Kendrick was frozen even as the roar pushed her to the ground and rattled her brain.
Her ears were ringing and she felt absolutely sick to her stomach. She gave a chest heaving sob as she realized that there was no way in hell she would be able to move with the amount of terror seeped into her muscles, so naturally, it came as a surprise when she felt a hand clutch her elbow and yank her up.
Stumbling blindly, Kendrick yelped when her knees struck the hard stone beneath her as she tried to keep up with the sprinting Ralof.
"Get up!" The Viking shouted over the screams and wails of terror. "Come on, the gods won't give us another chance!"
Huffing in a breath, Kendrick pulled her feet beneath her as she practically flew into the watchtower.
Forearms braced on her knees as she struggled to pull in a panicked puff of air, the young girl absently rubbed at the purpling of the brown skin at her wrists as she listened to Ralof converse with his traitor boss.
"Jarl Ulfric!" The man positively yelped. "What is that thing? Could the legends be true?"
The hard look the tall bear of a man sent his underling was quelling and Kendrick was glad he was paying her no mind. She didn't need that bullshit on top of this bullshit.
"Legends don't burn down villages." He stated just as another roar rocked the world. "We need to move. Now!"
Ralof gave a quick look around.
"Up through the tower," He ordered and Kendrick shrunk back as she remembered exactly what was going to happen. "let's go!"
Jerking forward at the last second as she beat back her indecision, she caught onto Ralof's arm and pulled him back.
"Wait!" She positively shrieked as her wild eyes peered up at the stairs. "Don't go yet! You can't!"
A Stormcloak soldier up front sent her a disgusted look at her outburst as he moved higher up the steps and she hunched in on herself at the attention.
"Keep calm lass!" He grunted out as he ventured further up. "We have to keep moving else we'll all be doomed!"
Heart caught in her throat because this dumbass would rather die than listen to her, she lunged past Ralof and gripped hard on the soldier's legs, throwing him off balance and he hit the stairs with a hard clack.
"For Talos' sake!" The man roared as his face twisted in rage and she flinched back violently. "Lass get-"
And suddenly there was fire filling the room, hot enough to send little pinpricks of pain through her nerve endings and she screamed. Falling back she didn't bother to try and stop the tears that sprung to her eyes at the feeling of hard stone pieces pelting her body, but she did try to keep quiet.
The last thing she wanted was to bring Alduin back because of her loud sobbing.
Laying on the ground with her face in her arms, she looked up as soon as the heat subsided and she resisted the urge to throw up all over herself.
"Lass," The Stormcloak she had saved rumbled out after the room had fallen quiet but Kendrick didn't spare him a glance. "lass, how did you kn-"
"We must keep moving." Ulfric cut in before the man could finish and Kendrick looked up in time to catch his accessing gaze to which she wilted away from because if there was anyone whose ideology scared her, it was his. "There isn't much time before that dragon comes back."
Once again dragged to her feet by Ralof, the dark haired girl staggered up the steps as they neared the hole in the stone wall.
"See the inn on the other side?" Ralof explained as she peered fearfully through the destroyed ceiling. "Jump through the roof and keep going! Go! We'll follow when we can!"
Snatching onto his sleeve once again, Kendrick held out her wrists to him insistently.
"You gotta untie me first." She gasped out as she flexed her fingers. "I need to be able to - fuck - to use my hands to keep my balance or I'll hurt myself."
Watching Ralof nod as he looked over to his companions and asked for a blade, he cut her free.
"We'll catch up with you." He said. "Now hurry!"
And so quickly before more fear could worm its way into her chest, Kendrick leaped - and nearly cried in relief when the only damage that came to her was a few splinters.
Shrugging herself up through sheer willpower alone, she wobbled towards the stairs and down to a destroyed Helgen.
Her wide dark eyes took in everything from the burning buildings to the harried soldiers mish-mashing in the terrible chaos and Kendrick didn't know what to do. Her tear bidden gaze snagged onto the crimson dyed stone road and she was struck speechless at the heaps upon heaps of dead and nearly so bodies that were littering the streets.
She had never seen more than one corpse before.
