Black Wings of the Reach
A Skyrim Fanfiction
"I can't believe we're having to wait around with no fire." This complaint was voiced aloud from a solitary Bosmer within the group, wrapping his arms against his chest and hunching over them with a testy look at the others.
"Quit your whining, Thading," an Orc barked, rolling his eyes. "None of us are happy about it, but it would give away our position. We don't want them to know we're close."
"Well I don't see why it's such an issue," Thading snapped, sitting up slightly with a light of challenge in his eyes. "It's not as if camping by the roadside is all that unusual. What will they even think of it?"
"Maybe that we're good for robbing an' killing?" a Redguard woman pointed out. "Besides, even if they have no interest in that, they'll get suspicious when we haven't moved on for days. Best we be careful if we plan to pull this off."
"How do we know they don't already know we're here, just waiting to spring upon us?"
"You think the Forsworn wouldn't have made a move by now if they knew we were this close to one of their camps, just sitting around?" A Nord this time.
"Maybe." Thading huffed and sat up further. "This better be worth it."
"We won't know until Thedr and Zahi return, but even if they don't have many valuables in that fort to take, having a stronghold to call our own would be well worth the effort."
"And then we can always make our fortune tolling travelers to use the road toward Markarth," the Orc finished, giving the Wood Elf a pointed look. "So shut your hole before I cram it with steel."
"About that..." Thading began. The Orc gave him a look of warning, but somehow he either appeared to miss it or had no sense of self-preservation. "Are we really sure this is such a good idea? Setting up a toll road on the way to Markarth? You did hear what the innkeeper at the Old Hroldan said, didn't you? About the flying beast?"
"Yeah, I heard him, but I haven't seen or heard any sort of flying creature here," the Orc snorted.
"Yes but just because you haven't seen it yet, doesn't mean it isn't here."
"I grew up in these parts as a lad," the Nord said slowly. "And been through the Reach many times. I've heard talk of it, but I've never seen this beast either."
"Neither have I," the Orc nodded agreement.
"Well I've personally never met an assassin of the Brotherhood, either, but it doesn't mean they aren't a very real danger," Thading quipped.
"Well unless I see it for myself," the Redguard woman said, crossing her arms. "I'm not going to believe in it either."
"Assuming you survive that long. They say that no one who sees it survives." Thading shuddered.
"Don't be ridiculous! Stories come from one of two places; survivors and liars. Otherwise no one hears of it," the Orc scoffed, cuffing the elf over the back of the head. "I almost hope its real and it does eat you, to be so stupid."
There was a rustling, and the whole group went on alert, standing and drawing weapons.
"Peace, friends!" They relaxed as a Redguard man appeared, and behind him, a black-and-grey Khajiit melted through the shadows, barely seen in the darkness. "It's just us."
"So how did your scouting go?"
The newly arrived Redguard nodded.
"There's an unmarked path further down the road that heads up between the rocks for the fort. The path itself isn't guarded, so we can just walk straight up it. Over the hill at the top, you can start to see the fort. The only way in is through the front, but Zahi, Thading, and Saadl," he nodded to the Khajiit, elf, and Redguard woman. "You three should be able to sneak around the wood battlements and take out the sentries quietly. After that, Valrok, Felnar, and I will charge in and take those on the ground by surprise. You lot will rush up to the walls and take out any archers. Our goal is to take them out without those inside hearing the commotion and coming outside to provide back-up. Once we're in, we'll try to take out the rest while they're sleeping. By morning, if all goes as planned, Fort Sungard will be ours."
Things did not end as planned.
That wasn't to say that it started out badly. Quite the contrary, it began quite well. The first three of their group were true pros. They reached the wood look-out post outside the walls with ease, and while Saadl watched the look-outs on the wall further in, Zahi took out the one posted outside quickly and silently, without ever raising alarm. Then they stilled and watched as Thedr, Felnar, and Valrok sprinted to the entrance, hiding beneath its archway for the signal.
