Chapter 3 Side Effect

Authors Note: Blood and gore ahead

"Daddy get up Daddy!"

"Haming get over here now!'

The ground shook and Jayne fell through the smoking ruins of the building landing on the broken table with a thud. He looked around to get his bearings.

"Yol Toor Shul"

"AAAAA"

"Haming No!"

Jayne followed the noise and smell of burning flesh. What he saw would only be the beginning. Jayne watched as a man held a small smoking body to his chest. He watch as the black winged devil swoop down and snatch the grieving man up in its huge razor-sharp jaws. He watch as the bottom half fell from the sky over the wall.

"Gods! Prisoner, come with me!"

"Fuck you!" Jayne spat.

The Legionnaire brought his blade up to Jayne's neck.

"That wasn't as request prisoner! Now follow me if you want to live." The Legionnaire with the list grabbed his bound hands and pushed him toward the back of another burning building.

"Stay close to the wall."

As on queue the black devil land on the wall above them. The Legionnaire pulled him flat against the wall and held his blade to his neck again.

"Yol Toor" Burning flesh and screaming greeted his sense. This time Jayne felt heat of the words.

"Wish I could burn you fucks like him" As he gestured to the black winged devil.

"Shut up!" as the Legionnaire whispered as he pressed his blade deeper into Jayne's neck.

The ground shook again when the screaming ended. Jayne looked up and saw the black winged devil flying overhead. Fireballs were dotting the sky where it had once been. The pull of his binds brought his eyes back to ground level. Jayne followed the Legionnaire until they got out into the open.

"How oblivion do you kill this thing?" The gray-haired asshole himself screamed.

Jayne looked around the courtyard. What remained of the village scattered around. All the soldiers were using arrows and magic to bring down the beast. The beast was skillfully dodging the attempts. One moment it would be there the next it would swoop away to bring death to the next victim. Jayne was in awe.

"Get to the keep soldier were leaving." The gray-haired asshole ordered.

"What about him?" The Legionnaire with the list asked.

"He's your problem. Get to work soldier."

"Wake up!" A soft voice said.

The Legionnaire pulled him by his binds again. He was getting sick of the binds. Soon the binds would seem like pleasant memory.

As they passed under the archway he watched as more legionnaires tossed around like child's toy.

"Ralof you traitor!" The list bitch screamed at the blonde nord.

"I betrayed no one Hadvar!" Ralof countered by drawing his axe.

As the two continued to exchange words Jayne seized the moment rushed towards the keep. When he pushed open the door he was greeted by a bugged eye imperial. The imperial drew his weapon and pointed at him with all the confidence he had left in him.

"Look stormcloaks!" Jayne pointed with his bound hands behind the imperial.

The imperial swung around leaving his back to him. Jayne closed the distance and pulled his bound hands over the head of the imperial. The imperial tried to fight dropping is sword on the ground with a clang. Jayne kicked the imperial's legs out. The imperial fell face first on the ground. They struggled for dominance each wanting freedom. In the end his wish for freedom was greater. The fight ended when Jayne felt the imperial's neck break.

Jayne sat on the imperial trying to calm his breathing. This was the second time in his life he had killed someone. The first being his drunk step-father after his step-father killed his mother.

Jayne remembered coming home to find his step-father grunting over the corpse of his mother as if she was still alive. Now he was older he remembered grabbing the knife and stabbing his step-father in the chest, neck, and any other place he could swing at. He remembered his step-father dying as he collapsed on the broken corpse of his mother.

"Wake up!" His world shook, as the soft voice commanded again, but he didn't know what those words meant.

He grabbed the Imperials fallen sword and cut his binds. It felt good to be unbound. As he made his way through the keep he dodged falling rocks and swing blades. He killed his way through the horrors of the basement. He took a savage pride when he found the bitch in the shiny armor.

She ripped her helmet off and gazed into his eyes when he killed the last of her men.

"So, you're just a stormcloak traitor." She spat.

"I don't know what a stormcloak is." He snarled.

"You're covered in imperial blood."

"So?"

"You're one now."

With that they fought. He swung from the arm. She from the wrist. His swing went wide as hers found its mark. Her blade went into his right arm just below the elbow. He dropped his sword and clutched his wound.

"Is that all you got traitor?" she goaded.

He summoned sparks within his right hand and cast them toward her. She was taken off guard by his use of magic. The lighting dance across her armor making the room light up with purple glow. The magic stopped as his will was drained. She staggered there for a moment clutching her blade.

