My Older Siblings Cannot be the Dragonborn (Skyrim SI)
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
Raviollius
...but what happens afterwards?
- Location
- .
I can smell the stealth archery. It's more broken than the dragon shouts, after all.
Also, for those that didn't catch it: that was a sneak attack with the mace.
Also, for those that didn't catch it: that was a sneak attack with the mace.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
helping Dragnor."
rather than three.
than a dozen Stormcloaks
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
StellarMonarch
Myrmidon
- Location
- Québec
Raviollius
...but what happens afterwards?
- Location
- .
Ditto for Portuguese. Uma dúzia de ovos.
- Location
- The Medium
Why do I have the feeling that each member of the "Family" has Deadric Connections? Would put the title into some interesting context, "My Older Siblings Cannot be the Dragonborn", because we are all Daedra worshipers! Hail Sheograth, Meridia, Noctural....." Until Shade says otherwise this is my headcannon.
Extra: All Main ElderScrolls Games (Other) than Skyrim has people being granted power by their month of birth, whill that be in play here? Like shade being exceptionally gifted in speech-craft because he was born under the sign of the lady, Rea the Witch the sign of the Apprentice, Willow under Shadow/Thief/Tower, and Dragnor under Warrior/Astronach/Tower?
Extra: All Main ElderScrolls Games (Other) than Skyrim has people being granted power by their month of birth, whill that be in play here? Like shade being exceptionally gifted in speech-craft because he was born under the sign of the lady, Rea the Witch the sign of the Apprentice, Willow under Shadow/Thief/Tower, and Dragnor under Warrior/Astronach/Tower?
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
Easy enough.
Ten siblings. Ten playable races.
A name for each race.
- Location
- U.S.A.
And a ring for each one.
Ars Poetica
ULTIMA RATIO NEMO OBLIGATUR
- Location
- The Kingdom of Fiore
- Pronouns
- He / Him / His
So either Willow is a Wood Elf who's good at sneaking around and has a tree theme name, or she's a catgirl that leaves mice in her siblings' beds to teach them lessons.
- Location
- U.S.A.
We did that already in one of his previous SI in Familiar of Zero. It was Isabella I believe.
Chapter Four - Wilderness - 17th of Last Seed 4E 201 - Umbra
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Four - Wilderness - 17th of Last Seed 4E 201 - Umbra
We stepped outside to the dying light of the sun, and the rising brilliance of the stars. Well, the others stepped outside. I dragged myself out with the sweat leaving my skin by the score, by body hurting in places and muscles I didn't even know I had.
"Riverwood's not far," Hadvar said. "We can reach it by marching through the night and sticking to the road."
"March...ing?" I wheezed out, coughing and shaking my head.
"There's nothing out here but the wilderness," Hadvar replied. "Marching is a better alternative, and the Imperial army needs to be warned of what happened at Helgen."
"Yeah, yeah..." I coughed once more, even as I felt Rae's hand pat my back. I shuddered from the cold, biting winds. "I can't take another step. You go on ahead. We'll see each others in Solitude anyway."
Hadvar actually seemed ready to say something else, but he thought better of it, and nodded. "We'll get a carriage from Whiterun. If you manage to catch up to us, we'll cover the road together."
"Sure!" Dragnor grinned, and once the trio of Imperial soldiers had vacated the premises, he turned towards Rae and I. "I'll set up camp at the entrance of the cave. Beats staying out in the wilds at night." He began to pluck from the ground what branches and dry leafs he could find. Rae gently dragged me back beneath the archway of stone, helping me sit down as she proceeded to check my temperature with her cool hands on my forehead.
"You're running a fever," she whispered.
"You don't look rosy cheeked either," I croaked back, only for her to shake her head.
"The duty of the healer is to treat the patient before himself," she said as she dropped with care her sack. I absentmindedly removed the backpack I had taken from the torturer's room, and as I fumbled with the bag's clasps, I felt the jingling of gold coins inside one of the pockets.
I chuckled. "Hey, we got ourselves...four gold coins," I placed the back of my head against the rocky wall, pulling out what felt like a book to my hands, my eyes half-closed from tiredness. I opened them and strained myself to read the title. "The Book of the Dragonborn," I flipped open the pages, my eyes trying hard to decipher the characters that without light were nearly impossible to read.
"You'll strain your eyes. Wait for the day before reading a book," Dragnor's grubby and dirty fingers grabbed the book out of my hands as he snapped it to a close, "But we can use the paper to start the fire."
"Or we can sell it when we reach the closest village," Rae replied. She pushed her hair back and began to work on setting a few rocks in a circular pattern, into which Dragnor threw the leafs and the wooden sticks. A couple of minutes later, and a small fire burned brightly in the circle of rocks. A thick dark blue cloak was put around my back by Rae's careful hands, and as I furrowed my brows and opened my mouth to ask, she grinned and answered me before I could get a word in. "Ripped off a few Stormcloaks' mantles."
"Is there one for me too?" Dragnor asked, his breathing emitting large clouds of haze as he sat down near the fire after having gathered some more wood, throwing a branch on the fire after snapping it in half.
"I don't know," Rae said, pursing her lips. "Do you deserve sleeping with something warm to cover you?"
"He does," I said before Dragnor could protest, "Everyone...does," I mumbled as I closed my eyes, my head pounding from what could only be fever. I heard Rae snort, and mutter something I didn't quite catch.
"Don't go to sleep yet," Rae said, "I've got to cook dinner. We've got a pot, some water, some rabbit and some cabbage. We'll eat a dinner worthy of a king tonight."
"Speaking of meat," Dragnor said as he suddenly stood up, "There was that bear carcass back in the cave and that wheeled cart. Let's see if I can't get something nice out of it."
My eyes bleakly opened to the figure of Dragnor moving back into the depths of the cave. "Cut me some strips of bear meat and I'll make jerky out of it!"
The affirmative reply from the back of the cave was accompanied with the sound of hacking, slashing and ripping.
"Can I help?" I asked with a pained whisper, trying to scuttle closer to the fire only for Rae to gingerly shake her head.
"You stay there. You did a lot today and you need your rest," she said with a small smile.
