Chapter #5: Soldiers, Spiders and Bears
The door of Helgen Keep closed behind us, drowning out the noise from outside. Though the echoed and muted cries from the town still resounded. Ralof and me stepped into a tall room adorned with animal trophies along its stone walls. There was a tattered Imperial flag and a dusty rug. It would be a fairly normal sight, if not for the corpse of a Stormcloak soldier laying down beside a table. He must have succumbed to wounds from outside.
As I caught my breath and collected myself, Ralof ran to the body and knelt beside him. He shut the man's frightened eyes and said, "We'll meet again in Sovngarde, brother."
"A friend of yours?" I inquired, standing beside the man.
"Aye. Gunjar was his name," Ralof looked down thoughtfully for a moment and then looked back up. "Looks like we're the only ones who made it," his tone had changed from somber to determined, "That thing was a dragon. No doubt. Just like the children's stories and the legends. The harbingers of the End Times."
"Talos," I cursed softly, running my fingers back through my windswept hair. The End Times? I did not want to believe it. But I did. "So what now?"
"We better get moving. Come here. Let me see if I can get those bindings off." Ralof said. He drew an iron axe that he must have swiped somewhere in the town. I held my binds taught and he brought the axe down on the rope, cutting the binds to threads. "There you go. You may as well take Gunjar's gear. He won't be needed it any more."
I reached down, pulling off the dead man's fur boots to replace my linen wrappings. "Alright," Ralof commented, "get that armor on and give that axe a few swings." That armor? I almost inquired, horrified that I would need to both strip off and wear the armor of a dead man. But I decided not to ask questions. There would be time for questions after we were far away from Helgen.
I removed the clothing from Gunjar and equipped his axe. Instead of the ragged and itchy tunic of an Imperial prisoner, I wore the proud armor of a Stormcloak soldier. I gripped the axe in my hand and swung it a time or two to feel the weight. The axe was far from my chosen weapon, I had always been accustomed to a one-handed sword. But the axe allowed for a free hand. In combat, in service of the Thalmor, I often accessed a restorative spell. Now that my hands were free, I flicked my hand open and felt a healing magic glow yellow in my hand. It felt good to be able to use magic again. I may not always be the most stereotypical High Elf, but I do like magic. As I readied myself, Ralof said something about finding a way out of the room. I looked to find that there was no way to open the door from our side. Ralof cursed.
Suddenly, we heard a voice in the distance and the clatter of boots on the rock floor. "Come on soldier, keep moving!" The voice barked. It had a familiar edge to it and I quickly came to the realization that it was the captain who presided over the execution.
"It's the Imperials, take cover!" Ralof said in a harsh whisper.
"Get this gate open," the woman said in her usual harsh tone. I gripped my axe tighter as the gate clinked and lowered. I would not consider myself an easily angered Mer, but this Imperial's heartless brutality made my blood boil. The two soldiers stepped through the gate and Ralof yelled a battle cry. Swinging his axe, he brought it down onto the young soldier beside the captain. Metal cleaved through metal, flesh and bone, and the young man was dead before he could cry out. The captain was another story.
"You're going to wish your head was in that basket," the captain said, raising her steel forged sword. Our battle began after she made the first swing and I deflected it as deftly as I could muster with such a cumbersome weapon.
"Come finish the job then," I retorted through gritted teeth. I shoved her back and brought my axe down towards her head. She blocked it with ease and swung the sword towards my side flank. There was no time for me to parry, so I jumped back. Ralof stood back, he knew this was my fight.
"Sol, right? I'll remember you," she said with far less anger than before. It caused me to ponder the motivation behind her frustration, but this was once again no time to think: it was the time to act. Using the momentum of my backwards dodge, I brought my axe-arm back down and chopped through her exposed wrist. Bone crunched and blood spurted. She then cried out and fell to her knees. "I failed," she said in a sobering tone. She looked up at me with a sincere gaze. "Finish it."
I studied her for a moment. She knelt, but not out of submission. There was almost something to be admired about this woman's stubborn pride and resolve. She had a job to do and my survival meant that it was not complete. Whether it was mercy or cruelty, I decided to oblige her by driving my axe into her chest. A quick death, at the very least she offered me that first.
"Elvish bastard," she sputtered through a blood-filled mouth. She fell back and hit the stone floor.
"Are we done?" Ralof asked, standing at a distance after allowing me to fight my own battle.
"Yes," I simply replied as I picked up the captain's sword. As we continued through the keep, I recognized that we would soon face even more perils. But now, the cruel captain would not be one of them.
We were fortunate to learn that the Imperials had the key to one of the doors. The lock unhinged with a click and we swiftly raced down a winding stone staircase. "That's it," Ralof said as we ran, "Come on, let's 's get out of here before that dragon brings that tower down on our heads."
"I couldn't agree more-," I began to reply, but was interrupted when a crash erupted from above and the ceiling burst into pieces.
