Chapter 3

Wren woke up to a wood beam ceiling, which was strange for someone who had always awoken to the wide open sky. Slowly, she sat up to get a better view of her surroundings. The sheets were soaked with her sweat but before she could worry about it the front door opened. It was Ralof, her traveling companion. As soon as he saw Wren sitting up, he sat at the end of the bed. "How are you feeling?" he asked in a stoic tone. "I'm fine, just a little drowsy. How long have I been out for?" Wren replied, Ralof had handed her a cup of hot broth with herbs to drink. "Two days" he said, not looking at her. Wren choked on her drink "T-two days? Where have I been all this time, in bed?". "We're at my sisters house in Riverwood" said Ralof. Wren had passed through Riverwood many times with the caravan but there weren't many customers in the area, so they never stayed long. I guess I've long overstayed my welcome in the strangers house, she swung her legs so that she was sitting next to Ralof. "I'm sorry if I've been a burden, I'll be out of everyones hair now" she stood but was stopped when Ralof grabbed her hand. "I don't think it's the right time for you to travel when you almost depleted the entirety of your stamina. Stay a bit more, my sister will be home soon so you can properly thank her, and you will be able to eat a real meal" their eyes met, his were stern with worry hidden behind them. Wren smiled at his petty worrying "You're right, I should properly thank the people who have been taking care of me, I assume you helped out some" she giggled at his shocked expression. "W-well yes of course. You saved my hide back in Helgen a few times" he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm surprised you're still here, I figured you would have met back up with the other Stormcloaks by now" Wren sat back next to Ralof on the bed.

"Well, I had some time to spare, and I had to make sure you would be alright", she noticed a faint red tint on his face. "Oh, thank you. I really appreciate everything you've done to get me here" Wren smiled. Just then the door opened again, this time a woman, a man, and a boy came in carrying what looked to be wood for the fire. The blonde woman was the first to speak "Oh, so you're finally up. How are you feeling?". "I'm well, thanks to everyone's help" Wren came to realize something. She turned to Ralof "Did I ever introduce myself to you?" he blinked, "No, but in your defense we were too busy escaping for chit chat". Wren quickly stood up so she was facing everyone, she felt oddly shy at that moment. "Erm, my name is Wren" they all stared at her wide eyed, but began to laugh at her flustered behavior. The only person who didn't laugh was the little boy who seemed confused as to what was happening. The woman-who Wren had identified as Ralof's sister followed the introduction, "My name is Gerdur, I run the mill. This is my husband Hod, and our son Frodnar" she pointed to each as she introduced them. "And I'm Ralof but you already knew that" he laughed heartily.

