Cages Can't Hold Me!
I watched my father's body disappear in the distance as the carriage rushed me away. I was on my knees, my fingers were wrapped around the silver bars that kept me trapped within my moving prison. I leaned my forehead against the cold bar as I saw multiple werewolves rush out of the trees but stop when they stumbled across my father's body. I saw them turn their heads in direction that I was going.
"Do not follow me..." I whispered just as the werewolves released their sorrowful howls. Losing a pack member is the same as losing a family member within my pack. I closed my eyes as fresh tears slid down my face. I lowered my head and silently wept as the bandits took me away from the only home and family I had ever known.
I tightened my grip on the bars as the carriage hit multiple bumps. I blinked as I noticed how fast we were going. I turned and my eyes widened as the carriage charged down the path and out of the forest. I had never left the forest before. I was sixteen years old and I had never explored out this far, I never thought that I would actually leave the forest.
As the carriage speed down the path I took note of the farms out in the distance. I memorized everything so that when I escaped I would be able to find my way back home. I sighed as I watched the landscape. My father was dead but I still had my mother, I wondered if she knew about father yet... I wondered if she knew about what happened to me. Was she worried, horrified, scared, sad? Or maybe she was feeling every horrible emotion known to man. Not only did she lose her loving husband today, but also her daughter as well. I silently promised that I would find my way back home.
I looked in the distance to see a castle within stone walls. I believed it to be DragonsReach. My father told me about that castle when I was very young. He told me that it was used to catch a dragon long ago. I still wondered how on earth a dragon could be held captive, that is if they even existed. I only heard stories about them, I never actually saw one, and nor has anyone else for that matter.
I sat down in the carriage and watched as the castle disappeared in the distance just like my father, and my pack members had done. I prayed that they wouldn't be stupid and try and find me. Not only would they have Bandits to worry about, but also the people of Skyrim don't really like werewolves. There are actually groups of people who go out and hunt us down for game. This group of bandits who were taking me to only gods know where was one of those groups. It confused me as to why they made a habit of capturing us and taking us away from our homes.
The carriage drew close to a cave. A shadow consumed us as it charged into it. Every hair on the back of my neck stood up straight. "What is this...?" I whispered as I grabbed the bars and looked up at the large open space that was this cave. It looked as if this place was home to hundreds of bandits. I wouldn't call it a hideout... But instead a large castle inside of a cave.
The carriage came to a stop and one of the bandits threw its door open."Out!" He yelled as he pointed his sword at me.
"Watch where you point that thing boy." I said as I hopped out of the carriage. I winced in pain as he slapped the back of my calf with the flat side of his blade.
"Do not talk to your masters like that dog!" He said as he pushed me. "Forward!" He yelled as he pushed me again. I did as I was told silently and he led me through the cave. As I walked down tunnels I noticed werewolves in many cages. Some were turned, and some were not. But what made my stomach turn was my eyes finder the dead bodies of my fellow wolves scattered about. It looked as if some of them had been ravaged and left to die a horrible dead.
As I walked by three dogs chained to the wall they instantly jumped to their feet and charged at me. I yelped in surprised and took a step back to put some distance between them and I. They growled and snarled at me. It seemed that these bandits had them trained to kill a werewolf on sight, even if they were in their human form.
"SHUT UP!" The bandit screamed as he kicked one of the dogs causing it to yelp in pain. He then stepped over to me and slapped the back of my head. "And I told you to keep moving! Or do I have to cut your eyes out so that you don't stop at every lil thing that you see!?" I instantly shook my head and continued on my way.
The bandit pushed me into a dark room. I could not even see my own hand in front of my face. It was just blackness. The torch that the bandit just lit eliminated the entire room.
"This will be your new home until the day you die mutt." He said with a chuckle. I looked around to see many other people in cages. Again some were turned and some were not, but all of them were staring down at me from their cages, that of which were far too small for the size of even the average werewolf. The bandit pushed me towards what I assumed was my own cage. In it was a pile of hay that I guess that I would be using to sleep on. Just as I stepped inside the bandit instantly slammed the cage door shut.
