Steven looked around at the snowy expanse before him and Connie, the air still thick with cold. Trees were still covered with snow, but now there was a stone road panning between the hills with rocks and colourful flowers dotting the ground. "The building is gone?" he asked, despite the obvious fact that the building is gone.

"Oh Gods." Connie's breaths were shallow and short, the Paragon Stone on the floor beside her. "What did I do wrong?"

"Maybe nothing bad happened?" Steven suggested, walking closer to Connie to reassure her.

"'Nothing bad happened!' Either I warped an entire building back to Beach City, or I warped us somewhere completely different than planned! Both of those are quite bad!"

A bitter wind blew through the air, carrying a near-unbearable chill with it. Steven shivered as his winter clothes did little to save him from the cold. "It's fine." Steven pulled his phone from his pocket. "We'll just call Pearl and she'll get someone to pick us up."

Connie blinked once. Then again. "You're right." She sighed in relief. "We have the Stone. All we need is a recovery, and then the mission is a success."

"One problem." Steven admitted, passing his phone to Connie. "There's no reception here. At all."

Eyes widening, Connie frantically pulled out her phone only to find the same problem. "What do we do then?"

Steven considered the options, looking for any suggestion of where they could go. In both directions, it seemed to only be snowy trees and rocky hills. "I think we can either stay here and wait for help to arrive. Or, we pick a direction and start walking."

"We don't even know where we are! How can we go somewhere if-" Connie silenced at the approaching noise.

A steady clip-clop caught their attention, and they turned to see how a man sitting at the reins of a horse-drawn carriage.

The man was obviously tall and thin, visibly so even from his seated position of the carriage, but his arms were well muscled from work. He eyed the pair before pulling on the reins, "Girder, stop." The horse, Gilder, was well trained and the chestnut horse slowed to a halt in front of the two. "Are you two ok?" the man asked after a moment of hesitation. His eyes, a deep mahogany brown, were narrowed in an equal mixture of concern and suspicion.

Now that the man and his carriage were closer, Steven was able to take in his appearance. He wore an odd top, one made of leather which covered his torso but left his arms bare, and the man's hair was a windswept mop of black.

Steven's eyes flicked to the man's waist where a sword was sheathed. In his cart were open crates that contained numerous items, ranging from weapons to vegetables. "I think," Steven started carefully, "that we are very lost."

"Aye?" The man's eyes studied the pair, lingering on Connie's sword before taking in her short breaths which were slowly normalising. "You're almost at Helen." He nodded his head in the direction his cart was travelling. "That's where me and Girder are headed."

Connie looked to the man. "Helgen? How far away is it?"

"An hour's walk or so." The man sighed. "Hop on the cart and I'll take you there. If you were one of those bandits you'd have threatened me by now."

Steven paused as the man shifted some of his stock to make room. "Bandits?"

"Aye. Some bandits have been attacking travellers." The man patted the seats of his cart to indicate Steven and Connie should sit. "Based somewhere between Riverwood and Helgen."

Steven and Connie exchanged a brief glance to the other. Bandits? A horse and cart shipping weapons? Riverwood and Helgen?

This was not normal.

Steven and Connie made their decision, the choice unsaid yet mutual. They both climbed on the cart, shifting tightly together to fit. "I'm Steven. This is Connie."

The man nodded. "Fenrik. The horse is Girder." He patted Girder affectionately. "Girder, onwards." Girder set off at a steady place, travelling the rough ground with ease.

Connie decided to fish for information, maybe she could gather clues about wherever they were. "So, Fenrik. What are you heading to Helgen for?"

"Business. I buy and sell things from towns," he explained. "Helgen doesn't have much, but my sister, Gods rest her soul, her husband runs the inn. So I'll travel through there, then to Riverwood and then to Whiterun."

Whiterun. That was another word Connie made a mental note of. "Sounds good," she replied. "So how long until we hit Helgen?"

"Not too far. In fact…" They rounded a corner and what Connie could only presume to be Helgen came into view. A large stone wall surrounded the wooden shacks, with guard towers of stone scattered around the interior, the inhabitants simply small specks wandering in the distance. "That'll be it."

The three remained in silence as they entered the town, the noise of the inhabitants enough for them. Girder pulled the cart to the centre of the town where a market stall stood, covered in various fruits and vegetables, a lithe woman manning the store. "Ingrid!" Fenrik yelled. "I have carrots! 3 Septims each!"

Connie made another mental note. Septims?

"Can't," Ingrid replied sadly. "Only selling for now. Bandits took me for all my Septims."

"Ah. Well, I suppose I can buy a few things from you." He pulled a small pouch from his cart and emptied some coins onto the stall. "That enough?"

Ingrid laughed. "For you, sure it is." She grabbed a handful of vegetables and pushed it to him. "Who are they?" she asked, looking at Steven and Connie.

Steven stepped forwards. "I'm Steven and this is Connie."

"You said you had a problem with bandits?" Connie added.

Ingrid nodded. "Last few months. The civil war has forced people to do what they never thought they would. We know they're holed up somewhere near here, but none of us can stand up to them."

"Enough of this talk," Fenrik said gently. "Unless you two are mercenaries for hire, there's no use in taking." When the two remained silent he nodded. "Come. I'll show you to the tavern and you rest for a while."

The tavern, named the Helgen Homestead judging by the sign by the door, was the largest wooden g in building inthe town.. As Fenrik pushed the door open, Steven looked around the room.

A few men and women sat around the various tables, a man with a bushy grey beard stood behind the bar as he wiped it down, with other people in red armour walking the room. All had some form of weapon, ranging from swords, to axes, to bows and arrows.

"Have you got enough Septims to afford anything here?" Fenrik asked.

Connie shook her head. "Nothing but the clothes on our back," she responded.

Fenrik nodded. "Thought as much." He pointed to the man behind the bar. "That's Vilod. I'll get you a room for the night and some food."

Connie waited until he was talking to the tavern owner and out of earshot before she leant forward and whispered, "Steven. This is not normal. I've never heard of any of the places he's mentioned, and everybody has weapons! What do we do?"

"I think we should wait for one of the Gems? This is the closest town to where we ended up, which hopefully means that one of the Gems could find us soon."

Fenrik came back to the table, clutching two bowls on liquid and two bottles. "I got you a room for the night. I assume one room is ok?" he asked, and Connie and Steven both blushed but neither denied it. "And I got you some soup and mead."

Steven took a tentative sip of the mead. It was cold and sweet yet seemed to burn the back of Steven's throat making him gag. "It's warm?" Steven questioned.

Fenrik nodded. "It's got Juniper Berries and Bleeding Crown in it. Vilod's special blend. Makes you feel the warm more, so I always get some while I travel." He looked at Steven and Connie's confused expressions. "Not ones for alchemy? That's fine neither am I, everything I know is from Vilod or my sister."

The three continued to politely talk as they ate the soup and drank the mead until eventually night drew in. "Well," Connie said after giving Steven a look. "I think we'll be going to our room now. Thank you for the help Fenrik."

"Aye, no worries." Fenrik drank the last of his mead, adding it to the empty bottles around him. "Just remember, I only paid for one night for you, so if you want to stay longer you'll have to earn your way."

"Don't worry," Steven smiled. "We're not planning on staying long anyway."

The pair went to their room, fully expecting to be rescued within the day.

When that didn't happen, they learnt to cut trees for firewood in exchange for a bed and food from Vilod.

By the end of the week their hope was dwindling.

It took three weeks for Connie to voice what they were both fearing as they lay in bed. "Steven. I don't think anybody is coming for us."