Chapter 1, In Which The Dovahkiin is Almost Eaten by Bears

A distant roaring echoed through the valley as Alduin the World Eater unleashed his wrath on Helgen. A young man dressed in Imperial uniform stumbled down the road, feet dragging behind him. His breath sounded ragged in his ears and the fresh wounds on his face seemed to pulse with every heartbeat. His helmet was missing, and his dark hair plastered to his skull with blood and dirt.

Roheryn couldn't believe this was happening. One moment he had been standing on guard duty, the next that- that- demon had appeared and blown apart the wall he had been standing on. After that, it had been chaos- he had been fighting to escape from underneath the rubble. He bit his lip as he remembered being trapped beneath a good-sized portion of the wall. By all rights, he should have been dead. And oh gods, that was what had happened to poor Tullo, who had been on guard with him. The man shook his head to rid himself of the memory. Tullo had become a friend, and the thought of a friend dying in such senseless destruction-

The pain in his face flared up. He groaned and fell to his knees. The drop jarred his bruised ribs and his vision nearly blacked out. He hadn't truly dared to inspect himself yet, but he could guess at the damage. Broken ribs, serious lacerations in his face- he was lucky his eye was still intact. But there was no time for healing.

The overwhelming need to get away from Helgen was far too powerful.

Moving forward was a struggle, but somehow he managed. Roheryn wasn't sure how long he had walked by the time he finally collapsed against a tree, but he was relieved to finally be able to rest. He couldn't hear the roaring anymore. He looked up, and saw that the tree he was sitting against still had most of its leaves. Good, it would provide cover.

Exhaustion overtook him. Tomorrow he would worry about getting to Whiterun.

Roheryn realized just what a bad idea it had been to fall unconscious in unknown territory barely an hour later. It was the curious sniffling that awoke him. He drowsily opened his eyes, only to find himself eye to eye with a humongous bear. He barely managed to stifle a shriek. Then his soldier training kicked in. With a single movement, he drew his sword and swung it at the bear. It was a clumsy movement hindered by his injuries, but it did the trick. The bear reared up and away, roaring in surprise.

Roheryn ignored his screaming ribs and instinctively tapped into his Magica. Flames appeared in the palm of his hand, ready to burn his opponent. Then Roheryn pointed his sword at the bear and shouted: 'IF YOU GET ANY CLOSER, I WILL ROAST YOU ALIVE!'

The bear tilted its head and looked almost… puzzled. Then it roared again. Roheryn didn't even flinch and was very proud of that fact, until the roar was answered and a second bear came out of the shrubbery.

Well. Damn.

So here he was, about to faint, covered in blood from head to toe and cornered by two gigantic bears. Oh scratch that, he thought, as a third huge shape appeared in the clearing, three bears. Great, just perfect.

The first bear landed roughly on four legs, making the ground shake. With a laughably nonchalant sweep of its claw, it swept Roheryn's sword right out if his hand. In return, Roheryn sent a great gust of flames towards his head. Or that had been the plan, anyway. What came out instead was a frankly pathetic little puff of flames that barely made the bear blink. Oh. No Magicka left.

Just as he realized what an utterly pathetic way to die this would be, the third bear suddenly roared in a peculiarly human voice. There was a flash of metal and the second bear yelped in pain. Roheryn wanted to see what was happening, but the first bear kept him from seeing. It had turned towards the commotion and roared angrily at whatever the third bear as doing. The bear charged, but with another flash of metal, its head fell clean off.

Roheryn felt faint. The third bear wasn't a bear at all. It was a man, wielding a huge ebony warhammer. A huge man with a wild grin, who actually seemed quite happy to find a half-dead Imperial and two bears in the woods. The man wiped the blood of his warhammer and placed it back in the sheath between his shoulder blades. He was a Redguard, judging from his dark skin and muscular frame. His dark hair was cropped short and two friendly, mis-matched eyes looked out from a powerful face. Scars around his nose and lips and deep red warpaint around his left eye gave him a fierce look belying his friendly smile.

'Can you stand?' The man suddenly asked. Roheryn's brain was having trouble keeping up. First dragons, then bears, and now a man who felled two bears with only a few blows of his axe. Was it possible for this day to get any stranger?

'I- err- I don't think' Roheryn tried to sit up. 'No, no standing up, definitely not.'

The man crouched down in front of him and frowned. 'That looks painful.' He pointed at Roheryn's midriff. Roheryn followed his eyes and realized that there appeared to be a hole in his chest. Ah. So that was where his magica had disappeared off to. It had been too busy healing that injury to conjure up flames as well.

Well. This seemed as good a time as any to faint again.