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Chapter 0

Conflict

The chill.

To some this is just one of the constants of the world we live in. To me the chill is an omen. Like smoke wafting through the air, it envelopes all it touches. The chill finds its way through open doors and even the smallest of cracks. No matter how high or low, be you rich or be you poor, Man or Mer, the chill will find you. Like a tyrannical monarch, the chill bows you to conform to its will. It feeds upon the verdant breath of what was once living and leaves brittle husks behind. The abundant becomes scarce, the healthy become diseased, and wanderers become survivors.

Do you remember when the chill was mild? The feeling of skin as it dances in water, now much colder. The feeling of packing globs of snow together and tossing them at one another, things that can only be enjoyed when the cold is present. But days of recent have shown the chill to be far greater than that. Greater – not my best choice of words. Greater is too friendly a word to describe the chill.

Do not mistake me, though, I do not hate the chill. I fear what it symbolizes. It is a coming, a gate opening to a greater adversity seeking to pick at the swelling flesh that meanders in the cold; a parasite seeking to leech off all that still stands. I, however, am not one to bow my head in the presence of an adversary. Though I am not strong, nor wise, nor well-versed in the ways of concealment, I will stand at the gates. I will let my cry be heard. If my icy master thrusts my head towards conformity I allow him to do so. If he beats me until all the blood is drained from my vessel I still allow him. I will allow him to do what he will with me, once he has already ensnared me in his grasp… and I am uncatchable.

[End of Chapter]

A/N: Hey, buddy... Down here. So, you see, this fic is sort of an overture to a larger one that I'm writing. You can think of this as a small, seven chapter, prelude to the events of the main story. I'm breaking it up this way to see if anyone still reads Skyrim-based fics. If you like what you see, please let me know with a review or by following. Whichever, I'm not picky.