A Question of Fate Options

[ThatSkyrimGuy]

Brief Intro By The Author

A Question of Fate would be the title of my piece.

I have been back and forth about trying to start and post a fan fic piece. The idea has always intrigued me, but I never considered myself to be a writer, let alone a good writer. I have read a sampling of some of the works that are posted on this site, and quite frankly, it is intimidating. The material is amazing. I must say say that despite the intimidation, it is also inspiring. So I am willing to throw caution to the wind and go for it. There are a few provisos. I work for a living. Often times, the hours I work are long. There may be periods of dormancy in this thread. I will apologize in advance for that. Life outside the internet does have it's restrictions. Also, I am sure that there is an unspoken etiquette that states, "You read mine and comment, and I shall do the same". This is also where I could run into trouble, for the same reasons that there may be dormant periods in this thread. There are stories on this site that I could never hope to read all the way through, with triple digit page counts, while I try to keep posting my own story and work through everyday life. So, with all that being said, I will wait to start posting chapters until I get a sense of what the audience demands. Please let me know if I should start posting a fan fic piece, based on what you have just read.

Thanks.

EDIT - This was originally posted in "General Discussion"

This post has been edited by ThatSkyrimGuy: May 4 2013, 04:41 AM

[ThatSkyrimGuy]

Thanks to mALX, SubRosa, McBadgere and Grits for your kind comments. Here is some weekend reading for you. It will be difficult, but resist the temptation to add "...oh my!" to the chapter title. I hope you enjoy...

Chapter 5 – Imperials, and Spiders, and Bears

17th Last Seed, 4E201 - Continued

The three of us left the torture chamber and entered what appeared to be the cell block of the dungeon. The barred and gated walls of several cells faced the walkway. As we passed these, I noticed a small leather bag near a skeleton in one cell. I had heard that the Nords in Skyrim imprisoned thieves with their loot as an irony to show the uselessness of theft.

“Hold up,” I said, and went to work on the lock. This one popped even easier than the first. I rushed in and grabbed the bag, grinning at the sound of clinking coins. In seconds, I was back with the others.

“Do I need to worry about being robbed in my sleep with you around?” Ralof asked me with a raised eyebrow.

“If you had anything worth stealing, you would,” I replied with a smile.

Ralof chuckled and we pressed on. Another stair at the end of the passage led us downward yet again. The stench of rotted flesh assaulted our nostrils. We entered another room that was even more gruesome than the torture chamber. Suspended cages, with corpses in various stages of decay ranging from fresh to skeletal, hung all around the room. We crossed the chamber quickly, and then paused at the crude entrance to a tunnel. The passage ahead was lit by braziers and torches.

“I wonder if there are more Imperials, or worse, this far down,” said the female Stormcloak.

“We’ll know soon enough. Let’s keep moving though. The sooner were through this, the better,” I replied, looking at the narrow confines of the route before us.

Ralof entered the tunnel and we followed. There was no masonry work here. This passage had been hewn from solid stone. It was so narrow that I felt as though the walls were closing in on us. I urged Ralof to pick up the pace. After rounding a few bends, Ralof raised his hand as a signal to stop. Voices carried up the passageway.

“Orders are to wait here until General Tullius arrives,” one voice commanded.

“I’m not waiting to be killed by a dragon! We need to pull back!” said another.

I turned and whispered to the woman behind me, “Does that answer your question sufficiently, ma’am?”

“On three...ready?” Ralof whispered while getting his axe ready, and then he yelled, “THREE!” and ran into the room. We followed and joined the battle. There were five Imperial soldiers against the three of us. The end result was the same as our previous skirmishes, except for one disturbing detail. The female Stormcloak had been slain. Ralof was staring down at her.

“Did you know her well?” I asked.

“No, she was a new recruit,” he replied. “I don’t even know her name.”

“I’m sorry Ralof,” I said. It was the best I had to offer at the moment, because my mind was elsewhere. I looked around the chamber for a moment and then spotted what I was seeking.

