16th of the last seed, 4th era 201
"Stop right there criminal scum, pay the court a fine or serve your sentence. Your stolen goods are now forfeit." Two guards of Helgen glared fiercely at me as I exited the local Inn.
"What me? I am no criminal, I have done no such thing." I attempted to hide the bag of sweet rolls that I just stole from the Inn here in Helgen.
" Do you wish to pay the fine, or serve your sentence?" The guards persisted. One of them took the bag of sweet rolls from me while the other one continued to talk to me.
"Well uh, how long is the sentence exactly?" I questioned.
"Because you have stolen something as petty as a bag of sweet rolls, you will only stay one night in the Helgen prison."
"Hmph, I guess I will serve the sentence, it's not like I have anything to do in the first place. And well, if I had the money to pay the fine, I wouldn't be here in the first place." I grunted.
The guard just walked off towards the keep. I assumed he wanted me to follow him so I tailed closely behind. Man, this guard really doesn't give a rats ass about me. He probably has to deal with things like this all the time. I was about to just leave since the guard had his back turned on me, but I remembered the other guard behind me just in time. Once we arrived at the surprisingly empty prison, the other guard left. The remaining guard told me to put all my valuables in the chest nearby. Which I didn't have to do because ever since my parents died, I have been broke and my house was sold away to someone else in helgen. There wasn't much I owned these days if anything at all.
"Ok, I need to file everything that goes in and out of this prison. So I'm going to ask you a few questions and I want you to answer truthfully to all of them." I saw him searching through a drawer full of profiles of everyone in the prison. He pulled out a piece paper and started questioning me.
" What's your name?" He asked
" Tiber Septim" I joked out of boredom
" You would be wise not to mess with me, boy." He shook his head in disgust. " Now answer the question"
" My name is Julian White." I rolled my eyes
"That is no Nord name." He said while he wrote down everything I told him.
"No, no it is not."
" Then of what race are you then."
"Nord." He just looked at me trying to decipher if I was lying, but I think I got to the point that he doesn't care if I am or not.
"Do you have any criminal past?" I have done more than my fair share of criminal deeds but this is the first time I have been caught, although I wasn't about to tell him that.
"Nope. You know how the saying goes, try everything at least once. So I tried thievery. And well, we know how that turned out. Now, are we almost done here?" I asked him
"Just about." He suspiciously glared at me. " What's your gender and age."
" I'm an 18-year-old male. Did you really have to ask my gender? I mean, c'mon, could you really not tell whether I'm female or male. Well, i guess you have never actually seen a female before, so I guess that makes sense.."
"We're done here." He grabbed my arm and practically dragged me to my cell.
Once I was in my prison cell, I just sat there thinking what the first thing I will do once I get out. Probably steal some more sweet rolls, I'm still pretty hungry. After a while, I decided to take a nap on the hard, cold ground.
17th of the last seed, 4th era 201.
I awoke to the sound a war raging on the outside of the walls of the prison. People are yelling for help everywhere. I could hear buildings collapsing and magic being used.
" What the hell is going on out there?" I yelled at the guard walking by my cell.
" A dragon! It's burning down Helgen and her people!" I tried to remain calm, panicking will not help escape this place. But I don't believe it! A dragon!
"Hey, could you get me out of here? I have no chance of surviving if I'm in this cell." I begged
" Not happening, I will not set a criminal free." His voice was shaking and I could see him visibly trembling.
" Hey man, I'm just as scared as you are. All I did was steal a sweet roll. A fucking sweet roll! Now look, if you get me out, you and I could find a way out of here. I know a way."
"I-I guess. As long as you don't turn on me." He muttered. He held the key out to open the gate. His hands are shaking so much that he kept on missing the keyhole. Once he finally unlocked it I was ready to run free. I was clueless at this point, I had no idea what to do next.
"So how do we get out of this place." The guard questioned.
"I have no clue, I just told you I knew a way so you would let me free." The guard looked rather angry. But then the building shook and he completely forgot about it.
"That must have been the dragon, let's get out of here!" I yelled. We started running towards the door that led outside but suddenly the door burst open. Five guards stood in the doorway.
"The prisoner is free! Get him." One of the guards said.
