Authors Note: The second installation to this mighty tale of horrible gore, now it shall come for all those of you who are bloody sadistic… enjoy!
Chapter 2: Joust?
I had practically been captured by these so called Knights of Tamriel. But they insisted that I could leave, if I could. I found these people very confusing. "Tell me, Vorus, do they still joust in Tamriel? We do not know for we haven't been able to leave here. The lord of these lands is adamant we remain secret and to not seem like a force of the Winterlands." Asked Heralthic.
"What is 'Jousting'?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"Oh, so they don't, a shame. Well now is a good of a time as any. Do you wish to joust?"
"It sounds like something a Jester does; could you tell me more about it?"
"Ah, I can show you, come this way please." Replied the Lord-Knight. We had seen many people, all in full armour. Curiously, none had opened their visors, if they could. He led me through the castle, any and all knights passing us by did their own rendition of a salute, banging on their right part of the breast plate, saying 'my liege!'
After many minutes of walking I could hear screaming and the 'cry of the Nord' "I'll mount your head on my wall!" then the sound of hooves crashing. Just as we rounded the corner a knight and a Nord in Iron armour, mounted on horses and armed with giant sticks, charged down next to a fence running an odd 160ft.
The collision was loud and it rattled my bones. The knight had landed a hit directly into the Nords shoulder, impaling in it and taking it off his body. Blood splashed in all odd directions as the bandit looking fool screamed in immense agony. The knight had been hit in the strange neck guard and seemed unhindered.
"That was terrible on that bandits behalf, he dropped the lance before clearing the list, also he had to chase his target a lot. Serves him right for saying that elven armour is crap eh." One man said.
"Sir Torald could have done better, as usual great accuracy, but he dropped it a little too early. With perfect timing we wouldn't have had to block our ears." Said another.
Looking to the blood again, which had stopped spraying and now was just gushing slowly. It all pooled at the feet of the Nord's corpse. "That is jousting, although he was a mere Bandit who refused our armour. We get anyone who enters our castle to joust, we offer them our finest armour crafted by Quarter Master Feashal. If you survive you are given that set of armour and have to survive against me in sword and shield combat. If so, you are accepted into the order. It is no different for you."
"So I have to do that. Alright, I get armour like yours?"
"Yes, head up to the forge to ask Feashal to adorn you yours, take this document and he shall." With that he left leaving me to stare at the still bleeding corpse. I followed the sound of a forge.
After several minutes of walking through the castle, it was bloody large, I found the forge. An unarmoured wood elf was working it. "Hello, Heralthic said you could adorn me some armour."
He stopped and looked toward me. "Ah, an Argonian, I have had to create twelve armours for you kind, seven of which returned on a live body."
"Right, well he said that I should give you this." I passed him the paper, which he hastily read over.
"Alright, how tall are you exactly?" he asked abruptly.
"6 foot, 2." He then went for a piece of basic armour and put it next to me.
"That should be right. Come back within the next hour, it shall be done. If you ask me, you should go and see more Joust's, ask questions, maybe train." With that he continued work and I set off the way I came.
"Excuse me; could you give me some pointers on Jousting?" I asked one of the many knights. When he turned I noticed that there was room for a long snout. "You're an Argonian, I haven't seen any knights of our kind." I said in a bit of disbelief.
"Hey, well yes I am an Argonian, Egg Brother, and as for tips, when you get hit, it's like an enraged troll comes at you. When you deliver the hit, lean into it, so to you left, less chance of an unhorsing, also twist when it makes contact. Oh and this is paramount, don't drop early, when your about thirteen paces away begin to drop it."
"Thanks, I didn't catch your name though, Sir…?"
"Therisca, you must be that new guy who actually pulled the Draconis sword. On that note, what have you decided on naming it?"
"Why name it?" I asked in an incredulous tone.
"It is the Draconis sword; I have two reasons for the naming. One, all the best swords have names, mine is Dragos. Secondly, the Draconis sword will take on the characteristics of that name. So having something like Puncture, will, after some time, increase its penetrative power. Acording to legend, that is."
"Oh… so I should name it then, any suggestions?" when Therisca shook his head I continued to think. After long moments I came up with something that would be tactically beneficial. "Advocate!"
"That's good, should help defend you. Now where were you from anyway?"
"Black Marsh, not far from the capital. You?"
"The capital, why did you come to Skyrim? I came initially to join the Companions, but on a job, I ended up here."
