Chapter Text
Lucky
Arc I Born this way
A young Altmer girl was running around the eating table, while a young Redguard man was chasing her around it. The girl was happily giggling while running, while her father was making sounds that sounded fairly close to a troll. “I am gonna get you, you little deery!” He said with a exaggerated deep voice.
“Noooo!” screamed the Little girl and hurriedly flew under the table. Making an effort to make no sounds. The father was now standing there where she crawled under. He asked out loud “Huuhhh were did that sweet deer go? Ughh looks like I can not eat today again.” His body language was down, sadly tilting towards himself.
The little girl shot out under the table at hearing that. “Nooo don’t be sad, don’t be hungry pleaseeeee.” Said the little girl sadly, running with open arms towards her father. Her father still in his role had a wide smile across his face and said “Finally some food!”. But the little girl didn’t seem to mind. She jumped at her fathers open arms.
The dad a bit taken aback, took a few seconds to process that the little one had no fear anymore. And hugged her back. The little girl put her head under her dads chin and asked. “You are not going to eat me?” The Redguard now had an even wider smile across his face and said “Not today, maybe tomorrow.” Both father and daughter giggled at that, and the father pressed a peck on top of the girls head. The father put his daughter down and took her hand instead.
“Wanna go see mommy?” he asked sweetly, the little girl heard a woman's coming up from the basement. “No need! I am already coming!” Said the mother in a pleased tone while walking up the wooden stairs. “Come let us eat to eve, then you can go to bed. How does that sound?” The energetic child was a little saddened to hear that bedtime was soon. But she didn’t bug, she knew that both her parents were a bit tired.
“Daddy can I sit on your lap while we eat?” The little one asked with hope in her voice. Knowing that she would never get a no, but still being polite. “Of course, sweetie. But when you are a bit older, you will probably a bit to heavy for that. Just letting you know!” he said with a little sparkling in his eyes. “I know, I know. That’s why is I want to do it while I still can!” She said in a hyper tone, cheering up her dad.
“Okay okay sweetie, but lets sit down first.” He said with a little smile on his face. All three sat down at the table and the girl hurriedly started seating on her dad. They together started eating to eve. But Colos had many questions she wanted to ask. “Whhhnn do I look more li- lip smacking noise- ke?” Both parents burst out laughing, at the poor attempt of speaking while eating. The little one look confused from her Dad to her Mother. Not understanding why they were laughing.
The mother was the first one to calm down, she explained with a smile on her face. “sweetie, first you swallow then you talk. But that is a good question.” Both parents looked at each other and then down at her again. The Mother started first. “Well first of all, you have my pointy ears, as well as my golden eyes and small chin.” The next one to speak was the father. “You have my little forehead, compared to your mothers”
He looked up at his wive and looked so innocent while saying it. The Mother was only smiling at him at that comment. He nervously started to speak again. “A-and you have my hair colour, a-a rich black. We also has similar face shapes.” He turned up to his wive again and sent her a nervous smile.
The child was obliviously eating away at her bread and listened to both her parents describe her features. After the nervous smile of her husband fade, did the Mother decide to speak up again. Her eyes holding only kindness for her daughter. “But pretty much everything else seems like a mix of both of us. Your skin looks like a golden brown. And what I can guarantee you is that you are going to be very tall.Your hair is as thick as your daddys” The daughter looked confused at both her parents and said “Then I must be beautiful!” Both parents smiled at that and nodded.
“You know what that means? You need to tells us who you will like in the future! So that we can make sure that they aren’t some para-” The Father was cut off by the Mothers coughing and a sharp glare. A single sweat bean was travelling down the Fathers forehead and he glanced nervously down at his Daughter again. She had both eyebrows lifted, interested to listen to her Father. “W-Well to make sure that they are good for you. We love you, and want you to be happy, never forget that.” He said sweetly and gave her forehead a little peck.
But before the Mother could say anything did the Father start talking again. “Well I couldn’t help but notice, your hair has grown quite a lot. Should I show you how to keep all that hair out of your face?” The Daughters eyes brightened up at that and she nodded happily. The Father pulled three dark brown circles of leather out of his pocket. And put two of them around the Daughters wrist. Colos watched in amazement at the new things around her wrist. The other one was still in the Fathers hand. He said “Look at you mommy for a bit will you?”
