CHAPTER 22: A KILLER
"Sahlkoniir, ziil do doval ulse! Slen Tiid Vo!"
Upon the mighty command, darkness awakened deep within the stony ground after centuries of unending slumber.
The beast moved his limbs, life now enveloping the once-dead bones. He climbed upward towards the voice of the one who had brought back his consciousness, which some found a gift, and some a curse. And with a sharp, strong strike of his tail, he shattered the stone lid covering this shallow, humiliating grave.
Through flying rocks the beast emerged from the burial mound, tasting the air that had changed so much since he had last breathed. His eyes opened to a sight of a comrade floating above, his wing strikes as steadfast as the winter wind. Except that this dragon wasn't a comrade – he was a leader. The leader of them all.
Flesh and scales formed around his skeletal figure, igniting a fire that wouldn't be extinguished, not anymore. The pitiful mortals had once defeated him, but he wouldn't allow that to happen ever again.
"Alduin, thuri! Boaan tiid vokriiha suleyksejun kruziik?" he said, his voice resonating ancient bloodlust time had suffocated for too long.
Visions of the old times, centuries back flashed before his eyes as he turned his head. The shattered swords against his scales, screams of the dying mortals, the whole world burning in the flames of his creation. It would all come true again, and very soon – but then his gaze found two mortals who'd witnessed his resurrection, standing behind a rock by his grave.
There was something in the eyes of them which evoked a feeling he hadn't felt in an eternity, something he couldn't fully grasp.
Especially in the eyes of that pitiful little girl.
Lucy woke up covered in cold sweat, not able to comprehend what she'd just seen.
With her heart pounding in an erratic rhythm, she raised her arms towards the ceiling. Just a moment ago she'd seen the talons of a dragon instead of pale, thin fingers. A blue-stoned ring glimmered in her right hand, becoming a point of focus as she adjusted back to reality.
'I'm still me, I'm still a human. Good. I'm breathing, I'm still in my room, and I'm definitely not a… dragon.'
She took a deep, deep breath and closed her eyes again. The dream lingered in her mind, the vision of herself and Natsu sticking like a stain. They were at Kynesgrove, looking exactly like they'd been that day, to the smallest detail. The darkened sky, the black dragon soaring above them, everything was as it had been.
Suddenly she realized that it hadn't been a dream.
It had been a memory of the dragon she had slain.
Lucy recalled the words the dragons had spoken – back then they hadn't made any sense to her, but now they had a meaning.
'Sahklonir, I bind your dragon spirit for eternity. Flesh, Time, Undo', the black dragon had said as he rose the other from the grave. Sahklonir had been his name.
'Alduin, my lord! Has the time come to revive our ancient realm?' Sahklonir had answered, and the understanding brought chills down Lucy's spine.
Alduin the World-Eater.
Lucy sprung up from the bed and lit the candles on the shelves. All clouds had dissipated from her mind despite it being the earliest hour of a day. With haste, she picked up the book Natsu had read yesterday, and brought it closer to candlelight. She had ignored the book before, her focus on the lore of Saarthal, but now her interest was piqued.
She trailed her fingertip on the lines as she read, her quick eyes fixing the grammar errors and finding corrections for misspelt words. The book had been written by a poorly educated commoner who was convinced that Akatosh and Alduin weren't the same thing.
Lucy knew Akatosh as the chief deity of the Nine Divines, the Dragon God of Time – her parents, as many other Nords, believed in the Nine. The lie she had told Gray yesterday had some truth in it. While Father had worshipped Zenithar, the god of work, commerce and trade, Mother stayed loyal to Kynareth.
Lucy had grown up surrounded by faith, but did she ever truly believe in the gods? Had her prayers been just vacuous chants, said out of habit she didn't feel as her own?
Pushing aside her thoughts about religion, she focused on the book. 'But Alduin is a real dragon, with flesh and teeth and a mean streak longer than the White River. And there was a time when Alduin tried to rule over all of Skyrim with his other dragons.' Could that have been what the dragon meant about reviving their ancient realm?
Had the large, black dragon really been Alduin?
She had heard and read a little about the end-time prophecies, but not much. Her parents had tried to protect her from those kinds of stories, not wanting to plant any food for nightmares into her head. Now she wished she had read those books anyway, gathered any bit of information she could find – then she wouldn't feel so lost now.
Lucy finished the book and put it back on the shelf. The memories of the dragon flickered in her mind again, scattered fragments of life the beast had lived, fading as the new day dawned.
Indeed, she had absorbed the dragon's soul, and all that came with it became a part of her own. Yet she could not organize, or even comprehend the contents, maybe one day she would. Maybe the Greybeards would help with that.
