Chapter 5

" Ralof your alive. Me and Hod thought that you had been captured." As Ralof sister spoke I studied the man and the boy next to her. The man was broad and burly, and had a handlebar blonde moustache. The boy was small and looked admiringly at his Uncle. Igrid was sitting on a log and I decided to join her, and let Ralof do the talking.

"How did you escape Uncle Ralof? Did you see Ulfric?"

"Lad, give me some time, I will answer all of your questions in time, but klnow I need you to do something for me."

"Sure, what is it?"

" I need you to check if there are any imperials coming down the road."

" I won't let them sneak up them on you Uncle Ralof," said the boy as he dutifully ran towards the road

"You're telling me that a dragon attacked Helgen, asked Gerdur. The man next to her chuckled. "Please, the next thing that you'll be telling me is that a you saw a dwemer. I didn't believe that you would put your faith in a bunch of children's stories Ralof," said Hod with a smirk.

Ralof spoke calmly and with force, "it's not a joke Hod, we almost lost our lives to the beast. You can ask Sigrid if you want."

The man let out an uncertain laugh. "You sure you ain't drunk boy"

Gerdur glanced unsurely at the stormcloak officer. "What is it then?"

Sigrid hesitated, but finally spoke. "His right, we were attacked by a huge black beast on our way to the chopping block.

Gerdur gasped. Even the man, Hod or whatever his name was, turned pale. I contemplated the fastest way to chop Hod into small pieces with my knife as he talking about how we were all probably drunk.

Finally I lost my patience. "We were attacked by a dragon. Now if you stopped talking, we could do better things, such as inform the general public."

" I'm sorry lad, it's just that what you ask us to believe is rid-"

"Enough talk. If there's a dragon about, riverwood is in great danger. We must inform the Jarl," said Gerdur forcefully while glaring at Hod. I smirked.

Hod sighed, " Fine. You win. Now if you don't mind. I have some work to due."

Gerdur laughed. "By work do you mean going to the inn?"

"Well what do you expect, it's Loredas. I still have to beat Brunulf at Tiram. What do you say, Lad? Do you think that i should make it up to you for questioning you."

I smiled, " That sounds good. Unfortunately, they didn't play "Tiram" in the imperial city."

Hod looked as though he had seen a ghost. "That's downright criminal. Those milkdrinker imperials playing their the stuffy little " Poker". They need to learn how to play a real game."

"Actually Poker is quite good," I said, " I can teach you the rules."

"Hod, liste-"

" Is that so," said Hod loudly, " well, i'll have to trust you. Mind you, it better be good."

"Ho-"

I grinned. "It'll be good." For me. It would probably make a huge sum of money robbing Hod and his friends blind

" HOD, YOU LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW. THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT CARD GAMES."

This time, me and Hod both turned to face Gerdur as though she had told us that there was General Tullius marching towards us.

" He has to inform the jarl of the dragon."

"Give him a rest, he just survived escaping an execution and crawling through a cave full of hostile monsters. He'll set of in the morning with Ralof."

I put on the most pitiful look that I could muster, which probably wasn't much because my lack of human facial features.

" Fine, you win. You depart first thing in the morning."
" And why should I do that," I asked.

" Because your the only one other than Ralof that saw the dragon….. And because I'll reward you."

I grinned. Well that's settled, now i just have to teach you poker.