Soft rays of sunlight peaked through the cracks in the Orphanage walls, Brenna slowly cracked her eyes open and the first thing she became aware of was how sore she felt. Her entire body ached, she was sure this was how it must feel to get trampled "hmph! About time you woke up you lazy brat!" The angry grating voice of Grelod the Kind was the first thing to greet her ears and she winced slightly at the sound "well... hurry up and get out of bed you lazy whelp, you won't get a second chance to go out in the yard so get out of my sight before I change my mind and have you clean this whole orphanage top to bottom!"
Remembering the events of yesterday Brenna managed to bite her tongue be fore grinding out "yes Grelod, thank you for your kindness." She scrambled out of bed and headed for the door she assumed led to the side yard throwing back a hateful glare over her shoulder before hurrying outside.
"Skeever breath!" "Big nose!" "Lizard brain!" As Brenna entered the side yard the sound of childish insults could immediately be heard and as she looked she saw a group of children all crowded around another child hurling dirt as well as insults. As Brenna took a step closer to see what was going on she realized the child being bullied wasn't human, she was an Argonian and Brenna only assumed the child was a she because she was wearing a dress rather similar to her own.
Brenna wasn't sure what had preceded but the situation seemed so unfair and Brenna didn't think anyone really deserved to be ganged up on like that so without even thinking about it she walked up "hey!" She crossed her arms and glared at the other children fiercely "that's enough, leave her alone now!" The biggest boy pushed through the crowd and stood in front of her and sneered "oh yeah, and what are you going to do about it?" He was taller than her by a bit and looked like he was older and an Imperial not that she really cared, rather than some snotty reply she simply lunged forward punching him hard in the stomach causing him to fall to the ground clutching his stomach and crying pitifully. Brenna glared at the others "any body else?" The other children glanced at each other before dispersing and whispering amongst each other and Brenna reached out to the Argonian child offering to help her up. The Argonian snarled and slapped Brenna's hand away "get away from me! I don't need any help!" The Argonian child ran off not even bothering to brush the dirt off herself, Brenna shrugged shaking her head so much for gratitude.
Brenna moved off to play by herself thinking that would be the end of it but just as she bent to examine a blue flower something grabbed her arm and twisted it violently before pinning it behind her back. She cried out and attempted to twist around and confront her attacker but he slammed his weight into her pinning her to the ground "not so tough now are you!" She recognized the voice as the boy she'd struck, she snarled "tougher than you coward!" She managed to get her legs under her and with all her might shoved against the ground flipping them over, in surprise he released her arm and she twisted raising her fist to strike him hard once again when a terrible screech echoed across the yard. Both children looked up to see Grelod standing in the doorway to the little side yard and both children quickly separated wearing identical looks of horror, it was too late however and Grelod marched over grumbling and screeching about what ungrateful little rats they were. She grabbed their arms in a vice like grip dragging them inside the boy immediately began crying and blubbering apologies while begging forgiveness, Brenna just grit her teeth and glared hatefully at the old woman as they were forced to clean the orphanage top to bottom in punishment while she followed them about kicking them whenever she thought they were slacking or slowing down.
By the time they'd finished it was night and they were both sent to bed without food, the next day was relatively uneventful as none of the other kids spoke to her and she didn't try to speak to them though with relatively little to do besides chores this made for a rather boring and lonely existence. The next few days went just the same and Brenna wasn't sure how much longer she could bear this, being treated as if she were alone when in actuality surrounded by others only intensified her loneliness and longing for freedom and she began to grow restless. Not that she was the only one treated horribly by Grelod the kind, Grelod was horrible to everyone with the least provocation even lashing out sometimes for no particular reason.
One time she'd chained a girl up in the closet for almost a week just because she'd dropped her fork at dinner, another time she beat a boy so badly he couldn't walk right the next day or for several days after. All of the children were miserable and in their own misery they tended to lash out at each other at times though Brenna thought if they'd just work together they could probably overpower Grelod and escape.
Finally unable to bear being completely ignored Brenna began preforming small acts of defiance purposely goading Grelod into punishing her, during one such act she snuck into Grelod's room during the middle of the night. She was surprised and angered to learn after going through Grelod's stuff and finding some documents that some percentage of the cities tax money was given to the orphanage for upkeep and care however as far as she could tell Grelod spent the most minimal amount possible on either as for what she actually did with the rest of the money Brenna could only speculate as Grelod rarely left and there wasn't much in her room that would be particularly expensive.
Grelod woke up suddenly and catching sight of Brenna reading her documents and rifling through her things screeched and lunged for her, Brenna squeaked dropping the papers in her hand and ducking under the madwomans arms. The chase only made things worse for Brenna when she was finally caught as Grelod chained her in the closet for a week, Brenna began losing track of time after thay as the days turned to weeks and the weeks morphed into months and Brenna watched new scars grow on her young body even as she herself grew. A few years of life like this and Brenna could take no more, she began planning and every day when they were in the side yard she began inspecting the wall though careful not to make it obvious. She snuck out one night carefully carrying a chair she'd stolen from the dining room, she used it to peak over the wall and waiting for any guards to be looking the other way before hauling herself over the wall and landing somewhat less than gracefully on the ground below. Keeping to the shadows she snuck around trying to find a way out without being seen, all the main entrances and exits were too well guarded so she found her way down to the docks instead.
Just as she thought she might make it a guard spotted her "hey what are you doing skulking around over there!" The guard started coming towards her and in a panic not wanting to return to Honorhall she did the only thing she could think of, she jumped over the side of the dock and into the water where she began swimming as hard and fast as she could. She swam until Riften was out of sight and her arms and legs grew sore, finally unable to swim any longer she went ashore where she was almost immediately assaulted by a territorial mudcrab. Luckily she'd thought to grab a knife from the kitchen before leaving the orphanage and untangling it from her sodden dress used it to kill the crab though not before it had managed to cut her arm with it's claws, she tore a piece from her dress and tied it over the wound to stop the bleeding before collapsing in the mud utterly exaughsted.