Kung
A long journey was cut short by using the carriage. I lay on my back in the carriage as no-one entered the wooden cart after we left. The hours passed by, as did the trees and clouds, however when the trees began to change from oak to birch, I sat up to see where we were. A very dark path, turning very cold as we neared a path covered by a small flurry of snow. Winterhold seemed to live up to his name.
"You're awake, don't worry lad, close now." The driver smiled at me as I dragged myself to the chair.
I noticed a very large change in scenery as we neared an incline in the hill. Fallen rocks showed me that Winterhold was in a spot of bother. When we neared the stables to the town, I noticed that the snow picked up a lot of speed. Not only this, but I noticed many houses appeared to have been destroyed. The carriage came to a stop, quite abruptly too.
"You'd best get off lad, I don't think mages are trusted here." He gave me a piece of very useful information.
"I can see that, thank you." I bowed my head to him as I dragged my pack off of the carriage.
"Not a problem lad, any favor the Jarl asks, I will do." He tilted his hat to me.
"Safe travels to you, my freind." I spoke as hauled the pack up the windy town.
I'd been told Winterhold was cold, I expected snow. What I did not expect was the amount of wind. Many times I was nearly blown back off of my feet as I neared the nearest tavern. Quickly, I took shelter in one of the only places that was not destroyed. Briskly I closed the door behind me as to not let any of the warmth of the room out. A few people cast looks of distaste at me. I tried my best to ignore the hostillity, but as I neared the landlord, someone stood up and walked over to me, stopping me in my tracks.
"Mages ain't welcome in here." He growled.
"I mean no harm, the only reason I want to go to the college is to learn restraint." I explained myself, still struggling slightly with the heavy pack.
This struggle was ended when the guy grabbed me by the robes and hung me on a hook by my robes.
"This is what I call restraint." He chuckled, gaining him a few rounds of applause from the others in the tavern.
Not taking the hanging well, I dropped the pack and used my flexibility to climb up on the coloumn he'd stuck me on. He cast me a look.
"Don't you dare." He growled at me.
I was sick of this already, he'd pushed me close to the edge by hanging me on the hook. I could take jokes, but using it as a threat was something I was not going to take lying down... Or hanging on a hook.
"Anders, leave the boy alone." The landlord did not take his eyes from the scroll he was reading.
"Why? Why are you letting another mage go to that damned college? After what happened to my daughter?" Anders yelled at the landlord.
The blonde haired Landlord looked up, his eyes were filled with respect for Anders, yet he wanted him to leave me alone. However, he didn't make a single move. He stood still looking at me and Anders. Growling, Anders grabbed my legs and threw me into the ground. The air escaped my lungs as I hit the floor, the wound twinged painfully as I was dragged back.
"Get off!" I struggled against him, kicking his hand off of my leg.
Quickly, I scrambled to my feet. There wasn't much I could do, I'd been in a few fights before, but not with anyone as tall as Anders. In realtion to me, he was a giant. Growling, he tackled me to the ground and brought his fist back. As it neared my head, I did the only thing I could do is headbutt hit fist. The impact sent me into a daze, but I was in nowhere near as much pain as Anders was in.
He'd ended up punching me in the circlet, pretty much bending the copper around my forehead. Anders recoiled in agony, his fist turning red slightly. With another growl, he grabbed my robes around the hood and pushed me into the pole again. He tried to kick me, but it only took a sidestep to get him to kick the pole instead of me.
"Please, stop. I don't want to hurt you!" I called, still ready to defend myself.
Whilst I was concentrating on Anders, another drunkard punched me in the side of the head. Knocking me down to the ground caused some dizziness and stars around the corners of my vision.
"Enough!" The landlord stood up and walked around to get the other drunk away from me.
Catching my breath, I pulled myself to my feet only to realise that my robe had been ripped by Anders. The robe began to fall, slightly revealing my skin underneath. Embarrassed, I took my bag and tried to walk out of the tavern, which would have been difficult seeing as a couple of broad men stood in the door. This wouldn't end well, not at all.
"Are you alright?" The landlord put a hand on my shoulder, the side that had been ripped.
"I'm fine, just let me leave. Please." I pleaded with him.
Even though he seemed against the mages, he took pity on me. However, I noticed why he'd taken pity on me, my cloth had ridden up my head, revealing my blind eye.
