A/N: So I have decided to reupload Chapter 1 of Iron and Magic to make it more length and to remove my author's note at the end. Instead of 1,700 ( approx. ) words, there is now 4,000+ words in this chapter. So I hope you enjoy this. I decided to do it after seeing that i felt like i stopped so short after all the juicy bits were coming, so I wanted to extend the length of it. Anyways enjoy the newly redon: Chapter 1.
Pitter and patter as the hard rain hit the trees and the ground below, insects actively making sounds within the cold rain that is pouring. As the downpour grew on and on, animals would take shelter from the unexpected clouds and birds flew back to their nests or under the branches of trees that were nearby. These are the sounds that echo in this region of the province right now. In this region, there stood a lonely manor with wooden pillars lining all around in specific spots around the entry building and the main manor's structure building. In between these pillars were whiten concrete walls lined with double windows and with some of them also being just plain old concrete with a cobblestone and stone foundation. When facing the entrance, which was a simple dirt path that leads to two intricately crafted wooden doors alongside the scones that held a dim of light, was a basic pen house that held animal life on the left and on the right held a crafting area that included an anvil, a workbench, a grindstone and a smeltery. Included in the rightmost portion of area was also a small farm that had grown to have a bountiful harvest for a single individual to live off of and in this farm included: wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, and garlic. Also next to the right of the small manor, stood a large and proud mountain that stretched as long as the manor itself, maybe even longer, alongside with the occasional tree dotting around the small manor.
As you would enter inside the manor, you would be greeted with a small room with an assortment of tables and cases that remained empty alongside animal head mounted plaques that hung from the walls of the small entry building. On the tables were small pots and vases with a broom relaxing on the left side wall closest to the entrance and with a small wooden bench that sat close to the doors. In front was another set of intricately designed wooden doors that led out to the main building of the manor which greeted you with a long table with a white, gold small tablecloth that had a silver, lit candelabras with bottles of wine placed on the long-clothed table with four chairs surrounding it.
Sitting on one of the chairs is a person in a monk's robe. Their slightly arched upwards eyebrows and crystal blue eyes lay concentrated on the meal in front of them. The monk was eating a lean, lightly salted cooked venison chops alongside some boiled leeks and carrots marinated in a nightshade and garlic sauce.
The monk, while eating, thought about today's plans.
"I need to go to Helgen today and recite a prayer for the executees there. Apparently the Empire finally caught Ulfric Stormcloak. I'd say good riddance to a man who has caused nothing but trouble for us."
As the monk finished up their meal, they went up a stairwell behind them on their left that led up to the master bedroom of the manor. When you enter the bedroom, there is a small table with a silver lit candelabra immediately on your left alongside with a large wardrobe with a shelf with an assortment of things on it and under it being a wooden end table. Right next to this end table is a lavishly built bed with a green velvet, silk blanket and adjacent on the other side of the bed is a slightly larger end table with a weapon case able to fit a dagger or small sword placed on top of it with a shelf with two lit silver candles above it and next to the end table is another wardrobe. When facing from the bed, on the left there is another table that has another weapon case for a sword or axe and on the right is a larger wooden shelf with a barrel and knapsack laying next to it.
The monk walks into this room, proceeds to head over to the knapsack in the room and picks it up. The monk heads over to the larger end table and opens it up to find an assortment of different potions and wines. They grab 3 potions of healing, 1 bottle of embershard wine and stuffs them into the sack whilst then opening up the barrel that was near the knapsack, grabbing some salted meat and carrots and putting those into the knapsack as well. The monk made their way towards the left wardrobe and found inside were a steel mace attached to a weapon holder in the wall alongside with steel nordic gauntlets and boots hanging from a leather strap on a hook. The monk took the steel mace and hooked it onto their belt, then started strapping the gauntlets onto their hands and wrists and then finished off but removing their saddles and equipping their nordic steel boots. Once the monk is ready, they went back downstairs and headed out towards the front entrance.
