My eyes snapped back open as the ground shook. I was suddenly overcome with a fearsome sight. A giant black lizard with wings.
A dragon!
But surely they were all dead. Strange, I can't remember where I heard that, I just knew it as a fact.
The headsman fell, to my great relief, backwards. He stumbled as the creature landed and shook the very foundations of the town.
'What in oblivion is that?!' one of the guards called. I was momentarily paralyzed. What exactly was happening?
The creature let loose a great roar, I suddenly realized it had been he who had been making them noises all along. The sky seemed to open and hell itself came spilling out. Comets. Fire. Dragons! It all seemed to fall into reality.
'Dragons!' yelled the townsfolk retreating back into their homes as if that would be sufficient protection.
The dragon let loose a cry quite unlike before, it was attacking. I stumbled as I felt the force, straight off the chopping block and onto the cobblestone as my brain rattled inside my head.
'This way,' yelled a voice over the chaos. It was Ralof who had taken this opportunity to dart inside one of the watchtowers. I followed blindly, desperately attempting to escape the chaos.
Ralof seemed to have found a dagger along the way and cut his wrists free.
I slammed the door shut behind me. As I caught my breath I looked around the room. A couple of stormcloaks had escaped and, to my surprise, Ulfric Stormcloak, who also took advantage of the worst.
'Jarl Ulfric,' cried Ralof, cutting through the kings bonds. 'What is that thing? Could the legends be true?'
'Legends don't burn down villages.' replied Ulfric as he removed his gag. He had a very deep voice as he spoke.
My head raced. What were we to do? How were we to leave? There was only one answer that I could think of, we would have to fight our way out, past the guards, and past the dragon.
The dragon, as if in response, let loose a mighty roar once again from outside. I was glad there was solid stone between us.
'We need to move now.' cried Ralof making his way up the stairs. 'Up the tower.' I dashed up the stairs, overtaking Ralof, when another loud crash sounded.
Half the wall had fallen, destroyed by the dragon as his head now loomed in the hole he created. He inhaled. Then sent a large breath of flames over the second floor.
I tried to compose myself as I was still reeling from the shock. The dragon took off as quickly as he had appeared and I looked out onto the scene.
The town was burning, the guards in a panic. Talos knows what happened to the townsfolk.
'See the inn on the other side?' It was Ralof, as composed as ever. He pointed to the ruins of a building below us. To my horror, I realised it was the home of the child we had rode past earlier.
I nodded, taking focus once more.
'Jump through the roof and keep going, we'll follow when we can.' Ralof didn't need to repeat his words, the roof had completely collapsed and had revealed a landing below it barely two metres from where we stood, an easy enough jump. As easy as a jump can be into a burning building.
I fell through the air, my hands were still bound I now realised, I should've got Ralof to remove the rope when he removed Ulfric's. Because of this, I landed awkwardly but managed to stay on my feet. I glanced around the shattered room I saw only one way to go.
I ran and fell through the floor, to the ground floor below. I saw the door in front of me and ran toward it without thinking.
Outside, the scene had gotten worse. More houses burned and a few even lay in crumpled messes on the floor. The guards were still attempting to fire at the beast with bows and arrows.
Then I saw the child. Thank Talos he was still alive. The dragon landed in front of him, he lowered his head and took in his breath once more.
The child barely got out of the way in time before the licks of flame sprayed the town again. Right where he had been standing.
The dragon took off once more, to wreak more havoc on Helgen.
'Still alive prisoner?' said the guard. 'Keep close to me if you'd like it to stay that way.'
I motioned my hands but he had already turned back toward the chaos, didn't they know that I could help?
The guard told one of the men to watch the child and then darted off in search of General Tullius. I followed, I only saw one way out now. I ran through the ruins of Helgen, stepping over a mass amount of dead bodies, including Lokir. If he wasn't dead before, then he was dead now.
'Keep close to the wall.' yelled the guard over his shoulder, I did as he asked, although I wasn't sure why he was now keep me alive.
The moment my shoulder came in contact with the hard stone of the city walls, the ground shook once more. I steadied my head and looked up, only a few feet from my face, the dragon perched.
