Skyrim C3

Massive tangent last time, so here we go again.

Kung

The next lesson had begun, but my sight had not returned. Not even a little piece of light entered my vision as Brelyna took me inside the hall. I could feel the stares of concern fall over me as Brelyna lead me in, I assumed Tolfdir wasn't there as Brelyna seemed to lose her mind.

"Help me, I've done something terribly wrong." Her voice shook as she dragged me close to the group of students.

"What have you done?" J'zargo asked.

Brelyna turned me to face J'zargo and lifted the cloth, still nothing happened. I still had no sight, J'zargo didn't seem to know what had happened.

"What is wrong with him?" He asked, as if I wasn't there.

"I'm unable to see J'zargo." I answered bitterly.

"Hm, blind." He chuckled.

I could feel the air in front of my face move, as if J'zargo was waving his hand in front of my face. With surprising speed, I grabbed his wrist as it passed my face again.

"I'm blind, not oblivious." I let go.

J'zargo -not impressed- sighed and put his paw-like hand on my forehead. He removed it and then turned to Brelyna.

"It should wear off in a few hours, J'zargo doesn't see what it was you did, but he doesn't want to know." He purred as he moved away.

"I'm so sorry Kung. Maybe I should try it again, just in case." Brelyna took her hand off of me and took a step back.

"Brelyna are you sure you wont make this permanent?" I spoke under my breath.

It seemed as though she hadn't heard me as she back off a bit before she cast. As soon as her magic hit me, my robes set on fire. In a haze, she threw another blaze of magic. She froze me solid, one more and finally my sight had returned but I was not where I was before. I was hanging upside down in the hall, my robes which were far too big slipped from my torso, landing on Tolfdir's head as he walked into the hall.

Quickly, I struggled with the summoned chain around my ankles to try and release myself, only to realise that not only did I lack the strength to break the chain, but also the plan to land without breaking every bone in my body.

"Kung!?" Brelyna called, visibly worrying down below.

"I'm stuck up here, do not cast another spell. Please!" I yelled down as I tried to figure out a way to get down.

A pillar was close to me, but being upside down meant that I would have a hard time getting down. Taking too much time showed it's disadvantage as the chain began to loosen, lowing me a foot or so at some speed. Now I wasn't able to even attempt to grab onto the ledges around the dome above us.

"My boy, swing!" Tolfdir shouted.

"Where?" I panicked, looking around for whatever it was he was shouting at me to land on, or grab.

"I don't know, just swing!" He called again.

"That makes sense, fantastic sense." I sighed bitterly as I leant backwards and swung myself forward.

I was beginning to think that being blind for a few hours was a much better alternative to falling to my death, yet there I was, swinging because an old fool was shouting for me to do so.

As my forward swing reached it's limit, I began the way backwards.

Into a pillar.

Mary

"Stay there, don't move!" I shouted at the guard that had threatened me and Erron as we entered Riften.

The homecoming didn't seem to be too friendly, it was almost as if they'd remembered who I was, but also forgotten who I was friends with

"Wait, who are you?" The guard narrowed his eyes at me.

"I haven't been gone that long, I am Mary."

Brynjolf charged over, the red-head nord knocked the guard away from me. His presence sending fear into the guards eyes, he had that effect on people on the rare occasion that he got mad.

"Idiot guard! This is a friend of ours, wrongly accused and back home." Brynjolf explained calmly, still sending fear into the guard's soul.

Erron shrunk behind me, even though Brynjolf wasn't talking to him, he still managed to scare the small child behind me. Quickly, I put a comforting hand on his shoulder, helping him become accustomed to Brynjolf's presence.

"A-apologies." The guard shook, losing his hard act he had before.

Brynjolf stared into the guards eyes once more before he stepped away and turned to me, he splayed his arms outwards, a smile gracing his face.

"Welcome home Mary." He invited me.

I took the invitation, giving him the best rib crushing hug that I could muster, after a couple of seconds I released him and took a step back.

"It's good to be home Brynjolf. How are things?" I asked, making sure that the small blonde was still close by.

He turned and lead me away from the gate, into the marketplace.

"Things have been very... Different, since you left. You see, our alliance with the dark brotherhood has brought bad blood our way." Brynjolf explained.

I backed off, this was the first I'd heard of the Dark brotherhood being part of the thieves guild, this wouldn't be good at all if I was known to be affiliated with them, after what had happened with Kung in Whiterun, my trust of the dark brotherhood had become quite tainted.

"Our what?" I questioned him, hoping that it wasn't true.

"You didn't know?" He lowered his voice.

"Of course I didn't know, how was I supposed to know. I'm a theif not a murdering cultist!" I hissed at him quietly.

