The Keep (2)

As we walked down the circular stone staircase we could hear the screaming of civilians outside, and each time we heard the dragon roar the screaming got quieter. Even though the dragon wasn't directly in front of me, I still had a sinking feeling in my gut as we got further and further down the stairs, especially when reached the bottom and started walking.

"I can't believe this is actually happening, a dragon, from the legends, and it's just as evil as we were told." Hadvar said, half talking to himself, and half talking to us.

"I've only ever seen Jarl Ulfric use the thuum, and I always thought that he was amazing for being able to command such power, but after seeing that dragon shouting, I realize that only the greybeards themselves might be comparable." Ralof added as he looked down with a solemn expression on his face.

"Sorry, but I don't know much about these dragons, how was it able to do all of those things just by speaking?" I asked, curious about its power to shoot fire and summon meteors just by talking.

"It was using the thuum, an ancient form of magic that can control the laws of the world through speaking in the dragon tongue. However, for us mortals, learning this power takes years, if not decades just to learn a single shout. As this is the dragon's tongue, most of them are capable of at least one shout from birth. That dragon seemed to know a lot of them though." Hadvar replied, then his eyes widened slightly as he seemed to realize something.

"The dragon's tongue? it sounded like normal Tamrielic to me." I said as I recalled all of the times it shouted, I am pretty certain that it was speaking in Tamrielic.

"Tamrielic? I think you must have misheard it then, maybe it was because of that blow to your chest from Tullius. The dragon's language is very different from ours, even if we learn the pronunciation of the words, we cant use their power unless we comprehend the meaning behind the word. But both need to be learned for the shout to work, so the dragon definitely wasn't speaking in Tamrielic." Ralof explained

"I see." I guess I was just hearing things then.

"Wait, do either of you remember what that dragon looked like?" Hadvar asked all of the sudden.

"Of course I do idiot! We just watched it burn down an entire village right in front of us!" Ralof replied, obviously annoyed by the question.

"It had black scales and black wings, a lot of spiky parts across its body, glowing red eyes, curved horns on its head, and it was massive. Is that right?" I asked, I wanted to confirm if I saw it right.

"Black scales, black wings. Where have I heard that?" Hadvar mumbled to himself.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Ralof asked suddenly as we stop just outside of a door.

"Grab everything important and let's move! The dragon is burning everything to the ground." We heard a muffled voice inside.

"Just need to gather some more potions." Someone replied.

I was going to open the door to see who was inside, however, at that moment I heard another roar and my fur stood up again. That familiar power returned for a second as I grabbed both Ralof and Hadvar and pulled them inside in a hurry, just in time to pull them out of the way of the falling ceiling.

*CRASH*

The ceiling crashed onto the ground, creating a shockwave that sent all of us flying even further inside.

"Damn, that dragon doesn't give up easy." Both Hadvar and Ralof said at the same time, only to pause and glare at each other.

"What's going on?" The two Imperials in the room asked as they looked at us. Then they noticed the sack I was wearing, wait, why was I wearing a sack? Never mind, it doesn't matter now. Then they looked at Ralof and immediately drew their weapons.

"Woah, slow down, we need to work together to get out of here, leave the rebel alone." Hadvar said hastily, trying to calm them down.

"Hadvar, you better reconsider this decision, helping a rebel and a criminal is not something we can overlook. And why is the captain passed out?" They asked after seeing the captains unconscious body lying next to Hadvar as he dropped her when we were flung into the room.

"She was knocked out by a rock when we were running from the dragon, and even if Ralof is a rebel, now isn't the time to fight, we need to get out of here." Hadvar lied to them, however, he seemed to be the innocent type as his face had a tinge of guilt when he did.

"Hadvar, using that beast as an excuse to keep your old friend alive isnt going to work, now hand him over and we will forget about this." One of them said as he started walking forward.

"You better do as he says, otherwise we will execute you both." The other said and pulled out a massive Warhammer.

"Fine then, I'll fight you!" Ralof said as he sprung forward, directly cutting the arm of the soldier near us off.

I followed him and jumped forward into the air, kicking the soldier in the face and sending him flying into the other. I then landed on them and punched down on the other soldier's stomach, forcing all the air out of his lungs and making him gasp. I then pulled them both up and grabbed them by the necks, cutting off the blood flow to their head and knocking them unconscious in a few seconds. I may not be skilled enough to fight people like Tullius, but I am still decently experienced in fighting, and taking out two soldiers in an enclosed room wasn't that difficult for me.

"Come on, Ill hide them under one of these tables so that if the ceiling collapses, they will probably be fine. But we need to pick up our pace now." I said as I dragged their bodies under a nearby table. Then Hadvar did the same and put the captain's body there. A little weird that he is already so willing to allow this to happen to his own men, maybe he already had some conflict with them.

Ralof and I searched a few of the barrels and found some potions. There were a few healing, Magicka, and stamina potions, so we took them without hesitation and walked out the door, Hadvar followed.

I took out a healing potion and was going to drink it, however, then I realized that I probably didn't need it as my wounds had already healed. Ill have to get used to this healing power.