Chapter 21. Another chapter all fucking ready, bloody hell whats going on. Sorry about it normally taking so long to get chapters out but the way I like to write them is to write it and then just then write it all out again, then I backtrack and rewrite certain parts then I go back and do it all over. I also sometimes like to write it out as a script first and then rework it into a more traditional book-like format.

Chapter XXI

The Dawnguard

Serana

The sanctuary is dark, damp and cold. Exactly like how I would've imagined it. I watch Vannius as he drops the now destroyed black and red leather armour he's been wearing. It's strange to see him without the constant armour that I've been looking at the past month or so. He has some very noticeable scars, two on his stomach and when he turns around I can see that for one of them he has a matching scar on his back. Crisscrossing scars run up his left arm, mostly around his elbow. he turns to face me, I stare at the few faint scars on his face, a few around his left eye and one on his right cheek. I have no idea how he got all of these but they're proof of a hard, short and brutal life.

He walks over to a wooden chest and opens it slowly. He pulls out a coat of plates, dark steel on dark brown leather and a shirt of chainmail. He pulls it all on, the coat of plates going down to his knees. It looks better made then his old armour, much better and like it would do a better job of keeping him alive. He pulls on his vambraces, leather wrapped steel by the looks of them, wolf fur lining the top. He turns to look at me, adjusting the armour slightly. "It's been a long time since I've worn this." He mutters, he pulls something else out of the chest. Its not till he turns around I see what it is. A longsword, black leather wrapped hilt and a black scabbard and sword belt. "Never used this before." He says, running a hand over the bronze crossguard.

He puts the sword around his waist and rests his left hand on the hilt. We start to head towards the door, walking through the cold, damp corridors. We come into the main room, the Redguard is sat at the table with a cup of what smells like wine. "Heading out?" He calls to Vannius. "To save the world." He laughs slightly under his breath, taking a sip of his wine.

Vannius walks over to the table, picking up a bottle of ale and pulling the cork out. "Someone has to try." He grumbles, taking a long gulp before he slams the bottle back down. "About time I did something honourable." He tells him, putting a hand on top of the table.

"Honours overrated." He tells Vannius, looking down at the table. "Honour is for soldiers in legends and maidens stories."

I walk closer to them both. "Its not about honour." I tell him, he looks up at me. "Or saving the world, or that its the right thing to do or anything like that." I tell them both, I look at Vannius. "If we fail and Harkon succeeds then everyone in Tamriel with die." I stare at Vannius. "It's as simple as that, we have no choice."

We leave quickly, heading for the staples just outside the city walls, get a couple of horses and head to fort dawnguard as quickly as possible. Vannius has a heady fur lined cloak on for warmth even I can feel it, the drop in temperature, like Akatosh's influence on Nirn is waning. He climbs onto his horse, I follow his lead as he leads the beast down towards Riften.

"He's right." He mumbles, staring forward. "Honour is for heroes." He says, glancing at me. "Heroes only exist in stories, maidens tales and legends." He stares back at the road. "Men who never existed and will never exist. There aren't heroes in this world, no good men or women, no one of honour." He looks at me hard this time. "There's only people like me." He says.

the roads uneven under the horses, winding round the small slopes and trees. The snow falls thick this far north, Vannius doesn't seem to care as he just stares ahead, hands gripping the reins. His cloak billows out behind him as the wind blows hard against us. "I think you're a good man." I tell him quietly, he just stares ahead.

"They have the bow?" Isran questions, running his hand through his long beard, he walks to the side of the room and then looks back at Vannius. "And your blood?" He says pointing at me. "They've won." He grumbles, sitting heavily on a stool and resting his elbows on his knees. I take a step back, I know when to fight and now is not the time he wants to hear anything from me.

Vannius sighs and walks closer to him, stroking his beard and nodding. "Aye." He answers. "They have everything and we have nowt." He says, dropping his hand to rest on his sword. "But the prophecy hasn't been completed yet." He says, Isran stares at me.

"Harkon has more men then you." I tell him. "He has Volkihar and we need to take the castle to defeat him." I take a step closer. "It's on an island near solitude, if we can storm the castle we can beat him."

