I don't know what it was that woke me up. It could have been a couple of things, for one I was somehow knocked out fast asleep in some forested area or it could have been the fact that I was sopping wet. "Urgh what the hell did I do last night?" I don't particularly remember drinking last night and even then I would like to think I had a pretty good tolerance. I mean sure sometimes when I've had a bit too much to drink I get pretty wild, but not yet have I ever drunken myself to oblivion and then proceeded to wake up in the wild!

I've been pretty groggy for the last few minutes so you would imagine my surprise when rubbing my face I notice something wrong. "Whoa what the hell happened to my tan?" I noticed that I was a few shades lighter since I have been spending quite a bit of my time this summer in the sun and now my skin was light, I didn't look like an albino or anything, but I was pretty close.

Actually now that I notice it my clothes are different. Earlier I dismissed that fact because sometimes when I go out and party with the boys and I don't end up crashing up at their place for some reason or the other they would always make sure that I would leave with a jacket or something warm. Now looking at my attire I think even my friends wouldn't own something so out of a medieval movie. What I found myself wearing right now is an off-white tunic with a few tears in it and seems to be made of linen or some other rough material. Thank god I'm wearing actual trousers instead of some kind of hose.

"Something else is off, but for the love of god I can't put my head around it, ah well I guess fuck it for now. The important thing is getting out of these clothes before I catch the flu or something." As I look around me I notice a crude bag made out of fur and what seems to be leather. I pick it up and unfasten the buckle. Inside I see a few books, a bit of jerky, a large ass knife and something else. "What the hell is that? I pick up a strange leathery bag inside the bag and notice that it contained water inside. "What the hell is this an actual waterskin? Did my friends prank me and sign me up for some kind of Bear Grylls reality TV show? Actually I don't care I'm thirsty as hell and this is like a god sent gift right now." I uncork the waterskin and drink heavily from it. I also tear apart all my jerky and wash it down.

I pull out one of the books and almost drop it and not because of the weight or anything like that, but because of the title. "Magical theory for beginners, what the hell did I end up in Las Vegas or some shit, although the cold ass forest around me would probably dispute that fact." I shake my head and put it back and pull out one of the other books out of the pack. "Flames and how to will your magicka into producing fire, an instruction manual and beginners fire theory." I look quite shocked at this point and pull another book out and it is a book on producing magical lightning. There's a few more books on magical techniques like training your magical ability to increase in strength and size like a muscle and even a book on basic healing techniques. "What the hell is this? Either someone is playing quite a cruel prank on me or just maybe…" I caress the spine of the magical theory book and decide to read all the books later on, right now I need a change of clothes.

I climb a tree to try to see how far a town is, but my fears are confirmed because everywhere I look I just see trees. At least I can see what looks like a river. I sigh and climb down and put everything back in my bag and throw it on and hold the knife in hand. I scan the area around me to see if there's anything else around me and I notice some flint, thank god for boy's scouts and camping that I know how to use flint. I grab the pack of flint and head off in the direction of the river.

As I'm walking I suddenly remember the fact that where there's a river there's bound to be some wild animals. I stop for a second and look at my knife/dagger and I notice that the reach if this 'weapon' is pretty shit. By the time I go in for a stab a wolf could lunge in to tear into my arm. I look around and realize the only option I really have is to make something out of wood or stone to keep predators at bay. I grab a thick piece of wood and try bending it. It doesn't budge so this is a pretty good stick to work off of. I could either keep it as is and use it as a club or use my dagger to sharpen the end into a spear like weapon. I decide the latter and take about an hour and half sharpening the end and holy is it sharp. I decide to use the stick/spear as some sort of walking stick in my right hand and the dagger in my left.

I continue walking and take in the scenery, I see a few birds and quite a few deer maybe later I'll have to go hunting for some food, but for now I need to start a camp near the river.

