Loki snapped awake to the sound of knocking on the doorframe of his room. He wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed at still being here. On the one hand, he had loved the Elder Scrolls video games and really wanted to see just how deep this rabbit hole went, but on the other hand he was starting to get worried about if he would ever see home again. His family, his friends, were they missing him? Did they even know he was gone? These people in Skyrim didn't even know his real name. If something happened to him here, they would never even know who he was…
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, it came again, bringing him out of his existential crisis.
"Loki, You awake yet? Me and Hadvar are ready." he heard Ralof say from outside the door.
"Yeah, I'm up. Just lost in thought." He replied. "Lemme get my armor on and I'll be out. What time is it?"
"It's half past five. It's getting late." Hadvar answered.
"Late? You forget I'm not military. I'm actually a college student, anything before noon is considered early for me." Loki felt the need to yawn just from the mention of the time.
Loki came out of his room, walked over and sat down at the table Ralof and Hadvar were sitting at just as Delphine was asking if anyone wanted breakfast. Each ordered a decent meal to get the day started. Looking around the room he saw Embry passed out in the corner from a long night of drinking. As they were eating, the soldiers began to ask more about their new partner.
"You said you're in a college, is it like a mages or bards college?" Hadvar asked.
"Not exactly. Where I'm from no one knows how to use magic. It's more like where you learn to be a businessman or a doctor or some people study how people think so they can help people who have been traumatized, stuff like that."
"If no one where you're from can use magic, how do you know how?" Ralof puzzled.
"Another thing I learned from the scrolls I guess, I'm still not very good." Loki decided to test himself a bit and tried to retrieve the butter from across the table with a telekinesis spell. It didn't move. "Guess I don't know that spell yet. I need to find some spell books."
"Alright, so the scrolls have shown you what's coming, what do you plan to do about it? And how do we fit in?" Asked Hadvar.
Loki looked around to make sure Delphine was nowhere in range of hearing and then began. "Well, according to the Elder Scrolls, the only person who can defeat Alduin is something called a Dragonborn, like the Septim Emperors, Saint Alessia, and Reman Cyrodiil. If Akatosh has allowed Alduin to return then he will have also provided a Dragonborn to fulfill the prophecy. In ancient times the Akaviri dragon hunters had a temple in the Reach, on top of the Karthspire mountain. Our best bet to learn to fight dragons and find a Dragonborn is to start there. We need to pick up a few things in Bleak Falls Barrow on the way though: a golden claw and a stone tablet."
Hadvar looked at Loki as if he had just ruined his day. "You just want to go into that barrow because I told you it gave me nightmares as a kid, don't you? You're an ass."
Loki snickered a little knowing the thought had crossed his mind when Hadvar mentioned it on the way from Helgen yesterday.
"It's nothing personal Hadvar, we need those artifacts and I don't want to have to come back this way before heading to Whiterun from Karthspire. I would love to just drop the stone off in Whiterun on our way to the Reach, but according to the 'visions' the scrolls gave me, we will face our next dragon as soon as I deliver the stone tablet. If there's a chance I can force fate to wait, I am going to try."
Hadvar and Ralof exchanged a look that conveyed both We need to get this done, as well as What in Oblivion have we gotten ourselves into? Loki finished off his meal, stood, and picked up his helmet. He had gone with the scaled light armor with Iron covered boots and gauntlets. Having not been able to resist the canon of the Elder Scrolls V, he had chosen an iron horned helmet. Looking at the helmet, he smiled to himself at the thought that there was a good chance he just might be the Dragonborn in this story. His smile got even bigger when the thought crossed his mind of acquiring a Thalmor's robes and the Mask of Clavicus Vile to really give life to his chosen name. Unfortunately no one in Tamriel would be able to get the correlation since none of them knew either Norse mythology from Earth nor Marvel Universe Villains.
