Chapter Eight:

They woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning, after having a light meal consisting of some more jerky and some mead, they set off once again. Having set their pace to a trot for a while, Norin began to tell Tarah of all the allies the Varden had to offer, describing the proud dwarves of the Beor Mountain (His talk of their ingenuity and skills with crafting sounded suspiciously like the Dwemer to her), and the elves of Du Weldenvarden. His comments of the elves made them sound closer looking to humans and more longed lived, nothing like the different groups of elves she had encountered in Skyrim. She at least hoped they wouldn't be anything like the Thalmore.

However much of the trip was spent galloping through the countryside, avoiding rodes and generally moving as far away from Fornost. When they had to take short breaks or set their pace so that the horses could recover Tarah would ask questions about what Norin knew about Dragons and some of the recent happenings concerning the rebellion. And though he answered to the best of his ability (Knowing not much more than rumor about Dragons), she could tell he began to grow increasingly more suspicious about her lack of knowledge over some of the basics.

"... Apparently the dragon managed to wipe out entire companies of Urgals with its fire, I wish I could have seen it for myself." Norin was saying.

"Urgals?" Tarah asked.

Norin pulled the reins on Ghost hard enough for him to stop almost in place. "You have heard of Urgals right?" He asked, his tone was a mixture of shock and disbelief.

It took Tarah to pull her horse to a stop as well, she hadn't expected such a strong reaction. "I can't say that I have."

Narrowing his eyes at her, "How could you not? They are a race of the vilest, bloodthirsty horned beasts to walk the land! They slaughter and pillage at their leisure, they are the scourge of the lands!"

"Well, that struck a nerve". She noted, "Can't say that I have ever seen one before, they mustn't live in the Eastern woods as much as here."

"Not once! Have you not seen their warbands crossing the fields, or come across their dens of decadence and evil?"

"Oh, I've come across dens of decadence and evil, just none that were occupied by creatures with horns." She said, jokingly. Unless you count the Forsworn, the thought of them putting her in a worse mood.

"No, I don't believe it, you must have heard of them!" He exclaimed.

"Sorry to disappoint." Was Tarah's only response, before inclining Finic to continue on. She had been worried that this would happen, she was no longer sure if it was wise to hide her actual circumstances, at the same time she still wasn't sure if she could trust the Varden with that information.

They rode in relative silence for the rest of the day, keeping close to the lake as to be as far away from the city of Melian in case if they got word of their attempt to cross the border. They were heading as far south as possible and would be approaching Cithri from the East. Norin was convinced that they would send troops after them, and other mages if they were close enough, and Tarah believed him. However, by the time their second day of travel came to a close, there was still no sign of pursuit.

That night they spent in relative silence, camping out next to a small stream that fed out from the lake though. It more for the horse's benefit, as they would not move any further for the day. Tarah spent much of her time making sense of what she had learned. Elves and Dwarfs being in open defiance against the Mad tyrant and his Dragon, his apparent allies the horned Urgals, and the small numbers of the Varden compared to their enemy. Elves that lived in the forest and were masters of this land's strange magic. But most of all she was perplexed by the Dragon and its rider, her imagination ran wild with speculation that she would encounter a Dova and Dovakin working together, but if they were like her then that would mean Galbatorix was as well, and if that were true then how could he be alive for as long as everyone claimed? What type of power had he achieved to accomplish such a feat. And deep down she wondered if she could hope to match it. She hoped to find her answers when she reached the Varden.

The next few days would be a routine of riding and stopping for rests, passing the time with small talk and some more questions, about events and Rumors that Norin had heard. However, after a couple of hours, Norin tried to ask some more personal questions that were more specific to her background. Some of which she had to lie, and others she refused to comment. Tarah knew that it was only going to temporary, but now the guilt of lying to him became heavier and heavier to carry, and she could see that he was starting to recognize when she wasn't being honest with him.

