you look strong. come to jorrvaskr and be a companion.
Daewen hopped down the slight hillside, the huge towering image of Dragonsreach finally visible in the distance, and sprinted over to the path that would take her into Whiterun. Her long, dark hair fanned out behind her as she ran along the path.
She heard shouts in the distance, and a booming, garbled roar followed. A giant? Not this close to a town, surely? She ran ahead, bow at the ready and saw the beast surrounded by three people.
A woman, standing far back with a bow in her hand, shooting the giant with deadly accuracy. She was wearing very old armour. Daewen knew from books she'd read while trying to pass time in inns across Valenwood and Cyrodiil that it was the armour ancient Nords wore, but was very rarely made any more. Her face was covered in striking green war paint, a style that Nords often wore also, and surrounded by long, red hair. She was making the archery look almost effortless. Shooting arrows at the giant at great speed, grabbing another one from the quiver on her back and in seconds that one was gone too.
Another woman, smaller, with a one handed sword, jabbing at the thing nervously and then stepping back a few paces. Daewen could tell she was very scared to be fighting this thing. She was lightly armoured, only wearing a set of studded armour to protect herself. She didn't look much older than Daewen also. She had short brown hair with braids tied into it, and dark war paint that Daewen guessed she's applied to make herself look fiercer. It didn't really work.
The third was a man. A huge guy with a huge two handed sword swinging at the giant and even tanking a few hits to shield the smaller woman. He wore a mismatched set of armour, some steel armour, some imperial bracers and boots, he was not as well presented as the two women, clearly. He had very dark, very messy hair that stuck to his face as it became sweaty from moving around and swinging his sword at the giant. His war paint surrounded his eyes as if they'd been scratched by something with claws. All in all he definitely looked like a very impressive warrior.
Daewen drew her bow and held her breath. They hadn't noticed her yet. If she could snipe the giant from here she figured she'd be praised pretty highly by the time she caught up with them. She released the arrow and watched as the giant fell down, almost at the same time. She'd missed her chance, it was done.
She heard a masculine voice yell out as she shoved her bow back onto her back walked along the path towards the group. Shit. She shot him. She was just trying to help and she shot a random stranger. A random stranger who could definitely kick her ass if he turned out to be less than friendly. The arrow was only in his arm, mostly blocked by armour, but she figured he'd still be pretty pissed with her.
The group of three looked around and noticed Daewen. The older of the two women walked over to her while the younger sat with the man and tried to pull the arrow out, wincing at the small amount of blood coming out.
"Well, that's taken care of. No thanks to you." the older woman said sternly. Daewen tried to defend herself, to say that she was trying to help when the woman cut her off, "and to make things worse you shot Farkas. I thought wood elves were supposed to be good with a bow?"
"I was coming over to see if he was okay, actually. It's not my fault if you killed the thing just was I was about to help. Are you always this rude to strangers?" Daewen retorted, folding her arms across her chest and looking at the other woman angrily. Behind her, she saw the man finally stand up, barely bleeding as the armour had stopped the arrow from lodging itself too far into his arm.
"Leave her alone Aela, she was only trying to help. We're never going to get new recruits if this is the impression you're giving of us, you know." he said. He turned to face Daewen, "We're members of the companions. Kinda like the Fighters Guild, but with more honour. We live up there in Jorvasskr, come see us if you think you're good enough. I promise I'll keep this one off your back." He nods towards Aela and smirks.
Daewen felt something inside her seeing him smile. A warm feeling, something she'd never felt before. The three companions left her beside the dead giant and walked up the path towards Whiterun. She composed herself and followed a bit behind. Making her way into Whiterun she asked one of the guards where she could stay for the night and was pointed towards the Bannered Mare.
As she climbed into her rented bed her mind was swimming with thoughts of the man she'd met earlier. She realised he'd never mentioned his name. She knew she had to go to them. Firstly to meet this man again. Secondly, to show that Aela who the better archer was. Even if she did need a lot of practise first.
