"Ugh, my head… where…where am I?" She thought to myself
She looked up to see a blond and two brown-haired Nord men all bound at the wrists, like her, except the brown-haired Nord beside her was also gagged. The blond haired Nord was looking down the road when she realized that they were in a cart.
"What am I doing here? Last thing I remember, I was about to cross the border back into Skyrim. I had heard a twig snap, but before I could turn to look, everything went black. Ugh!, oh my head hurts badly. I'm guessing I was attacked from behind. But where are we heading?" She thought
She look over at the blond haired Nord and saw he was wearing some sort of blue armor that looked really familiar. And the brown-haired Nord was dressed in fancy clothes. The other brown-haired Nord was dressed the same as her. That's when realization hit her.
"That armor… I remember now. It's a Stormcloak uniform. That's right, a group of rebel Nords who call themselves Stormcloaks, led by Ulfric Stormcloak, the jarl of Windhelm, who killed the high king with the voice. It's a shame; the man looks so full of life. The guy wearing fancy clothes beside me must me some nobleman who happened to be to doing some bad things and got caught. That other Nord must be a thief. I can see it in his face, the face of an experienced taker of other people's belongings. Not that I really care. Sometimes you got to do what you can to survive. I don't really judge. But wait a sec… aw damn it. My stuff is gone. The bastards who knocked me out must have taken them." She thought
"So, you're finally awake." The blond Nord said to her
She nodded a little
"You were trying to cross the border right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us and that thief over there."
"Called it" She nodded again, smiling on the inside at the fact that her guess was correct about the brown haired Nord.
"Damn you Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along; the empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn't been looking for you, I could have stolen that horse and be halfway to Hammerfell." The brown haired Nord spat, "You there"
She was trying to figure out where in Skyrim we were when his voice caught her attention. She turned to look at him
"You and me, we shouldn't be here. It's those Stormcloaks the empire wants." He said
"We're all brothers and sisters in the binds now, thief." The blond replied
"Shut up back there" the driver snapped at us.
"Bastard" She thought to myself
"What's wrong with him, huh?" The other Nord asked
"Watch your tongue. You're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King!" the blond snapped at him
"Really? This guy is Ulfric Stormcloak? Huh, looks like I might have been wrong about him. He's not so powerful if he can't prevent himself from being caught by voiceless soldiers." She thought
"Ulfric? The Jarl of Windhelm? You're the leader of the rebellion. But if they've captured you… oh gods, where are they taking us?" the brunette Nord asked worried
"I don't know where we're going, but Soverngarde awaits." The blond replied
"No, this can't be happening! This isn't happening!" The brown- haired Nord started up
After a moment of silence, the blond broke the uneasy tension.
"Hey, what village are you from, horse thief?"
"Why do you care?"
"A Nord's last thoughts should be of home" the blond replied
"Well said" She thought
"Rorikstead. I'm…I'm from Rorikstead." The thief replied
"Huh… Rorikstead. That's more than a week's journey from Solitude. No wonder I never met the man."
In the distance, she heard one of the imperial soldiers call out to the General who was on horseback.
"General Tullius, sir! The headsman is waiting!"
"Good, let's get this over with" A man's voice replied
"Oh joy" She sarcastically rolled her eyes, though not speaking a word as they started entering through one of the entrances into what now she recognized as Helgen.
Soon, the horse thief began praying to the gods.
"Shor, Mara, Dibella, Kynareth, Akatosh. Divines, please help me" He begged up at the sky
"Ha! As if the Divines would concern themselves with a trivial affair such as this. Besides, we were meant to one day become part of Atherius. Why not today? Of course, since he's a horse thief, he might end up in the void with the Daedra. Eh, whatever." She inwardly shrugged.
As the cart began to turn, she could see who she believed to be General Tullius on a horse facing another horse rider, who appeared to be an Altmer elf. Whether male or female, she could not say. She was not very good at being able to distinguish gender when it came to the elves. That is unless she could visually see a female elf's breasts or her the male's voice. After that, she was clueless. Since they were not close enough, she could not hear the elf's voice. The blond nord began to speak in a harsh tone.
"Look at him, General Tullius the Military Governor. And it looks like the Thalmor are with him. Damn elves. I bet they had something to do with this." He snarled
Getting a better look at the elf, she could then see the Thalmor armor they wore, confirming what Ralof had said. He had a right to snarl. The Thalmor have been causing massive trouble in Skyrim for quite a long time. And as everything went silent, except the sound of the horse trotting on the cobblestones and the cart rolling along behind, the blond nord soon began to speak more, except this time in a more nostalgic, reminiscing tone.
