Chapters Prologue - Season Unending
The land of Skyrim, once at peace, is now at war with itself. The Elves who arrived and sided with Applejack and the Imperials, keeping to the terms of the contract between the Elves and the Nords, they agreed to give Elves a fair share of power within Skyrim.
The imperials hold control over the western side of Skyrim; Solitude, Markarth, Morthal, Falkreath.
Many, however, disliked and despised the power the elves have over the nation. Within this group is the once legendary Rainbow Dash, one of the few capable of using the power of the Thu'um, the voice of dragons. She split the entire of Skyrim into two sides, creating a civil war between the two major powers - The Imperials, looking to keep Skyrim united with the rest of Tamriel, and the Dashites, named after their leader, who all look for independence from the rest of Tamriel.
The Dashites, on the other hand, hold control over the eastern side of Skyrim; Windhelm, Riften, Dawnstar, Winterhold.
The civil war rages on, leaving just one province untouched; Whiterun, the most central province. The Jarl of Whiterun - Twilight Sparkle, doesn't care for the war, instead, she cares for magic, and the safety of her people. She remains impartial to the war, as do all of her loyal subjects, hence, they take up neither name, however, Dashites and Imperials both live within the walls of Whiterun. Also within the central province is the largest mountain, the Throat Of The World, atop which live the Greybeards, living in peace away from civilisation. The raw power and refined technique of their Thu'um is capable of tearing whole cities apart, leading to them being left mostly alone, and is said to be unparalleled even by the dragons who created the language.
However, the civil war is not the largest threat to Skyrim at the current time. As many other threats also wish to take over. From dragons to vampires, even certain large guilds want to take over Skyrim.
Skyrim is also home to many other important people, some of whom used to be a part of the royal court before it was disbanded by the Princesses of Day and Night.
Fluttershy, who protects all of the animals she can with her unique powers, and loathes anyone who harms animals, living in segregation from other humans in a far corner of Skyrim, her loyalty is known to be given to Rainbow Dash, entirely as she wishes to live in a world owned by Nords, as they care for animals far more than most elves do.
Pinkie Pie, who's current location is unknown. She was believed to have had a connection to Vampires before she went missing, which makes many believe that she is possibly being held captive or hiding from Vampires, and may even possibly be one herself.
Rarity, no-one knows of her whereabouts, however, it is known that she is still alive, as she is sending messages to Skyrim, she was known to be extremely good at stealth, and some believe she is hiding where no one would ever search for her; within one of the cities. Tales have been told of people being visited by her, being told that they are being hunted for some reason, most of these people died shortly after and it is often correlated to her. She denies such claims. Her loyalty sways towards Applejack, simply as she claims to know that it is important that she takes up their side, for some unknown reason.
On top of all of this, Discord, the god of chaos, with the power of many, many unique weapons and armour pieces, is capable of changing the fate of any mortal he so chooses. Because worship to him is forbidden, little is known about his current opinions on anything, however, as he is often depicted as a Draconequus it is believed he may be related to the return of the Dragons.
"Well, welcome to Skyrim I guess," the cat-like man said, looking at me, his hands bound behind his back. "It's not the most pleasant way in, but you're here now, probably not for long though."
That sent a shiver down my spine, I had no idea what was going to happen to me, but my hands have been cuffed behind my back. I would assume that I'm going to be either exiled or executed. "Where are they taking us?" I asked the cat man opposite.
"Probably to Helgen, based on my understanding," he said, looking around, "Likely to execute us, me and you though, we're not rebels, right? Not trying to spy or anything? We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Yeah, can't we explain that to them?" I asked.
"Unlikely, they don't like it when we talk, nevermind arguing with them. I've heard tales that they've cut out the tongues of people like us for less."
I quickly shut my mouth, I didn't feel like talking anymore. The cat man person noticed and tried to take my mind off it, "So, who are you, and where are you from?" he asked.
"What's it matter, we're both going to die anyway."
"An Imperial's last thought should be of home," he said, "And if we're dying together we should at least know each other's name."
"Alright, well. I'm Sunset Shimmer, I'm from Cyrodiil, it's a nice enough nation, but I really don't like the current powers there, what with King Sombra getting power and all. What about you, who are you?" I asked, partially out of curiosity: I had never seen anyone who looked much unlike me, naturally, I had seen some other skin colours, some very exotic ones, but no-one who looked as different as this person.
"My name is Valhallen, I'm from Elsweyr originally. I was leaving Skyrim having lived here for a fair while, trying to leave my previous life of crime behind, I was a thief, had to be, needed the money," he said, before looking down at his bound hands, "But now, I wanted to turn over a new leaf you know."
"Well, it looks like that didn't go to plan did it," I said, seeing a city wall appear in sight, I decided I might as well bring up the third person in the cart, she had been silent the whole journey, and I originally thought she might have just wanted to be silent, but thinking about it now, maybe she didn't have a tongue. "So who are you then?" I said, looking over towards her.
"Watch your tongue, you're talking to Queen Dash - Rainbow Dash - a hero to the people. Or at least she should be the queen, she was on this cart before us, so she was caught earlier," Valhallen said, looking over to Dash, who nodded after each comment, "She can't risk opening her mouth because she will lose her tongue within minutes. She was taught by the Greybeards how to use the true power of the voice," Valhallen said, "She's a Nord, a true Nord. She believes in Skyrim's independence, unlike those Imperialist fuckers lead by that want-to-be-Queen Applejack."
"Huh, so you're kinda important then?" I said, looking over to her, she hands were also bound, but unlike us, so were her legs, bound by a chain that would allow small steps. my heart skipped a beat as I realised, if they had her then they were going to kill us. "Oh gods, we are going to die aren't we," I said as we were brought into the city through the large gates.
"Probably," Valhallen said. Great, real fucking reassuring. The carriage we were riding in stopped near a wall, leaving us facing the city. I looked around seeing a mother calling her children indoors and several people standing around a chopping block, next to a large man with a huge well-kept steel looking axe.
"End of the line," A voice said, "Get out and stand in line," she said, her voice both calming and powerful, I felt compelled to get out, but not because of the commanding sound, because her voice sounded sympathetic of us.
We all stepped out of the cart, another one stopping alongside us, the people from that also getting out. "You can't do this!" one of the men from the other cart yelled before running, he looked like he was going to make it away before he was hit in the back of the head with two arrows, both piercing his skull. I hadn't even realised there were archers, that's how observant I am. Looking around I saw them standing atop a tall stone watch tower, towering over the rest of the small city.
"Anyone else wanna run?" the women said, after that impressive show from the two archers, I'll stay. "No? Good."
"Step forward when I call your name," she said, commanding as ever. "Rainbow Dash," she yelled - the girl next to me, barely older than me, maybe even the same age. "Some here call you a hero, but a hero doesn't use a power like the voice to kill the king of a country and take over the crown. Any last words?" she asked.
Rainbow stood in silence, refusing to look the other lady in the eye.
"No? Clever, we're killing you anyway, so you're staying silent until the end," she said, looking down at her list again, "Valhallen of Elsweyr," she said, he stepped forward, "Don't you live here anyway?" she said. Valhallen just smiled, he looked like he had accepted his fate.
I was still coming to terms with mine.
"Whatever, Sunset Shimmer of Cyrodiil," she said. I stepped forward. "I'll make sure your remains are sent back to Cyrodiil," she said.
"Please don't," I said timidly, I hated that place enough, last I'd want is some stupid mage bringing be back with a spell.
"Heh, fine," she said, "To everyone their own, can't say I've heard of you, but your with this bunch, so you must be trouble," part of me wanted to tell her that I wasn't trouble, but I had learned quickly that keeping my mouth shut would be a virtue around here.
"Next, Heated Flare," she said, a girl from the other carriage stepping forwards. She looked a bit like me, but I don't think she's an Imperial. She said something to her like she had me, but I didn't know what, "Finally, Proto Swipe," she said, a girl with metal daggers that looked like they were melted into her hand stepped forward, they looked like they'd hurt her as much as whoever was unlucky enough to be on the other end of it. "One of those new Augment magic test subjects huh?" I heard the person with the list say, "I don't envy you, the person who's developing that is mental."
"Alright, prisoners, to the block," she yelled. "Father, give them their last rites," she said, looking to a man in a large hooded cloak.
"Blessings of the two divines upon you, as we pass your souls..." he began., before being cut off abruptly.
"For the love of Discord, shut up, let's get this over with," Valhallen said, stepping up to the block and standing in front of it.
"As you wish," the hooded man said, stepping back.
The official who had the list stepped forward, pushing against Valhallen's back, pushing him down, as he lowered his head over the block. The large man above him rose his axe.
I wanted to yell this isn't right, but I knew that would just get me killed sooner, and I cherished the last few minutes of my life. The axe came down swiftly, pulled mostly by gravity more than strength, tearing Valhallen's head from his body in an instant, his head rolled about a bit as it landed in the box prepared for us. I wanted to throw up, scream and faint all at the same time, but all of those feelings left as I heard a sound from above, it sounded like the roar of a tiger, but much louder, and deeper.
"What was that?" I heard someone ask.
"Just the wind, carry on," I heard the guard with the list say. I may not know much of this land, but in no land was that 'just the wind'.
"Next. You, the Imperial," she said, pointing to me. How charming, she didn't even care for my name. "To the block, nice and easy."
I stepped forward. This is it then huh, I'm done, didn't even commit a crime. I stood in front of the block, she pushed gently against my back, which was lightly covered by some fair clothes, they're alright for the clothes I'm going to be executed in. I knelt down, putting my head on the block. I could feel the blood of Valhallen against my neck, it was revolting. Another sound like a roar, from this angle I could tell it was from the heavens.
"Sentries, do you see anything?" The guard asked. Getting no response she signalled the executioner to continue. He rose his axe. This is my end. I kept my eyes open, I smiled a little, at least I'm not in that hell hole that is Sombra's new city, Cyrodiil. If anything, dying here is alright.
I waited, it felt like an eternity. I heard another loud roar from the sky's, it was louder than before, and followed by the sound of wings flapping against the air.
"Sentries, report now, what is that sound?" the guard yelled, this time louder, with more commanding sound.
"It's in the clouds," one yelled.
"It's a dragon," another yelled.
I could see up from my position with my head sideways, I saw it, it was big, massive, and black, scaly creature. It seemed to speak, but not a language I had ever heard, "Fus, ro," it yelled, a blueish circle appearing in front of it, flying forward. It staggered even the giant of a man who was the executioner, causing him to have to use the axe to remain standing.
I saw many other men fall, "You, get up, the goddesses won't give us another chance," someone said to me. I pulled myself off the block, some blood sticking to my neck, it was awful, but for now, I might survive today.
"Follow me," he said, running up one of the nearest towers, I chased him, but my hands were bound in front of me, both bound right at the front of the wrist, probably because my kind are known for magic. I've had some training, but it's not extensive, I barely learned the secondary levels of the three core destructive elements, and only knowing the most basic healing spell. I was still more magically inclined than some.
I followed him up the tower, we reached about halfway before the dragon smashed some of the walls in, killing two soldiers however narrowly missing me and this mysterious man. The impact left rubble on the stairs up so I jumped on the dragon and run along it, hopping into the house opposite and running along the floor, jumping down to the ground floor at the end. The mystery man followed, before running ahead past the dragon again, I don't know who he is, but he's fucking brave, running three feet ahead of a dragon. Still, I followed him, he seemed to know where he was going.
We reached the end of the road and he turned quickly. Dashing to the side, finding a door quickly which he ran into, I followed him and we entered a staircase. As we reached the bottom I saw a large enough sleeping quarters, with a few chests here and there, I took some time to catch my breath, as he did, we had finally escaped that fucking dragon. I still remained silent, seeing the man's armour was very similar to that of the guard who had the list earlier.
