Chapter Five: Gerdur's Request
Black... it was all black... nothingness.
No color.
No light.
No sound.
Nothing but an endless darkness that stretched on endlessly beyond her closed eyelids. She felt so weak that she couldn't even open them... she could feel herself floating weightlessly in the frigidness of this icy void, could feel the fierce winds lifting her hair off to the side... and yet, she couldn't move. She felt so weak that her body was incapable of doing anything. She wanted to open her eyes... she wanted to see where she was, why everything was so windy... why she felt so weightless. When she finally managed to lift her eyelids, she realized with a dazed sense of horror that there was nothing but shadow in front of her.
Then... the darkness suddenly cracked like a pane of glass, making her blink rapidly.
More cracks soon jolted down in front of her... almost seeming to form understandable words, even though they were nothing but jagged lines and odd fissures.
Her heart thumped and her eyes slowly widened as an inexplicable horror built up inside her soul: she recognized these symbols... and not only that, she understood what they meant. These weren't cracks... they were words that she had been taught to read a long time ago... she had been taught by someone that even now she held close to her heart. Even to this day... when everything about that person had disappeared from her mind... she remembered all of the teachings she'd inherited.
These symbols burned themselves into her eyes... but then, more of them began fraying the endless blackness in resting all around her, cracking it into pieces. She tried to close her eyes again when the symbols continued to shatter the darkness... but then, out of all the blinding words in front of her, one started glowing red and she felt her heart skip a beat. Her name... it was her own name! The word that had been calling to her from the moment she'd been born! She had to speak it: of this, she was certain... she had to speak her name before it turned black! She had to keep it pure! Had to cleanse it with her voice!
She couldn't let Sora become tainted!
Ula started choking when her true name shifted from a hot bright red to a darker shade of crimson, almost seeming to sizzle with something vile.
Then the name shifted... and her eyes widened when she saw the name 'Ula' taking shape.
"No... no! I'm not Ula!" she managed to gasp, voice coming out strangled. "I am Sora! I am Sora! I am SORA!"
And just like that... the darkness shattered and the world exploded with light.
Ula suddenly saw a vision herself running with an outstretched hand on top of an endless lake: she seemed to be running nowhere even though she was going at top speed... and she was also reaching for something with desperation on her face. Then her doppelganger started stumbling and finally lost her balance, long hair being blasted forward by something... but she never lowered her hand. Just before she fell, she reached for something, hair flying around her face and eyes streaming tears.
There was an unexpected flash of light, similar to a lightning strike, and it erased the vision from view.
When she was able to see again, she witnessed Svena standing in the middle of a blue void and being blown around by a fierce wind... a wind that seemed to be coming from every direction and was pelting her mercilessly. Her curly hair was flying this way and that and her dress was being jerked as if the wind had unseen hands. Tears were streaming from her eyes and being blown off her face as she stood there, locked in place by the wind, cerulean eyes facing the sky and yearning for something that Ula couldn't see.
Then another flash swept the vision away... and she saw Kai, standing soaking wet amongst several white flowers and looking straight at her.
His amber eyes looked blank and cold with an unbearable amount of sadness. Her weakness increased when she saw his mouth moving and a tear slid down his copper cheek. Kai was the strongest person she knew... she never wanted to see his tears, ever. He was her pillar of stone... the one man she knew to be rock solid in every decision he made. However, that one tear sliding out of his empty eyes nearly broke her.
Then he faded into white...
"Wake up..." a voice whispered, making her heart still. "Wake up, Ula..."
She shook her head, not wanting to do any such thing... she was already awake!
"Ula!" Svena whispered, shaking her shoulder. "Come on! Wake up! I have to go to pee and I don't want to go alone! Please?"
Ula's eyes fluttered a little and she opened them a bit, finding herself staring at a dark blue sky.
"Ugh... she's still out of it," Svena mumbled sadly, sounding a little dismayed. "Well, I guess I'll have to go alone."
