Changelog:

19/04/2014: fixed typos, cleaned up grammar etc.

Of Dragons & Daedra

Chapter Two: 'fight without training' Part One


It was bloody big.

Of everything I could have thought of in that moment the only thing that popped into my head was how big it looked, I shook myself and began analysing, it was black, about 75 feet long from what I could see and seemed to be staring at me.

My executioner, who had been lifting up the axe to sever my head looked around and was knocked over, behind me I had the feeling that their shock mirrored my own.

"Dragon!" someone, a Nord from the accent, screamed and all hell broke loose, the dragon opened its mouth and words, in a language I had never heard before, poured out, the executioner, who had been getting to his feet was pushed back, and I felt what seemed like a great wind emanate form the dragon.

The prisoners, realising that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to escape, took it, the guards most of whom had taken bows and arrows to shoot the dragon were to busy to stop them, I in a similar position rolled off the block and pushed myself to my feet, the dragon who almost seemed disappointed, opened its mouth again, and I dived to the side, quite awkwardly as my hands were still bound, a Nord prisoner who hadn't been as quick was blown about 10 feet backwards into the stone of the towns walls.

The soldiers while obviously scared, had drawn their bows and began ineffectually shooting at the dragon, which drew open its wings and with a heave lifted off into the sky, I of course had no intention of fighting a dragon, and the chances of them letting me go even if I did, and won, were minuscule. I spotted several of the prisoners run for a tower, whether it would prove a safe haven for long was debatable, but it was better than out in the open, so I ran as fast as my still bound hands allowed me to, which was pretty slow.

Inside several people, mostly other prisoners were on the ground floor, one of them had been caught in one of the dragon's attacks and lay on a hastily made bed of straw while another tended to him, on the stairs was another man, who gestured to me.

"Hey, you, come up here and we'll see if there's a way out of here" I nodded and began climbing the stairs, while picking at the knot in the rope that bound my hands, he glanced at them "once we're out of the way I'll get your binds off" and then turned around leading the way up to the first floor, he, of course had already freed himself, or had another do it, and so was faster than I was, when he reached the top he surveyed the area.

"Damn, the top floor's be..." he was cut off when the entire tower shook and he was blasted back by the force of the dragon hitting the side, forming a massive hole, it then peered inside, I stumbled back a few steps, trying to get into the shadow, hoping against all hope that it wouldn't see me, the dragon looked around for a few seconds, and then opened it's mouth, again words in a language I could barely understand issued forth and the entire room was bathed in heat and light, even from where I was crouching the heat was short lived, but incredible, thankfully I wasn't looking or else I would have been blinded by the intensity of the light, this was no ordinary fire, I could tell.

Then all of a sudden it was gone, launching itself up again, I cautiously made my way up, marvelling at how quickly the room had cooled, more magic perhaps? As the man had been about to say the top floor was blocked off by rubble, but the hole the dragon had made in the tower and another one in the building opposite meant I had away out, but with my bound hands it would not be easy, so I walked quite quickly to the other end of the floor, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and ran.

My run was not brilliant, nor particularly fast, but I jumped clean over the gap and into the other building, however I couldn't balance myself and hit the ground left arm first, a white hot pain crashed through my mind momentarily, the sharp crack as I landed that my mind had only just comprehended did not speak well for the state of mind arm, so gingerly I rolled onto my back, and surveyed the damage, my arm thankfully didn't appear to be broken, or at least not badly broken, which suggested a dislocation, as for how I knew this, I decided that fixing myself and escaping took precedence above figuring out my former life, at least that ice cold voice in my head hadn't spoken.

Magic, as I knew on some level, was very good was healing, broken bones, cuts and the like were easy to fix, a dislocation was more difficult, and required resetting it, and the fastest way, so long as the dislocation was clean and the joint not to badly damaged was to hit the dislocated limb with enough force to push it back into place, from the sound of fighting outside it seemed like I would have to do this quickly.

I carefully rolled onto my right side and used that to stand up, resolving to cut my binds as soon as possible, and walked over to the table just to my side and simply slammed down my left elbow, better to get it out of the way without thinking about it.

