It was very rough traveling with a horse through the mountains of Skyrim, and once she did reach a nicer part of the road her horse was exhausted. Tansy dismounted and led the poor horse towards some overhanging rock where she could make camp for the night.
She awoke to the sounds of fighting. She rose from her bedroll to creep towards the sound; she found Imperials and Stormcloaks fighting on the road. Men were shouting, horses were screaming. She could also hear her horse nearby, panicking at the smell of blood.
Tansy breathed in the sweet scent of fresh blood and charged into the fray brandishing her slightly rusted imperially made sword and battered iron shield. It didn't matter to her who her blade bit into, Stormcloak or Imperial. She just reveled in the kill.
"Bandits!" a Stormcloak shouted as she set upon him, blade slicing across his side. Tansy smiled at him, an evil grimace, "I'm no bandit." with a quick jab she ended his life.
Soldiers were dropping all around her. After killing several Stormcloaks guarding a wagon, she began digging through a chest, trying to find anything valuable. An Imperial officer came up thinking to surprise her. He went to swing his war axe but found her blade between his ribs. He dropped heavily and a nearby archer saw her at the wagon. She soon felt an arrow tearing through her thigh, and another lodging in her shoulder.
She broke the shafts off and raised her sword to block a charging Stormcloak. She managed to bash his head in with her shield. Leaning against the wagon to try to dress her wounds, she didn't see the Imperial woman come from behind and hit her in the head with the pommel of her sword.