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Skyrim: Blood of Dragon Ch 5 Pt 1

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Thales

       She followed Hadvar on a road snaking down the hill from the cave. The path was constantly downhill with mostly large boulders and large patches of grass along either side of the path. A few trees as well as a few fallen ones scarcely scattered the area, but the trees were just numerous enough and just tall enough to prevent the two Nords from seeing what's at the bottom of the hill or what lied in the vast distance ahead. Grass, weeds, and various flowers grew alongside the dirt path and while Thales knew little about herbology, she recognized the mountain flowers that thrived nearly everywhere in Skyrim. She saw mostly blue and red mountain flowers down this path.
       The path curved to the left. At this curve, the ground just to the left of the path was higher than the declining path. This created a wall of dirt along the path. The roots of trees webbed the wall of dirt and sometimes poked out. The roots looked like thick brown veins in Thales's eyes. Hadvar suggested out of the blue, "You should think about heading up to Solitude and helping us fight off the rebellion. You'd be a great asset to the Empire and if the Rebellion didn't exist, you wouldn't have been captured and wrongfully accused."
       "If the Rebellion didn't exist, a great many of things wouldn't have happened."
Hadvar must have sensed the frustration in her grumbling voice, because he said, "I sense some hatred for the Stormcloaks."
       "There would be more hatred for them in my brother's heart, but yes, their troublemaking and their ignorant beliefs had caused my brother and me to no longer bare Windhelm. We had to leave our home behind. There was just too painful of a memory there."
       "Then I will not ask about it, but when you find your brother, you should both join the Imperial Legion. Skyrim will not heal until the Stormcloaks are stopped. And if Ulfric has a dragon, then only General Tullius will be able to put an end to it."
       "I don't think that dragon is on Ulfric's side. It didn't care who it killed. It's arrival may have caused the Stormcloaks to escape, but I believe that is just a coincidence."
       "I hope you're right, Thales."
       "And if I happen to be wrong, what makes you think General Tullius will know what to do about a dragon? I always thought dragons were just myths, old stories just meant to frighten children. How is anyone supposed to know how to stop such beasts when no living person has faced one until now?"
       "I don't know, but we can't loose our hope in General Tullius. He's our hope in stopping this civil war."
       A few moments later, the trees grew denser on the right side of the path, but the rest opened up, allowing them to see a river far down below, the canyon the river resided in, and the large mountains across the canyon. One mountain was taller than all the rest. It was still a dwarf compared to the Throat of the World, but it was the largest mountain in this particular mountain range. Near the top of the mountain, between its two tallest peaks, a large temple-like structure was wedged. The entrance led into the mountain itself and looked just as massive as the mountain peaks. It looked black from this distance with several large pointed arches all down its length. Even from this great distance, Thales could tell this was an ancient Nord structure.
       "You see that ruin up there?" Hadvar pointed out. "Bleak Falls Barrow. I used to have nightmares about that place. As a child, I feared draugr coming down from the mountain in the middle of the night to steal away children." Hadvar shivered and sighed. "The place still gives me the creeps." Thales knew of draugr, but she had never seen one. They were the mummified remains of ancient Nords that were said could come back to life in order to protect the large ancient catacombs and the treasures that might be inside. She believed them to be just stories, but dragons were supposed to be myth as well.
       The path turned sharply to the left and declined against the side of the mountain halfway down before turning all the way around and going down the rest of the way in the opposite direction. This felt like a real mountain road to Thales with a rocky wall on one side and nothing but a shear drop to the rocky shores of the river below. Before reaching the second half of the cliff side road, the end of the first half of the road led to a platform with three stones crowning the platform. The stones were thicker towards the bottom while thinning out at the top, like a dull and more rounded tip of a stone arrowhead. At their widest, the stones were easily too times as wide as a man. They were also as thick and tall as most men. Each stone had a carving in the front of them and a hole just above those carvings. The holes were cut clean through the thick stones.
       "Those are the Guardian Stones. They are said to contain powers and protections to those who seek them out. Go ahead and touch one if them."
