//------------------------------// // Chapter Two // Story: What doesn't kill me... // by LucidTech //------------------------------//         As night fell on the lake, the sounds grew silent and the water grew still. The dragon had taken the children far away, the mare following him and keeping the children calm as they walked. Both dragon and mare knew they would be returning with the children to pay respects sometime in the near future, but they didn’t plan to make the trip for a long while yet. It wasn’t wise to leave the safety of towns, not often.         But, as the shadows of the nearby trees stretched and shrunk under the moving moon, something had started to stir under the water. Occasional ripples permeated the water at random intervals, until at last a form burst through the threshold of the water. Helmet clutched tightly in her hand, the dragonborn pulled herself from her supposed grave. Water dripped down the scales on her face, falling peacefully to the ground.         She cursed in a raspy voice before coughing slightly, getting used to the change from breathing water to breathing air. She stayed there for a moment, pulling herself together, keeping her senses attuned to her surroundings. She didn’t know where she was, but she knew what she needed to find.         Her daughters. She had to find her daughters first. She could worry about getting back home after that. She mustered her strength together again, muscles giving a subtle ache after all the swimming she’d done in her heavy armor. Before she rose from her bent over stance, she pulled her helmet on, hiding her features from view and protecting her face.         With a groan she pulled herself up, putting all her weight onto her two legs and slipping her right arm into her shield and grasping the hilt of her mace firmly with her left. She glanced around, looking for foes or enemies, and finding none she released the grip on her weapon. Feeling somewhat secure, she began her search of the area, looking for some kind of track that would tell her which way the dragon had went. With careful hands, she brushed the ground lightly, feeling in the darkness for some sign. With a sigh, she stood to her full height again. “I guess, there’s no alternative.” Came the raspy voice behind the metal, followed shortly thereafter by a soft white glow behind the face, which began to fade away as soon as it had appeared. Without even bending to look at the ground, the dragonborn could see what she’d been hoping for. Tracks. There were horseshoe imprints in the dirt, still clean because of the moisture provided by the lake. And next to them, claw prints, about the same size. The dragonborn scoffed at it, she’d been too panicked to fully grasp the size of the dragon when it had been over her. Now she found out it was only as large as a small horse. Not bothering to fully contemplate the story behind the tracks, she glanced in the direction they went. Horses meant civilization, and while she wasn’t sure what to make of humans boarding up with dragons, she didn’t have the position to debate it. As long as she got her daughters back, she couldn’t care less. She made to follow the direction of the tracks when she heard the sharp sound of a twig breaking. She turned to look back at the forest, hand moving to grab her mace once again. “Who’s there?” She asked the darkness, her voice demanding an answer. None was forthcoming. Her eyes scanned the forestry, looking for inconsistencies. But saw nothing out of the ordinary. She raised her shield hand, a ball of light forming in her grip already. She pretended to use it as a torch, moving it around for a moment in hand, before suddenly tossing it into shrubbery. The light dashed away from her, and in it’s flight she saw a silhouette duck behind a tree, out of sight. The light stuck to a tree in the forest, casting it’s eerie light over the greenery there in. She smacked her shield with her mace, taunting the figure, daring it to approach. It would be much better to end this fight now, rather than have it show up later to throw her off. She heard a sound from the forest, close to language, but just outside her understanding. Then silence, her grip tightened again, eyes shifting and looking for any moving shadows that her orb of light cast. Nothing emerged from darkness. Until, that is. Everything did. It was a blur of black as three figures flooded forth from the shrubbery with unbelievable speed. She swung her mace widely into the attacking forms, and it connected with one, but the other two dropped her to the ground easily with their strength. One held down her arms while the other peeled her helmet off with a deft magical spell. The dragonborn clenched her eyes shut in surprise, and felt two things like fangs slip into her neck. She attempted to shove her attacker away, but found he had already left her vicinity. An ache spread from her neck and