Early the next morning, however, she was awoken by the excited voice and a shake on the shoulder from Norin, at first she thought they were under attack, but when Tarah turned to see what Norin was pointing at, she was greeted by the familiar silhouette of a dragon riding the wind in the distance, its bright blue scales helped outline it from the first rays of the mourning. Even though it was too far away to notice any discernible features, it was clear that it had four legs and not the usual two that the dragons in Skyrim had. And though its head and back were covered in spikes the dimensions were all off, its wings were larger and didn't seem to have spiked thumbs on the wings, and the tail seemed longer than Skyrim Dovas.

Both of them watched as it slowly disappeared onto the horizon, Norin in particular was convinced that it must have been the dragon that helped the Varden during the Siege of Farah-Dur (on account that the only other dragon alive was Galbatorix's). With the renewed sense of determination, they continued on. As they rode they speculated together what the Dragon was up to.

Tarah's curiosity went wild over what else might be different about this type of dragon. Maybe these dragons weren't naturally evil or concerned with dominating the world, or maybe they were more cunning and deceitful? Would it recognize her as a fellow Dova? If she had to fight one of these Dragons what would be different? Would she have to learn a new fighting style to keep up? What would their souls taste like? What shouts might it know?

But most of all she wondered about the Dragon Rider, what was their connection to all this?

It would be half a day later when they finally reached the city of Cithri. Tarah was surprised that after only a brief talk with the guards at the East Gate, they were allowed into the walled city. They passed through many merchants selling wares and supplies, many of the traded goods were as she expected, food and ale, however, there was also a large number of silk traders. They also passed many civilians trying to keep pace with the demands of the day, along with small patrols of the local garrison. Compared to the town of Fornost, the city was much more complex in its layout, ready to withhold the stresses of a siege and invasion. Had she been traveling alone she would have gotten lost really quick.

Norin lead her to the barracks, where after confirming his status as a spy for the Varden they were led to a back room where they could talk with a coordinator of the Varden spy network. Norin then explained how his circumstances led him to return to Fornost, how he found her on the side of the road, Tarah's exploits with the housefire, how she was able to hold her own against soldiers and a trained magician for a small amount of time, and their subsequent escape.

When the spymaster found out she was a magician he began to ask her several questions. Where did she hail from? How much training did she have? Who had taught her? Along with a myriad of other questions. After a few hours of answering these questions with the story that she had built up over these past couple of days, she was given permission to travel with Norin to the main Varden camp. They were given directions to head to the Burning Plains, where Norins superiors were and where Tarah would be admitted into the mage circle after they inspected her and she demonstrated her abilities to them. Whatever that meant she wasn't sure, but it seemed that the Varden was in heavy need of magicians, especially ones with combat experience.

After she satisfied their questions, the spymaster gave them instructions to join a caravan that was set to depart later that afternoon. It was a supply caravan that was transporting livestock, some weapons, and armor for the troops.

"At least we will have safety in numbers," Tarah thought. However, this would mean that they would only go as fast as their slowest. From what Tarah could see on the maps after they left the border of Surda, they would be crossing open country, with the nearest line of support being the main army itself, and they would be well within striking distance of Melanin patrols. And even as short as that window would be, it wasn't a detail that they could ignore.

Fortunately, they had already taken that into consideration, and they would be traveling with an armed escort of riders. And now they would be given another fighter and a magician for added protection. "What could possibly go wrong?"

After that, they were given a letter of instructions to be given to the leader of the Sargent in command of the caravan, Aerkath. Along with directions of where to go.

They would head straight to where the caravan was gathering, which was at the West Gate of the city. When they arrived Tarah saw that there were three wagons pulled by mules, each wagon had four or five workers, ensuring that things were tied up properly and loading on the last of their cargo. For protection, there were eighteen soldiers, some were keeping guard and others were helping with the loading of cargo. The largest of these soldiers, a Redguard looking man with shaven black hair watched their progress as Tarah and Norin approached.

As they approached, leading their houses behind them, the man took notice and turned to face them, looking them up and down as they approached.

"Greetings commander Aerkath," Norin said formally, before offering up a soldier's salute. "We have orders to join your force on its way to the army." He said as he passed the papers the Spymaster had given them.

