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."

Dex scoffed at this and rolled her eyes. "If breeding is of such importance, why are there so many idiots roaming the land?" She snorted, taking another long gulp of her mead. "Surely good breeding would wean out the idocracy, if you are correct and that is all anyone thinks of."

Ulfric did not take kindly to being ordered about by his soon to be mother in law. "The war has not reached your village, because many of my men have laid down their lives to keep it that way. You are selfish to think otherwise."

"I didn't say that was all they thought of." The dark haired man chuckled. "Men are men. Topping a female seems to be hire priority than simply breeding. That, my dear, is why we have idiots as you say."

The woman waved a hand in his direction as if to telling she was uninterested in this. This village truly didn't see just how bad things had been outside their forested area.
"She what?!" The roar came from the living area of the ornate cottage they were fast approaching. "A thief?! Here?!"

"And who is to say females don't feel the same?" Dex countered. "They have marriage forced upon them, stopping them finding satisfaction elsewhere."

Ulfric's hand instantly went to the blade at his hip. A thief was never a good thing. He despised the lot of them, and felt it could not be mere coincidence that one was here in the village where he was soon to be joined with his bride.

"Who's to say that marriage puts a stop to that?" The dark haired man countered, offering her a grin. For a moment it was almost possible to see his eyes.

A burly man in ornate armor stomped out of the cottage, the door crashing against the side of the house. "I will not allow..."
"Father, wait!" A tiny blonde exploded out of the door behind him, her hair half pinned and her white skirt gathered in her fingers as she ran. "You don't understand!"

"For the man it certainly doesn't." Dex replied, finishing off what was left in her glass. "But if a woman tried it, she would be stoned to death in the town square." She added, reaching for her dagger where she had placed it upon the table, an indication she was preparing to leave.

Ulfric had been about to intervene when he saw the blonde come chasing after her father. He hadn't thought his bride would be much of anything, if he was truthful, but that thought was cast aside the minute he saw the frantic beauty as she tried to halt her father in his tracks. "What is this I hear about a thief?" He asked, his tone deep and commanding.

The man's large hand came to rest over her own, stopping Dex from picking up her weapon. "That's...only married women...correct?" He breathed, somehow closer to her than he'd been before.

Instead of the usual reverence and complete silence he was used to, the courtyard exploded with voices of various family members. Some of them were trying to assure him that things were under control while others, the bride's father included began yelling at the tiny blond who now stared wide eyed at Ulfric.

Dex didn't shy away from this man in fear as most women would have done in her situation. He was certainly a rather intimidating figure, more so with the fact they were tucked away in a dark corner where no one could see what was going on. Instead her grey eyes held his gaze steadily. "You tell me." She responded, though he was close enough that each word would brush her breath against his own lips.

"I asked you a question." Ulfric told Poppy's father sternly when he was ignored. "A thief being here is not a coincidence. I want his head! And is you refuse, my men will complete the task, and there shall be no union."

The man didn't need another invitation. He pressed his lips to hers, his large fingers traveling up her arm and into her hair as he pulled her closer to him.

This time the silence in the courtyard was deafening. All eyes were on him and not just the little blonde.
"Your...uhm...greatness?" It was she who spoke this time, though she didn't dare step forward. "If...if you would give me a chance I can explain everything."

Dex found herself returning this stolen kiss, and by Talos did this man taste good. Perhaps a little too good. The slender woman was quick to suddenly push the man away, her dagger slamming into his hand, pinning it to the table. Without an explanation for her actions she fled the mead hall, her pulse and breathing erratic as she burst out into the village. It was once again bad luck for her that Ulfric's men were close by, and would soon be hunting her.

"It will certainly have to e a very good explanation for me to accept my bride to be harbouring a thief in her village." Ulfric replied, though he was at least willing to listen.

"There were these mushrooms..." Poppy felt herself wringing at her dress and couldn't force herself to stop. "You see...it's tradition for a bride to feed her husband these mushrooms...I was looking for them...these Imperial men found me in the woods..."
"What?!" This roar was shared by her father and several of Ulfric's advisers. Around them, hands were being placed on swords.

"Imperial's? How does a thief fit into this?" Ulfric asked calmly. "Do those dogs have the guild working for them?"
The thief in question was pacing somewhere around the back of the mead hall, still trying to calm her pounding heart. No man ever made her act this way, so why was some stranger doing this to her, after just one little kiss? The worst part was... The dagger she had injured him with and left behind held great sentimental value.

"They tried things and I told them not to touch me because I was...betrothed..." Poppy added with a deep blush. "The name Stormcloak somehow came up and they uhm...went crazy. Next thing I knew there was a chopping block...and this woman was being shoved up the steps...Your majesty...she saved my life. It wasn't right to leave her back there...what would happen if she'd gone back to that town...what with the dragon and all..."
"Dragon?!" Her father was all but hoarse from screaming now and he looked a bit like he was going to pass out.

"Dragon? They're just a myth, little one." Ulfric told his betrothed gently. "Dragons haven't existed for many centuries. Either way, you must never help a thief. Their kind cannot be trusted. They are like rabid dogs, willing to bite off even the hand that feeds them."

"She saved my life and there was a dragon!" Poppy shouted, now frowning deeply at Ulfric. "You weren't there. You didn't see it!"
"By the gods!" Her father shouted. "My child has gone completely insane..." He grabbed Poppy by the upper arm in a bruising grip. "What have I told you about faerie stories girl?!" He roared, giving her a nasty little shake.

