SWORD-MAIDEN: JORDIS THE DRAGONBORN
Arc 1: Sleeping Dragon
Chapter 2: From Humble Beginnings
14 Years Earlier
Bobbing and weaving through the foot traffic of the Whiterun city market, I was running just as fast as my legs would let me. Which wasn't too fast, considering I was only 10 years old. Still, they seemed to be fast enough for my cousin, Lydia, who was following behind me at a snail's pace.
"Ugh, hurry up, Lydia! Before somebody else sees it!" I shout over my shoulder, annoyed. Some people just have no sense of urgency, I swear.
Lydia was trailing along - slowly - with her arms crossed behind her head. She was only two years older than me, but she was already a whole head and a half taller. Not to say that I was short; Lydia was just really tall. She was even taller than a lot of the boys our age, and stronger too! Lydia had a part-time job chopping firewood for the Bannered Mare, so her arms were super strong. I noticed she was wearing her work clothes; a drab, olive girl's dress with the sleeves rolled up, brown rough hide boots, an iron woodcutting axe hanging from her belt loop, and she had her dark hair tied up and pulled back with a cloth headband. In addition to her clothes, she was also wearing a look of utter exhaustion mixed with annoyance. Apparently she was not very amused at me coming to fetch her while she was on the job.
"Jordis, I swear to Stendarr, if you dragged me away from my work just because you found another dead bird you wanted to poke with a stick for 30 minutes-"
"No, no, no," I assured her. "This is, like, at least twice as cool as a dead bird. Potentially even triple as cool!" And it really was, whether she fully appreciated it yet or not. "I already told Jon about it when I was on my way to get you, so he should already be waiting for us there!"
"Jon?" Lydia echoed. "You mean Jon Battle-Born?"
"Yes, Jon Battle-Born, silly" I rolled my eyes, finally giving up and slowing my pace to wait for Lydia to catch up. "Who else would it be?" I asked.
Lydia raised an eyebrow. "Jordis, half the boys in town are either named Jon or Bjornjamin."
Just then, a group of 4 boys our age passed by. "Hey, Lydia and Jordis!" they said with a wave. Lydia waved back.
"Good morning, Jon Bvengdor, Jon Hrafdinar, Jon Vnhgndlr, and Bjornjamin Smith," Lydia gave them a friendly nod and smile. "See what I mean?"
Valid point.
"Well, we don't talk to those Jons," I shook my head. Lydia just chuckled as she walked slowly beside me.
It was a chilly morning in Whiterun, and all throughout the city everyone was full-swing in the middle of their morning chores. In particular, I noticed the Black Horse Courier North's crier standing on his soap box in the middle of the marketplace waving around copies of the official Black Horse Courier North newspaper.
"Come and get the latest copy of the Black Horse Courier North!" the crier shouted as he shoved a copy into a passing woman's flower basket, completely crushing the freshly picked assortment. "All copies are absolutely free, courtesy of the Empire!" The crier opened an unsuspecting mercenary's backpack as he walked by and dumped approximately a dozen papers into it. "Long live the Empire! Don't you just love the Empire! And the Empire loves you, Skyrim! The Empire loves you!"
After that Alfric Stormcape – or whatever his name was – guy was responsible for the Markarth Incident 11 years ago, the Empire could sense a lot of Nords in Skyrim were starting to really not like them. Like, it was really starting to ruin holidays having to listen to your drunk uncle complain about the Empire for a solid hour before peeing himself and falling asleep in the broom closet... again. So, in an effort to win over the Nordic populace with a move nothing short of honest to god propaganda, the Empire funded the creation of the Black Horse Courier subsidiary: Black Horse Courier North, a Skyrim exclusive newspaper targeted primarily towards our predominately Nordic population. And of course, all copies of Imperial funded propaganda are free, which means their criers were literally throwing them at you.
Yes... literally.
"Free copies for everyone!" the crier cried out with a cry as he bundled up a roll of papers and threw them directly at my head. Before I could even flinch, Lydia reached her hand out and caught the roll of newspapers mere inches away from my face. I let out a sigh of relief.
Lydia's got some pretty good reflexes, I'll give her that.
"Mara's mercy," Lydia exclaimed. "Be careful with those things!" she called out, but the crier was already too busy folding the newspapers into little origami figures and passing them out to children as 'souvenirs' to take home.
You had to admire the man's dedication if nothing else.
