Song of the Dragonborn - Fairy tail x Skyrim AU
Lucy's life changes forever when the dragons come back to life after centuries of endless slumber. As her hometown burns down in flames, a young fire mage named Natsu saves her from certain death. Brought together by a chance of fate, they set on an epic adventure to find their roles in the ancient prophecies about the end of the world.
Follow Natsu, Lucy, and other Fairy Tail characters as they venture the mysterious lands of Skyrim - with magic, friendship, romance, battles, plot twists, and dragons!
Rated mature for graphic violence, deaths, blood, and other medieval stuff. Chapters in Tumblr: 1, 2, 3 All chapters so far (78) posted are found in AO3 or FF.net
CHAPTER 1: SHADOWS UNBOUND
Whenever thunder rumbled in the distance, Lucy imagined it was the mighty roar of the long lost dragons, echoing across the aeons.
Stormclouds as dark as the blackbird’s wings loomed in the horizon as a raven circled around the halo of the sun. It would rain soon, and it was a welcomed change. The crops had been suffering from the long drought, and the wells were running dry. Tonight lightning would split the skies and the gods would play their drums of war – that’s what parents told their children when the thunder came. But Lucy had always thought it was dragons fighting behind the veil of clouds, even though there hadn’t been dragons in Skyrim for centuries.
Lucy stood on the porch of her home, leaning to a wooden parapet and observing how the city woke up to a new day. Children played, dogs barked, people hurried to their duties. Nobody seemed to mind the upcoming storm as if no-one even heard the remote rumbles. Loke, a lumberjack’s lastborn son ran past the house and smiled at her. Lucy replied with a smile as she had been told to. A proper shopkeeper should smile to everyone, and so the customers would come. Mother would open the shop at any moment, but Lucy hoped to bask in the morning sun for a moment longer. She’d store the sunlight into herself to survive another day indoors. She wasn’t made for her job, but in Skyrim, people lived the lives they were born into. A child born into a farmer’s family would be a farmer. A child born into a merchant’s family would be a merchant – like Lucy. As the only child of their family, she didn’t have any other options. Selling trinkets, odds and ends would be the only life she’d ever know, and dreaming was her only escape. Lucy turned her gaze to the sky and let the cool autumn wind play with her fair hair. She closed her eyes, allowing her mind to carry her away, into the faraway lands she’d never visit. The books of the ancient legends and heroes brought her the solace of escapism, and so she set herself into those stories. She imagined herself as a brave sorcerer as her great-grandmother had been. Magic had once passed down her maternal family line, but it weakened with every generation which lived in its absence.
Her parents had blamed Loke for planting such wild dreams into their daughter’s head, but it wasn’t true. In addition to the stories she read, it was the mages who sometimes visited their store and asked if they sold potions or spells. Potions they had, but spellbooks were forbidden. As Nords often did, her parents despised magic and its users. Especially her father. He had made sure Lucy would never lay her hands on a book of magic, but he couldn’t stop her from talking to those mages.
When father wasn’t hearing, Lucy had exchanged wonderful conversations with the mages, and heard stories of the College of Winterhold. Its reputation had been stained over the years, but Lucy adored the things magic could do. In her wildest, most secret dreams she ran away from this damned town, found the sealed powers of magic within herself and joined the College. But they remained as dreams. Such a thing would never happen, never, or father would catch her and chop off her head and feed it to the goats.
Still, her dreams were all she had. Detaching herself from counting the coins kept her sane. While ancient heroes had made themselves into the pages of history, she would become nothing more than a page in the sales registry.
A commotion from the edge of the town drew her back to the real world. The gates opened and guards let the wagons in. The Imperial Legion arrived at Helgen with another bunch of prisoners. It had happened weekly, lately. Thunder rattled in the distance again as the storm crept near. Would they get the execution over with before it would start to rain?
Executions had become public entertainment as the Empire punished wrongdoers and deceivers with death. Lucy didn’t like to watch those shows. But today, as the wagons passed by her house and her eyes caught Ulfric Stormcloak sitting on the cart, her interest peaked. What was the Jarl of Windhelm, who claimed himself as the new High King of Skyrim, doing there?
Three wagons full of prisoners arrived, all of them sentenced to die. Each one of them carried four men, so twelve lives would end this day.
