This managed to take less time than I expected, but longer than I'd hoped for to finish... Well, let me know if you like this! I'm having fun doing this. Maybe with this I'll actually be motivated to finish the game without getting too sidetracked, for once...
Disclaimer: Skyrim is Bethesda's! Not mine!
Chapter 2: Save the Drama for When the Giant Lizard is Gone!
Halfdan would never claim to be fearless.
In fact, he was a firm believer in the thought that those who feared nothing were the true fools in life. All people, man or mer, feared something. Some feared more than others, of course, but fear was a natural part of life, no matter the race or species.
However, despite all of the fearsome things that he had encountered in his twenty-five years of life, Halfdan had never found himself so utterly petrified as when he gazed into the glowing red gaze of the dragon that had just descended upon Helgen. Its sharp black scales glinted menacingly, like obsidian, or ebony ingots.
How was this possible? Dragons were supposed to have long been dead! All the dragon burial mounds around Skyrim could tell that story.
And yet, there was no denying that there was a living dragon, here in the flesh.
Screams filled the darkened air, both in fear and in battle cry. In this chaos, arrows started to fly through the dust and debris. The smell of burning wood, hair, and flesh started to fill his nose, making him gag at the horrific stench. Everything was happening too fast. It was too loud. Halfdan's mind was moving both too fast and too slow to process the situation, and in his panicked state his limbs froze, unsure of what to do.
The cry from the dragon sent him tumbling away from the chopping block. His arms couldn't even flail uselessly in their tied state, and he fell to the ground, tripping over a stray stone. His face quickly met dirt, and he groaned in pain as more sharp rocks dug into his arm and sides.
That bit of pain managed to stun him into enough awareness for him to start pushing himself off the ground, but he was interrupted as a hand grabbed onto his bindings and jerked him harshly to his feet. The person, who he quickly realized was Valen due to the pointy ears and the half-shaven mess of hair flying wildly behind her as it fell from her quickly loosening braid, was sending him a look of urgency as she pulled him along into a mad dash towards... somewhere.
She was no longer smirking cheekily, with eyes glinting in amusement at their dark situation. Her expression was serious and somewhat alarmed. It looked quite out of place on her features.
"We need to move!" She exclaimed as she ran, her head swiveling as she tried to figure out the best way to go while keeping an eye out for the dragon flying around overhead, "And maybe hide!"
Halfdan stumbled over an uneven patch of dirt, but thankfully managed to stay on his feet as he let the woman pull him by his binds. Though, now that he was paying attention, he realized that she had somehow gotten out of her own ropes.
How had that happened? Did she cut them on a sharp rock?
Suddenly, he heard someone else cry out to them, this time male. "This way! To the Tower!" A flash of blond in Halfdan's periphery showed it was Ralof sending an urgent 'get over here' gesture to them as he dashed to the Helgen Watchtower with a few of his Stormcloak companions, who were following after a now unbound Ulfric Stormcloak.
Valen also clearly heard the cry, for she quickly shifted direction towards the building. The duo passed the entrance right before a beam of fire passed by, and Halfdan winced at the intensity of the heat radiating from the flames.
Beside him, Valen was catching her breath, and Ralof, looking quite shaken, turned to Ulfric and asked, "Jarl Ulfric, what... what was that thing? Could the legends be true?!"
The Jarl's face was weary as he responded. "Legends don't don't burn down villages."
He had a point, Halfdan thought before another tug on his bindings brought his attention back to Valen, who quickly severed the ropes with a dagger that he hadn't noticed before.
"Where did you-" he started to ask before the Bosmer woman interrupted him with the answer to his unfinished question, likely expecting it.
"Got it off a dead guard earlier. s'Not like he'll need it." She tucked the weapon back into the rope that held up the ragged trousers of her prisoner uniform and turned her attention to the group of Stormcloaks moving steadily up the tower steps. "We should follow them. Safety in numbers, and all that."
Halfdan nods in agreement before he followed her again, taking the steps two at a time to catch up with the party.
BOOM!
The wall before them was suddenly blown inward, the snout of the dragon sitting dangerously close to the group.
"FUCK! DUCK!"
Halfdan had no clue who shouted that, but he wasn't about to dally around and find out.
He ducked.
The duo barely moved in time to avoid the worst of the fire, but Halfdan still found himself blinded momentarily by the heat and the flames. He heard Valen curse, and he saw the ends of her hair had caught fire. She quickly took the dagger and chopped off her braid with a, "Damn lizard." muttered under her breath as she dropped the hair to the ground and hurriedly stomped out the fire.
Thankfully the flames quickly receded and the dragon flew away to find new, easier to reach targets. The group gathered around the new hole in the wall, and Ralof turned to Halfdan and Valen, "Looks like jumping down to that inn's our best bet. We have some injured, so you two go ahead. We'll catch up."