He, however, was no as inclined to silence, "Listen. I know you're a criminal, dunno why, and I'm pretty sure our leaders back in Solitude don't and never will either, so, if you're willing to work with me, I'll let you out of those bindings," he said.
I remained silent, I'm going to keep my tongue, although, being out of these bindings would be nice. I walked over to him and held my hands out in front of myself.
"You got a tongue?" he asked, "Or did they take that too?"
"I..." I said, hesitating. "I have a tongue. You won't take it? Right?"
"What? Haha, being in a cart with Rainbow Dash must have scared you," he said, cutting the bindings on my wrists, freeing my hands, "We don't cut tongues out unless they're used for damaging reasons. Very damaging reasons," he said. That was reassuring. "Can't speak for those Dashites though, they're pretty fucked up people."
I stretched a little. He stepped back, seeing my hands glow with light, I lit them both up a dull yellow, I may not know much magic, but I'll use what I do know. He reached for his sword, stepping back from me. Shit! He thinks I'm going for a destruction spell. "Woah, calm down, just basic healing, a simple spell," I said, as reassuringly as I could.
Both my hands lit up and I immediately felt better, the shaken feelings I had from today were gone and the rope burns from being bound all day disappeared, before I turned the light coming from my hands off again.
"Oh, sorry, I have no idea when it comes to magic," he said, "I'm Flash Sentry, by the way, second in command to the leader of the Imperial army."
"I'm Sunset Shimmer," I replied simply.
"Right, hey, so, go check those chests, there's probably some armour for you to change into or something. I'll wait around here, just let me know when you've checked everything and changed."
I stepped around the corner, seeing a chest in the corner. It looked like it would be locked usually, but the latch was open, I quickly opened it and found a few pieces of armour. The armour piece looked like a lower ranking version of the armour Flash Sentry was wearing, and it was leather with some orange on it, and an apple insignia on the centre of the back, the helmet looked to be basic leather and the boots were the same. There were also some simple gloves there, both of them looked worn, but hey, whatever I can get. I also found some lock picks, which I slipped into the pockets of the armour. On the wall behind the chest were a basic longbow, more or less a whittled stick and some string and a quiver with a few arrows. There was also a sword, I left that, not my kind of weapon.
---***---
"Alright, hey, let's go," I said, wearing my new armour.
"Alright, so, that's us done here, we should really get moving then," he said, leading the way over to the door, he pushed it open and led me through, I just followed him silently. Still not really one for talking, and I don't have any questions right now.
We approached a metal door, more or less just some metal bars that were linked down the middle, and a lever on the wall to open it. "Wait, Dashites, we don't want to fight them, just, let's try to reason with them," he whispered to me as he pulled the lever, opening the gate.
The two Dashites noticed the door opening and turned to face us, "Imperial scum," one of them yelled, drawing a large battle axe from his back.
"No no, we don't want to fight, we just want to leave safely from this dragon wrecked city," Flash Sentry said.
I sensed that wouldn't work, preparing to reach for my bow if they didn't back down. "Fuck you," the second one yelled, drawing a sword from his side.
"Well alright then, I guess that's that sorted," Flash said, drawing his own sword and holding his shield in front of himself. I quickly drew my bow - my magic would be far too inaccurate while staying at a safe range - and pulled an arrow from the quiver. I nocked it, preparing to fire. My heart was beating quickly and my hand shaking, I had never actually killed another person before. I attempted to line up a shot, but my hand was everywhere.
I watched Flash Sentry block a hit from the battle axe and knock it's holder back, stabbing him through the chest. The sword holding Dashite went to swing at him. I have to do something.
I released the arrow, it hit the Dashite swordsman's sword and knocked it off course, it skimmed past Flash, missing him entirely as he spun around, knocking the second man off his feet with a slash to his centre. He was down and bleeding, part of me even wanted to help him, he shot me a glare before Flash Sentry stood over him, stabbing him in the chest. He wasn't getting back up from that.
Flash turned to me, "Thanks, that would've hurt," he said, "Nice shot, by the way," he complimented, it sounded genuine.
"But I missed him?" I said, my shot had gone wide and it was pure luck it hit his sword.
"You staggered his sword swing, allowing me to swing at him freely. I'd say that was a pretty good shot."
"Pure luck," I said honestly.
"If you say so," he said, "Well, if you want one of their weapons or any of their armour, it's all yours, search them for potions or gold if you want," he continued, "Although, I would say your armour is both lighter and better than theirs."
"Thanks," I said, I considered looting them for some gold, I had none as it was taken when I was captured. "But I don't think I could bring myself to steal from the dead," I said.
"Why not? They aren't using it," Flash Sentry reasoned, he had a good point, but that's not the point. "I've got armour, I've got gold, and I like my sword, plus, potions, alchemy and enchanting aren't my things so there's not much for me to get from it, all yours if you change your mind, but we aren't coming back."
"Maybe I'll just take. Actually, no. I'm alright," I said, I've made up my mind. I won't loot the dead.
"Alright, well. Let's get moving then," he said, walking through the next door and along the next corridor. We approached another door, "I'm going to guess peace is out of the question, but still, let's try it," he said, putting his sword away, "Keep your bow drawn in hand, but leave the arrows for now."
I followed his instructions as he pushed to door open, walking in casually. "Imperial scum," I heard one yell. Well, peace is out of the question, isn't it?
"Was going to say let's be diplomatic here, but alright then," Flash said, reaching for his sword. He drew it quickly and held it in front of him, shield at the side.
One of the men at the back of the Dashite filled room nocked an arrow, I did the same, pointing it at him. I had nearly no hesitation this time. I fired my arrow and it flew wide, missing by a bit, as it bounced off the wall beside him. I changed my game plan, putting my bow behind my back, charging up a fireball in one hand, and a lightning bolt in the other. I fired the fireball at the archer, burning his armour away, scorching his flesh underneath. I cringed as I saw him fall back in pain. I would not be touching fireballs against humans for a long time, that looked horrible. I released my lightning bolt at the much closer battle axe holder, watching as Flash killed another sword wielder. My lightning bolt shocked the battle axe wielder to the point that I think it killed him. I killed two men, but, they would have killed us right? Right? I still have a clear conscience? But, they wouldn't have killed me if I had no armour on, right? If I was just wearing my clothes? Maybe, maybe not.
"Spells huh?" Flash asked, "I should've figured, you Imperials are always good with spells," he said, "You sticking to not wanting to loot these guys?" he asked.
"The archer has arrows, I'll need them," I said, noting that I was already down to one left, I really didn't have many.
"Alright, go for it," he said, as he watched me walk over to the archer and grab the four arrows from his quiver and put them into my own. "Check that chest," he said, pointing to the corner, "Give lock picking it a shot if you want," he said.
Now that was a skill I could use, I quickly ducked down next to the lock, examining it quickly, I tried it, but if course it was locked, so I grabbed a lock pick from my armour pocket. Wait, did Flash know I had these? Eh, whatever.
I leaned next to the lock and pushed the pick into it, I grabbed a knife from the archer just next to me and used it to help push the lock open, before putting the knife back, it was a shit knife and really wasn't much help at making the lock picking any easier, just needed to turn the lock with something. The chests lock opened with a click, I lifted the chest open and inside was a small silver ring, engraved with what looked to be a ruby, I'd have to have someone look at it, it might fetch a pretty penny, and god knows I could use some gold. Along the side of the chest, there were also a couple of potions and a small bag, I tossed the potions into the bag and lifted it over my head, swinging it alongside my quiver. "Hey Flash, any idea what these do?" I asked him.
"Oh, you've found some lesser healing potions, they're pretty alright for small wounds or cuts," he said, looking at my little bag of them, "You found a few huh? Not bad," he said, walking onwards, "All done here then?" he asked.
"Yep," I said, looking around the room quickly, final check here weren't any more chests. As far as I could see we were done here, so I followed him on.
He walked out of the door at the far end of the door, leaving towards the next staircase, at the bottom of which I could hear a fight already happening. I quickly caught up to Flash and held him back, "There's a fight down there, let's wait it out first, then go in after," I said, he stopped and waited with me.
After about a minute we heard the sounds of spells stop and walked in to see a burned pile of ashes on the floor next to a corpse of a man who's neck had been slashed then frozen. I shuddered at the cruel death methods these two had ensured. "Fucking hell, what did you do to those two," I said.
"They were Dashites, I dealt with them," he said.
Yeah, but did you have to do that to them? I thought to myself, best just agree with him. "Ah, well that's fine then I guess."
"Yeah," the man said, he was wearing robes, not dissimilar to the ones worn by the man who was going to give us our last rites outside, and he looked like he had some magical prowess.
"So, we're leaving then? Well, let me fry anything in our way then, follow me," he said, running on ahead.
We walked behind him, hearing someone screaming I was afraid he'd burned someone else on his way out of here, I hoped he hadn't though, cause that was horrible.
Eventually, we caught up to the room he looked to have carelessly run into, we both stopped just around the corner from it, I looked around the corner, seeing that all the men inside were still standing it seems. "Hey Flash, I hope you didn't like that guy, he ran recklessly into a room with four archers, he's not coming back," I said.
"What an idiot, well, how do you want to clear this room? I'll assume their Dashites and if there are a lot of them, they won't be peaceful long enough to ask, so, ready your bow or spells or whatever."
Having seen what the spells are capable of, I decided to draw my bow, I'm not going to use my spells unless necessary. I leaned around the corner again, "We got a large room, path around the outside with men on it, and then a path through the center, well, more of a garden we could cross, but we'd get shot at, I can probably fire off a couple shots and take down someone if you'll block their shots for me."
"Right," he said, holding his shield, "Draw your bow, let's go."
I did exactly that, drawing my bow out as I stepped out into the room, quickly I readied an arrow, aiming for the first man in the room, a great sword wielding beast of a man, Flash held his shield to the side of me, blocking off any of the other Dashites straight shots.
I released my arrow, for once it flew in line and hit its target, I'm pretty sure it killed him nearly instantly, as he fell back and it went pretty deep into his neck, I felt bad for a few seconds before realising he would have done the same to me, had I given him the chance. To back up my mental point I heard two or three arrows from the side blocked by Flash's shield bounce off the shield. He signalled to a piece of wall we could quickly cover behind, more or less the only one, and I quickly ducked behind it, being followed by him.
I quickly drew another arrow, loading another shot, I stood up from my cover, quickly releasing the arrow.
I heard it hit it's target as I ducked back down. Another two arrows flying over my head. I reached for another arrow, quickly loading it as Flash charged over the wall towards the closer of the two archers, I stood up and took the shot at the further of the two, seeing him release his arrow at the same time, I tried to duck back down but the arrow flew too fast and hit my right arm, I landed again, the pain of the arrow hitting me like, well, like an arrow, really, but it fucking hurt, luckily it had only cut the edge of my arm, and not stuck in it. I saw Flash hit the last archer down, cutting him again in the centre with his spin I had recognised as signature to him.
The pain in my right arm was pretty bad, worse by the fact I had never felt anything like it before, but luckily I could just drink a potion and hopefully it would heal back up, I grabbed one from my little bag and downed it quickly, it solving my problems immediately as I felt far better again.
"Oh yeah, Sunset, if an arrow ever does get lodged in you, you can still drink one of those instant healing potions, they'll break the arrow down nearly instantly and it'll just fall out the hole it made as your wound undoes itself," he said with a smile towards me. That was good to know, I can just get hit by arrows. "That being said, don't die, and you can survive off potions alone, I've seen some people suffer nearly instant death injuries while drinking one of those and completely ignore every injury."