"Boys, let him go. This isn't right." He pulled the fold over my eye for me.
That was the exact reason why I covered my eye. People took pity on the blind boy, it was almost like they couldn't see the shining blue on the other side of my face. I hated it more than being blind itself. Without another word, I left into the slowly building blizzard. I stormed off into the snow, trying to find the college and trying to forget what just happened in the tavern. The cold wind caused my bruised face to twinge as I climbed up the stairs to the bridge. However I was confronted by a female elf.
Much taller than me, looking down at me with her dark eyes.
"Another student for the college I see."
Mary
"Well done." The trainer spoke as my wooden sword touched his throat.
Solitude was much nicer the Whiterun, the people seemed more freindly. However, the trial for the Legion was somewhat... Strenuous. A smal tournament that all the recruits had to go through, at the end of the tournament the winner had to fight our instructor. William was strong, experienced, a fan of shorter blades and yet, he was beaten by me, someone who'd only just begun training.
"Who taught you that?" The tall brunette questioned me as he sheathed his sword.
"Well, you did. I noticed what you were doing rather than the others." I explained, making it sound like I'd been staring at him intently.
He laughed heartily as he pulled me into a one armed hug, showing me to the others around us.
"We have a new champion! Those of you who were removed during the first section, you're in. All this was, was to see just how good you are at dueling. On the battlefield, you wont face one solitary opponent. In some circumstances, you will be swarmed by enemy. The sky will be darkened with arrows and javelin. Make no mistake, this war will not be a tally of how many you fight alone, it will be how many you fight together! As brothers and sisters of the Imperial Legion!" William made a speech.
However, as the crowd was cheering, I noticed a small head of blonde hair peep out from around a corner, followed by a small framed bare torso peering around the corner.
"Kung?" I wondered, it was then I realised that Kung had brown hair, not blonde.
It seemed strange, most of the Kids in Solitude were sat on the wall, cheering on as the tournament went on and when William finished his speech. When William finally let us go, I decided to investigate the small spy, who was still watching the group even when there wasn't anything to see. Quickly, and without thinking too much about what I was doing, I stormed around the wall so I could come up behind the kid.
"Hey!" I called, gently, as not to scare him.
It was not Kung, as he turned his head, I could see both his eyes worked perfectly fine. Solitude was not the warmest place, so it confused me as to why the boy was shirtless, wearing only a pair of cloth trousers.
"Ah, I'm sorry!" He sheilded himself.
"No, no It's alright. I was just wondering what you were doing, all the other kids were sat on the wall." I tried my best to be kind to him.
He looked around shiftily before he spoke again.
"I'm not supposed to be out. Mamma doesn't let me leave the house usually." He looked away from me.
"Why? Who's your mother?" I caught myself, before I caught myself asking the wrong thing.
"The Jarl... She looks after me, but she wont let me see the training. That's all I wanted to see, the guards would drag me back if they see me." He began to ramble, starting to shake violently.
Wondering as to whether or not it was the cold or plain fear, I found it was both when my hand touched his bare skin. He was hot, his skin warm which didn't make sense. I realised that his story wasn't what he made it out to be.
"Come on, let me take you home." I held my hand out for him to take.
He looked at me frightened, as if I'd said something terrible.
"Do you feel safe at home?" I took his hand nevertheless, Solitude looked to be a nice place, letting the little one cause trouble wouldn't be good when I was so close to him and was probably seen with him.
He shook his head, however unlike Kung, I could not see any sign of abuse. No abuse, which only meant that he was going through something that most wouldn't go through. Eventually, his shaking made him fall to his knees, meaning I had no choice but to take him home against his will. He was scared, badly too. What I couldn't understand was the fear of home.
Shaking my head, I picked him up and walked him back to the Jarl's residence. As the door opened, there were several guards, but more servants then any one person would ever need. Leading me to believe that the Jarl kept her family here.
"Erron!" One of the young women stepped forward.
The blonde tried her best to take Erron, but he kept shaking his head, making her step back.
"What's he doing?" I asked, wondering if Erron's behavior was common.
"He wasn't been this way since his mother died. Please, follow me." She lead me through a door, hidden behind a large tapestry.