Surprisingly nothing harasses me on my journey towards the river. "Well first things first, I smell like shit." I throw off my clothes and jump in the river, it's surprisingly not cold, but even then I usually prefer to take cold showers as it makes me more alert. Only ten minutes later I realize my mistake, I forgot to start a fire before jumping in the river oh well it's not the end of the world there's dead branches and leaves everywhere and it doesn't take me more than a minute or two to start a fire with flint. As I submerge myself once more I notice something that I can't believe I never noticed before. "What the hell happened to my face?!" I scream out loud. My face is one thing, but how did I not notice my hair being long and tied together with some kind of leather strip and the fact that my dark black hair somehow is now a mixture of auburn and chestnut brown hair, but that is something I can live with, but my face what the hell happened? I look at the reflection in the crystal clear water and the face staring at me looks like me, but at the same time is doesn't. My features look thinned out, my cheekbones are higher in height but a lot less wide and my jaw seems to have gotten narrower by a bit, my nose is still straight thank god. My lips seem redder for some reason. My eyes I actually like the change, from a hazel colour to now bright emerald green. Everything I can live with, but by far the biggest change is my forehead. I now look like I need like ten injections of Botox or some shit. My forehead has some pretty deep creases. God damn it I'm only twenty-two for crying out loud why the hell do I have the forehead of a middle age man! Thankfully I don't look older at all aside from my forehead. My skin is unblemished and now after my bath clean. Aside from the loss of my tan, my skin seems to have improved. I also have some thick stubble. Actually let me take care of that now. I swim towards the shore and grab my dagger and start to line up my beard. Nice didn't even nick my skin, I look at my reflection and decide my new look isn't that bad, it's actually quite good, but you've got to understand changing faces is just weird whenever I look at my reflection, I keep on feeling someone's behind me and the face I'm looking at is theirs.

"To hell with it all, waking up in a forest in a fucking tunic and with a pack full of magic books I can justify and still think it could be a prank, but unless I've just gone through like ten different plastic surgeries I don't think I'm in Canada anymore." I sigh, at least I don't have to go to work anymore or pay my car payments anymore. Right I've read about this particular situation many times, the famous trope of landing in some fantasy land or some other universe and usually it's to serve as some sort of entertainment for a higher being. The problem is that I have no idea where the hell I ended up in.

No time to dwell on it, it's getting dark and I have yet to start my camp, I quickly get out of the water and use my tunic as a makeshift towel to dry off and wrap it around my hair to dry it off gradually. I begin by gathering as many dead branches and dead leaves from the ground and soon as I have a large pile I whip out the flint and grab a rock and start to make sparks and in no time some leaves catch on fire and eventually the whole thing is lit. I place a few stones and rocks around the fire to make sure it doesn't spread and cause some kind of wildfire as the clearing ground is quite dry. Now that I have a fire, I need to make a shelter as fast as I can so I look around and find a few small thin trees and I snap the trees off the ground. I then proceed to stick four of them in the ground near the fire and cut slits on top of each stick and place more sticks in between them and keep on piling branch, sticks and thick leaves. I now have a foundation, it would be better if I had some hide, but I have to make due. For the back and sides I place a lot of more small trees in between the spaces and use the inner lining of bark and drying it out, twisting it and making it into some kind of cord to reinforce all the trees by tying each stick together multiple times. I use dirt, mud and a lot of mulch to insulate the shelter so it should now provide me protection from the rain, snow and wind. I throw more dead branches and leaves into the fire and use the flint to create more sparks of fire even though it's still burning, but it never hurts to be safe as I'm leaving my camp to look for dinner. By the time I come back the sun will probably be setting, I was thinking of making a rough bow, but that will have to wait till tomorrow. For now I can probably use my spear to catch a few rabbits as even if they run I can catch up to them and the reach provided to me with the spear is amazing. Before I leave, I heat the pointy end of the spear and burn it to harden the tip.

A few hours later I come back with five rabbits, it was almost too easy, this forest, heck just around this river probably had a few thousand rabbits, and the forest may even have millions if that's the case. Well there is vegetation literally everywhere and the predators probably would target those deer I saw before not small rabbits. I use my dagger to horribly skin the rabbit and the pelt and its innards are probably ruined, but I could probably use those as fuel for fire and some of the fat to light up a few torches. I skewer the rabbits on my spear and place it over the fire to cook. In the mean time I get some wood and carve out a few plates, bowls and cups with rock chipping the inside away. Now I know that since the animals drink this water and that it's pretty far from civilization drinking this water is probably safe, but I just can't help but want to boil the water. I put the bowls and cups over the fire to clean and dry the wood and soon put water in it to boil it and then leave it to the side to cool off. I refill my water skin and start eating two rabbits and some berries that I found deer eating. I have eaten rabbit before, but that was with salt and seasoning, what I'm eating right now tastes like absolute shit and kind of tastes way to chewy. I decide to save the rest of the rabbits as it's quite cold outside and they should be able to last for a day or two, and tomorrow I plan on making a bow and a few arrows.

