Ch 2
Trissa had walked through the woods for two days, killing and cooking a few rabbits at night to tide over her hunger as she went.
Now, at last, she had reached the edge of the forest, and by either luck or fate a small town was in sight as she exited the darkness of the trees.
Trissa's heart sang at the sight of (relative) civilization, but she tempered her desire to interact with people long enough to do a little reconnaissance.
A stealthy approach got her close enough to see that everyone in the town appeared to be human, and resembled Imperials. Being in a new land with no knowledge as to how Mer would be treated (or, she realized with a start, if they even existed at all), she decided to air on the side of caution and cast an Illusionary spell on herself to lighten her skin tone and turn her eyes a light-brownish color, raising her hood to obscure her pointed ears.
Now suitably disguised, Trissa snuck around to one of the roads leading into the town and casually walked in like a weary traveler would. A few of the village people shot her curious or suspicious looks, but other than that no-one really seemed to care about her.
She listened in on a few of the conversations and found that, thankfully, the people were speaking in slightly accented Imperial, so there wouldn't be a language barrier to overcome.
She directed her attention to the buildings on the main (and only) street that ran through the town, and saw the usual fare: a blacksmith, butcher, tanner, general store, and most importantly, a combined tavern/inn.
Smiling to herself at the welcome sight, Trissa made her way into the sturdy two-story building, colorfully named The Brass Helm on the swinging metal sign that hung above the doorway.
Trissa pushed open the door and was greeted by a familiar sight; tables scattered around a dimly-lit room, bar on one side manned by a heavyset woman with thick, powerful arms, and a hearth on the other, with the pleasant smell of a cooking stew wafting in from beyond her sight.
As dusk was approaching, the room had a decent number of men and women gathered inside, a few turning and glaring suspiciously at the armed stranger who intruded into their tavern. She ignored them and walked to a table towards the back of the room, sitting with her back to the wall so she could see the entrance and most of the room at the same time out of habit.
A few minutes later a young woman with brown hair and a smattering of freckles on her cheeks approached her table. "Hello miss, what can I get you?" She said.
Trissa smiled at her, making sure to angle her head so that her upper face was shrouded in the shadow of her hood. "You have any ale?"
"Yes, anything else?"
"Alright, a tankard of that and some bread and a bowl of that stew I smell would be great, thank you."
The girl looked a little surprised at how civil this stranger was being, and gave a small smile. "I'll get that to you as soon as I can, miss." She said, before hurrying off to another table.
Trissa took the opportunity to examine her fellow patrons. At first glance, they seemed no different from the average rural citizen you could find anywhere in Tamriel. However there was a nagging worry in the back of her head that she couldn't quite place, and it took a few minutes before she realized what it was.
Of all the people in the tavern, there was one demographic noticeably missing; younger men. The youngest man in this room looked like he had seen a good forty winters, and most were older still. A lack of young people (especially men), in her experience, usually meant one thing.
There was a war going on somewhere, and the young of this town had been carted off to fight in it.
This wasn't a particularly shocking revelation, considering Trissa's purpose here, but it did tell her that the conflict she was meant to resolve was likely not to far off, so she was on the right track.
At that point the serving girl returned with a steaming bowl of soup, a crust of bread, and a wooden tankard of ale. Trissa's eyes widened at the sight, and she eagerly took the offered food.
"Ah, thank you lass. It's nice to have some proper food after a few days traveling." She nodded her thanks, and the girl smiled back before heading off to serve the other patrons.
Trissa tucked into the meal heartily, quickly finishing of the simple but heart stew and mopping up the juice with her bread. Then she sat back with her ale and just watched, listening to the conversations filtering through the air around her while more people filtered in as night fell; discussions about crops, missing animals, minor mishaps and, occasionally, the teasing whispers of a distant conflict, annoyingly vague in their telling and often to soft for her to hear.
Trissa soaked in the talk, occasionally conversing with a few of the not-quite-crazy dragons that resided in her skull on the information she had picked up. Her tankard had been refiled a few times by the young server, and now dark had well and truly fallen. She was one of the last people still here, and Trissa decided it would be best to stay the night in this town. But first, she would try and get a bit more information on this land.
