𝐿𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝒮𝓃𝑜𝓌𝓎 𝒲𝒽𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒹
by the Tormentor
Hjaalmarch was far from a place where the average people would decide to settle for a homestead, for the smallest and poorest hold in all of Skyrim had little to offer in terms of a safe haven. It wasn't hard to understand why it was so avoided; thick, dense fog shrouded the woodlands throughout the day, and most of the small hold was more or less covered in vast, treacherous swampland. The woods of the swamps were infested with all sorts of creatures from mudcrabs to cave bears and the occasional dragon, making it a dangerous gamble to try and venture anywhere off the beaten path. Even for the denizens of its capital Morthal, where outsiders were distrusted, this was a land where visitors were very few and far between.
However, these lands were about to have some rather unconventional guests arriving on their doorsteps.
The night began as it did any other. A lone mudcrab skittered along the shores of a gentle stream, using its large pincers to scavenge for anything edible on the muddy ground. The wandering creature's trek was suddenly brought to a stop by the abrupt sound coming from the forest behind it, sending the small and now terrified crustacean fleeing into the waters for safety. Between the gnarled branches and twisting trunks of the marshy woods came a sound unlike that of a warbling hum, and a brilliant green glow emanating from the top of the forests canopy.
It came in the shape of a large circle, similar to a discus, pulsating with a green-blue energy that seemed to only grow in size and power as time passed on. Those with a strong sense of magical powers would have identified it as a portal, one that maybe a daedra or a member of the Psijic Order may have used. A strong wind billowed around its shape, forming a vortex that sucked up twigs, leaves and anything else light enough to get caught. Before long, as the thrumming noise reached its peak, and the light flickered with power, three shapes emerged and were then spat out from the now collapsing portal, landing soundly onto the soft ground beneath them, before it finally dissipated into tiny flickers, leaving no trace of its existence.
Silence returned once again to the marshes of Hjaalmarch before one of the shapes suddenly began to move, slowly regaining their consciousness from their sudden arrival here in Skyrim.
"Ugh, my aching head..." A voice, sounding like it belonged to a young girl, mumbled from down on the ground. From the looks of things, she could barely remember what just happened to her. Steadily her strength returned, and the young girl pushed herself up with what energy she could spare to her arms, but without any light around her to see in the dark she didn't notice the large branch right above her until she hit it with the top of her head. The sharp pain from the impact almost sent her down to her knees.
"Ow! Ooh, that stings!" She hissed, rubbing her scalp, before she spoke up again with concern over her injury. "Oh, why did that tree hurt so much? Shouldn't my aura have protected me? Unless it's somehow all out... b-but that doesn't make any sense! Oh, this is so darn confusing! Where's Yang when you need her?"
"Ruby, is that you over there?" Another voice, also female and sounding just a little bit older, echoed from the dark. "Where are you? I can't see a darn thing!"
"Nora! Is that you?! Nora, I'm over here!"
"And where's here, exactly?"
"J-Just hold on, I think I can make my way towards-!"
SMACK!
"Ow! Ruby!"
"I'm sorry, I can't see anything in this forest! I didn't mean to slap you!"
"Could you two please keep it down?" A third masculine voice popped up, sounding a little annoyed with the two other girls. "You're gonna attract all sorts of Grimm with your incessant shouting!"
"Sky, is that you?"
"Yeah it's me! Who else?" The boy sourly shot back. "Hang on, I think I'm getting close to you girls..."
SQUEEZE!
"Kyah! SKY!"
SLAP!
"Yeow! What the hell was that for?!"
"You just got handsy with my front bumpers you pervert!"
"Well sorry, Nora. It's not like I can't see or anything!"
"Guys, guys!" The voice belonging to Ruby said in a placating manner. "Can we please not start fighting right now? I know we're all kinda freaked out right now, and it doesn't help that we're stuck in the middle of some swamp out in who-knows-where, but right now we gotta keep our heads together! So please, can we try to work together until we can get back to Beacon? Sky? Nora?"
"Eh, the redhead's right." The boy, Sky, reluctantly said. "Sorry about copping a feel there, Valkyrie."