Fortunately, he wasn't looking in my direction, distracted perhaps by the mass of guards still firing arrows at him. He let loose another long breath of flames as the guard and I crouched beneath his giant wings. Then, as quick as that, he flew off again.
'Quickly,' yelled the guard, as he ran through what remained of another house and I followed.
All the flames around me, I couldn't help but sweat. A few times already I had come close to burning to death, many of the roofs of houses had collapsed from the flames and still lay burning on the floor, I ran over the top of them now. I wish I was back outside in the snow and wind.
We managed to get through the house and remarkably we were by the gate, and still alive. Unfortunately, the gate lie closed, and all the guards were distracted by the dragon to open it.
The guard continued to run, however, I sensed he had a plan.
He saw me following and yelled back. 'It's you and me, prisoner, stay close.' Ironic how he was trusting his life to the hands of someone who only a few minutes ago, he was willing to watch die.
The dragon flew past once more, I didn't look up but I saw the great shadow move across the cobblestone. Then the ground shook again, it must have landed.
We made our way in front of a large keep. A few men had appeared through what used to be a fortified wall. One of the men was Ralof.
'We're escaping, Hadvar, you're not stopping us this time.' Ralof cried. He had somehow found an axe and was waving it very threateningly in front of the guard, Hadvar's, face.
'Fine, I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde.' Hadvar said bitterly. It wasn't long ago we were all only moments away from Sovngarde.
The dragon soared down once more and both Hadvar and Ralof split up to go to separate doors in the keep. I thought quickly about how I was about to lose my head to the Imperials and followed Ralof, my first friend in this new life.
I entered the keep.
A great round room was in front of me, with various beasts heads lining the walls. Funny, somehow the thick walls of the keep made me feel safe from the dragon, as if it wasn't about to smash its way in even though I could still hear the cries outside.
Ralof knelt down, it was here I noticed the body of a stormcloak. How long had he been there?
Ralof spoke a soft prayer, then turned.
'Looks like we were the only one's who made it.' he said. I was silent, he sounded panicked now that we seemed safe. His voice was firm outside the keep, but now that we were inside, it sounded shak.
'That thing was a dragon. Like the legends.' he said, not a question, a statement.
It was then I remembered the ropes around my wrists.
'Ralof, think you can cut these bindings?' I asked.
'Of course,' said Ralof, brandishing the dagger. He cut them in a swift movement. 'There you go.' My hands suddenly felt cold as the blood rushed back to the fingertips. I rubbed my wrists where the rope had been, a sense of relief at my freedom.
'You may as well take Gunjar's gear, he won't be needing it any more,' said Ralof motioning to the body.
I'd like to say I had a second thought about taking a dead man's gear. I'd like to say that, but I was practical. I knew we wouldn't get out of here without a fight, and I did want to wear something other than cold rags.
I stripped the man and took off my clothes, placing the armour over my head. It was still warm, the man hadn't been dead for long. I placed my rags on the man in an attempt to keep some of Gunjar's dignity.
I then noticed the axe, Gunjar had been laying on it and I had missed it up until now. A fine axe, I thought, testing the weight of it. I gave it a few swings, it was funny, somehow I felt good holding a weapon, any weapon.
meanwhile , Ralof had moved toward the gate that looked like it led downstairs. He tested it but ultimately came up short.
'This one's locked, try the other.' he commanded. I moved to the other gate opposite and tested it. It wouldn't budge.
'This one's locked too,' I replied.
Ralof cursed then went silent, trying to think of a way out. A voice echoed down the hall.
'Imperials,' Ralof hissed as he darted for cover.
'C'mon, get moving. Get this gate open.' it was the captain, the one that so coldly gave me my death sentence.
She hadn't seen me yet, I gripped the axe in my hand. Somehow, I was excited for the fight. Guess I really was a Nord.
The gate opened and two Imperials stepped through. One was the captain, the other was just another guard. At least I didn't have to kill Hadvar, I thought, at the end of the day, he did help me through the town.
The Captain spotted me first, I bet she wished she hadn't because while she was distracted, Ralof had plunged his axe sharp end first right into her exposed neck. She went don't without realising what had hit her.