Saadl saw the look-outs move to stand above the archway, looking out into the cliffs and plains, and signaled for the three men to make their move and go charging in. As soon as they launched into battle, the sound of metal clashing, Thading loosed his arrows expertly into the two on the wall, the other arches who drew their bows to take out the men infiltrating the fort that very moment.
With those at the entrance dispatched and the fight begun, the three outside rushed in to help.
Valrok swung a mighty battle-axe overhead and pushed back two Forsworn warriors at once, charging at the head of the pack, clearing the first set of stairs with a mighty roar of valor. Felnar locked broadswords with another enemy, while Thedr quickly dispatched one Forsworn with a clean scimitar slash to the throat, then leapt readily at another fearlessly.
The other three sprinted up the steps into the fray. Saadl gutted one man that came at Thedr's back, pushing them carelessly off her blade. A glance of appreciation passed between them, but they had no time to stop in the middle of battle. Zahi snarled fearsomely at a Forsworn woman and bared both fangs and claws, lightning dancing out of her palms and clashing with stone as the Forsworn dodged, only to take an arrow in the leg and crumple, where Zahi finished her off by grabbing her head while sparks of electricity came to life and zapped the life out of the woman.
Another Forsworn charged in and slashed Zahi's shoulder with an axe, the Khajiit screaming pain and toppling backwards off the ledge back onto dirt several feet down. Before the enemy could pursue, Felnar lunged with his broadsword and took over the battle with that enemy. Valrok decapitated one man he backed against a wall, another coming for his back, but he turned again with amazing speed and sliced them in half through the gut with a mighty heave of his weapon. He leapt over the body and spilled innards to pursue another who had already lost their nerve and was running for one of many doors in and out of the inner part of the fort, cutting them down the spine before they could reach it.
Heading the opposite way and having pushed their enemy out of the main courtyard and up onto the walls, Thedr and Saadl switched back and forth like wrestling partners, one first taking on an enemy, wounding or killing them, then backing out and letting the other take over seamlessly, needing no words to know when to back off or when to take over, making for a surgically precise tag-team.
An archer aimed for them, but Thading quickly turned his own bow on them, knocking an arrow into his chest and staggering him. Zahi rushed up the steps as they were still recovering, and pushed them over the wall, watching as they fell and bounced down the cliffs, snapping their back and limbs in the process. The feline purred her delight and sprang around for the next enemy, lightning dancing between her claws excitedly. An enemy tried to leap down from above onto Thedr and Saadl, but the Khajiit lunged forward and toppled them both over, rolling across the ground, and sunk her fangs into the Forsworn's neck, tasting no small amount of blood and feeling them gasp and sputter liquid in her jaws.
Another leapt down, but Felnar ran them through the side, drawing his sword out of them, covered in blood, and took off their weapon-arm with an arching swing. The person fell screaming and choked out blood as he plunged the broadsword into the man's chest - once, twice, thrice.
A hagraven's ungodly screech announced further trouble as two of them and more Forsworn appeared, fresh to the fight. Fire flew, hitting Felnar in the head and making him scream and stagger. A Forsworn leapt down and plunged a serrated blade down his shoulder and into his chest, the man spasming and coughing red. Zahi screeched her fury and slashed the man's ear, barely missing his artery vein. Valrok roared his own rage and lunged forward, axe cutting like butter into the hide armor of a woman and killing them both painfully and instantly, before whirling on the other reinforcements.
The hagraven's retreated back from the blade while Forsworn rushed forward, Valrok taking them all on at once, not slowing even as an arrow found his chest, while Zahi arched protectively over Felnar, hissing, spitting, and clawing or blasting any away with lightning that dared try to take either of them out, even as the man lay dying beneath her. Those she missed or who were too tenacious found arrows in them moments afterwards from Thading's bow.
Thedr only glanced back for a moment before refocusing on his own fight, slaying one Forsworn, then letting Saadl take over and attack the next, driving them back between four pillars just before a long drop to the main road. Saadl sheered the flesh of the enemy's calf off and left them lame, crawling backwards towards the drop as Thedr approached for the kill.