Aerkath said nothing as he took the papers, his dark blue eyes shifting from the words on the page to Norin, then as he read further to Tarah. Frowning he took another look at the page before looking at Tarah's equipment, as she was dressed in full combat gear, both of her trusty axes sat at their sheathes, and her bow and quiver of arrows rested against her back.

"You don't look much like a magician to me," Aerkath said skeptically, rolling up the letter of instructions before handing them back to Norin.

Tarah shrugged, "In my line of work it pays to be versatile."

Aerkath nodded, "You know how to use those?" He asked indicating at her two axes.

In response, Tarah took the ax embedded with the absorb health enchantment and flipped it in the air, as it came back down she caught it by the point of the blade, twirling the weapon with both hands before sheathing it again in one continuous motion.

Aerkath kept up his stern look, though she could tell that he was a bit impressed "Well, you let me and my men worry about fighting, you just worry about dealing enemy magicians."

"Yes sir," Tarah said with a mocking seriousness, raising her hand to do a bad impression of Norin's salute. "Whether it be here or in Skyrim, some things never changed," She thought, recounting her time in the imperial military and some of the more hotheaded commanders that tried to instill in her the respect of command. Which seemed trivial when she had faced men and beasts that would make them want to cower in fear.

But to his credit, Aerkath kept his stern impression, giving no sign that he caught on to what she was trying to do, or if he even cared. "You will remain in the center of our formation once we leave Surda. Tell me, what can you do?"

"Well, I can use destruction magic, Summoning magic, I have knowledge of healing spells, Alteration spells, and rune spells" And just like She thought, Aerkath had almost no idea what she was talking about, though he seemed to get the bare bones of what she meant.

Behind him, a small figure came to Aerkath, he had shaggy brown hair and a long brown beard, his arms were thicker than any person she had seen before, he wore a thick leather jacket that hung over his regular clothes. It took Tarah a moment to realize that this was one of those Dwarfs Norin had told her about. She had expected that their height was an exaggeration, but now she saw that this was not the case, in his eyes, she could see the looks of determination and skill of a craftsman and a fearless fighter, not too dissimilar to those that worked at the Skyforge in Dragonsreach.

"Me and mine kin have finished loading everything, we are ready to move." He said.

"Good, we shall be leaving soon," Aerkath said.

The Dwarf nodded before moving back with the rest of the group, giving orders and directions to his subordinates, and now that Tarah had a better look, she could see that six of their number were dwarfs as well.

And true to his word they would leave the West gate, Oxes in the center their handlers walking beside them, Tarah and Norin on horseback with them, finally the soldiers rode around the caravan, Aerkath at the head.

By nightfall, they had stopped to rest, from what Tarah heard they had left the borders of Surda, but she couldn't tell how they were so sure. As the members of the caravan finished gathering firewood Tarah noticed that there was some issue with the lighting of the fire.

"Step aside." She said, lighting her hand with the heat of her fire magic, hurridly they complied as she let out a focused stream of fire on the logs, only stopping when she noticed that the logs had caught fire and were self-sustaining.

"Nifty." one of them said. Some of the soldiers around them gave concerning looks to each other and began whispering to each other.

Tarah nodded, ignoring some of the concerned and outright hostile and scared looks some of the soldiers gave her. It seemed that mages here faced some of the same challenges and ridicule as the ones in Skyrim. Though Tarah didn't let this get to her, it wouldn't be the first time she had received such looks and it wouldn't be the last.

Walking past the oxes she moved to the road they had been using, on the outskirts of the caravans camp, taking off her helm she looked over to the night sky. So completely foreign to her, yet at the same time somewhat familiar. New constellations and star clusters to count and discover As the half-moon appeared behind some of the last bit of cloud cover, Tarah began to feel the soft urge to run into the night. To shed her human form and embrace the wolf within her once again, to move with the speed that surpassed the horses that had carried her for so many miles. To be alone and free for a night.

