A/N:

Well, the time it took for me to update is an atrocity. I'm sorry! But school has been taking up all my time and my schedule is basically: sleep, homework, school, sleep. :(

However, summer is HERE. Which means I should be able to update regularly again! I still am enjoying writing this fic so much, and I promise I wouldn't give up on it, even if it seems like I'm taking FOREVER to update. :)

That morning, Jackie woke up early and got dressed, ready as ever to get out of Windhelm.

"Things should definitely be lighter," she muttered to herself as she packed her new items into her bag, picking it up to test out the weight. She was glad they'd sold nearly everything at the market yesterday. Carrying all that armor was probably great cardio, but it was really inconvenient while they were making their way through the wilderness. She found herself hoping that they wouldn't run into too many more caves with treasure—sure, it made them a lot of money, but hauling it across Skyrim was no fun.

Bradas knocked at her door and entered without waiting for an answer. He looked pleasant for once—not grumpy and tired like he usually was in the morning. "Are you ready to leave?" he asked, leaning up against the threshold.

"Yes!" she replied. She was so ready to get out of this place that had been nothing but racial tension and cursed kids so far. "How long to Winterhold from here?"

"Ah, you see, Jackie... I was thinking, perhaps we shouldn't go directly to Winterhold quite yet."

Her face fell. He had the feeling that this news wasn't going to go over so well, after all. "What about the College?" she asked.

"I think it may be a good idea to travel to Riften. I hear there's good money to be made…"

Jackie didn't seem fooled. "Wait a second," she said, the wheels turning in her head. "… Isn't that where that orphanage is?"

He nodded. "It just so happens." By now he was sure that she wasn't buying it. She tilted her head, her eyes wide and incredulous.

"Are you saying you're gonna kill that lady?" she asked, lowering her voice. "That's just like… one of the most irresponsible things—are you seriously going to do that just because a kid asked you to?"

"Will you hush?" he said quickly, moving into her room and closing the door. "Not so loud. And no, not just because some cursed child asked me to."

"Oh, so you just happened to change your mind about Winterhold after talking to him."

"I haven't changed my mind about Winterhold," he replied quickly. "That's still my goal, of course. All I'm suggesting is… a detour."

Jackie studied his face, unable to determine exactly what he was thinking? Why—why would Bradas make that kind of effort for a kid he didn't know? As far as she knew, he wasn't the altruistic type… If you considered murdering a random woman 'altruistic'.

"No way," she said, crossing her arms and deciding she didn't care what his motives were. "I don't want to spend God-knows-how-long on the road just so you can kill some woman—that's just, just…" She felt herself spiraling into a typical modern girl moment, tempted to throw her hands up and declare that she 'couldn't even.' There were moments where she wondered how exactly she got involved with a guy like Bradas, and this was one of them.

"It wouldn't take that long," he said, the perfect picture of calm and collected. Like she was the irrational one. "And it would give you more time to work on your magic."

"What does that have to do with anything?" she scoffed. What her non-existent magicka had to do with Riften was beyond her, and she got the feeling that Bradas was trying to herd her into going without a fuss.

"I've heard that in order to enter the College you must display an aptitude for magic. Have you cast a spell yet, Jackie?"

"What a perfectly timed surprise," she said, placing her hands on her hips. She suddenly felt fed up with absolutely everything: the length of their journey, the walking, Windhelm, Skyrim, the entire realm… even Bradas, at this point. If it wasn't helping her get home, it was a part of the problem.

"Perhaps you would be able to enter as my companion without being tested," he said, switching gears. If her angry body language was anything to go by, he had clearly said the wrong thing. "But you'd have to accompany me. And I intend to visit Riften first." Although he could very well take off for Riften without giving her a choice, it was easier if she came along willingly.

Jackie's face was flushed red with anger and she was huffing like a provoked dragon. If he didn't know how unintimidating she really was, he may have even been worried, because her eyes were locked onto his like an opponent getting ready to attack him. For a wild moment he wondered if that's what she was actually planning.

After a long, tense moment, she finally took a few breaths and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself. "Okay," she said, careful to keep her voice calm. Throwing a fit would get her nowhere, and Bradas was sort of her friend. She needed to give him the benefit of the doubt, right?

As if she had a choice.

"How far way is Riften?"

"It will only lengthen our journey by a few weeks. Riften has many work opportunities, too, if the rumors I hear are true," he answered. "We could always use more money."

"Ugh," was her response as she slumped back down on her bed. He watched her closely for signs of agreement.

She sat there for a few moments, rubbing her brow as if she were some sort of long-suffering parent. "Only a few weeks?" she finally asked, looking up at him with tired eyes.

"On my honor," he promised.

When Jackie realized that they were walking in the exact opposite direction of Winterhold, she once again questioned whether or not all of this was a good idea. There was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach—it felt like every step she took was one step further away from her goal.

