Chapitre 748: 748: A Sinister Plan
He woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, covered in light sheets, and wrapped around the arms of his beloved. A classical opening scene in any drama but for those who know Jon Dare, he usually skips the drama and goes straight to action. Still, that's the "usually" of things.
That night, however, felt as if he was being suffocated by something in his sleep while he had the urgent feeling to feel the cold air of the top floor's balcony, consequently driving him outside out to breathe.
He would gaze up at the stars of the night sky, where the Magna-Ge stared down at the world of mortals, and lose himself in his thoughts as he recently was having these strange new feelings.
"Again?"
"I can't sleep."
Alina followed him outside covering herself in the sheet of their bed.
"A dream this time?"
"No. Just that feeling again."
"Boiling from the inside?"
"Yes."
"Even by your standards, darling, you should know this is not normal."
"I'm Dragonborn, when was anything ever normal?"
"I won't argue with that." She replied and put on a sweet smile, "Come on inside, I'll fix you something hot and soothing to drink."
"Alright."
Jon followed Alina back to their chambers and sat on his chair while resting his head backward. He was feeling nauseated and in a turbulent mood.
"All that sex we've been having, I am starting to think you are the one getting pregnant, not me." Alina cracked a joke from the corner where they kept their snacks and drinks behind a wooden curtain.
Jon paused for a while before replying.
"Usually I would take anything you say as funny but that's a terrible joke, honey." He replied with a slight smile.
"Huh! My jokes are terrible now, Firemane boy?" She looked at him with wide eyes and a playful smile from behind the wooden curtain.
"Excuse my rudeness then, dear wife." He didn't argue about it and backed away.
"You are excused, dear husband, and here's your herbal tea."
Getting the beverage she made with love and care, Jon started to sip it slowly and then had a big gulp as the heat was to his liking, but then…
*Growl*
His eyes widened, his stomach started to get upset and he suddenly took a run to the toilet.
*PUKE!*
Alina watched all of that happening and couldn't help but be taken aback. She looked at him as he came out wiping his mouth with a towel and asked.
"You okay?"
Jon's eyes raced between her and the towel and himself before trying to check his own innards with magic.
"That pregnant joke is starting to make more sense." He said while grinning to make it sound like nothing.
"That's a terrible joke, husband." Alina said, firing back the sarcasm.
Since he was feeling unwell, Jon had to be seriously diagnosed and Alina spared no effort with all her medical skills and spells but to their disappointment, Jon was feeling as healthy as ever, even healthier than usual if that can be believed.
"Your body is filled with more energy than usual, I can say I am sure of that, but you act like you're drained as if we had some freaky hot sex." She said.
"I know, right?" Jon nodded in agreement before thinking, "It's really weird to feel this way."
"Just chug up a stamina potion or something, you'll feel like yourself in no time."
"Stamina potion? The only potion I used to chug is Troll's Essence and that's before I got to make Dragon's Essence. Stamina potions are for weaklings." Jon proudly refused the potion even though Alina kept pushing it against him.
As the two started to act playfully while standing near the window, a yellow flash attracted their gazes to the outside of the tower down in the city. The two of them paused whatever they were doing and got closer to the window to see.
"A fire?" Jon asked.
"In that house?" Alina answered with a question.
The two of them looked at each other before Jon walked out to the balcony at once in order to get a closer look.
"That old man started experimenting with flaming fart once again?"
Even though Jon thought it was weird, that place down there was Jonrad's house where he lived along with Hilda and their young children. The thing is Jonrad is a master at manipulating Fire and something like that wouldn't happen even if he was to fuck up a spell.
But before Jon or Alina processed the situation, let alone reacted to it, a pillar of flame erupted from the house and enveloped it entirely.
"Fuck!" Jon didn't think far ahead and immediately jumped off the tower's balcony as he summoned his staff and transformed into a bolt of Magicka that landed nearby the house.
Just as he was about to cast a spell that would control this fire. A red line of energy flew out of the house and landed against the wall of a nearby building. It was a man Jon couldn't identify and stuck in his chest was Hilda's axe.
Soon after, Hilda jumped off the flame wearing her nightgown and seemed to be in a berserk state. The moment she saw Jon, she shouted.
"GO! Help Jonrad!"
Seeing that she handled her situation, Jon didn't think much and headed inside the burning house while surrounding himself with a Flame Cloak spell that siphoned away all the flame into his.