He strokes his beard and shakes his head, staring off at the wall. "We don't have the men or equipment for a siege." He grumbles. "The only chance we have is if we can beat him in the field, draw him out into a battle." He stops and looks to the fort's large doors. "Even then he has the numbers."

Vannius leans against the wall. "I'd rather fight an enemy who thinks they've already won." He mutters, his arms crossed over his chest. "Over confident, more likely to make a mistake."

Isran nods slightly. "Durak!" He calls to one of the adjoining rooms.

The large Orc enters the room, handing resting on an axe at his waist. "Aye?" He answers.

"Gather the men, send messages to Riften. We ride for Haafingar at dawn." He tells him. "Arm them as best you can." He finishes, he turns to look at Vannius and myself. "You should get some rest, stops on the road will be few and far between." He nods to us before he walks off, Durak leaving as well to gather the full force of the Dawnguard.

I sit on one of the bunks at the back of the fort, Vannius sits opposite me, longsword resting on his knee as he runs a whetstone down the blade, honing the edge as best he can. He looks up at me, but doesn't quite meet my eyes, just moves them back down to the sword. I pull my new dagger from its sheath, press my finger against the edge. Good and sharp, I put it back in its sheath and pull my sleeve up to my elbow. The deep cut has scared badly, a long jagged line running the length of my forearm. Isran walks into the room and sits down heavily onto one of the other bunks, not even sparing us a glance as he does. The atmosphere in the fort is tense and heavy, no one says anything we can hear Durak barking orders but thats it.

I pull the quiver of arrows onto my lap, pull one of them out. Sunhallowed, Gelebor said. If Harkon does manage to bring the tyranny of the sun to fruition, this should stop it unless he sacrifices a daughter of coldharbour to achieve it. Then it'll be too late for us to do anything except hope we can kill Harkon. I stand up slowly and start to walk out of the room, Vannius' eyes never leave his sword as he works the whetstone along the steel. The fort is alive with activity, the men and women of the dawnguard rushing around arming themselves and preparing to leave for battle at dawn. According to Isran and Durak they have around three hundred men or just below. No doubt about it Harkon is only bolstering his ranks right now, if he wants to he could easily triple that number. Thralls fight for their master because its all they care about and the vampires that serve him fight so that they will ravage all of Tamriel. Isran has to pay mercenaries or convince people about a threat they don't think is there, they need the support of the holds cities guards and jarl's men but they will only follow if ordered and convincing a Nord jarl that they can be killed in their castle or behind their walls isn't an easy task.

I stop walking when I reach the cavernous back of the fort, Gunmar is there, repairing armour and weapons as best he can with the limited resources of the dawnguard. Steel plate is too expensive so they have to make due with leathers, mail and coats of plates even shields and spears are on short supply, the crossbows that the dawnguard use are mostly being replaced with longbows for newer recruits. "When we reach the castle we may have to lay siege." Gunmar calls out to me, I wasn't expecting him to speak. "Do you think your father will meet us in battle?" He asks.

i walk over to him and sit on top of a barrel. "I think he'll send a small force to meet us on the beach." I tell him, he stares at me, hanging on my every word. "He'll want to thin out our forces as much as possible, then he'll just bar the doors and let us lay a siege to a castle we don't have the man power to take." I rest my elbows on my knees and drop my head in my hands. "They'll have enough provisions in the castle and he knows we won't be able to organise supply lines with the empire so close to the castle." All he has to do is wait and then he can crush us with superior force, I don't tell Gunmar that though. He nods absently, as he sharpens an iron arming sword on the grindstone, probably ran out of steel and couldn't afford more.

I stand up and head back to the bunks. Vannius' sword is back in its scabbard and lying on the ground, he himself is laying on his back, asleep. I sit down back on the bunk next to his, lean back against the wall. I won't be able to get any sleep, I can rest on the road.

