Lost Legends

"It can't keep going on like this!" A young woman's voice gasped as two figures dove over a snow drift to avoid detection by passing guards. "We have been fighting for so long that no one even cares anymore!" She added, running her fingers through blue black hair that had already become brittle with the cold.
"Of course they remember, Dex." The young woman's companion replied in an annoyed whisper. "We fight for freedom from the imperial invaders who seek to make us bow down to them!"
The woman who had just been referred to as Dex rolled her grey eyes. "What does it matter who sits on the throne as high emperor? Either way, we're still left down here in the dirt." She added, poking her head up to see if the coast was clear. "The rebellion is just pushing back the tide, sooner or later the imperials will find us all, and execute us as promised."

The coast was not clear yet. A large well built man stood a mere yard from them, massive arms crossed over his chest. He wore the armor of the imperial guard though he didn't look much like he was following the marching line.
In fact he had a rather wry smile on his lips, as if he knew something that the other guards did not.

"You are insufferable, you know that Jonah?" Dex huffed, flexing her slender fingers inside her gloves.
"And you are a hot head who gets us into more trouble than is quite nessecary." The man named Jonah replied. "It baffles me what use the Theives Guild ever had for you before you defected." He added.
Dex had decided the coast was clear and was back on her feet, brushing the snow from her clothing. "This, again?" She asked, indicating they had had this argument many times over. "Look, you're stuck with me until we get back to camp, so just quite you're whining!" She added, quite obviously not realising the coast wasn't as clear as she thought it was.

The large man glanced toward the two who were now heading in his direction. For some reason neither of them seemed to notice him as they argued amongst themselves. He uncrossed his fingers and flexed them, smiling as the knuckles cracked. It had been a while since he'd tasted blood. Especially female. But this...was almost too easy.

Dex had been a good thief, an even better pickpocket, her problem... Was never knowing when to keep her mouth shut. Ironic, really, given that her speech had a power no one else's did. The only reason Dex noticed they weren't alone, was when she slammed straight into the armour of the imperial who had been watching them.

Much easier than he thought....
Draco placed his large fingers around the young woman's upper arms. "Are you blind?" He hissed at her. It had been so long since he'd even needed to speak that he didn't yet realize he was speaking in a tongue no one was supposed to understand.

Dex sighed heavily, making it seem like him holding her this way was a mere inconvenience and nothing more. "No, but it is dark, and you are rather hard to distinguish from a tree, being so large... And most likely as dumb as one."

"You really want to die, don't you?" Draco hissed, giving the slender woman a shake. "You've entered Imperial territory and for what? A taste of a man before he eats you alive?" His gaze turned to her companion. "And you. Do you just want to witness this before you too are killed?"

Dex smiled, slender fingers reaching to the dagged stepped to her slender thigh. A moment later it was pressed against Draco's privates. "Trust me, when I say I am the one who does the eating." She purred. "Unhand me, imperial, before I castrate you like a gutter pig!"
Jonah was staring wide eyed at Dex. "No... It cannot be!" He hissed. All sense of comradary was gone when he heard Dex and this man speak the ancient dragon language. "Dragon!" He shouted that word, then fled for his life, deeper into enemy territory.

Draco's golden eyes flashed as his head jerked toward the man who'd taken off running. His shouts would bring the real Imperials here and that would not do. He was not in the correct form to face off with them. "This is not over." He hissed, shoving the dark haired woman backward into the snow and disappearing into the opposite direction the other man had gone.

Dex felt her head slam against a rock as she was pushed into the snow, and them all went black. It really wasn't a good day for her, as she woke to find herself in the back of a cart, surrounded by prisoners the Imperial's had captured. She didn't need to ask, as she knew they were not in the habit of imprisoning rebels. It was straight to the chopping block.

A young Nord woman stood on the edge of the "chopping block" as the cart arrived, her vivid green eyes red rimmed and her chin quivering. Like Dex she was bound with her hands in front of her.
The line of those to be executed was moving rather quickly and it wasn't long before the dark haired woman had been pushed into the fair haired woman. Now the short girl was crying in earnest, her nose now a brilliant red.