One of the prisoners in the last cart gazed at Lucy. He was a young man with hair the colour of a nightshade, dressed in black mage’s robes. He turned away the moment Lucy noticed him looking. Another man in robes sat beside him. Since when had the Empire targeted mages?
”Lucy, come inside”, mother hollered from the door.
”They’re executing Ulfric Stormcloack”, Lucy answered, refusing to move. From the silence Lucy knew mother would stay, too.
The wagons stopped at the plaza and men formed in lines, as the priestess of Arkay gave them their last rites. Then an Imperial commander ordered one of the mages to the block first. They started with the runts, leaving Ulfric the Usurper for the last.
”Those are mages from the College of Winterhold”, mother said, pointing at them. ”You still want to join that college?”
Lucy shook her head, lying. She didn’t know what those men had done, but judging from the way the Empire punished people for stepping on a chicken’s stool, they hadn’t necessarily done anything wrong.
Thunder rumbled again, louder than before, catching Lucy’s attention for a moment. It didn’t sound like a regular storm anymore, as if it was something else. The soldiers raised their eyes to the skies but deemed it as nothing abnormal and carried on.
Then the executioner raised his axe and swung. A sickening thump filled the silence as a man’s head dropped to the ground.
Lucy’s stomach sank as sickness spread inside of her. She hated these damn executions. The guards dragged the headless body away and kicked the rolling, lonely head to the side before pushing another victim to the block. The mage who had looked at her, the one with pink hair, writhed and screamed with tears running down his face as the guards dragged him forward.
”A man should face his death bravely, not crying like a milk-drinker”, father said behind her, having appeared while the first mage had died. ”Those mages are nothing but pests to this country. Good to get rid of them.”
Lucy wanted to punch his father for saying that. She watched silently as the guard forced the mage to the block and pressed him down with his foot. He was barely older than Lucy, a way too young to die. Lucy knew he didn’t cry for his death, but the death of his fallen comrade, whose head was still rolling down the plaza. Lucy held hands over her mouth as the headsman raised his axe again.
But then a deafening roar filled the skies. The axe dropped, missing the mage’s head by mere inches.
Completely startled, Lucy lifted up her gaze and her legs went weak. A giant, black creature spread its wings over the sun, shadowing the entire plaza. It landed on a watchtower and screeched, and the bright, cloudless skies turned into a battlefield of stormclouds.
”What in Oblivion is that!?” father cried and grabbed mother while Lucy crawled to the cover of the stone wall.
Shivering in pure fear, she knew exactly what that thing was. Straight from the childrens storybooks, the sign of the end times. Black horns and fangs as long as a man.
A dragon.
The creature roared again, now breathing fire. Stone and wood came crumbling down under the dragon’s will. One of the dropping rocks hit Lucy’s head, blurring her vision until everything was dark. ______________________________
”Hey, girl, wake up. Wake up now. We have to get out of here.”
Someone pulled her away from burning heat as her head and heart pounded rapidly. She cracked her eyes open and saw the pink-haired mage grabbing her wrists and dragging her out of the collapsed wall.
Behind him was an utter desolation: flames and black smoke filled the air, the buildings were ruined, dead bodies littered the streets. People ran around aimlessly looking for shelter, only to be crushed by flying stones.
The mage helped Lucy on her feet, supporting her to stand. The hem of her yellow dress was torn and cuts adorned her bare shins, but she couldn’t feel any pain. Panic spreading in her chest, she looked around to find her family. ”My parents… are they safe?” Lucy stuttered, tears pouring from her eyes.
”You mean those?” the man said and pointed at two unrecognisable, scorched corpses lying on the remains of the porch. Lucy screamed and strength escaped from her legs. The mage forced her back up. ”Leave them behind or you’ll die, too!”
The black dragon flew low right above them, and the air it pushed forward with its wings threw them both from their feet again. The mage protected her from the broken, sharp boards, agilely rose up and took Lucy’s hand. Shock petrified her as hot air got stuck in her windpipe.
Her entire life had turned to ashes in a matter of minutes.
”C’mon, let’s go”, he urged and pulled her hand in a hurry. Lucy stole one last glance on the remains of her parents, swallowed hard and turned away. The escape she’d dreamed of was suddenly forced upon her as no choice than to escape. Trembling, Lucy nodded to the man and then they ran, trying to find a way out of the burning town as the dragon soared through the black smoke.
