White...

White stone, it was extremely noticeable in this sea of green grass, now you had an idea.

"Nacius?"

Nacius stops Whiterun and chuckles.

"Yes, love?" He replies

"Are we going to be eating in a ruin?" You ask.

"Hey, it's not just a ruin, it's an Ayleid ruin, built when my people were slaves." He says.

"Get us closer, Sanna wants to see it!" You say.

Whiterun began moving towards the ruin, you and Nacius hold your hands out, swatting away at the tree branches until you break through the trees. Standing before you is a statue of an elf with a giant eagle on his back, over the ages it seems that vines have crept their way up the base of the statue, the intricate carvings at the base of the statue is now obscured by moss. Bits of the ruins are strewn about the area, you can't tell what's what, as the purpose of the structures can't be easily guessed.

"You weren't lying." You say, staring out at the ruins.

"It's pretty, right?" Nacius asks.

"Pretty!? It's beautiful, Sanna has never once seen a ruin like this before." You respond.

"Elsweyr doesn't have any of these just lying around?" Nacius asks.

"Sanna has no clue, she had heard rumors of some elven ruins along the border with Valenwood, but she has never seen such structures..." You respond.

Whiterun gets closer to the ruins, you pass under the statue, it's massive shadow hanging over you.

"How big is this place?" You ask.

"No clue, I've only seen what's on top, it goes underground." Nacius responds.

You wanted to see what was underneath, what wonders could be found in such a place? Ancient artifacts? Millions of questions began rolling around in your brain.

"See anywhere you want to sit down at and eat?" Nacius asks, getting your attention.

You look around the area, you consider a few spots that looks wonderful to be at, but you were already under this beautiful statue, so you figured you'd set things up under the shade.

"Let's sit under this statue here." You say.

"Perfect, nice and shaded." Nacius responds.

Nacius slides off of the horse, you follow after. You set the roast down at the base of the statue and help Nacius retrieve things from the saddlebags, a thin, ragged looking blanket, the wine and the pewter goblets, and the pastries. Nacius spreads the blanket out on the ground and you set all of the food on the base of the statue before going to assist Nacius with flattening out the blanket. You take a quick moment to just look at everything once again, it amazed you that something so beautiful could be buried in the trees.

"Elsweyr has to have ruins right?" Nacius asks, retrieving some of the food.

"It does, but nothing like this, Orcrest is close to a few old Akaviri tombs." You say, placing the roast on the blanket and taking a seat.

"Akaviri? I've never seen anything Akaviri before." Nacius says.

"It's not as beautiful as this, if you like carvings of serpents and dark stones, you'll enjoy them, Sanna just sees them as old and dusty." You reply.

"You don't see this place as old and dusty?" Nacius asks, taking a seat next to you.

"No, it's bright, beautiful, it looks so clean despite it being so old and buried in the forest." You reply.

"Well, from what I've read, those old elves wanted everything to be clean and perfect, I hear that some Altmer still act like that." Nacius says.

"Well, those ancient elves did a damn good job, at least in Sanna's opinion." You say.

Nacius inches a bit closer to you and wraps his arm around your waist, you smile and give him a quick peck on the cheek.

"We gonna dig in?" Nacius asks.

"Sanna's hunger pangs vanished when she saw this place, but she is still hungry, let's eat!" You respond.

Nacius reaches for the roast and begins to unwrap it, the smell instantly hit your nostrils and your hunger pangs came back.

"Still warm!" Nacius says, surprised.

Nacius pulls his dagger out of his boot and cuts off a small slice, taking a bite.

"Gods, that's really good." He says.

"That orc knows what he is doing, Sanna wonders how long he will be staying in Skingrad." You say.

Nacius cuts off two bigger pieces and hands you one.

"No cutlery?" You ask.

"Forgot, sorry." He apologizes.

You take a bite of the roast, and smile.

"Sanna doesn't mind, she is used to eating with her hands, you think she could afford cutlery like one of you noble imperials?" You say sarcastically with a mouthful of food.

"Gods, I can't believe I have to eat my food like one of you lowly savages." Nacius responds sarcastically.

The two of you laugh for a moment and Nacius takes a bite of the roast.

"Woah Nacius, you started to sound like a Dunmer for a moment there." You joke.

"Plenty of Imperials who think like that too unfortunately." He responds, mouth full of food.

"Well, Sanna hasn't met these Imperials yet, fortunately." You say before taking another bite.

"Like I was saying earlier, be glad you didn't cross into Leyawiin, that's where those type of Imperials congregate." Nacius says.

"Sanna is still bothered about the whole **** thing you told her about." You say.

"That actually happened, the news was surprisingly not talked about, which boggles my gods damned mind." Nacius says, reaching over to the bottle of wine.

