Chapter I


"Eight Months"


15 years before the reformation of the Dawnguard

Vannius 23 years old


The sun beats down, roasting the golden sands. A man stands on one of the dunes, a Redguard with the traditional robes of the Alik'r warriors, chain mail just visible underneath it. He stands there with one hand resting on his hip and the other on the hilt of his scimitar. He moves his weight from one leg to the other, looking disinterested with the scene before him.

He takes a few steps down the dune walking closer to the other two people, one of them an Imperial with the black leather armour covered with steel studs and chainmail. He punches the other man in the face, hard sending him to the ground coughing.

The third person, an Altmer slumps to the floor. A bruise forming on his cheek and underneath his badly swollen eye. He spits up some blood, a couple of teeth following with it. The Altmer shifts away slightly, moving away from the Imperial.

He looks at the Redguard and gestures to the Altmer. "You want to try?" He asks gruffly, his voice raspy and gravely. He steps back from the Altmer, pulling his waterskin round to take a drink. "My hands starting to ache." He completely turns his back on the Altmer now walking away, struggling in the sand.

"This is a fruitless endeavour friend." The Redguard remarks, although it doesn't stop him from punching the Altmer in the face as well. "We know they plan to attack." He says turning to face the Imperial.

"Aye." The man says walking to the side. "But you don't know where from." He tells him, pointing at the Altmer and then to the Redguard. "That can turn the tide in any battle." He grumbels, taking another swig from his waterskin. He walks back over to the Altmer, looking down at him. He tilts his head to the side as he stares at the beaten mer. "He doesn't know owt." He grumbles to the Redguard.

The Redguard crouches down behind the Altmer and puts his hands over his eyes, spreading his fingers to pull them open. "We should pin his eyes open and shackle him." The Imperial raises an eyebrow. "His eyes will dry up, leave him in the darkness." He looks at the Imperial for his opinion, before pulling out a curved dagger and sliding it across the mer's neck, severing the artery and spraying blood over the shinning Dominion armour. "We should head back." He tells the Imperial. He gives out a loud whistle and the sand shifts around them, revealing the Alik'r warriors who had been hiding only seconds before.

"The attack will be in the next few days." The Imperial mumbles to him. "You've got a week at most." The Redguard stares at him and the others on horseback bring two more horses for them. "Are the Alik'r ready for that." The Redguard climbs onto one of the offered horses the Imperial doing the same on with the other horse. He gives a nod and then begins to ride the horse back to the Alik'r base.


The Alik'r base can't really be called a base. It's just an underground cave with a few carved out tunnels scattered around with various crates and other equipment in them. The Alik'r warriors themselves are around seventy strong, vastly outnumbered should they come under attack from the Dominion.

The Redguard and the Imperial walk through the dark caves into a larger carved out room with a wooden table with a map rolled out on top of it. There's a man looking at it, an Alik'r warrior their leader. "Ahh brother Jagald." He says grabbing the forearm of the other Redguard. He looks at the Imperial. "Vannius." The imperial nods at him. "The scouts have been out, Dominion forces advance from the west." He tells them.

He walks around the table and brushes passed the two heading out of the room. "Taliz." Vannius calls to him. "Who leads them?" He asks walking after the leader of the Alik'r. "I've been here for eight months and I'm anxious to return to Cyrodiil."

Taliz turns around to face him, they both stop walking. "A female Altmer by the name of Eldoril." He starts to walk again, turning to face Vannius over his shoulder. "Your target?" Vannius nods and rests his hand on his belt. "Ha, then you might finally return to Cyrodiil." He gestures for some of the other warriors to follow him as he walks.

They leave the cave and stand in the dunes, facing the west. Smoke from the Dominion fires can be seen in the distance, they aren't going to bother being quiet, they know they'll win. There's the faint sound of the Dominion war horns in the distance. "How many your men count?" He asks Taliz.

The Redguard looks at the smoke. "Around five hundred, they probably plan on going straight through us and into Cyrodiil." Vannius looks at him. "The Empire are the real threat to the Dominion, we're just holding them back." He walks back into the cave, quickly rushing back into the room at the back. "When they attack they'll push us back to here." He grumbles pointing to a spot on the map. "Then we will have to retreat."

"No." Vannius grumbles. "That's why when they attack you don't try and hold your ground." He tells Taliz. He points at the area on the map where the Dominion are attacking from. "When they attack they'll keep formation. So instead of trying to hold it and getting pushed to here." He says pointing at the map. "You push forward and cut straight through the middle of their ranks." He tells Taliz.

Taliz stares at him. "Straight through the middle?" He asks looking at the map. "My men will die." He grumbles staring down at the map. "It will be suicide and we won't be able to retreat if the tide turns."

Vannius takes a couple of steps back and looks at Jagald he gives a short nod and steps forward. "Better to die fighting then be stabbed in the back." He tells Taliz. "You know they'll all agree with me." He adds.

