Chapter 12: The Stench of War and Decay

Pyrrha's Perspective

It smelled here. That was the first thing I noticed. The stench. It was definitely a swamp, I didn't even need to open my eyes to confirm. This was a swamp. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the sun on its descent into the horizon. I pulled myself up to my knees and saw that Jaune Nora and Ren were nearby. Good. I don't think I could find them efficiently in an area I don't know. Jaune and Nora were the first to stir. Jaune lazily rubbed his eyes and looked at me questioningly. Thank goodness, he's okay. Nora started to look at everything around us, almost like she was formulating a plan of what she would do. Ren finally started stirring. The very second he opened his eyes, he told Nora that she shouldn't "even think about it". Nora smiled at Ren, causing his pout to grow. Nora slowly stood up and Ren mirrored her.

"Nora…" Ren said ominously. Nora didn't heed his words and took off, touching everything in sight. So that's what her plan was… Ren was there at every turn, stopping her from touching things. After a minute of constant running, Ren collapsed on the ground, chest heaving.

"Aw. You're broken!" Nora said, staring at Ren as she stood over him. Ren opened his eyes and glared at Nora. This only lasted for a few seconds before Nora started laughing and Ren smiled. I turned my attention to Jaune, who was pale and was hugging his knees in fear. I crawled over to him and pulled him into a hug. I gently stroked his hair with my right hand and held him close.

"It's alright Jaune." I calmly whispered to him. He relaxed a bit but wasn't fully calmed down. So to remedy that, I held him a bit tighter. He hardly responded. Yup, he's in shock. I sighed, my grip on him loosening. I faintly heard Nora catcall. I glared in her direction, but was too concerned about Jaune to care.

"So… What are we going to do?" I asked, my voice falling on semi-deaf ears.

"Maybe stop choking Jaune." Nora joked.

"What are you talking abo-" I looked down and saw that I was clutching Jaune by the neck and pushing his head into my breasts. "Sorry." I said, putting him into a more sensible hug. Ren looked at me and then looked at Nora and seemed to be deep in thought.

"Maybe we should look around." Nora commented. Ren nodded absentmindedly.

"Alright. Let's look around." I replied, standing up and helping Jaune stand up. He mumbled a thanks and I nodded in response.

In the immediate vicinity was a large amount of water that made it seem like we were on an island. The island is surrounded by pine trees and slightly tall grass. In the distance was a city that was on a section of a cliff with a large gap in the center of the land it sat on. To our left, and through the trees was a small section of rock that looked man made. The town looked like our best option. I put Jaune's arm over my shoulders to support him until he could walk under his own power, and a little beyond that. Ren grabbed Nora's hand, more to stop her from running around and touching things than for a romantic purpose. I don't know, they'd be cute together. We walked to the left of the city, because there was certainly an entrance on either side of the city, but not at the part hanging off the cliff face.

That was the plan before the war horns sounded.

To our far left, in between us and the man made stone structure, battle cries were filling the air. Horns were blaring and shields were getting hit by swords. A battle was brewing not too far from where we stood. The call for a charge overpowered the sound of an army preparing to fight. I want to see where this is coming from. I turned to see the state of the rest of my team. Nora was pulling on Ren's hand in her efforts to touch the flora and fauna of this foreign land. Jaune's deadweight pulled my shoulders down, showing that I had someone that I had to take care of; I couldn't just run off just to see a skirmish. Almost mockingly, the sounds of battle grew louder as the cries of the wounded joined the mix of the screaming warriors. I yearned to see who was fighting, but my mind forced me to stand my ground against the sonorus assault.

My mind gave way, however.

I found myself walking towards the sound of battle without doing it under my own power. I dragged Jaune with me in my quest to find the battle. Ren dragged Nora to catch up with me. Ren was obviously intrigued by the sounds of battle as well. Through the trees, a fort came into view. Once I got closer, I saw the battle unfolding. Defenders scrambled along the ramparts, firing arrows into the center of the fort, but it was futile; the attackers mounted the ramparts and were slaughtering the defenders, but not without considerable casualties on their side. Then, a single man mounted the ramparts. He calmly walked past all his comrades and right up to the enemy. He looked unimpressive. He had a decent set of armor and a considerably strong looking shield, but otherwise he looked just like the defenders. That was, before he spoke. When he spoke, his words flung the enemy back onto the drum tower and over the ramparts to their death. And he only said three words that seemed to echo off the heavens; "Fus… Ro Dah!". The few defenders that didn't die from the impact or weren't thrown off the wall-walk were hesitant to stand up and continue the fight. The ones who did stand up were immediately cut down by the attackers or by the man himself. Those who refused to stand up were executed where they lay. The man sheathed his sword as the last of the defenders took their last breaths, his job done and his enemies no longer of this world.

