Note: Yes I know there is a perspective switch in the middle, So What?
I opened my eyes and saw white flakes gently falling down. I panicked, thinking that it was ash, but I looked around to see that the fires had died down. Only snow, I sighed in relief and in woe. Just last night, I was staying at an inn named kynesgrove, about 30 miles south of dawnstar. It was a month ago when I first arrived at the inn, prior to that, I thought I was going to die wandering the tundra. My life had been nothing but stress and misery ever since I was kidnapped by those thalmor agents. I still have no Idea why they captured me, but I and other captives spanning every race, gender and age, with seemingly no common factor, were chained and marched from Rivenspire to the border of Skyrim for what must of been weeks. Any person who spoke was immediately killed. From Wrothgar we were packed onto a ship along the coast of Skyrim Eastwards, for what must have been a whole month, my life was just marching and silence, with the only communication being the thalmor drivers yelling commands at us, and us doing as we were told. For the last half of the journey, we were packed into a ship, travelling along the north coast of Skyrim. I thought we were stuck in a storm when Stormcloak catapults pelted the ship. Either the Stormcloaks didn't know there were captives on the ship or they hated the thalmor more than they cared about us. As far as I could tell, all of my fellow captives, with which I had not exchanged a single word, were drowned or killed by artillery. I would have met the same fate had that keymaster not died before me. Within the span of a few seconds, I used telekinesis to bring the keys towards me and unshackled myself. I turned to my shackle neighbour but they were killed by a missile from the catapults. The ship was falling apart so I tossed the keys at the prisoners behind me and swam out of the ship. Thank the gods that the ship was relatively close to shore, but there was still about a hundred feet of icy cold water that I had to endure. The only destruction spell I knew was a basic flame spell, but it saved me from freezing to death. Grandma never taught me any destruction spells. It must have been fate, I told myself, that that Khajit caravan came through my village when I was going through my rebellious thieving phase. I came upon a road and travelled down it, not knowing which direction I was going, probably south. For a day and a half I wandered down that road, hovering over death like a Draugr. The warmth I felt inside was almost overwhelming, and my hands and feet got really itchy. As I didn't have any money, I asked the innkeep if there was anything I could do in exchange for a room. And so for the next two weeks I became a courier, running packages and letters from kynesgrove to Snowstead, a town a few miles into the mountains. I didn't know for how long , but for the time, I was just enjoying food and a warm bed. Eventually, after maybe a month or two, I would head towards the college, which is why I set out for Skyrim in the first place. Last night I went to bed exhausted after running back and forth three times from Snowstead. After a few hours of sleep, I was awoken by the sounds of screeching and fire crackling. Fear overtook me, I ran out from the Inn and dived headfirst into a snowbank. I remember the dragon landing in front of me… and black. Gods, I must have passed out from fear. I'm such a coward. Who wouldn't though, I thought dragons were just a legend. As I got up and looked around I saw nothing but desolation. The inn was a charred husk of what it once was, and a few burned corpses were strewn about. I found a steel sword near one of the corpses and picked up. It looked nice, professional, a soldier or guard maybe. "Yol, Toor Shul!" I looked around and saw the dragon again, breathing fire onto something blocked by trees. Remembering that the innkeep mentioned a nearby cursed cave on the base of the mountain, I ran upwards. Can't be worse than a dragon. Scrambling around the rocks at the base, I heard shouts, the sound of metal clashing on metal, and the sound of magic. I followed the sounds until saw the mouth of a cave. Standing, staring, I lost myself in the abyss, stress and fear were the only emotions I could feel at that time. The sounds of the dragon pushed Me in.
(Switch to third person)
Merien got to a crawl when he entered, the darkness was overwhelming and he needed a minute to adjust. He didn't dare cast a light spell, there was no telling who was in the cave and if they would take kindly to his presence. The fear began to spike in him, something could come right up to him and he wouldn't be able tell. As Merry's eyes adjusted, he slowly started to make out the layout of the cave. A small pond centered the cavern, with a rocky shore hugging the top of the pond, if where Merry was was to be considered the bottom. No one I can see, he began to slowly creep around the cave. He noticed a few corpses on the ground, they were all wearing shirts, boots, and pants of a similar fashion. Merry had no idea what to make of it, he had ever seen such a style. But it was a style that the citizens of Skyrim had become all to familiar with in recent years. It was a sarp, angular style, creepy somehow, but meticulous and beautiful. Merry moved on cautiously, he followed an opening in the cave that led to catacombs. Torches were place on the walls, dimly illuminating the halls. More corpses were on the ground, dressed in a similar style. Merry could see now in the light that the corpses had red irises. A spell of some kind? Maybe a drug that changes appearance. Merry continued down the halls, blood spattered on the floor and walls, matched with scorch and ice marks from spells. It continued for a while, until Merry came upon a room larger than most. The architecture was notably different from the earthy look of everywhere else. It looked more castle-like, but with a style similar to the clothes from the corpses. Sharp angles, intricate design, it was quite dramatic. Merry stopped in his tracks when he saw a huge totem of a man, Long blonde locks to his lower back, clad in furs that did not entirely cover up his muscular figure. He was looking through an opening in the the castle-like room, leaning on a great axe huffing. Merry stepped backwards, ready to disappear. Just as he was getting ready to leave, however, his curiosity began to overtake his fear. He stepped back into the room, "um excuse me" Merrien made his presence known. The man sharply looked towards Merry, his face became injected with rage. Raising his axe, the man made towards Merry. "Hey! Wait! I'm not one of those people you're after!" The man slowed down, but still continued his approach towards Merry. "Who are you?" he graveled,
"M-Merry! Merien, Merien Laelrush."
