised girl falls out, dropping to the floor just off to the side of the thick of combat. She catches herself elegantly and immediately looks around - and her eyebrow raises when she spots Elana.

What in Oblivion- No time for that. Ripping more lifeforce from a hapless thrall (they scream and stumble rather than dying, they had more to give than she judged) she casts a series of overcharged lightning bolts, ripping flesh and stone.

The strange girl launches herself at one of the dremora not in Elana's path.

She's unarmed. She's wearing pajamas, a silky floral tank top and shorts in black with red roses and fuzzy black socks. She's not using any apparent magic.

She's insanely good, dancing around return blows, anticipating her opponents' strikes before they even think to make them, ruthlessly taking advantage of every opening in her enemies' guards, several times getting them to hit each other instead of her. Her strikes crush throats and break ribs with ease.

That's- Actually, that's extremely impressive. Enough so that Elana weaves her magic around the newcomer and doesn't make her a target for drain.

She's enough to relieve the pressure on Elana, at first - quickly adjusts to the flow of battle, to her opponents' weaknesses, to Elana's strikes, seeming to anticipate her magic as well - it's still an uphill battle at first, but, soon enough, the tide starts to rather decisively turn.

Her day's looking up again.

If they can break the dremora, the thralls should be easy to mop up.

Her new friend's good for that.

She focuses on taking out the dremora before turning to help finish off the thralls.

She saves one thrall alive til last, knocking his head aside with a heavy blow and sinking her teeth deep into his throat. When she pulls away he falls, boneless, and her chin is dripping blood. She wipes it away with the back of her hand, flicking it onto the ground.

...Hot.

She stretches out her arms, grinning a little. "Hello."

"Who are you, and where did you come from?"

"I'm Lace. I'm probably not from this universe, actually..."

"As in- some plane of Oblivion other than Mundus?"

"Haven't heard of Oblivion! Or Mundus. There's a lot of universes and groups of planes, though."

"Interesting. And you did not intend to travel?"

"Nope! Not something I can do on my own, usually..."

"Well. I thank you for the assistance, however inadvertent."

"It's no problem. You seem interesting."

"Have you ever met a vampire before?"

"Can't say I have."

"Then I am pleased to be your first." Elana cocks her head. There is a faint noise like chains dragging on stone from further in. "But I really should go take care of whatever arrangements my mother was preparing for me back there before exchanging further pleasantries."

"Alright. Want help?"

"If you care to offer it, I will not say no. We are likely facing mages, and at least one other vampire. They will be stronger than those you fought here."

"Sounds like a challenge."

"Very likely. This way, then." She turns to head down the steps she was close to before.

Lace toes off her socks, sticking them in a pocket so they won't get any filthier, and follows, paying attention to their surroundings in case something tries to ambush them.

Nothing does, fortunately. They arrive at the upper level of an arena, concentric rings of seating stepping down to a flat space in the center. Four people are arrayed around a coffin with the lid propped open. Length of chain emerge from it, writhing like tentacles in the energy the mages are channeling into it.

A fifth is standing off to the side, watching the entrance. "Ah, Elana!" the watcher calls in a high, shrill voice when she sees them enter. "We've been waiting for you. I see you've done away with your welcoming committee, but come down here quietly like a good girl and we'll say no more about it. Otherwise I shall have to tell your mother."

Wow Lace instantly dislikes this person. She sizes up the best paths to the watcher, given her own superhuman abilities and what she's observed so far of local magic.

"Are you going out of your way to be obnoxious or something?" she calls back. "Because you're definitely a pest."

"Meat should be silent. Really, Elana, you must train your pets better."

"I can't go down there," she whispers. "If I get too close the chains will grab me."

"Right. Will they try to grab me?" she murmurs back.

"I don't think so. They would have tuned it to me."

"Got it."

And she bursts forward, running toward the mages controlling the coffins.

The pestilential woman hits her with a lifedrain. It is exquisitely painful, as every cell in her body seems to recognize it is dying and report that fact to her brain all at the same time.

This is followed up by a spike of ice aimed directly at Lace's center of mass.

Somewhere up there in terms of being all consuming as being unable to breathe, or being eviscerated, or being set on fire... And Lace does those for fun.

