I awoke covered in sweat and the clothes I was already wearing. I took in a deep breath and tried to calm myself, reminding myself I was safe, I was in Whiterun in the inn and Aela, Farkas and Vilkas would be coming to go North with me. I only ended up panicking myself more, realizing I had no money and no plan for when I got to Dawnstar. I had no bow and no arrows, not even a dagger to hunt with and I was depending on getting a fair price for the armour the Jarl was sending to me.

I sat up in the bed and wiped the sweat from my brow. My leg wound was beginning to throb so I pushed down on it to keep pressure on it to help ease the pain.

Someone knocked gently on the door and I stood up and fixed myself before answering. Farkas stood smiling awkwardly at the door with some armour in his hands.

'I think you'll get over one hundred Septims off Eorlund for this,' he said holding up the armour a little.

'Do you think I'll get what I need out of that?' I asked nervously.

'I think you might even have some left over to buy me some ale,' he said with a smirk. 'Aela and Vilkas are going to meet us in Jorrvaskr and then we'll take leave.'

'Jorrvaskr? What's that?' I asked, closing the door behind me and walking down the stairs with Farkas behind me.

'It's where the Companions live,' he said bluntly.

We left the inn and went up the steps to the next plaza where the huge tree stood in the centre. Farkas easily took larger steps than me and I had to almost run to keep up with him. He turned to the right and took a different set of stairs to the one I had previously taken on my visit to the Jarls palace. Before me stood Jorrvaskr, a large building that was long and looked like a ship had been turned upside-down and turned into a hall.

'That's Jorrvaskr,' Farkas said.

'It's beautiful,' I commented.

'The Skyforge is this way,' he said, turning left and leading me towards a stairs where I could see little embers of fire floating up towards the morning sky. A great eagle statue stood perched on the forge, its wings slightly expanded. The hot fires at the bottom reminded me of a Phoenix bird standing at the

'Are you sure the blacksmith will be here?' I asked as I climbed the stairs, finding it difficult to keep in pace with the Companion.

'Eorlund rises early,' he said.

Eorlund sat at the grindstone, sharpening a huge sword that shone in the early morning glow. Farkas greeted him and he stopped his work and greeted Farkas in return.

'This is Luna. She's a traveller and she's looking for some warm clothes,' Farkas explained, 'She has leather armour, boots and bracers from the Jarl to sell for them too.'

'Well, I have some fur bracers and leather boots lined in fur. I know I have some robes they wear in the College lined with fur somewhere around here,' he said. He moved to a chest behind him and pulled out the bracers and boots and passed them back to Farkas. He rummaged through the chest and then pulled out a blue robe that had a beige collar and sleeves.

'Farkas, I don't have any money,' I whispered to him as Eorlund fixed back up his chest, but Farkas didn't reply.

He handed Eorlund the leather armour and Farkas gave me the robes, boots and bracers and a pouch of gold. I looked up at him and shook my head.

'I can't take the gold,' I said.

'First time I've heard someone say they don't need the gold,' Eorlund laughed.

'Thank you Eorlund,' Farkas said, 'Come on, you can change in Jorrvaskr and we can get moving then.'

I looked back at the Skyforge and saw the embers of the forge still rising into the sky and Eorlund continued his work. We walked down the stairs and I was lead into Jorrvaskr and I was amazed at the interior. The hall was draped in red and gold and the tables dotted with silver plates and goblets, covered in food and mead and ale. A roaring fire sat in the middle and I stood in awe at the place.

I followed the Companion down a stairs and through a door to the living quarters. He walked down the long hallway and into a room and I assumed it was his. There was no one else here and I wondered where everyone was.

'You can get changed in here, I'll be outside,' he said and left the room, closing the doors behind him. I looked around the room and saw the bar with tankards and barrels on top of it, sitting messily in a line. A small table was occupied by a woven basket of many bottles of ale. The room felt warm and sticky from the smell of the ale. There was only a single bed in the room so I assumed Farkas didn't have much company down here.

I emptied my pockets and pulled my dress off and let it drop to the floor. I pulled off the boots from Helgen and left them at the foot of the bed with the book beside it. They were men's boots anyway and perhaps someone might find use of them or sell them. The boots were sticky from sweat and stunk of Helgen, but I doubted anyone would notice the smell. The smell in the room was no better; ale, sweat and a strange musty smell of dog.

I pulled the robes over my head and fixed them on myself, careful to mind the wrappings on my leg wound. The fur was soft and warm against my cold skin. I slipped on the boots and let the fur warm my toes. I put one hand through the first bracer and then the second and wiggled my fingers. I picked up my dress and folded it up and opened the door to find Farkas sitting on the floor with his back against the far wall.

'You look like someone from the College,' Farkas said with a slightly disgusted face, standing to his feet.

'The College?'

'Magic folk,' he explained.

'What's wrong with magic?'

'Nothing's right with it,' he said shaking his head and the disgusted look from his face.

I feared my hand would move and a burst of flames would spark out at him as I thought of the times that it did happen. I looked down at my robes to hide the tears welling up in my eyes. I was so afraid.

