As we walked up the pass the day got brighter still and everyone's spirits were high. After an hour or so the scouts returned and reported nothing yet to be seen or heard, I didn't see much of the bandits after that because I was sent on scout duty instead, I was given the job of covering the rear, a job most people wanted as it was easy and not very strenuous, I spent the time searching for herbs and other trinkets in the melting snow, every now and then looking down the pass for anything unnatural.

I had just scaled a small cliff on the edge of the pass as I had seen a small grove of Deathbells clustered in an alcove when I saw something, my sharp eyes picking out small details. There was a large dust cloud fanning out in the distance my eyes detecting at least thirty men, all on horseback. Seeing this I rushed from the cliff back to the group who were blissfully unaware of their impending doom.

I ran straight into the heart of the convoy and started to yell for Jorrsk, it took me a few seconds to find him, talking in a low voice to T'ss. I stood in front of them and grabbed Jorrsk by his arm.

"Jorrsk. There are men, on horseback, charging up the pass as we speak," I said, the running stammering my breath.

"What-? Oh. Oh the Nine Divines." Jorrsk said. He quickly started to shout order and the troop started to move with urgency. After he had finished shouting, Jorrsk turned to me and said, "Listen Green, you need to go back there and keep an eye on the horsemen, when they come too close, use that freaky Bosmer power of yours and send an animal back to camp."

I nodded and left the camp back toward the growing dust cloud in the distance. Once I was good way from the camp I found a large rock in the middle of the pass and settled down to watch the horsemen. Taking my bow from my back I strung it quietly and took out my 3 remaining poisoned arrows. The poison had now crystallised and I took a small pinch of snow, melted it in my hand and poured it onto the crystals which liquefied them. I knew what I was going to do clear as day in my mind, but putting into action was going to be a different story. I took another close look at the troop and clearly identified the leader, a large Nord with mismatched Dwarven and Elven armour with a glass helm held in one of his hands, the other gripping the rein arrogantly. I took the bow and nocked the poisoned arrow into it. As the Nord came up, a disdainful sneer became more and more apparent on his face until I could bear it no more; I drew the bow and fired in one swift motion. The aim was not the man as it would have been far too difficult to pierce the armour, but rather his horse which like all the others was unprotected and exposed. By some machination that I had no control over the horse moved slightly as the arrow flew and instead of the arrow burying itself in the chest of the beast, it slid alongside the horse's flank cutting the hide thinly. It also cut the saddle strap, cleanly breaking it and causing the saddle to slide off the side of the horse along with the rider, I'm sure if he had his helm on and had gripped the reins with both hands he wouldn't have fallen so badly but as it was he was thrown clear of the horse and landed straight in the path of another which stampeded over him and stopped him moving. I felt very pleased with myself for a moment but then reality came back to me. The riders had stopped now and were circling around their leader, unsure what to do. Not moving any more I could see the markings on the riders. Imperials, Bad sign. They'd kill every one of us if they were given the order and they all were very tenacious in carrying out their plans, I waited a moment longer to see if their second in command would make himself known and I could further destroy their command structure, as it turned out he did. A Nord took the glass helm from the dead leader, put it on his head and was probably going to shout at the men to continue forward. As it happened, a feathered shaft sprouted from his mouth, as soon as he'd opened it as I unleashed the third poisoned arrow into the pompous man not giving the troop time to see him hit the ground before the final arrow thumped into another man. The blow on the third man hit him at the back of the knee and while not fatal in itself, it administered the lethal dose of poison into his blood stream, wilting away his life like a rose in winter.

Serveral minutes later I was back where I had seen Jorrsk last, to find that he had moved along with the other bandits. Not to worry, while they had disappeared they had left in their place a large swathe of tracks that I could follow to their holding point. I followed the tracks up the pass a bit then followed them into a side valley with a frozen brook going down it. After following the brook for a while I felt eyes upon me, looking up I saw Steffilka a few hundred metres in front of me. She beckoned for me to follow as she walked around a bend.

When I turned the corner I could see all the warrior bandits gathered in a line across the width of the steep valley, behind them were several pockets of marksmen, their bows poised for use. Behind them, at the highest point of the valley, stood Jorrsk and the non-combatants, T'ss and Illianda. I ran up to the line, it parting momentarily to let me past, and ran up to Jorrsk.

"Report," Jorrsk said briskly, his eyes fixated on the bend of the valley.

"Thirty-one horses and twenty-eight riders, they're imperials with standard armaments. They have no real command structure to speak of sir." I said, grinning wolfishly as I made the last statement.

"Oh, and why would that be, Green?" he said taking his eyes momentarily off the valley bend and looking sternly at me.

"Their leader was a fearsome man clad in Dwarven and elven armour. So I shoot his horse, he fell off and got trampled to death, his second in command seem a little too eager so I shot him too, and then I shot a third man as I left."

Jorrsk thought for a moment then said "good work Green, now get back to your command group." And with that he turned back to the bend in the valley.

I went down to the outcrop on the right where Drad and the rest of my command group were. In times of major conflict or when we tried dangerous manoeuvres, Jorrsk always got us to work in command groups, which reduced the amount of orders he had to give. There were ten marksmen in our bandit group so we were split up into two command groups, I led one and a Dunmer called Shadowlight led the other. In my command group was: Drad, my second in command; Fenter, a little imperial who didn't speak much; Ciara, a feisty Nordic women who always wanted to get back at someone and Draco, a self-absorbed fool of an Altmer; but a crack shot none the less. I went over to them and bunched them closer than Drad had.