When they exited the manor whilst pulling down their hood, they noticed that the rain had stopped and could see the sun peeking through the clouds and trees as they took in the fresh autumn air. As they were taking in the scenery around them, the monk noticed a young courier hurrying up to them with a knapsack filled to the brim with letters.
"Ah hey Lars. I have some letters for you, let's see," said the courier as he dug through his sack.
Lars stared back at the young man, gave the man a small smile before resuming to his default face and patiently waited for his mail.
A few more seconds went by before the man's voice perked up, "I got it, The letters are one from the priestess from Solitude and another from Whiterun from a... ," gasping in shock. "A letter from a companion!"
"What did someone from the companions want from him?" He thought to himself.
The courier handed the man both letters before taking off and saying, "That is all I have today Lars! It was nice seeing you again but I have many letters to deliver as you can tell."
The monk gave the courier a wave and a smile before heading over to the carriage near his house and greeting the man stationed there.
"Hey Gunjar, how's the day going for you?"
The balding, blonde older man gave the monk a smile and said, "Oh same old, same old you know: Complaining merchants talking about their deals, an old married couple traveling to Cyrodiil and... oh I got a new one for you," he chuckled before saying, "A late 20s monk travelling to Helgen to deliver a prayer to the executees or so I presumed/heard."
Lars gave a hearty chuckle at the last part and then said, "Now that's a new one! Tell how his ride goes."
"Oh I already know how it goes. The carriage driver and the monk have a heart-to-heart conversation on why the monk is not smitten yet lad!" before going into hysterics and the monk just staring at him, slightly frowning.
When Gunjar was done laughing, he looked back at the monk and saw his facial expression and said, "Oh don't look so down boyo. You'll find someone good for ya. Maybe not as good as my Jarla... but you'll find someone."
He scratched his red knotted beard before sighing and heading to the back of the carriage to board it. Once he boarded the carriage, Gunjar signalled his horse to get moving and from there, he was on his way to Helgen
The carriage ride was pretty uneventful, besides the constant berating from Gunjar, at this point and so halfway through the trip, Lars decided to read the two letters he got to pass the time. He decided to read the letter that he was mostly familiar, with which was the one from Solitude, which read the following:
Dear Lars,
It's Freir here. How are you holding up in Falkreath? Have the locals been treating you well? I just wanted to send you this letter to know how you've been holding up recently since I haven't seen you in little over a decade now. Anyways, visit the temple when you're free sometime, Silania has missed you quite a bit since you were the only other younger acolyte around.
Sincerely, with love
Freir
"Damn. Has it seriously been a decade since he's visited it them?" he thought to himself. He made himself a mental note to visit them next time he was in the province of Haafingar.
More time passed as he made his way to Helgen but then in the direction of the town, he saw smoke rising from where Helgen was.
"Hey Gunjar? Isn't that smoke?" questioned the monk.
Gunjar peered and squinted his eyes to see and recoiled in shock when he noticed it was, in fact, smoke but not just any smoke: Black smoke.
At this point they were nearing the town and that's when Lars decided to speak up.
"Gunjar! Stop here. I need to have you stay here just in case." said the monk
"But what about you Lars? What if there's bandits sacking the town? You know you can't take them all on your own." Gunjar exclaimed.
The monk sighed and said, " I know.. But if I can buy the survivors some time to get out while I take them on then I'll be content with visiting sovngarde."
He hopped off the carriage and quickly made his way towards the burning town. When he finally arrived at Helgen's gate, an overpowering stench permeated around. He covered his nose to mask the stench but it was to no avail. He recognized the stench: death.
When he walked inside the western entrance of Helgen, he saw something he'd never seen in his life. The creatures wings were black as night and fresh with the blood of the innocent, It's horns appearing as curved and deadly sharp on its head with his scales looking rough and tough with age and scars lining the body. His piercing pale red eyes looking around as he flew through the air and once he spotted the monk, he landed next to him with his razor sharp claws piercing the ground as he landed.
"Daar joor los med zok, Zu'u koraav." spoke the ancient being.
"Is this a bloody dragon? Was it trying to speak to him?" Lars thought to himself.
