A Dance in Fire , Book V Content . " Soap ! The forest will eat love ! Straight ahead ! Stupid and a stupid cow ! " The voice boomed out so suddenly that Decumus Scotti jumped . He stared off into the dim jungle glade from which he only heard animal and insect calls , and the low whistling of wind moments before . It was a queer , oddly accented voice of indiscriminate gender , tremulous in its modulations , but unmistakably human . Or , at very least , elven . An isolated Bosmer perhaps with a poor grasp of the Cyrodilic language . After countless hours of plodding through the dense knot of Valenwood jungle , any voice of slight familiarity sounded wondrous . " Hello ? " he cried . " Beetles on any names ? Certainly yesterday yes ! " the voice called back . " Who , what , and when , and mice ! " " I ' m afraid I don ' t understand , " replied Scotti , turning toward the brambled tree , thick as a wagon , where the voice had issued . " But you needn ' t be afraid of me . My name is Decumus Scotti . I ' m a Cyrodiil from the Imperial City . I came here to help rebuild Valenwood after the war , you see , and now I ' m rather lost . " " Gemstones and grilled slaves . . . The war , " moaned the voice and broke down into sobs . " You know about the war ? I wasn ' t sure , I wasn ' t even sure how far away from the border I am now , " Scotti began slowly walking toward the tree . He dropped Reglius ' s satchel to the ground , and held out his empty hands . " I ' m unarmed . I only want to know the way to the closest town . I ' m trying to meet my friend , Liodes Jurus , in Silvenar . " " Silvenar ! " the voice laughed . It laughed even louder as Scotti circled the tree . " Worms and wine ! Worms and wine ! Silvenar sings for worms and wine ! " There was nothing to be found anywhere around the tree . " I don ' t see you . Why are you hiding ? " In frustration born of hunger and exhaustion , he struck the tree trunk . A sudden shiver of gold and red erupted from a hollow nook above , and Scotti was surrounded by six winged creatures scarcely more than a few inches long . Bright crimson eyes were set on either side of tunnel - like protuberances , the animals ' always open mouths . They were legless , and their thin , rapidly beating , aureate wings seemed poorly constructed to transport their fat , swollen bellies . And yet , they darted through the air like sparks from a fire . Whirling about the poor clerk , they began chattering what he now understood to be perfect nonsense . " Wines and worms , how far from the border am I ! Academic garnishments , and alas , Liodes Jurus ! " " Hello , I ' m afraid I ' m unarmed ? Smoken flames and the closest town is dear Oblivion . " " Swollen on bad meat , an indigo nimbus , but you needn ' t be afraid of me ! " " Why are you hiding ? Why are you hiding ? Before I begin to friend , love me , Lady Zuleika ! " Furious with the mimics , Scotti swung his arms , driving them up into the treetops . He stomped back to the clearing and opened up the satchel again , as he had done some hours before . There was still , unsurprisingly , nothing useful in the bag , and nothing to eat in any corner or pocket . A goodly amount of gold ( he smiled grimly , as he had done before , at the irony of being financially solvent in the jungle ) , a stack of neat blank contracts from Lord Vanech ' s building commission , some thin cord , and an oiled leather cloak for bad weather . At least , Scotti considered , he had not suffered rain . A rolling moan of thunder reminded Scotti of what he had suspected for some weeks now . He was cursed . Within an hour ' s time , he was wearing the cloak and clawing his way through mud . The trees , which had earlier allowed no sunlight in , provided no shelter against the pounding storm and wind . The only sounds that pierced the pelting of the rain were the mocking calls of the flying creatures , flitting just above , babbling their nonsense . Scotti bellowed at them , threw rocks , but they seemed enamored of his company . While he was reaching to grab a promising looking stone to hurl at his tormentors , Scotti felt something shift beneath his feet . Wet but solid ground suddenly liquefied and became a rolling tide , rushing him forward . Light as a leaf , he flew head over feet over head , until the mudflow dropped and he continued forward , plunging down into a river twenty - five feet below . The storm passed quite as instantly as it had arrived . The sun melted the dark clouds and warmed Scotti as he swam for the shore . There , another sign of the Khajiiti incursion into Valenwood greeted him . A small fishing village had stood there once , so recently extinct that it smoldered like a still - warm corpse . Dirt cairns that had once housed fish by the smell of them had been ravaged , their bounty turned to ash . Rafts and skiffs lay broken , scuttled , half - submerged . All the villagers were no more , either dead or refugees far away . Or so he presumed . Something banged against the wall of one of the ruins . Scotti ran to investigate . " My name is Decumus Scotti ? " sang the first winged beast . " I ' m a Cyrodiil from ? The Imperial City ? I came here to help rebuild Valenwood after the war , you see , and now I ' m rather lost ? " " I swell to maculate , apeneck ! " agreed one of its companions . " I don ' t see you . Why are you hiding ? " As they fell into chattering , Scotti began to search the rest of the village . Surely the cats had left something behind , a scrap of dried meat , a morsel of fish sausage , anything . But they had been immaculate in their complete annihilation . There was nothing to eat anywhere . Scotti did find one item of possible use under the tumbled remains of a stone hut . A bow and two arrows made of bone . The string had been lost , likely burned away in the heat of the fire , but he pulled the cord from Reglius ' s satchel and restrung it . The creatures flew over and hovered nearby as he worked : " The convent of the sacred Liodes Jurus ? " " You know about the war ! Worms and wine , circumscribe a golden host , apeneck ! " The moment the cord was taut , Scotti nocked an arrow and swung around , pulling the string tight against his chest . The winged beasts , having had experience with archers before , shot off in all directions in a blur . They needn ' t have bothered . Scotti ' s first arrow dove into the ground three feet in front of him . He swore and retrieved it . The mimics , having likewise had experience with poor archers before , returned at once to hovering nearby and mocking Scotti . On his second shot , Scotti did much better , in purely technical terms . He remembered how the archers in Falinesti looked when he pulled himself out from under the hoarvor tick , and they were all taking aim at him . He extended his left hand , right hand , and right elbow in a symmetrical line , drawing the bow so his hand touched his jawline , and he could see the creature in his sight like the arrow was a finger he was pointing with . The bolt missed the target by only two feet , but it continued on its trajectory , snapping when it struck a rock wall . Scotti walked to the river ' s edge . He had only one arrow left , and perhaps , he considered , it would be most practical to find a slow - moving fish and fire it on that . If he missed , at least there was less of a chance of breaking the shaft , and he could always retrieve it from the water . A rather torpid , whiskered fish rolled by , and he took aim at it . " My name is Decumus Scotti ! " one of the creatures howled , frightening the fish away . " Stupid and a stupid cow ! Will you dance a dance in fire ! " Scotti turned and aimed the arrow as he had done before . This time , however , he remembered to plant his feet as the archers had done , seven inches apart , knees straight , left leg slightly forward to meet the angle of his right shoulder . He released the last arrow . The arrow also proved a serviceable prong for roasting the creature against the smoking hot stones of one of the ruins . Its other companions had disappeared instantly after the beast was slain , and Scotti was able to dine in peace . The meat proved to be delicious , if scarcely more than a first course . He was picking the last of it from the bones , when a boat sailed into view from around the bend of the river . At the helm were Bosmer sailors . Scotti ran to the bank and waved his arms . They averted their eyes and continued past . " You bloody , callous bastards ! " Scotti howled . " Knaves ! Hooligans ! Apenecks ! Scoundrels ! " A gray - whiskered form came out from a hatch , and Scotti immediately recognized him as Gryf Mallon , the poet translator he had met in the caravan from Cyrodiil . He peered Scotti ' s direction , and his eyes lit up with delight , " Decumus Scotti ! Precisely the man I hoped to see ! I want to get your thoughts on a rather puzzling passage in the Mnoriad Pley Bar ! It begins ' I went weeping into the world , searching for wonders , ' perhaps you ' re familiar with it ? " " I ' d like nothing better than to discuss the Mnoriad Pley Bar with you , Gryf ! " Scotti called back . " Would you let me come aboard though first ? " Overjoyed at being on a ship bound for any port at all , Scotti was true to his word . For over an hour as the boat rolled down the river past the blackened remnants of Bosmeri villages , he asked no questions and spoke nothing of his life over the past weeks : he merely listened to Mallon ' s theories of merethic Aldmer i esoterica . The translator was undemanding of his guest ' s scholarship , accepting nods and shrugs as civilized conversation . He even produced some wine and fish jelly , which he shared with Scotti absent - mindedly , as he expounded on