Gerdur began to make dinner, and Ralof stood beside Wren "Do you want to get some fresh air? After all, you've been in the house for two days straight" he offered. She nodded, thinking it was a good idea as well. The sun had started to set as they walked down the alley to the edge of the river. "So have you lived here your entire life?" Wren broke the ice as they sat on a log facing the water. "Yes, Gerdur and I worked at the mill when our father was running it. He also owned the inn as well" he looked over expecting the half mer to give her own backstory but she avoided the implication a little too obviously. Many people believed the caravan should be avoided like the plague so she didn't want to lose her new friend. "Wow, so you and your sister must be like Riverwood noblemen" she teased. He laughed, and she joined in but Ralof didn't miss her diversion. "Why were you trying to cross the border?" his face became serious. Wren chewed at her bottom lip looking out onto the flowing river. "It's kind of a long story, nothing you would find interesting" Ralof shook his head "Try me". She readjusted herself onto the log so that she was sitting criss cross facing him "Where should I start..? So when I was an infant my parents had abandoned me, I got picked up by the caravan and they brought me up as their own" she paused to gauge at Ralof's reaction. He seemed surprised at this bit of information as she had guessed but continued anyway. "It wasn't until a few days ago my adoptive father had given me the note my birth mother had left for me to open on my 18th name day. In the note it had told me about my father who is supposedly still living, somewhere in Cyrodiil and when I got to the border...well you know the rest" she smiled bittersweetly. "Wow. So you were really raised by the cat folk? What was that like?" Wren blinked at this. "Well I guess how you would assume, we lived on the ground. In all weather conditions 24/7 all year round. They aren't very sentimental people but I knew they loved me as if I was one of their own" she stood stretching out. "And what about you? Why are you involved in this war?" she looked down at him. He half laughed "For the honor of Skyrim, ever since the Thalmor came to Skyrim they've slowly stripped away our freedom, they banned the worship of our gods. Damn elves, nothing good comes from them" he had winced instantly remembering who he was with he slowly looked up at her but her hair was shrouding her expression. "I consider you a friend Ralof, but I could never be on your side in the war. You want an all Nord Skyrim, I've seen how some of you disrespect those who are not your own. You blame this war on Elves but we weren't the ones who shouted the high king to death, that was your not so high king ulfric" Wren was fuming My family has always been harassed, we were never in the same place long because of it. "I don't support the empires side either, they take away the freedoms that were once offered here" before Ralof could respond, she sighed heavily and walked in the direction of the house. She had almost gotten across the wooden overwalk when a large hand gently grasped shoulder, turner her around "Where are you going?" Ralof asked in a frustrated tone. "I think I've overstayed my welcome. It's time for me to head to Cyrodiil" she shrugged his hand off her shoulder but his grip was too strong to loosen. "It's too late to go out on your own. Stay this night and you can be on your way in the morning. I promise I won't bother you anymore after this". Wren looked directly into his eyes for the first time, and was almost lost in the beautiful grayish blue, she averted his gaze down to where his large palm had met her smaller one. A weird feeling in her chest came about, and she could feel her own face heat up. What is wrong with me? I feel like I'm going to pass out again. Wren looked back up at Ralof, who's face had changed entirely into something she couldn't read. He stepped closer, their faces with inches apart, "I'm sorry I upset you. I shouldn't be so close minded, especially to someone who saved my ass a few times". Wren began to stutter out her words, "N-no I'm sorry for l-leeshing-ah! I mean lashing out like that, everyone is entitled to their own-". The half mer stopped mid sentence when she felt his other hand push some of her silver white hair behind her small pointy ear. She wasn't sure what was going on, and what to do. Before the gap between them was non existent, Gerdur called out to them signifying that supper was ready. They both quickly jerked away from each other. Ralof was the first to speak, "Well I'm starving. We should get home, Gerdur doesn't like to say things twice". Wren nodded her head dumbly and followed Ralof to the house. The entire time at dinner, there was some kind of thick tension, Wren noticed. It seemed Ralof felt it was well. Luckily nobody else at the table had the slightest clue what was happening. After dinner was over, Wren helped Gerdur with cleaning up. Ralof took his nephew outside to spar with the child's wooden swords. Gerdur's husband was nowhere to be found, to which she said "He does this almost every night, he disappears when there is a mess in the kitchen. But that's my husband, it wouldn't be him if he wasn't like that". Wren smiled as she dried the plates I wonder if I'll have something like that. A life companion, maybe. I don't even know what the point in having one is...maybe I should ask Gerdur. "Hey, this might seem like a strange question to ask but...why do people get together and have cubs- I mean children?" Gerdur looked over at her with an amused expression. "When you're in love with somebody it's usually what you do" she winked. "Love?" Wren asked wide eyed, what the hell is that? Some kind of illness? Gerdur burst out laughing at the face Wren made. "It's a feeling of affection towards someone, you would do anything for them, want to be with them in ways that you wouldn't with anyone else. Being in love is much different from loving a family member or a friend" she moved over to the bar and pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses, she figured she and the girl would need it if they were going to have this conversation. She handed her a glass, Wren had never had wine before. In fact she never really drank after an incident when she was about 11 years old. Ma'dran had traded something and in return was given a bottle of something that, to this day she still didn't know what it was. To cut it short, she was given a few too many sips and ended up being bedridden for a week. After that she never touched alcohol. Until now, she raised the glass to her nose, smelling cautiously. It smelled pleasant enough, she sipped it and to her surprise she liked it. "So how do you know if you're in love with someone?" Gerdur took a big gulp of wine. "Has nobody given you a talk about the birds and the bees?" she raised an eyebrow at the half mer. "The what?" Wren was even more confused than she was before. Gerdur took another big gulp of wine and went on to explain everything about the ways of sex and reproduction. Some things made Wren blush and some just sounded plain gross. When she was done explaining, Wren had one more question. At this point they had gone through a bottle and a half of wine together so needless to say, they were on the verge of a drunk mess. "So *hick* thatsa all fine and dandy buuutt you didn' answer my question! How am I supposed to know if I have these feelings for someone or the other way around?" she pointed at Gerdur who laughed at the lightweight. "That's simple, you feel like you have butterflies in your stomach, when you are in a group of people it feels like it's just the two of you there!" she stated matter of factly. Wren froze and realized that she had those same feelings ever since she came in for dinner with Ralof. The door opened to Ralof and Frodnar laughing about something but they stopped when they saw the two women who were drunk off their asses. "Well it looks like you two had a time with that wine" Ralof teased. She didn't hear Gerdur's reply because her thoughts were racing on how she might have feelings for a man she had only known for a few days. Then a feeling of nausea hit her like a ton of bricks. She stood and ran out behind the house ignoring everyone, and let out her meal. There was so much she wouldn't have been surprised if her shoes came out too. Wren felt a hand gently pull back her sweaty short hair, and gently caress the top of her head. She knew it wasn't Gerdur because the hand was too large for any lady. Then a pair of lips brushed the shell of her ear, "Shh, it's alright girl just let it run its course".
He hummed in hopes it would relax her some which it had. Finally once her stomach was empty she sat leaning against the house with Ralof sitting beside her. He handed her a canteen of water, "Here, you'll thank me later. I didn't take you as a drinker". Wren laughed weakly after taking a sip of the cold refreshing water "Neither did I, and probably won't be after this. If this is how you Nords drink then I don't know how you live so long". Ralof smiled down at her, "Ah, but that is how we live so long". They both laughed for a good while, mostly after that it was just small talk. "I guess I'm off to Whiterun tomorrow, do you want to come with me?" she looked up at him hoping. "I would if I could, I have to report back to Ulfric before he thinks I'm dead" he looked down at her and was surprised at her look of disappointment, like Frodnar when he didn't get his way. He wiggled his eyebrows at her, "You know if you wanted to spend more time with me, you could always join the Stormcloaks". She scoffed, "You know how I feel about them" she stood "I think I need to get clean, my clothes are soaked in sweat". She walked down to the water and vanished. Ralof went back inside what a strange girl, but she's oddly captivating. "Is she alright?" the now sober Gerdur asked. "She's just fine, she went down to the river to wash up" Gerdur observed him for a bit then an idea popped in her head. "Frodnar, why don't you bring Wren a fresh set of clothes, I'm sure she's tired of those rags the Imperials gave her." Ralof saw the excited look on Frodnars face at the chance of looking at a young girl in the nude and decided on changing his sister's plan. "Woah woah, it's time for you to go to sleep. I will go down and bring her the clothing without disturbing her" he looked down at his nephew sternly. Frodnar avoided his gaze, his face blushing madly. Gerdur came back with the clothes, practically shoving them into Ralof's arms and pushing him out the door. "Oh what a good idea! Frodnar is getting into that hormonal stage". When he turned to ask her why she was acting like a lunatic, she slammed the door in his face. He sighed heavily and went down to the river Okay Ralof, your just going to run down, drop off the clothes and come straight back. The only problem was, that he had to find her without actually seeing her. Once he was down to the river he heard the sound of splashing to the right of him so he cautiously moved to that spot. As he got closer, he could hear humming. That has to be her. "Erm… Wren? I brought you some clothes!" he called looking down at the ground. "I'll just leave them here on this...rock" but before he could make his escape she came out of nowhere without even a loin cloth. "Ah that's okay, I was just finishing up. Thanks for the clothes!" she said unfazed by her nude state. Ralof's mouth had run dry as he stared at her undeveloped body, he could tell within the months to come she would fill out nicely. He had to catch himself from staring too long. "U-um you do realize you're naked don't you?" he sputtered out. Wren slid the dress on over her head and looked over at him "And? It's just how I was raised, we all bathed together in the caravan". He continued to bore a hole into a ground with his eyes, "D-do they not wear loincloths either?" he looked up to see her nipples poking through the fabric. "What's that?" she blinked, oblivious to the way of the civil folk. "Just forget about it" he turned and walked back to the house.

