13th of Sun's Dawn, 4E 189.
"Another!" A soft, yet demanding mans voice echoed throughout the forest. Gael stood blindfolded, knee-deep in the river, legs numb from half-frozen water. The harsh climate was unfamiliar to the young Breton child, but she persevered, mumbling silent prayers to Julianos. As soon as she felt even the faintest presence of life beneath her, she struck, pulling a small, slimy catfish out.
"Good. I was worried you wouldn't be able to eat tonight. Now come along before you get frostbite" Gael carefully walked towards the shore and felt around for the wooden bucket, fighting back the urge to pull away the black fabric from around her eyes. From the very start, Gael hadn't had good eyesight, and it only got worse as time went on, just as her Grandmother, Vyvenne's did. Coming from a family of renowned warriors, this was concerning, and just like her Grandmother, they had planned to marry her off for more influence in the region, such as those born noble often were.
By the time she had found the bucket, she could hear her teacher's footsteps growing fainter as he made his way back to camp. Much to her fortune, she was given a chance, prove that she could be a competent, even exquisite warrior without sight and she would be able to join her brothers on the battlefield. Some questioned her choice, wouldn't she rather spend her days in a warm castle and sleep in a soft bed at night than risk her life fighting in wars that they might never win? Those people don't know what it's like, politics is a whole other battle, Vyvenne herself had been killed in the night by an assassin sent by a rival family, one her widowed husband later married into.
"Now, make a fire." Her teacher ordered. Gael tried picturing the camp in her mind, difficult when you had never even seen it, but had a faint idea of the layout of the trees, tents, and most importantly, her pack. Gael had yet to go entirely blind, far from it, even, but according to the healers it was inevitable, so she prepared as best she could. Vyvenne hadn't lost her sight completely until her 30s, but began relying primarily and hearing long before that, and had described it as a weight being lifted off her chest, no longer clinging to the hope she could one day see the face of her child.
Gael scrambled through the surrounding woods, grabbing any twigs, logs, and tinder that felt dry enough amongst the snow to light, feeling the bark for the distinct 'cat eye' pattern of the poisonous Dire Orander tree, lest the smoke reach their lungs. Lighting the pile was an easy enough task once she was able to locate the flint and steel from her pack; It was a small fire that didn't give off that much warmth, but it would do. Predicting her teachers next orders, she pulled the hunting dagger from her pack and carefully began cutting into the two fish she had caught earlier. She felt most at home with some sort of blade in hand, and alongside her older brothers, had been trained at birth to wield one. As they got older, they began to be introduced to different forms of magic. While both her brothers, by tradition, took a liking towards destruction magic, she found herself most drawn to the far more practical school of Alteration, and was currently learning to sense the presence of life forms around her. As of now, she couldn't tell the difference between a torchbug and a sabercat and struggled to hold concentration for more than a few seconds at a time, though her teacher assured her it would become second-nature if she kept at it.
After carefully placing the now cooked fish on a small wooden plate she began to search for her teacher, taking deep breaths and attempting to channel the mana surrounding her. In her minds eye, she began to see stars encircle her, though blurry at first, they slowly began to focus. Little more than dots now, supposedly, one could learn to see almost a mirror image nearby creatures. After settling on a light she believed to be her teacher, she began to approach with his share of the meal. But before she could stop herself, her foot got caught under a particularly large piece of firewood she had collected, causing her to fall over, dropping the plates of fish she was holding and putting her hands forward to brace herself, sending them straight into the hot coals and causing the cuts she had already received from sharp river rocks and thorny vines to burn all the more. Quickly pushing herself back, she began to cry, tears wetting her blindfold despite her best attempts to hold it back. "The- The fish..."
She heard a loud sigh from in front of her. "Come on, girl. I will put salve on your wounds, and you can have a sweetroll from my tent".
"Sw- Sweetroll?"
"Yes, a sweetroll. Have you never had one? They were very popular during my time in Skyrim. But only this once, you will need your energy, there's a long month ahead of you."
A/N: Thank you for reading. This has been a short prequel or introduction chapter for the main OC, Gael. Future chapters will most likely be longer. All reviews are greatly appreciated.