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The Line Begins to Blur	By : VirusVescichetta Category: +A through F > Elder Scrolls - Skyrim Views: 61884 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Look at the URL. Now back to the disclaimer. Now the URL. Back to the disclaimer. Sadly, I don't own Skyrim or make money off it, but you can now read a story that's written as though I did. And yes, I just wasted a mod's valuable time.

Chapter List
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"Halt!" the guard at the gate called as Aela and I approached. "The city is closed with these dragons about. Official business only."
"How convenient. I'm from Helgen and I'm here to report to the Jarl about the dragon," I said.
The guard eyed me warily for a moment before banging his fist on the door behind him. The sound of a wooden bar being lifted sounded from the other side. "Alright, then I suppose I can let you in. I don't know about her, though."
"I'm a member of the Companions, you idiot," she scowled at the man. "You can either let me in or deal with them when the gates are reopened."
He stood staring dumbly at us for a moment before nodding. "Point taken," he said and stepped aside.
"That was quick thinking," Aela said as we crossed over the bridge just inside the gate. Why there was a small river just inside the wall of the city escaped me.
"I'm pretty good at that," I chuckled. I didn't feel the need to explain that it was true. "Though the though occurs...how did you get out of the city if the gate was barred shut?"
"The guard that was posted earlier knows who I am. I suppose his shift must have ended shortly after I left," she explained.
She directed me through the marketplace, a bustling little place full of people. I noticed with some trepidation that the population was almost entirely Nord and that very few looked too favourably at me, even with a wounded woman hanging from my shoulder. "I'm not entirely sure what locking the gate is supposed to do about a dragon," I said as we ascended a set of steps. "It isn't as though it's just going to knock and ask to come in politely."
Aela chuckled quietly at me. "True. I don't rightly know what the Jarl hopes to accomplish, but arguing probably won't do much good."
"Oh, I don't know. From what I hear Ulfric Stormcloak killed Skyrim's king by shouting at him. Sounds to me like arguing worked pretty well, for him," I shot her a quick smirk. She chuckled again and guided me past a huge tree in the middle of town and up another set of stairs that led towards what looked like a great hall at the back of the town.
"Aela! What happened to you?" a man asked as I reached the top of the steps. He was a beast of a man with a thick Nord accent, and judging from the two-handed greatsword strapped to his back he would have little trouble ridding me of excess limbs.
"I found this sweet young thing trying to go toe-to-toe with a giant," I slid my hand carefully up to the bottom of her ribs from its resting place on her waist. To her credit, she actually didn't shoot me the look I was expecting. "It didn't look like it was going too well for her so I stepped in and gave her a quick hand."
"The giant that's been raiding the farms, yes?" the Nord man asked knowingly. "Aela, you should have asked for help. I would have been happy to help you deal with the beast."
"I didn't expect it to prove to be so challenging," she admitted as I more or less handed her off to the man. "It was a far more competent warrior than most of the others we've killed before."
"Well, good to know that one was a special case," I added in cheerfully. "Kai, by the way, in case the charming lady here never felt the need to introduce us."
"Farkas," the Nord returned. "Allow me to thank you for helping Aela. I know that she never will."
"Not a problem. I was happy to help. Less happy about losing my swords, but happy to help nonetheless," I shrugged and turned to make my way towards the keep at the top of the city. I'm sure either Farkas or Aela said something to my back, but I wasn't paying enough attention to notice.
I ascended what I quickly decided was far too many stone steps that were bordered by an artificial pair of waterfalls I briefly wondered the purpose of. When I reached the top I found that walkway to the far-too-large doors was similarly made into a chokepoint by what amounted to a small pond that stretched beneath it to either side. I thought that perhaps it was designed as a defensive measure to make storming the building that much harder. I also thought that it might just be something pointless that whoever built the place thought looked fancy.
I was surprised when none of the guards about stopped me from simply walking up to the doors and pushing them open. For the second time since coming to Skyrim I had to wonder why people who designed castles and churches and the like made the doors so needlessly massive. I entertained myself with the idea that it was so the giants could have a fair say in matters of politics and religion to be rejected like everyone else.
"Halt!" I heard shouted at me for the second time that day when I reached the top of the stairs just inside the keep. I caught sight of a Dunmer walking with a great sense of purpose towards me. "The Jarl isn't taking any visitors. What business do you have here?"
