Chapter 2: Ambush!
It was a beautiful day. The air was crisp, and cool, and there were few clouds allowing for sunlight to warm the earth. It was peaceful, and quiet, the silence was only interrupted by the sound of footsteps over the snow as a figure walked.
"Skyrim is beautiful," He said to himself as he admired the view. Suddenly the wind picked up, and something caught his eye.
'What in oblivion is that?' He thought as he noticed something strange in the sky. Dark clouds spiraled, and something fell out, followed by another. He squinted to better see what they were. 'It looks like... a person? Are they people? That's impossible.' Curiosity overtook him, and he began running toward the area where whatever he was seeing would land.
As he ran he glanced up to see that while the sky had returned to normal, they kept falling. He stopped to catch his breath, but kept his eyes on them. The two came together as one falling object, then he saw a bright light as it stopped in mid-air. Whatever he was seeing began falling again though much more slowly. He started running again towards where it would land as he lost sight of it.
When he got there, whatever had fallen was not there. He examined the snow, noting how it was disturbed as if something had fallen; from this place were two sets of footprints. 'Did someone really fall from the sky?' He thought bewildered. Curious, he decided to investigate.
They had been walking for only a short while in silence before Arliss got used enough to the area to return to his usual, talkative self. "These flowers could prove to be aught of use. Shall we take them?" He asked as he stopped to gather some without waiting for a response. The Arisen stopped and watched him a moment afore joining him. "They come in an assortment of vivid colors. Mayhap they could be used for different things." He noted aloud.
"Let's go Arliss." Said the Arisen once they had gathered all the mountain flowers in the area. "There should also be a village or some other settlement around here." She glanced at the sky. "We aught to find one afore dark." It looked like it was still pretty early, but considering that they didn't know anything about wherever they were, she didn't want to take any chances. She knew from experience that night's were dangerous.
"Hm? What's that? This looks interesting." Along the way things easily caught Arliss' attention, and he often pointed them out, and picked things up. This had slowed their pace, but since most of the things he picked up seemed useful she let him continue, and even joined in when something seemed particularly interesting.
'They came this way,' He thought to himself as he followed the footprints.'They stopped here.' He glanced at the bushes around him, and stepped closer to one of them to examine it. The bushes were missing flowers, only the buds remained, furthermore he could see where there were clear, recent cuts. 'They were here, they stopped to pick these, then left.' He glanced back to where the footprints led, and with renewed vigour he followed them at a quicker pace than before.
"Come on Arliss." She interrupted him from his gathering. "That's enough for now, let's try to find some people or-" Swiftly she spun around drawing her bow, her eyes scanned the area warily. Arliss was also alert, he had his staff ready, and was already preparing an incantation. A magical sigil appeared between them, enveloping them with its spellscreen. She felt it's effects instantly. It was a good call on his part as it would enhance their attributes, without running the risk of being ineffective due to choosing the wrong element for the wrong foe. 'I'll have to praise his good work later.' She thought to herself with a small smile as she shot an arrow at a bush a ways back. The sound of a 'thunk' resounded as it passed through the brush and hit something. With blades drawn she moved quickly, yet cautiously.
"What do you see Arisen?" Arliss followed staff in hand, he was prepared to attack anything should it pose a threat, or if the Arisen willed it. One hand held up a dagger defensively as she used the other to move the bushes aside. It was a tense moment before she sighed, sheathed her blades, then turned to Arliss, and shook her head in reply. "There was naught?" He asked in disbelief. Her senses were keen, she was usually right about these kinds of things. 'Mayhaps she's a bit jumpy from spending so long in that place? It's been so long since she's had to be cautious that now she's on edge.' He speculated. "Are you alright Master?" He asked concerned.
"I'm fine Arliss." Though she wasn't entirely sure. There was naught there, save for the arrow she shot which was now embedded in a tree. Twas nothing, yet she had felt as if they were being watched. She could still feel the tense tingling sensation on the back of her neck as if someone was watching, following. 'Are we being followed?' A feeling of dread came over her. What if someone saw us fall? How would we explain ourselves?' She then tried to calm herself. 'I must be overthinking it. It must be the nerves.' She rationalized. Feeling a bit better she went up to the tree retrieving her arrow. "Let's go now."
"Yes Master, right away." They left with a quickened pace. "We must move cautiously Master, after all I think that may not have been naught." Upon hearing this she tensed a bit and looked at him questioningly, her face a mixture of unease and confusion. He continued. "You're very sharp, and your senses are keen. If you think aught was there, most like you're right."
