Skyrim: The Faces of Death

by Blackdrag-rose

Brotherhood: On the Road Once More

Despite the fact that Amaryllis knew that the other assassins were waiting to hear about her skills, and what she needed to do to improve as an assassin, she ended up spending a few hours inside the Sanctuary, just talking to her new Family and getting to know them a little, while at the same time revealing a few pieces of her past as well, turning each talk into a full conversation between her and the others. In fact the first person she ended up talking to was Babette, mostly because she was curious as to why the Dark Brotherhood would employ a child to fulfill contracts, no matter how good they were at killing people, and was surprised to learn that Babette was actually a vampire, a long-lived creature that would retain their form for many years, until they either cured themselves of their vampirism or died. Babette explained that the reason she was like this was because she had been bitten by another vampire three hundred years ago, when she was ten years old, before becoming a blood sucking vampire herself, something that she was perfectly fine with and didn't seem to be in any hurry to cure, if such a thing was possible in Amaryllis' mind, something that only came from her lack of knowledge on the subject, since it was possible that the vampires of Skyrim were different from the ones in her home world, according to all of the tales anyway. Another thing she also discovered was that Babette was rather fond of fooling people by playing the innocent girl routine and even tried to pass herself off as a kidnapped girl when Amaryllis approached her, something that she might have bought had she not seen Babette talking with the other assassins like they were her family or comrades, and Amaryllis knew that feeling an individual's emotions would have told her the truth, but she did admit that it would fool anyone that didn't know the little vampire. She also found out that Babette, thanks to her long life, was a master alchemist, capable of creating powerful poisons and potions for the members of her Family, provided they had the coin to cover the cost of the ingredients, while also being told that the spider was called Liz, and that it was friendly to all members of their Family, showing that it was like a pet that they treated rather well, even though it seemed to like Babette more than Festus and the others.

After talking with Babette for a time, and learning what she could about the vampire and the spider, Amaryllis got up from where she had been sitting and headed over to another part of the Sanctuary, only to found Gabriella sitting nearby, which she guessed made sense considering that there weren't all that many places for someone to sit in this place, given the lack of rooms and whatnot, especially when most of the stone chairs were broken from age or were covered in supplies, such as herbs or metal ingots for example, making it hard for someone to use them. Gabriella, from what she discovered, was more than willing to talk about herself, since she had seen what Amaryllis had done with Babette, and she admitted that she enjoyed moonlit nights, taking long walks on the beach, knitting, and unicorns, which actually came as a surprise to Amaryllis, even though she knew that they wouldn't be like the unicorns from Equestria. That statement was followed by Gabriella admitting that she once went for a seaside stroll one night, that happened to be a moonlit night oddly enough, and found a unicorn, something that she stabbed to death with her crochet needle, which worried Amaryllis for a moment, as that wasn't what she was expecting to hear when she asked what sort of things Gabriella liked to do, but at this point it seemed like comments like this might be normal in Skyrim and that she would have to get used to hearing similar tales, as everyone seemed to have one odd tale. The interesting thing about this particular assassin, at least in Amaryllis' eyes, was the fact that she claimed to be an accomplished seer, much like Olava the Feeble in Whiterun, which was when Gabriella made the bold statement that the old lady was even even stronger than she was, and there was even the fact that she had already seen the day she died, but, interestingly enough, she couldn't quite place the circumstances or events that would lead to that event. Amaryllis wasn't so sure why someone would want to see the future and determine the day that they would finally meet their end, especially if they couldn't see what was the cause of such a thing, but she found it interesting and moved away from Gabriella once the conversation was done, before heading down into the eating area, where she found Festus, Nazir, and Veezara sitting at the table.