Just as he entered the house, he found that most of the furniture and the walls were already burning badly and it seemed like many attackers were lying around the place, all killed with their bodies slashed violently.
"Good God! The kids!"
He sped right away through the main hall up to the second floor where the flames were consuming the wooden stairs. He jumped to the hard part of the upper floor with a single leap and headed straight to Thor and Idun's room. There, of course, was Jonrad who stood in the doorway with his big body frame, covering the inside.
"Hey! Move aside! Where are the ki…"
Jon pushed Jonrad aside and looked inside the room that was somehow spared from the fire. However, Jon could see no Thor or Idun in there.
"Where are they?" Jon asked and turned to his father.
It was enough to look at the man's face and immediately know the answer. The look on Jonrad's face was bloody terrifying, his eyes were bloodshot with rage and he dug his teeth into his lower lips and his fingernails into his palms, causing the blood to drop from them.
They were taken!
Someone barged right into Saarthal, invaded Jonrad's house, caused the fire, and disappeared with the two toddlers who weren't even three years of age.
Jon's head suddenly caught on to reality as it caught on to him as if his head was lit on fire. He looked around the room and saw nothing as if he was desperately hoping for the kids to show up from their hiding hole.
Still, reality faced them with the truth everyone feared to even acknowledge.
Especially with Jonrad and Hilda, they had a bad history of people attempting to take away their child but for the first time, their youngest children were taken from them in a flash of flame.
Seeing the devastated face of Jonrad, who had to face Hilda as Jon dragged him from the burning house, was just too traumatic for these two.
Alina, who arrived late to the scene mustered all her magic to put out the fire as soon as possible and preserve what's left of the house in ice. Everyone else started to arrive right after that and they could understand the situation when Hilda punched Jonrad right in the face and Jon tried to intervene to make them see reason and start the chase immediately.
The children were still able to trace and whoever took them knew exactly what to do against Jonrad and Hilda, and knowing their enemies, there could be a lot of suspects.
So, how did it happen?
***
Earlier this evening…
It was an evening like any other beyond the walls of Saarthal, calm from the inside and defiant from the outside. Hilda just put the twins to bed and retreated to Jonrad's side without saying much. The two were exhausted and sleepy, and in their minds, there were a lot of tasks for them to get over with tomorrow, so they just surrendered to sleep.
In their minds, however, each had his dreams. Whereas Jonrad's mind was calm like the sea, hiding its undercurrents beneath a facade of stillness, Hilda's mind was rather peaceful without any noise in the background.
Even though she had the axe hanging at the wall in front of her eyes, something in her heart told her that she no longer needed such a blooded weapon, and the souls she reaped can be damned to Oblivion for all she cares about. She's a veteran who earned her rest.
But this peace was disturbed by the sound of metal coming from outside. It felt as if a marsh was happening outside and she could only hope that she was having one of those dreams about the Great War once again. Still, she was already wide awake and the sound was still there, even Jonrad heard it and had his eyes staring with full alertness.
The two warriors didn't even speak and the both of them grabbed their weapons from the wall racks. As they opened the door, there were their worst fears in front of their eyes.
A senseless fight broke out!
Who are these men? What's with their unusual auras? How many of them are there? What about the young ones?
At some point amidst all the hacking and slashing, the spellcasting and firemongering, Jonrad and Hilda are convinced this is some sort of a lucid dream, and their fears are somehow chasing them from the depth of their consciousness. But as they were hacked back with cold iron and struck with evil Magicka, their heads went blank with all the murder they had to commit in the hallway of their house, over to the kitchen, down to the dining room, up to the attic, and straight to the children's bedroom.
"Get the kids!" Hilda shouted at Jonrad and he took up to the room above while fighting his way through four enemies that were unusually stronger than the rest. Still, they were no match for him and only one of them was left standing at the door to the children's bedroom.
"Don't you…" Jonrad was about to say something as he struck with his sword aura from a distance but the man in front of him simply raised his greatsword like a shield and a red ward formed with the symbol of a shield on it, negating Jonrad's aura.
Jonrad and that man finally engaged in melee and they were closely matched in terms of skill but Jonrad was still overpowering the man with brute strength and magic output. Yet for many instances that man could at least counterattack or go wild and disregard his surroundings, but he did not, and he kept parrying, striking back systematically, and even enduring attacks.