She sighed. "That's actually what worries me." Arliss listened attentively. "It would have been better if I was wrong." When she said this Arliss tried to calm her by rationalizing the same way she had earlier. At this point she wasn't sure whether she should be relieved that he also thought she could be wrong, or not because she might be paranoid.
'That was close.' A figure crouched hidden in the shadows of the foliage. Following the footprints at his pace he managed to catch up with them. 'They really are people, they really fell from the sky.' He thought to himself when he saw the two figures who he had been following. As he got closer he could see it was a man and a woman, and even though they were one of the human races something about them was different from anyone he's seen before. Something besides the fact that they fell out of the sky. The two were speaking about something, and curious he inched forward his full attention on trying to hear what they were saying when the woman whipped around with her bow drawn.
'By the Nine!' He mentally berated himself.
Immediately he was on the move; sneaking to another spot as quickly and quietly as possible, trying not to disturb even the leaves. Luckily for him she didn't shoot right away, so he had time to get to another area. Upon hearing a strange noise he turned to see a bright light envelop them, the man was holding up his staff which was glowing. Upon receiving the effects of the magic the woman loosed an arrow at where he had been watching a moment ago, then they both went to check it out. They moved surprisingly quickly, but he had already found another hiding spot. He was glad for the lack of snow since they would have found his tracks, then he would be in a bad situation.
Rather than hiding he would have prefered to see if he could speak with them before resorting to violence. 'If only I had a weapon and armor, I could confront them.' The two began leaving quickly as if they were in a hurry, he followed, but was careful to not follow too closely. For a moment he questioned his actions wondering what it was that compelled him to follow them so much. 'Whatever it is I hope it doesn't get me into too much trouble.'
The same feeling kept nagging at her from the back of her mind and wouldn't go away. She regretted not being a bit more thorough with their search earlier. The suspicion left her continuously looking over her shoulder making her a bit less aware of what was ahead. Arliss however was alert and would let her know if he saw something, soon enough he did.
"What do you make of that Arisen?"
She looked to where Arliss motioned to. There were people, two groups of people. The first group wore mostly blue clothing with a bit of fur, and appeared to be traveling. The Second group wore something that seemed familiar. They were wearing red leather armour, she recalled how some bandits wore such armour. Furthermore she could tell that they were planning an ambush.
"Bandits, and it looks like they're planning to attack those people." Arliss nodded in agreement of her observation and looked to her to see what she wanted to do. 'What luck, running into such an opportunity! Saving them, will get us in their graces, which will make things easier for us.' The people in blue still haven't noticed the bandits, but they could strike at any moment so they would have to hurry. Recalling that red leather armour had resistance to fire and sometimes lighting she spoke up. "Arliss, enchant my weapons with ice. Take caution in this battle as well, their armour may be resistant to fire and lightning."
"Understood," He said as he cast Ice Affinity on the Arisen. A small bluish ball of light floated to her, and as it touched her it covered her daggers and bow in it's icy cold magic, making them as frost. Immediately she was on the move, and so were the bandits who were beginning their assault. She pulled out her bow and loosed an arrow hitting a bandit with deadly accuracy, a few of his comrades near him noticed and looked to the source. One of them took out his own bow and aimed at her, she dodged his arrow and shot one of her own.
'You aught not be still while facing an archer,' She thought as the icy arrow pierced the man's chest. 'As a fellow marksman you should have known.' The sound of an angry bandit's war cry pulled her attention as four bandits began rushing at her. The first was a warrior equipped with a great sword, he charged at her with his large weapon aimed straight ahead. She managed to avoid it by rolling to the side before he could stab her, as soon as she did a fighter came from the side prepared to slash at her with his sword.
"Take my fire!" A familiar voice called out, and the fighter was sent back by a large fireball. The bandits whose attention was on the Arisen a moment ago turned to the mage who now stood before them. The fighter got up angrily, shooting Arliss a deathly glare; his shield had saved him from being burned, and even mitigated some of the damage of the impact.
"He's mine!" Yelled the fighter to his comrades as he moved towards Arliss. The sound of an anguished cry got their attention back to the Arisen who had taken the opportunity to kill one of their own while they were distracted. "You two take care of her!" The fighter told them as he turned back to the mage. "Now, where were we mage!" He spat as he lunged forward. Arliss leapt back to avoid his attack, the fighter attacked with a flurry of slashes which Arliss dodged as best he could. "You can't dodge forever!" Knowing he was right Arliss whacked him with his staff, stunning him momentarily. Using his chance he pulled out a foreign knife and threw it at him. Having been so close he hit easily where he needed to; right between the eyes. The fighter fell dead, and Arliss quickly grabbed the knife before joining the Arisen.
