Chapter 16: Pathway to the Past

Pyrrha's Perspective

"No, we gotta go north!" Yang yelled, pointing at a path that goes past Whiterun.

"I'm telling you, this southern one is faster!" I yelled back.

"Fine. But when we die, it'll be on you." Yang said, finally agreeing with me.

"OK, follow me, everyone!" I lead everyone through the streets of Ivarstead.

As soon as we passed the Vilemyr Inn, I heard Weiss mutter something to Blake.

"Why is Pyrrha leading us?" She asked, the sound of her wounded pride ringing through.

"Because I have the map." I said to her, showing her the map in my hands.

"I have a map." Weiss said, pulling out a map.

"Same here." Said Blake, pulling out hers.

"Ruby and I have maps." Yang added, pulling out two maps. "I hold onto Ruby's for her." She explained.

"Well, I chose the path, so…" I tried to defend myself.

"Yeah!" Jaune exclaimed. I blushed a little when Jaune backed me up.

I could feel the inter-team tension building, and I had a plan to stop it.

"If you guys want to nominate a person, they can work with me on which path to take as we go." I offered.

"It should be our team leader!" Yang said, clapping Ruby on the back.

"Seconded." Blake said.

"Now wait just a second!" Weiss started. "I have studied these maps very well, so I should be the person to be our delegate." Weiss said, proudly touching her chest and walking forward to meet me.

"Weiss, what are you doing?" Blake asked.

"Obviously I am going up to be our delegate." She said, turning red from possible embarrassment.

Yang sighed, facepalming. "Weiss… Come here. Ruby, go there." She said shortly.

"Why should I-" Weiss started.

"WEISS!" Yang yelled.

"OK." Weiss hurried back and let Ruby join me at the front.

"Good of you to join me at the front." I said, smiling to Ruby. She smiled back and helped direct our path.

At our first crossroads, we turned right and were heading to a small town called "Helgen" which Team RWBY says was the first city that they saw and where they met the Dragonborn. They didn't say how they met the Dragonborn or why they were so reluctant to head back to Helgen. Is that why Yang wanted to go towards Whiterun?

The road that we turned on went from the semi-woodland area to a very snowy mountain pass. With the lowest peaks of the Throat of the World surrounding us on the thin path, we slowly walked single-file. Two large pillars, with eagle heads on the top, sat on either side of the path. What could've stood here in the past? The path was on an incline, causing me to frantically check the map to make sure that we aren't climbing up the Throat of the World on some secret path.

As the path leveled out, strange things began popping up. A dead cat-woman lay next to a fallen tree. As we walked past the tree, we saw two carriages with a total of 5 cat-people dead in various places. Three humans in armor started shouting at us from the hill adjacent to the path. Three gunshots rang out. Three bloody, and dead, raiders slid down the hill.

"C'mon guys, we've got to at least bury them." I said, pointing to the 6 dead cat-people. As the rest of the group dug the graves, I pulled the shooter, Ren, aside.

"So why'd you waste dust and kill those people?" I asked him.

"They killed innocent people." He stated.

"But why waste dust?" I asked him.

"So we wouldn't lose more innocent people." He replied.

We quickly got the graves dug and slide the bodies into the graves. Blake fashioned gravestones, just to show that there were graves, we didn't know their names or which gods they favored.

Leaving the bad vibes behind us, I noticed that we weren't far from Helgen. Hopefully I can find out why Team RWBY seems to be hesitant when it is mentioned. What happened to the town, I don't know. All I know is that people, Team RWBY included, talk about it in hushed voices.

In the distance I saw a large wall with a gate in the center. This is it!

Once we reached Helgen, I peeked in the gate. There were collapsed buildings, burnt corpses and signs of destruction at every building. What looked like a once prosperous city, now looked like a city destroyed by war. I looked in horror from Helgen to the people who might've been here for it.

"What happened here?" I asked Team RWBY.

"You know that big black dragon that the Dragonborn fought on the Throat of the World?" Blake asked in reply.

"Yeah…"

"He used the meteor power of his to destroy this city." She said.

"He swooped down out of nowhere and brought the meteors upon us." Yang added.

"Good thing the Imperial soldiers denied us at the gates…" Weiss commented.

"Weiss, that's the first right thing you have said in a few days." Yang said to Weiss.

"Moving on, we need to go to the path here to the right." I pointed out.

"What path?" Nora chimed in.

"The dirt one." I replied.

"Oh no, we are not walking around on any dirt roads! My heels will get dirty!" Weiss complained.