As it turned out Nazir already knew what she wanted to ask him, as in learning more about him, and he revealed that he was a Redguard, in case Amaryllis had a hard time determining what the different races of the land looked like, even if she figured out that he was messing with her, before revealing that his past was long and storied, something that he wasn't about to share with someone he had just met and didn't trust all that well, as well as informing her that blood was a shade of crimson he could scarcely describe. The part that Amaryllis latched onto was the part where Hammerfell, the land he came from, was to the southwest from where their Sanctuary was located and that it was a barren and rocky place, with the vast Alik'r Desert taking up the vast majority of the land, mostly because this happened to be the first time she heard anything about Hamerfell and it interested her, though to gain more information she would have to earn Nazir's respect or something to get him to tell her more. Veezara, on the other hand, was more than willing to share some information with her, apparently finding that it would be best to keep their new sister informed of who they all where, and revealed that he was a Shadowscale, which was an Argonian that was born under the sign of the Shadow, one of the constellations of this world, and that at one point in time he had been an assassin that was working for the King of Black Marsh. In fact he also told her that he believed that he was the last of his kind, the last Shadowscale to be exact, and that the ancient tradition would die with him, once he met his end, but he also told her that he, like everyone in this Sanctuary, trusted in Astrid and her judgement, especially the fact that they would follow her orders until the day they met their end and their Family was broken, which he didn't see coming for the foreseeable future, not with her joining them. After asking Veezara and Nazir a few questions, and getting some interesting answers in the process, she found that it didn't take her long to find out some things about Festus, like he was a prodigy when it came to the magical arts of this world and that he had been able to cast the more simple spells with ease when he was one, was completing complex incantations by the age of three, and, based on what he said, was apparently resurrecting corpses when he was seven, all of which he was proud of.

The other interesting fact she discovered was that he had been a teacher at the College of Winterhold, where he left after two years of teaching due to how safe it felt and the fact that none of the other mages really appreciated the art of the Destruction school, something he had dedicated his life to, which had to be spells like Fireball and Ice Spike, based on what he told her when he explained the various schools of magic to her, mostly in the sense that he determined that she had an interest in the subject and wanted to enlighten her. Amaryllis decided that this would kill two birds with one stone, as she had originally planned to visit the College at some point in the future and see if she could find someone to answer a very important question of hers, but the moment she asked Festus about traveling to another world he told her the same thing that Farengar had told her back in Whiterun, that it was impossible, given that she was thinking of going from a world like this one and traveling to another one, instead of moving from this world and going to one of the realms of Oblivion, which was possible to some degree. That cemented the fact that she was stuck in this world in her mind, which also meant that she was going to have to get used to the land she had been sent to, before shrugging and thanking him for answering her question, even if it wasn't something she wanted to hear since it meant that her quest to find her missing Queen was over, leaving Queen Chrysalis trapped in whatever location she had been moved to, though she was sure someone would find her at some point in time. At the same time, however, she recalled what she knew about the Dark Brotherhood, which she had to admit was very little and that such a thing would have ashamed her missing Queen had she heard about this, and guessed that she would focus on honing her skills, respecting her new Family and what rules they had, and doing all the contracts that she was given from this day forward, to become a skilled assassin, to which she focused her attention away from the simple fact that she was trapped in this world and made sure to focus on proving herself to Nazir, Festus, and the rest of her new Family members, since they seemed to be holding her to a higher standard due to her powers, where only time would tell if she met them or not.

"You seem disappointed by something." Veezara commented, as while he knew it would take some time for Amaryllis to truly open up to them, and reveal even more about herself, like they had done for her while they were chatting since her arrival in the Sanctuary, he could see that there was something she had been thinking about and was disappointed by the answer that Festus had given her, even though, according to every tale he and the others had heard, she wasn't the first one to be disappointed by what the elderly assassin said.

"Well, my original quest, since arriving in this land, was to find a way back home, and this is the second time I've been given that answer," Amaryllis replied, as she found that trying to lie to a group of assassins that could kill her in an instant if they so desired to be a bad thing, especially after they took her into their Family, so she figured telling the truth to them was a good idea, before she shrugged for a moment, to show that she wasn't bothered by the answer all that much, even if she knew it would take some time to get over the reality of her situation, "I have learned that I can't go back to where I came from, and I have accepted that fact now, which means all I can do is dedicate myself to the Family and prove Astrid right, that one day I'll be a skilled assassin like the rest of you."

"You'll have to tell us about the land you come from, though I can understand if you want to wait before going that, since a few of us are doing the same thing," Veezara said, his tone revealing that he was more than willing to wait for such a thing to happen, especially since this first set of contracts Amaryllis had been given would test her skills as an assassin and there was always the chance that someone could kill her while she was on the job, as it had happened a few times in the past, so if she returned from this, and was successful in taking out her targets, he would be one of the first to ask her about the land that she had once called home and learn more about the quest she had mentioned.