But of course, her responsibilities wouldn't let that happen, she could tell she was losing the trust of Norin, something that she would need to rectify soon. Besides, the soldiers around her already appeared on edge and mistrustful of her, the last thing she needed was to give them an excuse to act upon that fear.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Norin said, startling her.

Looking back she saw that he was carrying a cooked piece of meat that was skewed into a stick from the fire. Behind him, there were still a few centuries keeping watch, but most of the people in the caravan, including Aerkath, were gathered around the fire.

"It is." She said, accepting the piece of what smelled like cooked pork Norin brought over.

Norin clearly had something on his mind, as he stepped up to stand next to her she could see that there was something specific he wanted to say. And she had a feeling that she knew what it was.

Tarah for the millionth time in their journey together ran through how helpful and truthful he had been to her. And what was likely to happen if he didn't get a straight answer soon. Again she ran through the risk of her revealing the truth of what she was, and the benefits of having someone she could count on to back her up. Why couldn't Indigo or Lucien be here, they were better judges of character than her, even Serana would have come up to a decision by now.

Turning to Norin she came to her decision.

"Norin, I haven't been entirely forthcoming to you." She said.

"Oh?"

"I-" the wind shifted from the North East, the smell of houses and men brisked by her enhanced senses, then something caught her eye off in the distance. Under the cloud's shadow, faintly there was a plume of dust that left it. Ever so faintly illuminated by the half-moon. Tarahs stomach sank, "Laas Yah Nir," she said.

"What?" Norin asked.

For a moment the world went completely black before her eyesight returned, this time she could see many, many red dots that were moving quickly to their position. And they were coming from the wrong direction to be friendly troops.

"Were about to be under attack." She stated frankly. Turning she grabbed Norins arm as she ran back to the camp, all of the members of the caravan appearing as large red outlines.

"What do you mean we are under attack? How can you tell?" Norin asked, concerned.

"I can see them charging at us." She responded, there was no time for a proper explanation, it was time to act.

"What are you on about witch?" One of the centries asked, having overheard head their conversation. "I don't see anything."

"Under the cloud's shadow you moron." She said, pushing past him. By now some of the men around the campfire had overheard the commotion and were turning their attention to her.

"Aerkath! We got a force approaching from the North East, six hundred yards and closing." She wasn't sure if it was that exact estimate but she needed people to be acting quickly.

Aerkath rose from where he sat, "Are you sure?"

"Yes." By now the power of the shout had dissipated, causing Tarah to blink a few times to readjust her eyesight. "They will be here very soon."

"You heard her lads get to your stations all of you!" Aerkath commanded. There was a moment of chaos as the troops got organized and the Oxe handlers found their weapons and fitted some armor to their person.

Aerkath was busy hounding his men into formation ahead of the carts and grilling Tarah for information.

"How many?"

"Anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five," Tarah said, it was hard to distinguish their mounts and the riders at such a distance but that was her best guess.

"Do they have magicians?" He asked, now the shadow of the clouds was discernably closer and they could see more clearly some of the plumes of dust as the riders began to gallop to their position.

"How am I supposed to know?" Tarah wondered, but aloud she said, "I'm not sure, but that may be the case."

Aerkath nodded, "We will focus on their soldiers, you focus on seeing if they have a magician and neutralizing them. We will cover you. In the meantime is there anything you can do about making them more visible? I want to pick them off at range before they arrive."

For a moment Tarah figured that there wasn't really anything she could do. But then it struck her at how odd it was that under the shadow of the cloud nobody could see anything besides the plume of dust and that the shadow was moving their direction, to begin with.

"Actually there might just be." She said. Concentrating on her conjugation magic, she pictured a flame atronach standing beside her, fire and form mixing together as one. She may need to see the opponent to shoot, but her familiar wouldn't.

"Attack, charge!" She thought, the commands releasing the spell from her hand, she watched the purple vortex form beside her, quickly turning red as the form of the flame atronach came into being, the heat from its body making the surrounding air feel like an oven. It regarded her for a moment, before moving forward to where the enemy was charging.