"Sorry for slapping you." Nora sounded even less sincere than Sky, but it was enough for Ruby.
"See? Was wasn't so hard, was it? Harder than the branch that I hit my head on, since my aura isn't working."
"W-Wait, did you just say that your aura isn't working, Ruby?"
"Um, yes?"
"Hmm. Hang on a sec..."
CRUNCH!
"Owowowowow!" Nora's voice went up an octave following what sounded like flesh striking a tree, and then feet jumping up and down. "Yep, that's a tree, alright! Wow, that hurts!"
"Did you just punch a tree?"
"...yes."
"Wait a second, doesn't that mean-?"
"Yeah, it does. You two don't have your auras. And guessing by how we're are faring so far, that probably means that my aura ain't working as well, which is just the perfect thing we need right now." Sky sourly grumbled.
"B-But that doesn't make any sense!" Ruby stammered, sounding quite nervous. "How could we lose our aura levels so quickly?"
"I betcha it was because of that stupid artifact that Oobleck dragged the three of us to see for our so-called "inter-team strategy exercise" that got us stranded here in this stupid swamp! Darn statues, I always hated them!" Nora hissed.
"Well, what do we do now?"
"Who knows?! Maybe something worse will happen to us, like maybe a giant bug monster or something will come out here and try to eat us! Wouldn't that be peachy?"
"You don't have to yell, Sky."
"I'm frustrated, Ruby. Yelling helps me calm my nerves." Once finished with his rant, the sole boy let out a loud, groaning noise. "This couldn't possibly get any worse."
The silence that followed was cut short by the sound of thunder crashing overhead, followed by the first droplets of an incoming rainstorm. And through the pitters of rain, the three youngsters heard a loud, blood-chilling chittering noise. And it sounded close.
"You just had to jinx us."
...
"Mom! Alesan is doing that thing again!"
"Quit being a tattletale, Lucia!"
Some distance away, not far from where the three students had arrived, lay a large two-story, multi-room homestead built along the northern shores of the Hjaal River. Being so far away from Morthal, one might not think that the Hjaal River Delta would be a safe place to build any sort of shelter, but thanks to this pocket of land being lightly forested and quite cheap, it was not as immensely difficult as it sounded to construct a home here. It was a small bastion of safety against the cold, dangerous swamps that stretched on towards the south and the bone-chilling shores further northward. Warm light glowed through the stained green windows, and candle-lit torches gave illumination to the surrounding area. A plume of gray smoke billowed from the central chimney, indicating that this place had company inside.
This homestead, known as Windstad Manor, was as majestic inside as it was outside. The house itself had a massive interior with an equally large dining room table in the center of the room, placed right in front of the fireplace. To the right, behind a pair of double-doors, lay the kitchen, filled with the fragrances of a fresh, home-cooked meal. A fire roared in the fireplace, filled with good and healthy timber from the forest outside, keeping those around it nice and warm, for tonight the family of the Dragonborn herself was up to its usual dinnertime hijinks. There were so far only two people sitting at the dinner table, a boy and a girl, who were currently in the midst of an argument.
"Mom, tell Alesan to stop giving Meeko his scraps! He's gonna get fat!" Lucia, one of their three adopted children, leaned up from her chair and shouted to the doors behind Alesan, knowing that someone would hear her. Being the oldest of the trio meant that she had to lay the groundwork for good behavior, but seemed like her brother either didn't bother or was too busy playing with the family pet.
"No he isn't! He's a big strong boy who needs his meat, don't you Meeko?" Alesan, the youngest and only boy of their kids with his scruffy red hair, leaned down and spoke to the large, shaggy-furred dog sitting next to him while petting his face. "Yes you do, yes you do!"
"Woof!"
"Mom!"
"Alesan, that food's for you, not for the dog." A gentle voice spoke up from the kitchen area, softly addressing the young boy from doing anything more. This was not the Dragonborn, but rather her beloved wife and former housecarl Lydia, who came into the dining room holding a large tray of second helpings, which had steamed mudcrab legs, venison stew and apple pies. The young, brown-haired woman set the tray down in the middle of the table before turning to her adopted son. "Now Alesan, what did we say about giving too much to Meeko? Remember the last time he had too much to eat?"
