Hail. This is a tale bizarre, with wars and magic spells;
a tale that's unlike any in the world where Skyrim dwells.
The greatest tale in all the land, that's ever been told yet,
about the greatest maiden, who has faced the greatest threat.

Some might laugh at the great maid, of whom this story spoke,
but that is not the purpose here, for she is not a joke.
Neither is her story, so I beg you will not err.
Let no one take insult from it, and least of all, not her.

Of all the mortals in this world, 'tis her I most respect,
For she has qualities that many others don't detect.
She is a hero, good and true, and of the greatest sort,
for she wanted something truly, and by her own choice, fell short.

For others she has given and for others she has lost,
and rarely stopped to worry over what it all would cost.
She had a thing she valued most; a thing that brought her glee,
and gave it up for those she loved, for that is charity.

This tale, perhaps, when it begins, will seem like deja vu.
It may seem like something else that happened once to you.
Yet, as it continues on, you'll see that, without fail,
this story has become a very different kind of tale.

So if a fate still guides this world; this land under the sun,
and if the rules of destiny restrict what can be done,
then this tale, of which I speak, can't actually unfold,
yet it's a tale that must exist; a tale that must be told.

Skyrim: The Unchosen One

Chapter 1: Book and Bottle

This tale truly begins in a place beyond places, but since no words exist in that place, few can be used to describe it, and all in negative terms. It was not a land, nor an ocean, nor was it air or fire, or a desert, or a volcano. It was, in a sense, not anything at all, yet someone was there; more that one someone, in fact. Those who hear this story must, I fear, forgive such poor descriptions as these, but in any case, it is not with those surroundings that the story is concerned, but with the beings, who, for the moment, were holding conference there.

Those beings were nine in number, and were, at least, not so difficult to describe as the place where they had chosen to speak. Three resembled men, with long hair and beards. One was like them, but without a mustache. The fifth of their group was taller than the first four, but his hair was much shorter, and his beard little more than a goatee, making him seem, in some ways, smaller. The sixth was a woman with short hair, covered, in any case, by a reverent hood. The next two were also women; one with thick hair that spread out over her shoulders and back, and one whose beautiful hair was more conventional, smooth and unobtrusive. Still, they were all normal-looking by comparison to their leader; a mighty, golden dragon who spoke to his fellows sadly.

"Tragedies are no new thing, to us, or to the world of men and mer." the dragon said sadly, "As we always do in such circumstances, however, something must be done."

"This is to do with that petty usurper, I suppose." the tall man with the goatee observed, at which point the dragon merely nodded, tilting his head slightly before he continued.

"His actions cannot be ignored. Too many are dying. I asked for your help, to bring forth a new chosen one; that one mortal in a billion who can face the odds and succeed; tear down kings, build up empires, and crush evil. This method has often done much good in the past, and I feel..."

However, for the first time in a thousand years, a voice from among that group spoke up, interrupting their leader with a calm determination that had rarely asserted itself so strongly.

"No."

All eyes turned to the source of that voice; the being who resembled a man with a beard, but no mustache. However, his own eyes were not fixed on the dragon at all, and this was not out of fear, but because the person who had spoken was deep in thought, looking downward into the emptiness as he spoke.

"Julianos..." the dragon remarked, "You have some thoughts on this subject?"

"I cannot reconcile it anymore." Julianos said after spending a few more seconds in thought, "This business of choosing a mortal to do the work of saving the world... Is there no alternative?"

"Why should we seek one?" the dragon asked, "Has it not been a success in the past?"

"The success or failure of this method is not in question." Julianos replied, "What concerns me is the method itself. When we make our choice, the mortal saves their world, and all is preserved, but in exchange, that mortal's fate slips beyond their control. Their freedom is lost."

"A mortal living under our blessings has greater control over their fate, not less." the dragon replied, "They have every chance that they would have had without them, and more besides..."

"There is one chance they lack." Julianos pointed out at once, however, having thought the matter through thoroughly, "They lack the chance to fail, and to be imperfect; to make mistakes and differ from our plan. They can no longer choose a less than dynamic life. Do you not see the problem with this? Should we sacrifice a mortal's life in this way, to save the world?"

"Are you suggesting to me that my blessings should go to someone other than the chosen one?" the woman with the thick hair, whose name was Dibella, asked, "Why would the chosen one not want the blessings of beauty?"

