A/N : Hi ! Here comes the second chapter :) A big thanks to TheGreatJabberyJamie for correcting my mistakes :)
The next chapter may take a little while, I'm working on a picture and it takes a lot of time :°
Don't hesitate to give you opinion and review :)
Skyrim Belongs to Bethesda of course :)
Chapter 2 : Bye bye Helgen !
The three survivors were greeted by the coolness of the room and the dim light of the torches. They were standing in a room with a few beds on the left and tables on the right. Probably the barracks.
"Looks like were the only ones to have arrived here. We are safe, but who knows how long?" began the Imperial soldier. He turned towards his two companions.
"Ah! My name's Hadvar, we have to cooperate if we want to escape alive, I hope you don't mind?"
The Altmer stared at him before answering hesitantly:
"My name is Niwen , and I don't mind."
"Gaenor, and no problem" answered the Bosmer, "however I need an armour and a weapon."
"Look around you, we are in the barracks, you should find something in a chest."
Niwen sat down on a chair while Gaenor was looking through the chests and she realised that she had lost her knapsack along the way. There were potions, spell-books she wanted to study, and a few clothes.
And now, she only had a few septims left in her pocket and some potions in the small bag hanging from her belt. Her blue robe was dirty and covered with soot and ashes, actually it was more black, grey and brown than blue.
"Don't you want to put on armour instead of your old robes?" Niwen looked up and realised Hadvar was talking to her. She briefly stared at him. He was also covered with soot and ashes, and he had also been sweating because of the heat of the flames. Remembering the question, she raised her hand, her palm opened up and made a small flame appear.
"Oh! A mage, but what are you doing in Helgen?"
"I was heading toward Winterhold, I just wanted to rest a little at the inn before continuing."
Gaenor came close to them. He had found some Imperial armour and a sword.
"We should move on before this place collapses on us."
They moved into a corridor and heard voices a bit further away. As they got closer, the voices stopped and the sharp eyes of the Bosmer caught a glimpse of a blue sash trying to hide. But (it was ) too late, he had seen them.
"Stormcloaks," he whispered to his two comrades.
"I'll try to negotiate with them, don't attack." answered Hadvar as he moved on toward the gate. He pulled the chain to open it and went into the circular room. He had barely walked into the room before he had to dodge an axe falling upon him. Gaenor didn't lose time and rushed into the room unsheathing his sword. Niwen was frozen. She was looking at the fight wide eyed, motionless. The two Stormcloaks were killed. As the Imperial soldier was cleaning the blood from his sword, the Bosmer finally realised that Niwen was standing still.
"Never seen someone get killed?" He asked raising an eyebrow.
She looked at him in the eyes.
"No" she whispered, "I've seen dead people but never… when they were dying."
"You'll have to get used to it. In some situations, it's kill or be killed. Don't hesitate to roast your enemies to death in these situations because they will have no pity." He finished before turning towards Hadvar.
The latter opened a door and they went down large stairs. Further, they almost got crushed when a part of the ceiling fell down, and they were forced to go through another door leading to a store room.
Two Stormcloaks were in the room and one of them shoved past Hadvar to attack Niwen who looked like the weakest of the three in her simple blue robe. It was the last decision he ever made. Horrified to see a warrior armed to the teeth come at her, she reacted without thinking and summoned her magicka. The Stormcloak screamed in agony as he was burning and a sword ran through him, putting an end to his torment.
Niwen couldn't believe it. She had intentionally hurt someone with her magic. Until now, the injuries she had caused were all accidents during training. She felt a bit nauseous, but tried to calm down saying to herself the situation was different. After all, that man was trying to kill her.
She didn't really pay attention to what Hadvar was saying.. He had talked about potions it seemed. Seeing her two comrades searching in the room, she decided to do the same and found out a few magickas potions.
They moved on and the corridors led them to a torture room. Two Stormcloak soldiers were attacking two Imperials, apparently the torturers. One of them casted a shock spell on one of the Stormcloak before Hadvar and Gaenor came to finish him. The second one didn't last long, he was alone against four opponents.
In the room, there were two pillars and behind them, along the wall, there were three cages. Near a pillar stood a table, with a knapsack and a book on it.
Gaenor searched the bodies, in hope to find something useful while Hadvar was explaining what was happening outside. Meanwhile, Niwen approached the cages and couldn't help but gasp at the sight of a dead mage inside one of them. A small purse and a spell tome were next to him. She tried to open the cage, but it was locked of course.
She came closer to the Imperials who were arguing.
"Excuse me," she politely interrupted them and they turned her way. The one she supposed was the main torturer glared at her.
"What?" He asked, irritation showing in his voice.
"Do you have the key to open that cage please?" She replied, pointing at the cage with the dead mage.
"No, it was lost, what did you want to do anyway?"
"Get the spell tome, he doesn't need it anymore now." She retorted and glared at him.