Valen nodded, and without any extra fanfare, hopped nimbly from the hole in the wall. She landed on the second floor of the inn in a graceful roll and looked back at them. "It's stable!" she called back. Then, she ran and hopped down to the lower floor, disappearing from sight.
Halfdan took a breath and steeled his resolve.
Jumping from a high tower was not on his list of things he thought he'd do in life. Then again, getting arrested then attacked by a bloody dragon weren't on his list, either, so he steeled his resolve and jumped. His leap and landing were far from pretty, especially compared to his companion's. His roll felt more like a belly flop onto his head, and he was pretty sure he'd hit his leg on something because every following move sent a twinge of pain through his right ankle. However, he grit his teeth and got up as quickly as he could, following the trail that Valen went down.
He could no longer spot her anywhere, so apparently from here, he was on his own.
And so he stumbled on, sticking close to the wall and in the shadows in an attempt to remain unseen by the dragon. Hopefully he'd be able to find a hole in the wall he could escape through, or something similar. What was important now was getting out of here.
He heard cries of terror and rage in the air as he moved, the flapping of giant wings echoed in his head, and the heat of the flames that could be found everywhere in the ruined settlement warmed his skin to uncomfortable levels.
Soon he had to separate from the wall, his passage being blocked by burning debris. He made his way cautiously into the light, praying to remain unspotted by giant flying murder beasts.
Luckily he was only spotted by a guard, who he recognized as the one with the list who'd inquired about his identity. What was his name? It started with H...
"Stick with me, prisoner! Be careful!" the man exclaimed, and Halfdan, realizing his lack of options, followed him.
He followed the man through a few more buildings and piles of debris, and past a few more people, civilians, guards, and prisoners, all in various stages of aliveness.
One of them was a young boy, he noticed, and Halfdan prayed softly to Talos that at the very least, the child would make it out.
Anyway, eventually, they made it to the Keep, and Halfdan became aware of Ralof once again making an appearance, this time armed with a blade he'd likely gotten off a guard's corpse somewhere. He was confronting the man with the list, who Halfdan finally remembered was named Hadvar, and while Halfdan wasn't particularly invested in the spat that followed their encounter, he noted there was definitely a grudge between the two as he decided to move past them into one of the doors to the Keep.
Finally feeling like he could catch his breath again, Halfdan bent over, palms catching themselves on his knees as he attempted to steady his wheezing breaths.
Looking around, he noticed a pair of fresh corpses. They were Stormcloaks, and they seemed to have bled out shortly after they got here. Halfdan winced. He'd been lucky. The only injury he'd sustained beyond a few scratches and burns from debris was his ankle, which was throbbing quite noticeably now. He'd likely sprained or fractured it.
Anyway, he approached the bodies with a sigh, and started removing the armor and axe from the man's corpse. He wasn't going to need it anymore, after all.
With that, settled, he changed as quickly as he could out of his ragged prisoner garb and started looking around for anything that could help him escape.
He didn't get far, though. Because moments later Halfdan heard the door open once again, and he glanced over to see Ralof staring at him in surprise.
"You made it. That is good." The blond man looked relieved. "Halfdan, right? Are you injured at all? Where's that elf lady that was with you?"
Halfdan shrugged. "I'm alright. Ankle's hurt, but otherwise I'm a lot luckier than most. As for Valen, I lost track of her after we jumped from the tower."
"I see." Ralof sighed. "I got separated from my comrades soon after we parted, as well. We'd managed to find a collapsed spot in the outer wall, but the dragon cut off the last of us before we could get more out... I was the only one of that last bunch who managed to avoid the flames. At least Jarl Ulfric was able to escape in time..."
That was news. Halfdan wondered if any others had managed to escape. He wouldn't be surprised if the Imperial guards and Thalmor had managed to get out. He hadn't seen all that many of their bodies laying about.
Anyway, at least he wasn't stuck here alone. He looked back to Ralof, who was kneeling by the dead bodies and seemed to be taking a moment to grieve the two fallen Stormcloaks. Halfdan hoped the man wasn't upset that Halfdan had taken his friend's clothes...
At the very least, if the man was upset, he didn't state it aloud. He just stood and turned back to Halfdan, his expression a calm sort of serious, even as his red-rimmed eyes spoke a message of grief.
"We should find a way out of here." The man stated. "You arrived before me, Halfdan. Did you see any passages?"
"Aside from the way you just came through, the only way out I could see was that gate over there." Halfdan pointed towards a bared off hallway. "The only functioning mechanism to open it is on the other side, though."
Ralof cursed under his breath. "So we are stranded, then?"
"It appears s-. Wait. Did you hear that?"