Brynjolf looked taken aback, he stared at me with some surprise, after all I wasn't the type to confront those who deliberately kept things important from me. I was angered beyond belief, so angry that I would have killed him if we didn't have the history we had.

"Does this change anything? After all, we were allied when you joined the guild." Brynjolf shrugged his shoulders.

"Of course this changes something, this changes everything. You clearly know nothing of what they do, I saw them use a child as a portal for a member of the dark brotherhood to try and murder the jarl of Whiterun. I never wanted anything to do with the occult, never in my life!" I was angry, the idea behind it made me sick.

Brynjolf didn't seem to have anything else to say and rightly so. I had nothing left to say to him, I had never felt more betrayed in my life, it hurt to think about it. I lead Erron away from him, he'd been so quiet, which made sense, he would have questions to ask, although I didn't have answers that he would understand.

Kung

"I'm not going to have to cut my foot off am I?!" I yelled down into the hall.

I instantly regretted this as the chain loosened again, sending me several feet down. Knocking my head against the wall again for the third time, although I was nearing the floor, this still wasn't very desirable as the cold air was doing what it usually did to bare skin.

"Can you loosen the chain? We can catch you now if you fall!" Breylana called up.

"I'm not sure, but I'm not going to start swinging again, that's for sure!" I shouted as I began fiddling with the chain around my ankles.

There didn't seem to be any safe way to release the chain, there certainly wasn't a safe way to fall either.

"There's no lock, it's just a-" I began but was interrupted by the chain loosening again.

I fell about 10 feet before the chain caught me again, now I was halfway to the ground and the chain began to loosen so that one of my feet was free. This allowed me to just flail around more than I already was.

"This going to kill me!" I struggled to get up so that I could grab the loop in the chain that my foot was just filling. With a lot of struggling and far too much embarrassment, I finally got my foot free.

Only to get my hand stuck.

"Damn!" I growled, flailing around with my legs, hoping to not fall and land on my legs.

Although my fall would have been shorter than it would have been if the chain had broken before, but it was still a great height. Onmund decided to stand under me, holding his arms out for me.

"Let go, I'll catch you." He called.

Trusting Onmund seemed like the best tactic seeing as I really didn't have much grip left or many options for that matter.

"Be sure you do!" I shouted.

Finally I let go, leaning back as I fell so that I would land on my back. I curled up and covered my head just in case Onmund decided not to catch me. Finally, I hit Onmund's arms, only to fall through them. He had slowed my fall quite dramatically, but I still hit the cold floor with quite some force. Apart from the fact that I had been hung upside down, everything was back to normal. My head and rest of my body were intact, which was amazing because I was sure that I was going to be hurt. Carefully and quickly, I pulled myself up to my feet and looked around for the upper part of my robes.

"Nice catch." I rubbed my ribs and arms trying to warm myself.

"I'm so sorry, are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm fine, just cold. Where are my robes?" I began shaking slightly, no-where near as much as I should have been.

Tolfdir walked over to me and handed me the robes, with some alteration magic, he managed to change the robes to fit me much better as I pulled them over my head.

"This shouldn't have happened, but it has. Let's move on and forget this ever happened." He chuckled as he walked into the middle of the hall.

Erron

Mary gave me a hand onto the carriage, we were leaving Riften after gathering supplies. She hadn't explained to me why, but the point was that we were.

"I do not like the Dark Brotherhood either. I can see why you don't like your friend anymore." I spoke quietly, as Mary was being quiet too.

"Erron, there's only so much one person can take from another. Brynjolf just showed me that trust has to work both ways. Like us, we trust each other, so we work well together. I'll be honest, we never should have come here. I need to go to the greybeards, they'll help me with this dragonborn business." She sighed as she put the bag onto the carriage.

I helped her by dragging the bag onto the carriage, finally when she got onto the carriage, the driver began to move. We moved quickly and hours began to pass with silence, it was Mary who decided to talk first.

"Hey, Erron. What was it like in Solitude?" Mary smiled at me.

"It was... Different, the Imperials seem to be kind of accommodating. Unless of course you're a Nord and open about it." I looked into her eyes.

She was a Nord, but she didn't seem to be very open about it. The thing was that if she'd spoke about being a Nord in solitude, some very nasty things would have been said to her.

"Why's that?" She pressed.

"You should know, you were training to fight in the war." I reminded her.

"Right, they're that judgmental? It must have been hard growing up there, you are a Nord aren't you?" She pressed.

I shook my head solemnly.

"Cross blood, that's why some of the other children didn't play with me. I never knew my father." I explained.

"Just like Kung... Except you don't have the eye problem." She sighed, brushing her brown hair over her ear with her hand.

"How so? I doubt his father was a traveler." I crossed my arms, bringing some warmth to my body.

"He was. From the east... I suppose that's why your eyes are narrowed." She commented.

"Narrowed? I'm no elf." I chuckled.