I glanced past her to the man sitting on a throne at the far end of the hall. He was, predictably, a Nord, and despite his advanced age he had the look of a seasoned warrior. He also looked to be having a rather heated discussion with another older man. "I'm here to deliver a report about the dragon," I said and looked back at her. "I was in Helgen when it attacked, so I thought I'd come here and tell the Jarl what I know."
She looked at me suspiciously for a moment. "How do I know you aren't just spinning some wild tale?"
"You don't. But what if it turns out I'm telling the truth and turning me away costs lives?" I challenged her.
She narrowed her eyes at me before nodding and gesturing over her shoulder. "Come on. The Jarl will want to speak with you personally."
The Dunmer walked ahead of me and leaned down to mutter a few words to the Jarl. He nodded and motioned for me to approach. "So, you were at Helgen, and you saw the dragon there with your own eyes?" he asked.
"Yeah. I had a pretty good view from the chopping block," I answered flippantly and earned a raised eyebrow for it.
"You're certainly forthcoming with your criminal past."
"In my defence, I was falsely arrested. Caught up with a group of Stormcloaks when I was trying to cross the border and the Imperial captain in Helgen was kind of a bitch," I shrugged.
He waved me off. "Many people are caught up in that conflict that don't wish to be. But that isn't what I want to know right now. What I want to know is, what exactly happened in Helgen?"
"The dragon roared and spit some fire for a while. Burned most of the town to the ground, too," I maintained my light tone, despite the direness of my words. "Last I saw it was heading more or less northeast from Helgen, which I'm pretty sure means towards this area."
"By Ysmir, Irileth was right!" he swore to a name I didn't recognize. He turned to the man standing at his side. "So, Proventus, shall we continue to trust in the strength of our walls against a beast that can soar above them?"
"Also," I interjected. "Alvor, of Riverwood, asked that I request aide for the town. Considering how little protection they have from the odd stray bandit, I don't think they're very well protected against a dragon."
"He's right," Irileth agreed with me, to my surprise. "Riverwood is in the most immediate danger. If the dragon is lurking in the mountains..."
"If we mobilize our soldiers, Ulfric or Tulius might see it as us preparing for war," Proventus cut her off.
"Enough!" the Jarl all but shouted. "I'll not stand idly by while a dragon burns my hold and slaughters my people. Irileth, send a detachment to Riverwood at once. Make sure they stay safe."
"Yes, my lord," she gave a quick bow before marching off to do as he bid.
"I'll see to my duties, as well," Proventus bowed, as well, though he scuttled away more than marched.
"You sought me out on your own and made sure we had solid information about the dragon," the Jarl nodded to me. "You have done Whiterun a service, and I won't soon forget it." He stood and walked to a nearby chest. "Here, take this as a token of my gratitude," he said as he handed me a suit of studded leather armour that I recognized as an Imperial soldier's uniform.
"Thank you, Jarl Balgruuf," I said. It wasn't much for armour, but with some clever work I would like be able to use it to repair and improve on my own. I stowed it away in my ever-useful pack for later work.
"It occurs to me that I might have use for someone of your...particular talents," Balgruuf said after a moment. "Come. Let us speak with Farengar, my court wizard. He will be able to tell you more."
I followed him into a room off the side of the hall. Inside was a man bent over a mess of scrolls and tomes, looking over them in a near feverish rush. He stood up from his work as we entered the room and bowed his head to the Jarl in greeting.
"Farengar, I think we've found someone who can help with your project," Balgruuf said and gave me a quick glance. "Go ahead and fill him in with all the details." He gestured for me to speak with the mage, then left the room.
"Ah yes, he must be referring to my dragon research," Farengar nodded knowingly. "I need someone of your skills to fetch me a particular item." He stopped a moment before reconsidering his words. "Well, when I say fetch, I mean I need you to go into a potentially dangerous barrow and retrieve an artifact that may or may not be there."
"You do realize that I've done nothing to prove to you people that I have any skills beyond surviving a dragon attack and walking along a road, right?" I asked. "I mean, I killed a giant this morning, but none of you could know about that."
"There won't be any giants where you need to be going, I assure you," his words did nothing of the sort.
I sighed and knew I was going to regret asking. "Fine, fine. Where am I going and what am I supposed to be 'fetching'?"
"Straight to the point, I like that. Leave the details to your betters," he nodded approvingly. "I've heard of a tablet in Bleak Falls Barrow that depicts a map of known dragon burial sites."
"Hold on," I stopped him and shucked my pack off my shoulders. I didn't even bother getting offended about his comment regarding my "betters". "You mean this tablet?" I asked and lifted what I considered a massive paperweight.