Wren was up at the crack of dawn collecting what little she had, and noticed that the only one still in the house was Frodnar who was still asleep. I guess the adults have already started their day she smiled down at the youngling. She made sure to leave a note thanking Gerdur for her and her husband's hospitality. She had finally set out to White Run to request aid for Riverwood. As she walked down the street however, she was surprised to find Ralof lingering in front of the smithe. He looked up and his distant gaze turned into a big grin. She waved at him and approached, "I thought you would be halfway to Windhelm by now" she laughed. "Ah well, I just asked Alvor to tune up my armor and sharpen my blade before I headed out" he grinned down at her. Something about the way he was acting told Wren he might not be telling the truth but quickly put that thought in the back of her mind. "Oh well that's good… I'm actually glad I could see you before I left" she cursed internally as Wren felt her face heat up, she looked to the side embarrassed. "I wanted to thank you again for helping me out so much and… I do hope we cross paths again" she twiddled her fingers, avoiding his gaze. If she did, she would have seen the surprised look on his face. Without a word, Ralof stepped forward and gently lifted her chin so she would look up at him. They held that stance for what felt like an eternity before he kissed her on the corner of her mouth-more so on the cheek- Wren felt that whole spot on her face set ablaze. She immediately backed up, laughing almost hysterically "Hahahaha well I guess I'll-uh see ya around!" half shouting, she waved and practically ran to White Run. Ralof stared at her retreating form and smiled. A strange one indeed.

A/N: Hey guys! I finally got done editing this chapter! Let me know what you thought of it!

As always, thank you so much for the support!