Amaryllis nodded as she pulled herself from the chair she had been sitting in, showing them that she would be happy to share some of her tales about the land she came from with them, before she moved and sought out the last member of her new Family, Arnbjorn, who she discovered was in the main chamber that everyone had been gathered in earlier, when she first arrived in the Sanctuary, where he was working on making sure his weapon was ready for his next assignment or two, meaning he was sharpening his battleaxe. As soon as she came to a stop she repeated what she did with the other members of the Family, asking them about themselves and their past, only for Arnbjorn to inform her that he was actually Astrid's husband and that she had a tendency to not tell new recruits that, so they wouldn't think she was playing favorites or something like that, something she kind of agreed with and said nothing to as she waited for him to continue speaking, even though it did seem like Arnbjorn had been expecting her to leave before he sighed and continued talking while he worked on his weapon. The interesting part about all of this was that he had a tendency to call people by nicknames, like beef roast, hamshank, and a few others, before he informed her that the only reason he was trusting her wasn't because he liked her or anything, in fact he didn't like new recruits until they proved themselves to him, and the only reason he was talking to her like this was because Astrid trusted her, which was strange since she figured she would have to learn Astrid's trust by completing her objectives. The other fact that Amaryllis found to be interesting was that Arnbjorn was a werewolf, something that he admitted without her having to ask him anything that would reveal this information, and that he had a few more things to tell her, like the fact that he enjoyed killing things, challenging animals or fighters, that he had once been a member of the Companions and left due to them finding his methods disturbing, that he hated annoying people, and, oddly enough, he despised the color blue, due to it giving him headaches apparently and caused her to note not to wear that color when she was near him. Once she learned all of that, however, Arnbjorn went back to his sharpening and focused on that once more, to which she walked away from him as she wondered what she was going to do next, as now that she knew a few things about everyone in her new Family, save for Astrid anyway, there were two things she could do, either stay here for the rest of the day and prepare herself for the first set of contracts she had been given, or she could leave now and see what the land had to offer her as she headed for her first target... but it didn't take her long to come to a decision on the matter.

Amaryllis bid some of her new Family members farewell for the time being, mostly Babette and Veezara, as they were the ones that seemed the most friendly out of all the people she had encountered in the Sanctuary, especially since the others were either busy with their own actions or weren't paying her too much attention, before she quickly walked back over to the tunnel that held the entrance for their Sanctuary, where she opened the black door, finding that it didn't speak to her like when she stopped in front of it earlier, and headed outside. In that moment she found that she must have been inside the Sanctuary for a longer period of time than what she originally thought, as the sun was setting and that it was closer to the time of the day when the civilians of the Holds would likely be heading to the local inn for an hour or two, for food or to hang out with a couple of their friends, or they would be heading home to eat dinner, relax a little, and then go to bed before rising with the sun tomorrow morning, to do whatever the new day held for them. Part of her knew that moving in the shadows like this was good, since it would make it hard for potential enemies to see her and attack her, but, at the same time, she wasn't totally familiar with this land and knew that she would have to be careful while she was exploring the lands of Skyrim, especially since some of the more dangerous creatures and individuals would be coming out while the rest of the Holds went to be. Before she set out, and started on the path to Dawnstar, she pulled out her map and looked at it once more, mostly to refresh her memory before she left this place, where she found that the eerie glow of the black door gave her some light and allowed her to see what she was looking at, where she found she could either head back to Whiterun and take the path she used to reach Windhelm, only turn left instead of right at the fork in the road, or she could head in the direction of Rorikstead, which would take her to the small city of Morthal at some point, or she could head by Redoran's Retreat and find the seemingly hidden path that appeared to go over the mountain, which would be dangerous since there was no telling what sort of creatures might be guarding the path in question and might be more deadly than what was on the roads she had to pick from.

Since Nazir said that there was no real time limit on her contracts, since they weren't going anywhere, she decided to take the route that ran through Rorikstead, as it would allow her to see more of the land and, at the same time, potentially give her a chance to practice her skills on any bandits that she came across, before she put her map away and started walking up the hill on her left, so she could return to the stone path she had walked down earlier and retraced her steps as she headed for the top of the hill, all so she could head down to the plains of Whiterun once more.