Now for the other guard, we had the advantage, sure, two on one, but he had the brains to run back the other way before we managed to kill him too.
'Leave him,' Ralof said, 'we'll lock the gate behind us and he won't be a problem.' In the guards hast to run, he seemed to have dropped the keys for the gates. Ralof picked them up now.
'Let's get that gate open,' he said. I pulled off the captain's helmet, thinking I needed some protection on my head. I left her armour though, I didn't want Ralof mistaking me for an Imperial after what I saw.
Ralof had successfully opened the gate once I shoved on the helmet.
'Good thinking,' said Ralof, 'you never know who or what else might be down here.' I wasn't sure what he meant by that.
We hurried down the stairs. No sooner did we reach the bottom when a low dragon roar sounded again and half the roof collapsed. I stumbled from the shock but all the collapse did was bar our way. I was well back from the sudden cave in.
The helmet was a good fit, not once did it leave my head as I fell. It even stopped me from receiving a concussion as my head bounced on the cobblestone, it did make my ears ring though.
'Damn. That dragon doesn't give up easily.' said Ralof inspecting the cave in. I suddenly noticed a door leading to the left in the wall. That was lucky, I remember thinking.
I opened the door to the keeps kitchens. The only setback was that two Imperials were using it as shelter from the dragon.
They came at us quickly, both with swords, only one armoured. I decided to deal with him first. This was my first true fight that I could remember.
The longsword came down as the armoured Imperial went for an overhead strike, I parried it easily, the weight in my axe overshadowed the weight in his sword. The other Imperial attempted to get me on my side but my reflexes were fast and I managed to knock his axe aside.
Ralof had found a longbow sometime and used this opportunity to fire an arrow right through the imperials neck. Where he got the bow I wouldn't find out. And I wouldn't really care, all that mattered now was that it was two on one, once again.
This Imperial didn't run, however, he was dressed in full steel armour, he didn't need to. Ralof shot two more arrows, both of them deflecting off of his chest plate, but he was no master with his sword. He attempted to swing up and i managed to deflect it again with my axe. He went sideways and I hit it so hard it came away from his grip and skidded across the room.
His eyes went wide as he turned from his sword back to me. I buried my axe through his skull. Maybe he should've been the one with the helmet. That was the first time I remember killing someone, but not the last.
'By Talos' might,' said Ralof, 'where did you learn to fight like that?'
I shrugged, 'I can't remember.'
'I'm glad you're on my side,' said Ralof still amazed. I looked down at the body with the arrow sticking through his neck.
'The feeling's mutual. Where'd you get that bow anyway?'
Ralof shrugged, 'I can't remember.'
I laughed at his answer, then followed as he made his way through the kitchen.
'Look around for any potions, we'll need them.' Ralof commanded.
'Potions?' I asked.
'You know, little magic vials of red liquid that heals your wounds.' I'd never heard of them before, it even sounded like he made them up. But not being one to argue, I looked around the room anyway.
There were three vials in the room, two with the red liquid, and one with blue.
'What do these do?' I asked, holding up the blue vial.
'That's for when you need to cast a powerful spell.' Ralof replied. I guessed magic was nothing out of the ordinary in skyrim then.
Ralof had found three health potions in some nearby barrels and we moved on. Another door lay ahead. On the other side was the other side of the collapsed roof.
Two Imperial legs protruded from the rubble where a guard had been crushed. Very lucky indeed, I thought.
We headed further along the corridor and found another set of stairs. A commotion came from the end.
'Trolls blood,' said Ralof, suddenly shaking with rage. 'Torturers.' Ralof ran down the stairs, and I ran after him. Stormcloaks had managed to escape and were now attacked the guards. The head torturer was a small old man who stared at the stormcloaks with rage. His assistant was a young was who fought with two of the stormcloaks.
Ralof ran toward him, pulling out his axe once more. He brandished it high in the air as he was about to bring it down on the old man. Suddenly, lightning shot out of his fingers and hit Ralof square in the chest, he crumpled shaking on the floor. I ran around a pillar, ignoring the assistant and rushing to help my friend.
