Chapter 2

I arrive in Helgen just to hear a roar from a distance.

"Alduin is coming." I say quietly to myself and then focus on the execution grounds. I hear the captain call for the next person to be executed. That should be the dragonborn. I focus on the person and see that she is a woman.

A woman dragonborn? I think to myself.

I really didn't expect this. I always played as a male dragonborn in the game and even here, I expected the dragonborn to be a male but I realized that the game never specified which gender the dragonborn really is, as you are the one who creates a character.

She walks to the block and kneels down. The executioner already has his hands ready to swing when another roar comes from a distance and a black dragon appears in the distance. I don't do anything yet and stay in place.

"Dragon!" One of the stormcloaks yells and everyone turns to look at it.

Alduin shouts as he lands and meteors start falling down onto Helgen, destroying the buildings. "Fus…Ro…Dah!" The unrelenting force throws everyone standing to the floor, killing a few in the process.

Now!

I run towards the dragonborn and help her up. I look around and see Ralof screaming, "This way! This way!" I follow him and we enter one of the buildings. He quickly closes the door after us and turns to Jarl Ulfric.

"Jarl Ulfric! What is that thing? Could the legends be true?"

"Legends don't burn down villages," says Ulfric. "We need to move. Now!"

"Up!" I say and we all climb the stairs. As we climb up we see rubble blocking the stairs and suddenly the wall breaks and Alduin is looking at us.

"Yol...Toor...Shul!"

We quickly dodge but someone gets caught up in the fire breath and dies in the process. Alduin then flies to kill the others while Ralof looks down sees the house.

"See the inn on the other side? Jump through the roof and keep going! Go! We will follow when we can!"

I listen to him and jump to the building, together with the dragonborn. "Sh*t!" I curse as I feel pain in my leg as I land. Luckily I didn't break anything but the pain is terrible. I look at the dragonborn and she seems to be okay.

We meet with Hadvar who is an Imperial soldier and follow him to Helgen Keep while looking at everyone around dying.

Hadvar runs to one entrance of the keep while Ralof runs to the other. Now Is the moment I have too choose which side I can follow. Without a moment of hesitation, I choose to follow Hadvar.

We enter the Helgen Keep and the roars of Alduin could still be heard.

Hadvar looks at me and at the dragonborn and unbinds us. We quickly look around and look for any useful weapons and armor. The dragonborn grabs the helmet, armor and the iron sword from the chest while I grab the boots.

I grab an iron sword that is hanging from the wall and look at dragonborn. "My name is Eliot. Yours?"

"Lara." she answers.

"Quite an unusual name for an Imperial," Hadvar says. He opens the door and we continue moving forward, afraid of the roof collapsing on us. We came to another closed gate and Hadvar once again pulls the chain.

"Stormcloaks!" I yell and charge at them. Hadvar and Lara follow me and we quickly take care of them. It was three versus two and all three of us were good with weapons so it would have been strange if we lost.

[You have leveled up! x2 ]

Please find enclosed our current price list and an overview of our terms of delivery and payment.

Eliot

Level 3

Race: Human (Imperial)

Current Class: Thief 1/100

Current Profession: Chef 1/100

Hp: 100

Sp: 110

Mp: 50

Skills: Pickpocket lvl 1/100, Backstab lvl 1/10

Unallocated points: 2

[Where would you like to allocated the points?]

[Health/Stamina/Magicka]

I already know what I need to increase, so I click Magicka. My Mp increases by 10 points and is now at 60. Just the perfect number to be able to use Backstab. The last point is added into Hp as I really don't have much of it. It is too easy for me to die with such a low Hp.

We loot their bodies and get anything we can. I equip all the Stormcloak helmet, armor and gauntlets. I don't take the warhammer from the body as it is too heavy for me. I would barely be able to swing it with my current ability.

I do take the hide shield for protection and look at Lara. She took the iron warhammer which I didn't take. "You like two-handed weapons?"

She nods. "I always used them for fighting and it is awkward for me to use one-handed weapons."

I nod at her. Each person has a fight style that they like. Nothing is wrong with that and only idiots comment badly about one's fighting style.