She felt angry and helpless at her own pathetic situation. If she was strong enough to brave the wilds of Skyrim on her own, this wouldn't be an issue. She wouldn't be subject to the whims of another person (a person, who, at the moment, was proving himself to be super flaky). The unfortunate truth was that she couldn't do it on her own, and frankly, the idea scared her. She couldn't fight, read a map, and she barely had a grasp on basic survival skills.

Frustrated, Jackie tightened her grip on the pack she was carrying. In moments like this the imbalance between her and Bradas became frighteningly clear. He was stronger, faster, and had basic control over all their movements. She trusted him (for the most part) and even liked him, but it still made her worry.

The only positive was that they were leaving Windhelm and the cold weather behind. It was still chilly, but the further South they walked the warmer it got. Despite these encouraging details, she just had a bad feeling about straying from their original path.

That night when they made camp, Bradas rolled out his map and showed her where Riften was in the dim firelight.

"Hmm," was all she had to say, not looking forward to more (and in her opinion, unnecessary) walking.

"Keep your chin up," he replied, uncharacteristically optimistic. "This gives you more time to practice your magic, as well."

"Oh, not that again," she sighed, placing her hand in her chin. She had a feeling he was just being extra nice because he knew she didn't want to be going in this direction. He hadn't even made her practice with her dagger. She wondered how long that would last…

"I take it you haven't made any progress."

"Not at all," she replied. "I'm starting to think I can't do it. Maybe the people in my realm aren't able to?" She was glad to be distracted from her grim thoughts, although she was having a hard time caring too much about the whole magic thing.

Bradas hummed, thinking. "I don't know. Perhaps," he said. "If that is the case, though, how did you travel between planes?"

Jackie just shrugged her shoulders. She'd pondered that very question often since she'd gotten to Skyrim and hadn't come close to any real answers. "I don't have any idea," she said, frowning as she looked into the fire. "It could be anything, like… maybe I got sucked through a wormhole." She huffed a laugh, knowing that Bradas probably wouldn't have any idea what that was.

"Perhaps you've angered one of the Daedra," Bradas said with a smirk.

"Huh?" Jackie looked up at her companion with a frown. "What's a Daedra?"

He actually laughed at the question. "That's a very long conversation for a different time. I'm too tired to talk about history," he said, smiling. She laughed.

"Fair enough," she said. "I can take first watch if you want?"

"I'll take you up on that."

The next few days went on in a similar fashion. They walked, walked, and then walked some more. Bradas added more locations to his map as they went, exploring abandoned towers and forts and collecting treasures.

They came across many predators and bandits, and Bradas had her fighting more and more. He watched as she slowly began learning to block attacks, and her style began (very gradually) to become more refined—although she was still hacking and slashing.

He supposed they'd have to work on that. Watching her reminded him of himself when he was still learning. Well, not that much, because he was much more coordinated than she was. But she was constantly getting injured, which seemed to be par for the course when learning to wield a weapon. She also became easily frustrated when they practiced, which was a great source of amusement for him on the road.

Bradas resumed the habit of teaching her at night before one of them took the first watch. They would spar and he'd drill her until her technique was adequate. She was nowhere near ready to be taking on experienced enemies, but he would have trusted her to defeat animals like wolves and mean goats.

"Someday I'm going to teach you yoga," she said one night after he'd sprained her wrist while teaching her a new trick with the dagger. Clearly, it hadn't worked. "It'd be a much better outlet for your aggression."

"This isn't an 'outlet,' it's training," he said, watching as she rubbed her sore wrist and sat on the ground next to the fire. A sprained wrist was no reason to waste magicka, but she had been fooling with the appendage for so long that it was beginning to annoy him. He sighed and held out his hand. "Give it here."

She sighed in appreciation as her wrist mended and the swelling went down. "Much better. Thank you."

"Think nothing of it," he sighed, sitting across from her and shoving more wood into the flame. "We're getting close to Riften. We should reach the city by tomorrow afternoon if my map is right." They were, in fact, camped out next to an empty watchtower not far from Shor's Stone, a small hovel of a town just north of their destination.

She was quiet for moment, just looking into the fire, and he worried that he'd struck some sort of nerve. The weeks that they'd been travelling had been pleasant, but Riften was a somewhat sensitive topic. She'd made it clear that she didn't like this little detour, so they avoided the subject to keep the peace. Although it only took a few seconds, he was still relieved when she replied.

"Good," she said, leaning back until she was flat in the dirt, her hands behind her head as she closed her eyes. Ah, so she was just tired—that's why her response was so slow. It was pointless to worry about her emotional state, and he felt foolish for studying her every reaction. "I'd kill for some hot food."

Bradas grinned. "Is my cooking not good enough for you, Jackie?"

