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KIRA
Kira was eating breakfast with Ralof and his family when Nyl came to the door. The wood elf had been silent and waited for Kira to grab the few things Gerdur had provided her before turning around and setting off down the road, not even checking to see if Kira was following her. Kira had managed to mumble thank you to the family and giving Ralof a goodbye before hurrying off after Nyl.
They walked together in silence until they reached the bridge leading out of the village. Nyl, who had been a few steps ahead of Kira, stopped and turned to face the young Nord. She watched the elf eye her critically. Kira kept silent, mostly out of not knowing what to say. A few moments passed before Nyl finally spoke.
"What did you do to piss Gerdur off?"
Kira's face reddened slightly. Gerdur had given her one of her own older dresses as Kira's had been ruined by blood and fire. It was too large at the waist, and too short for her arms, giving her the appearance that she had stolen it from a rather round child. To top it all off, it was a garish purple that was beginning to cross the line into jester territory.
When no answer came, Nyl sighed, as if the weight of the world had been dumped on her shoulders.
"It will do for now. You can't go walking around like that in front of the Jarl though. When we get to Whiterun, I'll show you to the store there. They might have something in your size. I don't suppose you have any septims?"
Kira wordlessly showed her the small pouch of coins that Gerdur had given her. She hadn't counted them yet, as she felt like it would have been rude to do in front of her host. Nyl shook it out into her other hand and let out a laugh, it was only about ten septims.
"Yeah, sorry to tell you, but Gerdur hates you." She shook the coins back into the pouch before handing it to Kira and leaned against a small, stone wall to string her bow.
"Alright Kira, I'm going to tell it to you as I see it, since I was the one who volunteered to be your babysitter for today." Nyl's graceful hands busied themselves with her bow as she talked to Kira.
"You have almost no money, you're an outlaw by Imperial forces, I'm guessing no real family to speak of since you haven't taken off already, and to top it all off you like a strong breeze would break you in half. So, you can tell me your story, anything that you might be good at, and I can try to see if after this little adventure is over with that I can get you a place to stay somewhere. You can then continue living your life until the apocalypse comes raining dragon fire upon us all." Nyl's bow was now strung and she straightened, looking as dangerous and lithe as the illustrations of sabre tooth cats Kira had once read about in her books.
"Or, you can continue this quiet, fragile girl act where I will dump you off after completing this errand and you can beg on the streets of Whiterun until the end of your days. It's your choice."
Kira was stunned. She had not said anything to the wood elf that warranted this level of maliciousness. The spitefulness coming from Nyl shocked her into speaking.
"What did I do to you to make you hate me?"
Nyl gave her a look that almost seemed like pity. "Kira I don't hate you. I'm simply telling you what's happening. You're obviously not some war-hardened criminal that justified execution, and you most certainly did not deserve the horror of seeing a legend come to life." She paused, as if carefully considering her next words. "But life doesn't care about what you do or don't deserve, and it definitely doesn't care if you're prepared for it. The only things you can do are weather it out and survive or sink into the darkness and die. Those are your choices." Nyl's gaze lingered on Kira's for a few seconds before she began walking down the road once more.
Although Nyl's words still stung, they held some truth as well. Mourning as she was for her Aunt and Wilhelm would not help her now. She had thought herself strong by accepting the task to tell the Jarl of Whiterun that dragons had returned. In her heart though she knew that she was hoping something might have happened to her on the way there to end her misery. Grieving for what she once had would not bring it back and Aunt Betrid's memory was tarnished by her meek attitude. The strong, older woman had not raised Kira to lay down quietly to fear. Sniffling a little, she wiped tears from her eyes.
"Th- The soldiers took me prisoner because they thought I burned down my home and killed my aunt and my friend." Nyl said nothing but raised an eyebrow. Kira took that as an invitation to keep talking.
"A couple of weeks ago, bandits attacked my home where I lived with my aunt and Wilhelm, he was the stable boy." She wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve and tears went from trickling to pouring down her face. Talking about it seemed to bring back the pain with a force but she continued.
"They killed both of them and were about to- to do things to me." She winced at the memory. "But I know Destruction magic," her voice wavered as she continued, "and I killed them."
She decided to leave out the part where she wandered for a few hours on the high of allowing the surge of power to burst from her. Aunt Betrid had always been worried of what people would do when they figured out how unstable Kira could be. Best to keep that part to herself for now.
"The Imperials were from the town of Falkreath and knew my Aunt from when she would come into town and buy supplies. They had seen the smoke when the bandits started to burn down my home and when the soldiers got there everything had been burnt to ash. I had never met any of them before so they didn't know who I was. They thought I did it. They had already captured the Stormcloak soldiers and just took me with them to Helgen. Ralof and I managed to escape when the dragon attacked, then we came here and that's it." Kira finished her story quietly and wiped her eyes once more. She averted her gaze from Nyl's, instead just waiting for a response.
"And I thought my teenage years were bad, you give me a close run for my septims." Nyl gave Kira a hesitant, real smile. "Trust me Kira, when I say, that I know some of what you're going through." Nyl's smile suddenly dropped, followed by a furrowed brow. Kira thought she heard a rustle.
Suddenly Nyl tackled Kira hard and they both went flying. Kira landed with a tumble and ended sprawled out on the cold stone road. Looking up quickly she noticed a wolf had abruptly appeared where she had been standing only a second before; it's jaws snapping over now empty air. Almost as soon as it had emerged, an arrow flew over Kira's head and sank into the wolf's leg. The animal howled in pain. Its cry was cut off not even a second later as another arrow whizzed by and sank into the animal's throat. The beast fell, twitching, before Nyl ran up to its fallen body and plunged her dagger into its heart. The wolf now laid still, its blood starting to run down and form tiny rivulets on the worn stone.
Kira began to shake, the near death experience now starting to sink in. So many over the last few weeks, she thought she'd be used to them by now. Instead she still felt the same nausea, the same trembling in her legs, how her throat would feel pinched as she tried not to cry. While she struggled to compose herself, Nyl let out a small chuckle.
"You can thank me anytime you'd like for coming with you." The sympathy in her voice from earlier was now gone, replaced by her usual light tone.
Kira stood up shakily and retrieved her pack from where it had been flung in her fall.
"You didn't have to tackle me that hard." Her hip on the side she landed on was beginning to feel tender; she'd have a nasty bruise there later.
"Oh I'm so sorry, next time I'll let you become dinner." Nyl rolled her eyes as she yanked her arrows from the wolf's body and wiped them on its pelt before returning them to her quiver.
"Nothing is going to want to eat me if I'm all bruised." Kira's voice trembled, and she hadn't really meant it as a joke, but Nyl smirked all the same.
"Stay away from jesting Kira, although you do have the outfit for it, I don't think it's your forte." Nyl gave her a teasing grin to let her know she was joking and Kira felt a small smile on her face for the first time in a while. They began walking again and Nyl was the first to break the silence.
"You said you were a mage though, any good?"
Kira thought about that for a second. She supposed she was adequate if she could keep her power in check, and ever since she had lost control she had felt less of the choking feeling when her magicka began to surge. Maybe that was the trick, to let go every once in a while instead of letting it smolder inside of her.
"I'm pretty good at Destruction magic," she offered.
"Hm. Kira I have some business to discuss with my associates when we return to Whiterun. If all goes well, and you're as good as you say, maybe I can offer you a job."
Later that evening, Kira sat in an inn in Whiterun, quietly nibbling on a sweet roll, as Nyl concluded her, "business," which seemed to just be a whole lot of yelling. The rest of the trip to Whiterun had gone fairly okay. Kira had gotten her first glimpse of a giant, although it had been dead by the time they got close, and Nyl had managed to sweet talk their way past the wary gate guards.
By the time they were actually in the city it had been getting dark and Nyl seemed a little antsy. They were beginning to turn into a building known as the Drunken Huntsman before Kira heard Nyl angrily mutter, "Screw it," and started walked to a different inn, The Bannered Mare, farther up the road.
Despite her earlier hesitations, Nyl's manner had changed from uncertain to radiating confidence as she threw open the doors to the inn. Kira watched her stroll up to a table where two men, one of them dark and missing an arm the other who was nursing a cup of ale, and plopped down in a chair where both of them looked up in surprise.
"Miss me?" Nyl had asked, giving them both a cheeky grin and winking at the larger man with the ale. What had ensued next was utter pandemonium. The larger man jumped up immediately and began shouting obscenities at Nyl. The one-armed man also started yelling, but mostly at the larger man to stop his yelling. Nyl continued to wear the same cocky smile until a woman came up to them and told them to go to their room if they wanted to continue this conversation. They had all tramped upstairs, leaving Kira still standing at the doorway.
She supposed looking lost and confused was in her favor, as the same woman who told the trio to go upstairs asked her if she was with them and promptly started fussing over her when Kira mentioned this was her first time in a real city. She had given her a sweet roll, "Putting it on those loudmouth's bill." Giving Kira a wink and a friendly pat on the arm the kind woman then went about her business.
As she chewed on the warm, sweet confection she soaked up her surroundings. The yelling match had only briefly disrupted the merriment of the room and people were once again laughing, drinking, and dancing to a man playing a flute. The warmth was infectious and she felt some of the weight on her soul from the last two weeks leave her as she sat comfortably. However her mind kept drifting to the last few moment's of her aunt and Wilhelm's life. She didn't think she'd ever manage to get rid of their dead bodies in her mind, or the raw grief that chafed her heart.
An hour or so went by before Nyl emerged from the room upstairs, looking incredibly pleased.
"So good news and bad news my young friend, which one would you like first?"
Kira shrugged, "Good news I suppose."
"Well the good news is that Amir, he's the one missing an arm, has agreed to the idea that a job may be in store if you can prove to be an asset to our humble mercenary band."
Kira, who was rather tired at this point, hid her reaction to Nyl being a mercenary surprisingly well. She felt like an idiot though, what other job would Nyl have been talking about? Although soldiers of fortune were never looked at with great admiration, apart from the legendary Companions, Kira supposed that she would have to do something after she delivered the message to the Jarl. This was better than her other option of trying to find the rest of her family.
"Now for the bad news," Nyl gave Kira a solemn look but could barely hide the twitching at the corners of her mouth. "Kira, you poor soul, you will have to meet Rogvir."
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