Skyrim
A Tale of Two Souls
Chapter 2
Looking up from leaning against general Tullius, Alex looking at a stack of papers smiles then says,
"So be it, we have our first course charge, lets make it so Sara,"
She nods looking up at him as he read the final piece of paper which reads ‘the damn vote is over! get the story back on the road!’ signed by lone wolf. He laughs for a moment then says setting the papers on fire,
“Alright lets get things going shall we”
Leaving Tullius behind, but not before flicking his nose, he then wanders back past the arch to find Usshin and Ne’Ma still frozen in time as both the stormcloak and the Imperial ran to different doors of the barracks and tower. Looking over the cat and the young argonian, he nods then holds his hands out which start emitting strange waves of energy, after which he begins moving his hands around, first vertically then in a circle then finally clapping his hands together which makes a shockwave ripple across the world. He then says taking a step back to his counterpart,
“Alright, let them go.”
She nods and with a flick of the wrist snaps the fingers on both hands, both then instantly vanishing in a puff of white mist. Color returns to the world and once again the panic and chaos of the dragon’s attack fills the area Usshin looking to both the Imperial and the Stormcloak who both call from different entrances on the barracks and keep. Taking Ne’Ma’s hand, he leads her to the Imperial in the leather armor waiting for them at the barracks; at that moment however one of the flaming boulders strangely impacts the ground near the entrance to the keep itself, most certainly Rolaf was killed by the impact. Nodding for a moment Usshin looks over to Hadvar who says,
“come on now, there’s no helping him anymore, lets get inside before we join him.”
Usshin nods and follows the man into the building then slamming the door shut behind them. Once inside an uneasy calm fills the room, the chaos and mayhem of the dragon attack was almost unnoticed inside of the building say for a few nearby impacts and explosions from the boulders falling from the sky. Walking over to a table to the right hand side of the door, Hadvar slumps over said table for a few moments trying to catch his breath, then says,
“we. . . We made it.”
Standing upright he then turns to the cat and asks as he approaches,
“do you really think that was a dragon, one of the bringers of the end time, like in the children’s stories??”
Usshin says stepping in front of Ne’Ma who begins fiddling with her tail,
“well, I’m no expert but it sure seems like it, if not then that was the greatest amount of illusion magic I’ve ever seen.”
Hadvar turns away back to the desk he was near and grabs a few items one being a dagger, he then says looking for anything on the table that could help,
“we have to get out of here, not even the divines could help us if that dragon smashed the roof in over our heads.”
He picks up a key from out of one of the desk’s cubby holes, then says as he begins to turn,
“lets get you out of that stuff shall we, won’t be of much help all chained up like that.”
He turns and hears several metal clangs against the floor, looking at the cat who has a lock pick in hand, who was picking open the lock on the collar clamping down on his neck; which with little effort comes undone and unlocks freeing his neck. Hadvar then says as he looks on a little dumbfounded,
“or you could do that.”
Usshin smiles then tosses the collar, he then takes a deep breath in, the very air chilling to the point that their breaths could be seen freezing, he then exhales and the room heats instantly to an almost unbearable degree, then as the cat relaxes and Hadvar says,
“so looks like the reports weren’t full of fluff after all, you are a very powerful mage, do me a favor, try not to kill me please.”
Usshin grins then nods, looking on as Hadvar approaches one
of the many chest in front of several beds along the far wall, saying as he did,
“well lets see if we can find some gear for you my friend, I’m sure you want to get out of those rags.”
Usshin nods following after the man who lifts open a chest, empty, he then says checking the next one,
“I’ll check this one, why don’t you check the one over there, should be something in here.”
Usshin nods and walks over to one of the chest near the fall wall, upon opening it he finds a set of leather armor, standard style for imperial troops, however a look of disgust fills his face and after a moment of looking over the piece of chest armor, he tosses it back into the chest. Hadvar walks over to them then says,
“oh found something have you, I knew there was at the very least one kit in here.”
Usshin then says in a quick reaction,
“I detest leather, I hate the way it feels on my fur, I don’t suppose you have my robes in here.”
Hadvar shakes his head no then says looking to the cat,
“afraid not, quite frankly I have no clue what they did with any of the gear you two had, perhaps once we get out of here we’ll find some of it.”