The pain was, as I had imagined, simply incredible and overwhelming, all my senses blanked out of a second, and I found myself on the floor tears rolling down my face, I hadn't screamed, or I didn't think I had, which was not something I had expected. Regardless the pain was a dull throb, but my field surgery seemed to have worked, so I took stock of my situation, I was in some kind of tavern, based on the number of bottles, both opened and unopened lying around, I was still recovering from resetting the joint, but aside form that had no injuries to speak of, and it seemed that for the time being that the guards were still fighting the dragon, therefore I would have no better chance of escaping the town.

So I, quite calmly considering the situation, walked through the tavern, down the stairs and out into the street, thankfully the dragon was on the other side of the town, the building in front of the tavern had been destroyed and debris littered the area, hiding behind the remains of a wall was a small boy and two men, one a prisoner and the other from the town, it was then that I spotted the hooks in the wall of the tavern, presumably to hang horse's reins up, while not sharp they would suffice to break my bonds.

Walking over to one, the most stable looking, I tested it out, finding that while it did move slightly it was only side to side, and would therefore suffice. So I lifted my bound hands above my head and brought them down on the hook, an unexpected and rather jagged edge of pain ran through my hand, apparently I had taken the skin off the side of my right hand, but I had broken the bonds.

The ground shook again and I looked around, the dragon had landed back on its original perch of the tower, though facing the other way, it seemed to be looking right at me, and I knew I had to escape, so I did across the open ground to a destroyed building and a stone wall which would hopefully protect me, I made it about two thirds of the way when it spoke the words and let forth a maelstrom of fire, acting purely on instinct I dived for the cover, stumbling slightly, but just about managing to escape a fiery death.

The dragon roared in what was unmistakeably frustration and launched itself into the air, it was obvious that I had to escape from the town if I had any hope of surviving, so I ran through the ruined building I was in, back into some kind of court yard, here not only were there imperial soldiers but also men dressed in what I presumed to be storm-cloak armour, neither side paid much attention to me, to busy fighting the dragon or dying. I spotted a fairly squat building made of stone which must have been the keep, this would not only be a relatively safe place to be, at least while the dragon was about, it would also have supplies; food, armour and weapons which I would need. I made my way through the courtyard sticking to the walls, and making a dash for the keep, which unfortunately was built into the other wall. The door was unlocked, so that wasn't an issue.

Inside the room was small and round, with only two entrances, one leading out into the courtyard and one on the opposite side leading further in, before I began however I noticed a table and the body of a storm-cloak soldier. I crept further in, whoever killed him may still be around so I was acutely aware of how exposed I was, when I reached him his, wounds suggested a short sword of some kind to his left side, moving quickly, conscious that someone was going to come through here eventually, I began divesting him of his armour, his helm, while open faced was perfectly adequate, if a little big. His armour proved to be more of a challenge, While I did not have a particularly voluptuous figure, my breasts were certainly too big for the armour, which meant I would have to go without until I found a women who would be willing to give me her armour...or was to busy dying, by my hand or another's, to care, still I could wear the armoured gloves without difficulty, I also found some septim's and most importantly an iron dagger and a short iron sword, plus a sheath for the sword, this is placed on my hips with the sword and carried the dagger.

I froze when I heard the door behind me open, I held myself still straining to hear the approaching footsteps.

"Majolir?" the voice was unmistakeable, it was Ralof, the storm-cloak supporter from the carriage, I turned quickly, still holding the dagger, he was wearing slightly bloody storm-cloak armour and held a short sword.

"I...yes" he walked towards the body and frowned

"A Stormcloak, what was he doing here?"

"Rescuing Ulfric if I had to guess" he half nodded and then turned his attention to the other door.

"Check if he has any..."

"Quiet" I hissed, I could hear something, people talking "someone's coming" he nodded and then moved back out of sight of the door, I could hear it clearly now, one I recognised the imperial that had ordered I be executed first.

"And this wasn't...very well but this...this dragon was not part of the plan" I held the dagger ready and he held his sword.