I brought the ax down in his back. I felt the spine break. I wasn't a fan of hitting someone in the back, but when the someone is electrocuting people with his fingers, I'm going to say it's okay.
The young torturer had managed to bring down a stormcloak in his rage, but the other, a woman, managed to finished him with a slice through his neck.
I ran to Ralof.
'Are you alright?' I asked. He was still gasping for breath when he managed to sit up.
'I'll be fine, just hand me one of those potions,' without question I handed him the red liquid. Once he drank it his gasping stopped.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I looked around the room. I was suddenly overcome with rage.
Cages and chains filled the torture chamber. Tools and knives were littered on the floor from the commotion. Blood had stained the floor.
Even worse, the cages were filled with either bodies or skeletons. These men had died a slow death.
I knew the Imperials were bad, but I didn't think they'd actually go through with torture. Made me glad I was heading to the chopping block.
'Best grab what you need.' said Ralof. He didn't seem to care now that the torturer was dead. 'We'll need whatever we can grab.'
The newest stormcloak had gone over to her friend and muttered a silent prayer, I guess there were three of us now.
I walked around the room, looking at what was left. My eyes fell on an iron mace. I lifted it and tested the weight and balance. 'I could use this,' I muttered.
I swapped it for my axe.
'Did you see Ulfric down here?' asked Ralof to the female stormcloak.
'I haven't seem him since the dragon attacked,' she replied.
'Gods be good, I hope he made it,'
We moved further along. The next room contained many more cells, each with a new skeleton inside. My team ignored them, and so did I, now was not the time for grieving.
The torture rooms seemed to go on even further, more small cages were hanging from the roofs, each with a long dead skeleton inside.
The next room had a caved in wall leading to a corridor even further underground. Everyone hesitated, then Ralof was the first to move on. I followed, and then our new friend. I never did ask her name, and she never asked mine, perhaps it was in case one of us died down here, we didn't want to be more wounded than we already were.
The corridor led to a cave, lined with braziers, the only warmth in this dark, cold cave.
The cave turned once again into cobblestone and we heard the unmistakable voices of imperials once more.
'Our orders were to wait for General Tullius,' one said.
Ralof didn't hesitate, he decided a direct, surprise attack was best. He moved into position and fired an arrow. It missed it's mark, alerting the Imperials to our presence, the sound of metal unsheathing rang through the halls as both sides pulled free their weapons.
It was my chance to test my new mace.
There were three in total, a good ol' three on three match up.
I ran at the first man, crossing an old bridge that led over an underground river. My mace struck his once in the chest, winding him then again in the face killing him.
Three on two.
The other two had bows and arrows, incidentally so did the man I just killed. I grabbed his bow, crouched low, nocked an arrow and fired.
Success, the second arrow somehow met its mark, striking the Imperial between his helmet and breastplate, straight through the throat.
Three on one.
I kept low and made my way over to an ancient pillar. I heard the dying breath of the Imperial I just shot as he choked on his blood. The final Imperial was firing at me now after seeing me send two of his companions to Sovngarde.
I grabbed my mace, took in a lungful of air and darted out, running at him. His first arrow almost hit its mark, I guess he was aiming at my heart but he hit me through the shoulder. I didn't feel it yet.
He had to pull out another arrow and nock it before he had another chance, and I was already on him. I swung back and…
Thum.
One of Ralofs arrows came out of nowhere and hit the Imperial under his armpit and through his heart, he died in seconds.
'Couldn't let you get all the glory,' said Ralof proudly.
I fell backwards and led down for a minute. The adrenaline began to wear off and I became increasingly awake that there was an arrow sticking out of my shoulder.
Ralof walked to me with the Stormcloak woman.
'That's in deep,' stated Ralof. I already knew that. 'Let me pull it out.'
'No,' I shouted, already feeling the potential pain. I sat up and moved further from Ralof.
'You can't go around with an arrow sticking out of your chest. Now let me pull it out and then you can drink one of these.' he held a red vial, a potion.
'That won't help,' I said.
'It'll take the pain away almost immediately.' Ralof stated.
I was unaware that the Stormcloak woman had made her way behind me and now she grabbed my arms and pinned them to my sides. She was strong, surprisingly.