He was clad in exquisite Nordic full-plate armor, resembling the one from the game, with all its carvings and glory. Yet despite that, the man's armor was rather light and didn't bother his movements. Moreover, it was keeping up with Jonrad's fire attacks, even though a regular armor piece would start to heat up from that heat a long time ago.
All the carvings on the armor seemed to have been imbued with the aura of fire that kept striking it and even Jonrad took notice that rather than being affected by the heat, it was emitting it back.
The heat around the armor created a lot of Magicka pressure, one that ought to blast to the outside and have a terrible effect but with Jonrad's style being heavily reliant on Fire, he noticed that his attacks were worsening the situation a bit too late and just as he was trying to drive the house invader outside by any means, it happened.
The armor burst with a terrible explosion, and all Jonrad could do was stand between the flames and the children's bedroom. He became occupied with halting down the fire to the point where he couldn't move an inch when he noticed that something had teleported behind him inside the children's room.
"NO! HILDA!"
He shouted for his wife to come but the explosion was consuming most of the air molecules and he had to hold his ground no matter what.
Then that thing teleported away and the fire explosion was finally contained.
The warrior that was facing Jonrad disappeared and so were the children from their bedroom.
It was all planned, designed, and executed to perfection, knowing how he would react, and that the strong explosion would disturb the magic protection around Saarthal, allowing one man to teleport right in and kidnap the children while another held Jonrad in place by reversing the output of his fire attacks into an explosion that would threaten his own children.
That sinister plan had a sinister planner, and that planner stood far above Mount Anthor where Saarthal could be seen bare from above and a sinister smile was enough reaction to convey that the plan worked.
Now, they have the children of Jonrad Firemane and the siblings of Jon Dare in hand.
A lot can be achieved if the cards are played right.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
El_Don
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Chapitre 749: DS 749
749: Wrath of a Father
Where were Thor and Idun taken? A question left everyone in Saarthal holding their breath until Jon and Nurina finished the tracing ritual.
"You're ready?"
While standing in the children's room that was spared from the fire, Nurina looked at Jon and he nodded back to her. Suddenly, he disappeared from the room in a blink of an eye.
Those who saw that jumped into the room towards Nurina immediately, complaining that this wasn't supposed to happen and they ought to go with him.
Nurina had to explain to them that things didn't go that way because there were many possibilities of what could be waiting for them on the other side, and only Jon could be trusted to go and return without suffering damage.
But while she was in the midst of explaining things to them, a sound was heard as Jon teleported back.
"It's useless." He said as he walked between his kin.
"What? Why?" Hilda cried as she pushed everyone on her way aside to come to him.
"I ended up on Mount Anthor, and from there I found ten traces of teleportation magic. To do the tracking ritual ten times, it would take us an hour and they could have gone anywhere." Jon said and concluded, "We need different ways to chase them."
"No! My babies." Hilda seemed broken but everyone around her started to come up with suggestions to look for the kids.
Wulfur and Bjorna decided to go with their animals and look for any scent of the kids out there, and since the kids' room was spared from the fire, there would be something for the animals to sniff. The problem would be the fact that there is no scent trail to follow as the children were teleported away, which means Wulfur and Bjorna would travel across the land in order to pick up the scent.
For that, Skadi Firemane offered to lend her expertise as a Water Diviner in order to narrow down the search area.
As for the others, many decided to go out and search every inch of Skyrim for traces of the kidnappers. This way was inefficient in most cases but the Firemanes had a very special advantage, two in fact.
The first advantage is their beasts. The Firemanes' craft is originally herding, taming, and breeding beasts. Some of these beasts are very sought after by the rich and powerful clans all across Tamriel and so one can consider their market to be continent-wide.
This means that they will go out there and start tracking the twins with tracking animals until their kidnappers are snuffed out.
As for Jon, he wasn't sure which approach to take but Alina suggested going after the twins with the Clairvoyance spell. The problem with Clairvoyance is that — unlike the game — it takes intense focus and Jon wasn't the best at divining things. So Alina took on that one as he simply just followed while sharpening his teeth she nails for any fight.
The only one who left on his own was Jonrad and he took to the west with nothing but the sword Goldbrand that was given to him by Jon.
And so the search began.
A day passed and by the next night, reports started to flow towards Winterhold.