I winced at the sound that the door made. It echoed off the walls a few times before it disappeared from my ears. I slowly turned around to see the bandit staring at me with a sick smile on his face. "You know... For a mutt you aren't bad looking..." He said with a chuckle. I scrunched up my nose in disgust.
"Too bad you can't say that about yourself." I said. The look on his face changed as the sound of amused werewolves filled the room. He pulled out his sword and hit it against the bars. The sound of the blade making contact with the bars forced me to cover my ears. The pain it cause me was surprising.
"Shut up!" He screamed as he hit the bars a few more times. I looked around at the other wolves as I held my ears. I furrowed my brow as I noticed that they were all covering their ears just like me. I quickly looked at his blade and then back at the bars. Silver, but there was something else about his blade as well... It was enchanted with something. What exactly it was I had no idea, but whatever it was I did not even have to guess it was a tool that they used to control us.
The bandit was still cursing at us as he walked out of the room. He slammed the door shut leaving us in complete blackness. I held my hands together over my chest and took a few steps back until I found the pile of hay. I slowly lowered myself down onto it as realization sunk in.
"Well... He sure seemed like that bandit man had a stick shoved a little too high up his arse!" I heard the werewolf beside me say. I listened as the other wolfs agreed.
"So new girl, What's your name?" I blinked a few times before I answered.
"Skylar..." I answered.
"Hello Skylar, My name is White." He said as he patted my shoulder with his hand. By the way he did it I could tell he gave his hand so I could shake it. After a second of waving my hand in the darkness in search of his I found it and quickly shook it. As he drew his hand away and back into his own cage by the sound of his movement I could tell that he was sitting with his back against the bars.
"You look so young..." He said quietly. "How old are you Skylar." I scratched the back of my head not wanting to answer but I saw this as a way of keeping the horrific silence away.
"Sixteen" I said looking down at where my hands would be if I could see.
"Gods..." He whispered.
"Damn bandits." I heard another werewolf say. This one sounded like a woman. "Listen lil Pup." She said from across the room in her own cage. "You will need some advice if you are going to survive here." I nodded as I listened to her words, but I remembered that she couldn't see me.
"I'm listening." I said feeling slightly stupid. I heard her take a deep breath before she spoke.
"Fight hard, and do not give up." She said. I arched an eyebrow confused. "Here the bandits pin us against each other, but most of the time they pin werewolf like us, who still have our sanity, against feral horrific, brutal werewolves." She paused for a moment. "This place changed them into something ugly. Sometimes they do come here already like that but... Others..." She didn't finish. I didn't want her to finish. I sighed and looked around the dark room but I shook my head. Why was I trying to look around. At this point I almost couldn't even tell if my eyes were even open, it was so dark.
I laid down on the pile of hay and curled up into a little ball. I could hear the woman open her mouth again. Just as I was about to cover my ears to keep myself from hearing anymore of her words White spoke up.
"Enough Aela... Can't you tell that you are scaring the poor thing, I'm sure that she has had a hard enough day as it is." He said calmly. I felt his hand pat my shoulder a couple of times before he pulled away.
Aela did not say another word but instead silence fell over us. Every now and then there was a small conversation somewhere in this room amongst the werewolves. I however kept quiet. I just lay there with my eyes open. I could tell that they were open now because of my blinking. I wrapped my arms around myself and I stayed like that for what felt like a long time. At least I thought I was I long time, I couldn't tell. I couldn't even tell if it was day light out, or if it was night. I felt as though I was going crazy.
Just when I thought sleep was about to claim me the door to the room slammed open. I covered my eyes for a moment as light quickly poured in. I blinked a few times before I sat up.
"It is time to see what you are made of mutt!" The bandit said as he quickly opened my cage. I glanced over to White for a split second before I made my way out of the cage. White had a grim look on his face. As I walked by all the other cages a hand reached out and quickly touched my arm before it pulled away.