What I saw in that room made me feel sick, several devices you wouldn't find in a member of the dark brotherhood's home were strewn about. A hanging cage was the most tame thing in the place. Several pieces of clothing were strewn about, including the upper part of Erron's clothing, torn and stuck on a hook. Speechless, I knew why Erron's shaking was increasing, hatred burned in me.
"What have you been doing to him?" I confronted the woman, she acted like all this was normal.
"Th- this is were he sleeps." She admitted.
I nearly dropped the warm bundle in my arms, people like this didn't deserve kids.
"Sleeps! I've seen tamer torture chambers, what do you think you're doing with him?"
Instantly I could see where he was sleeping, the cage I mentioned before had a few sheets inside.
Kung
"This is where you'll sleep, you can keep your things here. We're sorry that the bed is broken." Mirabelle showed me my open room.
I was used to having closed doors to sleep behind... And a fire.
"That's alright, but... What's that cage for?" I asked, wondering.
Mirabelle chuckeled slightly.
"We've had some issues with students... Summoning things, they can take them to their rooms but must keep the summoned in the cage. Just in case it decides to start rampaging." She explained.
"Oh, I thought it was... You know, punishment." I blushed, colleges knew about decipline, I wondered about their rules for misbehavior.
"About that. We don't expect anyone to go out of their way to break rules. However, we have to try and keep them out of sight and out of mind for the others in Winterhold. We've had to do some extreme things before, however you seem like a good kid. The worst that will happen to you is that you'll get locked in this cage for a day or two." She explained.
It seemed strange to me, but quasi-logical at the same time. After all, if they were thinking of locking me down, they were going to need to get some smaller pillories. As Mirabelle left me to sort my things, I realised that my ripped robes weren't going to be very useful to me, I also realised that getting changed would be an even more difficult task.
As I took of the robe, as gust of cold air shook me. Quickly, I tried to get into the robes that Mirabelle had given me, only to find that it was so large, I was practically trapped in the thing.
"When I learn to fix this with magic." I sighed under my breath, wrestling with loose fabric to keep it from draping on the floor.
Mary
"My Jarl, you must understand. This is barbaric!" How I wanted to punch this woman in the face, she didn't seem evil when I first saw her.
Erron whimpered as she ran a hand through the boy's blonde locks. She looked like she wanted to rip the boy's hair out when I talked, I never knew I sounded so shrill.
"Barbaric? Do you know what he's been doing? These last few days he's taken to hiding himself in trees and trying to fly. I'm only trying to keep him safe." The Jarl answered calmly.
"Why is every kid I meet so... Dumb?" I thought inside my head.
It was Erron's head shake that told me that something was wrong with the story she was telling. Unsure of what to do, I stayed silent, trying my best to come up with something to say, whilst of course trying to ignore the tools on the table.
"So you torture him? For what?" I asked, knowing that I may get a side-step of an answer.
The Jarl looked over at the tools, then displayed Erron to me again. Not a mark on him, I had to learn to hold my tongue, or be stuck in situations like this again.
"He's so frightened, because someone tried to kidnap him. Isn't that right Erron?" She ran her cold long hand down Erron's neck onto his shoulder.
He nodded.
"We caught him and yet Erron is afraid that he'll escape. It's laughable really, because if that was the case you wouldn't be wandering around would you?" She turned her attention onto Erron.
His posture did not change, he was terrified of her and this room. This city was terrifying him down to his core, he couldn't stay here for much longer.
"Do you think that you could do a better job raising him? I adopted him, and would let you take him if you thought you could do better." She smiled at me.
A dark, evil smile. Freezing me down to my core, I needed to speak, but couldn't form a single word, shaken, I stayed silent again.
"I didn't think so." She began to turn Erron.
A vision of Erron dying in the room shook me, making me feel that there was no hope for him in Solitude, he needed a better place to stay.
"I do." I finally managed to form two words.
"What?" The taller woman turned to me.
"You heard me, I do." I close to laughed at what I was saying.
I was speaking to a Jarl like this, not something you do when there's about 12 guards close by to stab you in the kidneys should you say or do something even remotely wrong. Laughing at her didn't seem like the best thing to do, especially as I was already seen as quite made for walking into the place.
"Come now. You'd mollycoddle and you'd spoil him." She was now trying to defend herself.
"Can he use a knife?" That's when I caught her.