He stops for a moment then says, clearly having remembered something,
“I might have something for the little one to wear though, one second let me go grab it.”
He walks over to a lock box of some kind and pulls out a faded pink dress, far to long and big for Ne’Ma but that could be remedied, Hadvar then walking back over says with a chuckle,
“this was the end result of a bad bet that which in itself was the result of a bad joke; one of the lieutenants stationed here was wearing this when general Tullius and his personal guard, including yours truly, came in a few days ago. Apparently he lost a bet and had to go on with his watch duties wearing this dress in the place of his armor, needless to say the general was not amused.”
Usshin nods taking it from the human with a nod then holding it up to Ne’Ma, it was far to big for her but with a few items it would make do. First thing he did was ask for Hadvar’s knife, which after getting he used to cut the dress shorting its length to just enough for Ne’Ma’s height about just above the knee. Turning back to the leather in the chest he removes a few belts from the armor intent on using it to help her keep it on her. Then taking a pair of boots and tearing them up a bit, using some other bits and odds to fashion some booties for her to wear. He then says turning to Ne’Ma as he finished his preparations,
“there we go, I doubt it will be this months latest fashion in the imperial city, but it will do till we can get you a proper outfit.”
Ne’Ma nods in agreement then begins slipping out of the rags she wore, Hadvar turning and saying,
“I’ll just go over here, there is a key we’ll need.”
He walks away as Ne’Ma disrobes to which Usshin says,
“thank you for being a gentlemen, clearly not all of the imperials troops are scum.”
Hadvar acknowledges him from across the room as Usshin helps Ne’Ma out of what could hardly be called clothing, which he then tosses away. Taking a quick look over her, he notices several bruises covering her body, and her knee which was still bleeding. He says looking over his shoulder for a moment,
“Is this how the empire deals with children!? She covered in bruises and her knee is bleeding.”
Hadvar says from the other side of the room,
“I do apologize for that my friend, clearly the men were more on edge then I first thought. I hope she isn’t badly hurt.”
Usshin turns back to Ne’Ma, a warm glow filling his hands before saying,
“Nothing I can’t fix.”
He goes about mending the bruises on her body, first the ones on her face, then on her chest and stomach, finally mending her knee, not before taking a lick to partially to clean off the area, but most likely because he wanted a snack something to tide him over; his hands sliding over her supple frame once again with practiced ease to make sure he didn’t miss anything; quickly mending missed bruises along the inner side of her left thigh which she winces at when touched. After finally finishing, she smiles, clearly feeling a lot better and gives him a quick kiss before he says,
“ok now lets get some clothes on you before you catch a cold.”
She nods and slips the dress on over her lithe body, Usshin putting the belt around her waist and another across her left shoulder going down to her waistline and then helping her slip on the makeshift booties. Once again she smiles, then gives him a hug, but as she turns, her tail lifts her newly made dress a little, showing off her rump and the hint of her young reptilian womanhood; Usshin quickly lowers her dress then says picking her up,
“Ne’Ma, watch your tail, you’re not wearing underwear right now after all, lets not flash anyone shall we.”
She nods and then slides down out of his arms, clearly fighting the urge to jump off of the cats shoulders, Hadvar then saying as he walked back over with a key in hand,
“ok lets get going shall we, we have to get out of this town before that dragon brings the whole thing down around us, oh and here.”
He hands Usshin a weapon, a simple iron sword, he says,
“better then nothing right?”
Usshin nods and ties the belt and scabbard around his waist, then after doing so follows the imperial though a gate which he raises with a pull chain on the wall. Walking down a short corridor then coming to yet another gate, Usshin finding himself wondering why they didn’t just use doors in the first place, but the sound of chatter from the next room sets his thoughts straight. Hadvar whispers to Usshin,
“you hear that, Stormcloaks, perhaps we can reason with them.”