As Amaryllis started walking the first thing she spotted was the odd ruins that were to her left, which had been to her right when she walked down this road earlier, and while she was interested in seeing what was in there, based on what she had found in the chests of the bandit camps she had cleared out, she decided not to bother with it right now and continued on her way, since she was sure it was full of either undead or necromancers, two types she didn't want to deal with right now and turned her attention away from the ruins in question. A few minutes later she glanced at her right again and noticed the ruined tower she had spotted earlier as well, only this time around she could see a light coming from the top, meaning that someone had to be calling that area home, especially since it allowed them to see everything that was in the area that was around them, before she shook her head for a moment and turned to the left when she reached the fork in the road, so she could head down the path that would let her pass by the lone mill she had seen earlier. She still found it odd that there was a mill so far from town, which in a way she guessed was good since it allowed them to better access the trees that were around them, and about ten minutes later, when she walked by the area that the mill called home, she found two people working outside that she assumed were the owners of the mill, but while she knew it was odd for them to be out at this time, especially since it was dark out and that meant it was harder to see what they were doing, she decided not to bother them and continued walking down the path that was in front of her. From there she spent a few more minutes and found the cabin that the pair of hunters called home, who had to be sleeping at the moment, given that no one was resting around the campfire and she heard some snoring as well, while a few minutes later, when she was further down the path, she discovered a new cave that she hadn't see earlier, when she was walking up the hill earlier, before noticing that nothing was in front of it and, more importantly, that she didn't need to stop for anything, to which she focused on walking down the hill, as it would bring her to the fork in the road that she was looking for.

Of course, since it was nighttime out and all she had was the light of the moons to show her the path she was following, it took her about fifteen to twenty minutes to reach the area she had been heading towards, where Amaryllis came to a stop for a few moments as she reached the fork in the road, though instead of taking the path on her right, and walking back to Whiterun, she turned towards the path that was on her left and started walking towards Rorikstead, so she could see what else this land had to offer her.

Not a few minutes away from the fork she had been trying to reach was another fork in the road, this one heading off in the direction of Markarth, one of the other Holds that made up Skyrim, which she determined was a place she would have to visit at some point in time, maybe when she wasn't focused on becoming a better assassin, a thought that still seemed strange to her, despite what she told the members of her new Family. Sure, she had some talent for the art of stealth, due to being an infiltrator for the Hive, but going out and killing people was never something she did for her Queen, and yet, despite her original thoughts on the matter, she found that taking out bandits didn't bother her and she had no problems doing the same to Grelod, who doomed herself the moment she heard the old lady speak to the children. In that moment she sighed and continued walking along the path she had chosen, as she knew that if she spent too much time thinking about what she was doing, giving up on her quest and taking up the life of an assassin, it would be morning and some of the predators would be out and about looking for prey, something that she didn't want to be given that some animals had a decent amount of strength in their bodies. Though thinking about the sabre cats and wolves brought up an interesting observation, as she found a few dead animals resting on the right side of the road, two sabre cats and three wolves, but while it looked like they might have fought each other, and someone that was passing by moved their bodies out of the way for any carriages that used this road, she had to assume that a soldier had done the deed, to make the land safer for everyone who traveled the roads. Regardless of which thought was correct, as either of them could be, she was happy that the road was cleared, mostly because it meant that she didn't have to spend some time fighting the wildlife on her way to Dawnstar, though as she walked she remembered something she had forgotten to do when she left the Sanctuary, where she let the magic wash over her body for a moment as she changed back into her Khajiit disguise, even though she took a second or two to make sure everything was in order before resuming her journey.

She honestly had no idea know why she liked this particular form so much, but it was one she could use with little effort to learn the differences between her natural form and this one, even though she was a little disappointed in herself for not realizing that she had forgot to put on a disguise when she left the Sanctuary, since she had dropped it to show her Family her true form, and there was always a chance that someone could have seen her change forms, hence why she stopped for a moment and glanced around her surroundings. Of course there didn't appear to be anyone around this area, or out in the plains that were near where she was standing right now, but she knew that it was better to have a disguise on and not take any changes, especially in a land that might not like her natural form, even if her new Family seemed to be one of the few exceptions to that rule, something she was going to have to get used to, since the rules were slightly different than what she was used to, with a few being the exact same. As she thought about that, however, she knew that her new Family weren't the only ones that seemed willing to accept creatures like her, as from what she heard the ponies in Ponyville had been doing the same thing, but with no way to get home there was nothing she could do but accept that this was her fate and move on with her life, though this time around, when she thought about that, she made absolutely sure that this was the last time she considered something like that. Skyrim was her home now, there was no changing that fact, and the Hive that had been her family for years was gone as well, replaced with a brand new Family, even if they were different from what she was used to being around, but something told her that she could make it through this and find her place, even if it was with a group of assassins and that she would eventually develop the skills that would put her on the level of Nazir, Babette, or even Astrid. Once she came to that conclusion, and was ready to stop thinking about it, Amaryllis continued following the path that was in front of her and headed in the direction of Rorikstead, as it was the first major area that was along the route she was taking would come to, followed by the city of Morthal and finally Dawnstar, though to get to her destination she would have to take a winding path to reach her destination, based on what she recalled from the map and what was on it.