       Thales stepped onto the platform. Thick brown roots covered the stone platform like a creeping cluster. The three stones had a different constellation carved in them. To the left was the Thief cloaked in a hood and cape wielding two daggers and looking light on his toes. The stone in front had the Mage carved into it. He looked old with a long beard down to his chest and hair down to his back. One hand grasped a staff while the other reached out palm first as if he were casting a spell. But the stone to Thales's right captured her attention. The Warrior stood proud on his stone wearing his heavy armor, a horned helmet, and wielding a sword and shield. He too had a beard, but not as grand as the Mage. The Warrior looked like he could be any number of Skyrim Nord Thales had seen.
       She touched the Warrior Stone. An orb of bluish white filled the hole above the carving before a thin pillar of light shot into the sky. Bright white dots lit up on the Warrior like the very stars in the constellation. Thales backed away from the Stone and looked to Hadvar, but it seemed that this was a normal occurrence to him. "Warrior, good! I knew you shouldn't have been on that cart the minute I laid eyes in you."
       They traveled down the declining path. It eventually flattened out once they were away from the mountain they came from, but mountains still towered over them all around. To the left was the river and to the right was a small with many uneven land-like plates jutting out of the ground and bordered with mountains. "I'm glad you decided to come with me. It's not much further now."
       Within five minutes of Hadvar saying that, the western wall could be seen. The stone wall stood two and a half stories high with only a single archer on top. The two passed under the open archway, stepping right into the village. The dirt road of the village had two houses on the right of it: one of the houses was a one story home while the other was two stories since it was also a shop on the ground floor. A wooden planked bridge as flat as a dock stretched over a skinny part of the river on the left side. This bridge led to an island where the lumber mill was stationed. Also on the left of the road was the blacksmith and his home. If one were to continue down the dirt road, they would reach a four way intersection in the center of the village with the left leading to another bridge to the lumber mill and the right leading to more houses in the village. Continuing forward through the intersection would lead outside the village with a tavern on the right of the road just before reaching the outskirts. But Hadvar and Thales did not walk to the intersection; instead, they approached the blacksmith's home. As they passed the first house on the right, Thales overheard an old woman speaking with what appeared to be her grown son. "What is it now, Mother?" the son asked with a sigh of annoyance.
       "A dragon! I saw a dragon!" The old woman sat in a chair on the porch right next to a tanning rack.
       The son stood at the steps of the porch. "Seeing things again?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
       "No! I saw a real dragon! It was as black as night and as big as a mountain and flew over the barrows!"
       "I'm not falling for one of your stories, Mother."
       "You'll see! It was a dragon! It will kill is all and then you will believe me!"
       The young man shrugged it off and walked away. Thales wanted to tell the man what she saw and tell him his mother must have seen the dragon that attacked Helgen and caused so much death and destruction in its wake. But then she realized he would have no reason to believe her. Even though she was a Nord, Thales was a stranger in this part of Skyrim. Who would believe a stranger telling them a dragon from myth was alive and attacking fortresses and villages? The only way he would believe her was if he saw the dragon for himself or saw the destruction of Helgen. And if he did happen to believe her, what good would it do? It would only start a panic and for what? Thales saw the dragon fly over Bleak Falls Barrow just like the old woman which meant the dragon flew away from Riverwood. It would more likely be heading for Whiterun rather than this small village on the other side of the mountain.
       Hadvar walked up to the blacksmith's side porch where his forge was stationed. The blacksmith was pounding out some steel armor on the workbench, creating loud clanking sounds when his hammer met the steel. He was built perfectly for his craft: a large upper body with a wide chest and trunks for arms. He wore a red shirt with his sleeves rolled up, dark brown pants, and a long black apron. He had medium length light brown hair (sandy blonde, actually) and a similar colored beard that was thick but not long enough to go past his neck.
       Hadvar walked up the two steps onto the porch and called out over the pounding, "Uncle Alvor, hello!"