Speaking of Greybeards, Lucy realized she hadn't packed her things yet. The dragon sighting yesterday had distracted her from the goal at hand, and she'd spent the night thinking about it. She had stayed on the roof for a while waiting if the dragon would return, but it never did, and the cold drove her back indoors. Natsu had insisted to stay behind for a moment, and Lucy thought he wanted to go through Igneel's notebook without her presence.
Lucy sat on her bed for a moment, wrapping herself into the warm blanket. What should she take with her? It would be best to keep the equipment light. As she had experienced on the way from Helgen to here, even a few books became a burden when carried for a whole day's walk. But, well, if Natsu had asked to carry her books for her yesterday, maybe he could take half of that burden for himself... If asked nicely.
The spell books Lucy had gathered so far were in her bookcase, in their separate shelf. She had seven of them now: Oakflesh, Conjure Familiar, Bound Bow, Clairvoyance, Fast Healing, Sparks and Frostbite. All of them would surely be useful, but as she'd already learned Conjure Familiar and Bound Bow, she decided to leave them in the College. Yet she could sell the spell tomes she no longer needed, she didn't want to. She hoped that one day that case would be full of spells she knew.
A knock on the door made her realize she had stared at the spells for quite a while. Lucy rose and walked across the room, somehow knowing who there was so early in the morning.
"Oh, you're already awake", Natsu said as Lucy opened the door. "Good."
She grinned, stepping aside to make room for the mage and the ghostly cat at his feet. Happy meowed to greet her good morning. "How'd you know you didn't wake me?"
The sun wasn't up yet, only the candles giving light to the room. Everyone else was probably still asleep, and it allowed them to talk more freely about their plans. Though the walls had ears in here, maybe they wouldn't be listening so early on the day.
"Huh? You'd be crankier if I did", he answered and spread a piece of paper on her unmade bed. Lucy scoffed at his comment but had no change to retort as he continued. "Anyway, I brought a map. It took me a while to find it, but I marked the path I planned. Here."
Lucy walked closer as Natsu sat down and put his finger on the top right corner of the map. "This is where we start", Natsu told, trailing his hand along a red line he'd drawn. He stopped at a spot market with an x. "And here's a depleted iron mine. The veins ran dry a decade ago, but it's a good place to spend a night. We'll reach it today."
'A depleted iron mine' sent shivers down her spine, grabbing her stomach into a twisting grip. Though her memories of the first day were cloudy, she would never forget what happened in Embershard mine.
"Hope there's no bandits there", Lucy whispered and swallowed, attempting to cast away the distraught feeling in her guts. Happy bumped his head against her knees before jumping into the windowsill, curling up against the iron bars.
"If there is, we can handle them", Natsu said, grinned and imitated the strike of an axe with his hands. Lucy's stomach twisted at the memory he referred to, goosebumps rising on her skin. "Like when –"
"It wasn't fun!" she hissed, hesitated and lowered her voice. "Still isn't. I killed a person, be a bandit or not, and it will haunt me forever. She had all the rights to live, but I took it away. Her life, her hopes, her dreams…"
Natsu silenced, gazing at her with a sudden seriousness in his dark green eyes.
"Lucy", he started, but paused to consider his words more carefully. "Don't feel bad about it. You know she would've killed you if you didn't kill her first. There's no diplomacy among the outlaws. They speak with violence. If you want to keep your life, you better not let them take it. Because they will if you give them a chance."
Lucy shook her head and pressed her nails into her palms to make the shivering cease.
"But she didn't even attack me. I stood in the shadows when she heard your voice, and then I just… I just killed her before she even detected me."
"And she had a fucking greatsword in her hands. If she would've seen you, you wouldn't be here now."
Lucy knew it. She knew it very well, but it didn't make her feel any better about it. As a defence, her mind has tried to push it aside to the back of her head and bury it so deep she'd never find it, but Natsu's mention about staying in a mine brought it all back. The sound of steel breaking through skin and bone. The hot droplets spraying in her face. The ringing in her ears as she screamed when she opened her eyes.
Yet the blood on her hands had been washed away, the stain of that crime would never fade.
Back in that day, Lucy had wondered how the mage had been so calm, as if he was fine with it. He had burned two men to death, but Lucy didn't blame him. Never had. She knew it painfully well what those men would've done to her if Natsu hadn't killed them. But didn't it bother him? Or did he bury that guilt as she did?
"Well, hopefully we don't cross paths with any bandits", Natsu spoke after a silence. "If anyone tries to pick up a quarrel, we back off. Better avoid all unnecessary trouble for now."
Lucy glanced at him. "Sure you can do that? Avoid all trouble?"