After I'm done eating and have a few containers full of water I decide to take out those magic books and start reading them. "Alright let's get this started, to be honest I actually had to hold myself back from reading these as if I did I don't think I would have done anything else till I finished." I pull the book on theory and notice it referring to magicka as some sort of natural well within every living thing and sometimes in some things not living as well. When I came across that word I stopped for a moment because I've heard it somewhere just not sure where. Safe to say I'm probably not in some anime though thank god for that, I couldn't imagine some bullshit like Naruto and dealing with a hundred different emos and people with some kind of mental disability spewing about honour or revenge or manipulative old men. It could be the Harry Potter universe and could be what magic was referred to in Shakespearian times. As I continue reading the book it tells me that every single person has the potential to use magic just some people more than others, but if the person least gifted person in the world tried to do a fire spell even they would be able to do the spell if they practiced for a year or two straight and that would take a lot mana refining.

To refine ones mana, they would have to constantly feel your mana and squeeze it out, direct it throughout your body and try to form a spell. Now if you already know magic all you would have to do is meditate while performing a spell and depleting your magic pool and meditate and focus on your mana well while it is regenerating and while it is you have to push it against the edges of the well and what that will do is over time your body will be able to create and store more mana. So using the same example, if the least gifted sceptic of the magical arts started magic when they were a young adult, if they stayed true to the craft and dedicated their life to magic by the time they were about fifty to sixty years of age they would be a master. The problem is people want immediate results and don't have the time and money to fund a career of magic if they don't have natural talent for the arts as they would have responsibilities towards their families. This is the actual reason why so many people on this planet do not like or trust magic because they see your ability to use magic as you having an easy life while they had to work the fields dreaming, but their dreams never came to fruition. Soon enough their descendants started to hear stories made up from their elders who were bitter, about the dangers of magic and started spewing horseshit like turning kids into toads, although the book does say you could actually turn someone into a toad which I'm going to learn as soon as I can, or sacrificing virgins on a full moon to gain more power.

"Hmm sounds like typical medieval behaviour people hate what they do not understand, at least people here don't try to purposely kill magic users just cause." Throughout the night I read the book on theory, it contained more ways to access mana and its functions. Apparently the only limitations of mana was the person themselves, if they had the willpower, the intelligence and the mana capacity they could achieve anything. Even flying was apparently a thing here though they called it levitation. I wonder if this universe is the Harry Potter universe, probably not.

When I finish the book I'm excited and I can't wait to access my mana, but I decide to go to sleep instead. I re-feed the fire and as I'm about to go to sleep I look up in the sky and I'm shocked. "Okay I'm definitely not in Canada anymore." In the night sky not one, but two moons shine and light the night sky. "You know what I'm way too tired for this shit." I decide to just go to sleep and use a pile of leaves and the ruined hide from the rabbits as a bed and use my bag and a pillow and sleep.

The next morning I wake up and decide to first put out the fire and eat some rabbit legs and drink some water. Before I get started on this whole magical journey and turn into Sparrow-hawk I need to make a bow first and even though it'll be annoying, it'll probably take all day long.

I put everything into my bag and go to the forest and find a thin straight tree and break it off with a stone. Then I use the stone to hack away at the wood and half it. I use both my dagger and stone to carve the bow making the limbs thin and the body side of the bow flatter. Every now and then I bend it to see the strength of it. I then cut the limbs so I can place a string around it. For the string I still have some inner bark left from yesterday and it is already dry so I just start twisting it and soon I have a cord line twine which I try to pull and twist and doesn't rip or break under the pressure. I then wrap the string around the bow while bending it, I stop when I have just a bit more than a fist and thumbs space between the string and the bow.

I draw the bow and notice that the bow probably has a draw weight of about twenty kilos or so. Also contrary from popular believe you can actually hold the bow drawn for some time, it's not incredibly heavy although it might be just due to the lower draw weight.