The sound of her best friend getting up and leaving didn't even fully click with her brain.
The poor girl felt dazed… almost as though she'd slept for a long time and had somehow been completely unaware of it: her tongue was dry and full of cotton, her throat was parched, her body felt weak, and her hair had somehow turned into an unmanageable haystack. However, when she slowly sat up and looked around, she was expecting to see the familiar surroundings of the bedroom she shared with Svena: not an outdoor woodland with dark trees scattered everywhere.
Ula immediately blinked as a feeling of terror smashed into her stomach.
Eyes going wide with incomprehension, she started breathing raggedly and frantically looked around before pulling the covers up to her chin. However, the moment she realized she was holding animal skins of some sort, her panic skyrocketed through the roof and she let out a terrified wheeze. Heart pounding, the girl scrabbled backwards until she was pressed against a tree, hugging herself and looking at the woods around her with terror-stricken eyes. However, when a burly blonde man unexpectedly stepped around the tree she was leaning against with a sword clutched in his hand, the girl hiccuped in fright and covered her face with both hands.
She quickly burst into tears, already beginning to hyperventilate.
"Calm down, Elf!" Ralof barked, dropping his weapon and falling to his knees in front of her; when he gripped her shoulders, the girl wheezed in terror and struggled to bolt away from him. She didn't even see Kai sitting up and staring at them with groggy eyes. "Oi! Stop struggling and calm yourself!"
Flailing in terror, the girl finally lifted her hands and began hitting him.
Almost immediately, a lightning bolt exploded from her palms.
With a deafening clap of thunder and a blinding flash, the Nord was blown clean into Svena, who had just been coming back through the trees: the olive-skinned girl let out a muffled shriek, but then they went sailing out of sight and landed somewhere unseen. The explosive power radiating from her body was what brought her to: Ula immediately stared at her shaking hands as the memories of the previous day swept through her. Her eyes instantly went blank and she weakly sank back against the tree, shivering violently and crying hysterically. Soon after, Ralof charged back over to the clearing, looking ready to do more than scold her... but when he saw the state she was in, he faltered greatly.
The small girl was now clutching her face with shaking hands and staring at the ground through her fingers with blank eyes.
Her eyes were streaming terrified tears, but somehow... it made him frown deeply.
"Shor's Blood! That really HURT!" Svena angrily shrieked, stomping into the clearing and rubbing her breasts with angry and stunned eyes. "What in the name of all Nine Divines did you just do, Ula?! If that man had hit me any harder, I would have been speared by his armor!"
"As far as I know, she just conjured lightning," Kai weakly whispered, wincing as he watched Svena straighten her clothes. "That must have really hurt..."
"It did," Ralof snapped, whirling with a glare that silenced the Nordic youth. "I'm lucky that I wasn't killed by that damned blast of Magicka!"
"Yeah, but at least you didn't have to get plowed by a man twice your size on top of it," Svena weakly retorted, kneeling down in front of Ula before putting a hesitant hand on her disheveled silver hair. "Look, Ula… yesterday was an extremely terrifying situation, but you're probably going to be enduring the shock you missed out on over the next few days. A calamity can do that to a person: it waits for calm. Trust me, I know."
Ula merely shook her head in protest, face contorting as she slowly buried her face in her knees and began to weep; an enormous ache had started gnawing at her heart when she'd remembered that her home was gone. She was missing everyone so much that it was forcing chest-heaving sobs out of her.
"Please don't cry," Svena murmured unhappily, pulling her into a hug. "We still have to get to Riverwood..."
"We stopped for the night since you passed out," Kai explained, cracking his neck with a yawn, "and plus, everyone else was too tired to continue."
"Which reminds me," Ralof barked, stalking over to his pack and stuffing his supplies back in. "There's still a chance of being ambushed when we're out in the open, so let's get going. Plus, my sister is an early riser, and once we get to her home, we can all wash and change into something fresh. Calm the elf down."