I didn't know what I was laughing at, it seemed as though I was being compared to an elf again. Mary looked at me, concern in her eyes.

"By the gods." She breathed, amazed.

"What?" I stopped laughing, getting worried.

"Your eyes, they're glowing!" She lowered her voice so that the driver could not see.

Kung

"No, don't!" I growled to myself as light was resonating off of the walls again, coming from my eyes.

Quickly, I covered my eyes. This was a mistake as it only brought attention to me, the thalmor Arcano noticed this, seeing me from across the courtyard outside. The light was brighter than it had ever been before, allowing me to see in the dark, if it was dark that is. As it was, it was broad daylight and the majority of the apprentice mages were stood outside.

"He's doing it again." I could hear one of them whisper.

However, this was not the only thing that I could hear. Scratching, I could hear scratching coming up the walls. Almost as if giant spiders were climbing up the walls around me, however I could not see any such thing around me, no matter how hard I searched, I could not see the spiders. I could however see an undead dragur dragging it's sword towards the light in the middle of the courtyard. It stopped and looked directly at me, took a deep breath and shouted.

"FUS RO DAH!" It shouted, the shear force of the shout sent me flying off of my feet and into the well of light behind me.

Several of the mages were sent back with me, but none ended up with their legs over their head. I was getting tired of being hung upside down, so I took the dagger I concealed in my boot and straightened up, only to see that the dustman had charged a swing, aimed at my neck. With immense speed, I ducked down and dodged the blade just barely. Some of my hair was caught with the swing, however the bend in my knees gave me the perfect attack stance.

I sprung onto the Dragur and drove the dagger up into it's jaw and into the head of the thing. The slight light left in the eyes of the monster died as I retrieved the blade from its head. With some surprised looks, I wiped the dagger on the rages of the dragur and climbed out of the well. My hair was already ragged, now it was even worse.

"Are you alright boy?" Arcano was the first to come to my side.

"I'm fine." I sighed bitterly as I brushed the elf's hand from my shoulder.

His presence disturbed me, his dark and cold nature left much to be desired when it came to companionship. I would rather Onmund or Breylana come to me, but they were still dazed from the knock down. What concerned me was the place of which the dustman came, it was as if it came from nowhere. It was then that I realised that the scratching sound had stopped.

"You must tell me why your eyes do that, it may be linked to why the dragur arrived here." Arcano looked over me as I searched the beast.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be here. I hoped that the archive could help, nothing. So I can't say why the glow." I semi growled as I looked over the blade which still kept a cluft of my hair attached to it.

Tolfdir extited from the main building, only for the scratching to come back. I had a theory that I could sense danger, I was right. Something dangerous was happening, something in my back began to burn, like my skin was stretching, or someone was dragging fish hooks down my back. The pain was excruciating, enough to get me to fall forward in pain.

"What is the matter child!?" Arcano yelled at me, as if I was acting up in a emotional outburst of killing the dragur.

It wasn't that at all, genuine pain was destroying me. I called out in pain as I began to bleed from the skin rupturing in my back.

Tolfdir

My old eyes had never seen anything quite like what was happening to the kind child in the courtyard. He eventually ended up screaming in pain, howls of pain and anguish rang out through the courtyard and the depths below the college. Suddenly he arched his back, his new robes ripped from his body. Something strange appeared from his back, bones grew from his back almost like wings.

Wings stretched out from his back, suddenly the light from his eyes returned. Mirabelle appeared next to me, as did all of the other mages of the college. All we could do was observe as black material stretched over the bones that had appeared. The screams of pain became cries of sorrow as Kung began to try and come to terms with what had happened.

"What in oblivion is happening?" Urag spoke for as all.

"I have no idea my freind, but I do know that our student needs us." I got the initative to step forward and walk towards him.

He was shaking, either from fear, sorrow or the cold. Either way I could not help myself as I neared the wings of the child. His cries died. but even I could tell that he had not recovered just yet. Although I had no idea what had happened to him, I had my hypotheses about the wings. One included that they hurt Kung when you touched them, however I could see the leathery material that surrounded the bones, much like dragon wings.

"Kung, my boy. Can you stand?" I extended a hand for him to take, which he refused.

The wings closed in on him, shielding him from view.

"Do not look at me." He barely managed to speak.

Leaving him like this did not seem humane, so I decided to try and help with something I knew a thing or two about.

Magic.

Before he knew it, Kung was being surrounded by a healing spell that I was creating. However, this seemed to do nothing as he kept himself shielded. Several of the students decided to try and walk forward, which was interrupted by Kung beginning to vocalise his pain again, the wings began to move, lifting him from the ground.

