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At last we've reached the month of Frostfall and the Tales & Tallows season. For the past couple of days we've had chilly rains, but today the weather cleared, allowing us to decorate our home with an assortment of pumpkins, ghosts, black cat statues, and of course strings of orange, green, and purple lights. It took a while to get everything up, but it was worth the effort for the house looks quite festive.
Besides being able to decorate, I was pleased that the weather cleared because Neldor has today and tomorrow off from work. Neldor, his brother Thorinor, and their cousins Brolmir and Basnik all work at the town theater (which is owned and run by Thorinor's wife Sarasvati). They enjoy working in the musical field and always put on wonderful shows, but all five of them appreciate being able to stay home a few nights a week.
Neldor and I had thought that by now our garden would be completely dormant, but it's still producing a nice selection of crops. We keep some back for our own use and load the rest into a cart that is pulled by our gray donkey Oliver (who is the animal on the farm who belonged to us prior to the Big Stink). At one time, before Neldor and I were married and had no home to call our own, Oliver carried our camping equipment and everything else we owned as we traveled up and down the Bitter Coast and into the Grazelands, mainly hunting mudcrabs for a living. Now Oliver's only job is helping us to take our farm's produce into town to sell to the grocer.
Oliver gave a soft bray of protest when I was putting his harness on, as though he were saying, I thought we would be done with this by now!. Patting his neck, I said to him, "Oh come now, this load isn't heavy and we will probably only have one more delivery to make after this one. Two at the most. Then you can just be lazy in the paddock."
Prior to the Big Stink we had another animal companion; our little fox Rey. I had hoped that he would choose to stay with us all his life, but when Rey reached full maturity he began venturing out into the wilderness for longer periods of time, reminding us that in spite of us having raised him since he was a kit, he was still a wild animal and had a wild animal's instincts. Eventually he met a vixen and at that point he never returned to us again. Sometimes we get glimpses of him along the narrow path that leads northwest toward the Bitter Coast, but Rey leads a different life now, one that does not include us. For his sake we needed to accept the life he wanted and let him go.
This acceptance didn't mean that we didn't miss him. In fact I spent a good bit of time crying for him (though my sorrow was certainly not as deep as it would of been if Rey had died), but one positive thing about the Big Stink is that it brought us new members of the family.
Unlike the years when the blight was in affect, there is no quarantine with the Big Stink, for this is not a deadly contagious disease. It's just an extremely foul smell that clings to your hair, clothes and skin if you venture beyond the Ascadian Isles. Many people, particularly Imperial nobles, who had come here when Vvardenfell was opened to settlement, rapidly packed up their belongings and fled to the mainland where the air is clean. Most of those fleeing the Big Stink left their animals behind. In fact there were so many abandoned dogs, cats, horses, cows, and chickens that a shelter was quickly established right outside of Ebonheart. Those of us who remained here were more than welcome to come to the shelter and adopt the abandoned pets.
To be honest I was reluctant to adopt any of the animals. At the time I was still missing Rey and was hesitant to allow myself to become attached to other animals, not because of their eventual death but because I worried that their former owners might return to Vvardenfell and demand them back. However, our friend Aryc of Silvervale, the Altmer who is the head of House Hlaalu and is now one of the leaders of our town council, was one step ahead of us. He quickly set up a requirement that anyone leaving animals at the shelter had to sign a form that severed all claims to said animals. This protected those of us who would give the animals new homes. Even if the air clears tomorrow and people return to Vvardenfell, they CANNOT come knocking on our doors and demand that their animals be returned to them.
So with this protection in place, Neldor and I went to the shelter and selected our new pets. This is where our horses Garland and Gloria came from. We also adopted a male Samoyed puppy named Casper and a female Ragdoll kitten named Ivy. They are both so lively, playful, and busy that they quickly helped fill the silence that was left by Rey. For the life of me I don't know how anyone could leave those little white furballs behind, but their previous owners' losses were our great gain.
