Chapter Four: The Trek to Riverwood
When Ula's eyes had adjusted to the light, her mouth dropped open in shock and her breath hitched. For a long moment, she simply gaped at the gorgeous landscape around her, from the snow-encrusted pines to the glistening mountains that stretched endlessly into the distant sky. This was a very different view from the barren and rocky landscape that Darkwater Crossing had provided... in fact, these mountains looked even more entrancing than Darkwater lake. She slowly lifted her hands and squeezed the front of her dress, knees wobbling only a moment before her eyes rippled with blue light.
For a moment, the strange symbol on her throat appeared out of nowhere and shone brightly for a moment... then it faded again.
Ralof glanced up with a start when the storm clouds resting high in the sky slowly started to part, bathing Skyrim in bright shafts of sunlight. Then the Nord turned and was about to gesture for her to follow him when the sound of thunderous wing-flaps made both of them freeze. Ula's dazed expression jolted back into a fearful one and she made as if to take off running, but Ralof gripped her arm and prevented her from moving.
"Wait!" the man hissed, looking up before gripping the albino's arms and dragging her towards the cover of a low rock; the two of them huddled down, but a deafening roar passing directly above them nearly made the poor girl bite her tongue off by accident. She let out a chuffling, soundless sob when the black dragon flew overhead and pressed her back against Ralof's chest; however, soon after, the beast disappeared behind a few tall pine trees and kept flying.
Another roar signified that it was moving farther away from them.
Still, that didn't stop her heart from pounding.
"There he goes," Ralof finally muttered, shaking his head and letting go of Ula's arms; the girl nearly toppled over. "Looks like he's gone for good this time. There's no way we'll know if anyone else made it out alive, but this place is going to be swarming with imperials soon enough. The two of us had better clear out of here. My sister, Gerdur, runs the mill in Riverwood up ahead, just up the road. I'm sure she'll help us, but for now, it's probably best if we split up."
Ula twitched, looking positively horrified by the suggestion: eyes already filling with tears, she staggered forward and gripped his sleeve between her pointer finger and her thumb. The touch was so light that he probably didn't even feel it, but he was looking straight at her... Ula knew she probably looked terrified. She didn't want him to leave her behind... she was begging him with her eyes, and she was fully aware that he understood her silent plea by the expression on his face.
And yet, even though she was pleading more than she'd ever done in her entire life, he jerked his arm free and straightened his armor, ignoring how she flinched.
"Good luck, Elf…" he stated a little sourly, giving her ears a somewhat distasteful expression. "I hate to admit it, but I wouldn't have made it out without your help."
With that, he cracked his thick neck and took off down the road at a trot.
Ula stiffened and held her hand out to him as though he would turn around and clasp it, knees shaking violently.
He didn't turn around... nor did he even look back.
He was growing smaller already.
Crying hysterically, Ula stumbled after him in a staggering run, trying to keep her legs from giving out: her hand was still outstretched, but no matter how fast she made herself go, he was still faster and she couldn't catch up. Then she tripped over a root and landed hard on her stomach... and when she looked up again, Ralof was still walking away from her. Ula's face screwed up as a surge of abandonment swept through her and she stretched her hand out again.
However, the man soon disappeared around a long bend on the mountainous trail.
Her outstretched hand dropped.
When tears began trickling down her face, she buried her head in her arms and let herself break down, unable to keep from crying hysterically.
She wept for so long that she couldn't even bother counting how much time had past when she'd finally stopped. For the first time in her life, she had a horrid feeling that she'd just been used by someone… and the very fact that Ralof had only been thinking of himself when she had been thinking about both of them made the poor girl feel like she'd been kicked in the stomach. Sitting up on the rocky path, Ula struggled to wipe her streaming eyes, but for some reason the tears wouldn't stop even though her sobbing had.
It was almost as though the tension and fear she'd just endured were leaving through her eyes.
However, that's when two familiar voices made her heart nearly stop.
"Shor's Blood!" a woman gasped from somewhere nearby. "Look! There's smoke rising above the mountain top! Isn't that where Helgen is?!"
"Y-yes, it is, according to the map!" a male voice stammered, sounding completely shell-shocked. "Gods... whatever happened must have been big! The smoke trail's huge!"
"Oh, Divines! We have to hurry!" the woman cried, panting heavily; they seemed to be coming closer, although they were still far off. "I really hope that old woman didn't send us into some sort of trap... I swear, something seems fishy about going into a cave and ending up in a village stronghold!"
"All major outposts need a way to evacuate in case of an emergency," the man soothed. "All we have to do is sneak in and see what's going on!"