"Your hands are shaking," I pointed out, glancing at the trembling fingers that clutched each others while in wait for the food to cook. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Rae forcefully smiled, and then shook her head. "No, it's nothing. It's just...I never killed a man before. A few animals to trap their souls into Soul Gems yes, but..." she looked down at the pot. "Oh...how am I going to stir this now?" she mumbled, before grabbing her iron dagger and using it to move the bits and pieces around the pot. "We don't even have spoons, but we do have cups. We can use those."
"You did nothing wrong, big sister Rae," I whispered. "It was us or them."
"I know that," Rae said, "But I'm just...maybe there was another way." She shook her head. "No, there probably wasn't. It's just...the first thing my teacher told me was to not let magic go over my head. You're a gutter rat. A pretty gutter rat, but still a rat. If you never forget that, you'll master magic, otherwise magic will master you. That's what he used to say," she smiled softly.
"I don't think you'd let magic get to your head," I said honestly enough. "Otherwise...you wouldn't care about it being wrong, would you?"
Rae kept a smile on her face, "I guess so, but you know Umbra, with your silver tongue you'd say anything to make me feel better, even if it were objectively wrong."
I sheepishly smiled. "You're the prettiest big sister I have?"
Rae laughed gingerly, "Don't let your other sisters hear you say that or they'll think you don't like them anymore," she joked, "But I guess you don't remember your other sisters, so it's a moot point."
"What are they like?" I asked.
"It's better if you remember them by yourself," Rae said. "Perhaps that's the best way to go about it."
A bear head rolled by my side, the creature's tongue lolled out as Dragnor settled down by my side, using the furry top as an armrest. He had dragged all the way to the entrance the wheeled cart, and had filled it with the bear's bits and pieces. He handed off a set of long thin strips of meat to Rae, who pulled the pot to the side of the fire to grab a few more wooden sticks and pierce the strips through their lengths.
She then set them close to the fire to dry, pouring a good pinch of salt over them.
"So, out of all of our siblings, you must only fake it with Willow," Dragnor said. "She's a Bosmer, golden eyes, hazel hair. She's found her roots a decade ago, and thus follows the Green Pact to the letter. She only eats meat, doesn't hurt the forest or its animals and has a really terrible vindictive streak. When you see her, you must rush forward and hug her tight while saying things like beautiful older sister Willow, Dragnor's innocent or you look even better than I last remembered, because I do remember you and everyone else in our family, and clearly Dragnor isn't at fault for making me lose my memory. Not that I lost my memory or anything. Understood?"
I chuckled.
"I'll tell her exactly that," I said with a small smile.
"Good! Good," Dragnor nodded. "You know, before losing your memories, you always did what I told you. If I told you to go speak to a pretty lady to enhance my charms, you'd go right ahead. And if I ever was in trouble with the guards, you'd come to my rescue rather than let me spend some days in a cold, dank cell."
I nodded, even as Rae's lips twitched in a smile.
"Also, I am your favorite older brother. You paid my debts, all of them, with a smile on your face."
I furrowed my brows. "You shouldn't have debts," I said. "Play as much as you have, not as much as you think you'll earn."
"That's silly, if I've got good cards then how can I not play to win?"
Rae interrupted Dragnor by passing him a cup filled with warm stew, and then did the same to me. I took a tentative sip, and then moaned in pleasure as the warm broth traveled down my throat.
"Thank the Gods we didn't end up with Hirume," Dragnor said after he finished his cup, "We would have starved to death."
"I should have followed her counsel and waited for the others rather than just follow you two dunderheads. No, rather, it was your idea in particular Dragnor. The wind is howling outside this comfy inn! A sign that Shor is calling, let us follow it! And then you dragged Umbra along and I followed you two because we both know you'd get him killed otherwise and look! Look what just happened! We were scheduled for the chopping block! The. Chopping. Block!" Rae's voice began to grow further higher as she kept on speaking, Dragnor shrinking against the wall. "And as always in your case Umbra sweet talked the guards into letting us off the hook!"
"That just makes us the perfect duo of adventurers?" Dragnor hazarded.
"No, it makes you a duo of foolish dunderheads," Rae said, taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself. "There. I said all that I had to say. Let's speak of this no more."
"He was really cool fighting off the Stormcloaks though," I said hesitantly.
Rae's glare made me shrink back too.
Dragnor patted my shoulder, a brotherly smile of pride on his lips.
I smiled back, and finished my dinner before licking my lips.
Sadly, there were no seconds.
What a cruel, cruel world.
We stepped outside to the dying light of the sun, and the rising brilliance of the stars. Well, the others stepped outside. I dragged myself out with the sweat leaving my skin by the score, by body hurting in places and muscles I didn't even know I had.
"Riverwood's not far," Hadvar said. "We can reach it by marching through the night and sticking to the road."
"March...ing?" I wheezed out, coughing and shaking my head.
"There's nothing out here but the wilderness," Hadvar replied. "Marching is a better alternative, and the Imperial army needs to be warned of what happened at Helgen."
"Yeah, yeah..." I coughed once more, even as I felt Rae's hand pat my back. I shuddered from the cold, biting winds. "I can't take another step. You go on ahead. We'll see each others in Solitude anyway."
Hadvar actually seemed ready to say something else, but he thought better of it, and nodded. "We'll get a carriage from Whiterun. If you manage to catch up to us, we'll cover the road together."
"Sure!" Dragnor grinned, and once the trio of Imperial soldiers had vacated the premises, he turned towards Rae and I. "I'll set up camp at the entrance of the cave. Beats staying out in the wilds at night." He began to pluck from the ground what branches and dry leafs he could find. Rae gently dragged me back beneath the archway of stone, helping me sit down as she proceeded to check my temperature with her cool hands on my forehead.
"You're running a fever," she whispered.
"You don't look rosy cheeked either," I croaked back, only for her to shake her head.
"The duty of the healer is to treat the patient before himself," she said as she dropped with care her sack. I absentmindedly removed the backpack I had taken from the torturer's room, and as I fumbled with the bag's clasps, I felt the jingling of gold coins inside one of the pockets.
I chuckled. "Hey, we got ourselves...four gold coins," I placed the back of my head against the rocky wall, pulling out what felt like a book to my hands, my eyes half-closed from tiredness. I opened them and strained myself to read the title. "The Book of the Dragonborn," I flipped open the pages, my eyes trying hard to decipher the characters that without light were nearly impossible to read.
