It was a stormy night, the oppressing darkness all around me; a dark cloud envelops the ship, making it hard to breathe; apart from the rain, a fine snow is falling, but it is grey, not white.
A cold wind pushes the ship forward… the waves giving life to the water, while the stars blinked in the skies above.
The emptiness of the sea making me realize how lonely I am; there's no one else on this ship; not a soul aboard.
The lightning rips open the skies, while the thunder deafens the sound of the moving water… but above everything else, a dark voice can be heard, and yet, I can't understand what it says… a bright red light shines ahead.

I stirred under the bright light of the sun; my eyes hurt, had I been dreaming?
I felt heavy and didn't know where I was.
It took me long to realize that I was somehow moving; I could see the branches of the trees passing above me; a similar memory crept back into my mind; this was equal to what I first saw when I woke up in that carriage after my skirmish with the imperial troops; they were taking those Stormcloaks and me to Helgen; hard to believe I had been here for just over two months and I already have been named Thane and Dragonborn.
I lifted my head and saw that I was, indeed, in the back of a cart covered with some furs to keep me warm; I turned on my side to try and get up, I squirmed around in the furs trying to get out of them and repented when I finally managed.

I was wearing only my loincloth, and the chilly wind made it hard to breathe; I had no strength left to stand up; a piercing pain on my neck made me groan, but even my voice was weak. I felt something dripping from my neck.
I managed to lift my hand and touch my neck, only to find that my hand was covered in blood.
A dunmer appeared in my sight; "don't move, you'll be alright just stay still".

The voice sounded reassuring and belonged to a woman; I couldn't answer or move.
She pulled out a rag from a small satchel at her side and moistened it with two red potions; one of them was a healing potion I recognized, the other I didn't knew what it was.
She pressed the rag on my neck against the wound I had somehow gotten; the smell of the potion was terrible, I wrinkled my nose, which earned me a condescending look from the dunmer; "I know it's not the best of smells, but this should lessen the bleeding and pain, I also need you to drink this potion." She said as she uncorked another red vial, which smelled similar to the rag.

I didn't want to drink that red crap, but the pain on my neck had indeed lessen since she put that nasty rag on the wound; so against my own will I drank the entire potion; I felt like retching at the taste, but somehow I managed to hold it, my eyes closed and the last thing I heard from her was; "just hold on… we're almost there".

I was chained to a wall, with a vampire whispering in my ear, I saw Bjorn trying to stand up, but was quickly sent to the ground with a scream, when one of the vampires broke his good knee with a stomp.
I tried to free myself from the grip of the other vampire but to no avail; the undead Briarheart was incredibly strong.
I saw helpless how two forsworn dragged Bjorn to another chamber of the cave we had been taken to; I heard several curses coming from Bjorn, then a scream, and then nothing.

"You'll pay for that monster!" I managed to blurt out as the briarheart closed his hand on my neck.

"Defying to the end aren't we?" The forsworn said in a mocking voice, as he pulled me with such strength, that the chains holding me against the wall broke, and I was thrown three or five feet forward.
I was quickly on my feet, but the vampire showed once more, being superior to a human in speed, since once I stood up he was already flanking me.
I lowered myself into a combat stance and got ready for a hand to hand combat; the vampire closed in, I threw a right punch directly to the face of the vampire but readied my left for when the vampire dodged it to catch him off guard.

A sound strategy that served for naught since the vampire didn't dodge the punch.
He grabbed my fist and when I lunged my left fist to his face he simply twisted my right hand and made me fall to my knees; "Too slow nord." He said as he lifted me and threw me against a natural rock pillar that served as a support for the cave.

The impact knocked the wind out of me and made me cough like crazy at the same time that I struggled to draw some air.
The briarheart laughed at me while his two friends urged him to kill me; the vampire walked to where I was lying and with seemingly no effort lifted me.
He pushed me against a wall, and closed the distance between us; he opened his mouth and there I saw those large fangs, closing on my neck…

I woke up drenched in sweat, my breathing ragged; "it's okay, it's okay, you're safe now, don't move like that, you need to rest for a little longer." A female voice said in a soothing tone. Once I focused my sight I saw that the woman tending me was the same dark elf that had helped me in the carriage.

I noticed that I wasn't in the back of the carriage anymore; I wasn't cold, and the place I was at was a comfortable small room with a fireplace and some expensive furniture it looked like… however there was no door, and an eerie blue light was coming from somewhere…
"Where am I?" I asked the dunmer that was at the moment serving some hot liquid in a cup.
"You are in Winterhold…" She began; Winterhold! What by the fires of Oblivion am I doing here? This place is supposed to be in ruins from what I heard before coming to Skyrim; stupid mages destroyed it or something like that.
"… more precisely, you are in the College; the College of Winterhold." the dunmer said as she left the flagon she had used to serve the hot liquid in a small nightstand, and walked towards me holding in her hands the cup of whatever she had served in it.
Well, just great; not only am I in the place that was destroyed by the mages, but I am in the college of said mages… "Sigh".

