The Lost is Found.

The first thing that wakes me is the sound and feeling of whistling and fast moving wind bombarding me in the face. I stir lightly in my half unconscious state and then my eyes shoot open to reveal noting but a clear blue sky. This instantly makes me warry of what or where it is I am so in an effort to satisfy my curisousity I try to look around and get my surroundings and quickly notice that there are flames coming off of my arms and hands. “What the fuck?” I say in surprise as I further explore the flames that hang on the outside of my armor.

However, I also quickly notice that the smoke from the flames is flying off behind me at a very rapid pace. Now even more confused, I look behind me to see a prominent smoke trail being left by the fiery flames and instantly my eyes grow wide and I bring my head back to center and look down. Below me is a huge green field which bumps up against a dark forest approximately 500 yards away and I am approaching it at a rapid pace, no chance of slowing down.

“OH SHIT!” I scream as I come into contact with the ground and am instantly buried in darkness. Paint shoots up my body from all locations and I feel as though I have been hit by a freight train as I tumble around in the darkness before coming to a rest on my stomach with my legs and arms splayed out to each side of me. “FUCK!” I groan out into the darkness of the dirt that my helmet was partially buried in. The pain was coursing through my body in waves so strong that they would have killed a normal human by now but to me was a bit more tolerable. Knowing that I had to check if I had any broken bones I started to try and move around. After a few tiny movements I determine that nothing is broken and so I try to roll over on my back.

After a few minutes of grunts and groans I manage to get face up and just rest there for a second. From what I can observe, I am at the bottom of a roughly 8 foot hole most likely created when I crashed into the ground. “There is no way I am going to be able to crawl out of that!” I exclaimed out loud. Frustrated, I slam my fist into the dirt causing a small cloud of dust to stir making me sneeze and give another frustrated growl. After laying in the pit of my crater for a few minutes, a sudden thought dawns on me that causes me to face palm. “Why did I not think of that before?” Quickly turning back over on my back I make sure that my mouth is facing at an angle from my body and I take a deep breath and cross my fingers. “Kest!” (Tempest!) As soon as I say this, I go shooting forwards and up one of the flanks of the crater and land in a patch of grass 5 feet from the crater.

My finger uncross themselves and I give myself a mental fist pound before rolling over on my back and staring up at the sky. Not a single cloud is present and I notice that the “sun” is at its highest point in the sky so I guess that it is about midday. As I look into the sky in wonder of what time it is, my mind now asks another really big question. “Where in God’s name am I?” As soon as that question forms, my mind starts trying to put together something that might tell me where I am. “This for sure is not Nirn and I am pretty sure that I am not still on earth, but that leaves either Heaven or Hell. This is most certainty not Hell and I am pretty sure this is not Heaven, so if it is none of those then… where does that leave me?”

After a few minutes of staring up at the bright blue sky my thoughts lead me nowhere and I decide that I need to find out ASAP so I roll to my side and slowly come up to standing. The world is spinning out of control, but I manage to stay upright by placing my arms out to each side and just taking things slowly. Eventually the world finally stops spinning after a minute of standing and stumbling and I drop my arms back to my side. A gentle breeze blows over the landscape, causing the green grass to sway back and forth while birds sing there songs and I can hear what sounds like other animals grazing some distance away.

“Wow this place is beautiful!” I think to myself looking around at the wide vast expanse of grassland. But this notion is lost the instant my head turns behind me and I see the forest that I saw on my fall. The entire forest was dark and still, like the jungle before a jaguar or tiger is about to make a kill. The trees seem as though they don’t remain the same minute to minute, making it easy to lose your way. Then the shadows that were cast by the trees did not appear to be ordinary shadows, but more like evil that was concealing evil. The forest appears to stretch out in every direction before going over a hill and disappearing into the distance. “That place looks sketchy, let’s avoid that for a minute till I know more about it.” I say to myself before turning back to face the grass land. Then I notice something is off about the landscape. Just a second ago my surrounding were humming with noise and now it is as silent as the grave and the grass seems to be at a dead standstill. Not even the prevailing sound of the wind is present and the entire aura around me seems to convey the “there is a predator nearby” something that I was familiar with my time taking on Daedra and many other “predators”. “Well then, been here five minutes and it seems like I already might be in the cross-hairs…damn it this is getting old real quick.” I say lazily looking around the landscape and seeing nothing there.

Then I pan my head back around and look at the forest and nothing seems out of the ordinary, no rustling sounds to indicate movement or weird eyes staring at me from the dense shadows of the trees, no weird roars or hissing sounds…absolutely nothing but dead calmness. After about a minute of nothing happening I shake my head slightly and turn away from the forest and chuckle to myself. “I think I need to start walking and find somewhere to get some water, because this sun is getting to me!” Once I chuckle for a few seconds, I turn and start to walk away from the impact crater trying to remove my helmet go I can get some air to my scorching hot head and try and loose some of this heat from my body. Still on the move I bring my hands up to my helmet and am about to twist it to unlock it so I can take it off when a massive roar breaks from behind me followed by the ground quaking and a loud thundering sound coming from the forest.

