A/N - SPOILER (slightly) after a part in this, it's kind of rushed, but you have to imagine Ajivha as "Oh my Sheogorath! This is life or death I have to find a healer, quick!"

Everything could have been fine. We almost made it out of the house with no problems, but as we walked back up the stairs, we were greeted by six guards. I had my arrow in one hand and a sack with the man's head in my other. I was wiping the blood off of the arrow and onto the covering of the sack as I realized they were there. I froze in my track and heard Omazirr behind me, giving a low growl.

Swords were equipped and held out, ready to attack us at any minute.

"You two!" the front guard yelled. "You're under arrest for breaking and entering and murder! Put away your weapons, drop the sack and come with us."

My lips curled into a smile. "Gee," I said. "I don't think I want to . . . Omazirr?"

He caught onto my tone very quickly and laughed. "We have other plans," he purred. I felt his hand rest on my hip as he stepped directly to my side, his arm now resting around me. "Shall we finish them, love?"

I bit my tongue, the 'love' part going a bit far.

"We already handled many of their brethren. What's a few more matter?" I dropped the bag and felt Omazirr's hand leave my side, both of us pulling out our weapons and putting smiles on our faces.

We all stood their, poised as if waiting for the other to attack. I saw the guard in the middle of the six shrug his shoulder, and he raised his sword as though ready to swing it down and chop my head off.

I ducked under the throw and threw myself at the man's abdomen, shouts of the start coming from the other guards. My head hurt a little bit from bashing into the armor, but I threw it off quickly and swung my axe into his side. A cry of pain left his lips as I pulled out the axe, blood spitting onto the ground. I slammed the axe behind his neck and kneed him in his groin, forcing him to kneel just a little bit more. I pushed his helmet off, put it on my own head, got a grip on the axe and started bashing my skull into his.

Eventually his limp body fell onto the floor and the helmet was knocked off of my own head. I opened my eyes quickly to find one guard standing over me, his sword pointed at my throat as terrible pains ran through my head.

Omazirr, taking on four, glanced my way and I heard a low growl from him. Suddenly, heat encased the room and then there were only three of us. I heard the ash and bones splintering onto the floor.

In the next movement, Omazirr slammed a mace that another guard had into the head of the man who was over me. He didn't live for long, I knew, as his arm flew out to his side, suddenly his body no longer over me. His sword, however, didn't go far like his body did. While Omazirr kept pounding his face in, piercing pain ran through my arm, a loud hiss escaping my lips that sounded more like a cry than anything else.

"Ajivha!" Omazirr yelled and was quickly at my side. The sword the guard dropped had slit my arm, a long gash sliding down the side. It also cut through the sleeve of my robe and now there was blood spilling out of my own arm. Omazirr threw the sword toward the other side of the room and stared at me, unsure of what to do. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm not skilled enough to heal this!"

I ground my teeth together and pushed myself into a sitting position, tearing the rest of the cloth from my sleeve off and wrapping it around my arm. It wouldn't hold for long, that was definitely sure, but I had to make do.

"Grab the head," I said and darted out the door. I ran down the pathway and up to Spark, jumping up on her back and pulling on the reins toughly. Spark started galloping off, but I could only keep that pace for a few minutes. I could feel more blood seeping out of the gash on my arm, and soon Omazirr was yelling my name.

"Ajivha!" he yelled. "Ajivha, wait!"

I forced Sparks to stop and when Omazirr pulled up beside me he grabbed hold of my reins.

"What?" I asked harshly. "I need to go! I need to find a healer!"

"I understand that," he said. "But-"

"I can heal you . . ." a soft voice spoke up from out in the line of trees.

My head whipped around to find a woman stepping out, a Bosmer, by the looks.

"Who are you?" I asked, already alert.

She smiled but ignored my question and walked around the two horses until the was on my left side. Omazirr was on my right side and the arm that was cut was my left. She reached up to grab my arm but I yanked it away.

"Hey!"

The Bosmer yanked my arm down and tore off the sleeve of my robe. "Child," she said. "I know what I'm doing! I can heal this right away, but you might wish to get off of the horse 'lest you wish to fall off."
I looked at Omazirr and he nodded, "Do it, Ajivha." He seemed to genuinely trust the Bosmer. What choice did I have, then?

