So I am back and this is a boring chapter. It really is, but it is necessary so I am sorry for the boringness, but on with the chapter. I promise that it will get more interesting later.
ON WITH THE STORY! XD
O.o
…
'Ugh… My head.
And this shaking isn't making me feel any better….
Come to think of it, why am I shaking? – Ugh… My head.
What happened to me? Where am I?'
I slowly open my eyes. My vision is blurry and I can barely comprehend a spoken word. Finally adjusting my eyes to my surroundings, I see that I am on a horse carriage and there are three other men sitting with me. One across from me is a blonde Nord in blue armor, next to him is a brunette Nord in rags, and next to me is another blonde Nord in royal clothing bind at the mouth and we are all tied up at the hands.
Wait… Tied up? Wh-WHY AM I TIED UP!?
I look down and struggle to free myself as I suddenly hear a voice.
"Hey, you," I look up to the blonde Nord in front of me. "You're finally awake," he smiles as he speaks.
"Wh… What happened?" I struggle to speak almost as if I am intoxicated.
"You were trying to cross the boarder, right? You walked right into that imperial ambush, same as us and that thief over there." He points his head to the brunette.
"Imperial ambush," I ask completely puzzled. "Why was there an imperial ambush on the boarder to Morrowind and… Wait… Where are we?" I ask.
A carriage load of Nord's and on the boarder of Morrowind…
"Damn you stormcloaks." Started the brunette, "Skyrim was fine you came along. The Empire was nice and lazy."
"Skyrim?" I start to panic under my breath. "I'm in Skyrim?!"
"If they hadn't been looking for you, I could've stolen that horse and be half way to Hammerfell right now. You," he points to me. "You and I, we shouldn't be here. I remember seeing you. It's these stormcloaks the Empire wants.
"We are all brothers and sisters now, horse thief."
Then I remember.
"You were the one that I saw running for your life at the crossroads…" I say proudly. He just lowers his head.
"Shut up back there!" the soldier in red shouts to us.
Soldier in Red… Skyrim… I am so grounded.
"What's up with him?" the brunette asks referring to the bind man in royal next to me.
"Watch your tongue! You are speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King!" the blonde across from me reprimands the brunette.
"Ulfric, Jarl of Windhelm? You're the leader of the rebellion- But… If they captured you then… Oh God's…
"What?" I ask in a hurry. "Where are they taking us?" I ask the blonde.
"I don't know where we're going," he silently speaks. "But Sovengarde awaits,"
I am speechless as I look down at my bindings. Sovengarde? I don't want to die…
"Oh God's this isn't happening. This can't be happening!" the brunette freaks out.
"Hey," the blonde calms the mood. "What village are you from, horse thief?"
"Why do you care?"
"Because a Nord's last thoughts should be of home,"
There was a small silence as we start to enter a village.
"Rorikstead, I'm… I'm from Rorikstead." He answers in a plea.
'Mama… Papa… Relu..?'
"General Tullius, Sir. The headsman is waiting!" someone shouts.
"Good, lets get this over with." Another replied.
"Divines, please help me." The brunette pleads to all nine God's one by one.
"Look at him, General Tullius, the Military general. And it looks like the Thalmor are with them. Damn elves. I'll bet they had something to do with this."
"Hey," I scold angrily. The blonde forces his mouth shut.
"My apologies miss," he says as another silence was taken. The carriage slowly but surely rides into the entrance of a busy village and everyone around starts to move away from the road as they whisper to one another, most likely about us.
"This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl here." He reminisces on the past as he looks up, "Look at those towers." He giggles. "Funny. When I was a boy, Imperial walls used to make me feel so safe." He drifts off into his past as I look to see that the carriages start to line themselves up ahead of us and park in their place. Soldiers exit their carriages and start to let the people behind out as we start to slow down.
"Why are we stopping?" the brunette starts to freak out again.
"Why do you think?" the blonde rhetorically asks. "End of the line."
The carriage stops slowly and menacingly, teasing us with our awaited fates. My stomach turns incessantly as the soldier gets out and unlocks the door from behind.
"We better go, we shouldn't keep the God's waiting." The blonde stays almost in a whisper.
"No, wait! We're not rebels!" the brunette shouts referring to the both of us as he jumps off the carriage in a plea.
"Face your death with dignity, horse thief." The blonde says jumping out after me.
"You have to tell them, we aren't with you. This is a mistake!" he continues to beg.
"Step towards the block when we call your name!" a ghastly woman in red armor shouts at us. "One at a time," 'Yes because we are all so exited to have our heads chopped off by the Red Queen over there, we just all must run at once…'
The blonde sighs, "Imperials love their damn lists."
"Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm." A more kind sounding man calls out. The Nord bind at the mouth slowly walks when his name is called.
"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric." The blonde next to me pays his gratitude amongst foreseeing his own death.
"Ralof of Riverwood," the man called as the blonde next to me silently walked in reply to his name.
"Lokir of Rorikstead,"
"No, I'm not a rebel. You can't do this!" the brunette shouts frantically as he starts to run away.
"Archers!" the loud woman calls. He shortly prevailed as he was shot in the back by 5 arrows and instantly killed. I turn my head not wanting to see.
"Anyone else feel like running?" the obnoxious woman continued to penetrate my eardrums.
"Wait," the kind sounding gentleman spoke again. "You there," he points to me. "Step forward." I willingly do so to cause the least amount of confrontation as possible. "What is your name?"
I gulp as I look down sheepishly. Gaining some kind of strength to speak, I squeak in nervousness. "My… My name is Icelin Staccriss. I am but a humble traveler from Morrowind and am trying to find my way to Cyrodiil. I am not even supposed to be here in Skyrim." I say the best to my ability.
"Another refugee? God's have really abandoned your people, Dark Elf." He spoke in a sorrowful tone as he records on parchment. I stay silent as I shed a single tear at his truthful comment. "Capitan, what do we do? She isn't on the list." 'Thank you, sir.'
"Forget the list, she goes to the block!"
"What? Why?! I didn't do anything. I'm not even supposed to be on this continent!" I plead to the kind man. Maybe he can help.
But he only sighs speaking slowly. "As you wish Capitan,"
"N-no… No. Please! You can't do this. I-"
"I'm sorry." He calls out as I am forced to walk. "We will make sure your remains are sent back to Morrowind. Follow the Capitan, prisoner." He says as she starts to pull me by my bindings.
I cry with great intent only being able to whisper, "Please," to him one last time.
Nothing else was said as I stood in line with the others. I look to Ralof as he is saddened by my fate.
"Ulfric Stormcloak." A man suddenly shouts in front of him. "Some call you a hero, but a hero doesn't use a power like the voice to murder his king and abandon his throne. You started this war and led Skyrim into chaos. Now the Empire is going to put you down and restore peace-"
He pause his speech as a cry is heard all through the sky. Everyone looks up to try and see anything.
"What was that?" someone asks.
"Nothing," said the General who spoke to Ulfric as he walked away without another thought.
Everyone standing in binds stand silently as various villagers shouted vulgar things either at the Stormcloaks in blue or the Imperials in red. A woman of the church was called to read our last rights as I stand to be the only one in tears. Everyone else hold their head high, proud to die for what they believe in. But as the woman read our rights, a man on the other side of me screams for her to shut up and to get on with this. I shake with a mix of fear and anger at the rude man that stand before the block. Slowly, the loud woman shoves him to his knees by his shoulder and shoves her foot into his back to force his upper body to band on the block. There, a large man in black holds a large axe, otherwise knows, as what I would like to call "The Reaper". As the man in binds gloats his last words, the reaper raises his scythe high in the sky only to cut clean through the bind man's body. I only hear the horror as I turn my head. I hear the axe slice through the skin, I hear the blood dripping, and I hear the head roll off the block.
It is torture.
"Oh, God's" I whisper in disgust. They call this humane?
"Next, the Dark Elf,"
"WHAT?!" I look to Ralof as I start to hyperventilate. Calmly he nods his head in a silent tongue telling me to calm myself and to walk with dignity. I sniff up my tears as my whole body shakes and, very slowly, I walk up to the block.
But before anything was done, the cry screams from the sky again, louder and jagged than before. We all look up again to see what could be in the sky.
"There it is again."
"I said, next prisoner!"
I try to be as slow as I possibly can, but no matter how slow I am, I am still up here far too quickly for my liking. Closing my eyes, the woman repeats the same ritual with me as she had with the, now, headless man that still resides next to my feet. I quietly sob as my head rest on the block and I get a clear view of the reaper. Holding my breath, I gulp in a loud sob as I see him slowly rises his axe over my head. He stands back, and just before swinging at me, a large monstrosity lands on top of a tower from behind him. The landing causes the ground to rumble causing the reaper to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF OBLIVION IS THAT?!"
The monster looks right at me, we locking eyes at one another.
"DRAGON!"
He sits there staring deep within my soul before screaming something forcing a bright white light to reseed out of his mouth. It blinds me momentarily as it gives me a migraine. Holding my head in pain, someone pulls me up and drags me away.
