The sky was beginning to turn an orange hue as the sun was rising. I strapped the sword around my waist, feeling a new sense of pride, the Whiterun guard at the entrance nodded his greeting and allowed me to pass into the city, as I walked into the familiar place I noticed my reflection, my long white hair was loosely laying down my back and on my shoulders, my pale grey skin was getting a slightly darker colour to it after my long journey, the enchanted orc blade hang off my waist saying don't mess with me, I wasn't too sure why my feet had taken me to Whiterun, but I knew soon I would be neck deep in mischief.
I strolled through the city, my eyes darting from place to place looking for something to do or steal, I saw an apple ripe for picking, the vender of the stall in a word battle with a client. I nicked it, walking casually off, taking the first sweet bite of the apple, juice trickling down my chin. I went into the Mead hall of Jorrvaska, the meeting place for a heroic band called the companions, I still needed shoes and knew that there would be some good armoured boots in there, the companions would unwind after a hard and long mission and sometimes get drunk and leave there things around, asking to be taken.
Jorrvaska was always rather quiet most people avoided it knowing and fearing the companions. I swung the doors open; a warm open fire in the centre of the room greeted me and warmed me up from the cold morning air. A long table framed the fire pit, I sat down, a sweet bun freshly laid on a silver plate was abandoned, only one bite was taken from it. I pretended to admire my reflection in my spoon, but secretly glanced around the room, looking for treasures, there were only two people in the room as far as I could see, one was a man half balding, he didn't look at all like a companion, the other was a man dressed just about the same as me, dressed in rags, he seemed very familiar, he had shoulder length greasy dark hair. I turned my attention back to the task at hand, no one had seemed to leave any items laying around of any value, just a book or two here or there. I scoffed down the sweet bun and drank a bit of the nord mead.
Once my belly was full I strolled around the room, pretending to be looking at the buildings architecture, it was a pretty interesting building anyway so I interest wasn't too put on, the building was incorporated with an old barge for its roof that must have been used by the first companions to set sail here.
I saw some stairs leading down that was most likely whee the living quarter were. If I was found I would be in some serious trouble, the companions were a fearsome group that were soaked up to their chins in blood and guts, most of their missions were honourable, but let's just say there weren't the most forgiving people.
I snuck down the stairs, trying not to make a sound but every stair seemed to squeak and groan, damn old shit hole I thought cursing the ancient building. I got to the bottom of the stairs, I could hear faint voices on the other side of the door, but they seemed to be getting more and more distant, I pried the door open just a peak, no one was there. So I slipped passed, Old oak filled my nose, it was a homey place, fire torches lit every so often, fire light flickered and danced off the walls.
I heard footsteps coming so I quickly darted down the hall and into the first room on the right; I pushed the door closed slightly. The footsteps retreated further down the hall way. I looked around the room I was in, my eyes narrowed on a wooden chest Bingo! Just what I was looking for! I took out my lock picks and begun my work, the chest was a tricky one, took me all of two minutes to open it, it creaked open, my heart stopped for a second, I could hear voices coming down the passage.
"I've taken up a contract, so I will be away for a while brother." Came a deep raspy voice, it was very close by so I ducked away behind the door, hidden by the dark. The two voices were talking about the ones contract, however I wasn't listening, and it wasn't about me so I wasn't interested. I waited a while behind the door, my attention span was beginning to waver and I searched the room for anything of worth, the owner of the room didn't own many things, it was mainly weapons scattered around the room, even on the bed, they were all too heavy for me, I could tell by just looking at them, I had never owned a weapon until now, only my small pocket knife, but that couldn't even threaten someone, it had gotten me out of one or two scrapes though. My attention was drawn back to the voices outside.
"I have lost the ability to control my transformations, it's been happening more than once a day now, I feel I can't be around civilians, I can't trust myself." They were obviously having a private conversation, and I felt like I was intruding but they had gotten my attention, anything weird and wonderful like lycanthropy and I was all ears... I literally was all ears though, I thought, as a dark elf, they were long and pointy; I brushed my white hair over my ears subconsciously. I took my attention away from my insecurities.
"You can't let your feelings get the better of you brother, you have to try and hold back." I heard the other sigh. "I hardly see you anymore; you spend far too much time out in those woods..." There was a pause. "Please don't tell me you have been dealing with witches again." He sounded anxious.
"No, Don't worry, I learnt my lesson with those damn witches. It's more that I prefer my solitude, instead of being attacked all the time for what I am" My curiosity was getting the better of me. What was this man to make people attack him? I wondered. I had a lot of racial abuse for being a dark elf, Nords were the "Superior" Race in Skyrim and all others were out cased. I peered through the gap in the door getting a glance of the two brothers.
They were an intimidating duo, both dressed in heavy armour, the one talking about his curse was all muscle, but what I was drawn to was the intense look in his eyes, his eyes were so light blue they looked white as snow, similar to mine, he had dark war paint smeared around his eyes and shoulder length black hair, his brother looked the exact same except he was a lot leaner.
A new comer greeted the duo and they walked off changing the subject to a more intense one, something about war. I turned my attention to the wooden chest; I lifted the lid, more carefully this time, making sure I didn't make any noise, and... low and behold, more weapons, go figure! I thought t myself, however they were beautiful weapons, on top was an engraved bow, beautiful deer ran and jumped gracefully, ivy wrapped around the whole length of the bow, the matching quiver with strong steel arrows were fully equipped, I slung the quiver around my shoulder and attempted to pull the bow, it just showed the extent of my muscles as I couldn't even pull it an inch!
I saw my reflection in a full view mirror by the dresser, I didn't get to see it often, living on the streets you hardly came across one... The person looking back at me looked like a stranger, I still wore my rags with my sore, blood caked feet, (Which reminded me of my main mission, attain shoes!) however with my orc made sword and beautifully engraved bow and quiver I looked almost like a warrior, someone worthy of respect and not just a dog on the street that people thought they could just push aside. Pride grew in my heart, even though I was steeling the things giving me pride. I wondered what the reason was that I was sneaking around collecting weapons, I faintly acknowledged I was building up a desire in myself to be more, but what was I thinking, how could a well known thief, with more than one bounty on my head ever find honest work, and beside, so many things had happened to me in my life I was losing all faith that there were honourable people in this world, I wouldn't even include myself in that circle, I showed people what they had shown me, disrespect and disloyalty.
"Ai!" boomed a voice; I turned around to see a huge hulking figure rushing towards me, a hand wrapped around my throat and lifted me up, off my feet, my back hit the wardrobe and knocked any bit of air I had left in my lungs.