"Good to know," I replied, "Can we just keep moving," I said, walking onward while grabbing the archers arrows.
"Sure, let's go," Flash said, walking alongside me as we walked up to the bridge to the next room, I pulled the lever that lowered it and stepped across it, Flash following quickly in my footsteps. Behind him, the bridge quickly shattered as the roof caved in on it, "Well, looks like that dragon is still out there and we aren't going back that way," he said, looking briefly up the hole the rubble came down, "Fucking hell we're lucky that didn't come down on top of us."
"True. Alright, how much further do we have to go?" I asked. I was getting pretty bored of this tunnel of endless useless rooms. I walked across the path and hopped down the small drop at the edge, walking across to the next door.
Flash followed just behind me, "Not far, just maybe, two more rooms," he said, "The first should be right. Here."
I stepped down the stairs and looked out across the next room, the floor was covered in cobwebs and when I looked up I, "Fucking nope," I said, falling backwards, my eyes closed as my mind ceased to comprehend that.
---***---
"Where, where am I?" I said as I came too, seeing a bright light just ahead, and Flash propped up against a wall nearby "Man, what the fuck were those things."
"Good morning. We're at the end of the cave, you blacked out when you saw those Frostbite Spiders," Flash said smiling down at me, "They weren't even that big for Frostbite's, pretty small actually.
Those fucking things were small, they were at least half my height, fuck I don't want to see a large one of them. I pulled myself to my feet, I realised my bow wasn't on my back and panicked a little. I looked up to see Flash pointing to the wall opposite and sure enough, my bow was against the wall, "Thanks," I said, getting to my feet and putting my bow back over my back.
"So, you ready to continue?" Flash said as he stepped out of the cave.
"Sure, as long as there aren't any giant spiders out there," I said.
"Nope, just a dragon that probably has left by now," he replied. Reassuring.
I stepped out of the cave, the light blinding me almost entirely as I exited to feel the sunlight and smell the fresh air once again.
Level up:
Author's Note
Author note: So this chapter is basically entirely the first quest from Skyrim, however, the rest of the story will not follow anywhere near closely. If you've read some of this and think you might need knowledge of Skyrim then it's probably just because nothing has been explained yet, besides, people who do know Skyrim are probably confused, anyway, everything that'll need explaining will be explained when it comes to it.
Chapter Two - Missing Girl
When I could finally see again, the sun no longer blinding me, I quickly looked to Flash Sentry as to where we were going next. "So what's next?" I said, looking around at the expansive land ahead of me, the grass everywhere was green, with some of the outsides of the region covered over with snow.
"Well, firstly I'm going to Riverwood, you're free to join me there if you want, I have a friend there, Steel Sentry, he's a blacksmith, I'm sure he'd be happy to help, after that, however, our little journey will need to end. If you ever come to Solitude in your travels, feel free to say hello, but otherwise, it will be goodbye after that."
I felt a little sad at that, the man who - alongside countless others - about an hour ago wanted me dead, but was now my only friend in the entire of Skyrim. That was daunting.
"Get down," he said, hiding behind a rock, I had no idea why he hid until I heard the roar in the sky again and looked up to see the black as night dragon against the cloudy afternoon sky. "Wonder where he's going?" Flash said. "Well, someone will need to get word of that to the Jarl," he said. "I assume that task is not too large to request from you?" he continued.
"I'm sure I can manage it, don't worry about it," I said with a smile, "So, we're going to Riverwood then?" I asked, standing up from behind the rock.
It would seem so, Flash said, standing up and leading the way.
---***---
The journey was mostly quiet, nothing of much merit had happened yet, and we're arriving alongside a river after this turn, it would seem likely Riverwood would run alongside a River, and probably in a forest, so it's likely just down here.
"Oh hey, I forgot these were here," Flash said, as we approached a set of stones. Alright, so they're some fancy stones, they do look quite nice I must admit. "These, are called standing stones," Flash said, clearly noticing the underwhelmed look on my face, "They imbue the bearer with an effect, either faster learning of a skill, or being able to do something magical once a day, for example, turn invisible or according to legend, there is one that allows you to unleash an explosion that completely ignores the user," he explained.
Now we're talking, these sound pretty useful. "What about these three, what are these?" I asked.
"These are the warrior stone, the thief stone and the mage stone, each one allows you to learn a multitude of skills faster, the catch is you can only be under one at a time. For archery, lockpicking, alchemy and speech, this stone is the one," he said, pointing to the one with a picture of a man holding a dagger on it. "For magic of all types and enchanting, this is the one," he said, pointing to the one with a magical rune shape on it. "And finally, for swords and shields, as well as armour, this is the one," he said, tapping the warrior stone.
I stepped up to the one with a man with a dagger on it and touched it. I heard a voice talk to me in a way that felt like they were speaking directly into me, "This is the thief stone, those who follow this blessing are more likely to improve on the skills requiring a bow, or an alchemy table, alongside earning a swifter hand and tongue, do you accept this blessing?"
I spoke back to the stone, as if it could hear me, "I accept," I said, and a light lit up from inside the stone, shining brightly into the sky.
"Alright, so, you've chosen your blessing then?" he said, "Well, we best get moving," he said, again leading the way along the final path.
We had barely been moving again for five minutes when I heard a sound from alongside the road and quickly drew my bow. Flash quickly drew his sword and shield, apparently having also heard the sound, and I looked around for whatever made the sound, grabbing an arrow from my back, I finally saw it, as it leapt at me from the trees it was hiding behind. It looked to be a wolf, from what I could see of it. It leapt directly at me, aiming for my neck, however, I was able to raise my bow to block it in plenty of time, firing the bow past it, the wolf's bite snapping my wooden bow. I quickly swung the bow (or what remained of it) at the wolf that had just landed, holding the shorter end of it while the long end swung round, attached to the string still and slapped it across the muzzle.
The wolf seemed more pissed than injured and I simply threw the snapped bow at it in rage. "Fucking idiot," I said as I kicked the wolf that had snapped my bow, at the same time I saw another jump down from where the first stood. I attempted to stab it with my arrow that I still held in my left hand, and it did slow it, a bit, before snapping, slightly in the wolf's neck, at least I had managed to push it aside. "Hey Flash, little help?" I said looking to him.
As I looked he was already swinging his sword down to kill the wolf, cutting a pretty large gash into it's back, "So, about helping?" he said as he stabbed the first wolf that had jumped at me.
"Thanks," I said, watching him grab one of the wolves by the tail. "What're you doing?" I asked.
"Dinner," he said, "Wolf apparently tastes pretty good, plus Steel Sentry will want to have its pelt for leather," he said. I mean, I suppose that made sense, and we didn't actually have anything to eat. Or any gold, come to think of it, I have that ring, but that's all.
"Fine," I said, reaching for the second wolf, grabbing it by its tail. I held onto it as we started to walk the last walk into the town.
"Right. That's the gate there, just, follow me," Flash said, walking through the large archway that was the entrance to the town. I followed him as we walked up to what I presumed was the blacksmith's house, it was a fairly small one story building with a forge, grindstone and armour table outside. Standing there was a man in red clothes covered with a dark grey apron. "Steel," Flash said as we approached him.
He turned around, looking slightly surprised, "Flash, haha, it has been a while, how are you doing man?" he said, I just stood there silently. "You finally found a girlfriend huh? Took you long enough," the blacksmith said, causing me to blush.
"Haha, no, she's just a friend, she helped me escape Helgen when the dragon attacked," Flash said, gently punching his friend on the shoulder. "Would you be able to cook these wolves up for us? And if you want you can have the pelts in return?"
"Yeah alright, I could use some more leather, just take them inside, I'll be in in a few minutes," Steel said. Flash Sentry took the wolf from my hand and took it inside along with his.
"So, you," Steel said, turning to look at me, "Apparently you helped Flash escape Helgen, and what's this about a dragon?" he said.
"Well, basically I was captured alongside some Dashites and we were to be executed, they even had Rainbow Dash there, however before they could execute me the dragon attacked, and Flash Sentry told me to come with him, we worked together to get past the Dashites that had taken over the cave," I said, "Oh right, the dragon that appeared was a massive black winged beast."
"Well, if everything you say is true then I might need your help," he said with a smile, "We'll talk about it over some dinner."
---***---
"So," Steel said, finishing his steak of wolf, which was surprisingly good, "Sorry, I never got your name," he said looking at me.
"Oh, right, Sunset Shimmer, that's my name."
"That's a nice name, anyway, Sunset, if you'd be willing to I need someone to go to a cave called Bleak Falls Barrow, just out of town, as someone went missing while they were there recently and I can't just leave her, but I have no chance of being able to go after her. You, however, you escaped a dragon and attacks from Dashites, you are impressive. Please, I need you to help her?" he said. I mean, another cave to save someone, I'm down for that I guess.
"Why can't Flash do it?" I said, "I mean, I will, but he's a trained army soldier, so why not him?"
"That's exactly the reason," he said, "He has to return to Solitude as soon as possible, he's needed for the war effort," he continued. "Oh, and I'm not sending you out there with no help, I can give you whatever you need to make it there, within reason."
"A bow and maybe a health potion or two, then I can leave for the cave," I said.
"Alright then," Steel said, getting up from the table, "Just, find the girl and get back out yeah, I don't care what you have to do," he continued, walking over to the wall covered in an array of well-kept steel weapons. He took a dagger off the wall as well as taking one of the bows off the wall, "Good steady Imperial bow, nice and sturdy, trustworthy thing, this one is reinforced with metal too and has a better drawstring, she's a bit heavier but packs much more punch," he said enthusiastically, passing me the bow. "She's all yours, and here, just a simple steel dagger, the method you used to kill those wolves wasn't very effective, use this for close range," he said.
"I'll try," I responded, "But first, I have one more stop to make, then I'm off," I said.
"Wait, here," he said, handing me two lesser healing potions, slightly different in colour from the others I had, "Instant healing with regeneration effect, they'll keep you well," he continued, before looking down a bit, "You don't know how much this means to me, I'm sorry you have to put yourself in danger because I'm not strong enough, but trust me, I will repay you. Somehow."
"It's fine. Alright, well, I'm off," I said as I left the small house, leaving Steel and Flash behind together, across the road I saw a small general goods store, it was a fairly small building still, two floors this time.
I pushed the door open and was greeted with a kind smile from a merchant. "Hello, welcome to my humble store, is there anything I can help you with?" he said kindly. His voice was soft and easy going.
"Uh yeah, I found this ring on my travels, I was wondering if you would be able to tell me it's worth," I said, getting the ring out of my pocket where I had stored it.
"Let's see here," he said, "Okay, so, on the face of it, it's a silver ruby ring of good make and condition, so at the least, I'd say about two hundred gold. However, it also has an enchantment which I can work out over the next day or so, it'll cost only ten gold, but it does take a while, if you have anywhere else you need to be?"
"I actually do," I said, remembering where I was going straight after this, "I'll leave it here and be back in a while to pick it up, probably in the morning."
"Alright, is there anything else I can help you with?" He said.
"Nope, thank you," I said, turning to leave the small house, "I'll see you tomorrow," I said.
"Good night young lady," he said as I left.
As soon as I was outside I looked at the signs which, surprisingly held a post for Bleak Falls Barrow, and I started walking towards it. Hopefully, it'll be a calm walk.
---***---
I drew another arrow, aiming it up towards the raiders who were standing in front of the door, they had been quite vocal about their plans once they caught me, and I was mortified to think the girl inside may have already had that problem, I released the arrow, "It's not going to be a quiet day," I said to myself under my breath, the arrow flew up to hit the archer in the lower jaw, knocking him down, he was dead, next, the last man, a huge battle axe-wielding man.
