Chapter 2- The Fall of Helgen
Chunks of flaming stone fell out of the sky as Alduin roared, knocking everyone back. "This way!" Govegein heard Ralof shout. He ran towards a guard tower. Everything seemed to be on fire, someone was burning alive next to Govegein. Probably the headsman, ended up saving the man he was about to kill.
Of course it would be him, if I got pushed forward in time, he would have too. But did I get here first? This seems to be Alduin's first attack. Govegein wondered at this as he met with Raddin and Ralof in the tower. Inside waited Ulfric and several Stormcloaks, two of which seemed gravely injured. Very few would make it out of this ordeal in one piece.
"Jarl Ulfric, what is that thing? Could the legends be true?" Ralof asked as he cut the Jarl's bindings. The roars and screams of terror seemed to get louder as the bombardment ceased. The fires could be felt through the stone tower, whether Alduin cared about cooking out a few stragglers or not, Govegein could not say for sure.
"Legends don't burn down villages!" Raddin shouted. Ulfric glared at Raddin as he was cut off. The heat in the tower grew.
"We need to move, now!" Ulfric said. He was right, even if the world eater did not mean to, this tower was roasting and they were all dead if they did not leave it.
"Up through the tower," Ralof suggested, "Let's go!" As they made their way up the stairs, the wall broke down to reveal Alduin's head. He shot a gout of fire and burned a Stormcloak alive. As Alduin left, Govegein and Raddin used the hole to escape the tower, jumping through a burning home. There they met with the list-bearing Imperial.
"Hamming, you need to get over here, now," the Imperial said, coaxing the boy away from his downed father. As the boy neared him, Alduin landed beside his father. "Atta boy, you're doing great," the Imperial said, trying to keep the boy's attention away from the dragon. "Torolf!" he shouted as Alduin roasted the man. The soldier led the few civilians in his care to some small cover. "You two still alive? Good," he said as he noticed the prisoners, "Stick with me if you want to stay that way." He was visibly shaken by what he had just seen, but he would not let that interfere with saving lives.
"I'm not liking our odds." Raddin remarked as they ran throughout the burning city. Govegein had to agree with him, a makeshift army or two he could handle, but the world eater? Not even his best trained warriors could have hoped to face off with the beast, let alone unarmed and alone.
Govegein swallowed. "True, but now is not the time for talk," Govegein retorted he could not keep the emotion out of his voice, "Now is the time to run."
"Oh no, is that fear? You were stone faced during the ambush and you're scared now? We aren't going to survive are we?" Raddin was panicking now. Govegein grabbed him and pulled him towards the wall, just before the black dragon landed and burned another civilian.
"Not with that attitude we're not," the soldier said as he caught up. "Make your way to the keep, I'll meet you there." The prisoners ran off. "I'm sure they didn't really need to be executed anyway."
Bursting through another burned house, the prisoners found the Imperial army preparing an onslaught for the dragon. Were they insane? Did they not know what they were trying to fight? Their troops were undertrained for a war with humans and they expected to fell a dragon. Govegein pulled Raddin through the troops as he heard the general order a retreat. As Govegein and Raddin neared the keep they were blocked by Ralof and the Imperial soldier from before. "Ralof, out of my way."
"No, I'm not letting some backstabbing Imperial swine live this encounter!" Ralof's face filled with a rage Govegein knew too well. He held the same expression just what seemed like a few hours ago.
"Okay, I'm sensing a back-story here, let's continue it when we aren't getting killed by the MOST POWERFUL DRAGON IN HISTORY!" Govegein shouted at them. He and Raddin grabbed the rival soldiers and dragged them into the barracks.
Once inside, the two calmed down. "This isn't over, but our mystery man is right, Hadvar," Ralof said, sheathing his sword. "Okay, now let's see if we can get those bindings off," Ralof said as he cut the ropes binding Raddin's hands.
The soldier, Hadvar, approached Govegein. "No need for me," Govegein said as his ropes burned away, cringing at the new burn of magika. "Next time use shackles, not ropes."
"You could have done that at any time?" Raddin asked dumbfounded.
"Yes, but I never got much of a chance," Govegein replied, "Alduin appeared just before I could kill the headsman." He flexed his now free hands, trying to feel how his magika should flow.
"Anyway, grab some weapons and armor, you will definitely need it." Hadvar interrupted. "Even if you could kill the headsman, you would be shot down by archers."
"When I was young, we didn't have toys," Govegein began. Causing Ralof to listen in on the conversation. "What we did have was bows, and of course arrows, we would shoot them at each other and try to catch them, imitating what the soldiers did with spears. I believe someone fast enough to catch an arrow is fat enough to dodge a few."
"Then the foot soldiers would have gotten you," Hadvar countered. Govegein found some captain's armor and began putting it on.
"No, by then the Stormcloaks would have freed themselves and intervened."
"It's true," Ralof said before Hadvar could talk. "Your soldiers did not get any of our hidden knives. You barely even searched us to tell the truth."
Govegein finished donning the Imperial armor and tested a sword-axe combo. "I'll need to get the hang of these back," he muttered, spinning the deadly blades.
Raddin had looted a combination of Imperial and Stormcloak armor. "What? I don't want to be mistaken by some crazy soldier as someone from the other side." He said before strapping a battle axe to his back and a sword to his hip.
"He's right whoever may be in the keep may be frantic from what's happening outside," Govegein supplied, tossing Raddin a shield after sheathing his own weapons. "Seeing something like that for the first time can be unsettling." Especially for the first time on this side.
