Gaius pulled his cloak closer, battling the cold of the snowstorm outside. His tent provided good enough cover, but the cold somehow always found a way inside. He rubbed his hands together and tried his best to stay warm.

'Why in Gods' names did they have to send me to a camp in the wilderness?' He thought to himself. A member of the Penitus Oculatus is not any ordinary legionnaire, but a member of the Emperor's private guard.

Gaius remembered how they had some hand in the wedding of the Dragonborn a few weeks ago in protecting the Emperor, and the army of Thalmor that had marched up to Solitude to arrest the Dragonborn, and the legion of dragons he'd summoned to scare them away. Many were afraid that war would be declared that day, Gaius among them. Luckily it hadn't come to that. Yet.

A legionnaire entered behind Gaius, clad in leather Imperial armour with a fur cloak huddled around him. Servius, Gaius thought his name was.

"The scouts have returned from north of the pass, sir. They found no signs of Stormblades in the area."

Gaius nodded, "okay, we'll send a scouting party to the west tomorrow, go get some rest soldier."

The guard nodded and left, leaving Gaius alone in the tent. Gaius got up and looked at the small map of the area on the table. There were markings and writings across it, and crosses where they had already searched.

Leaning on the table, Gaius reflected on why he was there. After the Dragonborn had left Solitude with his newly-wed wife for their honeymoon, news had begun to spread about rising Stormcloak attacks in the wilderness; caravan raids, imperial camp attacks. Except these were no ordinary Stormcloaks, as they had now begun dubbing themselves 'Stormblades', with some new ideology and a new leader.

They were nowhere near as powerful as Ulfric Stormcloak's army, but their activities were beginning to gain more and more attention, and sooner or later they may even be considered a possible rebellion of the same magnitude.

Gaius had assumed that after the wedding that he and his men would have earned some form of leave of absence, but since the Emperor had now left Skyrim, instead he'd been sent to one of the hidden Imperial camps to help aid the search for these 'Stormblades', wherever they were. And he was not enjoying it.

'Faida', he thought, 'I will come back to you soon. I will be there when our child is born.'

He longed to be home with her at Dragonbridge, in her arms.

Gaius pulled his cloak closer, trying to stay warm.

Servius walked out in the cold, hoping to return to his tent soon.

'Stupid Penitus soldier, he does nothing but sit in his big warm tent while we all freeze outside.'

He found it hard to hide his jealousy of the Penitus Oculatus soldier getting his own larger tent while the rest of them slept in much smaller confines, but focused on keeping his hands warm, and other parts. The night-time winds and snows of Skyrim were harsh, even in Summer it seemed. Servius dreaded to think of what Winter would bring.

Crack

As he was walking though, Servius heard some cracking noise coming from somewhere nearby. It sounded like the snap of some large stick. Looking around, it seemed to come from the woods. Servius searched the darkness with his eyes, watching for any movement, anything at all, but saw nothing save the endless trees.

"Probably nothing" he said quietly to himself and turned to continue back to his tent.

Crack

Servius looked back instantly, scanning all he saw for anything and anyone. Nothing. It was probably nothing, but feeling it better safe than sorry, Servius unsheathed his sword and approached the forest, searching for the source of the cracking. The woods seemed haunted in the dead of night.

'No souls would be foolish enough to dwell here, not even animals', he thought to himself.

Once Servius was quite some distance into the woods, where he could still see his camp from the trees but just barely, he went around a tree and found pieces of broken and snapped tree branches on the ground. He wondered what could have sna-

SLICE

Servius gasped and dropped his sword. He fell to his knees, and put his left hand on his throat, feeling a warm liquid spilling out. Servius began choking, unable to breathe, choking on his own blood which was spilling out onto the snow before him.

A shadow moved so swiftly, he did not even see it slice across his neck from in front of him before it opened a puddle of blood that ran on the snow. Servius fell on the ground, seeing only the endless dark forest as he died.