"Ah! The Dragonstone. You already found it," he sounded positively delighted. "You are certainly cut from a different cloth than the usual brutes the Jarl hands me."
"That doesn't mean I expect to get paid any differently," I held the stone out of his reach. "Unless you pay them poorly. In that case, I completely expect to be paid differently."
He moved with surprising quickness and grabbed the stone from my hand. "You'll have to speak to the Jarl or the steward about that. I'm sure one of them will pay you appropriately," he waved me off and set the stone down on the table.
"Farengar!" a somewhat familiar voice shouted as Irileth came running into the room. "A dragon has been sighted nearby. The Jarl wants you to hear the report," she said and turned to me. "You should come, too."
"Well, it certainly didn't waste any time showing up, now did it?" I chuckled as we followed her out of the room. "Imagine if I'd stayed in the market to do some shopping. You wouldn't even have needed me to report."
"I'd take this a bit more seriously, if I were you," Irileth replied in a serious tone. "If the dragon attacks Whiterun, I don't know if we'll be able to defend ourselves against it."
I scoffed at her. "No matter how much noise it makes or how hot things get around it, a dragon's still made of meat. Jab it enough times with a pointy object and it'll go down." I shrugged lightly. "And if it doesn't, you probably won't have to worry about it for very long."
We arrived at the second floor to find a guard reporting to the Jarl. "...It was fast. Faster than anything I've ever seen. I ran here as fast as I could. I thought it would come after me for sure."
"Did it attack the watchtower?" Balgruuf asked.
"No. It was just...circling and watching," the man looked somewhat disturbed by the fact.
The Jarl planted a reassuring hand on the guard's shoulder. "You've done a good job. See to it that you get some hot food and rest."
With a bow of his head the guard left. "What would you have me do, my lord?" Irileth stepped forth.
"Take a small detachment of men and see what's going on at the western watchtower," he ordered. He then turned to me. "Go with her. You have more experience dealing with dragons than anyone else here."
"I can run away from them pretty well. Other than that I don't know how much good I'll be, especially with no weapons," I gestured to my empty scabbards. The Jarl ordered Irileth to get me a blade, though I didn't have time to request she grab me two.
"I should go with them," Farengar finally spoke. "I would very much like to see this dragon."
Balgruuf shook his head. "No, you will stay here. I'll not risk both your lives." The wizard looked disappointed but nonetheless nodded his head in response. The Jarl turned to me with a grim look. "Get to the watchtower with Irileth. There's no telling what damage that dragon can do if we don't stop it quickly."
I was about to turn and leave when I remembered something. "Oh yeah, speaking of rewards, Farengar said to ask you about, well, a reward for giving him the Dragonstone."
"That is the tablet you were searching for, yes?" he asked the other man.
"Yes. This traveller was already carrying it when he arrived," the mage answered.
"Then I will see to it that you are rewarded properly when you get back from dealing with the dragon," Balgruuf nodded to me before walking back down to the throne room, Farengar in tow.
"Wouldn't want to give me the reward before I possibly die," I muttered to myself. "Of course not. This way he might not even have to give me anything." I sighed, shook my head at my own foolishness for not just running when I got away from Helgen, and started towards the city gate, leaving my pack just inside the door to the keep.
When I got there, Irileth was just gathering her men. When she saw me she handed me a simple steel blade. It was plain, but effective. Testing the edge with my thumb, I also found that it was painfully dull. "This is gonna take down a dragon, all right," I said with false pride. "Maybe if I hit him hard enough with it, I'll give him a bruise. Do dragons bruise?"
"I wouldn't know. I've never fought one before," she seemed inclined to ignore my sarcasm.
"Well, then I guess that makes..." I counted all the soldiers she had gathered. "...Six of us. Our chances are getting better by the minute."
She didn't respond, instead turning to her men and starting into what was likely to be a rousing speech. I turned as well, though I ended up facing a forge. "Begging your pardon," I said as I walked up to the woman working the steel. She was sooty, calloused, and overall looked the part of a blacksmith. "Would you happen to mind if I used your grinding wheel for just a minute? I'm to go fight a dragon and I've been given a sword that I doubt has the edge to cut my scales."
The woman looked at me oddly. "A dragon?" her voice clearly carried her disbelief.
"Oh my, yes," I replied with false cheer. "Apparently the fact that I've seen one and ran my tail off away from it means that I'm the most qualified man in all of Skyrim when it comes to killing one. Doesn't that make you feel great about your countrymen?" She didn't immediately respond, so I continued. "Anyways, your grinding wheel? Yes? No? Preferably yes."