The sounds of battle were replaced by the cries of the victorious. I could actually hear the sound of mugs slamming onto wooden tables, alcohol being consumed and drunk soldiers telling tall tales to anyone who would listen. I decided that I was done looking at the end-of-battle celebrations and led everyone away from the fort and towards the nearest city. We made it back to the ditch that we woke up in, before we located the city and started walking towards it. I felt something rush through me while we walked, and suddenly I felt like I was being tracked. I quickly threw Jaune over my shoulder, despite his complaint that he isn't in shock anymore, and ran with Ren and Nora. It wasn't long before we were cut off by the attackers of the fort behind us. In the time it took us to stop, we were surrounded by them. Jaune fell ungracefully off my shoulder and landed with an "ow!" I was going to apologize, but now was not the time. I slung Akoúo off my back and opened Miló in xiphos mode. Ren pulled out his dual pistols, followed in suit by Nora unleashing her warhammer. Jaune was slow to getting his sword out, seeing as it was stuck in his shield again. Again with the malfunctions? As soon as we get home, I am fixing that shield whether Jaune likes it or not. One of the men surrounding us stepped forward.

"By order of Galmar Stone-Fist, stand down and drop your weapons."

"What's it to you?" I replied.

"You have been suspected of being Imperial Spies and therefore you must be brought in for questioning." The man paused to turn to one of the others. "Olof, go back to the camp and report this to Galmar, and come back with the good shackles."

The man nodded and rushed off into the swamp.

"What's an Imperial?" Nora asked.

"Playing dumb, eh? I can't tell if those were your orders or if you're just that stupid." The man said, causing the others to chuckle.

"We honestly don't know what an Imperial is." I replied, showing how little we know.

"You know, the joke isn't as funny the second time around. But, I guess you're just that stupid." The man said, once again causing the others to chuckle.

"Might I ask who you gentlemen are?" I asked them.

"First of all, there aren't just men in our ranks. Secondly, I'm surprised you're sticking to your orders this well. Most other spies would've caved in by now, considering that you're surrounded by some of the best Stormcloaks that Ulfric Stormcloak has at his disposal." The man said.

"Stormcloaks?" Nora asked.

"Ulfric Stormcloak?" I asked.

The man sighed heavily.

"OK, now you're just messing with us. If you filthy Imperial dogs don't drop your weapons right now, then we'll be forced to take them from you." The man said, clearly not understanding our confusion.

"If you want us to drop our weapons, stop calling us by something we're not." I replied, defiantly.

"Fine then, would you prefer to be called traitors? Heathens? Spinless milk drinkers?" The man said, mockingly.

"Traitorous to whom? What god have we forsaken? And why is it bad to drink milk?" I asked, more confused than ever.

"OK then, by force it is." The man said, signaling the other to draw their weapons.

"Uh… I just wanted to know what you were talking about." I say, still confused.

"You Imperial Spies have tested my patience long enough! If you won't surrender peacefully, then we'll have to force you to." The man said, sword drawn.

"What happens to us if we surrender?" I asked, though I had no intentions of surrendering.

"We take you to our camp for interrogation. If you're found innocent, which isn't likely, you'll be set free. If you're found guilty, you'll be carted to Windhelm and be tried for treason." The man said.

I glanced at each of my teammates, each one less certain of what to do than the last. I shrugged. "'Surrender' isn't in my vocabulary." I declared, moving to a defensive position.

The man grinned. "Good, I was hoping I could fight some more Imperials today."

"Well, you'll be disappointed, because we aren't Imperials." I replied, backing up with my team to form a defensive circle.

"And so the lies continue…" The man said, signaling his men to converge.

