OoO( Hadvar )OoO
It seemed like any time I ventured away from the warm walls of Solitude, Skyrim's temperamental weather decided to punish me by drowning me with cold pellets. But, chill or no chill, the Empire has work to be done, and today was the day that the Empire came so very close to ending the war that's tearing our nation, and so very close to ending our only chance of survival.
The buzz about Castle Dour when we received the message from our regiment in Falkreath was near constant. You couldn't turn the corner without hearing someone talking about the end of the war being at hand. Then, I, along with my superior, Captain Nirra, were chosen to accompany General Tullius and his squad down to Helgen to see to the usurper's punishment. Honestly, as long as the war ended, I really couldn't care whether I was there to personally see it happen or not. But I had been chosen, so the decision had been made for me.
At the very least, I thought I'd get the chance to visit his aunt and uncle over in Riverwood. It had been a while since we had spoken by that point, so it would be a good visit, on top of celebrating the end of the war. Or...that's how things were planned. But as the divines would have it, no man shall ever be able to predict the future with any certainty.
That became very apparent when the cart carrying the usurper king finally pulled into Helgen. We had already arrived hours prior, and Tullius himself had stood staring at the chopping block for the last hour, waiting to see Ulfric's head roll off of it. As the prisoners were pulled off of the cart, one of them, a simple horse thief that had gotten caught in the crossfire of the apprehending of Ulfric, got wiry and tried to make a break for the gates. Sadly, he met his demise at the tip of an arrow.
After moving Ulfric and the other Stormcloaks from the wagon, we still had one curious figure left. I looked over my manifest, but there was nothing on it about this person. As she stepped down, the creak of the wagon releasing tension hit my ears, making me look up at her full form. And what a form it was. She was a nord who stood taller than any man present, with snowy white hair that was fully braided down to her shoulders. Her stone grey eyes stared at me as I looked her up and down, trying to get a read on her, but it seemed impossible. Along with her height was a build that would make most males jealous, her muscular arms making the leather bindings around her wrists look like a precautionary joke. Her skin was sun-baked and scarred, showing the weathering and battle prowess any nord would be proud of.
But none of this answered the question, who the hell was she, and what was she doing here? Looking over to Captain Nirra, I simply shrugged and asked, "What do we do about her? She's not on the list."
Ever the one eager to please General Tullius, the captain nodded towards the chopping block. "Forget the list. She goes too." she commanded as she turned away from the prisoner and headed to the pre-execution prayer taking place at the chopping site.
Slightly disappointed, I turned back to the enormous woman to find her staring at me curiously with her head tilted to the side as if wondering what I would do. Something about those stone grey eyes were unsettling, but orders were orders. "You picked a bad time to come back to the Skyrim, but at least you'll die in your homeland..." I said uneasily as I waved for her to step up with the rest of the prisoners.
The prayer ceremony began, but a particularly impertinent Stormcloak lackey spoke up in his impatience. "For the love of Talos, shut up and let's get this over with." he snapped as he voluntarily stepped up to the chopping block. Slightly affronted, the priest of Arkay just shrugged and stepped aside, allowing the belligerent nord to take his place. Soon after, his head was removed with the drop of the axe.
I looked up again to surprisingly find her standing at the front of the crowd. Unlike the others in the group, her face was passive. The Stormcloaks all had looks of fear, agitation, or defiance on their faces. Even Ulfric himself had a look of impending doom, as if he were a skeever cornered by a wolf. Unlike his lopsided fight with High King Torygg, his voice could not bust him free this time. But her, her face showed nothing but relaxed indifference.
Unfortunately, her lack of emotion, and willingness to get a closer look seemed to annoy Captain Nirra. "The nord in the rags is next!" shouted the shorter captain as she pointed at the tall, sun-baked behemoth of a woman.
"Captain, you might want to consider getting a bigger axe for her." I offered jokingly, but the jest was not appreciated, it seemed. The captain ignored me as the white-haired woman stepped forward. Suddenly, every movement around the execution block stopped as an unsettling noise was heard from over the walls. "What was that?" I asked, feeling the sound penetrate my to my very core.
