The Tale Of The Diamond Warrior
Episode 1 - The Helgen Incident, Part I
Tomheii sat under a big, wide tree, sheltered from the sun under the shadow. His back was leaned against the trunk, letting his legs rest. The last couple of miles he traveled by foot, walking while holding the leash of his trusted friend Sandstorm.
Now he tied his horse someway down the road near the lake, giving him the opportunity to rest and drink. He was near a mining settlement called Darkwater Crossing. At least that's what the innkeeper from yesterday told him when he marked the spot on his map. The innkeeper told him that some strange disease struck it's miners and that they posted a poster for assistance. He figured that it will be as good contract as any for starters.
The fresh, almost minty scent filled his nostrils, filling his head with light dizziness and he soon fell asleep. His sleep was light, as he woke up quite quickly to the sound of the neighing of his horse. He tried to ignore him, but then an angry man's voice then said: "Shut up, stupid horse!"
That alerted Tomheii and he quickly jumped on his feet and ran towards the lake. There he seen a big man, as big almost as he was, with a muscular body build and a long light blond hair trying to untie his horse and steal him while he was sleeping.
"Hey you!" he shouted. "What the hell are you think you're doing to my horse?!"
The man dropped the leash and quickly turned around to face him. He was somewhat handsome, green eyes, a few small scars and a clean face. The man wore a set of fur armor, like many other bandits and hunters he crossed paths with since entering Skyrim a week ago. Judging by his attempt to steal his horse, this man belonged to the first group.
"Oh crap." the bandit uttered.
"Get the hell away from him!" Tomheii walked toward him. He then realized he forgot his battleaxe near the rest of his bag under the tree. If it comes to weapons being drown it could get ugly real quick.
"And who the hell are you pretty boy? Huh?" the bandit snored. "Go away before I gut you like a fish and piss on your beautiful shiny armor."
"Say what now?" Tomheii was quite shocked.
"Bah, you noble milk drinkers. I am taking that horse. What are you going to do about it, huh?!"
Unlike his father, Tomheii wasn't a hot head, but the bandit clearly tried, and succeeded in disturbing his peace, provoking him to do something stupid.
He walked another few steps toward the bandit, tried to stop himself from tackling him. "Now listen you..."
Everything happened so fast. The bandit jumped on him, slamming his body on the ground and tried to hit his face with his bare hands. The foe was strong, really strong, but years of training both in weapon and hand to hand combat honed his abilities. Tomheii quickly blocked the incoming punch, and managed to roll over and switch places with his foe. But before he managed to do anything else the man threw him off him. The wrestled like that for a couple more minutes. Grunting, shouting and swearing one another, each landed a few hits on the others face as they rolled like two angry cats here and there.
Eventually they rolled straight into the water of the lake, that wasn't a lake at all, but a river with a fast current. The river wasn't deep enough for them to drown, but the current carried them both down the stream, each choking and swallowing the water, yet no man would stomp his pride, as they continued to try and hit each other even then.
In the midst of the watery chaos Tomheii hit his head on one of the rocks and passed out.
Sometime later Tomheii's consciousness started to return to hum. His vision was blurry, his head hurt, and it was considerably colder. He soon realized he is on the move, jumping around in a carriage.
"Uhh..." he grunted in pain. His vision was still blurry, so he couldn't really understand what was going on around him. The stench of man sweat was all around him, and some voice not far from him spoke to another, laughing and swearing.
"Finally awake, huh?" A somewhat sweet voice in front of him asked.
He tried to focus his vision, to rub his eye but he discovered his hands were bound by something. He rubbed his eyes with back of his hand instead and it somewhat helped.
The man in front of him was a blond nord with grey-blue eyes and he was wearing an armor that identified him as part of some group. His hands, too, was bound with a leather strap. To his right sat another man, wearing some expensive fur clothes, he had brownish yellow hair and his mouth was muffled by some cloth. There was another man, a pathetic looking man, wearing some rugged cloths. Tomheii so discovered he too was wearing the same rugged cloths.
"What... What happened here?" Tomheii found the strength to ask. His head hurt like hell, and his neck muscles were sprained.
"The Imperials found you unconscious by the river, near Darkwater Crossing and they took you." the man answered.
"But.. But why am I restrained, and why I wear prisoners clothes?"
"you are a fugitive aren't you? A deserter from the army, that's what they said."
"Wha... What?! I'm no fugitive, I am a traveler, a mercenary." Tomheii was confused. This damn war made everyone kill first, ask questions later. He was sure he can explain everything if he would given the chance.
