Kai: Hey all ^^ sorry for the very late update but here it is :3

Kyra: ...its been too long DX

Kai: Anyways... Shattered, I'm glad you like it and hope you continue reading ^^ for your questions well no I have no one to proof read my chapters. It's all me. Yes I see errors in my chapters and go 'FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU' but ya know XD and this story will sort of go along with the Skyrim game story, but most of it will be slightly skimmed over like I sorta did at the end of this chapter. Why? Because you all probably know what happens hm? So Kyra here does focus on more of new personal quests and missions, including extra time in the Companions which you will find out later, possibly in the next chapter.

Kyra: Yay

Kai: and interesting Dakota XD anyways next chappy

Chapter 6: Escape

Everything was blurred, colors mashing together into one while everything seemed deathly quiet. The sounds of everything around seemed silent as the colors mashed together in a blurred white. The only times these bright colors faded is when my eyelids closed, shrouding my vision into darkness. I tried to remember what had happened, what was going on, and why I was here. Was I dead? No… no… I was captured and I was about to die… till this dragon…

Dragon?

It was then my memories flashed through my mind, my eyes snapping open wide as sounds returned once again to my sharp ears. The sounds of screams of terror and the shouts of commands could be heard, while the ferocious roar screamed through the sky. Rocks crumbling and wood splintering could be heard while the smell of burning wood and flesh entered my sensitive nose. I knew I had to get out of here, so I tried to stand, blinking my blurred eyes repeatedly to try and clear my vision.

"Hey Khajiit. Get up! Come on, the gods won't give us another chance!" came a familiar voice. It was Ralof, I was sure of it.

All of a sudden, I find myself being helped up by the arm as I stumbled my feet. My vision was still blurred, the colors still meshed together and so bright it was hard to tell what was what. Then I was running, or stumbling along anyway. I wasn't really sure where I was going though as I ran across the stony path, the buildings around me crumbling from the attack. I was still a bit disoriented; I tripped and almost fell as I went because of it though. I heard Ralof yell for me to be careful as I found myself running into a building in my panic.

I stumbled a bit and leaned against a wall, my sight returning slowly and I saw some people on the ground. Some injured, some dead. Ralof was behind me, speaking with the man known as Ulfric, talking about the dragon. The Nord seemed to have a hard believing that was a dragon, shit I was having a hard time believing it to be honest.

Dragons were supposed to be extinct right, or just mere legends?

Ulfric seemed to be sure that was indeed a dragon. After all, legends don't burn down villages. I was too much in shock from almost being beheaded, to almost being roasted, to almost falling on my face to actually talk. I was having a hard time keeping focus on the problem and what I was doing. No, I had to focus; I had to get out of this place some way or another.

Ralof then ushered me up the stairs, it was quite a mystery of why he was helping me so much. After all, I was a Khajiit and he would have been able to go faster on without me. When we reached the top steps though, I jumped back, almost falling back down the flight of stairs as the great black dragon busted open the stone wall on the right. Rearing its mighty head and breathing fire inside, almost catching me and Ralof on fire. Unfortunately, one man did have the fortune we had and ended up roasted.

Ralof stood at the edge when the dragon left and looked toward me as I hesitaintly drew closer. My blue eyes wide in shock and a bit of terror as the dragon flew away. Looking toward the roasted man, I could of almost hurled at the smell of roasted flesh. My ears perked though as Ralof began to speak once again.

"See the inn on the other side?" he said, pointing out of the hole and towards the pretty much burned down inn.

"Umm… yeah… what's left of it at least…" I mumbled out as I blinked towards the said building.

Ralof then looked at me with a serious expression plastered on his face. "Jump through the roof and keep going!" he ordered, staring at my obviously surprised expression. Currently, I thought he was joking or he was just crazy.

"Come on! Cats land on their feet right? Go! We'll follow when we can!" Ralof said in a slight humorous tone at first before getting serious again.

I grumbled a 'fine' before looking toward the inn and taking a deep breath. Well it was better than staying up here and getting roasted. Hopefully the Nord was right and I do land on my feet and not in the flames below. Taking a few steps back, I got a running start as I bolted foreword, leaping into midair and across the gap between the tower and the inn. I hissed as I landed, my left foot touching the scorching flames that enflamed part of the inn, but I just kept running.

Running foreword, I dropped down the hold in the floorboards of the top floor of the inn, then ran out of the front door. I came upon some destroyed buildings, fire engulfing another house and wood with other people. They looked like townsfolk and some imperial soldiers, just my day apparently. I heard the man from before who asked my name at the execution yell at the boy just a bit foreword.

Just as the boy listened and came toward us, the dragon landed where the boy was and started to breathe fire. The soldier commanded everyone to get back as the flames shot out of the dragons mighty jaws, the orange hot substance licking at whatever was in its path. It was then that the soldier noticed me, sword in hand, looking quite surprised I was here.