"You'll strain your eyes. Wait for the day before reading a book," Dragnor's grubby and dirty fingers grabbed the book out of my hands as he snapped it to a close, "But we can use the paper to start the fire."
"Or we can sell it when we reach the closest village," Rae replied. She pushed her hair back and began to work on setting a few rocks in a circular pattern, into which Dragnor threw the leafs and the wooden sticks. A couple of minutes later, and a small fire burned brightly in the circle of rocks. A thick dark blue cloak was put around my back by Rae's careful hands, and as I furrowed my brows and opened my mouth to ask, she grinned and answered me before I could get a word in. "Ripped off a few Stormcloaks' mantles."
"Is there one for me too?" Dragnor asked, his breathing emitting large clouds of haze as he sat down near the fire after having gathered some more wood, throwing a branch on the fire after snapping it in half.
"I don't know," Rae said, pursing her lips. "Do you deserve sleeping with something warm to cover you?"
"He does," I said before Dragnor could protest, "Everyone...does," I mumbled as I closed my eyes, my head pounding from what could only be fever. I heard Rae snort, and mutter something I didn't quite catch.
"Don't go to sleep yet," Rae said, "I've got to cook dinner. We've got a pot, some water, some rabbit and some cabbage. We'll eat a dinner worthy of a king tonight."
"Speaking of meat," Dragnor said as he suddenly stood up, "There was that bear carcass back in the cave and that wheeled cart. Let's see if I can't get something nice out of it."
My eyes bleakly opened to the figure of Dragnor moving back into the depths of the cave. "Cut me some strips of bear meat and I'll make jerky out of it!"
The affirmative reply from the back of the cave was accompanied with the sound of hacking, slashing and ripping.
"Can I help?" I asked with a pained whisper, trying to scuttle closer to the fire only for Rae to gingerly shake her head.
"You stay there. You did a lot today and you need your rest," she said with a small smile.
"Your hands are shaking," I pointed out, glancing at the trembling fingers that clutched each others while in wait for the food to cook. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Rae forcefully smiled, and then shook her head. "No, it's nothing. It's just...I never killed a man before. A few animals to trap their souls into Soul Gems yes, but..." she looked down at the pot. "Oh...how am I going to stir this now?" she mumbled, before grabbing her iron dagger and using it to move the bits and pieces around the pot. "We don't even have spoons, but we do have cups. We can use those."
"You did nothing wrong, big sister Rae," I whispered. "It was us or them."
"I know that," Rae said, "But I'm just...maybe there was another way." She shook her head. "No, there probably wasn't. It's just...the first thing my teacher told me was to not let magic go over my head. You're a gutter rat. A pretty gutter rat, but still a rat. If you never forget that, you'll master magic, otherwise magic will master you. That's what he used to say," she smiled softly.
"I don't think you'd let magic get to your head," I said honestly enough. "Otherwise...you wouldn't care about it being wrong, would you?"
Rae kept a smile on her face, "I guess so, but you know Umbra, with your silver tongue you'd say anything to make me feel better, even if it were objectively wrong."
I sheepishly smiled. "You're the prettiest big sister I have?"
Rae laughed gingerly, "Don't let your other sisters hear you say that or they'll think you don't like them anymore," she joked, "But I guess you don't remember your other sisters, so it's a moot point."
"What are they like?" I asked.
"It's better if you remember them by yourself," Rae said. "Perhaps that's the best way to go about it."
A bear head rolled by my side, the creature's tongue lolled out as Dragnor settled down by my side, using the furry top as an armrest. He had dragged all the way to the entrance the wheeled cart, and had filled it with the bear's bits and pieces. He handed off a set of long thin strips of meat to Rae, who pulled the pot to the side of the fire to grab a few more wooden sticks and pierce the strips through their lengths.
She then set them close to the fire to dry, pouring a good pinch of salt over them.
"So, out of all of our siblings, you must only fake it with Willow," Dragnor said. "She's a Bosmer, golden eyes, hazel hair. She's found her roots a decade ago, and thus follows the Green Pact to the letter. She only eats meat, doesn't hurt the forest or its animals and has a really terrible vindictive streak. When you see her, you must rush forward and hug her tight while saying things like beautiful older sister Willow, Dragnor's innocent or you look even better than I last remembered, because I do remember you and everyone else in our family, and clearly Dragnor isn't at fault for making me lose my memory. Not that I lost my memory or anything. Understood?"
I chuckled.
"I'll tell her exactly that," I said with a small smile.
"Good! Good," Dragnor nodded. "You know, before losing your memories, you always did what I told you. If I told you to go speak to a pretty lady to enhance my charms, you'd go right ahead. And if I ever was in trouble with the guards, you'd come to my rescue rather than let me spend some days in a cold, dank cell."
I nodded, even as Rae's lips twitched in a smile.
"Also, I am your favorite older brother. You paid my debts, all of them, with a smile on your face."
I furrowed my brows. "You shouldn't have debts," I said. "Play as much as you have, not as much as you think you'll earn."
"That's silly, if I've got good cards then how can I not play to win?"
Rae interrupted Dragnor by passing him a cup filled with warm stew, and then did the same to me. I took a tentative sip, and then moaned in pleasure as the warm broth traveled down my throat.
"Thank the Gods we didn't end up with Hirume," Dragnor said after he finished his cup, "We would have starved to death."
"I should have followed her counsel and waited for the others rather than just follow you two dunderheads. No, rather, it was your idea in particular Dragnor. The wind is howling outside this comfy inn! A sign that Shor is calling, let us follow it! And then you dragged Umbra along and I followed you two because we both know you'd get him killed otherwise and look! Look what just happened! We were scheduled for the chopping block! The. Chopping. Block!" Rae's voice began to grow further higher as she kept on speaking, Dragnor shrinking against the wall. "And as always in your case Umbra sweet talked the guards into letting us off the hook!"
"That just makes us the perfect duo of adventurers?" Dragnor hazarded.
"No, it makes you a duo of foolish dunderheads," Rae said, taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself. "There. I said all that I had to say. Let's speak of this no more."
"He was really cool fighting off the Stormcloaks though," I said hesitantly.
Rae's glare made me shrink back too.
Dragnor patted my shoulder, a brotherly smile of pride on his lips.
I smiled back, and finished my dinner before licking my lips.
Sadly, there were no seconds.