"Hey! You there, soldier. Listen I'm-" Tomheii turned to the Imperial at the front of the carriage.
"Shut up back there!"
"But.."
"I said... Shut... Up!" said the soldier. "Don't make me stop this carriage and beat you until you piss blood."
Tomheii understood. This is not a man he could reason with. He was told he's a fugitive, so it is only normal he'd not listen to him. But surely there will be a trail, they will realize they are wrong. For now there was nothing he could do, so he decided to sit quietly.
They reached a city gate. There were two guards standing guard near the gate and another two on the walls. They all wore Imperial Armors and the carriage stopped. They were now in a cold, snowy area, with mountains on each side of the road and Tomheii was freezing. The piece of cloth he wore on him did not offer any protection from the cold. He learned that the two man with him were Stormcloak rebels, or more precisely one was the Jarl of Windhelm and the leader of the rebellion, Ulfric Stormcloak. The second was a member of his personal guard and went by the name of Ralof. He did not ask how they fell into captivity, the men did not tell. The other prisoner, the one in the rugs was more talkative, and blamed his misfortune on the Stormcloaks. He was a petty horse thief, same as that damn bandit who tried to steal Sandstorm from him.
He wondered where was his horse.
As they drove into the city, he seen quite a lot of activity, there were a lot of soldiers, around five soldiers for each citizen. Perhaps they all caved in their homes, perhaps he mistook the city for a fort. It seemed their final stop, judging by the other three carriages that was parked near some house.
The more he looked around, the more this place looked like a military fort - the houses were all built the same way, all made from wood and stone, and there was a big tower in the middle.
In the court near the tower, only a few steps away from where the carriage stopped, now stood a few Imperials and a monk, also a few soldiers scattered around and lots of other Stormcloaks with their hands bound stood there. All men and omen started whispering and looking at Ulfric as soon as he stepped iut the carriage.
Two soldiers, a man and a woman, both wearing Imperial Armor rushed to them. The woman was wearing heavy, polished, steel armor, and held a full helm in her hand near the lap. She looked like a commander of sorts, and had a cold, dead and serious look in her brown eyes. She had a scarred face, black medium hair and bit her lip as a sign of surpassing her own rage.
The man was friendly looking, but dead serious as well, he wore the regular armor his brethren wore, only that his one had studded cover for extra protection on his. He had a brown medium hair, and same colored eyes, he looked no older than Tomheii himself, who was 32 years old.
He held a list in his hand and cleared his throat before he started reading the names from it.
"Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm and leader of the rebellion." he called peacefully. "You and your army were captured near Darkwater Crossing and hereby sentenced to death. May the peace return after today and the civil war end with your death."
Ulfric did not answer.
The captain who stood near the soldier locked her eyes on those of Ulfric's, if stare could kill people, the jarl would surely die by now.
"When I call your names you will go and stand with the rest of the prisoners. Am I clear?" continued the soldier. No one answered him, no one but the horse thief.
"Listen, it's a mistake, I shouldn't be here, I am not a rebel!"
"Shut up scum!" The captain shouted.
"No! I'm not a rebel, I do not belong here. You have a mistake, please!"
"Wasn't I clear enough the first time prisoner?" She walked toward him.
At that moment he tackled the captain in surprise and started running away. The captain quickly regained her footing and senses.
"Archers!" she commanded. The entire attention of every man and woman was now on them. The archers obeyed and a few arrows were shot at the man, most of them missed, but two arrows found their mark and he collapsed after they pierced his back. Two Imperials ran to him and dragged him away while he could still be heard screaming.
Tomheii realized he is not going to be able to explain himself to this woman, nor could he run like that man. He started thinking what could have been done to save his own skin.
"Anyone else feels like running?" The captain shouted on the rest of them.
"Hadvar continue." the captain commanded, and the soldier holding the list in front of him nodded his head with obedience.
"Ulfric Stormcloak." Hadvar called. The jarl stepped forward and started making his way to the courtyard.
"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric." said Ralof after him.
"Ralof of Riverwood." the calling of names continued. Ralof began walking to his brethren as well.
"Lokir of Rorikstead." Tomheii was the only one left and remained in place.
"Are you Lokir?" asked Hadvar.
"No sir. It must have been the other man who tried to escape." Tomheii replied, making sure to be as cooperative as he could.
"Then who are you? I have no more names in this list. What's your story kinsman?"
"May I speak freely, sir?"
"Yes, go on."
"I have no idea how I ended up here. The soldiers seem to think I am a deserter, which I am not." Tomheii explained. "I was washed down the river and hit my head, woke up on my way here."