"I can think of a hundred reasons." Julianos replied without skipping a beat, however, "Suppose they have been tortured by someone who was beautiful, and come to see beauty as ugliness? They might be in love with someone who values their character, and would merely be distracted by beauty. They might fear that beauty would attract the attention of lustful adulterers... There are a host of reasons for not desiring beauty."

"Fascinating" one of the long-bearded men replied, "I have always considered our blessings to be a mercy, and yet, are you implying that they might be a curse as well?"

"I am implying that our blessings should not be so heavy-handed, Stendarr." Julianos explained, "Perhaps we could merely give a smaller gift to each of a dozen people, and allow them the chance to overcome the odds, or to fail in their own way. I would consider that a far wiser course."

Dibella looked rather upset over having been rebutted so quickly and easily, but she didn't attempt to reply again, merely looking down into the nothingness, as though making some plans of her own. That, however, was when the dragon spoke again, wearing an amused smile on his face, for the first time in centuries.

"Your idea has creativity and merit, Julianos, but most importantly, there is time to set it in motion, and still resort to the old plan, should it fail. You will have my cooperation in this."

Julianos was relieved that his words had been so well-received, as one after another, his companions began offering their agreement; the strongest support coming from Talos and Zenithar. Still, he knew that there were risks in such a course of action. After all, according to the old plan, one person had been given the blessing of victory, and was given a chance to succeed; a chance that usually; no one had. If his idea worked out, then even the nine of them wouldn't know to whom their blessing had gone, which meant that the greatest warriors might find themselves on the end of a pike. On the other hand, it also meant that anyone might be a hero... even the grocer down the street...

The atmosphere in the alehouse known as the Slow Sabrecat was different, at different times of the day. Sometimes, things were slow. Sometimes its inhabitants were loud, and engaged in shouting, cheering or singing. However, in the evening at around six o'clock, the atmosphere was usually intermittent; alternating between raucous cheering and dead silence, because that was when Katie got off work.

Loud cheers erupted once again as Katie dropped the fork back onto the plate, looking across the table at her challenger with a calm smile. Half a leg of goat and a small pile of lettuce was still sitting on the tall, broad man's plate, but he looked like he was ready to hurl. On Katie's plate, a bone and a fork were all that was left. At last, the warrior stuck one more piece of lettuce into his mouth and nearly fell over. Clearly, he'd been unprepared for the challenge.

Katie had gotten to her feet slowly a few moments later, stepping over to the half-conscious warrior, who'd managed to eat himself into a stupor that night, and giving everyone there a chance to get another good look at her, before she threw on her furs.

Katie was always an impressive sight, but especially when she was standing, because it was only then that one got any sort of real impression of the sheer size of the woman. Not only was she almost a head taller than most of the men in town, but she was also more than twice as broad, and probably weighed about three times as much as most men her age. She wasn't round, exactly. Her body shape was a little harder to describe than that. She looked more like a large, pink coffee bean, which had sprouted arms, legs and a head, and started walking around. Her unique size and shape had its drawbacks, of course, but as she'd just demonstrated that night, it also had its advantages. In other places, by other people, she took criticisms, but in that alehouse, after her work shift ended, Katie was the eighth wonder of the world. She loved it all.

Instead of immediately leaving like she usually did, she leaned over a little and put one hand on the head of her defeated opponent, giving him a few short pats, as though to inform him that it was alright. However, the moment her hand touched him, he sat bolt upright, looking halfway between sickness and alarm.

"I came all the way from Dragonstar for this challenge." the well-built, redguard warrior hissed at her angrily, "Don't patronize me. Just tell me; was I close? Did I almost win?"

Katie's smile started to fade when the poor man said that, because she could only shake her head sadly. She could comfort a defeated man, but not a defeated ego.

The redguard cursed angrily and turned back away from her, putting his face in his hands.

"I thought I could win something! Just once, I thought I could be the best at something!" the man choked out angrily.

"And you picked this? Just trying to eat more than me in one sitting?" Katie asked, feeling genuinely surprised, although her opponent just shook his head angrily.

"You know what I mean. I mean, you must know what it's like; wanting to shine; to be the best of the best. You've got to have dreams, right? I mean, that must be how you got this good, right?"

