~-~-~-~-~-~-~ Domino - The Warrior ~-~-~-~-~-~-~
The dark night was silent, the air was cold,
A harsh wind battered the trees as they stood
Watching the town below, its high walls old
And falling down, time consuming the wood.
Each person in town asleep in their bed,
Or warm by the fire, curled up in a ball.
A lone guard stood watch, just resting his head
Against his guard-post, when he heard the call.
Over the hills came a strange glowing light
And with it a band of well armed raiders.
The town had no time to put up a fight,
And so was destroyed by the invaders.
As quick as they'd come, the bandits were gone,
Taking their blades to the next town along…
All that was left standing in that now blazing village was an old barn.
Inside, a young girl sat huddled, hugging her legs to her chest...
Now she was all alone, the only one left alive in that town for all she knew.
She had cried in fear as her parents had shoved her out of the house and towards the barn where she remained.
But no more tears streamed down her golden-skinned face, nor did she sob into her dress any longer.
Her ebony hair rustled as a breeze fluttered through a hole in the wall behind her.
The girl just sat there in silence...
The girl had eventually left the barn and searched the town for anyone who still lived, but to her dismay, there was no one. Deciding that there was nothing left for her there, the girl walked away from her home. For hours she wandered by herself, searching for some place warm to spend the night. Eventually, the young girl came to a small wooden cottage by a river. She walked shyly up to the door and, with a half-frozen hand, knocked gently on the door. At first, there was no answer, so she knocked again. This time, she heard movement inside the cottage, and soon thereafter, the door was opened by a fawn-haired boy, not much older than she was. He rubbed his eyes sleepily.
"You lost?" he asked.
The girl didn't reply. She just stood there, trembling with cold. Her lip began to quiver, but before she could begin to cry, another boy came to the door. This one was a few years older, with blonde hair flowing down over his shoulders. The older boy looked down at the girl and smiled warmly.
"It's alright," he said calmly, moving past the younger boy to kneel down in front of the girl. "My name is Jenssen, and that's my little brother, Eris. Please forgive him. He's a bit abrupt when he's sleepy."
The young girl just looked from one boy to the other, still saying nothing.
Again, the older boy just smiled. "Do you need help?" he asked kindly. "Do you need directions? Or someone to take you home? Your parents must be worried about you, I'm sure.."
Now, the girl did not hold back, and began to cry. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
"You too, huh?" the older boy sighed.
The girl did not stop crying, but she did look up with a confused look on her face. "What... what...are you...talking...about...?" she managed between sobs.
The older boy stood up and extended a hand towards the young girl. "Come on in, sit down by the fire. I think we have some soup left in the pot. Then we can talk, yeah?"
The girl stood there and thought for a moment, before taking the older boy's hand and following him inside.
"Come on, you two!" the girl called. "It's been ten years, but you're still just as slow as you used to be!"
"Hey! You're not the one carrying all this water!" Eris called back.
"No she's not," said Jenssen, who was walking a few paces behind his brother. "She won the bet, so we have to carry her water for her. We're lucky, really. It could have been much worse on our part! Remember when she won that game against the old man in Markarth? He owed her over five hundred septims!"
"Oh, she always wins everything..." complained Eris.
"Yes, yes I do," the girl agreed smugly. "That is why people call me Domino, and not Dominicia."
"Alright, fine. Domino," Eris replied. "But carrying two peoples' water is awfully heavy, you know."
"That's the point, dear," Domino grinned. "But it can't be that bad. After all, we trained ourselves to fight! And pretty damn well at that! Then hunted down and fought an entire bandit clan, just the three of us against all of them! So surely carrying that water can't be so difficult."
"She's right, you know," Jenssen shrugged. "Come on, brother. "We're almost back to the house."
"Did you find us a job?" Eris asked impatiently as Jenssen walked into the room in the inn that they had rented for the day.
"Eventually, yes," Jenssen replied. "But apparently, not too many people come to Falkreath looking for mercenaries these days..."
"Hey, I had plenty of job ideas!" Domino added. "I'm sure it would be so much easier to find work as a messenger, or a guard, or a caravan escort, or..."
"Don't go any further with that list of yours," Jenssen interrupted. "The rest of your options were all rather illegal, if I recall."
Domino shrugged nonchalantly. "You wanted ideas. Never said they had to be good ones..."
"Well, what's the job?" Eris questioned.
"Someone wants some hired muscle to take care of a group of bandits that's getting a little too close to their home, and since we're here and the Companions aren't..."
"Fighting bandits? That's exactly what we do," Eris said with a smile.