"What is that?" Norin asked as they moved back behind the wall of armor and spears.

"A familair I conjured up." Tarah replied, watching her creation move farther and farther away from them. Once it was in range, the flame atronach began to spin as it threw fireball after fireball into the darkness. The balls of fire illuminating the night and the shadows. The first three shots exploded, Illuminating the shapes of men and horses around them, their screams being heard from where they stood.

It was then that she realized that this force was composed of a number closer to thirty, from what she could see from the outlines of the explosions.

The next volley from the atronach veered off unexpectedly just before reaching the shadow. At the same time, the cloud began to disperse. Now at two hundred and fifty yards, they could see the outlines of their opponents still charging at them, and the scattered bodies of those that had already fallen.

"Well, at least now we know that they have a magician," Norin said.

"Draw your arrows!" Aerkath commanded, to which half of their number did, including Tarah, her ebony bow crackled to life as the electricity within yurned to be free.

By now the force was almost upon the atronach, which stood there unfazed at the charge it was about to face. Around it, Tarah could see small projectiles whizzing past and striking it, even before it took the charge it was becoming weakened.

"Aim!"

"Wait!" Tarah shouted.

Surprized the soldiers turned to look at her. To which she nodded to the scene about to unfold, "Watch." There was no sense wasting ammo on dead men.

In silence, they watched the flame atronach discharge a final volley before getting hit by the charge, one of its last remaining fireballs striking two of the riders at the far right of the formation. Then lances down, men and horses smashed into it. Quickly its light was surrounded by bodies, which soon dimmed to near non-existence. From where they stood, arrows drawn they could hear the cheers from their opponent, then a single voice from within the crowd shouted in alarm. Then a flash of red and orange fire exploded from where the atronach fell, cheers turning into screams as nearly half of the enemy's number became consumed by the flame. A final gift.

"Now!" Tarah shouted.

"Fire!" Aerkath obliged. As one they sent out a deadly volley into the disorganized and confused opponents, Tarah's own electric arrow finding its mark with a flash of white.

Yet despite this, a good portion of the Imperials survived and kept charging in smaller groups. And after releasing another volley, the caravan drew their weapons to face the charge.

Drawing her axes Tarah was almost glad to dealing with hand-to-hand combat again. Nothing better to help distract oneself from their problems.

Two smaller groups from the left and right reached them first, about ten and twelve horsemen respectively. They crashed into their lines with savage furry but were met in kind, as Tarah hacked and dodged attacks she could see that many had burns, some segments of their armor were black from the heat. Yet regardless they fought on. Some of the survivors of the explosion also joined the fray, most were on foot and some rode in on their mounts.

In the mele, Tarah and Norin fought side by side, covering each other from blows and doing their best to ensure that the enemy didn't get past them. Soon Tarah caught the blade of the enemy magician, half-burned and looking like a crazed lunatic he was mumbling something incoherent to her. They locked eyes and recognition hit both of them, and Tarah was suddenly entranced in a duel. His broadsword flew high into the air, Tarah caught it by crossing her axes together, kicking him back he shouted a strange incantation, upon completion the axes remained bounded together. Unable to use them Tarah tossed the axes to one side. The magician gave her a smug look, his attempt to disarm her having worked several soldiers around him rushed forward to press the advantage.

In response, Tarah gave off a bored frown, "Really?" She asked, her magic having recharged enough by this point, she pulled the remaining energy together to summon her great ax. The purple two-handed weapon appeared before their eyes. Their eyes grew wide with shock as Tarah brought down the ax upon them with a laugh, she swung the weapon around as if it weighed half of what it should have, catching her surprised opponents in the swings and feeling them just as quickly. Pressing her momentary advantage, she pushed up and renewed her duel with the magician, but they could both tell that the battle was already decided. Before he unleashed another spell she cut off the hand holding his sword. With the tip of her weapon, she pushed him onto the ground.

"It's true what they said about you." The magician said looking at her in the eye. "You are the vessel."

With a final swing, Tarah brought her blade down upon his head.