New World

New World Pt 2

"Hinata!" Ralof rushed to my aid, but I swatted him away in my fright. Closing my eyes, I apologized to him and calmed myself.

Geez, Hinata, such a ninja you are.

"I-I'm okay, Ralof. Thank you." I said eventually, swallowing audibly. "Just. Got taken off g-guard, is all." I finished. He eyed me before nodding and moving back to the wall of shelves he was inspecting.

"Hinata." Ralof had found a door to our left, and opened it. We were greeted by two Imperial Soldiers. I threw my daggers at them at the right places, stopping any hope of them fighting ever again. Retrieving my knives from their still alive and groaning bodies, I wiped them clean on my shirt, hoping to never see any more blood. But of course that was unlikely.

"You really do know your way around those." Ralof commented as he shuffled through the shelves. "Look for any potions you can find, we might need them." he said. I spotted several bottles of odd looking liquid on the shelves and just took all of them, hoping that he knew which ones were potions.

"Done?" I asked, and he made an affirmative noise, so I opened the door ahead. We went down more stairs to find Stormcloaks and Imperial Soldiers. The soldiers were about to kill them before we jumped in.

"Was Jarl Ulfric with you?" Ralof asked afterwards, as I searched a knapsack on a table. I found a lockpick. The Stormcloak shook his head, eyes following me as I went across the room to unlock a cage. There was something in there, I saw it shining when we came down. I stuck the lockpick in the keyhole and jiggled it around a little.

"No. I haven't seen him since the dragon showed up." he said, and I 'tsk'ed. I didn't get it, but tried again.

"Find anything?" Ralof asked. I 'hmm'ed as I heard a click and the cage opened. There was gold on the floor.

"Keep it. We might need it when we get out of here." Ralof said. I 'yeah'ed, pocketing it and taking the half shirt with a hood from the body next to the cave. As we were leaving, I noticed a book next to the knapsack on the table, and I paused.

"What's a dragonborn?" I whispered to myself. Ralof and the Stormcloak looked at me.

"Hinata, you can bring it with you, but we must go, now." Ralof said, and I realized I had been staring at the book for a little while. Turning a slight pink in embarrassment, I picked it up and followed them out.

There was a long hallway, and we made several turns before we heard voices.

"I'm not waiting to be killed by a dragon!" someone said, and before I could peek around the corner to see who it was, Ralof had crept up behind them and attacked the three Imperial Soldiers. My eyes were slightly wide.

"Death to the Empire!" he cried, killing one. The other Stormcloak followed suit, slashing at another one, and I closed my eyes as I threw one of my daggers at the last one. Afterwards, we searched the bodies. I found more daggers for me to keep.

"Let's go on ahead. See if the way is clear." Ralof said. I wanted to, but couldn't move. The people I had hit earlier... the captain and the two soldiers in the storehouse. They were dead by now, most likely. I didn't want to kill them then, but honestly just made it worse. I made them suffer before death.

"Hinata?" Ralof was in front of me, looking at me with concern. I shook my head, steeling my nerves. Those soldiers had chopped off the head of a man who was only doing what he thought was right, and almost took mine too.

"N-Nothing. Let's go." I said, and he 'okay'ed, moving on, though not without giving me one last worried look which quickly faded to reveal grave concentration on finding a way out.