I groaned in pain as I hopped off of the horse and she instructed me to sit down. I did, leaning back against one of Spark's legs. She stood there patiently, although I knew the horse was looking down at me, as if it truly cared.

The Bosmer woman was fairly pretty and she looked young, too. She seemed like she was quite the innocent sort.

"How are you supposed to heal me?" I asked.

The Bosmer woman smiled, "Darling, I wouldn't tell you that I could heal you if I didn't know that I could. I make all of my potions and elixirs by hand and I test them on guards to know if they work or not. I make sure none of them have any side effects, 'else I wouldn't use them on innocent people."

Ha, I said to myself. Innocent.

She started digging through her bag, and eventually she pulled out a fairly tiny vial with some kind of white liquid in it. It wasn't a clear-white, it was the kind of white you could see, like snow. I squinted at the vial, not trusting it.

"Wait," I said. "You expect me to believe that someone so young could make a potion in a vial so small that could heal a gash like that?" I motioned to my arm and the Bosmer smiled a wide smile and nodded.

"Believe me, yes." She carefully grasped my arm at the elbow after taking the cork out of the bottle. I smelled a sweet aroma, like that of rose petals and fresh stream water and many other ingredients. She pushed the tiny bit of my sleeve up so it rested on my shoulder and didn't obstruct view of the gash at all. Now that I could look to see it, I didn't really feel nauseous, but more like a little worried. It started from my wrist and went past my elbow. Not all the way up, but far enough. My eyes kept glancing back and forth between the vial and the cut, and I kept telling myself, A potion that small is never going to work! With all the blood draining from my arm, I'm gonna die! I could have been to a healer by now! Yeah, I was freaking out.

The Bosmer put the vial at the top of my cut and tilted it upside-down. The liquid immediately starting trickling down my arm. It felt cold and gave me the chills but at the same time, the gash was starting to become very hot. It was like the two temperatures were fighting for dominance inside my body, but as I looked at the gash, my skin was practically sewing itself together!

"The particular potion I made," the Bosmer started, "regenerates several layers of skin. In order for the skin to stay, however, it sews itself into the skin already there. The regeneration process is a very warm process, but inside your body, your blood veins are being molded back together so that you don't lose anymore blood. The molding process is very fast but it's also very cold, which explain the degrees you're feeling. Anyways, you should be good now, Lady Traveler." The Bosmer patted the spot on my arm, where now only a very light scar remained. I jumped, expecting pain to shoot through my arm, but instead a burst of warmth traveled through my body and the chills receded.

I stared for a few seconds at my arm, rather shocked and surprised.

"Oh . . . wow," I muttered.

The woman laughed and smiled. "I'm Sariah," she said. "I'm a proud ex-shaman Bosmer and, little one," she added, "I'm eighty-three years old."

"Eighty-three?" I was surprised. "I . . . guess I should have seen that one coming." I shuffled to get ready to stand up. "Where are you on your way to?" I fumbled in my pockets for a few seconds, looking for some gold to give the woman. I felt the small pouch in my pocket that had many septims from the man's house. I felt awkward pulling it out and holding it to the woman. I mean, all the gold I collected- gone like that.

"What's this?" the woman eyed the bag curiously.

"Sariah," I smiled. "It's my thanks to you for healing me."

She gasped and stepped back, "Oh, no! No, dear child. I cannot take payment. Didn't you hear me? I'm an ex-shaman, little one. I enjoy healing others' wounds. It's nice to give something back to the world that gave me this wonderful life."

I pursed my lips together and, suddenly I didn't feel awkward anymore. I grabbed her hand and through her gasps of shock, I dropped the purse in her hand and pushed it back to her.

"Please," I said. "Keep it. The money's from a dead man anyways and I'd probably end up spending it on drinks. You could use it to by some more ingredients for your potions and elixirs." I turned to hop back up on Spark's back, but something gripped my wrist. I turned and looked back at the woman. She was smiling at me.

"Dear," she whispered. "Tell me . . . what is your name?"

I kept eye-contact with her for a few seconds, removing my leg from the stirrup and standing straight again.