She doesn't go down, adrenaline keeping her moving, twists out of the way of the ice spike - starts weaving toward the woman with the pain ray, Lace can ignore it but something in her instincts is screaming she shouldn't let it go uninterrupted anyways -

She's fast, increasingly difficult to usefully hit, and she's going to close on the woman within seconds if she doesn't pull something major.

She looks somewhat surprised that Lace hasn't fallen over dead yet, but keeps the lifedrain going until a suddenly-appearing wall of ice eight feet tall cuts off line of sight, and also blocks Lace from reaching her.

That assumes Lace can't just parkour over a wall! She is perfectly willing to injure herself doing this, too.

She jumps, hooks her hand on the top of the wall, flings herself over, healing any skin that decided to stay behind as she does so.

The woman apparently was assuming just that, as she has turned her back to begin giving orders to her subordinates around the coffin.

Her feet strike perfectly on the back of the woman's neck. 

Snap. She falls.

"Get her!" she screeches from the ground, head at a horribly unnatural angle.

Lace stomps on her head, hard enough to crack her skull - heals her foot from the cuts she gets - and lunges toward the mages.

The mages fling a variety of spells in her direction, though nothing especially exotic, and none of them seem to know the drain spell. They're also not terribly proficient in hand-to-hand combat, though the last one she gets to has managed to conjure up a cloak of flames to wrap himself in.

She smirks and punches him through the flame, healing herself as fast as her skin can blister and burn.

He is very surprised by this!

Once the last mage is down, the chains fall to the floor with a clatter.

She makes the rounds to ensure they're all actually, properly dead or at least unconscious - she was going too fast earlier to be sure.

"Think they're down!" she calls up to Eliese's alt.

She picks her way down, keeping a careful eye on the chains. When the don't so much as twitch, she nods to herself.

"You're very... speedy."

"One of my many good traits."

She hums, and goes to prod at the vampire Lace squished.

She makes a face. "Ugh, Sigrid. Seems she did have a brain after all..." She casts a thin stream of flame at the body, which burns quickly and neatly, leaving only a small pile of ash behind. This she sweeps up into a small pouch pulled from a pocket.

Shrug. "Doesn't mean she used it."

"Do you have more time for pleasantries, now?"

"I suppose I do," she says agreeably. "I'd offer some hospitality, but I am no longer sure I can trust anything I left here."

"Fair enough."

"There should be somewhere more comfortable to sit at least, if you'd like."

She nods. "Lead on."

Through one of the side exits to the arena is a small sitting room. Elana takes a seat on one of the chairs, legs crossed.

Lace sits nearby. "So what was that all about?"

"That," she sighs, "was my mother attempting to remove me from the gameboard, now that I have served her purpose. It is a long story." She unhooks the long cylindrical case she's carrying on her back and lays it to the side so she can lean back.

She makes a face. "Unpleasant. Do you think she's gonna try again soon?"

"That depends if my father gets to her first. Which he has motive to do; she stole the first Elder Scroll from him."

"I don't know what an Elder Scroll is."

Shrug. "No one does, really. Personally, I like the theory that they're fragment of Time, drifting in the wake of the cataclysm at the end of the world. If you read one, it will show you the past, or the present, or the future. Or it will just make you go blind."

Snort. "Sounds like a fun time."

"Quite. One reading that has been very popular named this year the 'Year of Sun's Death'."

"Sounds ominous... Do you know why?"

"No, but... The light of the sun is toxic to vampires. It burns us. So my father reacted with more joy than most to the news of Sun's Death. He went so far as to obtain his own Scroll in order to investigate further. In his reading, he found a ritual that will- taint the sun. Stop it from harming us and allow us to harness its power. He believes that enacting this ritual is what the prophecy refers to."

She nods. "Do you want him to enact that ritual?"

"It requires the blood of a Daughter of Coldharbour. The only two of which in existence are my mother and myself. So no."

"Eesh."

"Well, I don't mind helping you... And I guess it's time for me to explain myself more, too."

"That would be nice."

Nod.

"So - there's multiple universes, and they're all pretty different from each other. I'm not very mobile, so I've mostly been to my own, with a few trips to others." Mostly if Acererak got in the mood for an exotic locale. "One big thing is people - kind of repeat across worlds? Their - basic shape of person, their soul, in some ways their life stories."