"But it's probably all on fire!" the woman snapped, sounding extremely fretful. "For all we know, Ula probably escaped on her own! Let's go look for her!"
The mute girl's eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat when Kai and Svena suddenly walked around the bend that Ralof had vanished on.
Her heart instantly soared into the clouds and she summoned the strength she needed to crawl back to her feet. Her entire body swayed when she was standing upright, but then, regardless of her fatigue, she stumbled towards them with her arms outstretched. Her pink eyes were shining with tears of fright and relief because her friends were alive.
They were safe... and more than that, they'd cared enough to come looking for her.
Tears of joy streamed down her cheeks like miniature waterfalls when they finally saw her coming.
However, instead of looking happy, they both froze with identical looks of horror... and then they charged at her, screaming her name at the same time.
When the world spun and she tripped again, she fell clean into Svena's arms; the curly-haired girl sank down to her knees with enormous blue eyes, embracing the albino and staring at Kai in mortification when she started crying all over again. The young man merely stood with his mouth hanging open: he had been stunned to the core by how awful Ula had looked. She had been severely injured at some point... or rather, it looked as though someone had beaten her savagely.
Her white hair was tangled and matted with soot, dried blood, and dirt... her milky skin was covered in scratches, bruises, and small burns... blood from her nose had completely coated her mouth and chin at some point, where it had dried and started flaking off... and, for the first time he'd ever seen, the girl was crying hysterically with eyes that looked completely shattered. She had obviously been through hell and back: the thought sent a wave of rage searing through Kai's chest.
He clenched his fists, amber eyes smoldering like glowing embers.
"Don't worry, Ula," Svena murmured soothingly, running a large and very motherly hand through the girl's tangled hair. "You're safe now... nobody will hurt you now that we've found you again, I promise. Please, hush... there's no need for tears, okay?"
In that moment, Ula felt an extreme surge of dislike for the name she'd been given: she knew her real name... she had known it all along.
However, she hadn't been able to speak it, nor was she allowed to: someone had once told her not to ever speak her name... that it would make scary things happen.
Sadly, after the day she'd just had, the poor girl felt like nothing would ever seem scarier than what she'd seen.
Struggling to work her throat, the girl pushed away from Svena and choked violently, struggling to speak her name: her two friends watched in confusion as she beat her chest with shaking hands, staring at them with eyes that burned with an extreme amount of intensity. Then her eyes started glowing, and when the mark appeared for the third time, Svena jolted and stared at her neck in shock. Finally, the mute took a deep breath... opened her mouth...
And spoke her first sentence ever.
"I am not Ula..." she whispered, eyes unexpectedly flashing with a brilliant blue light. "I am Sora."
Kai and Svena jumped when the last word was accompanied by a soft rumble of thunder, one that seemed to come straight from her mouth. The two of them glanced at each other with wide eyes when Ula's true name echoed into the distance: it couldn't even be called an echo, really, since it was much too different. Instead of fading away like a normal echo, it was almost as though the sound of her name itself had melded into the air around them. Which would also explain why it had abruptly come from everywhere, all at once.
Plus, her voice had traveled much, much farther than it should have: the odd thunder had carried her name, soft as she'd spoken it, clean across the mountains.
Swallowing hard, Ula let out a sigh of relief: the glowing light in her eyes and the mark on her throat slowly faded away after the rumbling sensation faded.
"Kai... did you feel that?" Svena whispered, clutching her chest with shaken eyes and taking a deep breath. "What in Shor's blood... was that?"
"I don't know! My whole body... no, even the air... it was trembling!" Kai stammered weakly, hugging himself with tense shoulders. "Ula... how did you do that?!"
When they glanced at her, the girl's eyes showed nothing but confusion: her friends instantly paused.
The girl cocked her head and gave them a questioning expression, obviously not getting what they meant: she apparently hadn't noticed the weird side effect that had come with speaking her real name. Svena's eyes immediately narrowed and she frowned: Ula didn't even seem to be aware that her voice seemed to do strange things to the world around them during the exceedingly rare moments when she managed to speak a random word.
This time, however, she had spoken her own name... and it had done something very odd.
Svena was extremely perceptive when it came to magicka, and she suddenly had a weird feeling that Ula's inability to speak might not have been exactly natural.
"We should get out of here," the dark-haired beauty finally sighed, glancing at Kai. "We need to find a place to rest!"
"Why don't we head back to Riverwood and give Lady Hilde her map back?" the boy inquired, holding the parchment up. "We don't need it after all since we found Ula."
"Sounds like a good idea," Svena murmured, regarding Ula's large, tear-stained eyes with something close to affection. "So... your real name is Sora, huh?"
Ula's eyes flickered a bit before she hesitantly nodded.
