Cayn POV-

This girl was strange. I didn't know what it was, but if felt like either she was hiding something or she was nervous about me being there. The latter of which was possible but would be weird since she invited me.

We had had a conversation in which we discussed my history, and she told me her name, Briani, which I supposed was all the history I would get. She was silent now, and rode slightly ahead of me. I studied her as we rode, once in a while trying to strike up conversation but getting only brisk evasions when I questioned her. She had her hood down now, unlike yesterday, so I took my opportunity to get a good look at her face.

She was pretty and looked about my age. She had a straight nose, full lips, and a soft round face. She had long, stick-straight hair such a dark brown that if I hadn't seen it in full daylight I would have sworn it was black. She had strong brows over intense eyes. It was her eyes that puzzled me. I couldn't decide what color they were. Sometimes they appeared bright blue, sometimes dark green, sometimes honey brown, and morphing though all colors in between. She had an air of authority around her despite her young age, and I couldn't imagine why she would want to travel with me since she didn't seem to know who I was.

I hadn't told her, but that was the real reason I chose to travel with her. It was nice to be around someone who wasn't constantly eyeing me like I would grow horns at any second.

Briani turned around, glancing back at me. "Do you know how far away it is?" She asked. I looked up, startled. It was only the second time she had initiated any kind of conversation.

I looked up at the sky, broken from the trance my thinking often put me in. I glanced at the sun, trying to judge how long we had been riding. "It's about a two day's ride, but I think we only have a few hours daylight left today. We should arrive by sundown tomorrow." Briani nodded at this.

"We'll set up camp at sunset." She said. I waited for her to say more, but she went back to facing ahead and keeping her eyes on the road. I was disappointed in her laconic manner, but then again I had always been a talkative person.

We rode on for a few more hours, only a few words passing between us once in a while. By the time the sun was setting I was tired, starving, and ready to sit next to a roaring fire when we made camp. We stopped in a grassy clearing, a few stray beams of red-orange light streaming through the branches. Briani jumped nimbly down from her horse, and I followed suit. She glanced around, dropping her horse's reins.

"Can you make a fire?" She asked, looking around the damp clearing. "I'd like to go hunting. Dry rations aren't my thing."

I was about to protest that I could go hunting, but realized that I would probably be more use lighting the fire. I had forgotten my bow, and however powerful lightning spells were, they were no use hunting small game. I nodded, and she disappeared into the woods.

I skirted the clearing, collecting the driest kindling I could find under the trees. When I looked at my damp pile of twigs and leaves, however, I knew normal fire wouldn't do anything. I sighed, resigned to what came next and leaned down next to the pile. I imagined fire, blazing and glowing. "Yol Toor." I said quietly, breathing dragon flame onto the kindling. The flame, much hotter than natural fire, caught instantly. I spent the rest of the time setting up camp, and when Briani emerged from the woods she looked at my crackling fire in disbelief. "How…" She muttered, two plump rabbits dangling from her hands.

I laughed. "We both have our secrets." Her face tightened at that, and I realized I'd said something stupid. She strode over to me and handed me the rabbits, placing a few flat stones to cook the rabbits on while I began to skin them. Then it was my turn to look at her in disbelief.

"These rabbits don't have a mark on them! How in the world?" I stared at her.

"Invisibility and muffle. I snapped their necks." She shrugged as if it was nothing.

But those spells take an immense amount of magicka and magic knowledge. I raised an eyebrow. "That's no apprentice magic. What do you need at the College?"

She laughed at this. It sounded strange coming from her, ringing like bells in the woods. "There's no such thing as knowing everything. Besides, it seems like the only place in this country where I could come close to feeling like I have a home." Then she went silent and sat staring into the fire. Soon the rabbits were sizzling on the stones, and I split the fatty meat between us. After a few more minutes of awkward silence I couldn't stand it anymore.

"So where did you learn magic like that? I've never heard of anyone who had those kinds of capabilities outside of the College." I asked. Magic seemed to be the only thing she was willing to talk about.

"I…" She paused. "I had a lot of practice growing up. Not much else to do the way I lived."

Finally, I had gotten something somewhat interesting from her. "Where did you grow up?" I asked. I knew it was risky to ask her anything else while she was feeling so unusually talkative, but every bit of information gleaned made her seem less mysterious. More… human.

"I moved around a lot." She said. Her eyes were fixed on the campfire, but they seemed focused on something in the past. "I've been to High Rock and Hammerfell, but I spent most of my life in Cyrodiil. This is my first time in Skyrim."

I was tempted to ask more, but she was already drifting away from the conversation. I risked one more question. "What about your family? Are they back in Cyrodiil?"

