Silence. Darkness. Pain. Disorientation. They are the first to greet me as I roused from unconsciousness.
My body aching and stiff, I attempted to tilt my head to the side, barely turning an inch. All of it pointless as it was too dark to see anything.
Blind and immobile, panic gripped me.
Rampant speculation ran through my head. This must be Hell, a place that I believed that I will go to, but didn't really believe that it existed.
On the off hand, I always imagined that it would involve more fire and physical torture, and not sensory deprivation. The small, logical part of me shot down the notion that Hell caters to just one form of torture. The dominant me accepted the answer from logical and then told it to shut up as it really didn't care at this time.
In panic, I grew desperate and tried to force myself to move while ignoring the aching protests of my body. It barely twitched.
This time I tried harder, even though I was blinded by the pain from my exertion. For my suffering, I was rewarded with my arms uselessly flopping around me. Emboldened by my (rather pathetic) success I proceeded forward with disregard to the warnings my body is sending me, all for the purpose of getting out.
I continued to move, the constant bouts of pain my companion and taskmaster. Already, I feel my body moving, though I cannot feel the relation of each of my extremities.
I threw myself to the side with all the energy I could muster; and ended up rolling myself off a ledge and landing face first into the ground with a large thump.
I was dazed by the overwhelming pain and the humiliation, almost distracting me from a rhythmic thumping reaching my ears. At first I thought that it was my heart, before I realized that I could already hear my heart and that the other sound is from a different source far away.
Before I could recover, the previously unseen door creaked open to a large man with a lantern, whose eyes lingered on the bed before settling on me beside it. He immediately ran towards me.
"Woah there friend. Easy now. No point in us healing you if you are going to injure yourself again."
Putting the lantern on the floor, he easily lifted me from the floor and set me on the bed.
I managed to finally cough out a question "Where..." am I? I coughed again.
"Easy there." He said as he raised his palms. He reached for a bottle next to the bed and brought it to my lips. "Here have some drink and ask me again."
I drank. It was ale. Not the best I had, but I didn't care. I drank deeply and greedily as my caretaker watched.
Bottle empty, throat wet, I asked him my question once more.
"Who are you? Where am I?"
He looks at me. "My name is Kottarald, friend, and you are in my house in Helgen."