"There are no bowmen in their group," I said to Drad. "You did right but it wasn't nessasary."

Taking my own Orcish Bow out, I laid it in the snow and rummaged in my pack until I found what I was looking for, ten Elven arrows, very expensive but damned good and cutting through things. I laid them on a small rock protruding from the snow and took up my bow again, notching an arrow into it, and waited.

It was about 3 minutes after that I heard noises of a horse trotting on rocks down the valley. I looked over to the left ledge where Shadowlight and his command group was, I caught his eye and nodded to him. He smiled briefly then turned to his command group. I in turn spoke to mine.

"Shadow and his lot have the first shot, so hold your fire." I whispered loudly so everyone could hear me.

With that we settled down in wait. I didn't take long, a few seconds later a lone rider came into full view of the bandits, he hadn't seen us yet as his head was fixed on the tracks, a moment later he looked up and did a double take at the sight of all the warriors opposing him. He tried to make his horse backpedal but before his heart had beat twice, three arrows sailed over from the left ledge at the rider, one pierced the horse making it whiny in protest, the second dented his chest plate but did no more the third however dug itself deep into the unfortunate soldier's neck, the arrow wedged in a curious angle as not to block blood flow out as arterial spray flew into the air from the man on horseback, he slouched over the now blood-soaked and frightened horse. Shadowlight gave an order and the other two who hadn't fired shot an arrow each into the horse them both burying itself in the chest of the animal. The horse reared up and with a final scream and died in the now red snow.

This time it was Shadowlight that caught my eye, when he had it he tilted his head towards me signalling if I wanted to take the next shot. I listened to the new sounds of multiple horse trotting the valley and shook my head then I mouthed to Shadowlight 'too many' and he nodded and went to speak to his group. I myself needed to talk to my group as the biggest problem now was putting too many arrows into one person. I decided to use a rotary system that meant no more than one arrow was in the air at one point allowing targets to be chosen and the aim to be precise. I told this to the group and they nodded in agreement. I looked back up to see the entire imperial company line up in front of us at the foot of the valley. Only ten horses could stand abreast down the width of the valley so they were bunched up quite tight which would make it easier for us to hit our targets.

A man rather timidly rode up halfway between the bandit line and the imperial line and spoke directly to Jorrsk.

"You and your men have violated the peace in Skyrim! By order of the Emperor you each have the death warrant on your head! However, due to the wretched Stormcloak uprising here in Skyrim the captain wishes you and your 'crew' to join us against the Stormcloaks. Your payment being your freedom to walk free in all the land of Skyrim." The man bravely stood his ground as he delivered his ultimatum and kept his eyes firmly on Jorrsk despite the numerous weapons aimed at him.

Jorrsk replied in turn, "The offer is rejected and we give you five seconds to return to your line before you become a makeshift quiver!"

The lone man on his horse needed no more encouragement and went zipping back to his comrades who opened up a gap where he could enter through. As he disappeared another man came forward out the line though not as far out. When I saw him I chuckled a bit as the man had the same glass helm that the original leader had, he was delivering a final speech to his men. Once he'd finished he turned towards the bandits he started to raise his sword, but as soon as it started to move I released the elven arrow from the bow and watched with satisfaction as it rammed into the man's eye socket, this had a doubly good effect as none of the imperial soldiers were aware of their captain's demise as he had tensed up in the saddle as the arrow made contact making him appear alright from the back.

I started to reload as Drad fired his arrow into another imperial, and then Ciara fired, she seemed very eager to start. By that time I had reloaded and was waiting my turn. Draco was next; effortlessly knocking a man off his horse, and then came Fenter whose arrow I lost track of in the writhing mass of imperials. I came to fire again and shot my arrow at a heavily clad Redguard who had almost reached the line of bandits, the arrow missed him but instead impaled itself into the horses forehead, the hazelnut mare simply collapsed, her rider being thrown forward and landed in a crumpled heap before the bandit line, where a blonde haired Nord decapitated him with his axe. By now the front line of the imperials was empty of men but due to the good aiming of the archers many of the horses still were standing. The imperials that were further back now had to push their way through these beasts that were panicked and trying to run away. Jorrsk roared at the bandits and immediately the line disappeared. The bandits were now streaming through the horses pulling the unsuspecting imperials off their horses and hacking at them on the ground, the imperials at the back looked extremely scared. Their command had been wiped out and now there were men sneaking around pulling the riders off their horses. Eventually they ran, the first one who went was stopped by a stubborn fellow but soon they both fled along with the other survivors, about ten in total.

As the last one fled, Jorrsk ordered everyone back. In total we had three fatalities, and six with major wounds. T'ss and Illianda set up a sickbay for the wounded and the camp went about burying the dead. The bandit dead each got a separate grave, adorned with full funeral traditions of their race. The imperials were picked over and then the naked bodies were thrown into a large hollow that was then filled with snow. There was thirteen horses left alive and all extremely nervous, but after a rub down and the saddles taken off them, they became calm and quiet. There was no way Jorrsk was going to get anyone to start trekking again so he announced that we were to camp here tonight. The campfire was soon set up and Illianda was cooking dinner in between tending the wounded. One of them had died already and there was to be a funeral for him too tomorrow, but as I settled down on a flat stones warmed by the fire I knew that things couldn't have gone any better.