He opens the gate which makes the next room fall silent, Usshin then looks to Ne’Ma who nods and closes her eyes and covers her ears and stays put as Usshin and Hadvar walk into the room and are met with a large ax hitting the floor, just barely missing Hadvar. Hadvar draws his sword to parry a strike from the second nord, a woman wielding a sword and shield; Usshin grabs a hold of the ax the first nord had swung, and gashes open his shoulder with his claws. He manages to shove the nord into a wall then introduces him to one of his favorite love hate elements fire, in the form of a jet of flames emitting from his hand. The nord pinned against the wall screams in pain for a few moments before Usshin shoves his sword through the mans chest, bringing the nord to a bloody end. Looking over to Hadvar, the man parries another strike from the woman with the sword and shield as she tries to get the upper hand on him; a sharp whistle catching both of them off guard for a moment till Hadvar feels the room heat up then doges to his left narrowly avoiding a fireball which the woman tries to block with her shield, only succeeding in burning her only protection; to which she goes on to toss it away to avoid burning herself, however a blade meets with her neck, Hadvar driving his sword through the throat of the distracted woman who then falls dead. Hadvar stops for a moment wiping the blood off of his blade then saying,
“was hoping it wouldn’t come to that, but better them then us right?”
Usshin nods in agreement, then cleaning off his own blade before fetching Ne’Ma and carrying her back over saying as he did,
“mindless beast and such are one thing but she is to young to see death like this, lets carry on before she sees anything.”
Hadvar nods and retrieves the key from his pocket and unlocking the next door and leading the way. Halfway down the staircase Usshin finally sets Ne’Ma down, she sighs and walks along next to her papa who takes her hand and smiles at her then saying as they approached the landing of the flight of stairs,
“Don’t worry sweetheart, has your papa ever let anyone hurt you before?”
She shakes her head no then relaxes a little as they turn the corner to a long corridor. They only take a few steps before a large section of the roof caves in under the roar of the dragon overhead, Hadvar then saying as the group recovers,
“damn, that dragon doesn’t give up easily, we need to get out of here before the next cave in takes us with it.’
Usshin nods and follows the Imperial into a room off to the left hoping to bypass the now blocked corridor, once inside someone says, clearly stormcloak,
“one second, these Imperials keep potions in this room, we might need them.”
A second man says before griping his weapon,
“well just hurry up, I don’t want to get left behind.”
Usshin sighs then looking at Ne’Ma who has already closed her eyes, and nodding to the man beside him who already knew this was going to be yet another fight, to which he grips his sword and follows the cat in. One of the nords say as he opens the barrel,
“a few good items in here, we’ll need this stuff if anyone is hurt later on.”
Their conversation is cut short as a few bolts of flames rocket toward the men who try to evade the magic, one man dropping to the floor the other using the barrel lid to protect himself, but then quickly grab their weapons just in time to see Hadvar’s sword just about cut into the second man’s face, the first knocking his sword from Hadvar’s hand. Hadvar balls up his fist and slugs the stormcloak in the gut hard enough to make him double over giving him a moment to grab up his sword; he is caught off guard as a keenly placed lighting bolt slips just over his right shoulder and hitting the man about to run him through which throws him back a short distance and into the table behind him. The cat then grips his sword and rushes in stabbing the first stormcloak and pinning him to a wall, then joined by Hadvar who quickly cuts the mans throat. Looking over to the second stormcloak, the man was smoking a little bit, dead most likely, his heart undoubtedly stopped by the lighting bolt that tore through him.
Calling back to Ne’Ma the cat says once again cleaning off his blade,
“Ne’Ma come here.”
The young girl does just so and opening her eyes she starts to walk over to them, as she does Hadvar asks quietly to him,
“what about the bodies, thought you didn’t want her seeing death like this.”
The cat sighs then says,
“no choice, if she just stands in a corner with her eyes closed while we fight someone could kill her before we could do anything, there are just to many to fight here.”
The man nods then watches as the girl approached, he eyes opening wide as she set her eyes on her first truly dead bodies and the shape they were in. Usshin takes her hand then says,
“yes this is death sweetheart, remember it for if you’re not careful they’ll not think twice about ending you in the same way.”
The young lizard girl nods gripping tight her papa’s hand, the cat then walking over to the barrel the two stormcloaks had been getting into and notices there did seem to be a small stash of medical supplies both potions and more practical items like bandages and the like. He chooses to take them all and grabs a nearby sack to place them in, lacking any proper bags to hold them in, then looking to Hadvar, the man saying,
“we should get going, there still a dragon reeking havoc up there.”
The cat nods then follows after him with Ne’Ma in tow who had been poking one of the stormcloaks to make sure he was really dead and not playing possum. With the blockage of the cave in behind them Hadvar leads them down the way to where ever it was he was leading them, he slows as he says hiding a grimace,
“Torture chambers, gods I wish we didn’t need these things.”