"Don't rush her!" Svena snapped, shooting him a glare. "Ula isn't as strong as you are! She's always had frail health, so yesterday was probably too much for her body!"
"Heal her, then," Ralof sneered, making the Red Guard's eyes narrow in irritation. "You're the best mage in your village, eh? I guess now's your chance to prove it."
Svena's soft lips pressed into a thin, tight line and her skin burned bright red for a moment.
"Fine," the curly-haired girl finally muttered, turning around and extending her hands out to Ula's body, "but only for her sake."
The silver-haired girl glanced up in surprise when Svena's healing magicka engulfed her, and she gasped in unexpected bliss as her injuries and scrapes started healing at an abnormally rapid pace. Her sore joints, her burns, even the majority of her fatigue... all of it slowly melted away, and continued melting even when Svena pulled her into an embrace and healed her more rapidly. Both of them shone bright gold for several moments, illuminating the small clearing with beautiful tendrils.
Then the light faded away and Ula was no longer in any pain.
After a moment, Svena pulled back and sighed, swaying slightly before she blinked and grinned at her.
"Impressive," Ralof muttered, staring at them with raised eyebrows. "I guess your boasts were fair enough. I've never seen such a powerful restoration magicka."
"I only did it for Ula's sake!" Svena snapped, although the albino girl could see the reluctant satisfaction tinging her expression. "I don't care what you think!"
"Let's just get going," Kai muttered hoarsely, rubbing his splinted arm with a wince as he stood up; he'd refused to let Svena heal it the previous night since he personally believed it was his fault for being careless. In a way, the pain would teach him to be more aware of his surroundings. "It's starting to get light out."
Thus, the four of them packed up and started walking the rest of the distance towards Riverwood.
However, relief swept through everyone when the small village finally came into sight.
"Finally!" Kai gasped, shoulders sagging in delight. "I thought we'd never make it back!"
"Let's head to over to Gerdur's," Ralof muttered, heading through the gate and walking along the cobblestone street. "She'll be happy to see me alive, at the very least."
Ula glanced up at Svena and Kai, but the two of them merely shared a glance of their own and shrugged before following him; thus, the trio headed towards the entrance into Riverwood and walked into the dusty cobblestone streets. Ula hid her blood-stained face behind Svena when an old woman sitting on a porch stood up and started yelling at a blonde man who'd said something in a low voice.
"I'm telling you, I saw a dragon!" the woman snapped, shaking her fist at the young man, who had reddish blonde hair and unhappy brown eyes. "It was big as a mountain, and black as night! It flew right over the barrow two days ago! You have to believe me, Sven, it was a real live dragon! That thing is still out there!"
"Dragons now, is it?" the man demanded with an unenthusiastic demeanor. "Mother, please… yesterday you were ranting about a mage and her warrior companion following a caravan of children who had been kidnapped by the empire. If you keep on like this, everyone in town will think you're going crazy!"
"Sven!" the woman gasped indignantly. "That man and woman were really here! I even gave them a map since they came all the way from Darkwater Crossing!"
"I've got better things to do than listen to more of your fantasies," the man sighed, rolling his eyes and walking away with his shoulders tensed up. "I'm heading down to the Tavern to brush up on my music skills, now."
"You'll see the truth, someday!" the woman angrily called, shaking her fist. "It was a dragon, Sven! It'll kill us all and then you'll believe me!"
"Isn't that kind of backwards? Wouldn't the believing come before the killing?" Kai whispered to Svena, who shrugged and shook her head in confusion; out of a firm desire to thank her for lending them her best map, Kai swept over to the old woman and tapped her arm just as she unhappily turned to head back to her bench. She immediately gasped and covered her mouth in shock when he held out the map with a weak smile. "Excuse me, Ma'am… thank you for letting us use this."
"Oh, my!" the woman gasped, taking the map with shaking hands before glancing at the bloodied girl leaning against Svena. "Oh, dear... you poor thing! What did those horrid people do to you and those other children?!"