"Dovahkiin hi los. Zu'u haalvut nii nu…" the dragon trailing off at the last bit before saying, "You don't know who you are joor? I can feel it."
The monk stood there astonished and gasped in embarrassment when he noticed that the dragon was speaking to him. He replied with, "Um, I don't understand what you mean?"
The grey dragon sighed in annoyance before proceeding with, "While it may be easy to kill you, ahrk kos dreh, I would rather fight you when you're not weak and pitiful. Nii fen kos zok brit med daar…" he trailed off before picking up his wings and flying into the sky.
Lars took in the sight of this and it surprised him how large this dragon truly was. Before the dragon flew off, it had one more thing to say, "Alduin, Los wo zu'u los. Fear it Mortal. Joor. Because when we fight, It'll be the last thing you hear from after I consume your soul. Your sil."
And with that, the grey dragon known as Alduin was gone.
He stood there absolutely dumbfoundead.
"There was no way that was actually a dragon, right? I am dreaming. Yes! That must be it! I am probably still at home, in my bed and about to wake up from this horrible nightmare… right?" he thought to himself
He replayed the scenario over and over in his head before a voice snapped him out of his thoughts and back into reality.
"Hey! Lars! Are you alright?" said a voice
Lars turned around to see that it was just Gunjar who had a rather panicked and concerned look on his face.
"Yea… I am… alright," resting a hand on his face whilst shaking his head, realizing that it wasn't just some horrible nightmare.
"I am guessing whatever flew away from here caused this destruction." sighed the older nord.
"You saw that?" questioned Lars.
"Uh. yeah. it's kind of hard not to see a huge, winged… thing, flying through the skies." replied Gunjar.
"It was a Dragon…" mumbled Lars quietly.
"A what?" said Gunjar.
"It was a Dragon." replied Lars, speaking a little louder.
"By the gods… if that was a dragon…" saying Gunjar while his voice trailing off a bit at the end.
"Then the end times are here and that dragon must've been Alduin: The world eater." said Lars.
The two men stood there flabbergasted by the coming to realization before Gunjar broke the silence, "wait. If there's Alduin… then that must mean that the last dragonborn will come and save us all!" excitedly exclaimed Gunjar.
"That sounds all and nice Gunjar but I think we should think to matters more important right now," said the monk as he surveyed the area around him.
"Right," mumbling defeatly.
"Gunjar, I want you to head to Whiterun and inform the Jarl of this. Riverwood is nearby and could be in trouble if this dragon is flying about. I will stay here and see if I can locate any survivors." said Lars.
Gunjar gave him an affirmative nod as he ran back to his carriage. As Lars looked around, on his left was a destroyed section of the wall and on his right was the ruins of a house and carriage alongside a tower peeking out from the wreckage. He noticed that next to the tower was an inn that still looked structurally sound but still destroyed nonetheless. So he decided to head there first. As he entered inside the Inn, he was met with a scorching corpse on his right and on his left was rubble that crashed down from the second floor. Seeing that it was his only way across, he took a few steps back and took a leaping run forward over the rubble and landed into a roll then leaped back onto his feet. From here he had two ways to go: one on the left and another straight ahead of him. He decided to take the exit on his left which led out to move rubble and debris on his left whilst scorched and still burning destroyed buildings on his right. He proceeded north, passing burning buildings until he saw a small opening on the left and decided to check it out. This alleyway led to another destroyed house which then led to the eastern gate of Helgen. From here he saw three possible points of interest: The eastern gates, the northwestern gates and a stone archway that leads to Helgen's keep.
"Well so far I haven't seen any signs of life. That must mean either worst case scenario: there were no survivors or 2: The survivors ran into Helgen Keep." Lars thought to himself.
Before he could figure out a plausible solution, he heard a soft groan coming from somewhere. He listened closer to get a sense of where exactly it was coming from and figured it to be in a destroyed house on his right. As he walked up to the door and peered inside, he noticed a young nord woman pinned and impaled by a piece of larger debris in the far left corner of the house. He ran over to her and said, "Are you alright?"