It took her some time before she reached an area where a small path branched off from the road, where she found that it lead to a hole in the ground, or more like one of the caves that she was starting to see a lot more of lately, but for now she decided not to bother with it and kept walking, as it had taken her between ten to twenty minutes to reach that part of the road and she knew that if she knew stopping to see everything that was around her she wouldn't be able to reach any of her destinations and she'd lose her chance to fulfill her contracts. As she soon discovered it took her the same amount of time to find something else, as in a stone monument of some kind that was resting off to the right of the road she was walking on, maybe a marker for some ancient battle or burial site, since it was likely built by the Nords and they seemed to like marking the various areas of the land in some manner, meaning that she'd have to ask someone about it to figure out what it was used for. Other than those two things she didn't see much, other than another fortress somewhere on the hills to her left, like an hour walk from where she was, and what appeared to be a camp on the other side of the massive hill that she was staring at, though from this far it was hard to see what the second area really was, especially with the time of day, so she decided to ignore it and continued walking. After that the road was pretty empty, as no one else was out this late at night and there was no reason for most of the animals to care, so she was able to make it to Rorikstead in about twenty minutes, where she found a few houses and farms resting near an inn, which she decided to enter, as it was late and she figured she might as well get some rest before the next leg of her journey.

One thing she discovered was that the only person that was up at the moment, who was likely sleeping behind the counter until someone opened the door, was the owner of the establishment, a Nord man that was dressed in a white shirt and a tan pair of pants, though he was more than willing to rent out the room for an entire day, even though Amaryllis wasn't sure why every innkeeper decided to say that sort of thing, when she only needed it for a few hours, though he explained that it was a common rule for them to follow, given that some travelers required a decent amount of time to rest before leaving for the next leg of their journey. In the end she decided not to focus on that as she headed to the room that she would spend a few hours in, as when morning arrived all she was going to do was eat breakfast and leave the small village, but one thing that interested her was that the pair of guards she had seen when she reached Rorikstead hadn't charged at her and demand that she pay for her crimes, or something like that anyway, though that was when she cast her gaze down to her armor for a second. She figured that someone wearing the armor of the Dark Brotherhood would have been rushed by the various guards of Skyrim, either to send the individual to jail or outright kill them before they murdered someone, but from the looks of it the Family likely changed the look of their armor every now and then, to make sure their members go unnoticed for a time, which was fine by her, or maybe the guards didn't know what the armor looked like and just kept an eye on suspicious individuals. At the same time she had to wonder if it might be a good idea to weave a spell over her body and make her armor appear like the leather armor she had been wearing earlier, which was an illusion spell that she and the other changelings learned when they were young and didn't use all that much, based on the strain it put on their mana reserves, but in this new world, where she had found that her mana was no longer connected to her need to feed on love, she had to wonder how long she could hold that spell up for in this world. In the end Amaryllis sighed and laid on the bed, because the thought was a good idea and she might try it in the near future, just to see if she could actually use the spell and really disguise herself while she wandered the land, before she let out a yawn that lasted for a few moments and then drifted off to sleep, so she could rest and recover for what she was going to do in the morning.

As it turned out she slept for about six to seven hours, which she felt was more than enough, and as soon as she got up she purchased something to eat and made sure that she had enough energy to get through part of the day, though for the moment she wasn't stressed for coin, where she felt that keeping the majority of her gold inside her personal chest, which she could summon and dismiss whenever she wanted, was the best strategy so she didn't draw the attention of bandits or anyone that was looking to steal something from her. She had to admit that it was an interesting spell, one that wasn't like what she had seen in her home world, not that she knew much about the magic that the unicorns practiced and used all the time, and she determined that she going to use it every now and then, depending on the situation and how much stuff she was carrying on her, since this might also allow her to carry off vast amounts of treasure without wearing herself down in the process, which might have been what the spell was intended for before it seemed to vanish from what the mages of this world used to learn about magic. While she ate her breakfast she found that the innkeeper, Mralki, didn't want his son Erik to become an adventurer and wanted him to remain here, in Rorikstead, much to his son's annoyance, though while she felt that it was a little unfair for Mralki to decide the path of his grown son's life, and not listen to his son at all, she did come to the decision that she shouldn't get involved in this at all, least he have the guards escort her out of the building or something for sticking her nose into someone else's business. Other than that it seemed like everyone else that called the village home was eating in this morning, in their own homes to be exact, and that the innkeeper didn't seem to mind what was going on right now, especially since he had a paying customer and it seemed like it had been a few days since he had one, though after some time Amaryllis finished her food, thanked Mralki for the room, and then headed back to the room for a moment so she could banish her summoned chest once more, before departing from the inn so she could continue along the path that was leaving Rorikstead and resume her journey.

