"What an asshole!" I say as I slam the door shut to my apartment, harder than necessary.
Without untying my shoes, I force them loose using the my feet, kicking them off me.
My boss's wife just left him, so these days he's more of an ass than he usually is.
Not bothering to take off either of my shirt or jeans, I throw myself onto the bed, and stare up at the ceiling.
"Fuck" I sigh deeply.
"Why the hell did my life turn out like this?" I muttered to myself. "I could've been something else, something... more…"
The thought hit harder than I expected.
I knew it was true, I just couldn't find the motivation for it.
I'm past thirty, no wife, no kids.
No ambition that burns within me.
Honestly I'm starting to feel empty.
"Just end me…" I whispered, half-joking, half-hoping some cosmic force would hear me and do... something.
I kept thinking about how life could've turned out, the chances I should have taken.
The schools... the women...
I think I've lacked the confidence I needed to reach for my dreams, or whatever kinda crap those life mentors keep telling us.
I sigh again.
"Forget it, leave those thoughts for another day." I tell myself as I feel my eyelids become heavy.
I fall asleep, wanting to forget about the day I just had.
After some time a low, deep and vibrating noise wakes me up.
"Ugh... What's that sound?..." I ask no one in particular, while I rub the sleep out of my eyes.
I reach for my phone to check the time.
"Shit… midnight?! I've been out for six hours?!"
Still groggy, I sat up with a grunt, and planted my feet on the floor. That's when I noticed it- the floor was glowing.
"Huh?... What's this?..."
A dim, purple light pulsed beneath me.
I rubbed my eyes again, thinking I must still be half asleep.
But no- the light was really there.
And now when I think about it, this is the source of the weird sound.
"What the hell is that…?" I whispered to myself.
Suddenly, the dim light flared into a strong, dark-purple glow. It spread quickly outward from beneath my feet in a perfect circle, lined with strange runes and symbols I couldn't recognize.
I tried to move, but my legs were locked in place, held down by the strange light.
"What's going on?!" I shouted out loudly.
The center of the circle darkens, turning pitch black- like a hole in reality itself.
And I felt it pulling me down.
"Help!!" I called out. I grab the edge of my bed to fight it, but I had no chance to fight the intense pull of whatever this was.
The void swallowed me completely.
Darkness surrounded me.
It was like I was sinking in a dark sea,
but I didn't feel pressure, like under water,
I just felt like I was floating in a vacuum.
"Am I going to die like this?!" I can't help but think, unable to breathe!
Far in the distance I see a purple light, like the one that was in my bedroom.
Again it's pulling on me!
As I'm being drawn at an intense speed towards the light, I feel a strong and strange sensation inside my chest, as if something is changing!
But I can't focus on that now- I need air!
The purple light is almost upon me.
I brace myself for an impact, shutting my eyes. This is going to hurt!
But nothing happens.
Instead, I can finally breathe again!
The darkness is gone, I'm surrounded by... Light?
"Where am I?... Am Idead?" I ask the now white void surrounding me.
A powerful presence suddenly introduces itself to me, fearing to move, I stand still.
The only describtion I can think of is... divine?
"Umm.. is anyone there?..." I ask carefully.
A loud voice, strong like thunder and waterfalls answers me.
"You do not belong here..."
What the?!... What's this?!...
Terror seize me, and I don't dare to either speak or move.
The voice returns in full strength after a short moment.
"I have searched your heart, and I see no evil intentions in it..."
"Therefore, I have given you a blessing that will guide you in this world. In return, let your good deeds outweigh your bad."
"Never harm my servants. Do what I abhor, and I will curse you. Stray from my path, and you will surely receive my judgment. Now, go forth and stay true."
Still struck by terror, I try to memorize what's been said to me.
I fear this being, but didn't I just receive... Mercy?
Like the way thunder echoes and grow quiet, so does this beings words.
Silence returns, and the light fades.
Everything turns dark again, I have no idea whether I'm asleep or conscious.
But slowly, I begin to hear something.
The soft, steady crackle of fire...
a campfire, perhaps?
I feel my mind starting to clear, a cold breeze finally wakes me up and I open my eyes.
