Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20150321040314/@comment-12599067-20150321214827

"What is it?"

These were the first words the Colossus heard after months of long silence.

"I don't know. What do you think it is?"

"Doesn't look like anything I've ever seen."

"Do you think it's a statue?"

The Colossus thought that was a stupid question. He was no statue. Certainly a statue wouldn't be capable of hearing.

"If it is, it's one weird statue."

"Aye, it's big, too."

"You think we can sell it?"

"Maybe, after we dismantle it and ship it back to Windhelm."

"Don't be stupid, Hjor. It's too heavy for that. Besides, who the hell'd wanna buy something like this?"

"I think it could fetch a nice price at the market."

The Colossus disagreed with that. He was going to fetch no price at the market, because he wasn't for sale.

"That's a load of horse shit. No way someone would want to buy this. It's worthless."

It went without saying that this annoyed the Colossus. He wasn't worthless, and he wasn't for sale.

"D-did it just move? Did anyone else just see that?"

"Relax, Weynon. It's not going to hurt you."

"Wasn't that what the guards said when they saw their first Legendary, too?"

"This thing isn't a Legendary. If it were, it would've already turned us into toads or something."

"I saw it's hand move, Gaius!"

"Shut up, Weynon! You're going to give us away!"

"Good! Better some other scavenger deal with it than us!"

The Colossus was angry now. It knew about Legendaries, and it knew that they were killers and tyrants. He wasn't either of those things, and he wasn't worthless and he was definitely not for sale.

"There it goes again! It's hand moved!"

"Gods dammit, Weynon, shut up before I make you shut up!"

"Uh, Gaius?"

"What the hell do y--..."

"I told you this was a bad idea! I told you!"

"Weynon, you're going to wake it up!"

"What in the gods' good names..."

"Gaius, we need to move. Now."

"... no."

"What?"

"If it's an atronach, then we just need to find out how to control it. Then we can sell it at the market for a fortune!"

"Are you insane?! It'll kill us!"

That the Colossus did agree with. If they were going to try and enslave him, then take him to the market place and sell him, they had another thing coming.

"Can you not see it shaking, Gaius? We need to go!"

"I said no. We're going to stay here and find out how this thing ticks."

"Oh, sod this."

"Wait! Hjor! Wait for me!"

"Go ahead and run, you snivelling cowards! I'll find out how this thing works if it kills me!"

There was a long moment of silence in which the Colossus wasn't certain what was going on. It heard some muttering, a few choice curses, and then silence. Finally, the quiet was broken by the sound of metal rasping against metal-- much like the sound of a sword being drawn.

"Alright, you big bastard, let's see what you can do..."

There was the sound of metal rasping against stone as the Colossus felt the weight of something being thrust against it's chest. Then there was a collection of sounds like metal pieces falling on the floor, and a quiet gasp of terror from the Colossus' unknown assailant. The Colossus heard sounds like shaking, rock scraping and rubbing against rock, and then all was quiet.

And for the first time in what had been several long weeks, months, or maybe even years, something incredible happened.

The eyes of the Colossus were opened.

(Follow-up post inbound.)