The Dragonborn

Part 94

Jack helped Mark pack up the rest of the camp, before mounting back up onto Agro. As Mark finished and mounted Tim, he told him seriously. "Jack? Don't you ever leave like that again. I mean it." Mark nudged Tim into a trot through the snow past him. Jack let him take the lead giving him a small nod. There was no point in arguing why he felt it was the right thing. No reason was ever good enough. He knew Mark would rather die than stay behind. Coaxing Agro to follow behind him, he shook his head with a smirk. Agro was at least behaving now. She was even well enough to playfully tug on Tim's tail as he trudged through the snow. After a few hours, Jack pulled up his hood to block out the icy wind, calling out to Mark. "How long before we get there?" Mark slowed Tim down in order to call back to him. "Not long now. We should start to see it any minute now... If this fucking weather would clear up." Jack chuckled to himself. He could try to fix that. Pulling Agro to a full stop, he patted her neck comfortingly before glancing up at the sky to shout aloud. "LOK VAH KOOR!"

The blast of energy radiated through the sky, causing the falling snow and icy wind to evaporate into a clear day. Mark clapped his hands, chuckling back. "Where was that idea a few hours ago?" Jack rolled his eyes, answering bluntly. "I'm suppose to be saving my energy remember? Besides, it doesn't last that long. So, we should make the most of it." Mark nodded, turning a slightly startled Tim around as he stated aloud. "Ya. Someone will have heard that for miles... but look! See it?" Jack looked out where Mark was pointing and grinned. Windhelm's walls and high stone castle could now be seen through the light mountain mist surrounding it. Beyond that looked to be miles of ocean. It was beautiful. Jack looked back at Mark, asking him curiously as they continued through the snow. "What can we expect from Windhelm?" Mark huffed loudly, grimly retorting. "Ulfric and the rebellion. You think Winterhold's people were cold... You should see some of these Nords. Distrust and dissection run deep in their icy veins. I blame Ulfric. He's got them thinking that dividing the races and treating them like lower class citizens is how Skyrim moves forward."

Jack cringed thinking about it, but he was sure that Ulfric had his own reasons for thinking that way. Didn't make it any better, but it was possible that's not what he had intended. He could see how Mark saw it that way though. Ulfric wanted the Elves out of Skyrim... but it was possible that his logic was flawed and Nords saw it as removing ALL non-human races from Skyrim. Shrugging, Jack was going to address this to Mark, when his eyes caught movement in the snow. It looked like the snow was sliding toward Tim. Jack raised a hand to conjure his bow, telling Mark loudly. "Mark?! On your right!" Mark shifted in the saddle to brace himself, turning Tim slightly as he looked. Tim saw it before Mark. Tim thrashed his head, letting out panicked whinnies as he drifted to the left and threatened to buck Mark. Jack raised his free hand, shooting Tim in the ass with his calming spell. Tim settled down just as a massive white blur lunged from behind a mound of snow. The massive white blur jumped agilely onto Tim's back, sending them all into the snow as Tim buckled from the force of the weight.

Agro reared in fright, but Jack kept her steady as she came back down. Mark let out a painful scream and Jack drew back his bow string to shoot an arrow at it. The glowing blue arrow struck the white mass in the back, causing it to snarl in pain and whirl around to face him. Jack lowered his bow in shock. He wasn't sure what he was looking at. It appeared to be a white wolf... but it was as massive as a bear and held itself like a man. The wolf growled at him aggressively, before leaping off Mark and Tim to dash at him on all fours! Jack shook off his shock and raised his bow to shoot again. This time his arrow sank into one of its front legs and it skidded to a halt. Jack watched awestruck as the beast stood up on its hind legs, pulling the arrow out of its arm, before turning bright yellow eyes on him as he let out a thunderous growl. The growl hit him like a heavy weight, pinning him to the spot and making his heart race with fear. He had looked dragons in the eye and had never been as scared as he was right now.