A/N: Hey…it's been WAY too long. I know I said I was probably going to post one more chapter all those nights ago in December, and it's been like two months. EW. I'm trying the best I can to write the story while dealing with school and figure skating, so bear with me, people! To the story!

Sarila dangled her arms over the bannister in the upper floor of the Bannered Mare in a depressed manner. She sorted through her thoughts and recorded everything that had happened that day in the notebook of her mind. Imperial transporting prisoners, a dragon flying over the city, and of course, the most gut-wrenching thing to cross Sarila's mind; nearly being forced to kill a person, one of her own kind. Had Ysgrig not been there, Sarila would not have had the nerve to kill Hamelyn, and she would have never seen the light of day again.

Mallus was of course overjoyed at the completion of Sarila's mission, and immediately took charge of the meadery. In the midst of Mallus's glee, he did not think about the consequences of failing to inform the twins of Hamelyn's presence in the caves. He soon found the collar of his tunic caught in the hands of an enraged Ysgrig, who wasted no time in confronting Mallus about Hamelyn. Mallus had never felt more intimidated in his life, and felt tiny globules of sweat beading up on his forehead as he stared into Ysgrig's fiery eyes.

Sarila slightly smiled at the thought of Mallus scared out of his skins by her brother. She had still not come to terms of his evolution. To Sarila, he was still the silly little jokester she knew as a girl, although one crisis could morph him into a cunning warrior. She began to wonder what Ysgrig went through after the loss of their family, and after he encountered Chalvia in her miniscule shack.

As if Sarila's thoughts had summoned him, Ysgrig appeared next to Sarila and rested his arms on the bannister, shifting his weight forward. "Are you alright, Sarila?" Ysgrig asked, looking into his sister's clouded eyes. Sarila faced him briefly before staring forward, down into the fire pit of the Bannered Mare. "Can you tell me more about your life with Chalvia all those years?" Sarila requested, picking a loose piece of thread from her dress.

Ysgrig smiled at the memories and nodded. "Alright. I told you how I met Chalvia, so how about I tell you a little bit about a few days after we met?" Ysgrig asked. Sarila thought for a moment. "Why a few days after? What's so special about that?" Ysgrig chuckled at his sister's undying curiosity. "You'll soon find out, sis."

It had been three days after Ysgrig met Chalvia, and fourteen days since his family's deaths. Ysgrig was slowly coming to terms with the loss of his mother, father, and sister, yet his heart ached greatly for them. If he could only be hugged by his mother, gather wood to chop with his father, and play Olaf One-Eye and Numinex with his sister just one more time, he would be the happiest boy on Nirn. He brushed the untamed locks of hair from his face and sighed wistfully, the lush, green blades of grass swaying in the gentle breeze.

"Race you to the hill!" Chalvia grinned, breaking into a dash towards the hill. "Hey! You got a head start! No fair!" Ysgrig childishly chastised, running after the Redguard girl. Chalvia clambered up the hill and flopped down on her belly before Ysgrig had even begun to scale the hill. "I win!" She gasped between breaths for air. "Sure, you just keep telling yourself that." Ysgrig stuck his tongue out playfully as he walked up the hill. Chalvia suddenly grew more interested in something towards the bottom of the hill. "Look! A fox!" She giddily exclaimed. Ysgrig shifted his attention to the small, red fox that scurried around aimlessly. "It's so cute! I wonder if he's-" Chalvia stopped mid-sentence when she saw Ysgrig brandishing his toy sword, emitting a fierce battle cry as he bounded down the hill.

The fox, alerted by Ysgrig's presence and intentions of attack, gave a frightened shriek and began to trot away, only to fall to the ground, dead. A dark puddle of blood began to form around the fox's dead form, and Ysgrig pulled his sword from its neck. Chalvia gasped and sputtered, flabbergasted at Ysgrig's unjust killing of this poor, innocent animal. She stormed down the hill, fire in her eyes.