What a cruel, cruel world.
Last edited:
Fabuzer
The Almighty
- Location
- Milan, Italy
If Rae and Dragnor weren't uneducated, medieval people, they would know that hitting your head doesn't make you lose twenty years worth of memories. Unfortunately, we had to somehow drop our SI into Skyrim without being a toddler or a lonely guy with literally no friends or parents.
You know, I feel a bit sad for the original Umbra. I wonder, though, with how his siblings haven't noticed anything amiss with his personality apart from his lack of memories, is it possible that Umbra acted just like how the SI would have acted?
You know, I feel a bit sad for the original Umbra. I wonder, though, with how his siblings haven't noticed anything amiss with his personality apart from his lack of memories, is it possible that Umbra acted just like how the SI would have acted?
frozenchicken
Does not have a custom title.
Maybe if Shadumbra dreams hard enough, something of the original Umbra might get through. It would certainly be metaphysically appropriate.
Wobulator
Within 1 AU of you!
- Location
- Mars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Not necessarily.
This fits almost perfectly with generalized amnesia.
Pretty sure you mean Soul Gems.
- Location
- Brazil
It's been ten thousand words.
StellarMonarch
Myrmidon
- Location
- Québec
It's so sweet and yet so bitter. Bittersweet.
Gah.
Gah.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
my body hurting
leaves
leaves is the 'multiple leaf' term, Shade. And also the 'go away somewhere' term, it depends on context.
clutched each other while
- Location
- United States
I have a feeling that Willow will Not be fooled.
- Location
- The Medium
You have my pity Shade, Whenever I and/or my family cooks we make enough for ten people to have thirds every day for a week. Our wallets may be empty, But our bellies shall be forever full!
Chapter Five - Wilderness - 18th of Last Seed 4E 201 - Umbra
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Five - Wilderness - 18th of Last Seed 4E 201 - Umbra
I woke up to a sharp shoulder shaking, and yet I didn't want to wake up. I had found the perfect position to sleep, curled against the wall of the cave and trapping against it the hot air generated by a mixture of my night's perspiration and my sheer body temperature. It was a comfortable spot that even though had all of my bones broken, most of my muscles aching, and definitely saw me twitch more often than not, still was better than the alternative of getting up and starting the morning with the knowledge that only a long march of at least eight hours stood in front of us.
Eight hours of marching for an Imperial trained soldier. For the likes of us, or more precisely for the likes of me, it would take way longer. We'd probably arrive in the late afternoon, and that was if we didn't encounter any troublesome things to slow us down. Though I sincerely hoped that wolves wouldn't be our attackers, I couldn't do anything but pray for it. People could be reasoned with, bandits could be turned away by showing empty pockets and raised hands, but hungry animals would attack once they believed they could take the prey down.
Breakfast consisted of bear meat stew and sips of boiled water, the breakfast of champions if I could say so myself. Only it wasn't, because the bear didn't feed on berries, but fish. So it was like tasting the low tide, and I, having lived in a coastal town, knew very well what kind of low tide it was. The fat had been trimmed, and thankfully the stew had a few vegetables in it to cover the taste, but it was still something that I forced down my throat in order to keep my shaking body warm, rather than something I ate because I Found it good.
Do not waste food, especially not in emergency situations where every tiny scrap counts.
Once we were done, Dragnor grabbed hold of the cart's two wooden shafts and began to pull it forward, the wheels creaking until he managed to get past the inertia, at which point it became a sort of smooth walk.
"Are you sure you can pull it all the way to the next village?" Rae asked, concern in her voice.
"Sure," Dragnor huffed. "Once we get there, we'll put money aside to buy a horse to pull it."
"Horses have prices that vary wildly, but mainly stick to an average of one thousand septims," I coughed out, "I don't think we'll ever get that much money in one go."
Dragnor sighed, "Then I'll just pull it along until we finally buy a horse. How does that sound?"
"You'll just get tired sooner," Rae muttered.
"It's good training," Dragnor replied with a cheeky grin. "And this way, I get to keep the pace with you slowpokes who can't even be bothered to run thrice around the Imperial Arena each morning like I did," he laughed brightly. "Where would you be without me, I wonder?"
"Back inside the comfy inn," Rae and I both said at the same time, before we both looked at one another and burst out in giggles and chuckles, Dragnor groaning in reply. The winds of Skyrim billowed against the top of the large trees, the snow slowly but surely coming less as we reached closer to the White River. There were a few butterflies flapping their beautiful wings around, and Rae took a small breath before zapping a few down with tiny bolts of electricity, rushing to pluck their wings off.
She repeated the procedure with the various plants we crossed along the way, sometimes bringing whole pieces on the back of the cart, grinning brightly. "Now if I just find a mortar and a pestle I can get to work on making something to keep us warm."
"I will not drink anything made with butterfly wings," Dragnor grumbled.
"Then I will forcefully pour it down your throat," Rae replied without missing a beat. "Don't worry, there won't be any icky insect wings inside my potion. Berries and flowers, it's going to be a bit spicy though, so try to bear with it."
"I most certainly will," Dragnor said.
I grabbed the head of the bear from the back of the carriage, and held it aloft for the other two to see, "I will bear it too," I said.
Dragnor's guffawing was accompanied by Rae's lips twitching. I put the bear head back on the carriage, and as the road stretched in front of us, I bleakly began to close my eyes every now and then as we walked. The road was pretty much uneven, but my head felt heavy, and my body shook from tremors. Yet it was better to move than to just crawl on the back of the wheeled carriage. I didn't think Dragnor would be quite capable of pulling myself along with the carriage and the bear's remains.
I felt the sores form beneath the soles of my feet as I placed one step ahead of another, my shoulders stiff and my arms in pain. The sun over our heads was warm, but I didn't need the sun because my brain was boiling by itself. It was the dull thrumming of a high fever, and yet I pushed through because one more step taken towards Riverwood was one step less in the wilderness.
The silence was broken by Dragnor stopping the cart, and glancing at a split in the road. "Helgen, Riverwood and Falkreath," he said. "I guess Riverwood's closer," he turned to look at Rae. "It's been a couple of hours. Want to rest here?"
"I am getting tired," Rae acquiesced.