They gathered their supplies and walked out of the Sleeping Giant. Camilla was on the porch of the Riverwood Trader and waved to the three. "Good luck out there, be careful, and return safely." she called to them as she smiled and waved. Loki returned the wave with his thanks.
As they crossed the bridge and began up the winding path, Loki began to summon fire spells to his hands and practiced burning the rocks as he walked by them. After that he tried sparks, which he found made his fingers tingle a lot more. He could feel the spells draining the energy from his body, and then the energy returning slowly after he stopped. He knew this was going to take some getting used to. He also needed to acquire some enchanted items to fortify his magicka and his health regeneration. He may not have health points like in the game, but he figured if he could get a strong enough health regeneration enchantment he could effectively become as invulnerable as Wolverine from the X-men, with wounds healing as fast as they are made.
The path wound back and forth up the side of the mountain. Ralof and Hadvar were leading since they both knew this area like their own backyard. Loki was still playing with spells in his hands trying to figure out which ones he could and couldn't do yet and pondering on the lore of how to shout. He thought to himself Anyone can shout if they can speak the word, and meditate on it until they understand it fully, so maybe I can use some words before go up against Mirmulnir. Hell, I know most of the words already, surely i have to be able to understand one or two. Maybe Fus or Yol? Fire and force are easy to unde…..
Just as Loki had rounded the corner he was slammed back to reality by a crashing weight hitting him from the right side. He heard a growling snarl and all he could see was teeth as a large, dark-gray wolf stood on top of him and clamped his jaws down over Loki's helmet right over the eye socket. Even though he had just been practicing his spells, Loki hesitated and panicked. Ralof put an arrow into the beast's side, but it only stunned it. Luckily it was enough to let Loki collect his head and react. He light both his palms up in blue lightning and then reached up and placed them on the wolf's chest, dual casting the spell as soon as he touched it. The bolts of electricity went through the wolf's heart like a defibrillator and stopped it instantly. He was very glad to know that in THIS Skyrim, a critical hit was from proper placement, not a percentage chance.
As they neared the watchtower they could see two bandits outside, one standing by a tree and one by the door. Ralof looked at Hadvar and said "Remember when we hunted together as boys? The time we saw two deer and we wanted to get both deer without scaring the other one off when we shot."
"I remember well," Hadvar replied. "We had enough meat to feed both our families for two months. Those were the biggest stags I'd ever seen. I know what you have in mind. The one on the tree is mine"
With that the two Nords nocked their bows and drew. Ralof counted "one, two…" and on three they loosed their arrows. Both bandits went down simultaneously, having never heard the arrows hit. As they lowered their bows, both Nords glanced towards each other and each cracked a bit of a smile. This was the kind of war that turned brother against brother, and Loki had been right when he gambled on there being more to these two than just neighbors in the same town, but he had no time discuss with these two what they had given up following their lords, Tullius and Ulfric.
With his dagger in one hand and his axe in the other he eased his way through the door. Seeing nothing but a chair and small table he crept up the stairs and out to the ramp up the outside. The boards creaked and Loki was certain he was going to be heard, but somehow he made it to the next level without anyone hearing him. Another barren floor, except a few barrels of mead and cheese.
How do these guys live like this? Freezing cold, barely any food or drink. Surely they can't expect to have many people come by hear to rob, unless they are going to make an offering to the ancestors in the barrow, and that can't be frequent. I think I'd pick a better place.
As he crept up the stairs he finally saw him. One lone archer at the top of the tower, perched on a chest, sound asleep. Really dude? Worst bandit ever! Ok man, it's time to do this. No pushing buttons and watching screen animations this time, this one is for real. You've really got to kill him. Com'on now, you've seen it done thousands of times in the games, in the movies, you know what to do, just do it.
He snuck up right beside the sleeping bandit, so close he could hear him breathing. Stab him in the throat! Just DO IT already! Rearing back Loki stabbed the blade into the archer's neck. Despite shaking from nervousness, he actually managed to sever the jugular. The bandit came awake in a panic and Loki pulled the dagger out as he jumped backward away from the flailing man who was spraying blood like a sprinkler system. Blood was up Loki's arm all the way to his elbow.
