9th of Heartfire 4E201
I was right. It was the next morning before I finally felt rested enough to wake up. Jenassa had already gotten up and ordered us some breakfast. I thanked her and ate, feeling very famished after having slept for so long. I also felt very dirty, so after breakfast we hurried and packed our gear so that we could get on the road. I wanted to get back to somewhere without so much snow so that I could finally have a bath. More Khajiit were outside of town, and a female was selling wares. Her name was Ahkari. I was about to sell her some of the things that I had found in the temple, but suddenly the other Khajiit drew their weapons. I wondered why, then I heard an all too familiar sound. I looked up, and a dragon was circling around Dawnstar. We managed to defeat it, with the help of the town guards and the Khajiit. The Khajiit had vanished, and I went to look for them to thank them for their help against the dragon. When I found them, they were fighting a frost troll nearby. Sadly, one of the miners that went with them to help got killed by the troll. I healed the survivors with my spell, and summoned my atronach to help with the troll. We all defeated him, and I made sure that they were all alright as we walked back towards the town. One of them, a male named Kharjo, told me that bandits harassed the caravan often during their journeys between towns, but that they usually scared them off. I asked if they had been giving them trouble lately, and he mentioned a skirmish that they had had not too long ago. One of the bandits had stolen his moon amulet. His mother had given it to him when he was just a cub, and it was his only memory of home in this cold land. I felt bad for him, and offered to get the amulet back for him. He said that was kind of me, and told me where they believed that the bandits made their home. He then asked me to be careful; although he missed his amulet, my life couldn't be replaced as easily as it could. When we got back to the dragon skeleton, I looted what I could from it, and sold what I didn't need to Ahkari. She told us goodbye, and hoped that our road would lead us to warm sands.

Along the road from Dawnstar, we met a trio of Thalmor. They all told me to move along, and that what they were doing didn't concern me. They also snidely called me "citizen". I remembered my oath to myself, and started loudly praying to Talos. They got angry and attacked us. We defeated them, and I took their armor and robes. I left them there by the side of the road as a message to any other Thalmor that came down this path. Oddly enough, I didn't feel bad killing them. They had not only started the Great War, which claimed thousands of lives, but they also dragged people off to "interrogate" them for worshiping a divine that they held dear to their heart. And on top of that, they were making the rest of the elves look bad.

At last, it was getting warmer! It was the middle of the afternoon by the time we got close enough to see Dragonsreach in the distance. I was so excited that I started jogging down the road, determined to finally have a bath in the river that ran near the town. About halfway there, there was an odd looking man standing in the road next to what seemed to be a broken down cart. As we got closer, he lamented that he was stuck, and said something about his poor mother being unmoving and at rest, but that she was too still. I asked him what was wrong. and he told me that poor Cicero was stuck, and that he was transporting his dear sweet mother's corpse to a new crypt, and his wagon wheel broke. His manner of speaking was rather odd, and I glanced over  at Jenassa to see what she thought about him. She was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. I asked him if there was any way that I could help, and he started dancing and said that of course I could help him. He asked me to go to the Loreius farm just up the hill, and convince Loreius to fix his wheel. Apparently Cicero had aslready asked him for help, but he refused. He promised that he would reward me with "gleamy shiny coin" for my help. I talked to Loreius, and he said that Cicero had already asked him for help many times, and wondered why he wouldn't leave them alone. I asked why he wouldn't help him, since he would surely pay them for their help. He scoffed and said that his reason had nothing to do with money. He said that Cicero was completely out of his head, and that there hadn't been a jester in Skyrim for a hundred years. He then went on to say that he doubted that it was his mother in the box in the wagon, and he thought it must be war contraband, weapons, or skooma. And he didn't want to get involved in anything illegal. I reminded him that he was a stranger who needed help, and asked him to do the right thing. He got flustered, and wondered who I was to come here and tell him his business. I tried again, persuading him that helping him was the right thing to do. He sighed and agreed that I was right. He needed help, and if he turned him away what kind of man was he? He apologized for his rudeness and asked me to tell Cicero that he would be down to help him soon after he gathered his tools together. Cicero was so happy that he started dancing again, and said that even his mother thanked me for my help. He then rewarded me with four-hundred septims. I thanked him and wished him better luck on the rest of his journey, and we continued on to the river to finally have a bath.

We managed to find part of the river that had a strip of land around it, to shield us from the strong current. There was a sabrecat on the middle of it, sitting near a chest. He didn't bother us, and I picked the lock on the chest, finding a few septims inside. Then we spent what seemed like hours bathing and washing all of our clothes. We laid the clothes out to dry on some rocks, and sat on the shore and had a light meal. It was nice to be somewhere warm again. I planned to stay in Whiterun tonight, then go and find Fellglow Keep tomorrow. Since it was near Valtheim Towers, we could also look there for the treasure shown on the map I had found.

I felt so much better as we walked to town after my bath. Jenassa said that it was the best bath she had ever had. Now we wouldn't have to worry about townfolk running away from our smell. I did some trading with Adrianne, and bought some more moonstone so that I could improve the rest of our armor. I also stopped by Belethor's shop to sell some things, and by Arcadia's to make more potions for us. I even made enough poisons to sell to her for a nice profit. I made enough to buy all of the ingredients that she had in stock, then sold more potions back to her to get all of my septims back. And I still had at least thirty to sell later. Alchemy was turning out to be a very profitable hobby. We then made our way to the inn to get dinner and a room for the night. Outside of the inn, a courier stopped me and gave me an invitation to a new museum that was opening up in Dawnstar. I thanked him, then read it as we walked into the inn. It said: "Silus Vesuius Presents The Museum of the Mythic Dawn A History of the Cult that Toppled the Septim Dynasty Inside of his very own home in the great capital of the Pale, Dawnstar Free and open to all citizens of Skyrim". I bought us some dinner, and showed the pamphlet to Jenassa as we ate. She thought it was strange, but admitted that she was a bit curious about what the museum could possibly contain, since the Mythic Dawn had been seemingly wiped out over two centuries ago. After dinner, I rented a room from Hulda, and we made small talk as she showed it to us out of habit. She told us goodnight, and said that it was good to see us again. Of all the beds I had slept in across Skyrim so far, the one here at the Bannered Mare was the most comfortable.