Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own The Elder Scrolls Series, or Bethesda. I did make a few of the characters up, but in a way, their still Bethesda property so…whatever.
Remus wished his escape story would have been more daring and impressive, but it was quite the opposite.
As soon as the "dragon" began to attack Helgen, Remus quickly tried to scramble after Nyxeris, stumbling multiple times from debris flying over his head and ground shaking impacts. He saw Nyxeris dived into the doorway to the tower, and he followed her after a few moments. Once inside, he wanted to run right back out. There were five, unbound Stormcloaks staring at him in the doorway. They didn't try to kill him, but then again, he didn't stay long. Nyxeris didn't even stop, and managed to start climbing the stairs to the top of the tower. Remus followed. Before he made it to the stairs, he looked back and noticed the blonde nord from before and…Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak ungagged and unbound. He turned and kept running.
"Why does everything want to kill me?" Remus said to himself. He had Stormcloaks try to kill him; Empire soldiers try to kill him, and even a dragon try to kill him. "Everyone except her," he thought as he chased after Nyxeris. Even with her hands bound, she was far from helpless. She bounded up the stairs, two at a time, moving as quickly as a deer in the wild. She didn't once look back to make sure he was with her, but he guessed she could hear his hard breathing from behind her. Finally, they made it to the second level, and saw a Stormcloak crouched down by the next set of stairs.
He saw them coming and stood up. "Hey you tw-"he was cut off as the wall next to him imploded at him. The Stormcloak disappeared under a mound of rubble. Nyxeris and Remus stopped short as the dragon stuck its head inside the tower. Opening its massive jaws, it let forth an enormous stream of fire in the tower. The pair ducked down as fire shot over them. Suddenly, it stopped as the dragon took off into the sky. After a few seconds, Nyxeris stood and examined their escape route. The debris from the wall blocked the next set of stairs, and patches of fire still burned in the rocks.
She turned her head towards the opening and walked over to it, looking downward. She bent her knees, and before Remus could stop her, leapt from the tower.
"No!" Remus yelled. He rushed to opening and looked down.
About twenty feet below him, Nyxeris stood in the top floor what remained of a wooden home. A large part of the straw roof and burned off, and the rest of the structure was catching fire fast.
Nyxeris began to run again, but stopped after a step, tuned and looked up at Remus. "Come on!" She yelled to him.
"Are you mad?" he yelled back.
"You'll be fine Imperial! Now get down here before I leave your sorry arse behind!"
Remus breathed hard. "Damn it," he muttered.
He then closed his eyes, and jumped. Once he felt impact, he rolled for all he was worth, and struggled to his feet. Smoke caught in his eyes and made him gag slightly. He looked up to see Nyxeris jumping down another hole at the far end of the room to a lower level.
"W-wait for me!" he yelled to her. He didn't even pause at this next hole, since it was a much shorter jump. Once he ran from the burning home he witnessed quite a sight. Dozens of Empire archers shot at the massive dragon from the ground and ramparts. The dragon was too fast though, and nothing managed to hit it. Remus barely saw it fly overhead, moving faster than anything he had ever seen before. Its massive body and wings blotted out the sun.
Fear once again shot through Remus, who then took off down the path Nyxeris charged through.
He caught sight of the dark elf stopped next to the Empire nord who had read their names off that damn list. A sword was in his hand, and he was yelling something at her. Nyxeris turned her head to Remus, and motioned for him to come. Remus obeyed, but steered clear of the armed nord, preferring to stand behind Nyxeris.
"Your still alive too prisoner?" the nord said to Remus, who nodded in response.
"Good, follow me if you want to keep it that way." The nord then turned to a man and boy behind him that Remus hadn't seen. "Stay out of sight," he told them. "I need to join general Tullius in the defense!" then took off running down a charred path.
"Gods speed, Hadvar," the man yelled back to him. Nyxeris turned to Remus.
"Come on, we'll follow him for a bit. Just until we get out of this chaos."
Remus thought it was a better plan than wandering around by themselves, so he nodded. They ran after Hadvar. Remus saw things that would haunt him forever. On the streets, people screamed, on fire and burning alive. Soldiers continued to shoot at the dragon, who nimbly dodged everything. Mages shot fire bolts at it, as other soldiers tried to clear ruble away from the gates. Bodies lay crumbled on the floors. Some badly burnt, others crushed from rubble. Most were the citizens that were out watching the executions. Building continued to crumble around them, as fire spread faster than they could run. Remus even saw the dragon sweep across the ramparts, grasp an Empire soldier in its black talons, and drop him from the sky. Remus could hear the soldier scream until he hit the ground.