It seemed that the children were taken across the Pale and not too far to Hjaalmarch. Wulfur and Bjorna encountered many difficulties along the way including what seemed to be an endless swarm of Ice Wraiths.
At that point, the anomalies were only starting to emerge. After Wulfur and Bjorna, Jon and Alina arrived from the northern direction of Dawnstar and were met with what can be said as a chaotic storm of lightning bolts and a strong blizzard that rained all its might against them even with Spring being almost over.
"I haven't seen a storm this violent before." Alina said as she braced herself with an extra layer of clothing.
"Lucky you!" Jon said as he did the same.
"You've seen a storm worse than this?" She asked.
"A temporal storm." Jon said and recalled the events that happened in the chaos of worlds.
"How was that?"
"It is like creation itself is turning against you."
"Sounds like a storm alright."
"Let's keep going. The kids are in there." Jon shook off the useless thoughts and took the lead ahead of Alina as he protected her with his big physique and cloaking spells from the storm.
"Jon, I was wondering. If we had children of our own, wouldn't your enemies go as far as trying to threaten you with them?" Alina asked.
"My enemies tried to threaten me with you once. Remember what happened to them?" Jon replied.
"Oh, yes. The poor fools." Alina nodded, "Well, it was mostly thanks to how awesome I am."
"Whatever you say, Princess." Jon shrugged his shoulders.
"But really think about it. If this wasn't your parents' enemies, can't this be the doing of your enemies?" She asked.
"Jonrad and Hilda jumped to the conclusion that it must be some of their enemies looking to settle an old score for that reason. They didn't want me to think it may be my enemies. They thought I may do something reckless and fly head-on into a trap."
"So you knew."
"Of course I knew." Jon sighed and turned to Alina, "This one has the Dragon Cult fingerprints all over it."
"So?" She asked as she caught up to him.
"So?" Jon turned away, "All they want is me. They will keep the kids alive until I get there. No matter what they do, I'll beat them badly and get back my little siblings. I have the Seven Sins, a Shadow Cat, some friends in the high places of Oblivion, my Thunder Cookie, and my dear wife with me. What chances do they stand?"
"That's the problem, Jon." Alina followed up hastily, "You are too much as you are right now. Your enemies will try to restrain you."
"You mean by getting me out of Winterhold and attacking me from the back?" Jon asked, "You know we've made countermeasures for that."
"But what if they went out of their way to target someone else, knowing that you are no longer someone they can deal with?" Alina asked a question which caused Jon to halt his steps.
He stood for a while and started thinking.
"If they are considering me some sort of an unstoppable force at this point, they may try to find something as strong as me." Jon said and turned to Alina, "What would you do if you were them?"
"If I was the Dragon Cult? Simple! I'll find the strongest Dragon and pour all the resources I have into making him strong enough to get rid of you." Alina answered.
"Alduin." Jon narrowed his eyes as he was slowly starting to realize something.
"You weakened Alduin's effort to regain his power by halting the war. As you keep getting stronger, he cannot." Alina said and then added, "Moreover, you made sure to hunt the Dragon Cult whenever they rear up their ugly heads. They can't reignite the war anytime soon."
"Well, that was the plan." Jon nodded.
"Then what if the Dragon Cult decided to change its approach? Rather than quantity, they'd go looking for quality." Alina pointed out.
"I'm listening." Jon said with a dangerous look in his eyes.
"They thinned us out all across Skyrim now. All they need to do is to strike us individually while totally avoiding you. If any of us falls in battle and goes to Sovngarde…" Alina speculated and left it for Jon to figure out.
"It is quality over quantity for big old Alduin." He said and let out a big sigh.
It was a possibility but if Alina is the one who speculated it, it is probably the enemy's plan.
"How do we respond to that?" Jon asked.
"Since we are narrowing down the location of the kids, I guess we should call off the search and tell everyone to return to Saarthal and stay on guard." Alina said.
"The only problem here is that this storm is keeping us from establishing proper communication. There is something magic about it." Jon pointed out before shrugging, "Guess I'll send Nefertiti."
"Who do you think the Dragon Cult will try to target first?" Alina asked.
"I have a good idea of who. The problem is they are walking into a trap of their own making." Jon replied and then gave Alina a hint, "People with sight problems confuse us together but he's the ugly one."
