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."

"I never said that." Bree's humming stopped and she fixed her Nord protector with a calm crimson gaze. "I just...I'm not sure anyone else could. Why? Could you really see yourself as my mate?"

"Dex!" Brynjolf grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a shake. "Use your head! This is a dragon we're talking about. We could be...amongst many other things...rich!" He exclaimed, finishing with another shake.

Ulfric stared into Bree's Dunmer eyes for what seemed like an eternity before he even said a word. "I have abandoned my hold in a time of need to keep you safe. Does that not speak volumes to you?"

Dex pushed Brynjolf away. Not hard, just enough that he couldn't shake her again. "You haven't listened to a word I've said, have you?" She asked sadly. "Brynjolf... Didn't you ever love someone?"

Bree couldn't help but laugh. "Perhaps. But it could also speak volumes to the state of your mentality." She teased. Her fingers dipped below the water and brushed the length of him without so much as a blush. "I'm still not understanding what you hope to gain by making me your own."

"I did." Brynjolf said this with a darkening tone. "Not that it matters now. What does love have anything to do with a dragon...besides...how do you know he can turn into a beast?"

The corners of Ulfric's lips curled slightly when Bree's fingers brushed him, though he didn't press her further. "Or perhaps... I am a fool in love?" He asked, somehow keeping a straight face.

"Because I've seen it. I've rode on the wind with him." Dex smiled slightly, thinking of the fuss she had kicked up when Draco had simply took to the sky with her on his back. "Please Brynjolf... I will do anything... If you promise not to hurt him."

"Do you think me different than the woman you mated with?" Bree asked, truly wanting to know how he saw her. "Do you think that I will not betray you?"

"I'm not going to hurt him. That's not my intention." Brynjolf tried to calm himself down. He even paused, taking several big breaths. "I only want to...see him. Do you understand?"

"I think you have had plenty opportunity the have left before now." Ulfric pointed out. "But perhaps it is a lost cause, after all... I offer to make you my queen, and you remind me what a poor judge of character I was the last time. After all, she was whoring herself out to my best friend long before I even met her."

"You do not need a sword to see." Dex pointed out gently, closing her fingers over Brynjolf's where he gripped the broadsword

"I am not saying you have a bad character. I simply think you are in a rush to replace her." Bree snorted, clearly having reached the end of her patience. "You do not know me. And you cannot swear to me you've simply turned over a new leaf when it comes to your beliefs about Dunmer. Or any other race for that matter." She got to her feet and grabbed for a towel. "Now get out. I'd like to bathe while the water is still warm."

"All right. No sword." Brynjolf said softly. "But...just let me see him. I just want to see a real dragon. I've never...Please, Dex?"

"I've a good mind to piss in it." Ulfric growled under his breath. "Damn woman... Telling me what I feel... They're all the same... Damn know it alls..." He was muttering to himself the whole while I he was climbing from the tub and patting himself dry.

"Brynjolf, I already told you... I don't know where he is." Dex told her former lover honestly. "But anyway, look at you... You're covered in mead. Take those clothes off while I find you something dry." She was already moving over to his closet as though she had lived here with him all this time.

Bree was no better, muttering while she removed the tattered remains of her dress. "How do I know you didn't?" She snapped. "And you think men are so much better? Thinking they are Talos' gift to all women?"

"I've missed this." Brynjolf confessed as he removed his tunic and tossed it to the floor. "I wasn't kidding when I said I've missed you, Dex."

"Maybe we are!" Ulfric shot back. "You don't find men saying one thing and meaning the exact opposite! There is a reason it is left to the men to rule Skyrim!" He added before he could stop himself.

Dex paused with her had on the wardrobe door, not sure how to take Brynjolf's words. "I'm sure you didn't miss me for long, not if Helga and her bunkhouse had any say in the matter." She breathed.

Bree turned to face him, her lips set in a thin line. Rage sparkled in her eyes like rubies. "I see. You do think me weak." She hissed. "Who is the one saying one thing and meaning another now?!" She finished in a roar, tossing the bar of soap at him. "Get out. I will bathe alone and you will get mead...or whatever...Just...GET OUT!"

Brynjolf couldn't help but chuckle. "A man has needs, Dex. You can't deny me that. Can you?" He asked, moving closer to her now that he had his shirt off and was working at his belt.

"No!" Ulfric shot back childishly. "You want to know exactly what I want?" He marched over to Bree and pulled her hard against his well built frame, claiming her lips with a hungry desire. "Tell me now that I am confusing." He added, letting the towel around his hips slide away as he turned and pulled his pants back on.

"And that's all I was? A need?" Dex asked, staring hard at her slender fingers where they still held tight to the wardrobe door. She didn't really expect Brynjolf to say no. After all, Draco had made it clear what her use had been, so why should it have been any different with Brynjolf?

"You are confusing." Bree whispered, all but shaking as she pressed her fingers to her lips. Finally she seemed to regain her composure and she jerked the curtain closed. With a soft sigh she slid into the water. There was no understand Ulfric Stormcloak.

"No." Brynjolf breathed, tipping her chin back to press his lips to hers. "You know that you meant the world to me. You still do."

Once again, wearing only his pants and his boots, Ulfric left the room. This time however, he didn't go outside. He sat downstairs, drowning his sorrows in a glass of mead just like the other men at the inn.

This time Dex didn't push Brynjolf away. This time she was the one to deepen the kiss, her slender fingers pressing against Brynjolf's bare chest.

Ulfric got many stares. Most of all from a young man who sat with a pile of furs in his lap. "I hate to bother you..." He said uncertainly. "But you left these on your horse...I was wondering if I could convince you to have me make them into something for you...a wedding gift perhaps?"