Unrolling the newspaper, Lydia and I continued walking towards the main gate of the city as we both spared a glance to look down at the front page. The headline was in big, bold, attention-grabbing letters:
'SKOOMA TRAFFICKING RUMOURS COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED,' SAYS BRAVIL MINISTER OF TOURISM. 'PLEASE COME TO BRAVIL, YOUR NEW CYRODILIC HOME AWAY FROM HOME'...more on page 5.
Lydia let out a sad sigh. "I hear the two main skooma trafficking gangs down in Bravil are close to coming to all-out war. Several gang members have already died on both sides, and the poor citizens are starting to worry that-"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I said, snatching the newspaper from Lydia's hand and immediately turning to the comics section. "Oh no! Bravil is a trash heap! What a surprise!" I gasped sarcastically before chuckling. "Hey, look!" I said, pointing to my favorite comic. "The new 'Garland of the Field' comic is out!"
Smack!
Lydia's hand slapping the absolute skeever crap out the back of my head was enough to make my eyes water.
"Ummmm, owwwww!?" I let out as a mixture of pain and confusion swirled inside me. "What'd you do that for?!" Rubbing the back of my head, I could already feel a small knot forming.
"You know," Lydia began, clearly annoyed, "maybe if you actually kept up with current events in the Empire instead of just reading Garland of the Field comics all day, you'd actually be a bit more empathetic. These are our fellow citizens suffering here, Jordis."
"Hey, don't disrespect Garland of the Field!" I scoffed as I held up the newspaper comic and pointed to the strip featuring the orange Khajiit. "He's a fat, orange Khajiit who hates Morndas! What's not to love?!"
Lydia looked at me disapprovingly and I felt my insides squirm. Lydia had a way of looking at people that would put even the sternest of mothers to shame. It wasn't a look of anger... it was worse.
'I'm not mad at you,' she would often say. 'I'm just disappointed.'
Sweet Akatosh, I hate it when she says that...
"Ugh... it's not that I don't care," I groaned, dodging Lydia's mom-glare. "It's just... how am I supposed to care about Bravil's problems all the way over there as well as Skyrim's problems all the way over here? Or all the other one hundred million problems in the Empire right now?" I looked back down at my Garland comics. "If I let every piece of bad news in the Empire bother me, I'd always be sad... especially nowadays."
"These are... admittedly trying times," Lydia conceded. She didn't look disappointed anymore... just sad. Maybe she wasn't sad because I felt that way... maybe she was sad because she understood why I felt that way. Poor Lydia... it's not our fault we were born in one of the worst time periods in Imperial history...
"Hey," I said, trying to distract her. "I'm reading the horoscopes. What's your birthsign again? The Warrior, right?" I asked, giggling.
Lydia let out an exasperated "ugh..." but I couldn't help but notice the new twinkle in her eye and the grin in the corners of her lips. She can pretend to hate the horoscopes all she wants, but deep down... I know she secretly loves the stuff. A guilty pleasure, I guess. Kinda like how my mom's 'guilty pleasure' is the 'feel-good' juice she gets sent to us in those Surilie Brothers crates all the way from Cyrodiil every month.
"My sign is 'The Lover', you jerk. You already know this."
"Ooh la-la!" I laughed. "I always knew you were a lover and not a fighter, Lydia."
"Just read the horoscope."
"Okay, okay," I said, acquiescing to Lydia's mounting impatience. "Let's see here... Oh, okay, it says: 'For the Lover; Today is the day to try something new, for in all things you do, they shall come easier to you.'" I finished reading the horoscope.
"That sounds... vague," Lydia remarked, her voice lacking confidence.
"They always are," I agreed. "Still, they do say that those born under the Lover sign do everything just a little bit better... especially relationships," I snickered. "So, who knows? Maybe there's some truth to it," I gave Lydia a playful nudge with my elbow that she returned likewise.
"Well, what about yours, Jordis?" Lydia asked. "What does yours say?"
"Oh yeah... Let's see," I looked back down into the newspaper looking for my sign's horoscope. "Oh, here it is! It says, 'Life changing events are coming right towards you.' Huh..." I raised an eyebrow. "That's predicting a little much, don't you- OOF!"
Distracted by my reading of the newspaper, I had run headfirst into what felt like a 6 foot tall wall of steel. I bounced off and would have landed on my butt if Lydia hadn't caught me by the elbow right in the nick of time.