However, once again, Katie didn't have much in the way of comfort to offer her opponent.

"Sorry." she just said, "I've got a nice home, food, drink, good friends, and a job that doesn't change over time. That's just about all I want. I never put any effort into... Well, into being able to outdo people at the dinner table. It just kind of happened one night as a sort of game, and soon, people started showing up the challenge me, and... Well, it wasn't on purpose anyway."

The redguard sniffed, as though he absolutely couldn't believe that claim, but it wasn't until a few moments later that he explained why.

"You're a nord, Katie. Nords never want to live like that. You struggle against your fate. You're fighters; warriors. I'm sure you know a little about fighting yourself. Every nord wants to fight on some level."

However, Katie just shook her head again calmly, a moment later, and asked, "You're not trying to challenge me to a fight, are you?"

"No." the redguard replied, "I'm saying that you must know what it's like to want a life of adventure and combat."

"No." Katie responded almost immediately, however, her smile not breaking for a moment as she spoke, "You're wrong. I don't even know what it's like to want that. That's the furthest thing from what I want. You may not care. You may not believe me, but it doesn't really matter. All I want in the world is for things to keep going exactly the way they are right now."

Then, without another word, Katie had pulled open the front door of the Slow Sabrecat, and turning sideways a little, had left through it, closing it behind her as a song began in one corner of the alehouse. Part of her wanted to stay behind for a few more minutes and sing along, but she was starting to feel a little tired, and it looked like it was going to be a cold night. As quickly as she could go, Katie found herself heading towards home, where some war, soft furs and her cheap cot would be waiting.

The next morning, it was almost five by the time Katie woke up, and it wasn't the town bell that woke her, or even the light, coming in through the windows of her room, but rather, the smell of breakfast.

It had been a particularly cold night, and Katie had fallen asleep in her fur boots and coat, as well as under the three warm furs that she used for blankets, so she was feeling pretty warm as she got to her feet and stretched. As cold as the night before had been, that morning was a little bit warmer, so she slid the large, brown fur coat off, though she kept her boots on. She probably should have been thinking about the redguard she'd beaten the night before; the very sad warrior, who'd seemed so adamant about being the best at something. She probably should have gone looking for him, in the hopes of finding some way to comfort the poor fellow, but that morning, she was still a little distracted by the feeling of victory and the comforting safety of home. It never occurred to her to worry about the warrior. In fact, she'd never even heard his name. He'd been strange in that respect. Before the meal had begun, he'd just remarked "I'll tell you who I am when you lose, so you'll always remember."

For the moment, however, Katie was drawn by the smell of breakfast, and stepped into the kitchen slowly, looking around for any sign of her parents. Her mother was sitting at the table, having almost finished with her own first meal of the day, and some fish were sitting in an ice pail near one side of the room, indicating what would be prepared for the second. The whole kitchen was filled with the wonderful aroma of warm bread and grilled leek.

Katie's mother was a very different sort of person from Katie herself; largely because she was an adopted child. She was an older woman; a redguard in her upper fifties or so; not quite old enough for many gray hairs, but just enough that the wrinkles on her face and wrists had begun to tell the story of her many happy years in that village. Her name was Sinia, and she was a former huntress and woodsman, who still had much of her old talent for the job, but was gradually losing the strength that was so important for driving a spear through a sabrecat's heart. There were times when that made her daughter feel sorry for her, but she clearly didn't feel sorry for herself. Sinia was happy living in Karohad.

"Hey, mom." Katie remarked happily, taking a seat quickly at her side of the table, and digging into the plate that had been set for her, "Did Dad leave yet?"

"He's still trying to find his tongs." Sinia replied with a half-sad shake of her head, "I keep warning him to take better care of his things, especially when it's market day."

Sure enough, however, Katie's father; a tall, gray-haired redguard named Jeleen emerged into the kitchen only a few seconds later; before his daughter could even finish the plate in front of her.

"Found them!" he announced triumphantly, waving the steel tongs in the air as he charged out of the main bedroom, looking relieved, then, seeing that his daughter was awake, he gave her a short greeting as well.

