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."

"No." Her response was quick and to the point. "I am certainly not going back there to hide like a frightened child. I can handle myself and watch your back besides."

The dragon's laughter shook the ground and he lifted his head. "I hardly think a tiny creature like you could give me so much as a scratch in my true form." He boasted. For a moment he was reminded of what Ulfric had told him. Perhaps he should take a gentler approach to this...

Ulfric sighed heavily, knowing he would not win this argument. "Alright, if you can handle yourself, why did I just find you being assaulted in the mud?"

"Of course you don't. You think very little of me in fact." Dex replied, her grey eyes like liquid silver. "I would wager, you also think me incapable of protecting myself, despite the number of times I saved your scaly behind!" She added, not realising as she shouted, she had used the dragon rend Dragonborn magick, rendering Draco immobile.

Bree's eyes narrowed angrily and she crossed her arms over her chest, a sheer sign that he'd just crossed the line. "That's none of your business." She snapped.

Draco couldn't even open his mouth to argue this point. A part of him wanted to smile. She was so close to ending this and she didn't even know it.
"That's my girl!" Brynjolf shouted. The moment the dragon was immobile he'd climbed up the monster's side, brandishing his sword. "We'll end this now!" He added, shoving his sword between a set of scales that protected the beast's neck.

Ulfric sighed again, realising what he had done. "Alright, accompany yo find Draco." He told her. "The damnm fool is on some kind of suicide mission, and I needn't ask where your own charge is, right?" He added, glancing in the direction the shouting was coming from.

"NO!" Dex's scream silenced everyone who was watching, the raw emotion in it tangible. She was too late. Brynjolf's sword was wedged deep into Draco's neck. The Dragonborns fingers shook as they reached out, touching the dragons head. "Draco... This wasn't supposed to happen..."

Brynjolf stood on the dragon's back, grinning like a fool. "It's over!" He shouted to those who were surrounding them. "We've won!"
The dragon's golden eyes closed and his head dropped the rest of the way, hitting the earth with a heavy boom. Bree surged forward, shoving her way through the crowd toward Dex. She'd heard the other woman's anguish and she knew full well what that could mean.

Dex rested her head against Draco's, no matter how tiny she was in comparison, and evenly sobbed, her fingers stroking his scales as she did so. "It wasn't supposed to happen..." She whispered again. "I love you... You were supposed to love me too!" She wailed, which would sound odd to anyone watching, that this apparently imperial woman was in love with this giant beast.

"Dex...shh..." Breenan rested her hands on the other woman's back, trying to calm her. "Don't give these people anything else to riot over."
"You." Brynolf narrowed his eyes at the Dunmer woman and leaped off the dragon. "This witch was trying to stop us! She is a dragon priestess!"
At his words the crowd began again, now shouting that both women be put to death.

Dex didn't care. Unaware of her current 'condition', her only thoughts were of death... And killing the man who stole Draco from her. A man who also happened to be the father of her child. She continued to cling to Draco, telling him again and again how sorry she was.

Bree lifted her head, trying to find a way out of this situation. Brynjolf was almost on her now, his sword still dripping with the dragon's black blood.
She was not going to be able to cast them both invisible. It was too much work and there was not enough time.

Dex lifted her head as Brynjolf drew close and suddenly pushed Breenan behind her. "I am the dragon priestess. This Dunmer was under my thrall, forced to do my bidding!" She announced, which caused the gathered crowd to bay for her blood. The whole time she spoke, her gaze was fixed on Brynjolf, and he would be able to all but taste the hatred that swam in the silver depths.

"Don't be stupid, woman." Brynjolf hissed, though he did stop moving. "Why would you even say something like that?"
Bree was scanning the crowd for Ulfric. Part of her hoped he would stay away from all this and yet another part all but begged for him to save her yet again.

"You just slated the one I loved, I am not even started with stupid yet!" Dex hissed. She took Brynjolf's sword hand and forced his blade so it pointed to her heart. "Finish what you started. You want to kill the dragon? Then kill his priestess!"
Ulfric was watching, not caring what was going on between Dex and Brynjolf, only making certain he had a clear line to Breenan.

"No! Stop!" Breenan shouted suddenly. "She is with child!"
Brynjolf let go of the sword completely to stare at the Dunmer behind the woman he thought of as his own. "What...did you say?" He hissed.

Dex still had no memory of the fact her fate was shaped the way it was over a situation similar to this one; there was always someone claiming she belonged to them. "Ignore her!" The dark haired woman hissed. "I am not with child! She could not know that!"

"She's a Dunmer...they sense those things..." Brynjolf breathed, his fingers hovering nearer to Dex's still flat stomach. "A baby...our baby..." He whispered.