"Oh for fuck's sake, there is a dragon outside and you're worried about a sweet roll thief!" I yelled. The guards all surrounded me. I don't know where that guard who helped me out was. Either he joined the assaulting guards or he ran for his life, I'm not sure which. I was severely outnumbered, had no armor and only fists, the odds were obviously not on my side. Yet again the door burst open and grabbed the guards attention. Through the door came a Nord women who looked to be around my age, clad in full Stormcloak armor and an Axe in her hand and fire magic in the other. The guards forgot about me and started attacking her. Even though it was five to one she was putting up a hell of a fight. The fight raged on and I could see her swinging her Axe and burning them with fire magic. But she wouldn't be able to kill all of them if she didn't get help. I grabbed a Sword from one of the fallen swordsmen. A fact that little people know about me, is that I am very skilled with a sword. When my father was still alive, he taught me how to fight with a variety of weapons. The guards didn't expect me to join the fray, so I was able to take down two of them until they realized it was in the fight too. That left only two more guards which we disposed of quickly. Then there was an awkward moment of silence when the female and I just stood there. Now that I was up close I noticed that she was actually quite attractive.
" Hey uh, what do you say we team up and try to find a way to get the hell out of here." I asked awkwardly.
"Sure that's fine, I think I know a way. I saw a back gate when I was carted in here." She said. I couldn't help but notice that she had a beautiful voice too,
" Carted in here? Oh, were you arrested for being a Stormcloak and taken prisoner?" I asked. I personally don't know enough about the civil war going on therefor I had no preferred side, so I didn't care that she was a Stoarmcloak.
"No. well yes. I was taken prisoner for crossing the border. Who knew that was a law? But I'm not a Stormcloack, nor am I an imperial. I just looted this armor off of Ralof, who was killed by the dragon." I honestly completely forgot about what was going on outside while I was watching her talk. Suddenly the dragon roared and brought us back to our senses.
"Ok, we need to get out of here as quick as we can, lead the way." She leads me to the other side of the huge prison. And to be honest, I'm glad I'm the one doing the following behind her and not leading in front of her if you know what I mean. She cracked open the door slightly, took a look through it and then closed the door again.
"Ok, so the dragon is right above us right now, and it doesn't look like it will be moving anytime soon. The back gate is just across from us, but we will have to cover quite a bit of ground to get to it. I say we just make a run for."' She informed me.
"Sounds good, let's get the hell out of here." I nodded
" Ok, let's go." She burst through the door with me on her tail. As we ran across Helgen I couldn't help but look around. Its… it's completely destroyed. People were running in every which way, every building was either set on fire or was just obliterated. I looked up and saw the massive black dragon spewing fire at the building we just ran from. If we were their any longer… I'm just glad that I didn't really have any friends in helgen who could've died. After my parents died, I went into mourning and lost all the good friends I had. Well besides Alvor that is, he left helgen to travel to Riverwood to live with his family. After a lot of running, We finally made it to the other side. The gate was slightly ajar. Someone probably already escaped this way then. Once we got outside we didn't stop running for a while in fear that the dragon was in pursuit. We finally slowed down and took a breather. We sat down on two rocks next to the trail we were following.
" My names Julian, what yours?" I asked trying to make small talk to get my mind on something else than the Dragon.
"Most people just call me Jade." Secretive type huh. I wonder why she tries to hide her real name from me. I decided not to pry.
" So where are you headed? I may head down to Riverwood. I have a friend there who is the blacksmith of the place" I told her.
" Well I came to Skyrim to find an adventure, and so far my wish has been fulfilled." She chuckled " I think I may just head to whichever town is nearest and see if I can find something worthwhile. Would you know of any towns nearby?" She asked.
" As a matter, a fact, the place I'm heading to, Riverwood, is by far the closest town from where we are."
"Then Riverwood it is. It's not too far I hope? Haven't had a nice warm meal to eat or bed to sleep in days."
"Yeah, it's relatively close, only a walk of two or three hours."
"Well then, let's get going" We started conversating more as we headed to Riverwood. I found out she was from a tiny unheard of island north of Windhelm. She was arrested for illegally crossing the borders. She was then brought in a carriage all the way down to helgen to be executed. As she continued to talk the more I became certain she was hiding something. As far as I know, there is no law of illegal trespassing and why would they take her to helgen to have her executed? It just didn't add up. I figured I wouldn't question her about it just yet. We also talked quite a bit about what the appearance of the dragon means. I led the way to Riverwood, I knew how to get there by heart because I have been there so many times visiting Alvor. We were both eager to arrive and be able to get a good night of rest.