"If the world depends on it, then yes. And it kinda does", he said and shrugged, turning back to the map on the bed. "That's why we're not going by the main road. There's a path that saves us a lot of time, and it goes around here. "
Though she found a strange solace in his words, Lucy still couldn't shake off the unsettled feeling inside of her. If he had planned a safe route, that was fine, but was there such a thing in Skyrim as safety?
The mage moved his finger down the map, to the east of Windhelm. The road they had taken took to the west before changing to the north. "Not many travellers use it 'cause it's a bit challenging to walk, but it means we can be at peace. It takes a lot of energy though, so it's best to stay in Windhelm's inn for that night."
Lucy nodded, the thought granting her a distraction she needed. "Maybe we could visit the marketplace this time."
"Sure", Natsu answered, nodding. "Then there's the volcanic tundra, which means we'll have to camp for a few nights. The caves out there are full of bears and spriggans."
Lucy smiled a bit. "I liked that place. At least it was warm. Better not burn your hands again in a hot spring again."
Natsu chuckled, looking down to hide his smile. "Not one of my brightest ideas indeed. But anyway, I think we'll be in Ivarstead in a week, or even less."
"Sounds great", Lucy replied and smirked. "The villages there can surely give us some tips about climbing the seven thousand steps. Maybe I should get to packing…"
Natsu paid her a quick glance. "Definitely."
Yesterday, when she'd returned from the roof, she had headed to the bathing chambers in the cellar of the tower. Mirajane had told her how the water system worked. The College's sewers and cisterns imitated the pipework of the ancient dwarves, collecting water from the glacial springs deep underground.
Natsu hadn't lied when he said the washing water was always cold. Lucy had found the boilers emptied, and figured warm water was almost like a sweet roll – it existed only for a very short while. After washing herself with a few bucketfuls of frigid water and some honey-scented soap, she hurried back to her quarters and buried herself under many blankets, falling asleep thinking about dragons, leaving her belongings unpacked.
Lucy picked up her empty backpack from the top of the drawer. After packing her unlearned spells, she took a few pieces of spare clothes, especially socks. The travellers passing by her store always bought a new pair of socks, calling it the most important thing. One of the customers had even shown her his blackened, toe-missing foot – such dreadful condition could be prevented by keeping the feet warm, dry, and clean.
Natsu watched as she packed, suddenly commenting, "Whatever Gray has told you, put on all the clothes you have. Layer up. The first days will be the coldest, but after we get below Windhelm, it will get warmer. But it's better to have too many clothes than too little."
"Yeah, I didn't think his intentions of teaching me about Nord's frost resistance were entirely pure", she answered, smiling a bit. Those two mages were like polar opposites, yet ironically. While the frost mage obviously aimed to see her naked, the fire one couldn't care less.
Natsu rolled the map and rose from her bed, walking to the door. "And if anyone asks who we are, we are cousins on a way to our grandfather's nameday party. The destination may vary though, depending on where we are."
Lucy raised her brow, giving him a quizzical glance. "Cousins?"
"Any better ideas for a cover-up story?"
She chuckled as she continued putting her clothes into the bag. "I see you're taking this very seriously, but I don't think we'll need to lie to anyone."
"There's nothing more curious than a small-town granny, you'll see. I'm actually convinced that most elders are just some Imperial spies. They ask for a little chat, but suddenly dig up every little detail about your life."
Lucy couldn't help but wonder where was the boy who had played with fire? His recklessness was gone, or at least heavily suppressed. Yet the change in his behaviour was respectful, the fact that he'd changed only after she was revealed to be the Dragonborn bothered her somehow.
He had given up avenging his best friend's death to help the Dragonborn, not her. Even if she'd asked, he wouldn't have stayed. Because Lucy, a merchant's daughter who wanted to be a mage, wasn't as important as the only one who could slay the dragons.
"We're just travelling mages. That's all people need to know", Lucy stated, grinning as she realized a fault in his logic. "Besides, calling us cousins isn't smart. We're different races, you little half-elf."
Natsu stared at her for a moment. "Oh shit, you're right. I totally forgot about that... Either I overthink or don't think at all it seems. There's no in between…"
Lucy smiled, finding it almost cute. Funny, at least.
Happy finished his nap, rising up and stretching his back on the windowsill. He meowed and jumped down on Lucy's drawer, pushing his face into her hands. His whiskers tickled her skin.
"Though, people have crossbred since the dawn of time, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad idea", Lucy reassured, hoping he didn't feel completely stupid now. "I've heard of a Nord man who married an Orc, and I bet their child would look a bit… different."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Flustering, Lucy realized he had understood it so very wrong.
"Nothing", Lucy said as she lifted the cat into her arms, quickly switching the subject before he'd get any more wrong ideas. "I wish he could come with us."
Natsu stayed silent for a moment, watching as Lucy stroked Happy's ghostly fur.