She did as she was told and had a wide smile on her face, lifting her wrist and beaming proudly. “Look mommy! A gift! A gift.” The Mother looked calmly at her Daughter. “I see it. Do you like it?” The Daughter looked shocked at her Mothers question. “Do I like it? I love it!” she felt her hair being lightly tugged and her Father speaking. “There, done! You look beautiful!” The Daughter was confused and touched her hair and head. Her hair was tied together at one place and held all her hair in the tie.
She grabbed a spoon and looked in the reflection, although cloudy vision. She could see the hair hanging down, away from her face. Lifting her eyebrows “It looks like a horse tail! Can you teach me?!” Her father looked proudly at her and exclaimed “Of course I can!” He pulled the leather band from her hair and beckoned her to stand beside him. “first of all, you need to put the hair band in the right position in your hand. Like this.” He showed how his hair band was put around his hand. “And then you get as much hair as possible and put your hand around all the collected hair.” He collected his own hair and put his hand around all the hair. “And then with your other hand you grab the hair band and put it all the way through your hand to the collected hair. Twist it once and the through again like this.” Colos had a shining in her eyes. “Daddy you look good with a horse tail!”
The Mother started snickering from the table and said. “that is true” The Father had a dark red blush on his face. He then spoke up again. “Well now its your turn” He gave her the hair band and she put it swiftly around her hand. Bowed down with her upper body and head. And then started collecting all the hair. She came up again after she collected all the hair, and tied it together like she had seen her Father do. She looked up again after she was done and looked at her parents. Both parents seemed surprised at how fast she learned it and already had a technique on her own. They looked at each other for a second and her Mother decided to speak up again. “Well it looks just as good as your fathers, with a little more practice and you will even become better than him.” She said smugly.
The Daughter had a proud look on her face and pushed her chest out. But then she heard something she didn’t hear before. A bunch of people were talking outside, she couldn’t make it out. Both her parents froze and the Father quietly grabbed her hands and let her down stairs. Just as she was about to speak up did he signalised her to be quiet. The Father quickly ran towards one of the largest empty barrels and started talking in a quiet tone “You will only go out of there when we either get you, or you heard the third time the door is closed. If its the later, you wait for sixty seconds before coming out of that barrel okay?” He seemed panicked. But Colos nodded.
He lifted her up into the large empty barrel and said. “stay in the shadow of the barrel, so no one will see you.” She nodded again and moved to the shadow side, pressing herself against it. “Stay quiet, I love you.” Colos whispered back. “I love you too” With that he vanished. Colos pressed herself as hard as possible against the shadow side, her breathing as quiet as possible. Her Father went up the wooden stairs and took his place beside his wive. Who stood at the door, the talking behind the door was now clearly to hear. They seemed to be rather sluggish speakers. They soon heard banging at the door and both went to open it.
What awaited them was a bunch of Nord men and woman, clearly not by clear head. All with weapons, some with two handed sword, some with two swords. One of the men started to speak up, venom filled his voice. “Look at him, the colour brown and together with an Elf. Even worse an Altmer! Puhhh” The group started to laugh evilly. Both parents looked at each other and asked “Is there something we can help you with?” Both clearly nervous. The only thing they had to defend themselves with was a dagger that the husband had inherited. The were Nords were in the majority, nothing for their favor. So instead they tried to keep it collected. “Look at that Altmer. Hey you, look at me! Do you have an idea what your people did to mine?! Huhhh how they put them behind bars!?”
The Altmer kept herself collected and said nothing in return. Both just wanted to hope that they would go away. What they could possibly do to Colos. They had to protect her. Another Nord began to speak, this time a woman. “You both are nothing but foul creatures. Skyrim is the land of the Nord!” A battle cry ragged thru the group. And one after one person passed through the door in the house. Both the Redguard and the Altmer knew that this was their death. The Redguard knocked out the first person who was stalking towards him. While the Altmer sent an Ice spike through the head of the knocked out Nord. Effectively killing him. The Altmer shot a couple more Ice spikes tin the group, hitting peoples legs and arms. Meanwhile the Redguard was right about to disarm a Nord woman. But was stopped by another Nord dual wielder slashing his shoulder. He cried out in pain and stumbled backwards.
