Chapter Text
Clop clop clop.
Ralof sighed as he leaned back against the wall of the cart and listened to the sounds around him. The quiet mutterings of the thief next to him and the muffled breathing of Ulfric reached his ears, just loud enough to be heard over the many horses and carts in the line. He and Ulfric had been quite unlucky, taken completely by surprise by the Imperial ambush, which, granted, was the point of an ambush. He smirked, a mirthless little chuckle escaping through his nose. If he and Ulfric had been unlucky, then the two unconscious men... no, they were little more than boys, just across from his had to have done something horrible to Lady Luck to be where they were now.
He turned his gaze towards said boys, one of them snoring softly as they leaned up against each other. They were so alike in appearance that they had to have been brothers, if not twins. The shorter one of the two was frowning in his sleep, his eyebrows twitching like he was having a bad dream and he woke up with a slight jolt, his bright purple eyes scanning their surroundings. With a touch to his hair, probably where he had been hit unconscious if the dried blood was anything to go by, the shorter one grimaced and got to work braiding his long, gingery brown hair while trying not to wake up his brother just yet.
His attempts were for nought when his brother's eyes blinked open, a startling green, Ralof noticed, and he looked over to his brother with a yawn. "Kyle?" The green-eyed boy said, rubbing his eyes.
"So you two are finally awake." Ralof said, before the other boy, Kyle could respond, and his eyes darted from his brother to Ralof with a slight glare, as if he were accusing him of being the cause of their imprisonment. Well, he was partially right. Ralof leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees. "You were trying to cross the border right?" The green-eyed one nodded before Kyle could respond with the biting comment that Ralof had seen threatening to come out. "Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."
Kyle ignored the large nord after that, turning towards his brother, Alex, concern colouring his eyes. There was no visible wound on his twin brother, but they had both been knocked out in a rather violent way, the memories of what happened returning to the fore-front of his mind.
They had just been walking through the forests that marked the edge of Cyrodiil and Skyrim. Kyle had heard the sounds of a large party of people just off to his right, and had been trying to lead his brother so they wouldn't cross paths with them, when the forest seemed to explode.
Men and women in Imperial armor had burst from behind trees and bushes, pulling them into a fight with the large party that Kyle and Alex had been trying to avoid. Alex, with a blow to the back of his neck, was the first to go down. Not much time had passed after that when Kyle went down, fighting even as the blackness of unconsciousness pulled at his vision.
"I'm fine Kyle," Alex said with a smile, pulling his brother back to the presence, "As you so often like to point out, my skull is quite thick." He finished, bringing a small smile to his brother's face. With a motion to bring him closer, Kyle inspected where Alex had been hit, a worried look on his face. Alex let out an annoyed huff of air, but let his brother check his injuries.
As Kyle made sure that the large bruise on the base of Alex's head was nothing more than a bruise, Alex tuned in to the last part of the large nord's conversation with the thief, but it was too late, their cart had reached their destination and they were lead off, and lined up.
A chill ran down Alex's back as he looked around. It was obvious that people were killed here, even if the headsman hadn't been swinging his ax in preparation for their arrival.
Ralof stood just behind the taller twin as names were called off of the list Hadvar had in his hands. The bastard, they had once been friends. They had lived next to each other in Riverwood for most of their lives. At the time, Ralof had thought nothing of it when Hadvar had gone to join the Imperial army, but then this whole deal with Talos and the Thalmor had happened and he couldn't believe his best friend had gone and joined a cause like that.
And so they met again. Hadvar's voice caught on Ralof's name and he glanced up at Ralof, almost wincing at the glare that met his eyes. He cleared his throat before he continued on through the list, the twins remaining unnamed at the end of it. Ralof watched the confusion in Hadvar's eyes as he called the twins up, asking their names. It was the taller one that answered, and it made Ralof wonder if Kyle ever spoke.
"Alex and Kyle Clyrwatre." His voice clear and unfazed, even though Lokir, the coward horse thief had been shot to death in his attempts to run. These boys seemed to be made of sterner stuff than other's their age. Alex and Kyle stood there, backs straight as Hadvar and his commanding officer talked about their fate.
"To the block with the both of them." The commanding officer practically screamed, her voice almost covering up the faint roar in the distance. The hell was that? Didn't matter, while he had been contemplating what that sounds was, he missed hearing the last rights, although he did faintly remember hearing someone tell the priestess to shut up.
Those poor boys, Ralof thought as Kyle walked up to the block, the tense form of his brother remaining by Ralof and the rest. Another loud, screechy roar sounded. Whatever it was making those noises, it was getting closer.
Kyle stood in front of the block, shoulders squared and prepared for the worst. He didn't resist as he was pushed to his knees, forced to kneel with his head on the block, no expression on his face, not even a look of disgust at the head still in the basket.
The headsman raised his ax.
One last roar sounded, this time nearly deafening in volume, as a... a... a dragon??
A dragon had landed on one of the nearby towers, everything silent as everyone processed what they were seeing. It opened its great big maw
And all hell broke loose as fire poured from its mouth in burning waves.