This is my first proper attempt at a complete Skyrim novelization. I wanted to play with a different type of Dragonborn than in my last piece and get out of my comfort zone of Lawful Good "justice and honor" type characters, so what better to write than a "selfish bastard" type career criminal? Right now, I foresee this taking in the main quest line, the Thieves' Guild quests, and the Civil War quests for sure, with a possibility of the Dark Brotherhood creeping in there as well. I have a few romance interests in mind, but I want to see how the character develops organically, so we'll all just have to be surprised.

I went ahead and publish two chapters together to kickstart the story. This first chapter is a prologue, the action starts properly in the second. I've seen the Skyrim opening sequence so many times by now that I know everyone else must be dreadfully bored with it as well. So, I thought this might be an interesting way to give some context to the character and not start with Helgen, while still staying true to the game storyline. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading!

The Big People's legs came and went across the rickety timbers of the downstairs room accompanied by the murmur of conversation from above. The swish of the women's dark skirts and the heavy clomping of the men's boots made Brim's hiding place underneath the family table seem safer by comparison. She liked hiding anyway. Papa said she was a natural, and that was why he let her come with him sometimes when he and Quinn were going out to work. Not even Victorine or Evylie got to do that and they were older. Brim was the best hider and the best watcher and one day, when she was big enough, Papa would let her help him with the real jobs just like Quinn. When he had left a few days ago, she had pushed herself up on her tiptoes for whole minutes, so that maybe he would think she was finally big enough, but he had just tousled her hair and told her "next time". The disappointment was leavened slightly by the prospect that he would bring her a present when he came home. He always brought something when he had to be gone for a few days, a sweet or a trinket of some kind, and he had been gone for a whole week now.

She heard a sound from nearby and turned to see her little brother crouching wide-eyed in the corner of the room behind one of the chairs, his arms wrapped around his knees. Tobie was only five years old and, ever since Mama had gone, he had taken to crying in the presence of strangers. Strangers had come to take Mama away and she had never come back, so who knew what they might take next? But the Big People weren't paying attention and Brim didn't want Tobie to cry. If he started crying, Victorine would be cross and that usually meant that Brim would be scolded. Victorine could always find something to scold about. Besides, Papa had told her that she had to take care of the family for him while he was away. So, because the responsibilities of an eight-year old protectress were never done, she motioned Tobie over and, sniffling, he crawled under the table and bellied up next to her. She patted him on the back, like she had seen Mama do. A very adult gesture, she felt with no small amount of pride.

"Don't worry," she told him, comfortingly, as he turned a miserable gaze up at her. "Can't see under here, can they?"

"I want Mama," Tobie whimpered, uncertainly. Victorine had already explain to him, to Brim as well, that Mama wasn't coming back and that they would all just have to cope with it and go on. She hadn't said where Mama had gone, but Brim knew. She had been there, forgotten and obscured in the space between the corner and the old dresser upstairs, when little Mags had been born and she had heard it all. Mama had died, just like the twin babies that had been born when Brim was Tobie's age. Brim thought that Mama was probably wherever the twins were by now, but she knew telling Tobie that would only make him cry more.

"Mama's not here," she whispered, quickly, and then fished a misshapen sweet of nuts and crystalized honey out of her dress pocket. Victorine had swatted her hand and told her they were for the company, not for her, but Victorine did not have eyes on the back of head and so Brim had filched a few when her eldest sister was looking the other way. She handed one to Tobie and he put it in his mouth, almost as a second thought, crunching the sticky sweet between his teeth. At least it kept him quiet.

"I just don't know what we're going to do," a voice said peevishly overhead. Victorine's voice, and Brim nearly held her breath in an effort to stay quiet and not draw attention to herself. "It was bad enough with Mother, leaving the babe behind and all, but now…"

Brim made a face. Ever since Victorine had gotten married, she had started saying "Mother" and "Father" instead of "Mama" and "Papa" and talking fancy like her shopkeeper husband. She had always been fussy, always the bossy big sister, but now she was a regular plague of uppity manners and tidiness.

