It was meant to be an easy crossing, just a straight ride across the border and meet her family on the other side. Her mum thought it would be safer if they went separately on different routes, it was just her luck that the route she was on was the site of an ambush and she was arrested along with these Stormcloaks she heard them be called. Her hands were bound and she was thrown into a cart with three other men. She had no doubt where they were being taken, to their execution, one of the men was madly ranting out how he didn't belong there, that he wasn't a rebel he was just a horse thief, that he and Sorcha didn't belong there and was begging for the other two to tell the guards that they had nothing to do with their rebellion. The guard yelled at him to shut up, he was probably regretting not gagging him like Jarl Ulfric. The line of carts pulled into a small village, the residents standing on their porches some shouting abuse at the prisoner's others just staring in morbid curiosity. Behind her Sorcha heard some of the guard's yell after a figure that Sorcha recognised running off into the woods with a satchel that he must have taken from the cart of confiscated items, though to the chagrin of the guards they were unable to follow as the prisoners were deemed more important.

The carts pulled up one beside the other in front of a ramshackle execution platform. One by one the prisoners were ushered off the cart to stand shoulder to shoulder, although that was difficult considering Sorcha's 5-foot stature compared to the 6-foot-tall men beside her. She watched as one of the men was called forward, lead to the podium where a man with a giant axe was waiting. The horse thief lost it then and made a mad dash trying to run away only to be shot down by the soldier's archers. One of the guards reading names of the list, he looked at Sorcha in surprise, he was a tall well-built man with messy brown hair and kind eyes. He beckoned her to step forward, which she did.

"Who are you?" he asked in confusion, Sorcha must have been a confusing sight amongst these rebellion soldiers with her short petite frame, round face and huge green eyes and fluffy black hair. Her clothes didn't match the Stormcloaks either, being a mixture of purple and brown clothe and leather with a purple scarf and thick silver padding on her left shoulder.

"My name is Sorcha" the seventeen-year-old told what she assumed to have been a twenty-year-old man, he looked to his superior showing her the list he was holding.

"Captain, she's not on the list, what do we do?" the armoured woman gave an unimpressed look

"Forget the list, she goes to the block like the rest of them" she ordered, the man gave her an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry" he said as Sorcha was directed to stand with the others waiting for their turn on the block. She turned around watching the guards wandering around taking their places to best make sure none of the prisoners tried to run, on the roof tops of one of the houses she saw the same familiar figure running and then climbing into the window of the short tower. He leaned out showing off the bag of items he'd stolen letting her know he was leaving them there. There was a woman reciting a pray as one of the Stormcloaks was knelt before the stump, the executioner raised his axe and cleaved his head from his body. There was a loud monstrous roar somewhere nearby but the soldiers were ordered to ignore it. The captain then yelled for Sorcha to step forward, oddly to the verbal complaints of the Stormcloaks saying it was unfair and acknowledging Sorcha shouldn't even be there. She went forward stepping over the slumped body of the first casualty kneeling in a runners start at the stump, digging her boots into the ground ready to run, she twisted her hands until the ropes around her wrist slide off bracing them on the ground. The tower was directly in front of her, she should be able to cross the distance before they could shoot her. There was another roar, this time it sounded much closer and the soldiers were reacting much more strongly. Sorcha looked in the direction of the sound to see a gigantic black and red scaled dragon soar out from behind the mountain. She stumbled back off away from the stump and the dragon landed on one of the buildings and let out a tremendous roar. The ringing in her ear was nearly deafening and for a few minutes Sorcha could barely stand and she fumbled her way to the tower throwing the door open along with the other Stormcloak prisoners.

She saw the bag and instantly ran over to it, inside was her belt with her satchel of coins, her unbreakable lockpick set, some gems and a necklace inside and the sheathes for her daggers she quickly fastened it back around her waist. There were also her twin ebony daggers, a gift from her father, which she shoved into the sheathes. And lastly a note which she tucked into her satchel. One of the Stormcloaks shouted for them to start running up the tower, which she did, when the tower wall shattered apart. From the gaping hole Sorcha could see a village broken and burning as a dragon flew around breathing fire wherever it felt like. Without thinking she leapt from the tower through the missing roof of the next building over, hitting the ground hard straight into a run. Ahead she saw the soldier from earlier helping a father and son get away from the flames consuming their home.

"Good to see your still alive" the man shouts over to her "Stick with me if you want to stay that way"

"Okay but tell me your name" Sorcha shouts back running over to him as he led them through the carnage, her lungs were starting to feel heavy from the smoke they needed to get away from the fire sooner rather than later.

"It's Hadvar, I'm a soldier in the Imperial Legion. Back up, against the wall" he said pressing himself against the wall of a building just as the dragon landed on the roof of said building. It's huge spiky wing hanging in the alley a few feet away from Sorcha's face. As soon as it flew off they set off running again, Hadvar directed them towards a prison building, which in Sorcha's experience always had a second underground exit from the village bounds. Without hesitating they ran in.