Now for the hard part the arrows. I might be only able to make about ten or so arrows today. For the arrow shafts I used some straight lightweight branches that I used my dagger to shape and cut the tip sharp and cut the nock in the back of the shafts. Now the hard part finding feathers for fletching. It takes a few hours, but I find some kind of wild turkey in the woods and quickly spear it. I take it back to camp de-feather the bird, start a fire and leave the turkey on the spear to cook.

Earlier I found resin so I melt some and put it on my shaft and put small pieces of feathers on it and burn it to stick, leave it to dry and repeat the process on each other shaft. It takes about twenty minutes per arrow shorter than I thought and I have thirty arrows. Before I thought I was only going to make about ten arrows mainly because I thought I would have to scavenge for feathers on the ground, I just got lucky that I ran into a turkey. Next I wrap all the arrows with twine near the feathers. I then place each arrow over the fire to burn them. This will harden the arrow and make it both easier to penetrate and more durable. By the time I'm done it is night time again.

"Ah well at least turkey is a lot better than rabbit especially unseasoned."

I then proceed to keep on reading the different books on magic, reading chapters of each. The thickest was the book on theory being one-hundred and fifty pages long. The others were about a hundred or so and were filled with a lot of drawings. I didn't finish the instruction manuals for fire and lightning spells, but it did detail a lot of stuff like what you should feel when you summon each element and the state of mind to be in to have optimal results. I go to sleep and decide that tomorrow I'm going to spend half on practicing magic and the other half on target practice.

The next morning I finish the remains of the turkey and rabbits and set out for some thick trees to practice archery.

Back in the scouts, I did archery all the time so even though I'm quite rusty it's not like I'm a complete beginner. I nock the arrow, placing the string in the nock of the shaft and use my knuckles to stabilize the arrow and pull the string back, aim using the arrow and my hand and lower the bow as people think that since the arrow falls you should aim higher, but that's only really a problem at a distance, at my range I'm more likely to hit too high. I let go and *thunk* it slams deep into the wood. "Looks like I still got it even after all this time, well let's keep on going."

After a few hours I think I have the basics down and I can aim pretty accurately curtesy of the rabbits I brought back for dinner. I skin each rabbit and by the fifth one I start to salvage an alright hide, it's still horrible mind you, but much better than the mush from before.

I set them aside and decide to practice channeling magic. From what I believe, since I already have a lot of books on magic, this body is probably already somewhat trained, so it might be easier to channel magic. As I meditate I find my magic pretty quickly, maybe if I lived with the energy all my life it would have been more difficult, but since I haven't it feels very alien to me. Every time I will my magic to move I feel very giddy on the inside and it is very ticklish. Soon after an hour I feel quite tired and have to rest. I decide to eat and my magic and energy rushes back. "Hmm so looks like being in optimal condition will help replenish magic faster or rather magicka, but I'm pretty sure that's just an old English way of saying magic or something like that." I think I might be ready to try producing a flame or lightning and be a step closer to a sith lord.

I decide to go with flames as it might make campfires easier to make. I imagine willing my magic into becoming hot and angry pushing it into my hands and then my hands burst into fire. "Holy shit, this really wasn't a mummers farce, I actually can do magic." I actually smile, doing magic no matter small makes me feel like I'm in heaven. I imagine a sea of fire and a volcano and it is bubbling and about to erupt. I push my hands forward and I release my fire magic and a gout of flames comes out. "Ok so that confirms my theory that this body is used to magic at least to an extent. I know I would like to brag about producing the gout of flames almost immediately when the book has many steps like practicing using a candle flame and manipulating it and moving on gradually." From what I've seen earlier while meditating was that my pool of mana was already quite large so it looks like I got lucky and put into a body that's already finished the hardest parts of magic training.

Alright I guess this is where some kind of training montage would start, well better get to it, I'm going to have to train for as long as I can. Only after have I at least mastered what I can, will I try to find civilization. Cue the music.