She waved to the serving girl, who came over quickly. She reached for the once again empty cup, but Trissa waved her off. "Miss I...it just occured to me that I never asked your name."
The girl looked a little surprised at the strange woman's sudden shift in tone, but replied. "Oh, it's Mellody, ma'am."
"Right, sorry Mellody. Now, this is going to sound somewhat strange, is there a war going on somewhere right now?"
Mellody looked at her with a combination of confusion and shock. "Um, yeah...the Empire's fighting the Varden and Surda down south. That's where all the younger men went off to. How don't you know about this?"
Trissa was prepared for that question. "I've been living deep in the forest with my family for most of my life, but since my parents passed away a few months ago I decided I'd go out and see what the rest of the world has to offer. I'm...a little out of touch with the current goings-on, and honestly with history in general. Do you think you could help me with catching up?"
Mellody glanced back at the bar, where the larger woman was wiping down the smooth, shiney counter with a rag. "I really should help Bella clean up…" She said hesitantly.
With a deft flick of the wrist Trissa pulled one of the small garnets out of her coin purse and dropped it onto the table with a small ting. "I can make it worth your time, both for you and the lovely barkeep." She said, flipping another, identically cut garnet onto the table beside the first.
Mellody's eyes widened into saucers, having never seen a gem like this in the poor town she had inhabited her whole life. "Um...Ok!" She said, sitting down with her eyes still on the garnets. She pulled her gaze away and looked into the sparkling eyes of this bizarre stranger, shining from the shadows of her hood. "What do you want to know about, exactly?"
Trissa grinned, and for a moment Mellody swore her eyes flashed blood-red. "Everything."
…
Trissa awoke to the sound of a crowing rooster, sitting up and blinking as she took in the unfamiliar room she was in, sunlight streaming through an open window onto the plain wood floor and simple bed upon which she lay.
Her heart jumped for a moment before she remembered where she was. She felt a pang as the loss of her family, her friends, her world finally hit her after three days here, but she took some comfort in knowing that she would see them again someday at her Father's side.
Well, she may have to take a detour to Sovngarde to see some of them, but still.
Her head ached somewhat from the ale she had consumed last night, but she had dealt with far worse. Trissa stood and stretched out, working out the kinks where she had slept wrong on her armor.
That reminds me, gotta buy more clothes today too.
Last night, she had spent a good hour listening to Mellody talk of what she new of the land of Alagaesia; of the Empire, of it's tyrant king Galbatorix with his great black drake and magics, of the Varden and the kingdom of Surda, who fought in the south against the dark king, of the whispers of Elves coming out of their home in the northern woods, and of the tales of the empire's defeat on the Burning Plains at the hands of the upstart rebels.
After this tellin, she had thanked the girl, gave her the gem, and then done the same with the innkeeper, Bella, whom she had also rented this room from. Then, alone in the dark, she had formulated a plan.
It was obvious to her that this Galbatorix was the darkness she was meant to fight, and if she was smart, and planned long enough, she could probably break into his castle by herself and attack him. But she did not know what strange powers this man might wield, and so such a plan was not a sure thing and could just as easily end in failure as success. She figured it would be much easier to fell a king if she had an army behind her.
So, south she was to go, to Surda and the Varden.
It's funny, she thought, back home I helped put down a rebellion against an empire, and now I plan to help one. Fate has a sense of humor, I suppose.
She packed up her few belongings and belted on her weapons before walking out of her room and down into the tavern area of the inn. Bella was cleaning up some tables as she came down, and spared her a glance before going back to her work. She had settled the cost of her food and room last night, so without a word the Dovahkiin walked out of the tavern, ready to take on this new world.
Now, first thing's first, gotta buy some traveling supplies…
…
After almost a week of traveling along the dusty, poorly-maintained road that ran through the small village of Oakhollow (as she had learned that little place had been called) and barely seeing a soul, Trissa had finally reached a major, far more populated route.
Stepping off the road a ways back, she again cast the illusion spell and raised the hood on her traveling cloak, shifting the pack she had bought (alongside the cloak and a good deal of provisions) back in Oakhollow to better cover her sword. Better to remain as unnoticeable as possible, she figured.