"Weiss, shut up." Blake said.

From outside the city the sounds of bandits making a ruccous could be heard. In the distance, as we neared the path that we needed to get on, were some ruins that had the looked like an old palace that just had the roof and walls rotted off, with the structural supports still standing. Team RWBY seemed to have a sense of deja vu, and I felt like they would have seen this as they were here, when they first appeared in this world.

"This is where the Dragonborn walked to Riverwood." Ruby commented.

"How'd you know that?" Yang asked.

"It's the only other path to Riverwood from here." Ruby replied, looking at the map in her hands.

As we neared the turn, the tops of the roof structures of the ruins were much clearer. On some sat the heads of dragons, on others was nothing. At the center of the ruins were a set of stairs that lead to a dark doorway. Beyond the doorway, I saw nothing.

"Left now, guys." I said to them, pointing to the left pass.

We turned left to see a downward sloping path with a right turn at the end. Once we reached the turn, the downward slope got much steeper; Weiss nearly fell as we walked down it. From there, it was a left turn that opened up into an area where sections of dirt hung over the ground beneath it and where dead trees lay decaying on the side of the path. Far to the right, a river ran softly down the countryside. The further we went down the trail, the larger the river got, it was then that I realized that it was the same lake we walked past on our way to Cracked Tusk Keep. On our way down I saw the ruins on either side of the road that we had seen when we were last on this path.

Due to the familiarity of the path, my mind fell into a lull that was shaken off when we reached a turn. Ruby told me it was a right turn, and I realized that the last time I was here, I took a left turn. This path had a slight uphill slope to it, which heavily contrasted the other route. At the peak of the hill, sat a mill with a creek flowing swiftly under a bridge. The mill seemed to be unoriginal as compared to the others I have seen in this world. It was the lake it sat on that interested me. On the opposite shore sat a sunken fort. Half of the ramparts lay under the cool waves, the other half sat on the shore and trailed into the water. The creek that ran through the mill, and the lake itself, seemed to be overflowing with water; there were many trees clogging the river, and there were many places in the lake that seemed to be accessible by land, but are no longer able to be accessed in the same fashion.

The path beyond was more open than the path we previously walked along. With the open feeling, came more open sights. I saw many overlying dirt ledges, but also 10-15 foot high rock outcroppings on the sides of the road. In between two large rock outcroppings lay a humble path that led to a cave. I marked the location on my map so I could find out what's in it later.

After a short walk downhill, mountains began popping up on either side of the path, and in the distance a large clearing that is many miles wide came into view. As we reached the end of the mountains, the bowl shaped look of the land was very clear. Mountains in the distance made the rims of the bowl. A gentle cloud cover hung over the low lying land in the center, making it look more bowl-like.

Speaking of bowl-shaped things, as we headed down the hill, a bowl-shaped hole in the ground was bordered by two arches made of stone. Strangely, the dirt looked freshly turned and it made the area that much more creepy. I leapt into the air when a fox darted out of the brush by the street sign as we approached and he trotted over to the hole in the ground on the other side of the road. He sniffed the dirt, looked back at us, looked back at the dirt, then darted off into the plains. While that made me curious, we needed to get home more than I needed to satisfy my curiosity, so we turned left and kept walking down the path.

"That looks so amazing and so creepy! What do you think it is?" Ruby asked, practically leaping in excitement.

"The College mentioned that dragons were being reborn, so that might be what happened." Weiss explained.

"That's a dragon?" Ruby replied, her mood sinking extremely fast.

"That means it's still around here!" Jaune shouted, staring at the sky through his fingers because he covered his face with his hands.

"Jaune." I said calmly.

"Yes, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked shakily, removing one hand.

"It's probably long gone." I said to him.

"Oh." He removed his other hand and then semi-casually brushed off his chest to hide his blushing face.

We walked in silence for a little while before Jaune shouted in terror.

"What's wrong?" I ask worriedly, taking out my sword.

"Oh nothing." Jaune said shakily, blushing.

"Nothing?" I asked a little angrily.

"A rabbit-jumped-out-into-the-path." He said.

"Care to repeat that?" I asked.

"He said that a rabbit jumped out into the path." Weiss said.

"Jaune, I'm fairly certain that rabbit was more afraid of you, than you are of it." I said, with a smile because he was ok.