"My name? Well . . ." I glanced at Omazirr, who was still up on Rocky, and he shrugged. I turned back to the woman. "My name is Ajivha."

"Don't you have a last name, child?"

I faltered. "Well, yes, I do, but . . . I've long-since dropped it after what happened to my parents."
"Ah," she said. "Are you an orphan now?"

I laughed a little, "I'm old enough to take care of myself, but aye, I was at a point. So, Bosmer, what's your last name?"

She smiled, "Rowena."

"Ms. Rowena," Omazirr inquired. "Where are you headed?"

She pursed her lips into a straight line and thought for a few seconds. "Well, dear child, I don't quite know, really." She looked around herself, seeming to remember something. "I was just trying to get away from an odd man."

"An odd man?" I glanced around. "Why?"

"Well," she sighed. "You see, I'm not originally from Skyrim. I hail from Valenwood."

"Valenwood?" I asked. "You're quite a ways from home, aren't you?"

Sariah smiled and nodded. "Indeed. But I wanted to explore and spread the help that I could to others. But on my way through the woods, some man started following me and he looked quite dangerous. I lost him a bit ago and now it seems like I'm alright. You, however," she said, "should get going if you have a place to be."

"Aye," Omazirr said. "Aye that, we do. Shall we go, Ajivha?"

I glanced back at Omazirr and then to the woman. "Would you like to come with us?" I asked her. "We're going to Riften. It's the closest town to here and you could go to the Bee and Barb there. Keerava would gladly help you."

Sariah looked to the ground and shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose I could go there with you, but only if you could take me in. I heard Riften is a bad place."

I exchanged a glance at Omazirr and he lowered his voice, not like it could keep the Bosmer from hearing us anyways. We were a horse's distance apart.

"Sorry, lass, I can't walk her in to the Bee and Barb. I need to be ready to leave with you if something happens."

"If something happens?" Sariah stepped closer to us. "Are you two in trouble?" She gasped and stepped away from us. "Are you two trouble?"

I smiled, "We're as much trouble as you could possibly get."

"Are you two thieves?" She stared at the purse in her hands. "Is this money stolen?"

"Can you keep a secret?" I asked her. She nodded, but I stepped closer to give her the full effect of what I would say next. "Good. Because if you tell anybody, we'll have to find you, and we'll have to kill you."

I heard Omazirr chuckle at the horrified face the woman made. I stepped away, slightly amused, myself.
"We're assassins."

She slowly calmed herself down and looked away. "Are you . . . wanted for murder in Riften?"

I smiled, "No. See, I only joined recently. Before Omazirr found me, I got into a little trouble with the Thieves' Guild. One man stole my chain, but the guards didn't believe me and, well, since I'm a Khajiit, you see, the guards thought I was the one being bad. They arrested me and I broke out of the jail a few hours later, so now a bounty is on my head."

"Then why do you return to Riften?"

"Well, we just finished an assassination for the Thieves' Guild." I couldn't help but laugh. "Rather ironic, isn't it?"

"So, I take it the Thieves' Guild isn't mad at you anymore?"

"There was only one man angry at me, but now that I'm in the Dark Brotherhood, I guess he'll let that go."

Realization passed through the Bosmer's eyes and she nodded, "The Dark Brotherhood . . . that explains much about how you're dressed." She slowly put the pouch into her pocket and looked ahead of us. "Is the offer still open to join you on your journey? I promise I will keep your secrets safe."

"The offer is still open," I said. "You can take my horse." I snatched the reins from Omazirr's hands and held it out to Sariah. Omazirr gave me a playful snarl after that but I rolled my eyes.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

I nodded, "Of course. I'll just ride with Omazirr, if he has no problem with it."

"Not a problem at all," he replied.

I threw my hood up and hopped up on Rocky, sitting firmly behind Omazirr. I wrapped my arms around his waist, waiting now only for Sariah to hop onto Spark.

"You two make a cute couple," she said.

I smiled and felt Omazirr chuckling.

"Thanks," I grinned, "but we aren't a couple."

"Let's just see how long it stays like that, Ajivha," Omazirr remarked before pulling on the reins to get Rocky to move.