As soon as this happens my adrenaline kicks into overdrive and I whirl around to face the forest and can now see that there are trees shaking and being knocked over hitting the ground with loud crashes. I immediately draw my sword and hold it in a defensive way towards the forest while holding my ground as the sounds and vibrations get louder and more intense. “Fuck, whatever it is sounds big and this may just be me, but it also sounds like a predator and judging by the fact that there is nothing around…looks like I’m on the menu.” I tell myself matter of fact as a tree falls about 50 yards from the tree line and another loud roar breaks the day. “Shit this bad, I don’t have the strength to defend myself, my arms are barely able to hold up this great sword and I don’t know if I can muster up a legendary shout right now!” A tree less than 5 yards from the tree line falls over and the vibrations in the dirt have now become so intense that it causes me to re shift my feet in order to stay standing up. The vibration is also causing my vision to blur so bad that I can hardly focus on the tree line at all. Then all the noise and pounding comes to a complete stop and it is once again dead quiet. The blurring in my vision lessens and I can now see a very tall blur standing out from the surrounding blur of the forest. “What the fuck is that?”

I blink my eyes rapidly 3 times and the haze from my eyes clears up and what I see makes all the blood drain from my face. Standing on the outside of the tree line 100 yards away is a massive T rex that completely dwarfs any other non-dragon enemy that I have ever faced. The massive predators orange eyes are dead locked with mine, staring with intense gaze as if trying piercing my very soul and trying to kill me without even touching me. My entire body has gone ridged, which is probably why the T rex has not charged me by now being that in theory there vision is based on movement however the heart within my chest now threatens to leap into my throat as I try and think of a plan to deal with my current predicament.

“Thuri, your offensive shouts will not win this fight, you don’t have the strength right now.” A voice from deep inside me says. At first I think that it was just my imagination telling me what I already knew, but when I play the voice back to myself I realize that it was not just my imagination, but the voice of someone inside of me.

“Alduin is that you?” I say back to the voice as the T rex starts to take small steps in my direction uttering snorts and cocking its head to the side. “Shit, I thinks it has seen me, but that must mean that there vision is not based on movement, there goes that theory right out the window. Alduin?!” Then a thought hits me that I had failed to think of before. The way it is acting…it is strange, as if it was unsure of what it was looking at. Putting two and two together I come to a swift conclusion. It is curious, to see if I am a threat! By now the massive beast is no less than 200 feet in front of me as I can now see the up close and personal features of the T rex. The underside is a darker shade of brown that runs all the way down to the tip of its tail and then it turns a dark black and runs down both of the legs down to the toes. The T rex has very little to no scars on it and those that it does have appear to only be small and concentrated near the left eye. The head is massive with several of the razor sharp teeth sticking down from the top jaw and hanging out of the mouth a little, just as it had been depicted in Jurassic Park.

For a brief few seconds, I just stand in awe of the creature in front of me having never seen a dinosaur and here, the very king of them stood in all of its terrifying beauty. At first I think about trying to reach out my hand and showing it that I was not a threat, but I immediately thought against it and decided to wait until I had a plan before making a move that might cost me my life. “Okay, Alduin says that I don’t have the power to use an offensive shout so that leaves me with Kyne’s peace, Animal allegiance and Bend will.” Kyne’s piece is out of the question because that might cause it to become temporarily calm, but it will attack me as soon as it wears off and Animal allegiance will cause it to follow me then have it wear off and get jumped at close range…not a chance in hell, so that leaves me with Bend will. But I have never used Bend will outside of dragons and I don’t know if it will work and I don’t even want to imagine what will happen if it doesn’t.”

With a plan in mind that I was not sure would even work and potentially staring death in the face, I prepare myself for the unknown and decide to take a risk. Without even caring if the T rex sees me, I place my great sword on my back and crack my knuckles. The T rex gives a slight growl and starts lowering its head in an aggressive stance and snarls slightly. Ignoring this, I take a step forward and then place my hand behind my back. “High there!” I say happily, causing the beast’s eyes to narrow at me. The T rex then gives a loud roar and starts to steadily advance towards me with a look of aggression in its eyes. As soon as it does this I take an inhale of breath and steady myself so that I am as aligned with the beast as possible. “Gol Hah Dov!” (Bend Will!)

Instantly a large yellow and red sphere shoots from my mouth at blinding speed and impacts the approaching T rex which causes it to stop right in its tracks and stare up at the sky. Then after a few seconds pass, it looks back down into my eyes and just stares blankly, not a single bit of emotion present. When after a minute passes and the T rex is still standing there looking at me, I give a small sigh inside and cautiously start to make my way towards the towering behemoth “Can you hear me?” I ask to the still T rex. At first it continues to stare blankly, only its head moving so it’s eyes can follow me but when I get about 5 feet in front of it the T rex blinks rapidly and gives a slight nod to which I stand amazed and dumfounded, removing all doubt that what was happening was real.