When the road forked again, not long after the last fork, we turned left to continue along the path we needed to go down. Then a group of three cat-people, which Weiss called Khajiits, walked past us. One said "Khajiit has wares if you have coin." with a very toothy grin. A very sharp toothy grin. The road was then blocked on either side by mountains again, making me think this was a narrative for the whole of Skyrim. A massive fort sat on the hillside with the rocks that sat on the side of the pathway blocking any way up to the fort. Lights shown from the windows of the fort and a Stormcloak banner flapped proudly above the highest point on the fort. Then came sounds of hooves on rock. I looked to my right and there was a large stag dashing down the rocky hill and ahead of us on the path. So majestic.

Off to the left, as we turned, sat a beautiful sight; a ruin with a cascade of water falling quietly down the hillside accompanied by a few other smaller cascades. Two large pillars with eagles on them sat behind one falls and another off to the side of the center falls. All in all, I could've stared at it forever, but we had places to be, so I motioned for everyone to continue.

On a small offshoot path that was not too far from the place we stopped to see the ruins, three Stormcloak soldiers escorted a man in rags up the path. He stumbled a little and the officer motioned for one of the soldiers to shove him. It made me question the Stormcloaks more.

There was a Khajiit standing on the road as we walked past.

"M'aiq once walked to High Hrothgar. So many steps, he lost count." He said.

"What? There are 7,000 steps." Weiss said incredulously.

"M'aiq is done talking." M'aiq said.

"But I'm not!" Weiss protested.

"M'aiq is tired now. Go bother somebody else." M'aiq replied, turning away from Weiss.

After that, the pathway steepened, which made my calves protest after all this walking. Good thing there's an inn not too far away. At the peak of the short hill, I noticed that to the right was a small creek and to the left is the river that we walked along since I saw the ruins. But when the sides of the path got narrower due to both bodies of water, a large crab leapt out of the dirt as we past. Jaune shrieked like a girl along with Weiss. Nora just pulverized it in one swing with Magnhild. Jaune cleared his throat in as much of a masculine way as he could and Weiss said "hmph" and lifted her head in a stuck-up way.

Thankfully for my feet, the path leading to the inn came into sight and was within reach. I walked up the incline, to the dismay of my legs, and saw the inn come into view. I was so ready to stop walking that I cut across the grass because the path would've wrapped around and I was having none of the idea of walking more than I have to. I rested my right hand on the inn walls and walked to the left around the inn to reach the doors. A man stood up from the benches as we rounded the corner and told us to head inside because two people named "Eydis" and "Skuli" were inside the inn.

I threw open the door and the heat of a large fire in the center of the room washed over me. I welcomed the warmth and sat down in the nearest chair. Everyone else followed my lead. After about 10 minutes of us sitting on the benches, a child walked up to us and asked us to not drink too much or else he would have to throw us out.

Yang laughed at him. "Don't worry, we're underage." She said.

"What's 'underage'?" He asked quizzically.

Yang looked at him, then at the mead in the room. "I'll uh…" Yang said "I'll take a mead then."

"Same!" Jaune said.

"Jaune!" I shouted.

"Nevermind!" He replied, hanging his head in shame.

"Two meads, please." Nora announced, holding up two fingers.

"So, four meads?" The kid asked.

"No, add one more." Weiss added.

"OK. 5 meads." The kid stated "Those will be right out. Any other orders?"

"We need a room." I said to him.

"Then talk to my mom, Eydis." He pointed to a woman who stood behind a counter at the other end of the room.

"OK guys, I'll go get us a room. I'll be right back." I said, standing to walk over to the counter.

"My 7 friends and I would like a room." I said to the blonde-haired woman.

"Hmm…" She thought for a second. "We have more than one room. If you want, you can rent two rooms and split up in them." She offered.

"We'll do that." I replied.

"OK great. That'll be 20 gold."

I pulled out my gold pouch and gave her the 20 gold.

20 tankards sat empty on the table.

"You guys drank 20 tankards worth of mead?!" I shouted.

"Lissenere," Yang slurred "I'm ok to drive, mom."

"Yang, I'm not your mom. But how in the name of Talos did you drink that much in the short time I was gone?"

"Did someone say 'Talos'?" The innkeeper asked from across the room.

We looked at each other.

"He stayed in this very inn." She said, preparing to continue, but I yelled at Yang instead of listening,

"What's 20 tanks in the long run?" Yang asked me.

"Did Yang drink them all?" I asked Ruby, who promptly shook her head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jaune try to sneakily get up.

"Jaune…" I said, my voice on the edge of yelling.

"Yes, Pyrrha?" He asked, his back to me and fear in his voice.

"How much of Yang's mead did you drink?" I asked, my voice now closer to the edge.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jaune replied, his back still facing me.