Amaryllis found something interesting as she followed the path that lead out of Rorikstead, which headed towards another fork in the road according to her map, and that was that there was one more house off to her left, where she assumed the owners were farmers and were quite busy working on their field, especially since she thought she spotted someone doing just that, up on top of the hill she was walking by, but in the end she focused on following the path and continued walking towards her destination, which just so happened to involved heading down a hill so she could reach a river.

"You picked a bad time to get lost, friend." a voice said, stopping Amaryllis as she was partway down the hill that she was walking down, where she spotted a chest in a cart in front of her, though off on her left were two archers and off on her right were more bandits that were coming out from the rock they were hiding behind, all of them looking like they wanted to kill her and take her stuff from her corpse, even though she noticed that of her soon to be enemies were Nords, instead of a mix of races, like she was expecting.

"What do you mean I 'picked a bad time to get lost'?" Amaryllis replied, as she had no idea why bandits would say that to someone when this was a public road that everyone used to get from one part of Skyrim to another, even if there were a number of other routes they could use, though at the same time she drew her dagger and dodged the incoming attack from the bandit that was in front of her, before driving her blade into his chest and then shifted her stance so she could lift her foe into the air and make him take two arrows to the back, only to pull back seconds later as she focused on the rest of the bandits, "This is a public road, with people coming and going all the time, and I just so happen to be on my way to one of the other major cities, so there's no way I could have gotten lost, as you claim I have..."

"Just kill her and take her stuff!" another bandit stated, which happened to come from a Khajiit that must have been right behind a rock or something, since this was the first time Amaryllis had noticed her, where she noticed that the first bandit she had taken out was male, by the look of his body, leaving the two archers as Nords, though what the Khajiit said made Amaryllis focus on the fight and less on trying to convince her opponents why the opening statement they had picked was a bad one, when they could have said something else.

Instead of taking out the Khajiit, who was trying to run her through with her blade, Amaryllis targeted the two archers that were readying their next arrows and were getting ready to loose them, as they seemed to be the more immediate threat and she wanted to make sure they had been taken care of, especially since the Khajiit seemed to have terrible aim and just missed her repeatedly, meaning there was no reason for her to take this foe out yet, and that was counting the fact that at least one of the archers didn't want to hit the Khajiit. Fortunately things worked out in her favor, either due to the archers only having one arrow at the ready or not being prepared for when the leader of their group shouted at her to stall her for a time, which allowed her to get up close to the first archer and drive her dagger right into his head, though as the other archer readied his bow, however, she jumped backwards and let the arrow fly through the area she had been standing in a few seconds ago. Of course that left her with the Khajiit she had left behind, who was coming to stab her in the back and split her open like a purse, as that was what she told her, but she had one other weapon on her, the sword she had taken from Helgen, which she drew and parried the incoming attack with ease as she recalled what she had been taught in the brief time she had been in the now destroyed town. While she might be a novice at wielding a blade like this in battle, as she found daggers to be better suited for her and the fact that she was choosing to be an assassin now, her memory of all the movements allowed her to parry the incoming attacks as the remaining archer readied another arrow, one he planned on putting in her chest so he could kill her, but the mistake her foe made was that he stood nearby and let the Khajiit stall her for a few seconds. As soon as the archer was ready Amaryllis dodged the incoming arrow and ended up freaking out the Khajiit in the process, since she had to dodge to the side and nearly got hit with the attack, to which Amaryllis quickly rushed at her first target and swung her sword, where she cut the archer in half before another arrow could be readied and then turned around to parry another attack that came from her remaining foe, only for her to twist her sword to the side so she could knock her foe's blade to the side and stab the Khajiit in the chest.

