The morning air was brisk as I got out of my bedroll and stumbled over to the dying fire pit. There was still a burnt chicken leg in the spit from the night before. I took a frozen tomato from a nearby barrel and crushed it between my hands and rubbed the insides onto the chicken leg, hoping to give it some more taste. It wasn't too successful. I heard a muffled cry to my right and saw the Bosmer from last night tied up in Bekkard's tent. His hands were behind his back and there was cloth tied around his mouth. His brown eyes stared up at me and I could tell he hadn't slept a wink last night.
"Hungry?" I asked him. I wasn't unreasonable. Even if he was a criminal, it wasn't as if he had done anything unforgivable. All he'd done was take a few rabbits from a place I was sure the Jarl had never been.
The Bosmer nodded at my question and I entered the tent to untie him. "What's your name?" I asked when I had lowered the leather strap blocking his mouth.
"Galadhron." He answered. "And I thank you for your kindness."
"I don't have much." I grunted as I struggled with the knot holding his hands together. "But I'll give you what I can."
The Wood Elf quickly finished the measly breakfast of frozen vegetables and cheese I offered him. I was lucky none of fellow soldiers seemed to care that I was treating the prisoner with kindness. I had no ideas where Bekkard was.
When the elf was done eating I decided to try to get some information. "The Captain won't have you sent to the Jarl of Dawnstar. He's a Stormcloak supporter. He'll probably keep you with us until we're able to root out the Stormcloaks in the Pale as we don't have the men to send you back to Solitude or Whiterun."
This made the elf shiver. "I don't want to be here. So far you're the only one who's offered me any kindness. And I'm sure when this Captain comes back that'll be the end of it. I was just trying to feed myself. The people of Dawnstar would rather chop off their third finger than give an elf something to eat. Even at the tavern they give me dirty looks. I-"
"Hey!" I turned with a start and saw Bekkard stomping toward me, an angry look in his eyes.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, soldier?" He demanded, infuriated. "Why is this prisoner free?"
"I was just giving him something to eat, sir." I stood up. "He looked hungry."
"Well maybe you should give him the rabbits he stole, hmm?" Bekkard was more angry than I'd seen him Ulfric Stormcloak had escaped his execution at Helgen.
"You aren't going to take him to Dawnstar anytime soon, Captain. He'll need food if he's to survive until then."
"We need food to survive!" Bekkard shouted. "Or have you not noticed that we're out in a frozen wasteland fighting a war that's becoming harder to win everyday?" It took guts to stand up to Bekkard. He was a Nord and the bigger than any of the others in our camp, but I stood my ground.
Bekkard's chilled breath was in my face as he leaned in closer. "Tie him back up." He demanded.
Disobeying a direct order from a Captain wasn't something highly looked upon in the Imperial Legion. Knowing I had no other choice, I sighed and turned around to tie the elf back up. The tent was empty. As I stood there, too astonished to move, Bekkard grabbed my shoulder and shoved me out of the way.
"What are you doing standing there? I told you to-" I watched as his face grew red. "Get that bloody elf back here or I swear to the Divines that you'll be in the Castle Dour dungeon for the rest of your miserable life once we get back to Solitude!" I almost shrunk back at the enormous enraged Nord in front of me.
The snow was as high as my chest in some of the areas out in that frozen desert. Bekkard allowed me one sack of food and three bottles of mead for the journey. He said I could find my own firewood if I wasn't back before night lay over Skyrim. I could see the aurora borealis already starting to appear on the horizon. I didn't have long before the temperature dropped too low for me to survive with a fire.
I tripped over a buried rock and fell flat on my face. I lay there for a moment, not wanting to on. I knew if I didn't get up quickly and find some sort of shelter however, that I was going to freeze to death out here. In fact, I was pretty sure the elf was already dead. The blowing snow had started covering his footsteps almost immediately and about an hour before they'd disappeared completely. I wasn't a very good tracker and I was sure I'd never find him or his body. Maybe it was better to freeze out here than to face Bekkard again….
My father and grandfather had been successful Legionnaires. Of course they never had to face climates like this. Both of them had fought for the Empire against the Aldmeri Dominion when it invaded Cyrodiil. But they'd still been successful. They both made it home. When I'd set out from Cheydinhal and spent my last night with my wife I'd promised her I'd do the same.
I slowly lifted myself off the mound of snow I was lying in and got to my feet. Looking around me I saw nothing of interest, no structures or caves the Bosmer could be hiding in except a faint black mound to my right. I made for it, hoping to find either the elf, or at least somewhere sheltered that I could spend the night.