Author's note: Hi! I've planned this for some time and I just got round to writing this chapter today! (You know, school and my baby brother is always crying). I'm going to fill you in on the main character; Highborn is an Altmer (High Elf) and an ex-Thalmor. She knows up to the adept level spells for all magic skills (every single spell (unless they are found in Dawnguard or through a special quest)) and invisibility and is great at enchanting. She's OK with one-handed, not very good with two-handed and block, good at archery and alright at the rest. She was travelling around Tamriel to see sights and to get away from the Thalmor chasing her as she had figured that if she went to somewhere Thalmor-free, she would be safe (derp). Her destiny led her to Skyrim as she is the Dovahkiin and that is why she is in Skyrim, waiting to be killed (I love a happy ending!)

For those of you who like Dragon Quest 9, check out my story 'Celestial Secrets'. If you are one of the readers who were reading 'CS' before, thanks for checking this one out! OK, lets start this puppy off!

PS. This will go in parts. Up to telling Balgruuf about Helgen is part 0.

PPS. Check out Trials of the Dragonborn by ArrrowStriker and Challenges of a Warrior by CompanionWolf12.

Enjoy!

Part 0: Starting in Skyrim.

1. Unbound.

I groggily opened my eyes and yawned. I blinked a few times and examined my surroundings. I was in a carriage with three men. One was dressed in a shabby tunic and footwraps. His face was dirty and he had a mop of light brown hair. The one opposite me was obviously a warrior. He was dressed in dark blue and grey armour. His golden blond hair came to his shoulders and a braid was at the left (not unlike mine). He was quite handsome. The last man was dressed in expensive looking clothes with furs. He too had golden blond hair but he was gagged. I realised all their hands were bound. I pulled my hands and found that mine, also, were bound. I then realised that I was in the same clothes as the brown-haired man! Where were my own clothes? Where was the circlet that was my family heirloom? What had happened to my elven bow, sword, dagger and arrows? They were the only tokens from my life in Summerset Isle. My Thalmor weapons that I had been duty-bound to carry at all times, the weapons that had trained me and reminded me of my family were gone. Each of those weapons represented a family member; the bow represented my mother - tall, slender and accurate. The dagger reminded me of Amaryllis, my little sister - small, quick, clever and sharp. My father was replaced by the sword - strong and noble and the arrows made me think of Octavia, my older sister - free-spirited, helpful and necessary for something else (my mother) to work amazingly. The circlet was a reminder of my ancestors. I had mementos of my whole family and now I had lost them.

The handsome one noticed me.
"You," he said with a heavy Nordic accent. "You tried to cross the border! Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us! Oh, and that thief over there."
I shuddered. I was wearing the same clothes as a thief! Had the Thalmor found me? If so, where was I going? I looked at the front of the carriage desperately. Thankfully, there was just a man in leather armour with red material. The thief spoke up.
"Damn you Stormcloaks! Everything was fine until you came along. The Empire was nice and lazy. If they weren't keeping an eye out for you, I could have stolen that horse and be half the way to Hammerfell by now!"
"We're all brothers and sisters in arms now, thief." The Nord calmly retorted.