"Watch it, kid," a woman's deep voice spoke up from in front of me. That's when I realized I hadn't walked into a wall, but rather a person. I looked up to see who I had run into, and saw it was a face I recognized.
Uthgerd the Unbroken is a tall, Nord woman that truly encapsulates the spirit of Skyrim's culture... which is to say she reeks of old mead and blood more often than not and I'm pretty sure she sleeps in her armor. Stereotypical Nord behavior. She looked down her nose at me with an eyebrow of contempt raised. She looked to be in her late 20s or early 30s. Her long, blonde hair was pulled back from her face, and her steel greatsword was loosely gripped at her side in her left hand. Her steel plate armor glistened in the morning sun... or at least it would if it wasn't completely covered in fresh elk blood.
I knew it was elk blood because an honest to gods freshly killed adult-sized elk was slung over Uthgerd's right shoulder, freshly butchered. It had to be at least 200+ solid pounds, but Uthgerd was just standing there with it draped over her shoulder like it was this season's in-style fashion or something.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Uthgerd's grizzled voice snapped me back to reality. "Move it," she demanded, clearly ticked off.
"S-sorry, Ms. Uthgerd!" I quickly stammered out before me and Lydia stepped out of her way in the street.
Uthgerd stared me and Lydia down for a few more solid seconds. That's when she noticed the copy of the Black Horse Courier North in my hand. She snorted derisively before spitting on the ground and walking off.
"Pfft... kids nowadays and their reading," she muttered under her breath to herself as she walked off. "Back in my day, we didn't teach kids how to read, only how to fight. This next generation, Talos help us..." Uthgerd's muttering trailed off as me and Lydia watched her slowly walk up the street to her house with her fresh kill in tow, leaving a trail of dripping elk blood behind her as she walked.
Once she was far enough away where I knew she couldn't hear us, I spoke up. "Sheesh, what's her problem?"
Lydia frowned. "I heard she barely speaks to anybody anymore after that accident with that Companions boy last month."
"Hah, more like nobody ever speaks to her anymore," I corrected. "Who would want to speak with that attack dog?"
"She says what happened was an accident."
"Lydia, she stabbed the guy 37 times in the chest before decapitating him and throwing his body clear over the city walls. I don't think it was an accident."
Lydia pondered this for a few seconds before shrugging. "I don't know, I wasn't there. Every coin has two sides. Who am I to judge?"
I thought Lydia was giving Uthgerd a bit too much benefit of the doubt, but decided not to say anything further as we continued walking up the street. The more distance we put between us and that scary she-giant, the better.
A minute of walking later, and we were finally where we needed to be: the Whiterun city entrance. My walk turned into a light jog as I ran past the blacksmithy at the entrance of town and took a sharp left. At the very entrance of Whiterun, underneath the road there is a small waterway for rainwater to drain out of the city. My eyes followed the beginning of the waterway all the way down to where the grating would be that takes the water under the city and out into the country side. Well, normally there would be grating sealing off the tunnel to the waterway, but today...
"There it is!" I said, pointing it out to Lydia. "Look!"
The previous night, Whiterun had received a torrential downpour of freezing rain. And this morning, as I was walking around the city looking for dead birds to poke with sticks, I found it: the grating for the waterway that leads under the city had completely fallen over during the storm the following night... and it was just large enough for us to walk through.
A devilish smile beamed across my face as I stood next to the large hole to the waterway tunnel leading underground and showed it off to Lydia. "Ta-daaaah!" I exclaimed as I gestured to my discovery. "What do you think? At least double as cool as a dead bird, right?"
Lydia's face was annoyingly hard to read. She didn't show much emotion as she walked over to the waterway's hole and inspected the damaged grating. "You tell any of the guards about this?" Lydia asked, peering into the darkness of the tunnel.
"What?!" I asked incredulously. "No, of course not. If I did, they'd just seal it back up again before we have a chance to explore!"
"Explore?" Lydia echoed looking back over to me, her eyes questioning me. "You're going to go in this tunnel and explore it?"
"We are going to go into this tunnel and explore it!" I corrected. "C'mon, Lydia, haven't you always wanted to explore the water-"
"No."
"But there's no telling what could be-"
"No."
"Lydia, I don't think you're-"
"No."