"And you... recognized me?"

"Yeah. I've only met one of your alts and one of mine, though I've heard of others. Your alt looks like you, so it was a pretty easy leap."

"I see."

"I'm motivated to help you because of that in part - but also because you're interesting and pretty and this world has cool magic which you seem to know stuff about and you fight well."

"At least I am a good character reference for myself."

Heeee. "An excellent one."

"I will try to live up to your expectations, then."

"You have been so far."

Smile.

"As to next steps... I have the second scroll required for the ritual." She pats the case next to her. "If I were to return it to Harkon, my father, he would no doubt aid me against Valerica, my mother. This would however bring him a step closer to completing the ritual, a state of affairs I am reluctant to bring about, as mentioned."

"Do you want to hide it, then? Or get the other two for yourself?"

"If I could, I would hide it. But Elder Scrolls... have a way of warping history around themselves. If a scroll wants to be read, someone will find it, no matter how unlikely that seems."

"Troublesome... It might break in another universe, but I can't move between them myself..."

"A significant hurdle to enacting that course of action."

"Our alts will probably track me down eventually, but it might be a while, we weren't in constant contact..."

"Then... much as it pains me to say it, I may be better off emulating Valerica, and accumulating the components of the ritual myself, to at least keep them out of Harkon's hands."

She nods. "Starting with the Elder Scrolls?"

"They are one of two things I know are required, and I already have my own blood..."

"Alright." She hums. "I have some questions about the magic before we go adventuring, if you don't mind?"

"Of course. Ask."

"That painful spell I got hit with at the start - do you know what it was?"

"That was a vampiric lifedrain. It steals the energy from living creatures and reinvigorates the caster. Only Harkon, Valerica, and myself, and any turned by us, are capable of using it."

"Huh. I didn't feel drained really..."

"Usually it takes a few seconds at most to kill a person."

"Well, I'm pretty hard to kill... But yeah it was pretty up there with my most painful experiences, just didn't really stop me."

"That is... very interesting. Tactically, I would use drain to recharge or overcharge my magicka to cast other spells. Vampires do not naturally regenerate magicka, Something Harkon hopes to correct with the ritual, incidentally."

"Huh. Are you low on magicka right now?"

"Not especially. The thrall I ate was filling."

"Well, I'm apparently immune to the bad side effects, if you get hungry again," she says, only somewhat teasingly.

"I will keep that in mind."

Very small squirm.

"But it does sound like I should avoid letting my enemies hit me with it, if they're gonna get recharged."

"I generally find it wise to avoid all offensive spells cast in my direction, yes."

"Not a bad strategy."

"It works well if one can consistently pull it off. You do not seem as though it will present much trouble."

She nods. "I'm not used to spells like you have here, but - avoiding weird weapons is kinda a general guideline."

"Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"

She hums. "I've got a pretty extreme healing factor... I can also quickly but not instantly master anything related to fighting, war, or battles - I've mostly tested that on stuff from my home world, but it's held up to exotic weapons and tactics from other universes before. Things with a physical component are easier under that than technically offensive magic that's mostly a mental exercise. I've got super human but not insane speed, strength, and agility - I'm better in each than the peak an unmodified human could theoretically reach, but not by a ton. And I don't get exhausted from fighting, ever."

"And as of recently I can survive and stay conscious through most arbitrary injuries that leave my brain intact, I have an intuitive sense of what actions will hurt someone and whether that hurt would fall into a specific aesthetic category from my home world, and my mental capacity is larger than normal, mostly such that I can process more sensory information than a baseline human without getting mentally overwhelmed."

"The physical abilities seem a nice complement to my own skills. I prefer to fight at range, using magic to attack and control the field."

"We should work well together, then."

"That is the hope."

"Your sensory abilities. Are they... limited in scope?"

" - What do you mean by 'scope'?"

"Restricted to certain kinds of input. Like your skills at fighting."

"It centrally handles pain, but I don't get overwhelmed by my other senses either - though sensory input can still hurt."

"Mm. I am thinking that I need to find someone to read this Elder Scroll and if you are better at handling sense overloads... you may be able to read it without blinding yourself."

