Chapter 1: Helgen

The carriage hit a rock, and the resulting bump awoke a young man from his slumber. Painful, slumber, as he soon finds out.

'Darn, my head...' he thought. 'Why does it hurt?'

Taking a second to straighten out and open his eyes, and to his distaste being blinded by the light, his eyes having become unaccustomed to the luminescence of the world after being unconscious for however long. Taking a shaky breath, he looked around his environment and found himself surrounded by an army of pine trees, towering over him diligently and they themselves being watched over by the looming mountains dusted with snow all the way down to their feet. The world seemed to have a tendency to make people feel quite small. Speaking of people...

"You're finally awake" stated a man sitting opposite to our protagonist. A quick glance would reveal him to be a Nord of their race's regular stature with flowing blond hair, a part of which was tied into a braid on his left side. He appeared to be wearing some sort of blue padded leather armor over a chain mail, though it didn't reach down to his elbows, leaving arms exposed to the elements.

"You were trying to cress the border and caught in an Imperial ambush, just like us and that thief over there" he explained, nodding his head in the direction of a skinny fellow of a darker skin tone who sat on the other side of the wagon, his hands bound, and his head slumped down in defeat. In fact, looking over to the Nord opposite him, he too was bound. Looking at his own hands;

'Ah, me too? This complicates things...' he thought.

The fourth companion was also bound and gagged for some reason.

'Do they not want him to talk to othe... No, otherwise they would have gagged me and the talkative guy as well' he contemplated.

"Darn Stormcloaks, the Empire was nice and lazy until you came along. I could have stolen that horse and been half way to Hammerfell now" the thief accused. Then turned to our hero. "Hey, you and me; we shouldn't be here, its these guys that-"

"How about we introduce ourselves to one another?" our character proposed. "As much as I agree with you, simple civility principles makes it awkward for me to only recognise my interlocutors by their faces. For starters, I'm Vincent or simply Vince if I like you enough to call me that" Vincent stated.

The Nord opposite Vince smiled and introduced himself as Ralof. The thief in turn admitted to his name beeing Lokir.

Vincent sat up more proudly and said "Great, now that this is out of the way, do either of you know who this may be?" Vincent turned to the final brother in binds. A rich individual, if the blue garments lined with a fur collar were anything to go by. Vince turned to Ralof expecting a better explanation from him rather than the lowlife.

"That my friend-" Vince wanted to say that they weren't on that basis yet but kept him mouth shut for now "-is Ulfric Stormcloak, True High King of Skyrim. Leader of our glorious rebellion!" Ralof proclaimed proudly, adding grandiose to his voice. To this Vincent raised an eyebrow ever so faintly, skeptically but with amusement thinking to himself 'Leading a rebellion? From here? Yes truly amazing.' And them it hit him; the Ulfric Stormcloak!? But, if the Empire caught them and put them on the same carriage-

"-ut if they caught you, oh Gods, where are they taking us?" Lokir seemed to share his thought. Vincent put him aside and noted him as a smarter-that-he-looks fellow.

Of course, being the valorous Nord that Ralof was, he said "I don't know, but Sovngarde awaits"

Within fifteen minutes, during which Vincent delighted himself with the environment around him, enjoying the songs of the birds perched up above them, they saw a little town behids the trees. At the same time he shivered from the biting cold of Skyrim. The rags that the Imperials put on him weren't the warmest apparel he could think of. But enough of that. His attention was immediately drawn to a figure sitting upon a steed. He wore something akin to the regular Imperial armor but it was solid leather in the shape of a human chest with a draconic pattern decorating the front. His old face oozed authority but by the look in his eyes, he was clearly not a patient man who wanted this fiasco to be done and dusted... by yesterday. General Tullius, as the soldiers referred to him, that got Vincent interested, turned to...

'Ugh, the Thalmor. Of course they're here. They have to meddle into every affair that doesn't belong to them, especially when it doesn't belong to them'

Soon, the carriages stopped and all of its passengers were forced to step out. Immediately, two Imperials, one of them a Nord, the other a Cyrodili wearing an officer's armor, walked up to them with a list, telling them to walk up to the block when their names are called out. This seemed to amuse Ralof, in a grimly manner.

Lokir turned out to be a coward and ran despite it being obvious to anyone that he would not make it far.

'Scratch that,' thought Vince 'he was not one of those smarter-than-they-look kind.'

Finally, the soldier with the list demanded his name from him. To which Vincent obliged.

Hadvar looked at the prisoner in front of him. It was a figure with lean musculature, although that could be due to his height of 6'2'' with magnolia coloured skin, mid length hair that was swept backwards and to the side, reaching just behind his ears. Said hair was of an odd shade, being somewhere between dirty and golden blond, but nonetheless being accentuated by his emerald green eyes which were full of vigour and life and intelligence to boot. He appeared to be young but it was hard to tell as his beard, which in colour was identical to his hair, that spanned from his hair to his chin and around his mouth, all of which seemed so neat it looked combed whilst retaining that wild curl. But his race was unidentifiable. Nord? Cyrodili? Too tall for a Breton. Definitely not Redguard.

Looking down at the list again, searching for a matching name in vain, he came to the conclusion that Vincent was not on the list. To this, the Captain scoffed and decided that he was fit for being shortened by a head.

'Oh, you will regret that, woman' Vincent thought. Though looking at the block and the executioner's axe, he doubted that his mental machination would ever come to transpire.

Suddenly, a roar of a mighty beast of unknown kind, for none present have ever heard such a sound, ripped through the sky, down to the bone of every mortal who heard it. And yet, the Imperials in their endless arrogance waved it off without a thought. Yet Vincent's years of travel taught him caution and his special senses were tingling. He could not shake off the impending feeling of doom. Once it was his turn to be decapitated, the roar sounded again only this time much closer. With a steady stride towards his end, he looked back at his only acquaintance, Ralof, and decided that he was not going to give the sneering bitch any satisfaction. Once she approached him to shove him to the ground he glared at her and informed her "I am very much capable of doing this myself, thank you very much. I do not need any help in being unjustly executed without trial, at least not from someone who is as incompetent at following the laws as you." Following which he placed his head on the block, ignoring the stench of blood of the previous man, a Stormcloak, and gazed up at his executioner with challenge in his eyes. This however, didn't last long. For a third roar tore through the skies, this time revealing its owner. And Vincent's eyes turned from rebellious, to shocked, to hysteric.

A/N: Hello readers! This will be my first story on this website and decided that this fandom will be my first port. Please understand that I try to spot all mistakes but I'm only human; if you spot any feel free to point them out in the comments.

As for the story, I would like to say that I have made a few tweaks to the Universum of The Elder Scrolls.

Firstly, Skyrim will be a bit bigger than in the game. Not huge, just not as small. You'll notice that I made the carriage ride last about 15 minutes, not 3, by increasing the distance they would have to travel.

Secondly, this fic will include Lore Friendly mods like Immersive Armors (not all of them, but just enough to add variation and realism) and some character mods to enrich the environment.

All other additions will be Lore friendly, derived from the books that may be found In-Game.

I intend to write every Wednesday, but my schedule is not fixed so there may be instances when I won't update. I will try to rectify this by posting two days later on a Friday but as aforementioned, this is not a promise. I will also try to keep the chapters about 1,000 to 2,000 words long.

Finally, whilst I have a decent idea of where I want to take this story and what characters to include, feel free to PM me with your own OCs (but be aware that I will only accept 3 or 4, and that they will not necessarily be intrinsic to the story, acting more like side characters most of the time) and they will be accepted selectively, not on a first come first served basis.

Hope you enjoy, please comment and follow!