'What should I do with my dress?' I asked, holding it up slightly.

'Keep it, it looked well on you,' he said.

'I have nowhere to put it,' I replied.

'I can keep it here for you, so you'll have to come back to Whiterun to see me,' he said with a smirk, taking the dress and leaving it on his bed in the room. I noticed his bed had few tankards tucked under it, perhaps to hide the evidence of excessive drinking.

'I was going to come back anyway, but whatever helps you sleep at night,' I teased.

'Aela and Vilkas should be upstairs,' he said.

We met the two waiting for us in the hall and once again I was in awe of the beauty of the place. Perhaps because it reminded me of the colours we had in my home when my parents were alive. Either way, I adored it.

'Are those enchanted?' Aela asked, looking at my robes.

'I don't know,' I said stiffly.

'Huh,' Aela said, examining my robes.

'We have to get going,' Vilkas said, turning and walking out the doors of the hall. The three of us followed him out and we left Whiterun. I looked back at the city and smiled. Whether I would come back for my dress was irrelevant, I was going to come back at some point.

'We'll go up the road with you as far as we can, but we're taking a path up the mountains before Dawnstar,' Aela told me as we walked down the road and Whiterun began to disappear into the distance.

'I could walk with you to Dawnstar,' Farkas suggested.

'You have business with us,' Vilkas snapped.

'Thank you Farkas, I think I'll be okay,' I said with a nervous smile.

'Vilkas is grumpy in the mornings,' Farkas said with a smirk.

'Oh please,' Aela chuckled, 'Vilkas is grumpy at all times. He hasn't been getting quite the attention he's been looking for, if you get my drift.' Vilkas just walked ahead, ignoring the comments of his two Companions.

As we walked for what felt like days, a few hours had passed and it was beginning to get colder and the snow was beginning to form around us. I was feeling cold and weak, despite my thick layer of fur to keep me warm.

'We should stop and eat,' Aela suggested.

'Only for a few moments,' Vilkas said, 'we have to get to the crypt fast.'

'You're going to a crypt?' I asked Farkas as he took a seat in the snow. I crouched down beside him in the snow, not wanting to get my new robes wet in the snow.

'Companion contract,' he explained. He pulled out a loaf of bread and split it in half and handed me half.

'Thank you,' I said.

'I'm still trying to figure out why you're going to Dawnstar. Why not just stay in Whiterun and work in the inn. I'm sure there's something there for you. You could maybe even join the Companions and have Vilkas bully you,' he said with a mouthful of bread.

'I'm not entirely sure the Companion life is right for me,' I smiled.

'We could always use someone for entertainment,' he said lightly.

'Excuse me?' I said, raising my eyebrows. He coughed on the bread in his mouth.

'No! I didn't mean that!' he ushered out, 'I meant like a bard!' I laughed and smiled at him.

'My hidden musical talents will be worth something after all,' I joked.

'You have musical talents?' Farkas asked, genuinely interested.

'No Farkas, it's a joke,' I told him. I ate my bread with a smile and he did the same. Vilkas and Aela stood up and brushed the snow from themselves. Farkas and I did the same and we continued through the snow. Aela and Vilkas marched through with no problems but I found it hard to keep up through the thick snow. Farkas tried to keep a slow pace with me, but he was unaware of how large his footsteps were compared to mine.

'When did you move to Cyrodiil?' he asked me, pausing in the snow for a second until I was standing beside him.

'I was about seven,' I shivered. My teeth were chattering from the Skyrim cold. I knew cold in Bruma, but this was a lot more severe.

'Why did you move?' he asked.

'My parents wanted to move. I don't know why. We travelled around Cyrodiil until my dad decided we should make a home near Bruma. He went to Markarth for research on the Dwemer and then came back. He had some Dwemer invention with him and something happened,' I explained, gritting my teeth as much as I could to stop my teeth from chattering in the cold, 'I don't know what happened, I was too young. But he died.'

'I'm sorry,' Farkas said sincerely. 'What about your mother? Is she alive?'

'No. She died before my father, before we settled near Bruma. She wanted to travel to gather ingredients and experiment with her potions. My father and I were out hunting one day, it was the day I got my first bow, we came back to the camp and she was dead. One of her potions went terribly wrong.'

'I'm sorry,' he said. I smiled at him and he looked down.

'What about you, how did you end up in the Companions?' I asked.

'Vilkas and I were rescued from a group of necromancers by a man called Jergen. He raised us as Companions,' he said.

'Was he your father?' I asked.

'I don't know. I consider him our father, but after he died Kodlak took care of us,' he said, 'Vilkas isn't too keen on talk about Jergen though.'

'Is Vilkas keen on talking about anything?' I smiled.

'This is our path up the mountain,' Aela called to Farkas.

'When will you be back in Whiterun?' he asked me.

'I don't know,' I said, 'maybe a few days from now.'

'I'll hold you to that,' he said with a smile.

'Farkas!' Vilkas called impatiently. He was already beginning to walk up the mountain path.

