-Chapter-4-

In the doorway a man towered over me. His white eyes staring at mine. A High Elf by the sharp outlines on his face, yellowy skin and hair, which was grey and slicked back; with eyes that held a cold gaze. His light, leather armour clinked slightly as he stood a little closer to me. His shining gold bow, slung across his back.

"May I help you?" he mumbled quite angrily and frowning.

"Uh…" I could not think of anything to say. I had just came here out of curiosity.

"Well?" the High Elf said impatiently.

Another few seconds passed of silence.

"Oh forgive her Lorland!" a voice came from behind me. It sounded familiar. I turned around to see Anease standing in the middle of the road, smiling like she always does. "She's just curious and all. She has only been here for a month and a little more." she clarified. "Her village was attacked by Bandits."

"You want me to kill them all for you girl?" he said with a bizarre smile.

I was not sure if he was joking or not.

"No thank you." I answered "Sir."

"Hahaha, no need to call me 'Sir'!"

Anease walked up beside me. "Lorland is a master archer of Morrowind and he used to be a brilliant Sell-sword."

"I still am." he gloated. "But I prefer a simpler life."

"I just remembered." Anease suddenly blurted out. "If you need to hone your archery skills, your welcome to come own to our house and practice on the dummies that Vu-Nul set up.

"Oh, thank you." He half growled, but he seemed to always sound like that. Even if he was being nice.

It had now been a whole year since my family was killed, and my chest still hurt as much as ever. I worked hard in training, I was now onto dodging which was difficult and much more dangerous than anything else I had done yet. At least I had finished with lunges. I also now trained in specially made armour for my height and it was quite light. It was dull and it was made out of iron, it lowered my shoulders and bent my knees slightly.

I had my own wooden mannequin to store my armour on in my room, it made it feel more like my own.

Lorland regularly came to train on the dummies. He was amazing with the Dwarven bow he had always kept on him.

I asked for lessons in archery once. He laughed and walked away. I don't like him much, but he had a aura about him. In my dreams Azura murmured his name, sometimes in warning and sometimes in a soft, chanting way.

"Mjoll?" Vu-Nul interrupted my absent-mindedness. He stood, sword unsheathed, looking at me like I was a little mad.

I sharply looked at him. "Uh… Yes?"

"Duck and roll. Duck and roll!" he said "Don't want to get hit now, do you?"

"Uh, no." I shook my head.

Vu-Nul swept his sword to the side of my head. I quickly ducked and rolled with a hard clunk as my heavy armour hit the ground roughly.

"Not very smooth." I heard Vu-Nul say. "Let your shoulder tuck into the body after you shift your weight forward."

I nodded. I glanced at Lorland who had entered the back garden with a full quiver of arrows.

I concentrated on Vu-Nul. He swung again, and again I rolled. This time I rolled smoothly under his sword arm, then span around on my knee, facing his back. Just then, I remembered the Bandit, I had rolled just like he did.

"Well done!" he cried. "Now do it again."

I pushed myself up. Glimpses of the Bandit, Brandr and Father filling my mind.

This time Vu-Nul threw his sword downwards, so a launched myself to the side and tucked my shoulder in. This time landing heavily on my armour. I span around on my knee.

"Don't catapult your self to the side, Mjoll!" He pointed to a big chip in the ground. "You landed too heavily. You will damage your armour, let-alone your shoulder! I think that's enough for today."

"OK." I turned and walked up the path into the back garden.
Lorland was there, knocking an arrow onto the string, pulling it to his cheek, and firing. All in just a split-second. The arrow seemed to be in slow-mo for a moment then pelted into the dummies neck.

"Wow." I whispered under my breath..

"Thank you." Lorland had heard me somehow. He slung his bow onto his back, then reached for his belt. Just then I noticed, he had two sheathes either side of his belt.

He unsheathed two Katanas. In a flash, he advanced at the dummies. With frightening speed he sliced and span several times, he ducked and swung upwards. Slicing from the gut to the skull. This all happened in around ten seconds.

"Why are you still staring?" he growled, looking at me with white eyes. He didn't unsheathe his Katanas as he slowly walked towards me.

"How did you become so good at fighting?" I asked, still amazed.

"Even a master archer finds himself in a close-combat situation on occasion." he answered. "Why do you train, girl?"

I frowned slightly, deep down I wanted to be a strong warrior so I could kill the Bandit who killed my parents. "I want to be a powerful mercenary." I lied.

"Aha, just like me then." he tried to smile, but it just looked like he tensed his lips.

"What were some of the assignments that you had to do?"

"Well, usually I would follow someone and clear out a cave or find something that had been stolen. The money was good as well." his lips loosened. "I was called to Skyrim a couple of times. I was sent to a Dwemer ruin called Mzinchaleft a long time ago." he lowered his head. "The only thing I regret is that I had to leave without doing what I was meant to do."

"What happened?"

"We were ambushed by some type of Dwarven mechanism. Arrows had no effect on them. We barely made it out alive if it wasn't for my Katanas. But by then I was seriously injured which made the traps harder to notice."

"Traps?" I was shocked that Lorland was even mentioning this. He didn't usually like to reveal anything about his past except being a master archer and that he was a mercenary.

"I accidentally stood on a pressure plate, and before I knew it, a blade had swung from the side, leaving a deep gash in my arm. Also it knocked me off the bridge I was on. Making me land near the entrance. I cant remember much else except opening the door and seeing some travellers walking up to the ruin." he lifted his head up. "The person who hired me got there money back and I had to walk away. I need to go." he said pushing past me quickly.

"Must be upset." I said to myself when he was out of earshot. Then walked back into the house and sat in my room. I started to look at maps of Morrowind and Skyrim. I want to go adventuring when I'm old enough.

A/N: Mjoll is not being allowed to leave, to adventure on her own, but she disagrees. She gets Vu-Nul to give her a trial. Lets see if she passes, then she can travel the whole of Tamriel!

Next chapter will be tomorrow! Remember to review!