"On your end, more like." I replied, raising Akoúo to the correct position on my body. The man only laughed in response before a battle cry rose as they charged.

As they advanced, I switched my spear to doru mode, mostly to give me more reach. I braced my shoulder against the shield and held my spear in the gap on the rim of my shield, which it was designed for. When the first soldier slammed his weapon into Akoúo, I stabbed with Miló, catching him in the chest. After I pulled Miló out, he fell to ground in a heap, blood flowing from his chest. The next one charged and when he went to swing, he exposed his body. He had a Miló shaped hole in his chest following that. What kind of fighting do these people do? When they swing their sword, they move their shield out of the way. The next man did the same thing, with the same result. Seriously, they need to learn how to use that shield.

"Close ranks!" I shouted to the rest of my team. They all backed up to form a ring of allies. I looked to see how many of the enemy were left and saw that I had killed a fourth of their forces. Nora had crushed four, Ren shot holes in three and Jaune had killed one and was fighting with the last one. I calmly walked over to him while they were caught in a stalemate of crossed swords and hit the enemy over the head with my shield. He crumpled to the ground and didn't make an attempt to stand up. Everyone seemed to be uninjured, so I sighed in relief. But before I could sheathe my weapons, the sound of horses tore through the trees that surrounded us.

Two horses showed up only seconds after I first heard the hooves. One of them was the man ordered to return to camp and the other was the one who could throw men off the ramparts with only his voice. The former stared in shock at the carnage before him, petrified on the saddle of his horse. The latter quickly threw himself off the horse and stared as well at the bodies of the men we killed. The man that was called Olof I have no idea how I remembered that name got off his horse regretfully and walked to the dead men. I motioned for everyone to move back to allow them to grieve for the dead. Olof continued to look at every man who lay dead while the other man still stood next to his horse, still as the trees that were near him. Olof soon reached the man that I hit with my shield and called over the other man saying that he was alive. "Dragonborn, come quickly." He insisted. So the other man is called "Dragonborn"? Is that some kind of title? The "Dragonborn" ran over to Olof and recognized the man on the ground.

"Ralof my friend…" The Dragonborn said, kneeling down near his friends broken body.

He coughed, the coughs shaking his body. "It's nothing to worry about… Only a few cuts." Ralof said, forcing a chuckle.

"If only that were true." The Dragonborn said.

"Did any of the others make it?" Ralof asked.

The Dragonborn looked to the other man, who simply shook his head. "No, you're the only one."

"Damn, and I just thought I was getting good at leading troops." Ralof said.

"You're a damn good leader and you know it, everyone gets cocky every once in awhile." The Dragonborn said, reassuringly.

Ralof tried to speak, but the pain gripped him again, causing him to cry out.

"Get him back to camp, I can take care of it from here." The Dragonborn said, standing up.

"Yes sir, Snow-Hammer." The other man said.

With the help of the Dragonborn, the other man lifted Ralof onto his horse and rode off into the swamp. Once the sound of hooves vanished, the Dragonborn slowly turned to us.

"You've killed my Shield-Siblings...Injured my best friend…" The Dragonborn said, looking down.

I was about to speak up when he continued. "By Ysmir…" He paused to look up at us. "you'll pay for this!"