"Yeah, I remember." Alesan glumly said. He doubted that he would ever forget the putrid stench of Meeko's craps that day.
"Good. So no more treats for Meeko, okay?" Lydia softly rubbed the top of Alesan's messy head of hair. "Now relax and eat your dinner, it's getting cold. And that goes for you too, Lucia."
"Yes, ma."
Happy that the two children now made up, Lydia took her own seat next to Alesan, and then saw that there were a couple people still missing from the table.
"Hey, where's Sofie and Valdimar?"
As if on que, the upstairs doors leading to the foyer opened up with a slam, and scurrying down the wooden steps came Lydia's third adopted child along with their trusted housecarl. Sofie, the so-called middle child of the family, practically ran to her seat next to Lucia and yanked it back, wearing a bright grin on her face. Valdimar, the housecarl of Windstad Manor and a good friend to Lydia and her wife, slowly followed her down the steps. Valdimar's mouth was curved into a proud smile aimed directly at Sofie.
"Oh wow, looks like someone's hungry." Lydia playfully commented on her daughter's mood.
"I'm starving! Valdimar was teaching me some alteration spells out on the deck before the rain came! Check it out!" Sofie raised up her right hand, and from it came a small ball of glowing white light that hovered just above her shoulder.
"Ooh, bright."
"Wow! Nicely done, Sofie!" Lydia praised.
"Indeed! It seems we've got a young wizard in the making here, just like her mother!" Valdimar said while patting the young girl on her shoulder, before taking in a long sniff from the gloriously mouth-watering scents coming from the food in front of him. "Ah, Lydia. Your cooking never ceases to impress me. You have to teach me some of your recipes, woman! Can't let you cook every night."
"Aw, you flatter me, Valdimar. But perhaps another time. Let's have some dinner."
"Hah! Took the words right out of my mouth."
As Valdimar prepared to take his seat, Lydia suddenly noticed that there was one more important person still missing from the table: her wife.
"Where's Tyra?"
"Down in the basement, where else?" Valdimar evenly responded as he piled on some food on his plate. "She practically lives down there at the forge, the silly girl. I heard she's helping out that blacksmith in Solitude for more Imperial armors. Hard to believe that they'd need any more since the war is pretty much over."
"Oh, of course she is. Tyra loves working, that much I can agree on." Lydia sighed, and then had an idea pop in her head. "Hey, who wants to go and tell her dinner's ready?"
"Ooh, me! Me!" Alesan shouted, raising his hand up as high as he could.
"I wanna! Let me go, mom! Please! I promise I'll get her really, really quick!" Lucia begged. While both children had an equal amount of passion, Lydia was swift to decide on who got to go down.
"Alright Lucia, make it fast."
"Yes!" Lucia cheered, scampering off to the hatch at the far end of the storage room.
"Aw, mom!" Alesan whined in defeat.
In the meantime, Lucia eagerly scurried off to the hatch door located at the far corner of the back room. The moment she opened the wooden hatch and clambered down the ladder the smell of molten metal hit the young girl's nose. The cellar was divided into three parts, with the center having an assortment of shrines dedicated to the Nine Divines of Tamriel, built on a large cobblestone podium. Nine, because even if she aligned with the Imperials, Lucia's first adoptive mother insisted that one be dedicated to the greatest Nord hero as a sign of respect. To the left of her lay the aquariums, a long hallway built with large glass containers filled with various fish that Lucia's family managed to catch from the Hjaal River. And finally, at the third and final room at the back end was the forge, where Lucia could see her mother working hard on a piece of steel armor, clanging a hammer against its form.
"Mama!"
Lucia's voice was strong enough to stop the woman mid-swing, and she turned her head to see her daughter standing in the middle of the cellar.