"Well, I'd be willing to give it a shot."

She holds the case out to Lace.

She opens it, removing the scroll and unfurling it.

Her gaze goes distant, face twisted in pain -

(The world is unfurling before her, fragments of eternity screaming into her mind - it hurts - it's actually nearly overwhelming - but she's been in plenty of pain before, even if not this chaotic swirling of everything - it's searing her soul, her mind, stretching her out along impossible thoughts - she sees herself, writhing in pain at the feet of someone cloaked in shadow and probability - a pale mouth clamps to her neck - sigils spin off into nothing, the world fragments and shudders - a heart beats red, enormous, alive, isolated, throbs with the pain of the world flowing into her - she's kneeling at the feet of pain, a hand stroking her hair as she sobs - a heart beats faster, seizes - but it's nothing like a heart she realizes why does she know that's what it is - the sky glows red with her blood - glass breaks as a serpent tightens its coils - blood drips up the hour - )

She would scream if her throat worked. Instead she whines.

(Dives into the nonsense, tries to parse it - )

(The blood of the progenitor is the blood of his slave - a clockwork world screams to a halt - a shell of myriad layered planes spins around this world clashing and a new one emerges - the light from without shines through the gaps - a madman laughing, don't you know the only difference between a thief and a prince is bandwidth - )

She tears her gaze from the scroll with a soft gasp.

Elana takes the scroll from her, carefully rolling it up without looking and sliding it back into the case.

She - really wants to have her hair petted right now - wants to kneel with her head in Elana's lap -

She presses a hand to her forehead.

"Well, I'm not blind."

"Are you in other respects hale?"

"Hm. My head hurts. But I don't think I'm insane or anything."

"That is good to hear. What did you see?"

She pauses to gather her thoughts, then summarizes as best she can - including the things she thought or felt were true and her own contradictory observations.

"That is- Hm. Interesting."

"I could make some guesses about what each part means... But I feel like I'm lacking significant chunks of the puzzle here."

"That is fairly typical of these readings. To those of us bound within Time's stream, the perspective in which the Elder Scrolls make the most sense is hindsight."

She nods. "Does having multiple Elder Scrolls help narrow down the truth, though?"

"It should, if only in the overlap of the cryptic references."

"That'll be one advantage of getting the other two..."

"Yes, though we are still somewhat short on clues as to the location of the third, unclaimed one."

"So we'll have to investigate that..."

"Or we could go after Valerica first."

She nods. "She'll hopefully be easier to find, yeah."

Elana makes a face.

"Nothing is ever easy when it comes to her."

She really wants to give Elana a hug. She has no idea if Elana would be at all receptive to sudden lap pet...

"Well, I'm good at difficult."

Sigh.

"We should start at the castle, then. Even if she's cleaning up after herself, she has centuries of detritus to pick through and might leave a clue to where she's going."

Nod. "Will she have left traps?"

"Almost certainly. And we will have to avoid Harkon's notice as well."

"Well, I'm up for it."

"It'll be a bit of a hike. We can stop at one of the Nord villages and get you some clothes."

She laughs. "No parading me around half dressed?"

"Would you prefer that? It is also very cold on the surface."

"I'm not very bothered by the cold... So I guess it depends what sort of view you prefer."

"Does it?"

"Nice views are quite important."

"Well, if it comes to that..." she purrs, her voice low and sultry, "the view I prefer is one I don't have to share."

Mmmmmm. "Then clothes it is."

Elana smiles.

"It should be dawn soon."

"And you can't travel in the sunlight?"

"It is not entirely pleasant, but that is what the hood is for. But it will be easier for you to traverse unfamiliar terrain when there is light to see by."

She nods. "Less likely to trip and embarrass myself."

"Or further stain what passes for your clothing."

Snicker. "There's only some blood..."

"A little blood is practically civilized in these northern lands. But dirt would mark you a peasant for certain."

"I'll keep that in mind."

She stands.

"Well. Shall we go?"

Stand and languid stretch. "Alright. Lead on."

And out of the cave. The thrall bodies are still there, but the dremora have vanished.

Outside, it is, as promised, cold. The cave opens on the lower slopes of a mountain, craggy with sparse vegetation. Behind it, the sun rises.