"Sora... compared to Ula, your true name is way more beautiful," Kai mumbled iin embarrassment, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck and glancing away from her with flushed cheeks; the older of the girls instantly grinned in a knowing manner and rolled her eyes. "Sora... Sora... why does that sound so familiar?"
"Eh?" Svena asked, eyebrows lifting in surprise before she frowned as well. "You're right... it does sound familiar... Sora... it sounds so familiar."
"Sora... Sora..." Kai muttered, closing his eyes and sounding it out; then he gasped in shock. "Sora! That's it! Remember when Chief Rain sat you and Ula... er, Sora... down a few years ago?! You were complaining about having to learn the Old Language!"
"You're right!" Svena exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise. "I remember that! He wanted to teach us the language of the Dragons! No way! Sora means..."
"Song," Kai whispered, and both of them stared at the dumbfounded albino with huge eyes. "You were given a name from the Old Language, Ula! That's bad!"
The girl's ears twitched and she cocked her head, brows furrowing in total confusion: she was totally lost by that point.
How could the name she was born with be a bad thing? Even if it was from some old, forgotten language, that didn't mean anything... right?
"I'll explain more when we get out of here," Svena sighed, helping her up and supporting her weight when her legs buckled. "Whoa! Careful!"
"So, we heading back to Riverwood?" Kai inquired, cracking his back before rolling his muscular shoulders. "It's not too far."
"Well, yes," Svena murmured, looking at the towering trees before glancing at the position of the sun, "I'd say we're heading to Riverwood."
"It's an old village resting about five miles down this path," Kai explained, stepping over a fallen log before lifting the girl off the ground and setting her down on the other side of it; then he did the same thing for Svena. "Although, it's mostly visited for its lumber trade… from what we saw after we arrived, there aren't very many shops there, and the blacksmith is an average metalworker."
"A blacksmith is... someone like Celine, right?" Svena naively inquired, looking at the clouds above as they headed downhill through the trees. "You know, a person who makes jewelry in a forge?"
"Well, I guess you could say that," Kai muttered pensively, thinking about it. "Our Blacksmith was into crafting beautiful things like jewelry, but most blacksmiths are hired for things like swords, armor, mirrors, and other paraphernalia. Celine and her father were... one of a kind."
"There were lots of people who weren't found among the bodies," Svena whispered in a hushed tone. "She and her father weren't found, either! They could have made it out for all we know! I'm sure we'll find them someday, but right now we have to focus on ourselves or we'll never make it!"
"You're right," Kai muttered, looking at Ula's shattered expression before wincing and turning away.
Svena was looking around with observant eyes, seeming to be just as stunned by the differences in scenery compared to Darkwater Crossing.
"Wow!" the girl suddenly gasped, looking at the pine trees below them when size and depth started making sense. "Wow, how big are trees around here?!"
"I've heard that some get to be as tall as mountains near Whiterun," the burly teenager chuckled, clasping his hands behind his head; however, when a rustling in the bushes caught his attention, he gripped the girls' arms and forced them to stand behind him. Ula's eyes widened when Kai picked up a wooden stick and held it in front of his body with flashing amber eyes, looking at the source of the rustling. Everyone tensed when the rustling grew louder, shaking a little from fear.
Then a rabbit hopped out of the bush.
Kai's expression went blank and he blinked when it lifted its head, eyeing the three of them; then it lazily hopped away.
"What's the matter, Kai?" Svena teased, giggling when he turned around with a somewhat baffled expression. "Don't tell me you were scared of a little bunny!"
"Oh, shut up!" the boy snapped, ears immediately turning red in embarrassment. "You were scared, too!"
"Was not!" the girl laughed, nudging Ula's shoulder before looking down at the girl. "Wasn't he scared, U... la?"
Both of them stared at their friend when they noticed that she was looking up at a high ridge that towered above the bush the bunny had hopped out of.
"What's wrong?" Kai asked, making her blink before looking around. "You okay?"
She nodded and gave him a shrug before pointing at her ear and shaking her head, signaling that she'd thought she'd heard something but had been wrong.
"Well, still, we'd better keep moving," Svena murmured, slowly picking up a wooden branch of her own. "I don't want to run into any imperials."
"I agree," Kai muttered, sighing a little bit when Ula tripped over a root and fell flat on her face with a gasp; Svena frowned deeply when she noticed that Ula's legs were still shaking, but when Kai saw that the girl was bleeding from a deep cut on her foot, he bent down and lifted the pale girl into his arms; he completely ignored the resulting flail of protest. The girl struggled a little before clamping down onto his neck with shaking arms. "Er, sorry for startling you, but you're bleeding."