She hesitantly nodded and I set about sharpening the sword into something that was a threat to more than the one using it.
"Are you ready yet?" Irileth asked in an impatient tone as I finished with one side of the blade.
"No. You can wait a couple minutes. The dragon isn't going anywhere," I waved her off and went to work on the other edge.
"It might! That's why we're supposed to be getting to the watchtower as quickly as possible," she nearly growled at me.
"Don't worry, it isn't going to leave. I'm nowhere near that lucky," I chuckled at my own expense. "Since I've gotten to Skyrim the only good thing that's happened to me is..." I paused. "Well, only a couple good things have happened," I continued after clearing my throat. "The point is, the dragon will wait quite patiently for me to get there so it can eat me. It's just the way my world works." I stood up and looked over my work. "Besides, I'm done. A little bit of a rushed work, but at least it should be able to break skin now."
When I looked up from the sword, Irileth and her soldiers were gone, already out the city gate and headed towards the watchtower. "How rude," I said to the blacksmith with a mock-offended tone. "I tell you, the nerve of some people. They're going to go get themselves killed without me."
It took a bit of a jog, but I eventually caught up with them. I was happy with the fact that for all the distance I had run I was only slightly winded. "So glad you finally decided to join us," Irileth glanced over at me as I fell in step next to her.
"I'm sure if I thought for long enough I could come up with a witty retort to that," I did my best to frown, an interesting proposition with an Argonian mouth. I think it ended up looking like a scowl.
"There's the watchtower!" one of the soldiers ahead of us called. I turned to look and saw a rather disheartening sight.
The tower looked like it had been sacked. A few corpses dotted the field along with broken stone and fire. "So we're supposed to fight something that can do that," I pointed at the devastation, "with swords and arrows. Okay. Yeah. This plan sounds good. High chance of success."
"Quit complaining," the Dunmer growled at me. "We have a job to do. We might have been able to help these men if you had hurried up."
"Not to burst your bubble, but this battle wasn't five minutes ago," I gestured again to the approaching field. "Though it doesn't look like it was much of a battle."
"Men, I want you to fan out and look for any survivors. I want to know what happened here," she disregarded me and called to her troops. They instantly did as ordered, rushing out to look over the area.
I made my way up to the tower itself. The stairway was littered with rubble and felt treacherous under my boots. My hand flew to the hilt of the sword at my waist as a man in Whiterun guard's armour popped out of the doorway when I approached it. "Who are you?" he asked in a panicked voice.
"Akatosh, clearly," I returned in a deadpan. I leaned back out of the threshold. "Hey, Irileth! I found one!" I shouted out to her.
"Quiet, you fool! The beast will hear you," the guard whispered harshly.
"Yeah, I'm counting on it," I said and walked partway back down the steps. I stopped when I heard the sound of beating wings.
There was no scream of warning, no sign that anyone had even seen the monster as it descended upon us. In an instant all was chaos. The dragon swooped low and let loose a torrent of fire across the field, burning one of the men to ash where he stood. The soldiers returned the gesture with arrows. I was impressed with how many only four of them could let loose.
The dragon landed before another of the guards after a couple more passes overhead. He barely had time to scream before he was snapped up in the beasts mouth and shaken about like a rag doll. I leapt down from the steps and took off at a sprint towards it as it released the now dead man and let him soar across the field to land in an unceremonious heap. I drew my blade and picked another one up off the ground as I ran. I seemed to be the only one willing to attack it up close, though I couldn't blame the others for wanting to stay out of reach and use their bows. Even though most of the arrows only bounced off its thick, hard scales, they still kept it pinned down well enough to hinder its ability to counterattack.
I circled around to its side, hoping to get around behind to attack and evade its clearly deadly jaws. It anticipated this, however, and blew forth another gust of flame that forced me to duck and charge directly at it.
Steel clashed against teeth as I went back and forth between slashing at its face and fending off its attacks. When I saw my chance I hopped to the side and made to plunge my sword into its eye, since I severely doubted it would be as tough as its hide. The dragon moved back just enough to avoid the blow and opened its massive jaws, and I noticed with no small amount of dread that it meant to bite down on my arm. I pulled back only a fraction of a second fast enough and ended up with my sword caught in its teeth. The blade shattered a moment later, leaving me with a useless hilt in one hand.