"It comes! It comes from the ash and the fire! The Black Wings!" The Hagraven's suddenly screeched cowardly alarm and turned to flee back inside the fort. The Forsworn still fighting watched, some becoming immediately frightened and others not yet noticing the change, before those that weren't first cut down and slain also began to panic and turn tail, howling terror.
It was only a moment later that realization began to take fold that there was a sound that shouldn't have been there in the deep thickness of night, long after the sun had begun to set. The sound of crows cawing and screeching above and around them became a din that was quickly overtaking the sounds of battle and Forsworn cries of unbridled fear. Opaque black shapes flickered through the night above them in a tempest, creating a squall that blotted out the stars and the moon. On higher parts of the fort, many of those shapes took perch and clumped together, the six bandits feeling many beady, black eyes on them rather than seeing them in such poor lighting.
The cawing rose to a deafening pitch, drowning out every other sense of existence beneath their squaller.
A sound like a large whoosh of air was barely heard overhead, but still noticed. Flickers of light like yellow fire danced above, leaving tails of golden light as they arced around. The large shadow that soared above them was enormous, the size of a Giant, at least, but flying. One of the fires burning on the wall briefly illuminated its shape, a jet-black figure with long gold threads that trailed behind, and flames of its own spotting long wings that each individually stretched the length of a mammoth's body in full-span.
The beast circled and fanned its wings as it came to land on the highest point, the sound of its massive talons scraping stone audibly heard. Once perched, the behemoth splayed its wings, feathers arching, and its body ignited fire, dancing harmlessly off feathers the size of a man's forearm on its body and even longer on the wings. A keening screech echoed off the cliffs and walls, and all of the crows which had been drumming out a drowning raucous of chatter fell deathly silent as if commanded to.
When its own silence joined them and the flames became dimmer, but still alive, it left a foreboding disquiet in its wake. The group shuffled uncertainly as the creature eyed them with a ravenous scorn, and they couldn't help but be intimidated by how it almost seemed to radiate an aura of rage the same way it radiated heat from the flames off of its body.
The only one who dared break the silence was the last one who wanted to be there, Thading pointedly retreating several steps towards the archway they had first entered through.
"S-see? What did I tell you all! The beast is real! We should have never chosen the Reach as our place to set up camp!"
"Hmph," Valrok grumped, wringing his meaty hands around the handle of his axe. "It's only an oversized chicken! There's five of us and only one of it! I bet we can take it!"
"M-make that four! I'm not sticking around for this!" Thading harped fearfully. "We were warned and those Forsworn probably didn't flee for no reason! Die if you want to, but I won't!" He turned tail and sprinted, while the large bird-beast drew itself up higher, hissing at them and readying to pounce.
"Come on, birdie! I have a nice head-blade just waiting for you!"
Screeching what almost seemed a personal challenge, the avian leapt over the edge of the tower and spread its wings, coming down without even the slightest bit of hesitation. Valrok swung his axe, but it flew overhead just shy of the blade, flying further. The flames on its body extinguished and it seemed to disappear within moments, melting into the night. The crows began to cry again and took to the air in a noisy storm, blinding movement in all directions that obscured the landscape.
"Where did it go?! Coward!" The Orc snarled hatefully, whipping his head around to find it. A flap of mighty wings overhead, and Zahi shot lightning upward, but hit nothing except for couple of smaller crows that fell from the air. She hissed fear and frustration, pupils wide as the moon, and then the full bulk of the flying beast came atop her, snatching her up into the air.
The Khajiit screeched her horror and writhed, wantonly firing off Sparks. The giant bird screeched what may have been pain and dropped her above a fatal drop, the Khajiit disappearing below into the open wilds.
The bird circled around again, and ignited as it came swooping down upon Thedr and Saadl, who rolled out of the way, but the beast didn't keep flying. It landed, swivel-skidding to the side and jumped atop Saadl, pinning her under a massive, clawed foot, and popped her head off with its beak like the head of a soft mushroom.