He grabbed the weapon from the ground and slashed his attackers throat. He felt the presence of the person behind him to late. His world slowed down while a two handed weapon was boring through his back and coming out again out of his stomach. He didn’t feel pain, he saw a big amount of blood pour out of the wound and his hearing slowly faded. His legs buckled underneath him and his knees hit the wooden floor. He looked down and saw how the bloodied sword was pulled out of him. He looked up again and saw his wive get a knife to her throat. Her hands slowly falling and the ice spikes fading from her hands. Her eyes meeting his. Then his world turned upside down. He couldn’t move, only see how he landed face first on the floor. Then he started rolling. He had a clear view of his own body without head. He saw his eyes closing one final time and losing all his senses. His wive looked at her husband and was executed in a similar way. A double wielder decapitated her after the knife was pulled out of her throat. her head falling directly on the ground. Rolling for a bit and then coming to a halt. She could see her husbands face now, directly in front of her. Then her vision was black and she faded too.
The Nords screamed happily and started taking everything they found valuable. Drinks, food, gold, clothing. Then it was time for one of the woman to go down in the basement, to look for some valuable things. She roamed the small basement. She heard a noise, a little cracking noise. She walked from where it came from and opened the barrel she was standing in front of. Some mead, nothing else. The woman smiled to herself and grabbed all the mead in sight and gone back up to her group. Those started cheering and everyone took one. Opened them and started leaving for the door. The one who grabbed the mead was the last one, she turned around and looked at the scene again. Only now after the battle seeing two beds. A smaller one, and a bigger one. “Huhhh...” But she didn’t think twice about it and instead turned and left. Closing the door. For a third time.
Colos was alarmed, sitting in the barrel. And started to count down from sixty, she climbed out of the barrel once she reached zero and couldn’t hear a single noise. Slowly going trough the basement and started walking up the stairs. Making an effort to skip the steps that screeched. She righted herself up and came in sight with one thing. Blood, everywhere. A person with a slit throat and Ice spike through the head. Multiple Ice spike were near the door. She gone up the last step and set foot on the blood drenched floor in front of her. Then she saw them. The heads of her parents. Her body gone into override. She grabbed the dagger that was now inherited to her from behind the shelves. She looked at her parents again and started speaking. “Mommy? D-Daddy?” Both corpses laid without movement on the ground.
Her head empty. Now what? What do I do now? She slowly walked towards the door and opened it, the cold night greeted her. She looked back once and then never again. She stepped out and looked around, she knew that she was somewhere in Rift. She set foot to an area she knew all too well. She walked up the path behind the house, wich led to a clearing. She knew she couldn’t stay here. So she moved up in direction mountains. She sat down after a whole while of walking. And stared into nothing in particular.
Head still empty, she constantly heard rustling. But she couldn’t bother to care. She heard whispering after a while and quite steps. “Shhhh sh-ut it..! We are not going to do that. We maybe be Vampires but we are not absolute Monsters!” This was very clearly a woman’s voice. Who was she talking to? Jet Colos couldn’t care enough to actually look for herself. Another voice spoke up, this time a man’s. “What are you talking about? This is what we waited for. This is perfect, nobody would miss this child apparently. Why else let her run around freely with a dagger in her hand?” The woman’s voice was now seemingly angry. “Chatar, what do you think of his idea. I am definitely not going to suck out a damn wandering kid! Lorst is out of his mind! Right!?”
Then a third person started to speak up. “Chatar, I don’t agree with... you. We maybe hungry... but killing a child is..” The woman's voice came back, this time more relieved. “See! Even Lorst is not interested in doing something like that. And well... he is Lorst.” The second voice spoke up again, this time bored. “Fine, but what do we do then? Hey, where do you think you are going Ember?!” The conversation was completely cut off. Colos heard clear footsteps, this time to attract attention. Colos gripped the dagger tighter, how could they even see that I was holding one in such darkness? The footsteps were awfully near now and she could feel a hand grabbing her shoulder lightly.
The woman’s voice was speaking again, this time much calmer. “Hey, are you alright? Where are your parents?” The hand was slowly turning Colos around. The first things that she saw was gold, a pair of golden eyes was staring back at her. She opened her mouth to speak but only one thing came out. “Gold” The Imperials eyebrows shot up, her mouth slightly opening. Then she let out a sigh and smiled right after. “Yes, golden eyes. Are you alright?” Colos looked at the Imerpials face, black hair, sharp thin face. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. From behind the woman appeared two men. Both of them had the same golden eyes. One was a bit older Breton, with greying hair. And the other was a young Dunmer with a scar across his lips.