'Walk along this path and don't let anyone stop you on the way,' Farkas warned. He pulled out a dagger from his belt and handed it to me. 'Keep this in your hand until you get to Dawnstar. There's an abandoned fort not too far from here, stay away from it, keep going that direction.' He pointed straight ahead along the road. The road was enclosed between two large hills of snow on either side, compared to the open road it looked more frightening.

'Safe travels,' I said with a smile.

'You too whelp,' he said ruffling my hair like a child. He walked to his brother and Aela and I waved to the three of them. Aela and Farkas waved back in turn and Vilkas gave a glance over his shoulder to me as they began up the mountain side. I turned to the road Farkas had directed me to and took in a deep breath of the cold air. I turned back to look at them one last time but when I looked they had disappeared.

I kept my head down against the snow that was blowing into my face and moved down the road Farkas had directed me. I was finding it hard to move quickly in the snow and I was afraid of wolves attacking. I had no trees around here to climb and I had no bow to shoot them. I had the dagger from Farkas but I didn't want to get that close to a wolf or worse.

I thought it was just the wind in my ears making noises, but when I saw that filthy, scarred face I knew I should have stopped and hidden in the snow. The bandit grabbed me and spun me around and clasped his hand over my mouth. Another appeared in front of me and I wondered had I been followed through this path?

I kicked and screamed and bit down harshly on the hand that was covering my mouth. The bandit let go of me and I turned my dagger on him, switching back and forth to the two bandits that stood before me.

'Breton,' one of them said to the other. The dark look in their eyes was something I would much rather avoid.

'She'll do just fine,' the other growled. I couldn't see what race they were in the snow, but I felt sick knowing they had been close enough to touch me and know what race I was. I gritted my teeth and held the dagger up as firmly as I could.

I fell to my knees as an arrow lodged itself firmly in my thigh. Another leg wound to slow me down. I cried out in pain and dropped the dagger in front of me and the two bandits made their move, grabbing my arms and dragging me through the snow. I watched as the dagger disappeared into the snow and I wept.

When I saw the fort we were headed towards I saw the mountain that the three Companions had ventured up and out of sheer desperation I began screaming for help in hope that they might hear me. I cried and cried, screaming at the top of my lungs, kicking and pulling away, trying to break the men's grip from my arms so I could try and escape, but it was no use. The new wound in my leg was enough to stop me from even breaking their hold.

They stopped as they approached the gate and another bandit, dressed in heavier armour than the two who caught me, jumped down in front of us and held up my chin and looked at my face.

'She'll do,' he snarled.

'Please,' I sobbed. They dragged me inside, the wet of the snow had now soaked into my boots and my feet were freezing to a point where it hurt to move my toes. They dropped me inside the courtyard of the fort where the snow had been cleared. I groaned and tried to pull the arrow out of my leg while they were talking for a minute. They grabbed my arms again and the arrow snapped in my leg and I screamed in agony as they pulled me into one of the Keeps in the fort. The blood seeped down my legs and into the snow. It was the only thing that was keeping me slightly warm.

I was dropped in a room in the Keep and the men left the room. I propped myself against the wall and cried out from the pain in my leg. I put my hand over it to put pressure on the wound to stop it from bleeding so much. My hands were now soaked in red and my new robes were destroyed in wet from the snow, rips from the bandits and blood from my leg.

The door creaked open quickly and in walked a man dressed in heavy armour and a helmet. He took off his helmet and left it on the desk in the room. He stripped down from his armour to his pants and then pulled them down slightly. I curled into the wall and sobbed gently. I had nothing to defend myself and I knew what was coming next. He grabbed my robes and pulled me to my feet. I squealed in pain and he roughly pulled the robes over my head and I heard them tear. I tried hitting at him but he held my wrists together to stop me. I tried kicking his shins but my leg caused me so much pain I had to lean on the other.

'Please,' I begged, 'Please don't.' He didn't say a word.

He spun me around and pushed me down and held onto my waist to stop me from collapsing over onto the ground. I screamed in pain and in my head I prayed to every God I had neglected since my parents had died.

Once he was finished with me he let me drop to the cold ground and he put his armour back on and left. Then five men entered the room and I cried harder than I had ever cried. I cried more now than I had when I had lost both of my parents.

Once the five of them had humiliated me to their satisfaction by touching every inch of my body with their vile claws and violating me they let me drop to the floor once more. And then they did it again, two of them forcing their way onto me at once while the others grabbed at me and spat vile words at me. Their voices haunted me, echoing over and over again in my head.

They pushed me to the floor on my back and two held my wrists to the ground, clawing at my skin while another forced himself into me and thrust back and forth. I shook my head and screamed in pain and then I screamed louder as he grabbed my wounded leg and hitched it over his shoulder. The pain seared through my entire body.

'Stop!' I screamed. I pulled my arms to try and break free but their grip was too strong. I ground my teeth together and shut my eyes as tight as I could. I screamed in pain and then I felt the flames rush past my cheeks and the bandit stumbled backwards and let my leg drop. I screamed from the pain as my leg hit the stone and then I felt myself fall into unconsciousness.