Any other day, Jeleen would have let Katie work the forge with him for a while. It was fun work, if a little dangerous, but one needed to be careful, no matter what one did for a living. Market day, though, was that one day when the two couldn't afford to spend that much time together. Jeleen was going to be taking his wares out to Elinhir in the cart, and that meant that Katie couldn't come along; as always. She had work that would have prevented her going anyway, but for a moment, being left out of something made her feel pretty bad. Even when that something; going to another town, wasn't really something that she wanted to do.

Some friendly banter was practiced in that kitchen, until Jeleen left through the front door, and then that was it. Sinia didn't talk much, except when other people were talking. It just wasn't her forte. That was alright, of course, since it gave her daughter the chance to finish breakfast and start gathering up the dishes. However, that was when she did speak up.

"I know you have work later..."

"Not until about nine." Katie replied, brightening up, "I've got a few hours."

"In that case, let's get some spear training in."

"What?" Katie asked, actually feeling a little uncomfortable, "You mean, right after breakfast?"

"No excuses." her mother said, however, her tone of voice turning a bit cold, "I've seen you chop wood out there. You're stronger than I am, and that means a lot. Let's see what you've learned."

Katie wanted a good reason for refusing, as she often did when it came to their spear matches, but she just couldn't think of one, and anyway, it was her mother. Refusing one's mother isn't an easy thing to do.

"Any special rules?" Katie asked as she and her mother stepped out to the lumber range; a large series of tree stumps at the edge of the forest, where she and her family had been gathering whatever wood they needed for years. Each of them was already prepared for the training session; holding a tar-tipped spear in one hand and a shield in the other.

"No. No special rules." Sinia replied calmly; almost coldly to her daughter, "Normal rules. Don't get hit in the chest or head, don't drop your weapon, don't hook your weapon, and don't touch the house or any trees. Also, don't lose your footing."

However, although Sinia had implied that there was nothing special about that match, she didn't seem to be taking it easy at all. Almost as soon as the word "footing" had escaped her lips, her spear shot out at her daughter, striking her in the leg. Katie managed to get her footing back and swipe away with her own spear, but it only produced an imperfectly-aimed blow, which glanced harmlessly off her mother's shield. Just like that, the session had begun. However, it wasn't destined to last long.

In one more jab, Katie's mother got under her daughter's defense easily, knocking her over, and burying the tar-tipped point in the younger girl's generous chest. Worse yet, she didn't look like she had any intention of withdrawing it anytime soon.

"You're stronger than me..." Sinia almost whispered as she stared at her daughter in amazement, "You're a lot stronger than me. Why do you always lose this way?"

"It's alright, mom." Katie tried to say, but her mother had moved the tip of the spear up just a little, to position it near her daughter's face.

"It's not alright." Sinia replied angrily, "I don't think you realize how important this is. Nobody in Hammerfell likes the Thalmor regime. Things are even worse in Skyrim. I lived through the war, and I know what things were like. Either you could defend yourself, or you didn't eat. Times were hard, but I survived, because I had the will to train; the will to improve and defend myself and my loved ones."

"Mom..." Katie began again, "That's why I never win. You've got a lot more experience at this than me. Now, maybe, in time..."

"You shouldn't be losing to a person twice your age in melee combat, no matter how skilled they are." Sinia insisted, however, "You're a nord. You're supposed to be built for combat. But you're not, are you?"

"Well..." Katie sighed, resigning herself to that evaluation, as unpleasant as it might have been.

"I've seen you at that bar you work at; before and after work hours, I mean." her mother continued, however, and those words alone brought a shudder to Katie's frame. It was the first time that her mother had even mentioned it.

"I've seen the kind of 'skills' you've been perfecting." Sinia said with the same, cold tone of voice, "You're just being foolish, Katie. None of that means anything."

"When I'm in the Slow Sabrecat, I'm the king of the hill." Katie insisted, finally starting to get angry with her mother's attitude, but Sinia wasn't showing any signs of backing down.

"King? Is that what you think? Do you really think they cheer because they admire you?" Sinia asked furiously, "You amuse them, and that's all. You're a joke to those people."

Just like that, Katie's temper flared up, and she reached up with one hand, seizing her mother's spear, just below the spearhead. Then, with one swift motion of her arms, she pushed it back and away, forcing her mother to back off as well, in order to avoid being pushed over by her daughter's colossal arm strength. However, rather than trying to launch any new attacks, Katie just attached her spear to the hook that hung from the leather strap, which was slung over one of her shoulders for that purpose, slung her shield over the other shoulder, and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Sinia asked, as though she expected her daughter to actually answer the question. However, when Katie didn't reply, her voice finally seemed to be softening, and a sense of worry crept into her words, when she asked "Katie? What's wrong? Where are you going?"