"We'll manage," Evylie's voice soothed, quietly. She had always been the favorite in the family, and it was not hard to see why. Quinn was above such things, being the eldest of the brood, and between Victorine's primness, Brim's rambunctiousness , Tobie's oversensitive nature, and little Mags, whom no one had even had time to get acquainted with yet, Evylie would have been everyone's favorite by default alone.

"Lucian needs me back at the store, and with the baby on the way and poor little Magrathe to look after now…and you with the engagement…"

"Ivar's a good man. He won't mind if I have to follow him up later."

"That's what he says, but you know how men are," Victorine sniffed, and then continued in a quieter tone, "Honestly, Evyline, you should just marry him and get out of this house while you still can. Take it from me. I'm sorry for Father and Quinn, but it was bound to happen sooner or later and this place is a middenheap. Even if you took over Mother's work, what kind of life is that?"

Brim's ears perked up at that. What had happened to Papa and Quinn? What was bound to happen sooner or later?

"I'll talk to him. We can take Brim and Tobie with us when we leave. Do them some good to be out of the city for once."

"Tobias maybe, but Brim…honestly, I don't know what we're going to do with her."

"Give her a strong hiding, if you take my suggestion," a male voice, Victorine's husband Lucian, quipped as he walked up to the table. His breeches were soft and clean and stylish, a stark difference from the other clothing around the room. Brim wrinkled her nose. She had never liked him. From the flowery scent he wore, like a woman, to the condescending way he talked to everyone in the family, Brim knew he was an Uppish Fob. That's what Papa called people like Victorine's Lucian, and Papa didn't like him either. He did, however, have money and Brim found herself, opportunistically, near eye level with his belt purse.

"She's just spirited," Eyvlie said, kindly. "Like Mama was."

Brim licked her lips and moved as silently as she could up onto her knees, putting a finger over her mouth and winking at Tobie. He watched her wide-eyed, as her deft fingers twitched at the leather lacings of pouch, just like Quinn had showed her. She would keep it and show it to him when he and Papa got home and then maybe they would realize that she was definitely big enough now to go with them next time.

"Well, she might have gotten the spirit from Mother, but the rest she got from Father and if something isn't done she's going to wind up just the same. Or worse."

As Brim tugged carefully on the purse strings, she glanced around quickly to make sure no one was looking and her eyes landed on Uncle Renald, who was sitting nearby with a mug of ale in hand. He was not really Papa's brother, he just worked closely with Papa, but all of the Stroud children had always been told to call him 'uncle' and he was avuncular enough on his regular visits to the house, making the usual remarks about how big they were all getting and bringing the occasional small gifts. He winked at her and leaned back to watch, and Brim grinned back, all the more determined.

"Discipline is what those youngsters need," Lucian pontificated. "It's almost a mercy, I suppose that Magrathe won't have to grow up in that environment. Tobias is really too young to have been influenced seriously, I have no doubt he'll straighten out with some proper schooling and a decent home. The girl, though. Well, I'll not have that kind of behavior in my house."

The purse dropped free and Brim caught it gleefully just in time to keep the coins inside from making a sound. She scurried back under the table and pawed it open, shaking out a small handful of gold septim. She handed one down to Tobie, who clutched it and stared at it with an O-shaped expression as if it were a fortune. You could buy a sweet roll, a proper one from the fancy bakery, for that much. Brim stuffed the coins into the pocket of her dress and wadded up the soft leather purse looking for some place to put it where no one would find it if Lucian suddenly realized it was gone. She handed it to Tobie and then leaned down next to his ear, pointing to the space underneath the shabby end table in the corner.

"Go put this under there."

"Why?" he asked suspiciously, and she grinned, flashing another coin at him.

"'Cause I'll take you down to the bakers and buy you a sweet roll tomorrow if you do."

He gaped at her as if unable to believe he could be so lucky and took the pouch, crawling out from under the table and nearly trotting over to the corner she had indicated.

"Tobie, what have you got there?" Brim heard Evylie's say above her and the Big People moved away from the table over to her brother. Cursing mentally, Brim looked around her for a quick escape. This was not going to be pretty.

"That's my pouch!" Lucian exclaimed, outraged. Tobie's eyes locked on Brim's, and there was a moment where she saw them widen and fill with tears before he sat down in the floor and began to wail. Brim took the opportunity to scramble out from underneath the table on the other side and head for the door, darting behind the backs of several portly relations. She would have made it, too, if Victorine had not noticed her at that moment.

