The carriage ride was a dull and quiet one. It Turned out the book that Ly'ro brought with him was much shorter than he anticipated, and none of the three on the carriage were much talkers, So he had just been sightseeing, which wasn't necessarily bad, since the amount of time he spent outside Solitude's walls were minuscule. On his way to the first stop, they passed through a quiet village called Rorikstead. It seemed like a decent settlement to Ly'ro; Children were frolicking about, farmers were doing their farming, and so on. Ly'ro watched mostly the children in particular, happy and content. It began to irritate him, how joyful and carefree they all looked. Ly'ro saw this and remembered how painful his childhood was, and immediately looked away afterwards.

He knew he was just going to get angrier over how poor and pitiful his childhood was the more he looked, so he did what he could to take his mind off of it and turned his head away from the view of the village. As he did so, He took a moment to inspect the pale-skinned woman near him. Ly'ro forgot not to get too comfortable around her. She seemed to be twitching slightly, and was tapping her fingers against her satchel, as if she were in a rush for something. Ly'ro continued to keep his distance from her as much as he could sitting on the carriage. They had made it to the first stop, at the Whiterun stables, before passing a landmarked watchtower on the way there. Ly'ro heard it was where the Dragonborn killed his first dragon or something, but He didn't care about it at all since it held no physical treasures to take, nor had any relevance to anything guild-related. The carriage driver left the driver's seat to grab fresh wheels and horse feed for his next ride.

The carriage driver raised his voice, speaking to them as they got off, "I'm gonna' be gone for at least 15 minutes, so make sure you get back in time if you leave the area."

The woman and Ly'ro nodded silently.

"Okay, away from the carriage, wheels need replacin'."

The two had both stepped off the carriage and waited until repairs were made. There were many diversions and so on around, after Ly'ro looked around and noticed. Ly'ro turned around to the lodge behind him; The Owls Perch Inn, He saw it was titled. Probably exists for all the tourists and travelers moving through Whiterun. He also knew there was a small market on the outskirts of Whiterun, near the entrance to the city gate, However he couldn't see it all from where he was standing, and he wasn't going to move over there to look either; He didn't want to risk losing my ride to Riften, and he wanted to be safe rather than sorry.

He stayed put, and as he did, he noticed the woman was doing something very different now; She was staring directly at him. With a desperate looking expression, she gazed at Ly'ro, as if she were expecting something. With that stare, Ly'ro finally stopped being cowardly and took the time to fully analyze her. Ly'ro approached her, with his dagger on standby, and gave her a closer inspection. She was clearly a woman, a nord woman unsurprisingly, black robed and pale skinned, as he learned earlier today, but he noticed something new, as he inspected her in a very non-inconspicuous manner. Ly'ro gave the woman some sniffs, and her scent was slightly smelling of a foul mixture; An addictive mixture that, unfortunately, is apart of the stereotype of the khajiit culture.

With her scent smelling of said mixture, it was obvious what she was not what Ly'ro originally thought she was. She wasn't some deadly necromancer yearning for a new corpse to use as her plaything, She was just a skooma-addict. It was also obvious that she thought Ly'ro had said product. His anger had risen incredibly quickly, due to Ly'ro's hatred towards the filth.

"You nord bitch!" He shouted.

Some guards in the background started watching them vigilantly.

"You've got some damned nerve thinking I'd haul such trash!"

Ly'ro's sudden shouting towards her scared her, and she fell to the ground, and subsequently fell into tears, and looked up back to him, with a pitiful frown. "I'm sorry! I just... really need it..."

He stared at her on the ground, helpless, pouring tears down her face for about five seconds, until a terrible memory was brought upon him. After so much as remembering that painful piece of the past so much as slighty, He immediately grabbed her arm and raised her up from the ground, in attempts to take it off his mind and make it go away .

As he lifted her, she looked at him with confusion.

"Follow me." Ly'ro said.

He had taken her for a walk to the Outskirts Market, Hoping he didn't take too much time. As we toured hastily, he scanned every store for an alchemy vendor.

The woman was confused. "What are we doing? Are you turning me in? Can I be arrested for this?!" She said in panic.

"No you can't. Now shut your mouth! You're attracting attention."

Finding out that there weren't any alchemy centers nearby, he grabbed her hand and pulled her with him to a khajiit caravan. Ly'ro was sure they had what he desired- he knew they had all types of items, knowing the caravan that stops at the gate of Solitude. He approached the khajiit merchant; His ears were twitching and seemingly uncomfortable. His exhibition of discomfort had him assuming he wasn't from the cold winds of Skyrim and he was from the deserts of Elsweyr, a "Desert Cat", as Ly'ro used to call them as a cub.

Rushing, to the subject, He asked the merchant about his goods, "Excuse me, You have some potions in stock, right?"

The khajiit nodded, and spoke in his thick accent, completely different from Ly'ro's, or any of his family's tongue. "Yes, we have that and all kinds of different wares, but a mere potion is this one's only desire, no?"

"That's right." He reached for his coin-purse. "How much for a healing potion? Cheapest one you've got."

The merchant nodded, and rummaged through his stock, retrieving a small flask filled with red, thick liquid. He thought of a price to offer while inspecting it and reading its label. "Hmm... forty gold will do for this item."

