Unforgettable Past - The Village's Tragedy ( 1 )

5 years before Atmorians started to Immigrate to Tamriel, in an unknown location, inside a village's chief tent.

A little girl was sleeping loudly on her bed.

Snoring like a pig.

Kicking the air as if it was her worst enemy.

A normal kid indeed.

"Wake up already!" A loud voice shouted as cold water was poured on the girl.

"What the FU-!" The child screamed in confusion but seeing her mother staring at her, she shut up.

"Asa!! I shouted 3 times and you didn't wake up! Now move! We need to go." Her mother, Arnora, shouted at her as she left the room.

Although staring at her back like a damn tiger, the child, Asa, the only child of the House Stormcloak, stood up sighing about life.

Picking up her customized bow and arrows, and dressing up her in her small armor, she left the room, ready for another day.

"It's training day!! And you're late!!" Arnora said as she hurriedly picked up Asa's lunch.

As Asa was staring at the lunch, a voice sounded behind her.

"... Like always, huh."

It was a feminine voice.

But, Asa could still feel the 'Poison' in her voice.

Yrsa was behind.

She was the family's maid and old friend of her father, Ragnar Stormcloak.

Asa thought that Yrsa was bitter that Ragnar chose Arnora, not her, so she became like that.

Since her father died before she was born from circumstances no one told her, so Asa didn't know much.

Only Arnora and Yrsa knew how Ragnar died, so she was quite upset with them.

"Good morning, Arnora," Yrsa said smiling at Arnora.

Although Arnora knew Yrsa's jealousy and her slightly dislike of Asa because of her resemblance to Ragnar, they were still friends for decades.

She tried to dissolve her dislike for Asa but it didn't go well, so Arnora chose to give up and let nature take its course.

"Good morning, Yrsa," Arnora responded smiling back.

Strangely enough, Arnora and Yrsa were friendly enough, making Asa more and more confused about the family's relationship.

'... This is becoming more and more confusing...' Asa thought cutely tilting her head to her right, pondering.

Shooking her head, she finally said as she left, "I'm going now."

...

As she was walking toward the training camp, she saw a cute small child leave a tent.

He had blonde hair like gold and blue eyes like the skies

Seeing the child, Asa smiled cutely and said to him, "Again in trouble, Sigurd?"

Sigurd ( Miraak ) Dragonfire, son of Aron Dragonfire and his late wife, Halla.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Sigurd sighed and said, "... So? What's up?"

"... Avoiding the topic, huh... Whatever. Let's go. The Teacher today is quite... strict."

Asa said to Sigurd as she smiled at him.

He was her best friend.

The reason was quite simple.

The other children were always licking her Mother's boots.

They were always saying good things to her, and Asa started to feel sick of it.

The only child who wasn't giving a damn to her 'status' was Sigurd ( Miraak ).

As the child of the Chief's childhood friend, Sigurd was quite relaxed training with her.

And, most importantly, he didn't kiss anyone's shoes.

If it was hand-to-hand combat, he wouldn't hesitate to punch her in the face or kicking her.

There was no 'Good' or 'Evil' in Atmorians' minds.

It was just 'Strong' and 'Weak'.

Male or Female. Young or Older.

As long as you're strong, it's all that matters.

That's why Asa was starting to like Sigurd more and more.

Unruled by nothing. He did whatever he wanted to do when he wanted to.

It was strangely enough, beautiful in the small world of Asa's mind.

She lived all her life untouched by no one by fear of her 'status' or by people trying to like her mother's boots.

It was refreshing.

...

Seeing everyone ready, the Teacher said, "Today... we're going train in 'Evasion'."

All the children shook their heads in disappointment.

After all, all of them wanted to be fearless warriors, running among flying arrows in the battlefield.

Even if arrows penetrated their body, as long they killed the enemy, it was okay.

That was the children's thoughts.

Seeing all the children so dismissive of evading in battle, the Teacher almost snapped and slapped their faces in frustration.

But, the teacher failed to notice something.

A child didn't shake his head naively.

The child was Sigurd ( Miraak ).

With all the troubles he made in the past, he remembered all the time he evaded the flying tomatoes or potatoes flying to his face.

he knew that evading was better than blocking.

Why should you block, damaging your shield or your arm, if you can evade with zero damage?

It was logically the better option.

But, of course, children being children, they wanted to be the bravest and fearless warrior to ever live.

'Evading an arrow in fear of being harmed? What kind of fearless warrior is that?' The children thought as they sighed.

Sighing, the Teacher said, "... Looks like you don't like evading?"

Seeing them nod, he continued, "... Fine. How about this? I will prove to you that evading is one of the most important aspects of a fight."

