Author's Note: Hello! This is my first fanfiction I've ever written. Please be somewhat merciful c; I'm open to any kind of critique, just don't kill me in the process.
Vaedi's leather boots crunched against the dirt on the cobblestone road, heading north to Whiterun. The clanging of her iron warhammer against the studs on her Imperial armor was almost as audible and painful as her exasperated breathing. The giant weapon strapped to her back easily made bruises on her pale shoulders and back. Sweat dampened her blonde hairline, as well as her brow. She had run miles before, but not in this much of a hurry, and not for this long of a distance.
The most she had run before was a mere 3 miles, but that was because she lived in a petty little town in High Rock, and everything was relatively close together. Skyrim, though, was far different. Everything was shrouded in forests and snowy mountains and cliffs. The journey from Riverwood to Whiterun felt like it would take all night just to come in sight of the great Imperialistic city.
Though, a few minutes after losing hope, she caught sight of the farms and stables just outside the great stonewalls of Whiterun. Her exhausted face turned into a smile of success, for she had almost reached her destination. She slowed her pace into a steady walk, taking soothing breaths along the trail.
Vaedi took in her surroundings, looking at the vast mountains and the golden fields of wheat and dying grass. In the distance, she could see a camp of giants, which were an extremely rare sight in her home of High Rock.
Along the trail to Whiterun, she could see a meadery of some sort, a farm or two, and a stable with at least two good horses. A Khajit caravan was camping outside the walls, hoping to sell their goods to travelers and passers-by. She always had respect for the Khajit; they weren't pushovers, and their pride wouldn't dwindle in the slightest, despite the racism they receive. Vaedi enjoyed the simplicity of the country she was currently residing in, despite the circumstances in which have lead her to this foreign land. The environment made her feel calmer, more relaxed.
After she got used to the tranquility of her surroundings, she started to run again. This time, she ran faster. It was almost to the point where she'd be sprinting. It didn't matter now. All that mattered was getting news to Jarl Balgruuf that Helgen had been destroyed by a dragon, and could possibly attack Whiterun.
People watched as the slightly shorter Nord was practically sprinting, with no knowledge of what she was doing. If they were in her way, they quickly moved. The civilians predicted that she had important news, and whoever needed this information, needed it soon.
As Vaedi made her way to the main gate of the city, a guard stopped her when she was around twenty feet away from the great wooden doors. Vaedi stopped immediately in her tracks; her inhales more tired than her last run. She looked up to the guard, who had walked a few feet forward to better her likeliness of hearing him.
"Halt!" he declared. "Whiterun is closed, due to the dragons about. Official business only."
Annoyed, but forgiven by this order, she responded, "Riverwood requires aid from the Jarl! I need entry." Even the guard could feel how tired she was.
"Riverwood is in danger, too? You better get inside then. You can get to Dragonsreach by climbing the stairs in the upper part of the city," said the guard with intense worry.
Satisfied with his response, Vaedi gave him a curt nod. She ran past him and pushed the heavy wooden doors open to reveal the cozy city.
The city of Whiterun was like nothing she'd never expect. Whiterun was surrounded by immense stonewalls, and elevated stone platforms, likely there due to natural hills, that held up the cozy wooden buildings that were relatively close to each other. Up the cobblestone path was a small market, where merchants sold their meats, cheap armor, and curios. Behind the armor stall, was a building that smelt of mead, men, and song. An inn, Vaedi figured. Just like outside the walls, the ground was golden with the probably dying grass, or it was just naturally that way. She wasn't familiar with this kind of nature, with her living in High Rock for most of her life.
Either way, she decided to ignore the scenery of the area, and headed straight through all of the neighborhoods, markets, and the plaza. Up the first set of stairs, she quickly made it from the Plains District to the Wind District. Her hurried run through the districts disturbed the serenity of the area with the clanging of metal and the frequent stumbles and crashes Vaedi faced along the way, with quick apologies for her disruption. She looked up, saw a grand flight of stairs, and viewed upon a grand palace, which she had guessed to be Dragonsreach.
Once she had completely focused on where she was supposed to go, she had unintentionally come to an abrupt halt. It felt as if she had run right into a giant wall of steel. She clumsily fell backward and landed on her back and elbows. She grunted in discomfort, cursing under her breath. She looked up to she what in Gods she ran into, only to be somewhat blinded by the sunlight that was right behind the obstacle. The brightness caused a shadow of what was in her way, so she couldn't even make out what or whom she slammed against even if she had the keen sense of eyesight like the Khajit. Vaedi put a hand over her eye to cast the slightest of shadows, to see that what she ran into, was a man.
A damn good-looking man, at that.
He was covered in a graceful set of steel armor, with fur coming out of the sleeves and on the kilt covering his legs down to his knee. He had little facial hair growing around his full mouth and strong jaw, and his eyes were somewhat hidden by the intimidating black war paint surrounding his bright silver eyes. His hair was a deep brown and his skin almost as fair as Vaedi's. His heavy Nord accent was evident through his grumbles, groans, and small obscenities to the sudden impact against his rather slim body.
"Watch where you're goin', youngster!" he exclaimed while pushing himself off the ground.