The carriage rocks back and forth as it goes down the road, I sit as far back in the shadows as possible, Isran was kind enough to give Vannius a tarp to cover the Carriage in the daylight. Vannius sits at the other end with Isran opposite him, Durak has the reins. "Celann should hopefully get help from Riften, if jarl law-giver decides that the threat is genuine." He mutters, running his hand over his shaved head. "I hope get aid from Falkreath and Solitude as well." He says, looking at Vannius. "I'll send messages to Whiterun as well."

He looks at him and nods his head. "Falkreath won't send help." He tells Isran. "The jarl shirks his duties and won't even commit more men to protecting his hold nevermind a threat on the other side of skyrim." He looks at me. "Whiterun won't send aid either and Solitude won't spare the men, too worried the Stormcloaks might finally attack."

"Hmm." Isran grumbles. "Unfortunately you're right." He pulls his axe from his belt and starts polishing the steel blade. "I'll be surprised if we get any help at all."

"Riders!" Someone shouts from somewhere on the convoy. The carriage comes to a stop as Isran jumps out of the back, Vannius moves towards the back with me, slowly drawing his sword and pointing the blade at the end. there's a lot of shouting as I hear the the dull thwack of bows and heavy clunk of crossbows. An arrow head slams into the side of the carriage, stabbing through the wood. There's a few more shouts and then it all stops. Someone rushes into the carriage, a long dagger in his hand. Vannius reacts quicker then I do and thrusts his long sword into the man's neck. He pushes his boot against his chest and kicks the man out of the carriage.

Isran walks round and climbs back in, his axe has blood on it that he quickly starts to clean off. He climbs back into the carriage. "Riders from the east." He grumbles, look down at the axe as he wipes the blood away. "They're all dead."

The carriage creaks loudly as it moves, the spears loaded on the side rattle loudly with every slight bump. The sun is finally starting to set, hopefully we can make camp soon. Vannius pisses out the back of the carriage while Isran leans back against the wall of the carriage, eyes closed as he rests.

Vannius moves back into the carriage, sitting back down on the bench. He looks at me and scratches at his beard. "Sun should be setting soon." He says, looking back out of he carriage. "Convoy moves too slowly." He grumbles to himself. "We're a nice fat and slow target for Harkon's men, all they have to do is hit us fast and hard and we can't retaliate." He says looking at me.

He's completely right, we've been travelling for an entire day and we're nowhere near out of the rift yet. According to Vannius we're moving slower on purpose to allow Celann and any other dawnguard men to get help from Riften and then catch up to us but we're still moving too slowly. If that attack was a sign of things to come then we're in for a few more yet.

I walk through the treeline, towards a small shallow pond. It's nice to finally stretch my legs, out of the carriage and in the small wooded area just off the road. There's a light rain falling, it made a nice soft relaxing sound on the tarp but it sounds much nicer out in the trees. I put my hand out and run my fingers against a leaf, water running off of it.

I hear a twig snap in to my right but when I turn it's just one of the dawnguard men, scouting the perimeter of the camp with his crossbow in hand. He has an arming sword sheathed at his hip. He turns to look in my direction, he spots me and stops. He adjusts his grip on the crossbow but then does something unexpected. He nods at me, only a small one but big enough that I notice. He moves away quickly, resuming his perimeter check.

There's shouts from the camp, the pounding of hoofs on the ground and the tell tale clash of steel on steel. I quickly turn around and run back towards the camp. When I reach it I finally get why Isran was against making camp and why Vannius didn't like the pace we'd set. There's men on horseback attacking anyone they see and at least one of the wagons is on fire. I rush towards the fighting as soon as I reach the clearing, Isran is already there in the thick of it, he knocks one of the attackers to the ground with a sharp strike to the knee with his warhammer and then brings it down hard on their skull.

I send a spear of ice into a woman with two axes, trying to attack him from behind and quickly drop another who rushes at another member of the dawnguard who has an iron in his thigh. I hear a screaming and turn to see a man on horse back riding straight for me, a lance lowered. I prepare to send more ice at him but an iron hits his horse in the neck, it makes a terrible sound as it topples over sending the rider over the reins and onto the ground hard. I rush over and stab my dagger into his chest. Someone rushes at me with an axe, they swing it at me and I manage to block the strike with my dagger, I send a spear of ice into the bottom of his jaw. There's a loud shout as one of the men of the dawnguard is thrown to the floor by a man with a warhammer, he's trampled by a horse, his bones cracking loudly as the horse goes over him.

