\u201cI said, next prisoner! Nice and easy. To the block.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dardeh sighed.\u00a0 All right, all right.\u00a0 I see how it is.\u00a0 He dropped to his knees and silently prayed, as best he could; not a formal prayer, but if a soul was going to depart its body some kind of pious thoughts ought to happen first.\u00a0 Mighty Talos, I hope I\u2019ve done well by you. I\u2019m sorry for my failings.\u00a0 I hope to meet you in Sovngarde.<\/em><\/p>\n And then everything went crazy.<\/p>\n There was another enormous roar, this one close enough to feel as well as hear.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat in Oblivion is that?\u201d General Tullius yelled.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s in the clouds!\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh twisted himself around. First in his line of sight was the bulk of the executioner, his wicked axe raised high and about to come down on Dardeh\u2019s neck. He stopped, though, and stumbled away as a gigantic crash came from the direction of the keep\u2019s tower.<\/p>\n People started yelling, running. The mothers and children who had come out to watch the Imperial soldiers chop off a few heads started screaming.<\/p>\n Everything around and under Dardeh shook with the impact. He looked up. Settling down onto the roof, with plumes of dust rising around it, was a nightmare in the flesh. It was huge, black, with blazing red eyes and wings that more than spanned the width of the tower.<\/p>\n Dardeh wasn\u2019t sure how he knew it was a dragon, but he couldn\u2019t imagine any other creature from life or legend that it might possibly be.\u00a0 As he watched, as soldiers ineffectually fired arrows that didn\u2019t quite make it to their target, the creature stretched his neck, opened his mouth vertically and made a huge, deafening noise.<\/p>\n Dardeh\u2019s skin tingled. Or maybe it was his brain, or fear speaking from his gut.\u00a0 Maybe he was imagining it.\u00a0 But he could have sworn he heard a word.\u00a0 That thing just said something, he thought. That wasn\u2019t just a roar, that was a word<\/em>. It had meaning<\/em>, meaning that was tantalizingly just out of Dardeh\u2019s reach even as his mind grasped at the edges of it, trying to make sense of it.<\/p>\n And the word had sent a dozen men flying backward into the city walls.\u00a0 Some of them weren\u2019t moving. The cart Dardeh had been in had flipped over, its horse along with it, and the chest that held his swords was right there, so very close; he could have gotten to it except that his hands were bound and he wouldn\u2019t be able to pick up the swords even if he could get the chest open somehow.<\/p>\n The dragon roared again, a different set of words, and suddenly the sky filled with dark clouds. Huge boulders began raining down from them, crashing through the thatched roofs of homes, taking down parts of the city\u2019s walls and any person or animal they came in contact with.\u00a0 The dragon fought his way back into the air and began strafing the town, spewing fire with every pass.\u00a0 Every timber, every plank, anything that could burn was burning, and anything that couldn\u2019t burn was being pelted by the huge chunks of flaming rock. The air filled with thick smoke. The sound was deafening. Horses, men, women, children, all were screaming, shouting orders, crying out as bones were broken, skulls crushed, bodies burned, and they all ran for shelter that disintegrated before their eyes. Over all of it, the hideous high-pitched keening of the dragon\u2019s fire breath overwhelmed the senses, creating even more havoc.<\/p>\n Dardeh scrambled up to his feet using the executioner\u2019s block for leverage, and saw Ralof beckoning him to follow. \u201cHey Redguard! Come on, the gods won\u2019t give us another chance!\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh looked at the cart, then back at Ralof.\u00a0 Arrrgh, he thought, I have to move. If I\u2019m dead, it won\u2019t matter what kind of swords I have. Maybe I can salvage them sometime later, if I\u2019m not a pile of ash by then.\u00a0 Ralof knows the area. I don\u2019t.\u00a0 He ran for Ralof, toward the base of the tower.<\/p>\n They were almost there when the dragon dropped to the ground between the tower and the city wall, and began incinerating anyone unlucky enough to still be in the unprotected area between.\u00a0 Dardeh dashed into the opening at the base of the tower, just ahead of the flames, and found himself face-to-face with Ulfric Stormcloak.<\/p>\n He stood with his mouth open for a moment. Ulfric had been ungagged.\u00a0 He had an even colder, harder expression than he\u2019d had before.<\/p>\n Ralof ran in behind him, shouting.<\/p>\n \u201cJarl Ulfric! What is that thing? Could the legends be true?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLegends don\u2019t burn down villages,\u201d Ulfric said in one of the most resonant voices Dardeh had ever heard.