"Brimwithe Stroud, did you…"

"Just takin' the nipper out for a bit of air, if'n you don't mind," Uncle Renald said, calmly, appearing beside the door at that moment. Brim looked at Victorine with her best blank "Who me?" stare and then reached up to put her small hand in the old Breton's rough fist and nodded. Victorine narrowed her eyes suspiciously at them, and then shook her head and turned back to deal with the bawling Tobie. Gratefully, Brim stepped outside and down the stone steps into the dingy street. In the distance, you could see the lights of the immense White-Gold Tower blotting out the stars even this late at night, but the narrow alleys and dog-trots of the Waterfront District itself were dark and she could smell the briny, rotten smell of the wharf wafting up through the streets from the water. It was the smell she would always, even as an adult, associate with home.

"Let's take a walk, you and me." Uncle Renald said, benevolently. Brim took her hand back, because, even though she liked Uncle Renald, that was a privilege she normally only reserved for Papa.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it, love. What's a good uncle for if he don't step in when you're in a pinch, eh?" he said, smiling. Once they were far enough down from the house, he stopped and squatted down until he was at eye level with her. He was older than Papa and the crow's foot wrinkles in the corners of his eyes and cheeks creased as he gave her an appraising look. "Now, this is going to be hard on you, lass, but I want you to think of it as an opportunity, too, eh?"

Brim had no idea what he was talking about, but Papa had told her she must always be polite to Uncle Renald and listen to what he said, so she waited.

"Your Papa and Quinn…well, they ain't coming back. They had a spot of bad luck and the guards got 'em. They've been…ah…turned off, so to speak. Your big sisters in there, they mean well enough trying to spare you and little Tobie the details. But you're a proper grown up girl now and your Papa always said you was smart and can be told these things. Thought you should know."

For a moment, Brim did not understand what he was saying and then it hit her. Papa and Quinn weren't coming back. Just like Mama wasn't coming back. That meant that Papa and Quinn were dead. Her eyes filled with tears and Uncle Renald reached out and hugged her to him, burying her face in his faded, dingy shirt.

"It's alright, love, cry if you want." he said. After a few minutes of sobbing, he drew back a little bit and stroked her dark hair out of her face, almost paternally. "There now. Let's dry that face. Your Papa thought the world of you, he wouldn't have wanted you to take on so on his account."

"Is Victorine going to stay with us now?" she sniffled. After Mama had died, Victorine had moved back in temporarily to take care of the baby and help out, but she would have gone home with Lucian in a few weeks.

"Your big sister's got her own family to look after. I reckon she'll take little Mags when she goes. And Evylie's all set to go up to Nord country with her soldier. I expect they'll take little Tobie."

"What about me?"

"Well, you've got me, ain't you?" he said, and chucked her on the chin. "Pinching coin at a wake. You've got Family written all over you and just about old enough to do proper work, too. Don't you worry, lass, Uncle Renald'll take care of you. Now, let's see your spoils."

She pulled the coins out of her pocket and displayed them in her hand. There were eight of them, minus the one she had given to Tobie.

"Not bad for a first haul," he said, "That's a day's wage just about for the boys on the piers."

He picked up one and held it up, glinting.

"Usually the Guild's pretty choosy about who we let in. But seeing as how your Papa was Family and all…" he pocketed the coin, and grinned a crooked-toothed smile at her, "Your first dues. I'll have a chat with your sisters in the morning and then we'll get you started training up. Do your Papa proud."

Brim smiled and, when she left the house a few days later with Uncle Renold, after enduring one last scolding from Victorine, tearful hugs from Evylie and Tobie, and kissing baby Mags goodbye, she was proud that she only looked back once, and then just a peek. Papa would want her to be a good girl and not cry, and Uncle Renold had promised to teach her to read so that she could write to Evylie and Tobie after they left. Big People didn't cry, and she was a proper grown-up now, had earned her own gold and paid dues to the Guild and everything. And there was another Family waiting on her. One day, she promised herself, as only a child can, she would not only be the best at hiding and watching, she would be the best at everything. Better than Papa or Quinn or even Uncle Renald. And no one would ever turn her off like they had Papa.