I've never seen a more beautiful sight, the red of blood staining the Stormcloak's blue armor. There were seventeen of them, Ulfric sent seventeen men to slaughter a village of peasants. The fools were dumb enough to charge the main caravan in hopes of cutting Rikke's throat, only she was five miles away when they hit the caravan. Only one Imperial soldier died in the charge, a young lad foolish enough to get in front of Legate Erica when he was swinging his blade at a Stormcloak. Of course the bodies needed to be looted and protected, in case someone attempts to defile them. As Legate Rikke said, "We're not bandits or forsworn.".

Any other legate would send grunts to examine the bodies, but Legate Rikke insisted she stay behind and do it herself. Well most of it, she's brought three men to take the stuff back to camp."Fine weapons and decent armor, both will need to be cleaned and repaired though. They have a few plain tunics on them, I suppose we can give those to some of the poorer peasants. They hardly have gold, but some gold is better than no gold at all. The general was carrying orders to slaughter Rorikstead to send us a message, and kill any high ranking officials they could get their hands on. Ironic, they failed both of their task." Her words have me confused and I ask, "It seems they did their job at Rorikstead, how did they fail?" She laughs and answers, "Two little girls, they couldn't catch two little girls. One of them simply ran so I can understand not chasing her, but the other simply hid under a blanket! It's pathetic! Now come on, it's dark and those two little girls in question and a nice meal will be waiting for us at our tent." I take one last look at the naked corpses before turning Smiler around and riding after Rikke.

We quickly enter the tent, our tent is slightly away from camp that night. Rikke said it was in case the werewolf or any Stormcloaks attacked, how our tent being far away helps I don't know, but I don't like questioning Rikke. The children are huddled together on one side of the table when we enter the tent, both look at us with wide eyes. Rikke simply flops down on the other side of the table and begins tearing into her food, not even bothering to look at the girls. I offer a shy smile before sitting down to eat, neither of the girls bother to return my smile. It's only after I swallow a slice of pork I realize the girls aren't eating. "What's wrong with your food?" I try to keep my accent out of my voice, no need to frighten them anymore. The one who ran off says, "Poison." This gets Rikke's attention and she snarls, "I'm a trained legionnaire, if I wanted you dead your body would already be cold. Besides, poison is a cowards weapon. I'd simply slit your throat or shoot you in the back while you ran from me."

Both of the girls look more terrified than ever, all my hard work with the one in pink was just destroyed. I lightly punch Rikke in the arm and say, "Don't listen to her, I won't let her touch a hair on your head. Now, to prove it's not poisoned." I rip off a tiny bit of each of their bread and eat it, hopefully they'll believe me. They must, for they both begin tearing at their food like starved wolves. After we're all done eating I ask, "Would you two mind telling me your names?" The one in pink shakes her head, but the one in green straightens her back and says, "I'm Britte and this is my sister Sissel." I smile and tell them, "Such pretty names to match the pretty girls who have them. Would you two like a bath?" They both nod and allow me to take their hands, I quickly led them over to the bathes.

Once the girls are clean and wearing new tunics I take them back to the tent, both yawning and telling me they want to go to bed. I manage to find a sleeping bag for myself, the children will have to share my cot. Rikke mumbles about letting them take my stuff, but laughs and forgets it when I flatten my ears and pretend to swat at her like an angry cat. The floor is uncomfortable, but definitely isn't a place for young girls to sleep.

I'm awoken halfway through the night by two warm bodies trying to fight their way into my sleeping bag, the sound of a raging storm outside. I'm not sure what's going on, but I climb out of the sleeping bag and lay on top of it. The two girls force my arms up so the can lay beside me with their heads resting on my shoulder, one has a thick goatskin blanket in her hand. The blanket is laid across all three of us to help keep some of the cold out. I attempt to go to sleep, but the heat of the bodies beside me quickly makes me too hot to fall asleep. I sigh and close my eyes as the hours drag by, the two children beside me fast asleep and oblivious to the fact they're disrupting my sleep.