"Oh, you call that cooking?" she quipped, flashing him a white smile. The Dunmer dug a red apple out of his bag and flung it at her, smirking when it nearly hit her and she squeaked.

"Hey," she huffed, sitting up and picking up the bruised fruit. She bit into it, wiping away the juice that wanted to run down her chin. "You have to admit, though, we're running out of food."

He nodded as he bit into an apple of his own. It was lucky that they were approaching Riften soon. "We'll have plenty once we arrive in Riften," he said around a mouthful. He swallowed his bite and stood up. "Time to get up. We're not done yet," he said, placing his hands on his hips. Jackie frowned at him from her position in the dirt.

"What? After you sprained my wrist just now? I thought we were done."

"Hardly," he scoffed, placing his hands on his hips. "We only practiced for a few minutes before you got hurt."

She wrinkled her nose in displeasure. "How about we train tomorrow when we get into the city," she bargained. "That way I'll actually be awake and—hey!"

He didn't listen to her at all, and chose instead to pounce, knocking her out of her sitting position and onto her back in the dirt. Before she could roll over to get up he'd pushed her down and held the blunt side of his knife to her throat.

"Dead," he said before standing up and brushing his shirt off.

"Are you serious?" she asked, staring up at him with tired eyes from her position on the cold ground.

"Obviously," he replied, standing up straight and placing a hand on his hip. "You're a sorry sight, Jackie Carson. When I was much younger than you, my uncle had me waking up in the early mornings to train. No excuses."

"Yeah, yeah, you're super tough," she replied, sitting up and leaning back on her elbows. He frowned down at her, the light from the fire casting strange shadows on his face.

"Do you want to learn or not?"

"Well, yeah, but—oof!" That was all he needed to attack again, using his foot to sweep one of her elbows out from under her and cause her to collapse back onto the ground. Once again his knife was pointed at her.

"Dead once more," he announced with a smug grin.

She groaned in frustration. "You have an unfair advantage," she pointed out from her position on the ground. "Also I think you just pick on me because you're bored."

"I 'pick on you' because you need to learn," he said flatly, releasing her and finally allowing her to stand. "Although I won't deny that I'm bored. You're not a very engaging enemy—" He blocked a clumsy hit to his arm, but found himself pleased that she was finally cooperating. She tried again, curling her hands into fists the way he'd taught her and going for his face—which meant that he'd actually annoyed her.

He laughed as he dodged every hit easily. After only a few moments she stopped, looking winded and breathing hard. "I can't," she panted, stooping slightly to place her hands on her knees. "I'm way too tired…"

He approached her, sighing. "You have no stamina," he complained, his mouth drawn into a frown. Jackie just shrugged.

"Yeah, guess I'm just not feeling it tonight," she said. "Ugh, can you help me? I think I pulled a muscle…"

He rolled his eyes. "What is it? I'll help you to your bedroll, but don't expect me to use healing magic for every little—" He stopped short when he realized what she was up to, but it was too late; Jackie had jumped up from her crouched position and used all her momentum to push him over as hard as she could. He blinked and realized that he had collided to the ground, and she was hovering over him with her knife pointed at his shoulder.

"Dead," she panted, her knee digging into his leg. He glanced at where her knife was touching his armor.

"I don't think a knife to the shoulder would kill me," he said.

She glanced at the position of the dagger, then back up into his eyes. "Well then… maimed," she amended, curling her lips up in a big smile, her eyes shining with the light of the fire. He began laughing, even though he was winded from her surprise attack.

"I'll admit, just this once, that you got the best of me," he said, breathing in as she lifted her weight off his leg and helped him up.

"I can't believe you fell for such a stupid trick!" she said, laughing so hard her eyes began to water. She placed her dagger back in its sheath, looking at him with the biggest grin he'd seen since they'd left Windhelm.

"Don't push your luck," he replied, the warning losing all of its edge in his laughter.

"Ooh, I'm so scared," she taunted, placing her thumbs on her cheeks and wiggling her fingers in a gesture he'd never seen before. Whatever it meant, he was sure it wasn't very complimentary.

"Hah, I was going to tell you to take a break," he said, taking a big step toward her and watching her flounce away. "But now I'm going to maim you. Prepare yourself—"

A loud, haunting trill cut through the air, interrupting him and making them both stand on edge. A gust of air and the flapping of huge, deadly wings erased their smiles and silenced their laughter. Jackie looked at him, the color drained from her face—he was sure that he looked no better.

An enormous dragon was gliding towards them, opening its mouth to reveal puffs of flame and smoke. Quickly, Bradas pushed Jackie in a direction perpendicular to its course. He didn't even need to tell her to run; she was already sprinting.

