Once we were ushered through the door I came face-to-chest with one of the biggest Nords I had ever seen. The man had to be part giant! And it proved whoever Gerdur was, she was not a fool to answer the door at night with only a flimsy dagger.

No, the blonde man with a wickedly sharp looking axe was looking at all of us like he was ready to split us in two if we were hostile even as he idly rubbed a huge mustache with one hand.

Gerdur proved to be much less wary as she immediately began to interrogate Ralof. “Mara's Mercy, it's good to see you! But is it safe for you to be here?"

"Gerdur..." Ralof tried to reply.

"We had heard that Ulfric had been captured..." and was immediately spoken over.

"Gerdur... I'm fine. At least now I am." Ralof tried again.

"Are you hurt? What's happened?” She asked before looking over at Thor and myself. “And who are these? Some of your comrades?"

"Not comrades, not yet at least...but friends. I owe them both my life, in fact. Can we sit down? There's no telling when the news from Helgen will reach the Imperials..." Ralof replied.

"Helgen? Has something happened...?”

“Helgen has been destroyed.” I responded to the shock of the couple.

Ralof ran a hand through his hair. “Like the elf said. So, can we sit? Maybe a drink as well?”

Soon enough four of us were situated around a rough wooden table, while Gerdur’s husband Hod situated himself behind me. I was giving him a mild glare while his eyes shown in dark amusement for managing to make me uncomfortable.

When the drinks were passed out Gerdur resumed her search for answers and drew my attention back in front of me.

“What did you mean by Helgen has been destroyed?”

Ralof let out a huge sigh and looked at me and Thor to see if we wanted to explain. I shrugged in indifference and Thor seemed happy to let other people talk while he looked over a spell tome he picked up at...some point…

When it was clear neither one of us were going to begin, Ralof sighed again and started explaining from the ambush that resulted in Ulfric and his capture. He skipped over a good bit of the journey to Helgen until the execution itself. Gerdur covered her mouth with tears in her eyes when it became clear exactly how close Ralof was to being executed. Thor was unconsciously rubbing at his own neck at the reminder he had come closer than that.

Taking a long pull from the drink in front of him Ralof then went into the story of how all of you fled from an angry black dragon that showed up and rained fire on the walled town. Apparently both he and Thor had a much harder time getting to the keep than I did as they encountered Alduin multiple times, were nearly buried by collapsing walls, and had to avoid being incinerated on at least three separate occasions.

Once that was out of the way, the tale of me talking them down and convincing them to work with the Imperials until we made it out of the tunnels seemed rather mundane. Hadvar’s name was mentioned and Gerdur seemed to stop herself from asking about him, while I heard Hod shuffle uncomfortably in the background.

A short explanation about how the whole group split up after escaping the tunnels and the three of us arriving here left the room in a sort of stunned silence.

Eventually Gerdur manages to break the silence. “You actually saw a dragon?”

“I have a hard time believing it myself, and I was there!” Ralof retorted. “But yes, in a weird way I suppose the dragon saved my life as well.”

“And Ulfric?” Hod speaks up for the first time. “Did he escape as well, or…?”

“Don't worry. I'm sure he made it out. It'll take more than a dragon to stop Ulfric Stormcloak!”

I rolled my eyes but said nothing. If anyone noticed, they didn’t comment.

Gerdur stood and smoothed out her dress. “It’s late, we can talk in the morning.”

So the group broke up for the night in unspoken agreement. The two Nords followed Hod to get settled in while I declined and laid down my bedroll in a corner of the room. I set a few ward spells that should last the night and then promptly fell into a light sleep.

The next morning I was jolted into awareness when Hod entered the kitchen and blearily started moving through cabinets. Bread, cheese, and ale was pulled from various places and set at the table. Not long after Hod finished crashing through the place Gerdur, Ralof, and Thor also made an appearance. None of them looking much better than Hod.

Did they stay up later than I did?

Feeling an impish smile spread across my face I snuck closer to all of them.

“Good morning everyone!” I loudly announced. “Ready to talk some more?!”

I got a collection of winces, glares, and groans more attributed to zombies than people.

It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.

“I doubt I’ll sleep soundly anytime soon now that I know there is a dragon burning towns.” Hod complained, taking a pull from his drink.

His wife nodded, some life coming back to her eyes as she woke up some more. “Its a problem. Riverwood is defenseless. We need to get word to Jarl Balgruuf to send any soldiers he can spare.”

“I can go to Whiterun and speak to him. I was already headed that way anyway.” Thor volunteered.

He turned to me. “I know you mentioned you were heading that way as well. Want to travel together?”

Did I want to travel with a legend in the making that would ensure I would get dragged into fights that would determine the eventual fate of Nirn? No, no I did not.

Could I find an excuse not to travel with the kid at the moment? Also no.

And while there was nothing stopping me from just saying that, I also didn’t want to abandon a practically helpless kid to wander through the province and likely get in over his head.

“I’m leaving at noon. If you’re coming with, meet me at the edge of the village then.” There now if he wanders off it won’t be on my conscience.

He nods in acceptance.