Brynjolf all but fell back onto the bed, still holding Dex in his arms. He was not going to break the kiss. Not for anything in the world. In fact he planned to take it much further.

"Wedding gift?" Ulfric snorted, already rather drunk. "What for? The damn woman can't stand the sight of me?"

Dex was already there. As she landed on top of Brynjolf, the young woman was hastily tossing her armour aside until she was left wearing only her leather riding pants.

"Oh." The young man looked rather crestfallen. "Then...a new cloak for yourself then?" He tried again, holding tight to the furs that didn't even belong to him.

Bryjolf spent the remainder of the night, showing Dex just how much he'd missed her. He'd never made love to her the way he did this night. He gave her everything he had, hoping it was enough to keep her with him this time.

"You keep them. I have no difficulty killing more wolves." Ulfric slurred, sloshing his mead as he scooped up his glass. "I only killed those ones to keep her safe!"

Dex was lying beside Brynjolf some time later, her moonlight coloured eyes even in the dark ess of the room. Brynjolf may have given her a part of himself he never had before, but that certainly didn't stop her from feeling guilty. Was it really a betrayal, if the man you felt you were betraying did not want you?

"Ulfric..." Bree was beside her protector, gently pushing his hair back from his face. "It's time you went to bed." She told him as the young man took off with the furs. She took the tankard from him with her free hand and pushed it toward the plump woman. "Come now. Let me tuck you in and get you warm." She breathed, already pulling him to his feet. "It's been a long day for both of us."

Brynjolf slept on, snoring loudly. He had no idea that Dex felt anything but how he felt. He was certain this was all they needed to seal things. The thieves guild would have their queen at last.

"No..." Ulfric slurred, trying to push Bree away. "You don't want me, or my help! Damn you woman, damn all women!"

Dex had no thoughts of becoming guild queen, in fact she believed the guild would not want her getting close to Brynjolf again. Silently she got to her feet and paced on the other side of the room, trying to arrange her thoughts into some kind of order. as it was... She simply longed for Draco more than ever.

"I told you my mother was wrong." Bree hissed, grabbing hold of his arm and digging her nails in deep. "You Nords are all the same. Things get hard and you get drunk. I see no protector in that." She somehow managed to get him into the bed. By the time she had pulled his boots off, he was snoring. And when Ulfric woke again, Bree had made yet another disappearing act.

Draco hadn't left the place where he'd last seen Dex. He was hoping she might return and at the same time praying that she wouldn't.

Ulfric had a pounding headache by the time he woke that morning. For a while he didn't even remember the things he had done or said the previous night. He rolled over, expecting to find Bree sleeping beside him. When he realised he was alone he sat up, and it all came flooding back.

Dex had slipped out of Brynjolf's sleeping chambers, wearing only his shirt. She was keeping to the shadows, looking for something to eat. Her stomach was growling loudly, though she didn't pay much attention. The young woman was thinking of her last night with Draco, how he had decimated an entire village... Simply to find her food.

Bree had found an abandon shack and was curled up in the already wet and stinking furs. She'd tried to use her magicks only to have them drain all over again. She'd wanted a simple fire and had gotten nothing but a fresh wave of sickness for her trouble.

"What the hell are you doing here?" A slender Nord woman glared hatefully at Dex the moment she caught sight of her. She visibly bristled when she saw what the other woman was wearing. "Steal that, did you?"

"Where did she go?!" Ulfric was downstairs in the inn, demanding the plump inn keeper tell him which direction Bree left in. Had he known her current condition, he would have demanded all the more furiously.

"You do know where you are, don't you?" Dex asked coolly. "A thief never asks such a thing of another thief. Of course... If you don't know that, I would wager you do not belong in this fine establishment." Despite the fact she wore only Brynjolf's shirt, Dex somehow remained rather dignified.

"She said something about Morrowind." The woman said, looking at Ulfric in an almost wide eyed fear. "She said she was going back home. Being Dunmar...that means Morrowind...right?"

"You are a liar and a whore." The woman snarled, giving the smaller of them a hard shove. "And you never learn. Do you?"

Ulfric honestly didn't know. "She said she didn't want to go there..." He murmured. "Did she say anything else? How long ago did she leave?"

Dex scowled at the woman and brushed off the front of the shirt. "Let me guess... You want to warm Brynjolf's bed, and he won't look twice at you?" She sneered. "Can't say I blame you... You're just another Nord."

"No more than a few minutes after she put you in the bed." The woman told him. "She took that heavy cloak of yours and I gave her a satchel full of food and a warmer dress. But...I'm not sure it was enough in this weather. She looked ill..."

"And you're imperial trash." The woman spat, all but grabbing for a handful of Dex's hair. "You're a whore like the rest of them."

"She is Ill!" Ulfric boomed. "If I don't find her in time... I shall hold you entire responsible for anything that happens to her! I am her protector... You should not have encouraged her to leave here alone!"

Dex reached out, raking her nails roughly across the Nord woman's cheek. "If I am imperial at all... I am still far superior to backwater scum like you!"

"Perhaps you shouldn't have gotten drunk and told her she had ugly ears." The plump woman shouted back. "Some protector you are, telling her that all her people ought to be driven underground like the Falmer!"

This time the woman did grab Dex's hair and threw her hard against the opposite wall. "I'll not put up with your shit, spy!"

"I would never say that!" Ulfric hissed. "Bree knows that! She knows I would fight for her!" even as he said the words... He began to doubt his conviction. Had Bree ever actually said she trusted him?

Dex felt a handful of her long hair painfully part company with her scalp as she hit the wall. With a weapon she was rather apt in combat, but unarmed and compared to a Nord, she was far more lithe and not built for hand to hand combat. "Why does everyone think I am a spy?" She hissed.