With the way clear, since all the bandits were dead, Amaryllis retrieved her steel dagger and cleaned it, before putting it and her sword back in their sheathes, which was followed by her collecting the coins that the bandits had, picked up the arrows that were laying on the ground and what the archers had been carrying on their backs, and discovered that one of the archers was carrying an Imperial bow, one she had seen some of the soldiers at Helgen carrying, so she switched it for the one she wasn't using and continued down the hill, as she discovered that the chest was nothing more than a simple distraction, especially since it was totally empty.

As she walked down the hill, to make up the time that she had wasted with the bandits, she noticed that there was a sabre cat some distance in front of her, resting at the bottom of the hill to be exact, and for a moment she wondered if she was going to have to kill it to move on, but, to her surprise, a deer ran by where the cat was resting and caused it to get up and chase after it, where they seemed to head to the river that was further down this path and disappeared in due time, which opened the way for her to move forward. She didn't know if her luck was good or if she had picked the perfect moment to be walking down the hill, but either way it worked out to her advantage, allowing her to continue along the path she had chosen without having to worry about an animal trying to kill her, like the wolves she had seen at the start of her journey in this land. One thing she had to think about was the river that was in the middle of her path, as it appeared that some sort of wooden fort had been constructed on the other side of the stone bridge that she had been planning on walking across, one that wasn't flying the red or blue flags she had seen so far, which were the signs of the side that watched over this area and everything that was around it, where the red flags indicated that the Imperials owned it while the blue flags did the same for the Stormcloaks, meaning this fort either belonged to the Hold it was in or it belonged to bandits. Given that she was just attacked by bandits, and she didn't see anywhere for them to rest during the night, she had to assume the camp belonged to bandits and that they would attempt to get some of her gold before allowing her to continue on her journey through this area, meaning this was a toll road, which informed her that her options were either pay the toll and move on, kill them and clear the area out, or just go down the path of the sabre cat and deer had run along and jump over some stones to get to the other side of the river, even if that meant she might annoy the cat in question.

When she got closer to the bridge, however, she discovered that the bandits were already under attack by a small force of soldiers that were wearing a green colored version of the chainmail armor the guards of Whiterun were wearing, which told Amaryllis that they had to be the guards of whatever Hold she was in, but that didn't stop her from rushing over to where the battle was happening so she could assist them. As it turned out there were five guards attacking the bandits, sticking together and not separating from each other, and while the bandits were focused on attacking them Amaryllis jumped up some rocks and dropped down behind one of the archers, where she slit his throat and then headed up the wooden stairs to cut down another distracted archer, eliminating two enemies so the guards could focus on the rest of the bandits they were fighting. From what she could tell the leader of these bandits was wearing an impressive suit of steel armor, the plate version she believed it was called, and seemed to have no problems letting his fellow bandits attack the guards that were invading their domain, a battle that the guards appeared to be winning since none of them were dead and the bandits ended up losing another one by the time Amaryllis was done with her two foes. Of course, since it seemed that the leader was preoccupied with having his fellow bandits attack the guards, and was trying to get them to cut down some of their enemies, she noticed that the leader's defenses were lowered, so she crouched for a moment, just to be sure he hadn't seen her yet, before carefully making her way over to where he was located, where she was thankful for the sounds of battle, otherwise she was sure he would have heard her in some manner.

In the end she was able to get up right behind him, without him noticing her at all, and readied her dagger, where she reached forward and made sure that her left hand pulled the leader's head back as she pulled her right hand backward a second later, allowing her dagger to cut through his neck and kill him, causing his body to fall to the ground without much resistance, where she stood up after doing the deed and found that she was in time to watch the guards cut down the last bandit that called this place home, before they put their weapons away.

"You have our thanks, friend," one of the guards, who Amaryllis assumed was the leader of their group, said, though at the same time the rest of his group seemed to take a break and make sure that none of them were seriously wounded, if the red potions they were handling were any indication, before the speaker gestured to the bandit leader that she had cut down from behind, "that man has been a thorn in the Jarl's side for a long time, and she finally sent us to take care of him and his group of bandits so we could restore order to this road. Help yourself to whatever he had on him and the chest that no doubt carries his loot, as you deserve some sort of reward for assisting us, though we'll salvage what his friends were using and put them to good use back in Morthal."