I had barely raised my shield before he took a deep breath and exhaled the words that throw men. "Fus… Ro Dah!" The impact was like falling three stories onto concrete. I couldn't count the number of times I flipped because I was so out of it just from the initial impact. My body remained in the air for longer than I expected, but it wasn't long before the ground caught up to me. My mind spun as I slowly pulled myself to my feet. The Dragonborn's dark figure loomed over our bodies, his sword raised to strike. He started to swing, but I used my polarity to knock the sword out of his hand. He glared at me as he bent over to pick up his sword, but by that time I had pulled myself to my feet. He scooped the sword off the ground and didn't miss a beat before he had the sword on a collision course with my face. Akoúo came to my rescue as it held off the strike. I counter-attacked like I did with the "Stormcloak" soldiers earlier, but Miló bounced harmlessly off of his iron shield. He obviously is a well-trained soldier. This is going to be an uphill fight. After my failed offensive, he confidently moved to strike. Three bullets bounced off his shield and sword. Ren had gotten up and was giving me support. I went to attack him while his defenses were down, but Ren shouted at me. "Get back!" Before I could get a suitable distance away for whatever was happening, an explosion threw me away from the Dragonborn. I looked to where the thing that caused the explosion came from and saw Nora laughing with Magnhild in grenade launcher mode gracing her hands. I quickly scanned the area for Jaune and saw him still on the ground. Ren nodded to me and I ran over to help Jaune up. Jaune was still shaken up from the impact, seeing as he was the closest one to it, and needed a hand up. I threw Akoúo onto my shoulder and pulled him up quickly. I gave a cursory glance to his body to make sure he wasn't injured, and when I was certain he was fine, I jumped back into combat. Jaune followed me in and blocked an attack, that would've hit me, almost immediately. Thank goodness I trained him earlier this year… We formed up in a way that Jaune and I took the blows with our shields while Ren and Nora dropped shots in support. The Dragonborn breathed deeply and looked like he was going to use the words that make us go flying, but they never came. Instead he said a new set of words. "Zun… Haal Viik!" Miló was wrenched from my hand, as was Crocea Mors, Magnhild and StormFlower. I used my polarity to bring Miló to my hand, much to the annoyance of the Dragonborn. He struck at Jaune while he was picking up his sword and, much like Jaune would do, he had let his shield hang down by his side. I guess I didn't train him as well as I thought. I threw Miló in desperation at the Dragonborn. It bounced off one of the horns on his helmet, but not without stopping Jaune from getting cut open from the impact on his head. I then threw myself behind my shield and shoved the Dragonborn with all my might. He stepped back a bit, clearly still dizzy from the blow to the head. No one hurts Jaune on my watch. Or in general, for that matter. He quickly regained his footing and proceeded to attack me while I caught my breath from the shove. A white shield came out of nowhere and blocked the strike for me. Jaune stepped past me and countered the Dragonborn's strike, but it bounced off his shield with a dull thud. Jaune, much like the soldiers we fought before, left his body exposed when he struck. I hurriedly used my polarity to move his shield over his chest to block the Dragonborn's stab. "Only cowards use magic!" He shouted at me after his stab landed on Jaune's shield. He then shoved Jaune back into me using his shield. Naturally, I made sure that I caught Jaune, but I failed to notice him gearing up for another set of power words. "Tiid… Klo Ul!" I felt the words wash over me and I instantly felt heavy. I snapped my shield to my chest, but my hand seemed to not respond. It was then that I noticed the blue hue that had washed over everything after the Dragonborn used his power words. My eyes seemed to move at normal speed, however everything but the Dragonborn moved in slow motion. He calmly walked up to Jaune, checked out his armor and sliced him. He's going to pay for that. He walked up to me next. Just as he did with Jaune, he checked out my armor. I have a strong feeling that he is looking at my breasts… And following with the pattern, he sliced my back. He is obviously not trying to hurt my breasts. Pervert. He proceeded to do the same thing with Ren and Nora. Now with everyone slowly falling to the ground with an odd assortment of wounds each, the Dragonborn proceeded to take and inspect our weapons. He seemed to be very interested by StormFlower's design and functionality. But he was most impressed by Magnhild. "It's like a warhammer, but with projectile magic…" I heard him murmuring as he held it. He quickly glanced over Miló and Crocea Mors, probably because they look like weapons he has seen before. He then readied himself for battle as the effects of the power words wore off. "You… A-" Is all I got out before he slashed me across the chest. He hit Jaune in the head with the pommel of his sword. Jaune and I fell to the ground at the same time. The Dragonborn was so busy hitting Jaune that he missed the fact that Nora had aimed Magnhild at him. The second he turned around, he got a face full of explosives. Or so it seemed. His reflexes were better than I thought they were. He emerged from his shield unharmed. He hurried over to where Nora and Ren stood and smashed Nora with his shield and slashed Ren's chest. Within a few seconds, real time, we went from having a strategic advantage to lying on the ground covered in wounds. The last thing I saw before a bag was pulled over my head was my hands being shackled.