He looked around and saw a fallen war axe close by. She regained her composer and charged at him as he dived for the axe. His hand clasped the grip of the axe and he flipped to his back. Her blade was held over her head as she ran toward him screaming. He swung the axe with all his might as she bared down upon him. The axe somehow found the weak spot between boots and the leggings. She stumbled as she lost balance. He watched as she fell to the ground. She got up from the ground and rested on her good knee while pulling the axe free.

"You will meet your gods' today stormcloak."

With that she struck out with her blade trying to take his head. He rolled away.

"I told you I'm not a stormcloak."

He looked around for a weapon. He found a wooden bow and arrows on an imperial he had killed earlier. He pick the bow up and readied an arrow.

"You're a stormcloak and a coward." She goaded.

"No, just a prisoner."

He let loose the arrow. The arrow found its mark in the soft padding between the shoulder and arm. He watched as she staggered back as he readied another arrow. She mustered that last of her strength to stand. He took aim of her good knee and let the arrow fly. It buried itself within her knee. She fell to the ground with a scream dropping her sword.

"You think this is over?" She spat "The legion is the only thing keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim." She got up from the ground and rested on her knees wincing in pain. He dropped the bow and walked over to her. "You think killing me changes anything?" She challenge as he picked her blade from the ground. He put the tip against her throat pointing downwards into her chest.

His mother always said the eyes were the windows to the soul. If so all he saw when he looked into her eyes was contempt. He watch her eyes as he plunged the sword into her. Blood sprayed up covering his neck, face, and chest. When she gasp her last he let go of the sword and stepped away. Her body was still on its knees. Her arms were at her sides with her head tilted back with the sword sticking out of her throat. She reminded him of a pilgrim prostrating themselves before an altar.

Within his mind he heard a dark voice say "Good." He had to agree with the voice it did feel good to kill that bitch. The pose she died in was a fitting end as well.

"Wake up!" The soft voice came again as the world shook.

He fought his way through the cavern filled with spiders and a bear. He looted the dead of their wine and money along the way. When he stepped out of the cavern into the cold of Skyrim's day he took a deep breath of fresh air savoring it. He watch as the black winged beast fly over him towards the mountains. He sat down popping the cork off the wine he found. As he took a swing of the wine his eyes opened to see a pair of fiery golden eyes looking into his.

"Good you're awake." She said with a gasp of relief. "You were tossing and turning in your sleep."

"Vivid dream." He replied

"Mother told me this might happen."

"What?"

"A side effect of the tonic."

"Now you tell me. I could have done without that."

"She said you might have one or two bad dreams."

"One or two bad dreams!? I could smell the burning bodies and feel the blood on my skin."

"By the blood." She exclaimed.

She waited before asking what he dreamed about.

"What was in about?"

"I dreamt about my first day in Skyrim. About my head being on the headmen's block. About Alduin destroying Helgen. I relived every kill I made that day. I dreamt about killing the bitch that put her foot on my back as the headmen readied his axe."

She stroked a stray hair off of his face and smiled. "That was ten years ago."

"I know." He said in defeat.

After a while his mind wandered to the boy that he spared earlier that day.

"The boy today. I think he remind me of myself. After I killed my step-father."

"You killed your step-father." She asked in shock.

"And my mother depending on who you ask."

"Why do you say who you ask?"

"When the guards found me they didn't even wait before they dragged me off to the dungeon. The next day the count declared me guilty of murdering my mother and step-father."

"What happened after?"

"I spent four years in the Bruma jail with the title of kin killer." He snorted "They had no idea how right they were." He took a deep breath before continuing. "The count sold everything I had to "help pay off my sentence."" he finger quoted. "When I got out I had nothing. And no one would hire a seventeen year old kin killer. So, I left Bruma and headed north via pale pass like the hero of Bruma did so long ago."

"That's how you came to Skyrim?"

"Yep, seventeen years old and already a harden criminal."

They laid there in silence both them thinking about the past. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.

"Wait? You served your time. Why did they send you to the headsmen?"

"Because I wasn't an imperial."

"That's not fair."

"I was a nord rounded up with bunch of stormcloaks. For them it wasn't a big stretch to call me a stormcloak as well."

She started tracing his muscles with her fingers as she mused over everything he said. He let the warmth of her body ease his mind as he drifted back into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Note: The more I write the more I recognize my need for a Beta Reader.

Out of the chapters so far which has been your favorite part?

Have no fear I'm slowly working on the rewrite of chapter 1.