Gaius was warm enough for comfort, nearing sleep, until he heard some strange sounds coming from outside. They sounded like... like men beginning to shout, before being abruptly silenced.

Unknowing and slightly nervous, Gaius picked up his sword that was resting on the table next to the map and went to the door of the tent. Reluctantly, he lifted the cover over and looked outside. There was nothing, save the snows falling near the smaller tents of the other soldiers. He noticed something on the floor near a tent however and went outside to investigate. Then he saw it. The thing on the ground was a body. There were bodies all around.

Suddenly, a soldier appeared, limping and holding his chest. And bloody. Very bloody.

"Sir!" He said in a rasped voice.

Suddenly, the bloody soldier froze, gasped, and fell straight over, revealing the dagger that had just been plunged into his back, and the figure a few metres behind.

Gaius' eyes widened. The figure was clad in black and darkness, and glowing red eyes stared straight at him.

Gaius unsheathed his sword, trying to remember his courage, but the shadow moved towards him, raising what appeared to be blades for hands, approaching between the bodies and blood and death. Gaius looked around once more, before he turned and ran, around the tent and away from the shadow.

He ran to the woods nearby. The cold wind pierced his body like a thousand arrows, but he continued, no longer caring how cold he was. He had to get away, to the nearest town, to the nearest guards, to the nearest safety. Away from here.

He looked back to see if anything was following but saw only the darkness of the forest and the silver light of the moons. Not looking ahead though, Gaius tripped over a stump, falling right over on the ground, and dropping his sword in the process. As quickly as he could, he got up and ran away, abandoning his weapon.

Ahead of him, an army of trees passed him, trees and trees. He didn't know where he was going. Anywhere.

Suddenly he felt a hard, sharp pain in his leg, and fell over screaming. He turned over to see what the source was, and found a black and red dagger sticking out of his leg.

Gaius tried to grab it, but then saw two glowing red eyes approaching in the darkness. He tried to move, but watched as a flash of black sailed through the air and felt another sharp pain in his shoulder. Gaius looked up at the figure who was only a few metres away. He tried to move. He couldn't.

The shadow, now above him, raised his hands and the blades held within them.

"WHAT ARE YOU?" Gaius screamed.

And in a deep, cold voice, the shadow spoke,

"For the Brotherhood."

"NOO-!"

SLASH

Author's Notes:

Okay. First off, no I am not the same author as Legends of the Dovahkiin. I do not propose to steal that story. This can only be described as a FANFICTION... wait for it... OF A FANFICTION. (A fanfiction-fanficion, a fanfictionfiction, a fanfictionception, a... you get it).

The Chronicles of the Dragonborn are a collection of slightly large (but still short) stories centered around the Dragonborn, Nero Dragons-bane, his wife Serana and their companions in the events following the main questline of Skyrim, its DLCs, subsequent side quests, and the storyline of Legends of the Dovahkiin, a fanfiction by author ss3dj. My stories begin where Wedding Bells and Drums of War left off.

This is not me stealing their story, merely giving my idea of what happened next following the wedding. Therefore, any new readers, you should not read this before reading Legends of the Dovahkiin, because there will be a LOT of spoilers.

If you don't want to read and wait for the next arc to come out, that's fair enough, I'd only remind you this isn't the next arc, this is a fanfiction of a fanfiction. I just have certain ideas of the next part of the story, and would like to share them (I ran some by another reader and he likes the ideas).

This first arc is called Deeds of Vengeance, and is more of a prologue to the main arc. The next part will be out very soon, though I'm not sure exactly when, but without giving too much away, we will meet our protagonists again very soon 🙂

I'll also translate all Dragon language used just as ss3dj did, and give new character bios at the end of each arc.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy my version of what happened next in the thrilling life of the Dragonborn.

Characters:

Gaius: a member of the Penitus Oculatus, son of Commander Maro and husband of Faida. He can be found in the Dark Brotherhood questline.

Servius: an Imperial soldier at one of the hidden Imperial camps.