"You shouldn't cry." Dex whispered. "Only the brave enter sovnguard." She added, though continued to try and struggle her own bound wrists free. "Face death with bravery, like a true Nord." The only problem for Dex was... She wasn't a Nord, of course it wasn't something she was aware of.

"I don't want to enter sovnguard." The little blonde sniffled, stumbling when an Imperial guard shoved her roughly. "I want to go back to picking mushrooms in the woods and preparing to marry a stranger of my family's choosing." She flinched when a heavy axe hit a block, the sound louder than before. "This is...maddness!"

"Why did they bring you here?" Dex asked, though her grey eyes were taking note of how many guards were ushering the prisoners.

"Because of whom my family chose for me to marry." The little blonde whispered, now trying to wipe at her beet red nose with the ties on her wrists. She cringed as the axe struck again, someone in front of them gagged loudly. "If I had just kept my mouth shut...No...I'm Nord...they'd probably have done this anyway."

"Who did they choose?" Dex asked, her breath catching slightly when she swore she saw yellow eyes in the crowd that had gathered. No, just her concussed imagination.

"Ulfric." The little blonde whispered, though she didn't at more to this name as she glanced around them. "Not that it matters now." She added, noting that there were no more than ten ahead of them. The axe fell again and the crowd had begun to roar their pleasure.

"Stormcloak?!" Dex asked in a hushed whisper, her grey eyes wide in disbelief. She wouldn't get the chance to ask more, as a guard had heard her utter the name of the rebellion, and shoved her straight to the front of the line. Another of example of her inability to keep her mouth shut.

Poppy tried to make a grab for the grey eyed woman only to be elbowed in the face. She fell to her knees, her vision swimming. This clearly wasn't her day either.

Dex was forced down to her knees, her slender neck laid across the block ready for the axe. "Any last words, rebel?" The imperial guard sneered down at her.
"A few come to mind." She growled, "but your inferior imperial hearing wouldn't comprehend them." She added, antagonising the guard further.

Poppy was about to fight her way to the other woman when a roar shook the platform that they were standing on. It was a deafening. The crowd beneath the raised wooden dais immediately erupted into panic. This was made worse by a nearby pile of hay that exploded in a wall of flames.

Dex didn't waste time. She was on her feet, meeting Poppy half way and grabbing the binding on her hands to pull the other woman along with her. Dex wasn't a bad person, she had simply fallen in with a bad crowd. Saving this woman was the kind of thing that Jonah had always chastised her for.

"That's a...dra..." Poppy was doing her best to keep up with the other woman but because she'd been bred more to be a serving wife than anything else she was fighting for every step. "Dra..." She kept stuttering as her breath left her, her thoughts reduced to mush as the great beast swept over them, igniting another wall of flame in front of them.

Dex shouted something at the guards that were scattering, and instantly they were sent flying in all directions, as though pushed by an unseen force. She hadn't intended to do that, just as she didn't realise she had spoken in the dragon language.

"Mushrooms!" Poppy shouted, wishing she could throw her hands over her head and simply be able to hide herself. "I was just picking mushrooms!"

"Yeah, and I was looking forward to drowning myself in mead and bedding a big burly warrior... But that's not going to happen either." Dex muttered. "Snap out of it and keep running!"

"That's disgusting!" Poppy all but wailed as she seemed to shake herself into a semi-functional state and began to run along behind her. "I don't even know your name!"
The beast again lumbered over them, his breath of fire engulfing the town square behind them.

"Dex!" The young woman shouted, unintentionally giving the dragon her name also. Dex wasn't one to believe in fate, but was impeccable timing for that dragon to attack the imperial town, and somehow neither she nor Poppy was burned by its flames.

"My name is Damaska...but everyone calls me...Poppy..." The little blonde tumbled into the dirt just inside the forest, doing her best to catch her breath as they finally stopped running.