The night was... Interesting to say the least. Nabis insisted that he needed to make up 'for all the septims I had cost him'. I didn't know if he was being sarcastic or not, but I decided not to argue once he told me to sleep in his bedroll while he was out. However, once the nightmares came, I wasn't as eager to continue sleeping. But my body took over, and forced me to sleep most of the night. I woke up to Nabis stirring something in the cooking pot.

"Good morning lad," he greeted almost cheerfully," have fun sleeping the night away?"

"I'm sorry," I asked," did you need me for something?"

"We'll now that you mention it, yes there is something you could do," he said. For some reason, his tone and the glint in his eye made me think that I wouldn't like what's coming. He tossed a longbow at my feet. My longbow. The one I had to drop on the way to Morthal. And my arrows too. They sat in front of me, but they seemed like a curse. I failed to save my mother with this bow.

Nabis broke through my thoughts by saying," well I had to stay at the sorry excuse of an inn while I was out thieving. So I would very pleased if you would hunt for some extra money."

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Oh I'm just going to try and squeeze some septims out if stupid travelers," he responded.
I nodded slowly. My lack of current trauma caused my rebellious side to surface. And what right did he have to order me around like a servant. Almost as if Nabis could sense the rebellious thoughts coming to my mind he said," also kid, you owe me."

"Yes, maybe I do owe you for the food and bed, but that's probably it." I thought

"Not just the food and bed," Nabis said, as I realized I had said that aloud," if I wasn't for me stopping you, you would be in a orphanage by now. So say you leave. Talk to anyone and they'll ship you off to Honorhall Orphanage and you'd spend your next three years wallowing in misery at the wrath of Greold the Kind."

"And how would you know this?" I argued.

Nabis sighed," because Honorhall was where I lived for my whole life. So believe me lad, I just saved you from a horrible life."
I sat under the tent and weighed my options. Nabis silently watched me. I picked up the weapons and slung them over my shoulder. Crawling out of the tent, I made my way I to the woods.

I crouched in the mud. The wetness seeped through my shoes uncomfortably. But as I pulled back the bow, I was focused only on the deer that was walking slowly through the woods. I aimed just ahead of the deer, and released. However the string slapped painfully against the skin of my forearm and I cried out in pain. The deer looked around in alarm before running off towards the north. And my arrow hit the tree directly to the left of where the deer was a few seconds ago. "Damn it!" I shouted. The deer was the only large animal I had seen all day. The only other animal I had caught was a mudcrab I had happened upon. I stood up out of the mud and looked a the sky. Only about an hour left before the shops closed. I turned and started walking back through the woods.

Morthal was a dreary city. If you could even call it that. The wet clusters of houses and shops always seemed gray and depressing. Also the constant smell of mud always seemed to make the town seem dirty and neglected. I came up the apocrothary's shop and pushed open the door. The lady inside introduced herself as Lami and distastefully bought the mudcrab chitins that I had collected off the offensive creatures. I'm sure she got a lot of them out here, but three septims? Really!? As I left the shop and entered the inn, I groaned. Nabis was sitting at a table right inside the door, sipping at a tankard of mead. I walked up to the counter, the heat from the fire assaulting my back. The innkeeper bought my mudcrab legs and a hunk of venison from a injured deer I was lucky to come across. Unfortunately my luck ended there. I sat down next to Nabis dejected and exhausted. Between the mental strain still haunting me from yesterday and the physical tiredness from today, I was in no state to argue and all the rebellion from before was gone.

"Soo..." Nabis drawled out," how did you like your day as a honest, hardworking hunter?"

"About as much as I will cleaning the mud off these shoes," I responded, attempting some humor.

Nabis made a small chuffing sound that could have been a laugh. "You see how hard it is to live a 'proper' life? Damn nobles judge us up in their towers for bein' thieves. Well they make it so difficult to earn an honest living, they got no right to judge. How much did you make today lad?"

I looked down at the scratched up wood of the table. "Twelve septims."

Nabis let out another short chuff that I now decided was a laugh," twelve septims. Well lad today I got round a hundred. Plus goods to sell later."

I looked up quickly from the table. A hundred septims. Plus extra! I had never heard of that much money being made in one day. By thieving nonetheless. Nabis let out another chuckle at the look on my face. "stick with me lad and I'll teach you to be the best damn thief around."

Nabis ordered me pot of soup and some bread which I gulped down hungrily. We didn't make much conversation, instead listening to the bard sing the few local tunes. He was halfway through 'Ragnar the Red' when a thought occurred to me.

"Nabis?" I asked," you said that the nobles would judge us for being thieves. How did you know I would agree?"

Nabis laughed again. " Well the funny thing is," he said," that those grounds I sent you to hunt on... are the Jarl's private hunting fields. So, you already agreed to be a thief the second you picked up that bow. I'd guess if you'd been caught, the guards would have tossed you in jail by now."

Shock ran through me like lightning. The look on my face must have been funny because Nabis started laughing again.

"Lad, that's just the tip of the mountain," he said before taking another sip of wine and turning his attention back to the bard.