"WILL YOU STOP INTERRUPTING ME?!" I shouted, my anger at my cousin's lack of appreciation for my awesome find was beginning to boil over. "We are looking at a once in a lifetime opportunity for adventure here, Lydia," I explained. "Nothing fun ever happens if you're a kid in Whiterun! Why can't you be excited like Jon was?"
"Speaking of which," Lydia looked around the area. "Where is Jon? I thought you said he'd be here before us."
That... was a good point. In all the morning's excitement, I had almost forgotten Jon was supposed to be meeting us here. Almost as if on queue, I heard Jon Battle-Born's voice calling out from up the street: "Joooordis! Wait for meeee!"
Me and Lydia spun around to see Jon Battle-Born, age 13, rushing towards us while cradling what appeared to be 3 unlit torches in his hands.
Jon was your stereotypical Nord boy his age. He loved to fight, play, and was always trying to prove that he was the strongest. His pale skin had more than a fair share of scrapes, and his trousers and long-sleeved shirt had a couple holes patched in them. It's not that his family couldn't afford new clothes, they just knew any new clothes they did buy him would just be tattered the very next week. Jon had long, blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, though he'd most likely correct you and call it a "Nordic warrior knot" instead of a "ponytail." I smiled at the sight of my approaching friend and waved him over.
"Jon! What took you so long? Me and Lydia were beginning to worry!"
Jon's pace didn't slow down until he ran up right beside me and Lydia at the waterway entrance. His face was sweating despite the cold, and he appeared to be out of breath. Jon opened his mouth to speak, but immediately keeled over and began taking in lung fulls of air. He must've really been booking it to get over here.
"Jon, is everything alright?" Lydia asked, a look of concern washing over her face as she placed a hand on his shoulder. Jon tried his best to give her a reassuring nod before looking back over to me. His eyes were frantic.
"W-we have to go, Jordis. Now!" Jon stuttered, fear clinging to his voice.
Alright, now I was beginning worry. "Jon, for the love of Akatosh, what's wro-"
"Heeeeey, Joooooon!" A high-pitched squeal rang out in the distance, but it was approaching fast. My eyes shot open wide as I stared directly into Jon's corneas and the essence of his soul.
"No..." I whispered in horror.
"Jordis, I'm so sorry, I tried to sneak by without her noticing," Jon whispered as tears of terror began to well in his eyes.
"You fool!" I hissed, grabbing Jon by the collar and shaking, "You've doomed us all!" I looked up the road leading from the Wind District to see a plucky, white-haired girl bobbing up and down making her way towards us.
Olfina Gray-Mane was a necessary evil when it came to living in Whiterun. Having been born only a few months apart from one another, we practically grew up together. One would think this would make us pretty good friends. It did not. Olfina has all the annoyances of a stereotypical girl my age, but with none of the good parts. She hardly ever wanted to play unless Jon was involved, she never wanted to poke dead birds with me, and every time me and Jon would just try to have a normal conversation she would swoop in out of nowhere and steal the entire discussion. Me and Jon tried our best to avoid her, but the one thing the gods did give Olfina was determination. If she got so much as a whiff of Jon, she'd track him down to the ends of Cyrodiil.
Olfina skipped over to me, Jon, and Lydia with a bright smile on her face.
"Hey, Lydia! Hey, Jordis!" Olfina smiled. Her eyes then cut over to Jon as her demeanor became much more bashful. "Heeey, Jon..." Olfina blushed as she waved and giggled. I noticed Jon shudder involuntarily at his name being uttered. Poor guy.
Lydia tapped me on the shoulder before whispering in my ear. "That's what got you and Jon so worked up? Olfina? Really?" she laughed dryly.
"But Lydia," I groaned, not bothering to whisper. "She's so annoying!" I stated matter-of-factly.
"Who's annoying?" Olfina asked as her eyebrows raised in confusion.
I scoffed. "You-"
"Nazeem, of course!" Lydia said, silencing me with a quick jab to my spleen. I winced, but tried not to make my discomfort obvious. "Always going on about 'Cloud district this, Cloud district that!' You know how Nazeem gets, haha," Lydia finished with a convincing smile.
"Oh, haha, yeah!" Olfina agreed. "he can be pretty annoying but..." Olfina stopped, placing her finger on her chin inquisitively. "Although I'm pretty sure I heard Jordis say 'she' and not 'he.' Are you sure that's who Jordis was talking-"
Jon interrupted, "Why, Olfina, your hair looks very... uh... gray today!" Jon stammered, quickly trying to distract Olfina. He looked over at me and gave me a knowing nod, which I returned.