"I've wished the same many times, but he's bound here with magic", he said then. "Maybe one day that spell can be broken. He'd make a good addition to our team."
"Or maybe he could be made yours?" Lucy asked, turning to look at him. "If your brother would give up the contract with Happy and pass it to you. Does it even work like that?"
Natsu shrugged. "Gotta ask him if we ever meet again. But until that, Happy stays in the College. And I don't know if he'd be any help in a fight…"
"Would you be helpful in a fight?" Lucy asked the cat, softening her voice into cooing. Happy answered with a cheerful meow. "Of course you would. Natsu, could you teach him to breathe fire?"
He held back a laugh. "What?"
"It would be perfect. Just a cute little kitty, not a big threat… and then he'd just roar fire like a dragon."
"I bet I'll be breathing fire before I can teach that cat anything. He's as rock-headed as me."
Lucy smiled shortly. "Oh, that I can believe", she said and rubbed the cat's head. "That I can believe… Was I supposed to be packing?"
"Yeah, you were. But take your time. I'll go eat something, so come find me in the dining hall when you're ready to go."
Happy began to squirm in her hold as the mage opened the door. As much as the cat seemed to like her, he still preferred Natsu's company over hers. Sighing, Lucy crouched and released him. The mage and his cat went to the hallway, leaving her alone for a moment.
Yesterday, when she returned from the roof, Lucy bumped into Mirajane. The master wizard had been busy organizing the trip to Saarthal and apologized for the lack of proper touring. When Lucy told her it was alright, that Natsu already showed her around, Mirajane had instantly scolded the fire mage for forgetting to tell her many important things. For example, there was a closet on the upper floor from which the apprentices could borrow clothes. Lucy had found some nice and warm outfits there to wear underneath a mage's robes.
And as Mira had observed her carrying all those clothes to her quarters, she had asked if she'd join the novices on tomorrow's excavation. Gray hadn't been the only person she'd have to explain her absence to, and Lucy decided to tell her the same lie. Mirajane had been understanding – she just told her to be careful. She could attend all the missing classes once she'd return from her journey, and it made her feel a bit better about leaving.
As Lucy folded a wool shirt, her thoughts circled back to the events of the iron mine. If Natsu hadn't brought that up, it would've stayed snug and comfortable in the back of her head, perfectly out of reach. Her fingers clutched into the soft fabric, almost like mistaking it into a handle. Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, but the image wouldn't fade.
Counting coins had been all her hands had done so far, until that day. She'd been innocent, never hurting anyone, never doing anything bad. Picking a few locks and stealing a few meads weren't even comparable with taking someone's life.
And now the very same, innocent hands had killed an immortal dragon – and would most likely have to do it again.
'Will I ever be at peace with being a killer?'
The thought which Natsu used to justify his own homicides didn't resonate with Lucy. She understood it, but couldn't there be any other way? Why did violence have to be the only option for solving conflict? People had tongues to speak with, goddammit. Why couldn't they just talk through their differences, compromise, persuade, even intimidate instead of bloodshed?
When a dragon breathed ice or fire, it was speaking in their ancient and powerful language. A battle between two dragons was actually a deadly verbal debate – then why couldn't humans do the same?
Well, most humans weren't dragons like her.
Lucy pressed her face into the shirt to calm her rapid breathing.
'I did what I had to. Just because I've killed someone doesn't make me a killer…' she tried to assure herself, immediately realizing the fault in her logic. 'It doesn't make me a bad person. Killers are bad. I'm not that… am I not? Gods, I shouldn't be focusing on this. What's done is done.'
Lucy lowered the shirt on her bed, sitting down next to it. She stared blankly at her hands, her thin pale fingers trembling helplessly.
'I want to go home. I know I can't, but I wish I could. I wish I could see you again, Mom, for you'd hug me and tell me I'm not a killer, not a monster, that I'm just Lucy… Your Lucy…'
She suffocated a sob as her vision shifted from her mother's face into a memory so ancient and distant that it couldn't be hers. There was fire – dragonfire – enveloping an old village into smoke and destruction, and fangs as sharp as scythes harvesting men, women, even children as small as mere babies.
The memories of Sahklonir, so vivid she could almost taste the human blood on her tongue.
And she was distraught after killing just one bandit? Sahklonir had killed thousands, and now she had to remember it all, take it as a burden of her own – whether she'd want it or not. Whether she'd be strong enough to carry it to the end or not.
'I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to be a Dragonborn. Why me? Mom, why me?'
When she had sat in the damp, cold forest after fleeing her burning hometown, she'd held onto a naïve hope of a new life growing from the ashes of the old. There had been an optimistic opportunity indeed – she'd been saved by a mage from the College of Winterhold, a promise of a future she had always dreamt of. And yet she'd dreamt of a happy adventure, she never dreamt of this, her foolish illusion now shattering into million pieces.