       The blacksmith paused his work and looked over. Alvor didn't look old enough to be the uncle for a man in his mid twenties, at the least. He looked like he was only ten years older than Hadvar, but the blacksmith could just be that fit. "Hadvar, what are you doing here? Are you on leave for-" Alvor approached the steps, but stopped when he got a look at Hadvar. "What happened to you, boy? Are you in some kind of troub-"
       "Shhh, keep your voice down. We should go inside to talk," Hadvar interrupted.
       Alvor turned his head to Thales as if noticing her for the first time. The confusion written on his face made her feel as though she appeared out of thin air beside Hadvar. That's the kind of look she received. "Who is this?"
       "She's a friend. She saved my life, in fact."
       "My name is Thales," she informed Alvor with a slight bow of the head.
       "Come now, we should get inside," Hadvar suggested.
       Alvor nodded. "Alight, alright, come inside. Sigrid will get you something to eat, and then you can tell me everything." Hadvar and Thales followed the man into his home. The home was one room like most homes and quite crowded. There was one double bed with its head against the wall to the right and a single bed with it's head against the wall directly in front of the entrance. A fireplace was to the left of the single bed and directly to their left along the wall with the entrance and across from the fireplace was the table. On the far left of the home, Thales saw a wooden railing and stairs leading down into a basement. A small dresser and nightstand were near each bed and each bed had a chest at the foot of them as well. A large shelf filled with many ingredients and preserved foods stood between the table and the railing. Swords and shields hung on the walls around the fireplace. "Sigrid, we have company!" Alvor called out.
       Thales heard footfalls coming up the stairs as soon as the blacksmith called out and sure enough, a woman came up from those stairs. The woman looked closer to Hadvar and Thales's age (even though Alvor still looked quite young to be an uncle to a grown man). Her hair was brown and parted in the middle, but the hair was still combed back behind her ears. She had a tall and slim figure with very pale skin. She wore a grey dress with sleeves that she rolled up to her elbows and a brown leather apron the same color as her boots. "Hadvar, we've been so worried about you." Sigrid hugged her nephew. When she pulled away from him, she continued, "You two must be hungry. Sit down and I'll get you something to eat." Hadvar sat in the seat closest to the door while Alvor took the one along the wall, leaving Thales with the chair close to the stairs. Sigrid started cooking up some stew for the three of them.
       "Now then, boy, what's the mystery? Why are you here and why do you look like you lost an argument with a cave bear?" Alvor asked.
       Hadvar took a sip of some wine on the table before replying, "I don't know where to start. You know I was assigned to General Tullius. We stopped in Helgen when a dragon attacked."
       "A Dragon? That's ridiculous." Alvor looked from Hadvar to Thales and then back to Hadvar, trying to decipher if this was all a joke. "You're not drunk, are you, boy?"
       As Sigrid scooped out some stew into a bowl, she scolded her husband, "Alvor, let him finish his story." She took two bowls and brought them to the table, one for Thales and one for Hadvar. Thales started eating first, having not eaten for a few days during her capture. She figured Hadvar could tell the whole story.
       "Not much more to tell," Hadvar continued. "This dragon just flew over and wrecked the whole place, mass confusion. I don't know if anyone else got out alive. I doubt I would have made it without Thales. I need to get back to Solitude and let them know what's happened. I thought you could help us out: food, equipment, and a place to stay."
       Alvor nodded. "Of course, any friend of Hadvar's is a friend of mine." Alvor looked to Thales who was lifting the bowl of stew now to slurp up the broth. "I'm glad to help anyway I can, but I need your help with something, we need your help. If there is really a dragon on the loose, then Jarl Balgruuf needs to hear about it. He needs to know that if a dragon attacks, Riverwood is defenseless. Can you travel to Whiterun and tell the Jarl what you saw at Helgen?"
       "I'm sorry, but I need to find my brother and-"
       "It's not a far journey; you could reach the hold before nightfall. Please, only you or my nephew can tell what happened in Helgen, but Hadvar isn't fit to travel yet."
Hadvar interrupted, "I can travel if I-" He tried to stand, but he collapsed back into the chair.
       "Please, just rest, boy."
       Thales sighed. It seemed that finding her brother will have to wait still.
Here is the fifth chapter of my Skyrim fan fiction. It will be split into two again.


The First Chapter: <da:thumb id="409173414">


Previous Chapter: Skyrim: Blood of Dragon Ch 4 Pt 2

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Rhys1010's avatar
Oh, going to Whiterun. The quest has just begun, and the treasure is going to follow the pair.