That smell carried on the wind from the south... pine and lavender. Monilee barely remembered the dream; indeed, she had forgotten most of it by the time she was fully out of the river, but the smells stayed with her. 

 

As the memory pulled at her with greater and greater vigor, Monilee stopped short of Whiterun's outer gate. She turned to her doppelganger, ready with a question, and then stopped short.

 

"Dibella's breath, what happened to you?"

 

Out of the gloom and under the light of the gate lanterns, she could see that her double was absolutely drenched in blood.

 

 

"Oh," she laughed, "Had to make sure that bandit was dead, right?"

 

Monilee hadn't noticed before, but her doppelganger's voice was taking on a more and more male cast. Was this how she (he?) really sounded? Was she imitating Monilee before and getting tired of the act?

 

"What exactly are you?" she asked incredulously.

 

Her answer was surprising, completely unsurprising, and rather concerning in equal measure. Monilee's doppelganger was a daedra, formerly sworn to the service of Boethiah. Called He-Who-Destroys and She-Who-Erases, a dark and evil prince of Oblivion with reign over betrayal, and deception... but also inspiration. And, she explained, a little snake had whispered in her ear all about Monilee.

 

She digested that for a second, but then changed back to her original question. "What lies south of here, whence the wind blows?"

 

"Hmm," she mused for a second, "The white river, and beyond that lake Ilinalta. That way lies Falkreath Hold, by way of Riverwood and Helgen."

 

"Tell me... is there a stone bridge along the way?"

 

Her doppelganger paused and considered her, as if she could see right through her hood. "My, what an odd question. In fact there is - just one. At Riverwood. A little nothing of a village at the border post with Falkreath hold. Too small to even had it's own guards, I'm told. Probably the kind of place a girl could have some fun."

 

With a degree of effort, Monilee resisted the urge to scoff at that remark, but firmly said, "Alright, change of plans. We're going to Riverwood."

 

She expected her double to protest, but she just shrugged, "Fine by me. Whiterun isn't strictly my territory, anyway. No sense stirring the spider webs." 

 

The road to Riverwood took a winding course up into the hills overlooking the Whiterun plains. Pine trees and lavender were certainly both in abundance all around, and while the journey was mostly uneventful the pair still had to contend with trouble - naturally. One bandit, armed with a quarterstaff, managed to knock Monilee to the ground before her doppelganger and another traveler could drive her off. Getting back to her feet was a painful exercise, and she hoped she hadn't broken a rib.

 

 

In spite of the discomfort, the lights of the town soon came into view - and the bridge! Monilee was suddenly, completely sure this was the bridge from her dream. What purpose did the divines have in drawing her to this place? She took a moment to catch her breath while she contemplated this. Were all her misfortunes in the past days punishment for not proceeding to this place in haste? The divines' ways were unknowable, she accepted, no sense in dwelling on the past. 

 

Hungry, distracted, aching, and still lost in her ruminations about her fate, Monilee staggered into the Sleeping Giant Inn with her doppelgangar in tow. Judging by the "whoaaaa," emitted by the local drunk, a beaten and bruised traveler accompanied by a naked woman with her head in a bag wasn't the normal fare for this village. At this point, she didn't care; Monilee just wanted to lie down. It took the rest of her purse's contents, but Monilee could just pay for a night's rent. Tomorrow, she'd have to find the local merchant and sell some of her loot to restore her liquidity, but for now all she cared about was having a warm bed to sleep in.

 

Morning came, and Monilee found her aches greatly reduced. She left the inn and found herself witness to an altercation between a man who she assumed must be the town drunk (she'd seen him plastered the night before in the inn, and it looked like he was still well lubricated now) and a woman who she quickly gathered was the blacksmith's wife. Evidently her husband didn't take kindly to the attention, from the way he threatened to take off the man's head with his axe. Well, now Monilee knew who talk to first about turning her various treasures into coins. 

 

 

 

The smith, Alvor, was able to return some weight to Monilee's coinpurse and fix up her boots. While he worked, he also told her a bit about the town - though nothing that really piqued her interest. She was just as confused as before about what purpose lay in drawing her here. Monilee was tempted to ask a bit more about the altercation between his wife and the drunkard, but she thought better of butting into a stranger's affairs. Alvor was nice enough to point her to the general store across the way if she wanted to sell some of her other valuable, things he had little use for, and she took him up on the advice.

 

When she entered the Riverwood Trader, Monilee was greeted with the scene of an argument between the proprietor - one Lucan Valerius - and a pretty young woman. Evidently, a burglar had stolen a sculpture of a dragon claw, rendered in solid gold, from the store. Monilee wasn't quite sure why, but she found herself volunteering to help him find it. One thing led to another, and soon Camilla - Lucan's sister - was showing Monilee the way to a rough mountain path. At its end, she said, was Bleak Falls Barrow... and the golden claw. 

 

 

 

Test Report

Encountered an unexpected outcome during a sexlab sex event. While event was playing, "Fondle Thyself" animation from Toys triggered, interrupting only Monilee's sexlab animation; the rest of the scene continued and it did not kick Monilee out of the scene. Changing position (sexlab "o" hotkey) interrupted Fondle Thyself and Monilee returned to the Sexlab animation. Based on author feedback, this may have been an edge case related to animation timing -- will maintain as a watchlist item for further investigation if it happens again.