Being able to use a knife was one of the few things you have to be taught in Skyrim. Kids needed ways to defend themselves, a dagger seemed better than carrying around a large sword. She'd been caught and she knew it. She was shocked, wouldn't answer, so I asked Erron.
"Can you use a knife?" I smiled kindly at him.
He shook his head, my case was rested.
Kung
"Dùn!" I placed one hand out in front of me, a ward appeared, draining me of energy.
The old fool Tolfdir finally cast the firebolt at me, which the ward deflected perfectly. Yet, I wasn't exactly full of energy after that. The ward disappeared as soon as the fire faded.
"Perfectly done!" The short old man called to the other students.
I fell to my knees to catch my life, but Tolfdir didn't seem to notice as my knee clipped against the floor. Onmund however did, the youngest and arguably most handsome man in the room.
"Are you alright Kung?" He called from the steps.
"Yes." I answered simply as I pulled myself to my feet.
"I'm alright." I sighed, trying to build adrenaline up as to regenerate magika.
"Again. Let's see how powerful a spell you can deflect with a ward." He spoke to the others.
Tolfdir began to use sparks, meaning he was bound to use a sparks bolt against my ward, I needed to keep the ward up.
"Dùn!" I called again bringing up the ward.
As soon as Tolfdir launched the sparks at me, the ward disappeared. My heart stopped for a second as the sparks were so powerful, they threw me into the pillar behind me. When I inevitably stopped twitching, I found Onmund ready to help me up. Again, people were taking pity on me, except this time the cloth was fixed firmly over my eye. However, the cloth fell over my working eye as soon as I got to my feet.
I could hear Onmund snickering as I struggled with the tight cloth, he ended up helping me the way I didn't want him to, by undoing the cloth around my eyes. As soon as the cloth was off of my head, I covered my blind eye as fast as I could and found the cloth. Onmund looked shocked to see what I was doing, trying to get the cloth back.
"Gimmie that back." I reached for the cloth and snatched it from the taller man.
Quickly, I strapped it back to my head, over my greyed eye.
"Hey, what's wrong with your eye?" Onmund cast his bown eyes down at me.
"Nothing, it's just-" It was then I realised that everyone around me was staring at me everyone including Tolfdir.
Something was different about me. Onmund realised that I didn't understand what he meant, so he walked me into a pillar. Blue light was being cast onto it, from my head. I was creating light with my eyes, which was weird to say the least. This seemed to be what my body did when it was regenerating magika. No one else seemed to do this, again I began to feel alone.
"It shouldn't last long." I smiled, rubbing my eye.
Finally the light died, so did the lesson. I didn't think about how tired I was, nor did I think about just how tired I could be even after how long I'd been asleep on the way to the college, my guess was that the sparks had taken a lot of energy out of me. Everyone went about their business, I went back to my quarters to try and rest up which only ended up in me remembering that my bed was broken.
Erron
Finally, after a long time of waiting, I was leaving the Jarl. My body finally clothed fully and my prospect of life had changed greatly. Someone had finally come to my aid, something that I'd been begging for a long time. I found myself sat on some stone stairs, waiting for Mary to come for me, where we were going was unbeknownst to me, but I was sure we'd be moving soon.
"Ready Erron?" Mary came down the steps behind me, carrying some robes and a dagger.
She gave me the clothes first, it was a strange feeling to be robed again. Yet I enjoyed it, I didn't feel exposed anymore, neither did I feel defenceless again as the dagger fit me quite well. I hadn't been trained with a knife, Mary told me she'd change that. We walked out into the forest and found a large clearing, this is where Mary would teach me to use the knife.
"Ok, follow what I do. Watch my feet." Mary helped me along.
She used her sword as a substitute for a knife, I noticed the way her feet moved. There wasn't much difficulty getting the footwork down, it was the actually use of the dagger that confused me the most. Stepping as you thrust seems easy enough, but when I tried it I ended up catching my slightly large feet and tripping over. This didn't make sense at all, I followed Mary's stance perfectly.
"Are you alright?" She gave me a hand up.
"Yes, how'd you not trip?" I had to ask, or never learn.
Mary instructed me to take a stance like hers, then she made me thrust and step again. She caught me before I tripped again, realising my mistake like a master.
"Widen your legs. Keep your feet pointed away from each other."
