Okay, so this is pretty much the result of waaaay too much Skyrim and sugar. I blame eggnog and pie. It's not much, a more introductory chapter than anything else. This is based off my own personal character, and features a few mods actually. The ever amazing Sofia mod (which I do not own), the Alternate Start mod (which I also do not own), and the Fall House mod (which I shockingly don't own either). All the mods are either on Steam, or Nexus (not sure for Fall House, but I assume). I also, very sadly, do not own Skyrim or any of the Elder Scrolls. Just the concept of Rhea.
Enjoy~
All of a sudden there was nothing but water. At first it felt numb, like salve spread delicately over a burn. Her body didn't recognize the danger, too shocked to realize that a scream, or shout was deadly. The mouth opened, and in flooded water. Harsh salt burning down her throat to choke lungs too shocked to realize it was not air it was taking in.
In a way it felt like flying, being swept up into weightlessness. For a moment her mind was peaceful, thinking of how easy it to just flow.
With the euphoria, something within her changed. Snapped. Flipped.
Darkness started to creep.
Peace was replaced by sharp pain. The flow had turned into an angry torrent, slamming her body savagely into something hard.
More darkness, spots forming.
Just as soon as the water was there it was gone. It was no longer all around, but within. She was still drowning, the ocean purging any breath even as it receded, still claiming its victim. It was pulling her with it as it left, slipping away like a thief in the night, and she the great jewel.
It was coaxing her softly, like a lover to a warm bed. She reached, but the coos began to grow more urgent. The ocean couldn't have her soon enough.
Louder, more frantic.
Rough hands, lacking any gentleness, ripping her away from the pull of the depths of the ocean.
"N...No…" She mumbled weakly, or had tried to. The ocean spoke for her instead, spilling from her lungs, into her mouth and out at whomever had torn away her sweet love.
More sputters of attempted words, spewing from her mouth like a preacher in a brothel.
The cries for her returned, along with heavy crashes against her back.
The ocean still wanted her.
More muffled cries, but they became clearer as the darkness receded, the ocean left her.
No...
The darkness had been beautiful.
The ocean had filled an emptiness.
"...er!"
"La...ander!"
Bleary, salt burned eyes struggle to clear. Ears attempted to listen past the water logged inside. It was hard to concentrate with the ringing. The resounding emptiness as the ocean left her.
It was like the sun came out, and she could see again. A handsome, rugged, unshaven face soaked as her own stared at her with wild eyes. As the last of the water left her, and air refilled her lungs, the wildness was replaced with relief.
"...Ark-!" The thunderous clap of the sky drowned him out. We have to get you to safety!" The man used his large hands to haul her up, propping her up against the mast. Slinging her arm around his shoulders, he led her past shouting men and women. It was hard for them to get past, the boat being shaken by a rageful ocean.
It was dark, growing harder to see as rain fell without mercy upon them. They ran around as a man screamed instructions she couldn't understand. The man helping her ignored him, walking right past him into a cabin.
As gently, while still keeping swift, the man set her down. Unable to hold her own weight against the shaking ocean, she stumbled down with a groan. "By the Nine, Rhea, we'll get you out, I swear." He murmured as he yanked up a trapdoor.
Pulled up again, this time to be carried like a child, he went down the stairs, closing the trapdoor behind him.
Running down further in where the cargo sat, tied down, prepared for the fury of an ocean unlike those that transported it.
Water broke through the trapdoor despite its noble efforts. Her eyes widened, "Watch out!" She had to warn her savior before the ocean took her back from him.
He tried to protect her from the wave, eyes concerned only for her were the last thing she saw.
The ocean got its prize.
"Rhea!"
Eyes shot open with a start before drooping down to half mast. A soft sigh escaped parted lips. Arms and fists unclenched, and she forced herself to relax. She just laid there for a moment, letting her body catch up with her.
Pushing up off the bed from her side using one arm, she sat up. Taking a moment to breathe, she steeled herself and stood up. Shuffling to the water basin and mirror, she washed her face.
She breathed more easily after, glancing up at her reflection.
Cobalt colored eyes, eerie in color as she had been told before. Full lips, pink naturally, she didn't have time or desire to paint them. eyebrows thicker than most of the few noble girls she had seen before. A simple, plain, straight nose. A well formed jawline tapering into a suiting chin. Cheekbones wide and high. They made her cheeks look more gaunt than they really were. Although not by much considering how little she had eaten the past few months. Finally, ebony locks, long enough to reach just past her shoulder blades.
In all she was still as she was the last time she saw herself.
Rhea.
Her teeth ground as her jaw clenched out of reflex. That had been what she called herself when Hadvar had asked her. The imperial who let her be sentenced to death.
Rhea Ark.
A smirk grew, small, but mocking.
She wasn't sure if that was a dream, or a memory, but every night she dreamt the same thing. A dashing stranger rushing to save her. Rhea had no memory before a few months ago. The first few, she didn't know if they counted, were just flashes. Flashes of a wrecked ship, of the shore, the road. It went on like that until what she considered her real first memory. A kind woman tending to her, healing her. She was the first, and only person Rhea ever told her dream about, naive as she was. The woman explained it could have been a hallucination from drowning, having for sure almost died from asphyxiation.
After questioning the meaning of the intimidating word, Rhea decided to keep it in mind, but not close to heart. She had been informed of being just beyond the border to Cyrodiil. Assuming she must have shipwrecked coming to Skyrim from the Empire's capital. She'd made it to the border, only to be caught by an ambush for some men in blue armor passing by.
Arrested, taken to Helgen, and almost executed if not ironically for a death bringing dragon. The thought made her self-mocking smirk fall. A lot of people died, innocent people who just lived in the wrong town at the wrong time. She fled, with the help of both one of her fellow prisoners and the guard who asked her name. To his credit, he had tried to get her out of execution on account of her not even being on the daedra-damned list. In the end she had to follow one or the other when they fled to the keep.
A knock sounded at the bedroom door she was staying in. "Rhea, breakfast is ready." A muffled voice called.
Running a hand over her face one last time, Rhea called back, "Coming Hadvar."