"Wait; you mean that I am in the College of Winterhold, the place to learn magic in Skyrim?" I asked while I pushed myself back and up with my arms to sit on the bed I had been laying on.
"Yes, the very same." was the answer of the dark elf; she extended her arm and offered me the cup; it wasn't the same potion she had given me before, because this thing smelled very good actually.
"What's this?" I asked as I took the cup in my hands.
"Ohh, it's just a tea that will make you feel better, and will also give you some strength back; it has lavender, mountain flowers, some canais root and some drops of a strength potion." the dunmer said with a smile on her face.

I took a swig of the tea and was greeted by a very sweet taste; the tea was sweeter than the taste of the Honningbrew mead; however the tea turned rather strong by the end.
Once I finished drinking the tea, I decided to ask what had happened; since I didn't remembered much; but if the nightmare I just had was anything close to reality I wasn't sure I wanted to know… Vaermina must be feasting on this stupid nightmare.

"Excuse me, I don't know who you are, and I don't remember exactly what happened, could you help me?" I asked the dunmer woman, who looked, by the way, rather young; but with mers you can't be totally sure due to their long lifespans; that is if nobody kills them; in the end, they bleed and die just like men.

"Yes of course" the dunmer began; "My name is Berlyna Maryon, and I'm just an apprentice here at the College; as to how did we find you, well, I was with our master alchemist looking for some juniper berries by command of our Arch mage, Savos Aren; these berries only grow in the western border of Skyrim so we were nearby, and we saw when those vampires attacked your group and followed them." Berlyna said while she sat down on a chair next to my bed.
"Well…" I began; "…that explains why you were there, but why did you helped me…" I felt a knot in both my throat and my stomach when I said that; I had completely forgotten about Bjorn; was he dead?

"Wait! There was another nord with me, where is he?" I asked Berlyna with a concerned voice, and her reaction said more than what any words could tell.
"I'm sorry serjo, we only found you alive; there was a body on a table in another room but…" she stopped talking, and remained quiet.
I imagined what she must have seen; they were vampires, but forsworn none the less.

"It's… it's okay Berlyna… you don't have to say more; I know." I said with a broke voice.
Berlyna nodded and remained quiet while I did the same. Good… awkward silence.

I decided to break the silence; "Ohh; I'm so inconsiderate…" I said which made the dunmer look at me with a confused face.
"… thanks for saving me Berlyna, I owe you my life." I said bowing my head as much as I could without hurting myself; after all I still didn't knew how bad my wound was.
This in turn made me think of something else… was I a vampire now?.

Berlyna must have noticed something in my face because she leaned in closer and asked if I was okay; I nodded but decided to ask; "Am… am I a vampire now?"
Berlyna was quick to answer once she understood my concern; "no! Of course not; we helped you right on time, the cure disease potion worked wonders on you; you won't turn into a bloodsucker, I promise." she said in a calm voice that made me sigh in relief.
"Ohh, thank the gods… but mainly you of course, I don't think the gods were very bent on helping me." I said smiling a little, which made the dunmer cheer up too.

"I guess that in the end this was a good thing for you and the alchemist right?" I said while I tried to uncover myself from the heavy fur covers.
"How so?" asked Berlyna.
"Well; you got your berries, and probably some vampire powder, right?" I said which made Berlyna blush a little.
"I… well, I… yeah, yeah I guess that helped us; we did get some rather hard to procure ingredients." she said but seemed uncomfortable while doing so.

"Don't worry, I know that your master alchemist probably went into the cave for the ingredients, rather than coming to help me; but I hold no grudges against you… vampires are fearsome and not to be taken lightly." I said with a warm smile trying my best not to make Berlyna feel bad or responsible for what had happened.

"Yes, I guess." was her answer; still with a not so happy tone; she remained quiet for a little longer but finally spoke in a more cheery tone.
"Well, I have to report to the Arch mage that you are okay and that you didn't turn; but that was no small wound; you lost quite a bit of blood, so you are going to stay here for a while; at least until the Arch mage deems that you are ready to go." Berlyna said as she stood up from the chair she had been sitting on.

I managed to get out of the bed and stand up; although I probably looked like a drunken nord trying to find his way back home… this thought made me remember Sam, and the reason of why I had taken the cart to Windhelm in the first place.
I need to get back on the road.

I heard a gasp come from behind me; I turned around and saw that Berlyna was even darker than before and covering her mouth and eyes slightly…
"Berlyna, are you okay?" I asked with a little concern, once she started stammering and not making any sense.
In the end, she pointed at me and turned her back to me; I was confused and looked down… only to find that I was still almost naked.
I felt hot in my face and knew I was blushing… I was quick to get back in bed; well; as quick as I could which wasn't that quick at all.

Berlyna saw that I was almost in bed; she said something really, really fast that I didn't understood while she took off to find the Arch mage I guess; although I saw her running out with a broad smile on her face.
I really need some clothes…