"Who… are you?"

The man who had asked looked up from his list. He was wearing a stock, slightly ill fitting set of imperial armor, with a standard sword and shield hanging from his belt. Question still hanging between them, his blue eyes were kind, framed by startlingly blonde hair.

The prisoner spared herself a glance. She was a small nord girl with short black hair and silver eyes. Slightly tall for fifteen, she had crimson highlights that normally matched her signature red hood. She sighed as her shoulders once again noticed the missing weight. The prisoner continued to fidget with her arms, awfully annoyed at the rough tunic she had been given after getting caught up in the imperial ambush. Of all the times to take a nap...

Suddenly, she realized she had gotten so distracted thinking about the guard's question that she had forgot to answer him. How long had she been standing there?

"My name is Ruby Rose!" She blurted out. Out of habit, she continued automatically. "What's yours?"

"Uh, my name is J-"

"Private Arc!" The captain barked, brandishing a riding crop. The majority of her hair pulled into a bun, her green eyes narrowed menacingly. She was not a fan of wasting time.

"Y-yes, apologies Captain Goodwitch" The soldier fumbled as he flicked through the list, nervously turning pages.

The way he reacted, you would think that crop was a daedric artifact Ruby silently giggled, thinking how much less threatening the soldier's sword had been. However, after a glance from the Capitan, she suddenly decided it really wasn't that funny.

After a few seconds of continued fumbling, he looked up "Um, her name isn't in here, captain"

Ruby was delighted at the opportunity. This was a chance to explain this whole predicament. After all, she was only in Skyrim to visit her sister. It had been two years since Yang had left their family farm in the Rift.

Ruby started to explain, smiling widely. "Well that's because-"

"Forget the list" the Captain interrupted. "Your poor attention span is only rivaled by your terrible bookkeeping. She goes to the block."

"What?!" Ruby wailed. Why weren't they listening? "But I did nothi-"

"Prisoners to the BLOCK!" The Captain yelled, brandishing her crop.

Ruby was in shock. Her mouth hanging open, she looked back and forth between the two officers, eyes pleading with silent tears. There's no way they would-

The private averted his eyes. "By your orders, Captain."

Ruby didn't hear the rest of what was said. All she could think of was her family. Yang would probably try to fight the whole legion. Her sister was strong, strong enough to join the legendary companions at 15, but that was a fight no one could win. Her dad, divines protect him, he wouldn't be able to handle it. It had taken so long to get over mom. Mom. Crap, now she was really crying.

She was vaguely aware of someone, the general probably, lecturing one of the larger prisoners. Everything was blurry. She didn't care about the distant roar, or listen to the priestess say her rights. She barely noticed getting dragged forward towards the large man with an even larger axe.

As her eyes blinked away the tears, absentmindedly wondering why the world looked sideways, she saw it.

"DRAGON!"