From the sound it seemed like there were two people coming, probably soldiers, given my lack of armour, or training, I would have to use surprise to make up the differential, From my hiding place I couldn't see exactly what was happening, but I heard the clunk of the lock and the creak as the metal groaned, I counted the steps, about 4 should be perfect.

1...

2...

3...

Ralof, at that point decided, to hell with subtlety, and charged at one of the soldiers his sword held high, ready to bring down on their heads, both were momentarily surprised and I saw my moment, moving out at a steady jog across the 6 feet or so that separated me from them, I thought I was being stealthy, but the soldier I ad got, a smaller Nord, turned just in time, and, while unable to bring his sword to bear back handed me with his hand, his armoured gloved hand.

I stumbled back a few paces, my head hurting like someone was pounding my face with a hammer, he pulled his sword out and thrust, I clumsily side stepped him, barely able to tell where I was going, so I, due to a combination of bad luck and a lack of co-ordination found myself tripping over a fallen piece of stone, I landed on my back, on the other side of the room Ralof clashed, much more professionally, with the other soldier, and was in no position to help me.

My attacker, perhaps surprised at how quickly I had fallen, walked up to me almost casually, and gave my side a good kick, I moaned in pain.

"Yer see, this is why women ain't meant to be on the battlefield" I remained silent as he almost idly considered Ralof and his fellow soldier fighting "and once she's done with yer boyfriend we're gonna cut yer up, nice and slow like" he moved around my prone form and I watched him carefully, I only had one chance.

The instant he was in place I attacked bringing my right leg around as fast as I could, catching him in the back of his knee, forcing it to buckle, then everything became a blur, like I knew the moves but didn't know when I learned them.

In one swift movement I grabbed the back of his leather jerkin and pulled back hard, pulling him to the side of me, also on his back, then I grabbed his head in one hand, pulled it up, making sure to keep one knee on his sword hand, and then pushed it down on the stone floor, this I repeated for maybe 3 or 4 times, then I raised my dagger in my other hand, let go of his face and brought it down through his left eye, to finish him off I grabbed his opposite shoulder and making sure to keep a good grip on the dagger pulled it round as hard as I could, the crack as his neck broke was like music to me, it was something...intoxicating.

It was a that point that I came back to myself, holding a bloody and...various other bodily fluids coated dagger in one hand and the broken remains of what had been, up until 10 seconds prior another human, I reflected that it probably should have affected me more, that maybe as a woman who had never, presumably, killed someone that maybe this wasn't quite the how I should be reacting.

"Holy hell, what'd he do to you?" the tone was half joking to cover a very real sense of dread and fear, I turned to Ralof, who had finished off the woman soldier.

"I...I don't know, one minute I was on the floor and the next..." I trailed off, gesturing at the bloody remains.

"It was like you were possessed, you were moving far too naturally, like you'd done it your whole life"

"I...I know, but I've never killed anyone in my life, or at least I don't think so" he frowned at my words, and then walked over and pulled me up onto my feet.

"What do you mean, you don't think so?"

"I can't remember anything before waking up on the ride here, vague flashes, sensations maybe, but nothing solid"

"Maybe a mage did it to you, I admit that I wouldn't know how to go around wiping someone's memory, but the synod, or maybe the college up in Winterhold might be able to" I looked up at him

"You think they might get my memories back?"

"Maybe Majolir, maybe, but first let's get out of here" I nodded and walked over to Ralof's kill, from the look of her armour she was more well endowed than I was, but it was definitely better than nothing, even better was that aside from a few marks it was in perfect condition, I slipped it off her quickly, more aware than ever that it wouldn't be long before more soldiers turn up, and then put it on.

Like I had guessed it wasn't a perfect fit, but the leather jerkin helped spread the weight and reduce the digging I that was inevitable with badly fitted armour, Ralof meanwhile was checking the corpse of my soldier for anything useful.

"You ready Ralof?"

He grinned at me, giving him a slightly blood thirsty look "I think I am Majolir, I think I am"


At this point I suppose I should be asking you to review, but quite frankly that would be extremely hypocritical of me. If you do review great and thank you, and if you don't, well, knowing that people are reading this is enough.