"You speak like a military man, kinsman. We do have a lot of deserters as of late, why should I believe you?" This time it was the captain who spoke.
"Miss, I am a mere mercenary, and educated one, but a mercenary nevertheless. My father was an Imperial, he taught me how to properly address one that is superior to me." He did not intended to suck up to the woman, but she seemed to like it. "I can understand why the soldiers mistook me for a deserter, my armor WAS an Imperial Armor, given me by my late father. I came here from Hammerfall just a few days ago, after my father passed away."
"Who is your father, did he had a name lad? Maybe we can confirm your story that way."
"His name was Legate Lanston Soldomain, he adopted me after the end of the great war that orphaned me from my real parents."
The commander paused to think about what he said. "Legate you say... This name seem familiar to me, but I can't just recall who it was. Wait here."
She turned around and walked to an Imperial soldier, clad in full Gold Imperial Armor. They spoke briefly and then both of them came back.
"My name is General Tullius. I am the Imperial commander of the Fourth Legion and military governor of Skyrim." The man was advanced in age but had a very strong presence in the air around him. He had grey short hair, serious face with brown eyes and a piercing glare. "I came here as my captain here asked. She says you claim that there has been some kind of mistake and you are un-rightfully imprisoned. Is that correct?"
"Yes sir. I am honored by your presence sir."
"Spare me the high and mighty words and speak your mind. Who are you and why were you taken here?"
"My name is Tomheii Soldomain, I am the foster son of the war hero Lanston Soldomain from Hammerfall. He recently have passed away and I came back to my birth land to live as a mercenary and perfect my skill of war I learned from my father." Tomheii repeated what he said in his head over and over again since he realized there is hope for him after all.
"I hope you won't take this the wrong way sir,but my main reason to come to Skyrim and not say, Cyrodill, was because my late father was clearly disturbed of the civil war, and I came to Skyrim in hopes I can lend you my sword arm in the war effort."
General Tullius continued to pierce him with his glare, trying to decide whenever he spoke the truth or not. Eventually he spoke. "You are quite big of a fellow, you know that?"
"I happen to meet your father Lanston. A brilliant man, great tactician, great soldier, great leader. We fought together for a short time and I have nothing but deep respect for him. You sure he adopted you? Both you and him are... Let's put it this way, both of you are some of the biggest man I've met in my life." Tullius was at least a head lower than Tomheii, and he was half of him in width. "I always believed he had some giant blood in him, with that crazy strength of his."
"I did not heard about you from my father sir. Yet again, I've never heard much about the war from him at all."
"That does sound like him. We were not friends nor buddies. He was my superior, back when I was only a mere quaestor at the time." Tullius replied. "I'm sorry to do this, bit I have to verify you are indeed his son. Please describe me his sword, the one he carried around and slept with."
"You mean Blessing?" Tomheii answered. "My father had this special crafted greatsword made of pure ebony named Blessing. The word was craved on the handle, which was made of regular steel because he found ebony unpleasant to the touch. If I'm not mistaken, the Emperor's personal smith crafted it for him. It was bigger than any other blade, and was sharp enough to cut down a small trunk with a single strike."
"Yeah, that's the one. After this whole thing is over I'd like you to come to Solitude and take your oaths. Then I'd like you to tell about your father's last years."
"Yes sir, it would be a honor sir." Tomheii was over joyed that the General believed his story. So over joyed he would probably kneel if he wasn't bound.
"Why is he still bound soldier!?" General Tullius barked at Hadvar. "Am I to issue every command by myself around here?"
Hadvar hurried to cut his bindings and apologized to him for the way they treated him so far.
Tomheii did not care. He thanked the soldier for taking of the bindings and stretched his hands. Meanwhile General Tullius and the Imperial Commander both returned to courtyard, probably to resume with the trials and executions.
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Closing word: As I've said before, English is not my native language, and I'm sure that despite my best efforts to correct mistakes and prevent them from the first place, I have some grammar and/or spelling mistakes. I'd be glad if you point them to me, and would even more appreciate if you could show me the right way to write it, so the next time I wouldn't have them at all.
Hope you enjoyed the reading of the first chapter. As you must have seen I gave myself the freedom to change the events from what they have been originally in the game (Tomheii wasn't on the block) for the sake of the story. It is a tale of my play through with some changes I've made here because I think it's more appropriate to the story and the game restricted me to do something else. You can look on the story as a story about my play through with changes or as a whole story based on Skyrim and it's events. Whatever you chose I hope you enjoyed the reading.
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