She had crossed over into a realm she could never come back from.
Sahklonir's memory played on like a haunting ghost she couldn't banish away. She viewed the fields and forest of Kynesgrove through a dragon's eyes, heard the screams of the miners as they fell on the beast's teeth and talons. Two mages fighting a despairing, futile battle, their spells and arrows dispelled by impermeable scales, as insignificant as mere insects, something to wipe out of existence so the dragons could dominate the world once again.
The joy of slaughtering humans turned into annoyance as one of them climbed into his back, stabbing him with a blade as small as his tiniest tooth. Though it stung, it did nothing but feed his bloodlust for exterminating this pathetic human race.
But then an arrow pierced through his wing.
And then his throat, tearing apart his lungs, with fire fleeing from the open, bleeding wound.
The beast turned his head towards a small girl, who stood there as fierce and strong as a dragon herself, only lacking wings and scales. Right then he realized who she was – the human he'd mocked had been one of his own kind, a dragon born in the body of a mortal.
And she was there to deliver his end.
Staggered by the strength and intensity of the memory, Lucy's head felt like bursting as her arrow struck the dragon's skull. She couldn't help but scream, the vision disappearing as she stared herself right into the eyes, the bow in her hands fading back into Oblivion as Sahklonir died.
The dragon had died afraid – afraid of her.
Her body broke in cold sweat, though her neck and head were on fire. Now she barely recalled having the same experience when she had absorbed the dragon's soul, but she had collapsed from confusion back then.
If her mind hadn't fully processed it when it happened, could it be the reason why she'd have to relive it now?
"Lucy?" she heard Natsu's voice from outside the door, bringing her back to the present moment. "You okay?"
She was more than glad that he'd come to snap her out of the frightening vision – she wasn't sure to which lengths she would've been ready to go to stop it. She collected her breath, wiping the tears and sweat from her face.
"Yeah", Lucy muttered, quickly figuring an excuse for her sudden scream. "There… There was a spider on the floor."
"Yuck. You killed it already?"
"No, it… It escaped."
"Shit. Hope it doesn't grow too big while we're away."
"Or make a nest in my clothes."
"Fuck, almost reminds me of the time when –"
"Tell me later", Lucy told him, her body still trembling from terror. "I'm about ready. No need to shout through the door."
The mage walked in, fully ignoring her request. Why hadn't he locked the door? He closed it again, leaning against the wood.
"You know, our house was near the marshlands where lived thousands of frostbite spiders. The big, nasty ones with too many eyes. Usually they didn't come to our backyard because we had many dogs scaring them away, but once a very small one managed to sneak in", he started and crossed his arms on his chest. "It made a nest into a hole in the floor, and sometime later those little shits were everywhere. Mom wanted to burn the whole house to the ground when she found out."
Lucy glanced at him, glad he didn't pay attention to her shivering, or the trails of tears on her cheeks. Or if he did, Lucy was sure he'd be convinced it was because of the non-existent spider. "How did you get rid of them?" she asked.
"Dad poured some vinegar and crushed nightshades in the nest, which did the trick. He also told me to catch frogs and bring them in, so they'd eat the remaining spiders", Natsu told and snickered. "I tried to catch them all day, pissed off about how dad put me to do that. I had to crawl in mud after the damn frogs, and my hands got all slimy as fuck catching them. I got about ten frogs in a bucket, and I hid one in my parents' bed as revenge. The screams of 'Natsu!' were incredible. No wonder why mom went crazy."
A faint smile appeared on Lucy's lips. Though she had no idea what his house and family had looked like in reality, she could vividly imagine that happening. And she'd so much rather imagine a boy chasing frogs than a dragon slaughtering children.
"Raising you must've been nerve-wracking sometimes", she said quietly, her smile fading.
"Sure was", the mage answered, suddenly crouching and peeking under the bed. "Luckily I was good at hiding in a closet."
Lucy fell silent as she observed how the mage crawled on the floor, his purpose unclear to her.
"What are you doing?" she asked then, chuckling.
"Searching for the spider", he answered, lifting his head from the ground to look at her. "Don't want the same thing to happen to you. Better kill it with fire before it lays eggs."
If they were in such a hurry to leave, then why'd he waste time in that – especially when there hadn't even been a spider?
"Let's decide it went into Gray's room…" Lucy said and went to her nightstand to pick up her journal and writing supplies.
The mage rose from the floor, her lie making him give up the search. "Serves him right to wake up wrapped in a web", he grinned.
It was easy to imagine his mischievous laugh if he'd find Gray caught in a spider's web. However, Lucy had a feeling that Natsu wouldn't just watch him desiccate there – he'd probably mock the ice mage for a while, but eventually help him out. Natsu didn't seem like a guy who'd let his fellow apprentices die, even if they were enemies.