I look around quickly, try to get a feeling for the tide of the battle. It's too difficult to see where they're attacking from, seems like it's everywhere. I turn to try and find Vannius but I instead find Durak as he battles with two of them at the same time, moving his axe to parry and swing back as fast as he can. He can't keep it up for long and they know that, as they move around him, forcing him to move a lot more and waste more energy. I move towards him as quick as I can but I have to move back as another of them on horse back swings a flair at me, I duck down as it swings over my head. I turn and send spears of ice into the riders back, three of them. He slumps over on his horse, still charging forward as he bleeds to death. I quickly start to head back to help Durak but Vannius comes up behind one of his attackers, swinging his longsword at him and embedding it between his shoulder and neck, the man drops to his knees as Vannius kicks him in the back to free his sword, turning to the man as he tries to attack, Vannius ducks back and Durak swings his axe into the man's stomach. Vannius rushes over to me, sword gripped tight. He grabs my should and gives me a quick look over.

"What happened?" I ask him, keeping an eye out for anymore attackers. there's a few still moving around but the dawnguard look to be making quick work of them now, longbows and crossbows shooting from every direction and cutting them down. A few of the men rush to put the flaming wagon out, buckets of water in hand as they run towards it. "Where'd they all come from?" I ask looking down at a dead horse lying in the mud.

He does a quick look around the camp before putting his sword back in his scabbard. He looks back at me. "They rode in from almost every angle." He turns to Durak as he walks over. "They probably killed your scouts." He tells the Orc.

Durak nods grimly. "I should see to the wounded." He growls out, walking away quickly. He probably lost all of his scouts, I can only hope that his anger doesn't make him reckless, that'll only put more people in danger.

We stand there in silence for who knows how long, thirty men dead or near enough according to Isran, the dawnguard take any weapons or armour then can from the bodies of both their own and the attackers. Vannius walks over to one of the bodies, pushing the body onto he's back with his boot, his right hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword as he does it. Blood leaks out of the bodies helmet, blunt force to the head, blood pouring out of one of the helmets eye slots.

"Isran!" A rider shouts entering the clearing, Celann there's more riders behind him. Finally some good news. "Jarl Law-Giver has sent help!" He calls as his horse slows and he climbs down from the saddle. "Twenty three Rift soldiers, ten men in training and thirteen of the Riften guard." He says as he looks at the soldiers scathingly.

Isran grunts to him and walks over to the soldiers. "Ten boys who can't fight and thirteen city guards?" He growls, gesturing to them as he turns back to Celann. "What do they know about fighting in a battle or attacking a castle?"

Celann shakes his head and walks over to him. "Nowt." He answers, hand resting on his arming sword. "But they're the best we're going to get from Riften." He says, Isran looks at him with anger clear on his face. "Might be we get help from the other holds."

"Don't hold your breath." Isran turns and walks away, staring at the dead dawnguard men as he does. His glare turns to me and then he walks over to Vannius, putting his hand on his shoulder and then leaning in to say something, he walks off again and Vannius stares at him as he leaves.

I walk over to him and stop just behind him. "When this is all over..." He says, trailing off as he turns to face me. "Don't linger at the castle, get out as fast as you can." He says quietly. "He plans on killing every vampire on that island." I stare after Isran and then look back to Vannius, his expression is grim as he looks at me. "Don't be there." He says, pointing at me before he walks away back to the carriage.

I just stand in the rain, every vampire regardless of what side their on. I look at the bodies of the dawnguard, blood pooling under them as they lay in the mud. Hopefully we can get more help from the other holds.

That was chapter 21, bit short or whatever I'm not sure how long it actually is and I'm too lazy to check. Next chapter will probably be the last I'm not sure depends how long it is, might be two more yet.

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