Lost Legends

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"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."

Ulfric growled some rather colourful words as the icy water ran from his hair and all the way down his spine. "It's easy to say that from all the way over there!"

Dex was still dreaming, and these dreams were of Draco, of any number of different lives she had shared with him. The young woman was innocently unaware of what her bare flesh was doing to her mate each time she shifted, causing more of it to brush against him.

"Oh for the sake of Talos." Bree groaned, dropping the clothing and stepping back into the water. The white dress clung to her skin. She might as well not have worn it. She made her way back to him, the water coming to her shoulders. "Lean over." She directed, though she had yet to make him do it. "Fight me and you will just get colder."

Draco was groaning loudly, his skin now on fire. He was cursing himself for thinking he could get them warmer by sharing body heat.

The moment she was close enough, Ulfric settled his hands upon Bree's hips and jerked her against him in the water. "I made a promise to keep you safe, no matter what. I can't keep that promise if you keep on taking my will away from me." He breathed, his deep blue eyes en and honest as they looked down into her own.

Dex's grey eyes flicked open and she instantly sat up when she heard Draco groaning. "Did they find us?" She breathed in a hushed whisper.

Bree could barely breathe. His body against her own was warm...pure hell...in a good way. "Who did you make a promise like that to, Nord?" She scoffed, trying to make herself sound brave when she truly wasn't.

"No...no." Draco breathed, his fingers tightening on her hips. "Nothing like that."

"Your mother. It was her... Dying wish." Ulfric breathed, knowing of no easy way to tell her the truth.

"Then what happened? Is it your ribs?" Dex asked, genuine concern in her eyes as she looked down at Draco where he lay beside her.

"What?!" Bree tried to jerk out of the Nord's arms, her magicks dropping completely as panic took over. She could see her mother lying near the tent. It was the first time she realized the elder woman hadn't cried out in pain in at least an hour.

"I've never heard it called that." Draco purred, his large fingers tightening on her hips as he pulled her closer to him. It wouldn't be hard for her to feel just what it was that was bothering him.

"It was quick, I assure you." Ulfric breathed, still holding tight to Bree as she tried to struggle free. "She wants you to smile again, Bree. She wants you to live your life for you." He added, using he rename for the first time.

"Oh..." Dex smirked slightly, a hand sliding down to stroke the source of Draco's 'problem'. "I don't know what you expect me to do about it..."

Bree beat against Ulfric's chest as sobs began to over take her. "Don't call me that!" She shouted, wanting to hurt him for her grief. "Don't speak to me, Nord! Let go!"

Draco nodded over and over, his lips moving though he said nothing for a long while. "I...I...need you." He confessed.

Ulfric hugged both his powerful arms around Bree, and simply allowed her to beat her fists against his broad chest. He didn't say a word, honouring Bree's wish that he not speak to her right then.

Dex suddenly dropped her gaze, her dark hair sliding over her slender shoulders as she bowed her head. "I wish it were that simple." She whispered. What the brotherhood had done to her would take time to heal, time that she longed to spend in the embrace of her mate.

Bree sobbed until her body felt numb. It was only then that she felt the violent shivers of her Nord partner. "Get out." She whispered, moving her fingers so that he was forced to drop his arms and march out of the water. "Get dressed and go home!" She all but screamed from the river.

Draco felt the heat drain from his body and after a long moment he was able to function. At least a little bit. "Tell me what they did to you?" He asked her, forming it as a question more than anything else.

Bree may have been able to force Ulfric from the water, and even to replace his clothing, but he was gong nowhere. The Nord king sat on the bank of the lake, his deep blue eyes simply watching the Dunmer. When Ulfric Stormcloak made a promise, he stood by it.

"You can see for yourself the majority of what they did." Dex breathed. Oddly, it was feeling good to even think about getting all of this off her chest. "But... When I wouldn't confess to being an imperial spy... The man who was torturing me, he..." She closed her eyes, trying not to think about the pain he caused. "He bound my hands, and while their leader, and some of the other members watched... He forced himself upon me. The whole time I could feel his hot breath on my face as he swore he would break me..."

Bree surged out of the water behind him, her grief making her violent. She threw rocks and branches, anything that would get her emotions out, "What the hell am I supposed to do now?" She demanded, glancing toward her mother's body. "She was all I had! She was it! Now she's gone! What the hell do I do now?!"

Draco was gritting his teeth, his rage settling over him lightning fast. "I will kill him." He promised her. "I will eat his heart and make them all watch!"

"You honour her dying wish, and live your life." Ulfric replied, a voice of calm amid her chaos.

"You're too late." Dex breathed. "The Stormcloak's stormed the hideout... They caught him in the act, and one of the soldiers... He killed him." She added. "I think you saw him, it was Ulfric's right hand man who killed my attacker."

Bree dropped to her knees, her chest heaving. "She was out of her mind...I don't need protection. Especially from a Nord." She breathed, beginning to shiver herself. "I don't need anything except my family back!" She was just as irrational as he had been over the death of his queen. But unlike him she was not so quiet about it.

"What did he ask in return?" Draco asked, all prepared to return to Windhelm and punish the man who'd saved his mate.