"She can't speak," Svena weakly explained, making the old woman's eyes widen in sympathy. "However, what I want to ask you now is this: did you really see a dragon?"
"Yes," the woman muttered, holding her back as she hobbled over to her chair and sat down, weakly straightening her bonnet, "nobody believes, but I'm telling you, I saw a dragon yesterday! It was the most frightening thing I've ever seen! It was so large!"
"Where did it fly off to?" Kai asked, frowning worriedly before glancing at Ralof, who was irritably urging them to hurry up. "Did you catch the direction?"
"It flew east, towards the barrow!" the woman murmured, wincing a bit. "Old Hilde has to rest now, dears... but if you ever need anything, just come back!"
"Okay, Ma'am," Svena chirped, giving her a grateful bow and folding her shaking hands. "Thank you for everything you've done! If it hadn't been for you, saving my sister wouldn't have been possible... so, thank you! Someday, I will definitely return the kindness you've shown me, I swear it!"
"No worries, child," the woman chuckled, closing her pale blue eyes. "Oh, and did you hear? The Riverwood trader was robbed… poor Lucan must be torn to pieces over it. The man is such a hard worker, too."
"Oi! What are you doing?!" Ralof barked, making everyone jump in surprise. "Gerdur's house is this way, so come on!"
"Sorry, we've got to go now," Kai muttered, giving Hilde a wave and heading off with Ula at his side. "Thank you for everything."
The pale girl glanced over her shoulder and blinked when she realized the woman was staring at her ears with a startled expression. Ralof led them down the road with Svena, Ula, and Kai clustered close behind him; the albino merely observed her surroundings as she followed the three of them. The houses and buildings seemed to be made of sturdy wood from the forest, but the roofs were completely thatched.
"Ralof!" a man with an extremely thick accent suddenly cried, startling Ula so badly that she jumped into the air. "What are you doing here?!"
"Long story, Hodd!" the blonde Nord called back. "A very long story, indeed!"
"Wait, wait!" the man shouted. "Just stay there, I'll be right down!"
"Meet me at the pine island!" the rugged Stormcloak called; Kai chose that moment to adjust his make-shift sling, but when a blonde boy shredded past him with a whoop of delight, he practically fell over Ula and Svena both watched with wide eyes as he sprinted over to Ralof and glomped his leg with a laugh.
"Uncle Ralof!" the child cried, looking up at the burly man with shining blue eyes. "Can I see your axe?! How many Imperials have you killed?! Do you really know Ulfric Stormcloak?! Who're your pretty new friends?! Can I play with the white-haired one?!"
"Pretty? Do you mean me?" Svena shakily asked, looking more a bit flustered when she pointed to herself and the boy nodded. "Er... we're only acquaintances, little one."
Right around that moment, a rather pretty young woman with a freckled face walked around a nearby tree and looked at them with light blue eyes.
"Hush, Frodnar," the blonde woman murmured in a beautiful Nordic accent. "This is no time for your games. Go and watch the south road for me: I want you come find us again if you happen to see any imperial soldiers coming."
"Aw, Mama," the blonde boy pouted, frowning at the woman. "I want to stay and talk to Uncle Ralof!"
"Look at you!" Ralof murmured, squatting down and measuring the boy's height with a glint of fatherly pride in his normally frigid blue eyes. "You're almost a grown man! It won't be long before you'll be joining the fight, yourself!"
"That's right, Uncle Ralof!" the boy bravely exclaimed, puffing his little chest out. "Don't worry, I won't let those soldiers sneak up on you, or your pretty friends! They'll never make it here in time if I'm on patrol!"
"Would you really do that for us?" Svena asked, glancing at him with a small smile. "Thank you!"
"Don't worry!" Frodnar laughed, eyes shining at the praise. "I'll make sure you're all safe!"
And with that, he ran right past them a second time, making both Kai and Svena giggle in amusement.
Ula's eyes lowered when she once again realized that they looked perfect for each other: Svena was extremely beautiful, and Kai was a very handsome young man. The two of them would be a perfect match for each other... she had always thought so, but she hadn't really ever understood her mixed feelings about them becoming a couple.