Soldiers readied their bows and launched the arrows towards the flying beast, but they just bounced back and rained down. Knowing the city better than her pockets, Lucy looked for the East Gate, knowing it was right behind the watchtower.
The stone walls of the town had crumbled down with the gate, giving them an opening if they’d survive through the shelterless plaza. Burning blood rushed through her veins, giving her strength to act, ignore the pain and fight for survival.
”There!” she shouted, raising her voice over the racket and uproar.
She began to ran, but the mage froze beside her. He watched how a little boy tried to reach the collapsed wall, and the dragon noticed his efforts to escape. Lucy gasped in terror as the child disappeared into the inferno of the dragon’s breath.
One by one, the citizens of Helgen fell to the flames of something which wasn’t supposed to exist. Dizziness flooding over her, Lucy caught the mage’s hand again so she wouldn’t faint. ’This just can’t be happening!’ she repeated in her head. ’This has to be a nightmare!’
”Wait”, the man said and locked eyes with the dragon. It had landed on the watchtower again. ”Run across this plaza when I say so.”
Lucy nodded to him, and the mage formed a fireball on his hand.
”Now!” he shouted and threw the ball towards the dragon. It exploded at the top of the tower, leaving a blinding cloud of dust and smoke in its wake. Taking advantage of the confusion, they ran to the broken wall and climbed through the hole. Even though they made it outside the town’s walls, but they weren’t safe. Not yet.
Following the mage, Lucy ran into the forest, ran until the screams of the town silenced. She jumped over the fallen trees, ignored the scratches the branches left on her face, just ran, ran and ran for her life.
Lucy’s mind went blank and white, exhaustion burning in her lungs and legs, but she kept going until they reached the depths of the forest, silence falling around them. The man stopped near large rocks and hid behind them. Lucy collapsed next to him and leaned to the boulder, trying to curl into as small as she could. Gasping for breath, she squeezed her eyes closed, seeing nothing but her parents scorched to death.
Surrounded by pines and spruces, she didn’t feel safe. She probably never would, ever again. Not after today, when her whole world burned down.
Dragons weren’t supposed to exist, but now they did.
A powerful sob shook her once. She tried to suffocate it, but failed. As tears blurred her vision, she glanced at the mage. The man shivered in a catatonic state, his hollow eyes staring at a tree stump in front of him. Lucy could see his pain, and it comforted her in a twisted way. At least she wasn’t all alone in this chaos. She would have died without his help. Even though it felt so unfair to be alive, she was glad she was still breathing.
”H… Hey –” she started, but the mage silenced her with a shush. He put his finger on his lips, giving her a strict look. Lucy lowered her voice and whispered, ”Th… Thank y… you. What’s… your name?”
The man shook his head, eyes gleaming in gloom. Though Lucy wanted to know the name of the person who had saved her, she understood if he couldn’t speak right now. Or if he wouldn’t want to say it at all.
Lucy studied his black robes with her gaze and recognised the symbol of the College of Winterhold through the dirt and blood. The mage noticed her long stare, and so she looked away.
”I... I’m Natsu”, he said then, so quiet Lucy couldn’t almost hear. She turned towards him again and tried her hardest to smile, smile as she had been told to, but she couldn’t. She just looked at him and let the tears pour down.
Freedom had once been all she had longed for, and now she had nothing left but freedom. And as her previous life was gone, she was free to choose a new one.
Despite feeling like she could never move on, like the cold forest floor would become her new home, she had to force herself forward. Lucy couldn’t let this chance pass by her. She gathered up her courage, knowing her parents wouldn’t stop her now. She glanced at the sigil of the College once more, and then raised her gaze to meet the mage’s.
”Could… Could I come with you… to… to the College?” Lucy whispered, ready to draw it back if the mage would refuse. But instead of refusing, he judged her in silence, and Lucy just hoped he would see the remnants of magic in her if there was any. ”I… I have no place to go to...”
Lucy was giving up when he finally said, ”I... I had you f-figured for a… a mage.” Something which faintly resembled a smile flashed on his face before it was gone, but it was enough to spark hope in the ruins of Lucy’s heart.
Maybe something new would rise from the ashes of her old life, for the end was always also a beginning. _______
Hope you liked the first chapter! Keep reading in AO3 or FF.net! I'll eventually post more chapters here in tumblr too.