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to move. Now!\u201d<\/p>\n In some quiet little corner of his mind that was not consumed by the need to stay alive, Dardeh marveled at that voice.\u00a0 There was something about it that gave him the same sensation he\u2019d had when the dragon had spoken. Some day he hoped he would be alive enough to consider it more deeply.<\/p>\n Ralof yelled at him. \u201cWith me! Up the tower!\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh ran for the stairs and was about two-thirds up them when the outer wall exploded inward, crushing the Stormcloak soldier who had preceded him, and dislodging stones that rolled down the stairs toward him.\u00a0 The huge, terrifying head of the dragon poked through the hole it had made, and roared again.<\/p>\n He heard three words this time.\u00a0 Yol. Toor. Shul. Why am I hearing words? What does it mean? <\/em>He had no idea, but he knew those were the words.<\/p>\n A great gout of flame erupted from the dragon\u2019s mouth, a high, shrieking, physically painful overtone accompanying the roar of the flames themselves. Dardeh winced.<\/p>\n \u201cWoah!\u201d he yelped, scrambling backward down the steps as fast as he could go without falling.\u00a0 The words mean something about fire, I suspect.<\/em>\u00a0 He huddled next to the wall until the dragon disappeared, then slowly crept up to the hole it had left.<\/p>\n Ralof appeared beside him and pointed out the hole, toward the nearest burning building.\u00a0 \u201cSee the inn over there?\u201d he shouted.\u201cJump through the roof and keep going!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUm\u2026\u201d Dardeh began.\u00a0 Jump? With my hands bound<\/em>?<\/p>\n \u201cGo! We\u2019ll follow when we can!\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh jumped, because there was nowhere else to go.\u00a0 He twisted his ankle a bit and singed himself on one of the burning timbers of the inn, trying to balance against it when he landed, but he was largely intact and made his way out of the wooden building toward the keep.\u00a0 The confusion was deafening, overwhelming, and he didn\u2019t know which way to turn to make it through the collapsed, burning buildings.\u00a0 The Imperial soldier who\u2019d been keeping track of names spotted him and called out.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s you and me, prisoner! Stay close!\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh spied Ralof near the keep and made for him instead.\u00a0 I don\u2019t much care for Stormcloaks, he thought, but I\u2019m surely not ready to step right back into the company of the man who was directing me to the chopping block.<\/p>\n \u201cRalof, you damned traitor!\u201d the soldier yelled. \u201cOut of my way!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re escaping, Hadvar,\u201d Ralof shouted back at him.\u00a0 \u201cYou can\u2019t stop us this time!\u201d<\/p>\n So you know each other, like Ulfric and Tullius know each other. That\u2019s good to know, Dardeh thought.\u00a0 Just – get us out of here, Ralof.\u00a0 We\u2019ll discuss the merits of the civil war later.<\/p>\n Stepping into the small entry chamber of the keep was eerie.\u00a0 The relative quiet made Dardeh aware that his ears were ringing.\u00a0 They could still hear the chaos going on outside, but it was muffled.<\/p>\n Through the doorway into the circular base of the keep\u2019s tower, there was a Stormcloak soldier on the floor. Ralof checked him for any signs of life, shook his head and said, quietly, \u201cWe\u2019ll meet again in Sovngarde, brother.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh frowned.\u00a0 There\u2019s something about Ulfric that sets my teeth on edge, that\u2019s one reason for not joining the Stormcloaks. And this is the other reason I won\u2019t join you, he thought.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t bear having to bid my brothers and sisters in arms goodbye like this, one after the other, not knowing whether or not it was truly for a just cause.\u00a0 It\u2019s too hard.<\/p>\n It was even harder when Ralof cut his bindings and told him to take the dead man\u2019s armor and weapons.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re joking with me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo I look like I\u2019m joking, prisoner?\u00a0 You need to stay alive, and he doesn\u2019t need his gear any more.\u00a0 Put it on.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh looked down at himself. The rags he wore wouldn\u2019t stop a skeever, much less an Imperial soldier trying to return him to the rank of prisoner. \u00a0He sighed.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re right.\u00a0 And my name\u2019s Dardeh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRight, then.\u00a0 Hurry and put the armor on, Dardeh, and take a few swings with that axe.