"It's a smart decision," Svena acknowledged, nodding when the albino glanced at her. "I can't use any more healing magicka until I've rested."
"She was tending to the survivors from the village after the attack," Kai explained, marveling at how Ula could still smell good even after everything. "I'm amazed she can even stand upright, let alone hike into the mountains AND keep pace with me. She healed so many people that she fainted twice. Still, I don't want your foot to get infected, so just relax and let me do the walking for now."
Ula let out a whining huff of air before giving a nod and looking at the ground.
The three friends became silent after that: none of them really knew what to say and speaking seemed sort of awkward. However, when Svena looked ahead and saw three odd-looking pillars that had been overgrown with roots, she smiled and gasped in delight.
"Those are the ancient Guardian Stones!" the girl squealed, gesturing at the pillars before whirling around with shining cerulean eyes. "Kai, one of those will tell me how much talent I've got and also confirm if I'm good enough to become a mage!"
"Guardian stones?" Kai asked, frowning in confusion; similarly, Ula blinked and frowned in perplexity, "What are Guardian Stones?"
"Three of the ancient standing stones that dot Skyrim's landscape!" the tan-skinned beauty explained, flapping a dismissive hand. "Come, let's see which stone calls out to us the most! The stone of the warrior, the stone of the thief, or the stone of the mage. If we've got a certain talent, one of them will resound inside of us."
"Uh... I hope the thief one doesn't! For any of us!" Kai squawked, looking extremely dismayed as they drew closer to Svena. "The warrior, though... I might like that."
He stopped walking when Ula stiffened in his arms like a wooden board: similarly, Svena froze mid-wave and stared at her in shock when she lifted a trembling hand and pointed at the stone in the center of the group; Svena's eyes went wide and she blinked in surprise before glancing over her shoulder. Her face immediately paled since they were actually more than twenty feet away from the Guardian Stones: normally, they only affected someone with promise at a measly range of two feet.
That stone was the same one that Svena had wanted to touch.
"The mage stone," the dark-haired girl whispered, blinking in amazement before glancing at Ula in curiosity. "I wonder... I probably shouldn't feel curious about whether or not you have talent with magicka, especially since I myself taught you how to use a bit of it. Kai, bring her over here so she can touch it: based on what I've read, if Ula's got talent, the gods will grant her a blessing and the mage stone will glow."
"If you say so," the teenager snorted, shivering violently when he carried the mute girl over to the stone. Looking at the two of them with hesitant eyes, the albino shakily stretched out her hand... but the moment her fingers made contact with the stone, an icy sensation swept throughout her body and her eyes exploded with so much blue light that two beams seemed to be shooting out of her skull. The mark on her neck flared brightly and began to extend, weaving all across her upper torso and even across her face: it wound around her in glowing spirals and curvacious patterns, illuminating her pale skin from the inside out.
Then the hole that had been carved in the center of the stone began to glow with a hissing noise.
"Shor's blood," Kai whispered, staring at Ula's body when she somehow became lighter all of a sudden; his eyes widened when the girl's silver hair weightlessly billowed up towards the sky and slowly drifted around with the flow of power emanating from her body. However, when a set of ethereal wings unexpectedly exploded from her back, Svena leapt back and Kai almost dropped her to the ground by accident. "S-S-SHOR'S BLOOD! WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS?!"
"I-Illusion magicka?!" Svena stammered, staring at the translucent appendages when they flapped and went right through Kai's body. "They don't look real!"
Ula dizzily went limp.
"EEEEHH?!" Kai squeaked, eyes widening in fright when he carefully lowered his arms and stepped back; Ula's hand remained connected to the Mage Stone, but her body hovered as though she were submerged clean underwater. Her head lolled as she floated in the air, making Svena gasp; she was shocked her jaw was still connected to her head when she finally got a hold of her senses. "S-S-S-S-Svena?! H-how is she doing that?!"
"Kai!" the young woman rapped out. "Make her to let go of the stone! Hurry!"
"I-I-I..." the boy stammered, pupils dilating as he stared at the girl. "I-I-I... b-but...!"
"Oh, fine, you big baby! I'll do it!" Svena scolded, hurrying forward and grabbing the albino in a firm hold. With large eyes, she gripped the hand holding the stone and pulled the pale girl away from it; almost immediately, the godly aura surrounding the albino's body vanished and the ghostly wings sticking out of her back completely faded away. Ula gasped in relief, glowing marks fading and eyes returning to their former pink with a ripple. "Ula... are you all right?!"
The girl's pointed ears twitched a bit when she blinked.
Then, after a moment of thinking about it, she hesitantly nodded.