With one hand over his neck and the other drawing his own blade the bandit started to stumble toward Loki, who had retreated back down the steps. Luckily for Loki, he had lost so much blood so quickly that on his second step down he fell sideways off the stairs, landed on his head, and broke his neck. Loki stared at the body lying there for what seemed like an eternity before Hadvar brought him back by calling his name.
"First time, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, is it that obvious?"
Hadvar just grinned, "Oh yeah. Don't worry, you did good, most men lose their breakfast the first time they kill a man."
"Still not sure I won't." Loki looked closely at the man he had just ended, then asked: "Hadvar, how do you sleep at night knowing that a man will never have another day, never see his family again, never wake up again... because of you?"
Hadvar walked over and placed his hand on Loki's shoulder and quietly said:
"My Uncle Alvor once told me that a man who has nightmares and can't sleep over his kills is because he has guilt and regret for what he has done. Whether he has killed innocents, murdered someone in cold blood….sheepishly Sent a man to the block who didn't deserve it…. I'm glad that dragon saved you, because he also saved me from a guilty conscience. cough, voice returns to normal ...that man has doubts that he was doing the right thing, and he feels guilty for it. This man, however, deserved what he got. There's no telling how many innocent lives he's taken, maids he's violated, children who've gone hungry because he stole all the family had. You did the right thing, and you were just in your actions. Never pity these brigands, and never loath yourself for ending them. Sleep soundly tonight knowing Skyrim is a little safer because he is no longer in it."
Hadvar walked up the stairs and opened the chest the archer had been sleeping on to see if it had anything useful "Oh, Loki, get his bow and arrows so you don't have to get so close next time. You made it way too personal for as inexperienced as you are with killing."
"I see our young bird is learning to fly." Ralof ascended the stairs having finished looting the bandits below of anything they were carrying of value. "Good kill, but we need to keep going, Bleak Falls is just around the corner."
As they reached the barrow snow began to fall all around them. Loki advised a stealth approach expecting more bandits at the barrow, so they crept up towards the stairs.
They spotted the first patrolling bandit on a ledge overlooking Riverwood. A quiet arrow from Ralof's bow sent the man down the side of the mountain without so much as a goodbye. Next there were two women walking along the steps up by the entrance to the barrow. They weren't close enough to be heard yet so Loki whispered to the others:
"I don't think I can kill a woman guys, it just doesn't seem right."
"Well, my friend," said Ralof, "those women would have absolutely no problem slicing you open to get every single thing you're carrying and depending on how long they've been out here, they might even skin you up like a deer and eat you. You might want to kill them first, get my drift?"
"Yeah, I do." Having been raised to believe in chivalry, Loki still despised the thought of hurting a woman, but this was not his world, and not his rules. He nocked his bow, took aim, and loosed an arrow, catching the closer one dead center of the back, severing her spine, just as Hadvar shot the other one through the neck.
"Damn! Nice shot! I think we may have found your talent. Where did you learn to do that?" Ralof was clearly impressed with Loki's archery.
"My mother used to insist that I get my nose out of my books and go outside at least a couple of hours each day as a child. I had a little recurve bow and it was one of the few things i could do in our neighborhood that didn't make a lot of noise."
"Well at least we know you have that skill to fall back on in a fight, or maybe keep you out of one and end it before your opponent knows you're there."
Loki couldn't help but laugh to himself, stealth archer AGAIN!
"Alright guys, let's get inside and out of this cold." Loki said trying to sound motivational.
"I'd be willing to bet it's going to chill our blood a lot worse once we get down inside this crypt." Hadvar mumbled, pushing open the door. "Dragons, barrows… how many more of my childhood nightmares am I going to have to face this week?!"