A changeling's visit to Skyrim

There was a great silence in Honorhall that day, as all eyes were on Fenora. The dragonborn made a subtle sneer at the decapitated head of Grelod hanging from her fingers by its dull grey hair.

While the old woman’s body started pooling blood on the floor, she calmly walked over to her speechless friends, and poor Constance, who was staring at her with trembling pinprick eyes.

“There… I did something.” Fenora said as she tossed the head to Constance “Something that was long overdue.”

Constance fumbled to catch the severed head, splattering herself with blood in the process. She drew breath erratically as she looked into the shocked expression, and the glazed over eyes of the mean old woman she’d tried so long to save from herself, even though Grelod deserved no such chance.

There was a long moment of utter stillness, save for the hitching in her throat.

And then all Oblivion broke loose.

Constance shrieked in pure terror, unbridled shock, and she scrambled backwards pointing at the unflinching elf responsible. “MURDER!” she screamed “You’re a murderer! Guards! Guards help!”

“Shit…” Fenora made to stop Constance as she ran for the door with a bloody head under her arm, but Luna and Stross stood in her way.

“Fenora, what the fuck?!” Stross was the first to protest, uncharacteristically swearing outright.

“Indeed!” Luna frowned “What in the name of fornication was that?! We more than many others understand the blasphemy in harming innocent children, but to so callously kill an old woman… right in front of them.” she moved over to the nearest child and hugged his head “What doth their impressionable young minds glean from this? They must be traumatized, horrified, scarred for li-”

“Grelod’s dead!” the boy shouted with glee.

“She’s dead!” he others echoed.

“Ding dong, the witch is dead! Which old witch? The wicked witch! Ding dong, the Wicked Witch is dead!” they began to dance and sing.

“They don’t seem too perturbed.” Fenora watched them. “Come on, let’s just get out of here already. I’ll get the next round of drinks.”

Luna looked to Stross as Fenora left them behind. “Go to her my changeling friend, I must rectify the situation here. And then, the two of us shall stage an intervention.”

“Okay.” Stross nodded slowly, his mind on other things at the moment. He opened the front door and left as the children began a chorus of “Thank you very much.”

Nearly the second he stepped outside though, Stross found an even worse situation to contend with. Fenora was facing down a densely packed phalanx of guards, Falmer in purple cloth with daggers up front, burly nords with axes behind. At their head was Jarl Laila with her housecarl, sheltering a frantic and very shaken Constance.

“That’s her! She’s the one that killed Grelod!” Constance pointed a finger.

“Is this true dragonborn?” Jarl Laila asked Fenora “Did you kill Grelod?”

“With my bare hands.” Fenora responded coolly, causing quite a few uneasy whispers amongst those present.

“Unacceptable.” Laila stated simply “Grelod was a cruel woman, everyone knew this. But I shall not tolerate murder in my city, so you’ll have to pay for your crime like everyone else.”

“You’re an idiot for trying to arrest me; I did you a favor. With the way she treated those kids, Grelod was no better than the bandits I kill on a regular basis, worse even! What’s more, you let her get away with it all this time!” Fenora flipped the blame over to Laila. “And to think you carry the title Law-Giver.”

“How dare you? I have done my best as a Jarl to my people! I have tried to bring proof of her abuse, and her affiliation with the Thieves’ Guild for years, but any documents of her loaning out the children for covert tasks were done away with! And even the confessions of the children meant nothing without solid evidence!” Laila defended.

“I see… so you’re just bad at your job.” Fenora stated.

Laila growled through clenched teeth “Take her to the dungeon immediately!” she ordered her guards.

“Fucking try it!” Fenora drew her newest weapon, Volendrung, with one hand while drawing her sword in her off hand and slowly sweeping its edge across the phalanx’s eye level “I dare you.”

None of the guards moved an inch in her direction.

“Fine! I shall deal with this matter myself!” Laila yelled in frustration, appropriating a sword from her housecarl and charging in.

But while she proved to be a semi-capable Jarl, a fighter she wasn’t. Fenora easily parried the blow, and kicked her to the ground while she prepared a killing blow with Volendrung, even as Galmar the Housecarl rushed to shield her with his own body.

“ENOUGH!” Stross roared, a wall of flames shooting up between the two parties, and they soon found their weapons relieved from their grasp.

“Stross, what-“

*SMACK!*

“Shut up!” he yelled at Fenora as she held her cheek in surprise “Go sit in the corner, and think about what you’ve done.”

The flaming bug then turned his attention to everyone else in turn. “Guardsmen, return to your posts. Former minions, keep being awesome. Jarl Laila, I’m sorry for the disturbance, but I must humbly demand that you back off and let me handle this… for your own safety of course. Go on now.”

They all looked to each other unsurely for a moment before taking Stross’s advise and leaving. With one crisis out of the way, Stross turned back to Fenora, who was still looking at him incredulously.

“Stross… you… I can’t believe- OW! Hey- ow! Stross my hair, that hurts! Quit it!”

Stross gave a sharp tug on the clump of Fenora’s hair he’d grabbed. “No! You don’t get to complain after that! Now keep walking.” He ordered as he led her out the city gates.

For the next several minutes Fenora had kept quiet and simply let Stross lead her along by her hair, keeping close so he would stop tugging. After they’d reached a fair distance away from the city, Stross came to a stop on a hill overlooking a valley below, with the sun hitting it to reveal the natural and peaceful colors. Here he released Fenora and walked over to sit atop a slight peak on the hill, not bothering to look back once.