Having just been saved by a fireball she recognised as Arliss' Ingle, she quickly regained herself, going back on the offensive. While the bandits were distracted by his entrance she drew her daggers and dashed past one with her blades extended, slicing his stomach. He cried out and keeled over, holding his wound desperately before he bled out and died. They turned back to her and the fighter yelled at them to kill her while he fought Arliss. The other two began coming after her, and she found herself faced with the warrior again, as well as a woman wielding an axe in each hand.
The woman charged at her first, swinging the axes ferociously. The Arisen had to perform a few rolls in succession in order to avoid being hit by the crazily swinging axes. She hadn't faced such a chaotic vocation before and wasn't sure how to deal with it, so she focused on avoiding her attacks. The woman continued chasing her while frantically swinging like a mad woman, and the warrior attempted to slam her with his great sword. They were becoming angrier and more frenzied each time they missed, and she was also getting tired of being on the defensive. Unfortunately whenever she tried to switch tactics to attack one of them the other would cover for them making things more difficult, and she would have to go back to dodging.
In an unlucky turn of events she found herself winded, her vision awhirl with dizziness as the warrior approached. A heavy kick sent her skidding to the icy ground in a painful heap. As the Arisen began to rise, the crazed axe-woman charged, the Arisen locked frenzied eyes in preparation for a hit which would not come. The axes stopped dangerously close to the Arisen's face, but struggle as she might the woman could not move them any nearer. Seizing her chance to escape she leapt back, narrowly avoiding the warriors attacks. Now that she had distance she could see the black tendrils that saved her life.
For a moment the Arisen marveled in a stupor that vanished when she heard Arliss' voice. "I've hold of one, now strike!" The woman who had been swinging like mad a few moments earlier was now bound by darkness. Arliss had killed the fighter, then snuck over and quietly cast grapnel on her. The Arisen moved quickly, intent on killing the woman, seeing this the warrior tried getting between the two, and swung his great sword horizontally at the Arisen. She leapt over his blade, landed on his head, then kicked off into the air. The woman could only watch as she dived at her from the air, she was unable to even bring up her axes in defense of what was to come. The Arisen spun as she was coming down bringing her blades splitting into the woman's skull. The warrior was stunned a moment afore rage took him.
"You'll pay!!!" He shouted as he ran at the Arisen and brought his large blade crashing down, she leapt back barely avoiding being smashed. His movements didn't stop a moment as he easily lifted it back up, pointed at her with the blade and charged forward. She rolled aside again, but this time he was ready as he spun around, readjusted his grip and prepared a vertical strike.
"High Ingle!" A number of fiery balls hit the warrior and he was knocked back as they exploded. He caught aflame and cried out, however Arliss' attention wasn't on him. As the first fiery projectile exploded on contact the warrior, and the Arisen who had been too close to the ingle's target were knocked back. "Are you alright?" Arliss asked as he hurried to check on her. As she began getting up he could see she had taken a bit of damage but was for the most part unharmed. He then began casting Anodyne. The Arisen looked up her eyes narrowed, she interrupted him from his casting as she spoke in a low, harsh tone.
"Arliss move aside." Her feirce fiery gaze was intense, she held her bow firmly in her hand. Arliss quit casting and moved aside without question as she knocked multiple arrows into her bow, and fired them all at once. They flew past him and he turned as the arrows bored their way into the warrior who had used the snow to put out the fire, and was trying to make his way to them despite being at the verge of death. Not one arrow missed, and the warrior never again moved.
"A single arrow would have sufficed Master," Said Arliss as he began casting Anodyne again. Instead of answering right away she tiredly bent over and huffed to catch her breath. "Please don't overdo it," He said as he finished casting Anodyne, and put his hand on her shoulder. A magical sigil appeared between them as they were enveloped in it's holy light, healing their wounds.
Finally she caught her breath and replied, "Just wanted to be sure." After a moment she turned to him with a smile. "Thanks." He offered his own smile in response and was about to say something when she spoke up. "Tis not over yet, let's go." He nodded and they went swiftly to join the fight.
The Arisen took her daggers and dashed to and fro among the chaos as she killed bandits with her skill, meanwhile Arliss was using a different method of fighting. Since he required a bit of time to make an attack he took to sneaking and hiding while he cast his spells. It was especially effective because of how hectic everything was. With all these people out in the open and getting each others attention they were having trouble noticing him even with all his magic attacks.