We weren't the only ones who took in new furry members of the family. Thorinor and Sarasvati ended up going home with a pair of adorable female kittens from the same litter. One is soft powder white and the other the color of fresh peaches, so the kitten sisters have been named Peaches and Cream. Actually just about everyone in the community now has pets, with only a few individuals placed on a "Do Not Allow Adoption" list. People like the Breton skooma-head Erandre wouldn't even be trusted with a pet rock, much less living animal.
Along with the horses, Oliver, Casper, Ivy, and the cows and chickens, there is one other creature living here on our farm, but he is not exactly a pet. I am speaking of Nerst the rat. He came with my old alchemy laboratory, having belonged to the lab's previous owner. I've never done experiments on him, but the previous owner used him to test a serious of elixirs. Based on what I learned from reading her journal, she was trying to come up with an elixir that would cure a person of skooma addiction. I have no idea how much the elixir helped with skooma, but it made Nerst extremely intelligent. I mean EXTREMELY. He developed the ability speak and has an intelligence that is comparable to a person. He has an interest in alchemy and in Dwemer technology, but I have no idea how he gets a hold of his equipment. This rat does his own thing. He just lives here and practically ignores the rest of us.
So what sort of things does he do? He broadcasts everyone's dirty laundry from one end of the Ascadian Isles to the other. What do I mean? Well, a form of Dwemer technology has been discovered and recreated by Master Aryon and the other mages who work at the Lore and Science center. I don't know much about it, but somehow messages can be transferred through invisible airways and can be heard through devices called radios. We have such a device here in our home. We can listen to music on it as well as listen for announcements, such as when a town meeting is about to take place. Nerst quickly jumped on this technology and set up his own broadcasting station.
Nerst is for the moment set up in a corner of the barn. The horses ignore him, but Oliver, having a more curious nature, immediately inspected the odd metal device that Nerst uses to send his messages all over town. Somehow Nerst is able to discover exactly what everyone is doing and makes sure the rest of the town knows about it. For this reason we know who is sleeping with who, which people have gotten into an argument, and so on (not that we want to know these details about our neighbors).
How does Nerst know these things? I believe a little bird tells him. And the squirrels. And the chipmunks. No, I'm not kidding. I think he communicates with the small woodland critters and gets them to spy on everyone. Once when I saw Oliver sitting by Nerst's cage and communicating with the rat I feared that the donkey was getting involved, but it turns out that Nerst was merely conducting an interview. I guess Oliver has a lot to say about the town's politics.
An example of the news that Nerst broadcasted this evening:
A local mer, Master Neloth of House Telvanni, was left dazed and confused after suffering the wrong end of town thug Godonir Black Claw's fist.
When asked if he knew the reason for the seemingly unprovoked attack, Neloth said, "I have no idea! He came out of nowhere and whacked me right on the chin!"
While I can believe that a bird or a squirrel witnessed the altercation between Neloth and Godonir, I don't know how they got the quote since I can't imagine Neloth stopping and allowing himself to be interviewed by a woodland critter.
So that's a little more information about our lives here in the one region of Vvardenfell that was not touched by the Big Stink. Yes it all sounds more than a little strange, but admittedly Tamriel has always been a strange place. At this point we all take the strangeness in stride and don't even question it anymore.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-01 09:44 pm (UTC)From:https://mega.nz/file/RZZwma5I#TQ-Yfg7R6IuFgep9p2DopmAe_ffjaGu_z3qZy0ZNUbI
Look! Two cotton puffs playing!
Now what would a donkey and a rat be plotting? Is this a variation of Pinky and the Brain?
Neloth: "I hate that rabid dog! It should be sent to the dog pound! Along with the Scamp!"
no subject
Date: 2024-10-02 04:47 am (UTC)From:Oh, thank you! Now I have the option to have Rey come by now and then for brief visits. :)
Now what would a donkey and a rat be plotting? Is this a variation of Pinky and the Brain?
LOL Yep, that's it; a special Elder Scrolls version.
Neloth: "I hate that rabid dog! It should be sent to the dog pound! Along with the Scamp!"
When I was getting that screenshot ready for upload I realized that Neloth has another long-haired antlered Bosmer to hate. At least Thorinor doesn't lurk in the shadows waiting for opportunities to beat Neloth up. :)