Ula watched with hesitant eyes as they made their way over to the woman and two men standing in the shelter of the pine tree.
Then she followed, purposely hiding behind Svena and staring at the ground with an uneasy expression.
"Now, what's going on?" Hodd asked, glancing at Kai before observing the way Ula was clinging to Svena; then he looked at his in-law. "You four look pretty done in."
"That's one way to put it," Ralof muttered, shaking his head before rubbing his face. "Whew… where to start? Well, the news you've probably heard about Ulfric getting caught was true: the Imperials ambushed us in Darkwater Village, almost like they knew exactly where we'd be. That was… two days ago, now. When we stopped in Helgen, I thought it was all over for us... they had us lined up to the headsman's block and ready to start chopping."
"Oh, Gods!" Svena whispered in horror, looking down at Ula when she flinched and shuddered violently. "Is that how Ula's wrists got injured?!"
"Yes," Ralof added, shaking his head before grabbing Ula and pulling her away from Svena; the girl shook her head and tried to pull back, but he gently lifted her up and set her down in front of Gerdur. "This girl right here is so small that she obviously isn't a threat, and on top of that... she has a handicap: she can't even speak. Despite that, they were going to execute her simply because the captain of the guard didn't like elves. A mere child was put under the executioner's blade!"
"The cowards," Gerdur hissed, glancing down at Ula in sympathetic shock; the girl flinched when she was pulled into a hug, but then she glanced at Svena and Kai. "Who are they, though, and how did you meet them? Were they lined up to be executed, as well?"
"No... I feinted leaving the Elf behind when I heard them coming," Ralof stated simply, making Ula glance at him in surprise. "I trailed back and kept watch to see if they were a threat to Stormcloaks, but they aren't, and in fact, they seem to be relatively close to the Elf child: they're all from the same village, according to what I heard."
"I'm her elder sister," Svena stated softly, stepping forward and pulling Ula back with gentle hands. "We're siblings in every sense of the word... aside from blood."
"And I'm their closest friend," Kai added, lifting his arm and waving a bit. "The three of us are a family... we've always been together."
"How did you end up getting yourself mixed in such a mess?" Gerdur bluntly asked, furrowing her brows as she looked at Ralof. "Tell me!"
"They wouldn't dare give Ulfric a trial," Ralof grumbled, thick neck tensing in fury. "Treason, for fighting for your own people! All of Skyrim would have seen the truth then, and I was prepared to let it happen! But then… out of nowhere… a dragon attacked…"
"You don't mean a real, live…" Gerdur hesitantly asked, face going slack in shock. "I don't believe it."
"I can hardly believe it myself, and I was there," Ralof hesitantly countered, looking at Ula when she shuddered violently. "As strange as it's going to sound, we'd be dead if it hadn't been for that dragon. In the confusion, the elf and I managed to slip away, then used each other's help to escape... are we really the first to make it to Riverwood?"
"Nobody else has come up the south road in the last five days," Gerdur replied, but then added carefully, "as far as I know."
"Good," Ralof stated in a hoarse voice, rubbing his eyes in a tired manner. "Maybe the three of us can lay up for a while. I'd hate to put your family in danger, Gerdur, but…"
"Nonsense," the woman stated soothingly, putting her hands under his arms and pulling him into a hug; then she turned and walked over to Svena with a friendly expression on her face; she quickly pulled something out of her pocket and held it out with a grim expression. "Here's the key to the house: you, your sister, and your friend are welcome to stay here as long as you need to. Let me worry about the imperials: any friend of Ralof's is a friend of mine... especially since it seems he owes you his life."
"May the Earth you walk on quake in your passage," Svena murmured respectfully, bowing her head in a traditional manner, "and may your blade be true."
