AN: Hello everyone, I just like to take a second to say thanks for checking out my fic, this is my first fic and it has been something that's been rattling around in my head for awhile. It may not be perfect or even great but I had fun writing it, if you have any criticisms or comments don't be afraid to leave a review but if you do have a criticism please be specific, for example if you don't like how a character is portrayed tell me what aspect of them I messed up on and I'll give it a look.
I was stirred awake by the monotonous rumbling sounds of carriage wheels on stone and the harsh clopping of hooves. I blinked several times willing away the black spots in my vision only to be greeted with the concerned visage of a Nord man sitting across from me to my left.
He had long dirty strands of blonde framing his face and some equally blonde facial hair surrounding his mouth, his fair skin was covered in splotches of dirt and specks of blood, his eyes were sunken and had dark rings around them, a clear sign of exhaustion. It took me a moment to notice that his hands were bound at the wrist with stiff ropes, his arms were rested in the lap of his filthy, sweat soaked cuirass, its blue quilted pattern looked quite frayed and tattered.
Next to the Nord was a scrawny little Breton man clearly homeless judging from the rags clinging to his boney frame, he looked panicked emphasized by his twitchy jerking and they way his head shifted left to right constantly seemingly searching for something just out of his vision, his face was gaunt and pale, not uncommon for the malnourished but the rot that had taken to his teeth made me think that he partook far too often of skooma or moon sugar.
I was startled from my observations by a voice, the Nord man, he seemed to be trying to get my attention. "Hey you, finally awake? You were trying to cross the border right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us and that thief over there." He said nodding towards the Breton man who suddenly looked very incensed by the attention.
A second later the man in question growled out "Damn you Stormcloaks, Skyrim was fine until you came along, Empire was nice and lazy, if they hadn't been looking for you I could have stolen that horse and been halfway to Hammerfell." He paused before focusing in on me, "You there, you and me, we shouldn't be here it's these Stormcloaks the empire wants."
The Nord scoffed "We're all brothers and sisters in binds now thief." Before I could respond the driver of the carriage, an Imperial guard by the looks of it, turned to us and said with a lazy drawl "Shut up back there." There was silence for a moment before the thief turned towards the previously unnoticed passenger with us, a bear of a man with a literal bear's pelt wrapped around his shoulders as a mantle.
The bear adorned man was another Nord, though was comparatively much cleaner than the previous one, his brown hair was swept back from his face, a circlet was wrapped around his mouth as a sort of makeshift gag. The thief opened his mouth to say something but hesitated for a moment and in a much quieter voice asked "What's wrong with him, huh?" The Nord to my left snarled suddenly "Watch your tongue, you're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King."
The thief's eyes widened almost comically, then in a soft unbelieving tone he whispered "Ulfric, Jarl of Windhelm?" The thief's voice hitched, the panic visibly bubbling up from his throat "You're the leader of the rebellion but if they captured you... oh gods! Where are they taking us?"
His voice cracked at the last question, any previous anger losing out to fear. The Nord to my left in a much more somber voice than before replied "I don't know, but Sovengarde awaits." The thief immediately started muttering to himself, no doubt reassurances to himself about his eventual fate.
Now that I had a moment of relative silence I began to muse, if I had accidently walked into an Imperial ambush why then was I placed in a carriage clearly meant for prisoners, why couldn't I remember falling asleep, was I attacked?
Different scenarios came unbidden to my mind, an anxious tremor started to fill my gut, okay I reasoned to myself if I just explain my situation then perhaps they'll let me go, the tremor did not go away. At some point during my musing we began to approach a small village, its fortified walls seemed to loom over me.
The thief began praying, seemingly just going down a list of the pantheon hoping one would answer. As we passed through the gates I could hear the Nord on my left complaining, something about General Tullius and elves.
The carriage we were riding in rolled down the small village road before pulling up in the town square, dread pooled in my stomach, I could see an executioner and a chopping block, freshly used.
I looked to my right Ulfric had already stood and stepped off the cart followed by the horse thief, I guess it was my turn now, I stood and followed silently, hopping off the end instead of using the step, an act of whatever petty resistance I could put up at this point I suppose.