Ulfric frowned and gently pulled the girl from her father's grasp. "I would ask you not handle my bride in such a manner." He told the elder man firmly. "If she says she saw a dragon, I shall have my men look into it. However, I won't stand for this thief running free."

"She's in the mead hall." Poppy whispered, giving Ulfric a grateful smile. "I told her it was the least I could do to offer her a drink before she returned to her own town. She saved my life. I believed that the people who barter me like a fine animal would feel she was owed at least that."

Ulfric let go of Poppy and drew his own blade. "If you think yourself an animal... Perhaps this union is not a good match anyway." He remarked, already heading to the mead hall in search of the their. "A Stormcloak woman should have a mind of her own."

Poppy could only blow out a breath of relief as Ulfric passed her. The relief lasted only until her father cuffed her on the back of the head. It was hard enough to send her to the ground in front of him. "Stupid girl." He snarled.

"You!" Ulfric hissed when he found Dex pacing at the back of the mead hall. "I should have known." He snarled, the tip of his blade pressed up under the small woman's chin. "If I took your head now, no one would even mourn you, would they?" He added, perplexed as to why Dex was unarmed.

"Ulfric, please?!" Poppy had exploded into the mead hall the moment she was given the chance. "She saved my life. I will not let you harm her!" She'd tried hard to portray herself as completely ignorant. Unfortunately it was not going as she'd planned it.

"Poppy, stay out of this." Dex told the other woman firmly. "She told you about the dragon, didn't she? That's how my involvement came up, right?" The female thief smiled sadly, her thoughts lingering on the stranger who had kissed her. His kiss had the same wonderful taste upon her lips as when she spoke the lost dragon language.
Ulfric didn't react to this, only kept his sword upright. Slowly he traced it from under her chin, to between her breasts, directly above her heart. Dex was protected only be the lightweight leather armour thieves usually favoured. "One little push, and I could end your life, dog. What say you?"
Dex smiled sadly, then glanced to Poppy. "I'm sorry, princess. If he doesn't survive, know that I didn't mean to kill your betrothed." That said, Dex whispered something, and suddenly a thick fog engulfed them all, a wind as sharp as knives whipping around Ulfric.

Poppy had little time to react to all of this. She was cursing under her breath at her string of truly bad luck. Not sure what she was thinking she did her best to crawl forward in the fog, trying to find a cloak...anything that might help her to pull Ulfric out of this.

Dex ran through the fog even she was unable to see where she going. Some of the unseen blades had caught her, slicing her left cheek and opening up a wound across her abdomen. Still, she didn't think it life threatening, and so pushed on. It was as she reached the forest around the village that she finally lost her strength. She hadn't slept in days, and recent events certainly hadn't helped her retain what little energy she did have.

Poppy remembered little after she'd grabbed a man and covered his body with her own. She woke well after dark, no longer sure of where she even was or if she lived.

Dex would find herself in the dragon's graveyard when she finally awoke. Her wounds had been stitched and dressed. At some point or another she had also been bathed and redressed. She was inside the rib cage of a dried out beast, kept warm by a thick blanket of furs.

"I take it back." Ulfric breathed when he saw that Poppy had finally opened her eyes. "You are more than deserving to be a Stormcloak queen." He added gently. "What you did for me... I do not think I can ever repay you."

Dex groaned softly when she roused from her slumber, everything seeming to ache. As she lifted a hand to rub at her eyes, she realised she was covered by furs that we're far warmer than anything she usually slept under at a roadside inn. Her vision was somewhat blurred as she opened her eyes, and she was telling herself that she was mistaken in thinking she saw bones above her.

Poppy blinked her eyes a few times and managed to sit up before she acknowledged that she'd heard Ulfric at all. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been in that position in the first place." She sighed softly. "I wouldn't blame you if you burned our village to the ground for it."

A strange looking crow was seated on the backbone above her, looking as if he thought her a tasty meal. Oddly, he looked disappointed that she was awake.

"I only do that to imperial towns." Ulfric replied, though his smirk assured her he didn't do it even then. "How do you feel? I thought perhaps, now our nuptials have been postponed, we could actually get to know each other? Would you like to take a walk with me?"

Dex lifted the furs up slightly, relieved when she found she was dressed. "Okay... So that rules out me passing out with some man after all that mead..." She murmured.

"A walk?" Poppy asked, feeling as if she were missing something. "Are you sure your people will let you do that?" She moved aside the covers, glad to see she was dressed in a warmer outfit. That white dress hadn't been a favorite of hers as it was.

The crow above seemed to like this statement, cawing as if he were laughing.

"Let me?" Ilfric asked with a quiet chuckle. "I am their Jarl, I do as I please." He added, offering his hand to help her to her feet.

"And you can just shut up right now!" Dex snapped, pushing the furs aside and getting to her feet. As it was, she had risen too quickly and simply fell back onto the warm bed coverings.

Poppy slipped her fingers into the battle worn hand that belong to Ulfric Stormcloak and offered him another grateful smile. "That must be nice, not having to have someone plan every part of your day. But then again...you are all so worried about the rebellion...I suppose little else matters."

The bird made a show of complaining, showering her with silken feathers the color of her mystery man's hair.