Trissa moved out onto the well-packed dirt road, continuing on her southward path.
A few hours passed and it was nearing dark when she came to a medium-sized town called Eastcroft, which was surrounded by a wooden palisade that was patrolled by men with spears and bows. Trissa was thankful to have the prospect of an actual bed to sleep in as she hurried inside the walls with the rest of the people trying to get in before the gates closed for the night. The guards at the gate paid her no heed as the dunmer woman lowered her head as she passed, their tired eyes scanning the crowd without really perceiving much.
She quickly made her way through the town and found the local wayfarer's house with the help of some directions from a local. She made her way into a larger room with a low ceiling and stained support beams, lit by the flickering flames of tallow candles and a roaring fire, over which a pig was roasting. In the corner a few musicians were playing an unfamiliar, but not unpleasant song. The room was uncomfortably full, stuffed with around sixty people, and obnoxiously loud. However she spotted an empty table along the far wall and expertly slid through the crowd to reach it, taking up a similar position as she had in Oakhollow.
Settling in, she began to examine the room in earnest.
There seemed to be two main groups here: locals who had come by for a drink, who wore relatively nice clothing and laughed with the familiarity of regulars. The second group seemed to be refugees, likely fleeing the conflict further south. They wore tattered and dirty cloths and huddled close together in small groups, suspiciously eyeing anyone who approached.
There was also another group that stood out from the crowd around them, a half-dozen men in crimson tunics with short swords belted at their hips; soldiers, she guessed of the Empire she was currently in. They were ill-mannered as well, loud and rude, grabbing at any serving-wench unfortunate enough to wander past. She sneered from the depths of her hood at the pathetic display.
The Legion would never have permitted its soldiers to behave such; well, at least Tullius wouldn't, she thought. If this is the kind of discipline that this Empire maintains among its troops, this should be an easy victory.
A serving woman came over then, and Trissa requested food and drink, as well as inquiring about a room before turning her attention back to the crowd. She scanned the mass of humans again, but this time her eyes caught upon a man who looked...different from the rest.
He was young, maybe in his twentieth year or so, and had shaggy dirty blonde hair. He wore clothes dirty from long travel, and carried himself like a warrior, an analysis supported by his lean but strong-looking build. However, it was his face that caught her attention.
His features were more angular than the average person's, almost elegant in it's structure, and his eyes had a faint almond-shape to them. Now individually, these were not unheard of characteristics of humans, but put together they just screamed Mer at Trissa, and she noticed a band of cloth tied around the boy's head covering the tips of his ears. Likely to hide the points, she thought. However, his features were not pronounced enough for a full-blooded elf. A halfling, then? Not common in Tamriel, but not unheard of either. Of course, I have no idea what relations between men and mer are like here...
She watched him make his way over to the bar, eyes scanning the room and pointedly avoiding looking at the soldiers gathered at one table. He talked to the serving woman briefly, then went back to looking around the room. His eyes widened as she caught sight of something, and she followed his gaze to a table set near the wall, where a cloaked woman with similar angular features to the boy but lacking the almond-eyes and with visible, rounded ears was being bothered by a group of four locals who seemed to have gotten too far into their drinks. The boy quickly made his way over to the table and said something, causing the largest of the group of four to get aggressive, getting right up in the boy's face.
Trissa was instantly alert, drawing one of her daggers and readied an Ice Spike spell under the table to help the young man if things escalated, but thankfully the boy was able to talk the group down and the drunk men wandered off. The dark elf sighed with relief and watched the two semi-mer talk quietly. For a moment she considered approaching them, but then the pair stood and made for the stairs leading to the upstairs rooms.
She chuckled, an amused grin on her face as she jumped too conclusions. Boy must've impressed her with getting rid of those lugs. Well, have fun you two.
Almost as if she sensed Trissa thinking about her, the woman paused at the foot of the stairs and looked back, directly at the corner where Trissa was resting. The two locked eyes, and the woman's narrowed. As nonchalantly as possible, the Trissa drifted her gaze away. After a moment more, the other woman continued up the stairs.