I quickly put my bow over my back, he was too close already, I drew the dagger I had been given and ran towards him. He swung his axe from his right-hand side, trying to smash my ankles, presumably he wasn't lying about his very much vocal claims, I managed to jump over it and quickly stabbed him in the neck, "Do you think I'm stupid," I said, pushing the dagger in further, "Fuck you," I said as he fell backwards.
Idiot forgot humans can jump. I guess it goes without saying, it wasn't a calm walk, well, most of the way it was, but, these idiots started firing at me. Well, hopefully, it's calmer inside. I immediately realised it wouldn't be as I pushed the door open, seeing a fire in the distance and some raiders sat around it. Between me and them was a pillar which I quickly covered behind, if I'm lucky I can sneak past them, but first I want to learn why they're here.
"Yeah that's true, but just imagine, three raiders capturing an important figure, a face for the people, imagine that."
"It would be very impressive, I'll say, but, what about if she has as many skills as they say, she would easily kill us all,"
"It's one child," the first raider said, "I highly doubt one child can do anything to stop us," he said, "Look, we'll wait here, we've already got a guard at the back exit, once the kid's cleared out the tunnel we'll catch her, at her weakest."
Not on my watch you won't, I quickly reached for my bow, but deciding that I would sneak past if I could, I started walking alongside the raised platform the bandits were on, keeping as low as I could, I managed to get past them, running through the gate further into the dungeon, pulling the chain behind me to drop the gate shut. "Hey you, stop right there," one of them yelled.
"Hmm, no thanks," I said, I already knew they had no bows, and highly doubt they had any spells. "Come get me if you want," I said, almost certain they wouldn't be able to, I was pretty sure the gate could only be opened from this side.
"We'll stay here, you won't manage to get back out, we have plenty of food to wait you out," they yelled.
They were probably right, but I am pretty capable of fighting them, I have a bow and this is only a metal bar gate, there's plenty of open space for me to fire arrows through. Besides, I don't normally plan ahead.
I walked on, pretty happy that they weren't going to follow me, the next room was a fairly large open chamber, one side had a table and the other a few chests. The table had a skeleton, a few gold pieces, which I rapidly picked up and a lock picking tool, which I grabbed hastily, hurrying over to the other side of the room. The lock on the chest was pretty weak, I could probably have just snapped it off with the lock picking tool. I rapidly unlocked it and opened the chest, hoping for something useful I found what looked to be a steel dagger, unlike the one I had in a sheath on my side it seemed to be much duller, so I left that, and alongside it there were some bracers made of a material I had never seen, although, to be fair I only knew iron and steel from what the book's images had shown me and the sword I was allowed to use for training for the military. The material was light yellow in colour, definitely metal and looked to glow slightly orange, presumably an enchantment, I'd read about those too.
I decided eventually that I might as well have them, no enchantment is a bad enchantment, as far as I know. So once I had strapped them around my wrists I felt much better covered, now having my forearms and upper arms covered with some form of armour.
After that, I moved on to the next room, looked at the walls they were lined with corpses and skeletons sleeping in their own little subsections.
I quickly drew my bow, something told me these things weren't dead, I rapidly loaded an arrow and held it as I walked up to one of the sleeping corpses, tapping against it with the arrow before stepping up, I'm not certain, but it looked like it moved so I released the arrow, right into its neck. If it had lived it was dead now. I quickly moved past it, releasing an arrow towards each corpse past it, a skeleton won't be able to stand right?
After the end of the room was reached I turned around, checking I hadn't missed anything and saw a corpse thingy starting to stand, it was holding a sword that looked like it was made of an ancient metal, and it started to charge at me. I at first thought I might have missed it, but it had an arrow sticking out its neck, I quickly loaded and released another, unfortunately, it went low and hit it in the chest, still, the creature fell backwards, dropping its sword.
I continued on, seeing another room filled with them, I quickly unloaded an arrow into each of them before starting to walk onwards, I was getting the hang of this dungeon clearing thing. I continued walking, heading up some stairs and seeing a chest at the far end of the corridor next to a locked door. I think, I quickly ran towards the chest before hearing a click beneath my feet, I had stepped on a pressure pad.
The air from my lungs left, firstly as a massive gate swung round and I definitely screamed, and secondly as the metal spikes on it smashed into my chest, cutting several holes into me. Then, as suddenly as it started its swing, it stopped, throwing me across the room.
The pain was excruciating, my internal organs weren't where they were meant to be, my bones must have shattered, my ribcage was shredded, I was coughing blood. My lungs were giving up, I managed to pull a healing potion out of my little bag, quickly downing one, my vision began to fade, but the pain wasn't that bad anymore.
I think I blacked out.
---***---
My eyes open and I think I can see again, I'm not dead, I'm definitely still alive, but, where.
Fuck, right, corridor, that's good, alone, I think, good, internal organs, unsure, but inside, good enough.
I attempted to climb back up to my feet. That girl I was to find, not okay. Getting to my feet was easier than I thought, I was pretty capable of standing still. I started walking again, walking towards the plate again, it was only a small circle, it only covered about half the hall and it was in the centre, going around was an option, luckily enough. I did that, finally finding the chest and door, the door shouldn't be locked, hadn't the girl came through here earlier? Well, the chest was also locked, maybe she found another way. Eh, whatever.
I quickly crouched down next to the chest. Fuck my internal organs aren't in the right place, I'm going to have to fix that. Oww, well, down now. I quickly started prodding at the lock it wasn't as weak as the last, and I managed to pick the lock open within a few seconds, although I did snap a pick trying. As I pulled the chest open I saw that there wasn't really much in it, a few gold coins and some other junk, alongside a lockpick, replacing the one I just broke.
Next, the door. I attempted to stand up and walk over it, argh, the pain was worse now, I'm going to be slow for now. Anyway, the door. I leant down, attempting to get through the door, eventually, I managed, pushing it open in success. "Hahaha fuck your door," I said.
I continued to walk to through the door and along the corridor before seeing a room, surrounded with cobwebs. Not this shit again. I saw a girl hanging on the other end of the room, suspended from all sides by webs. I sprinted (more of a staggered walk) to her, quickly cutting down the web from around her, she looked young, about thirteen maybe, her hair was the main thing I could see, it was purple and she looked quite pretty. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure she was still alive.
I managed eventually to cut her down and quickly lay her down just past the doorway, I got one of my potions out and tried to feed it to her, she slowly drank the potion and at the same time, I heard something behind me.
I knew what it was, I immediately prepared two fireballs, spinning on the spot and firing them both at the spider, it was far larger than I thought it would be. Easily at least my height, maybe taller. It was terrifying until it burned up and fell back.
Apparently, they don't like fire. For now, though I gotta sit here and wait for this kid to wake up.
---***---
"Where the, uh, where am I?" The purple haired girl said.
"Hey, you were out cold hung up there by a spider when I found you, I managed to cut you down, hopefully, you're alright now. Sorry about your clothes, some of them were ruined before I got to you, some I cut trying to get the web off them."
"I think I'm alright," she said, sitting up and taking her ruined shirt off, "Wow these clothes are bad state, aww well, I'll need to get new ones once we arrive somewhere," she continued.
I stood up and leant back against the wall waiting for the mystery girl to manage to get to her feet.
"What are we doing, now then," she said, flicking her hair to the side, "Eww, spider web in my hair."
"Yeah I didn't dare cut your hair, I tried to get as many of the webs as possible out, but I couldn't be perfect," I said, offering her a hand to get up, "Think you can stand?"
"Probably," she said, taking my hand and pulling herself up. "Yeah, he didn't really hurt me all that much. So I think I'm pretty good overall," she said, wrapping her arms around me. "Thank you, by the way, for saving me," she said.
"I wouldn't thank me quite yet, we are still in this cave surrounded on both sides by guards who are willing to wait you out," I said, remembering what I had heard at the front about having a guard at the back.
"Well, I'm sure a few mere bandits isn't much for a mage of your level," she said.
"What do you mean? I just threw my nastiest spells at it hoping to destroy it."
"And you managed. It's dead now, isn't it, I feel like you have a fair skill," she said, "Far more than me with destruction magic," she continued.
I thought for a few seconds, continuing on my path, "Well, let's keep going I guess," I said, walking slightly faster towards the next room, there was a large open door in front of us that looked to have some large symbols on it, "Well, maybe someone else has come through here before us," I said, "I hope they're friendly," I continued, noticing they wouldn't be. I turned around to check on the girl behind me again, some time since she had got up she had taken off the remainder of her ruined clothes and was standing in just her underwear now. "Don't you think you should have at least kept the clothes on to protect from the cold?" I reasoned.
"Nah, I'm fine. I'm a who hearty Nord, we're used to the cold," she said. While this may be true, it was more because there was a nearly naked teenage girl with me.
"Alright, and if a raider goes to attack you? Or one of those corpse people?" I said.
"Draugr, that's what they're called," she said, "And I have you, you seem awesome, I'm sure you can protect me," she continued, "Plus I have this ring my awesome sis gave me that allows me to go invisible once a day," she said excitedly.
"Well, I'll try to keep them off you, but no promises, be ready to use the ring," I said, knowing that I'd be horrified if anything happened to her. "Hopefully we can avoid confrontation though," I said, "Have you got a weapon?"
"Of course, I have a dagger from my awesome big sister, it's made of a really rare metal, apparently," she said, pulling out a fairly bright green metal dagger from the sheath on her hip that I had somehow managed to miss, it looked expensive and slightly transparent. It was a really sharp looking dagger too. "I'm sure it's string if it's from my sis, she's strong and has lots of strong weapons."
"Fair enough, well, I think this might be the last room," I said as I walked into the room sporting a chest next to a wall opposite. "Keep your head out for anything, let me know if something comes up behind me, I'm going to go try and unlock this chest and read that wall," I said. "We've been fairly peaceful so far, so it's likely that there'll be some attack in this room," I reasoned.
"Right, good luck, apparently the chests in here are really difficult to crack. I mean. I'm not very good at lock picking, but I've seen some people attempt to pick a lock of equal difficulty back at home and it has taken them seven or eight picks and they've had years of practice..." she said, she was willing to continue, before I silenced her.
"I got it!" I said excitedly, "That wasn't that difficult," I continued, pulling the chest open and looting the gold and picks inside first, alongside a small handful of gems.
"But... How... Sis couldn't even do that..." she said, she seemed to think really highly of her sister, I was going to ask who her sister was, but decided not to, "That means you must be nearly as awesome as her," she said.
"Sure, I'm pretty awesome, but pick locking isn't really a skill to be that proud of, besides, I'm really just practised," I said, putting the potions from the chest into my bag. I stood up tossing the dark blue cloak I had found to the girl, "Here kid, wrap yourself in this," I said. There was also some stone plaque that looked to have an image of a dragon on it, I grabbed that too, just in case.
She quickly pulled it on and I swear her eyes glowed once it was on, "It's so cool," she said. It really wasn't much better than nothing for protection, but it covered her back and most of her front once she had done up the little buttons down the front, it was actually just barely down past her feet and she had put the hood up. Someone who didn't know her might actually be quite menaced, the cloak and hood also seemed to glow with a blue light colour, but only for a second when I focused on it. "Thank you," she said to me.
"Wha? Huh?" I said smiling a little, "I'm wearing armour and you're wearing nothing, it's all yours kid," I said, walking up to the wall, I started reading it as best I could, but it was in a language I didn't recognise even slightly.
The wall seemed to sound out and resonate with me, I can hear it, it is speaking in a tongue I can recognise but have never heard before. "Aan hun alok gein laat tiid. Fus," it said, I think. I don't recognise it, but it is calling out to me. I can feel a new power rise over me, but I have no idea what it is.
"Woah, what was that?" I heard the girl say, "That was cool."