Bile crawled its way up her throat as the scent of burning flesh reached her nostrils and without preamble, Kendrick bent over and vomited. Sucking in a breath after her stomach emptied itself, Kendrick looked up at the sound of Hadvar's voice just in time to see an Imperial man die under the pressure of Alduin's shout and she threw up.
Again.
She was gonna fucking die here, wasn't she?
"Gods!" Hadvar swore as his eyes met hers and he looked shocked and then determined.
"Still alive, prisoner?" He asked her and she jerked back at his use of incorrect terminology. "Keep close to me if you want to stay that way."
He turned to view the man a few feet away from him.
"Gunnar, take care of the boy." He called. "I have to find General Tullius and join their defense!"
"Gods guide you, Hadvar." Gunnar said and the Imperial man who ordered her to death nodded before taking off, and after a second Kendrick followed.
Nearly falling down some steps, she flinched as she saw a shadow dip overhead and she jumped closer to Hadvar.
"Stay close to the wall!" He ordered just as Alduin - the son of Akatosh, the goddamn World Eater - landed above them and all at once, her heart stopped for a few painful beats.
The game didn't manage to properly illustrate just how gargantuan the dragon god truly was, and distantly Kendrick noted this as a disservice.
What use was pregame knowledge if it didn't do her any good in situations like this?
"Yol...Toor...Shul!" The beast growled out and with the fury of a thousand wronged gods, fire rained down on Helgen.
Clamping her hands down on her mouth to stop her from screaming her head off, Kendrick instead let out a muffled screech.
Screwing her eyes shut until she could hear the telling sound of flapping wings, the young girl pushed herself off of the wall and practically flew across the ground - ignoring Hadvar's shouts for her to wait for him.
Eyes darting around she spied the door to the keep and with a cry of relief, she threw it open and closed behind her.
Wiping away the fat tears clinging to her eyelashes and rolling down her face, Kendrick ignored the ragged half sobs that fell from her lips as she hurriedly looked about the room because if she was about to go traipsing about this godforsaken keep then she needed protection at the very least.
Armor, she thought to herself as she started her search and blinked the tears out of her eyes. I need armor and I need it now.
Pulling open all four boxes in the room, she ignored the Imperial uniform and instead focused on the nondescript black leather and cloth ensemble. She didn't want to run into any Stormcloaks and have the poor bastards think she was an Imperial or vice versa and distantly she wondered why she couldn't have put on this when playing the game. It would have saved her a lot of sweat and tears.
Unlacing her calf high boots - with mounting frustration, god why won't these loosen already! - she tugged on the light leather pants over her skinny jeans and took off her sweater to put the chest armor over her torso.
She had given the clothes a cursory whiff before hand and she was pleased and relieved to note that these were fucking clean.
Praise the Lord for small mercies.
Pulling back on her dark turtleneck over her armor and her boots back on her feet, Kendrick peered back into the box and reached past the swords to grab the quiver and bow. Slinging pack of arrow across her shoulder, she thanked small miracles because this, she could use.
Back in middle school, Kendrick had been good at archery - as in good enough to enter competitions and actually place most of the time. And despite not having picked up a bow in about two to three years, muscle memory wasn't anything to underestimate.
Taking a deep breath, she quickly notched an arrow, aimed it at the wooden door to her left, and let out a tiny sniffle of relief when it struck exactly where she had aimed.
"I'm not going to die here," She murmured to herself as tears that never actually stopped began to reblur her vision. "I can protect myself so I'm not going to fucking die here."
The sound of the door opening drew her away from her thoughts and she gasped, hand quickly fishing for an arrow before she realized that it was only Hadvar.
Bracing a hand against her chest, she shut her eyes.
"Please don't sneak up on me like that." She rasped as she tried to settle her nerves. "I don't think my heart can take much more."
He inclined his head in apology.
"We have to keep moving." He told her and with a start, she moved to follow him through the door.
"Stay close, prisoner." Hadvar muttered and Kendrick tensed. "There's Stormcloaks up ahead."
Fuck.
Here's the next chapter, I admit I got lazy and didn't want to write the next scene out yet but I'll get to it soon. So far I hope Kendrick has been to your liking!
Please review and enjoy.
Edit: 6/17/17