"Well, that's a relief!" Kai squeaked, staring at her in shock. "You scared the life right out of me!"
"You're a very powerful Magicka user, Ula…" Svena stated in a grim tone, eyes extremely serious. "You're going to need some serious training."
At her look of startled surprise, the woman shook her head and closed her eyes.
"Ula," the girl murmured, thinking back and finally letting out a sigh. "I only decided to teach you magicka because I thought you wouldn't be able to use it. In fact, according to Uncle Rain... you shouldn't have been able to. I... kind of lied to you at first, and said it only comes with practice... but Magicka is only awakened in a human being once he or she opens a spell book. There are dormant powers inside those books that sleep until people with the capacity for Magicka open them. That power is then absorbed into the soul... it's something that becomes a part of you. It can't be taught. And yet... somehow, you learned from me."
The girl's pink eyes slowly widened and she twitched, not really understanding what it meant.
"You still don't get it?" Svena asked, glancing at Kai with a helpless expression. "Ula... you can barely heal yourself... and you created a fire so small that it was tinier than the burning candlelight in my kitchen. However, that doesn't mean you're the weaker mage... it means you're most likely extremely powerful. The fact that you were able to conjure fire, no matter how small it was, without absorbing a particular type of Magicka spell... well, that's a feat nobody has ever accomplished until now. I think our best option would be to pay a visit to Winterhold and get enrolled in the mages' college. The best magicka users ever to walk Skyrim give shelter to people with promise in the hopes of advancing their studies."
"College?!" Kai squeaked, feeling as though he were getting a mental overload. "Divines... you girls just might end up becoming scholars!"
"Let's get going," Svena giggled, helping her friend stand up before she eyed the setting sun; Ula tiredly rested her head against the woman's large chest, feeling the effects of her exhaustion kicking in. Then the three of them started walking down the ever-prominent road again. "At any rate, I'm glad we found Ula, and I'm grateful I'm not going through this alone… if you two hadn't been here, I wouldn't have known what to do or where to go."
"You'd probably have figured something out," Kai commented, stepping over a shaky stone and swinging his stick. "After all, you're the smartest person I kn—"
The boy's words were cut off when something huge slammed into his side, sending him rolling across the ground.
Then another huge thing leapt at Svena, who let out a shriek: Ula let out a gasp when she realized a wolf the size of a small horse had leapt on top of Kai and was savagely biting at the stick, which he was holding in front of his neck. Svena was swinging at another wolf that was attempting to circle around her, mouth trembling and eyes huge. Ula instantly looked around and bent down to pick up a large stick to help her when a third enormous wolf hurled itself it her.
The animal crashed into her with a snarl, slamming the tiny girl down on her back; she held the stick in front of her and used it to keep the animal off of her throat.
Ula let out a silent squeal, amethyst eyes huge with fright as she stared into those snapping jaws.
Her arms shook with the strain of keeping the animal away from her.
"Hang on, Ula!" Svena cried, bashing the nose of the wolf that had latched onto Kai's arm with repeated movements. "Hang on, Ula! I'm coming! We're coming! Don't let it hurt you until I get this beast off of Kai! Fight it! Fight it with everything you've got! ARGH! LET GO OF KAI, YOU NASTY BRUTE!"
With an angry shriek, she continued to bash the animal's nose; it yelped each time, but the beast didn't loosen its grip on the boy's arm.
"OOOOW!" Kai finally howled, shaking his head back and forth; he had been clenching his jaw to keep from screaming. "DIVINES! IT HURTS! GET THIS THING OFF ME!"
Ula's bare feet scrabbled at the ground as she pushed against the snarling wolf: her neck bulged with the strain of keeping the ferocious animal at bay. It took everything she had just to keep it from sinking its teeth into her throat. She squeezed her glittering eyes shut, shoulders shaking as she slowly began to force the slavering animal higher into the air; when it was far enough back, the girl let out an angry wheeze and sent her big toe clean into its manhood.
The animal yelped and leapt back with a snarling whine, allowing her just enough time to get to her feet.
Practically hyperventilating, the albino stood there with huge, streaming eyes and hefted her tree branch.
When another wolf charged at her, she swung the stick with all of her strength and hit it right in the face; eyes frantic with terror, she continued to swing blindly at any wolf that came near enough to touch, gasping and crying as she fought against them. Then, one of the wolves bit the stick and tried to drag it out of her hands; the mute nearly doubled over in her attempt to get it back, but then she pulled her body all the way back up, dug her heels into the ground, and struggled to make the creature let go using all of her strength.
However, when the wolf unexpectedly DID let go, she fell over with a startled expression.