To Jon's credit, it worked like a charm. Olfina's face immediately lit up, "Why, thank you for noticing!" Olfina gave Jon the toothiest grin imaginable, and I felt my will to live slowly slipping from my fingers.
"Hey, Olfina, did you read the horoscopes yet today?" I asked off-handed as I looked away and back into the dark hole of the waterway's tunnel. "I think your horoscope said something along the lines of 'You should stay home today.'" I smirked.
"Hah, oh, don't worry, Jordis! I don't believe in those silly things!" Olfina waved her hand dismissively. "The sign you were born under has absolutely no effect on shaping you as a person! No matter how cursed the sign!"
Olfina's disregard for birthsigns sounded pre-rehearsed. Likely because it was. It was around this time that I started to notice what looked like a few drops of green drool dripping out the sides of her mouth. I figured it would probably be impolite to say something and call attention to it... so I decided to say something and call attention to it.
"Hey, Olfina, your poison is leaking again," I said, pointing to her lips. Olfina's eyes grew wide as she quickly turned away to wipe the 'poison' off her mouth with the sleeve of her dress.
"It-it's not poison!" Olfina hastily explained, her cheeks turning beet red. "It's technically venom, and it's perfectly normal for people born under the Serpent sign! I just haven't completely figured out how to control it is all!" She used her hands to cover her mouth and hung her head in shame, taking great care not to look in Jon's direction. "That stupid snake," she bemoaned. "I would have been born under the Lady sign if it wasn't for that Serpent!"
I grinned to myself, pleased with the torment I had caused Olfina. Unfortunately, Lydia was staring down at me with a particularly stern mom-glare. While Olfina prattled on to Jon, Lydia pulled me in close.
"Play. Nice." Lydia commanded, her voice barely a whisper as she hissed into my ear. "Olfina's a perfectly nice girl, she has never been anything but friendly to us." Now it was my turn to get upset.
"I don't want to play with her at all," I explained, puffing my chest out in an effort to appear more threatening to my older, stronger, taller cousin. (I don't think it worked.)
"Well you better," Lydia chided, placing her hands on her hips and taking a firm stance. "Because if you want me to explore this tunnel with you, she's coming with us."
My head jerked up in horror and my body recoiled in shock.
"But Lydia!"
"No 'buts!'" Lydia said with authority as she looked me in the eyes. "Otherwise, I can walk back to the Bannered Mare right now and get back to work. The choice is yours."
I exhaled deeply in defeat, trying to make it drag out as long as possible. This was enough to get Olfina and Jon's attention who looked back over at me. Olfina looked like she had recovered from her poison leakage and was happily talking Jon's ear off about that time she had climbed the Gildergreen and broke her arm falling off of it. It was a story she had told us every week for the past 8 months. Jon's eyes locked with my eyes, and for a brief moment our minds were in sync.
'Save me," Jon's eyes pleaded. I gave him a sympathetic look, but shook my head. I couldn't get him out of this one. A single tear rolled down Jon's cheek, unbeknownst to Olfina, and I watched as Jon slowly resigned himself to his fate.
"I see you brought the torches," I pointed out, nodding toward the 3 unlit torches in Jon's hand. He just nodded solemnly before handing them over to me.
I took the torches in my hand, mulling over the plan. Olfina was an unwelcome addition to the day, but admittedly her involvement shouldn't make too much of a difference.
"Well, Jordis?" Lydia asked, crossing her arms. "What're we gonna do now?"
I looked at my 3 companions one-by-one before turning to look at the entrance of the waterway tunnel. Now that it was time for us to step in, it all of a sudden looked a lot... darker. Spookier. Ominous. I felt a lump in my throat, but immediately swallowed it down and took a deep breath.
Now isn't the time to chicken out now, milk-drinker! I mentally steeled myself. Especially not in front of that soft-gut, Olfina!
I felt the grin return to my lips as I turned back to my group confidently and began going over the plan for our great adventure.
"Okay, guys, here's what we're gonna do..."
Next Chapter: The Cheese King
A/N: Been trying to fix in inexplicably weird formatting this chapter for the past 30 minutes to no avail and I'm sleepy. Will fix later. Maybe.