He noticed when the woman looked at him, she was very pale and had long raven black hair. It was clear to him that she'd lost a lot of blood already and unless he could remove the debris from her stomach, she would bleed out.
"Ok, I am going to have to remove this debris from your lower abdomen so I can properly heal you ok? When I start pulling," as he reached into his knapsack and pulled a greater health potion out, "I need you to start drinking this." handing the potion to the critically injured woman.
The woman looked at the potion, slowly held up her hand to weakly grasp it and gave him a slow nod in affirmation that she was ready. When he saw this, he grabbed onto the piece of debris and looked at her. When she gave him another nod with the potion near her lips, he violently started pulling the large piece of wood from her lower abdomen. The moment he started pulling, the woman was already drinking the potion and once he finally pulled the piece of wood from her lower abdomen, the potion was completely empty. He placed the jagged wooden piece off to the side and said, "There we go, now I can-" when he turned to face her, she wasn't moving. He quickly reached up to her temples and felt for a pulse. When he felt a weak pulse, he sighed with relief and concluded she must've passed out. He looked up at the sky, noticed that it was starting to become night, so he picked her up bridal style and proceeded to carrying her over to Helgen's keep.
When he entered the keep, he noticed that the part of the keep he had entered was the barracks and so there were beds lined up in an orderly fashion as most Imperial keeps too. So he went over to the closest bed on his left and started to tuck her into bed so that her body temperature could heat up from all the blood lost. Once she was comfortable and re checked her pulse to make sure that she was still alive, he went over to a shelf on the right which held a bottle of wine and a couple of books alongside a wooden table and chairs. Grabbing a book called: Mixed Unit Tactics and taking it over to a bed next to the woman and waiting for her to wake up.
A few hours passed and Lars was starting to feel quite sleepy now and at this point he had his knapsack and mace laying near him on the bed he was on. He was slowly started drifting off to sleep when the sound of someone waking up alerted his presence. He looked over at the bed where the woman and she was now sitting up in bed. She yawned as she rubbed her eyes and took a surveyance of the area and jumped in shock when she saw the unknown man looking at her.
"Who are you!" she said as she tried reaching for a weapon on her.
"Woah! Woah! I am not here to harm you. Calm down please." replied the monk.
The woman peered into his eyes and relaxed a little when she saw no ill-will in them.
"Where am I?" she said as she looked around frantically, "and why am I inside helgen keep?" declared the woman.
"Look, A dragon apparently attacked Helgen. I wasn't here when it attacked but I was supposed to be here as the retaining priest for the executees. When I got here, it was destroyed. everything. " responding to the woman's demand.
The woman thought to herself for awhile before responding with, "so that was what that black winged creature was… I want to say I don't believe you but the fact that I saw it with my own damn eyes, well, I have no objections to what you just said."
The woman tried getting up but soon found herself in pain the moment she tried.
"Look, I just healed you and you just drank a potion a few hours ago. Magic can only do so much, so you're, well, we're going to have to be here for the night until friend can arrive with help." said the monk.
The woman grumbled a bit before saying, "You still haven't answered one of my questions: Who are you?"
The monk cleared his throat and said, "My name is Lars. I am the shepherd of the 8 divines. While I worship all of them, I am a devout disciple of Mara."
The woman looked at him confused before saying, "A shepherd? I haven't ever heard someone who called themselves a shepherd for the divines."
Lars blushed and said, "Well… it's kind of a title I have given myself since I don't live in a temple no more and tend to wander."
The raven haired woman closed her eyes and wondered something for awhile before saying, "My name is Lydia. I was here visiting some friends."
"Well Lydia it's nice to me-"
"Shhh" Lydia whispered quietly.
"What?" whispered Lars as he grabbed at his mace.
"I hear running." the nord woman responded back.
As Lars focused his perception, he too noticed the pitter patter of footsteps in the distance. Before they could react, the door bursts open next to them and a dunmer and an Altmer in fur armour came barging in. One of them closes the door as the other one looks around and spot the monk and nord woman.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" the dunmer said.
"We don't have time, those guards from Falkreath are on our asses." responded back the Altmer.