"Look out!" Ralof yelled before I tackled him out of the way. The rain of stone barely missed us. Our path was blocked by a wall of rubble. The dust took a moment to clear, but when it finally did, Ralof observed: "Damn, that dragon doesn't give up easy."
I studied the obstacle in front of us, scratching my head. There was no way we could pass through. Suddenly, we heard voices coming from a closed door in the hall. "Grab everything important and let's move!" A gruff one said. We opened the door to find another captain and soldier. They were rummaging frantically for potions as they prepared their escape.
"Death to the Empire!" Ralof cried with his axe above his head, sprinting towards the enemies. He swung it sideways into one of the soldier's necks, blood sprayed every which way. I found myself combating yet another captain. He wore the same steel adorned armor and wielded an Imperial blade like mine. We attacked and parried, the cycle lasting a few minutes before I finally knocked his sword away and plunged my new blade into his gut. He died with a desperate cry.
While catching my breath, I looked around the room. It was a storeroom of some sort. There were tables with candles still lit and food untouched. A fire burned in its place, sending smoke up through the chimney as if were a normal day and the entire town above was not itself aflame. Ralof mentioned to me that there would be potions in the barrels, so we quickly grabbed a few for future use, along with some food and gold for the road; if were were ever to escape the keep. We then set right back off through the halls.
We walked through the door to hear the familiar sounds of battle nearby. The clanging of steel and the grunts of exertion echoed through the keep. Quickening our pace, we ran down the steps to find a floor painted red with blood. In the room was several iron cages, within them imprisoned corpses, fresh and old. Cuffs and chained decorated the wall along with numerous sharp instruments. "Troll's blood," Ralof said with horror in his voice, "It's a torture chamber."
I wish I could say that I had never seen one before, but that would not be the truth of it. When I served with the Thalmor, I often stood guard near cages like the ones before us. In my head, I could still hear the screams of those who displeased the Thalmor. For that was the reason they were tortured as much as it was for extraction of information. I said nothing to Ralof; I couldn't find the words.
In the chamber, a torturer and his assistant defended themselves against three Stormcloak soldiers. Two older men and a blonde-haired woman fiercer than the both of them combined. Ralof and I joined the fight, fueled by the anger of injustice. The conflict did not last long and soon the torturers' blood was mixed with their victims on the cold floor.
We gathered some supplies before leaving the dark room. In one of the cold metal cages lay a dead mage, succumb to an unknown malady. He had some spell tomes and gold beside him. We decided that those items would be important for the road ahead. Ralof found a few lockpicks and handed them to me. It took me a moment and I broke a pick or too, but soon the door creaked open. I gathered the tomes, gold, and the mages hood. As I wrapped it about my head, I felt a burst of magicka surge within me. I intended to put the fallen mage's gifts to good use.
We ducked down yet another stone corridor, this time with a small troop of Stormcloaks in tow. I soon self a chill in the air upon my bare arms as we delved yet deeper. Soon the hall opened to a vast cavern with winding bridges and running water. "Our orders are to wait until General Tullius arrives," an Imperial Sergeant said, his voice carrying among the rock.
"I'm not waiting to be killed by a dragon!" Said a defiant soldier with a threatening edge to his voice. We tried, in vain, to sneak past them and soon we found ourselves in another bath of blood. This time, arrows flew from a distant ledge. They sang through the air and clinked as they struck the ground. I sprinted to the ledge and quickly dispatched the archers, who were poorly prepared for hand-to-hand combat. Taking a bow and quiver from one of the bodies, I shot arrows into the remaining soldiers who battled my friends. It was good to hold a bow again, I may have been a Spellsword, but I was Mer first and foremost. Upon regrouping with the others, I discovered that the two men had perished during the fighting. Only the shieldmaiden, Ralof and myself remained. We had no choice but to leave the dead and escape further into the caverns.
Our path was soon blocked by, what appeared to be, an upright wooden bridge. The hall was narrow, but to the side there also rested a lever which the shieldmaiden pulled without hesitating. The clangs of turning gears resounded as the wooden planks moved downward, culminating in a loud crash which left a bridge in its wake. Our shieldmaiden friend resolved to stay behind to await more survivors. We said our goodbyes before we crossed the bridge and she ran back into the previous room.
Suddenly, we heard the dragon roar in the distance and the hallway roof gave way to crashing rubble right behind us. With our way back crumbled behind us, it left only the path ahead. "No going back that way," Ralof said.
"It would seem so," I responded with a half-hearted chuckle. Our friend was out of the way of the falling rocks, so the crash was just another twig on an already blazing fire.
"We'd better push on," Ralof stated, "The rest of them will have to find another way out."
I nodded solemnly and replied: "Gods guide them all."
After the start of the crashing ceiling, we did not even notice the running water which dipped through the cave ahead of us. Twin torches lit the base of a stairway which symbolized the end of man-made structures. Their glow illuminated a vast cavern adorned with stalactites and stalagmites. We had left the keep and now entered the cave.