"Well, I'm ready to go now", Lucy told after packing her journal, turning to him. "I'll just eat breakfast and get dressed first… And hey, speaking of spiders, would you like to tell me how you almost got eaten by one?"
Lucy remembered him mentioning that was how he'd got the large scar on his side, but he never told how'd he got into that situation, or how'd he survive it. Yet spiders were disgusting creatures, she didn't fear them as much as she feared her own thoughts now.
If anything could keep her from falling into Sahklonir's memories again, it would be great.
"That's going to take a while to be told", Natsu said as he opened the door for her.
Lucy smiled, walking into the hallway. "And we've got a long journey ahead of us."
A forest of snow-covered pines and spruces hid away the two weary travellers.
Natsu sat on a mossy rock, chewing a piece of dried meat and rubbing his aching shins. This was their last stop before reaching the city. The silhouette of Windhelm laid against the dimming sky, a sign of a warm meal and well-deserved rest. That thought always helped to push through the last hour, though his legs screamed for him to never carry on after this stop.
The first day was always the easiest – the thrill of a new adventure stifled the tiredness, the warmth of home still lingering on the traveller's skin. But the first night in the wilderness reminded how harsh it was to be on the road. Though they had reached the iron mine early before the sunset, Natsu hadn't caught much sleep. It took some time to adjust to the cold, and the howling of the wolves at night which had woken him up too many times.
Finished eating the meat, he took a drink from a waterskin. His throat felt dry from talking so much – Lucy had wanted to hear a story after a story, and when Natsu asked her to tell something instead, she'd just shaken her head and told her life wasn't interesting enough for him to hear. Natsu didn't quite believe it – what was exciting for her, was dull and normal for him and vice versa, but he respected his choice of not opening up about her life before.
She had been strangely quiet ever since they left the College, her bubbliness suddenly gone. Whatever she was going through, Natsu didn't want to pressure her to talk about it. He was content enough to have her laugh at the funniest parts of his stories. Maybe she just saved the energy for training instead of speaking.
Lucy stood next to him, notching another arrow on the string of her bow. She had been practising through their every break, and there was no end to her enthusiasm in sight. Even though she balanced her training by casting spells while they walked, and shooting with her bow meanwhile her magicka restored, exhaustion was something she had to keep an eye on. Sometimes excitement made one ignore the signs of fatigue.
Compared to yesterday, today had been far from easy. As Natsu had said, the faster route was barely a path. Most of the time there wasn't any, and they had to walk on wherever surface their feet didn't slip on. Halfway through the day, the frozen plains ended where a thick, endless-seeming forest began. Many times Natsu questioned why in Sheogorath's name he'd chosen to go there, but the absence of other travellers reminded him of the perk of his insane plan.
He was damn sure he'd buy a bottle or two of warm mead when they'd reach Windhelm.
"Look! A rabbit!"
Lucy's muffled shriek made Natsu turn his gaze away from the sky. In the direction where her arrow pointed bounced a small rabbit, as white as the snow. Lucy released the fully drawn string, but the arrow missed, and the creature ran back into the bushes it had come from.
"Damn", Lucy muttered, running to pick up her arrow. "I'm not a fan of rabbit stew, but I wanted to see how the paralysis spell works."
Despite her industrious training, she hadn't caught anything living yet. Lucy mentioned yesterday that she didn't want to use living creatures as her targets unless she needed to kill them for food. She was convinced that some hunted the foxes, rabbits and goats only for the fun of it, leaving their kills for the vultures.
However, if she wanted to experience her bow's enchantment in action, she needed to shoot on something else than dead trees.
"You better try it on something bigger", Natsu advised as Lucy returned with her arrow, nocking it on the string. "One shot is enough to kill a rabbit, so the spell wouldn't be very useful."
Lucy smirked and turned her bow towards him. "Wouldn't you mind demonstrating it for me?"
Playfully frowning, Natsu stared at her while chewing the meat. It took him a while to swallow it, allowing him to speak again.
"You mean shooting me?"
"Just a scratch."
Natsu chuckled. Lucy's dark sense of humour was slowly starting to reveal below her sweet-tempered endeavour. He raised his hands to the level of his shoulders, and pretending to be shot, he froze his limbs and fell down from the rock into the snow.
"Like this?" he asked.
"Yeah, just like that."
Natsu laid in the frozen ground for a while, letting his tired spine stretch as he watched the clouds floating on the purple sky. Crows sang their discord songs in the trees before flitting from their perches, flying across the treetops in Natsu's vision. He chuckled, suddenly remembering how he used to think as a kid that the crows had drunk lots of booze, thus giving them their raspy voice, like dad had.
