“Uuuuuh”, the sound erupts from my mouth without me being aware of it, my eyes are clouded, I can’t think straight and for some reason I can't move my arms or legs. As my sight returns, I realise there is a Nord man staring at me, and I begin to panic. I struggle at my bonds but to no avail, I am bound tight. “You, you’re finally awake”, says the man, “you were trying to cross the border, just like us, and that thief over there”. “Who are you?” I ask him, my head is still spinning when he tells me that he is Ralof, of Riverwood. He begins talking to the other man, and the man who I just noticed, with his mouth gagged. I try to pay attention to the words but it was all just a blur, and I don’t pay too much attention as I’m struggling not to panic, we were prisoners. We arrived at some town, which Ralof says is named Helgen, when someone yells something that penetrates the deep layers of my brain, “General Tullius sir, the headsmen is waiting”, now I’m really panicking, I was going to have my head chopped off, just for walking over an imaginary line separating two countries, if these Imperials new my reasons for crossing the border, then maybe they would be more lenient. I dumbly walked up to the block when the imperial captain yelled out, “Next, the wood elf!” I walked forward and lay my head on the block, and the earth shifted beneath my feet, the headsmen lost his footing and fell on my back, he tried to get up but was knocked over again, I didn’t know what was happening until I saw the dragon. I ran, I just ran. I wasn’t a fighter, I ran from tower to tower, I dimly remembered following Ralof and Hadvar, and when I entered the keep, Hadvar was close behind me. He cut my bonds and I quickly put on some armor and grabbed a sword. I wish there was a bow. If there was a weapon that I could claim proficiency in it was a bow. Well I ran through the keep with Hadvar, not enjoying the sight of my weapon entering the bodies of my foes, but knowing that it was the only way I could survive. We entered an imperial torture chamber, and I saw all of the skeletons on the walls, I was disgusted. When I had killed the stormcloaks I also killed the torturer, and the torturers assistant for good measure. I had been collecting weapons and armour from the bodies of the dead almost without realising it, but now that I was aware of it, I was glad, these would make me some money, and that can be quite useful in the cities, even a wood elf like me knew that. Hadvar pointed out to me that there was a change with something in it, I looked in there and saw a dead body, the squeamish side of me wants to turn away but the practical side of me knows that I should try to get in there and take the robes, they are clearly enchanted, and enchanted armor is very valuable. I take some lockpicks, and manage to get into the cage with almost ridiculous ease. I take everything I can and then run to catch up to Hadvar, and as we enter a new cave an arrow whizzes past my face. Archers!!! That means that there is a bow up for grabs, and some arrows to go with it. I rush through the cave, as a woman with a battle axe takes a swing at me, I pivot to the left and stab my blade through her heart, "Skyrim belongs to the Nords" were her last words, I pull out my blade and realise that that kill didn't disgust me at all. I enjoyed it. I ran past the woman and quickly dispatched two more stormcloaks with my blade, that's when I realise the fatal flaw in my plan, I am standing in front of two stormcloaks with bows aimed straight at me, point blank range, I feel angry, to be so close to the weapon that would be my salvation and unable to attain it is agony. I am about to charge, thinking I could take at least one of them before the arrow pierces my chest, when one of them falls down, I look at her neck and see an arrow shaft sticking out of it. The other bowman turns and his eyes open in shock as my sword pierces his throat. "Thank you Hadvar, I'd actually forgotten about you." I say with a grin. "I don't find it hard to believe" he said, "There was a look on your face that said I know nothing but the desire to kill, it was scary" I shivered, "I'm sorry, I don't like that look, it's just because of what happened to me, it comes out in a rage at random times." I say, and I really am sorry. "What happened to you?" he asked. "I'd rather talk about it out in the open, if that's okay, these caves creep me out." I reply, "I understand, lets just get out of here" he says. We pull a lever that releases a draw bridge, and our timing was great, because just as I took my last step off of the bridge there is a large rumble and a large rock completely obliterates the bridge AND blocks the way back. We head through the cave, when I see movement ahead, well I hear it more then I see it, I feel it. I stick my arm out and stop Hadvar from running right into a nest of Frostbite spiders, I drop into a crouch, pull out the lovely bow that I liberated from a poor stormcloak, draw an arrow and release, a spider drops dead. I am about to get up and walk through when I see more movement, about 5 other spiders are in the room! I realise that there's no way to sneak around them (I mean