A Terrifying Experience

17th of Last Seed

This is what I get for leaving home.

Knocked out, imprisoned, nearly executed, and attacked by an actual, honest-to-the-divines DRAGON.

Dragons are real!  By my own eyes I bore witness.  Truly, it is only because of the dragon that those eyes and the rest of my head are still affixed to my neck.

The soldiers mistook me for someone else.  They thought I was one of those stormcloaks, or maybe some kind of criminal.  I don't remember being taken, but I awoke in the back of a wagon with a horse thief and a stormcloak who wouldn't shut up about glory and honor and throwing off the yolk of imperial oppression.  As if waving a sword around and yelling about rebellion ever got a person anything but dead.  There was another rebel too, gagged.  The blabbermouth said that was Ulfric, the Jarl of Windhelm!

Ha!  Jarl!  That's a funny title for the man who murdered the King and started a war that gets ordinary folk killed for no reason.  Ordinary folk like me, for instance.  I was going to be decapitated because Ulfric bloody Stormcloak decided to go on an adventure.

They took us to Helgen, and lined us up for the headsman's block.  The horse thief tried to run, but the solder's put an arrow in his back.  That didn't bother me much, he was a crook.  But it didn't bode well for my chances, either.

It didn't matter to the imperials that my name wasn't on their death warrant.  I'd been grabbed somewhere in the vicinity of Ulfric Stormcloak and that was crime enough.  I wouldn't even get to see them kill Ulfric.  They executed one of the stormcloaks from a different wagon, and then put me on the block.

That's when the dragon landed and started burning everything.

The next several minutes are a blur.  The blabbermouth yelled for me to follow him, so I did.  I jumped out of a building into another building, which was on FIRE, and an incredibly stupid thing to do in any other circumstance.  One of the imperials, I found out later his name is Hadvar, yelled for me to follow him if I wanted to live, so I did.  I am not decisive, but staying alive is usually my go to option when the choice is available.

I followed him into Helgen's keep, and through a bunch of passageways that I don't remember.  Twice we ran into stormcloak soldiers, and like all "courageous" morons, Hadvar and them had to fight, never mind that the keep was falling apart around them.  Whenever this happened, I crouched behind a pillar or around a corner and tried to stay out of sight.  Not my war, not my problem.  Besides, I was pretty sure the rebels would let me follow them to safety after they killed Hadvar, since I'd been nearly executed as one of them, and was still technically the imperial's "prisoner."

As it happened, Hadvar handily dispatched the rebels, and some frostbite spiders we came across too.  It was as if the man couldn't be harmed.  Half an hour ago, he wouldn't even raise his voice in protest when his commander ordered my head whacked off with an axe, and now here he was keeping me alive with superhuman endurance.

The keep opened up into a cave, and we had to sneak past a sleeping bear.  Of course.  Why not a bear?  I'd already landed in the middle of a war and a prison break.  I was relieved when my entirely-too-brave captor/companion suggested we NOT wake it up.  First sensible choice I've seen from him.

After that we emerged into bright outdoors a small distance away from the town, and saw the dragon flying away to who-knows-where, thank the divines.  I was just about to thank Hadvar for getting me out of there, when he up and RAN OFF, leaving me here with nothing but a bow, a dozen arrows, and a handful of coins I picked up as we made our way through the keep.  Said some goat-shite about it being better if we split up.  Just when I was starting to like him, too.  Chivalry is dead.

What exactly am I supposed to do now?  Hadvar did say his uncle in Riverwood might help me out.  I guess it's as good a place as any to find a hot meal and a warm bed.

This whole day has been terrifying.  Soldiers and swordplay and fire-breathing dragons are not my idea of a good time, and you can bet a heavy coin-purse I'll be doing my damnedest to stay far, far away from stormcloaks, imperial soldiers, and dragons all.