"Come on, Dark Elf. The God's have given us a second chance!" Ralof says pulling me into a watchtower with stormcloaks wounded and Ulfric completely free.
"Ulfric, what is that thing?" Could the legends be true?" Ralof says as he looks to the wounds of one of his brethren.
"Legends don't burn down villages, Ralof."
"We need to move now!" Ralof screams as he guides me up the rocky stairs of the watchtower until the dragon slams a large gaping hole into the wall. He looks at me again before breathing fire into my direction and fleeing like a coward. We jump into another building, tumbling down the collapsing building and out into the open. I stay as close to the Nord as possible as we enter the "guard keep" in safety.
Once in, there is yet another dead Stormcloak on the ground.
"See you in Sovengarde my brother," Ralof says as he holds the hand of his companion. "Icelin, that is your name, right?" he says as I slowly nod in remorse. "That thing was a dragon, no doubt, just like the children's stories and the legends; the harbingers of the End Times." He says as he stands away from the corpse. "We better get moving." He says grabbing a dagger from the table that he stands next to. "Let me see if I can get those bindings off." He finishes as he grabs my hands and slits me free. "There you go,"
"Thank you," I whisper as I let the rope fall. I caress each wrist with the opposite hand.
"You might as well take his axe, he will not need it any longer," Ralof says as he unties the sheath from the dead body.
"Actually, I was wondering if you can help me with something. Do you know where my weapon would be?" I ask with pleading eyes.
"They took everything of ours and stored it in a compartment under where the soldier drove. It is not that important to go back out there."
"I need it."
"This weapon will have to do, friend." He says with sorry eyes.
"But it's important. It was made by my father."
"We really need to press on with escaping the dragon, not running toward it."
"I. Need. That. Weapon."
"We really-"
"It's made of dragon bone!" I say grabbing his shirt to shake him into understanding.
"So," Ralof starts as he stretches from the secret passageway we run from. "What brings you to Skyrim?" he says as we travel down a dirt path away from the burning village, surprisingly enough, with my bow strapped to my back. We managed to snatch it from the compartment before the dragon exhaled the hellish heat from his mouth to destroy everything in front of us. Even the ends of my bow got scorched.
"Gee, how about the over compensating red armed imperial jackass that gagged me, tied me up, and sentenced me to inevitable death because I stood in the very wrong place in the very wrong time?" I huff in anger as I walk in stern. He backs off with hands in front of him to shield himself. I only sigh as I calm myself. "I was heading to Cyrodiil. I was supposed to meet my parents there. My village was invaded my something, that is still unknown to me, my parents shoved me in a secret tunnel they built under the house, and that my brother was caught my "them" and could be carried to a "High Hrothgar" place in Skyrim. My parents specifically told my NOT to go to Skyrim and to meet them in the Imperial City in Cyrodiil in 7 days time."
"Wow, sounds like someone needs some mead."
"But, because of the stupid imperial ambush crap, I was caught, I was bind and was sentenced to death in the very place that I was told to avoid by the very people that I was told to avoid…"
"Damn, more like Black-Briar Mead."
"Oh, and here is the topping on the cake… This was all on my birthday. Happy Birthday, Icelin." I say crossing my arms as I huff in a hurried walk.
"This sounds like this is more of a job for some Skooma."
…
We traveled to a place a short distance from Helgen to a Ralof's home town Riverwood. On the way, he told me the story of stormcloaks and how and why Ulfric was to be blamed for everything that had happened. When we arrived, we met up with his sister Gurder and we told her everything. She was so happy to see her brother alive, and said that her house is open to the both of us. Getting inside, she sat me down.
"Icelin, I want to thank you for helping my brother escape that dreadful fate. Now, if you don't mind, I would love to have your help with something." She is so kind with her words.
"Sure," I am kind in my words, though, I am itching to find this High Hrothgar and find my brother.
"Gurder, she needs to leave Skyrim. She has a duty elsewhere…"
"It's alright, Ralof." I assure him. "While I am here, I might as well try to find my brother. Now, if you can point me into the direction to High Hrothgar, I would love to help you with anything you need."
"Please go to the Jarl of Whiterun and tell him of the dragon. I don't want my village to be in danger of the dragon on the loose. I would do it, but I am already missed at the lumber mill. We would be greatly appreciated."
So she got out a map and marked Whiterun on the map. She also told me of where High Hrothgar is and said that I had to start at the 7,000 steps…
What have I gotten myself into?
O.o
So, I know that it was boring. But, you know… A story's a story. Thank you so much for reading. :)
Oh, and if there are any errors in this, let me know. I am sorry but I don't have a beta... And I won't...
I.L.C