I nodded in turn, catching my breath as I plopped down with my back against the wooden sign. My eyes went naturally up, to where the big Skyrim trees seemed to split apart a few meters away, to give one a perfect view of Bleak Falls Barrow, the number one dungeon that everyone playing Skyrim did, if nothing else because the Main Quest demanded it. I felt Dragnor's body land by my side, having taken a seat to share the wooden pole after dragging a couple of rocks in front of the wheels of the carriage to prevent it from moving.
"Back in Cyrodiil, when you were young, you used to love getting piggybacks," Dragnor said as he began to clean one of his swords, using a piece of bear fur to do the job. "If I wasn't the one giving you a piggyback, then it was one of the others. You preferred Hirume though, because she was the tallest."
"You liked her silver hair too," Rae giggled as she propped down on my other side. "You couldn't stop playing with it whenever she was sitting down, and thus at arm's reach. You made such funny hairstyles! She would always fuss about how you were ruining her hair, but she didn't really bother stopping you."
"When was I born?" I asked next.
Rae smiled awkwardly. "We're all orphans, little brother. None of us know the month or day when we were born, but we know who's older and who isn't, so...we all decided to pick the same day to celebrate our birthdays. It's the tenth day of Frostfall."
"I see," I muttered, closing my eyes and taking small breaths. When I opened my eyes again, I realized I was resting on a stiff wooden surface with wheels. The change had been kind of jarring, but my half-asleep brain didn't catch up, and as I snuggled a bit more on the warm fur beneath my cheek, I hugged myself and allowed sleep to claim me again. I woke up again in a warm bed. This time I most definitely realized what had happened, especially because my fever had gone down, or perhaps disappeared entirely, and my stomach was thus grumbling because of hunger.
The bed I was in was quite large, and it could have easily fit two or more people. I tentatively took a look around the room, the large door at the end of the room closed even though loud noises were coming through it. I bleakly got to the side of the bed, and winced at the cold that seeped past the thick wool covers. My entire body was in pain, but this kind of pain was something I could feel and withstand.
I wobbled towards the dresser, opening it to retrieve the Imperial armor. Now that I got a good look at it, it was a nice set of leather pieces all lacking the symbols of the dragon which instead was meant to be on the shield. I winced as I began to unbuckle the various straps in order to put it on. The clothes I was wearing weren't the ragged pieces of clothes I had held beneath, but cleaner versions of them.
The blood red tabard was a single piece of cloth that went first, covering the skin and preventing the armor from chaffing once it was clasped on. The times of Larping proved useful, because while it wasn't as easy as it seemed, it still followed some set rules. The first being that scouts had to be quick to dress, and this in turn translated into easy to wear armor.
By the time I was set, the mace clasped to my side and the shield hanging from my back, I stepped out of the room after checking inside the chest by the bed's end and inside each drawer I could get my hands on. As was predictable, I found a grand total of seven Septims.
Imperial luck was definitely a thing. I now had...seven Septims. The four I had found before had probably ended up in Rae or Dragnor's pouches, and I wasn't going to hold it against them. They might have used them to get a room for the night, perhaps finding work to cover the difference while they dropped me in bed. I made a grand total of three steps before the bartender looked at me and said a single word. "Wait."
I stopped, and then I neared the counter. "Yes?" I asked, trying to filch through my memories for his name, and failing miserably at that.
"Your siblings left Riverwood for the day. They paid the room until tomorrow," he spoke crisply, and then proceeded to put away a few empty metal cups. "Said not to worry."
I nodded, "Where did they go?" I asked, half-dreading the answer. Where all Dragonborns post-Helgen go, of course.
"Didn't say," the man continued.
"Thank you," I answered as I stepped away from the counter, passing by the side of the long fire pit in the center of the room. There were more than a few men and women sitting at the tables, most of those I didn't even recognize. No, to be truly honest, none of them I recognized. This was Riverwood, but it was as if somebody had decided to throw dozens and dozens of tall German-looking people into the mix, adding a couple of spruces of color with some Redguards, a nice hint of fur with a Khajiit smoking a pipe in a corner and a few imperials looking quite distressed.
I didn't make the door.
"Hey you!" an Imperial I had never seen before in my entire life spoke harshly, standing up from a nearby table. "What's the meaning of this!? Why is the border closed? If my merchandise rots, who's going to pay for it, the legion?" he had all of the bearings of the rich merchant, and as I looked at him with a puzzled expression, as if trying to understand just who he could ever possibly be, the man actually jabbed a finger against my chest. "I'm talking to you, you good for nothing soldier! Spent your time drinking mead with the Septims we hard-working merchants get robbed of with your obscene taxes for the war effort, and you can't even give me a good enough answer as to what is going on!?"
"I apologize," I said, taking the wind out of the merchant's sail to get a word in. "You are, of course, entitled to a full refund on your spoiled merchandise should you first of all give me your name, and a piece of parchment with the list of what you are carrying," I gingerly closed my left fist and thumped it near my heart, "On my honor as a soldier of the Imperial legion, I will see to it that my superior is told of what has transpired and proper reparations will be made for the merchandise should it spoil before the border is reopened."
The imperial merchant smiled smugly, "Ah, a soldier who knows how the world works," he turned with a grin towards his fellows, "See? What did I tell you? Nobody dares say no to me."
"Attrebus, cut the man some slack," another of the Imperial merchants spoke from the table Attrebus had apparently stood up from in order to come bother me. He had a pudgy-looking face and patches of burnt skin on his head, making it look as if he had survived an encounter with quite the intense flame. "There's a civil war going on, what did you expect they'd do?"
There were five of them, all males and all wearing expensive clothes. "You speak like that only because you served in the legion, Vlarimil," Attrebus replied. "That's what's wrong with today's soldiers. They don't even know what discipline is. When I was a child, they would never spend their nights getting drunk into a stupor, or prevent honest-working merchants from doing their job!"
"I think you should let the kid go about his business, because he doesn't look the type who got drunk and spent the night sleeping it off," Vlarimil replied. "You trying to get back to your legion in Solitude? There were three others who passed by here yesterday morning, as if they had wolves on their tails. They stopped by the blacksmith's, so you might ask him where they went."