"I said, next prisoner!" shouted to captain as she tried to keep order. But the look on her face was as plain as day. She had felt, whatever it was, too. I could easily see that she wasn't so much ignoring it as trying to get the executions over with before something else intervened. Looking up at General Tullius, I could see that even he was affected. The man was a stone statue. He carried himself with infinite indifference to anything. He barely even reacted when we had gotten news of Ulfric's capture. But whatever this was made the man's eyebrows furrow, and that made my anxiety all the worse.
Finally, the woman stepped forward and got to her knees. The executioner, as if to make some kind of point, put his boot into her back and forced her face down onto the bloody stump. Her almost heavenly white, braided here slumped over into the red liquid and immediately began to absorb it, but I suppose her hair soaking up blood from a beheaded human was the last of her worries at the moment. "Peace be with you sister…" I offered in condolences as the headsman raised the axe high above his head.
But the axe never touched her. Instead, the executioner, myself, the entire regiment, and all of the prisoners fell off their feet as an ear splitting roar hit us like a windstorm. Looking up, I nearly soiled my armor as I saw a creature larger than any I had seen to this day land on top of the tower before us and roar once more. This time, the roar didn't hit us, but after the sound escaped the scaled creature's maw, the skies began roiling and writhing in the sky. The very clouds themselves turned red, as if the world itself were showing its anger.
Looking in the wake of the beast's destruction, Captain Nirra had been killed by one of the flagstones that the massive beast had knocked from the tower. General Tullius was gone, and Ulfric and the Stormcloaks were rising and freeing themselves from their restraints. If I stayed, they would no doubt kill me without a second thought just for wearing this Imperial armor. With no sight of the general, my captain dead, and the prisoners fleeing, all I could do was run.
As I fled from the carnage, I made my way down the main street of the town and back towards the entrance of the city to find out where the rest of the regiment had gone. It wasn't long before I found them pulling people out of blazing buildings, trying to save as many as possible. I moved to offer my aid, but then the beast returned. Reptilian in look, with a long tail, long neck, and two massive wings on its back, it stared down at us for only a moment before rearing its serpentine head back and unleashing a wave of fire so hot that I could feel my skin blister beneath my armor without it even touching me.
It's head moved in a sweeping motion, the blaze now devouring my fellow imperials and killing them near instantaneously. The fire was honing in on me next, but I was saved by what felt like a battering ram plowing into me and sending me crashing through the door of a nearby tower. When I gathered my wits again, I saw her standing over me. The battering ram, and my savior was actually the nord prisoner who I had sent to the chopping block. "Praise Stendarr for letting me live long enough to regret my earlier indifference." I said as I stood to my feet and stared up at the woman, who was easily half a head taller than me. "What is your name prisoner?" I asked as I picked my fallen sword up off the ground.
"Valkiria." she spoke, her voice very commanding for responding to a simple question.
"Alright Valkiria, then let's get those bindings off you." I used my sword to cut the leather restraints that still held her arms in place, but questioned whether I needed to at all with the amount of muscle showing in her arms. As she was freed, she flexed her wrists, but never took her stone grey eyes off me. "Let's get moving. We have to find General Tullius and regroup. And worry not, I'll not forget what you've done if asked why you are free." I said as I readied my blade and moved out into the open again. Thankfully, she followed as we left. Most of the outside now was either on fire, or burning down as we passed. "Follow me, we need to stay close to the wall!"
As we continued our frantic pace through the dying city, the creature reared its ugly head once more, landing directly on the wall over our heads. Both of us stopped, but it didn't appear as if it had seen us. The fire it shot, while still unbearably hot, was aimed further down the alley. So we moved quickly to get away from the beast while still keeping our eyes out for the general. Eventually, we came across an impassable burning building. The only way to continue was to go through the collapsing structure itself. So I nodded to her, and she returned the gesture, and together we moved quickly through the blazing wooden inn, making sure to steer clear of the walls of fire on either side.