Fenora massaged her aching scalp and used her fingers to comb her hair back into place. “So are you going to tell me what that was all that about?” she asked “Even without my thu’ums I could have taken them on, no problem.”

Stross was silent as he sat there, staring out into the distance.

Fenora walked over until she was just slightly behind him. “Stross?”

Still no response, so she sat down next to him with a sigh. “Why’d you drag me out here? I assume you have something to say. If it's about getting in a fight with the guards, I'm sorry. But they started it.”

“You’re hurting me Fenora. It hurts to see you like this. What’s happened to you?” Stross asked, his voice cracking “Why are you like this now?”

It was then that he turned to face her, and with the aid of the shimmering sunlight, Fenora could finally see the rivers of tears flowing down the scales on Stross’s face.

“Stross…” she moved a hand to wipe away some of the tears, but he quickly used his own to clamp it to his cheek.

“How could you just kill someone in front of all those kids. I don’t care how mean she was or how much she deserved it, that’s not like you!” Stross sobbed as he rubbed Fenora’s hand on the side of his face. “And then you were going to kill the Jarl and her men. Why? Just… w-why?”

“They… they were going to lock me up. They surrounded me-“

“Because you threatened them!” Stross cried. “Ever since we took down that bastard Mercer, I’ve seen you change. You’re cold now. You’re angry almost all the time, quick to anger, quick to resort to violence, and you treat killing like it’s nothing, on the flimsiest excuses.

“You used to be fun! You used to smile, and laugh, and talk with me. There was a lot of pain and a lot of stupid to go through, but we were going through it together! That used to be all that mattered; us having each other no matter what.”

Stross released her hand to wipe his eyes, but just as quickly cradled Fenora’s chin under his palms. He stared into her amber eyes as more tears replaced the ones wiped away.

“What happened to the elf girl that wanted to save innocent people instead of smack them around? Where’s the heroic, funny, and caring person that I loved to pieces, that I would die for? Please don’t tell me Fenora died in Irkngthand, and that you’re the one that took her place. I don’t want to think that some… changeling led me out of there instead of the girl I loved.”

“Stross…” Fenora felt tears slide down her face this time “I… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She whispered and pulled him closer. “I’ve just done what felt right, all this time, ever since we met I’ve just done what felt good. But… now I feel like killing everything in my way is the fastest and easiest thing to do, and the sooner this can all be over, the better.

“I’m so sick of everything right now. Everything except for you.” she pulled back to look at Stross again “Please don’t hate me Stross, you’re the only thing that feels truly good to me anymore, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you. I’ll always love you.”

Stross leaned in and pecked her on the lips. “I love you too Fen. I just want you back to normal.”

They pulled each other into a tearful embrace, and stayed that way for a good long while, eventually laying back into the long blades of grass as the scattered sunlight washed over them.

…

“Stross?” Fenora asked as the two of them lay there watching the clouds.

“Yeah?”

“Out of all the significant others you’ve had, what was the longest time you kept one?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Just tell me already.”

After a short pause, Stross decided to answer. “Half a year.”

“Okay, now tell me the truth.” Fenora said pointedly. “Because there’s no way I’m going to believe someone as sweet, caring, patient, and cute as you hasn’t been able to hold onto a girl for any longer.”

“I was telling the truth!” Stross said defensively, shifting positions in her arms “Ponies are flipping scared of changelings. We’re like walking factories of hate and deception to them, anything we were to them before we’re revealed instantly washes away along with our disguises. Or so I’ve been told.”

Fenora took a moment to think for a while. “What about guys? I assume you can make yourself a female disguise too.”

“There are problems with that.” Stross put simply.

“Like what?” Fenora inquired further.

Stross sighed. “Well, when I don a glamour to look like a sexy lady, certain things tend to happen. If I act flirty, guys think I’m giving them a green light for sex. If I act cute and modest, they think I’m into their manliness and want them inside me. And when I tell them I just want to be friends or to take things slow, they think I’m playing hard to get.”

“I’m… almost jealous that you can pull that off so well.” Fenora admitted “I’d actually like to see that some time.”

“Ah, there you two are. I do hope things have been resolved.” came Luna’s resonant voice a short ways away “We hath been trying to find thee for nearly an hour. When mine reconnaissance by air yielded nothing, I had to take my search to the ground.”

“And I was along for the ride getting my fur ruffled by the wind.” Barbas complained “What’re you guys doing?”

“I’m being the little spoon. Fenora’s being the big spoon. And we’re watching the clouds go by.” Stross told them, to which Luna smiled.

“Truly? I do enjoy this game. Mind if I join?” she asked, sitting down next to them.

“Sure. But the clouds aren’t like the ones in Equestria, they’re all misshaped and weird.” Stross let her know. “Like that one. I can’t tell if it’s a house or a potato.”

“It looks like a pumpkin to me. The chimney is more curvy like a stem, see?” Fenora pointed out a newly formed detail.

“It doth slightly resemble an overturned book in my eyes.” Luna traced the outline with her finger.

“It looks like a giant magic vortex of death and destruction to me.” Barbas said, looking in a totally different direction.

“Which cloud are you looking at?” Stross asked.

“That glowing one over there.” Barbas pointed with a paw in the direction of Winterhold shortly before the whole horizon was consumed in a flash of pale blue light.

“… Well shit.”