"I have no idea, let's, just, let's just get out of here," I said, "This place is messing with me," I continued, completely unsure what was happening in here.
The table behind me shook a little, busting open, I saw a Draugr inside the box, it was lying - waiting it seems - with its massive battle axe, as if it had been there longer than the others, it's armour was also stronger looking than the others. I immediately started to back away, drawing my bow, "Hey kid. Backup, might wanna use that invisibility," I said, firing my first arrow at the thing, I saw the girl in the back of my vision disappear and fired another shot at the creature that was lugging towards me. I released the third shot, but it merely bounced off the creature's armour, I went to grab another arrow, the creature backing me into a corner now. I saw it go to swing its large battle axe so I quickly tossed my bow onto my back and drew my dagger, stabbing it in the chest, in the one spot its armour didn't protect.
I was still cornered, until, suddenly, I saw it stumble over. The girl who was wearing the robes had used her invisibility to catch the creature off guard, and she was now sitting on its back, her dagger stabbed deep into its neck. She pulled her dagger back out and sheathed it again. "Thanks, kid," I said, "That was clever," I said.
She just smiled back at me. Okay then, well, uhh, what's next, right leaving.
I stood up and started to walk towards the stairs behind the wall. "Aren't you going to take this guys gold or something, I mean, he's got to have something useful."
"Be my guest if you want, but that's not my style, I can survive without it," I said.
"Alright, well, wait up, I'll leave him be too," she said, following closely behind me.
"Right, now," I said, reaching for the back doors, "Stay behind me, if there is anyone out there, I'll try and take them down as quickly as possible, if not, we back up, and we hide. Okay?" I said.
"Alright," she said, standing behind me. I noticed she was only about a head or two shorter than me, not much for about six years difference, I'd guess.
I drew my bow and an arrow, loading it as I kicked the door open, aiming out into the moonlight. "Stop right there kid," a single guard said, lighting himself up with a torch which he held in one hand,"Shit," he continued once he saw me in front of her.
"Bad choice, defending that alone, night night," I said, releasing the arrow directly into his neck. I'm pretty sure it killed him, no idea though. Don't really care, after what I heard outside the front.
It was dark night by the time we had emerged. I took a breath of the fresh air.
I heard the kid behind me do the same, "Where are we going now then?" She asked.
"See down there, Riverwood," I said, pointing to the dimly lit town.
"Alright, you go on ahead, I have... something... I have to do here," she said, standing by the door, looking out into the night.
"Be quick, I'll walk down these stairs and wait at the bottom," I said. She probably just had to pee or wanted to loot that guy, either way, I don't care, I'll wait. I walked down to the bottom of the stairs before hearing her start running down behind me. Looting, I thought to myself as she caught up to me.
---***---
As we rearrived in Riverwood we spoke again, "So, I think we should go see Steel Sentry, he sent me to find you, and then I suppose we can call it a night," I said.
"Alright, I'll come with you, I assume you have some gold to purchase a room with," she said.
"Probably, I'm sure I can afford one for us both," I said, realising how awkward that sounded, "I mean, one with two beds," I quickly corrected.
"You don't have to stretch for two beds," she assured me, "After today I'm sure I can trust you for a night or two," she said.
"Thanks, but I'm sure I can afford two beds" I repeated, walking towards the blacksmith's shop. I knocked on the door once before realising the time of night and that he'd likely be asleep.
"Sunset, good, you have returned," he said as he pushed the door open, "I was worried you wouldn't return. And you have her with you. Brilliant," he said, motioning for us to come in.
"So," he said as we sat down at his table, "Listen, I wasn't honest with you earlier," he said to me, "I mean, about why I sent you to find her and not Flash," he continued, setting down drinks of what looked to be orange juice for both of us, "I sent you because she is a Dashite," he said, motioning to her, "And a pretty important one. Flash would've let his ego go free and would've killed her I fear."
I was confused, enraged and saddened all at the same time that Flash would have killed even a kid because she was a Dashite.
"Thank you for this," he said, putting a small pouch of gold on the table in front of me, "A little something for your troubles," he said.
"Thanks, I think we'll be off then," I said, "We should let you get to sleep and we'll probably return in the morning."
"Alright, oh, I'll cover the cost of a bed if you want?" He offered as we got up to leave through the door.
"I got it, thanks," I said, walking out of the door and across the street to the inn.
"Hello," I said as I walked in the door, seeing the bar opposite. "Got any spare rooms?" I said.
"We have one," the last behind the bar said, spotting the girl behind me, "However, it's only got one bed," she continued.
"That's fine," I heard the girl behind me say.
"Sure, we'll take it," I said.
"Ten gold pieces for the night," she said. I placed a small pile of gold down on the table as she placed a small room key on the desk. I picked it up and she pointed to the room to the side, "That one," she said.
I walked over to the room and unlocked it with the key, it was a fairly large room, which was nice, a cupboard and desk, some chairs and the bed wasn't too bad, fairly sizable to be honest.
"So," I heard the purple-haired kid say as she walked in and closed the door behind herself. "Who are you?" she said, "I mean, you saved me, but I don't even know your name or anything," she said. It quickly occurred to me I didn't know her name either.
"I'm Sunset Shimmer, I come from a small, isolated town in Cyrodiil, I'm really nothing special," I said.
"Sunset Shimmer, that's a nice name," she said, "But, you absorbed some magic from that wall, that must make you special," she continued.
"I'm don't know what happened with that wall, but I'm sure it wasn't important or anything so I'm just going to ignore it for now," I said, wanting to just forget that, "Besides, I'm sure it would've spoken to you if it hadn't spoken to me first."
"It spoke to you?" she said with a smile, "You are special, I read about people who would be spoken to by those walls, my big sis can make them out a little, having learned the language and can learn their secrets eventually, but you, you learned them within seconds. What did it say?" she continued.
"It said something about, I think, I don't really remember, except for one word, Fus, but that's not even an English word," I reasoned, despite knowing that there would be something to say about that.
"Of course it isn't, it's Dovahzul, the language of the dragons. I'm studying it to become more like my sister," she said. All of this talk of her sister, I just have to know, don't I?
"Wait so, who is your sister, exactly?" I asked.
"She's Rainbow Dash, only the most awesome person there is."
Oh, oh so this kid is an important Dashite, being related to Rainbow Dash, the leader of the rebellion. "You know what, I'm tired, we'll discuss all off this in the morning," I said, looking in the closet for some clothes to wear instead of my armour.
"Alright then," she said.
I rapidly took my armour and weapons off and put them over in the corner of the room before putting on the clothes and lying down on the bed, the girl took her dagger off and set it down with my stuff, before turning to lie down next to me, unbuttoning her cloak as she did.
I noticed she either was still holding what she looted, or she didn't loot anything at all. She lay down next to me and cuddled up against me, sure, I can survive this for a night.
"Oh yeah, by the way, my name is Scootaloo," she said, closing her eyes.
I saw her quickly try to sleep, "That's a nice name," I said, followed by, "Good night, sweet dreams."
Level up:
I awoke again, my third day in Skyrim, pulling myself up from my bed. Scootaloo must have got up early. I look around and notice she isn't in the room, and her dagger is gone. Okay, she's probably just gone out shopping or something, wait, no, she had no gold.
I take the clothes I slept in off and slip back into my armour, reattach my quiver, bow and the small bag of potions and we're ready to go.
I step over to the door to the room, looking back quickly to check I have everything. I open it, walking over to the reception, where the same lady as last night is standing there, "Good morning," I said, putting my key down on the table. "Do you know where my friend went overnight?" I asked.
"No idea, she left through the main door going on about Steel or something," she replied, picking up the key from the table.
"Ah, thank you, I think I might know where she is," I said, turning away from the desk, I walked across the inn. Slightly shaken that she'd have run off already. I left the inn through the main door quickly looking across the street to where I could see Scootaloo talking to Steel Sentry. I calmed down and started walking across the street.
Steel must have noticed me, as he turned to face me, "Look who's finally awake," he said.
"Hey Steel. Scootaloo what're you doing over here so early?" I asked, although, seeing her new boots I could already guess.
"I was just asking Steel if he'd be able to get me some new armour pieces, so that's what he's doing, he's made me some leather boots and sharpened my dagger, now he's making me some leather bracers," she said smiling.
"Do you have the money to pay for them?" I asked knowing she hadn't looted that guy yesterday.
"Nope, but Steel said he'd do it for free since I'm awesome," Scootaloo replied.
He faced towards me and grinned, "It's more that she's important and if Rainbow Dash sees my work she might hire me, plus I owe you and she seems to be fairly friendly with you. Plus it's a glass dagger, do you know how rare it is to get to temper a glass dagger," he said, I did not, but I could guess.
"So, what's next," I said, remembering there was something else I had to do.
"Well, we do need to get news of the dragon that attacked Helgen over to Whiterun to the Jarl before it is able to return."
"Alright, I can do that, a simple walk through the wilderness of Skyrim, that's alright," I replied. "Scootaloo what about you?" I asked, "You want to stay here or come with me?"
She answered by running over to me and grabbing my arm, "Until I can safely return to Windhelm, I'm with you," she said.
"Well, you aren't just walking back there, so I guess we're going to Whiterun together."
Steel piped in, "Hey, don't forget that if you need anything I can help you out, weapons, armour, a place to sleep. Anything, within reason."
"Thanks, I won't forget that," I said, turning to face the general goods store where I had left that ring yesterday, "Goodbye Steel. I'll see you later."
"When your journey brings you past Riverwood," he said, waving to me, "Hey kid, here's the bracers for you, hopefully, they fit," he said handing the small leather wrist braces to Scootaloo, who hugged him in return.
"Thank you. Goodbye," she said, catching up to me.
I pushed the door to the general goods store open and was greeted by the familiar voice from yesterday, "Hello again traveller," he said to me, "I've appraised the ring from yesterday. The enchantment on it is a fortify alteration," he said, lifting a small wooden box from under the counter, "It's a fairly weak enchant, however, no one can complain about an enchantment, right?" he said.
"True, well, how much would you say it's worth?" I asked. I had little use for it, and Scootaloo already had one ring.
"Eh, I'd have to say somewhere around five hundred, maybe five thirty-five with the enchant," he said. "Although, it would be more accurate and possibly higher if you went to a full-scale appraisal service in one of the cities," he continued, "I'd be willing to buy it for four eighty," he said.
I have no use for the ring, fifty gold shouldn't make many issues and I still owe him for appraising it, "Sure, then how much do I owe you for checking it?" I said.
"Oh no, that's included," he said, "If you're willing to sell then here," he said, handing me a bag of gold coins, a pretty big bag, "That's eighty gold coins and four Whiterun platinums," he said, seeing my confusion he continued. "Whiterun platinums are essentially just coins that have a value in Skyrim equivalent to one hundred gold coins, most merchants will accept them, trade them, whatever. They can also be swapped to gold coins in Whiterun by taking them to any merchant who has enough to swap them. It's far more efficient than carrying hundreds of gold pieces," he said. I was slightly hesitant to believe him but he had a compelling argument.
I turned to Scootaloo who nodded, confirming what he was saying. "Alright, thanks," I said, storing the hundreds of gold worth of pieces in my pocket.
I turned and left the small store. "Right, Scootaloo, anywhere else you want to go before we leave?" I said.
"Nope, let's go," she said excitedly.
"Alright then, hopefully, it's a quiet journey," I said, knowing that it wouldn't be, again...
---***---
Having reached the giant walls of Whiterun, I looked up at it, "Think this is the place?" I said rhetorically to Scootaloo, who laughed a little at the obvious joke.
"Halt, the city's closed for official business only, state your purpose," the man at the gate said.