I heard Sariah give a playful laugh as she trailed behind us.

As we got past the gates of Riften, Omazirr and I both made sure to pull up our hoods and keep our tails out of their view. I saw the guards watching us, but as soon as we were out of view, back under the tree, we slowed and Sariah stopped near us.

I hopped off of the horse and Omazirr followed suit, leaving Sariah up on Spark. I asked for her reins and tied both horses to the tree.

"Sariah," I said. "Will you come with me or stay with Omazirr?"

Sariah gave a polite smile to Omazirr, "I'm like to go with you, Ajivha, if that's quite okay. You seem to be more of a target for healing than he is."

I smiled, "Sure. We're going through a sewer, though."

She shrugged, "No problem for me."

As soon as we were in the sewers, Sariah whispered quietly to me.

"I hope you don't mind that I chose to come with you instead of Omazirr. It's just, I noticed that you seemed slightly nervous when talking about the Thieves' Guild, as if you thought they were going to hurt you, or, maybe just that one guy."

I squinted a little in confusion. "So you decide to come with someone they might attack, rather than stay safe with Omazirr? That's not quite a wise choice, Sariah. Healing spells can't really defend-"

"I know protection spells as well," she said. "And I know some for fighting, but I use them when I need to for defense."

"You know other spells, too?" I asked.

She nodded proudly.

"Could you teach me some sometime? The only good alchemist in the Dark Brotherhood hates my guts because I'm a Khajiit. I'd appreciate it if you'd help me."

"Why, of course, child. I'd love to share my knowledge with you."

As we came into the Ragged Flagon, I walked over to where Mercer Frey sat at a table. He glanced at me immediately and smiled.

"Get the job done?" he asked.

I hoisted the bag up onto the table in front of him and let him open it. His lips curled into a smile when he saw the head and then he closed the bag again. "I hope it wasn't too difficult for you."

I laughed, "No, it wasn't. Just almost could have bled out."

He gave me a quick once-over, then again and again with his eyes. "Really? You don't seem hurt," he said.

I smiled and looked at Sariah. "I can thank my new friend for that."

Mercer looked at Sariah. "Really? How bad was it?"

"She had about ten minutes to live. She'd been bled out dangerously when I got to her already." She lowered her voice to a whisper as she stood behind me. "He isn't the man who stole from you, is he?"
I glanced around the Ragged Flagon, aware of how Mercer's brow had raised about her whispering. I saw Delvin sitting at the bar area and nodded his way. "No, he's sitting over there with three bottles of ale in front of him."

As if on cuem he looked my way, almost as if knowing I'd been talking about him. His lips curle dinto a smile and I saw him leave his seat, walking towards me.

Mercer cleared his throat, drawing my attention back. He shuffled around in his pockets and pulled out a small pouch, tossing it my way. "Your payment."

"Aye, thank yo-!"

I was jolted backward my a strong grab, my wrist being held and led somewhere by someone. I turned and saw Delvin, leading me toward the bar. "Hey!" I hissed. "Let me go!"

He gently threw me so my tush landed on one of the bar stools and he pushed a bottle of ale in front of me.

"There," he said. "I let you go. Now sit and talk with me for a while."

I glanced back around and saw Sariah sitting with with Mercer. It seemed like they were talking about the head in the bag.

"What do you need to talk about?" I snapped my head back to look at him before asking.

He had a bottle of ale to his lips, taking a gulp and slamming the bottle back down onto the counter. "Stuff, darling. Stuff."

I scoffed, "I have nothing to talk about with you."

I stood up to leave but he grabbed my hand and kept me where I was.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

I growled and yanked my hand out of his grip, "For what?"

"Stealing that chain of yours! I had no right trying to take it twice, okay, I know, but I wanted a thrill and you gave it to me so I took it."

I rolled my eyes and watched as he pushed the ale my way again. "I'm not drinking-"

"It's on me, and it's my way of saying that you can take a break from work, Khajiit."

"My name," I said. "It's Ajivha. Not 'Khajiit', fool."

He sighed and turned to face me.

Out of all seriousness, he asked, "Can we just put the past behind us?"

I stared at him for long moments, thinking, "... Can we?"