Tyra, the Last Dragonborn, savior of Skyrim and the Empire, slayer of Alduin and Lord Harkon, smiled with blue-painted lips at the sight of her eldest adopted child standing before her, eyes filled with jubilee. Being a Nord, Tyra had smooth pale skin, shining with the slick of sweat from working near the flames of the forge, and clad in only a blacksmith's apron and boots as she worked on her latest piece of armor. Her soft golden hair, tied into multiple braids that ended in a ponytail, glimmered in the glow of the furnace, and from the child's perspective it seemed like her ice-blue eyes were shining in the shadowy backdrop.
It was because of her that this family was able to have this house, this life of theirs. Tyra's impact on the lands of Skyrim was vast, as was her wealth, accumulated over countless quests, jobs and other opportunities that arose whenever she went. With the amount of money she had, it was only sensible that she spent it on something worthwhile, like this house of hers, where she and her family could relax in peace.
For Tyra, there was nothing else more precious than that.
"Lucia dear, what are you doing down here?" She jovially asked, her powerful voice as smooth as silk.
"I came to get you, ma. Dinner's ready!" Lucia responded. The little girl scurried her way over to her adoptive mother, eager to see what she was making on the workbench. "Ooh, that looks nice! When can I start getting my own armor, ma?"
"When you're older." Tyra evenly responded, already having heard this talk before.
"I'm almost thirteen! I already know how to use a sword thanks to mom, can't I just get some iron plates so I can go on adventures with you?"
"I'm sorry Lucia, but I think my great adventuring days are a bit behind me," Tyra admitted, grabbing a clean towelette and dabbing her face, "Now, let me get changed so that I can meet you upstairs. Go on, I'll be right there."
"Okay, ma." Lucia groaned, and went off back up the ladder to the living room. The Dragonborn sighed and shook her head as she took off her apron for some nice clothes hanging nearby on a rack. As much as Tyra hated to disappoint her kids, there was a level of truth regarding the Dragonborn's semi-retirement. It wasn't that she was getting too old for such adventures, gods forbid, but she had ventured across every corner of Skyrim and even beyond at this point in her life. Every ruin she'd come across has been explored, and every deep, dark cave systems mapped and scoured. As far as Tyra knew, there was nothing left in Skyrim for her to see. Of course, there would be the occasional missing person's report sent to her from a local jarl, or a rescue mission from a gang of uppity bandits, but there hadn't been a worthwhile adventure for Tyra in a long time.
Perhaps it was for the best. Without such massive tasks hogging up her time and energy, and Skyrim pretty much saved from most apocalyptical catastrophes, Tyra was now able to sit down and be with her family more than ever before with her lovely wife Lydia and their three adopted kids, plus the friendly housecarl for which home they decided to stay in at the time being. It was a quiet time for the Dragonborn.
Finishing up with her reminiscing and somehow managing to squeeze herself into a shirt that fit her, Tyra climbed up the ladder to join with the rest of her family.
...
"Oh no no no, I'm stuck! SKY! RUBY! HELP!"
"I'm coming Nora!"
"Quick, get her out of the mud! That thing's still chasing us!"
"Almost...! There, I got her!"
"Keep moving! I can see a light up ahead!"
"A light? Oh, yes! Sanctuary!"
...
"There you are! We were just wondering where you ran off to, Tyra. It's nice to know that your children can get you to move." Valdimar gingerly said the moment the Dragonborn walked in. It seemed that everyone in the family was waiting for her to arrive.
"Very funny, Valdimar." Tyra playfully rolled her eyes as she made her way to her seat at the end of the table. "So, what's on the menu for tonight?"
"Mudcrab legs! I caught them myself this morning. They were pretty tough, but not as tough as me, ma!" Alesan proudly said with a puffed-up chest. Sofie shook her head at her brother's machismo antics.
"I bet they weren't, kiddo."
"Hey ma, Lucia was talking about how you didn't want to make armor for her. Why's that?" Sofie popped up with a question.
Tyra gave a quick look to the now-sheepish Lucia before she answered her daughter.
"You're too young to be wearing iron. Simple as that. Besides, what mother would I be if I let you run off into the blue-!"