Trissa shook her head. Well, that was interesting. She thought, and then the couple was pushed from her mind as she saw a serving wench approaching, tankard in one hand and plate of food in the other.
…
Trissa started out early the next morning, leaving town almost as soon as the gates opened, ignoring the slightly suspicious looks she got from the guard at the gate. She walked until the town was out of sight behind her then let out a contented sigh as she dropped the illusion spell, letting the cool morning air blow across her skin unencumbered by the faint buzz that accompanied the use of that spell.
Trissa stretched her arms above her head and paused when another thought crossed her mind. I haven't tried to shout yet in this world. She realized. Then she grinned. Well, no time like the present.
She took in a deep breath of air, calming herself a moment, then spoke in the language of her soul.
Tiid...Klo Ul!
As the words left her lips, the very world around her began to shift as her voice bent the fabric of reality to slow the passage of time to a crawl. Trissa grinned wider as the power of the Thu'um coursed through her, and she let out a joyous cry to the sluggish heavens as she began to run, wanting to make use of this brief slowing of everything but her to get some ground covered, sprinting as fast as she could and covering hundreds of meters in the course of ten seconds, her elven speed helping her along. When the spell finally faded, she was far, far beyond Eastcroft, having covered almost a mile in the space of a few seconds.
Well, that was fun the dragonborn thought, and she continued to run down the southbound road.
…
The rest of the day and through the night Trissa kept moving at a constant pace, stopping only for an hour or so to rest her legs and eat some of her provisions. She was pushing herself hard, but the stop at Eastcroft revitalized her energy, and the occasional use of the Slow Time shout saw her eat up the miles as she traveled down the road. She hadn't seen many travelers on the road, but that was of little matter to her. She was content to observe the wilderness around her, and if she really had to she could talk to one of the dragons.
It was around mid-afternoon the day after she had left Eastcroft, and Trissa was just considering stopping again, maybe for a little longer than before when she rounded a hill and saw, not to far ahead, a pair of travelers on foot who seemed to be surrounded by a group of mounted imperial soldiers; fifteen of them, most with simple armor and weapons, and one with the more ornate equipment of a commander.
Trissa frowned, not liking the way this looked. She slowed down to a walk, and considered her options. She couldn't shout yet, her soul was still recovering from her use of Slow Time a few minutes ago and it would be at least another two or three minutes before she could harness the Thu'um again. Magic was out too, as she wasn't entirely confident that she wouldn't hit those travelers if she started launching firebolts at the soldiers.
So she figured she'd deal with this situation the old fashion way, drawing her dragonbone bow Frostshard from her back and knocking an arrow, feeling a chill around her hands as the enchantment on the weapon prepared to activate.
As she got closer, she saw that the two people who were surrounded were in fact the young man and woman she had noticed back at the tavern. This confused her: she hadn't seen the pair leave town, and yet here they were, ahead of her. How did that happen?
As she got closer, she saw one of the soldiers prod the young man's pack with the butt of his spear, sending him sprawling. This seemed to send the officer to ranting, and she could see his massive mustache quivering even from here.
Then another soldier smashed the dull end of his spear against the back of the fallen boy's head, and Trissa decided she had seen enough. In a well-practiced movement, she raised her bow, drew, and loosed the shaft at the man who had struck the fallen boy. She had already drawn and nocked another arrow when the first one hit, the arrow impacting the man's back and pitching him from his horse with a cry and a burst of cold as the frost enchantment froze his flesh.
The other soldiers let out shouts of surprise, the officer yelling in anger as he wheeled towards the sudden threat. He spurred his horse to a gallop and three of his men followed close behind. However the others were forestalled as the pair they had been harassing burst into motion.
The boy shouted something in a language she didn't recognize and one of the men fell from his horse grabbing at his bleeding throat. The woman shouted as well, and the horses around them went beserk, bucking in fear and tossing their riders before bolting. The pair moved with incredible speed at the fallen men, the soldiers barely able to reach their feet before the boy smashed one of them off his feet, his fist striking like a warhammer.