"Yeah. You'll never shut up about that." Alina shook her head and then looked around, "It seems we are being attacked as well."
"Cultists?" Jon asked.
"Vampires." Alina replied.
"Those sad excuses of mosquitoes. I see our enemies banding together."
"That would be easier than running around to round them up."
Jon and Alina had enough with talking and sparks of magic started flashing from their hands as they were facing a horde of vampire and evil creatures jumping out from the storm.
***
As Jon and Alina were fighting through the storm in the North, and Wulfur and Bjorna were charging through enemies in the South, the east was the only side where one man was walking through without much hindrance.
There was no storm, no blizzard, no fire or ice, just a barren wasteland of mist and fog.
His armor was light and his steps were quiet, but his expressions were rather heavy. After all, he's a man whose children went missing because he wasn't able to get to them in time.
As he kept walking and following the breadcrumbs left for him by the enemies that were luring him in, he came to a quiet halt and his gaze parted from the ground he was intensively looking at and kept looking ahead.
The air moved subtly but as he was thinking, the subtle movement of air molecules started getting more agitated by the second. His eyes twitched showing his age wrinkles, his sleeves fluttered showing his scarred arms, and his hand moved towards the hilt under his cloak, and with one clean swift movement, a stream of flames targeting him was cut in half followed by a loud thud and an earth tremor behind him.
A dragon that flew through the mist fell down as its fire chased off the moisture in the air.
A large beast as it can be seen, fell to a sword strike charged with a formless aura but that falling wasn't as critical as it was humiliating.
"Vahrot Kreniik!" (Oathbreaker!)
The Dragon sprung up from its awkward fall and faced Jonrad who still hadn't turned for him.
"This is quite the sad joke, even for a Dragon." Jonrad spoke with a voice void of emotion.
"YOL TOOR SHUL!"
The Dragon managed to get up and reared his head back before unleashing its flaming breath at Jonrad who stood unfazed.
With Goldbrand in his hand, Jonrad only braced the with the blade in front of him and the fire breath of the dragon was cut in two. Once that was over, Jonrad pointed the blade backward and absorbed all the fire breathed out by the Dragon and rounded it on the blade before striking with an upward slash that made a large whip of fire on its trail.
The Dragon wasn't fast enough to fly away and as he rose in the air, he was smitten down by the power of his own flame. As that flame dissipated, Jonrad already managed to close the distance enough to slash the Dragon's wing open.
*ROAAAAR!*
"I have always fantasized about the power and nobility of a dragon. But seeing how you stooped so low where you meddle in the lives of men, acting like cowards, kidnapping children, and hiding behind a fanatic army, it all made me wonder what is the difference between the likes of you and a common villain."
"Bo vau zey!" The Dragon tried to chase Jonrad away by its tail but the skilled swordsman parried an entire tail swipe with a sword strike at the expense of retreating in the snowy land with two line trails on the ground ahead of him.
"And so I asked myself a question. Why do humans elevate beings like you as symbols of power and might? It is undeniable how strong you are but then again, just like the rich and the poor, you came into being as a dragon, not as an ant or a dog. What sets you apart? What makes you different?"
"Nid rot! DIR!" The dragon was annoyed with Jonrad's words and wanted him to shut up as he attacked with his maw open with all its glorious fangs aiming to gnaw the swordsman to death.
"The answer is that there is a difference but one that no longer matters once our lives are on the line." Jonrad parried the Dragon's fangs with a strong circular motion and slashed the Dragon's neck wide open from its softest spot from front to back.
Blood sprawled from the neck and covered the snow as the dragon staggered to its temporary demise.
"Lir nis krii dovah. Orin waan hi kron hi saan!" As he lost, the Dragon still gloated that a mortal worm couldn't kill him, that even if this was Jonrad's victory today, he would lose to him another day.
"I happen to be the father of one ugly dragonborn. I pity your fate but I'll have to let him know I killed a Dragon here."
Jonrad sheathed his sword and the Dragon fell to his death but the soul of the dragon hadn't parted from his carcass. It would need a Dragonborn for that.
Still, a Dragonknight was enough to douse the flames of a dragon. A very angry Dragonknight on the trail of his kidnapped children.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS
El_Don
El_Don
Please show some Love, Comment, and Review!
You can also read the early chapters on P4treon & Join Discord for chat and games!
Use the URL: https://linktr.ee/donovel
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