his various theses . Finally , while Mallon was searching for a reference to some minor point in his notes , Scotti asked , " Rather off subject , but I was wondering where we ' re bound . " " The very heart of the province , Silvenar , " Mallon said , not looking up from the passage he was reading . " It ' s somewhat bothersome , actually , as I wanted to go to Woodhearth first to talk to a Bosmer there who claims to have an original copy of Dirith Yalmillhiad , if you can believe it . But for the time being , that has to wait . Summurset Isle has surrounded the city , and is in the process of starving the citizenry until they surrender . It ' s a tiresome prospect , since the Bosmeri are happy to eat one another , so there ' s a risk that at the end , only one fat wood elf will remain to wave the flag . " " That is vexing , " agreed Scotti , sympathetically . " To the east , the Khajiiti are burning everything , and to the west , the Altmer are waging war . I don ' t suppose the borders to the north are clear ? " " They ' re even worse , " replied Mallon , finger on the page , still distracted . " The Cyrodiils and Redguard s [ 1 ] don ' t want Bosmer refugees streaming into their provinces . It only stands to reason . Imagine how much more criminally inclined they ' d be now that they ' re homeless and hungry . " " So , " murmured Scotti , feeling a shiver . " We ' re trapped in Valenwood . " " Not at all . I need to leave fairly shortly myself , as my publisher has set a very definite deadline for my new book of translations . From what I understand , one merely petitions to the Silvenar for special border protection and one can cross into Cyrodiil with impunity . " " Petition the Silvenar , or petition at Silvenar ? " " Petition the Silvenar at Silvenar . It ' s an odd nomenclature that is typical of this place , the sort of thing that makes my job as a translator that much more challenging . The Silvenar , he , or rather they are the closest the Bosmeri have to a great leader . The essential thing to remember about the Silvenar - - " Mallon smiled , finding the passage he was looking for , " Here ! ' A fortnight , inexplicable , the world burns into a dance . ' There ' s that metaphor again . " " What were you saying about the Silvenar ? " asked Scotti . " The essential thing to remember ? " " I don ' t remember what I was saying , " replied Mallon , turning back to his oration . In a week ' s time , the little boat bumped along the shallow , calmer waters of the foaming current the Xylo had become , and Decumus Scotti first saw the city of Silvenar . If Falinesti was a tree , then Silvenar was a flower . A magnificent pile of faded shades of green , red , blue , and white , shining with crystalline residue . Mallon had mentioned off - hand , when not otherwise explaining Aldmeri prosody , that Silvenar had once been a blossoming glade in the forest , but owing to some spell or natural cause , the trees ' sap began flowing with translucent liqueur . The process of the sap flowing and hardening over the colorful trees had formed the web of the city . Mallon ' s description was intriguing , but it hardly prepared him for the city ' s beauty . " What is the finest , most luxurious tavern here ? " Scotti asked one of the Bosmer boatmen . " Prithala Hall , " Mallon answered . " But why don ' t you stay with me ? I ' m visiting an acquaintance of mine , a scholar I think you ' ll find fascinating . His hovel isn ' t much , but he has the most extraordinary ideas about the principles of a Merethic Aldmeri tribe the Sarmathi - - " " Under any other circumstances , I would happily accept , " said Scotti graciously . " But after weeks of sleeping on the ground or on a raft , and eating whatever I could scrounge , I feel the need for some indulgent creature comforts . And then , after a day or two , I ' ll petition the Silvenar for safe passage to Cyrodiil . " The men bade each other goodbye . Gryf Mallon gave him the address of his publisher in the Imperial City , which Scotti accepted and quickly forgot . The clerk wandered the streets of Silvenar , crossing bridges of amber , admiring the petrified forest architecture . In front of a particularly estimable palace of silvery reflective crystal , he found Prithala Hall . He took the finest room , and ordered a gluttonous meal of the finest quality . At a nearby table , he saw two very fat fellows , a man and a Bosmer , remarking how much finer the food was there than at the Silvenar ' s palace . They began to discuss the war and some issues of finances and rebuilding provincial bridges . The man noticed Scotti looking at them , and his eyes flashed recognition . " Scotti , is that you ? Kynareth , where have you been ? I ' ve had to make all the contacts here on my own ! " At the sound of his voice , Scotti recognized him . The fat man was Liodes Jurus , vastly engorged .