It's always weird, seeing a world that isn't carefully manicured and controlled by beauty obsessed gods...

She shivers a bit, but as promised doesn't seem too terribly bothered by the cold.

She looks around, eyes catching on the many irregular imperfections of the landscape.

"Welcome to Skyrim," Elana says.

"It's - stark."

"People say that is part of its charm."

"It's very different from my world." Hum. "Charm isn't a bad word, I guess?"

"To convey a sense of its flaws?"

Snort. "It's less manicured than I'm used to."

"What is your world like?"

"Hm... It was made by a bunch of gods of art who left another world after disagreeing with the other gods. They made the world beautiful and perfect and completely devoid of any messy mortals who could mar it. Except one of them thought that was defeating the point - art needs to be experienced, and it needs to be messy, and it needs to change, and it's subjective. So that god made the mortal peoples. That god was also the Art of Suffering, and while they're no longer mortals' sole champion, they've been the most consistent advocate for us to exist."

"It's - every meadow is watched over by some god or another, who individually placed every blade of grass and every flower to be in perfect harmony. There's no room for people to live - we usually put our cities in little pocket dimensions, it's easier to get a god to accept a single portal than an entire settlement. The natural world is pretty and breathtaking and eternal. The mortal world is - also beautiful, but differently, it's stark and sometimes unpleasant but the brutal parts make your soul soar. Of course, our cities are still a lot prettier than any I've seen elsewhere - we take beauty seriously."

"This universe was made by a group of gods, but they couldn't agree on what they wanted to do with it. Most of them ended up banished to their own private planes of existence."

"Huh. Are those - the planes of Oblivion?"

"Yes. Good memory."

Small smile. "It helps."

"So which way are we headed?"

"Follow the foothills south. Once we clear the marshlands, we can strike west for the Dragon Bridge."

"Alright."

She starts down the mountain.

"What's being a vampire like?"

"I am stronger than a human, faster, with a larger base magicka capacity. I can see in the dark and hear a heartbeat from a mile away. I do not need to eat or sleep provided I have fresh blood to drink. I do not need to breathe and I do not feel the cold. The light of the sun will burn me, and ordinary fire catches in my flesh more easily. If I go too long without feeding, my appearance becomes disturbing to mortals, but if I am sated I can hypnotize with my gaze."

"Sounds usually advantageous."

"It usually is. The process of becoming a vampire is not something I would like to repeat, but I am satisfied with the outcome."

Lace is having so many 'wanna cuddle' emotions right now. Only partially because she's cold.

She nods. "That makes sense... I like my powers and how I got them, but I've been told I'm weird."

"Atypical, certainly."

Grin. "I like being weird."

"It does seem to suit you."

Heh. "It really does."

Walk.

"Oh, how far to the village?"

"A few hours, at least."

"Okay."

"Any other questions for me on the way?"

"What was the other version of myself you met like?"

"Hm. She's intense... Creative... Really smart. Knows a lot about magic. Takes care of what's hers. Sadistic - I actually met her when her girlfriend kinda kidnapped me as a gift for her birthday..." She grins to herself.

"That must have been an... interesting way to meet a person."

Giggle. "Certainly made an impression."

"Do you stay in contact?"

"Not constantly... But we meet up every now and then." 

"Do you think they'll be able to find you here?"

"I'd hope so... But something might block them even if they go looking."

"That would be too easy, to just leave this world behind entirely."

"Probably, yeah."

"Well, if they show up, then they can help."

"I think they'd be happy to."

"Until then, we'll just have to continue ourselves."

Nod. "We'll manage."

They walk for a bit longer.

"You are willing to read another scroll when we recover it?" she asks.

She nods. "Yeah. Especially if it helps you... It was trippy, but fine."

"Thank you."

"It's no problem."

"There were some, ah, intriguing aspects to your last vision. Even if they didn't seem to bear directly on the matter at hand."

"Oh?"

"The parts about you and the vampire, mostly."

"Those were very interesting."

"Perhaps we should investigate that as well, at some point."

"It's worth serious experimentation."

Elana grins.

She shivers.

Cute.

Heeeee.

She casts around for conversation topics as they walk a bit more... Asking about art feels - simplistic, though that might just be her culture... 