Trissa noticed this in her peripheral vision, as she was focused on the quartet of horses bearing down on her. She backed away steadily, knocking and firing another arrow at the leftmost rider. The arrow struck him in the shoulder and he fell with a cry from his horse, the force of the arrow spinning him off his mount: he wasn't dead, but he was certainly out of the fight.
By now the Officer was almost upon her as she drew another arrow. She ducked to the side as she swung his blade, the weapon whistling past her ear as he rode by, cursing. She loosed the arrow, not at him, but at the horse of one of his men, the shaft sinking into the animal's chest with a thump and dropping the creature dead in an instant as the frost enchantment stopped its heart.
The last man stabbed at her with his spear, but she deflected the weapon with the sturdy body of her bow before, with a deft movement, catching the weapon between the bowstring and upper arm and yanking, dragging the man from his mount with a startled yelp. Not missing a beat, she ripped out her dragonbone dagger Flametongue with her off hand and drove the blade into his throat, the enchantment placed upon it causing the flesh around the wound to burn and catch fire.
Hearing the thunder of hoofbeats behind her, Trissa tossed her bow to the side and grabbed the fallen man's spear, spinning away from his body as the officer again rode past, and again missed with his strike. As she came out of the spin she stabbed with the spear, catching the horse's flank and causing it to scream and stumble, the mustached officer cursing as he tossed himself from the saddle to avoid being trapped as the horse fell.
Trissa dropped her spear and drew her other dagger, a blade of Daedric make named Soulblaze, taking up a fighting stance as the officer clambered to his feet, the man whose horse she had slain moving to stand with his commander, a shortsword having replaced his spear. She heard cries of pain and fear behind her, but Trissa's eyes never wavered from her foes.
"I don't know who the hell you are, bitch, but I'm going to slaughter you for this." The officer growled, his saber twitching as he looked at her with undisguised rage in his eyes.
"Bigger things than you have tried." She said with a grin, her face still shrouded in the darkness of her hood.
With a cry, the two man charged, the officer heading right for her, his soldier flanking around to her left. The officer swung his saber at her shoulder, but Trissa deftly deflected the attack with Soulblaze, flowing around the strike to intercept the downwards chop of the other man with her crossed blades before kicking him in the stomach.
The soldier let out a grunt of pain and backed off slightly, leaving the sword trapped on the serrated edge of her daedric dagger as she struck like a snake with her other blade, stabbing him in the gut before shoving him away, barely turning in time to fend off another strike from the officer.
The man snarled and struck again, slashing at her head with a vicious backhand. Trissa anticipated the move, however, and ducked the blow, slashing the muscle of the man's arm, causing him to drop his sword from powerless fingers. She followed up with a stab in the side, driving the blade to the hilt into the officer's body.
He coughed, blood spilling from his mouth, indicating his lung had been punctured. But even as the life faded from his body, Trissa could almost feel the hatred emanating from this man.
"Damn you, witch!" He croaked, splattering drops of blood on her face.
She smiled savagely back at him, allowing the Illusion spell to break for a moment, revealing her ash-grey skin and red eyes as she whispered beck, "Not witch, Dragon."
Then she twisted the knife in his side and ripped it out, letting the corpse hit the ground with a heavy thud.
Trissa reclaimed her bow, taking a moment to slit the throat of the man she stabbed in the gut. She turned to the other portion of the fight to see the young man chase down a crying, pleading soldier and snap his neck with barely an effort.
Trissa began to jog towards the two travelers, stopping to grab her arrows from the corpses of the fallen and execute the man she hit in the shoulder.
In a few moments, she stood before the two travellers, who were eyeing her warily, the woman with a stolen sword held comfortably in her hand.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Trissa decided to start the conversation.
"Well, you're welcome for the help there, travelers." She said cheerily as she wiped an arrow off on a scrap of tunic. "Though you seem more than able to handle yourself in a fight. Say...you wouldn't happen to be heading to Surda, would you?"
A/N: Ah, the protagonists meet. Always an interesting part of any crossover.
Thanks to those who have shown interest in this story, after this chapter updates should be fairly irregular, as I mentioned before. So if you liked it, Follow, Fave, review, and until next time
Imperator senatus et populi Romani Dinosaurs!