"Shut up back there!" A soldier shouted at us.
The thief looked at me.
"You," he began. "You and me, we shouldn't be here! It's the Stormcloaks the Imperials want, not us!"
"No, I should not be here. You deserve what is coming to you. By the way, where are we going? What's happening? Who are you three?" My name is Highborn."
"Lokir." The thief grumbled.
"I'm Ralof. And the gagged man is Ulfric Stormcloak, leader of the Stormcloak rebellion and true High-King of Skyrim!" The handsome Nord said, much nicer than Lokir. I glanced over to Ulfric, he met me with a glare. Great, I'm imprisoned by some army I have never heard of, I am possibly on the way to my execution and I am sharing my carriage with a racist Nord and a thief! I thought to myself.
"Ulfric was tortured during the war with the Aldmeri Dominion and holds a grudge against all mer." Ralof explained.
"So are you the only one that isn't a racist or a thief? I will have you know I abandoned the Thalmor. That's why I'm here. I was just intending to find refuge. It's just bad luck that I ended up in an execution wagon in a country half-full with racist barbarians!"
Ralof chuckled. "I suppose I am left out of the 'racist barbarian' class, am I?"
"I suppose you are. Why am I here and why are you here?" I asked, testing to see if I could conjure a simple flame. It worked! I partially burned my bindings so that, when the time was right, I could escape. I listened to Ralof's explanation while working out a plan.
"Well, Ulfric challenged High-King Torygg to a duel to the death. He used an ancient Nordic art called shouting to nearly tear Torygg to pieces! Torygg died and Ulfric started the rebellion against the Imperial Legion, thus causing a civil war. We were crossing the border into Cyrodiil while you were crossing into Skyrim. The soldiers thought you were with us and attacked. So now we are going to be executed in Helgen. Sovngarde awaits..."
I left Lokir and Ralof to discuss home while I decided that when no one was looking, I would cast invisibility. I would escape the town and flee to Hammerfell.

"Ralof of Riverwood." A young Imperial was calling out our names for execution. Ralof walked to the killing area
"Lokir of Rorikstead."
"No! I'm not a rebel!" He protested, running away.
"Archers!" The commander barked fiercely. Lokir was shot dead. "Does anyone else feel like running?"
"Who are you?" The young Imperial asked me. I could see he was not enjoying this.

Hadvar's P.O.V:
The High Elf drew herself up to full height. Like all Altmer, she was very tall. She was also beautiful. White-blonde hair came down to her shoulders with a braid at the side. Her bright green eyes were highlighted by red war paint. There was more war paint on her forehead forming a star-like shape (but with no top point).
"My name is Highborn." She said. I looked at the list, she was not there.
"Captain, she's not on the list." I said.
"Forget the list, she dies too!"
"I'm sorry." I told Highborn. "Your remains will be sent to Summerset Isle." I didn't like the fact we were ruining her life with no proof of her crime. But there was nothing I could do.

Highborn's P.O.V:

I smiled sarcastically at the young man and walked to the block. After discovering that the Thalmor were here, I had even less chance of escaping. A priestess rambled on about the eight Divines and she was interrupted by a Stormcloak, waiting for Sovngarde. His head rolled off the block and obscenities were hurled at the Imperials. A noise sounded and everyone looked at the skies. This was my chance! I broke my bindings and vanished. The noise came again, closer this time. Ralof knelt down to the block. Just as the headsman raised his axe, a dragon, black as night, flew into sight. It landed on top of the watchtower and the headsman fell down. I cast ironflesh and a sheen spread over my body, revealing me, as meteors rained down on us. I ran to the watchtower where Ralof and Ulfric were talking hurriedly. There were two more Stormcloaks on the floor. I used a healing spell on them. A golden glow flowed through them and they stood up. I gave them a nod before sprinting up the stairs. Part of the wall exploded and the dragon reared it's ugly head, breathing fire. I shot an ice storm at it and it roared in pain and flew away to find something easier to terrorise. Ralof ran up to me.
"Jump!" He yelled. "We'll catch up!" I heeded his advice and landed in a house. I ran down and found the man who had been calling our names telling a little boy to get down. I threw a spell down and a frost atronach came out from a purple spinning orb.
"Guard this child!" I commanded the daedra. I walked to the child and knelt down. I put my hands on his shoulders. He looked up in fear.
"This atronach will protect you for two minutes. Run as fast as you can to safety!" I told him
Thank you!" He said tearfully and ran. The ice creature followed him. The man - I had heard someone call him Hadvar - smiled at me. We ran together through the wreckage of a house. We got through and saw Imperial mages shooting firebolts at the dragon. We carried on. As we approached the keep, Ralof came around the corner. He had a short argument with Hadvar and each ran to a different door to the keep. I turned to Ralof and he carried on in. When he was gone, I beckoned Hadvar to come with us. He took my invitation and together, we followed Ralof into the keep.