"Guards from Falkreath? Oh Gunjar must've informed the Jarl then." He thought to himself.
As the two unknown individuals were about to take off running, Lars stood in front of them.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing priest boy?" the Altmer mocked.
"If the guards are chasing you then you must be bandits and I simply can't allow you to pass." responded Lars.
"Then we'll kill you and have some 'fun' with your little wife there." snarled the dunmer bandit as he unsheathed his elven sword and took an overhead strike at the monk. Lars quickly dodged out of the way and kicked the dunmer's back shins in, which caused him to stumble forward. He quickly grabbed his steel mace with his right hand and proceeded to block another attack from his flank by the Altmer with his elven sword. Both were in attack stances as they circled around the monk and proceeded to attack him at the same time. Lars countered this by going under their attacks by going on one foot, lowering himself and then punched the Altmer in the kneecap in which he heard a sickly cracking sound when he connected. The altmer roared in pain as he fell to his feet and onto the ground writhing in pain. The dunmer took this opportunity to swing a sidestrike at the monk's side which easily connected and caused a deep gash. The monk stumbled backwards and holding his side as fresh blood poured from the wound. The dunmer took advantage of this and tried to cleave his head off but missed by a feather and found himself in the way of a nordic punch to the face. This attack threw off the nord as he looked and saw Lydia standing ( if you can call it that ) while holding onto her stomach.
"Go for it!" the nord woman shouted.
Lars snapped himself out of his daze and brought his mace up to the dunmer side of his chest and it connected with ease. As the dunmer stumbled back, Lars took the chance of this and kicked in his shins whilst taking his mace and bludgeoning the side of the dunmer's head. As the dunmer dropped dead to the floor, the altmer took a wild swing from his knees at the monk and missed. Lars responded to his resistance by jumpkicking him in the face which broke his nose and caused the altmer bandit to scream in pain. Lars prepared a thunderbolt spell in his left hand and said, "See this won't hurt as much if you just say still," as he walked backwards and cast a thunderbolt straight at the altmer's head which caused his head to combust and explode gore and viscera everywhere. Soon after more people came running through the front door as Lars got ready to cast more spells, he noticed that it was the Whiterun guards and withdrew his magic.
The carriage ride to Whiterun was fortunately quite and when they reached the stables, the carriage stopped. Lydia and Lars talked about to each other: Lars learned that Lydia was born in Whiterun to a mother and father there and Lydia learned that Lars didn't have really any parents growing up.
As Lars hopped off the carriage and helped Lydia, Lydia said, "Wait you really didn't have parents growing up?"
Lars shrugged and said, "Yea, but I try to not let it affect me. All I know is that I had a father who raised me until I was 6 summers and then a priestess from Solitude took me away."
As they reached the gates, the guards opened the doors and they walked into Whiterun. They were on the plains district where Adrianne's forge and she was alongside her husband Ulfberth who were talking with each other. As they walked forward, they soon reached the marketplace where the bannered mare was located where many of the citizens go after a long, hard day. The market was bustingly with people looking to buy, trade and sell, which made it quite difficult to make it to the winds district of Whiterun. When they did finally reach there, They were met with the Gildergreen, an ancient marvel of nature that was said to have been here before Whiterun was even a city. It was vibrant with it's pink leaves swaying in the wind and proud branches hanging over the main epicenter of the district. He had retrieve a new sampling from the Eldergleam with the help of another worshipper of Kynareth: Maurice Jondrelle. Lars told Lydia about how the adventure was truly an enlightening experience for him. When they finally reached the doors of Dragonsreach, Lydia told Lars that she had to check in with her parents to let them know she was ok and that she'll be over quickly. So with that, Lars entered Dragonsreach, alone.
Daar joor los med zok, Zu'u koraav- This mortal is different, I see
Dovahkiin hi los. Zu'u haalvut nii nu…- Dragonborn you are, I feel it yet...
Joor- Mortal
Ahrk kos dreh- and be to do
Nii fen kos zok brit med daar…- It will be more satisfying like that
Los wo zu'u los- Is who I am
Sil- Soul