I followed her instructions, then tried it again. No collision at all, if I'd learned this at a younger age I wouldn't have been making such simple mistakes. She then taught me how to use a bow, her's was far too big for me, but I tried all the same. As midday began to arrive, we went hunting. After 20 minutes of waiting, a lone Elk wandered through the forest.
"Ok, remember. Breath and release." Mary reminded me about the breathing techniques she'd taught me before.
Shakilly, I took the bow and single arrow Mary gave me and drew the bow back. Not holding back for long, I released the arrow. Things seemed to slow as the arrow his the elk in the side of it's body. Through the heart, just like Mary taught me. From the distance we were at, I could see the animal twitching in pain and agony.
"Good hit, lets put it out of it's misery. I'll show you how to skin and carve it." Mary stood up next to me and helped me along.
I felt sick as Mary put the dagger in my hand, I knew what I needed to do. With my eyes closed and with a deep breath, I slit the throat of the elk. This was something I didn't want to do, but I realised why Mary was teaching me this, I could need to use these skills at the end of all this, possibly just to survive, or to work. Hunters were needed where ever you went in Skyrim.
Mary showed me where to cut the skin off of the Elk, and how to carve the meat. After we were done, we cooked the meat and ate around the fire we'd made, I knew how to cook and make fires. It seemed to be the only thing I was really good for, Mary noticed how I stared into the fire, watching the flames dance around each other, welcoming it's warmth and safety.
"Are you alright Erron?" She asked, concerned about my staring.
"Yes, it's just... Have you ever wondered why people are so afraid of fire? I understand it burns things but, when you can make it erupt from your hands... How can you be afraid of your own creation?" I explained myself.
Mary smiled and lay back from the fire, looking into the clear sky above.
"I met a child in Whiterun. His name was Kung Wei... When his father met his mother, they created him. However, the father did not stay around. Was it fear? Irresponsibility or lack of thought? Did he die? Perhaps. What I'm getting at Erron, is that people can be afraid of things, but not actually fear them. You're afraid of being burned right?" She began telling me stories.
"Yes." I answered simply, carrassing a piece of cloth on the robe.
"Yet you do not fear fire. There are plenty of people who are afraid of burning, but most are afraid of fire. They can't create flames like you can Erron, so they're afraid."
I began to understand, finally I was learning about people. Being locked away in a dungeon meant that social skills were not at the top of my list.
"I like you Mary. Thank you, I never thought she would let me go. I guess she didn't want me." I smiled.
The Jarl of Solitude never let me use her name, I was forbidden of speaking it. If I did, she'd have me hogtied to a pole and displayed to the town. She was not a nice person, no matter what anyone of the residents said. When Ulfric killed the high king, I had to stifle a smile in fear of what would happen if I was caught being anti-imperial. None of that would happen to me with Mary. Before we got too tired, we set up a make shift tent which we both crawled up in and slept in, the warmth of the dying fire carrying us on into a deep sleep.
Kung
Someone made the mistake of touching the cloth that covered my eye in my sleep, they'd done their best to stay quiet, but manage to wake me by tugging too hard on the tight cloth. I grabbed the hand, pulling the perpetrator through the bars of my cage.
Yes, I decided to sleep in the cage as it kept me off of the cold floor and allowed me to curl up into a ball for a reason, should anyone have asked.
Through the bars, I could see Mirabelle, looking shocked at my sudden reaction.
"What are you doing?" I asked, being as calm as I could.
Finally, she let go of my cloth and retrieved her hand, clearly she was recovering from the sudden shock.
"The students were worried, they thought that the cloth was red because you'd been bleeding. Now if you could, please tell me why you're wearing nothing but the cloth and your underwear." She retained her position of authority.
Quickly, I checked the doorway to see if anyone was stood there, it didn't seem like there was. So, lowering my voice as low as I could, I softly spoke to Mirabelle.
"Look." I whispered as I pulled the cloth up for her to see the greyed eye.
She did not seem to turn at all, no pity was cast upon me by her.
"You should have told us." She spoke softly too, as not to upset me.
"If it hindered me, I would have. I've been like this since birth, so you could say I've learned to compensate for one eye." I placed the cloth back down over the grey part of my eye.
It was then Mirabelle grabbed the edge of the cage and shook it slightly. Which in turn, threw me off slightly, I was quick to grab the bars with an Iron like grip to stop myself from somehow falling. In turn, I managed to drop the linen that was covering me.