"We'll see, imperial soldiers aren't as . . . unstable as Stormcloaks," Hadvar said. He smirked as Ralof grew red in the face.
Ralof shouted back, "Well at least the Stormcloaks are not as weak as the Imperials, stuffed up on their posh habits."
"Save the infighting for when we are safe from the dragon" Govegein scolded them. I'll have to rely on blades until I can figure out what happened to the magika. And we 'High Priests' were so proud of our magical abilities. The four began the decent into the keep.
As it turns out, Govegein was right, whatever soldiers that were inside the keep were panicking because of their brush from death itself. Standing in Alduin's presence will do that to you, Govegein thought. "Actually, I'm surprised that you three are taking this so well, you should be more like this," he said as he sidestepped and decapitated a babbling soldier.
"What just because something out of Talos's worst nightmares is tearing up Helgen? I'd like to think we Nords are heartier than that!" Ralof replied. They had entered a sort of storage room after passing through the keep.
"So, you're saying that the Nords are braver then the Hero-God of mankind, who was also a Nord by the way," Hadvar countered. The joke went over Govegein's head and Raddin was preoccupied with searching for excess potions.
"Sh-shut up." Ralof stammered. Raddin pulled his head out of a barrel with an armful of potions and they left the storage room. As the four rounded a corner, descending deeper into the keep, they came upon a torture chamber.
"Gods, I wish we didn't need this place," Hadvar replied, instantly becoming more solemn. Cages lined the far wall, some still with occupants. Govegein thought back to the torture chambers he had seen, compared to those this was like a bath house.
"Well, you don't really," Ralof said looking at the cages. Then a shot of lighting crossed their path.
"No more fools running around here trying to run me through spouting nonsense about winged death. I already lost my assistant," a thin man in Imperial armor and a hood calmly said as he stepped out of his corner. Govegein noticed the other bodies as the man stepped over them. "Then again you don't seem to have been reduced to babbling idiots."
"We aren't, but we are being attacked by a dragon, so let us through," Raddin supplied trying to pass the torturer. A hallway lead out of the main chamber, probably to more cells and cages.
"There's nothing down that way," the torturer replied.
"But there is something in this cage," Govegein said pulling some lock picks out of a discarded backpack. He quickly picked the lock and took the gear off of the dead mage inside. He deposited the clothes, gold, and book in the backpack and slung it across his back before donning the hood. "Learned to pick from a friend, besides there is a draft coming in from down the hall, something leading outside must have been knocked open."
The four continued on to find a larger cavern, populated with corpses from both armies. They must have met each other here and fought to the last death. Beyond the cavern was a drawbridge that Hadvar lowered and the others crossed. The next room was indeed extra storage for the torturer's cages and skeletons. The far wall had a hole in it, leading to a cave. "See, just like I said."
As Hadvar stepped into the cave, Alduin roared, shaking the ground itself, and boulders fell on the bridge, crushing it. "Well, I guess there's no going back," he said. Raddin ventured deeper into the cave and quickly sprinted back out.
"Sp-sp-sp-sp-sp-sp-sp-sp-sp-," Raddin began stuttering, he was as pale as a Snow Elf. Govegein swiftly punched Raddin in the face, "OOWWW, why would you do that?" he said holding his nose.
"Isn't that how you stop a babbling idiot?" Govegein said peering into the next room. "You're afraid of spiders too? What happened to being hardier that your god?" Govegein shouted from the other cavern. He got to work on the spiders, finding a rhythm in the carnage.
"Everyone has their weaknesses, and those are giant, hairy horrors from the depths of Oblivion THAT NEED TO BE IMMOLATED!" Raddin said quickly. Ralof sighed and dragged him through the web infested scene of carnage that had taken place while they had waited for Raddin to find his courage.
"You really can be a child sometimes, you know that?"
"We just met, and you're lucky I'm even passing through that room."
After dispatching the spiders, and Govegein tearing apart a bear in the next room, they found the exit they had been searching for. "I still can't believe you did that to that bear… it was asleep, we-we could have just snuck by," Raddin commented, recalling the gruesome scene.
"Anyway, you should warn nearby villages, I will find the Stormcloaks and warn them, Hadvar, you . . . do the same for the Imperials," Ralof said. Hadvar sighed, he didn't have any better plans so he was forced to comply with Ralof.
As the two soldiers walked towards their separate destinations, Raddin turned to Govegein. "So, what now?" Alduin roared as he flew over them, not taking any notice of the mortals beneath him.
"What do you mean?" Govegein asked, looking at Raddin like he was a fool.
"Do we go our separate ways, or do we attempt to warn the closest Jarl? Seeing as those two obviously aren't." Raddin replied. The man obviously was not cut out for living alone in the wilderness and Govegein found himself questioning just how this man came into this situation.
Anyway, Raddin's situation and future had little impact on Govegein's, he could do as he pleased. Govegein began to walk down the hillside, "You're a free man now follow your own path. As for me, I'm going to the nearest city to try to learn what I can."
At the sound of wolves in the distance, Raddin quickly caught up to Govegein. As Raddin began to follow him, Govegein thought to himself, Well, I do need a guide. Not to mention, I need to figure out whatever happened to the magika of the world if I'm ever to return to normal. Unsuccessfully attempting to push the thought of Alduin the Doombringer from his head.
Aaaaaand, we're back. I just found out my time may be a little more limited than previously expected, along with my internet access, so I'm going to try to get these done.
As always feel free to leave your thoughts somewhere, preferably online where future employers can see them and judge them.