After what seemed a nightmarish eternity, Remus caught sight of the barracks. A single Stormcloak, the blonde nord from before, ran out in front of their path. Hadvar stopped and began yelling at the nord. Nyxeris and Remus didn't even stop. They charged past the two of them and plowed into the barracks. A moment later, Hadvar came in and slammed the door shut.
"Ah good, we should be safe for now, but we should keep moving." He sheathed his sword and looked at the two of them. "Come here and let me see if I can get those bindings off. Otherwise you'll be helpless is we encounter any more problems." He cut Nyxeris's bindings off first, and then came to Remus's.
"Was that really a dragon?" He asked, as he cut the bindings. "The bringers of the end times?"
"Can't be," Remus replied, still shaken. "Dragons have been gone for centuries."
"Not anymore it seems." Nyxeris said. She turned to Hadvar. "We have to keep moving."
He nodded. "There should be some armor in these chests. Maybe a couple swords too."
Remus checked some of the chests on the left side of the room, while Nyxeris checked the right. "Found a helm," he said.
"I have a set of armor, and two swords." Nyxeris stood, brandishing a set of leather armor. A pair or iron swords sat of the wooden table beside her.
Remus eyed the armor and lifted his eyebrow. "Only one set?"
A roar ringed outside, sounding a lot closer than before.
Nyxeris suddenly through the armor at Remus, who caught it, surprised. "Luckily, the Empire didn't take my armor, so you take this set. Move quickly though."
Remus armored himself quickly, while Nyxeris checked her own to make sure nothing was out of place. Once they were done, she tossed one of the swords at him. He caught it easily. A memory of stabbing the Stormcloak the night before assaulted his mind, and he nearly dropped the new weapon.
"Were ready," Nyxeris called out to Hadvar. The nord ran forward and led them through a door on the opposite end of the room.
As they walked, Remus began to calm himself, and get a grip on the situation. Soon, they saw a room in the distance, lit by a few candles. As they came closer, they began to hear voices from inside. Hadvar motioned for them to stop.
"Sounds like Stormcloaks," he said. "Let's see if we can reason with them."
"Yeah, you go in first. Tell us how that idea goes," Remus muttered. Nyxeris snickered.
Hadvar glared at the Imperial for a moment, then turned and walked toward the room slowly. Nyxeris and Remus stayed behind and watched, but Hadvar soon slipped out of sight, behind a corner. They could hear talking, which soon got louder. Then they heard the sound of steel hitting steel.
Nyxeris tensed. "Let's go!" she ordered, and then charged into the room. Remus followed closely, his blood pumping wildly.
Inside the room Hadvar was locked in battle with two large Stormcloaks. One wielded a two handed axe, and the other, a female, wielded a menacing looking claymore. The axe wielding Stormcloak swung at Hadvar, who was dodging as best as he could. The other Stormcloak tried to get behind Hadvar, but didn't get a chance as Nyxeris came behind her, and ran her sword into the Stormcloaks back. Outnumbered three to one, the last Stormcloak backed up against the wall, and looked at looked at all three of them individually. As his eyes came to Remus, he charged, yelling a vicious war cry.
Remus didn't know what happened next. His vision got fuzzy, and he felt disconnected. He remembered all those days watching Empire soldiers train in Solitude, memorizing the techniques they practiced for hours. His body moved on its own.
The Stormcloak slashed his axe downward, but Remus sidestepped instantly. The man hefted the axe over his head and swung, trying to cleave Remus in half from the side, but he was too quick. Remus ducked quickly and avoided the axe, then lunged forward. He jabbed at the Stormcloak, who then deflected Remus's sword with the pommel of his axe.
Remus swept right past the man then turned sharply to see the Stormcloak bringing his axe downward again. This time, Remus blocked it with his own weapon. The impact jarred his arms, and sparks flew, but he held strong. The two remained locked to each other, until Remus began to feel his strength ebbing away. In one desperate last move, Remus pushed the axe off to the left. The axe buried itself in the stone wall slightly. The Stormcloak tried to heft it free for another strike, but he was too slow. Remus lunged one more time, and stabbed the man in the gut.
Remus stared into the man's crazed eyes as he yanked his sword free. The man stood for a moment, looking confused, then collapsed.
Remus was breathing hard, on the verge of falling to his knees. "Impressive performance," he heard Nyxeris say behind him. He turned to see the dark elf helping Hadvar up, but watching Remus intently.
"It was nothing," Remus gasped out. "I could do that all day."
"Indeed," Nyxeris replied, sounding unconvinced.
Hadvar walked over to the dead female and fished a key from her armor. "Come on, we still got a long way to go," he said, gesturing towards the Iron Gate behind Remus.
