I woke the next morning to the sound of carts rolling in. I quickly dressed and ran to the porch to watch the procession, hoping to catch at least a glimpse of the supposed Ulfric Stormcloak. Hadvar was reading off names of prisoners, leading them to the public square he saw me approach the growing crowd and shot me a small smile. I was beginning to think that he had been joking with me last night as I hadn't seen even a small hint of someone who looked like Ulfric but then I saw him. He was firmly tied up, a rag in his mouth. Soon the execution would begin. Hadvar had finished his duty and walked to stand by me. Tullius began his usual speech, condemning Ulfric as a traitor and proclaiming that he would be executed for treason. I was quite oblivious to the happenings of other holds but from what I had read I was not too fond of him. Although I didn't believe he deserved to die, I realized it would be entirely necessary to finally end the pointless war. The first prisoner was sent to the block and the resident priestess recited a few ritual lines as a courtesy but was quickly ridiculed by the soldiers and the headsman proceeded to promptly slice his axe through the soldiers neck. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from gagging and I think Hadvar could tell I tensed.

"I've always hated executions." I heard him mumble next to me. "Some of these soldiers were friends and here I am, leading them to their deaths." I gave him a silent look of sympathy to which he responded with a grim smile.

Legate Rikke called for the next prisoner. An apprehensive air made my hand stand on end. Perhaps it was just the cold.

"Is it cold or is it jus-" I didn't finish my sentence. An other-worldly roar shook the keep and the ground.

"What in the world was that?" I could've sworn I heard someone exclaim.

"It doesn't matter, proceed." The Legate shouted over the rumblings of the crowd.

My heart was racing. This did matter and it wasn't normal. I could feel that it wasn't right. Hadvar cast me a confused look.

"What's wrong?" I rubbed my arms.

"Something's not right." I realize now how stupid that sentence sounds but it was the only coherent phrase I could muster. I felt his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, everything's fine, the Legate sa-" In this moment, I'm not exactly sure what came over me whether it were pure instinct or some type of sixth sense, I managed to push Hadvar and myself away from a cloak of flames. "Wha-what? How did you..."

"It's a dragon!" As soon as I heard the words my blood turned cold and my head snapped to the sky. There it was. Harsh dark scales glowered at me. It was nothing like what I had read of before.

"A dragon?" I heard Hadvar shout incredulously, I firmly gripped his jaw and turned his head to see. His eyes widened in fear. "By the gods, we need to get out of here! Follow me! There may be a way out through the keep!" He grabbed my hand and we raced away from the crowd.

One by one, the inhabitants of the village crashed to the ground, either by force of the massive creature or by the flames spewing from its mouth. I spotted the young boy, Hamming crouched alone by what seemed to be his fathers body.

"Hamming! You need to get away from here!" Hadvar noticed I had stopped and turned with me.

"Bu-ut my papa!" His cheeks were tear-streaked and rubbed raw. Gunnar scoped him up into his arms.

"I'll get him to safety, you two go! Get out of here as fast as you can!" Hadvar tugged me away and together we tumbled into the keep, still hearing the shouts and turmoil from outside.

I was completely spent and out of breath. I leaned against a nearby post, my mind flying a mile a minute. Would Gunnar really be okay? What would become of Hamming? Was Ulfric Stormcloak dead? Was General Tullius? Stressed tears were running down my cheeks which I hastily rubbed away with my sleeves. Hadvar was also breathing rather heavily but probably not as hard as I. He dragged his hands over his face and tugged at the ends of his hair, groaning in anguish. Another rumble shook the keep, stray pebbles popped out of the cracks.

"This keep won't hold forever, we should keep moving. There's got to be a way out somewhere." Together we surveyed the room and ventured into some soldiers quarters. "You should wear some armor, who knows who's in this keep by now, stormcloak or imperial." He pulled out a set of armor.

"Thank you." I graciously took the pile and dug through the bits and pieces, attempting to dress myself. A lot of it was much too large, but it would make do for now.

"Here's a sword, too, I don't reckon you have your trusty pick axe on you?" He chuckled handing me a short sword. I had forgotten I had told him about my weapon of choice.

"Unfortunately not, although I assume it wouldn't be much help against a dragon." The words seemed odd coming out of my mouth. We hadn't really seen a dragon, had we? Another rumble answered for me.

We continued to venture through the hold. At first, many of the people we came across were imperials. I was thankful for this but I suppose my luck (if you could call it that) had run dry. Once we had passed through the torture chamber, which Hadvar and I had both proclaimed our mutual dislike for, more and more Stormcloaks were resting in our pasts. It was somewhat scary to me how easily Hadvar cut down soldier after soldier in our path. And it was even more scary that I had become accustomed to killing them myself. I barely flinched as my dull blade severed limbs. Perhaps my work in the mines could have atoned to my ease, my muscles hardly strained.

It seemed Hadvar and I would make it through the hold, given that were could find an exit. At least until we reached a final group of stormcloaks. We were vastly outnumbered and they were not only trained archers, but trained mages as well. We seemed to hold our own for awhile until we were down to the last two. Hadvar was challenging a mage while I had taken to fighting the last archer. It was all running so smoothly until the archer notched his last arrow; aiming straight for Hadvar. I hadn't realized what in the world the archer was doing until he released the tension and saw the arrow pierce Hadvars leg.

