I was awoken from my sleep by the familiar sound of battle cries and the clashing of metal: With no time to lose I grabbed my Dane axe from besides my bed and rushed out into the night, dazed and confused. I managed to catch a glimpse of the scene, the other tents were open and empty, there were dead men and women scattered across the ground in unfamiliar armours and colours, carriages taking men away, one of them had Brovir and Raven on it, I called out to them, and then...
I felt a smash against my back, I collapsed on the ground in a heap, before I could react, my axe was kicked out of my hands by a leather boot, promptly followed by a swift kick in the head by another. I struggled my head up to catch eye of my assailants, stocky men in leather armour that ended in a kilt like piece. The beating continued, 5 or 6 men kicking me on the ground like the cowards they were, not giving me a chance to fight back like a man, shouting some nonsense about "Stormcloaks". As I began blacking out, I felt my hands being bound by a piece of leather as I was lifted up by two of the men who were delivering the beating.
And before I knew it, I was awake again. Barely. On the same kind of carriage that Brovir and Raven were on. I looked around, we were being taken down a stone path through a misty forested area, it must have been fairly early in the morning, the air was cold in this place, I could still make out the snow capped mountains in the distance. A robust man with blonde hair with a single brain in it wearing blue leathery armour was seated in front of me. The fact they had allowed this man the dignity of wearing his armour while I was stripped down and placed in rags was infuriating, but in my bound, concussed state my anger was impotent.
"Hey you! You're finally awake!" the man said, looking straight at me. "You were camped near the border with those other strange foreigners, got caught up in that Imperial ambush, same as us and that thief over there!" he added. I looked to my right, there was a man in similar rags to mine sitting ext to me with short dark hair, and next to him a man in what looked like a large fur coat of some kind with his mouth bound as well as his hands.
The man in rags interjected "Damn you Stormcloaks! Skyrim was fine until you came along. Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn't been looking for you I could have stolen that horse and been halfway to Hammerfell." He then turned to me and said "You there, you and me shouldn't be here. it's these Stormcloaks the Empire wants." Stormcloaks? Empire? Hammerfell? What are they on about, what have I got myself into? I thought to myself, but still too dazed from my beating to speak. "We're all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief." the "Stormcloak" man added.
The men chatted back and forth with each other for a while. I didn't pay much attention, I just wanted to find the men I came here with, my brothers, and leave this Gods forsaken place. I did pick up though, that the man at the back of the carriage next to the "thief" was "Ulfric Stormcloak, the true high King". I was beginning to black out again when suddenly I heard the Stormcloak man say "Damn elves!" I looked up and saw a couple of tall, wiry men in hooded robes talking to a man on horseback. There faces were inhuman and they had yellowish skin. "By the Gods, elves, they're real" I murmured under my breath. From what the Stormcloak man was saying, I managed to make some sense of who my "enemies" in this land were. "Imperials", a man called "General Tulius" and an organization called the "Thalmor".
Interestingly enough, the Stormcloak also mentioned a place called "Sov-en-garde". The tone and context he used it in made it sound very similar top Valhalla. I was beginning to like these "Stormcloaks". We'd soon made a stop in a small village called "Helgen". I managed at this point to step off the cart, my concussion was weakening as I stood among the Stormcloak, the thief and "Ulfric". The thief tried to run away and was shot down by an archer. A woman in steel armour mocked, "anyone else, feel like running?" when the man standing next to her butted in "wait, you there, step forward, who are you?". I stepped forward and said managed to murmur my name "Herrfing Sea-Bear".
Despite not being on their damn list, I was sent among the other prisoners anyway. None of my fellows were among the prisoners, all of the were Stormcloaks. I was to be second to have my head cut off after a rather spirited one among the Stormcloaks, when suddenly, a large black figure started flying towards us, roaring loudly. It couldn't be, a dragon? Some kind of strange beast native to this land?
To be continued...