"Away!" her daughter shouted at the top of her lungs, kicking open the front gate in one motion, and storming out with both the weapon and shield in tow.

Over the course of her trek through the woods to the north of town, which had lasted over an hour, Katie had run into three wolves, but one good kick to each had sent them packing, and she suspected that one of them; which had hit a tree in the process, was probably dead. It had helped to calm her down, though, and at last, she was just starting to think about turning back for home, when suddenly, something flashed across the corner of her eye.

Quickly, Katie turned to look; to see what it was that had caught her attention. It was something off in the distance; something big, but hidden behind the thick trees that were growing all around her.

Slowly but surely, she pressed onward, driven forward further and further by her deepening curiosity, and passing one tree, then the next, then moving around two more, until finally, she came within sight of the thing that had, in the distance, seemed like just one stray sparkle. For a moment, all that passed through the young lady's mind was awe and wonder over the amazing sight before her.

However, that awe and wonder was the only thing that she would later remember.

The next thing that Katie knew, she was waking up in the woods, with the light of the sun still visible on the horizon. She was lying on her side in the wet grass, and as she finished regaining consciousness, she started scrambling back into an upright position as fast as she could, though it wasn't fast enough to keep the dew from soaking into her clothes and knapsack.

Quickly, she was on her feet, shaking herself all over to try to dry off, when she ran her hands over her knapsack and gave a start in surprise. In another moment, she'd dug her hands into the bag, and retrieved two items from it that she'd never seen before in her life, looking at them in amazement. The first was a thick, but amazingly-light book, and the other was a transparent bottle made from some kind of crystal or tempered glass; a pretty strong substance, at any rate.

Curiously, Katie opened the book and began to leaf through it, but much to her surprise and dismay, there was nothing written on the pages. They were all completely blank. She had no idea where the book and bottle had come from, and from the looks of things, the book itself wasn't going to give her any answers. However, she did notice that the pages were almost perfectly-dry, and remained that way, even when she touched them with her wet hands; as though they were enchanted to be resistant to water. Questions filled her mind from that experiment alone.

Reluctantly putting the book back into her bag, Katie gave the bottle a quick examination as well, looking through it at the forest beyond; the bushes, the trees, the flowers...

That, however, was when she saw something truly amazing for the first time. Somehow, the inside of the bottle was changing color in places, when she looked at the flowers through it. A White aura seemed to have surrounded the purple flowers, and sure enough, it wasn't really there, since it disappeared when Katie moved the bottle again. Still, when she looked through the bottle, there it was; an aura of white.

That was when another idea occurred to her, and in just a moment, she'd bent down to pick some of the flowers, and actually put one inside of the bottle. Sure enough, the aura had grown stronger since the flower was in the bottle itself, and it looked very warm and comforting. For a moment, in fact, she was sure that the bottle was trying to tell her something about the flower; that those flowers were good for eating, or something.

On an impulse, Katie actually did put one flower petal into her mouth, and when she swallowed it, she noticed a couple of differences. For one thing, she found that it had become a little harder to concentrate. However, on top of that, and more importantly, she suddenly felt full of energy, as though she'd just been running for an hour. It was that little extra bit of pep that she'd needed to start heading towards home. She was begining to feel like forgiving her mother for what she'd said, so she started off through the woods to the south, putting the bottle back into her bag, and gathering a few nearby flowers, mosses and mushrooms as she went, curious to see what effect they might have on her strange, new toy.

However, by the time Katie got back to her village, she was met by a vision of horror; a shining radiance that meant death, loss and tragedy.

Of the various buildings that had made up the small village of Karohad, over half were on fire, and another fair number had been burned to the ground already, including the Slow Sabrecat. A lump formed in Katie's throat at the sight of that, but she pushed back the feelings of sadness and loss, forcing herself to concentrate on what she needed to do. Karohad was burning, and her friends and family were probably in danger. That meant that she needed to find them as quickly as possible.

