Chapter I

The sound of the horses hooves beating the ground pulled the dazed Karin from her unconcious state. Disoriented, it took her a few moments to get a hold of herself and her surroundings.

She was sitting upright in the back of a carriage, along with five others, being pulled along by a couple horses. She noticed multiple carriages following the same path down a slope. Despite the sun beating down, the air was cool, hinting it was getting late in the afternoon.

Karin couldn't recall getting in the carriage or the events before. The only thing that she could remember was trying to cross over the border with her sister, Elsie.

Elsie! She spun her head around, her long blonde hair whipping around in the wind. She tried to reach up to see above the wooden sides of the cart, but at that point she noticed that her wrists where bound together with rough looking rope.

What was going on? How did she get here and where was her sister? She needed to get out of here, but she knew she wouldn't get far with her hands bound and no weapons.

"Stop fidgeting around." The man across from Karin grumbled. His faced was creased in a frown and his eyes filled with annoyance. He was drapped in furs of all kind, and under that, what looked like some type of uniform. Was this brute a soldier?

"S-sorry... I'm just-" She tried to explain, but she was cut off mid-sentence by the man to her right.

"Don't be foul, Gunmund. Does she look like she's trying to cause trouble?" She looked over at her defender and was surprised to see a soft gaze of another nord. His eyes were the color of the hazy sky after a storm.

"Forgive me, Sebastian." Gunmund growled, scratching his bearded chin. "Next time we get captured, I'll make sure to be pleasant to any nuisances that we come across."

Karin stared at each of them, a puzzled look in her eyes. "Captured... I-I don't understand. Who captured us?"

"Shut up back there!" A voice came from the head of the carriage. It must've been the driver.

"Imperials..." Sebastian whispered, leaning forward. "They had set an ambush for us. I don't know how, but they knew exactly when and where we were going to be..." He looked lost in thought as he shared his suspicions with the rest of the group.

"You tried to cross the border." Gunmunds gruff voice cut in. Karin glanced at him and Sebastian sat up. Gunmund stared at her, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Why...? And who were you with?" She didn't necessarily trust these men, but there was no point in avoiding the truth.

"Elsie. My younger sister. We... We were trying to-" But she stopped when voices came from ahead. All three of them spun their heads around. The carriages were approaching what looked to be the walls of a town.

"Helgen." Sebastain murmured. "This is Helgen." Karin looked up at him, fumbling with her binds.

"Helgen?" He nodded, glancing at her. "You obviously haven't been around these parts much, have you?" Shaking her head, Karin looked at the thick wooden walls.

It was true. Karin and Elsie were born in an old shack under Riften, next to the sewer system. They didn't have much money, so the two sisters had to work for their food and bed.

During the day, Karin worked in the stables, cleaning out the stalls and taking care of the horses. She couldn't make enough money just doing that, so she decided to take a job sweeping the floors at the Bee and the Bard, an inn in Riften.

Elsie, however, had a knack for dealing with things that made most girls shriek. Sometimes she helped out in the Temple of Mara, healing the sick or wounded, but mostly just stayed in the Hall of the Dead, where she acted as apprentice to the caretaker. She got paid a pretty good sum of money, comepared to what they had, since it was a job that most wouldn't dare to take.

After they raised enough money, they paid for a carriage to take them to Falkwreath. They had gotten into some... trouble there, so they decided to take their chances in Cyrodiil, and booked it out, trying to escape across the border, but their bad luck caught up to them, and they ran into an ambush along with a Stormcloak patrol.

It was all coming back to her. The soldiers. Elsie getting tied up and shoved in another cart. Her struggle. And then finally, the guard hitting her on the back of the head. And now she was here, her arms bound, in the back of a carriage, going to face her death. Perfect.

The horses pulled them into Helgen and through the town. Karin could feel the people watching them as they came to a stop. Sebastian gazed at the sky.

"This is it... End of the line."