I was just another girl. Never in my life had I imagined anything but the mill. It was all I ever knew, all I ever wanted, it was my home. I grew up on a small farm in the middle of the marshes south of Solitude. My Mother and Father were lumber jacks, my brothers, Mal and Korgak, were lumber jacks, and so I was to be a lumber jack too. I was just a little girl living with her family of five. Father would work the big trees on top of the mill, loading the trunks into the slot and then pulling the lever to cut them in half. Korgak and Mal were in charge of chopping down nearby trees, as well as planting down double what they cut. I was in charge of chopping the firewood. I also helped Mother cook, clean, and I practiced magic and alchemy when I had spare time. I also worked on my archery, but of course I did it away from the mill, because if Mother or Father ever found out that I was anywhere near a weapon, I wouldn't have dinner for two weeks. That mill, the river, the small cliff that my brothers would always jump into the water from, the summer heat, the sweating and muscle growth that summer provided, it was all that I knew. It was my home, my world, my life.

I'm 23 now, and it was 13 years ago, when I was 10, that my life completely changed. Had I known then that right now I would be what I am, I wouldn't have believed it. I'm purposely leaving you in the blue, so there is a reason to tell my story. This is where it all begins, in that small mill just south of Solitude, on a hot summer's day. Sweat dripping down my back. I remember that, in my ten year old body, I was already as tall as a grown breton man. Being the high elf that I was, I was used to my brothers always teasing me about being a woman before it was my time. I remember chopping wood on a tree trunk, splitting wood in half like I always had. It was my second year in the lumber business. Father was off selling his wooden goods in Solitude, Morthal, and Markarth, so he would be gone for just about two months, he would come back empty handed, but loaded with gold, which he then used to upgrade the mill, replace supplies and furniture, and any other essentials that we ran out of in the rest of the year, when we were secluded from the world.

Year after year I would beg father to take me with him to see the world. See the cities, see the people. Socialize and find out what true society was like, but each year he would tell me no.

"It's too dangerous, Islea. Too may people would love a pretty girl like yourself as a maid, slave, or worse," he would explain to me. He would always give me a big hug, then leave me behind.

"But why, father? I can handle myself. Weapons aren't hard, and I'm sure I could help you sell more items and stuff. Please, Father, I'm begging you. I'm so sick of being here at this mill, stuck with no place to go. I'm always so lonely. Please, just this one time? Please?" He would sigh, but even with my pleading, he still said no.

So, just three days after he left, I found myself at the top of the cliff, sitting with my feet dangling off the edge. It was my lunch break, so I had taken my meal of bread and cheese up to the cliff to sit and contemplate why Father didn't want me with him.

I was jerked from my thoughts with a blood-curtling scream. It sounded like mother. I stood, knocking my food over and whirling around to look at the mill. The other side of the house was on fire, and there were men with weapons, about half a dozen, crawling all over the mill. Some were carrying sacks out of the home, one of them had a sack with one of my brothers in it, and then I saw it.

Right outside the door layed a charred body. One that was the exact height as Korgak. Mal was in the sack. Korgak was dead. God knows what happened to Mother. Father was nowhere to be seen. I was the only survivor.

I heard a shout, some dwarven language, and looked to the mill house, where I saw a man looking and pointing at me. Suddenly, all of the men's attention was on me. I gathered all the food I could in a split second, and ran.

I don't know for how long I ran. I barely made it in time to gather my bow and six arrows, and keep running to a destination unknown. I was pretty sure I was heading NorthEast, but I wasn't certain. I heard shouting behind me, and I turned just in time to see five men after me, hot on my tail. The adrenalin was pumping through my veins at full speed now and I could feel the blood hot in my cheeks. My mind was blurry with grief, fear, and anger. Where was Father when you needed him, huh? If he had just once let me go with him, I wouldn't have been there to see Krognak killed!

But there was nothing to do now. The men were slowly gaining on me. That's when I saw it. Just on the edge of the marsh's forest, sat a small ragged cabin. I ran faster and faster, the back of my throat burning and dry. I reached the door within agonizing minutes, fiddling with the door to open. Finally, I just stood back and busted it down. Then, when I realized I had just trapped myself, I quickly took a beaten down dresser from the corner of the shack, and shifted it in front of the door. I couldn't stop there. I took a few broken chairs and put them beside the dresser, I flipped the table and set it in the corner, jumping behind it, holding my bow equipped with an arrow just over the edge of the table, ready to shoot when the men came.

But they didn't.

I waited. Minute after agonizing minute for the furniture to be beaten down, for the men to fill the room. To shoot them down with epic force. But none of it came. The furniture wasn't beaten, the men didn't come... I didn't shoot.

For quite a while I waited. Until, through the cracks in the ceiling, I found the sun going down. It was midday when I ran from that mill, and now the sun was already at it's end. It must be around 6:30 PM, so they must have given up already. I slowly and cautiously step over the tipped table. Quietly removing the furniture from the door, I peer out the narrow doorway. I set a toe outside, barely sticking my nose out to look around. I take another step when I think it's safe. Then another. I stood about a foot from the door. That's when I felt a blunt object on the back of my head, and everything went black. Something had happened, and I didn't know what. But I'm sure I'm going to find out.