"Remember Skylar." It was Aela's voice. I turned my head so that I could put a face with that voice. The woman had red hair and a tattoo that resembled three claw marks across her face. I nodded to her as I bit my lower lip. I turned back towards the door and followed the bandit to where he was taking me.
It didn't take long for us to find the place. He pushed the door open and made me enter a smaller room that had a wooden table in the middle of it. On it were blood stained tools of some sort. I suddenly felt sick. But I was not able to stop walking. The bandit's hand met my back and he pushed me in. Inside was a larger bandit. He grabbed me and forced me to lean over the table. He held me like that as the other bandit walked over to a furnace that had a bar sticking out of it. I furrowed my brow as I tried to struggle against the bandit's grip. But instead he grabbed my arm and another bandit walked in and grabbed my other arm so that I was completely restrained. Confused I took a quick look around before I looked back at the furnace. The bandit grabbed the bar and picked at the hot coals with it for a moment before he pulled the bar out of the furnace completely. My eyes widened when I realized what it was. A branding iron. From where I was I could see that it looked like some kind of wolves head. But it didn't matter. I still struggled against the grip of the bandits as he made his way behind me. I felt him lift up my shirt until my shoulder blade was exposed to him.
As he pressed the iron against my skin I released a sound that was in-between a whimper and a scream. The bandits laughed. As he pulled the iron away I took multiple deep breaths to try and calm myself. He pulled my shirt back down and forced me to stand up straight. He turned me around and grabbed my neck. He turned my head to one side and looked at me, and then the other.
"Nice catch." He mumbled before he pushed me away. "Take her back to her cage, they will get her when they are ready."
The bandit lead me back to my cage, and when it was dark again I collapsed against the hay, exhausted. I wiped away the sweat that covered my brow.
"You alright there Pup?" I heard White ask me.
"Yeah." I said with a breath. "They branded you didn't they?" I nodded. "Yeah..." I said again. I heard him sigh and sit down against the bars.
"It only hurts for about a day, then you forget its even there." He said trying to comfort me. We were silent after that. I knew it was only a matter of time before the bandits come and take me to where ever they were going to take me. I didn't have to wait long, the door to the room slammed open and the bandit marched towards the door.
He lead me into an arena, but first they placed a collar on me that send electric shocks through me if I did anything that they did not want me to do. As I stepped into the arena first one werewolf charged at me than another. The match didn't last that long, it ended with my face meeting a paw.
I woke up what I assumed was hours later in darkness. I instantly was up. I could feel the hay beneath me. I was back in my cage.
"Easy there Pup. Your first match didn't go so well..." I heard White say as I brought a hand up to my face. I felt a bump on the side of my head, and a cut on my cheek. Just by the feel of it I knew it would heal fast. I took a deep breath and dropped my hand. Anger filled me.
"The next one will end the way I want it to." I said in a hard voice. I heard White sigh. I couldn't tell if it was in disapproval, or if he agreed. But either way it didn't matter. I now understood this place. If you wish to survive, you must kill. I was lucky this time, next time I might not be. It was time to turn up the heat in the arena.
What I assumed was the next day the same bandit slammed the door open again and light poured in. I was standing there waiting for him in my cage. My hands were at my sides and my feet were firmly planted on the ground as he approached my cage.
"Nice face." He chucked as he pointed to the same spot on his face that I had been struck the day before.
"That's nothing to the ones I will give my next opponent." I said in a calm voice as he opened my cage.
"We will see about that mutt." He said as I stepped out and made my way out of the room and towards the arena. I knew that every werewolf was watching me.
When I got to the arena I charged through the gate. I heard it slam shut the same moment I slammed my body into the same werewolf that had taken me down the day before. This time it was an even match, he had no friends there to help him. I watched as his body hit the ground and roll away. I quickly changed into the werewolf form and charged again. I snarled as I swiped my claws over his face. He howled in pain and threw me off of him. My back hit the ground but it didn't take long for me to jump to my feet. I looked at him to see that he kept rubbing his eye with his one paw. I gave him a second, as he pulled his paw away my eyes widened when I realized that when I clawed his face I took out his eye.