Usshin lifts his brow, but moments after stepping foot down a stairwell the sounds of combat could be heard, metal on metal and the crackle of lighting magic, some imperials were fighting stormcloaks down there. Both ready their weapons and charge down the staircase and see indeed two imperials had been beset upon by a trio of stormcloaks. The hooded imperial blasting the stormcloaks with a spray of lighting that clearly lacked Usshin’s skill and power but still looked to hurt the nords as they were fighting the second armed with a mace and a wooden shield. They were managing to hold their ground against the trio of nords however weren’t gaining any ground either, if left like this it could easily turn either way with one lucky strike. Hadvar rushes in first and helps parry a strike the might have ended the hooded mans life, and begins to fight along side his fellow imperials. The cat however sighs then mutters under his breath,
“this is taking to long.”
He then cups his two hands and forms a small orb, then projects it toward the two groups, the second it does it starts sparking, lighting bolts arching toward anything metal with a single bolt arching back to the cat seeming to be a means to keep the orb charged but then looking to be more then just a simple source of mana as he gave it a tug, pulling it from the imperials. The imperials watch as they alongside the stormcloaks are struck with lighting however they were unharmed, the stormcloaks however were fired to a crisp the lighting clashing against anything metal on everyone near the orb. Moments after casting it, the cat yanks on the lighting bolt from his hand and shatters the orb, the three stormcloaks falling dead the moment their muscles unlocked. The hooded man claps his hands a little then says in a tone of voice that suggested he didn’t really care,
“you fellows showed up just in time, these boys here seemed upset at the way I had been entertaining their comrades.”
Looking around the room there was indeed a few cages with fresh bodies in them most of them stormcloaks. Hadvar states looking at the man,
“don’t you even know what’s going on, a dragon is attacking Helgen.”
The man scoffs then responds with,
“A dragon, please don’t make up such nonsense.”
However he stops then says walking near another pathway,
“however come to think of it I did hear some odd noises coming from over there.”
Walking over to the pathway stated by the hooded man Usshin clings tightly to Ne’Ma, not trusting this man any father then he could throw him, Hadvar saying as he looked to the man,
“Come with us, we need to get out of here”
The man responds with a tone of I don’t care to his words,
“you have no authority over me.”
Hadvar says clearly getting angered by the hooded man,
“didn’t you hear me? I said the keep is under attack”
Its then the second man a redguard still holding onto his mace and shield says,
“eh forget the old man, I’ll come with you.”
As they go on back and forth Ne’Ma has wandered away from her papa and was examining the cages which in one she found a dead mage and some gold coins which almost sparkled in her eyes; then calling her father over by tapping the bars Usshin asks,
“what did you find sweetheart?”
Wandering over he says,
“oh a mage, very much dead huh, but his robes could be of use to me.”
Usshin takes the lock pick he had used earlier and easily opens the lock on the cage, the old man then saying as the young lizard rushed in and grabbed up the coins,
“oh sure take all my things”
Usshin shoots him a quick glance then approaches the mage then says quietly,
“forgive me my friend, but I need your robes, I can only hope you can forgive me as I have nothing to put on you in return.”
He quickly undresses the man leaving him in nothing but his undergarments then picking up what looked to be a book only to find that it was just instructions for a very simple lighting based spell, something he had mastered centuries ago; tossing the book aside he then quickly changes into his borrowed robes, sliding the hood over his head, none of it had any of the powerful enchantments his personal robes had to protect him from the sun how ever it would at least be base to keep his face shaded. Taking the path suggested by the old man who then shouts from the last room,
“There is no way out back there.”
Ignoring him the group marches down the hall to another room, complete with cages filled with skeletal remains of people long dead and a large whole in the back wall leading to a large cavern covered in a makeshift grate. Looking to the cat Hadvar asks fiddling with the lock as he did,
“perhaps you can pick this lock open?”
Acting offended at his question Usshin says aloud,
“oh, because Usshin is a khajiit means suddenly Usshin can pick a lock?”
With a grin on his face the man says looking back at the cat in question,
“well you certainly got through all those locks and chains from before with ease.”