"I have no idea, all I know is a dragon came down when I was about to be chopped, I was caught up in that bloody war. Then I turn out to be some 'Dragonborn' I came here accidently. Why did people say that killing dragons was a crime earlier?"
"Oh' to us they are sacred, Akatosh was meant to be a dragon, so we should not attack them."
"What about the world eater, Alduin? Should we destroy him to save Tamriel?"
"It is told that we must destroy Alduin at some point but we need dragons on our side."
"Oh, in that case I have one, I shouldn't speak his name due to it may end up a catastrophe. I met him in the soul cairn when I was doing a job for the Dawnguard."
"Think you can get a few more?"
"Let's just wait until we find if I survive the joust. Speaking of which I should probably get to it. Goodbye." With that, and a nod from Therisca, I continued on to the forge again. When I got there, the Quarter Master was hard at work. He stopped however upon noticing me.
"I have you armour ready, it's over there by the work bench." I walked over to the unpainted armour and looked it over. It had the neck guard and a tiny chest shield. Feashal then set about the task of teaching me about armour.
"This piece here" he said while pointing at the chest shield, "Is a Grand Guard, it will protect you from a lance, sword or any other implement of ill will." He then pointed to the neck piece, "This is technically part of the Grand Guard but is only protection for the neck." He pointed to all of the different pieces telling me what's what.
After a few minutes of tips and hints, he sent me off to the back room to 'suit up'. I came out slowly and uncomfortably in my new armour. Moving my limbs to check for any problems. None, this blacksmith was better than even Eorlund Grey-Mane.
"You look like a retard with that huge visor up." Said Therisca when a came up to him, near the 'list'. In embarrassment I closed the dragon-head shaped visor down. At first I saw nothing due to the tiny steel chainmail-like thing, then my eyes adjusted and I could see clearly, well as clearly as I could.
"Now you look quite intimidating. By the way, in the list with you is some orc who we caught just after you arrived; he had two others with him. They claimed to be your 'friends' do you know what they mean?" he asked knowingly.
"Ah, crap, they are probably under the employ of the Thalmor. I killed one in self-defence whilst praying to Talos, the other got away. Hopefully they didn't tell the bloody elves."
"Right, well I've seen this Orsimer, and by the nine he is big. If he hits you you'll definitely be unhorsed. By the way, you'll need a horse, come with me." He led me into a stable full with warhorses. "Remember, the horse chooses its rider." With that he stepped aside letting me walk to the fence.
Most of them backed away, all but one huge black stallion. It stood its ground, seemingly waiting for something. Unsure why I was doing this, I opened the gate and held my hand out. It bowed its head for me to stroke. "By the nine, no one's been able to tame him. You have a skill it seems, what do you wish to name him?" asked Therisca in a slightly disbelieving tone.
After a long moment of thinking I had it, "Phantom." In a nod of approval Therisca helped lead Phantom out to be saddled. After saddling him up we moved to the list. The Orc was already there with a cream coloured horse. He was bloody huge, and only in orcish armour. Tough but seemingly weaker than mine. We both mounted our horses and were given lances.
"This shall be eight passes. You will be awarded one point for a strike, three for a broken lance and seven for an unhorsing. You will automatically win if your opponent is unable to continue. If you hit a horse or they falter, you will be deducted of points." Announced the judge on my left.
Personally, now I was trying to keep a clear head as per a pointer from the blacksmith, thinking of how they had this much in a castle. Although it did delve into the mountain. Time seemed to slow as the flag was dropped; we both charged down the list, Phantom was significantly faster though. I had no idea if he hit me but I know I hit him, it still hurt like hell when we collided. When my senses returned I was still sitting upon Phantom "Did he hit me?" is all I could ask as Therisca ran up to me.
"No, he missed terribly; he had his lance down the second the flag was dropped. But you my friend, shattered that lance into a thousand pieces. On a more important note, if you want to unhorse him, you need to drop it a little later. Now get ready, he looks bloody angry" I turned to see an enraged orc at the other end of the list.
We were given new lances, the flag dropped again with time slowing as it did before. This time I hit what seemed perfectly, but felt a sharp pain in my left. My senses returned and again I was safely on Phantom. I looked over my shoulder to see an angry orc running towards me, sword drawn.
The quarter master had told me this was legal to engage in sword combat, I dived off of Phantom rolling to my feet and drawing Advocate and putting it into a defensive stance, what happened then surprised me.
Authors Note: Please don't stone me for a clunky start nor for crap description, I will take any and all advice and please review. New one either afternoon, night or tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed!
P.S. Yes, he has a little amnesia.