I nodded, "Solitude," I answered. "It's..." I glanced right and left, "Would you permit me to join your table for a few minutes? Since you have shown me kindness, I'll return it." Vlarimil smiled and nodded, scuttling to the side to allow me to sit by his side, and as Attrebus sat down too, the three remaining merchants huddled closer to hear. "This is confidential," I whispered, "I tell you this in good conscience, from an Imperial to another, hoping it might help you think what is best between your lives or your merchandise," I swallowed, "Helgen has fallen," I said. "The Stormcloaks freed their leader from his chopping block, and set the whole place and the keep ablaze."
"What!? That's-" I whipped my left hand out, and smacked the mouth of the merchant who had made the outburst, hissing for silence all the while. He winced from the blow, but quickly scuttled back down while massaging his lips.
"Hush," I hissed, "The border is closed, but I suggest you take my counsel and leave all the same," I continued. "Skyrim's civil war will reach its end soon enough. General Tullius won't stand for this, and the Stormcloaks have grown bold enough to burn villages and villagers alike."
"Barbaric," Attrebus whispered, his body shaking. "Absolutely barbaric," he continued. "I..." he grabbed the bottle of wine in front of him and drank a long gulp of it. "How did it fall?"
"The Stormcloaks infiltrated the village, perhaps they always planned on doing it, perhaps they knew where Ulfric would be executed," I murmured, "When it was time to execute him, hell broke loose. Catapults, fire...perhaps they hoped to take the General's life, perhaps they just had planned on taking the town closest to the border with the Empire...whatever the reason, people were screaming and dying as Ulfric used his voice to rip apart men and carve his way out of the village. The soldiers in the keep were slaughtered, and while the general managed to escape on horseback, we had our road cut off and dispersed in the keep to avoid the Stormcloaks' coming in from outside," I took a deep breath, "I don't know how many escaped, but it was a massacre. Ulfric won't be satisfied until everyone who isn't a Nord is killed," I finished, clenching my fists. "So...If I were in you, for your safety, I would leave as quickly as possible. And be careful around Helgen for the stragglers..."
One of the merchants looked awfully white, "I...Thank the Eight...I wanted to spend the night there rather than come all the way back here," he clutched his throat, "We could have died," he whispered.
"We could still die," Vlarimil said firmly. "Our safest bet is selling what we have in Solitude, getting a fair price, and then transferring it into jewels before buying a passage on a boat to circle past High Rock and Hammerfell."
"That alone would cut our earnings to nil!" one of the merchants that hadn't yet spoken hissed.
"Better no earnings than being burned alive!" Attrebus snapped, "With all due respect, I don't want to look like Vlarimil ever in my life!"
"And I know fully well how much it hurts to get on the receiving end of magical fire," Vlarimil said in turn. He turned to look at me, his piercing blue eyes staring right into mine, "Listen," he put a hand on my shoulder, "If you ever face a mage, shield your face. Let the shield hit him as you charge, or cover the archers. Mages aim at those first. They get the eyes, and then the face. This...this is good counsel, so follow it well and once it's all over, we'll meet again in Cyrodiil. Look me up in Anvil's Trading outpost and we can share war stories."
"And this is from me," Attrebus said, "Forget about the spoiled merchandise," he hastily grabbed out of his pocket a small pouch of coins, and passed it over. "There's no point in paying Helgen's trade tax if there's no Helgen, is there? Use it to get yourself a sturdy helmet or something. Blows to the head are a nasty business for soldiers."
I blinked as a few more pouches reached my side from the other merchants, and the moment I gathered them, I smiled. "Blessing of the Eight upon you all, but now I'd better go. I must return as swiftly as possible to my legion and..."
Vlarimil's hand patted my shoulder. "Go with Kynareth," he said with a smile. "I'm too old now, or I'd come with you and enlist again. I'm sure it's going to be one hell of a war, but if there are courageous young men like you fighting it, then perhaps there is hope."
I swallowed, and nodded before standing up and turning my back on the five to leave.
I opened the door, gave one last quick look behind me, and then stepped outside to brave the cold of the Skyrim morning with enough speed to startle the drunken man drinking mead on the patio.
My heart drummed a thousand miles per hour as I did the smartest thing I could do and rushed head-first towards the Guardian Stones.
The table I had left behind mere seconds before was, after all, completely empty.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
I woke up to a sharp shoulder shaking, and yet I didn't want to wake up. I had found the perfect position to sleep, curled against the wall of the cave and trapping against it the hot air generated by a mixture of my night's perspiration and my sheer body temperature. It was a comfortable spot that even though had all of my bones broken, most of my muscles aching, and definitely saw me twitch more often than not, still was better than the alternative of getting up and starting the morning with the knowledge that only a long march of at least eight hours stood in front of us.
Eight hours of marching for an Imperial trained soldier. For the likes of us, or more precisely for the likes of me, it would take way longer. We'd probably arrive in the late afternoon, and that was if we didn't encounter any troublesome things to slow us down. Though I sincerely hoped that wolves wouldn't be our attackers, I couldn't do anything but pray for it. People could be reasoned with, bandits could be turned away by showing empty pockets and raised hands, but hungry animals would attack once they believed they could take the prey down.
Breakfast consisted of bear meat stew and sips of boiled water, the breakfast of champions if I could say so myself. Only it wasn't, because the bear didn't feed on berries, but fish. So it was like tasting the low tide, and I, having lived in a coastal town, knew very well what kind of low tide it was. The fat had been trimmed, and thankfully the stew had a few vegetables in it to cover the taste, but it was still something that I forced down my throat in order to keep my shaking body warm, rather than something I ate because I Found it good.
Do not waste food, especially not in emergency situations where every tiny scrap counts.
Once we were done, Dragnor grabbed hold of the cart's two wooden shafts and began to pull it forward, the wheels creaking until he managed to get past the inertia, at which point it became a sort of smooth walk.
"Are you sure you can pull it all the way to the next village?" Rae asked, concern in her voice.
"Sure," Dragnor huffed. "Once we get there, we'll put money aside to buy a horse to pull it."
"Horses have prices that vary wildly, but mainly stick to an average of one thousand septims," I coughed out, "I don't think we'll ever get that much money in one go."
Dragnor sighed, "Then I'll just pull it along until we finally buy a horse. How does that sound?"
"You'll just get tired sooner," Rae muttered.
"It's good training," Dragnor replied with a cheeky grin. "And this way, I get to keep the pace with you slowpokes who can't even be bothered to run thrice around the Imperial Arena each morning like I did," he laughed brightly. "Where would you be without me, I wonder?"