Though just walking together is nice.

It is.

After another while, Elana pauses. "There's something ahead..." she says, cocking her head to the side. "...Bear, I think."

"Want to skirt around it? Bears back home aren't aggressive, but..." She shrugs.

"This one will be, if it catches our scent. We can try to avoid it."

Shrug. "Don't really see the point in beating up animals..."

And skirting around a bit.

The bear decides to attack them anyway, roaring out from a patches of bushes!

Siiiiiiiiigggggggggggggghhhh.

Bears are not the most coordinated creatures. Lace pivots around it, striking at its back legs, forcing it off balance.

Elana distracts it with a blast of fire to the face.

Now it's angry.

She kicks it in the side, hard.

It barks in pain and turns to swipe at her-

And Elana shoves an ice spike all the way through its exposed neck.

She jumps back, getting clear.

The bear falls.

"Tch. Annoying things."

"Is all your wildlife this - " she waves a hand vaguely. "Aggressive?"

"Only the large carnivores, generally."

"I'm used to large carnivores mostly being lazy and large herbivores being the insane ones. I'll have to update my assumptions, I guess."

"Live and learn."

Smile. "Thanks for the help, though."

"Punching a bear to death would take quite some time. We may want to get you a weapon, in addition to the clothing."

"Does tend to make fighting more efficient."

They can start walking again.

"Do you have any preferences?"

"Hmmm... I'm at least familiar with every form of combat my world managed to invent. I like bladed weapons, generally, but sometimes a variety's nice... I have strong weapon quality opinions, though."

"We may need to detour to Solitude, then. I doubt Morthal has picked up a master weaponsmith since last I visited."

Snort. "Small place?"

"Certainly not the largest city on the continent."

"Perhaps we can get a knife to tide me over."

"That should be doable."

"I'd hope so! I'd feel bad for these poor towns if they can't even turn out nice knives."

"Most of Skyrim is fairly backwards..."

"A pity."

She shrugs.

Walk walk.

"What sort of dangerous things should I keep my eyes open for, other than crazy wildlife?"

"Bandits, trolls, sudden snowstorms..."

"Those sound like we can handle them, though the snowstorms might be obnoxious."

"Yes, though there's a trick to trolls. They regenerate unless burned."

"Plan sounds like it'd be for me to stall any while you set them on fire, then. Unless I can find a torch."

"A torch should not be hard to find. But that plan is applicable in a variety of scenarios."

"Seems like a good standard rhythm, yeah."

"And it allows me to watch you, which is always a good thing."

Heeeeeee.

She does a little twirl. "An important feature of every plan."

"Very."

"And allows me a front row seat to your magic..."

Preen.

"Don't let it distract you too much. Though I am very impressive."

"Exceptionally. But I'll try to save the staring for non-emergencies."

"Get it in while you can."

"Enough to tide me over when I have to move my focus elsewhere."

"You're cute."

Heee!!!

"And you're pretty."

Smirk.

The forest around them is getting thicker. "Not too much farther, if I remember correctly."

Nod. "Alright." She tugs at her stained shirt. "Honestly wouldn't mind something less... Wet..."

"Perhaps we can get you a bite to eat as well."

"That'd be nice, yeah - I can skip eating technically but it gets unpleasant fast. I burn a lot of calories by default... Hopefully the food isn't entirely 'charm,' though."

"Generally the cuisine is not overly elaborate, but the common Nord recipes are at least palatable. Though if you dislike mead, you may find the drink menu lackluster."

"Some meads are good? At least if they're nice and sweet."

"Oh, these will be."

"Shouldn't be torture to try, then."

"No, I was thinking to save that for a time when an entire inn's common room was not observing us."

! Her type of person CHEATS! At flirting, too, apparently.

(Small shivering wiggle.)

"You're a tease."

"Oh, but you like it, don't you? I can hear your heartbeat getting faster."

Cheater!

(Her heart rate picks up a touch more.)

"Mmm, I like a lot of things..."

"You will have to tell me about all of them."

"Well... If you insist..."

"Oh, I do..." she purrs.

Heart definitely fluttering in her chest, now.

"Enough to drag it out of me?" she murmurs.

