The road into the mountains continues to weave upwards, and soon the weather turns chill. Snow covers all surfaces, and I can barely make out the road. Up ahead lies a familiar place. Have I been here before?
Yes, yes I have - for this town is Helgen, the town where I started this little adventure. Broken towers and burning pyres lie behind the walls of the destroyed town. I try to find a way in, but all the gates are locked. Some deft lock picking eventually opens the portal, and the doors swing open.
Anger and retribution rise in my throat like bile, as more vile bandits inhabit this murdered town. What level will these animals stoop to? Without a second throught for mine or Lydia's safety, I dash into combat with the nearest bandit, mad with bloodlust.
They seem to be coming out of the stonework itself, more and more of the feral men and women charging at me. Blades flash, and magic pulses across the wasted town, as Lydia pulls arrow after arrow from the quiver on her back and fires them into the pack.
I charge ahead, through broken homes, and finish each bandit off with gusto. I survey the devastation around me - bandit corpses lie scattered across the wrecked town, and blood seeps into the white snow floor.
I quit Helgen in disgust, and we continue our slog along the cold road. What appears to be a cave comes into view ahead of me, but not the normal rocky formation we have explored before. This is an ice cave called Bonehill Passage, the very walls formed from glacial ice. Lydia wonders aloud on what could be inside. We enter to find out.
A chill blows continuously through cave, the likes of which I have never felt. The heavy armour does nothing to warm me, the cold metal conducting the chill straight to my flesh. I spy bones littering the floor. Sounds of wildlife travel down the passage as we ascend up an ice bridge, the roar of a bear. I edge my way forward, suspicious that any noise will bring the creature upon us.
But it is an ambush. Despite my wariness, an ice wraith has crept up behind us and begins attacking. I drink potions of resist frost and strengthen my magicka, and I throw fire balls at the denizen until it moves no more.
The noise of our surprise draws a snow bear out of its lair further up the passage, and we slice again and again at the creature. It falls into the ice - no doubt its corpse will remain here for hundreds of years, desiccated by the intense cold wind blowing through the cave.
I find the exit to the cave, and we push our way out and back into the daylight of the mountainside.
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