Whatever Tyra was about to say was cut short by the sounds of the front door being violently assaulted by a series of quick, powerful knocks. All eyes near-instantly turned to the door, taken completely by surprise by what just happened. Surely it wasn't just their imaginations playing tricks on them. When they heard it again, this time with a couple more bangs, the family could only wonder what was going on.
"Is there someone at the door?" Lucia whispered.
"Is anybody in there? Please, you gotta help us!" A distressed voice, coming from what sounded like a young girl, echoed through the doorway.
"Someone's in trouble!" Alesan jumped from his seat and went to open the door, but was stopped when Valdimar put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Wait just a moment there, boy." The elderly housecarl turned his attention to the Dragonborn, who seemed to be locked in an internal debate about what she should do. "My thane?"
"Just a moment." She said back, and slowly made her way to the front door to look through the peephole. The moment she put her face up the small opening, she was greeted with an interesting sight. True enough, there was in fact a young girl standing there in front of the door, clad in some sort of red and black dress that clung to her body thanks to the pouring rain. And she wasn't alone, as there were two more people with her, a boy and another girl. The boy was wearing some sort of simplistic blue-gray armor set, while the orange-haired girl was also in a drenched pink and white uniform. From what Tyra could see, they all seemed to be in their teenage years, perhaps not that much older than her own children.
And, by the looks on their faces, they were obviously terrified of something out there, huddled close together as they waited for someone to answer.
"There's a bunch of kids outside." Tyra said to her stunned and quite confused family. One of the teens knocked on the door again.
"Please, someone open up! There's some sort of giant bug after us!"
"Giant bug? Are they talking about a chaurus?" Sofie wondered, shuddering while keeping close to Lydia. The swamps of the Hjaalmarch were infested with all sorts of creepy crawlies, none more dangerous or repulsive as the venomous chaurus, a large four-legged carnivorous insect that was occasionally spotted in the wetlands. Tyra, and probably everybody else in Skyrim, made sure to give them a wide berth if they were encountered.
"Should we let them in?" Lucia concerningly asked. "They must be terrified out of their minds right now."
"It could be a trap. I've heard of bandits using orphans to lure people out of their homes to murder them." Valdimar said, earning some concerned looks. "So I've heard. But if these kids really are in trouble, we better help them out."
"Tyra?" Lydia spoke to her wife. Right now, the decision making was up to the Dragonborn. This was her house after all. The teens outside knocked on the door once again, sounding even more desperate.
"Please! We need help!"
For a moment, Tyra was lost in her own mind. There was always a risk factor when it came to making these types of choices. It was something that she had learned plenty of times over the years of exploring Skyrim, weighing the odds to see if one outcome was better than the other. Tonight was no different. Valdimar's warning could be true about this whole situation being a trap, but the look that she and Lydia shared was all she needed to know. The Dragonborn, and her loved ones, could handle anything that Skyrim could throw at her. That, and Tyra had a knack for helping people in need. If there were people in trouble, children no less, then she'd be there to help them out.
And so, Tyra opened the door.
...
"Do you think anybody's home?"
"Gods, please. Let there be something going right for us tonight."
Back outside, the three teens patiently, hopefully, awaited a response from anyone who might be inside the large homestead. Thankfully just when it seemed that their efforts were in vain, the wooden double doors opened up to reveal a tall, buxom woman standing before them, with her blonde hair tied in a ponytail, crystalline blue eyes, and what appeared to be black thunderbolt tattoos reaching up from her neck to her cheeks. She was indeed beautiful, which came to a surprise to the Remnant teens. At first, nobody spoke up, both sides wondering who was going to say something first. As much as they wanted to rush inside and get out of the storm, Ruby, Nora and Sky knew that they had to rely on good manners at the time being.
For Tyra however, seeing these poor teens huddling together, drenched and shivering from the Hjaalmarch rain, was not something she was expecting tonight. There were indeed three of them, wearing strange, vibrant clothing that she had never seen before. They had a multitude of colors on them, ranging from blacks to pinks to blues. Either these teens were very, very lost in these parts, or there was another aspect at play here, and something inside Tyra told her that this was not simply the work of bandits.