It's still night.
Standing over me is a man dressed in a black robe, a faint greenish skull embroidered on his chest.
He has long, dirty-looking blonde hair.
His eyes locked onto mine, cold and stern, with dark circles beneath them giving him a worn look, despite him seeming to be rather young.
"All that work to conjure you, and when I succeed you're not even conscious... And you're definitely not the Ash Spawn I was aiming for... So, just what in oblivion are you?" he mutters, mostly to himself.
"Ummm.. I'm sorry?" I ask.
The robed man raises his left hand into an open fist, and draws a dagger from his hip with his right. " Are you... Daedra? Or Mortal?"
I jump to my feet when he draws his dagger. "Wow, wow! I'm human! Where the hell am I?!"
The man's gaze sharpens at my words and I see a flicker of disappointment in his expression.
"So you really are human, huh?... I've never heard of any humans getting summoned by conjuration."
My expression turns dumfounded. "Conjuration? what are you talking about?"
He strains his hand, and some kind of dark energy emmenates from it.
"A human... I sense no magic in you either, you're worthless to me! I guess I'll just settle for turning you into a zombie!"
He casts the dark energy surrounding his hand onto the ground next to him, he repeats the process and does it a second time.
There are two dark energies on the ground, expanding into two dark voids, a skeletal figure step out from each of them, skeletons with eyeless sockets glowing with a faint green light, and they both wield swords.
"What the hell are those?!" I shout, shocked by what I'm witnessing.
The robed man answers me "I need minions, and you are just another human, wearing some kind of weird clothes!"
The skeletal figures hiss at me while their bones creak.
I plead with him, understanding that he's planning to kill me. "Sure, I'm just another human... But I am no danger to you! So what's the point in killing me?!"
The robed man only chuckles. "Well, being a necromancer, the point would be to have another body to practice my craft with!"
He then gestures to his skeletons, "kill him".
The skeletons raise their swords.
As the necromancer raises his hand and commands the skeletons to kill me, a sudden shimmer of light flashes before my eyes. A transparent screen- like a glowing, floating hologram- materializes in the air, displaying a text across it.
"Quest started: The Necromancer"
- Kill the necromancer
As a reflex, I read the message in a flash- but the moment I do, the skeletons start moving toward me.
The holographic screen vanishes the instant I break into a run.
"Kill them? There's no way I can defeat them!" I shout with panic in my voice.
I run as fast as I can for a few minutes, the cold night air cuts into my skin as I sprint through the pine forest surrounding me, branches slashing at my face like claws.
I glance over my shoulder- Shit! They're still right behind me!
After running for my life for what felt like half an hour, my legs start to give out.
I stagger to a stop beside a massive pine tree, steadying myself against it.
Somewhere nearby, a river roars- a crashing rush of water that nearly drowns out my heartbeat.
"What the hell is going on? This can't be real," I wheeze, trying to catch my breath.
I look behind me, to check if I managed to outrun the skeletons.
Damn it, they are not even far behind me!
I can't keep this up.
If I don't think of something fast… I'm dead.
"The river!" I shout to myself.
If I can just make it to the river! Skeletons can't swim... right?!
I force my legs to move, stumbling forward until I reach the river's edge.
"Oh, come on! You've got to be kidding me!!" I yell out.
The river is only a few meters down from where I stand, but it's filled with jagged rocks and violent streams!
It doesn't look good, but the chances of survival must be higher down there than up here!
I leap.
Cold. A sudden, violent shock sears through me as I plunge into the river.
The world becomes a blur of churning bubbles and numbing cold.
The current grabs me like a beast, yanking me downward into the dark, spinning me, tossing me like a branch in a storm.
I can't breathe.
My limbs thrash, heavy and sluggish.
I tumble through the river, smashed against rocks and then I'm pulled onward and under.
I fight the river with everything I got, managing to get my head above the water a few times to gasp for air.
The river drives me downwards along with it's strong current for what feels like an eternity. At last the river widens, and its fury begins to ease, I finally manage to bring myself from the freezing river and onto a muddy bank
My body is bruised, scraped, and trembling from the effort.
