Author's Note: So...this happened. I still have no idea what happened, though I get the feeling it was some kind of glitch. I don't know, but it got me thinking about how Gabrielle would respond to the disappearance of the first friend she made in Skyrim and this came out. I don't know quite how to fix it yet, especially since I've got the XBox 360 version. I've currently got Gabrielle distracting herself with other quests, but I do plan on making a pitstop at Riverwood after I deal with the College of Winterhold. How'd she get all the way from Mistwatch to Winterhold? That is a damn good question.
Prompt: Death in the family
Faendal ran up the stairs of Mistwatch's North Tower, swinging his battleaxe at the mage. Gabrielle stayed behind, searching through the room for anything useful. Why did she stay behind? It was just a regular little errand, nothing new or dangerous. Just some bandits causing trouble. But why didn't she just take a minute to cover him?
The mage was grumbling something, she couldn't hear what, but he wasn't firing lightning anymore. Faendal didn't rush back downstairs or yell. There was only the sound of the bandits moving around in Mistwatch. Gabrielle's heart started to race and she clutched her greatsword tightly. She charged up the stairs and stabbed the mage as quickly as possible. After he fell off her sword, she whipped her head around and searched for Faendal. But she couldn't see him anywhere.
He was completely gone.
Her hands were shaking and it took a great deal of effort for Gabrielle to relax from her fighting stance. She ran back down the stairs and searched Mistwatch from the bottom up. She went back outside and scoured the grounds. But in the end, she had no choice but to go up the ladder and outside the North Tower. But before Gabrielle could continue, her knees gave out and she fell to the hard stone. She rolled over and simply stared up at the stars. For the first time in years, she felt absolutely nothing.
It was hours before she felt the strength to move on. She'd promised Christer that they'd find his wife. Just like how she'd promised Faendal that he'd be safe and back in Riverwood when they'd finally reached Whiterun. And then she'd promised to take him back after they joined the Companions. The promises stacked up, one after the other, until she was buried under them. But they all had the same purpose of keeping Faendal by her side. Now she couldn't even find his body…
Fjola, Christer's wife, turned out to be completely safe and it took every bit of strength and self-control Gabrielle had not to run this woman thru. She'd never felt such a need to murder someone in cold blood before. It was a frightening and tempting urge. She had to remind herself that Christer deserved the hope of his wife's survival.
After telling Christer a lie and ensuring Fjola's continued freedom, Gabrielle quickly ran away from those towers and bandits and liars. Ran in any direction that had an open road and killed anyone who got in her way. There was no one running behind her, no one bumping into her back when she stopped suddenly to admire the mountains or the night sky, no one watching her back when she was too distracted by discovering something new…
There was nobody.