But maybe not as surprisingly as Ralof was when he lunged forward and ripped the arrow from my shoulder. I let out a yell of pain which could have almost matched the dragons roars.
Ralof forced the potion into my hand and I quickly pulled off the cork and drank.
It was impulse that made me drink it but I was glad I did. A sudden warmth came over me and I suddenly felt like I had all the energy in the world. I felt a tingling sensation around my arrow wound and remarkable I felt the wound close and the muscles repair.
'Careful,' said Ralof, 'you don't want to get hooked, it's an expensive habit, and it stops you from ducking so much in a fight.
I heeded his warnings. I wasn't going to go out and hurt myself on purpose, no matter the temptation I now felt.
I took a few more moments to lie on the floor, content that no more Imperials would come. Ralof was the first to move to the door.
'We need to move.' he said.
'I'll stay here and wait for Ulfric, said the female stormcloak. I didn't feel like waiting, I wanted to leave this cave and see the sun again as quick as possible. I rolled over onto my feet.
'I'll join you, Ralof.' I said.
'I appreciate that, I can use your protection. Now let's move.' as he said the last words he had already opened the door and began jogging along down the corridor in the cave. I followed.
We can to a dead end. A bridge that hadn't been lowered down. Luckily, we were on the side on the lever.
I yanked it back and the bridge fell, giving us access to continue.
No sooner did we make it over the bridge that the dragon let out a mighty roar once more. Some rocks fell from above our heads and fell directly on the bridge, blocking the path for Ulfric and the stormcloak girl later.
'They'll have to find another route.' said Ralof, uncaring. 'C'mon, let's see what's ahead.'
We continued into another cave, this one had a waterfall making its way through the rocks and formed a river which cut through the rocks and had created a tunnel.
We followed the tunnel quickly. We could already see light coming from ahead. Perhaps the end, perhaps we were almost free.
Quite the opposite happened. We made our way into a new cave, sunlight beamed into the clearing, focusing our attention on three giant spiders.
However gross this enemy was, it was no challenge, we both had longbows so we simply picked off the spiders one by one from the entrance. We moved into the clearing, looking around at the wrapped up bodies that surrounded the cave.
It was then I heard the clicking and looked up. Two Spiders, much bigger than the previous ones, were lowering themselves into the room.
'By Talos,' I shouted, 'they're more.'
Ralof looked up just in time, bringing his axe back out, and I my mace. It was mainly the fear and surprise of the attack that made my heart thump against my ribs. They both went down with one blow each.
One did bite me I'll admit, but I took another potion and was feeling much better very quickly. I hadn't been that scared since I showed the axman my neck. After Ralof composed himself, we were off.
The next room was different. I could actually hear the wind from outside, we were close to the end, plants and bugs were even creeping in, I could smell the fresh air and the freedom.
'Look,' said Ralof, pointing. I followed his hand to a large bear dozing in the sunshine which seeped through a crack in the roof.
'We can sneak around her if you don't want to disturb her,' he said, 'or if you're feel a bit safer going with the other approach.' he gestured toward my bow.
I studied the creature for a moment. After all that had happened, I wondered how it could still be asleep, it seemed peaceful watching the gentle rise and fall of its back.
'We're going to sneak around, enough killing for now.' I said.
'By your command.' he said, obediently. I crouched low and made my way past the bear, but I was no fool, I kept my bow in my hands and an arrow on the string at all times, if it decided it didn't like us, I don't think even the potions would help us.
'Almost there,' whispered Ralof.
'Shh,' I hissed. Although he was right, I could practically smell the grass.
'Made it,' he whispered after we had left the cave. I let go of a breath I was unaware I was holding, stood, and walked calmly to the exit.
My eyes took a moment to adjust, coming from the darkness into the intense sunlight. I shielded my eyes as they focused, Ralof doing the same next to me.
'Get down,' Ralof said suddenly, I obeyed without question.
'There he goes,' Ralof pointed to the sky.
And there, flying only a few hundred metres away, with a final cry of triumph, was the black dragon, flying across the landscape, of the land of Skyrim.