I arrived in Skyrim by shipwreck, with nothing but the tattered clothes on my back. Rynjus was nowhere to be seen among the wreckage.
Scavengers had already begun to set upon the debris. Since most of the crew had been thrown from the ship during the storm, there was no one to stop them. Unsure if they had yet seen me, I quietly crawled inland, moving slowly and steadily away from the bandits, thankful that it was a dark, moonless night.
Too late did I find myself at the feet of one of those smelly bandits. He wrestled me to the ground before I could shout out - who would help me even if I had been able to? - and tried to take me there. I kneed him in the groin then struggled away, crawling across the coarse sand.
The mountains were so close, so close. I didn't care if they were filled with wild beasts, as long as I could escape. In all my charmed life in Cyrodiil with Rynjus constantly at my back, never before had I worried about someone trying to hurt me.
My hand fell upon a steel dagger and I grasped onto it so tightly my knuckles turned white. Hidden by the crashing waves, I did not hear the man's heavy footsteps until he was nearly on top of me. Turning, I closed my eyes and stabbed at him with the dagger. Warm, wet blood splattered onto my clothing, face, and hair.
I could hear him gasping, trying to call out to his friends, but his lips uttered nothing except a ghostly moan. When I finally opened my watery, tear-filled eyes, the bandit lay motionless, the dagger plunged into his throat. I sat back, studying my shaking, blood-streaked hands and releasing a stifled gasp and cry, only just processing how fortunate I was to still draw breath.
Rynjus would have said it was the divine intervention of the Gods, but I knew better. My survival had been nothing more than luck.
Clumsily, I rummaged through the man's pockets and found little more than a coin purse and a silver ring. I yanked the dagger from his throat and wiped it onto his clothing to clean it and, without looking behind me, ran as fast as I could into the mountains.