As fast as she could, Katie made her way to her own house, which was already ablaze, and kicked the door in, though it took more than one kick. Inside, there were flames everywhere. The kitchen was a wreck, and the table and chairs in the center were already on fire. Katie tried to push them aside, but got a pretty bad burn in the process on her left arm. Still, she managed to get to the other side of the room, where she caught sight of her mother and father. Her father looked as though he was losing consciousness from the smoke, and her mother was clutching a small bag in one hand, but was an absolute mess, with burns all over her skin. Just seeing them like that was like a stake through the younger woman's burned arm.

Still, she was determined to get them both out. Quickly, she grabbed her father under one arm, but got another burn on one of her legs as she did so, then seized her mother in the other arm, feeling something give unpleasantly in the process. At last, however, she charged back the way she'd come, hauling her two parents back out the front door, and away from the burning house, before finally placing them on the ground as gently as she could. Her father seemed to be alright, though still barely conscious, but her mother looked absolutely horrible, as though she was right at death's door.

It was only then that Katie thought to open the bag that her mother had been holding, and found that, of all things, it was full of garlic. For just a moment, Katie wondered why her mother would have gone for something like that. But then, she remembered how, as a young girl, her mother had taught her about ingredients in recipes, and how garlic was useful for not only giving people energy and fighting impurities in the food, but helping them think clearly and speeding the healing process. It was those thoughts that caused a slight glimmer of hope to awaken in the nord girl's heart.

"If only it can..." Katie muttered to herself as she dug her bottle back out of her bag, placing the garlic inside with the other things she'd gathered, "if... if..."

Suddenly, however, something new started to happen within the bottle. The garlic looked like it was almost melting, along with everything else she'd put in there, until at last, all that was left inside of it was a gooey, yellow paste. On an impulse. Katie tasted the paste, and discovered, in astonishment, that her burns were beginning to fade. Without even giving it another second's worth of thought, she placed the bottle up to her mother's charred and cracked lips, and forced her to down the entire thing.

The nord girl sat and waited, watching her mother for moment after agonizing moment, and yet, seeing no visible change. Finally, however, an amazing transformation began. Her mother's burns began to become less pronounced, though they were still clearly severe. Sinia still couldn't move her arms or legs, and was obviously in devastating pain all over. Nonetheless, in moments, her eyes shot open, and so did her lips.

"Mother..." Katie gasped, doing everything she could to calm her down, "Don't worry. You'll be..."

"Thank the... nine." Sinia gasped out, looking as though she hadn't seen her daughter in years, "Katie... I..."

"Don't try to talk, mom." Katie exclaimed, grabbing some more garlic in the hopes that her bottle would make another healing formula with it, but her mother didn't take her advice.

"I'm so... sorry." Sinia gasped out miserably, "I shouldn't... have been so... cruel. I was... afraid you'd... never... survive. I guess... I was... wrong."

"Stop it, mom!" Katie exclaimed again, shaking her bottle up and down with the garlic still inside of it, "You'll be okay! You're going to be fine! You just need a few more drinks, and you'll be fine."

However, for some reason, Sinia was smiling calmly at that point, as if she had no more regrets, although Katie still felt miserable, and the garlic still didn't seem to be melting the way it had before.

As she continued trying to get the garlic to melt; mixing it with various flowers and mushrooms that were still in her pack, she felt a gentle hand come to rest on her shoulder, and realized that her father was awake.

"Dad!" Katie exclaimed, a sense of desperation still rushing through her heart, "It has to have been the moss. I need more forest moss! Find me some, and... and..."

For a few moments, Katie looked up into the face of her father, and saw a mix of emotions conveyed by that face. There was shock and amazement, worry and anger, and pride and relief all mixed into one, but in the end, like any good redguard, Jeleen knew when action was needed.

In only a moment, he'd returned with armfuls of moss, some of which Katie recognized, and began putting into the bottle. Sure enough, it melted the garlic once again, producing a sort of yellow slime, which she administered to Sinia. Her burns began to soften again, although that formula seemed to have had less of an effect than the one before it. At last, three more formulas later; each of only moderate effect, Sinia's burns had begun to vanish, and her condition seemed to be stabilizing. It was only then that the nord girl dared to turn from her mother, to face her dad once again.

"Dad..." Katie said, as she looked into her father's eyes, not sure that else to say or do. However, by that point, her father had lunged forward and wrapped his arms as far around her as he could, squeezing hard as he did so.

