A/N: Be welcome! My name is Alastriona Rose, and this is my very first fanfiction I've written, and decided to translate to English. Yeah, I'm not a native English speaker, so perhaps I've made some mistakes, but I've tried my best. If you notice any of them, please, tell me, and I correct it immediately!
Hope, you'll enjoy it!
DISCLAIMER: The Elder Scrolls V.: Skyrim and its entire world (including places, characters, etc.) belongs to Bethesda Softworks. However, Luna Wind-Feet is my character. But I don't own anything else.
I.
Unbound
(part I.)
The pine forest at the foot of the Jerall Mountains has never been as quiet as on the seventeenth day of Last Seed, early at dawn. It wasn't that kind of pleasant and peaceful silence, in which anyone would take one strech and a good nap. The air was heavy before the storm, in which even the wind couldn't roar, and the birds have forgotten the song. We are in the two hundred and first year of the Fourth Era.
A filthy, torn cloaked girl sped off among the silent trees. Bare feet barely touched the ground, only her rapid, troubled breathing broked the paralyzing silence of the forest. The hot tears were furiously biting her face, but as they ran down to her chin, have already frozen. Her strength was running out, and her chest ached of the cold air.
I have to stop… I must.
She flunged herself down next to a bole, and looked around carefully to make sure; they lost her. It was hard to find her here, the mighty pines shed out of themselves a strong smell of resin, so all of the other opressed, and the evergreen foliage conjured almost nighttime darkness around themselves. The silence was pervasive, so anyone could hear up to a mile away, if someone was approaching.
She sighed quietly, and then removed the patched, rough-woven fabric hood from her head. Ash blond hair was worn in a braided bun on her head, as often worn by the upscale ladies, a few shorter lacks of hair slipped out during the run, they sticked now to her sweaty face. She pulled them out of her mahogany-colored eyes, then grabbed the fallen leaves. Raised the picky thorns to her snub nose, and sniffed deeply. Then throwed them to her frozen toes, and tried to bury them as much as possible against the cold. She knew, if she stays longer outside, her legs won't be useful anymore.
But where could I go?
She lingered a bit at the foot of the large pine, before she continued her destination. It was too risky to stay in one place for long time. So after, she got up and continued in that hope she'll find a source, or a river in the nearby, where she can wash her face, and relieve on her excruciating thirst. She couldn't remember the last time she was drinking water. In the last couple of days she wandered among the mighty Jeralls, and ate just snow to not dry out. The long, rough cloak was wrapped protectively around her, but didn't help much; her entire body was still shaking.
The pine needle-leaves crackled softly under her feet. She hoped, this won't cause her downfall. Although, she didn't really know, why is she fleeing. There weren't any purposes of her life. Not anymore. Maybe, it was just a survival instinct that worked in her fiercely in these cold days. Unconsciously.
He said I have to run… I have to run, until I fall down to the ground. And after that, I must continue as well.
Slowly, but she forced her ice block legs to take moves again, and rise more rapidly one after another. That was the only purpose. To run. Run, run, and run, until she fall. Flapping wildly the hanging thorny branches out of the way, when one of the other scratched her hand, and the dripping blood had left its mark in the leaf rug…
Water flowing was suddenly heard not far away in the endless wilderness. The girl pulled away a last branch out of the way, and then she found herself in a small field, where the darkness could't reach. A large, mossy rock stood in the center, crystalline trickled down from its crevice, and gathered in a small pond.
Thanks to the gods… Perhaps they don't want me dead.
She hurried to the pond, rested her tired body in a large stone, bent over the water surface, and then dripped her hand in, and drank. She eagerly drank, and didn't care that her throat ached of the cold. She has forgotten, what it feels like. Almost intoxicating. Every inch of her body was grateful.
Once she satiated, washed her sticky face. Somewhat it was also refreshing, but it only lasted, until she saw her face reflecting in the mirror of the pond. The childlike countenance was pale, skinned and tortured, her full lips turned into white of the cold, and the huge, almond-shaped eyes was hiding grief and sadness in deep. They filled with tears again, and the girl strucked into the water with one hand.
A roe deer came out of the woods, with its eyes fixed on the crying girl, who tried to reciprocate the gaze, after she noticed it. She grabbed into the thorn rug at her feet, and then opened her palm, while she was turning to the animal.
It didn't bugde, so she tried to smile as much as she could, and beckoned with her head; come on, it has nothing to fear. It seemed she impressed it; the deer started to walk slowly, stopped in front of the girl, and then began to eat from the palm of her hand.
I wish I could be like it…
From this moment, everything happened so quickly. A bevy of birds flew up from the evergreen foliage, and she supposed to hear dogs barking in the deep of the woods.
– The dog has found something! It's blood! What do you think, did she die? No, she must be here somewhere! Search!
The face of the young wanderer became whiter, then the covering snow on the pikes of the Jerall Mountains. Her terrified eyes looked straight into the deer's.
I beg you! Help!
There was no time for the answer, in that moment she jumped up to the animal's back, and it began to rush with her quickly, as the wind.
– There she is! Take her! – she heard behind them.
The deer is faster, than the horse.
At least, the girl told herself this to calm down, while she was clunging to the neck of her „steed", and whispering the direction in its ear.
– Non-scape, you miserable rebel!
Then the girl realized they weren't alone. A team of soldiers dressed up in blue color seen trough the trees, as they were escaping. She couldn't saw more, the deer jumped them up high above, and then kept running. The girl looked back. A red flagged army chased the fleeing gang.
It's the color of the Empire.
She certainly knew it, but these troops weren't after her. Until now.
Maybe they were just looking for those blue soldiers. Perhaps they wont't even care about me. What did they say? „Rebel"?
She gazed forward again, after she felt quite a distance between herself and them, but then the deer suddenly got taken by an arrow. It yelled in pain, and prone, and the girl crashed into a rock. A green glass, double-edged dagger slid off her cloak. The weapon's hilt was made of gold, it was sparkling in the light.
The elf soldier picked up the dagger from the ground, and examined it, while he was rolling it between his fingers.
– Hmm. How upscale… – he said sarcastically, then drew his sword, and hit the girl at the temple of her head with the hilt, causing her instantly lost consciousness.
A/N: If you liked it, please, leave a review, and then I'll bring the next part of the chapter as soon as I can!