I was being jostled on something wooden. We were moving, that's for certain, but where and on what, I had no clue. The journey wasn't long at least. It was only a few minutes from being put on this thing and being moved somewhere before I was carried off of it. I was dropped onto my knees, however degrading the position I didn't move from it because I had no way of defending myself. Three other thuds followed shortly after I was dropped. At least we are all together. I flinched as a hand was placed on the top of my head, then that same hand removed the bag from my head. The moon hung over the horizon. I must be seeing double, because there's a second one next to it that's smaller… A large man wearing a bear pelt stood before us. He looked quite menacing. He started talking to us as soon as the bag was removed.

"So, these are the four spies that saw us take the fort? Hmph, the Empire must be really desperate to send children to spy on us."

I sighed. "How many times will I have to say that we aren't spies!"

"Did I say you could speak?!" The man shouted, getting up close to my face.

I shook my head, but glared at him instead.

"Heh, good to know that you know your place." He paused to go back to his original position. "Now, I'll start things off plain and simple. Why were you four watching us take the fort?"

"Do I have permission to speak, sir?" I asked with a distinct edge to my voice.

He sighed. "When I ask you a question, I expect you dogs to answer. So yes."

"We heard fighting and went to see where it came from." I explained simply, mostly because I thought that he would be too dumb to understand complex stuff.

"I knew I should've had them check the surrounding area first…" He mumbled before he continued. "Now then, who in Solitude gave you your orders?" The man asked.

"What's Solitude?" Nora asked before I could.

This clearly didn't help the situation. "Playing dumb already? Ralof said something like that earlier. I'll say it again, who in Solitude gave you your orders?" The man said, clearly more agitated.

"We honestly do not know what Solitude is! We would say if we knew!" I replied, also getting agitated.

"Really? Then why did my men cut you off before you fled there?" The man asked, raising his voice again.

"We aren't from around here so we were heading to the nearest city." I explained, seeing that my question of his intelligence was spot on.

"Typical Imperial lies, always trying to play dumb in the face of death." The man said.

"What's an Imperial?" Nora asked.

"Enough!" The man yelled, slamming his axe down in front of Nora.

"You don't have to be mean about it…" Nora said quietly.

"OK, since I'm in a good mood right now, I'll let you explain your side of the story before I send you four to Sovngarde. So start talking." The man said, keeping his axe at the ready.

We proceeded to tell them everything that happened before we were found by the soldiers.

"Pfffffffft! Hahahaha!" All the soldiers in the camp burst out into laughter.

"Do you honestly expect us to believe something like that? I'd have to be drunk off my ass to even consider that!" The man said between laughs.

I slumped down after they laughed at our story.

"Look! She's given up!" One of the soldiers called out, causing them to laugh even more.

"You can't fix stupid…" I said to myself.

"Alright, which one deserves to go first?" The man asked his men, lifting his axe.

"Stop for a moment, Galmar." The Dragonborn spoke up.

"What is it, Snow-Hammer? Can't you see that we are about to kill Imperial Spies? Can it wait?" The man asked, still holding the axe in his hand.

"I would like to speak with the spies." The Dragonborn said, his voice remaining calm.

"Make it quick, Snow-Hammer." The man said testily.

The Dragonborn crouched in front of me and softly asked me a question so his men wouldn't hear. "Do you know of four girls dressed in red, white, black and yellow?"

My eyes widened. "You met team RWBY? Are they okay? We lost them after Ren opened the scroll and-" The Dragonborn cut me off.

"I did. That's all I needed to know." He stood up and returned to where he came from.

"Did you ask what you wanted to ask, Snow-Hammer?" Galmar asked mockingly. "Can we get on with our execution?"

"I would like to take them into my custody." The Dragonborn replied calmly.

Galmar stopped for a moment. "You want to take them into your custody?" Galmar repeated uncomprehendingly.

"Yes, they are not Imperial spies." He explained as murmurs in the crowd of soldiers started questioning him.

"How can you be so sure? They were heading to Solitude and killed our soldiers." Galmar responded in an unsure tone.

"Simple, they are the missing outworlders." The Dragonborn stated causing even more whispers in the crowd, "we attacked them and they merely acted in self-defence."

"How do you know this Snow-Hammer? Are you positive they are not just lying?" The officer questioned.