What stood before us was an Imperial captain and a man with a list, an Imperial and a Nord respectively. The captain was a rather short woman with rich dark mocha skin uncommon amongst most Imperials, even her heavy captain's armor couldn't hide the swell of her breast of the flare of her hips.
Her face was set in a deep scowl, brow furrowed and pink lips turned down, she would be beautiful... had she not been sending men to their deaths. The man with the list was boyish looking but with a squared jaw, he had the kind of face that seemed ageless, he was wearing standard Imperial recruit armor, a long leather tunic reinforced with studs of metal.
He called us one by one first Ulfric, then the blonde Nord that had been accompanying us, his name was Ralof, he seemed kind enough, barring his hatred of elves but to be fair there is quite a number of elves that existed as some form of sapient asshole rather than a civilized being.
Next was the horse thief Lokir, he seemed even twitchier than before if that was possible, as he walked forward he broke into a sprint without warning, passing the captain and the list man in three strides, it was unfortunate that he didn't take into account the bowman stationed behind the captain.
He didn't make it 10 meters before the captain barked out an order, the bowman spun and pulled back before releasing an arrow into the fleeing man's back, he was dead before he even hit the ground. Now the moment of truth, I was next, the Nord looked at me than back down at the list he glanced up and asked "who are you?"
I could feel his eyes scanning me from my wavy brown hair, more of a mane now, down to my rather expensive robes, this garnered a raised brow from him, and finally to my Imperial style leather boots, the look on his face spoke of confusion, after all it's not everyday you saw a Nord dressed in such a manner.
I hesitated in telling them my name, all the consequences of the truth seemed to weigh on my conscious, finally I spoke "My name is Matthias of… Daggerfall, sir."
He scanned the list before deferring to the captain "Sir, he's not on the list what do we do?" The captain pondered for a moment before looking to General Tullius, who was standing not too far away, from the look on his face he had clearly heard.
That was it, a simple head movement, a nod, and he had sealed my fate, I broke into a cold sweat, the pool of dread leaping up from my stomach to encompass my whole body. I looked back at the captain, her scowl deepened, she turned towards us and forced out a harsh order "forget the list, he goes to the block."
I ambled towards the block slowly, my body felt numb, I contemplated making a run for it but I had seen first hand all that would accomplish. We gathered in a rough line all waiting to be sent to the block, all of us expected to watch as each execution unfolded like the most morbid street performance ever created.
Tullius stood in front of us with Ulfric standing idly by, he began making some long winded, self righteous speech about peace and rebellion, and how the Empire was going to put Ulfric down. I tuned him out, it didn't apply to me none of this did, I had done nothing wrong, yet still I was going to die here?
I wanted to speak up, to shout my outrage, but every time I opened my mouth the words wouldn't come to me, I probably looked like a fish, gasping for breath, but was I so different? Both mere moments away from death searching for reprieve that wouldn't come.
"Hehehe" I chuckled out loud at the absurdity, the captain noticed, her eyes roaming over my downcast expression, she seemed conflicted.
As the General's speech came to an end a roar vibrated through the air, it sounded distant, a sabre cat perhaps? Even so, what size must it have been to produce such a sound, in any case it at least signaled the Priestess of Arkay to begin her prayer for us, she was interrupted only a few verses in by a particularly impatient Stormcloak that had been standing beside me
"For the love of Talos, shut up and let's get this over with." She seemed rather taken aback by this before haughtily replying "have it your way."
The Priestess stormed off while the Stormcloak confidently walked up to the block and kneeled before it, as he laid his neck upon it he let a wiry smile slide onto his face "my ancestors are smiling upon me Imperial, can you say the same? The axe came down with a thunk, blood spurted across the ground in a brutal and visceral display, this wasn't the first time I had seen an execution but it was certainly the closest I had ever been.
Jeers echoed around us, some aimed at the Imperials but most aimed at the Stormcloaks, to my side I could hear Ralof whispering somberly to himself "As fearless in death as he was in life."
My eyes was locked firmly on the Captain as she nudged the man's corpse to the side, once the block was cleared to her satisfaction she cast her gaze to us before finally settling on me, this was it I was next I wanted to do something, anything to escape, to flee and live, but the weight of my own mortality seemed to root me to the ground.