"H-Hey." Nora weakly waved, breaking the ice as she tried to keep herself warm, getting the woman's attention. "You m-mind if we come in, please? Achoo! This rain isn't what we'd call a fun time."
Thankfully it seemed that this woman could at least understand what Nora said. She pursed her mouth before she decided to speak.
"Quickly." She said, going a couple steps back to allow them entry into her home. The woman had a rich, powerful voice, something that soothed their fears. Behind her in the entryway stood more people, presumably her family, consisting of a man in leather armor, another woman in a similar style dress, and three young children with a dog. From what they could smell, they were just in the midst of having dinner before they arrived. Ruby felt her stomach groan at the aroma beckoning from within.
"Oh, thank you, thank yo-"
Nora's thanks died on her lips the moment she felt something wet and stinging smack against her lower back, sending the girl tumbling inside while screaming in pain, feeling like her skin was melting off her body. Ruby and Sky, on the other hand, were caught completely by surprise. And so was Tyra.
"NORA!" The other girl shrieked, diving towards her wounded friend. "Nora, are you okay?!"
"Oh gods, here it comes!" The blue-gray haired boy cried out in terror and pointed to where they could see what hit 'Nora'.
Tyra grit her teeth once she saw a massive chaurus reaper emerge from the gloom, its mandibles dripping with freshly-made venom, the culprit behind this attack. Chaurus were able to spit globs of venom from their mouths to incapacitate prey at long range, and the older and bigger they got, the more potent their venom became. Tyra had seen first-hand what sort of horrid stuff chaurus venom did to unwary people, and it wasn't pretty.
"Get inside!" Tyra barked, shoving the boy behind her as she stepped forward to face the giant bug.
"W-wait, what are you gonna do?! You can't fight something like that!" Sky cried out.
"Come back! Nora needs help!" Ruby added on, the two of them watching as the woman bravely stood in front of her house as the huge insect charged right at her, letting out that horrid chittering sound again as it scuttled across the wet ground. Fearing the worst was about to happen, Ruby and Sky braced themselves to endure the sight of their once-savior getting eviscerated right in front of their eyes.
And then she shouted.
"KAAN DREM!"
It was the last thing the two huntsmen-in-training were expecting to happen as the world suddenly shuddered around them, as if shaking from the sheer power of the roar that erupted from the woman's lips. And, even stranger, it seemed to have some sort of pacifying effect on the huge bug, for it had now stopped just in front of the woman, a blue glow emanating from deep within its body as it stood there, calm and near-motionless. Whatever hunger this creature had seemed to have simply vanished. Ruby and Sky openly balked as the woman reached up and gave the insect a gentle pet on its large head, astonished by how she was able to tame this bloodthirsty creature so easily with her voice of all things.
"Go on, get." She said, pointing away from her home. Somehow the insect acknowledged her command and scuttled back into the darkness of the nighttime forest, searching for a different sort of prey on this stormy night. The woman watched to make sure it was gone from her sight before she walked back to her homestead, and the two students from Remnant couldn't believe their eyes.
"What. The. Hell."
"Language!" Ruby pointed at her male comrade.
With the chaurus now gone, Tyra turned her attention back to the three teens, and more specifically the wounded girl still curled up in pain on her floor. She locked the door behind her before she knelt down next to the other girl going by the name of "Ruby", who scooted over to give the Dragonborn some room. Nora let out a whimper as Tyra gently grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her over to see the wound. Thankfully the venomous spitball hadn't made direct contact with the girl's skin, otherwise she'd be in serious trouble. Still, there was a nasty bright red spot on her back where the glob hit her and burned away her clothes, leaving it a tattered mess. It wasn't lethal, but there was no doubt that it hurt like hell.
It was times like these that Tyra thanked herself for becoming a part-time alchemist.
"Wait here," she said, heading back to the main hall to grab something to cure her.
"Is she gonna be okay, momma?" One of the children asked, nervously looking at the girl currently shaking with pain on the floor.