Ysgrig grinned, flashing Chalvia his pearly whites as he picked up the bloodied corpse of the young fox, clearly proud of his accomplishment. "Why did…why did you do that?!" Ysgrig's smile faded from his face when the words left Chalvia's lips. "What? Kill the fox?" Ysgrig asked. "That fox did nothing wrong to you, and you just went and killed the poor thing! It must've been scared to death! How could you?!" Chalvia angrily shouted, stomping her foot on the ground as she crossed her arms, a furious scowl upon her normally pretty face.

Ysgrig felt the familiar pinprick of tears forming in his eyes, the salty droplets threatening to spill out onto his face and clothes. He briefly remembered Sarila scolding him for killing a rabbit. "Ysgrig, that's horrible! That poor little rabbit must have been scared to death before you killed it! Shame on you!" The words of his deceased sister echoed in his head as he tried to shake the thoughts out. "I'm going to look for flowers, come find me when you're ready to say sorry!" Chalvia spat, stomping off into the distance. Ysgrig growled beneath his breath. "Fine! I didn't want to play with you anyway, you stupid girl!" He shouted after her, though his insults fell on deaf ears.

Ysgrig grumbled about the incident, tossing the dead fox into some underbrush before finding some small rocks by an old wine bottle. He palmed a smooth, greyish rock in his hand, and angrily tossed it into the same underbrush. He slowly began to calm down as he tossed rocks into the underbrush, each rock rustling the leaves before it hit the ground. Swish. Clank. Swish. Clank. Swish. Clank. "EEEEEEE! HELP!"

Ysgrig immediately perked up at the girlish screams that freed him from his rock-tossing cycle. He refrained from throwing the old wine bottle he had just picked up, and instead held it close to his chest. "That was Chalvia!" Ysgrig gasped to himself, grasping his toy sword firmly in his hand. He snuck closer to where he had heard the scream from. The second shriek had confirmed that he was headed in the right direction. Ysgrig pushed through some bushes and peeked through the leaves.

"Please, leave me alone! I have nothing for you to take!" Chalvia pleaded, tears streaked down her pretty face. "You got nothin', but that ain't mean your family don't! Where they at, girly? Tell me now, 'else you want this sword through your neck." The gruff voice of a bandit threatened. "I told you! They're dead!" Chalvia desperately reasoned. Ysgrig silently gasped as the bandit pulled his sword out of his sheath. He had to act fast, or Chalvia wouldn't be getting out of this alive. Ysgrig viewed the two potential weapons in his hands; his toy sword, and the old wine bottle he'd found by the rocks. Ysgrig immediately ruled out his toy sword, as it was on the verge of breaking. It was for killing small animals, not people. Ysgrig instead smashed the bottle on the ground, shards flying onto the earth. Ysgrig cringed when he saw the bandit stop walking towards Chalvia.

"What was that?" The bandit growled, searching for the source of the cracking sound. Ysgrig panicked, grabbing the shard of glass that was about as long as his forearm. He emerged from the bush and gave another fierce battle cry, attracting the bandit's immediate attention. "What in the-"

Ysgrig plunged the glass shard into the man's heart. The man grasped his chest and tried to pull the shard out, before collapsing to the ground in a shower of blood. Chalvia, who was only a foot away, began to back away from the river of blood that began to flow towards her. She looked at the man's corpse, then at Ysgrig, whose clothes were bloodstained. Her body shook when she released a frightened sob that she had been holding in, tears streaming from her eyes. She slowly made her way towards Ysgrig, her legs shaking with each step she took. She threw her arms around his skinny neck, sobbing into his shoulder.

Ysgrig awkwardly stood in place before wrapping his arms around his friend's back, comforting her as best he could. In truth, he himself was frightened as well. Not only had he nearly witnessed his only friend's murder, but he had killed someone. It wasn't a rabbit or a fox, but a person. A person with a heart that beat, a brain that thought, and a goal to survive the harsh land of Skyrim. Ysgrig let the thoughts circulate in his mind as Chalvia continued crying into his shoulder, and he slowly came to the realization that he had killed one of his own kind, something not even his own parents had done.

That was the day that Ysgrig had lost any innocence he'd had left.

That was the day that, unbeknownst to Ysgrig, Chalvia had fallen in love.