His bow and arrow were out before he could even think of a strategy, firing arrow after arrow into the beast's scaly hide. He had to duck and roll out of the way of an angry breath of fire, and in a panic he cast a Frost spell in its direction. It didn't seem to do much, but Bradas had learned in Whiterun that the only option was to continue attacking until it wore out and landed. It had been easier with several of the city's guards, but perhaps it was doable on his own if he was light on his feet.

Another swoop and gust of wind—Bradas continued firing without regard to his arrow supply. The dragon roared once more and landed on the ground, focusing its eyes on him and opening its mouth. He ran as quickly as he could to escape its range, flames licking at his heels.

A burst of wind scattered the dirt as the dragon swooped back up, making lazy circles in the air as it no doubt decided how to maim and kill its prey. Bradas took that time to peer around and see where Jackie had run off to.

"Bradas!" He found her right away. She was struggling with the packs they had been carrying, having removed them from their campsite as she ran. A part of him could appreciate the effort, but mostly he wanted her to get out of the area. "Bradas, run!" she yelled.

The dragon began to glide back down and Bradas instantly saw the logic in Jackie's plea.

So he ran.

His feet carried him swiftly in Jackie's direction, and in one fluid movement he grabbed his pack out of her arms and urged her to follow. Now unburdened of half of her load, Jackie was able to run faster, following the Dunmer toward the watchtower.

The journey couldn't have been more than a few hundred yards, but it felt significantly longer than that when a fuming dragon was breathing fire on their heels. When they finally reached the dinky wooden structure, Jackie had a brief moment of panic—were they actually going to try and hide here? Wouldn't the dragon just burn down the whole building? And where was the damn entrance? Everything was so dark and her adrenaline was pumping too hard to focus and—aha!

As a lick of flame hurtled in the air toward them, she grasped Bradas' arm and somehow, through a rush of blurred motion, she managed to wrench them both down into the dark entrance of the watchtower. They stumbled through the stone and wood structure into the dark, scraping their hands on the ground as they crouched down to make themselves invisible.

The dragon outside roared, its mighty Thu'um echoing through the air like a hot and deadly sonar. Fire crackled in the air but only the light and heat of it reached them—the sweat on Bradas' face looked orange and sickly, and utterly terrifying. Jackie tucked her arms and legs in closer to her body and covered her eyes with her hand. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down; at this point all they could do was hide and hope. There was no use in panicking.

Bradas, crouching next to her, was not panicking or worrying about whether or not the dragon could burn down the watchtower to reach them. He tucked in next to his companion, but kept his eyes open, straining to see the beast outside one its fire receded. He listened as its horrible wings clapped in the air, as it shrieked in rage. Rather than stiffening fear, he felt frustrated that he didn't know how to kill it on his own.

The two of them sat on the bottom level of the watchtower, safe from the dragon's breath. They waited, listening to the beat of its wings as it flew around and around the tower. And as they waited, the Dark Elf's frustration slowly turned to calculation—and a dangerous, hot-blooded desire to find a way to defeat such an undefeatable opponent.

It was a few hours later when the dragon finally grew bored—or forgot what it was after—and flew away, the swish of the air fading as it glided away. Still, they stayed in the watchtower for the rest of the night. Jackie had eventually curled up at the bottom of the stairs, sleeping with her pack under her head for support, her arms wrapped around her body. Whether it was for warmth or some sense of security, Bradas didn't know.

He hadn't slept after the dragon left, filled with too much tension to relax. He sat on the stairs above his human companion, leaning back into the cold hard stone and staring up at the ceiling. There had to be a way to kill those damned dragons—he knew there was. Was it the Thu'um? Was it pure strength? The only reason that the dragon in Whiterun had been slain was because they had attacked it in numbers, and even then it had been close.

It was a long time that he thought, plotted, and designed ways to take down such a monster. So long, in fact, that the light was streaming through the wooden beams of the tower when he finally sat up and cracked his back, and forced himself to put the matter to rest. For now.

Jackie stirred from her position on the floor, cracking open an eye and looking up at him. "Are you up?" her voice cracked, still sleepy.

"Obviously," he said. "Time to wake up. We're getting to Riften today if it kills us."

The brunette at the bottom of the stairs rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and let out a wry laugh. "It just might."

A/N:

Oh my glob. This chapter. I stopped in the middle of writing it a few months ago when I got overwhelmed, and was a little worried I'd have a hard time picking it back up. And I didn't! Action-y scenes are hard for me to write but I am working on improving! Using this fic as a way to practice has been really helpful, I think. This was way too fun to write and I really hope you enjoyed it. Especially since you waited so long for it. :(

Also, I am trying to keep this story pretty accurate as far as the geography, but I'm really just guessing how long it's taking to get from place to place. If I'm wrong, well… we'll just pretend I'm right. ;)

Anyway, the next chapter we will arrive in Riften, which is sure to be a great time! Thanks for reading and please do review.