Back with the three Remnantians, Ruby and Sky were doing what they could to keep Nora calm. Without any aura, there was nothing they could do to help alleviate the pain. As Nora bit her lip to keep herself from crying, Ruby noticed a solemn look on Sky's face. The boy's eyes were downcast as he looked to the hurting ginger, mouth creased to a frown. Ruby might not be as experienced as most of her fellow students, but she recognized a guilty look when she saw one.
"It's not your fault, Sky." Ruby gently told the boy, catching him off-guard. "I don't think either of us expected there to be a real-life giant bug out there."
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure my tantrum got it's attention." He muttered, and Ruby couldn't bring herself to say anything else.
The woman came back shortly after, holding a small red vial in her hands.
"Here. She needs to drink this. It's a remedy potion. It'll soothe the pain. Trust me, chaurus venom is quite excruciating." She said, handing the vial over to the black-haired girl. Ruby, heeding the advise of the woman, put the tip of the vial up against Nora's lips, and the ginger eagerly sucked down the liquid cure like a babe with a milk bottle. A couple long gulps later, and it was empty. And sure enough, Nora felt the horrific pain that was wracking her body begin to ease itself away before finally vanishing, bringing a great sense of relief as she stood up, right as rain again.
"Hey, it's gone! The pain's gone!" The JNPR girl excitedly said, stretching an arm behind her back to feel where her injury once was. Sky let out a sigh as he wiped the sweat and rainwater from his brow, thankful that Nora would live to see another day. Ruby, in the meantime, looked at the woman with stars dazzling in her eyes.
"That was a totally awesome semblance! I've never seen one where you can talk to animals! How'd you get it? I'm Ruby, by the way! And that's Sky and Nora! What's your name? Do you like weapons? Is that a doggie?!" Each sentence had Ruby inch towards the woman, bouncing on the tips of her feet with her excitement becoming more and more evident.
The woman raised a quizzical eyebrow at how fast this girl could get words out before she answered.
"Tyra. My name is Tyra, and... what do you mean by a semblance?"
Ruby blinked, and Nora and Sky shared a concerned look with one-another.
"Y-You mean you don't know what a semblance is? Everyone on Remnant knows what they are! How else did you tell that bug-thing to go away?"
"That was the power of my Thu'um. A Shout."
"A thoom? What the heck's that? Some sort of superpower?" Nora wondered, and Tyra felt her brow furrow at what these kids were saying. Something wasn't adding up here with the three strange teens currently in her house.
"Where the hell are you kids from?" She asked, sounding a bit more serious.
"Um, we're students from Beacon Academy." Sky nervously responded, speaking up for the first time, noticing the confused look on Tyra's face. "Y'know, the huge school in the kingdom of Vale? Trains people like us to hunt down the Grimm? One of the most famous huntsmen academies on Remnant, the planet we're currently on?"
Tyra remained silent for a couple moments before she shook her head.
"Well, I think that confirms it." The Last Dragonborn plainly said.
"Confirms what?" Ruby asked, watching with anxious eyes with Sky and Nora as Tyra turned around, taking a couple steps away from the trio before she spoke up again, knowing full well that whatever was going on was about to get even bigger.
"Kiddo, those names you're saying? Wherever they are, they don't exist here. This isn't Remnant or wherever you're all from. This is Nirn, and the lands you're in right now is called Skyrim. And by the look of things, it seems you three are very, very far away from home."
Behold, a new story! This one is going to be a fun little side project of mine. After getting into Skyrim again on the Series X (THANK GOD FOR MODDING) I decided to humor myself and expand more on my writing. The premise of this story is a little different because we're going to have a Dragonborn who has done most if not all of the main quests, leaving her kind of lost in life.
Also, the character choices. We've seen a bunch of fics where RWBY or JNPR get thrown into Tamriel, but I wanted to mix things up a little. Ruby is here, but also Nora, and Sky as well. It'll be a mish-mash of kids from different teams all trying to get back home alongside a Dragonborn who has been aching to go on one last great adventure.
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