Rubbing the side of his nose he then says taking the lock pick from Ne’Ma,
“Ok, perhaps Usshin knows how to pick a lock, give me a second.”
Stepping forward, he quickly inserts the lock pick into the lock and within moments it comes undone swinging open and lading into a large cavern. Following the pathway into the cavern Hadvar says leading the way,
“come, this must go somewhere.”
Following the man with Ne’Ma and the second man in tow he leads the way into an old escape route out of the city, as empty as it was forgotten. With a sigh of relief as to enter a room and not kill anyone, the redguard says pointing across the way,
“this is an old escape route, it hasn’t been used in years though; there should be a way out across the way over there that leads out to the mountains.”
The other two nod the man then going on to say,
“you three go on a head, I’ll go back for the old man, make sure he’s ok.”
They nod watching as he went back to check on the mage in question, the group then moving on to the other side of the large room, Hadvar stopping Usshin as he was about to step in a large puddle of a slightly rain bowed colored liquid,
“careful friend, that’s oil right there, extremely flammable.”
Nodding the cat moves around it instructing the young argonian girl to do the same. They all look back to the entrance of the room where enter several stormcloaks, all armed to the teeth; Scooping up Ne’Ma the cat then says to the man,
“looks like its time to go friend.”
Nodding in agreement, the man makes a mad dash to the wooden draw bridge pulling on a lever, the old rusted platform then slowly working its way down. Looking back to the cat Hadvar calls out,
“buy some time this thing is older then I am.”
Nodding Usshin sets the girl down saying,
“go over there with Hadvar, when that bridge is down go across with or without me.”
She nods following his instructions as the cat got ready to face down the horde of angry nords, first firing a volley of fireballs and succeeding in hitting a few of them he then says drawing his sword,
“time for a change of tactics.”
Clenching tight his left hand the cat mutters a few words, his balled fist glowing black then unleashing the magic, tearing open a small demonic portal, forcing to enter two Daedra the two demonic humanoids then looking to the cat who barked out,
“you two, help me end these humans and be rewarded for your efforts.”
With grins on there faces the two demons clench their two handed swords and charge in, their supernatural strength easily overwhelming the humans they had been set loose upon. Setting his sword ablaze in fire then cat then joins the fight combining steel and magic in ways almost never heard of, using the tip of his blade to direct lighting directly into a torso, or freezing a man solid just having touched him. As the battle played out and one of the daedra slain by sheer numbers alone Hadvar shouts,
“Almost there Usshin, get over here!”
Nodding and watching as the second demon was overwhelmed by sheer numbers, Usshin jumps back a few times then eying the oil left on the ground then seeing the large pot it was dripping from, then quickly smashing with his blade and flooding the small pathway with oil. Backing away the cat then balls up a fist of fire and lets it loose in the oil, the large mess then going up in a roar of flames, forcing the nords to back away. Finally hearing the large wooden platform slam down into place the cat turns tail as large plums of smoke started to fill the large air tight room, but as the oil was finished burning away the flames started to die, leaving the cat one question, how to keep his party from being overwhelmed. Looking up and eying the old cave roof a grin took to his muzzle then working up some powerful magic started to blast away at the roof, slowly but surely making it give way and cave in. As the smoke and dust settled and the group was on the other side of the now completely caved in pathway Hadvar says with a chuckle,
“well now, they won’t be following us now.”
Looking forward, he then says looking to the cat and the very tired looking argonian girl,
“well then, perhaps we should find out way out of this cave, its bound to be getting late now.”
Almost as if on queue the young girl yawns and cuddles into her papa’s grip falling asleep in his arms.
As the group makes there way down, a sudden flash of white pulls attention away, the white cloaked fox saying as he looked up only a little,
“it took then some time, but then eventually did find their way out, I had decided to go ease on them, they did just clash with a dragon and that poor little girl was so tired, reminded me of my sister when she was that age.”
Looking down the pathway that the group had just ventured down the fox then states,
“yes it was about an hour and a half later that found their way to the village of riverwood, and with Hadvar’s help secured a place to sleep for the night, having been midnight when they dragged their feet into the town.”
Looking up once again the Fox goes on to say,
“what happens next however, is a story for another day.”
Vanishing into a cloud of white smoke the cave is then left empty and void of life like it was before the dragons rampage.
~Chapter End~
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