Though he'd liked to rest there a moment longer, the cold began to creep through his cloak into his bones, forcing him to get back up.
"I'm gonna take a leak", Natsu grunted as he rose from the ground, wiping snow from his black robes. "Be back in a moment."
He wasn't sure if Lucy even registered, her focus on aiming her bow to the perfect spot in her target tree. Shrugging, Natsu headed into the forest.
He stopped in front of a dead pine, beginning to unlace his trousers as his fingers froze. He couldn't shake off the unsettling feeling of being watched, and he was pretty sure he'd walked far enough from Lucy.
Then an arrow flew past his head, whistling as it struck the tree.
"Damn you, Lucy!" he shouted and glanced back, the playfulness in his tone hiding his slight annoyment. "Careful with that –"
He dodged fast as another arrow flew straight at him – a bit too late. The tip tore through his robes, scratching his shoulder and then falling to the ground. Natsu grit his teeth at the burning pain stinging on his skin, blood flowing down his elbow.
For a split second he thought Lucy had gone insane and flipped, but then he realized that a shot from her bow would've paralyzed him already.
Swearing silently, he grabbed his shoulder and cast a quick healing spell to slow down the bleeding. His eyes searched the darkening forest, rapidly looking for where the arrow had come from – or the one who'd shot it. He turned to the right, his breath coming to a halt.
There stood a dark figure between the trees.
A figure with a fully loaded bow pointing at his head.
When confusion attempted to freeze his limbs, his instincts took over, forcing him to roll sidewards right before the stranger shot again. Quick as a snake, he got up and sprinted closer – a distance was an archer's advantage he wouldn't grant. He formed a fireball in his hands and threw it at the figure, but his spell dissolved into the stranger's magical ward.
"Hey! What the fuck do you want?" Natsu shouted. "Can't a man take a fucking piss in peace, you sick stalking fuck!?"
Backing off after dispelling his fire, the stranger halted and gazed at him for a second, as if something was wrong. Had they mistaken? Shot a person instead of a deer, or what? Why'd they just stand there, not saying a word if that was so?
Not understanding why they'd stopped, Natsu took a brief look at the attacker – black robes with no recognizable symbols, their figure short and small. A large hood veiled their face, hiding whatever intentions they had, and they intended not to tell.
"Look, I don't want any trouble, so we can just let this pass if –"
Then stranger pulled a dagger from their belt, drawing their arm far back into a strike, not giving Natsu any time to react – he'd given them a chance to back off, but they hadn't taken it.
They'd take his life instead.
But he wouldn't let them.
Suddenly, the attacker's movement came to a perfect stop as green, faint light enveloped them. Their limp, frozen legs gave up and the dagger fell from the opened fingers.
'Lucy's paralysis spell.'
Natsu caught the attacker's falling dagger from the blade, spun it around to grab it from the hilt and pushed the stranger against the closest tree. Locking their body down with his bleeding arm, he swung the dagger forward with his other hand, the strike landing into their neck through the gate of collarbones.
As the sharp blade sunk into the attacker's flesh, Natsu got to stare right into their large, pitch-black elven eyes as life fled them – eyes he somehow knew.
Natsu held the light body tight as he pulled the dagger from their neck, turning his face away as blood sprayed from the wound. The attacker gasped for breath, whimpering in pain with a voice so high and soft it could only belong to a young woman. The green light around her vanished as the paralysis spell wore off. Her trembling hands rose to her throat, pressuring the bleeding wound as Natsu let her go.
The woman dropped to the ground and curled to her side, an arrow sticking from the middle of her back. Natsu's stomach twisted as he watched the pool of blood spreading in the snow beneath her neck. He had missed the artery, leaving her to linger instead of a quick and clean death.
The snow crunched behind him as steps closed in – Natsu didn't need to look to know it was Lucy. Silence fell as she stopped to stare at the macabre sight. If not for her quick reaction, it would be him bleeding on the snow instead. Natsu would thank her later, but now he felt way too empty to say anything.
Still failing to calm his shocked heart, he put his foot on the stranger's throat and rolled her around. Her hood fell down, revealing her amber curls. Weighing down the wound with blood soaking on his boot, he locked eyes with the woman again.
"What the fuck was that for?" he asked quietly, the pauses between his words long and intimidating.
She just smiled, that damn wicked bitch.
"Natsu", he heard Lucy say behind him. "She's…"
"G-guess I… under… e-estimated y… you", she stuttered, couching blood. It flowed down on her chin as a thin trail, and colour escaped her light brown skin. "A b-boy too… p-pretty to be a… killer, I thought… I thought…"
Though her dark eyes grew unfocused, she kept her gaze locked with Natsu's to her last breath. Natsu stepped away from her as her eyes finally slipped closed, her suffering coming to an end – but the emptiness in his chest stayed.