Surely reporting a dragon attack is good enough. "I have come to report the dragon attack on Helgen," I said.
"And the child," he said. Because for some reason she wouldn't be allowed with me.
"Moral fucking support," I said sarcastically, "She's with me, what's up with that?" I said.
"Then she can wait outside," he said, "It doesn't take two people to report one attack," he continued.
He had a good point, but I wasn't leaving her outside. "Go on Sunset," Scootaloo said.
"I'm not leaving you," I said.
"Don't worry about that," she said, putting her hands together and playing with her ring. I smiled before turning to face the guard again.
"Alright, she'll wait over there then," I said, pointing to where she was standing.
"Good, glad we sorted that out, now I'll just unlock the gate," he said, turning to the gate and inserting a large key into it. As he did so there was a click and the gate pushed open, "Now, just you can go in," he said, looking at me.
I walked through the door, hopefully, Scootaloo makes it with me, the guard pulled the door shut behind me, no sooner than I could get myself through.
I stared up at the city in front of me, I had no idea where I was meant to go, "Hey kid?" I said quietly.
"Yeah?" Scootaloo said, reappearing next to me, her expression much like mine.
"Oh good, you're inside, so, where do we find the Jarl?" I asked.
"Maybe the big castle?" I heard Scootaloo say, pointing up towards it.
"Yeah, that would make sense," I said as I started walking.
---***---
We walked through the main hall of the castle until we were stopped at the far end of a table, the purple haired Jarl sitting opposite, looking uncomfortable in her Jarl clothes.
"Halt, who are you and what is your business?" The man in steel armour said.
"I'm Sunset Shimmer, I'm here to report a dragon attack to the Jarl," I said confidently, it seemed everyone in this city just wanted to stop me. Behind me, I heard Scootaloo lower her hood.
"Miss Scootaloo, nice to see you again," the guard said, "It has been many years since we first met, I doubt you remember me," he said.
Scootaloo reached for my arm, "Nope, I don't recognise you," she said.
"Ah never mind, I presume Jarl Sparkle will want personal reports of the dragon attack," he said, turning to face towards her, "Hey sis, reports of a dragon attack," the guard said.
The Jarl practically jumped out of her seat and flew across the room, "Dragon attack? Where, what was it doing, what did it look like?" she said.
"Twily, let them speak," the guard said smiling.
"Alright, sorry, you're right," she said.
"There was a dragon attack in Helgen and it flew up past the city, it was large and black, scaly and it was breathing fire indiscriminately on everything."
"And you're certain it was a dragon?" she said.
"Had a pretty good view of it while the Imperials were going to cut my head off," I said with a smile.
"Fair enough," she said, "I have no interest in why they were going to execute you, but thank you for bringing this to my attention," she continued.
"What would you say I should do?" she asked me, firstly.
"Riverwood seeks additional defence in case of another attack," I said.
"Good point. Shining Armor, send a detachment to Riverwood at once," she said, turning to the guard who I now knew as Shining Armor.
"Yes Jarl," he said, turning to walk away.
"No need to call me Jarl," she said.
"Sorry sis," he said, walking away.
"Twilight if I may," the girl next to her said, "I do not think sending guards to Riverwood is a good decision," she said, "The Dashites would see it as an act of war," she continued, "They would likely view it as adding defense to Falkreath, which as you know is owned by Imperials and thus would lead to a belief of added defenses," she rambled on.
"Enough!" Twilight said firmly, "I will not sit idly by while a dragon murders my people, we will be sending a detachment to Riverwood," she said, being as firm as possible.
"I can help if the Dashites do see it as an act of war," Scootaloo said, "Just send a courier to find me and I'll have them take a letter with my confirmation that it is not a threat directly to Windhelm," she continued. "Me and Rainbow Dash are sisters, she'll listen to me."
"Ah, well, thank you little one, but hopefully that won't become necessary," Twilight said. "Now, as for you, thank you for seeking me out on your own, and if you would be so kind, my court wizard would like to have a word about dragons, I feel."
"Sure," I said. Scootaloo following closely behind me, I followed Twilight to the room off the side, it contained an alchemy table and enchanting table in the back.
"Trixie?" Twilight said as she walked into the room, "Are you in here?" she asked.
"Yep, sorry Twi," she said as she took her hood off, becoming visible, "Just working on combining a few things to create an invisibility enchantment on a piece of clothing," she said, "It's mostly working, however, it still has the issue of requiring soul gems, and it drains lots of them."
"Very impressive still, I assume you are documenting your processes in depth?" Twilight said.
"Yeah, there are hundreds of pages of useless notes," she said, "Anyway, what brings you here, with her?" she asked, addressing me.
"The dragon attack near Helgen, she was there," Twilight said, pointing to me.
"Ah, well, in that case, I'd like to hear more about it, however, I have a small request, it's a fetch quest, well, a dive head first into a cave where I have no idea what's in there then come back alive quest," she said.
"Where am I going this time then?" I asked.
"Bleak Falls, there's an ancient tablet there that could allow me to much better understand the dragons," she said.
"This?" I said, pulling the stone I had found out, handing it to her.
"That. Is the one," she said, taking it from me, "Thank you. I am impressed that you had it already, haha, well, onto talk of dragons, I must know about them," she said.
"What do you want to know?" I asked.
---***---
She had asked nearly every question there was possible. "I think it flew to over here somewhere," I said, answering the last question, pointing to the map that was now in front of us, we had moved to the room above the main room, and were looking at the war map. I quickly tried to memorise as much of it as possible, recognising the side of the war that owned each city and hold. The map wasn't too bad, at a basic level, and then there was the one section in the centre, owned by Twilight, mostly, entirely neutral.
"Alright, thank you," Trixie said, "You have been a great help," she continued, "I hope your friend has found some books she enjoys in my collection."
"Thanks for letting her read, it has been a while," I said.
"Ah no problem," she replied.
"Thank you, for all of your help today, uh, oh how rude of me, I don't even know your name," Twilight said.
"Sunset Shimmer," I replied.
"Sunset, right, I'll try and remember that, anyway, you have access to my entire personal library if you wish to do a little reading about anything. If you want you can borrow a couple of books for your travels," she said.
"That covers my collection too," Trixie said, "If you want to take a book for your friend too."
"I'll ask her," I replied, "Well if that is everything I do believe I have some places to go," I lied, I just really wanted to go to the local inn or something and have a drink.
"Yep, that will be all. Please, enjoy your stay in Whiterun and may the gods be with you," she said. "If you need anything just let me know."
"Will do, thank you," I said, walking downstairs, Scootaloo was sitting in the back of Trixie's room, reading a book titled, 'The Illusionist, How to Fight From Outside' a fitting title for a book about illusion, considering that it covers invisibility and such spells as fear, frenzy and calm. All allowing some form of avoiding combat or creating it from a distance.
"Enjoying that book?" I said, looking to Scootaloo.
"Yep, it's actually really good," Scootaloo said, not looking up for even a second.
I heard Trixie squee behind me, "Ooh an illusionist like Trixie," she said. "Do you know any good spells?" she asked, running over to lean on the table near Scootaloo, her ears had perked up in excitement.
"Nope, but I want to learn," Scootaloo replied, looking up with a full smile.
"Well, hang on," Trixie said running off and unlocking one of the side rooms, she stepped in and started turning around, looking about. Shortly after she emerged with a couple of books in her arms. "Here," she said, dropping the red covered books onto the table, they all had the same symbol on the front - the connected circles. "A few simple spells, Clairvoyance, Courage and Fury," she said, "Good luck becoming a great and powerful illusionist like Trixie."
"Really?" Scootaloo said, putting her book down.
"Yeah sure, Trixie loves illusionists."
"Alright Scootaloo, cmon, we should go get something to eat," I said.
"Aww but I want to read," she said.
"Bring the books with you then," I said, "Twilight and Trixie have agreed to let us borrow a few books, and spell tomes are single use," I continued.
Scootaloo smiled at my answer, "That's so awesome, alright, let's go eat then," she said, trying to grab her books in some way.
"Here," Trixie said, putting a book bag down on the desk. "It's enchanted, it should be able to hold a good four or five books without getting any extra weight," she continued.
Scootaloo picked up the bag and pulled it over her cloak, quickly stacking books into it. Her hood was still down from earlier, and she had just left it down since then. This was the first time I could see her clean hair since she had cleaned it some time, I guess. It was fairly short hair, brushed forward on top, and it was purple in colour. It worked surprisingly well with her orange skin. "Sunset, come on, let's go," she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me to come.
"Hang on, you go on ahead, I'll catch up," I said.
She let go of my arm, "Fine, but you better come soon," she said, running off.
"Hey Trixie, how much do you want for those spells, I mean three spells isn't cheap."
"The Great and Powerful Trixie does not have a need for basic illusion spells. She can just give them to budding illusionists with no trouble," Trixie said.
"You sure? I have money," I said.
"No thanks, it's fine, she can have the spells, and if she can master them, I'll give her more," she said.
"Oh well, that's very kind of you, thanks so much," I said, turning away to walk out of the castle.
---***---
"Hey kid," I said, arriving next to Scootaloo, who was sitting at the bar in an inn, reading her illusions book. She was really into that, wasn't she? She was completely ignoring the kid next to her who seemed to be trying to annoy her, he had left when I approached too. "Was that guy bothering you?" I asked.
"What guy?" she replied.
"Haha, you are loving that book, aren't you... Well, what do you want to eat?" I asked.
"Ooh, do they do fish?" She said, "I love fish."
"We can ask," I replied, sitting down.
The bartender soon walked over to us, taking her attention away from the drunks for a few seconds, "Hello, what can I get you?" she said.
"Fish of some sort for her, and I'll have wolf if you have any," I said, which drew a sight from her as if I was mad. "If not then just a steak," I continued, realising wolf must not be commonly eaten at all.
"I'm sure I can get you a steak, and we definitely have fish, it'll only be a few minutes," the bartender said.
Scootaloo remained with her head in her book, reading everything she could about illusion magic, I looked over at it, the page seemed to have an illustration of something, presumably something to think of to make drawing on the spell easier. I had learned that way for my six or seven spells, each one had an image that I could think of to select them, it was very useful honestly. "I'm surprised you can read in here, it's fairly loud," I said to Scootaloo, I'm not sure if she heard me, or was paying any attention to the loud chatter and laughing of the drunks, there weren't all that many people here, relatively, but it's still loud.
Scootaloo remained with her head in her book so I just sat and waited for our food alongside her.
Luckily my bored sitting was cut short by the appearance of another male, who I now recognised as Shining Armor, he was holding a helmet in his hands, which looked to be made of the same material as my bracers.
"Here," he said, handing me the helmet, "Twilight wanted to properly and formally thank you for your assistance here, so she used what she knew about you to make you a helmet enchanted with fortifying archery and health regeneration."
I looked at him with a bit of a questioning look, "It's an Elven Helmet enchanted so your bow does more damage and you heal faster."
"Ah," I said, so that's what my bracers are made of. "Thank you. Say thanks to Twilight for me."
"I will, oh, and, I have a request for you, from Trixie, after you left she remembered that she was hoping to find Proto Swipe, and last she knew she was in Helgen," he said, "Wanted to know how her hand was doing, if it had worked as intended. Trixie's checked with clairvoyance, Proto is definitely still alive. And apparently your friend is planning to learn it too, so she could lead you to her. Just tell her to return here so Trixie can check and improve."
"Sure, once Scootaloo manages to learn the spell, which, considering how much reading she's doing, probably won't be long, we'll track them down for you," I said.
"Thanks a lot, you've been a great help to us, we'll all remember this."
"Always willing to help," I said.
"Well, with dragons returning we may need your help with that, so we're all grateful," he said, turning around to leave the inn, "Well, enjoy the rest of your day, don't forget to relax," he continued before leaving.