"Still alive, prisoner? Keep close to me if you want to stay that way." He said as I held back a sharp retort as a reply. He seemed sort of like a nice guy, but he did nothing to stop them from sending me to the block, so I'm just going to keep quiet for now.

He ordered one of the hairless creatures to take care of the boy while he tried to find some General. Then he started going on ahead, and since I had no one else to help and I had no idea where I was, I followed after him. My blue eyes looking around cautiously in case the dragon swooped back down make another attack on us. My ears perked as the soldier commanded us to stay close to the wall, I didn't understand why but I did anyways. I leaned close to the wall on my left and I jumped, fur fluffed as the dragon landed above us, its right wing smashing against us, pinning us against the wall.

It gave a roar and breathed some more flames before taking off again. The soldier then started to move again, ordering me to follow, which mentally made me hiss at the thought of being ordered around by my almost killer. As I followed, it was pretty much a battlefield. Shouts could be heard all around us as people scrambled everywhere to try and get the upper hand of the dragon, which was to no avail. As we ran, heading to some building, the dragon flying above before swooping down and grabbing a soldier in its mighty clutches. We came upon Ralof again! Thank the gods he was alright and made it out!

"Ralof! You damned traitor. Out of my way!" shouted the man who had been guiding me since I separated from Ralof.

"We're escaping, Hadvar. You're not stopping us this time." Ralof answered firmly, his gaze glancing toward me for a moment before glaring back at the imperial soldier.

Hadvar didn't seem very happy with Ralof's statement, but he simply scoffed and returned the glare with his own. "Fine. I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde." He replied bitterly.

Ralof nodded in approval with a slight smirk before his green gaze turned on me. "Khajiit! Come on, into the keep!" he shouted before turning to my right and heading to some door.

Hadvar went straight shouting to me as well, "With me, prisoner. Let's go!" he called as he went on.

Why can't anybody seem to get my bloody name? It's either Khajiit, Prisoner, or Cat I swear.

I looked between the two for a moment, thinking it over on whom to follow and trust. Ralof's been kind to me from the start and has offered some friendship, while Hadvar had pretty much almost beheaded me. On the other hand, the imperialist did assist me on the way here and didn't seem to want to behead me. Still though, I found that my trust lie with Ralof, he reminded me so much of my mentor and he seemed kind, for a Nord. So my feet turned and headed in the direction where the blonde ran off too.

"I can cut you loose inside! Come on!" the Nord called to me, motioning with his hands to come through the door.

"Alright I'm coming I'm coming geesh!" I said as I shoved the door open and barged inside.

Once inside, Ralof shut the door and walked over to a man lying on the floor beside a chair and a table. The Nord examined the similar cloaked man before murmuring some words before standing and turning his green gaze on me.

"Looks like we're the only ones who made it." He said with a slight disappointed edge to his voice as he once again looked down at his companion.

For a moment, I stayed silent before taking a deep breath and speaking in a soft voice. "What was that thing? Was that really a dragon? They are just suppose to be legends right?" I said, trying to get Ralof's mind off of his companion.

The Nord looked at me, giving a soft sigh of contempt at the thought of my question. "That thing was a dragon. No doubt. Just like the children's stories and the legends. The harbingers of the End Times." He said with a thoughtful gaze before shaking his head and looking at me in the eyes.

"We better get moving. Come here. Let me see if I can get those bindings off." He said, taking out a dagger from his side.

I nodded eagerly with a slight eager smile. "Oh yes, that would be much appreciated." I said, walking closer and holding out my hands to the Nord.

With that said, Ralof took my wrists, carefully slicing the dagger upwards and across my bindings, slicing them apart. I sighed in relief as I rubbed my wrists, my fur slightly ragged from the tight bindings. "Thank you." I said honestly with a pleased smile.

"Anytime. You might as well take Gunjer's gear. He won't be needing them anymore." He said, nodding his head toward his fallen companion.

I gave a slight nod before kneeling down, slipping off the dead man's armor off and taking his axe, before slipping on the armor.

"Get that armor on and let's find a way out of here." Ralof said before looking around, though cursed when he found the door right of the table locked.

My eyes looked toward him, making sure he turned around before taking off the rags I had on and slipping on the Stormcloak armor that I received. Once finished, I looked myself over in examination, and nodded in approval. Before I jumped, my tail fluffing, as I heard voices down the hall on the left from the table, which made my current companion curse; soon telling me to get down and hide.

We hid on either side of the gated door, listening quietly as the footsteps came closer and closer. Watching as the gate slowly slid down to open, and once the imperialists walked through, we attacked. Ralof went after the light armored man while I went for the heavy armor woman. I recognized her as the captain her ordered my head off.

Blue eyes glaring at her, I swung the axe against her shoulder, and then kicked her in the gut. "If you wanted me dead… you should have done it quickly." I spat, my lips curling into a snarl instinctively before leaning back as she slashed her sword toward my face. I hissed before lunging as she left her neck open, the blade of my axe swinging across her throat, blood spraying across my scarred muzzle as the captain gave a choking gasp and collapsed to the ground.