“Thank you, we’ll be in your debt.” Gerdur says to Thor before looking at Ralof. “You mentioned Hadvar and the Imperials last night. Is it safe for you to be here?”

Sensing they were moving to more personal topics I grabbed a hunk of bread and excused myself.

I stepped out into the village and got my first look at the place in daylight.

Riverwood met all the stereotypes for an out of the way peaceful village. The people were all tolerant of each other as long as the war wasn’t mentioned. There was a small general store, blacksmith, pharmacy, and inn to see to most people’s needs and if I had any intention of staying in this frozen corner of the world, it might have made a pleasant place to settle down for a few decades.

Still there wasn’t much of interest to me here, so after restocking on food and the waterskins I had given the Stormcloaks I simply decided to wait by the stone bridge leading to Whiterun.

Thor came running up to the bridge with his travel pack with fifteen minutes to spare I noticed after briefly consulting a clockwork timepiece.

“You’re early.” I commented, snapping the protective brass cover closed.

Thor was more interested in the timepiece in my hand.

“Is that a pocket watch?”

“If that’s what you call a timepiece, probably.”

“Where did you get one of those? I thought that kind of stuff was way beyond Skyrim’s tech level.”

“For a backwater like Riverwood? Absolutely. You might be able to find a seller in one of the bigger cities though. Mine is Cyrodiilian though so I wouldn’t know where to look.” I replied deliberately misinterpreting him. By Auri-El’s light kid, someone is going to notice what you’re saying and either declare you a madman or lock you in a lab.

“Wha-? No, I meant...nevermind.” Thor sputters. “Are we ready to go?”

-o-

When the world is presented to you through a game it is easy to imagine what you would do if you were truly there. How you would cleverly solve all the issues when you were no longer bound to strictly following the mechanics of said game.

It was a classic hero fantasy, and I can admit growing up I did much the same with stories both told by my parents and ones I remembered from my previous life. From the fractured memories I managed to preserve with memory spells the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was one of my favorites actually.

What those fantasies often forget to include is that the setting itself is no longer operating by those same restrictions. So things like, say, diving into a giant fortress-tomb infested with bandits and undead completely unprepared tends to be a monumentally bad idea.

Thor seemed to want to give it a go anyway.

“But it’s one of the biggest ancient Nordic structures in the land!”

“Not a Nord or a historian, I don’t care.”

“But think of what treasure could be found up there!” He tried again.

“Little to none in the upper levels that hasn’t been picked clean by the bandits that have inevitably made it home, decaying weapons and armour from more than an Age ago, and more undead than I want to deal with without more by my side than a kid with stars in his eyes and his head in the clouds.”

Thor let out an indignant squawk. “Hey, I know what I’m doing! I dealt with Helgen and the bandits just fine!”

I gave him a deadpan look. “You attacked me and were disarmed immediately, and while you managed to kill a bandit you spent the next five minutes hovering over a bush trying to keep your stomach.”

Thor blushed.

“Well you took me off guard! Look, give me a chance and I’ll prove I could handle it.” He said before his eyes unfocused a bit and he looked vaguely surprised.

That twinged a half-forgotten memory for some reason.

I narrowed my eyes at him trying to figure out what his reaction reminded me of. Nothing came to mind though.

“Alright, one chance.” I gave in. “If you can last in a spar with me for, hmm...thirty seconds I’ll consider it.”

A cocky smile started across Thor’s face. “Great! So how we gonna do this? Swords? Magic?”

“Barehanded.” I replied with a snort, enjoying his shocked look. “You don’t have a practice weapon and I doubt you know a ward spell. I’m not going to risk slowing this journey down by getting you injured.”

“I know a healing spell.” He said mulishly.

Well that was a bit of a surprise. “The Restoration spell Healing?” he nodded. “That is only good for bruises and surface cuts. Besides if you can’t beat me in a fistfight with your size and reach, you stand no chance with a weapon.”

I set my pack down and turned in a fighting stance. Only to see Thor hadn’t moved.

“Well? What are you waiting for?”

“I, uh, I don’t know if I can hit a girl.” He said awkwardly, scratching at his cheek.

I stare at him.

And keep staring.

Eventually Thor starts fidgeting under my gaze.

“Wh-what?”

“You don’t want to punch me, but you wanted to use swords.”

He sputtered for a bit but couldn’t answer.

“It’s either that or we continue to Whiterun.” I said.

“...fine” Thor shrugged off his own pack and raised his fists.

After a silent count, Thor rushed forward and actually surprised me by having something resembling a fighting style.

I dodged around his first couple punches just to get an idea about his style, the half hearted strikes made them really easy to dodge.

At the twenty second mark I decided I wasn’t going to see anything new and stepped into his attack. Thor’s fist went high over my shoulder and I drove an elbow just under his rib cage. With that all Thor’s breath whoosed out and a few strikes later, he was on the ground gasping.

“Twenty six seconds.” I noted. “To Whiterun it is.”

“W-was going...easy on y-you.” Thor gasped out.

“So was I, and if that's how you act in a spar I’m sure the first female bandit you come across will kill you.”