Amaryllis opened her mouth to respond, as she was more than happy to help them take out a group of bandits, since she didn't like them either, and that she would gladly take some sort of reward for her efforts, even if she hadn't done much in the grand scheme of things, but before she could actually say anything to him there was a thundering boom in the air and all of them glanced up at the sky for a moment, as they were all caught off guard by the sound that had stopped everyone from having a short conversation about the bandits.

Dovahkiin. a voice said, one that sounded old, like an elderly person had said it, and sounded like it was coming from someplace that was quite far from where she and the guards were standing, like from a mountain or something like that, though while she had no idea what was going on right now it was clear that the guards did have some idea of what the noise was all about, even though it did seem like it had been rolling thunder or something like it, making her wonder what in the world they had just heard.

"What in the world was that?!" Amaryllis asked, because she had no idea who in this land could project their voice to the entire land like that, even though back home she wasn't sure if either of Canterlot's princesses could do something like that, even though she knew of a few tales that spoke of something that was called the 'Royal Canterlot Voice', but she was sure that someone could tell her something about what just happened, hence the reason that she made sure to direct the question to the nearby guards.

"That was the voice of the Greybeards, summoning the Dragonborn to High Hrothgar," one of the other guards spoke up, though his tone revealed that he understood that Amaryllis was not from Skyrim and that she didn't know much about the various things the Nords held as their sacred traditions, something that he wasn't about to hold against her since he knew there were a number of visitors that didn't know this either, before he considered what they had just heard as he said the rest of what was on his mind, "such a thing has not happened for centuries, not since Tiber Septim was summoned, back when he was Talos of Atmora... it makes one wonder what could have caused them to do such a thing, and who among us could have the honor of being the next Dragonborn, along with learning the power of the Thu'um."

Amaryllis had to admit that she was a little lost by what he was saying, about a group called the Greybeards, a hero that the Nords called Dragonborn, the fact that no one's been called for a really long time, the Thu'um, and the talk of Talos, who she thought was a god until this moment. It was clear that the guard didn't have much more to say, as he was more interested in speaking to one of the other guards, so Amaryllis simply collected the gold the bandit leader had on him, as well as picking up a few healing potions from the shack he had been living in, before staring at the large chest that was in the bedroom, which had a magical staff, a gold pouch, and a few other things laying around, so all she took was the gold and the staff, as she figured she could sell the staff at some point. Once that was done she started to leave the shack and spotted a key laying on a nightstand, to which she shrugged and pocketed it as well, figuring that it must have gone to the chest and that since the leader hadn't locked the chest it served no purpose, meaning it could be traded in for a few coins as well, when she decided to stop in a town and sell some of the loot she had picked up so far. As soon as she was done with the shack, and bid the guards farewell so she could continue on her journey to Dawnstar, the group of guards headed into the small shack and continued looking for gear they could salvage, causing her to shake her head as she left them to their business.

She wasn't sure what was going on in Skyrim, what with the dragons and the summoning of the Dragonborn, whoever that was, but she was absolutely sure that it had nothing to do with her and that she would never cross paths with the one who had been chosen to fulfill some great prophecy or something like that, so she focused on her current mission and wondered what other dangers the road had in store for her.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

having only done the brotherhood questline once or twice and having never really gotten to know the characters this was great. Also the Dragonborn has been called. Wonder if the bug will end up running into a dragon during her travels between targets.

[badninja]

She wasn't sure what was going on in Skyrim, what with the dragons and the summoning of the Dragonborn, whoever that was, but she was absolutely sure that it had nothing to do with her and that she would never cross paths with the one who had been chosen to fulfill some great prophecy or something like that, so she focused on her current mission and wondered what other dangers the road had in store for her.

Little does she know. I feel sorry for her she has no clue just how far down that rabbit hole she will be drug. Hopefully by the time she realizes it it will be far too late for her to turn about and go the other way.

[Night_Moon60606]

10925124
more than likely, one of the games Random Encounters after Dragon Rising is complete is a roving Dragon, one that either attacks or just flies around

[Fetch]

In my current playing of Skyrim, I am on purpose not going to Bleak Falls Barrow, simply to keep the dragons asleep longer. I have enough problems with Vampires killing merchants. Good thing I purchased horse from Whiterun when I did. When I left Whiterun, the horse seller had been killed by two Death Hounds. I hadn't even fast traveled, and had only just hit lvl 10.

[Blackdrag-rose]

10925932 Dang, I'm sorry to hear that. The vampires and their death hounds are definitely a problem, especially when they attack the cities and kill the merchants.