The woman looked behind her, lifted her eyebrows at the guys behind her. And then Looked back at Colos. “Well, I should probably introduce us. I am Ember. This pig of a Dunmer is Chatar. And the Breton is Lorst. We just came to stumble upon you. Well? Do you want to tell something about yourself?” She spoke in a calmly tone, not inducing any danger. Colos looked down at the dagger and looked back up at Ember. “I think I just inherited this dagger.” Ember looked at her puzzled for a second, then it came to her. You could even see it in her face. Nobody dared to speak for some seconds. Then Lorst spoke up his deep voice being surprisingly gentle. “Well do you know what you will do from now on? Because if not, we may be able to help you.”
Chatar looked over at Lorst, confusion and anger clearly visible in his face. He spoke up in a hushed tone. “What do you mean we? I never agreed on taking her possibly with us!” Ember stood up from her kneeled position beside Colos. Her feature seemed even more angry than Chatar’s.He visibly shrinks back at her demeanour. She answered in a calm collected way, that at the same time spat venom. “Fine, then you can life by yourself, alone. I and Lorst couldn’t give less shit if you were finally to be found by the rising Dawnguard. We in comparison to you have even a blink of humanity still in us, and if you don’t like that you can sincerely fuck off.” Chatar has gone quiet.
Lorst looked at both of them and slowly made his way over to Colos. He started to speak again. “Well, do you want to come with us. We will keep you safe, even give you something like a home. If you would like to call it like that?” Colos looked down at Lorst’s outstretched hand, she looked up one more time. She didn’t feel fear, danger. So she grabbed his hand. He helped her up, and started walking in a direction. “Don’t worry, if Chatar does something to you. I will make sure that he will regret it. Beautiful dagger you got there.” She looked down at the dagger, and noticed that she wasn’t gripping it anymore like her life depended on it.
She looked back at Ember, who was slowly trailing beside Lorst. She asked her “Where are we going?” Ember stopped glaring at Chatar and instead looked calmly at Colos. “Well, somewhere where someone special like you doesn’t really need to fear strangers. And somewhere safe for us too. And that means the Falkenreach hold. If you are aware where this even is. There aren’t many people, better for us all I guess.” She told her, smiling.” She furrowed her brows at Ember, at that Ember lifted one.
She began to speak before Ember could. “I guess I never told my name, my name is Colos.” They were now smiling at each other. This time Chatar quietly spoke up, but he looked ashamed at the ground. “That is a beautiful name, never heard of it before...” Ember gave him side glares and Colos turned back to the front. She let out a big yawn, Lorst pulled at her hand at that motion and grabbed her. He had her in a secure hold on his torso. “Don’t worry, once you will be awake we will be there.”
Her body relaxed at that, but she still held the dagger tightly to her chest. She closed her eyes and just drifted off. The things she had lived through today starting to vanish from her mind. Huhhh. Why couldn’t she remember what the past evening happened?
Time skip till she is 19
She woke up feeling a bit drained from the physical training with Ember yesterday. She had learned a good bit of wielding the dagger, since she was fourteen and Ember decided being able to defend herself wasn’t a bad idea. Lorst had shown her how to make her own Armour and weaponry. And Chatar had shown her how to lie, steal and get good prices with merchants. The chaotic group told her a while back that they were Vampires, to which she responded with “What is a Vampire?”. Well that was an outstanding experience in itself.
They lived on a rather far off cave, were people were rarely seen. It was a good place for a hideout. She sprung up from her bed, she may life with Vampires. But she certainly is not one. They made sure that she got a choosing if she wanted to be one. She has jet to accept. She simply isn’t drawn to the idea of being one herself. But she still loves them, and to her it makes no difference if they would be Human or Vampire.
She even said that she would be ready to donate a bit of her own blood to them. They immediately told her that it isn’t needed. That they would only accept if she really insisted. And that she did. They made the deal that she would give blood weekly, but if she didn’t want to, she could just let out a week. To trade for extra type of training. For example lock picking or Alchemy. They made sure that they took her in on their own behalf. Nothing to pay for or pay back.