"I was so worried about you." Jeleen said just a moment later, genuinely surprising her.

"Worried about me?" Katie asked, feeling a little confused, "Why? I'm fine."

"We had no idea what happened to you." her father replied, however, "After the first couple of weeks, they gave up the search and..."

"Wait! Wait a minute!" Katie exclaimed, more confused than ever, "Weeks? Are you saying I've been gone for weeks?"

"Honey..." Jeleen explained, looking very surprised by his daughter's reaction, "You were missing for over three months."

Katie had sat next to her mother's unconscious body for a while, just listening in stunned silence as her father had explained the situation. Three months ago, she'd gone for a walk in the woods, and hadn't returned home. Sinia had blamed herself for what had happened, but eventually, the search had needed to end. Then, just that very day, something horrible had happened; something that no one had been expecting.

A black-winged monster had descended on Karohad, spewing fire and smoke from its mouth, overwhelmed the guards and set fire to the town. After devouring five of the town's inhabitants, and torching over half of the buildings, the monster had sprung back into the air, taking off for some other place in Tamriel. The people of Karohad had been left in the burning rubble of their town; a great many of them having perished in the inferno. However, as bad as all of that was, Jeleen was convinced that it was only the beginning.

"I'm sure that that monster was a dragon; one of the old wyrms that brought destruction and death, and heralded the end of the world." Jeleen said sadly, "This is the worst possible thing that could happen. Looking back on it, I can't believe how worried I was about a rebellion starting, or another war, or some kind of influx of renegade bandits from Skyrim. I guess I was worried that if any of those things happened, we wouldn't be able to give you a safe place to live."

Katie could barely believe what she was hearing, but she didn't try to respond, since she could tell that her father wasn't finished yet.

"Maybe you think the world is already a safe place to live, Katie. That makes part of me feel great, I suppose. Still, it's too niave. You need to face reality. Soon, you'll have to fight for your life, and you might still die. We might all die. So many people have died already..."

Once again, Jeleen paused to gather his thoughts, and when he spoke again, he looked utterly determined at last.

"We all need to pitch in this time, Katie. I need your help again."

His daughter just nodded quickly, getting to her feet.

"I need you to go for help. Some messengers were sent to Elinhir just before the dragon attacked, but we need all the help we can get right now. I want you to cross the border, get to Falkreath, and see if they'll lend us some help."

"Me?" Katie asked, feeling a little sick, "You want me to cross the mountains?"

"You're the only nord in Karohad." Jeleen explained a moment later, "If they don't listen to you, they won't listen to anyone. Besides, the nords have a history with the dragons. We need their help."

For a moment, Katie was about to raise another objection, but one look into her father's face told her just how serious things were getting. In no time at all, she found herself nodding, and heading for the gate. However, just as she was about to leave, her father tapped her one more time on the shoulder.

"One more thing, honey." Jeleen said as Katie turned to face him one last time, "We might not see each other again for a while, and I just wanted to say, about the way you've been learning alchemy..."

Katie felt a warm sensation travel into her face for a moment. She hadn't suspected that the magic bottle was an alchemical device, although it seemed to make sense when she thought about it. Still, she'd never practiced alchemy before in her life, and neither had anyone she knew. It took her by surprise, and for a moment, she almost wondered if Jeleen was about to scold her. However, she needn't have worried.

"I've never been so proud of you." Jeleen remarked happily, with more feeling in his voice than she'd ever heard, "I just want you to know that... before you go."

It was, Katie thought in amazement, almost worth the danger and the tragedy to hear such compliments from her father, and yet, she couldn't fully appreciate those compliments, because as much as she wanted to be able to take credit for learning a thing or two about alchemy, she had absolutely no idea where that strange bottle had come from.

All Katie knew was that she'd wandered out into the woods, and had gained two magic items, and lost three months of her life. She'd also lost her house, and nearly lost her family, and that, she decided, was a mystery that she couldn't leave unsolved. As soon as the people of Karohad were safe, she was determined to learn what had happened to her during those three months, and who the book and bottle really belonged to.