"Yeah, I'll do that," I said.
The bartender placed our food in front of us, both of us started eating immediately until I decided I'd ask her about something to do. "Hey miss, heard any good rumours?" I asked.
"Yeah I heard that there's a local looking for someone to go into a nearby dungeon in search of some weapon the bandits stole from them, uh, I think it was White River Watch, about ten minutes east of here by horse and cart, it was a strong weapon apparently, some enchanted Dwarven Dagger, with the words 'Mi Amore' carved into the side," she said, "You wanna go try and find it, I'll let the man know next time I see him."
"Yeah, alright, I'll take it," I said, and she turned away.
"Right. Hang on then, I'll write that down," she said, reaching for some paper, she quickly scribbled something down. "Right, there we go, I'll see you when you make it back, just whenever you have time you can do that," she said.
"I'll probably leave later this afternoon, I'd say, once I've left I'll get the dagger and return as quickly as I can."
"Alright," she replied, walking over and serving another customer.
"Hey Scootaloo, you hear that?" I said, she was finished her fish nearly immediately and had her head in her book again, so I doubt it.
"Hear what, huh?" she said.
"I'm going to go to a dungeon later to recover some locals weapon, I was wondering if you'd like to join or if you'd rather stay with Trixie and read," I said.
"I'll come," she said, "I may like this book, but I love adventures, they're awesome. I'm just reading this so I can become strong enough to go on adventures alone," she said, "That's why I was in Bleak Falls. I thought I was strong enough. With you by my side we are unstoppable."
"Maybe I should just leave you behind," I said, fearing for her safety.
"No, no take me," she said, putting her book away.
"Oh wow, you are serious, alright well, we can leave whenever you're ready, I'm ready after I go buy a few more arrows, I've only got a small couple left," I said.
"Alright, well, I'm ready whenever. It's a cave after all," she said. I don't know what she meant but sure, yeah, it's a cave...
"Great, well, let's go find a blacksmith I guess, I'm pretty sure there was one near the entrance to the city, I'll buy a couple more arrows and we can leave," I said, leaving the inn, Scootaloo close behind, she pulled her hood up as we exited the building, strangely enough.
We arrived quickly at the blacksmith's and I could see another girl working the forge. "Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to have any arrows for sale?" I asked.
"Got hundreds of arrows, what're you looking for?"
"Iron arrows, I guess."
"Yeah sure, how many do you think you need? I can do you twenty for five gold?" she said.
"Yeah, sure, twenty will be enough I think," I said, reaching for my bag of gold and grabbing five pieces. "Here you go."
"Thanks, here are your arrows," she said, reaching for a pile of roughly tied arrows, handing them to me.
"Thank you, I guess we'll be off, right Scootaloo," I said.
"Yeah alright," she said as we stood in front of the gates out of the city. "Let's go."
Level up:
Chapter Four - Dwarven Dagger
"Well, here we are," the cart owner said, "White River Watch," he continued, looking at the cave entrance, "Well, good luck with whatever you're here for," he said, turning his horse around and walking away.
"Great, so, what's the plan?" I said to Scootaloo, who had been reading the whole way her.
"Hang on," she said, her left hand lighting up as she prepared a spell again, she'd been trying this most of the way here, reading and trying at the same time. Her hand was only just lit though, she wasn't relaxed enough. She was thinking too hard about this, she wasn't calm enough. The light in her hand died down again. "No, I can't," she said.
"You're thinking too much about it, it should be subconscious," I said, lifting my hand up, I rapidly shifted through my spells, fire, ice, lightning, healing, "It shouldn't require you to stop talking even, you're just not relaxed enough," I said, "Breathe."
She did exactly that, breathing normally, she held a hand out, not looking at it, and attempted to equip her spell, her hand lit up again, before dulling down again. "I can't, not yet at least," she said.
"That's alright, I took weeks to learn my first spells, then, over time, I got fluid with those three," I said, remembering how I was the best student of destruction magic within my school in Cyrodiil.
"What happened then? Because you use a bow now, but if you're so good at magic why not just use that?" Scootaloo asked.
"I was good at it," I corrected, "I completely lost my edge and now I'm pretty average at it. I can probably still cast spells in a pinch though, more than most people could at least," I said.
"Oh, well, that makes sense, anyway, shall we get going inside?" she asked, clearly eager to start moving through the cave, for some reason.
"Sure. Let's go then," I said. "Any reason for the rush?" I asked.
"No not really, just, I can sense that something is coming, I dunno, just, instinct, it feels like something bad is coming. I have no idea what it is or whatever," she said. This was the first time I had ever seen her look scared or less than happy. She usually smiled almost always. This must be big, hopefully, it's not too bad.
"Well then we should get a move on," I said, pushing the doors to the underground building in front of us open, I realised now that I have no idea what this building is other than that it contains bandits. "Follow me and lay low," I said, sticking to the side of the corridor just past the doors.
I walked up to the end of the corridor before quickly peaking around the corner, apparently, it's a small building, just one room, nothing more. Three bandits are standing around the room, two near a chest in the back, and a third against a pillar near the left wall.
I drew my bow, at the same time seeing Scootaloo draw her dagger, she started walking slowly forwards, closer to the light at the other side, where the bandits would see her no doubt. I quickly pulled back an arrow in my bow, looking closer than usual, paying particular attention to hitting the first bandit in the one spot not visibly covered with armour - the neck.
I released my arrow and at the same time, Scootaloo disappeared from vision. She must've used her ring. I grabbed another arrow and readied it, aiming for the second bandit who had just recognised that I was here. He drew his sword - an absolutely massive weapon, at least the height of Scootaloo, likely the weight of her too.
I heard the bandit who was leaning against the pillar cry out in pain, being pulled to the floor by Scootaloo and I loosed the arrow. It missed the target it was aimed for by a small margin, and he turned his attention to Scootaloo. Oh no, you do not get to be close enough to her to hurt her.
I drop my bow while subconsciously equipping my ice spell naturally, it was my best spell. I charge up a spike and throw it at him, barely hitting him in the arm, causing it to bleed crazily around the spike, now sticking into his armour too. He drops his sword, unsurprisingly, it's too large for anyone to hold one handed no matter what, so in pain that isn't happening. Subconsciously I fire off a lightning bolt, shocking the bandit and killing him instantly.
Destruction magic is insane. I really, really do not like having to use it in a fight. But, he was charging for Scootaloo.
I take one more look around, checking for no more enemies before picking my bow back up from my feet and walking across the room to the chest. I tried to pull it open but, naturally, it was locked. A challenge.
I started trying to pick the lock, hearing Scootaloo behind me digging through the corpses, most likely. I break my first pick hearing something that sounded like a bite.
I start focusing. I have a limited amount of lockpicks, and I don't really want to spend any more on this- Fuck! I broke another one.
Alright, it's fine, breath, we have plenty more picks. I reach for another before slowly working the lock open, I was so close on the last one too, I turn the lock and it finally clicks open. There we go.
I open the lid and immediately it was worth it. Two picks, a couple of Whiterun Platinum's, some arrows, potions of all sorts and what looks to be a spell tome. The illusion insignia on it, too. "Hey kid, got a spell book here, no idea which one, but it's illusion," I say, turning to pass her the book. She accepts it quickly and adds it to her book bag, filling it up again after she learned the last spell.
I turn back and grab the rest of the stuff in the chest, but there's no sign of the dagger. "Great, we gotta search more for the dagger," I said, turning back around, seeing Scootaloo's hand lit up again, her sitting down on the floor this time, legs crossed. She moved her hand to the cast position and a line of sky blue light left it, floating over to a nearby wall, the chain on it glowing slightly. "Dear Celestia that was impressively fast kid," I said, smiling at her ability to learn her first spell in a matter of hours. I wonder if her invisibility ring had helped to get her used to illusion magic.
Shortly after, the light flowing from her hand goes down again, she stands up, walking over to the chain on the wall, which, upon closer inspection is a pull chain. "Thanks, Sunset," she said, "But really that was nothing, I just had to remember what I wanted to find as well as a small image."
"I had trouble with just destruction or healing magic, and that doesn't require you to think of the object. I was the best in my class - bar one - and I took weeks to learn sparks. Which was my first spell, so that was impressive," I continued, holding the chain. "Right, be ready for the other side of this door, I have no idea what is over there," I said, pulling the chain down.
The rock wall behind the chain rose as if it was meant to be a door since the day it appeared. I could only just see in when I realised that we would have to fight. I drew my bow again, grabbing an arrow and preparing to fire.
"No, wait, don't fire," one near the front said, "We aren't with them," they continued. She looked to be a miner, at least because of her clothes, and she had a pickaxe, but otherwise was unarmed, something these bandits would never be. I lifted the arrow away from the bow. She seemed to notice my concern and dropped her pickaxe, raising both hands away from anywhere there could be a weapon. "We're just miners, they were paying us to help them, then they locked us in here," she said.
The room was definitely hand mined, that much was fairly obvious. The farthest right-hand side from the door had a wooden floor with some tables, chairs and another chest. The left was mined out, they presumably wanted a new expansion made so they could expand their bandit count. Over in a corner were four or five sleeping bags, poorly kept, low condition.
I put the arrow back in the quiver, walking across the room to the chest, Scootaloo sticking close behind me, holding my leg. The four miners all looked different from me and Scootaloo, they were all white, with black stripes. Or, black with white stripes, either way, they were not any race I could recognise from Tamriel.
"Thank you, we appreciate your help with getting us out of here, by the way, I presume the room ahead is clear?" she asked.
"Yeah, it should be," I replied, crouching down next to the chest as Scootaloo sat down next to me. I heard the four of them walk out of the room, starting to discuss once they left. I attempted to pick the lock, not too difficult, I managed to unlock it in seconds.
Not much inside, a few picks and some gold plus some simple clothes. I put my hand into the chest, searching for anything else. I reach in and feel something metal beneath the clothes, I manage to pull it free and find a dagger, gold in colour, but not shiny, made of something I've never seen before, on the side it had something scratched into the blade. 'Mi Amore' . It's the dagger for the man in Whiterun, perfect.
I stood up from the chest and turned around, seeing Scootaloo still sitting next to the chest. "Okay, so, this is the dagger for the man back in Whiterun, which means we can get back to Whiterun and see what's next," I said, nearly forgetting we needed to find Proto. "Actually, we'll return to Whiterun, then we have to go find someone, which will require you to use clairvoyance."
"Awesome, I get to use a spell I've only just learned."
"Anyway," I said, standing from the chest, Scooaloo standing next to me, "We should be going, I think we'll be walking back, if you want to try any spells on the way," I said, provoking her to quickly reach into her book bag and immediately start reading what I could only presume was a new spell book.
I started walking to leave the ex-bandit hideout, approaching quickly at the pull chain room, leading Scootaloo out and pulling the chain to shut it behind me, knowing everyone inside had already left. "Right, so, let's get moving," I said, walking across the room and out the front doors of the hideout.
---***---
Halfway to Whiterun, it would seem Scootaloo has learned her new spell, she's been casting a spell for a while now, firing it around, aiming at trees and things. I'm not sure what it is other than that it's either courage or fury - the other two spells Trixie gave her. She was still firing as we walked, even now, she seemed to never run out of Magicka, presumably something to do with her cloak and hood. They're likely enchanted, and probably, by pure chance, with high-level illusion.
"Hey Sunset, where did you come from?" Scootaloo said, catching me off guard.
"Cyrodiil," I said, "Why?" I asked.
"I was just wondering, thinking about my own home, and I didn't remember you saying," she said smiling, it looked slightly forced though. "Where about in Cyrodiil?" she continued.