Finishing speaking, the Teacher walked over an 'Arrow Trap' and said as he picked up a nearby shield.

"Blocking is indeed important in a fight, but if you block every single attack..." He said as he activated the trap.

Dozens upon dozens of arrows flew toward him.

Rising the shield, he started to block them.

The impact of so many arrows made the Teacher take a step back.

Finally, after around a minute or almost a hundred arrows penetrated the shield, small cracks started to appear around the shield.

Finally stepping aside, the arrows passed through him and penetrated the wall behind him.

Showing the shield to the children, the Teacher continued, "Look at this shield. It's what is blocking you from instant death. When it's broken, you will become vulnerable to attacks."

The children started to listen more as he continued, "You need to know the balance between evading and blocking, attack and defense."

"Let me show you when you use evasion correctly." The Teacher said relaxed as he stepped in the 'Arrow Trap' again.

Dozens upon dozens of arrows flew toward him again.

But he didn't raise any shields.

The sound of so many arrows made the children wide their eyes in anticipation.

As the first arrow was about to penetrate the Teacher's head.

The children saw him tilt his head right.

The arrow passed through as if it was an obvious outcome.

As more and more arrows arrived, the Teacher evaded masterfully.

Tilting his head. Jumping, Raising his legs. Raising his arms.

It was as if he was dancing.

Even Sigurd ( Miraak ) was surprised. He didn't know his teacher was so 'Powerful'.

As the last arrow arrived, the Teacher raised his hand, and masterfully took it mid-air.

Crushing the arrow, he said, "See? No damage to any equipment, therefore not diminishing your chances of survival."

Although the Teacher said so, Sigurd and Asa, the only ones who truly understood the importance of Evasion, noticed the Teacher abnormal breathing.

Even if it was only slightly different from his normal breathing, they immediately noticed it.

They knew that Evasion had a major weakness.

Even if Blocking had the same weakness, it 'costed' less.

It was stamina or the body's energy.

Evading an arrow made you more tired then simply blocking it.

That is the reason warriors needed to balance blocking and evading.

If you tire yourself more rapidly then your opponent, it didn't matter if you're stronger them him, he will simply walk to your tired body and kill you.

"... Let's start training!! In couples, everyone tries to hit the other... You can't block it. You NEED to evade..." The Teacher said to everyone.

As they were about to start, he continued smirking, "The first one of the couples to land a hit, he or she will have the loser as a servant."

Since Sigurd and Asa were always chosen to be together as a training couple, they already were staring at each other.

As the other couples started to punch each other, Sigurd and Asa were still glaring at each other.

"You know you will lose, right? PotatoFace." Sigurd said staring at Asa.

Clicking her tongue, she responded, "Lose? Me? You're the one who will lose. ShitHead."

As more and more couples finished their 'Training'.

Some could evade, others couldn't.

So, they all finished, only to find out that Sigurd and Asa didn't Start!

As Sigurd and Asa continued insulting each other, trying to disrupt their focus, more and more children started to gather around them.

"Come on, Sigurd- Show her who is the boss!!" Some cheered to Sigurd.

"Asa! Do it! Show him who is the strongest!!" Some cheered to Asa.

"Sigurd! Sigurd! Sigurd!"

"Asa! Asa! Asa!"

Seeing the children so active, the Teacher smiled and started to pay attention to the small couple.

But, Sigurd and Asa couldn't hear them.

In fact, they were already in their own world.

It was if everything stopped existing.

Sigurd and Asa were paying more and more attention to each other as they started to focus on how, when, where to attack.

Breathing. Muscles. Sweat direction. Eyes movement.

They were focusing so hard that they started to sweat more and more, even if they did nothing.

Seeing a slight opening, Sigurd ( Miraak ) was about to dash to her and punch in her abdomen.

But, something strange happened.

He felt something rise.

Something uncontrollable.

Something dark.

Various emotions started to rise.

Emotions he never felt in his entire small life.

Rage, Sadness, Proudness, Greed, etc...

It was as if something... No!! Someone was trying to wake up inside him.

Sigurd started to slightly tremble in discomfort.

Seeing him like that, Asa finally thought that it was her chance, her opening.

Dashing like a beast, she smiled as she punched Sigurd in the face.

It was like a bear slapped him.

He was sent flying across the very small arena and stayed on the ground, unconscious.

As the ones that cheered for Sigurd sighed, the ones that cheered for Asa started to applaud her.

Asa was just glaring Sigurd weirdly.

After all, he didn't even try to evade.

He just stood there.

Shocking her head cutely, Asa enjoyed the small chats with her classmates.

But, no one noticed.

After all, there was no Arcane Practitioner nearby.

A very black aura around Sigurd was slowly disappearing as if nothing happened.