She sat up and gone to the underground fireplace. Every morning Ember would have done something for her to eat. But today she was seemingly a bit early, she saw Ember sitting there and looking at the fire. Colos sat down beside her and gave her a concerned look. Ember glanced over and sighed. At that Colos put her hand onto Ember’s shoulder. She looked at her frowning and began to speak hesitantly. “.. Chatar was like always a bit ruthless with from who he stole from. And this time... this time it may bring us down.” Colos eyebrows shot up and she looked into her eyes. “What? From who? What did he steal?”
Ember grumbled for a bit before answering. “He.. uhh.. he stole from a Dawnguard underling... by Azura this is bad..” Colos mouth felt slack and her eyes widened. “He cannot be serious.... what now?” Ember looked at her and her face showed sadness. “You know how the Dawnguard are... once they found you they will not let go.” Concern was widely spread across her features “What happened to him? Where is he?” Ember couldn’t meet her eyes, she stared at the fire in front of her. “We found him.. cut in multiple piece.... they bound his limbs to the trees near Falkreach. We got wimp of it through travellers passing by.”
Her head was now in her hands, her shoulder were sagging. All Colos could do was pull Ember in a hug, she didn’t feel tears coming. A cold feeling settling in her chest. It was not sadness, not anger, not revenge. It wasn’t something that she could describe. It wasn’t linked to something good, nor bad. “What will we do now?” She asked mumbling in Ember’s shoulder. “Get away, Chatar didn’t tell anything about us if we are lucky. We go at dawn. I just hope they aren’t here by then.” She nodded and stud up, going over to her part of the cave and packing only necessary things.
She checked if she had everything, she was sure she had it all. No you don’t. What? She looked around the room. And as weird as this just was, she actually found something that she didn’t even think of. The dagger? The one she had all those years, but couldn’t remember why she had it. Or how she even got it. She didn’t question what just happened, she just grabbed it and went back to Ember again. She looked at her and asked “Where is Lorst?” Ember looked at her and nodded. “He is already at the entrance. Come on, they could be here every moment.” They heard Lorst screaming and running towards them, just as they were getting ready to leave.
Both women looked at him nervously, he exclaimed “It’s Dawnguard! They are here! We have to fight, they even brought their leader!” Colos learned of a few Dawnguard underlings over the years and mostly the new leader. So she immediately recognised him and Ingjard when they stepped into the main part of the cave. And two other underlings with a husky. A blond Nord woman and a another funny looking Nord man. Their leader was at the front. Colos put herself in front of Ember defensively and asked “What do you want? You are not welcome here Isran!” The troupe was looking a bit surprised at Colos. Even her own family did.
But the surprise died down quickly and their leader was taking a step forward. “All we want are the Vampires, we will not fight you. We are one kind, why are you defending those creatures? Whatever the reason may be, it will stop today.” Colos stepped forward, even in front of Lorst. Isran lifted an eyebrow at that commotion and had a smirk on his face. “You want to fight one of your kind so bad? Fine, Agmaer. Get rid of her, so that I don’t have to get rid of such disappointment myself.” The other Nord man in the group stepped forward while Isran stepped back. They all simply decided to observe.
Agmaer pulled out an Axe and a shield, Colos simultaneously unsheathed her dagger. She again felt the coldness in her chest and her vision started to slowly take on a red tint. Her breathing was going painfully slow. She had never experienced something like this before, only she seemed to notice that her thin dagger to pulsate in her hand. Agmaer walked towards her, all she had to do was wait for the right moment. He got nearer and nearer, and all she did was wait. “Look at her Vori, like a dog, savage. And only with a dagger. Have fun with her Agmaer.” The comment came from Isran toward Vori. But even Ember could hear it. Even Vori looked sceptical of this all, her arms across her chest. While Isran and Ingjard were so full of themselves. They were sure that the girl protecting the Vampires would surely be killed off by someone like Agmaer.
Her posture being hunched over and ready to jump at any moment. Now he was about to attack, his posture getting rigged and his hand lifting the Axe, her mind went fuzzy. The red tint now being a dominant part of her vision. Then he was about to hit, he stepped one step forward. She side stepped so fast that he couldn’t even stop the Axe coming down anymore. He wasn’t going to hit himself. So Colos had to end him off herself. Now just for the thr- The part between the hand and wrist. Colos couldn’t even explain what happened. All she knew was that she swung the dagger extremely fast into the space between Agmaer’s wrist and hand. Successful cutting his hand off in one fast motion.