Dex angrily slapped Brynjolf's fingers away as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Not our baby." She hissed. "This is Draco's child, if there even is one!" She added, clinging to that tiny piece of hope... No matter that she already knew the truth deep down.

"Draco...you mean the man that pretended to be a dragon?" Brynjolf hissed, no longer looking happy to be a father.
Bree had ahold of Dex's shirt, looking desperately around for Ulfric. This was certainly not her idea of getting this situation under control.

"You call that pretending!" Dex hissed, pointing at Draco's massive form. "You killed him, and for what? As some kind of proof to me that you're not a complete coward? Well it didn't work! I swear to Talos... No place in Skyrim will be safe for you, Brynjolf of Riften!"
Ulfric finally muscled his way through, brandishing his sword at anyone who dared try and stop him. As it was, the entire crowd was hung on the exchange going on between the king of thieves, and the woman who now carried his offspring.

"Maybe you should consider that for yourself, Dex of Nowhere!" Brynjolf shouted back, moving even closer to her. "You will not keep my child away from me! I'll kill you for it!"

"This is not your child." Dex told Brynjolf evenly. "And I may be of nowhere... Buy you were the one who was always bothered by that fact, never me." She added, not fool enough to show weakness by backing away from Brynjolf when he advanced on her.

Bree looked toward Ulfric, all but begging him to step in when the dragon lifted his head and roared. She grabbed for Dex and yanked her to the ground as a blast of hot air surged from behind Brynjolf and swept towards them.
Again the crowd was breaking in all directions, screams of pain and fear filled the air. Brynjolf dropped to the ground as if his head had been removed from his body. His back was nothing but blisters and blood.

Dex was scrambling back to her feet as soon as she was able. She showed no concern for what had just happened to Brynjolf, choosing the actually step over him as she moved close to the dragon again. "D-Draco?" She stammered, afraid to hope he was okay, only to find that last action had been nothing more than the final throws of death.

Draco's head swung toward Ulfric, his golden eyes dull and pleading. He knew that this man alone would keep his secret. "Don't...let them see..." He whispered, his head dropping heavily again. Once there were no more than five on the outskirts of the city, the mist appeared, flooding the area. And then there was nothing but a naked injured man lying in the mud.

Dex was on her knees by Draco's side, thinking Og nothing but his survival as she pressed her shaking fingers to the deep wound in his neck to stop the bleeding. "Help him... Please!" She begged anyone who was listening. She had no time to think that Draco would be disgusted with the tears she shed right then

Bree was on her knees on the opposite side in a moment, resting her own fingers over Dex's. "There's only so much we can do...Ulfric...go get Almeada." She called over her shoulder.

Ulfric hesitated slightly, wanting to help his friend, yet also not wishing to leave Breenan unguarded. Finally he decided he needed to have a little more faith in her and nodded. "Be safe." He warned, then set off at a sprint.
"Woman!" The jarl was standing outside Almeada's house, shouting to her. "You damn spell won't let me even knock on the door!" He added in reference to the ward that was keeping the women safe from his right hand man.

Now that Breenan was tending to the wound, Dex was gently brushing her fingers through Draco's dark hair, singing a song that she had never heard in this lifetime, though she wasn't thinking about that right then. It was a song in the ancient dragon tongue, used to ease the suffering of a soul close to the end of its destiny.

"Here...let me..." Bree tried to move her friend's fingers. "Almeada will fix this. I promise."

"And that's the way I will keep it." Almeada shouted back, not revealing where she was in her home. "Leave now, jarl. I've no problem with you."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you..." Dex whispered. Though her eyes never left Draco's face, she was in fact speaking to Breenan. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you all the trouble I had following me around."

"Breenan sent me!" Ulfric replied, his temper already thin. "Your little pet, Dex, her mate is dying. Breenan... She said you could help."

Bree laughed softly, her fingers glowing as gold as the dragon's eyes. "I saw that the moment I first laid eyes on you. You had this sort of rain cloud hanging over you while the rest of the rock was rather sunny." She laughed softly. "I seem to share that cloud so I thought perhaps I had met a friend."

"The dragon is not dying and I will not help." Almeada said, her eyes showing no hint of the crimson of a Dunmer as she appeared at the window in front of him. "I owe that beast nothing. I have done all I can."

"Prey that it is not the same cloud we share." Dex replied quietly as she finally looked up at Bree. "The dread that hangs over me... It is older than the Nord people themselves and cares little for the death of me. It can wait... Hide away until I am next reborn." she looked down at Draco again, then lightly touched a hand to her still flat belly. "I just wanted him to love me... Was that wicked of me?"

"I never said he was a dragon." Ulfric replied, suspicion creeping into his voice as Almeada finally showed herself.