Hadvar was panting and coughing hard, Sorcha went over and started patting his back.

"How did you get your bindings off?" he wheezed

"I was surrounded by criminals growing up, you learn things" Sorcha explained "So we can get out of this…"

"Helgen"

"Helgen, through here?"

"Yeah I think so, hopefully we don't run into anything or anyone else trying to get out of here"

"Are you okay to move?"

"I'll be fine" he snapped, when he saw Sorcha's face he instantly spluttered out an apology "This wasn't how today was supposed to go, we were supposed to finally put an end to the rebellion and then a dragon shows up"

"I'm glad the dragon showed up, your captain was more than happy to have me a small woman who clearly wasn't with the Stormcloaks and wasn't on the list of prisoners killed"

"I. I'm sorry, you're not seeing the Legion on its best day"

"You can fill me in on everything once we get out of here, okay?" she said with a reassuring smile, heading for the door at the other end of the room. Only a second later she heard Hadvar following behind, he tapped her on the shoulder.

"We should check around the room, might be something of use" he suggested, she quickly obliged gathering 38 pieces of coin in the various draws.

The room cleared out they made their way deeper into the building, it smelled strange and Sorcha had no doubt this was used as a prison and torture chamber. They approached a gate and heard voices on the other side, they were wearing Stormcloak armour. Part of Sorcha hoped they would try and fight, seeing how it was one Imperial legionnaire and a random prisoner all of whom were trying to escape a dragon. But as soon as they opened the gate and the Stormcloaks noticed Hadvar's imperial armour they attacked. One went at Sorcha with a Warhammer but misjudged the height difference slamming the weapon into the wall a foot above her head, Sorcha took a moment to raise an eyebrow at him before drawing her daggers stabbing one through the man's wrist and twisting. She pulled the dagger out jumping to the side as he let go of the hammer with one hand driving his elbow downwards at her head. His neck was completely exposed and vulnerable, all it would take was one clean strike but Sorcha froze. Giving the man a chance to recover and pull his hammer out from the wall swinging it around at her, Sorcha dropped to the ground spin kicking his legs out from under him, the hammer went up into the air before landing and lodging itself into the man's skull. She could only dumbly look in horror as blood and brain matter dripped on the floor, while strange in the world she grew up in Sorcha had never caused someone's death. Stealing was fine, blackmail was fine but killing wasn't something Sorcha did. There was a hand on her shoulder, Hadvar very gently pulled her up to her feet and hugged her.

"Come on, let's get you out of here" he said quietly as he let her out the hug. Swallowing down the bile in her throat she followed him down the dark hallways, the earth shook violently and the walls of one hall collapsed on itself right in front of them. Tremors kept coming as Hadvar pushed open the door leading into a torture chamber, at which point Sorcha actually threw up from the smell alone.

"Oh how lovely, thank you for that" a man she assumed to be the head torturer said sarcastically

"What are you still doing here, can't you hear what's going on?" Hadvar asked the man in disbelief.

"I hear it alright, exits that way just work your way through the caves. Mind the spiders, I'll be fine" he said insistently, Hadvar looked at Sorcha who shrugged at him so they just left the strange man to whatever he had deemed more important than escaping a rampaging dragon. At the end of the hall of prison cells was a gaping hole leading into a cave, Sorcha lost her footing and she felt her shin scrapping hard into the stone ripping the skin open. She glared at the bleeding wound as though that would stop it bleeding, Hadvar handed her a long strip of material that she wrapped and tied around her leg but she'd need to sew it closed once they were out of there. There was a small bridge ahead where two Stormcloaks were crossing, but when they spotted Hadvar they went on the attack.

"WE'RE JUST TRYING TO ESCAPE THE DRAGON TOO!" Sorcha screamed at them, they skidded to a stop just staring at her in shock. "Look how about you forget whatever this is and we all just focus on escaping before this place collapses on us, I have nothing to do with this and he won't go after you right?" she asked Hadvar, the Stormcloaks looked at him hesitantly.

"In light of the circumstances, fine. I won't come after you as long as you don't try to kill us" he agreed to reluctantly, but the Stormcloaks seemed happy as they turned tail and ran further into the cave. "You're a pacifist, aren't you?" he asked with genuine curiosity.

"I was taught killing should only be used as a last resort when no other course of action is available" she admitted as she steadily limped forward.

"You're going to have an odd time in Skyrim, we have a war going on as you can probably tell"

"I hope my family are okay" she said, before Hadvar could say anything they heard a scream ahead of them. They ran as fast as they could to find the dead bodies of the Stormcloaks being ripped into by giant spiders. It was a disgusting sight but Sorcha readied her daggers and jumped onto one of them stabbing repeatedly into its back ignoring its shrills and shrieks, she could feel blood seeping through the makeshift bandage but she didn't stop until the thing dropped to the ground curling its legs up dead. The other was already dead by Hadvar's hand. "I don't like spiders" Sorcha said and a laugh jolted out of Hadvar, perhaps just due to the sheer surprise of hearing such a statement. Either way Sorcha found it a nice sound to hear and smiled at the man.