rolled down her shoulder blades, uncomfortable and off putting, causing pain as it spread. She held still, waiting for it to pass, and listened to the forms that hung above her, which had started to talk. “A new ally in our battle it seems.” Said one of the forms, though the dragonborn couldn’t tell which one it was in her pained state. “A face composed a scales. She looks like the offspring of a dragon and a minotaur. I’ve never heard of such a thing.” “I don’t-” There was a gasp of pain. “I don’t care what it is. This better work out, I’m gonna need to use far more healing salve than I’d like to heal this.” The dragonborn deduced it must’ve been the one that she’d managed a blow on. The pain left slowly and the argonian moved her hand around slightly to find her mace, careful not to alert her captors to her consciousness. She found it and gripped her old friend in her powerful grasp. “You can get your precious healing salve later, we need to get her back to camp before she gets up again. We’ll need to convince her to fight for us now that she shares our curse. Shouldn’t be too difficult.” The dragonborn decided now was as good a time as any to spoil their plans. As she brought herself to her feet again, she set her legs and boots into a reinforcing position. She would not be going down again. All three of the monsters looked at her, the closest one looking at her in confusion as he saw her eyes. “It spread that quickly?” He asked, seemingly only to himself, as the other two ignored him. The dragonborn felt a small grin cross her face as she looked into the red cat slit eyes of the equine-like foes that stared up at her. She’d fought for and against daedra and dragons, she’d destroyed armies of strange foes. Talking ponies, while a curious thing, didn’t faze her. Instead, she decided to answer their questions. It was, after all, the least she could do before she put them six feet under. “First, Argonian.” She said, her body starting to vanish into thin air. “Secondly, if you wanted to imprison me with vampirism… you’re a year late…” Her form vanished completely as she manifested her vampiric abilities. She was one with the night and the equines all looked around frantically, trying to spot her against the darkness around them. One of them, the one that had bitten her, heard a cracking twig and spun his head to look. The speed of his moving skull was countered by the swing of a mace. It cracked against him and sent him spiraling several feet through the air, after which he came to a rest, motionless on the ground. Her stealth gone now, ended by her swing, the other two saw where she was. The one who was unwounded attempted to jump at her, hoping for a repeat of his earlier success. However, he was only to be met by an armored fist. He felt blood began to trickle down his nose as he stumbled several steps back in pain. She closed the distance again quickly, slamming her mace into his forehead with an overhead swing. It connected loudly and sent his face into the ground, where his head bounced slightly from the sheer force of the attack before coming to a complete rest, not even a muscle twitch remaining in his body. With that done, she turned to the last one. He looked at her in fear, his previous wound still bleeding from the first time she’d struck him. He began to back pedal, but was quite slow in doing so. After a moment he turned around fully and began to run back towards the forest. The dragonborn watched him go, eyeing his progress carefully. As he was about to cross into the bushes she took a deep breath. “FUS RO DAH!” She shouted, the magic of the words leaving her in a sudden purge. She watched as the manifestation of pure force quickly closed the distance. It caught him suddenly and tossed him through the air, sending him sailing into a tree. He collided with a sickening crunch, then fell out of sight behind the bushes just as her earlier cast spell died, casting the woods in shadow once again. She slid her mace into it’s slot on her waist and turned away with a smile. “It never gets old.” She turned away from the sight of the battle ignoring the pain in her chest, where the vampires’ tackle had hit, and turning her attention instead towards her helmet, where it lay abandoned in the grass after they’d taken it off her. She picked it up slowly, equal parts care and respect. With it in her grasp she looked at her reflection in the metal, almost reluctantly. Sharp teeth and red eyes and sickening smile lingering on her lips. The smile quickly died at the image before her and she slid the helmet on over her features, once again hiding them from sight. “I’m on my way girls. I promise.” She drew the mace from her belt once again and looked in the direction that the tracks indicated the dragon and small horse had gone before setting off for herself. “Mommy just needs to do a little more fighting. Last time, I promise. One last time.”