Skyrim is the property of Bethesda Softworks. Hey everyone, I'm glad you're reading this. It never fails to amaze me that more than two weeks after posting, Legionnaire will still be gathering a handful of faves and follows. Thank you.
Almost a mile away, a battle-mage near the 77th's riverside piquet sent a red flare of light drifting over the ice chunks floating in the White River's swift current. It was the last night in the month of Sun's Dusk and the ice floes were a portent of the deep cold to come. I guessed by the middle of Evening Star, the river would be frozen enough for cohorts to reach the quays of the city. As I looked at the ice glowing crimson in the distance, mages within Windhelm launched bolts of fire at the source of the floating light. Return shots flashed up to the walls in return. The exchange lasted perhaps half a minute.
I looked out over the flowing ice again and let my eyes readapt to the dark. The last two weeks had been punctuated by nights just like this, artillery duels in the day, and sorties to clear the bridge to the city. None of that was my worry tonight however. I was tasked with patrolling the farmlands near the river where the bank was shallow enough for Stormcloaks from the city to land boats from the city's docks.
Toward midnight I saw them. Two of the icebergs in the water were exactly the same size and moving slowly across the current. I gave the rebels polling in their barges credit for camouflaging their craft as ice, but late nights make for bad driving. I toyed with the wooden whistle I carried and waited for them to land. I was acting as a spotter for Hadvar and his men. They and Aela were walking parallel to me, hidden from the river by the rise of the road. All I needed to do was guide them to the defenders' landing and call them over the road.
I looked over to my comrades, a large black mass in the weak moonlight. Sword-arms were stretched and spears were clutched. I caught a feminine shape holding a bow. Glowing green eyes winked at me in the dark.
The two barges landed on the bank with the sound of gravel crunching softly beneath their hulls. The white canvases they used to disguise their craft were thrown off and Ulfric's men began to climb out. There were perhaps a hundred soldiers down there; enough to dig a redoubt and defend it or make a damaging raid on the Legion's artillery park. Hadvar, his soldiers, Aela, and I numbered about eighty. We would have our hands full, but the disparity was not dangerous. Besides, Aela and I knew a surprise was coming for the Stormcloaks.
After a minute or so, the soldiers by the river began to walk up the bank to the road in open order with swords and axes in their belts. I frowned deeply and felt a little sick. This would be another of those miserable skirmishes where someone's friend would die and nothing would change. I almost sighed aloud as I put the whistle to my mouth and blew two quick notes followed by a long blast.
The rebels were good. They had their shields off their backs in a flash. A handful with heavy two-handed weapons spread to the sides to welcome the rush of Hadvar's men opposite them on the road. Aela and two of Hadvar's archers stopped on the road bed and their darts raced the legionnaires to the Stormcloak shields. I left Revenant at my waist—that weapon was as dangerous to my comrades as my enemies in a crowded melee—and brandished the steel great sword I'd requisitioned from the 9th's quartermaster. The vulnerable left side of the legionary formation was already starting to bend under the skill of the Stormcloak right. I jogged over and began the sequence of stabs, chops, and bashes that would force the leading Stormcloaks to divide their attention or be bludgeoned by the four-foot long, six pound sword in my hands.
"Imperial bastard!" A Stormcloak challenged me. She advanced with a war axe in each hand. She used a curious fighting style that used one axe to attempt to hook my weapon in place while the other axe sped toward my face.
I adapted to her open, mobile technique by gripping my blade in my off hand stepping close to use the claymore as a short quarterstaff. One of her axes hooked against the leather-bound ricasso, granting me leverage to block the furious attacks from the axe in her free hand.
With a curse, a leg behind her ankle, and a vicious head-butt, she fell at my feet. I gritted my teeth and raised my sword high to finish her when discordant howling pierced the clamor of the skirmish. My body went cold at the eerie sound.
Two greasy black shapes bounded down the road from the north and leapt high from the bank into the open side of the Stormcloak formation. The smaller of the two forms led the charge. Its eyes were streaks of gold in its dark face. It moved swiftly between the rebel troops, tearing faces and chain mail with three-inch claws. One warrior was swift enough to get his sword under the seven-foot tall animal's neck and hold the creature at bay for an instant. The monster roared its anger, melting the soldier's courage like dragon-fire on ice.
"Don't move," I commanded the woman beneath me and placed my foot on her throat. I looked back to witness the animals' ferocity.
The larger beast waded in behind its leader on its hind legs. The hunched over eight-foot demon picked up soldiers in its claws and threw them about like a young boy tormenting his sister's ragdolls.
The valor of Stormcloak and Legionnaire alike wilted under the force of the unnatural attack. The rebels fled to their boats and in a spasm of mercy I kicked the woman after them. Hadvar's soldiers bolted to the nearest redoubt of the 77th's fort, spreading stories of beasts in the night. Aela and I were all that remained as we turned to face the goliath and his serpentine leader.
"It's good to see you guys. I'm glad you could make it," I said to Vilkas and Farkas. Aela had already jumped up to hug Farkas about his tree trunk thick neck. "After you get dressed tomorrow, the guards at the camp will challenge you with 'glass.' Reply with 'quicksilver.'
The two brothers nodded mutely before running off down the road to the north.
"I was wondering if you'd noticed them," Aela said.
I shrugged, "I gave up the Blood. I guess it didn't completely give up on me. I picked them up around sunset."
"You should have kept my gift. They've been following us all day," she boasted.
I sighed and shook my head, "We haven't been married a year yet Aela. Let's not have this fight yet."
"It's one that's coming."
I reached over and pulled her into my arms so we were nose to nose, "I know. But right now, we've got other problems."
Seeing Farkas and Vilkas in their wolf-patterned armor with great swords slung over their backs; leading my four housecarls wearing dragon bone and ebony into the camp; was a much needed boost for me. After almost watching Aela die; my Solitude house burning and subsequent banishment; driving a wedge between Aerin and Mjoll; Anuriel eluding my grasp; and putting down a rebellious cohort, I needed to be among my friends.