1 The First Week

Day 1

The ground felt cold against my bare skin. Dust and the smell of blood filled my lungs and senses as I tried to open my eyes. I could hear people arguing and yelling as I attempted to keep myself calm.

"You fool! What is this?! This is no Daedra! This is no tool we can use!" There was a higher pitched voice screaming. It sounded like a women yelling at others. What was going on? Why couldn't I move?

"W-we don't know if we could use it! We don't know what it is! Maybe there's more to it than what it looks like!" A gruff voice was arguing back but his voice was shaky. Why was this happening? My body began to shake as the air cut through me like a knife. I was naked?! How? Why? These questions kept going through my mind as the voices kept raising and I was still unable to open my eyes.

"This is a waste of time. We should just kill it and keep trying." Another voice cut in. He sounded like a teacher scolding children. Wait, kill it? Where they talking about me?!

"We're not killing it. Not ourselves anyway, our blood bound it to this plain and we can't be the ones to remove it. No, we'll leave it here and find another altar to perform the ritual again. Come." The women who I had first heard yelling must have began to leave after those last words as others began to move some things around the area then shuffle away.

It had been some time before I was able to move even a little. Eyes were still unable to see as I began feeling my way around. My hands felt that I was on top of some kind of stone table, why my eyes wouldn't open was frustrating me to no end however and making it hard for me to concentrate. What was going on? Where was I and why was this happening? As more and more of my body became less numb I was able to slowly open my eyes. The large room I was in looked like a tomb. The rows of what I could assume where bodies had been wrapped in some kind of cloth, only illuminated by the candles on the nearby tables. It looked as though the tables and stools had recently been set up there as there was less dirt on them than the rest of the room. The room was made out of stone and the only exit there seemed to be was the large double doors that where closed just maybe fifty feet away from where I was.

After I had finished taking in the area around me I realized just how cold I was. Before I could do anything I needed to find some way to cloth myself. Luckily there looked to be a few blankets or furs piled in a corner near one of the tables. It took me a long while to drag myself off the stone table and onto the floor to be able to get to the pile but I was able to manage it with just a few bruises.

"Okay. Okay." I whispered to myself as I tried to get a hold on the situation. I woke up in some strange place, with no clothes and no knowledge of where I was. What had I been doing before this? I Think I had just gotten home from work, I had played some games then hoped in the shower. Was that why I was naked? "Dammit!" I tried to yell but it ended up becoming a groan as my voice gave out. I needed something to drink. My stomach also felt empty.

After staying wrapped in the furs I did all I could to support myself on one of the tables. I looked around and again I had lucked out. There on the table was what looked like a leather skin pouch and beside it was a wooden plate with bread upon it. I gathered my strength and waited little time in downing what liquid was in the leather skin, just water thankfully. Then after munching on the bread, my gaze shifted to a book near the tale I had been lying on. I must have knocked it off when I had crawled off of it. Taking a few shaky steps I reached down and picked it up. The symbol on the book made me drop it immediately. "No...no way." My mind reeled. There was no possible way this was real. It had to be some dream. Maybe I had been playing too long. I had only recently gotten the game just a few months ago but I had become addicted to it immediately. On top of the purple leather bound book was the symbol for conjuration. Somehow I had woken up in the world of Tamriel.

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Day 3

The cold and rocky land lay before me as I looked out from the ruined tower. I must have spent two or three days in there judging from the light I saw through cracks in the walls.. After I stopped panicking and trying to convince myself this was just a dream, I did what I could to try and survive. I looked around in bags, pots, sleeping cots to try and find things I could use. I was able to find a satchel with a blank journal, some amount of food, a few gold pieces, and a small stream of drinkable water to fill the leather pouch I had found. After getting everything together I was able take some time to gather my thoughts. By that I mean cry until I was exhausted then sleep. Yes, a young man of 22 cried himself to sleep. It happens.

It took me another whole day to make sense of the map that those "mages" had lying on a table. After coming to the conclusion that it was Skyrim and that the area they had circled was where I was at. I packed it up and began looking for a way out. They had bared the large doubles doors that I assumed would lead me out. The only other option I could think of was that there must have been a switch or something that would lead to a quick route to the entrance. The game always had something like that. I knew it would be ridiculous to think of this world like the game but I had nothing to compare it to and my mind wasn't exactly all there.