Over ages, the water had eroded a path for us that was lit, not by torches, but by glowing mushrooms. I had heard of fungus that grew like this in the deep places of Nirn, but I had only seen things of the like on alchemists' tables. Our wanderings led us down the stream, wetting our boots, until we came to yet another block in our road. We found ourselves beginning to see a pattern. However, by providence there was a passage to our right which led to a vast opening. As we entered it, a rotting and putrid smell assaulted my nostrils. I felt an overwhelming sense of unease as my eyes surveyed the cave about us; there were webs everywhere.
The white, sticky-looking webs were spun all about us. I gripped my bow tighter and turned to Ralof. No words were spoken between us but we we knew; we were not alone. The spine-chilling sound of web pulled taught echoed in the chamber above us and we looked up to see - what seemed like - a dozen gigantic Frost Spiders. They came upon us swiftly and we loosed what arrows we could manage into a few of them. Ralof chopped at a few of them, resulting in high pitched cries of pain from the dreaded beasts. As I began to draw my sword, one tackled my to the earth, but found itself run through with my blade. The green blood coated my face and armor. I pushed it off of myself and stood up, Ralof was catching his breath. "I hate those things," he said, "Too many eyes, you know?"
"And blood that smells like a skeever den," I responded with a wry smile. They say that trials create strong bonds, and I could see that Ralof and I would be good friends. If we could make it out of the oblivion-hole that the cave had become. "Let's get moving. It can't be much farther."
The air grew more fresh as we entered the next cavern and light broke through from around the corner. We truly were almost out of the cave. The river ran through this area, much stronger than before. I reckoned that if we attempted to ford it, we would be swept under the rapids. There was only one way to the exit, but what lay in our path made our hearts sink. It was a great brown bear.
"I'd rather not tangle with her right now. Let's try to sneak by. Just take it nice and slow" Ralof said softly.
"I agree. I've had enough of beasts for one day," I responded as I entered a state of sneaking. When I was trained, as a young man, I always pictured as if I was being watched by an eye; closed when hidden and opened when found. We crossed a makeshift bridge and I felt my boot seek to give way against the slippery rock.
"Just take it nice and slow, and watch where you step," Ralof said in a harsh whisper.
Each step felt as if our feet were landing on a trap in an ancient ruin. Our hearts pounded in our chests and we did not dare to exhale. The bear slept nearby, growling in a state of dreams. When our feet finally stepped into snow from outside, causing a crunch, we were far enough that we did not need to worry as much. There had been enough violence for one day and the bear remained in peace.
Unbound.
We stepped into the open air, feeling the briskness of a northern morning. The far horizons seemed endless and were adorned with pine trees and mountains that seemed to reach a sky bluer than any I had seen before. It was beautiful. But no words could never do justice to what I felt as I left that cave. The world was before me. In that moment, Skyrim became my home.
Ralof suggested to me that it would be best if the two of us split up, a sentiment that I unfortunately agreed with due to the fact that we were technically Imperial fugitives. Though, after a week or two, I expected our escape would be forgotten as news of the dragon would spread. The Thalmor, however, would not so easily let my transgression go. But there would be time to worry about that at another time and on another day. Ralof planned to walk north towards Riverwood, his home, and I would go straight on west towards the lake. Before we left, he told me of his sister, a woman named Gerdur, who lived in Riverwood. He said that she would help me if I ever needed it.
"I should hope to see you again, my friend," I said as I extended a hand towards Ralof.
He shook it heartily and kindly replied: "I look forward to the day, High Elf."
We then set off on our own adventures. As Ralof disappeared down the path, I stepped into the woods. I heard birds singing and the waters from the lake beyond. The marks from the bindings still burned, but I was no longer bound. The entirety of Skyrim was ahead of me and my journey had begun.
Dear Reader,
I have compiled the parts 1 and 2 of chapter 5 into one section. Here are my two end letters from both!
"Chapter #5 part #1?" That's not confusing at all (sarcasm). The reason behind this is that school has been taking over my life, but I am still working on this story when I can! This chapter is just so dang long. So I figured I'd release the first half of this chapter and then a week or two after releasing the second, I'll combine them. Just want you to know I'm not disappearing on you! Also to add, I'm posting it to keep my momentum going so I don't just leave this thing unfinished, haha. As always, thanks for reading, leave a review if you like, etc. I really do appreciate all of you! THANKS AGAIN.
~Kovecs
It has been a while! Finals nearly were the end of me, but I emerged somewhat victorious! Here is the second part of the fifth chapter. After about a week or so, I will put them into one part. But leave my notes intact at the end. I am finally finishing the prologue and am eager to start telling original adventures on the boundless roads of Skyrim. As usual, if you enjoy it, please leave a review and maybe a fave/or follow! Thanks again!
~Kovecs
P.S. This one's for you, King Endercreeper!