"Hadvar!" I cried. The archer moved to get a final hit on me which I resisted, slicing into him and finishing him before rushing to aid Hadvar. Thankfully, he had killed the mage before hand.

"Health potion." Was all he said. I quickly found one in the knapsack I was carrying, uncorked the bottle and helped him drink. "Do we have any... Linen wraps" he choked on his words.

"I don't think so... We can cut off the ends of my dress." I pulled out the underskirt and tore away strips with a dagger, helping Hadvar to dress his wound. "You should have another health potion." He shook his head no and moved to stand up, nearly falling. I managed to catch him and guided him with me. There were no more stormcloaks in sight. I wound my arm around his waist, shifting his weight off of his bad leg, helping him to walk forward.

"Okay maybe I should." He groaned and I gave him an 'I told you so' look, uncorking another bottle for him.

After a few moments he was able to stand again and we continued our path. We crossed paths with spiders which wasn't that bad albeit they are terrifying, I had killed two or three before from my ventures through the woods. Hadvar seemed to favor his other leg now.

We were close to the exit now. I could feel it. All we had to do was reach the light area. My heart swelled, we were so close, we were surviving a dragon attack, when Hadvar sharply stopped me with his arm. He immediately crouched and pulled me down with him.

"A bear." He whispered. Then I saw it. A large cave bear, sleeping almost... peacefully. "I reaaaaallly don't want to mess with one right now so we're going to have to be quiet." I nodded in approval and we slowly began to inch our way past the beast. We were barely two feet away when it began to shuffle and grumble in its sleep, turning towards us. I felt my breath hitch in my throat and Hadvar and I stood so still I wasn't even sure if we were real anymore. It's breathing steadied again and Hadvar and I continued to creep past it. I held my hand tightly in his to relieve tension. We were almost past it. I could see the opening of the cave, the bright light. We finished our last few steps and we had made it. We had escaped an actual dragon attack. We lived to tell the tale. I took a deep breath of fresh air and felt like... laughing or cheering or something. We were okay, we were in one piece. I went to express my joy with Hadvar but got the urge to duck behind another rock, pulling him with me. My heart was racing against the rock as the dragon flew over us again and off into the horizon. Looking for any more potential threats, we gradually arose. I looked to Hadvar and noticed he had tears welling in his eyes with a watery smile he pulled me into a huge hug, holding me tighter than I think I've ever been hugged before. I lightly squeezed back and buried my face into his chest.

"We did it." I heard him murmur as he pulled away. "Gods, we survived." He almost laughed at this.

"But... Where do we go from here?" Hadvars smile slackened a bit as he looked around at our new environment.

"I believe this is a path to Riverwood." He started walking down the relief. "Oh..." he turned back to me.

"What?" What did he mean 'oh'?

"You don't... really have anywhere to go, do you?" He shook his head and took my hand, guiding me down the path with him. "It doesn't matter, you can come stay with Uncle Alvor and I. I'm sure he won't mind."

It wasn't really until then that I'd realized I didn't have a home anymore. Helgen was most definitely destroyed and I wasn't even sure where Gunnar was, regardless of if he survived or not. There seemed to be a new weight resting on my chest. What was I going to do? I don't have any money or any relatives to speak of. I could only stay with Sidgrid and Alvor for so long, they weren't my family and I had only visited them because it was my job to do so. And I don't even have that job anymore.

"Are you sure? I don't want to impose." We turned down the hill and recognized the terrain, I had accidentally ended up here once while hiking.

"Well as long as I'm there, I'm saying you can stay. Besides, they love you, you're much kinder than Gunnar in your business dealings." He chuckled, trying to keep the air light. I smiled at his courtesy.

"He can be... A bit insensitive at times."

"Stoic, blunt, scary..." I laughed and nudged his shoulder with mine.

"This is my adoptive father we're talking about, he's not scary." Hadvar's smile was bright again.

"That's what makes him scary. Not to mention his glass eye."

"You just have to get used to him." I absentmindedly kicked a stone and brushed my fingers across the bark of the tree I was walking next to. "He was always kind to me."

"Ordering all the books your heart desires? Buying you sweet rolls?" We walked past the standing stones. I wasn't sure what my birth sign was but I had accepted the blessing of the warrior stone as a tribute to those who I had grown up with that went and fought.

"Just the fact that he took me in when he could've left me to die; I owe him my life." Hadvar looked forward, pensively. "The books were nice too, though I don't recall receiving any food that wasn't a day old from the tavern." We turned together on the bridge and entered Riverwood.

"Katria?" A familiar voice dragged me from my thoughts. I looked up from the road and saw Faendal with his woodcutters axe perched on his shoulder. He smiled and met us on the bridge. "And Hadvar! What brings you two here? All... dirty... And in imperial armor..." Suddenly I was reminded of why I was here. Hadvar and I's expressions darkened.

"It's... A long story, come have dinner at the shop with us tonight, the gods know we'll have to explain it all to Uncle Alvor." Hadvar said, somberly. "There's been an attack in Helgen." immediately Faendal's eye's shifted to me, suddenly becoming aware of why I was here.

"I'll be there. Around 7, right?" I was grateful that he hadn't expressed any sympathy or pity towards me. Perhaps he was just waited for a different time.

"Hopefully whatever Aunt Sidgrid makes will lighten the mood." Hadvar pursed his lips and put his hand on my shoulder. "Now lets go get cleaned up."