Now knowing that it was safe my body posture relaxes all the way and I slowly reach out and touch the bottom part of its lower leg. I start to rub its leg and I can hear a strange almost purring noise coming from the T rex as it leans its head down to me and nudges me slightly with the side of its head in what I guess is a friendly gesture. "I cannot believe this, it actually understands me!” I tell myself in awe as the T rex stands back upright once more and I withdraw my hand from its leg and look back up at its face. It has its head cocked to one side as it did when it had first saw me and it was looking at me with expectant eyes. “What’s wrong?” I ask in a soft and friendly tone. The T rex does nothing but continue to stare at me and move its head around as if it could not see me clearly from the angle it was looking from. For a second I am dumbfounded and confused about what it is trying to do so I reach up and place my hand to my chin so I can think when my fingers trace the hard metal outline of my helmet. Then I realize that I had not yet removed my helmet as I was going to do so earlier, but was interrupted by the loud roar. With my hand still on my helmet I look up to see that the T rex has a look of anticipation in its eyes and has straightened out its cocked head, I understand now fully what the dino wants from me. “Oh, you want to see my face.” I say in realization and the T rex starts to purr slightly and moves its head from side to side. Taking this as a yes I quickly reach my other hand up to my helmet and start to turn it to unlock it.

After a few seconds there is a click followed by a loud clack and I slowly remove my helmet with both of my hands and set it down on the ground. Instantly the purring intensifies and I quickly snap my head back up to the dino. Its eyes are wide and it seems to have the dino equivalent of a smile on its face that seems to warm my heart. “So what do you think?” I say with a warm voice and a smile. The T rex shakes its head slightly, bringing its face down and placing its snout to the side of my face and gently nuzzles me. Its hot breath trickled over my face and down to my neck making me shake a little. “That tickles!” I say to my new friend as it continued to nuzzle me in a friendly manor. Then I feel something wet come into contact with my cheek and instantly I pulled away slightly and saw that the T rex had licked me.

Its tongue was barely sticking out of the front of its maw and it appears as though the T rex is once again putting on a dino equivalent of a smile. “Wow, you must really like me huh?” I say while laughing lightly and wiping the saliva off of my face. That instantly gets another round of purrs and the T rex gives me one last nuzzle before it raises its head back up and changing to a more somber like state. This gives me a second to look up into the sky for a second and I notice that the “sun” is now over to my right side indicating that it was getting later and that I probably should get moving while there was still light outside. Picking my helmet up I start to walk away from the dino when I feel a loud bang and hear a slight grunt come from the dino. Turning around I spot the T rex laying down on the ground and it is looking at me with expectant eyes and immediately something about what it is doing makes sense. “Oh I’m sorry, I am not leaving I just need to get moving, it is getting late.” The T rex pays absolutely no attention to me and motions with its head as to tell me to approach. Then something clicks in my mind and instantly I realize what its wants me to do. “You want me to ride you, don’t you?” I say with a bland voice.

A slight shake of the head and a purr tells me that this is in fact exactly what it wants and I take a step over to its neck and then a new question hits me. “Are you male of female?” The T rex then slightly lifts the back of its tail and leans to one side to reveal a dark brown cloaca with gently folding lips underneath of her flank. “Looks like your female.” I say while trying to turn and hide my blush. At hearing this she gentle rolls back over and resumes the patient position with her neck on the ground. Taking this as a good sigh I quickly throw my right leg over top of her neck and then my left and straddle myself so I can hold on tight. I then tap her lightly on the side to tell her I am on board and then she slowly rises to her full height and stands there and looks around her surroundings. Then she takes a step forward and instantly I am thrown forward slightly and grab ahold of a flap of skin in her neck to regain my balance and remain upright. From up top I can see the world just as if I was sitting on top of a dragon and this reminds me of the fact that I have lost one of the only friends that I had. However before I can start to wallow in my sad memories another thought crosses my mind what should I name her. The T rex has now started moving at a brisk pace and we seem to be heading along at a decent rate of speed, I notice from my position that there seems to be a path off to the left that leads up a hill into what I guess is another part of the landscape so I gently tell her to follow the path that looks to have been recently used. She quickly changes course and starts to head toward the path that I had asked her to go to. Once on the path she picks up the pace slightly and I can feel a great sense of accomplishment at what I have done. At one point she was someone that I had feared and because of a simple shout and some kindness, all of that had been stamped out forever. It reminded me of a quote from All Dogs Go to Heaven that the angel Annabelle had spoken about being naturally good, loyal and kind. “I don’t know if you already have a name, but if not then how do you like the name Annabelle?” I say loudly so she can hear me over her footsteps. A deep vibration in her throat tells me that she must like the name and instantly I feel as I have made a new friend. “I am glad to not be alone.” I think to myself as I start to scan for anything that might point me to some answers about this strange new world.