It would have been a majestic sight, had it not been for Kung being so upset of his change of appearance. His wings kept him elevated in the air, he could survey the surroundings. See the deep depths of the frozen depths bellow us. However, he did not stay up very long, he let himself fall to the ground, hitting the ground with a slight thud. He looked around, panicked, afraid of something.

"S-spiders." He shook.

This time I put my hands on the boys shoulders, so that he would have no choice but to look at me.

"Where are they?" I asked, keeping my voice as kind as I could.

"I-I can hear them Tolfdir." He began.

Quickly, J'zar ran over to look over the walls through the large openings in the walls. He turned.

"Nothing! He is hallucinating!" He called as he turned.

Kung hearing spiders meant that he was hallucinating. He fell, weak at the knees.

"I'm..." He began, but could not bring himself to say anything further.

"You need rest my boy, come." I lifted him to his feet.

He swerved slightly, his body not used to the new appendages. However, he didn't resist at all, he let me take him to his room and help him onto the bed. As soon as he began to rest on the broken frame, his wings began to wrap themselves around him, shielding him from the cold and the view. Whatever had happened to the boy was a breakthrough in magic, if that was the truth however.

However much I wanted to examine the wings, I knew that Kung would not enjoy this so quickly after just growing them.

Mary

Erron was much better climbing the 'thousand steps' than I was, his ability to emit flame kept us warm as we made our way to the top of the mountain. Finally, we reached what looked like the front of a huge stone building. Rectangular in shape and bigger than Dragonsreach, I saw the banners before we even neared the doors. Things were beginning to look up until Erron began to look tired.

"Come on Erron, we're nearly there." I took his hand and encouraged him to hurry into the shelter.

He nodded and followed as best he could, but he close to fell to his knees. Eventually, as the wind was beginning to pick up so I had to drag him over the stones and into the shelter, hauling the huge doors open myself as Erron no longer had the strength to stand. With fear turning into speed, I dragged him into the hall and shut the door behind me. Before I did anything else, I checked over Erron, making sure that his lack of energy was not his death.

The fire in the bowls above us weren't really heating anything up, but Erron needed heat. So I picked him up and took him further into the darkened halls, towards a slightly bigger burning bowl. I set him down and did some simple checks, including his pulse. He had one, but he was weakened by the cold so much so that he barely had the strength to keep his eyes open.

"Erron, keep your eyes open. You'll be fine, just rest." I smiled weakly.

"He is weakened Dovakiin." A voice rang out throughout the hall.

Turning revealed an old man sporting a grey beard and robes with furs on the inside. He showed pity on his face as he moved close to us.

"Are you a grey beard?" I had to be sure.

"Yes. However, I suggest that your friend be tended to first. We can teach you the way of the voice later. Come, and bring your friend." He turned.

I dropped the bag and picked up Erron, hauling the young blonde over my back and followed the bearded man up several steps before he took us into a corridor and into a room where a stone bed lay. Without invitation, I set Erron down on the bed and thought about what to do next. I didn't have much to give him other than the furs that Kung had given me. Erron had closed his eyes and his breathing had become quite ragged, quickly I forced the furs off of my body and covered Erron in them. He wouldn't find warmth straight away, but what warmth he had left would be kept in.

"He's too cold." I sighed, putting a hand on his forehead, it was then I realised the chimney in the corner.

I went to close it, until the greybeard set the fireplace alight.

"He should warm up quickly now. He should rest for now, come we will talk." He beaconed me to leave the room.

"About what? I can't just leave him here." I stood up and confronted the greybeard.

"The voice Dovakiin, we cannot wait any longer. Believe me, this will not take long." He explained to me.

He had convinced me, after all this dragon-born 'gift' was going to drive me insane if I wasn't to learn what it meant. I follwed him, leaving Erron to his fate.

Erron

My body began to burn up, the fire within me was trying to escape somehow, but could not due to the cold skin. Wearily, I sat up on the stone slab I had been layed on. It didn't seem right, especially as I had no memory of the place I was in. The stone was not familiar, neither was the decorations around the room that surrounded me. The fire in the wall was inviting and warmed my skin quickly. Where Mary had gone was a mystery, but the amount of shouting was putting me on edge, like thunder it shook the room and echoed through the hall outside the doorway.

I felt weak, and unable to do anything about it; sending me into a slight sadness as I realised that I had hindered Mary's path on the way up. There was no time to make a fire for us to stay, not only that, but the wind usually knocked me around so much that I was afraid of burning Mary on the way up the mountain.

I then began to think of Kung, this child that Mary kept comparing me too. The fact that Mary kept talking about him made me wonder if we would ever meet him, I could imagine what he looked like. From what she described, I imagined a hero-like figure. Tall, strong and brave, the kind of person that tales would be told about. Meeting him might have told me how to become a much better person or fighter or even mage.

Talking to Mary would reveal much more about him, I would possibly have the ability to meet him.