"Jaune, turn around.' I commanded. He turned around quickly, somehow lost his balance and fell to the ground.

"I can't get up!" Jaune complained, his feet flailing.

"Jaune... just get up." I said, my hand covering my face in shame.

"Everything's all shaky!" He said, his feet falling to the ground.

"What are you talking about?!" I yell.

"Like the ceiling is moving." He replied.

"The ceiling is…" I looked at everyone at the table. "Wait, where's Nora?!" I yell noticing that Nora was gone.

The front door burst open.

"I… AM TALOS!" Nora yelled, holding Magnhild in the air.

"I thought I told you to stay outside!" The kid said to her.

"TALOS DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO 'STAY OUTSIDE' TALOS IS DIVINE!" Nora yelled.

"Go to your room then." He replied.

"Talos will go to his room. UNDER HIS OWN WILL." Nora replied, running to the room that "Talos stayed in" and promptly jumping on the bed. She was so drunk that she missed the bed, jumped once, fell over, threw up and passed out.

"Well that was..." Ren commented.

"I thought you would limit her drinking!" I said to Ren.

"Drunk Nora is scarier than Sober Nora." Ren replied.

"Wait. One other person ordered mead." I said, scared that there was one more drunk person.

"Me." Weiss said, waving over her three-quarter full mead. She looked extremely sober. "This is only my first." She explained.

"Well at least we have one person here who can drink responsibly." I commented.

"So how much did each person drink?" I asked Ruby.

"Yang drank 9, Jaune drank 2, and Nora drank 9." Ruby replied.

"Yang and Nora drank the same amount?" I was confused by that fact.

"They had a drinking contest." Blake told me from behind her hand, which covered her face in shame.

"Of course they did. So Nora is in the Talos suite, I think the other two drunks should join her in there. Plus one other brave soul." I said to the group.

"I'll watch over Nora." Ren volunteered dejectedly.

"So that leaves Ruby, Weiss, Blake and myself in the other room." I counted of the people remaining.

"Yup." Ruby said.

"Yeah." Weiss agreed.

"Mmhmm." Blake acknowledged.

"Great. Is anyone else tired?" I asked.

Everyone raised their hands, except Yang and Jaune who were currently laughing about how Yang couldn't get burnt by the fire in the center of the room.

"Alright, let's go to bed then." I announced, moving the two drunks to their room and putting them to bed.

The sun had risen, so it was time to get the drunks up. I walked into the room and saw Yang and Jaune sharing the center bed. They were spooning. Yang was the big spoon. I have to admit, I felt jealous. That probably came out in the way I woke Yang up.

"Get up!" I shouted, yanking the curtains open.

"My head!" Yang complained, rolling away from Jaune and pulling the fur sheets over her head. I went to get Jaune up, but he was already wide awake. His face was bright red and his eyes were as big as dinner plates.

"Are you okay, Jaune?" I asked him, crouching next to the bed.

"F-F-Fine. She was the big spoon wasn't she?" Jaune asked. I laughed .

"She was."

"What's this 'spoon' nonsense?" Yang asked.

"You spooned Jaune." I explained.

"And the problem was?" Yang asked angrily.

"Y-You were the big spoon." Jaune told her.

"Cool. Can I go back to sleep now? My head is killing me." Yang said.

"No we have walking to do." I replied.

"Ugh." Yang said, rolling out of bed and falling on the floor.

"Maybe you shouldn't have gotten into a drinking game with Nora." I mentioned the reason she's hungover.

"Hey, shut up. I won that contest." Yang said angrily from the ground.

"I'm not so sure about that!" Nora said, looking perfectly fine.

"Nora, you're okay?" I was shocked by this turn of events.

"Yeah. It was only mead." She replied,

"B-but… y-you… What?" Yang asked, sitting up.

"You two can compare hangover notes while we finish our walk to Markarth." I silenced both of them.

"Before you guys leave, kindly pay your tab." Eydis said to us from the counter as we were walking out.

"How much is it?" I ask, waving those who drank over.

"900 septims." She replied calmly.

I froze, and so did everyone else.

"I have 200 septims." Yang said, looking into her coin pouch.

"What's a septim?" Jaune asked. Eydis reached over the counter and smacked him.

"You only had two meads last night. You should not be this brain-dead." Eydis said to me.

Blake sighed as she walked up to us. "I'll pay." She dropped a large bag of coins onto the counter.

Eydis counted them. "This is enough. Come again." She said, waving as we left.