YES! Here we go…

I relieved an Imperial archer of his long bow and quiver. Looking at the other dead Imperials, I found two more quivers. Now I was properly armed with a bow and a couple dozen arrows. None of it was of great quality, but they were much more suited to my talents than this blade. I sat on a rock and pulled the wine bottle from my pack. I managed three healthy pulls while Ralof finished paying his last respects to his fallen comrade. Before putting the cork back in, I offered the bottle Ralof’s way while suppressing a belch. He declined. I shrugged, put everything away, and stood up.

More for me…

We moved on to the next exit, Ralof in the lead. It was a low, arched passage that ended at a raised drawbridge. Fortunately, the lever to lower the bridge was on our side. I gave it a pull and the bridge lowered into place. Ralof crossed and I followed just in time the have it smashed to splinters right on my heels. The dragon announced its culpability with a distant roar. There would be no turning back now. The drawbridge landing was a masonry platform with a set of stairs leading into a larger natural cavern. A stream babbled its way through to the other end of the cave. Water needs to find a way out, so a stream made as good a guide as any. We pressed on.

After a time, the stream continued through a space that would not allow us to follow it further. A tunnel branched off to the right. Whether or not this was a good thing remained to be seen, as a foul stench emanated from the entrance. I nocked an arrow and Ralof drew out his axe. The odor grew as we ventured deeper into the tunnel, and pale sticky masses eventually began to coalesce into more intricate webs. We looked at each other knowingly.

There would be spiders ahead.

We entered an expanded area of the cave that had walls covered with webs. We did not have time to admire the handiwork, for as soon as we entered, spiders dropped from the ceiling as if on cue. I bounded to the nearest high ground and dispatched three arrows, dropping three spiders in their tracks while Ralof took care of the other two. I shuddered. I hated spiders. Ralof actually vocalized his shared opinion. He claimed they had too many eyes. The arachnids did hold one treasure though. I asked Ralof to wait while I knelt and opened the backpack. There was just a little wine left in the bottle. I uncorked it and finished it off.

“You asked me to wait so that you could have another drink of wine?”

“No,” …burp… “that was just a binus…um…bonus. I needed the bottle.”

I went to each spider and milked as much venom as each would provide into the wine bottle. I corked my new poison and told Ralof that I was ready now. We could still hear the stream, so we followed that sound. Every now and then, it would find its way back into the caverns and passages we occupied. Ralof suddenly came to a halt so abruptly that I walked right into his back.

“What the…?”

Ralof was pointing ahead and said, “There is a bear over there. See her? She’s slee-”

“I got this,” I assured him, patting his shoulder before I crept closer to the bear.

I nocked an arrow and raised it, drawing the bowstring back to my ear. I was having difficulty aiming. My arrowhead seemed to wander back and forth. I stopped what I was doing and took the time to soak the arrowhead in spider venom, just in case my slightly intoxicated aim prevented a clean kill shot. It was probably a good thing too, because my arrow hit her in the hind quarters. However, the poison did its job nicely. She had time to let out a growl and even began to charge toward us before she dropped stone dead in her tracks. An old friend of mine had once told me, “Poison is a drunken archer’s best friend.” I was far from “drunk”, by my standards. But it was handy stuff, that frostbite venom.

“HA!” I cheered with a leap into the air, and then went into a deep, flourished bow.

Ralof just looked at me, shook his head and said, “No more wine for you!” as he walked by. I chuckled and followed. Normally, I would harvest the bear first, and properly dispose of its carcass. Normally didn’t apply to right now.

The passageway began to get lighter. I could smell and feel fresher air buffeting my face. And suddenly, there it was. Daylight was ahead. We walked out into brilliant sunshine and the ever so welcome aroma of coniferous forest. The splendor was briefly broken by the howl of the dragon, in flight and moving away to the north. I laid down right there, looked at the sky, and laughed heartily.

EDIT - Picked nits. Thanks to Acadian for the suggestion of Googling the "How to". Extremely helpful! Added date.

This post has been edited by ThatSkyrimGuy: May 21 2013, 12:38 PM