I tossed the offending piece of metal away just as the dragon spread its wings in an obvious attempt to take to the air and resume reeking havoc where I couldn't reach it. I ran under its wing and stabbed my sword into the air, piercing the much more delicate skin. I kept running forward to carve a large slice through the skin and ruin any ability the beast had to fly. In response its tail swiped across my shoulder and head and sent me flying.
My helmet flew off from the impact and I landed on the ground with a tumble. My sword flew somewhere from my grasp, but I dimly figured that was for the best. It kept me from rolling on it and stabbing myself.
I sat up in a daze and felt at my horns, shocked to find that none had been ripped out by the blow. It certainly felt like something had. My shoulder was sore, but a quick roll told me that it wasn't shattered or even dislocated. All things considered, I had gotten pretty lucky. I looked back up at the dragon in time to see it tear the guard from the tower in half with its jaws, and certainly considered myself luckier than him.
In mere moments I had retrieved my sword and was back at the dragon. It turned its gaping maw towards me and I was vaguely aware of it speaking a single word. "Yol," sounded distantly in its throat. The word was followed by another blast of flame.
I dropped from my sprint to land on my back, sliding under the wave of fire and underneath its jaw. I jammed my sword into the soft flesh of its throat. It reacted by snapping its neck back, lifting me from the ground, though my sword didn't hold and I fell back to my feet. I slashed at the soft scales above me with reckless abandon until its head started to fall. I stepped aside, turned, and brought my sword down with all my strength across the back of its neck. I didn't even bother trying to pull the blade out, simply letting go of it and turning towards the stunned soldiers.
"That went better than I thought it would," I quipped as Irileth and the two remaining soldiers made their way over.
She nodded grimly. "We lost three good men to the beast, but that's better than all of Whiterun. I'm surprised it was able to destroy Helgen so easily."
"It didn't." She looked surprised at my words. "That wasn't the dragon that attacked Helgen. It's smaller and doesn't look nearly as mean," I explained. "Unfortunately, it looks like we have a lot more than just one dragon to deal with."
A sound not unlike a fire burning caused us to become distracted from our conversation. I turned around to see what looked for all the world like the dragon's flesh burning away. "Is that supposed to happen?" I asked aloud. "I don't think that's supposed to happen."
The glowing embers of the dragon's skin and flesh turned into a swirling vortex of energy. I was mesmerized by it until it suddenly flew forth and passed into me. It felt like the wind was knocked from my body. I dropped to my knees and clenched my eyes shut as a sort of power spread through my body, racing through my veins and setting my flesh alight. My eyes snapped open and glowing shapes danced before my vision, coalescing into the glyphs I had seen in Bleak Falls Barrow. It took me all of an instant to realize that I had just been granted the ability to use the knowledge I had learned there.
I pushed myself to my feet as the glyphs twisted into a word I could read. "Fus," I spoke for the second time of my life, though this time it came not as a whisper, but as a shout. The force of my voice hit the dragon's bones, sending some scattering and dislodging my sword from its place at the neck.
I shook my head and looked over at Irileth and the soldiers. "What in Oblivion was that?" I asked.
"I was hoping you could tell us," Irileth looked at me curiously.
"He's the Dragonborn! He must be," one of the guards said excitedly.
"Don't be foolish. The Dragonborn is only a legend," the other berated him.
"So are dragons," the first retorted.
"...Okay, that's a good point."
"Not to interrupt or anything, but what would a Dragonborn be?" I cut in.
"Stories tell of a man born with the body of a mortal, but the soul of a dragon," the first guard explained. "The last true Dragonborn was Tiber Septim."
"You don't say," I chuckled and walked over to where my sword had flown nearby and picked it up from the ground. "Well, I guess that means someone's going to be pretty pissed off that the newest one is an Argonian, huh."

A/N: I was going to go further, but then I thought it'd probably just start dragging on something awful. I don't like it when my writing starts to drag on. There's a reason I never finished Heart of Darkness. Ideally, I'd like every chapter to have some degree of action in it, whether that's a sex scene or a fight scene. Or both, depending. That said, I want that sort of stuff to be organic and believable. I never want to write something that feels forced, because that isn't fun for anyone, and what I want above all else in this story is for it to be fun. I want it to be fun for me to write and I want it to be fun for you to read. That's mostly why it's become a running gag for at least one of Kai's swords to break in a major fight; I just find the idea entertaining. Well, I've rambled on too much, so as always, leave your questions/critiques/whatever and if it's something worthwhile, I'll happily get back to you about it.
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The Line Begins to Blur