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Early the next morning Daewen hopped out of bed, dressed herself, grabbed her bow and left the Bannered Mare. It was chilly out. Daewen wasn't yet used to Skyrim's climate and was dreading having to go much further north in the future. It was always pretty warm in Valenwood, and cyrodiil wasn't too cold either, but Skyrim was something else. She rubbed her hands together to try and create some warmth, but ultimately decided that getting moving would be the best way to avoid being cold.
She wasn't familiar with Whiterun, or anywhere in Skyrim, really. She'd crossed into the country by Falkreath and was picked up by some Imperial Officers who thought she was with the Stormcloak rebels. She'd tried for hours to explain to them that she was not a Stormcloak, and that the Stormcloaks would not even let her into their army because she was of elven descent.
Eventually, she was plopped into the back of a carriage with an actual Stormcloak rebel, a simple horse thief and what turned out to be Ulfric Stormcloak himself. The carriage ended up in Helgen. And Helgen was almost the end of her life. She watched, utterly terrified as Stormcloak after Stormcloak was sent to the block and executed.
Then it was her turn. She was ordered to the block, the executioner's axe already dripping with the blood of all those who had been murdered before her. She kneeled down. There was a roar. Everyone looked at the sky. Another roar. Fire. Buildings crumbled before her. People were killed, both Imperial and Stormcloak. It was a dragon. A huge dragon, with pitch black scaled skin and enormous wings.
She barely escaped that day. She didn't really know how to feel about it, though. On one hand, she was grateful that the dragon had chosen that exact moment to attack, saving her life, but on the other hand a lot more innocent people had been killed. She shuddered just thinking about it. She was supposed to tell the Jarl of Whiterun about the attack, but it could wait. She didn't want to have to recount the whole thing to him just yet. But she would, in time.
Daewen looked toward the stairs leading up to the wind district, and then back down the path towards the town gate. If these people were was important as Aela seemed to make them sound, their Jorrvaskr, or whatever the man had called it, would probably be up the stairs.
Once up the stairs she could see a few different buildings surrounding a large, dead looking tree. Seeing the tree like this made Daewen feel quite sad. Coming from Valenwood she'd had a love of nature and plantlife drilled into her from a very young age. She thought about asking around town about the tree eventually, see if she could help it in any way. She sat on one of the benches below it for a moment to make a note in the journal she'd picked up from the Riverwood trader on her way through the town.
There were more steps behind the tree leading up to Dragonsreach. Definitely not the way to Jorvasskr. so it had to be one of the two buildings here. On her left was a small building, which looked to be some sort of temple, so that left the only other building on this level of the city. It looked like a huge overturned longboat. There were two sets of double doors on the front of the building, and the walls were adorned with shields. The whole place looked very impressive.
Daewen psyched herself up and walked to one of the doors and pushed it open. The inside was even more impressive than the outside. It was a great hall with a long fire pit running through the middle, surrounded by a table completely covered in all kinds of food and drink. Weapons and shields hung from the walls. There were a lot of people,but no one seemed to see her enter. There was a lot of noise coming from one end of the hall. Daewen noticed two people, a man and a woman, were brawling, and many of the other occupants were standing around them, watching and cheering.
She scanned the room for the man she met yesterday but she couldn't see him. She stood on her tiptoes to try and see if he was among the commotion at the end of the room but she couldn't see him there either. She was about to give up and return later in the day when a door opened directly opposite her on the other side of the room. The man walked in, followed by another much smaller man. The two sat down at the table and grabbed a tankard each.
Daewen hopped down the few steps into the middle of the room and walked around the table to where the two men were sitting. The smaller one noticed her first. His eyes were bloodshot and he smelled like old mead.
"Well hey there, pretty elf, not seen you around here before" he slurred at her, spilling his drink across the table. The other man turned to see who he was talking to.
"Hey, you came!" he smiled at Daewen, ignoring the smaller man's advances, "I was hoping you would. It's really hard for us to get new blood around here, especially if Aela is their first contact with us" He pulled a chair out beside him and motioned for her to sit down.
"She doesn't scare me," Daewen replied, perching on the edge of the chair. He grabbed a sweet roll from the middle of the table and thrust it into her hands. She nibbled at it, not wanting to make herself look too greedy. It wasn't until she had taken a bite that she realised how hungry she was, having been too excited to get breakfast at the inn when she got up.
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