"Tell me, Galmar, how do you explain the fact that they do not know what an Imperial is, they can fight better than our soldiers, and know the other outworlders just by a simple description? Not only that, but how do you explain the weapons they are carrying?" The Dragonborn retorted as he looked towards us with what can only be explained as a mixture of curiosity and respect written on his face.

"Even then Snow-Hammer, they killed some of the sons and daughters of Skyrim, how can we simply just let them go after a crime like that?" Galmar replied with an obvious tone of annoyment in his speech, making me get more and more angry. I was standing up to yell in reply before Ren held an arm out and shook his head.

"Sir, I am only asking you to transfer custody, not lick their boots in apology and let them free." the Dragonborn returned, "I will of course punish them as they deserve."

"Fine" he stated, "take them, but if they cause anymore trouble for us their heads will go on spikes and I'll have you stripped of your titles." I could not feel more relieved as I heard Nora sigh off to the side.

"I expect nothing less." The Dragonborn said as he retrieved our stuff and ushered us out the camp. We walked passed all the soldiers who were just silent as they looked at us with hateful glances and the occasional look of disappointment.

After we got out of sight of the camp, The Dragonborn turned to us, looking slightly sheepish as he undid our bindings, and gave us our stuff back. "I really am sorry about that. We are in the middle of a war and people can be a bit jumpy."

"You don't have to apologize." Ren replied diplomatically, "I would not have believed it myself if someone told me they are from another world."

"Yes, but Galmar really is just overly cautious when it comes to spies." The Dragonborn said.

"I would be too if it were me." Jaune finally spoke up, "nothing is more powerful than knowing what an enemy is doing before they know you know."

"Exactly, but how can someone your age be working as a spy, and why would you be in the middle of a marsh?" The Dragonborn retorted.

"Maybe we had a super secret informant in the middle of that place that we were meeting in order learn about all you ultra need to know information on every little thing you were doing." Nora started "Or we could have been looking for something to poison your food with."

"Nora." Ren simply said.

"Yes, Ren?"

"Please calm down."

Nora just groaned in disappointment. As this was going on The Dragonborn leaned towards me and asked "Does this happen often?"

"Oh, you have no idea..." I trailed off.

After some time of walking in silence with my wounds aching, I decided to instigate conversation.

"So what's up with the war?" I asked, expecting a long answer.

"It's simple really, we are fighting to free ourselves from an empire that bows down to those damn witch elves and stops its people from worshiping one of its gods." The Dragonborn said.

"Why did they do that?" I asked, disappointed at the short answer I got.

"When the Empire lost to the Aldmeri Dominion in the Great War, one of the points made in the White-Gold Concordat was the ban of Talos worship. All because the Thalmor find it impossible that Talos ascended to Divinity." The Dragonborn said.
"What did Talos do to deserve divinity?" Jaune asked.

The Dragonborn, who looked heavily offended by Jaune's question, sighed and said "Just ask the girls when you see them."

I laughed a little. "So Ruby asked about him already?"

"Oh yes, she goes and listens to Heimskr preach every chance she gets." The Dragonborn said, a slight smile appearing on his face.

"That seems like Ruby…" Jaune said.

"Indeed, she and her sister are an interesting pair. I'm glad to be one of their Shield-Siblings." The Dragonborn said.

"They do look cute together." Nora said offhandedly.

"Don't you call your fellow soldiers 'Shield-Siblings'?" I asked him, just realizing what he said.

"Anyone who will willingly follow you into battle is your Shield-Sibling." The Dragonborn said.

"That does sound like them." I replied.

"Wait, how long have they been your 'Shield-Siblings' for?" Ren asked.

"Let's see...I believe they joined up a few months ago, shortly after they split up with Weiss and Blake, who also went to do their own things." The Dragonborn said, more to himself than us.

"Where'd they go?" I asked him.

"Well, Ruby and Yang are in Whiterun with the Companions, Weiss is in Winterhold with the College of Winterhold, and Blake is in Riften with the Thieves Guild." The Dragonborn said.

"'Thieves Guild'? That doesn't sound like Blake…" I said, looking at the rest of my team, receiving nods that they agree.

"Well, the closest she's come to death as far as I'm aware of is when I nearly slit her throat a few months back. So I believe she's doing well for herself." The Dragonborn said, nonchalantly.

