Chapter 20
Day 62
Silence filled the air. The dead don't talk, they don't move. The body might make a few last movements before the blood stops flowing but it's still silent. Nothing moved or mad a sound on the battlefield. I knelt there and stared at the ground. My body shook, my hand fumbled around until it made contact with the wooden pommel of Kharjo's sword. Pain shot through my body as I gripped it tightly. Why had this happened?
Someone shook me, my eyes slowly moved from the ground to the person knelt before me. Mjoll was frantically shaking me and shouting something. Her normally swept back red hair had fallen around her face, her blue face paint smeared and mixed with mud.
"Darius!" Her voice reached me finally. I blinked a few times then clasped my free hand on her shoulder. My grip was weak but I brought myself to my feet and moved her aside. My sword arm rose and swept right. The steel sword bit through dead flesh and bone. A green ooze seeped from the stump that was a creature's neck. The grayish body slumped to the ground, I alongside it. I couldn't stop shaking. Did I just do that? What had compelled me to? It would have killed us if I didn't right? Mjoll was in front of me again, this time instead of shaking me she shoved me and grabbed onto me until I rose to my feet. "We have to go! The forward camp is lost! We have to retreat!" Her words rang home, I turned away and started to stumble away. I could see other soldiers struggling with more of the creatures and others running away. I heard Mjoll chop a few of those things down behind me then move to my side. She brought one of my arms around her and helped to speed my movement. My armor felt heavier than before, my body weak and my eyes heavy. I felt utterly exhausted and defeated. How had there been so many? What little help I was able to give was made useless as we couldn't even aim our strikes to behead them. I had tried to use the simple method that many movie actors used from my world. Taking off the head of any undead would make the body cease to function. It worked but there had been so many that it was hard to keep our weapons up to take off their heads and panic began to set in among the soldiers. There had been fifty of us, the majority of the guards in Riften and what people had volunteered to try and drive these things out of their land. It had been a pathetic attempt. We had driven them out of their mine and made them advance on us from the hill. We had readied defenses and many of them impaled themselves on our makeshift spikes. But there had just been so many.
Mjoll stopped supporting me and let me slump to the ground before the gates of Riften. The group that had stayed behind rushed quickly to help the survivors get inside. An argonian women came over and helped lift me back onto my feet. I recognized her as the innkeeper, her husband came up to my other side and they both carried me through the gates where my vision went dark.
I should probably start from the beginning. After the guards had retrieved me from the inn. I met with the Jarl of Riften,Laila Law-Giver and informed her of the events that had led Zaynabi, Kharjo, and I to Riften. When I told her of Mistwatch Keep her face darkened. She told me of other instances where these undead and crystals had been found all throughout Skyrim and she had even heard that travelers from all over Tamriel are reporting similar sightings. I had been appalled by the news, how was this happening? Where the summoners who brought me here really a part of this or was there something more going on?
I hadn't had much time to ask as a messenger had come in saying that more creatures had been spotted around Riften than usual. Something was terribly wrong. I told the Jarl all I knew of the creatures and believed that it was best to aim for the head rather than the limbs to take them down. I had hoped that the movies and games from my world had something right at least. It was then that I was "asked" to accompany the soldiers she was sending to Shor's Stone to try and retake the village. I had spent two days learning the sword from Mjoll and other guards. I also got to know some of the people I was marching with. That was a mistake though. I should have thought that we wouldn't make it out alive but I wanted to think that we had a chance. I was terribly wrong.