Ula scrambled back to her feet and tried to run over to where Svena was currently bashing in the skull of the wolf that had bit Kai's arm, but before she managed to get there, one of the beasts snagged the edge of her dress and jerked her off her feet. She let out a frightened cry when it bit her hair, dragging her across the stony earth by her long tresses; Ula flailed violently and struggled to twist enough to jerk herself free, but before she could manage ir, the wolf she'd kicked off her body only a few minutes earlier leapt at her again.
She gasped and raised her arm to cover her face and neck.
Then there was a flash of silver as someone's sword unexpectedly slammed into the monster's side.
A spray of dark blood flew through the air and the stench of warm copper followed it as Ralof barreled forward, jerking his sword out of the falling animal; then he whirled around like a dancer, flawlessly slicing the throat of a wolf that had leapt at him from behind. Lopping off the head of the beast biting Kai and prying it's jaws loose, the man tossed the decapitated skull off the trail before kneeling down and examining the boy's arm.
"Not too bad," he muttered, eying him before narrowing his eyes; more wolves soon jumped out of the brush, making him grunt in annoyance; then he glanced at where Ula was sitting and scowled, since the girl was staring at him with enormous eyes. "Let's go! Get up, Elf! We've got to fight!"
"Who are you?!" Kai yelped, clutching his shoulder when Svena helped him up. "How do you know Ula?!"
"Ula?" Ralof asked, taking out another beast with disinterested eyes. "Is that her name?"
"Yes!" Svena exclaimed, yelping when a wolf hurled itself at her; she instantly bashed it on the nose and leapt away from it. "Why won't they go away?!"
Ula somehow managed to wrench herself into action when Kai grabbed his own branch: the sheer terror and adrenaline flooding through her veins had literally propelled her body into motion like a springboard. Heart pounding and feeling sick to her stomach, the tiny girl gripped the nearest stick she could find and bolted over to Svena and Kai. When her slender shoulders were pressed against their backs, the girl hefted her stick.
"It'll be okay, Ula!" Kai hissed threateningly, lifting his stick sword. "I won't let these animals touch you again!"
"Just try not to hurt yourself any further until I can heal you!" Svena scolded, throwing him a quick glare. "Seriously, Kai!"
Ula locked her jaw even as tears slid down her cheeks.
More of the dark shapes flew forward, lunging towards the three of them with snarls and furious baying.
The girl whipped her stick around and clubbed the closest wolf with it, smacking it clean in the face; the animal yelped when the wood whacked it smartly across the snout, but it was probably more from surprise than actual pain since she was fairly weak in the arms. Kai whirled around like lightning and struck out at a wolf with his boot, crushing its skull; Svena smacked at any beast that came close, purposely keeping them away from her. Ula did the same and swung at another wolf when it lunged, but just as she did so, it managed to bite her stick.
The girl was stunned when she realized that the animals were overly intelligent.
They somehow knew that she and her friends would be helpless without their weapons.
When she saw another wolf getting ready to spring at her, she was completely helpless since Ralof was busy.
Wait... no… no... no, she wasn't!
She wasn't helpless! If she could only procure it like before, she could conjure fire!
The moment she thought of it, power erupted from her body like a maelstrom: with a flare of glittering light, the girl's eyes started glowing bright blue and the silhouettes of two enormous, ghostly wings rippled out of her back and into view. Lifting her arms high above her head, she merely thought of the word fire and it exploded around her hands: her friends were simultaneously trying fend off the wolves and gape at her, so she lowered her burning hands and focused, attempting set their weapons on fire.
The ends of both sticks burst into flames without warning.
"AAAH!" Kai yelped, nearly dropping his stick in surprise. "What in the name of...?!"
"Wow!" Svena laughed in triumph, whirling the flaming wood around in a circle and grinning when the wolves backed off."All right!"
Ula chanced a glance around and saw that Ralof had killed another three wolves that had foolishly attacked him; two more were circling warily, lingering just outside the reach of his sword. The blonde man merely stood still and peered at the silver-haired girl. Ula, however, began to sway back and forth when she started feeling extremely sleepy all of a sudden; before she even realized what was happening, she was falling down... down, down, down towards the distant ground.
She somehow ended up being cradled in Svena's strong arms.
When she opened her eyes and weakly lifted her head, however, the girl was staring at her with an unnerved expression.
Svena? Ula wondered in confusion, dazedly reaching her leaden hand up to touch her jaw. Why do you look so scared?
"Svena?! Is she okay?" Kai called from somewhere far off. "She just collapsed out of nowhere!"
"She overused her power!" Svena called back, looking around at the circling wolves that were staring at her torch. "She can't even stand up on her own anymore!"
