Disclaimer: What belongs to Bethesda is theirs. My character Zenwa Goldarche is mine. Same with mods.
CH-1: In A Foreign Land
Although Skyrim in general was a cold place, but as luck would have it, the weather was pretty hot with a blazing sun in the sky, adding to the misery of an already exhausted Zenwa. She dragged her body through the dense forest, the hilt of her sword digging into the side of her waist. Her throat was parched and it had been days since she escaped the gallows by a chance incident.
Really worrisome that an ancient powerful dragon, long thought to be a myth, had awaken and terrorized the whole village in which she was going to have had her head cut off, nonetheless she had that dragon to be thankful for. Her head still hurt from all the confusion and chaos her mind and body had gone through in the past few days, but she had more pressing matters at hand.
Firstly, her hide armor was wearing off, and her clothes had been badly torn off by the wolves she had fought earlier. Her wounds on the upper thigh and her lower arm, though healed by a mixture of some herbs she had found in the forest, were still fresh and hurting. She pressed down on them to ease the pain a little, the nightshade and juniper berries rubbing against her skin and hand. Alchemy was never her forte, but she never thought it would save her life someday. The aching stopped a little bit. Tired, she slumped her back against a tree and slid down. Her eyelids felt heavy and she struggled to keep herself awake. She fought the urge to sleep, and stood up with great difficulty, using the big rocks lying nearby. Secondly, she had to find a way to get out of this nightmare, before she died of exhaustion and lack of resources, not to mention the dangerous creatures that lurked the lands of Tamriel.
The forest itself was not so large, yet if one was not careful, the chances of losing your way and getting trapped in its dense growth was manifold. Zenwa had learnt all this the hard way. It had been days, and she still had no idea where she was going. Skyrim was a completely new place for her. She had only heard stories back in Cyrodiil, but she never imagined it was going to be this bad.
As she maneuvered her way through the branches, slowly but steadily, she started to hear the sounds of rushing water. Gathering all the strength she had left, she ran towards the sounds, hoping to find some way out of this forest. Sure enough, she found a large stream. The sound of water crashing through the rocks was music to her ears. She ran towards the bank, grateful, bent down and drank all the water she could in one breath. The water was not sweet, but fresh and enough to quench her thirst. Drinking till she couldn't drink no more, she rested for a while. Now that her thirst had been quenched, her mind went back to all those unpleasant memories she had shoved deep down, or had no time to think about, considering that some moments ago, she had been on the brink of losing all hope and embracing death.
Visions of her mother and father flashed before her eyes. Her eyes watered, and her lips quivered. She fought back the urge to cry, knowing that once the tears started to flow, it would be really hard to stop them. She let out a loud sob and gasped for breath, wiping the one tear from her cheek, which somehow managed to escape her weary eyes. She tried to block out the faces of her dead parents, staring in the depths of her soul. She gave up, gathering juniper berries for food; some thistle branches and twigs to start a fire, in front of a large tree. She ate a lot of berries, yet her stomach was not full and could've used some more food. She sat staring at the waters, her back against the grainy bark of the tree, till her eyelids grew heavy and she lay down on the hard ground, making a rock her headrest. The soothing sound of the waters rushing nearby, drowned all the memories in her head, if only temporarily, and lulled her to sleep, the crackling sound of the wood burning in the fire adding to the ambiance, only making the work of the waters easy.
Zenwa woke up suddenly from the pain in her stomach. As her senses came to, she realized she had slept for a long time; it had been a while after noon and the sun was beginning to set. No wonder she was so hungry. She really was thankful to the nine Divines that no animal had harmed her during the time she slept. The fire was out. She was still tired, but not as much as before. Gathering berries, branches and twigs again, she slept a little early, so she could rise early and set out for her journey tomorrow.
The sun was shining really bright, and pierced Zenwa's eyelids, waking her up. She hurried, gathering her belongings and started to walk along the stream, hoping to find a village or town at the source, gathering a few berries along the way to eat and gain some energy. After four hours or so, and a lot of turns and twists along the way, she finally reached a road, and almost cried out in happiness. She started to walk along the road and saw a caravan approaching in the distance. She walked faster, reached the caravan a few feet way and motioned with her hand to stop. She had done so, when out of nowhere, a group of men with armors and swords ambushed the caravan. Before her mind could process it, Zenwa found herself too close to the scene, with no way to back out, and found the men looking at her. Although she couldn't see them behind their masks, she knew they were staring at her. And not in a good way. Zenwa was beginning to turn around to run and...
THUD!
A blow came crashing down on her head, and all she saw was pair of black hide boots coming towards her as she blacked out.