"Next, the Nord in the robes" the Captain's voice thundered out, rooted as I was to this spot I could hardly speak let alone walk, though I was faintly aware of my heart hammering in my chest. The Captain lost her patience "I said, next prisoner" she barked, her assistant with the list looked at me with eyes only of pity, in a soft voice he said "right this way prisoner, nice and easy."
If his words were meant to reassure me, then they only served to piss me off, the use of my legs reclaimed with my rising temper, I stomped up to the block no doubt looking like a spoiled child who didn't get his way but that wouldn't be an entirely inaccurate assessment.
I gazed down at the block with disdain, blood fresh and old was soaked in deeply and lying in small puddles across its surface. I felt a swift kick to the back of my knee, as I fell I could feel a hand grasp the back of my head before forcing me down onto the block, blood settled on my face, obscuring my right eye, my left glared balefully at the Captain before swiveling to land on the executioner,
he seemed to be taking his time, perhaps his arms were tired but he seemed to be moving in slow motion, slow just to me perhaps. In my final moments a single feeling resonated with my soul, rage, clear and defined bubbled up and lingered in my throat.
How dare they, their meaningless unimportant lives saw fit to end mine, for what purpose, because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wanted nothing more than to see their bodies crushed underfoot and burning as if smited by the sun itself- My line of thinking ended abruptly.
What was I thinking, this feeling in my chest seemed so alien yet so familiar as if a part of my very being but was I truley so angry, so spiteful as to wish these people who were simply doing their job to such a gruesome fate. Perhaps it was true about what they say, you don't really know a person until you see them about to die.
As the executioner lifted his axe I spotted a shape over his shoulder. Cresting a mountain on obsidian wings, dressed in black armor, a dragon I belatedly realized- wait, a dragon. My eye widened as far as it could, it was approaching rapidly, menacing red eyes zoned in on the tower in the middle of the square resting adjacent to me.
Its large wings spread as it impacted the tower, the tremor of which knocked me from resting place. Standing on its large reptilian hind legs it loomed over us before focusing its gaze on the proceedings, I would be forever grateful that those terrifying eyes quickly looked beyond me to the mass of soldiers stationed around us because with a roar like thunder it unleashed a force so great that even I who was under the great beast was forced across the ground.
The blood on my face was smeared into my other eye and dust was blown into both, my ears were ringing and I couldn't find my balance. I could hear faint shouting in the distance, I forced my eyes open to a world of blurry shapes and shaking, luckily they bound my hands to the front so it was a simply process to wipe my eyes clear,
Ralof was standing in front of me, tugging me to my feet, flaming rocks were raining down on us from a stormy red sky. Ralof tugged me along, urging me to follow him into the open tower that laid before us, we ran the best we could with all the rocks littering the ground as they were and eventually we made it, nearly diving through the door. Once inside the door was closed and barred, through my still slightly blurry eyes I almost didn't realize that it was Ulfric who closed it behind us.
I took this moment to calm my hammering heart and let my vision clear completely, the base of the tower was a small round room that let to a wrapping staircase along the perimeter that lead further up into the tower, on the ground there were several Stormcloaks resting on sleeping mats or hay, there were a few injured, sporting wounds ranging from burns to blunt trauma all of it fatal, not even my magic would help. I looked away, I hated feeling useless.
Ralof approached quickly "finished resting yet?" he said, I wanted to say no but in the interest of time "yes, just let me remove this blood" I said as I clambered to my feet and grabbed the Imperial tapestry hanging on the wall, after wiping my face I noticed a couple of the Stormcloaks grinning in my direction, who knew desecrating a tapestry could raise spirits?
Done increasing my petty vengeance count, I followed Ralof as he began his trek up the stairs. The majority of the second floor was blocked by rubble from the third floor, a Stormcloak was already picking through the rubble, "seems this is way is blocked, we'll have to find another way" Ralof said as he started making his back down the stairs.
AN: Alright, first chapter done. This chapter looks a little short to me but it sure felt like it took a long time to write. Hopefully I can finish off the boring tutorial area by chapter two, the pace should pick up from there, that is to say if this story actually gets a fan base that want it to continue.