"No one is prepared for the loss of a loved one, Bree." Ilfric told her gently as he knelt beside her. "But to simply give over to grief... That is as good as tarnishing their memory." he should really have listened to his own advice on the matter.

"Nothing." Dex replied, frowning at Draco now. "I didn't even let him touch me, if that's what you're worried about. Besides, I think he had a thing for the queen. There was no other reason for him to be in her bedchambers."

"I was taking her home." Bree muttered, her chin quivering. "I was going to take her home...to show her that I could take care of her like always...I failed her too. I failed them all."

Draco nodded. "He took her death harder than the king did." He said thoughtfully. "That would explain it. If you had seen the slight touches that passed between them...I can only imagine the king was simply standing in the way."

"Her death was not your fault." Ulfric replied firmly. "She didn't think so, and neither should you."

"I imagine I was too." Dex replied. "The queen had me sleep in her bed, something I believe Galmar didn't approve of. He never left the room, even when he thought me to be sleeping."

"I'm going to prepare the funeral pyre." Bree whispered, her tone of voice changing from angry to resigned. "Then...I will take her ashes to Morrowind. She can finally be with father again." That decided she pushed herself to her feet and began to gather firewood, ignoring that fact that she was still wearing a thin wet dress.

Draco couldn't help but chuckle at this. He was secretly glad they'd found something else to talk about. It took her mind off the horrors she'd suffered because of him. "It actually makes all those passionate words Ulfric spoke about his queen bittersweet. I should have told him. If I'd known he was going to stab me...I should have told him."

Ulfric silently dropped his own heavy cloak around Bree's shoulders, then helped her gather the firewood. His mind wandered somewhat, thinking about who was making Poppy's funeral arrangements, and what her family were thinking right then.

"That was why you stabbed Poppy?" Dex asked softly. "Because Ulfric stabbed you?" she too was glad they had began talking abut other things.

"I told you to go home." Bree whispered, though she wasn't trying very hard to send him away. "I can take care of this myself. She's my mother. This is my responsibility." She added, turning to carry her mother to the pile of wood they'd collected.

Draco nodded. "Mostly, yes." He confessed. "But some of it...the dragon god only knows why...was because I was doing Ulfric a favor. He saved my life and so I did the same for him. However, he won't see it that way."

Ulfric took the old woman's body from Bree, carrying it with greater ease than she could. "I know you can, but I told you... I made your mother a promise."

"How was Poppy's death a favour to him?" Dex asked, her brow creased in confusion. "She was just caught in the middle of everything."

"My mother is gone, Nord." Bree hissed. "She'll never know if you break your word." She snapped her fingers, fire appearing in them a second later. "Besides, my mother was ill. She didn't know what she was saying."

"She was not his destiny. She was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Just like the man that promised to protect him through it all." Draco said simply.

"I would know, and your mother was of extremely sound mind." Ulfric replied firmly. "There is no getting out of it, woman. I am by your side until we reach Morrowind."

"Wait... Galmar?" Dex asked, trying to keep up. "So... This whole destiny thing, that means that eventually Poppy would betray Ulfric to be with Galmar?" She sighed quietly and shook her head. "I guess the whole innocence thing was too good to be true."

Bree would not get the chance to argue this point. No sooner had the funeral pyre been lit then a group of Stormcloak soldiers overtook them. Everything happened so quickly, the dark elf didn't know she'd been knocked out until she woke up in the Windhelm dungeon hours later.

Draco was grinning. "You're not too bad at this." He chuckled. "Seeing as you were once a priestess, it should serve to reason." He teased.

Ulfric betrayed himself frm the moment he woke. He should have been paying more attention. Less than a day since her mother's death, and he had already failed to protect Bree.

"A priestess? Me? Now I know you're teasing me." Dex told Draco, giving him a playful shove in the chest.

"My Jarl..." The young servant girl looked more than a little relieved to see her king had woken up. "Talos be praised. We were so worried that nasty elf had done something terrible to you."

Draco chuckled softly, the playful banter widening his smile. He couldn't remember the last time he'd truly smiled. "The only thing you haven't been is a thief." He teased her.

"Where is she?!" Ulfric demanded, in no mood for pleasantries. "Why did my own men attack us?!"

"You never imagined me as one?" Dex asked sweetly as her fingers toyed with the ends of Draco's dark hair.

"No one attacked you." The servant girl said quickly, resting her hand on his chest. "Just the elf who kidnapped you. It was so good that they found you when they did. She'd tried to drown you and then set you on fire."

Draco purred at this, his smile turning wicked. "Oh I imagined a great many things. You stealing my innocence was indeed one of them." He teased.

"I had just bathed, and we were sending her mother's remains to the next life!" Ulfric roared as he slapped the girl's hand away. "You will tell me where she is right now!"

"So... When I was a priestess, did you take pleasure in my innocence?" Dex purred, clearly far from innocent this time as she leaned in close, her teeth tugging playfully on Draco's lower lip.

The woman looked at him in stunned silence for several moments. "You lay here. I shall call for a Mage...Galmar said you might be like this seeing as she enchanted you."

Again Draco offered her a wolfish smile. "Indeed. Although I'm not sure Mara was overly impressed at what we got up to on her altar." He breathed, pulling her hard against him.