Her mood transformed instantaneously. "No. Not for now." She muttered, and I noticed with a small pang of nervousness that her hands were crackling with energy. She stood abruptly, turning away from the fire, and crawled into her tent. I didn't hear a sound from her for the rest of the night.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

When I woke up it was still dark. I left my tent and saw the only source of light was the glowing embers of last night's fire. Briani was still asleep. It was the perfect opportunity, but…

I opened my hand, concentrating on the image of the glowing blue magelight in my mind. The glow brightened in my hand, but I could see embers floating away from the light. There was fire in it, but how much? I aimed it at the coals just in case, and released the magic. The blue light exploded into a bolt of fire, and only served to light up the clearing by relighting the fire. I cursed under my breath, glad that Briani hadn't seen my failure. I heard her rustling in her own tent, probably woken by the sound of the spell.

I busied myself in packing up my gear, and putting some leftover rabbit on the fire for breakfast. I saw Briani's slim silhouette emerge from her tent across the fire, and she blinked lazily against the light. "Morning." I said, my voice still hoarse with sleep.

She offered up a rare smile. "Morning," she mumbled though a mouthful of leftover rabbit. I joined her by the fire and we ate the hot food in comfortable silence. The sun was just coming over the horizon as we finished packing up, sending stray beams of red light across the forest. The air was crisp and dry and riding through the pines was pleasant enough. But it was even colder than yesterday, and I pulled my cloak tighter around me trying to ward it off. I decided to take it as a good sign; We were finally reaching the frigid north of Skyrim.

The clear weather allowed for easy traveling, and combined with our early departure, put us far ahead of schedule. Only a few more hours of traveling and we could smell the smoke coming from the town in the distance. A few stone walls were scattered along the road, and we pushed on slightly faster, eager to reach Winterhold.

Finally we saw the small wooden houses lining the road around the corner, and I heard Briani sigh. I turned to her, grinning. "Excited?"

"Ah…" She looked at me, and her face wasn't exactly excited. More nervous, although there was some relief. "Edgy. It'll be nice to sleep in a bed though. One night reminded me what I'm missing." She said, a longing tone entering her voice.

Our conversation was halted as we approached the center of what we now realized was less a town and more a handful of houses. But at the end of the road where the cliff fell away into the icy gray Sea of Ghosts, a massive stone bridge continued. It extended over the small beach and over the water, before ending in a small platform that opened in another direction. A blue beam of light stretched into the sky, and repeated at the end of the offshoot of the bridge. At the end of the bridge was the College; Towering above the landscape, a gray fortress bigger than anything I'd ever seen. A blue light bigger and brighter than the rest shone from somewhere within the College, and seemed to cast a sad aura around the area. I remembered the old tale: After the Great Collapse in which most of the once-grand Winterhold was washed away and many people died, the College was mysteriously left standing. I wondered what kinds of terrible things had roared through Winterhold, scarring the fortress forever.

Briani and I rode slowly towards the bridge, neither of us willing to break the unnatural silence. The stern High Elf woman who met us at the bridge, however, was not so concerned with the atmosphere of the place.

"Halt! What are you doing here?" She called, her voice authoritative.

"We wish to enter the College." Briani replied. "Why?"

"I'm here to make sure no one enters who is not cleared." The elf's voice remained suspicious.

"How do we clear ourselves?" I asked.

"Well, to prove that you come here to gain magical knowledge, you must have a basic grasp of magic. I'll ask you to activate a seal with a simple spell." The elf answered, sounding a bit superior. "Do you accept the terms?"

"Yes." Briani affirmed instantly. I hesitated for a moment. What if she asked me to do anything other than a destruction spell? By the Nine, what if I missed my one chance?

"Y- yes." I said with a pause. The woman looked pleased.

"You there." She pointed at Briani. "Just cast a magelight at the seal." She gestured towards a large circular slab of stone with the College's symbol, an eye with magic radiating from it, inscribed in it. "Then you will be granted entry."

Briani summoned the ball of light with ridiculous ease, and the light jumped at the seal. The elf nodded, looking slightly impressed. Then she turned to me as Briani dropped her horse's reins, freeing it to graze and striding behind the elf, stopping to wait for us. "You." The elf said, nodding at me. Me and Briani shared a glance, and I knew that she was afraid of the same thing I was. Please be a destruction spell.

"Shock the seal." My stomach dropped in relief, and the arcing electricity flew from the fingers effortlessly. It struck the seal, releasing a brief light.

The woman nodded. She didn't look impressed as she had with Briani, but I had gotten in. I looked at Briani and saw my relief mirrored in her color-morphing eyes. It would have felt strange and abrupt to be separated when we had just met. I realized that the woman was ushering me onto the bridge, and I obliged, walking absently-mindedly in my euphoria beside her and Briani towards the strange gray fortress.

2nd chapter! You likey?

Please R+R!

~ElderSkie