When we finally busted through the front door, we were out in the open again and the beast was soaring over our heads, making me squat down in terror just in case it decided to take a snap at me. But she bore no such fear, and gripped my arm as she led us out into the open. To my surprise, General Tullius was right in front of us barking orders to the other soldiers scattered about the yard. As he looked over at me, he yelled, "Hadvar! Into the keep soldier, we're leaving!"
Not wanting to argue with the man, I did as he bade and pulled the door to the keep open to find a relatively untouched barracks room for the imperial men who were stationed here. Quickly, I turned to my new friend and spoke frantically. "Quick, look around here for some weapons and armor. You're probably going to need it." In a matter of minutes, the woman now wore an imperial uniform designed for a male that was bigger than even the one I wore. Her sheer size was still astounding me, even after seeing her in action. Now, she wielded a two-handed greatsword left behind by one of the guards. "Done then?" I asked, getting a nod from the nord woman. "Good, let's go."
As we moved to leave, we heard voices further down the hall in the next tower. Approaching quietly, it was easy to tell that they belonged to Stormcloaks. I had considered waiting them out until they left, but to my surprise, Valkiria opened the door and walked in on her own. "Imperial! Cut her down!" shouted one of the men as I moved to get to my feet. But as I rushed into the room, the sight startled me. Both Stormcloaks were now dead on the ground, one with his head entirely removed from his body, and the other had the greatsword lodged in his side. By the looks of it, she had taken them out in one swing of the large weapon.
"That weapon suits you." I said as I picked up one of the shields from the ground. She simply stayed quiet and kicked the fallen Stormcloak off of her blade. Such a strange warrior she was, always silent unless asked a question, and powerful but merciful. All I could really say at that point was that I was proud that she was a fellow nord.
We continued through the tower, passing through into the underground "interrogation room" as it were. Honestly, the tactics employed by these men disgusted me, and made me feel some sentiment of shame that the Empire associated itself with them. But these were issues for another day. Right now, we needed to get through the caves below. If Ulfric and Ralof had escaped through the same passage, it's likely they left behind a contingent of men to make sure that nobody followed their king, which meant that there was more battle to be had.
As predicted, as we made our way through the cave, Stormcloak soldiers appeared and started firing arrows at our position. I held up my shield and charged towards the first one, taking his arrows in the wooden guard, but the second got a shot off that hit me in the leg. Despite my injury, I continued forward and made quick work of the first archer with my leg protesting greatly. But I turned to find that my new friend had leapt the rivulet of water and had once again cut clean through the opposition. More and more, I grew impressed as she immediately came to my side and helped me limp my way through the rest of the cavern.
I thought us to finally be home free, when a waking bear decided to make itself known. The Stormcloaks before us had apparently moved quickly enough to avoid the creature, but the sounds of our combat had startled it away, and now it lumbered its way towards us angrily. I prepared for battle again, but Valkiria shoved me aside and confronted the beast with her sword. Standing at her full height, she raised her arms and let out a battle cry that I could have swore shook the very cave walls around us. The bear, not one to be intimidated, raised itself on its hind legs and returned with a roar that was just as vicious, if not weaker.
But its roar died almost immediately. As soon as the bear had raised up, the quick-witted woman dashed forward and drove her long blade clean through its hide, likely hitting its heart. The nord woman pulled the sword clean as the bear fell to the side, its life pouring from the wound in its chest. I probably sat there for a full minute in shock, still trying to come to peace with the fact that what I had seen today likely meant that this woman could have killed us all for trying to execute her. No matter which way you sliced it, she knew how to use a sword, and she knew how to kill multiple enemies at a time. Back in the cart, she had the serious advantage of being underestimated, and likely could have taken the headsman's axe and ended everyone present with it without losing the passive expression on her face.
Whoever this woman was, she was going to be someone great. Whether harmful, or helpful to the Empire, I couldn't say. But one thing was very clear, this woman would be very well known in Skyrim soon enough.
OoOoO
Author's Note: This is a test story to see how people like it. It uses my original character from my own works, and will be told from the view of anyone besides the main protagonist, the Nord known as Valkiria. If people enjoy it, I may continue it. If not, then at least I got some of the ideas out of my head, and will be able to focus on other things. So, if you want to see this continue, feel free to let me know.