It's been about three weeks, and have I been grinding like hell. With my bow I'm now able to hit deer from quite a distance as they're way too skittish up close. I've also dealt with a couple of packs of wolves. Normally they would be terrifying, but since I can use flames and lightning it's almost too easy to finish them off. From all the animals I've killed over the past few weeks, I've gotten quite good as skinning, I now wear a shirt made from dear pelts reinforced with wolf pelts. My trousers are now fur filled with wolf fur. The only really hard part was facing a bear and holy shit my arrows didn't do shit to it, they just bounced off. While it was running towards me, I compressed a ball of fire and used my magic to propel it at lightning fast speeds. That blinded the bear and sent it into a frenzy. I used a constant stream of lightning to shock the bear and while the bear was running, it seemed to break its leg so it fell to the ground. While unleashing a torrent of flames, I jumped on the beast and even with one leg broken it still tried to throw me off like the proudest bull would to a rider. As it was thrashing, I used my magic to make my legs stone to both provide weight and strength to grip on with. I then unsheathed my dagger and launched a full on assault on the bear, after my twelfth stab, the beast moved no more.

From the bear I've gotten a lot, its pelt now serves as a cloak and I've melted and merged the fur onto my boots with my magic weaving the fabrics together without a thread. All said and done, I look pretty savage. The teeth of the bear and wolves I've come across, I've turned into a necklace. Also my dagger somehow seems to have been killing animals faster, it could be that I'm just getting better at fighting and that may be true, but I'm somehow seeming to think that magic may be at play here. Enchanting is a thing here. Usually you need a conduit such as a soul gem or a sacrifice for the fanatics, to enchant an item, but skilled enchanters do not actually require them, they can use their magic to imbue the weapon or item to do whatever and it seems that over time if an item is used for a certain purpose it will naturally adjust to it if a wielder is magical.

The most exciting thing was finding out I could turn my body into different elements like wood. Like literally wood. It made me feel like some kind of druid. Hmm I wonder if I can achieve some kind of animagus transformation like in Harry Potter. It would be really cool to turn into some kind of bird and fly, maybe even a sparrow hawk.

Anyways, that bear somehow had a few pouches of the local currency. I'm definitely somewhere in medieval times if they're still using gold coins as currency. He also had a nice recurved hunting bow and a quiver of actual arrows and metal arrows at that. The new bow is literally like night and day of a difference from my old handmade bow. It's more powerful, shoots better and is lighter. There was also a glowing red ring, and ever since then I've been needing to build bigger fires to stay the same level as warmth. I know it's enchanted and I think it protects against heat and fire, but obviously I'm not just going to touch the fire like a madman.

Even if I did though I can heal using magic and holy shit does it feel good. I start glowing bright yellowish and every nick and cut before me even deep ones literally close up before my eyes and heal. The book says it even heals and produces more blood to account for the blood loss. If you broke bones it would adjust back and if something was completely destroyed than you would need to heal it back from scratch. Although many healers cannot do this, the greatest healers can even grow back limbs, and many healers think the secret to immortality is actually though healing magic and how right they are. From someone coming from modern times I know what causes aging, and if you just keep on healing a reversing the damage done to telomeres you could possibly live forever. Ah well that is a long way off.

I've been in these woods for about a month now and I've got to get the hell out of here. I still can't believe I don't know where I am yet. To be fair the name is on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't place it.

I grab my bedrolls made of furs and my bag and decide to head out, but not before filling my waterskins, I now had five water skins, enough for maybe a week of travel. I also have a lot of dried meat in my bag so I set off.

About three days later I came across a large gate and road which was abandoned, but said "path to Bruma" and "path to Helgen". My heart starts beating fast as I suddenly realize where the hell I am. Everything from magicka, the spells, the gold coins I now knew were septims, and even my weird forehead start coming back to me. "Holy shit no I can't have stumbled upon this shit randomly, I mean being in Skyrim is quite cool, but I'm right near the border and its abandoned which can only mean one thing…SHIT, fuck I've got to run these bastards won't think I'm a rebel they'll think I'm a member of the forsworn!" It's kind of cool being a Breton, I guess that's why magic was a little easier for me, but right now I've got to run.

I hear horses in the distance and I realize that I have nowhere to hide. I make a hasty decision and throw off all my furs and my cloak, now being shirtless. Only after I've thrown them away did I realize I could have just posed as a hunter as I don't have any crazy face paint.