"Why are you in this?" She raised her voice to normal, tapping her foot.
"I...It's comfy, besides, I'd rather sleep in this." I explained.
"You look like a bird." She sighed as she began to walk off.
"Then a bird, I shall look like. Goodnight." I joked as I curled up into a ball again.
Being a deep sleeper had its benefits, for one you can't hear people's sleeping sounds. Unfortunatly, I was not a deep sleeper. Most of the night I was kept awake by J'zargo mumbling in his sleep and a feint thumping noise from next door. When I got used to the noise, then I fell asleep. Beginning to think that perhaps that the college was not the best place to stay, especially when there's a giant pulsating light in your doorway that no-one was able to stifle out. Not only this, but the cage began to move in my sleep, rotating in midair. The motion was soft, almost like a rocking motion, it helped me drift off as finally the noise began to seem not so bad.
Several hours of pleasant dreams later, the cage was being opened as I was feeling like a giant stone. No-one was moving me, not an inch.
"Kung, get up. You're going to end up sleeping through the next lesson." It was a woman's voice, but again I could not see due to the cloth falling over my eyes.
I couldn't remember where the opening was and needed help, with some aid, the woman managed to get me out of the cage and on my feet, on the cold hard floor of the hall. Nowhere I liked being with bare feet. Brelyna was stood there, waiting for me. Annoyed, I fiddled with the cloth to be able to see the elf.
"Thanks, I didn't sleep as early as I should have." I thanked her.
"Kung, would you be interested in helping me with a spell I've been working on. It shouldn't take long, we could do it now if you want." She pitched an idea for me, to actually help with some development in magic.
"Sure, what does it do?" I asked as she brought up her magic.
"You'll see." She cast the spell on me.
Darkness, she'd sent me blind. I wasn't happy.
"What have you done?!" I felt like screaming at her, but I couldn't see the tall elf for the darkness.
She sounded like she knew she'd done something wrong, trying to get dressed in this condition wasn't the easiest thing to do, especially when there was a full grown woman in the same room. Frantically, I searched the floor for my robes before I was found looking in a worse state than I did before. Finally, I found the torn robes and put those on, Brelyna wasn't too knowledgeable about her own spells which wasn't good for a mage at all.
"I'm sorry, it should wear off in a few hours. Hopefully." Her voice shook as I felt around trying to find my boots.
"What does my eye look like, is it grey?" I panicked as I jumped to my feet, still bare against cold stone.
Brelyna turned me around and must have been looking at my eye.
"No, but I should move this down. Just in case." She directed the cloth down over my eye again, shielding it from anything that might hurt it.
Suddenly, a horn sounded, the next lesson was about to begin.
Mary
"Only drink from running water, even then be careful." I dipped my flask in the running river and gave to water to Erron.
Erron nodded as he drank from the flash liberally, it made me wonder about weather or not he was given water as often as he should of. I realised that there was something wrong with Erron. Something was on his mind.
"Something wrong?" I put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"You spoke about this boy, Kung. What happened to him?" Erron looked up, interested.
"He went to the mages college, he was adamant and didn't need me looking after for him. I wonder what he's doing now." I smiled as I filled the second flask with water.
We walked for a while, it was only now that I realised that with Erron around me, I couldn't exactly take him into battle with me. Although, the fact that I had just adopted Erron from the Jarl pretty much meant that the Legion wasn't going to be begging me for cannon fodder duty. We needed to find a place to stay, or at least go to for a while.
Riften seemed like the best place to go, if it wasn't for the stormcloak insurrection within Riften I would have felt safer going there.
"How do you feel about going to Riften?" I smiled down at him.
Erron rubbed his arm slightly after he closed the flask and put it in his pack.
"I don't know where that is, would that be dangerous?" He asked.
"No, as long as you're with me. You'll be safe." I promised him.
I don't think I could have made a worse problem, one arrow and that was it for either of us. Walking was not going to be an option, we needed a horse and I had the septums to get one. Erron was small enough that we would be able to ride on the same horse, but not with much speed. We would need some permanent transportation.
Riften wasn't home, but it was where my family was. I left home when I was young, it was only when I visited my family that was arrested in front of them. Showing my face around there might not have been such a good idea. Either way, Erron and I were going to find out.