Before leaving town, Katie took a few moments to think about what she'd need for the journey. It would be a trip of several days, across harsh climates. She had her fur boots, gloves and coat for the trip over the mountains, but she had to spent a little while digging through rubble for supplies before she'd found everything she needed. It took several hours, but eventually, she'd found a bedroll, a kettle, a kit for starting fires, some basic cooking utensils and about three days worth of food and water, which, she suspected, would be enough if she combined it with a little hunting.

The trip began as just a walk in the woods; generally in the direction of the northwest. However, soon enough, the path began to travel uphill, and the hiking became much harder. Every step was becoming hard, and Katie was constantly feeling tempted to find a spot to sit and relax, if only there'd been one handy.

Further and further up she traveled, up the steep incline of the mountain path, until at last, after over three days of hiking, feeling hot, thirsty and exhausted, Katie finally found herself peeking over one of the smaller peaks of the mountain range between her own homeland of Hammerfell and the nord land of Skyrim. At last, after all that hiking, the nord land was spreading out into the distance in front of her, as far as her eyes could see. Snowcapped mountains, pine-filled forests, a long river, and beyond that; great, vast planes covered with a mix of snow and grass patches. She couldn't see anything beyond that. The mists were too thick.

Katie stopped in those mountains to catch her breath for a few minutes, but soon, she remembered her father's desperation, and with her determination renewed, and her breathing back to normal, she headed down the mountainside into Skyrim.

However, just as Katie neared level ground, she began to hear a commotion nearby, and turned to see what was going on. There, just beyond a bend in the mountainside, she could see a troop of imperial soldiers tying the hands of some struggling nords, who all seemed to be wearing light armor, metal helmets and blue cloth over their torsos. It reminded Katie of the way the soldiers of the imperials and the thalmor dealt with bandits back home. However, she was just taking a step back towards the forests to the north, when she found a very sharp-looking arrow, pointed directly at her face; being aimed at her by the bow of an imperial archer.

"That's far enough, Stormcloak trash." the imperial said angrily, "Don't know how you expected to sneak by us, but you're not going to do anything to help your buddies now."

Katie wanted to raise an objection; to insist that she'd been mistaken for someone else; to do or say anything that would get her out of that situation, but she didn't have enough time. In only a fraction of a second, something hard and cold hit her in the head from behind, and everything was blackness.

Author's note:

That'll teach me to try playing a mainstream PC game.

Alright, to be fair, Skyrim is a great game. The problem is, it's not an RPG. It's an action game, and that wasn't what I was looking for.

You see, in an RPG, you create a character of your own, and step into the role of that character, benefitting from playing that role well. The abilities and limits dealt with in the game are those of the character type you've chosen to play as at the start of the game, -not- (and I cannot stress this enough,) those of the player.

In Skyrim, you have a limited number of options for character creation (which I've taken great pains to exceed,) and yet, no matter what kind of character you choose, ultimately, you can succeed in any field; magic, swordplay, archery or thievery. This, combined with a greatly decreased number of skills from previous TES games, and a much greater focus on player-controlled action than on the skills of the character being played as, and you're left with a game, which, for better or for worse, is less of an RPG than its predecessors.

However, the RPG-ness of Skyrim wasn't the only thing I missed. You see, there are many other things that I wanted to see in the game, but which didn't make the final cut, and furthermore, have not been added, even by mods, since the game's release.

I'd actually considered calling this fanfiction "Skyrim; Beyond the Mods," but the title was just too meta for me. Still, it does begin to describe the thought processes that went into making this fanfic.

1. Use Skyrim as though it were the GM for a modified GURPS game.

2. Insert into the fanfic things that haven't already been added by mods. Make the character's alchemy work differently than in Skyrim. Give her a spear, and a -spear skill,- and give her a different body-type than it's possible to get for your character in-game. Finally, give her her own personality, and give her the freedom to make different choices than are allowed by the heavily-scripted and very-linear quests in Skyrim itself. For example, maybe she'll get into a fight with a quest-essential character just because she doesn't like them. Maybe she'll get into a fight with the Thalmor. Maybe she'll get into a fight with a bard. The possiblities are enormous.

This chapter doesn't cover anything that happens during the actual game, although chapter 2 will begin to do so, and when it does, I'll also include an addendum at the end of each chapter, explaining what I included that the game does not.

I'm planning on working on this fanfic for a little while at least (until I get tired of it, which may take a while,) and I plan to enjoy it. I hope you'll enjoy it too.

-Bra1n1ac-