Thor moaned again and got off the ground. Once both of us collected out packs we set out once again.

-o-

Eventually the forest and mountains gave way to wide open plains. If nothing else this trek was worth the view as we slowly neared the walled city. Built on a lone plateau that rose out of the surrounding plains, the city of Whiterun was a beautiful contrast to the flatlands around it. Smoke from several chimneys drifted over the walls, while the Jarls Keep of Dragonsreach stood at the highest point of the city.

The surrounding lowland was dotted with farms and mills that followed along the winding river that cut through the city itself. Short stone bridges provided passage over the rushing water and the two of us were soon passing by a farm on the way to the gates.

Just in time to run into a giant.

The giant was currently clutching a dead goat in one hand and was swiping a massive bone club at a group of five warriors who were in the process of hacking at its legs. Another one stood further back and was shooting arrows into the creature's face attempting to blind it.

True to form, Thor saw the twelve foot giant and decided that he absolutely needed to get in a life and death situation.

“Come on, let’s help them!”

Without giving me a chance to do anything he threw off all his traveling gear, grabbed his sword, and ran off towards the fight. At least he had the sense to leave the shield behind, but a close up fight with a giant wasn’t something you just ran into dammit!

Quickly ditching my own gear I retrieved my own weapon and sent an arrow into the shoulder of the giant, hoping to draw its attention away from the charging idiot.

It worked, the sudden attack at range other than the first archer made the giant pause to look around long enough for Thor to get close up and hack at the thing’s ankle. He followed up by thrusting his left hand forward as sparks of lightning erupted out of his fingertips.

He managed to get a hold of that spell so soon?! I didn’t know why I was so surprised, he did offer to spar with magic so he clearly had at least one attack spell.

Despite the sudden onslaught of low level magic, the giant barely seemed to notice and started to advance after Thor. Only to have one of the warriors dash in with a greataxe and repeat the same strike on the giant’s other leg. This time the heavier weapon cleaved through the tough flesh and the giant roared in pain.

It swung it’s club at the axeman, who narrowly managed to dodge out of the way, and caused a small tremor as the large weapon kicked up a burst of dirt.

“Shoot out it’s eyes!” One of the warriors shouted over the general noise of the fight.

I loosed another arrow, and by either chance or fate the other archer fired at the same time.

Both arrows found a home in the giant’s eyes causing the now blinded creature to scream more. Heedless of that three other warriors joined their friend by its feet after dodging around the giant’s flailing limbs. The four of them hacked at its legs causing it to fall backward right next to Thor.

In a moment of action, Thor dodged around a flailing arm to jump up on the giant’s chest and ram his sword into its heart. Finally the giant fell silent and everyone stopped to breathe.

“That...was...GLORIOUS!” One of the warriors yelled to the heavens, breaking the silence and startling Thor so much he slipped and fell off the giant onto the ground.

The band of warriors all rushed over to Thor to help him up and soon they were all bragging over their parts in the fight.

Meanwhile the archer found her way over to me.

“Thanks for the help,” she greeted. “It’s always great working with a skilled fighter.”

I took a second to look over the new arrival. Roughly six foot tall, the Nord stood an inch or two over me. Her hair was a tangled mess of shoulder length, russet red hair a few shades duller than my own. I couldn’t tell if the mess was due to the fight or just her normal state.

Based on the older looking armour, the three stripes of warpaint across her face, and the somewhat wild grin, I was willing to bet she simply didn’t mind what her hair looked like as long as it stayed out of her way.

“Glad we could help. Thalin Fernbrook.” I held out a hand.

“Aela, with the Companions.” my fellow redhead replied, firmly grasping it.

“What brings you two to Whiterun? Looking to join up with the Companions?”

I shook my head, “I’m not, though the kid might head your way. He isn’t the greenest fighter I’ve come across, but he needs work though. We were asked to pass on a request from Riverwood and give warning to what happened in Helgen.”

“Well it wouldn’t be the first time we took on a project. He’ll be welcome if he can show he has the talent.” I didn’t doubt he would actually have that potential if he tried. Cheating Akatosh blessed bastard. “And you know what happened in Helgen? We got word the city was attacked by some traders that hurried back but no one could say what actually happened.” Aela said.

“Sorry, for the Jarl’s ears only.” I said with a shrug. “Don’t want to feed the rumor mill before he can decide what to do about it.”

Aela looked a bit put out by my refusal to explain but didn’t seem that upset about it.

“Fair enough. When you finish with that come by Jorrvaskr for a drink. I’m sure it’s quite the tale!”

We both headed over to the dead giant to wrangle up the boys, who were maybe five minutes away from running off to party. Once we joined the group a bald older Nord, who loudly introduced himself as Skjor, practically shattered my spine congratulating me about shooting one of the giant’s eyes out. He tried to convince both Thor and myself we should stick around to join in the celebration after the battle but we both managed to beg off, claiming a need to speak with the Jarl.

Similarly like with Aela, he seemed disappointed but understanding.

So we collected our things once again and finally made it to Whiterun’s gates.