We then hear another road from Alduin who seems to be just above us. Our immediate reaction is to run forward, deeper down the stairs. But as we get to the bottom, the ceiling caves down and our only choice is to go through the door. We enter and are met with two Stormcloaks who rush at us the moment we step inside.

I quickly react and dodge a swing and make it to the back of that guy. I activate my Backstab skill and stab the sword through the guy's back and he immediately collapses. I look at the other one and his body is also on the floor.

I look through their bodies, I find a few Septims and take them.

"Take the potions with you and let's go," says Hadvar.

I look at Lara. "Take them," she says and I happily take them.

We then proceed down to the torture room but we see that the torturer and his assistant are already dead and there is one Stormcloak still alive. It didn't take long for me to kill him. I grab the few Septims he had on him and open the knapsack and take a potion and lockpicks.

I turn to look at the cell which contains a body of a mage and a spell book. I try to insert the lockpick into the lock but something prevents me form doing so. Then I remember I don't have a Lockpicking skill. I turn to Lara and Hadvar and ask, "Does any of you have a Lockpicking skill?"

"Let me try." Lara comes forward and take the lockpicks from my hand. She fiddle with tho lock for some time and breaks the first lockpick. The second one also breaks but with the third one, she managed to unlock the cell.

"The third time's the charm," she smiles. "Do you want the spell tome?" she asks me.

I nod while she enters the cell and throws it to me. While I have it in my hands, I open it and some text appears in front of me.

[You cannot learn this spell as you do not have the correct class.]

Unlucky, I guess. Still, I do tuck it behind the belt in case I am able to use in the future.

Before we leave, I remember to pick up the iron dagger from the table and put it behind my belt. We go through a tunnel and enter a huge area, filled with Stormcloaks.

"I don't like the looks of that," says Hadvar as he prepares for battle.

"Me neither." I say. The amount of them is more than us and they even have bows. A few get close to us and swing their weapons. Not willing to fight in a group I dodge to the side and run to a free area where I have enough fighting space and am able to keep my eyes on the archers.

Both Lara and Hadvar each take on one Stormcloak while I do the same. Luckily they aren't really that strong and we manage to take them down and kill all of the archers too. I grab a bow from one of the bodies and some arrows. Of course, I don't forget to take the Septims they have. One can never have too much money.

[You have leveled up! x2]

I level up by two levels once again but this time, I had to kill way more enemies to do so. I guess they are just too low-leveled and put both points into my Hp.

We continue and lower the bridge and continue forward. After minutes of walking, we arrive into a bigger cavern space and see frostbite spiders dropping down from the ceiling. The five spiders look at us and shoot poisonous venom at us but we manage to dodge it as we are far enough.

I pull out the bow and shoot an arrow.

He arrows flies towards the spider but misses it completely. "Huh? This is hard." I never used a bow before and it was my first time shooting an arrow. Without an Archery skill, I knew that it was impossible for me to shoot accurately without training.

Lara and Hadvar both look at me strangely but don't forget to attack the spiders. Not liking to be left behind like this, I also rush towards one of the bigger spiders and manage to kill it in a few swings.

"Ouch!" It seems that both Lara and me got injured by the spiders and were poisoned. I quickly threw a potion of minor healing to Lara and I also drank one myself. We have healed enough to not die by poison and managed to survive. Our condition wasn't good but also wasn't bad.

"This should be the last area," I say and look at the two. "There should be a bear here. Let's sneak past it."

"How do you know that?" Hadvar asks.

I just shook my head as I have no intention of explaining it right now. Just as I said, we see a bear in the next open cave area and we slowly walk past it without bothering it and finally, we are out of the cave.

Alduin flies past us and disappears behind the Bleak Falls Barrow.

Hadvar turns to us and directs us to Riverwood. He suggests us to follow him and go and meet his dad where we can sleep and eat our fill.

"Sadly, I have to decline your offer," I say. "I have something to do and don't want to be involved with anything that has to do with this dragon. Just escaping from its attacks almost killed me many times."

We then look at Lara. "What about you?" Hadvar asks.

She looks at Hadvar and then at me. We can see her take a deep breath and then sigh. "I'll go with Eliot. I also don't have any intentions of messing with that crazy dragon."

Hadvar sighs and hugs us. "It has been hard for all of us but I'm happy that I survived together with people like you. I hope that we can meet again."

"Me too."