After looking for what seemed like hours, I finally saw a small handle switch near a curious looking pattern in the wall. It took me a while to figure out how to pull it out and turn the handle correctly as I couldn't really remember how it had been done but I had managed to pull it off. After a few loud clicks the wall before me moved up and opened to a passageway that I could feel cold air coming through. Luckily for me there had been a spare set of clothes and warm fur boots that had been in a bag. The clothes resembled that of a monk though. Long brown robe with a lightly tanned scarf and hood. But it was the best I had for the moment and I needed to keep warm. I packed away one of the smaller furs in the satchel and made my way down the passage. A few steps into it however I realized something very important. I was unarmed! If I remembered anything about the world of Tamriel it's that there is always some kind of danger lurking in the shadows.

It took some digging around but I was able to find a decent looking dagger, steel if I could remember from the craftsmanship and the comparison to the game. It was a little short but it would have to do as I didn't have much choice. I also decided to bring along the book that had been on the table with me when I first awoke. Maybe if I read it I might be able to find a way back home.

With everything finally packed up I made my way. It took some time to find the exit but I knew I was close as large gusts of cold air were coming through the opening at the end of the path.

It took most of the night for me to make it down the side of the mountain. According to the map, I was just past the border of Skyrim. It was still night and I knew that traveling on the roads at this time would only be asking to be killed and robbed. I found some large rocks close to the mountain and settled in between them. It sheltered me from the wind and I could be able to stay warm until the sun came up. My mind was filled with dark possibilities as I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I would need all the rest I could get before I attempted to find a safe place.

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Day 7

It has been a few days since I sat down to write about my time here. I had made my way to a small village. It looks to be Riverwood from what I can remember of the game. After I had booked a room with gold I had found when I woke, the man attending the bar had called this the Sleeping Giant Inn. If I remember right this is where Delphine the Blade made her base of operations. I hadn't seen her anywhere though so I wondered exactly when in the time-line I was, as the people here did look familiar. So that meant I was at least close to the time of the Dragonborn.

I had continued my lucky streak to enough to find some gold pieces in the area I had woken up in. But it now it seems that I am running low due to staying at the Sleeping Giant inn. I also was running out of food so instead of keeping to myself and staying in the room. I ventured out into the large area of the inn.

"I'm looking for work. Is there anything around here I can do?" I asked the innkeeper. I thought it would be a good idea to think of lines from the game, as most of them didn't seem too rude to use. But I also had to try and get it into my head that this was not the game and it was now reality for me. I would have to interact with people more politely than I would with the people back in my world. You never know when someone might be ready to put a knife in your back.

"Let me think." The gruff looking nord pondered as he scratched his chin. "I can think of a few things that can be done around here. I know Alvor the blacksmith was looking for an apprentice. We could always use more firewood here if you want some quick gold. I also think that the guards are looking for fresh recruits."

"What do I get for firewood?" I asked. I knew it would be harder work to split the logs in real life than in the game but it seemed like that would get me a fair amount of gold in a short time. I was low on food and water and the prices at the inn went up overnight.

"I'd pay you about five gold per log." He said while folding his arms.

"Sounds fair enough for me. Is there an axe out there I can use?"

"Yes. Out by the log piles in the back." After saying I'll be back I went outside and shielded myself from the sunlight. It had been almost two days since I had last gone outside. I had wanted to just stay holed up in my room, denying that this was happening. Sadly the need for food and gold to keep the room led me back to my new reality.

It took a few minutes with stumbling in the robes and trying to get behind the inn to the woodpile but I managed to get the axe and start chopping. It was much harder than I had first anticipated.

It was two hours of pain and sweat to get the firewood as it had taken me some time to get used to swinging an axe and doing physical labor. There had even been a few times when I almost swung the axe down on myself. Don't ask me how, I'm not really sure exactly.

I practically dragged myself back into the inn with the amount of wood I had cut. After taking two trips to bring it in, I showed the innkeeper what I had done.

"Hm. Took you that long to chop so few? Not cut out for physical labor are you?" The man laughed as he counted out the pile. I just groaned in response as my arms felt like they weighed a ton. Though the sun was still high in the sky I knew that once he paid me I would go to my room and call it a day.

"Looks like twelve. Sixty gold sounds right." I did the math in my head as he went over to the counter and began to count the coins into a small pouch. It sounded right for five gold a log.

"Just keep ten of those for my room tonight." I mentioned as he was finishing counting. He sighed as he had already counted them then took the payment.

With the sun still in the sky, I closed my door and collapsed onto the bed to sleep. This day was not exciting in any way but I was okay with that. This was life after all and not just some game. I needed to figure things out and try to find my way back home. My body was not cut out for this kind of labor as I had come from an age of cell phones and laptops. My eyes closed as my mind began racing with ideas in hopes that the answer might just come to me in a dream.