"You what?" I asked.

"She what?" Nora asked at the same time that I did.

"Well, in my defense her superior ordered her to pickpocket me." The Dragonborn said.

"Why did she join in the first place?" I asked, shocked that Blake would be in a guild for thieves.

"I never asked, though I assume that it was for an easy source of Septims." The Dragonborn said.

I assumed that Septims was the local currency and moved on. Jaune, however, did not.

"What's a Septi-" I cut him off with a look.

"So they've been here for a few months? We only just arrived. How does that work?" I asked more to myself.

"Simple, you four were caught in the Time Stream that the Elder Scroll pulled you inside of for a longer time. They just happened to get out first." The Dragonborn said.

"Well, at least we were stuck as a team!" Nora said energetically.

"Well, at least you're optimistic." The Dragonborn said, smiling slightly.

"She is. I would've rather landed with both teams together." I said, slightly agitated at our current circumstances.

"Trust me, it could've been worse. All you need to do is head to Whiterun to meet up with them." The Dragonborn said.

"How long until we reach Whiterun?" Nora asked.

After a moment of thought, the Dragonborn spoke up "About another three hours and we should be there."

"Ren…" Nora said quietly. Ren nodded, accepting his fate and picked up Nora.

"Yay!" Nora cheered as Ren hoisted her up.

The Dragonborn gave a questioning glance at them, but quickly turned back to the terrain in front of us.

"Now then, what about where you come from?" The Dragonborn asked.

"We come from a place called 'Remnant'." I start, taking a deep breath for a long story ahead.

I explained about the Grimm and how humanity had to flee from them until they found Dust. I didn't go into too much detail with the Dust because I saw the Dragonborn began to lose focus like he was taking in too much information. Beacon and our schooling there. In short, just a brief overview of Remnant which turned into a long-winded brief overview. But, we also learned more about "Skyrim" in the process, in return for the information we provided.

"Well, it sounds like your world is not too worse off than this one." The Dragonborn said.

"I'm certain that every world has something that plagues it." I replied.

"Indeed. You have the Grimm, and we have Alduin." The Dragonborn said.

"At least the Grimm only attack us in life…" I said.

"Soon I will have what I need to defeat him, and then the souls in Sovngarde can rest once again." The Dragonborn said, in a very heroic tone of voice.

"And then you can deflate your head." I joked.

He looked very confused, I guess what counts as a joke here is different than what counts in Remnant.

"I was saying that you were full of yourself and that you should come back down to earth." I explained the joke.

"Ah...hey." The Dragonborn said, now understanding the joke and clearly not taking it well.

"I was joking!" I quickly defended.

"Heh, of course you were." The Dragonborn said, once again turning his attention to the terrain in front of us. He'd kill me if I wasn't…

After a very long and quiet walk, we arrived at a place that the Dragonborn called Whiterun. It was a large city on a hill with a palace at the top. "Dragonsreach" the Dragonborn called it. We walked past farms and a meadery on our way to the front gates. There was a stables right before the walkway up to the front gate with a man on a carriage offering rides to the different hold capitals. The moment we stood in front of the gate, Ren dropped Nora off of his back and fell onto the ground, panting. We were all tired, except Nora, who slept on Ren's back the majority of the way, and the Dragonborn, who probably walks everywhere he goes.

"Is he...alright?" The Dragonborn asked.

"I'm not that heavy am I?" Nora asked, crouching over Ren.

"No." Ren said in between pants. "And, yes, I am alright."

"Good. Well, this is where we part ways." The Dragonborn said.

"You seem to know this area well, do you know any place that has a map we can buy?" I asked him.

"Try Belethor's General Goods. If he doesn't have one, then maybe the Companions could lend you one." The Dragonborn said.

"Thank you for the information and for letting us go. We won't soon forget it." I told him and everyone on the team said thanks as well, even Ren, who was still trying to catch his breath.

"No problem, anything to help the friends of my friends." The Dragonborn said, and with that, he left our side and walked away.


/AN: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the re-introduction of Team JNPR! I understand that some of you have been waiting a long time for this, so I hope this sated your appetite. Now then, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post the next chapter (me and my friends are dealing with school right now), so just hold tight and I'll see you in the next chapter!