A horse races by me and I realize that must be Lokir and he must've just stolen a horse from one of the Stormcloaks. Soon it was like the hounds of hell were unleashed hundreds of Stormcloaks soldiers are running my direction. I almost get hit and jump off the road. Then suddenly hundreds of archers appear and start shooting down the rebels horses making sure to let the rebels live. Just then a horn is blown and then the gate to Cyrodil bursts open and probably a thousand mounted imperial swordsmen led by…is that General Tulius, he looks a lot younger than in the game and then from behind the Stormcloaks, hundreds more imperials surround us and I mean us, I guess it's a good thing I didn't run back into the woods since its now filled to the brim with archers pointing their bows at us, how the hell didn't I see any of them before?

For a second everything slows down and then quietness appears when Ulfric Stormcloak steps forward, I almost think he is about to shout at Tulius, but instead throws his sword to the ground and tells his soldiers to stand down. I know in the game the only reason Ulfric got caught was because he was moving secretly across Skyrim and obviously he couldn't take his whole army to guard him, while the empire ambushed him something like ten to one. In the game he only had like eight guards, while there was only like thirty imperials at Helgen, but was due to the limitations of the game. Here right now Ulfric has somewhat like three hundred soldiers with him and this is just apparently his 'escort' which make sense because even in Game of Thrones I'm pretty sure the king brought like a thousand guards with him even though he was just visiting a friend, hell even Ned Stark brought like a hundred of his guard with him to Kings Landing. The Imperials on the other hand, They look like they have at least two thousand soldiers and they probably didn't even have to go too far from their posts as Helgen is supposed to be a military city for the Imperial army and Bruma is literally right over there. We are between two imperial strongholds. I've heard Hadvar and other people praise General Tulius for being smart, but it just seems that Ulfric was stupid as fuck trying to sneak by the imperials. He probably thought that it would be clever that the enemy would never expect the other to go into their territory willingly. He forgot one thing though, Majority of people don't actually like Ulfric, at least those with a brain, so someone probably told on him. Skyrim needs its independence, but Ulfric just wants to be the King. Funny enough back when Skyrim first came out, I immediately joined the Stormcloaks nearly every play-through and each time was because of revenge, because they tried to execute my character at the beginning. Only after choosing the empire one time did I open my eyes to the truth that the empire was the best for everyone, for one Skyrim is one of the empires territories and when Ulfric murdered the High King they were obligated to restore order to keep the empire afloat. Next was the fact that Ulfric was basically a Thalmor plant who got caught and then released to continue the war in Skyrim. There's also the fact that Ulfric Stormcloak was incredibly racist or at least his followers are, they preach that Skyrim is for the Nords and the Nords only, but the thing is the Nords are not even native to Tamriel, they all hail from Atmora and started a genocide on the local elves. Don't even get me started on his religious views, he doesn't give a shit about Talos or he wouldn't have used the voice to further his ambitions and using it in battle as ways to cheat. He literally spit in the faces of the greybeards the most revered elders in Skyrim and their teachings, and I'm pretty sure they only agreed to teach Ulfric because he promised them that he would become a Greybeard himself, but then he obviously didn't, he got what he wanted and left, found a cause that could unite people and then he had a common army, made himself act like he was a martyr or a symbol of change when all he wanted was power. Even now he could've fought, but he chose to lay down his weapons. If he wasn't there no doubt he would force his men to fight to the death 'for the glory of Sovngarde', but he himself obviously isn't too keen on seeing the afterlife. No he's just a coward that realized that the odds were against him and now to his supporters he tries to act like sacrificing their lives wouldn't be worth it. The problem for him is that we're completely and utterly surrounded and there are hundreds of archers, there's literally no escape. If there was even a crack in the imperial formation no doubt he would immediately tell everyone to fight to the death while he would escape 'to continue the fight' or some other bullshit reason to justify him running. At the end of the day, Ulfric is a typical noble, using common folk to further his ambitions.

Choosing the empire is a hard decision as the player in the game mainly because people are selfish and can't think of the bigger picture. Only once you've set aside your hatred and opened your heart to forgiveness can you truly be the hero that Skyrim truly needed. Choosing revenge is easy, but setting aside your wants for the greater good will truly make you a hero.

The only question is that if I even am the Dragonborn which I would like to think that I am since the people who usually get stuck in situations like this tend to be, could I really in real life forgive the empire for what they are about to do to me. We'll have to see.

I turn around and I see an imperial soldier directing a pommel strike towards my temple then all I see is oblivion.