The Rear Guard Content . The castle would hold . No matter the forces , the walls of Cascabel Hall would never fail , but that was small consolation for Menegur . He was hungry . In fact , he had never been so hungry . The well in the atrium of the fortress supplied him with enough water to hold there until the Fourth Era , but his stomach reminded Menegur minute to minute that he needed food . The wagonload of supplies mocked him . When his army , the forces of the King of Solitude , had left Cascabel Hall , and he had manned the battlements as the rear - guard to protect their retreat , they had left a wagon behind to supply him with enough food for months . It was not until the night after they left that he inspected the larder and found that nothing edible was in the wagon . Trunk after trunk was filled with netch armor from the army ' s incursion into Morrowind . Apparently his Nord confederates had assumed that the lightly opaque material was hard tack in aspic . If the Dunmer whose caravan had been raided knew about this , they would never be able to stop laughing . Menegur thought that his fellow mercenary and kinswoman Aerin would have found this amusing as well . She had spoken with great authority about netch leather , being an expert of sorts on light armor , but she had made a point to mention that it could not be eaten like other leather in occasions of hardship . It was a pity she couldn ' t be there to enjoy the irony , Menegur thought savagely . She had returned to Morrowind even before the king ' s army had left , preferring a life as a wanted fugitive to a free existence in the cold of Skyrim . All the weeds in the courtyard had been devoured by the rear - guard ' s sixteenth day manning Cascabel Hall . The entire castle had been scoured : rotten tubers in the mulch pile found and consumed , a dusty bouquet in the countess ' s bedchamber eaten , almost every rat and insect but the most cunning infesting the castle walls had been tracked down and gobbled up . The castellan ' s chambers , filled with acrid , inedible law books , had yielded up a couple crumbs of bread . Menegur had even scraped moss from the stones . There was no denying it : he would be dead from starvation before his army returned to break the ranks of the enemies who surrounded the fortress . " The worst part , " said Menegur , who had taken to talking to himself on only the second day alone in the castle . " Is how close sustenance is . " A vast arbor of golden apples stretched acre after acre near the castle walls . The sunlight cast a seductive gleam on the fruit , and the cruel wind carried sweet smells into Cascabel to torture him . Like most Bosmer , Menegur was an archer . He was a master of long and medium distance fighting , but in close quarters , as he would be if he dared to leave the castle and enter the enemy camp in the arbor , he knew he would not last long . At some point , he knew he would have to try , but he had been dreading the day . It was upon him now . Menegur put on the netch armor for the first time , feeling the powdery , almost velvet texture of the rendered leather against his skin . There was also a barely perceptible throb , which he recognized as the remnant nematocysts of the netch ' s venomous flesh , still tingling months after its death with domesticated poison . The combination made him feel energized . Aerin had described the sensation perfectly , just as she had explained how to defend himself while wearing netch leather armor . Under cover of night , Menegur crept out of the back gate of the castle , locking it behind him with a rather cumbersome key . He made for the arbor as quietly as he could , but a passing sentry , coming behind a tree , saw him . Remaining calm , Menegur did as he remembered Aerin had instructed , only moving after the attack had been launched . The sentry ' s blade glided against the armor and knocked to the left , throwing the young man off balance . That was the trick , as he understood it : you had to be prepared to be hit , and merely move with the blow , allowing the membranous armor to divert the injury away . Use your enemy ' s momentum against him , as Aerin used to say . There were several more close encounters in the arbor , but each swing of an ax and each thrust of a sword found purchase elsewhere . With handfuls of apples , Menegur ran the gauntlet back to the castle . He locked the back gate door behind him and fell into an orgy of eating . For week after week , the Bosmer stole out to gather his food . The guards began anticipating his raids , but he kept his schedule irregular and always remembered when attacked to wait for the blow , accept it , and then turn . In such a way , he lived and survived his lonely vigil in Cascabel Hall . Four months later , as he was preparing for another seizure of apples , Menegur heard a loud clamor at the front gate . Surveying the group from a safe distance on the battlements , he saw the shields of the King of Solitude , his ally the Count of Cascabel , and their enemy the King of Farrun . Evidently , a truce had been called . Menegur opened the gates and the combined armies flooded the courtyard . Many of the knights of Farrun sought to shake the hand of the man they had named the Shadow of the Arbor , expressing their admiration at his defensive skills and apologizing good - naturedly for their attempts to slay him . Only doing their job , you know . " There ' s hardly a apple left on the vines , " said the King of Solitude . " Well , I started on the edges and worked my way in , " explained Menegur . " I brought back extra fruit to tempt the rats of out of walls so I could have a little meat as well . " " We ' ve spent the last several months working out the details of the truce , " said the King . " Really quite exhausting . In any rate , the Count will be taking back possession of his castle now , but there is a small detail we need to work out . You ' re a mercenary , and as such responsible for your own expenses . If you had been a subject of mine , things might be different , but there are certain old rules of law that must be respected . " Menegur anticipated the strike . " The problem is , " the King continued . " You ' ve taken a good deal of the Count ' s crops while here . By any reasonable computation , you ' ve eaten an amount equal to and likely exceeding your mercenary ' s wages . Obviously , I would not want to penalize you for the excellent job you ' ve done defending the castle in uncomfortable circumstances , but you agree that it ' s important that we observe the old rules of law , don ' t you ? " " Of course , " replied Menegur , accepting the blow . " I ' m delighted to hear that , " said the King . " Our estimation is that you owe the Count of Cascabel thirty - seven Imperial gold . " " Which I will gladly pay to myself , with interest , after the autumntide harvest , " said Menegur . " There is more left on the vine than you suggest . " The Kings of Solitude and Farrun , and the Count of Cascabel stared at the Bosmer . " We agreed to abide to the strictest old rules of law , and I ' ve had time to read a great many books over the time you were making your truce . In 3E 246 , during the reign of Uriel IV , the Imperial Council , in an attempt to clear up some questions of property rights in Skyrim during those chaotic days , decreed that any man without a liege who occupied a castle for more than three months would be granted the rights and titles of that estate . It ' s a good law , of course , meant to discourage absent and foreign landlords . " Menegur smiled , feeling the now familiar sensation of a glancing strike diverting . " By the rule of law , I am the Count of Cascabel . " The rear - guard ' s son still hold the title of Count of Cascabel . And he grows the finest , most delectable apples in the Empire .