"Back inside the comfy inn," Rae and I both said at the same time, before we both looked at one another and burst out in giggles and chuckles, Dragnor groaning in reply. The winds of Skyrim billowed against the top of the large trees, the snow slowly but surely coming less as we reached closer to the White River. There were a few butterflies flapping their beautiful wings around, and Rae took a small breath before zapping a few down with tiny bolts of electricity, rushing to pluck their wings off.
She repeated the procedure with the various plants we crossed along the way, sometimes bringing whole pieces on the back of the cart, grinning brightly. "Now if I just find a mortar and a pestle I can get to work on making something to keep us warm."
"I will not drink anything made with butterfly wings," Dragnor grumbled.
"Then I will forcefully pour it down your throat," Rae replied without missing a beat. "Don't worry, there won't be any icky insect wings inside my potion. Berries and flowers, it's going to be a bit spicy though, so try to bear with it."
"I most certainly will," Dragnor said.
I grabbed the head of the bear from the back of the carriage, and held it aloft for the other two to see, "I will bear it too," I said.
Dragnor's guffawing was accompanied by Rae's lips twitching. I put the bear head back on the carriage, and as the road stretched in front of us, I bleakly began to close my eyes every now and then as we walked. The road was pretty much uneven, but my head felt heavy, and my body shook from tremors. Yet it was better to move than to just crawl on the back of the wheeled carriage. I didn't think Dragnor would be quite capable of pulling myself along with the carriage and the bear's remains.
I felt the sores form beneath the soles of my feet as I placed one step ahead of another, my shoulders stiff and my arms in pain. The sun over our heads was warm, but I didn't need the sun because my brain was boiling by itself. It was the dull thrumming of a high fever, and yet I pushed through because one more step taken towards Riverwood was one step less in the wilderness.
The silence was broken by Dragnor stopping the cart, and glancing at a split in the road. "Helgen, Riverwood and Falkreath," he said. "I guess Riverwood's closer," he turned to look at Rae. "It's been a couple of hours. Want to rest here?"
"I am getting tired," Rae acquiesced.
I nodded in turn, catching my breath as I plopped down with my back against the wooden sign. My eyes went naturally up, to where the big Skyrim trees seemed to split apart a few meters away, to give one a perfect view of Bleak Falls Barrow, the number one dungeon that everyone playing Skyrim did, if nothing else because the Main Quest demanded it. I felt Dragnor's body land by my side, having taken a seat to share the wooden pole after dragging a couple of rocks in front of the wheels of the carriage to prevent it from moving.
"Back in Cyrodiil, when you were young, you used to love getting piggybacks," Dragnor said as he began to clean one of his swords, using a piece of bear fur to do the job. "If I wasn't the one giving you a piggyback, then it was one of the others. You preferred Hirume though, because she was the tallest."
"You liked her silver hair too," Rae giggled as she propped down on my other side. "You couldn't stop playing with it whenever she was sitting down, and thus at arm's reach. You made such funny hairstyles! She would always fuss about how you were ruining her hair, but she didn't really bother stopping you."
"When was I born?" I asked next.
Rae smiled awkwardly. "We're all orphans, little brother. None of us know the month or day when we were born, but we know who's older and who isn't, so...we all decided to pick the same day to celebrate our birthdays. It's the tenth day of Frostfall."
"I see," I muttered, closing my eyes and taking small breaths. When I opened my eyes again, I realized I was resting on a stiff wooden surface with wheels. The change had been kind of jarring, but my half-asleep brain didn't catch up, and as I snuggled a bit more on the warm fur beneath my cheek, I hugged myself and allowed sleep to claim me again. I woke up again in a warm bed. This time I most definitely realized what had happened, especially because my fever had gone down, or perhaps disappeared entirely, and my stomach was thus grumbling because of hunger.
The bed I was in was quite large, and it could have easily fit two or more people. I tentatively took a look around the room, the large door at the end of the room closed even though loud noises were coming through it. I bleakly got to the side of the bed, and winced at the cold that seeped past the thick wool covers. My entire body was in pain, but this kind of pain was something I could feel and withstand.
I wobbled towards the dresser, opening it to retrieve the Imperial armor. Now that I got a good look at it, it was a nice set of leather pieces all lacking the symbols of the dragon which instead was meant to be on the shield. I winced as I began to unbuckle the various straps in order to put it on. The clothes I was wearing weren't the ragged pieces of clothes I had held beneath, but cleaner versions of them.
The blood red tabard was a single piece of cloth that went first, covering the skin and preventing the armor from chaffing once it was clasped on. The times of Larping proved useful, because while it wasn't as easy as it seemed, it still followed some set rules. The first being that scouts had to be quick to dress, and this in turn translated into easy to wear armor.
By the time I was set, the mace clasped to my side and the shield hanging from my back, I stepped out of the room after checking inside the chest by the bed's end and inside each drawer I could get my hands on. As was predictable, I found a grand total of seven Septims.
Imperial luck was definitely a thing. I now had...seven Septims. The four I had found before had probably ended up in Rae or Dragnor's pouches, and I wasn't going to hold it against them. They might have used them to get a room for the night, perhaps finding work to cover the difference while they dropped me in bed. I made a grand total of three steps before the bartender looked at me and said a single word. "Wait."
I stopped, and then I neared the counter. "Yes?" I asked, trying to filch through my memories for his name, and failing miserably at that.
"Your siblings left Riverwood for the day. They paid the room until tomorrow," he spoke crisply, and then proceeded to put away a few empty metal cups. "Said not to worry."
I nodded, "Where did they go?" I asked, half-dreading the answer. Where all Dragonborns post-Helgen go, of course.
"Didn't say," the man continued.
"Thank you," I answered as I stepped away from the counter, passing by the side of the long fire pit in the center of the room. There were more than a few men and women sitting at the tables, most of those I didn't even recognize. No, to be truly honest, none of them I recognized. This was Riverwood, but it was as if somebody had decided to throw dozens and dozens of tall German-looking people into the mix, adding a couple of spruces of color with some Redguards, a nice hint of fur with a Khajiit smoking a pipe in a corner and a few imperials looking quite distressed.
I didn't make the door.