If there were anything that could bother Vaedi, out of all things, it'd be being addressed to by her age. 'Youngster', 'youngin', 'young lady,' or even 'pipsqueak' would set her gears to grind. With his statement, she suddenly lost partial attraction to this man. Of course, being offended by his statement, she gave a sassy attitude to this stranger. "Well, excuse me, but I have more important matters to attend to, rather than spending my time being polite," she said with a glare in her eyes. Right after her reply, she continued her jog towards the stairs to Dragonsreach.
She was only around ten feet away from the foot of the massive staircase when the man yelled to her again. "You don't dare speak to a Companion with such manner, lass!" Vaedi came to an abrupt halt. She turned on her heel, faced the man, now only a few feet away, and raised an eyebrow. "I don't care who you are or what you do. I have an important meeting with the Jarl," she stated, "Now, leave me be."
Disrespect to the Companions was practically a sin in Skyrim, maybe all of Tamriel, but mostly Skyrim. This woman's rude manner would not go unpunished. His pride wouldn't stand for it. He would not let her go without some sort of apology, or a brawl. Either way, she deserved to be punished.
Just as she turned her back towards him again, he tightly latched onto her upper arm, no doubt causing some bruises. He jerked her back to face him, with rage burning through his silver eyes. "Now you listen to me, lass," he commanded. "Your disrespect will not be allowed in my presence. Either you apologize, or we can settle this with our fists." To this, Vaedi couldn't help but giggle. An apology? Is he serious? For Divines' sake, this was an emergency she had to attend to! And he wants an apology?
When she was done bring amused by this request—more like a command—she said, "Look here, Companion. Helgen was just destroyed by a dragon, and I've come here by my own will to warn the Jarl of this attack. I have no time to be polite right now." She jerked her arm to be released, but to no avail. He was persistent, and since she wouldn't apologize, that only left for the only other option.
The man finally let her go, but before she could even turn away, he tackled her. A loud clang sounded when their armor hit the hard ground. Civilians of Whiterun gathered at this rare sight, a man attacking a woman. This man paid no attention to the audience his actions were receiving right next to the old tree called the Gildergreen.
He held down Vaedi's left shoulder down with his left hand, while he landed a blow to her right jaw with his right. She squirmed as she tried to yank off his left arm, which was getting closer to her neck. Struggling, she soon remembered the one weak spot on every man.
Vaedi quickly bent her knee she jerked it heavily on the man's groin. The pain was rushed through his lower body up to his stomach, and he yelped in pain. He loosened his grip on her neck and fell on his back when Vaedi immediately got on top of him and hit him with her fist multiple times in his face.
The crowd in the plaza of the Wind District started chanting for whom they wanted to support in the fight. Many of the men cheered for her opponent, while the majority of the women cheered for Vaedi. This boosted her confidence, and she was sure to cheer the crowd by attacking more aggressively against this brute.
She made sure to pin at least one arm with her leg, but the other was free to try to get her off of him. The man used his free hand to squeeze the hand around his muscled neck, almost to the point where it turned purple. Nonetheless, she broke his nose, cut the inside of his cheek, and no doubt created many bruises all over his jaw and cheekbones.
She raised her fist next to her head, about to give the final blow of this scuffle. This man would learn not to cross her path again. This would teach him and his "Companion" friends to stay away from her. Just as her hand was about to dive, she felt a strong hand grab her wrist, and pull her off of her opponent. When the stranger pulled her up to her feet, still facing the beaten up man (though she gave as good as she got), the stranger grabbed her other arm and was able to hold her back when she still tried to go back to what her enemy started.
"Vilkas, get up!" yelled a deep voice. When Vaedi turned to see whom the source of the sound was, her eyes widened. This man was huge. He also shared the face of Vilkas. They had to be twins. She could obviously tell which one got the benefit of muscle of the two. She stopped resisting his handle, afraid to be pummeled by this beast of a man.
Vilkas got up, while wiping off the blood on his lip. He wouldn't lay his eyes off of Vaedi's. In their minds, it was like the fight was still going on.
"I didn't need any help, Farkas! I was fine on my own!" Vilkas complained. He spit blood to his side and nearly grimaced at the metallic taste of blood, a taste he's always hated.
"Everyone else seems to disagree," Farkas said, with a bit of irritation, yet amusement, in his baritone voice. "Just head back to Jorrvaskr, and get Tilma to clean your head wounds."
Even though he was unsatisfied, he obeyed his twin, and angrily walked back to the oddly shaped building. Vaedi watched him walk away, and gazed upon the building in which looked like an upside-down ship. Her captor let go of his grip on her. She turned to him, as if expecting some sort of lecture from him.
"Good fight, youngin'," said Farkas. He lightly punched her arm and smiled. "You handle yourself well. How would ya like to join the Companions?"
Companions. The Companions. Gods, where has she heard that before? She spent very little time of her life in Skyrim, so any kind of folklore escaped her mind. She would embarassed to ask who they were, due to her being a three-quarter Nord. Farkas could see the confusion in her eyes, and answered her question with, "We're warriors. We fight for honor, and sometimes gold. We could use you amongst our ranks. It gets boring in Jorrvaskr."
"Sounds like my kind of people," she replied. "I'll highly consider it, but for now, I have to make my way to Dragonsreach." With that, she patted Farkas' large back, and finally walked up the steps to Dragonsreach.