Unbound
First it was blurry. Then nothing. Then clear. I was clearly in a horse drawn carriage. My weary eyes slowly opened and looked around. There was a man dressed in rags, a man in blue garments, and a man with blue robes and a cloth around his mouth.
As I took another glance at the man in blue, he noticed I was awake.
"Ah, you are finally awake. Walked right into that ambush, same as myself and Jarl Ulfric!"
"Wait, what!?" the man in the rags spoke up, and I forced my tired head to look at him. "We are going to be executed! Ulfiric is the leader of the Rebellion! I'm not a rebel!"
"You," The guard driving the carriage spoke up "Shut up back there"
The man in rags did what he was told, and about a minute later they arrived. An Imperial soldier was taking a list of who was there.
"Ralof of Riverwood" Ralof got up and walked into the line at the chopping block.
"Lokir of Rorikstad"
Lokir then screamed "NO! I'M NOT A REBEL! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"
He ran.
"HALT!" screamed an Imperial General. "ARCHERS!"
The archers shot down Lokir without mercy.
I drearily walked up to the man.
"You there, who are you?"
I looked myself over. My tied arms were red due to the constraint. My legs were weak, and I hardly had strength to stand.
"My name is Larsin. I hail from Riften." It hurt to speak.
The Imperial looked to the captain. "Captain, what should we do? He's not on the list,"
"Forget the list, he goes to the block!" the captain replied.
"You picked a bad time to come home to Skyrim, kinsman."
As I walked up to the block, I watched a man get executed.
"As fearless in death, as he was in life..." said a Stormcloak
"Next, the Nord in the rags!" demanded the captain.
A sound blared throughout the sky.
"What was that?" asked an Imperial.
"I said, next prisoner!" yelled the captain.
"To the block prisoner, nice and easy," an Imperial directed.
As I suspensefully awaited for what I knew were my last moments, I saw something in the sky, and a roar pounded my ears. The executioner raised his axe. The winged beast, which can only be described as a dragon, landed on the tower behind him and knocked the executioner off of his feet. I got right up and glanced to my right.
"Kinsman, follow me!" It was Ralof.
With newfound energy, I hopped to his feet as best I could, a difficult task due to my bounds, and followed. We came to a tower, where Ulfiric Stormcloak was waiting.
"Jarl Ulfiric, could the legends be true?" Ralof asked.
"Legends don't burn down villages," replied Ulfiric.
"Kinsman, up the tower! Jarl Ulfiric, we will meet you when we can!" Ralof yelled.
As I approached the top of the tower, the dragon burst straight through the wall, rippling currents of dust everywhere. The rubble crushed and killed a stormcloak. I jumped backwards. I felt my heels wavering over the edge and started to fall backwards. Ralof grabbed my hand.
"You won't die today, not after all this!" he roared.
The new gaping hole in the side of the tower was a convenient exit point for us.
"Come on, Ralof!" I shouted.
"No. I will meet up with you at the keep." Ralof replied.
I nodded as I jumped out. The impact made my knees buckle and the burned floor began to break apart.
I didn't scream, but I allowed the rubble to consume me.
The floor finally collapsed and I saw stars. Finally, I managed to crawl out of the inn. My vision was blurred. I strained my eyes and looked to my right and saw the blurry outline of an Imperial Soldier and a boy. I staggered in the direction of them as my vision began to clear again.
"Haming , you need to get over her, right now!" yelled the soldier.
The boy ran behind a scorched house. A man in iron armor approached the boy and sheltered him. The dragon swooped down and shouted.
Yol. Toor. SHUL!
Fire came out of the dragons mouth and landed on the ground in front of him, barely missing the soldier.
"Still alive prisoner? Keep close to me if you want to stay that way!" said the soldier.
"Gods guide you Hadvar!" the man in iron armor said.
So the soldier was named Hadvar. Okay.
I followed Hadvar through a winding path past tons of commotion. I saw a mage shoot two fireballs at the dragon. They merely bounced off of the dragon's pelt. When we approached the keep, Ralof came through another gate.
"Ralof, you damn traitor. Out of my way!" Hadvar roared.
"We're escaping Hadvar, you're not stopping us this time!" Ralof replied.
"No. Not again. Your escape with fuel the war into a point of no return."
With that Hadvar charged. I lunged out of the way. Ralof, now sporting an axe, blocked the attack and stunned Hadvar with the butt of his weapon. Ralof then went in for the kill, slicing Hadvar's neck, which burst his jugular. Hadvar fell to the ground, bleeding to death, and in shock.
"Here, follow me and I'll get your binds off." Ralof said, shaken, "Hadvar and I used to be good friends. We grew up in Riverwood. That all changed when the war started."
Ralof led me into the keep and cut my bindings, just like he promised.
"Here. I took this armor off of a table before. Put it on over your rags." Ralof gave my the armor, much like the set he was wearing.
I put on the chain shirt, and as I was putting on the cloth, a shout came from the right.
"Imperials!" Ralof hissed, "Get down!"
I rushed over to the side of the wall, silent as ever. As the Imperials opened the door, Ralof pounced on the Imperials like a Khajiit. They were dead before they knew it.
"Why do you have to hate each other like that?" I asked.
"The Imperials are the ones who hate us. Ulfiric Stormcloak, our leader and true high king, killed the former high king, a man named Torygg, to claim his throne. The Imperials were sided with Torygg. They failed to protect him. Then the war started." Ralof responded, "Come on, we best get going while there's time,"
I nodded and followed Ralof through a twisting maze of bricks. We came to a torturer's chamber, where there were three dead Stormcloaks and one other dead person, presumably the torturer. Ralof showed no emotion and merely continued on. We went onwards until the stone bricks became a cave, and still they trudged on.
"By the Divines!" I shouted, "Spiders!"
There were five gigantic frostbite spiders, approaching fast. That meant I needed to think faster. I drew my axe and viciously swung, whilst Ralof charged another. I spun around and sliced the spider open. Suddenly I couldn't see, and searing pain coursed throughout his body. It was the venom. I issued a battle cry and blindly swung. When I could see again, Ralof was in front of me, panting, and there were plenty of dead spiders everywhere.
"What's next, giant snakes?" Ralof remarked.
I chuckled and they continued on. After sneaking past a bear, we found it. The almighty exit.
"I knew it was here!" Ralof said.
"Indeed it is," I replied.
As we walked out the sun shone bright as ever.
"Wait!" Ralof snapped.
I obeyed. The dragon from the old town, Helgen, flew overhead. We dropped to the ground and hoped that we weren't spotted.