"Hey you!" an Imperial I had never seen before in my entire life spoke harshly, standing up from a nearby table. "What's the meaning of this!? Why is the border closed? If my merchandise rots, who's going to pay for it, the legion?" he had all of the bearings of the rich merchant, and as I looked at him with a puzzled expression, as if trying to understand just who he could ever possibly be, the man actually jabbed a finger against my chest. "I'm talking to you, you good for nothing soldier! Spent your time drinking mead with the Septims we hard-working merchants get robbed of with your obscene taxes for the war effort, and you can't even give me a good enough answer as to what is going on!?"
"I apologize," I said, taking the wind out of the merchant's sail to get a word in. "You are, of course, entitled to a full refund on your spoiled merchandise should you first of all give me your name, and a piece of parchment with the list of what you are carrying," I gingerly closed my left fist and thumped it near my heart, "On my honor as a soldier of the Imperial legion, I will see to it that my superior is told of what has transpired and proper reparations will be made for the merchandise should it spoil before the border is reopened."
The imperial merchant smiled smugly, "Ah, a soldier who knows how the world works," he turned with a grin towards his fellows, "See? What did I tell you? Nobody dares say no to me."
"Attrebus, cut the man some slack," another of the Imperial merchants spoke from the table Attrebus had apparently stood up from in order to come bother me. He had a pudgy-looking face and patches of burnt skin on his head, making it look as if he had survived an encounter with quite the intense flame. "There's a civil war going on, what did you expect they'd do?"
There were five of them, all males and all wearing expensive clothes. "You speak like that only because you served in the legion, Vlarimil," Attrebus replied. "That's what's wrong with today's soldiers. They don't even know what discipline is. When I was a child, they would never spend their nights getting drunk into a stupor, or prevent honest-working merchants from doing their job!"
"I think you should let the kid go about his business, because he doesn't look the type who got drunk and spent the night sleeping it off," Vlarimil replied. "You trying to get back to your legion in Solitude? There were three others who passed by here yesterday morning, as if they had wolves on their tails. They stopped by the blacksmith's, so you might ask him where they went."
I nodded, "Solitude," I answered. "It's..." I glanced right and left, "Would you permit me to join your table for a few minutes? Since you have shown me kindness, I'll return it." Vlarimil smiled and nodded, scuttling to the side to allow me to sit by his side, and as Attrebus sat down too, the three remaining merchants huddled closer to hear. "This is confidential," I whispered, "I tell you this in good conscience, from an Imperial to another, hoping it might help you think what is best between your lives or your merchandise," I swallowed, "Helgen has fallen," I said. "The Stormcloaks freed their leader from his chopping block, and set the whole place and the keep ablaze."
"What!? That's-" I whipped my left hand out, and smacked the mouth of the merchant who had made the outburst, hissing for silence all the while. He winced from the blow, but quickly scuttled back down while massaging his lips.
"Hush," I hissed, "The border is closed, but I suggest you take my counsel and leave all the same," I continued. "Skyrim's civil war will reach its end soon enough. General Tullius won't stand for this, and the Stormcloaks have grown bold enough to burn villages and villagers alike."
"Barbaric," Attrebus whispered, his body shaking. "Absolutely barbaric," he continued. "I..." he grabbed the bottle of wine in front of him and drank a long gulp of it. "How did it fall?"
"The Stormcloaks infiltrated the village, perhaps they always planned on doing it, perhaps they knew where Ulfric would be executed," I murmured, "When it was time to execute him, hell broke loose. Catapults, fire...perhaps they hoped to take the General's life, perhaps they just had planned on taking the town closest to the border with the Empire...whatever the reason, people were screaming and dying as Ulfric used his voice to rip apart men and carve his way out of the village. The soldiers in the keep were slaughtered, and while the general managed to escape on horseback, we had our road cut off and dispersed in the keep to avoid the Stormcloaks' coming in from outside," I took a deep breath, "I don't know how many escaped, but it was a massacre. Ulfric won't be satisfied until everyone who isn't a Nord is killed," I finished, clenching my fists. "So...If I were in you, for your safety, I would leave as quickly as possible. And be careful around Helgen for the stragglers..."
One of the merchants looked awfully white, "I...Thank the Eight...I wanted to spend the night there rather than come all the way back here," he clutched his throat, "We could have died," he whispered.
"We could still die," Vlarimil said firmly. "Our safest bet is selling what we have in Solitude, getting a fair price, and then transferring it into jewels before buying a passage on a boat to circle past High Rock and Hammerfell."
"That alone would cut our earnings to nil!" one of the merchants that hadn't yet spoken hissed.
"Better no earnings than being burned alive!" Attrebus snapped, "With all due respect, I don't want to look like Vlarimil ever in my life!"
"And I know fully well how much it hurts to get on the receiving end of magical fire," Vlarimil said in turn. He turned to look at me, his piercing blue eyes staring right into mine, "Listen," he put a hand on my shoulder, "If you ever face a mage, shield your face. Let the shield hit him as you charge, or cover the archers. Mages aim at those first. They get the eyes, and then the face. This...this is good counsel, so follow it well and once it's all over, we'll meet again in Cyrodiil. Look me up in Anvil's Trading outpost and we can share war stories."
"And this is from me," Attrebus said, "Forget about the spoiled merchandise," he hastily grabbed out of his pocket a small pouch of coins, and passed it over. "There's no point in paying Helgen's trade tax if there's no Helgen, is there? Use it to get yourself a sturdy helmet or something. Blows to the head are a nasty business for soldiers."
I blinked as a few more pouches reached my side from the other merchants, and the moment I gathered them, I smiled. "Blessing of the Eight upon you all, but now I'd better go. I must return as swiftly as possible to my legion and..."
Vlarimil's hand patted my shoulder. "Go with Kynareth," he said with a smile. "I'm too old now, or I'd come with you and enlist again. I'm sure it's going to be one hell of a war, but if there are courageous young men like you fighting it, then perhaps there is hope."
I swallowed, and nodded before standing up and turning my back on the five to leave.
I opened the door, gave one last quick look behind me, and then stepped outside to brave the cold of the Skyrim morning with enough speed to startle the drunken man drinking mead on the patio.
My heart drummed a thousand miles per hour as I did the smartest thing I could do and rushed head-first towards the Guardian Stones.
The table I had left behind mere seconds before was, after all, completely empty.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
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