After having been healed and covered in another spellscreen by Arliss before joining them the Arisen was now fighting a bit more skillfully. Unfortunately her thoughts were beginning to make it difficult to focus on the battle. She had noticed that the people in blue clothing were actually wearing armour and were fighting fiercely as if they had already been used to battle. At this moment realization struck her. 'I've just gotten us into the middle of a war I know naught about!' As she cut down another bandit or soldier she calmed herself and decided to accept it. 'I can't change it now so I'll just continue. The plan was to help these people and get a place in this world through them anyway. So that's what I aim to do.' She slashed another soldier and steeled her resolve. 'Naught has changed.'
Over time they began tiring out and more enemy soldiers appeared. The people in blue were formidable fighters, but they were outnumbered. Soldiers fell on both sides, but the fallen enemies were swiftly replaced by reinforcements.
A commanding voice resounded. "Take as many as you can alive!"
Many of the soldiers in blue who were weary began getting easily knocked unconscious. The Arisen dashed past a soldier but only left a scratch, he smirked and swung at her. She jumped back, and noting how ineffective her attack was knew she had to do something. At that moment a cry was faintly heard which sounded like someone calling 'Thief!', then someone on a horse tore through the battlefield, passing right between the Arisen and the soldier nearly hitting them. An arrow flew hitting the horse in the heart, and as it fell forward the man on it was thrown off. The momentary distraction caused by this allowed her time to sheath her weapons and pull out her last flask of poison, if she threw it at that soldier it would whittle his health away. She aimed at her target, but before she could throw it someone grabbed her from behind, and before she knew it she was unconscious.
"Master!" Arliss called as he saw the unconscious Arisen being taken by an enemy soldier. Quickly he went up behind the soldier and knocked him out with his staff. 'I must get her out of here!' He thought, as he put his staff away. He picked her up, and tried to make an escape. From the side someone hit him in the head with the hilt of their sword. He felt himself falling, and everything turned to black. 'No,' Was the only thing he could think before he lost consciousness.
From the shadows a pair of eyes studied the battle. He was surprised when the two he had been following suddenly ran right into the middle of a battle, right into an ambush, and began fighting against the Imperials with the Stormcloaks. He recalled how easily they drew their weapons earlier when they almost found him. 'They're pretty aggressive.' He concluded before wondering why they joined one side in the first place. 'Do they know about the war? How much do they know of Tamriel?' He was curious about these mysterious strangers and had a lot of questions he pondered about as he watched the battle, a part of him wishing he had his weapons and armor so he could join in the fun.
They fought impressively and differently from others he's seen before. The woman swiftly, and skillfully weaved through the battlefield; cutting Imperials and avoiding Stormcloaks. The man sneakily went around the battle and would cast spells to attack before falling back to avoid being noticed. 'He's pretty good at making himself scarce.' He noted how even as he watched him he somehow managed to lose him among the chaos even while wearing bright crimson red robes which should have made him easy to spot. They and the Stormcloaks fought well, however there were more imperials than they could hold off. He watched as the imperials began knocking out Stormcloaks to take alive. A horse thief thought he could make it through but was easily knocked off the horse and taken prisoner along with the Stormcloaks. He watched as the woman was taken from behind and when she fell the mage tried to rescue her only to share the same fate. He was disappointed as some of the remaining Stormcloaks surrendered and they began taking them hostage. 'Guess those two will also be taken, pity they were interesting.'
"You there! Surrender now or face the consequences!" The voice of an Imperial soldier interrupted his thoughts. Turning he found a sword pointed at his neck. The soldier began shouting again even louder. "I found another one! There's a rebel here!"
"I'm not with the Stormcloaks." He tried to explain his situation but the Imperial wasn't listening, instead he only eyed him with suspicion. While pointing his sword and holding up his shield he continued to call for reinforcements. "I already said I'm not a rebel! I don't even have a weapon!" More Imperials showed up surrounding him, one of which hit him in the head with the hilt of his blade. 'I probably shouldn't have followed those two.' His eyelids felt heavy and his vision started fading. He looked at the man who found him. 'Just you wait, I'm gonna kill you.'
End of Chapter 2: First I want to thank Venomheart the Dreamer for your advice, I tried to remember it as I wrote this chapter so I hope I improved a bit, and that you enjoyed it.
Note: The attacks Arliss and the Arisen used in this chapter are actual in game skills you can use in Dragon's Dogma.
Next chapter I will properly introduce the main 3 characters of this story, so please stay tuned. :D