THUMP!
-"Good, but slow your breathing this time..."
THUMP!
-"Better, much better!"
THUMP!
THUMP!
THUMP!
The girl lowered her bow and gave her father a victorious grin. They were standing on the edge of a clearing, surrounded by tall pine trees. On the opposite end stood two stuffed practice dummies, shaped roughly like a doe and a stag. The doe had several arrows stuck on its neck.
-"We will soon have to find a place with a longer range, this is getting too easy for you!" Said the father, beaming with pride. He had reason, too, since even though all Bosmer had some natural talent in archery, his Nyissayara was something else. She had wanted to pick up a bow pretty much right after learning how to stand up, and her father had been more than happy to oblige. His other daughter took more after her mother and studied magic and alchemy rather than went hunting in the woods.
-"Do you think the soldiers would let me practice at their training yard someday, father? They have so many dummies and a loooong aisle for the marksmen, I've seen it! They can hit an apple from a mile away!" The girl was positively glowing with child-like enthusiasm. She had spied on the soldiers of the keep, dreaming to one day have a place amongst them.
Her father silenced a sigh. Nyissa was already a good archer now, at the age of eight, and would grow up to be a great one. Still, he doubted that she would ever be allowed to join the soldiers, even for some archery training. Their family were servants, and not to be taken seriously in any matter. He did not want to burst his daughter's dream-filled bubble and kept postponing the inevitable, which was to tell her that the best she could do was to become a hunter for the family they served. The Ironwoods were nice enough though. They treated their elven servants almost as members of the family. Maybe, if Brynn Ironwood would speak on her behalf, she would have a chance... With enough training…
-"Father?"
He was jerked back to the moment and looked at her daughter, then ruffled her ash-blond hair.
-"Time will tell, honeycomb. Right now, you have a stuffed deer to catch. Bring down the stag!"
Nyissa smiled, raised her small practice bow and knocked an arrow from her quiver.
They returned to town just before lunch time. From the gates it was only a short walk to the Ironwood residence, which was a large house off the main road. There was smoke rising from the chimney. A window near the front door was slightly ajar, and a delicious scent of garlic, herbs and roast beef was hanging in the still air. Nyissa jerked the door open and waited for her father to enter first.
The upper floor housed the Ironwoods and served as a dining room. Nyissa's family lived in the basement, which was quite cozy, as far as basements go. Overall the house felt a bit crowded, but nobody seemed to mind the arrangements. Especially during the long and harsh winters, it was a definite bonus to have a full house.
-"There they come! Just in time for food, I should have known!" Came a bellowing voice from the dining room.
Nyissa entered after his father and closed the door behind her. She looked apologetically at the man who sat at the head of a large dining table. Brynn Ironwood was a tall, muscular Nord. He had the look of someone who could easily rip a deer in two with his bare hands, just because he could. Despite his rather intimidating appearance, he was actually very kind, and known to be a sensible, fair man. This was why other townsfolk often came to him when they had a disagreement of sorts to settle. Besides taking the unofficial role of town judge every now and again, Brynn was a blacksmith, and was also teaching his 14-year-old son the tricks of the trade. They spent most of their days outside by the forge. Brynn looked at Nyissa with a smile on his face.
-"Off practicing your archery, eh? Good job, we need a solid hunter when Llowyn here gets too old to go sneaking in the woods," Brynn said with a teasing twinkle in his eyes, "what are you, 400 years old?"
-"Give or take," Nyissa's father replied and took a seat at the table. He gave a warm, adoring smile to the female elf who was standing by the fireplace. Nyissa's mother was beautiful, with long, wavy, silvery hair, and she had the most friendly and welcoming smile. She stirred something in a large kettle and turned slices of beef in skewers. She had a gentle, motherly look in her amber eyes as she addressed her younger daughter.
-"Nyissayara, take your bow downstairs. And do put it where it belongs, not just on the first flat surface you find. I believe Monétte and Knut are down there too, please tell them lunch is ready."
-"Yes, mother", Nyissa replied obediently and crossed the room to the saircase which led to the basement.
Her mother was right, Monétte and Knut were sitting on the floor next to Nyissa's bed, playing with wooden toys. As they spotted her, they jumped up and ran to greet her.
-"Guess what we saw today, you'll never guess!" Said Monétte and clutched Nyissa's arm.
-"Umm… A flying horse?" Guessed the elf, looking into Monétte's eyes, which shone with excitement. They were the same pale blue as Brynn's.
-"NO, you silly!" Giggled the girl and walked with Nyissa to the small weapon rack that stood at the other end of the room. Nyissa set her bow on the rack and tried to remove her quiver from her back, which was difficult since Monétte was still grabbing her by the arm.
-"We saw a rainbow! It was beautiful!"
-"Wow, Mona, really? That must've been cool," Nyissa replied, shaking her arm free and removing the quiver, "mother told me to tell you that lunch is ready."