When we came in, Ralof was kneeling over a dead Stormcloak. He looked up and got angry.
"Come to finish me off, have you?" He yelled.
"Ralof," I interjected "This is no time to be squabbling over your civil war! We need to work together if we want to survive."
"She's right, Ralof." Hadvar backed me up. "We may not like each other, but we were best friends as children. We know each other well." Ralof saw the sense in my plan and nodded. He turned to me.
"Take Gunjar's armour." He told me. "Take his war axe too." Before we had time, the imperial commander showed up through a gate. Ralof raised his axes and lightning appeared in my hands. Hadvar stepped towards her.
"Commander," he said, trying to reason with her. "We have to join forces if we want to get out alive."
"I would rather die than fight with these people!" The commander shouted. "For siding with them, you are a traitor. You are renounced from the Imperial Legion and will be treated like a Stormcloak!" She raised her weapon. But before she could use it, I shot a lightning bolt at her. Volts racked her body and she fell dead. Hadvar hung his head. He had been kicked out of his life. He took off his armour and raised his imperial sword. I thought he was about to stab himself when he dropped them and walked to Gunjar's corpse, equipping his armour and war axe.
"I will have revenge." He said grimly. Ralof and I smiled at him. He wanted to be a Stormcloak, now we could get along peacefully. I walked to the dead commander and donned her armour. I took her and Hadvar's swords for when my magicka ran out and we walked deeper into the keep.

The first room we came into had two Imperials in. They died burning in my fire. I looked in a barrel and found some potions. We progressed onwards. We walked downstairs and found torturers battling some rebels. Hadvar shuddered. He and Ralof took out longbows and started shooting them. A bound bow appeared in my hand and I joined them. The rebels thanked us and we stopped to discuss a plan. While they were talking tactics, I picked the lock on a cage and looted the mage inside, picking up the gold surrounding him. They all looked up at me wearing the mages robes and hood. A bound sword appeared in each hand and I smiled at them.
"Are we escaping or stopping for tea?" They all grinned and we ran.

We came to a cavern with water and five Imperials turned to face us. We had a kind of stare-down before charging at each other. There was one for each of us. The two rebels we saved worked in unison to bring down two by a stream of water with their warhammers. Ralof, Hadvar and I charged at the remaining three. Two ran up to us but Ralof and Hadvar slew them quickly. The final one, an archer, stood still, firing at us. The two went to finish her but I stopped them. The archer was standing on oil. I cast a simple flames spell on the pinky-reddy substance and it set on fire, subsequently burning the archer to death. We proceeded.

After we got over a drawbridge, part of the ceiling collapsed, blocking the way we came and trapping the other two Stormcloaks.
"They'll just have to find another way, come on!" Ralof said. We followed him down the path made by the stream of water before turning right. We went down a ramp and into a large cavern covered in giant cobwebs. The boys went ahead. When I got near the webs, something dropped down. It had eight legs and something that looked like a stinger at it's back. It's mandibles dripped with saliva and poison. I recognised the creature that would haunt my dreams as a child.

It was a frostbite spider; my worst fear.

I screamed and ran to where I had just came, trying to avoid the poison being spewed at me. More dropped down. When I had put a good distance between the arachnids and I, I turned around and saw Hadvar and Ralof fighting them. The final one died and I sighed with relief. The boys waited for me before running off. As I went to follow them, a final spider dropped down. Frantic with fear, I shot a dual casted fireball and it died where it stood. Ralof and Hadvar ran back and escorted a shaking me along. We came to a very large (and spider-free) cavern. I looked across the stream and saw a bear. Ralof and Hadvar started discussing whether or not to kill her while I decided for them by launching a fireball at her. The explosion - and the bear's howls of pain - echoed around the tunnel. They looked in awe at me. I just smiled and walked on.

We saw a light and ran, emerging into the beautiful sunset. I was free, safe.

Unbound.

But a picture of the Imperial General, the man who sentenced me to death, burned in my mind along with one word:

Revenge.

Author's note: I hope you liked it! It's taken me a while to write this. I've wanted to for ages. Since the Summer holidays start next week, I'll try to get a couple more chapters in (for my other story as well). Thank you for choosing to read this. Please review.

Happy reading!