Woo, Alright. Bit late on this one, sorry. Enjoy!

-JazzyKat

Ter'im snorted and grabbed his war hammer as he rolled off of the bed into an automatic crouch as the door to his room creaked open. He heard the bar maid from the night before snort unimpressed at the gesture as she placed a tray of warm food on the table.

"Morning, stranger. Brought you some food up before the guards gobbled it all down. Word around town says you're going to be joining the Stormcloaks, is that true?"

Ter'im straightened out and dropped the hammer carefully before offering the bar maid a sheepish look.

"Ter'im has agreed to go questing for Galmar Stone-fist, yes. Do all new recruits have to chase after these ice wraiths? Ter'im hasn't come across very many in his travels, but then again, he has stuck only to the plains of Whiterun."

"Sadly, yes. The ice wraith is quite a nasty beast and they use the quest to weed out the weak ones. I like you, stranger, so here." She handed Ter'im a worn map drawn on the back of a resist frost potion recipe.

She then hustled out of the room, a cold draft brining to Ter'im the fact he was nearly bare. Ter'im shrugged back into the bulky armor, whishing for ebony or daedric armor again, before scarfing down the warm stew and hunk of fresh bread. He turned to the map as he ate and he saw a standing stone marked. The scribbles along the margin of the map proclaimed to be the 'Serpent Stone' as well as providing several wraith hunting spots close to the stone.

Ter'im felt warmth curl through his chest at the woman's kindness and he turned to his meager pack and counted out 100 coin and lay in the tray. Ter'im gathered his things and headed out of the warm inn, hissing at the blast of cold air that greeted him.

Ter'im barely managed to make his way to the gates before he heard guards shouting against the wind.

"No one's getting out. Snow's piled too high."

Ter'im sighed and rolled his eyes before pushing at the gates and squeezing his way through, despite the guards' protests. Snow was coming down in thick sheets and Ter'im was frozen completely through to the bone before long. The cold of the snow thankfully kept his wounds from hurting at all as Ter'im tracked through the tundra, tripping over foxes and tree trunks.

He'd had a brief run in with a saber cat and had gathered some new scratches to deal with, but thought nothing of it until he was slugging along tiredly the next morning. 'Frost trolls are fucking dicks,' Ter'im found himself thinking after killing the fourth one and using up the last of his unfilled soul gems on the troll. Finally Ter'im stumbled across the stone, nearly weeping in delight at seeing it. He'd already caught the strange hissing noise that wraiths made and was ready swinging his hammer in the general direction the sound came from. Apparently, he made contact, because he heard an unearthly hiss and the sound of ice shattering. In the next instance, Ter'im felt blazing pain across his cheek under his eye and he flung himself backwards with a curse and struck out blindly once again.

He missed and the beast managed to catch Ter'im across his eye. Ter'im in a panic flung himself under a rock outcropping and hunkered down, blinking blood out of his eye and trying to determine if he could still see out of it.

Blurry images showed and Ter'im sagged in relief, adrenaline rushing through him as he heard the wraith near once again. He lay perfectly still and held his breath as the creature inched forward. After a few breathless moments, he swung out, catching the wraith and wounding it a great deal. It hovered in place, searching for Ter'im, and he seized his opportunity and whaled away at the ice wraith until finally the creature screeched out in death and its body exploded into a pile of ice.

Ter'im numbly rooted through the pile of ice, shaking from cold and nerves, grasping the dangerous looking teeth left behind and curling them into his palm, despite the fact they blazed so cold against his fur they burned.

Ter'im wrapped the teeth in a strip of old leather he found at the bottom of his bag and continued on down the mountain until he spotted a running stream. Blood from his eye had already dried and caked onto his fur, so he sighed and turned away from the stream and started hunting for the main road.

He walked for ages before he found a road sign and as it turned out, he'd been walking in the wrong direction. So, tired, cold and sick Ter'im turned around and continued walking. When night fell, he kept on moving, having run out of supplies and the presence of mind to camp for the night.

After agonizing hours of walking, Ter'im could finally see Windhelm in the distance, and the sight of the city brought tears to his eyes as he pushed himself even harder to make it back to the city. He managed to cross the bridge before he was spotted by any guard or citizen.

Ter'im heard horrified gasps behind him, but he ignored them, his only purpose right now was to turn in the damned teeth he still clenched in his hands and then sleep for a good month. He marched determinedly up to the Palace of the Kings, flung the door open much more violently than was needed, and stomped up to Galmar at his position at the great table.

Galmar turned away from his meal and looked up at Ter'im towering over him.

"So, the new recruit returns. Where are the teeth, milk drinker?" Galmar mocked, choking on his laughter as Ter'im placed the teeth in his palm.

"There, Galmar. Is that all you wanted?" Ter'im sneered sarcastically.

Galmar threw his head back and laughed along with Ulfric.

"I like this one, Ulfric. I think we should keep him." Galmar remarked as he caught his breath.

"Indeed, although I am curious about the blood over your eye, Dragonborn, surely that's not your own is it?" Ulfric asked, his eyes glittering in the candlelight with a cold and calculating power.

"It is." Ter'im said meeting Ulfric's gaze before his leg buckled. Ter'im would have hit the floor, had Ulfric not leapt to his feet the second he saw Ter'im start to teeter.

Ter'im found himself nestled against warmth with his nose buried in the scent that was Ulfric; ice, blood and musk. Ter'im fought against the urge to snuggle into Ulfric as his world darkened.