I gritted my teeth together. This match was going to be mine. I charged again but this time he met me head on and it seemed that his bigger body came to his advantage. He picked me clean off the ground and pressed me against the wall. There he clamped his jaws around my neck and began to dig his claws into my shoulders. I released a howl and pushed my paws against his head, when I realized that was not going to work out as I wanted to I grabbed his jaws and forced them open. When they were unclamped from my neck I landed a swift kick to his stomach sending him flying across the arena. He rolled a few times before he jumped to his feet.
But unfortunately for him as soon as he was on his feet I was there. I clawed the other side of his face, taking out his last eye in the process. He howled in agony and covered his eyes with both of his hands. I took advantage of the situation and took him down to the ground. When he was down there I treated him like I treated the first dear I killed. I dug my teeth into his neck and chomped down. A split second later his body fell limp and everything was quiet. I slowly stood and changed back to human form. I looked up to see that the bandits were staring at me in shock.
I spit the blood of the feral wolf out of my mouth and onto the ground. After a moment of silence the bandits began to cheer. It seemed that I must have entertained them. I made my way over to the gate. I saw a bandit standing there with new rags in his arms.
"Dress yourself." He said as he handed me the rags. I quickly slipped them on and looked up at him. "Keep fighting like that and you are going to make me rich!" He said pointing at me. "I will be bidding on you from now on... Do not disappoint." He said as he began to lead me back to the darkroom. I spit one last time to rid myself of the taste of metal.
As I entered the room I saw the eyes off the werewolves instantly turn to me. I stepped into my cage and sat down on the pile of hay. The bandit closed the door leaving us in complete darkness.
"Did you kill it?" I heard White ask.
"Yes, I killed a feral" I said with a nod as I laid down on the hay as I suddenly felt exhausted.
"Good." I heard Aela say. "Keep doing that. It is the only way to survive here." She finished with a sigh. I closed my eyes and allowed sleep to take me.
My next matches were the same, but some were harder than others, I somehow always ended up on top. The days began to blend together as the matches began to fly by. My face stayed unscarred. But if one were to lift up my shit they would see the results of my fights. As years went by some scars faded, But I knew that there were four long claw marks that would always be across my back, just as my brand would be. My thigh wore the familiar claw marks as well, so did my abdomen, and my other limps too. I considered myself lucky. One day White came back without his hand. We all feared for him, it would really affect his strength in battle, but to our surprise he always came back with stories to tell of his victory.
One day I sat in my cage waiting for him to return. I rubbed my hands together creating warmth from the friction. Eventually I sighed and tilted my head back and gently wacked my head against the metal bar a few times.
"It's taking longer than usual..." I heard Aela say from her cage beside me. Aela's cage had been moved to beside me; I now had her on one side of me, and White on the other. The three of us had become good friends.
"That's what I was beginning to think..." I said as I looked up at the blackness. I closed my eyes and began to count the minutes, than hours... And then a day... I finally raised my head and sighed. White didn't come back.
Days passed and still no White. I was sad for the loss of my friend but I refused to let it show. The Door opened allowing light to pour in. I instantly turned my head in its direction half expecting White but instead I was disappointed to see the bandit walking towards my cage. I stood and crossed my arms over my chest waiting for him to open my cage, But instead he just stood there.
"Is there a problem?" I asked.
"Nope, just here to tell you that we will be traveling to Winterhold. Ulfric Stormcloak will be watching your next match... So Do not disappoint me! I have a lot of gold on your name so do not mess it up. Today I become rich!" He said as he turned around and made his way out of the room. He shut the door behind him and we were once again lost in the darkness.
I was silent for a moment.
"Skylar?" I heard Aela ask concerned.
A smile formed on my lips as I turned towards her. "It's time." I said as I sat down.
"Time for what?" She asked confused.
"Time to escape... All of us." I finished as I heard all of the werewolves begin to speak.