come on they have 40 eyes between them), so I quickly fire off two arrows quickly and draw my sword, one of them leaps at me, I dodge and swing my blade, it chops off a leg and the spider retreats, the other spiders want revenge so I stab one of them through they face as a warning to the others. I draw my bow and aim an arrow at the spiders as I walk around them, when I feel a sudden thud behind me, I drop to the ground instinctively as a giant leg shoots over my head. I roll over and see the biggest spider I have ever seen before in my life, I loose my arrow and it goes straight into the middle eye of the spider and it drops down to the ground, limp. I quickly whip out the arrow and turn around, knowing that the other spiders won't have been idle while all of that happened, I see only Hadvar, standing over the bodies of the other spiders, with a grim smile on his face. We continue through the cave when I see a bear, the pelt of which would be very valuable. I shoot it between the eyes before Hadvar has time to yell STOP!!! "By the eight, you just shot it between the eyes from 100 yards, what a shot! The stories they tell of Bosmer must be true, they ARE expert marksman!" I thank him quickly then run through the cave, I finally see the way out. Hadvar and I leave the cave "I'd almost forgotten what sunlight felt like in that gods-forsaken cave." Suddenly the dragon passed over, but I didn't panic because I knew it hadn't seen us. Or if it had it didn't care. "Well, you asked what happened to me, and I promised I'd tell you, so here it is,"I say. "When I was a little girl, growing up in Valenwood, my father always taught me to be brave, but use nature to evade my enemies, rather then fighting them, he was very into nature and didn't believe in killing, even to protect himself. One day, when I was just turning 22, vampires attacked our village, I didn't even know what vampires were until that day, my friends and family all died, protecting themselves the only way they knew how, by asking animals to do all the work for them." I say bitterly. "Maybe if I had done something, things could've changed, but I was never allowed to touch weapons before. My father had a bow, and a supply of arrows, purely for decoration of course, and I took those and hunted down the vampires. I was a fool. They overpowered me easily and turned me into one of them, as an eternal punishment for my stupidity. I managed to gain their trust eventually, and I had become proficient with a bow while travelling with them, so I killed them all. The smell of blood was disgusting, when I realised that vampires were everything I hated, I looked for ways that I could help to destroy them, and I found, in an old textbook, a caption describing the dawnguard. I want to kill vampires, but the way I understand it, the dawnguard only come to you, so I'll have to make a bit of a name for myself before I can join up. So that's my story," I say, "What do you think?"I think that that is a terrible thing, what those vampires did, and I respect you for wishing to join the dawnguard, I've grown to think of you as family Nerriga, and I am terribly sorry for everything you were put through.""The closest town from here is Riverwood, my uncles the blacksmith there, I'm sure he'd help you out" and then he was off. I never said goodbye. I ran across country until I came to 3 strange looking stones, I choose one at random and suddenly it lights up and sends a beam into the sky! It must be a guardian stone, I had heard of these, but never really believed they existed. I ran over to Riverwood as fast as I could, and saw Alvor working on the forge, I walked up to him "Ain't every day we get visitors in Riverwood, how can I help?", he said, "Hello, I'm a friend of Hadvar's, he said you would help me out", I reply. "Hadvar", he said, astonished, "how do you know him?" he clearly wanted to check my knowledge, slightly offensive but I forgave him the suspicion...eventually."A dragon attacked Helgen and destroyed it, Hadvar and I escaped together." I told him, "A dragon! In Helgen!? That explains what I saw earlier, flying over towards the Barrow" he said, "It was a dragon, Hadvar will tell you the same thing." "There is something you could do for me, for all of us", Alvor began, "The Jarl needs to know if there is a dragon on the loose, Riverwood is defenceless, if you'll do that for me, i'll be in your debt." He said. "I'd be happy to help, but could I possibly stay in your house for the night?" I ask, "I'm exhausted and don't have the energy to go to the inn." I explain to him. "Of course you may stay for the night," says Alvor, he shows me to a bed in his house, and I barely notice when he introduces me to his wife, Sigrid, he says he has a daughter but I didn't see her around, nor catch her name. Alvor shows me to my bed, and I collapse, out cold.
What is Nerriga going to do next?
Please say in the comments, if no one reads this or comments on this then she will be going straight to Solitude to join the Imperials as soon as possible, after everything the stormcloaks had done trying to stop her escape, she had to do something.
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