Every muscle scream for rest- but I know that if I stop moving now, the cold will finish what the river started.
Gritting my teeth, I force myself to climb up a small slope of mud and stone.
At the top of the bank, I catch sight of something that sparks hope: stacked logs, freshly cut... and just beyond them, a wood mill.
More than that- a cluster of buildings. A town!
I'm not alone, I'm saved.
I stumble forward, crossing a small wooden bridge built over a narrow fork of the river, it's sturdy but it's definitely not modern!
As I go near the first house, I spot the soft flicker of firelight on the porch- warmth maybe!
Freezing, I climb the steps in front of the house. Then I see it. "Is that… a forge?" I whisper aloud, disbelief catching in my throat. Just where am I? Magic? Undead? And this place- this entire world- seems centuries behind the one I knew.
I make my way to the forge and collapse in front of it, my body landing with a heavy thud on the wooden boards.
A moment later, the faint glow of a candle is lit inside the house.
The wooden door opens, and a broad man steps out. He holds a smithing hammer in one hand, ready to defend his house.
His eyes squint at the sight of me, collapsed in front of his forge."By the Eight… You alright, stranger?"
He takes a step forward, studying me. "What in Oblivion happened to you?"
I answer him with chattering teeth.
"H-Had to… j-jump… into the r-river…"
The man kneels beside you, placing a steadying hand on your back."You jumped in the river? By the Eight… you're lucky you didn't freeze solid."
His gaze flicks toward the water, then back to you. "Come inside, before the cold claim you."
He rises, calling over his shoulder, "Sigrid! Bring a blanket- and something hot, quick!"
From inside, a woman's voice answers him "Who is it?"
"A stranger," The man replies. "Half-dead and cold as ice. He needs warmth."
He helps me to my feet and keeps a steadying hand on me as we enter the house.
A hearth glows at the center of the room, and above it hangs the head of a massive elk.
The woman called Sigrid, steps forward with a heavy blanket in her arms, she's a sturdy looking woman in her mid-thirties, but still has her beauty about her, fair skin and her long braided hair is a mix of golden and brown hair.
She gives me a quick, guarded glance, then silently wraps it around my shoulders.
A young girl peers out from behind her mother's skirts—no more than ten, with wide eyes. Her hair is plain brown, but one can see that she wants to be like her mother by how she copies her hairstyle.
The man gestures to a chair by the fire. "Sit. Warm yourself. We'll talk when your teeth stop chattering."
Now that we're inside I can see the man more clearly, sun-kissed skin and arms thick with muscle, probably from years of hard labor. His hair is a coarse brown, shoulder length but is in no way feminine, thick beard frames his jawline.
He moves to the hearth and tosses another log onto the flames. I sit down by the hearth, waiting for the fire to thaw my bones, which I'm pretty sure are frozen solid! The hearth quickly makes warmth seep into my body, a few moments later my teeth stops chattering, and I'm finally able to speak normally again.
"So... where exactly am I?" I ask.
The man answers. "You're in Riverwood, and where do you come from stranger?"
I murmur to myself. "Riverwood... where have I heard that name before?..."
The man gives a small smile. "Ah, so you have heard of us before?... It's a small town, so it's not very known among us common-folk in the other regions of Skyrim, but it's a few hours walk south of Whiterun."
"Sky... Skyrim?..." I stutter. My eyes go wide when I realize it- Necromancers... magic... Skeletons... The sum of it all makes it obvious!! "Skyrim?! But that's impossible!!" I say out loud, only this time i shout loud enough to give his daughter a scare.
The girl's eyes went wide when I raise my voice, and she ducks behind her mother with a sharp little gasp.
Sigrid steps protectively in front of the child. "Lower your voice please, or you'll have to leave." she said, calmly but with a hint of a warning.
The man speaks next "What do you mean stranger? Why is Skyrim Impossible?" curious to my surprised voice.
I keep silent for a moment, considering what is wise to say, and not to say. Whatever I have to tell them is going to sound crazy enough as it is, without telling them that Skyrim is just a video game for me, or at least used to be! And not to mention the divine encounter I had! If that's what it was.