"Shite," Kai grumbled, slowly making his way to the side and setting a bush on fire. "Let's make it warmer so we get out of this situation alive!"
So saying, he moved to another and did the same thing there; then again at another. Ralof saw what the boy was doing and slid back to join in, gripping a stick and lighting it on his before setting the brush on fire. The wolves stayed beyond the flames, eyes glowing in the light: with several of the pack already dead, they evidently decided to look for something easier to hunt since they all began to melt away into the fading light, one by one.
"Not bad," Ralof grunted, giving the drowsy girl and scowling teenagers an appraising glance. "So, is the Elf your friend?"
"Her name is Ula, and for all you know, she might not be an elf!" Kai stated in a somewhat hostile tone. "Then again, who are you and why do you know her?"
"Me?" Ralof snorted, quirking an eyebrow. "That's a long story."
"We've got all the time in the world, so talk," Svena stated threateningly, hefting the incapacitated albino upright and keeping her on her feet. "How do you know Ula?".
For a moment, Ralof looked extremely hostile with their bad attitudes... but then his expression deflated and he sighed.
"The imperials were going to execute all of us," he muttered, ignoring how they twitched. "Then... a dragon attacked. The two of us helped each other escape from Helgen in the chaos, somehow. That is how we know each other: we only got out of there by working together."
Svena and Kai instantly froze before looking down at Ula, who weakly nodded a confirmation and covered her watering eyes with shaking shoulders.
"Shor's blood," Kai whispered in a small voice, knees giving out; he ungracefully landed on his butt. "A... a dragon, you say? As in, a sign that the end of the world is near?"
"I don't know what to think," Svena mumbled, looking at him with tired eyes, "but we can talk more later: we overdid it, and the fire's spreading too much."
It was indeed: several further bushes and one of the close trees were no on fire, and the heat was actually forcing them to retreat further and further away from the stones. More trees ignited in the spreading flames, and Ula realized with a dazed jolt that they had unintentionally created a wildfire.
"Let's go to Riverwood," Ralof barked urgently, gesturing towards a nearby forest path. "It'll be a good thing if we can get out of here before the fire spreads too much, but if we don't move now, we may get caught up in it! I'm glad I decided to come back... I'd likely have found you three slaughtered if I hadn't."
"We're not weaklings!" Kai protested, hefting Ula securely in his arms before he and Svena followed the Nord at top speed. "I can fight just as well as you!"
"And I am a mage!" Svena stated a little proudly, lifting her head high as if she were daring the blonde man to deny it. "The best in my whole village, in fact!"
Ula giggled silently, dazedly being lulled to sleep by the rocking motion of Kai's arms.
"We'd better keep moving," Ralof grunted, slowly sheathing his sword. "I don't want to run into any imperials who know what happened at Helgen."
"Um, if you don't mind me asking, I have a few questions," Svena pointedly called, folding her arms. "Why were you going to be... executed?"
"Seriously, you don't know?" Ralof asked, looking shocked by her question. "Ulfric Stormcloak himself was captured by the imperials!"
"The Jarl?" Kai asked, frowning in confusion. "What's that got to do with anything? All we know about current affairs is that there's some sort of rebellion going on."
"Divines!" Ralof cursed, shaking his head and fighting to get over her immense surprise; after a moment, the man led them down the path. "I'm surprised you haven't heard about Ulfric. He's our leader: the Jarl of Windhelm, Ulfric Stormcloak, is the leader of the rebellion for Nord freedom."
"Wait... what do you mean?" Kai asked, looking stunned by the response. "So... the Jarl of Windhelm decided to go against the Empire?"
"Yes, but not for personal gain as they would have you believe," Ralof muttered distastefully. "I'm sure you've seen it yourself: the empire is taking away our freedom to believe in Talos, and with it... the rights to our own religion. Nords are being forced out of cities because the Thalmor and the Empire believe that Talos wasn't fit to be worshiped as the ninth divine… but to us, he deserves it the most because he was a man who became a god."
"No wonder... it all makes sense now," Svena muttered, shaking her head before she stepped over a fallen tree branch. "Personally, I think people should be free to do whatever they want, as long as it's not hurting others and as long as it doesn't interfere with their lives in any sort of direct manner. Religion is something that politics should never mingle with: it only causes unneeded strife."
"You're very right, and that's what all true Nords believe," Ralof muttered. "To each, his own."
"Is that why the rebels are being called Stormcloaks?" Kai asked, still shocked by the news; he was now trying to find a way to change the subject. "I've heard that term being thrown around a lot lately, but I had no idea it was associated with the Jarl. I didn't even make the connection with his name."