His hand and Axe falling to the ground, he let go off his Shield and squeezed the end of his wrist. Trying to cut off the circulation. He screamed in agony and laid on his back. Throwing his head back and looking at his comrades. Isran and Ingjard looked at Agmaer with an expression less face, colour drained from their faces. What ever they did expect, it was not this. Vori looked with wide eyes and pale face at the person who stood mere minutes before this, beside her, with the hand still attached. Colos family only looked on in surprise, they never saw her like this. “Isrann ughhh uhuuh Helppp mee ughhuuh! It hurts! It hURTS! ughhuhh!”All the while Colos lifted the Shield did he continued to scream in agony. She didn’t knew what she was doing, the coldness was taking her practically over and her vision didn’t get anymore read. Her hand tightly clamping down on her hand and the other lifting the Shield.
The husky growling and stepping backwards, even though Vori held his leash tightly. Colos turned the Shield so the sun spikes wouldn’t get in the way. She stepped over Agmaer and put her foot down on his chest and pressed him down. Making him less mobile and squirm less. She lifted his Shield and said the last word he would ever hear. “You want help, here, maybe the shield will set you free!” And in one swift motion brought down his own Shield to his neck. It cut clean through and the screaming stopped. The Shield that was supposed to protect him, turned to his executioner.
It was with enough force even, that the Shield stuck to the ground. Colos let go of the Shield, straightened her back and stepped off of Agmaer’s remains. His blood staining the rock floor a metallic red colour. Agmaer head slowly rolling towards Isran. His squad looking on in horror. This was not what they expected. Their faces draining of any remaining colour. Vori even let go of the husky’s leash. She looked on in panic of even getting near that girl. The husky was running straight at the girl, barking, about to attack.
The girl side stepped just as the husky was about to attack her. The dog’s attack gone into nothing. Colos instead kicked the husky’s side and it crashed against the Shield. You could see the dogs spine have a clear crack in it. Wich allowed the dog to feel his own tail against its back if positioned correctly. Ingjard was now looking through her own party, only to see the disbelief and disgust in their eyes. She began heavily breathing and started to scream. “gua-AURDS DAWNGUARDS GET HER! GET HER- THAT GIRL AWAY!”
The cave was starting to be flooded by Dawnguard minions. All getting down on the girl. Colos tried her best to get one after another, but they got her surrounded. The dagger in her hand still pulsated and instead of attacking brutally, her attacks were fast and precise. Slicing through the throat of three Dawnguard minions, before her Body just collapsed. She fell to the ground and she felt just so exhausted, her Vision turning back to normal and the cold blood of Agmaer now staining her clothing and face. The coldness in her whole body vanishing, being taken up by exhaustion. Her dagger stopped pulsating.
She swore she had seen it flash red for a second, but then her Vision went dark and she was gone. She wasn’t even hit by anyone. It just came over her. The Dawnguard around the now unconscious Colos made quick process of binding her hands and feet. And moved onto the Vampires. Binding them the same way and showing them out the cave first. Some Dawnguard were behind just like the original squad minus one. Isran looked dead serious into the eyes of one minion and asked “How did you get that damn girl down?! Tell me!” He screamed at the minion. He squirmed under Isran’s command but started explaining. “W-Well she just fell unconscious, we didn’t even hit her once! She even killed three of the others before just falling to the floor!” He hurriedly explained. Isran popped a vessel.
Vori and Ingjard scurried together and looked at each other, each other’s face still pale from the way Agmaer was executed. And then looked at the girl that was laying there, drenched in the blood of her enemies. Not even having a single wound. Vori whispered over to Ingjard “Who is she, and what happened just now?” Ingjard looked at Vori and didn’t give her an answer. Instead she said “Come cadet, you will carry her with the member over there out on the carriage.”
She was nervous, but did as she was told. Lifting the girl even with another person was difficult. She didn’t look heavy at all, but once you lifted her it was a whole other story. She carried the girl onto the carriage with the help of another guard. She saw how the girl even unconscious conditioned gripped her dagger like her life depended on it. She choose not to mention it to anyone.