CHARACTER BACKSTORY EPISODE 2: In which our young heroine is double crossed and arrested for the first time.

  • “So you wanna be in the gang,” stated Torsten to Lucy. It was not a question. They looked evenly in each other’s eyes, because Lucy was big for her age, but they were not even in any other way. 

    Torsten stood backed by five of his closest mates, his lieutenants.  He was blond and blue eyed, and had the confidence of a general.  His theatre of operations was the entire city, not just the Warren. Through alliances and political ties, his army consisted of uncountable numbers of children, ranging from age five up to thirteen.  Torsten himself was eleven. 

    Luciana Henriette, by contrast, was the supplicant.  Despite the fact that she had lived in the Warren her whole life, she was an outsider.  They had pale pink skin, light eyes and fine hair, while her hair was course, her eyes black, and her skin dark and… not exactly green, but that was what people called it. And then there were her teeth.  Self-conscious, she pulled her lower lip up to cover her disturbingly large canine teeth.

    Torsten was everything she wanted to be.

    “What good would you be to us?” demanded Ragnar, from Torsten’s right shoulder. “Everyone knows you can’t DO anything.”

    Lucy’s teeth ground and her shoulders tensed, but she kept her eyes focused on Torsten.  Ragnar thought he was second-in-command, but to her, he just sounded like Torsten’s barking dog.

    “What do you think you could do for us, Luciana?” asked Torsten, thoughtfully.  “Are you thinking enforcer?”

    She shook her head emphatically.  “I want to be a burglar,” she answered, and all five lieutenants burst into laughter.  Her cheeks burned, not that it showed.

    Torsten held up his hand and they stopped.  “Like your old man,” he mused.  “He’s made a bit of a name for himself in the Guild.”

    “That’s right!” she said, pleased that he knew who her father was.  “I’m going to follow in his footsteps.”

    “But you’re an orc!” blurted Ragnar.

    Lucy gave in to the temptation to rebut.  “I’m a daughter of Skyrim, just like you!  I’ve lived my whole life here, and I’ve never even met an orc. My Da’s a master thief and a veteran warrior and my Ma’s a healer and illusionist, and I’m learning their skills.” She turned back to Torsten.  “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.  I can prove it. Let me show you.”

    A sly smile spread across his face.  “I think I will.  I’ve got a plan, and I want you to be part of it.  Follow me.”

     

    Lucy had never been to the Imperial Garrison district.  She and Torsten and the others perched on the flat roof of a building looking down at the bright, bustling, wealthy market that thrived along the walls of the garrison.  “Luciana, we are looking at a part of town where my boys and I just can’t go.  Only Southerners and their toadies get to shop here.  Anyone not wearing gold buckled shoes doesn’t get through the door. Anything funny, and the damn guards are all over you.  ”

    Lucy loved that he called her “Luciana.” 

    “Any shop in the city is an open door to us,” he went on.  “We come and go, front door or back.  The shopkeepers can’t keep us out, and they hardly even try.”

    And now he was confiding in her.

    “But this is where the Southerners sell their best stuff.  Only their rejects make it to the markets in the city. This is your test, Luciana.  I want you to go where none of us could.”

    Her chest swelled.   

    “All I want you to do is steal something from one of those shops.  Any shop, anything you want—no that’s too easy.  It’s got to be worth at least 40 gold. We’ll be watching from here and around, but we’ll be hidden.  If you get into trouble, just get yourself in the open, and we’ll harass the guards until you can run away.  Got it?”

    She nodded.

    “One last piece of advice.  If the worst should happen, not that it will, don’t give them your real name.  You don’t want the Southlanders knocking on your Ma and Da’s door, do you?”

    She shook her head emphatically.

    “Good.  Think of a name ahead of time. Something orcish-sounding.  Make it up. The Southlanders won’t know any better.  You ready?“

    As an answer, she got up and left, moving on the pads of her feet, the way her Da had showed her.

    Lucy entered the Market from an unused side alley, trying to imagine how she would do this.  Don’t be noticed.  Act natural.  If she had to, she could pretend to shop.  Too bad she didn’t have any money.  Better not to talk to anyone.

    She entered the first shop she came to, glanced quickly at the shopkeeper and his customer, then ducked behind a rack.  The place was a cobbler’s shop, full of brightly colored shoes in Southlander styles.  She grabbed the first pair of shoes she saw, and stuffed down her loose-fitting shirt to the hidden pouch inside.  Now all she had to do was slip out.

    She turned, and there was the cobbler, standing at the end of the rack, looking straight at her.  She froze.  What do I do now? “Hi.  How much for a—“

    “THIEF!” shouted the cobbler.  “GUARDS!”

    Lucy bolted, shoving the cobbler aside on her way out.  No plan; just run.  “GUARDS! THIEF!”  Every eye in the market focused on her now, and Imperial Guards came from at least three different directions.  They surrounded her in the middle of the square. Lucy uppercut the one in front of her to the groin and kept running.  He doubled over with a groan, but the next one grabbed her around the waist.  She flailed wildly.

    “Here now!  There’s no need for this,” he ordered as he struggled to hold her.  The other guards tried to pin her arms, so she kicked and clawed and head butted.  The guard holding her kept talking through his gritted teeth.  “You’re just making this worse for yourself!”

    A fourth guard was slowly and deliberately approaching the fray.  He was massive—a head above everyone else—dark, ugly and terrifying.  Where were her mates?  “Help!” she screamed.  “They’ve got me! I need help!”

     “No one will hurt you if you just settle down and give back what you took,” the guard insisted. She answered with an elbow to his teeth.

    Everywhere, she saw shopkeepers and customers gathering to watch the show. It dawned on her that this was exactly what Torsten had wanted—every eye on her!  Only then did she see a small towheaded figure, behind the crowd, bag over his shoulder.  The boys weren’t rescuing her because they were too busy looting the market!

    “YOU LIARS!  YOU CHEATS!  I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS!” Lucy screamed at them.  “YOU’LL SEE!”  In her rage, she actually threw off all three guards struggling to hold her.  “YOU’LL ALL BE SORRY!”

    A heavy Imperial gauntlet smacked into the side of her head, and the world went black. 

     

Comments

4 Comments
  • Piper Jo
    Piper Jo   ·  October 24, 2011
    Once again, thank you all for the compliments.  Stay tuned for the next episode, in which the Guard will be fleshed out a little more, and Lucy has her own prejudices ripped apart.
     
  • Yourfather13
    Yourfather13   ·  October 24, 2011
    Wunderbar! that really was an unexpected ending, can't wait to see what happens next in the series. Is there a a Juvy in Skyrim?
  • Blake O'Rafferty
    Blake O'Rafferty   ·  October 23, 2011
    brilliant, absolutely brilliant. its like chapters of a reply well written story intended to exite and entertain elder scrolls fans, phenomenal Job.
  • Batman
    Batman   ·  October 23, 2011
    Another well written piece and a nice follow up to the first one, I can't wait to see what happens in her story next.