"How?" I heard one them say. "They will turn the collars on as soon as any one of us steps out of line." He said. I shook my head.
"Not if I get the key from the bandit that will be returning soon and take all the collars off." I said as I wrapped my fingers around the bars of my cage.
"How?" He demanded. I didn't let him continue.
I chucked. "Don't you see, I basically earned his trust." I said as I leaned my head on the bar. Two years had passed and I was now just turning eighteen.
"He has it in his head that I am a disciplined dog, I will obey my master." I could almost hear Aela nod her head.
"You're right... He would never expect it..." She said quietly.
"Time for us to get out of here." I said as I waited.
We didn't wait to long for the bandit to come into the dark room whistling happily. His head was in the clouds. He thought that I was going to win him enough money to buy ten houses but instead as soon as he opened my cage I changed into my wolf form almost instantly and killed him before he could even blink. It was a success not a sound was made from my kill. I had been training for this for two years. I changed back into my human form and dug into his belt. I grabbed his sheath with his sword and tied it around my waist. I then took his coin purse which did have some weight to it. Last but not least I took the keys that he kept around his neck.
I opened all of the cages and removed our collars.
"Finally..." Aela said as she rubbed her neck. "Let's go." She said as she changed into her werewolf form. All of the other werewolves did the same. They all turned to me and I nodded. After two years of being beaten, taking advantage of, doing what I was told, being trapped in darkness, it was time for me to see the outside world for the first time. I changed into my werewolf form again. The sword stayed around my waist and my clothing stayed on as well. It was ripped here and there from the change in shape but it would still keep me covered.
We charged, as we did we killed every bandit that stood in our way until not even one stood in our way. We also raided the treasury and walked out rich. As we made our way through the cave I remembered the paths I had taken when I first came here, just as we were about to exit our eyes fell on a large group of bandits waiting for us. There were also dogs waiting as well. I looked back at my group of werewolves. There were ready for their revenge. I howled and we charged together.
I pounced on one bandit and dug my teeth into his neck. I did the same to the next, and the next. I also swiped my claws killing anyone who came within arm's reach of me. I felt dogs clamp onto my leg. I howled in pain. But a second later a red furred werewolf clamped its jaws on the dog killing it fast. Aela. She helped me up and we continued with our battle.
And finally it came to an end. Not one bandit was left alive. I looked around to see that we lost a few of our friends as well. I pushed open the door and lead to the outside. I couldn't wait anymore. I needed to see the sky. I changed into my human form and shielded my eyes as I stepped out into the sunlight. It felt great on my skin. I slowly removed my hand from my eyes and smiled up at the sky. It was still blue, the grass was still green, and the snow was still white. I let out a laugh and spread my arms out to the sides and spun around. "We are Free!" I yelled as I looked at the group of wolves. They cautiously stepped out from the cave. It looked like they expected the earth to fall out from beneath their paws.
"Don't worry, its ok." I said as I watched them. They all took a moment and looked around. Not one changed back to human, instead they ran in all different directions. I watched as some ran into the trees, some ran out into the field, and other random directions. Probably back to their lives I thought. I turned around to find Aela.
"What are you going to do now?" She asked me.
I blinked and thought. I thought about returning home but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do so. I lifted my hand and brought it to my opposite shoulder. I touched my brand. "I don't know." I answered. I had changed over the past two years. I didn't know if my pack would even want me back after everything I had done.
Her and I went our separate ways. I ended up being captured again, this time by imperials, but it didn't last long, I escaped the same day because of a dragon attack. Also in that same day i found out that I was also a Dragonborn. I was able to use an ancient art of shouting.
Another year went by and I ended up killing the world eater dragon Alduin. I also was befriended by a dragon as well, Parthunaax. I was now nineteen and making my way towards the Dawnguard Castle, ready to join the fight against the vampires. I sighed as I thought about home, I do that quite frequently. I always think about returning, but find myself scared to do so... Perhaps one day... I thought as I made my way into Dawnguard.