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| Publication Date: | July 25, 2017 | ||
Meet the Character - Eerika Skjoralmor
by Torik
A letter penned by a loyal housecarl of Thane Eerika Skjoralmor
- Kark,
- You asked me once how I came to serve a whelp half my age. You meant it as an insult and I never gave you a reply in words, so I'll tell it to you now. While there's still time.
- I'd returned home from the victory over the Akaviri snakes a warrior of some renown. I pledged my sword to the Jarl, became a man of rank and consequence, and as reward my days were spent pacing the garrison walls. When an escort was needed for the Jarl's wife and young child to join him in Solitude for the crowning of High King Svargrim, I leapt at the chance to leave the hold.
- The journey looked to be every bit as dull a duty, until we left Rorikstead and the quiet was disturbed by a tremor. Wary, we brought our caravan to a halt and waited for some clearer sign of danger. A fatal mistake. In our hesitation, we'd stopped in the path of a stampeding herd of mammoths. They exploded from the treeline and tore through us without effort, upending our carts and trampling warriors underfoot. I managed to toss the Jarl's young daughter, Eerika, clear of danger as one injured beast toppled onto us in its death throws [sic], but her mother and I were not so fortunate. I came to, half buried under an avalanche of fur, to the enraged bellowing of a giantess as she swatted away the last of our escort from her herd. She locked eyes with me trapped under her butchered animal and I knew the end was upon me.
- As her shadow blotted out the light, I made my peace, not seeing that Eerika had climbed atop the mammoth. I tried to call out, but my warning was drowned out by a howl of anger from that tiny child that stunned even the towering figure before her. Whether it was fear or regret that gave the giantess pause, I cannot say, but she backed down in the face of that fearless whelp. Thanks to Eerika I survived that ill-fated encounter, but her mother was not so fortunate. With my legs crushed, I spent the remainder of our journey in the back of a cart, consoling Eerika as best I knew how, but she didn't need my pity. Her tears were hard as ice. In truth, she weathered the loss better than her father. As the Jarl steadily began to take his council from his cups, it fell on Eerika to carry the burden.
- At twelve she strode into the dens of bears to fight the famine of an early winter, by sixteen she chased Orc raiders from our hold with a handful of loyal blades, by nineteen she'd slaughtered the rampaging frost troll Raudhungr and earned her title as Thane by deed, not lineage. There's not a soul in Falkreath that doesn't owe Eerika their thanks and their lives. I am no exception. This hold endures because of the steel in that woman's spirit and we'll need every scrap of it in the days to come.
- There's thunder rolling over the mountains, but it's not rain that looms in the distance. The horns of the Reach signal the coming flood and again the tremor of misfortune's approach comes too late. This will likely be the last words you hear from me, so take them to heart when I say there's been no greater honor in my life than to serve Eerika Skjoralmor and there will be no more glorious death to ferry me to Sovngarde than any I meet at her side.
- Should we speak again, it'll be her you have to thank.
- Your brother,
- Torik
- Housecarl to Thane Eerika Skjoralmor