\u201d<\/p>\n The armor was a tight fit, as big through the chest as Dardeh was, but it definitely was more solid than his rags. Still, he felt somehow unclean wearing it.\u00a0 As soon as we get somewhere with a smithy, he thought. \u00a0I don\u2019t care how basic it is, I\u2019m having something else.<\/p>\n A war axe wasn\u2019t his favorite weapon; it was heavier than he was used to and slower to swing. Dardeh had never fought much more than saber cats and wolves for most of his life, with a bow and arrow if at all possible, from high atop a rock where sharp fangs and claws could not reach.\u00a0 Always take the high ground, he\u2019d been taught.\u00a0 Always.\u00a0 But there\u2019d been no high ground, to speak of, in many of the places he\u2019d visited on his long path to the border, so he\u2019d learned to use his mass and his muscles to compensate. The axe would have to do.<\/p>\n Voices from near the keep\u2019s entrance told him he was going to have a chance to use that axe sooner than he\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Imperials!\u201d Ralof hissed at him. \u201cTake cover!\u201d\u00a0 They moved to either side of the entryway, readying their weapons.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the prisoners!\u201d Dardeh heard.\u00a0 \u201cGet them!\u201d<\/p>\n A group of three Imperials rushed into the room and attacked.\u00a0 Even with a dragon destroying the world outside, these stubborn men still wanted Stormcloak heads, and they saw two Stormcloaks before them.<\/p>\n One of the soldiers came at him crying \u201cdie, Rebel!\u201d his sword high above his shoulder, ready to crash it down onto Dardeh\u2019s.<\/p>\n Saber cats, Dardeh thought, have much sharper claws than this soldier attacking with a standard issue Imperial sword. I can do this. He gathered his breath, released it in the huge, dark roar he\u2019d found helped focus his energy, and used his mass to swing that axe in a whirling attack. When it connected with the man\u2019s neck, it neatly severed all but a tendril of skin.\u00a0 The man dropped like a stone.\u00a0 Dardeh looked down at the huge pool of blood spreading out around the corpse and felt his stomach rise into his throat.\u00a0 Gods, he thought.\u00a0 This is not what I left home for. I\u2019m not a soldier, I\u2019m definitely not a Stormcloak, and I don\u2019t want to be here.<\/p>\n Ralof\u2019s shouts brought him back to himself.\u00a0 He had both a foot soldier and an officer on him, and while he was clearly a talented fighter there were two of them on him at the same time.\u00a0 Dardeh stepped behind the foot soldier and used both of his hands to bring his one-handed axe down just as hard as he could manage. It bit into the man\u2019s chest and took him down.\u00a0 In the meantime, Ralof blocked several swings from the officer with one of his axes and then finished him with the other while the he was on a backswing.<\/p>\n After that, things were largely a blur. Getting out of the keep again turned out to be nearly as much of a struggle as getting into it had been.\u00a0 They fled down into the tower and then, after the dragon collapsed another wall and boxed them in, through the stores room and into a torture chamber \u2013 a place that made Dardeh queasy. Killing your brothers in battle was bad enough.\u00a0 Making them suffer, purposefully? That was just sick.<\/p>\n They met a ragged little group of Stormcloaks inside, and Ralof attempted to form all of them into some kind of cohesive unit; but another wall collapsed behind them leaving Dardeh and Ralof alone to find another way out. A tunnel led them to a cavern full of spiders, and a bear, and finally an opening to the outside world.\u00a0 They hid for a moment, watching the great black dragon fly away down the river valley and disappear; then they ran as quickly as they could for the nearby town of Riverwood, home to Ralof\u2019s sister Gerdur, hoping they were ahead of the remaining Imperials.<\/p>\n Except that no Imperials had come down the south road.\u00a0 Nobody had.\u00a0 It was almost as though Dardeh and Ralof were the only two survivors.<\/p>\n Dardeh sipped at some water and listened as Ralof told his sister and her husband about what he\u2019d been through.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t even remember the last time I slept,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Now that they were safe Dardeh could see that it was so, could see the exhaustion creeping up on Ralof.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Imperials ambushed us outside Darkwater Crossing. Like they knew exactly where we\u2019d be. That was \u2026 two days ago, now.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh listened closely.\u00a0 Ulfric had ordered them to stop fighting, Ralof told them.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t wanted them to die for nothing.