"Yes." Ralof nodded, turning towards the source of the noise. "It came from the hallway..."
That meant someone else may have gotten to safety, Halfdan realized. And they may be able to help them!
The duo waited with baited breath as the noise, which they now realized were footsteps, came closer, and closer, until...
"Ah! It's you two."
Halfdan blinked in shock at the sight before him.
"Valen!" He exclaimed. "You're alive!"
In fact, she looked better than just 'alive'. She, like him, had managed to get out of her prisoner garb, and was now dressed in some light armor that matched that of the Imperial guards. A hunting bow and a quiver with a handful of arrows were also slung over her shoulder, and that dagger she'd gotten earlier was now tucked into her much sturdier leather belt.
The Bosmeri woman huffed, seemingly amused by this response. "It appears I am. I'm more surprised you made it. No offense, but you're not particularly fast, Red."
Halfdan tried not to let that sting too much. The woman had already shown her ability to get around was superior to his, so it's not like she was saying this purely out of arrogance. He did kind of wish she'd kept the thought inside her head, though.
Anyway, he was still relieved to see another familiar face, and he couldn't stop himself from grinning. "You think you could pull that mechanism on your right? The one on our side must have broken at some point."
She did so, and they quickly joined her in the passage way.
"So," Ralof began, looking the woman up and down in curiosity, "How'd you get armor in such good condition?"
He did have a point, Halfdan realized. His armor had holes where the previous owner had been wounded, and Ralof's was also torn and filthy from the latest events.
On the other hand, Valen's armor was perfectly clean. It had clearly been worn before, but there were no holes, blood, or damaged bits, meaning she likely hadn't looted it from a guard...
She just shrugged nonchalantly. "I got in through the barracks. There were some Imperial uniforms layin' about, and I was not about to go around in those awful rags if I didn't have to."
Halfdan felt that was a fair enough argument. Those rags were awfully scratchy in all the worst spots. He was not particularly fond of the Imperials, but he'd take their armor over that itchy torture any day.
Something else seemed to have caught Ralof's attention, though, because he was suddenly looking a lot more aggressive, unsheathing his sword and turning towards one of the entrances, "Show yourself!" he barked.
Halfdan was surprised to see a rather annoyed-looking Hadvar step out from beside the entrance moments later. He was staring at the blade, a hand resting on his own hilt warily. "You know, there are much calmer ways to phrase that demand, old friend." the man snipped, "A 'please', for one, would have been nice."
"I don't do 'nice' with traitors like you." Ralof snarled, looking ready to bite other man's head off.
Realizing this was likely about to get violent, Halfdan readied his axe, but refrained from striking for the moment, not wanting to strike the first blow in a situation he didn't even understand.
Thankfully, things weren't able to get much further, because Valen suddenly stepped between the two men, looking rather irritated by the current interaction.
"Woah! Woah!" Valen snapped, "How about we not shed anymore blood today, huh?"
Ralof looked offended at her, "You're taking that Imperial Bastard's side?"
"I'm taking nobody's side!" she responded, "Sides shouldn't matter right now! Right now, what matters is surviving and getting out of here."
Ralof looked ready to protest, but Valen cut him off, "You saw that damn dragon. Do you think it cares if we're Stormcloak or Imperial? No. There were dead on both sides, and we will likely join them if we don't get moving! So how about we put aside our differences like big boys and prioritize our survival for however long it takes to get out of Helgen? I don't care if you start fighting each other immediately afterwards, but right now, working together is in all of our best interests. You can't serve a cause if you're dead, am I right?"
"She makes a good argument." Hadvar spoke up. "I, for one, would rather not have to fight unless necessary right now."
Ralof's jaw was tense, but he didn't give an immediate no. He seemed to realize that Valen did have a point, but his pride was keeping him from admitting it. So, his gaze turned to Halfdan, and he asked, "What do you think?"
Halfdan already knew his answer. There had been enough bloodshed today from the dragon. There was no need to add more. "I don't like the thought of working with one of the people who arrested me anymore than you do." he began, "But Valen is right."
The blond man sighed, and the slight slump of his shoulders showed he'd admitted defeat.
"Very well." He said, "I don't like it, but I seem to be outvoted."
Valen nodded, "Glad we've come to an agreement, then. Now, did you two see any other passages?"
"Just this one." Halfdan gestured to the passageway they were in. "You?"
"It's the same for us." Hadvar responded. "Only other ways out seem to lead right back to the dragon."
It looks like they found their path then, Halfdan thought. That was easy.
Hopefully this path actually leads somewhere...
And that's chapter 2. Let me know what you think! Next chapter I'm planning on covering the rest of the Unbound quest period, so let's see how this goes!
Thank you for reading, stay safe and healthy, and have a great day!