After the fight, Remus felt exhausted, but didn't want to hold the others up. They passed a torture room, where a pair of soldiers had taken down a couple Stormcloaks. Remus found a shield and mace, but decided to forgo both. He was already tired, and didn't want to lug around more weight. He would need to be light on his feet to make it out of this live. He also found some lock picks in a satchel, and was tempted to pick the lock to one of the cages to loot the body inside, but thought better of it. Taking from the dead seemed awful to Remus, but Nyxeris, on the other hand, had no qualms with it. She unlocked the cage faster than Remus could blink and loaded the satchel with everything she found inside, including a few gold coins, magicka potions, and a spell tomb. Her eyes lit up once she saw that one of the Stormcloaks had a bow and quiver full of iron arrows.
"Finally!" she yelled and threw her sword to the ground, and grabbing the bow. They continued through a rather large hole in the wall further down. It seemed that they were now in a cave system, and easily found a small creek.
"Follow the water. We might find a way out," Hadvar said.
They found a room filled with Stormcloaks. Hadvar and Remus fought a pair of Stormcloaks on a narrow bridge themselves, while Nyxeris traded shots with some Stormcloaks that had their own bows. She was a fantastic shot though, and downed all of them within moments of each other. Hadvar and Remus managed to hold off their attacker long enough for Nyxeris to shoot them. Remus ducked to avoid the Stormcloaks sword, and looked up to see an arrow protruding from the man's chest. Remus turned to look at Nyxeris in awe. "That was amazing!"
She smiled slightly. "It was nothing. I could do that all day," she said, walking past him. He smiled.
They rested for a few minutes, and continued forward. Soon, Remus noticed that the walls become sticky with webs. Nyxeris noticed this too, and stopped dead in her tracks.
"These are spider webs," she said. Her voice sounded strange. Remus turned around to see a terrified look on her face.
"You scared?" he asked.
That jarred her out of her scared expression. The glared angrily at Remus. "Of course not! How could you ask such an idiotic question after all that's happened? I'm just stating an observation." She quickly brushed past Remus. Her voice still sounded strange. Remus decided to not think about it and keep going. The heat and lack of oxygen made Remus light headed, but he kept going. They were almost free, he could feel it.
Suddenly, they came into a large chamber completely covered in webbing. Corpses of small animals and humanoid shapes hung from the ceiling, covered completely in webs.
"This isn't good," Hadvar said cautiously. Then, shaped began to move all along the floor and walls around them. Once they came into the sunlight, Remus recognized them as spiders. Very, very large spiders. Each was the size of a small dog, except for one that was easily man sized. Remus raised his sword in preparation for the attack, but was caught off guard by screaming. He looked to see that Nyxeris had noticed the spiders and was quickly fleeing for her life, out the tunnel on the other side of the chamber. At that speed, she could have very well outrun the dragon.
"Go after her!" Hadvar yelled to Remus. "I'll take care of these things!"
"Right!" Jumping past the spiders, and out of the chamber through the tunnel, Remus tried to catch up with the crazed dark elf. Finally, he found her standing in front of a thick wall of webbing, blocking the tunnel.
"Nyxeris!" he called out to her.
She turned sharply in his direction. "I, uh…" she said slowly. "I figured you two could handle yourselves, so I came to scout ahead."
"You screamed and ran! You're scared of spiders!"
She sneered angrily at him. "I am not scared, Imperial! You'll do well to remember!"
Remus decided it was better for his safety not to piss off an angry woman. He raised his hands in defeat.
Still looking angry, she shook her head. "Where's the nord?"
"Here" Said a voice behind them. Hadvar stepped from behind the corner, his left shoulder covered in green slime. It took Remus a moment to realize that he was limping.
"Are you alright," he said.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Hadvar replied. "One of them got me with their poison spit. No worries though, it's only temporary." He then saw the wall of webbing blocking their path. "Can you cut through it?" he asked Remus.
Remus looked at his sword, then the web. "I think so." He swung his sword into the web. Only a part of the web came off, so he kept swinging. Eventually, the web wall broke, and they stepped through. Remus's sword was completely covered in webbing. It would be useless in a fight whilst in that condition, so he threw it to the ground. As they continued in silence, Remus felt something.
A slight breeze, brushing against his face.
"Do you feel that? It feels like wind!"
Hadvar and Nyxeris stopped and concentrated. Suddenly, Hadvar's face lit up. "Wind! There must be an exit here somewhere! Come on!" They ran then, twisting and turning through chambers, desperately looking for a way out. Finally, as the turned a corner, they saw light at the end of the tunnel.
Remus looked at Nyxeris, who looked back at him and grinned. They were free! Together, all three of them ran through the exit into the light.