"A small, mostly underground town, we had no real connection to the outside world and it was just me and some other Imperials down there, it wasn't great, but it was home," I said.
"Why did you leave?" she asked.
"King Sombra getting into power meant that I wasn't safe, the political state is in shambles, everything is terrifying and he's attempting to enslave the nation."
"Really?" she said, "I don't know the political state in Skyrim, even," she said, "I barely even know my own politics," she repeated, laughing a little.
"Yeah, it's pretty bad over here, although, from what I've heard, it's not much better over there."
"Well, I know of the war, don't particularly care for it though," she said, "I'm meant to be a determined Dashite, but I don't care about whatever they're fighting for."
"I've realised. Anyway, that's Whiterun, so we're basically back, still bright, do you want to go anywhere?" I asked. Whiterun wasn't the best city, quite small, mostly shops or houses, not really much to do for leisure. It had a large wall around it, so it wasn't all that bad defensively, but still, it could be better.
"Not really, I just want to get out of this sun," she said, "I don't understand how you can like it," she continued. A fair point, considering that she had a full covering cloak on. It must be fairly hot, especially with the magic emitting its heat as well.
"We should go get you some casual clothes, or, really, anything to wear underneath that," I I said, remembering that her cloak was nearly all she was wearing.
"Sure, if it gets us out of this sun," she replied.
"Alright then, we'll go to the inn, get the dagger handed in, then go to the local clothes store for you."
"Alright then," she said, pulling her hood further over her head.
We walked to the inn, pushing the door open and seeing the same bartender behind the bar. I walked over and sat down, Scootaloo sat next to me and got a book out.
"Hey," I said to the bartender, "I managed to get the dagger back," I continued.
"Brilliant, it belongs to a patron by the name of Cadence, apparently she's in Whiterun for the day, so you can hand it to her yourself, I'm sure she'll be grateful," the bartender replied, naming someone I had never heard of before. "I'm sure if you ask Shining Armor he'll know where she is. Or ask Twilight."
Alright, thanks," I said, turning to look at Scootaloo, who was already back in her books. "Do you mind if she just sits here and reads? I'm going to find Cadence, give her the dagger and return," I said.
"Sure thing, she's free to stay all day if you want," she replied, "She's no hassle, unlike those brutes," she said, probably referring to the drunks sitting around in the centre of the inn.
"Thanks so much, I'll be back shortly," I replied, turning to walk out the front door of the inn.
---***---
I approached the castle again, presuming that Shining Armor would be inside. I pushed the large front doors open, walking inside. "Sunset, back so soon?" Shining Armor said, greeting me on the other side of the door, "I presume you do not have Proto Swipe with you, do you?" he continued.
"No, I am here because I have a weapon which belongs to someone I think you know, Cadence," I replied.
"Oh, well she is right this way, please follow me," he said, turning around, "It's her dagger 'Mi Amore' right?" he continued as we began to walk through the castle.
"Yeah, that's the one," I replied as I walked into a small chamber just off the side of the main castle's throne room.
"Cadence," Shining Armor yelled as we walked into the room, "Someone is here to see you," he said, waiting for a few seconds before the door finally opened, revealing a pink girl, with hair of pink, purple and yellow.
"Hello," she said, addressing me, "Who are you?" she continued, looking over me.
"I'm Sunset Shimmer," I said, "I've come to return this," I said, holding her dagger out in front of me.
"Oh my Celestia, it's my dagger, I've been trying to find someone to help me go retrieve it, thank you so much, you do now know just how much this means to me," she said. She quickly brandished a relatively small bag of coins, "I was going to offer this out to anyone who could help me, so I guess that means it goes to you," she said, handing me the bag.
I opened it and looked inside, seeing at least four Whiterun Platinums and some regular gold coins. "I think this must be a mistake, this is nearly five-hundred gold worth of coins," I said, holding the small bag back towards her, it was a time-consuming task, but it wasn't worth five hundred gold.
"Like I said, this is a really important dagger," she replied, not reaching out to retrieve the bag. "If you should ever find yourself in Soltheim during your travels, please feel free to come and see me, I'll happily help you out with anything you need."
"I'm also in with that offer if you need anything from me feel free to ask," Shining Armor said.
"Thank you," I said, "I should be off then, I have to go find someone far away," I said, "And I still don't actually know where she is, she could be anywhere in Skyrim by now," I continued.
"Alright then," Cadence said, "Remember, should you need anything, I will be able to help you, just say the word," she said.
"I will," I said, turning and leaving the room, returning to the main hall of the castle, walking back over to the huge front doors, pushing them open again. So, next on my to-do list, find Proto Swipe. Hopefully, Scootaloo has mastered clairvoyance now, so we can rapidly find her. I'm sure she will have, considering how quickly she learns spells.
---***---
"Yeah, of course, I know it, and I should be able to use it to find her, I've tried it out a little in the bar, I can see exactly what direction certain things are," Scootaloo said, "I've practised a lot," she continued.
"Brilliant," I said, walking out the front door of the city. "It's pretty dark, you sure you want to leave now?" I said.
"Yep, I love the night," she said.
"Alright then," I said, walking over to the carriage near the edge of the city wall. There was a man sitting up front of the cart, being pulled by a horse that looked like it would be much faster than walking. "Hey, can we buy a ride," I said to the man.
"Sure thing, where do you want to go?" he asked.
I turned to look at Scootaloo, "It looks like we're going to Windhelm," Scootaloo said.
"Alright then, climb in back and we'll be off," he said. We both walked behind the cart, I lifted Scootaloo in, before pulling myself up behind her. "It's a bit late to be travelling across the country don't you think?" he said.
"It's still warm and it's not even cloudy, so it could definitely be worse," I replied.
"That is very much true," he replied, "Well, let's be off then," he said, pulling gently on the reigns, the horse started walking fairly rapidly.
I looked over to Scootaloo, who was sitting there, already reading her last book, she looked to have just started it, but I guess this means that by the time we return she'll need a few new ones.
I looked over at the man, seeing him looking back at Scootaloo as well, "I recognise her, don't I?" he said.
"Possibly, her name is Scootaloo, she's Rainbow Dash's sister," I replied.
"Ah yes, of course, good thing you're headed east then. The Imperials wouldn't like her being in their city," he said.
For the rest of the journey, I could see him looking back at me and Scootaloo every so often, but he was mostly silent, rarely asking a few questions, occasionally asking Scootaloo to check we were still going the right way, having noticed quickly that she was using clairvoyance to find someone.
---***---
We arrived in Windhelm just as the sun was rising, and Scootaloo lifted her hood over her head again, sheltering herself from the light, presumably wanting to stay hidden from the outside world.
I looked out over the huge long bridge leading into Windhelm, "So, you can still use clairvoyance to find her right?" I said to Scootaloo, looking over to the city, before turning back to the man at the cart. "Right, how much do I owe you?" I said.
"Forty gold coins," he said. I quickly got my bag of coins out and started looking to see if I had forty loose coins.
"Here," I said, handing over a Whiterun Platinum, "I don't think I have forty loose coins, and I really can't be bothered counting them."
"Uhh, sure, that works too then," he said, "Thank you."
"No problem, and thanks for the ride," I said to him, turning back to Scootaloo, who already had her spell up again, "So, which way?" I said.
She pointed towards the gate to the city, "The only one," she said, walking forward towards the city.
"Of course," I replied.
We entered the city through the front gate, a whole lot easier than at Whiterun and Scootaloo quickly started running towards the castle here. I started to give chase, catching up to her just as she reached the front door of the castle. "Hey, wait up," I said, "Where are we going?" I asked.
"I just wanted to say hey to my sister quickly, sorry, it's been so long," she replied, pushing one of the doors open slightly. I followed her inside, but she quickly turned and stood behind me.
"Scootaloo, it's your sister," I said, wondering why she was hiding. I saw Rainbow Dash walk towards me and Scootaloo, with some men with crossbows on either side of her.
She must have seen that they were following her, as she stopped dead and spun around on one heel. "Alright, for the last fucking time, no, you cannot kill my sister!" she yelled. "Get out of my city!" she continued, "Now!" she screamed as they stood staring back at her. She took a deep breath, "Alright then, alright, alright, you know what, if you don't want to leave, I'll get you out myself," she said, speeding up her words as she spoke. "Guards, open the doors," she said. "You two stand aside," she said, looking back at us.
The two massive doors opened entirely, revealing the staircase down to the rest of the city behind it. "One. Last. Chance," she said. When the two men with crossbows stood still between her and the doors, she shrugged, "Fair enough," she said, taking in a deep breath, before yelling "Fus Ro Dah!" she yelled, a blue pulse flying forwards from her mouth, launching the two men backwards over the top step, I could hear them both hitting several steps on the way down, breaking apart as they fell. "Guards, clean them up and chuck them out of the city, don't let them back in," she said calmly, turning away.
She turned back to us, "I'm sorry you had to see that," she said, "Some Dawnguard members wanting to kill my sister. They just don't understand that I won't let them do they," she said. "Anyway, who are you?" she asked.
Scootaloo lowered her hood, revealing her face and hair to her older sister, "Hey Rainbow," she said. I understood now why she had stood behind me, now stepping out in front of me to greet her sister with a massive smile.
"Scootaloo, for the love of Discord where have you been?" she said happily.
"I got annoyed that you wouldn't let me go on any adventures with the guards, so I ran off to have my own one," she said, her eyes tearing up, "I'm so sorry," she said, holding back tears, "I got caught up in Bleak Falls Barrow, but Sunset rescued me," she continued, turning to look at me before running to hug Rainbow Dash.
"Kid, you don't know how worried I was about you," she said. "You shouldn't have just run off like that," she said. "And you," she said turning to me, "Thank you so much for saving her, I owe you big time," she said.
"It wasn't that big of a deal, it was really just a short walk to a place I would've been going anyway," I replied, "Still, she has proven she is a fairly capable fighter, especially with her ring and dagger, and more recently she's learned some impressive magic too," I said.
"Really?" Rainbow said, kneeling down next to Scootaloo, who had managed to stop her tears, "Which sort of magic," she said.
"Illusion, but it's all basic level spells," Scootaloo replied, smiling up at her sister.
"Impressive, I've never managed to learn even basic illusion spells, never mind anything more complicated, I could never get my head around that concept," she said.
"Excuse me," I said, "But if you don't mind me asking who were those people you kicked out, and why did they want to kill Scootaloo?" I asked.
"Those were the Dawnguard," Rainbow Dash replied, "A group of vampire hunters who don't understand that not every vampire is evil," she said. She saw my look of complete misunderstanding, "You do know that Scootaloo is a vampire right?" she replied.
I shook my head in response. I had no idea, although, that did explain her tendency to have her hood up during the day.
"Really?" Scootaloo replied, "So having my hood up at all time every day didn't give it away?" she said, "Or the fact that I trailed behind after Bleak Falls to drink some blood?" she continued. "None of that seemed suspicious. Nor my glowing eyes?" she said.
"Well, no, none of that occurred to me," I replied.
"Really?" The two replied in sync.
"Yep," I replied, feeling stupid now.
"Well, that's, odd," Rainbow said, "Anyway, never mind that. Thank you so much for rescuing my sister, I feel like a reward is in order," she said, "And naturally if you need anything I will be happy to assist you," she continued.
"That's quite alright," I replied, "I'm just looking for someone here by the name of Proto Swipe," I continued.
"Easy enough, she's in the training room upstairs, you're free to go see her if you want?" Rainbow said.
"Sure," I replied. Well, this was easier than using clairvoyance to find her.
"Alright then, guard, show Sunset - was it - to the training room," she said.
"Certainly, my queen," the guard replied, turning to walk up the stairs in the back of the room, I followed closely behind.
Level up:
