Chapter 2:

"Please let me come with you Arriane," Vorstag begged.

"You know I can't do that! I have to do this on my own, I need to prove that I can do these jobs and that I'm not some worthless little girl who doesn't know what she's doing!" Arriane yelled desperately.

"Don't look at me like that!" She added softly when she saw the frown her brother shot her.

"Why?" He asked. "Why d'you think that putting yourself in dangerous situations is going to prove that you're perfectly capable at doing these jobs? Can't you just fight a couple of the guards or something?"

"No, it doesn't work that way. They aren't about to risk hurting some girl, you know that. Besides we need the money." Arriane mumbled.

She hated that she was hurting Vorstag like this when all he wanted to do was protect her from the cruelties of the outside world. Ever since her mother and father died he'd taken extra effort to keep her out of harm's way her and she had done everything to try and please him.

She could still remember that horrible day when she had found her mother hanging from the rafters in their old house in Solitude, Arriane was about six years old when it happened and she'd never forget that day. Her aunt had blamed their father; she'd said that if he hadn't let Ulfric escape after the murder of the High King none of this would have happened. Arriane knew better than that, she knew her father was a good man that had been framed but ever since then all she ever wanted to do was make Vorstag happy and to help him no matter what the cost was.

Usually Arriane went about running errands for the local market stall owners when they could not make a delivery themselves or they needed something to be fetched for them. She had not loved the jobs but they always gave her more gold than she wanted and for that she was grateful. But never had she gone to the Jarl for a job before, well at least not until things had started to go downhill, now that Arriane and Vorstag were both adults the gold from the stall owners just wasn't enough to buy all the necessities they needed to live and to pay the inn keeper rent for their rooms.

So when Vorstag took up jobs in the mines for coin Arriane became Markarth's most unexpected mercenary and bounty hunter.

"Hey, hey wake up," a faraway voice murmured as she tried to rid herself of the horrible memories that plagued her dreams. "Wake up!" The voice said again, this time it was louder. That's when something cold hit her right in the face causing her to jump back into reality. With a startled gasp she jerked upright in her bedroll. Water dripped from her hair and down the tip of her nose whilst the rest had already begun to pool underneath her. She glared at the assassin crouching beside her; a wooden pale was clutched in his hands. He shrugged at her, the beginnings of a smirk toyed at the corners of his mouth.

"Sorry, but you looked like you were having a nightmare."

"So you threw a bucket of water at me?" She snapped.

"Well yes, but in my defence I did try to wake you up the normal way."

Shivering and muttering something about males being complete idiots, Arriane stormed out of her cosy little tent and into the cool morning air. From the looks of the marmalade sky that was flecked with splashes of pinks and blues, it was just after dawn. A soft autumn breeze lightly kissed at her bare flesh, turning her damp skin to ice, instantly regretting her decision to leave the warmth of her tent and sleeping roll; she sat as close to the tiny fire as she dared.

"Here, you look like you need this." He said and passed her a fur blanket.

Annoyingly she couldn't help but smile gratefully at him as he sat across the fire from her. He began to poke around at the low coals that simmered in the bottom of the fire pit; all the while he slowly fed the flames with bits of kindling and fresh twigs. She wrapped the pelt around her shoulders and sighed contently, more than happy to curl up in a little ball and watch the tongues of flames happily dance the day away.

"So would I be wrong in presuming your name is Arriane?"

Okay, maybe the whole getting comfortable with her fireside view was a bad idea. She nearly choked and stared at him, wide eyed.

"How did you know that?"

He shrugged. "It's my job to know these sorts of things."

She thought this over silently, absently chewing at her bottom lip as she did so, he had a point and it wouldn't surprise her if she had spoken to him while he was in disguise at some point during her travels or even if he had watched her every move for who knows how long. He was an assassin. He could get all the information he wanted if he knew how to get it, she didn't doubt it one bit that he knew.

"Well what's your name then?"

"That's need to know." He said flatly.

"But I AM need to know!" Arriane pushed before jerking a finger towards her now sopping wet hair and the stitches that weaved through her skin. "I deserve that at least."

He looked at her for what felt like a lifetime, she squirmed uncomfortably under that penetrating gaze as if it could see right through her. A chill passed through her when she noticed that not even the light from the fire penetrated the shadow his hood cast over his eyes.

"Vahlok" He finally said.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"My name. It's Vahlok…"

"Oh."

"You find it weird?" He sighed as if he wasn't surprised if she did.

"No it's just, it doesn't sound like a name from our language…" Arriane commented awkwardly.

"Well aren't you an attentive one?"

His mocking only earned him a dark glare, he didn't seem to mind, and he just chuckled softly to himself and shook his head.

"What language is it?"

He smirked at her, "I think you've heard enough. Besides, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Slowly he stood up and stretched. "Now I think its bed time."

Arriane shook her head even though she felt a wave of exhaustion overcome her. It was daybreak, usually she'd be up by now, trekking her way to Talos knows where, she wasn't about to go back and sleep. That being said, by the decisive look on Vahlok's face, the poor girl wasn't about to get a say in the matter.