"Why are you here?"
"I'm taking refuge from that dragon"
The man got right in Merry's face, "show me your eyes," he demanded.
Merry pulled open his eyelids, "Look! Green!"
The man grunted, then walked back to the overlook.
"Who are you?" Merry asked
"Sven"
"Why are you here?"
"To kill the vampire princess"
"Vampire princess?"
Sven turned his head toward Merry, then pointed to something through the outlook, "There," Merry went to see what he was pointing at, a circular platform suspended over an abyss, ringed by connected arches, with a small pedestal in the middle, "is where the daughter of Harkon the inhuman rests, I plan to kill her"
"Oh…" Merry thought it would be cool to watch that happen, but didn't want be potentially killed by a vampire. Why'd I have to stumble on to something so dramatic! Sven walked down some stairs leading from the room, Merry followed, curiosity again overcoming his fear. When they got onto the circular platform, Merry noticed ridges forming knotted patterns in the floor.
Sven walked up to the middle and placed his his right hand on the pedestal. "Hmm, I don't like this. Seems like a vampire trick, I should just bre-YAAAHHH!" Sven screamed when a metal spike shot up from the pedestal and through his hand, then quickly retreated back. Sven wailed in pain as he grabbed at his hand, I could see through the hole in the middle of it. "NO!" he bellowed, "YOU'LL NOT HAVE MY BLOOD!". He readied his axe to strike the pedestal, but then the pedestal sunk back into the floor. Sven was burning with anger; he turned towards Merry, "WHERE DID IT GO?!". I imagine I wouldn't like travelling with him. Almost as if in answer to his demands, a great wave of wind and light reminiscent of aurora radiated from the ground where the pedestal once stood. A guard post sized, box, decoracted in that same dramatic style, slowly rose from the spot. This is complex magic, incredible. Merry stopped, waiting. After a short moment, Sven raised his hammer, "I'm going to break it"
"No! Wait!" Merry pleaded, he didn't want to see such a nice looking thing destroyed.
Sven ignored him, "She must be in here!" he struck down his axe onto one of the panels to a loud thunk. He roared and struck again, again, nothing. He's like a bear, in body and mind. Sven took a few steps back and readied his axe at his side; he roared as he ran at the box and swung. Just as he was about to connect, Merry saw the panel pushed open from the inside; Sven's axe slapped the panel back, and a voice in the box responded, "Ow! Damnit!". "HAHAHA! I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE! CREATURE OF THE NIGHT!"
"You woke me up with the first knock!" The voice complained. The panel blew out from the box, hitting Sven and sending him in the air for a few yards. Merry yelped in surprise. I knew I shouldn't have followed this guy! Sven lay on the ground groaning under the weight of the panel. "That's a really annoying way to wake someone up." the voice called out cooly with a note of irritation. Out stepped a girl around an age with Merrien, he could barely make her out. All he could see was her eyes, dark yet vibrant crimson, shining off the light in the cave, seemingly glowing, and a large bright ruby similarly glowing from a silver chain around her neck. She looked back and forth between the two of us, and her eyes turned from annoyance to confused, "Who are you two?". Sven groaned from underneath the panel. The impact from the panel landed him underneath the largest of the few moonbeam shafts in the cave. He struggled to lift off the panel. "We're here!" he was panting, "to kill you!"
"That doesn't narrow it down," She replied.
Sven raised his axe above him, "Scum like you don't deserve life!"
I'm not going to die in this guy's revenge quest! "He may be here to kill you, but I'm just here to escape the dra-" before Merry could finish, the girl vanished before his eyes in a blur. Where did she go?! Fear began to surge through Merry like a flood. He heard a thud from where Sven was standing. Merry looked over, Sven's body lay lifeless on the ground, the girl standing above it. She was frowning in anger at Sven's body, then she looked up to match Merry's stare. She was much more visible in the moonlight, now that Merry could actually see her, he thought that she looked very out of place. She was very beautiful, and wore an expensive looking dark red dress with wide sleeves and a black knotted pattern bordering the hems of the dress. Her hair was shoulder length and a bit messy, and dark as a raven. She had a small black dot underneath her right eye and on her neck by the left side above her collarbone.
"What about you? Do you want to die?"
I'm glad I have a choice. "No"
"Why are you here then?"
"To escape from a dragon"
She squinted her eyes in distrust, "Don't fuck with me," she threateningly pointed at Merry.
"I'm not! I swear!"
"A dragon?
"Yes!"
Her face went from anger to confusion again.
"What year is it?"
"Two hundred"
Her face showed more confusion, a helpless confusion, "of what era?"
What Era!? How did she remain here unbothered for so long?
"The fourth"
"The fourth?!"
Her face went from confused to stressed, and she began tugging on her hair. "How long was the second?" she asked.
"Eight hundred ninety seven years."
"And the third era?"
"Four hundred thirty three."
She squatted, closed her eyes, and exhaled. "Oh gods!" after about a minute of her tugging on her head, she opened her eyes and focused on Merry with a serious face. "What's your name?"
"M-Merrien Lealrush"
Merry was still scared, he had a stone flesh spell at the ready, but he was sure he couldn't do anything against her physical abilities.
"You said there's a dragon outside?"
"Last time I was out there, yeah."
The girl looked around, then ripped her dress right above the knees so she could move more freely. Merry watched as she walked up to one of the corpses and take off their boots, then replace her formal shoes with those. She looked at Merry, "good-bye" she said, then took off the way Merry came in.