Ly'ro nodded and counted his coins, completed his transaction, and shoved the addicted nord her healing remedy. "Drink it." He ordered.

The addicted nord didn't know how to react at all; She looked at him with a mixture of bafflement and sincere gratitude. "You would do this... for a stranger?"

Ly'ro ignored her sincerity, and was instead irritated by the painful memories, still floating about in his mind. "I said, drink it!" He repeated firmly.

She had winced slightly and quickly drank the fluid from the potion, gagging on it slightly.

"The potion shouldn't completely cure you instantly, but it will help you sober up." Ly'ro said, crossing his arms. "I make the assumption that you're going to stay away from that trash since my courtesy made me help you with it now." In reality, Ly'ro's decision was not of courtesy, but of impulse. He couldn't stand to see anyone taking skooma at all, not even the people he disliked. It was a substance that brought too much pain to him and his loved ones, the few that he had, anyway.

"Th... thank you... thank you so much..." The woman whimpered, and went back to her sobbing.

Ly'ro had seen the carriage had been fully repaired, so he moved back to it and returned to his seat. He also went out of his way to grab the woman's attention to let her know, and followed along after a few more moments of sniffling.

The carriage ride was on its way to Riften after that, and Ly'ro's step towards the guild grew even closer now. After a few minutes of silence on the carriage, and passing by a landmark called the Valthiem Towers, the woman spoke to me, "...Thank you so much for what you've done."

Ly'ro, hearing her words again, nodded slowly. "mmhmm."

"But... I know I shouldnt ask, but why?"

Ly'ro looked at her with a small amount of irritation. "If you found a gold ingot made of pure gold while walking down a road, would you ask how? or why?"

The woman closed her eyes for a moment and finally stopped her tears. "I... I guess I shouldn't question that. I wish I could repay you..." She looks down on her lap.

Repayment wasn't on Ly'ro's mind, but when she brought it up, his interest had risen greatly. He raised a brow and attemptedly sated his curiosity, "What do you think you can do for me, Nord?"

"Well, you're an adventurer, aren't you?"

Ly'ro's ears perked at the question. "...Well, Yes."

The carriage driver turned around and gave him a curious look.

Ly'ro cursed at himself for such poorly chosen words, the commonplace thief looked exactly like him, and he only did himself worse.

"How... ominous of you." She looked at him, warily. "But I will pretend you didn't imply anything malicious."

"I'm serious, I'm just an adventurer!" Ly'ro, quickly realizing he wasn't helping himself at all, sighed and changed the subject. "Just answer my question, nord."

She returns to the subject. "Well, I'm sure you won't believe me, but I'm actually a scripturist, from Cyrodiil."

Ly'ro raised an eyebrow in interest and curiosity. While keeping his feelings hidden, He was honestly shocked; After all, what were the odds? "...Go on." He replied.

"A few months ago, I came to Skyrim in attempts to learn of the exotic ingredients I could make enchanted ink with here, but..." She looked down on her lap. "My parents..." her eyes squinted."They disowned me. A courier sent me a note from my parents down in Cyrodiil..." Her hand balled into a fist. "The note said that they will no longer fund my stay in Skyrim and that I'm on my own from now on. "I was out of money, and I didn't know what to do at the time, so I wandered, crying about for days, but then a khajiit like you appeared and said that he had something that can help me feel better." She looked back at me. "I think you can summarize the rest."

Ly'ro chose to keep the conversation business oriented and continued to look at her, expectantly. "I didn't ask for your life story, nord. Can you repay me, or can you not?"

She sighed. "Yes."

"Good." He leaned back on the carriage, and silence resumed itself once again. It was quite clear Ly'ro had to keep her around from now on if he wanted his debts paid, so he decided to introduce himself casually. "My name is Ly'ro then. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

The nord nodded at me. "My name is Hildir. It's a pleasure to meet you. You speak very fluently for a khajiit."

"I'll say." The carriage driver muttered.

Ly'ro shrugged. "I get that alot... I was born in Skyrim, so my family adapted quickly."

During the carriage ride, They trailed past another small town, called Fleetford. It was just another peaceful, quiet village. Not many children there at all, so Ly'ro didn't get angry over bad memories again, luckily. After that, they came by Shor's Stone, a village that seemed to be centered around an ebony ore mine called "Redbelly Mine". Ly'ro found it quite interesting to see miners work, even knowing how clearly morbid the work is. After that, along with a few more minutes of silence and horse-powered travel, they finally reached Riften's stables, just before the dusk had fell. Ly'ro's enthusiam had come back to him; He jumped out the carriage, and Hildir followed along.

Ly'ro looked back at Hildir. "Hey... I'm pretty sure you aren't going to do anything but follow me around like a lost dog from here on, so try to just stay behind me from here on, okay?"

Hildir took Ly'ro's first remark as an insult. "Okay..."

"Know this, however." Ly'ro's facial expression turned serious, as he remembered a quote his father used for him as a cub many times. "You do what I say. No questions, No exceptions."

She frowned slowly and muttered, "...Okay."

"Good, I've made myself clear. Let's get moving then, Hildir."

With those words, Ly'ro and his new acquaintence approached the Riften gate and his real work with the Thieves' Guild would finally begin soon.