"Divines smile on you," Gerdur murmured, shaking her head before a thought struck her. "There is something you could do for me, though… I need to get a letter to the Jarl of Whiterun: he has to know that there's a dragon on the loose since Riverwood is defenseless against any kind of aerial attack. I need to get word so he'll send more guards down here. If you three would do that for me after resting for a few days, I'd be very much in your debt."
"Of course!" Kai exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. "We'll do it!"
"Kai!" Svena gasped, smacking his shoulder in dismay. "How on earth could you decide something like that so recklessly?! Hasn't Ula been through enough?!"
"Yes, but if a dragon attacks Riverwood, it'll end up like Helgen," the boy immediately retorted, giving her a glare that silenced her outrage. "Do you not remember what her eyes looked like when we found her? We're taking this job, regardless of what you say, because she doesn't need to be put through anything more."
Ula's face fell and she weakly rubbed one of her blood-stained arms before glancing down at her soiled dress.
She instantly winced in disgust: it hadn't really been a pretty one to begin with, but now it looked simply horrible... she wanted to strip it off.
"Well, just take your time and think about it for a while: traveling to the Capital isn't an easy thing to do in such dangerous times," Gerdur sighed, then glanced at Ula's clothes with something close to disgust. "You, my dear, are the one who's most in need of a bath as far as I can tell. I'll go draw the water... feel free to wait out here until it's ready. I think I have an old dress lying around somewhere, too... that outfit of yours is irreparable."
"May I use the floor to sleep?" Kai weakly asked, swaying back and forth from exhaustion; his face was flushed and he looked exhausted. "I don't feel very well..."
"Of course," Gerdur allowed, nodding a few times before heading inside with her husband, Hodd, close behind. "I'll be back when the bath is ready."
"Are you all right?" Svena asked, glancing at Kai when he touched his arm with a wince. "Let me see your arm."
"No, I'm fine," he retorted, trying to act tough before he dizzily stumbled and started to fall over; Ula's ears shot straight out in alarm and she bolted over to his side, throwing her arms out and wrapping them beneath his own in an attempt to halt his fall. However, her eyes widened when his weight proved to be too much, and within only a few seconds, he collapsed on top of her. Ula flailed her legs in mortification when Ralof merely folded his arms chuckled at her spirited attempt to get free... but that's when Svena rushed over and gently removed his arm from the sling.
She gasped after unwrapping his injuries: they had become severely infected.
"Ugh! You are so NOT fine!" Svena groaned, angrily smacking the sickly young man on the back of his head. "Are you nuts?! You should have told me it was infected, moron! Even if you didn't want healing, the least you could have done was let me cleanse the infection! Now it's gonna take even more energy to do so!"
"Sorry, Svena," Kai grumbled, wincing when the girl lifted her hands and used her Magicka to clean the infection from his body. "Oh, Gods... that feels wonderful..."
"Want me to heal it all the way, then?" the Red Guard inquired, quirking an eyebrow at him. "I can do it, you know."
"Fine," Kai muttered, closing his eyes in defeat; within seconds, his flesh had been healed and the wolf's bite was gone. "Thank you... I feel much better."
"Good!" Svena snapped, grabbing his ear and practically dragging him off of Ula, who had turned bright red and was shaking violently. "Now stay off of Ula! I'm going to go inside to see if Sir Ralof's sister needs any help."
And with that, Svena whisked inside the house with her curls bobbing around her ears.
"A handsome woman, that," Ralof noted, watching her backside as she departed. "Hard to believe she's not even fully grown."
"How do you know she isn't?" Kai bluntly retorted, shooting him a particularly protective glare. "For your information, I am aged ten and eight years... Svena is one year older than I am. By the laws of Skyrim, she is fully grown, and very capable of surviving as I'm sure you've noticed."
"How old is the Elf?" Ralof asked, jerking his thumb at Ula, who was now standing at the edge of the river and looking at a few birds who'd settled in a tree. Her pink eyes had softened in the light, the only thing on her that didn't look filthy by this point. "She seems fairly young... a child, really."