"Are you trying to threaten my leadership?" Taliz demands, Vannius pulls his head back and stabs a steel dagger into the small of his back abrupty ending Taliz's questions. He gasps as the dagger digs in deeper and Vannius wraps his arm around the Redguard's neck putting pressure on his windpipe. He claws at Vannius' arm but he doesn't let up on the pressure.

Jagald walks out of the room into the main barracks where the Alik'r warriors are. "Taliz is dead!" He shouts to them. "The Dominion are on the advance! Tomorrow we will ride out to meet them and we will cut straight through them!" He shouts, the plan to attack is met with the shouts of the other warriors eager to bring the Dominion down and kill any and all that they see.

Vannius steps into the entry of the back room, leaning against the wall slightly. He smirks to himself. These Alik'r warriors will do all the work for him, he will only need to focus on Eldoril. Then he can finally return to Cyrodiil.


The Alik'r are ready for battle and with the leadership of Jagald they might actually get what they seek. The Redguard looks back at Vannius who's sat on his horse. He pets the side of the animal's neck and looks at the other warriors around him. He's never been in a battle before small skirmishs but never a battle, especially one where the main plan was to ride a horse into the enemy ranks.

"Brother!" Jagald calls from his horse at the front of the group. He turns on his horse to face Vannius who digs his heels in the side of the horse making it trot forward to meet him. Jagald stares out at the Dominion forces who march forward steadily. They have spears held high and the banners of the Dominion held ready. "Are you ready brother?"

Vannius laughs slightly, watching the soldiers. He turns his attention to the redguard warrior. "To ride into the jaws of oblivion?" He asks him, grinning. The other man nods, drawing his sword and twirling it around his fingers. Vannius looks back out at the legion of soldiers. "I never put much faith in an afterlife." He grumbles.

Jagald barks out a laugh. "Then we'll stain the sand with their blood!" He shouts and the rest of the Alik'r cheer. He holds his sword in the air and rest of the warriors draw theirs. "With me brothers!" He orders. Vannius draws his own short sword and Jagald gives out a war cry and makes the horse brake out into a gallop.

The Alik'r force of seventy seven strong ride out to meet the Dominion army of five hundred. The horses gallop and the Alik'r shouts their war cries, some of the twirling their curved sword around in anticipation of the coming fight. The Dominion come to a stop and there's an unclear shout from the ranks as the Dominion lower their spears and raise their shields.

The command is at the back, Eldoril ordering her soldiers away from the front lines. The first of the Alik'r hit the Dominion, forcing their horses into a jump and they hit the front ranks. There's the sequel of the horses getting hit by the spears. Vannius leads his horses straight through the cut down ranks as some of the other soldiers try to attack with their swords, quickly abandoning their spears.

Jagald jumps off his horses and tries to engage the Dominion soldiers on equal footing, quickly getting cut down after he slit one of their throats and thrusts his sword into another's stomach. The remaining Alik'r, now about forty odd strong continue to fight to the death, the heavy clanks of steel on steel and loud cries of the horses, men and mer alike filling the dry desert air.

Vannius reachs Eldoril. He drops his boot down from his saddle and kicks one of her guards in the face, knocking him onto his back. He quickly forces the horse forward as one of the other guards drives his spear into the animal. He manages to ride forward and stab Eldoril in the chest, pulling her from her horse and onto the sand.

The Alik'r continue to ride the few of them behind him quickly cutting through her guards. Vannius' horse falls, landing on the ground and pinning its rider to the ground by his leg. He turns while laying on the sand the horse's weight keeping his leg down. He pulls his dagger from his belt and pulls his free leg back towards him, kicking his boot into the dead horse and starts to push as hard as he can.

There's shouts from around him as the last of the Alik'r fight to their last breaths. Vannius gets to his feet and stumbles away from the dead animal. One of the soldiers readies a spear to attack one of the warriors. He quickly grabs the mer's arm and stops him from pushing the spear forward. He stabs the steel dagger into the mer's chest, pulls it out and repeats the action, breaking through the chainmail and flesh. He drops the body and keeps the spear. Another of the mer charges at him with a sword, the polished steel and gold reflecting the light well. He thrusts the spear at the mer and the sharp head cuts into the mer's neck. Spilling blood onto his shining armour.

He drops the spear onto the sand and turns to move away from the battle. He stops at Eldoril's body and presses his boot to her neck, pulling his sword free. He looks down at the dead Altmer, her face pulled into a look of pain and shock. He quickly moves away, back towards the where the Dominion were heading from. He can hide in the dunes for the night. Wait for the Dominion to carry on with their march.


Gonna do the same thing with this story as I've been doing with my other story "Dawnguard". If you feel so inclined then why don't you just review, follow or favourite of if you want to do all three.