-"Mmkay, come on Knut, let's go eat," Monétte said to her brother and picked him up.
Nyissa paused for a moment and just looked at the two with warm affection. The Ironwoods were not the most common family in town. Brynn Ironwood had fell in love and married a Breton, Jéanna Chautelle. Jéanna was an intelligent, observant and strong-willed woman. She was skilled in healing magic and knew a thing or two about potions. The Ironwoods were generally well-respected, but there were those who thought Brynn should have married a Nord. There were also those, who did not accept the way the Ironwoods treated their servants. Not many would have housed the help under their own roof, let alone treat them as equals and let their children become friends with each other.
Monétte Ironwood was Nyissa's best friend, though. They could not have been more different, besides the fact that they were born within a month of each other. Nyissa was determined, responsible and quite serious for her age. Mona was easily excited, trusting and loved being the center of attention. Nyissa was quite protective of her, maybe because she knew that she was to become Mona's servant when they grew up. Nevertheless, she dreamed of becoming a soldier and defending the people, the town, the land that she loved. Skyrim was home, these people were her family, their house in Helgen was always filled with smiles and laughter. She wanted to protect it all.
A few years went by, though not as peacefully as the townsfolk would have preferred. Skyrim was in turmoil, fights erupted between the Empire and the native Nords (who had imaginatively dubbed themselves as Stormcloaks, after their leader Ulfric Stormcloak), and they heard rumors coming from as far as Morthal about restlessness amongst some rebel group there, too. Helgen was a central location for the Empire forces, due to its location at an important crossroads to every direction in Skyrim.
Nyissa found this exciting, since the years had not dulled her dreams of becoming a soldier herself. She sneaked to watch the Imperial soldiers whenever she had the chance, though her own archery training and chores took up most of her time. She was becoming quite accurate with her bow and had grown tired of the stationary practice dummies some time ago. She kept improving her skills by hunting on her own and often brought home rabbits and squirrels. Her mother made a point of teaching her how to skin the game she caught and prepare stews and other tasty dishes from them.
-"It's a waste to kill an animal if you don't know how to use it," she would explain to her daughters during one of these lessons, "And, if you can cook, clean and sow, you will have all the skills a good servant should have."
Nyissa's older sister, Allendra,was a natural when it came to these chores. She seemed perfectly content in continuing to serve the Ironwoods, without any other ideas concerning her future. Nyissa did her duties as fast as she possibly could without getting scolded, not really seeing the importance of rubbing the floor clean only to see it get dirty again the moment someone stepped in the house. She had a practical mind, and thought it was much more important to know how to get food and stay alive, than seeing to every nook and cranny being free of spiderwebs.
The practicality aspect in mind, she worked up the courage to ask Brynn if he could teach her some basic smithing techniques. She was mainly interested in the crafting of arrows, since she was using them by the bushel and did not want to burden the blacksmith with her constant requests for more. The Ironwoods were already kinder towards their servants than most, but Nyissa was not entirely confident it would stretch to letting a servant in on the family trade.
Brynn, however, said (with humor in his eyes) that if Nyissa promised not to start a blacksmith of her own and become their competition, he had no problem teaching her – assuming Llowyn agreed with the idea. Llowyn was concerned what the other townsfolk would think about his daughter studying alongside the Ironwood's sons. It could result in unwanted consequences. In the end, they compromised that Nyissa could learn how to make bows and arrows, just for her own use.
After getting the permission to craft her own bow, Nyissa had sneaked small pieces of parchment from the storage room and some coal from the fireplace. That same evening she climbed a tall tree just outside the town walls. From the top branches she had a clear view into the barracks courtyard and drew sketches of the soldiers' bows to craft herself something similar. She was only eleven and could not handle such a stiff and large bow, but she wanted to try and see if it would work in a smaller scale.
Since then she became so determined to craft the perfect bow that it neared obsession. The porch was soon riddled with small splinters of wood, which quickly resulted in the rule of no bow-making around the house. Nyissa started to use every spare moment of the day in the vicinity of the Ironwood's forge. She watched intently as Brynn explained how different types of wood had to be treated to make a good bow. She soon learned that it was more difficult than it looked. The wood had to be smooth to the touch and bendy, but firm enough to shoot arrows properly. The arrows themselves were another thing entirely. She had her work cut out for her.
Nyissa had to test each bow in action as she made them, which subsequently led her to become a fine archer. Since her bows nor arrows were the easiest to shoot with, she had also developed a knack for moving quietly in the woods – it helped if the prey was close when she was using arrows which did not necessarily shoot in a straight line.
Three years and countless prototypes and arrowheads later, Brynn declared that Nyissa had learned all that he could teach her. The further mastery of the fine art of bow-making would be learned only through time and experience. Nyissa felt proud, not only because of Brynn's praises, but also because she had finally created a bow she was quite satisfied with. She could not wait to test it out.