"Ten and five years," the copper-skinned Nord explained, slanted amber eyes flashing. "She's younger than us, but no less intelligent... and every time you call her 'Elf', I'm sure it probably hurts her a little. So, if you'd so kindly oblige, I'd appreciate it if you addressed her by her name from now on."
"Why should I?" Ralof bluntly demanded, making Kai narrow his eyes. "She's an elf, isn't she? That's actually been bothering me, since she's unlike any elf I've ever seen."
"We don't know what she is," the boy honestly explained, eliciting a confused frown from the blonde man. "Nobody aside from myself knows how she arrived... they thought she might be an elf hybrid, but personally, I'm not so sure. She's of a different sort... but either way, unique or not, Ula is a very loving girl and she deserves better. I know there's a deep-seated hatred of elves, but unlike them, she's got no evil inside her."
"The bath is ready," Gerdur called, sticking her head out of her front door; Ula instantly looked at her with delighted eyes and ran right past Ralof, who eyed her silver haystack with something close to distaste. "Come, child... let's get you cleaned up."
When she was led inside and taken to a huge tub in the back yard, Gerdur helped her peel the filthy dress off and they tossed it onto a burn pit.
Svena was sitting on a nearby stool.
When Ula slid into the wooden tub, her eyes instantly rolled and she shivered in delight: the last time she'd had a bath felt like months ago.
"Let me wash your back," Svena suddenly sighed, getting to her feet and grabbing the scrub brush; without a word, the dark-haired woman knelt down in front of the tub and Ula pulled her long hair over her shoulder. The feeling of hard bristles made her wince, but she eventually relaxed and allowed the Red Guard to help her: after all, it would end up being better for her in the long run. Svena did this in complete silence for several minutes, not speaking a single word.
Then, after nearly ten minutes of this oddly comfortable silence, Gerdur came back outside.
"Young one," the blonde woman called, smiling at the two girls with friendly blue eyes. "I brought your little sister a dress that belonged to me when I was but a girl; I'll just leave it over here on the side table. This dress is very, very old, though, so the style is extremely simple... I don't know if she will like it, but—"
Ula instantly turned around and waved her hands, eyes shining with protest.
Gerdur stared at her in blank confusion, not getting the message; Svena instantly sighed and rolled her eyes.
"She's trying to say that it'll be fine... after all, this is so far beyond kindness that you shouldn't even talk like that!" the healer explained, smiling when Ula peered at her with wide, grateful eyes. "Also, about earlier... I... I'm sorry for protesting the offer to go talk to the Jarl. It's just... Ula... she's been through so much..."
"You must be having a difficult time," the woman stated seriously, looking at her with worried blue eyes. "I don't blame you... I don't even think you've told me what your names are."
"Oh, my name is Svena," the dark-haired girl squeaked, then gestured to Ula with a sigh. "My little sister's name is Ula, and the huge boy with the dark skin you saw earlier is our closest friend, Kaikeeryn... but we just call him Kai since it's easier on the tongue."
"Huh... you Red Guards sure have some very strange names," the woman murmured, shaking her head with a baffled expression. "My name is Gerdur the Gentle, Daughter of Helgoryn the Strong... but all of my friends call me Gerdie. Anyway, when you're done, feel free to change into the clothes I set on the table. Dinner is ready when you are."
When the woman left with a motherly nod, Ula blinked a few times and turned around.
"She's a nice person," Svena whispered, watching as Ula drew her knees up to her chin; the warmth of the water soothed the smaller girl. "I'm kind of shocked..."
Regardless, by the time Svena was done scrubbing her off, she was cleaner than she'd been in a while.
Her silver hair practically gleamed like snow and her skin was so bright that it was almost blinding.
"If you want, I'll do your hair to keep it out of your eyes again," Svena offered, eying the girl's thigh-length tresses. "If you'd like me to, you can go ahead and relax on the stool... I've wanted to try this style on you for a long time, but it's actually rather taxing to get it right. Do you want to try?"