"If you insist."

Wiggle! "Maybe I do."

"Then it seems there is but one course available to us."

Hee. "Tragically so," she says, voice sarcastic.

"For you, perhaps."

Mmmm. "We'll have to see, won't we?"

"Indeed. I hope in the meantime you relish the... anticipation."

Shiver. "I'll wait with baited breath."

Smirk.

In the distance, a road appears. "Ah, we are nearly there. We should follow that."

"Alright. My feet'll be grateful, if nothing else..." (She's been continually healing small cuts and bruises from the rough ground.)

"Should I have been carrying you?"

She eyes up Elana's arms. "I wouldn't say no... But my feet can learn to take it."

She scoops Lace up in a princess carry.

She giggles!

Hee.

Down the road to Morthal!

She rests her head on Elana's shoulder, snuggling her contentedly.

The town of Morthal is barely more than a village, to Lace's eyes. Mist rises off the lake the buildings cluster around, clinging stubbornly despite the high noon sun. They're approaching from the mountains, so their path is mostly solid, but a pervading sense of wet grows, and a shifting breeze carries the smell of the nearby marsh in fits and starts. Activity seems slim - there's people out fishing and generally traveling between the lake and the marsh, and someone working a lumber mill, but not much bustle. There's three lines of smoke rising, one from a grand hall (three stories, the largest in the village) to the left of their path, one from what's likely the inn at the end, one from a farther flung smoke house. The buildings are old wood, with thatched roofs, and the entire town seems to creak.

"Not much to look at, but there are people."

"It's - quaint?"

"Rustic. Slightly ramshackle. I don't live here, you don't need to pretend to like it."

Snicker. "I can model the kind of person who'd like it here. But, yeah, I'm more of a big city girl."

"Bigger cities are easier to hide in."

"Easier to meet people in, too... And they have more commodities, though that might be in part a technology thing - a small town in my world will have a tiny museum, a theater, a diner, and an antique store, but it won't have a boulevard of museums, nightclubs and cute themed cafes and numerous ethnic restaurants, multiple libraries, public transportation, dedicated music halls, bath houses... And where you have more people it makes sense to have a wider variety of places for travelers - in a big city, I could spring for a luxury suite at a world class hotel if I felt like it."

She huffs out a laugh. "Even in big cities, you won't find those in this world."

"I should show you around my world sometime, then."

"I'd like that. It sounds a sight to see."

"I love it. It's vibrant and alive, and I can feel the pulse of the city around me, and most things I could ever want are in walking distance..."

"Every distance is a walking distance if you don't care about time. Or if you have someone to carry you."

Snuggle! "Especially a delightfully strong and pretty girl..."

"Such as myself, yes."

(They're getting a few weird looks as they enter town proper.)

Nuzzle. "Best form of transportation."

Elana smirks. She doesn't particularly care what these provincials think of her.

As long as they have some sort of general store, that'll be the first stop; otherwise, the inn.

There's a (run down) general store, which seems to double as a secondhand and consignment shop.

Perfect. She can walk around with Lace to choose an outfit out of what's available.

There's: secondhand clothes, mostly worn and faded and plain; consignment clothes, mostly newer and nicer and more colorful, but also there's only one full outfit and it's a floral dress - the majority of the very slim pickings are accessories; and bolts of fabric, for if you feel like making your own clothing. Not much else.

("I could make a kick ass toga out of that..." is Lace's opinion of one of the more colorful fabrics. Also "That's cute but it'd be a pain to fight in probably," of the floral dress, and "Oh, that's soft" of an enormous and fluffy dark grey scarf.)

She can pick whatever she'd like.

She'll go with a red fabric, then, and two interesting cloak pins (designed to resemble a snake and a cat respectively), and a dark belt, and the dark grey scarf, and some practical socks and leather boots (a bit too big for her, but the socks compensate). 

She charms the store manager into letting her use the back room to get changed.

Does Elana want to help?

Yes. In the interests of... efficiency, let's call it.

Oh, good. Draping cloth is easier with two sets of hands...

Indeed it is.

She fairly casually strips as soon as Elana lets her down in the store room. She lingers a bit teasingly, but - she's obviously not embarrassed about her body at all. 

That's fair; she does have an excellent body.