"What happened?" Lucy asked, gently touching his wounded shoulder. "You're hurt?"
"Just a scratch", Natsu said, shoving away her hand. "I just don't understand. Out of nowhere, she just…"
Lucy looked at the woman's face, the twists of pain now melted away from her features. "She was in Fort Amol. The one who tried to seduce you."
The woman was a Wood Elf for sure, judging from her small shape. He had just thought of them to be better archers. "She was?" Natsu asked, his memory from that day clouded by his drunken state.
"Guess she didn't take rejection too well…"
His brow furrowed as he tried to remember. Rejection? She'd been the one who'd sat in his lap, mistaken his talk about his scars for something else?
"Now I remember… But it couldn't be that. That'd be just stupid. Besides she found someone else to warm her bed for the night, so…"
Natsu crouched by the still-warm corpse, pulling her over to go through the pockets of her black robes. He found a piece of paper and a small, blue bottle. He spread the paper on the snow only to find the text inked in black, any clue it had held now gone.
"Damn", he cursed and stood up. Pain shot through his shoulder – though the cut hadn't been deep, arrow wounds were always the fucking worst. "This just doesn't make any sense."
It had all happened so fast that his mind couldn't fully follow, his thoughts running in desperate circles of trying to figure out why'd someone want to kill him. Besides, why had she hesitated for a moment before drawing her dagger? Something was wrong, and Natsu couldn't grasp what it was, and it wrecked his nerves.
"What's this?" Lucy said, lifting a backpack from behind a rock. She opened the bag and pulled a black robe from it, giving it to Natsu. His eyes widened at the sight.
"That's a magic-blocking rope", he said, familiar to the enchantments woven into the fabric. "The Imperials used this kind of when they captured me and Igneel. Could it be…"
"She tried to capture you?"
It could've been her intention. Was she an Imperial spy? Could the Legion still be after him, even after Ulfric had pardoned his crimes? But she was a Wood Elf and had all the reasons to hate the Empire, so it couldn't be the case.
"Us", Natsu said suddenly. "Now I get it. Fuck, it's even worse than I thought."
Lucy gave him a long, anxious gaze. "What?"
There was only one thing it could be.
"The Dark Brotherhood", he whispered. "They're after us. For sticking our head into their territory, that Aretino boy thing. They're pissed. She was probably their associate… Not a full ledged member… Probably sent her to capture us and take to them…"
Lucy swallowed, guilt dancing in her eyes. It had been her idea, and if she thought there wouldn't be any consequences, she'd been mistaken. Almost deadly.
"What makes you think she's not a full member of the Brotherhood?" Lucy asked silently, looking at the blood-stained clothes the woman wore.
A painful lump coalesced in his throat, making it near impossible to form any words. He just stared at the person he'd just killed, and couldn't recall ever feeling as bad afterwards as now. He squeezed the rope in his hands, its braids blocking the flow of magicka in his blood which now ran so damn cold.
"If she was, she wouldn't have failed."
The darkness began to fall into the forest. Lucy picked up the small blue bottle Natsu had tossed away, investigating it in the last rays of the sun which filtered through the trees.
"Natsu", Lucy said suddenly. As he turned his head towards her, she crouched by the woman's corpse, pulling an arrow from her quiver. Its tip was dipped in dark liquid, and so was done to every other arrow. "This bottle, I think…"
"What?"
She took a deep breath before she spoke.
"It's poison."
A/N: Hi guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Had a fun time writing some action after months of getting stuck in characters walking across the room.
I've got a lot of thought-work done for this fic lately. First, I'm going to replace Haming with Loke. I had planned different storyline for Loke, but decided my new plan would fit his character better. So, a lumberjack in Helgen had two sons - Haming being the oldest, and Loke the younger, and Loke was Lucy's best friend. I'm going to edit this in the story, but a little head's up for you.
Second, I decided that this AU will span over three books. Yes, it's going to be a trilogy! Each of the three books is going to be around 375-500k long, and it will probably take me a decade to write it, but hopefully I can do it. At least my inspiration is never-ending, and I'm more than thrilled to get to share this story with you guys. Hopefully you'll stick with me 'til the very end of this story. I have the name for the second book decided, but not for the third, even though I have outlined the story for it already.
Third, once this is ready, I'm going to press it into a real book, but due to copyright reasons I can only make a few copies of it, and not publish it to make any profit of it. It's not that I'd even want to profit from this - I'm writing this for the pure enjoyment of writing this story - but I really want to have a copy of this story in my own bookshelf. I'm also working on illustrating some scenes, so I'm hoping I can have it illustrated as well when I have this finished.
Thanks for reading and supporting! 3