"Really!? Such news should create an uproar! Sanna never heard of this in Elsweyr, did the empire not want the Khajiit to know?" You ask.

Nacius puts his slice of roast in his mouth and pours two goblets of wine, handing you one. He takes another bite and swallows it before speaking again.

"Well, after the crisis, I've noticed that a lot of people just grew apathetic, I assume that the end of the Septim lineage had a big part in that." Nacius replies.

"And the red mountain?" You ask.

"That too, I think too many bad things happened with no real break, it's made people not care." He says.

"People are too busy trying to live day to day life to really care what happens outside back in Orcrest, Sanna can't speak for the other cities." You say, eating the last of your slice of roast.

"Are you the apathetic type?" Nacius asks.

"She was back in Orcrest, everyone is like that back in that dreadful city. But after she started planning on going to Cyrodiil, she found a purpose, and well, now that she has you, she found something to care about." You say, smiling.

Nacius blushes and takes a drink.

"Well, I'm honored that you care." He says.

You curl your tail around his waste which makes him laugh. You take a drink and look up at the statue.

"Who is the person depicted on the statue? Do you know?" You ask.

"I haven't got a clue, some hero, a god, who knows." He replies.

Nacius leans forward and picks up the dagger.

"Want another slice?" He asks.

You nod and Nacius cuts another two big slices, handing one to you, half the roast was gone now, you where still feeling quite hungry. You take a big bite out of it and look around while your chewing, the wind caused the grass to look like the ocean with how it moved.

"Gods, I might just run back to Skingrad and buy this guys entire stock, this is great." Nacius says.

"Right? Sanna wonders how long he's going to be in town for."

Nacius takes another generous bite.

"Well, he'll probably move on when everything is gone." Nacius says, mouth muffled with meat.

You chuckle at him for a moment and the two of you silently enjoy your meals, you listen to the birds and the wind while looking at the ruins, Nacius cut away some more slices as you two would finish what you had, soon enough , you began to feel full. You finish the slice you have currently and let out a sigh.

"Sanna thinks she is done, she feels full." You say.

Nacius nods with his mouth still full of the roast, he swallows it and clears his throat.

"Yeah, there's still some left, you figure we could save it somehow?" Nacius asks.

"Just wrap up whats left, we'll figure something out when we get back, plus there's not much left of it." You reply.

Nacius wraps up what's left of the roast and takes finishes his wine, you follow suit and finish yours, handing him the goblet.

"I'm assuming you're going to wait on desert then?" Nacius asks.

"For sure, keep them wrapped, Sanna will break into one of those pastries tonight." You say with a chuckle.

Nacius put everything off to the side and then he leaned back against the statue, putting his hands behind his head and letting out a sigh.

"I'm going to miss you, you know that?" He says.

You look at him, then curl up into him, resting your head on his chest.

"You think Sanna won't?" You ask.

"I know you will, it makes this whole thing feel so much worse..." He replies.

The two of you sit there for a while, he occasionally pets your head, making you instinctively purr, making him laugh.

"Oh come on, you know Sanna can't control it!" You say.

"I know, I know, I'm just not used to it, it's cute." He replies.

"Jer vara ma'i!" You curse in your native tongue.

Nacius recoils and begins laughing even harder.

"That's new! Is that your language?" He asks

"Sanna thought it would scare you, looks like it did the trick." You say laughing.

"What in oblivion did you say?" He asks, face red from laughter.

"Sanna just called you childish, nothing bad." You respond, a smug look on your face.

"I'll take your word for it, you could say that I bugger sheep and I'd be none the wiser." He says.

You chuckle.

"That would be Jekosiit, love" You respond.

Nacius lets out a hearty laugh, it was clear that he found you talking back in your native tongue amusing, you feel like you should do this more, maybe teach him some things while you're at it.

"Watch yourself Nacius, Sanna will just start speaking ta'agra at random and it's up to you to decipher what she is saying."

"Come on, really?" He asks, face still red from laughter.

"Jat, daba do draqo ali dela" You say, smiling.

"Can you at least translate that for me?" He asks.

You sigh.

"Fine, I just said it will be a good way to learn... You know, for our future trip to Senchal." You respond.

"Gotcha, don't know how well I'll be able to pick it up, I tried learning Dunmeri once, couldn't figure any of it out." He says.

"Well, Sanna is still going to do it, she'll go easy on you though, don't you worry about that love." You say, chuckling.

The two of you relax in each others arms for a while, Whiterun was pacing around the two of you, Nacius made sure that he was always in eye sight. You heard the wind and the birds chirp around you, the smell of grass graced your nose, you where in bliss, simple as...