"Sleep. Now." The assassin ordered, jerking his finger back towards her tent. Why did I expect to have a say? "You've had what, five hours of sleep?"

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Yes, mother. But it's more than enough."

A low growl of annoyance slid from between the thin line of his lips, he stalked towards her and grabbed her by the elbow, pulling her to her feet. The sudden movement made her yelp as the stitched flesh of her leg tugged agonizingly against the thread holding it together. Seemingly ignoring her pained outburst, he dragged her back to the tent and shoved her in.

"Ass!" She snapped as the assassin yanked the small flap, that was used as a kind of door, shut behind him. Arriane's narrowed eyes glared at the material, listening to the sound of his fading footfalls, before she padded over to her soggy bedroll and huffed in annoyance. Good thing he gave me his stupid blanket. With a smirk she threw the pelt over the mess that made up her makeshift bed and Vahlok's puddle, curled up on top and drifted off into a fitful sleep.

Two days had passed, consisting of Arriane sleeping the days away, Vahlok only popping his head in to bring her food and water and gently getting her leg used to walking around without wincing every two seconds.

Now the young blonde stood facing her makeshift target of leaves that she had tied to the thick trunk of a tree with some small pieces of rope she had scrounged up whilst Vahlok was out hunting. Had he been impressed when he'd returned and found her like that? Well no. The assassin had launched himself into a full-blown rant fest about how she should be resting her leg or something. Arriane had kind of zoned out by the time he'd gotten to his point.

"Do you mind? If you keep standing there I won't hesitate to shoot you."

She jerked her chin at the notched arrow and the taught string of her bow. Now Vahlok stood in front of her. He was only thing standing between her and her target. She hated that.

As a young teen, around the age of fifteen, she had gone out to practice her archery skills with Markarth's hunting party, something that was quite unusual for a young girl. Only Vorstag's words had swayed the hunting party's decision.

They'd split up into groups of two to be more efficient. Arriane had spotted the deer and notched her bow. Her partner, a young man about eighteen, was eyeing her with only one thought in mind; shoving her against the tree behind her and taking her right then and there. He had walked right in front of her bow; her attention wavered and flickered to his face. She heard the deer run and annoyance seethed in her. Her eyes locked with his, she saw the lust in his eyes. She knew what he wanted. And then she let the arrow fly through the air. She had watched the steel tip slice through his thigh. She watched him crumple to the ground. And she hadn't cared. All she had done was walk away.

Now Vahlok was walking straight towards her, she couldn't see it, but she could feel his eyes raking over her figure. She fingers twitched as he circled her, her eyes following his every move. Shoot and run. She thought to herself. She wasn't really amused by the thought of having an assassin take advantage of her in any way.

"Your stance is off." He muttered as he came to a stop beside her.

Completely taken aback she blinked a few times. "What?"

"Your stance. It's not quite right."

"Oh."

"Raise your right arm a little more."

She looked at him and did as she was told, frowning when the bow and the arrow tip was raised. "Are your sure about –"

Her voice was cut short by her sharp inhale of breath. Vahlok stood behind her, his arms slinking around her sides to adjust her own arms. She was suddenly very aware of the fact that her back was pressed flat against his chest.

"You raised it too much," He commented softly in her ear and lightly nudged her elbow, causing her to lower her arm by what looked like the width of a hair. "There. Now you can relax the sting a little more because the height will give the arrow the arch you were trying to give it though the force of bow string."

Arriane's eyes fluttered at the tickling sensations his breath sent across her ear and neck, she was barely paying much attention to his words due to the fact that most of her energy was going towards keeping her heartrate steady and to not swoon. She didn't notice the shiver that ran down her spine. But he did.

"Are you okay?"

"Hmm? Oh! Uh, yeah. Of course…"

"Really?" She could hear the frown in his voice.

"Y-Yup. Just kinda cold." She lied; it wasn't hard to convince him. The weather already had the cold nipping at any exposed skin.

She felt his body relax a little as his hands moved to her upper arms. "Let's get you where it's warmer then," He murmured and absently rubbed his hands along the skin. "Come on." Warmth flowered inside her and she sighed softly as he led her back to the camp.

She managed a tiny smile when he sat her in front of the small ring of stones that would ring their fires at night. Vahlok was already snapping a few dry branches into smaller pieces and throwing them in.

"Vahlok?"

"Mmmh?"

"Can I help?"

He turned and stared at her. She could just make out his mouth hanging open. "Pardon?"

"I. Want. To. Help." She said flatly. "Why is that such a shock?"

"No reason! I just didn't think scrounging around for sticks would be something a woman would really want to do…"

"Well it is."

"Well okay then," He smirked at her and twirled a stick through his fingers. "Get to it."

With a stubborn nod she stood and stalked towards the forest. She was going to show him that she wasn't some pricy little girl that was too scared to get her hands dirty.

Alright, that's chapter 2 down. Hope you enjoy it. I guess the only real comment I have to say is that I'll be going back and reformatting these chapters just to make it that little bit easier on the eyes. FF is just being a little hissyfitty with me when it comes to editing. So I'm just uploading the chapters as they are for now, just so you guys have some content then I'll focus on more in depth editing.