Heeee.

She stretches a bit, then unfolds the red cloth, draping it around herself like a dress - asking Elana to help a bit - then tying the skirt of it into something almost like shorts. She pins the cloth at her shoulders. She'll have a bit of her thighs exposed to the air between the tops of her boots and the bottom of her shorts, but she doesn't seem bothered by the idea. She drapes the scarf around her shoulders and head, wraps the belt to cinch in her waist.

She twirls a bit when she's done, testing how well the cloth settles. It looks good on her, flattering her soft curves.

"Good enough," is her verdict. "And it'll hold until we can get me an actual hiking wardrobe in Solitude... The inn, next? Or maybe find someone to sell me a knife..."

"It looks good on you," Elana says. "The inn, then we can stop at the blacksmith on the way out."

She nods. "Thanks, and that's fine by me."

Then to the inn, and a hot meal.

Lace will overlook the rusticness. Warm meal: sooooooo good.

Elana orders a smaller portion than Lace, and sits next to her while they eat.

She grins at Elana. "I think I'm also gonna have to introduce you to my world's cuisine, if this is normal fare here..."

"I think it's just your entire world at this point."

Light laugh. "We'll make a time of it."

"I am sure it will be grand."

"I hope I can live up to your expectations, then."

"I don't think that will be much of a problem."

Heeee. "Good."

"If nothing else, you are certain to be there."

Awwwww.

She preens.

Too cute.

Heeee.

She eventually finishes her meal, humming happily. "Well, it's filling," she acknowledges, sipping the last of her mead and then glancing over at the thick panes in the windows. It's hard to tell what time of day it is through the nearly opaque glass. "Are you thinking of spending the night here, or camping out somewhere?"

"Hmm... It is unlikely we'll make another town before full dark. If I were alone, I would walk through the night. It depends on what you would like to do."

"I don't need sleep as much as I need food..." Teasingly: "And if I get tired, I can always sleep in your arms."

"Best not to waste any time, hm?"

"Time is a very precious commodity, I've been told."

"So we'll keep going from here."

She nods. "Get me a knife that won't break the first time I use it and some food for the road, and we're good."

Elana nods.

They can speak to the innkeeper for more food, and thence to the smithy.

Where Lace proceeds to have so many weapon opinions. She can spot even fairly small flaws, and she seems to know enough about the weapon making process to ask deep enough questions to fluster the local smith.

Soon enough she finds a long dagger than isn't too bad, and then a few different utility knives. She sheathes the dagger on her belt, vanishing the utility knives into the myriad folds of her outfit.

"Next time I'm in my world I'm going to start carrying actual decent knives everywhere," she mutters. "This is ridiculous. - Obviously you guys don't have high tech furnaces yet, but still, you can get pretty refined with traditional methods..."

"There there," she pats Lace on the head as she stows her knives. "The Nords' High King lives in Solitude. I'm sure you'll find something there."

"I might have to break into their armory, if they're not selling the nice pieces to random travelers."

"Needs must. You'll put it to better use, anyway."

"Those poor weapons should be used with skill."

"With love, by someone lovely."

She grins, ducking her head a bit. "And with pleasure."

She offers her arm.

"Shall we continue?"

She takes it.

"Lead on."

They take the road west out of Morthal, skirting the southern edge of the marshes.

Night falls fairly early, bringing cold winds. Tamriel's two moons rise one after the other, wrapped in the northern aurora.

There's sounds in the marsh, of course. The occasional animal watching them - though most don't come near the road.

Lace gets tired fairly late in the night - she's still on her feet, but she's yawning and blinking sleepily.

Elana picks her up again without asking.

She mrrps, surprised, then yawns and snuggles into Elana's shoulder.

"You're cozy..." she murmurs.

"Only the best for you," she says, kissing Lace's hair.

Happy snuggle!

She hums.

"Good..."

And a big yawn as her eyes drift shut.

She picks up her pace as much as she can while keeping her gait smooth and even.

And, near dawn -

Elana hears a collection of human heart beats on the road ahead. Probably something like six people clustered around the road. Not in the best of health conditions, but young and muscular.

Hm. Most likely bandits. She slows down.

Is Lace still sleeping?

Yup!