The storm subsides, but I don't bother waking the girls. When morning comes Legate Rikke rises, and laughs at the sight of her squire trapped between two children. After she's done laughing she wakes the girls, they both grumble but dress themselves in some plain wool tunics, breeches, and shoes. As I put Rikke's armor on her I make a mental note to buy them some winter clothes for all four of us before the snow catches up with us. We all go out to find an open campfire to eat breakfast, for once Rikke follows me to sit by the sisters. They all quite when Rikke sits down, but begin cooing when they see Britte and Sissel.

Breakfast is a rather boring event, the most interesting thing is a stray dog nibbling some of Sissel's bacon. Sissel giggles and continues feeding the hound, but stops when Rikke grumbles about encouraging strays. "We need to begin marching, what do you plan on doing with the girls?" Rikke ask after she's finished her porridge. I consider the options and tell her, "Nameless would gladly watch them and return them to us at the end of the day." Rikke nods and begins walking towards her new stallion. I quickly drop the girls off with Nameless, mount Smiler, find Rikke, and blow the war horn to begin the march.

When we're far ahead of the soldiers Rikke ask me,"Why do you always sit with the sisters at breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Some of the higher ranking soldiers have been talking, they're starting to think you prefer those savages to us." Her words confuse me, while many about the soldiers think of the sisters as savages I've never heard Rikke talk of them in such a way. "They aren't savages, and I just enjoy them." Rikke's face hardens and she says, "They're still the savages you met, only now they don't threaten to kill you. Some of them call you a hero, but very few actually think you are. Most think of Nameless as the true hero, you were simply the person helping her. They call you a hero in hopes of pleasing you, and hope that pleasing you will please Nameless."

"When you first entered their hall you were lowly prey, even now some of them would gladly slit your throat. All of them consider you lower than them, even Nameless. Most of them think of you as a stray cat that's taken to them, and think of themselves as your generous owner." I consider her words and say, "Nameless has always been kind to me, well that's a lie. She's been a little kinder since she killed her mother. The others, well they're just like all of your lessors that suck up to you in hopes of rising in ranks. Truly, you can't blame them for that." This seems to anger Rikke because she snarls, "I can understand forgiving the sisters, a few of them truly enjoy your companionship and the others simply have no opinion. In truth hardly any of them truly despise you, and those are usually the ones that were happy before Nameless took over. However, Nameless is a filthy dog who thinks with her cunt instead of her brains."

My anger flares and I force myself to calmly say, "Nameless has shown me great kindness by-" I'm cut off by Rikke snapping her horsewhip and snarling, "By what!? Not taking you as a trail wife!? I know very well what Nameless does if someone doesn't comply with her! I've lost countless soldiers and squires to her! Do you wish to know what she did after you were whipped?" Her voice drops and she stops yelling. I weakly nod and she says, "While you were on your cot bleeding and moaning in pain and I was asleep she attempted to enter the tent without me knowing, but tripped and almost fell on top of me. When I asked what she was doing she simply told me she was claiming what was rightfully hers, she planned on stealing you away in the middle of the night and forcing you to marry her. Keep in mind she planned on consummating the marriage, whether you wanted it or not."

I don't know how to react to what I've just been told, so I simply sit mutely on Smiler in shock. Rikke slowly rides closer to me and pulls the hood down from my face, her eyes soften and she says, "I let Nameless watch the girls today in a show of good faith, but I don't trust her. I know it'll be hard, but you must accept the truth. They aren't like you, they consider you a lower being. They're savages and half of them would gladly kill you and make you a blanket, the only difference is the other half would rape you before they slit your throat. You belong with the soldiers and me, remember where your loyalties lay. I'm sorry for my anger earlier, truly. It's not you I'm cross with, I just fear you'll end up getting hurt. Now come on, we need to get a move on." And with that she kicks her horse into a run. I watch her ride ahead of me, my mind a tangle of questions and fears.