"This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here. Wonder if Vilod is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in. Funny, when I was a boy, Imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe." He remarked sadly
She dipped her head in silence, feeling exactly the same way as he. In Solitude, as a child, the high walls of the city and the sturdy structure of her old home would make her feel like she would be protected from any and all danger. And in Cyrodill, the Imperial City had a similar feeling to it.
As the cart continued to into the area where their last breath would be drawn, she could see the people beginning to either gather around to watch or shuffle their families into their homes, away from the future bloodshed. She heard a boy talking to his father.
"Who are they daddy? Where are they going?" the boy asked
"You need to go inside, little cub" the father replied
"Why? I want to watch the soldiers"
"Inside the house. Now" the father warned
"Yes father" the boy replied, sulking a bit.
"Oh come now. Best let the boy see what happens when you cross the imperials. Besides, it would toughen the boy up, make him stronger. Well, that is what I believe" she thought to herself
The carriage began to come to a stop as the imperial called to the horse with a 'whoa'. This was when the thief became more nervous as he spoke up.
"Why are we stopping?" He asked with a scared look in his eyes
"Why do you think? End of the line." The blond nord replied grimly
"Well…this is it. At least I got to see Skyrim one last time before I die. To others, I may look like I'm simply giving up and not even trying to get out of this. And they'd be right. For there is simply no point in resisting. I'll pass on with my dignity and pride intact. How my father would want it to be." She thought, taking a breath to calm her nerves that were involuntarily starting to shake.
"Let's go. Shouldn't keep the gods waiting for us." The blond remarked
She nodded at this, though the thief was having difficulty accepting it.
"No! Wait! We're not rebels!" The thief began to beg
"Ha, and yet we have the leader of the rebels and one of his subordinates in our very cart. Ironic." She inwardly laughed
"Face your death with some courage, thief" the blond commanded
"Please"
"You've got to tell them! We weren't with you! This is a mistake!" the thief continued
She looked around as the thief bantered to see a bunch of imperial soldiers in different parts of the village, some holding their weapons, some standing guard. She could see a priestess near General Tullius, and by the looks of it, she was a worshiper of Kynareth. She saw the executioner over by the tower with his axe and a black hood.
"Typical"
The captain then called out.
"Step towards the block when we call your name. One at a time" She ordered
Behind her, she heard the blond nord sigh.
"Empire loves their damn lists." He explained when she looked over.
She looked towards what he was looking at and saw a brown-haired nord holding a quill and paper. Although she understood what he meant, she couldn't help but feel that there was something between them that was beyond one being stormcloak and one being an imperial. The brown-haired nord called out the first name.
"Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm."
As Ulfric began to walk over towards where the block had been laid, Ralof spoke.
"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric" He said solemnly
The nord with the list continued with the names.
"Ralof of Riverwood"
"Ralof. So that's his name. Riverwood huh? Not too far from here" She thought
Ralof then started to walk in the same direction Ulfric had as the nord continued.
"Lokir of Rorikstead."
That was when things turned slightly ugly. Lokir continued to panic.
"No, I'm not a rebel! You can't do this!"
The foolish man actually thought he could escape by running away from the guards. The captain yelled in outrage.
"Halt!" She ordered
"You're not going to kill me!"
"Archers!" The captain commanded
Lokir continued to run as arrows rained down from the high buildings and pierced him left and right. He fell to the ground with a thud and did not so much twitch afterwards. She sighed
"Fool. Did he really think that would work?"
"Anyone else feel like running!" The captain dared
"I do. But that little show you just put on made me rethink my plans a bit" She laughed, her sense of humor never failing her
As she laughed to herself silently, she heard the brown-haired nord with the list call out to her.
"Wait. You there. Step forward." He commanded
She walked up to them with no slow step to trip her up. She looked at the man, not wanting to look at the woman and her cold eyes filled with venom. He looked at her with a slightly confused look.
"Who are you?" He asked in somewhat of a commanding tone.
The fact that they didn't know who she was wasn't surprising, since they knocked her out before getting any info out of her. But she was at a loss. Should she tell them who she is? Would it really matter since they were going to chop off her head? After less than a minute, she came to a conclusion.
"I am Phoenix of Solitude" She replied