"Surely even a small mining village could have heard about the terrible war going on in Skyrim!" the blonde man exclaimed, eyebrows shooting up; when he saw nothing but blank faces, his bearded mouth dropped open. "Shor's Blood! We Nords are tired of spending our blood for the Empire's wars, and paying for the empire's decadence with our taxes. Ulfric is our rightful High King: he's leading the fight to drive the Empire out of Skyrim once and for all! That's why our own were being executed back there! Your Elf friend was wrongfully sentenced, as well: the Empire made it clear that they simply don't care about anyone but themselves today."
"She's not an Elf!" Svena angrily squeaked, shaking her head. "And anyway, how on earth did you manage to get caught? If he's the leader of the rebellion, and you're facing an entire country all alone, what good would getting captured do?"
"I was assigned to Ulfric's guard," the man explained, mouth pulling into a grim frown. "We were just about to leave a village called Darkwater Crossing in the south of Eastmarch, but the imperials were waiting for us at the edge of the town: it was as pretty of an ambush as I've ever seen. We were outnumbered five to one, at least, but when the Imperials started slaughtering the villagers, Ulfric ordered us to stop fighting… he didn't want everyone to die for nothing, I guess. "
"What?" Svena whispered, clenching her fists in horror. "Darkwater Crossing?! B-b-but... no way!"
"We're from Darkwater Crossing," Kai stated in a cold tone, making the blonde man's head whip around; he eyed the three of them with furrowed brows. "Our village was completely destroyed during that attack: every building was burned to the ground by the Imperials, and only seven people were found still alive. Several others went missing... my friend, Svena... she lost her grandmother right in front of her."
"You..." the dark-haired girl hissed, eyes filling with enraged tears; leaping forward with a hiss, she started beating against the man's chest with both fists, letting out an angry shriek. "YOU! IT'S YOUR FAULT FOR COMING TO OUR VILLAGE! MY GRAN! MY HOME! MY FRIENDS! EVERYTHING'S ALL GONE! EVERYTHING!"
"I..." Ralof huffed, then shut his mouth, obviously taken aback since there was really nothing he could say to counter that; in a way, she was absolutely correct.
"ULA WAS NEARLY KILLED BECAUSE OF YOU STORMCLOAKS!" the woman shrieked, jerking back and glaring at him. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"
"Need I remind you who was planning on doing the killing?" Ralof slyly countered, quirking an eyebrow when her face froze; however, her tears didn't stop, nor did her anger subside. "It was an unfortunate accident... but it is not our fault, it's the Empire's. They were the ones doing the killing, woman... not us. After they captured me and your friend, there, I thought they were taking us down to Cyrodil to parade us all in front of the Emperor."
"Why?" Kai asked, brow furrowing in confusion before he hefted Ula and started walking again. "That sounds pretty low."
"You're right, but that's simply how the empire works," Ralof sighed, shaking his head in disgust as they continued to descend down the mountain and slipped past a weathered sign; the man gave it a glance and looked at the ground with a nod when he saw the beginnings of cobblestone. "Then they stopped in Helgen, killed a few men, the dragon attacked, the two of us escaped together... and you know the rest."
"I'm sorry…" Svena muttered, rubbing her watering eyes with a shamed expression. "You're right... it's not your fault... but... my Gran... my home..."
"As long as the three of us have each other," Kai stated firmly, clapping her on the back, "we'll be home no matter where we are, okay? Stop crying, Svena. Smiles suit you way better than tears do."
"Or, you could get even by doing something about what they did to your home," Ralof thoughtfully explained. "Personally, I think you three should consider joining up with the rebellion. You've seen the true face of the Empire today, and there are many people out there being put through similar horrors."
"Eh?! I… I don't know," Svena whispered, rubbing her nose with a shiver. "I... I don't think any of us could ever voluntarily hurt anyone."
"It's not an easy decision, and I'm well aware that you'll need time to think it over," Ralof conceded, rubbing his shoulders as they walked, "but just in case you ever want to join up after we've parted ways, go to Windhelm and talk to Jarl Ulfric's Thane. Tell him that Ralof of Riverwood sent you and he will most likely let you have an audience. Not to mention...if anyone knows where that dragon came from, it's most likely him."
"You think he knows where the dragon came from?" Kai asked, glancing up in surprise.
"It's very possible that he does," the Nord allowed, looking up at the sky. "We're almost to Riverwood,"
Yay, Ula incoherently cheered, not even able to think properly anymore. Her world began to dissolve as she fell asleep, cradled in the arms of her best friend.
It was hard for her to believe that only ten hours had past since she'd woken up in the tree: all of the events she'd experienced had stretched on for an eternity.
Her head lolled and she sighed, feeling safer in Kai's strong arms than anywhere she'd been that day.