After what felt like eternity but was probably only ten minutes they found the exit of the cave, the sun felt good on Sorcha's skin. But Hadvar suddenly grabbed her arm pulling her down to the ground behind a rock, positioning himself as though he was trying to hide and guard her. Overhead there was a roar as the dragon flew over them away from the village of Helgen. They waited silently until they were sure the dragon was gone. When Sorcha stood up her leg gave out and she face planted into the floor. Immediately Hadvar ran to her side and he helped her climb onto his back giving her a piggy back as he started down the road. Sorcha pushed her head up so she could look around the area, her mother had said Skyrim was a very green place and it was pretty to look at.

"I have an uncle in Riverwood, it's just a short work from here. I'm sure he can help you out with that leg" Hadvar told her "You mentioned family?"

"My mum and my brother, they were coming into Skyrim too but we took different paths. We were meant to meet in Helgen but that didn't work, I think I saw my brother though"

"Not from Skyrim huh? You know I should hand you in for crossing the border illegally" he said light-heartedly.

"Aw but then I'd have to kill you" Sorcha said wrapping her arms around his shoulders hugging him

"Considering how you reacted to that Stormcloak I don't think you have to stomach for that sort of thing. You're a thief though, aren't you?"

"I was, I want to do something better now I'm here. I know how to make leather armour and can make and maintain weapons so maybe I can apprentice with a blacksmith"

"With a face as pretty as yours? You could be a bard" he suggested

"You don't even know if I can sing. So, tell me about this war"

"Ulfric Stormcloak's the leader of the rebellion, he's the Jarl of Windhelm so assuming he survived Helgen that's where he'll have gone with the rest of his men. He and his rebels don't agree with the White-Gold Concordant and think the Emperor betrayed us all by signing it and letting the Thalmor remain in Skyrim and banning the worship of Talos. What really set off the war though was Ulfric went to see High King Toragg challenging him to a duel for power, and then shouted him apart with his voice. Killing him then fleeing back to Windhelm. The Stormcloaks want the Thalmor out of Skyrim and Ulfric to be made High King of Skyrim, ignoring the face he murdered the last king and wants to dismantle the empire and the peace the treaty brought us after years of war with the Thalmor"

"I will hold off judgement until I get my bearing if that's okay?" she said absentmindedly swinging her legs.

"Fair enough, Windhelm's the Stormcloak stronghold where Ulfric stays while Solitude is where the Imperial Legion lives and trains under the command of General Tullius. It's where Toragg lived with his wife Elisif, she's the next in line for becoming High Queen of Skyrim. That should be enough information to get you started so no one catches you off guard" Hadvar said filling her in on what was certainly the bare minimum for what was going on in the civil war. At this point they were reaching a small riverside village which she assumed must be Riverwood, there were people going about their daily business giving them strange looks. Sorcha was used to being stared at with such confusion, but she had hoped she'd have been able to make a better impression when she met new people in what her family believed to be a fresh start. They were coming up to a house that had a forge on the porch beside it, a large bearded man saw them and ran down the stairs to meet them.

"Hadvar? What are you doing here, what happened? Is she alright?" he asked

"I need a rag, some alcohol, thread and a needle" Sorcha told him "I am Sorcha nice to meet you" she said offering him a handshake, his hand made hers look like a small child's when he shook her hand.

"Alvor, I'll have my wife see to that. Come on in, we can sit down and you can tell me what's going on" he said heading into the house, when they were inside Hadvar carefully sat Sorcha down on one of the chairs while he sat on the one opposite his uncle. A young girl was watching Sorcha with fascination while sitting on a bed, while her mother knelt in front of Sorcha unwrapping the bandage from her leg. The woman calmly and professionally went about cleaning it and suturing it closed and rebandaging it with a clean piece of material. "A dragon? Those haven't been seen in years"

"That's what happened, I don't know how many survived but I need to get to Solitude and report in with the Legion" Hadvar told his uncle

"I understand, we need to set up more defences and get the town ready in case it comes this way. Sorcha, right? I thank you for getting my nephew out of there safely but I must ask you a favour, Jarl Balgruuf needs to be told about this dragon. Will you go to Whiterun and tell him?" Alvor asked her

"I can do that, can I have this first?" Sorcha asked pointing to the bread and water that was sitting on the table in front of her.

"Yes of course" Sorcha gratefully ate and drank all the food they had given her, when she was finished she stood up thanking them profusely. She walked out of the small house when Hadvar came up behind her.

"Are you sure you can get to Whiterun?" he asked gesturing to her leg.

"I'll be fine, don't worry. You stay safe getting to Solitude" she said standing on her tiptoes giving the man a hug which he returned. "And so my journey begins, it was good meeting you Hadvar I'm sure we'll see each other again"

"I'd like that" they bid each other a farewell and Sorcha turned heading out of the village following the road before her.

After some time of walking Sorcha paused to enjoy the scenery around her.

"I should have asked where Whiterun was"