Grumbling, I wiped the blood off my face with my left sleeve and looked toward where Ralof was, who had finished off the man quickly. The Nord searched the two for a key to unlock the door and soon found it, and went to do just that. While I decided to loot everything off of the two dead imperialists, equipping the man's better light armor and taking a sword.

I preferred using swords over axes, I'm much better at using them. Plus, it doesn't hurt to have better armor, plus their dead. They won't be needing whatever they had now. We traveled along the underground for what felt like hours, till we came upon some kind of winery room. There were two imperialists there, but we killed them, then after looting everything, we came upon the prison.

Two Stormcloaks were fighting against a few Imperial's, and we assisted in defeating them. After saving more of Ralof's companions, he had me lock pick one of the cages. Luckily, Rognark taught me how to lock pick and some pick pocketing, since he thought Khajiit's have quite a talent for those kinds of skills. After looting everything in that room, we continued on our journey through the underground. Unfortunately, our two knew companions died along away when we were attacked by some more Imperials in a cave. I explored the caves eagerly, despite how kind of creepy it was with all the skeletons, and looted any lost gold or potions.

As Rognark said, loot everything you can, as long as it isn't stealing. Since they were dead, it wasn't really stealing now was it? Everything was going fine so far, even when we came across giant spiders, till we came across a bloody bear.

Since the time when I was twelve, I have been deadly afraid of bears. Bugs, wolves, sabertooths, and even dragons are things I wasn't really afraid of. But bears… I just keep thinking back on the time when I was foolish enough to take on a bear alone and because of it, my face is now scarred. Ralof seemed to sense my hesitation and he quietly whispered for us to sneak around.

I nodded in agreement, crouching and carefully sneaking my way passed the bear, holding my breath the entire time. Thankfully, the bear did not wake up and we could continue on. The entrance was not too far away at that point, and we made it outside, but sadly we had to duck in cover when that dragon flew over head. When it was safe, we stood, took deep breaths and grinned at each other.

"There he goes. Looks like he's gone for good this time. No way to know if anyone else made it out alive. But this place is going to be swarming with Imperials soon enough. We'd better clear out of here. My sister Gerdur runs the mill in Riverwood, just up the road. I'm sure she'd help you out, so let's get going before anything else happens." Ralof said as he walked down along the road ahead of me.

"Um alright…" I replied as I followed him, but I was more focused on my surroundings. This place was so different from what I was used to. Everything was green, there wasn't that much snow around and there were flowers and grass. All kinds of different smells compared to back at my old home. It gave me a headache to be honest, but still I enjoyed them.

As we traveled along, we encountered some stones, and Ralof explained that these stones help a traveler learn certain skills. I touched the warrior stone because I was more of a warrior than anything else. Maybe I would change to a thief later on to help my sneaking skills, but that could wait. We encountered some wolves, but they were easily taken care of and I gladly skinned them. Wolf pelts would be helpful in smithing after all.

When we arrived in this said Riverwood, Ralof led me to his sister's house. We discussed about what happened, and I asked loads of questions of who the Stormcloak's were, and who the Imperial's are and so on. Though, I'm pretty sure no one wants to hear all that information do they? They already know so why repeat it?

After speaking with Ralof's family, they wanted me to go to a place called Whiterun to inform the Jarl of what had happened. I agreed of course, not like I had anything else to do as of right now. First, I decided to explore Riverwood, which led me doing a series of quests. One of which was about two men and one woman being in some love triangle. Honestly, I don't know the first thing of romance so I just went along of what I thought was right.

How it started was when I talked to Sven, the asshole of the two. He has the ego the size of a ox and it was no wonder this woman named Camilla chose the elf Faendal over this jerk. He wanted me to send a letter to Camilla, saying it was from Faendal but instead, I showed it to the elf. Well, my honest judgement led me to another stupid errand. The elf wanted me to send a false letter to the woman saying it was from Sven.

Well , what I did was pick pocket Faendal to get Sven's letter and take both letters to this popular girl. It felt like the right thing to do after all. Boy, was she pissed! She said she would teach both of them a lesson, and she thanked me for being honest in their little game. After that awkward quest, Camilla decided to give me one by going to fetch something called a Golden Claw.

I had to go to that creepy place in the mountains Ralof was talking about, fight some bandits, go into a trap filled dungeon, fight undead, fight giant bloody spiders, and deal with a lying asshole. Yup, it was quite fun. In the end, I managed to get a lot of loot and a lot of treasure. While also returning the Golden Claw, and after I returned it, Camilla and her brother both seemed very happy and relieved that I managed it.

Though, Camilla kind of acted different around me that made me nervous and comfortable. I don't understand why but it does. She was talking sweetly, batting her eyelashes, offering me food and drink, and didn't seem to mind getting really close to me. Or making some suggestive comments, which I soon left with fur hot and my tail tucked between my legs.

Don't ask, I don't know so don't bother.

After going and equipping better armor and getting better weapons, while selling my old ones, I prepared my journey to my next adventure.

Whiterun.