"So, where'd you get that kind of money?" I asked Blake as we walked along the path.

"My job." She replied, giving me a look that clearly said "Shut up".

"She robs people for a job." Ruby said cheerily.

"H-How'd you find out?" Blake asked, her eyes widening.

"The Dragonborn told us after he helped the Stormcloaks take Whiterun." Ruby explained.

"So… Robbing people, huh?" I asked her.

Blake blushed and hung her head.

We walked over a bridge that was right next to the inn and noticed a shrine to some god that I had never seen before. At the main pillar sat the symbol of the god. It was a blooming flower with two of the pedals wrapping over the top of the flower.

"Who is this for?" Nora asked, her hand close to touching the flower.

"Dibella." Weiss answered.

"Ooooo. Cool name!" Nora said, touching the flower now. After she touched it, the shrine lit up and she glowed as well.

"What was that?" I shouted.

"Nora, are you okay?" Ren asked, concern taking over his voice.

"I…. AM DIBELLA!" She shouted.

"Nora, you aren't Dibella." Weiss said.

"Yes I am." Nora replied.

"Yes… You are." Weiss said, now fully supporting Nora.

"Nora..." Ren warned.

"She's not 'Nora', she's Dibella!" Weiss said angrily.

"Okay, that's enough. Come on you two we have places to be." I told them.

When we reached an area where a road crossed over the road we were walking on and led to a bridge. I felt tense as we neared that area, but was unsure as to why that was.

"Kill them!" Someone yelled.

"For the glory of the Forsworn!" Another yelled.

There's the reason.

One warrior ran down the hill to our left, two came down from the bridge and two came towards us on the path. There was one archer up on the hill that was slightly behind us and rained arrows down on us. Two mages sat comfortably further ahead on the path. I knew how to defend from this.

"Weiss, glyph up and take out the archer." I told Weiss, who promptly leapt up to the archer and cut him down in one stroke.

"That's weird." She said.

"What's weird?" Ruby asked.

"He died in one slash." Weiss explained, staring at her sword.

"Ooohhh yeeaaahhh." Nora said, standing taller and pulling out Magnhild.

"First you, then all of the Reach!" One of the warriors shouted at us.

"I'm gonna break your legs!" Nora yelled, charging them. Stupidly, one of the mages shot a lightning bolt at her. Nora ran two times faster and then, when she hit the first warrior, knocked him all the way to Markarth.

"What the…!" The other shouted and he too got knocked 50 meters up the cliff face.

The mage who shot the lightning switched to frost, but the other didn't. With the second lightningbolt, Nora hit the mages and obliterated them on contact. The other three warriors looked at Nora with fear in their eyes. Nora smiled at them and lifted Magnhild. They dropped their weapons and ran.

"Aww… They ran!" Nora sadly said.

"Wait… You're not Dibella!" Weiss said when she looked at Nora.

"But, I am." Nora said, waving her hands like she was casting a spell.

"No, you aren't." Weiss replied. Nora lost her energy immediately.

"It didn't work again…" Nora said sadly.

On the map it was a straight shot to Markarth, but here we were before a large hill at a very steep incline. I cursed Skyrim's hilly geography mentally. My legs were killing me after all of this change in elevations and the hills. When the hill flattened, I could see a waterfall off to the left and to its right sat a building unlike any of the ones in the cities we have been to. It most resembled the ruins that brought us to this god-forsaken world. It has a positive feeling already! We crossed a bridge and a mudcrab sat on the other side of it. Nora happily smashed it to bits with Magnhild. I now saw the tower I noticed and realized that it is a windmill on a small farm. Across the path from the farm was a mine with three or four buildings in front of the entrance.

We were finally so close to the gates of Markarth! We walked under the large guard towers and up the stairs to the gates.

"First time in Markarth, traveler? Take my advice. You see anything, don't get involved. The city guard will take care of it." A guard stopped us at the gates.

"Why, Mr. Stormcloak?" Nora asked.

"See, there you go. Getting involved. Don't ask too many questions in Markarth. Safer for everyone that way." He replied. "Head on in. Keep your nose clean, and you won't have any problems with us."

And so, we walked through the gates of Markarth at long last.


/AN: Hey Guys! You guys doing good? Things are going quite smoothly on our end, seeing as how we now have an extra member added on to our team. So now the four of us are working as hard as we can (with our schedules and shit) to get these chapter out to you guys as soon as we can. We only have a couple chapters left on our front, so soon (soon being used loosely here), you guys will be getting a new chapter every week! Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and see you in the next one!