"Try with those lockpicks" spoke Hadvar before the situation got out of hand. He held out a little bag with the lockpicks for her, she then looked at him with a questioning look. At this moment, Gaenor came to help and show her how to use the lockpicks with her dagger. After a few fails, they managed to open the cage. She entered to take the purse and the spell tome, and was about to get out when Gaenor asked her:
"Don't you want to take his robe and his hood? I heard that mage's stuff were enchanted."
Niwen looked at him with her green eyes and then turned towards the corpse. After some thoughts, she knelt down next to the body and touched the hood. She concentrated and tried to find out which enchantment was on it. A small increase of magicka, it had to be a novice hood then. On the robes, she discovered a regenerating magicka enchantment.
"Indeed, they are enchanted and better than mine. But I'll need help to remove them off the corpse."
The Bosmer signalled her to get out and he went in to remove the enchanted clothes. Meanwhile Niwen was inspecting the room, looking for a bag. She found one on a table with a book entitled "The Book of the Dragonborn".
A dragon attack and a book about old legends. Coincidence? She thought after having leafed through the book quickly. She took the knapsack and the book and got back to the Bosmer. He had almost finished removing the mage's robe. She put them in the bag, but chose to wear the hood. Gaenor raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Aren't you putting the robe on?"
The Alter looked at him as if he had grown another head and pointed at the other men. He realised he had asked her something indecent. She couldn't changer her clothes here, there were three men and a male Bosmer and she had nowhere to change.
"My apologies, I kind of forgot about the situation." He got out of the cage and they joined Hadvar and the torturer's assistant who were waiting for them at the entrance of a corridor.
They resumed their journey and went through another torture room. At the end of it, they found a collapsed wall showing a tunnel. It was the only way, so they choose to go through.
A few moments later, Gaenor who was leading them stopped and signalled them to quiet down. They (then) heard why, voices could be heard, and it sounded like Stormcloaks. They continued carefully and Gaenor inspected the room stealthily. Four Stormcloaks were in a kind of cave. Two were on the opposite side of the room, one was just in front of the exit of the corridor, but with his back turned) to them, and the last was barely visible. He seemed to be in a lower part of the cave, possibly crossed by a stream, judging by the sound of water he could hear.
He got closer to his comrades and whispered to them:
"There are four Stormcloaks, the first one will be easy to take down, the second is not far, I'll take care of him. But there are two archers on the other side, we need to take care of them quickly"
"I'll take care of that." replied Hadvar
The Bosmer nodded and went back to the exit of the corridor, followed by the others. He jumped out of his spot and ran his sword through the soldier before he could make a move. Hadvar didn't lose time and crossed the small bridges leading to the other side of the cave while Gaenor was attacking the soldier in the lower part.
The torturer's assistant was not lucky and got struck in the neck by an arrow. Not wanting to end up like him, Niwen chose to follow Hadvar. An unpleasant smell assaulted her nose and she realised that the archers were walking in oil. She gathered her courage and signalled to Hadvar to get out of her way and she casted a flame spell. The air was suddenly hotter as the oil caught on fire. The archers barely had time to register what was happening.
Gaenor, after killing his opponent, came closer to the burnings corpses. Thankfully, one of the bows fell far from the bodies and wasn't burned down to ashes. He grasped it and recovered some arrows but most of them were burnt and useless.
"Why is there so many Stormcloaks here? There are more than at the execution." he asked staring at the corpses laying at his feet.
"They probably came to rescue Ulfric," supposed Hadvar, "If they managed to come here, that means there's an exit nearby!"
"Wait… wait... wait… You're telling us that… You were guiding us without knowing where you were going?" suddenly asked Niwen, not believing what she heard.
Hadvar was suddenly quite embarrassed but still answered. "At the beginning, yes but I didn't think the ceiling would fall in front of us."
A long sigh escaped the Altmer's lips, while a small smile was forming on the Bosmer's. They moved on and crossed a little wooden bridge. As they entered another cave, rocks crashed into the little wooden structure, destroying it. It felt like an earthquake and made the three survivors lose their balance.
"We are lucky… it almost fell on us!" Exclaimed Hadvar, staring) with wide eyes at the way they came from.
They were now standing in a large cave. It was cooler and the air was more humid. A stream ran through the cave and rushed into an opening large enough for adults to go through. Carefully, they moved on and after a crossroad, they ended up in another cave. A lot of Frostbite could be seen. Said creatures were not far and attacked the intruders as soon as they spotted them.
The rest of the way was rather quiet, only one victim was deplorable: a bear that was on the way out. Gaenor took some time to skin it. He had thought of selling its skin or using it, he still didn't really know what to do. This action earned him a disgusted and horrified look from the mage.
Finally, they found out the exit and the heat of the sunrays entered their bodies as they left the cave.