I sigh deeply at my situation, before I tell them why I was startled at the mention of Skyrim. "I... I'm not from Skyrim... where I come from, Skyrim is just a myth, or a story of another world... I never knew that it was real."
Both Sigrid and her husband raise their eyebrows, never having heard anything like it, their daughter however lights up in excitement.
I tell them that I was just at home, but then somehow got conjured here by a man calling himself a necromancer. I tell them that said necromancer tried to kill me, wanting to raise me as zombie, and that he's hiding a bit outside Riverwood.
The man and Sigrid exchange a look. The man scratches at his beard and lets out a long breath through his nose. "Well… I can't say that is easy to believe" he says slowly. "But I've never seen clothes like yours before, it's neither from Cyrodiil nor Morrowind... much less Skyrim!"
Sigrid speaks next. "I don't know much about conjuration magic... but I've never heard of anyone summoning anything else but deadra or undead... you'd be better off talking to a wizard about how this could've happened."
The man raise his voice, wanting to focus on the more immediate problem. "This necromancer- if he's out there, near Riverwood- we need to tell someone. The Jarl should know, but Whiterun's a fair distance, and I want this dealt with as quickly as possible!" The man scratches his beard. "Can you describe where you saw him? Or could you lead someone to were you saw this necromancer?..."
I reply while hinting for a place to sleep for the night. "Yes, I can lead someone there, but I don't have the strength to do it tonight..."
I try to remember how he looked like. "He was skinny and tall- pale... He had long, dirty blonde hair... he wore a black robe with a skull on its chest... and his eyes had dark rings under them."
The man's fists clenched at his sides as I told him about the necromancer. "Tall, pale, blonde hair... A Nord!" he growled. "Shameful. We honor our dead- not mock them with twisted magic."
Sigrid gave him a long, quiet look, then placed a gentle hand on his arm. "Let it go for tonight, Alvor. He's right- we can't charge off into the dark woods with a torch! We can deal with this in the morning!"
She called him Alvor, of course! The forge, Sigrid and their daughter! He was the blacksmith in Riverwood, I remember from playing the game!
Alvor lets out a heavy sigh, his shoulders sagging just a bit. "You did well to get away and tell us, stranger. You can sleep here tonight. But tomorrow morning, we're taking this disappointment of a Nord down!"
Sigrid fetched a bedroll and laid it out by the fire for me.
"Thank you, Sigrid... Alvor" I say, relieved that I wasn't thrown out in the cold in the middle of the night.
Alvor grunts, visibly tired of having had a long day, probably of hard work by the forge, and now also from having had his sleep disturbed by me collapsing on his porch. "Just... don't make any more loud noises, ok? We'll need to talk more in the morning. Now, get to bed everyone, including you stranger." He commanded.
Alvor and his family laid their heads down for the night, and I laid myself down on the bedroll by the hearth. The house grew silent as soon as everyone settled into their beds, but after everything that happened today, I doubt any of us drifted off quickly.
Skyrim… I have to admit, actually being here is thrilling. I used to love this game. Back home, I poured hours into it- exploring, conquering, being the Dragonborn. In the game though, death just meant a reload screen. But me? The real me? I'm just some regular guy, no warrior training, not even muscularly built. Just a normal human.
And now I have to stay alive in a world that doesn't care whether I live or die. Do I really have what it takes to survive here? Even in the game, Skyrim was depicted a brutal land- cold, dangerous, unforgiving. And now that it's real... I can feel that danger. I want to go home. God, is that even possible?… is there a way back home?
I stared up at the wooden ceiling above me, letting the soft crackle of the hearth lull my thoughts, trying to wrap my head around what had happened. Then it struck me- the necromancer! He conjured me here. Maybe he failed, maybe the spell went wrong… but if he brought me here, couldn't he send me back?
It's not as if I had much waiting for me back home- but I did have a mother, a few siblings. Even if it's just a small handful of people, I know they'd miss me.
They'd wonder what happened to me!
I lay awake for what felt like hours, torn between fear and curiosity, dread and awe.
Eventually, the exhaustion caught up to me, my body finally able to relax after everything I had gone through tonight.
Finally, I fall asleep.