Ula hesitantly nodded before slowly making her way over to the stool and sitting down in nothing but her underclothes.
"Well, then just sit still and do as I say," the older girl murmured kindly, pulling an old-fashioned bristle brush out of her pocket along with a comb made out of some type of animal bone; Ula winced when the teeth of the brush snagged on her hair, but she dealt with the pain in silence. After all, she was used to it: Svena was always messing with her hair since it was so long... she rather liked the sensations that came with it, most of the time.
"You're going to look very pretty when all is said and done," Svena chuckled proudly, nodding in approval. "Let's get started, okay? Then we'll get you dressed."
Thus began a long ordeal to recover Ula's every-day look.
However, when they were done and Ula had donned the simple white dress that Gerdur had given her, the two women headed around from the back with their hands interlaced. The two of them then made their way over to where Gerdur, Kai, and Ralof were waiting with folded arms. However, the moment the two males glanced at her, they both encountered different reactions to her appearance: Ralof's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open before he caught himself and turned away, shifting his legs a bit as a bright red flush swept across his face. Kai merely cocked an eyebrow and grinned in a stunned manner, since Ula's hair looked drop-dead gorgeous. Her bangs had been braided and pulled behind her head, where they'd been tied in place with a large white ribbon.
Gerdur merely eyed her up and down before nodding in amusement..
"The dress looks good on you," the woman sighed, shaking her head. "You have a very rare kind of beauty."
Ula didn't want to admit it, but when she glanced in the river and saw her own reflection, she nearly passed out from the shock that went through her.
"Where does Jarl Baalgruff live?" Svena hesitantly asked, slowly moving forward. "How do we get to Whiterun?"
"Don't worry: we'll borrow Hilde's map again," Kai instantly whispered into her ear, catching Ula's attention; she was now being completely ignored and her looks had been totally forgotten, which she was very grateful for. "Don't worry too much: I may not know my way around Skyrim, but I do know how to strike up a damn good bargain."
So saying, he stepped up to Gerdur and politely asked if there were any provisions to be bought; the blonde woman nodded and responded by leading him towards her house. Ula and Svena waited in the waning afternoon as Ralof limped after them with an exhausted demeanor. After about ten minutes of waiting, Kai came back with an enormous hiking pack slung across his broad shoulders and two smaller packs dangling from his hand.
"We'll be taking these with us once we actually start traveling," Kai stated simply, setting the packs down with a sigh. "Gerdur is going to set out some bedrolls on the floor of her house, but in exchange, I'm going to help her with the lumber mill until we get out of here. I'm fairly strong, so there's nothing to worry about."
"Nothing to worry about?" Svena hissed, glancing at Ula before scooting towards him and leaning close; the albino had been distracted by a butterfly with wings the color of a rainbow, and she'd followed it with curious eyes, expression completely lit up with wonder. "There's plenty to worry about! Whiterun is far away from here, isn't it?"
"Only a day's journey," Kai chuckled, unwrapping a loaf of bread with a grin. "We can make it, trust me!"
The woman only grumbled and sat down on a rock before eating her own lunch.
When the two of them were full and satisfied, Svena watched Ula with somber eyes: the girl was now sitting in a bed of grass and staring at the flowers that were slowly growing more colorful around her. Her eyes were still soft and innocent... Svena was relieved to see that she hadn't changed after her ordeals. The woman smiled without even realizing it, and she unthinkingly took Kai's hand and squeezed his palm a little bit to let him know that she was happy.
"As long as she's still happy," Svena sighed, glancing at Kai with a soft smile, "I could travel to the ends of the world."
With that, she closed her eyes and sighed in content.
However, she didn't see that Ula had started crying... didn't see the way she cradled the flowers blooming beside her.
Yes... Ula was holding them tenderly, almost as though she were praying that their brilliant colors would shield her mind from everything she'd seen the previous day.
Unfortunately, nothing could erase those horrors aside from time... and sadly, she didn't even realize that the little time she had left to be a child was running out.
Nobody did.