Flash Fiction February Day 10 Street Art (Talvas)

 Day 10 Street Art:

“What do those symbols mean?” Vilkas asks as I give him a little tour of Raven Rock. “They’re signs, each symbol corresponds to a specific character. That one on the sign there reads ‘alchemist’ though it might just look like a bunch of lines.” I explain, satisfied with the answer he does not ask any more questions, at least for a little while. While he can be a bit dismal or even just outright depressing at times I like him, though I spend more time around his brother, you can see the similar curiosity they have about the world around them, one is just more verbal in examining and hypothesizing about things while the other prefers to quietly look around. “Do you have anything like that in Skyrim?” I ask him and he shrugs “You’ve never been?” no, no I have not, and if Teldryn and Valan’s stories have even a grain of truth to them I would not like to. In answer to his question I shake my head, the only places I’ve ever been aside from Vvardenfell, the mainland of Morrowind, and now Solstheim are Summerset Isle when Neloth dragged me along to go visit another mage he knows, and to Cyrodiil once or twice with Valan. “Well, to answer your question…unless you count the word walls you sometimes find in Barrows that Anna can draw power from because of the whole dragonborn thing and pictures above a sign for an in that are only there to illustrate the point…no. Why? I don’t know, blame Tiber Septim for conquering everywhere except somewhat Morrowind I guess.” Linguistically, that would make sense, due to the treaty Morrowind remained relatively free even under Imperial rule, and as a result the dialects found in various regions survived. The two of us continue to wander around, we had started by the strange shrine that master Neloth has been curious about and observing and made our way into the town itself. At one point, outside of an abandoned house currently home to a couple of squatters, Vilkas stops and points to a picture painted on the side of the house. “And what is this?” I look at him, look at the picture, and back to him, slightly confused. “What, you’ve never seen street art?” I grew up in the middle of nowhere southern Vvardenfell and even I can recognize street art when I see it…by Azura, Skyrim must be boring.