Fin's fifth entry

The evening proceeded, three four five bottles of mead uncapped and shared, I had to hold onto my flagon with both hands not to slide off my stool. My fellowship was more than commonly generous and I had yet to tie up my own purse which was a slight relief because on my long travel to Riften, I had had to stop at more than one place to rest and beds aren't cheap for 'outsiders'. Little does it help that I've lived in Skyrim nearly my entire life, it's the ears. I wasn't quite sure of how much I had left on me and even though I did carry a handful for gemstones on me, I wasn't too keen on having to pay my drinks with them, that would just be an inch too cheap. But apparently it was never necessary because my elven brother kept and I exchanged stories for hours, mine of iron and blood, his of wealth and boredom. There was something rather compelling about his telling of becoming fed up with the stuffed up plutocrat's life so much that he joined up with a band of thieves, not for the sake of gaining riches but to escape the dullness. There was too something alluring about the way he told of how he had too left his fiancée, an apparently beautiful countess, and how he couldn't hide a malicious smile when he told of her face absolved in tears. During this part of his story, I noticed to myself that I had grabbed hold of his bow that was leaned against his stool. As well as serving as a finely placed supporting cane that reassured that I wouldn't just slip off my seat and unnecessarily embarrass myself, it had a certain cool to it that spread to my fingers as I ran them up along its upper shaft with my fingertips only brushing over it gently. Around 4am or so the crowd was thinning out and us two Bosmer were the only ones left in the Bee and Barb save the priest of Mara who was half asleep on a wooden bench anyway. It had grown increasingly harder for me to keep sat up straight, so much that when I tipped over and landed with my head in my company's lap, I didn't have a chance of getting back up again and therefore stayed there. I looked up at him with a stare that must have seemed quite silly and for the first time, as I could see up under his hood from here below, I saw his eyes which revealed that he wasn't exactly sober either. I clutched my hand around his bow and opened my mouth to suggest I paid for my own drinks or at least for a bed for the night, or what was left of it, but he politely cut me off. "I think you are going to need somewhere to stay for the night." I must have spent far too long pondering about how that even made sense, since we were already in an inn, because he slipped his arm round my back and lifted me up as one would a little child or a precious pet. He nodded to the still as awful looking Argonian inn keeper as he flung a few septims on the counter before carefully placing his hand on my back and guiding me towards the exit door of the inn.

- Fin Larksong