Thedr keened harrowing dismay and lunged forward with a vengeance, aiming for the beast's head but instead slashing its shoulder as it dodged aside, earning a screech of pain that quickly melted into blind fury. It arched itself downward and out, and snapped its large beak around each side of his rips, forcing the Redguard against one of the stone walls and trying to crush his chest with its bite so that the man could nary breathe, his dark eyes finding a single sky-blue orb encircled by a long, jagged scar glaring brazenly murderous at him.
He screamed hatred for the monster and kicked it hard in the throat several times, but it only increased the pressure, picking him away from the wall to slam him.
Valrok unleashed a battle cry and charged in, bringing his axe into the side of its neck. The bird screamed agony and loosened, staggering to the side. Thedr fell to the ground, but he was quick to rise again, clutching his scimitar by the handle tightly, and lunged for the gaping wound in the flailing beast's throat, running it through. Talons the size of his own hand individually raked into his side, goring him open and sliding open some of his insides, but he ignored it, twisted the blade savagely within its neck so that blood sprayed outward, until he could hear it choking and gurgling a revolting throe of death.
When it finally fell still, he pulled his blade out, just as viciously, and stared at it with enraged sorrow in his watering eyes. Panting, he only now gave the gash into his side attention, covering it with his hand, and turned away. He staggered to Saadl's headless body, dropping his blade and falling to his knees. He reached out to hold her, but stopped, too sickened by the sight of what had been done to even fathom the idea that this headless corpse used to be his lover.
He buckled over on his knees, biting his lip until it bled to keep from screaming in grief, and silently cried, ignoring the cold seeping through his body as he continued to bleed.
This wasn't how things were supposed to go.
This wasn't real.
A bark of warning rang out, but it was too slow, the sharp casings of a beak capturing him by the head and flicking him in the air.
The bird rose unsteadily and Valrok charged forward again with his axe, but the beast whirled and knocked the Orc into a wall with a long, whip-like tail lined in feathers all the way down, which was just as long as its body, if not more. It leapt atop him and pinned him to the stone under both feet, talons breaking the thick hide of the Orc's shoulders as it held its head craned up, keeping Thedr in a vice as he struggled and flailed, then it ignored its body again, and both Redguard and Orc were caught in flame, screaming and writhing as the scent of scorched, burning flesh filled the air. Even as the Redguard was still howling anguish and struggling to escape, the bird flicked its head in one swift motion, and a crack signaled a broken neck, before tossing the charred corpse aside.
It's attention turned to the last left as the flames began to dissipate, the hardened Orc gasping and whimpering roughly. The avian squared itself, talons digging into his back more mercilessly and earning a weak cry, before it plunged its beak into his back, tearing it open by the spine as it yanked it loose, then split open the remains of the ribs and ripped out everything beneath that.
Stepping off the remains and flapping up onto one of the archways, the giant corvid screeched a long, ferocious sound off the peaks of the surrounding cliffs, and the storm of crows that amassed in the sky and in wait on the structure of the fort already began to swarm the bodies.
Before the night was done, the baneful Crow forced its way inside the fort, ripping apart all who hid cowering inside and splattering the walls and floors with their life and what pieces remained of them, not a single one spared nor any killed quickly or with any sort of mercy.
As the sun peaked over the horizon, only one figure emerged from within with its life in-tact, sighing into the frigid air of the northern province, covered in blood and bits of severed flesh from head-to-toe. Boots coated in red slapped on stone and a long, black cloak lined in feathers and down trailed behind. With a curious croak, several birds landed at the human figure's feet, peering up at him. Some were bold enough to flutter onto his shoulders and arm, grabbing the fingers of one hand he held up for them to lick up the blood that coated them and nibble at his stained brown hair.
A single working eye coldly surveyed the carnage in a mix of revulsion and satisfaction; revulsion for those he had slain and satisfaction for their demise. With an irate huff, he massaged the juncture of his neck where the burn from his own fire cauterized the wound to his throat closed, the nerves still pulsing in agitation that refused to quiet down.
"Disgusting..." he hissed silently, single hue smoldering with contempt. "I'll rid the world of all of your pitiful kinds. Every last one."