\u00a0 That was good; perhaps Ulfric did care about his men. But weren\u2019t they really dying for nothing anyway, fighting a war against people they had grown up with and cared about?\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand politics, he thought.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like war.\u00a0 And I want out of this armor.<\/p>\n And then there was the dragon, Ralof told them.\u00a0 His family erupted with questions, crowding around him.\u00a0 A dragon? A real, live dragon like the legends?<\/p>\n Dardeh sighed.\u00a0 He\u2019d resented Ralof all the way out of the keep and down the mountainside.\u00a0 Ralof had given him orders, acted as though he didn\u2019t know how to do a single thing, and assumed that he was a Redguard and not a Nord. He\u2019d first said they should split up, once they emerged from the cave, and then either complained that Dardeh wasn\u2019t moving quickly enough to keep up, or nagged him to join the Stormcloaks.\u00a0 Ulfric this, Ulfric that, and when he\u2019d asked \u201cdo you really<\/em> think Ulfric had anything to do with the dragon?\u201d Ralof had backed down a bit and admitted that he didn\u2019t really know.\u00a0 Dardeh didn\u2019t know where the dragon had come from.\u00a0 But Ulfric had been bound and gagged, and had been in that cart for two days, according to Ralof\u2019s story.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Ulfric had nothing to do with summoning a dragon that came close to killing him, too.<\/p>\n But Ralof was used to giving commands and to keeping his men safe, and Dardeh had to give him credit for getting them out in one piece. And all of it, including a dragon attack, in the face of some kind of betrayal, by some kind of mole. No wonder Ralof had been irritable, as tired as he was.<\/p>\n I feel bad for being so annoyed with him, Dardeh thought.<\/p>\n Dardeh tried to pay attention to Ralof and his sister and brother-in-law but his mind kept roiling and he kept pacing back and forth behind all of them. I don\u2019t want to be involved with Jarls and wars, he told himself.\u00a0 They bring out the worst in people, including me.\u00a0 He thought again of the first soldier he had killed, and his stomach turned.\u00a0 I killed good men today. Not bandits, but good, caring, honest men doing what they thought was their duty. I never wanted to do that, not ever.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I didn\u2019t join the damned war. \u00a0All I ever wanted to do was mine the mine and look after Ma. There are families who have lost someone special, today, because of me. Look what it\u2019s made of me.<\/p>\n Gerdur asked \u201c\u2026and Ulfric?\u201d<\/p>\n Ralof laughed and told her that Ulfric would be fine.\u00a0 I wonder, Dardeh thought, forcibly pulling himself back to the present.\u00a0 He had said \u201cwe\u2019ll follow when we can\u201d and had then shown up in the keep\u2019s courtyard by himself.\u00a0 He grinned.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet old Ralof here knows exactly which direction Ulfric went, and the fewer people who shared that knowledge, the better.<\/p>\n Gerdur offered Dardeh the key to their home.<\/p>\n \u201cStay as long as you like,\u201d she said. \u201cBut please, the Jarl of Whiterun needs to know about this.\u00a0 If you can get to him and let him know I\u2019d be grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh didn\u2019t quite know what to say.\u00a0 That dragon, if it had been headed to Whiterun, could have been there, eaten the whole city, and returned by now, as fast as it was.\u00a0 Whatever damage it was going to do must have been done.\u00a0 Still, he nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course. I was heading to Whiterun anyway, truthfully.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking for someone\u2026\u201d and for what felt like the thousandth time, he began describing what he knew of his sister, not really expecting an answer.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t seen anyone like that,\u201d Gerdur said. \u201cBut ask in Whiterun.\u00a0 It\u2019s a much larger place and most everyone ends up there sooner or later, if they\u2019re travelling.\u201d<\/p>\n He stood and stretched.\u00a0 \u201cThanks, Gerdur.\u00a0 I need to make myself some armor so I don\u2019t stick out like a sore thumb and then\u2026\u201d\u00a0 And then I need to get back to Helgen and get those swords.\u00a0 \u201cThen I\u2019ll go to Whiterun.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the Stormcloak soldiers got impatient with the process. There had been an odd, hollow sound, distant but somehow managing to fill the air around Helgen. It made everyone edgy for a moment, but the General had instructed his people to ignore it and get on with the executions. They were trying, the Imperials … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2-1-3-1.png\")
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