Skyrim's Saviors

10: Ularik Stormcloak

As ironic as it sounds, the day my father died, it was storming out. Rain battered the windows. Wind screamed outside. Lightning danced across the darkened sky, and thunder followed not long after it.

I stood on top of Serpent Stone Island, and watched in horror as the Imperial soldiers closed in on him. They all had weapons aimed at him, and he already had three wounds, one from an arrow, which he yanked out at the first chance, and two from swords. He's dying. He's going to die, I realize.

He still stands tall, and uses the Thu'um once more to blast some of the soldiers back away from him. But it doesn't work the way he'd intended. An arrow slices into his shoulder and he collapses, clutching the bloody arrow shaft. He stares at the men and women around him.

"You'll pay for this," he growls.

"I highly doubt that," snarls a female Imperial.

I am hidden behind a stone, knowing that at any moment, they could see me. I am so outnumbered it isn't even funny. But so is he.

"You're a criminal, and you'll die just like any other criminal would. By my hand, by the hand of the Emperor."

"Fuck the Emperor," he snarls. "He's a puppet. Everyone knows that, and they will see soon enough. Killing me will prove that they saw me a threat, and soon enough, those who truly love this land will rise up and strike down this false Empire."

"Nice speech, asshole," she says.

He takes a deep breath and smiles. He's getting ready to Shout again. But this Imperial smiles and unleashes an arrow that strikes him square in the throat. He gags and falls off the edge of the cliff of Serpent Stone Island. I hear his body hit the ground below, hard.

Ulfric Stormcloak is now dead. My father was ripped from this world by the Empire. And now, someday soon, I will avenge him. But how? I am alone now. Galmar, his right-hand, is dead as well. Windhelm will go to the Imperials.

I have nowhere to go now. Nowhere at all.