Beginning
The beginning of it all felt like ages ago, even though Althea could remember it like it was yesterday. Waking up in that cart to find herself bound for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time; it was nothing in comparison to what came next. Being forced down on the headsman's block that was still soaked with the fresh blood of the Nord who volunteered to go first, his cold, dead eyes staring up at her from the basket below… even that was not as frightening as what the dragon brought forth.
The shrill screams and wails of people all around her as they burned before her eyes… the smell of burnt flesh permeating the air in that godforsaken town… the thick smoke filling her lungs, making it almost unbearable to breathe… the overbearing heat emanating from the flames that consumed the buildings and the people in them… and the fireballs falling from the otherworldly, blood-red sky… that was what haunted Althea's dreams at night. That, and the dragon itself.
The behemoth of a creature was covered in scales as dark as a starless sky, and had spikes, teeth, and claws that appeared as if they could cut through a man like a knife through butter. Then there were his eyes, eyes slitted like a reptile's, but still unlike anything she had ever seen. They were a fiery-red, almost on fire themselves, and the moment Althea gazed into them was the moment her life changed forever.
Nothing would ever be the same again.